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SPORTS (B1, B2)
VERVE (B3,B4)
Events and facilities operations: COVID, relocations, 2021 fans
Rowdy Rags keeps student connected with western roots
Due to COVID-19, events and facilities management face different tasks everyday. Read more about their preparation for the busy spring sports seasons of page B1.
Rowdy Rags, an online clothing store, was founded in 2018 by a USD student from Bison, SD. Read more about how this student turned her homesickness into a business on page B4.
USD IMPLEMENTS RANDOM COVID-19 TESTING FOR ASYMPTOMATIC POPULATION
Photo Illustration by Peyton Beyers | The Volante
USD has selected 5% of its population for the first two weeks of random COVID-19 testing, but the percentage will increase in later weeks due to low participation. Miles Amende, Volante news editor, was selected for random COVID-19 testing and gave permission for his photo to be taken during his test. Miles Amende
Miles.Amende@coyotes.usd.edu
To assess whether it needs to implement further safety measures on campus, USD has begun weekly COVID-19 surveillance testing of asymptomatic students and staff. Kevin O’Kelley, member of USD’s COVID-19 task force, said the testing of asymptomatic students and staff is one of three COVID-19 testing programs on campus. The second is the testing of symptomatic students and anyone they’ve been in close contact with and the third is the
NCAA’s own surveillance testing of student athletes. Tim Ridgway, dean of the medical school, said 40-45% of people 18 to 22 years of age could be asymptomatic carriers of the virus and therefore spread it unknowingly. This, Ridgway said, puts students’ families and immunocompromised persons at risk. “If we can prevent serious illness and death across campus, across the community and across your family members, that is a real win,” Ridgway said. Every week, five percent of asymptomatic students and staff
— which O’Kelley said totals about 70 people — are invited to Sanford Vermillion Medical Center to be tested. Tests are paid for by the South Dakota Department of Health (DOH). People are chosen based on demographic information — majors, residence halls and buildings they study in. O’Kelley said this allows the university to investigate areas of campus which might have more cases, and from there, they can institute new safety policies. “We might need to increase the physical distancing in a building, or increase our cleaning frequency.
Maybe there’s a super spreader event that we need to ask about,” O’Kelley said. “It’s not just to know who’s sick, it’s to use that data to prevent the next person from becoming sick.” O’Kelley said the task force relies on guidance from the DOH, and that the state’s epidemiologist, Joshua Clayton, recommended five percent of the population be tested per month. So far, O’Kelley said, participation has been low — only about 20% of invited students have gotten tested. He said this could be because students don’t see a need to get tested if they don’t have any symptoms, and
if they do test positive, they know they have to isolate for a period of time. “People might tend to think the negative consequences of needing to isolate in the event of a positive test outweigh the social benefits of knowing that we have asymptomatic people in our population,” O’Kelley said. “I believe the benefits of knowing the asymptomatic population that is positive is a useful bit of information, and of course, the state of South Dakota agrees with me.” So far, the program has yielded See TESTING, Page A3
UPD PLANS WALK TO ASSESS NIGHTTIME CAMPUS SAFETY
Peyton Beyers | The Volante
South Dakota has 9 federally recognized Native American tribes. The institute is aiming to increase recruitment of tribal communities.
Peyton Beyers | The Volante
The campus safety walk will be on Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. and will begin in front of the Davidson Building. Rachel Pechous
Rachel.Pechous@coyotes.usd.edu
While on campus, safety is a top priority for students and faculty, as well as for the university itself. To maintain the safety of all, the Student Government Association (SGA) is partnering with the University Police Department (UPD) in holding a campus safety walk to address unsafe areas on campus. The walk around campus will be on Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. and will
begin in front of the Davidson building. Armand Khan, SGA Senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, said because he closely deals with student affairs, safety is one of his main concerns. “We hope that during the walk we can talk personally with people and discuss how to improve safety on campus including lighting,” Khan said. SGA and UPD are encouraging any students and faculty who would like to join to feel welcomed,
Khan said. “We are gladly willing to invite anybody that would help us because the more people, the more we can make sure to cover all areas of the university,” Khan said. They are currently planning on doing the walk as one group, however if there is a large enough crowd it may be split into multiple groups to ensure proper social distancing. See WALK, Page A3
Institution of American Indian Studies to return to USD Tyler Boyle
Tyler.Boyle@coyotes.usd.edu
Since 1990, South Dakota has celebrated Native American Day instead of Columbus Day on the second Monday of October each year. This year, USD celebrated the holiday by announcing the revitalization of the Institute of American Indian Studies (IAIS). The IAIS, originally established at USD in 1955, was discontinued in 2009 after losing funding due to the
2008 financial crisis. The revitalized Institute will be directed by Elise Boxer, assistant professor of Native American studies in the department of history at USD. In addition, Damon Leader Charge, assistant program coordinator of biomedical sciences at USD, will be the director of tribal outreach. At the announcement, USD President Sheila Gestring was one of those who gave a speech. A tribal drum and song ritual were also performed in See IAIS, Page A6