The Volante W E D N E S D AY, A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 1 9
THE STUDENTS’ VOICE SINCE 1887
Past & Present Read a story about “Spring Awakening,” the theater department’s newest production
volante online.com Check VolanteOnline.com for the full story on this week’s SGA meeting
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Projected incoming class size puzzles housing with overflow issues
Artsy Athletes Student-athletes balance art majors with athletics Sports, B3
Community Celebrating diversity : Opportunities to obser ve religious holidays Kelli Susemihl
Kelli.Susemihl@coyotes.usd.edu
Statistics derived from USD Enrollment Dashboard and Admissions Enrollment Update. Leah Dusterhoft I The Volante
Lexi Kerzman
Lexi.Kerzman@coyotes.usd.edu
Living on campus is a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity,’ but with an overflow of residents and roommate disagreements, it can cause unnecessary anxiety for students. Brandi Guenther, a first-year nursing major, will be living in an apartment off-campus next year because she said her health is more important than following housing requirements. “Living on campus is hard, but I wanted the experience. It’s a once in a lifetime thing… but I just want to be comfortable in my own area,” she said. “I do feel bad for lying about commuting from my parents’ house, but I also have to do what’s best for me and my health. And I know this is what’s best for me.” Traditionally, students are required to live in on-campus housing for their first and second year at South Dakota insti-
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tutions. Students, like Guenther, can file for housing exemptions if their parents’ home is within a 60-mile radius from the school. Cody Burggraff, Assistant Director of University Housing, said 60 miles has been the requirement since he started in housing and there is little chance of it changing in the future. “If you could fly from Vermillion to wherever home is at, that is the distance we measure it… which actually helps students out,” he said. “You do have to live with a full-time legal guardian figure. It’s not shifting at all. Everything is always up for review if numbers are dedicated it, but right now if we opened up the buildings today we’re not full.” The 2018-19 freshman class saw an increase in enrollment by 6.4 percent from the previous freshmen class, a jump of 96 students enroll.
In the next two years, the university plans to continue growing the number of students enrolling by 30 in 2019 and 26 in 2020. USD accepted 3257 first-year students in 2018, and only 1270 actually enrolled. Next year the university hopes to increase the acceptance by 129 students and 67 students in 2020. Although another increase is anticipated in class size, housing is not currently concerned with on-campus dorms for next year. “We recognize that we have four more months until August though, so things can change and students are still applying and student are still being accepted, and we don’t have those numbers and it’s hard to predict what those numbers will be,” Burggraff said. “We are only 10 percent through for the next academic year as far as figuring
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Although students belong to the Christian faith are given a break from classes to celebrate Easter, students who recognize other religious holidays are given the opportunity to celebrate their own holy days. Steve Miller, a pastor of the United Church of Christ (UCC) in Vermillion, also teaches the world religions class at USD. In class, Miller focuses on the diversity of religions and brings representatives from each religion to speak on what it is like to practice their faith at USD and in South Dakota. In his twelve years teaching at USD, religious diversity has expanded, Miller said. “There were always Christians and a wonderful gathering of Native American folks that were here that practiced traditional indigenous things from their reservations,” he said. “But more lately there have been more international students, so we’ve had more of a spattering of Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and we have a small population of the Jewish community here, so we represent many of the major religions; (they are) small, but hearty, and visible on campus.” Anita Shrestha, an international student from Nepal and a graphic design graduate student, is president of the International Club and belongs to the Hindu religion. Although she has not heard much conversation about
whether or not the university should acknowledge other religious holidays on their calendar, she said she thinks there should be more. “We celebrate international holidays, holy days back home, but I don’t think they’re really seen here in the states,” she said. “I think people migrate here and are kind of everywhere, so they should be in the calendar so people as a whole know that these kinds of festivals exist–so they know about it. It’s about awareness for religion and for culture… I think that’s important.” There are no university or South Dakota Board of Regents (SDBOR) policies regarding how students celebrate other holidays, but professors can work with students on a caseto-case basis to excuse absences. Kim Grieve, Dean of Students, said the Easter Break has always been a part of the SDBOR calendar, although she does not know exactly why. “The Board of Regents sets the calendar… which does have the Easter holidays on it,” she said.”I think it’s historical; it’s just been in the calendar for many many years.” Grieve said students can work through the Dean of Students office to work with their professors on their absence. “As far as students that want to celebrate their holiday, they See HOLIDAY, Page A3
See HOUSING, Page A3
Wacipi: Healing through dance
Ali Boysen
Alison.Boysen@coyotes.usd.edu
The sound of footsteps resonated in the Sanford Coyote Sports Center Saturday and Sunday, as the delicate clinking of jingle dresses mixed with the beating of drums to celebrate the 47th Annual Wacipi. Dancing is more than just a calorie burner or stress reliever for indigenous peoples. For Steve Yellow Earrings of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, it’s about healing when a person is hurting. “This is the place to come,” Yellow Earrings said. “This circle here will heal just about anything because everyone brings their joy and happiness here. So when people come, even just to watch, they feel that energy.”
Yellow Earrings began dancing at the age of eight, participating in grass dancing. He later started involvement in the sun dance at 16. Instead of finishing high school, Yellow Earrings had to drop out to take care of his children, and by 19 he was a dad of four and married. After that, Yellow Earrings began dancing again and making his own garments when he moved back onto the reservation in 1997. “I participated in grass dance specials and traditional specials and made my first beadwork,” Yellow Earring said. He would continue to participate in powwows until 2010, when a loss made him step back from more than just dancing. “I took a pause there for a little
bit the end of 2010,” Yellow Earrings. “One of my kids passed away (from) a drunk driver. At that time I was drinking here and there, socializing. But in 2010 I quit for a while.” Yellow Earring’s relationship with his sons became strained after the separation with his alcoholic wife, despite his efforts. “I didn’t want to break that chain, because my father wasn’t there for me either,” Yellow Earrings said. “I tried to push my traditions onto my boys so they could live that red road. It’s tough to be an alcoholic and living on that road; a lot of trials and tribulations.” See WACIPI, Page B4
Lauren Soulek I The Volante Members of surrounding tribes participated in the 47th Annual Wacipi on Saturday and Sunday.
Sports USD Spirit Squad places second in Florida Nikolas Wilson
Nikolas.Wilson@coyotes.usd.edu
Submitted Photo I The Volante The USD Spirit Squad performs in Daytona Beach, Florida on April 7.
The USD Spirit team, which consists of the Cheer and Dance teams, finished in second place at the NCA and NDA Cheer and Dance National Championship on April 7. The team competed in the game day category for the first time ever. The team performed a cheer, chant, fight song and a rally song in front of a crowd of
judges and other dancers in Daytona Beach, Fla. The team competed in the preliminary round first and then advanced to the Finals. The team finished in third place in the preliminary round, but made some key improvements. In the finals, they increased their score by three points to claim the runnerup finish behind Michigan State. Sophomore dancer Ashley German said that the preliminary and final rounds both had very
different atmospheres. “For prelims, we were placed in a stage-lit arena with fans in the shadows that were hard to make out. It really was like cheering in the dark. No matter the situation, we performed the best we could,” German said. Once the team advanced to the final round, they performed in a much more energetic and cheerful environment outside. See CHEER, Page B2