The Volante
THE STUDENTS’ VOICE SINCE 1887
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Citizens upset with walking violations on Cherry Street Lexi Kerzman
Lexi.Kerzman@coyotes.usd.edu
Meghan Mount I The Volante
The University Police Department and Vermillion Police Department have received multiple complaints from Vermillion citizens on students crossing East Cherry Street since school started. These complaints have been centered around students not paying attention while crossing or not paying attention to traffic lights, and UPD is searching to find solutions. A potential solution would be placing an officer at the crosswalk to cite students for jaywalking, which is a petty offense in South Dakota law. Jeff Rice, UPD lieutenant, said one of the problems they are seeing is students not using the safety button at the intersection. Rice said he is disappointed to see this kind of peer pressure. “One of the things we are hearing is that freshmen are being convinced that it’s not cool to hit the button,” Rice said. “I thought we were over peer pressure into not doing something when their safety is at stake. This
Students neglect to use the pedestrian button to cross Cherry Street from North Complex, causing Vermillion citizens to complain about students’ safety.
See CHERRY, Page A3
Administration discredits Coyote Village destruction rumors Kelli Susemihl
Kelli.Susemihl@coyotes.usd.edu
A popular rumor among students, that the university must tear down Coyote Village by 2020, has been discredited by USD administration. The rumor includes stories of Coyote Village, which was built in 2010, being built too quickly, making its foundation and structure unsound and that the university will be required to take down the building by 2020.
A widespread rumor
Marcus Ireland, a former SGA senator and a senior political science, criminal justice and philosophy triple major, said he has heard this rumor from a variety of students on campus. “So I’ve definitely heard rumors from other students about how the Coyote Village complex is supposedly going to be torn down because of like a shaky foundation, wood foundation, things like that,” Ireland said. “The reasons for why it needs to be torn down keep changing, but the idea is is that Coyote Village is supposedly being torn down in the very near future.” Ireland also said the rumor is widespread, although he is not sure if all students take it seriously. “I think that there’s probably a handful of people who have heard it and actually believed it might actually be in the process of working out when it’s going to get torn down,” he said. “But I think for the most part, a lot of people hear it and are kind of like ‘probably not.’” Ireland, said he has heard residents of Coyote Village discussing the rumor, although he said he reassures them that
it is not true. “In the time that I’ve lived at USD in housing, there have been people that have made comments, usually around the idea around this rumor, so they help the spreading of the rumor,” Ireland said. “I’ve definitely heard residents talking about it.” Scott Poulson, the vice president of enrollment, marketing and university relations, said rumors like this are common among the student body. “From a university standpoint, we deal with these sort of rumors from time to time, somebody gets a wild hair and thinks that they understand something better than we do as an institution, and it happens,” Pohlson said.
Discrediting the claims
John Howe, the associate dean of student services and the overseer of university housing, said he first heard about this rumor at the first SGA meeting of this semester, when a senator asked him a question regarding overflowing occupancy. He said he was taken aback, but he addressed the rumor in the meeting and said it was false. “I actually heard this rumor for the first time at the SGA meeting a few weeks ago, so that was definitely news that that would be news,” Howe said. “I directly supervise the director of housing and university housing, it’s never, ever been discussed at any institutional meeting that I’ve ever been to.” Pohlson said he is also surprised by the rumor. “I just don’t understand. It is our newest facility, our nicest See COYOTE, Page A1
Molly Sperlich I The Volante
Coyote Village, built in 2010, has been rumored to be torn down in 2020. According to USD administration, this is false.
Molly Schiermeyer I The Volante
Law School Dean Thomas Geu talks with students as they study. Geu will become a professor once the dean position has been filled.
Law school optimistic about future after facing years of challenges Devin Martin
Devin.Martin@coyotes.usd.edu
The USD School of Law has seen many changes within the past year such as a relocation task force, a search committee formed to replace Dean Thomas Geu and an increase in South Dakota bar examination passage rates since the July exam.
Bar examination preparation
The first-time passage rate for USD law graduates on the bar examination rose to 82 percent from the July exam. The success came from the bar preparation courses that have been in place for two years, Geu said. “We think that probably was the biggest positive change, but we’ve done a lot of other things,” Geu said. “We’ve added a course in the fall of 2015, a year after we found out the poor results. We added a first-year course to try and provide a framework to make it easier for students to assimilate the information.” Individual professors in the law school are also working on in-class preparation such as time-pressured tests and more multiple choice questions, along with other techniques, to help students retain information. “Each faculty member looked at the bar exam carefully and determined what the (problem) areas of testing were and made sure they covered those areas,” Geu said. Tiffany Graham, associate dean of the law school, said on
top of the required prep class, faculty are preparing students for the bar exam on an informal basis inside of other classes. “I would say that happens on an informal basis to the degree that faculty members are incorporating bar-like questions into either practice opportunities or into their exams themselves,” Graham said. Tyler Sobczak, a first-year USD law school student, said that he is noticing faculty efforts to prepare for the bar exam. “Currently for my contracts class taught by Myanna Dellinger, we had a 20 question exam. She made it so you would have 30 seconds longer to answer on this than you would the bar,” Sobczak said.
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Challenges
Tyler Sobczak, first-year USD law student
However, before the 82 percent bar passage rate increase from the July exam, The Argus Leader wrote that in 2013, the USD bar passage rate had a success rate of 91 percent. Then in 2014, the success rate dropped to 75 percent, and then in 2015 dropped to 70 percent. “In 2014, that was the first year that our passage rates went down, and we went down with a whole bunch of small public institutions,” Geu said. “We can guess and speculate, but we really don’t know why because our credentials were almost the same from the year before and we haven’t changed anything.” Geu said the school tried to establish a new prep program in 2016-2017, but was set back
I think the faculty has provided us with everything we need, and I think it’s down to each student to really apply what they teach you.
after failed searches. “We wanted to have a professional bar prep person and a required course in academic year (2016-2017),” Geu said. “We had a failed search so we brought in a couple adjuncts, and we got books that didn’t cost students anything, but of course the adjuncts weren’t experts.” The implementation of the bar preparation courses led to the increase in exam success rate. Geu said that he is pleased with how the exam went. “We’re happy about that, very happy. So as an administrator it makes me feel good, but I didn’t See LAW, Page A6