THE STUDENTS’ VOICE SINCE 1887
The Volante
SMITH TAKES THE HELM AT USD PAGE B1
OC TOBER 22, 2014
Campaigns fuel student passions Braley Dodson
Braley.Dodson@coyotes.usd.edu
Whether it was watching her mother being active in politics or helping her grandfather, Lawrence Diedrich, a former state representative and senator who unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House in a special election in 2004, politics run in the family for junior Ellen Nelson. “I’ve been working on political campaigns since I can remember,” Nelson said. But now, Nelson, along with other students, is capitalizing on the oppor-
tunity to work on campaigns through the university’s Campaign and Democracy class. This semester, she’s been working on Republican Nancy Rasmussen’s reelection campaign for District 17 of the South Dakota House of Representatives. Elizabeth Smith teaches the Campaigns and Democracy course, which is taught the fall of every federal election year. Students are required to work eight hours a week on a campaign until election day, after which the class critiques the campaigns. The students are able to choose which
campaign they work on and are evaluated by a campaign supervisor. Smith said the opportunity opens up doors for students. “They actually enter a network of campaign professionals, they become known to their party officials and people who then get elected into office,” Smith said. “Two years later, when campaigns are organizing, they will often tap those same students. They’re inserted into a network that becomes their job search network for SUBMITTED PHOTO
SEE CAMPAIGN, PAGE A6
USD senior Jason Thiel poses with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Susan Wismer.
DISTRICT 17 CANDIDATES WEIGH IN
Keeping the connection: IT offers tips on networks Megan Card
Megan.Card@coyotes.usd.edu
ANNA GLENSKI I THE VOLANTE
From left to right, District 17 state senate Democratic candidate Michelle Maloney, state representative incumbent Ray Ring D-S.D., Democratic state represenative candidate Marion Sorlien and state senate Republican candidate Arthur Rusch debated topics ranging from the death penalty to taxes at the District 17 debate Monday in the Al Neuharth Media Center.
Braley Dodson
Braley.Dodson@coyotes.usd.edu
Tuition freezes, implementing an income tax, a Good Samaritan bill and approaches to sexual assault cases were front and center at the Cross Media Council’s District 17 debate Monday night in the Al Neuharth Media Center. State senate Democratic candidate Michelle Maloney and Republican incumbent Arthur Rusch, and state representative candidates Ray Ring, D-S.D., and Democratic candidate Marion Sorlien attended the
debate. State representative Republican candidates Sheri Kaufman and Nancy Rasmussen were invited to the debate, but did not attend because of conflicts. Maloney, Rusch and Sorlien said they would be in favor of some sort of tuition freeze for South Dakota colleges. Ring said keeping tuition costs low is a high priority, but perhaps not the highest priority for the Legislature. “I’m not going to flat out say I’m in favor of freezing tuition,” Ring said. He did, however, voice support
for financial aid. “We need to do something in this state about need-based scholarships,” Ring said. Sorlien, a retired teacher, said education is an important tool for economic development. “We really need to look at our priorities,” she said. Maloney suggested a six-year tuition freeze to help students better prepare financially for their education. Rusch mentioned low tuition rates from when he attended college, and said the issue presents a tough
balancing act for the Legislature. “We need to make higher education more affordable,” Rusch said. The candidates also answered questions regarding state universities handling sexual assault cases appropriately. Maloney said incentives would have to start with students, while Rusch highlighted his experience in the criminal justice system as a States Attorney, Special Assistant Attorney General, City Attorney and judge. SEE DEBATE, PAGE A6
English department walks through lit history Kenzie Wagner
Kenzie.Wagner@coyotes.usd.edu
Influential literary pieces such as Beowulf, Hamlet and Uncle Tom’s Cabin are being explored outside of the classroom through contemporary lectures the English Department offers each week. Last year, the University of South Dakota’s English Department searched for a different way to present its annual colloquium lectures. After deliberation with the department’s colloquium committee and faculty, the Colloquium Series on Literature was created. “We were thinking that it would be really interesting to do something that would be the whole sweep, and also give people a chance to interact with faculty and for faculty to interact with students,” said Darlene Farabee, associate professor and
interim chair of the English department. The colloquium series follows a chronological order as a literary walkthrough of different time periods. “We want to think of it as being a comFARABEE plete series where someone could show up to one and that one would stand alone, but then you could also go to all of them and sort of move all the way from Beowulf through 21st century poetry,” Farabee said. The series is meant to further people’s knowledge of certain literary pieces, and also to explore the
entire topic so those who may not know anything about it can learn as well. “The general frame of them is to present information and ask questions in a way that assumes that perhaps the audience who’s there hasn’t read the particular text,” Farabee said. “You can still go and be a part of it and get quite a bit out of it without having the background material.” Junior English major Mackenzie Stone has already discovered new information about Shakespeare. “I really enjoyed Dr. Farabee’s lecture on Shakespeare,” Stone said. “It was cool seeing all the different reasons why Shakespeare is still taught today, and it was a new look on Shakespeare that I haven’t really gotten to see.” Prentiss Clark, a visiting assistant professor who specializes in 19th
century American literature, said the series is a good way for students to meet the English faculty. “The series is a good introduction to faculty, to literature (and) the questions that different fields of literature ask us to wrestle with,” CLARK Clark said. The amount of people who attend the series fluctuates at times, but overall has a good turnout, Farabee said. “There’s a pretty wide range of people in attendance. There are undergraduates, graduate students and then faculty members from the SEE SERIES, PAGE A6
First-year law student Hadier Jassim rolls her eyes at the mention of the blue Ethernet cord coiled up in her backpack. Jassim’s relationship with the University of South Dakota’s wireless network is a strained, often frustrating one that requires close proximity to nearby wall outlets just to access the Internet. “It’s the same struggle every day. I’m so sick of that exclamation mark that shows up in the corner of my screen just to let me know that I can’t access anything,” she said. The university’s wireless network handles more than 330,000 device connections each day, said Cheryl Tiahrt, USD’s director of Information Technology. Tiahrt attributes the growing demand to more smartphones and tablets on campus, which has lead to a 30 percent increase in Wi-Fi access points in the past three years.
BY THE NUMBERS 330,000
Daily device connections at USD.
8,000
People using USD networks.
15,000
Devices connected to USD networks. “I don’t think we can ever get ahead of wireless demand,” Tiahrt said. “In newer devices, manufacturers are increasing battery life by decreasing signal strength, so we’re trying to compensate and re-evaluate access.” As Tiahrt and information technology services respond to campus feedback on the network, students do not appear to agree on the quality of USD’s Wi-Fi. A spring survey conducted earlier this year included half of its 627 respondents rating USD’s wireless experience on campus as good or excellent. But first-year Karli Tunender would say otherwise. Tunender recently had to turn in a midterm research paper late to a professor because she said she could not access the Internet to put the document in her Desire2Learn dropbox. “I was panicking, because it was out of my hands,” she said. “My professor was understanding and gave me credit, but I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was freaking out during midterms because the Internet wasn’t working.” The cost of Wi-Fi More than 8,000 people used over 15,000 devices on USD’s wireless SEE INTERNET, PAGE A7
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