The University of Sioux Falls is a private, liberal arts college affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. It is also commonly called USF. On June 5, 1872, pastors and delegates of nine Baptist churches in what was then called the Dakota Territory gathered in Vermillion, South Dakota, at the first meeting of the Baptist Association in the territory. They adopted the following resolution: “Resolved, that we take immediate steps for the establishment of an institution among us, and that we devote a suitable portion of time at each annual meeting of the consideration of this important subject, and give an individual associated influence to encourage a more general and complete education of our youth under distinctly Christian influence.” Under the name of Dakota Collegiate Institute, formal instruction began on September 8, 1883, in the basement of the First Baptist Church of Sioux Falls. In the fall of that year, a campus site was selected along the pioneer Old Yankton Trail, presently marked by a bronze tablet at the edge of the Norman B. Mears Library. The foundation was laid for the first building, Meredith Hall, which was completed in 1885.