The Volante
THE STUDENTS’ VOICE SINCE 1887 VERVE (B1 & B2)
W E D N E S D AY, O C T O B E R 2 1 , 2 0 2 0
VOLANTEONLINE.COM
SPORTS (B3 & B4)
STUDENT ATHLETES REGISTER TO VOTE FOR COYOTE POINTS
Promoting history, education for LGBTQ community at USD October is LGBTQ History Month and I CARE, Spectrum and Women, Gender and Sexaulity Studies have teamed up to celebrate. Read more about the upcoming events on page B1.
NEWS (A1-A3 & A6)
GESTRING REVEALS USD’S FIVE YEAR PLAN
Leah Dusterhoft | The Volante
Tyler Boyle | The Volante Tyler Boyle
Tyler.Boyle@coyotes.usd.edu
After the delay of the announcement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, President Sheila Gestring revealed USD’s 5-year strategic plan during USD’s 2020 State of the University Address. Gestring outlined the plan’s six strategic themes at the event: Academic Excellence, Engagement, Facilities and Infrastructure, Diversity, Serving South Dakota and Affordability, The plan, set to go through 2026, updated the public several new facilities planned to go up on campus over the next five years. One of these buildings is the new School of Health Science Buildings expected to start construction in April of 2021 and be finished by Aug. 2022. “One new thing (in the new School of Health Science Building) is we will be able to do is nursing stimulation with high fidelity,” Gestring said. “Dental hygiene will have new chairs and a completely new done classroom and with the new technology there we will be able to expand on the new telehealth we have already done.” Laura McNaugton, chief of USD’s strategic plan, said the university’s new telehealth system, Therapy Assistance Online (TAO), has been another priority for USD. McNaughton said the university acknowledges See PLAN, Page A3
Rachel Thompson
Rachel.Thompson@coyotes.usd.edu
As a way to engage student athletes with this year’s election, the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) offered an incentive for every registered athlete the team would receive a Coyote point. Whichever team has the most coyote points at the end of the year receives more funding for their program and uses it for things like gear and travel. “It is a fun little thing and a win-win situation,” Cole Streich, president of SAAC, said. “There is also the situation that it is an election year and being able to use that right to vote.” Registering to vote is not required for each athlete. The coaches help encourage students to register and give them the information needed. “We have been working together and just interacting with the team weekly, and more and more have been registering and checking to see if they are registered or checking on their absentee ballot,” Streich said. Before the SAAC presented
the initiative for student athletes registration, the volleyball team had already been helping their student athletes register. “It actually started quite a while back, back in the summer. We started thinking about how this year is an election year and going through coronavirus and having some of the issues that have come forward with race,” Leanne Williamson, women’s volleyball head coach, said. The volleyball team, as well as the staff and coaches are all registered to vote, Williamson said. “We felt that it was important to at least educate our players and the fact that they have that right to vote and they have a say on how this country moves forward,” Williamson said. Williamson said they took the initiative to inform their athletes on how to register to vote, check on their absentee ballots and know the deadlines. “A lot of it for us was just allowing them to have a voice,” Williamson said. “That is something that is important for us in our own program
and looking at this being an election year we thought it was important to remind them and show them that what they believe matters and they have that ability to be a part of that.” In addition to helping student athletes engage with this year’s election, the NCAA has mandated that election day, Nov. 3, there will be no practices. “I think it is a really good step again,” Williamson said. “When you look at this age group, I think it’s easy to just say that my one voice, my one vote doesn’t matter.” Part of the mandate to have no practices on election day was to give athletes a chance to serve the community or get together as a team, Streich said. “Maybe we will have a watch party or something like that. It really depends on COVID guidelines and understandings,” Streich said. “Maybe just have them in our own apartments and most teammates are rooming together and living across from each other. So potentially but as of right now (we don’t know).”
Even though athletes are being encouraged to register, politics or agendas aren’t being pushed or talked about, Kallo Arno said. When politics do come up during practice it is usually light-hearted or ends with a joke, Arno said. Arno, a Kinesiology & Sport Management major runs for the cross country and track teams is encouraging his teams to take it voting seriously. “In some ways, I feel like this year that most people who didn’t vote last time or haven’t voted before, have come to the conclusion that their vote matters. And that people are taking it seriously this time,” Arno said. With help from coaches and SAAC members, Streich said, many teams have been able to be 100%. registered. “Regardless of who you vote for it’s important to exercise that right and to educate yourself before you vote,” Streich said.
USD to host October commencement ceremony for spring 2020 graduates Miles Amende
Miles.Amende@coyotes.usd.edu
On Saturday, Oct. 24, USD will host a commencement ceremony for students who graduated in the spring of 2020 and would have walked if not for the pandemic. The ceremony will be held for both undergraduate and graduate students and will take place at 9 a.m. in the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. Laura McNaughton, chief of staff in the president’s office, said 223 undergraduate students and 111 graduate students will walk. Each student may invite four people, as the capacity of the arena is limited to 2400 spectators to allow for social distancing. McNaughton said the event will look a lot like a regular graduation, except masks are required, the graduates must physically distance and the crowd will be smaller than usual. Normally, McNaughton said, about 900 undergraduates and 500 graduate students participate in their respective commencement ceremonies. She said attendance will be lower because many past students have moved on. “We know that it’s after everyone has already graduated and they’ve all moved on and gotten jobs or gone to grad school, but President Gestring just really felt like it was important to allow graduates to have this
opportunity to walk,” McNaughton said. The event was conceived over the summer, McNaughton said and was originally scheduled for the same weekend as a home football game. She said the university planned to make the weekend a big event but had to pivot once the game was cancelled and safety guidelines were enforced. Kim Grieve, Dean of Students, said the two most important days for her as an administrator are convocation and graduation. She said being able to have a celebration like this is important to families and students that have put lots of hard work into their education. “We love to see them walk across the stage and remember when they were first here … and now they’re able to graduate, so it’s a great day,” Grieve said. “A lot of families really struggle to get students through a four-year degree, so it’s really something that everybody needs to celebrate toghether, because it’s an enormous milestone in somebody’s life.” McNaughton said it’s unfortunate that last year’s seniors didn’t get a graduation to walk at, so the university is working to give them the best experience it can under the circumstances. While not all of the spring graduates will be coming back for the ceremony, Grieve said, she is
File Photo | The Volante
USD will host a commencement ceremony for spring 2020 graduates on Saturday, Oct. 24 in the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. excited to see those that come back and she said she believes they are prepared to face the world. “Jobs are really tight, and our
students will have critical thinking abilities, problem solving abilities, writing abilities and all of those things that a liberal arts education
brings,” Grieve said. “I think that that will open doors for them as they go out and be a part of the workforce.”