The Volante W E D N E S D AY, A U G U S T 2 9 , 2 0 1 8
THE STUDENTS’ VOICE SINCE 1887
VOLANTEONLINE.COM
MUC and I.D. Weeks cut hours Devin Martin
Devin.Martin@coyotes.usd.edu
Molly Schiermeyer I The Volante
First year students Law Paw, Grace Kidd, Paige Schueller and Nybol Kur have a movie night in their temporary lounge dorm.
North Complex exceeds maximum capacity Kelli Susemihl
Kelli.Susemihl@coyotes.usd.edu
As USD’s enrollment continues to grow and resident halls overflow, University Housing has had to get creative with room assignments. In order to accommodate the large freshman class, University Housing has had to make maximum use of the temporary spaces, which included transforming the floor lounges into four-person rooms and having the RA’s share their rooms with students.
A growing student body
Ashley Hartnett, the director for University Housing, said close to 1,000 students are living in North Complex this year. She said this is more than usual. “I would say we definitely had an increase in applications and new students coming to USD,” Hartnett said. “In order to be able to provide them housing, we’ve had to identify temporary spaces for our students and make them livable units until a permanent space opens up. So we’ve done that in the past, but this year we’ve had to use all and every space that we’ve had available.” University President, Sheila Gestring, said the growth may be a
result of new university initiatives. “It’s incredibly exciting and very optimistic about the [freshman] class,” Gestring said. “The housing numbers are actually over capacity for the time being, and as we go forward, we’re hopeful that all the initiatives that we’ve done, such as Iowa and Nebraska students getting resident (tuition) rates, will play a role in new growth.”
Temporary homes
Kim Grieve, the vice president of student services and dean of students, said the living spaces are temporary, and as other students transfer or drop out, the students living in them will be moved to permanent spaces. “(The overflow students) will be in temporary spaces as we have what we call our ‘melt,’” Grieve said. “Students that are in those particular lounges will then go into regular residence hall rooms.” Harnett said students placed in overflow housing filled out their housing applications later than others. “They weren’t given the option to select a temporary space, it was more just based on when they applied,” Hartnett said. “So that’s usually how
room assignments are figured out, it is based on when they’ve submitted their application.” Nybol Kur is one of four girls that are living in her temporary lounge room. Her roommates are Paige Schueller, Law Paw and Grace Kidd, all first-year students. Kur said she had already been accepted to live with another roommate, but she started to get nervous when her roommate was assigned a room and she wasn’t. In July, Kur received an email from University Housing informing her she would be placed in temporary housing. “I did get accepted with another girl and then they switched it up on us and like randomly assigned us here,” Kur said. “The other girl that I was going to room with got one roommate, and I got three. I was so confused.” Two of her roommates said they had similar stories. Although they had previously selected and accepted roommates, these three girls were still chosen to live in the temporary spaces. Their original roommates are living in permanent traditional two-person rooms in North See OVERFLOW, Page A6
Lauren Soulek I The Volante A campus dining employee stands behind the counter of the restaurant formally known as WOK, which will now be a weekly rotation of restaurants featuring multiple genres of food.
New restaurant rotation to replace WOK Lauren Soulek
Lauren.Soulek@coyotes.usd.edu
Campus Dining made the decision to discontinue a popular eating option among students, the WOK. However, a variety of new restaurants in the Muenster University Center will be rotated on a weekly basis to allow for more options for students and faculty. Replacing the WOK on the Campus Dining schedule is something named “Restaurant Rotation.” In an email, Adam Chicoine, director of Campus Dining, said the four new restaurants that will be rotated are an opportunity for Campus Dining to adapt to the “ever-changing habits and eating styles” of everyone on campus. “Campus Dining is always looking for ways to keep the students satisfied and happy,” Chicoine said, “While the WOK
was always popular, Campus Dining wanted to keep up with the food trends out there right now.” Chicoine said the four restaurant options that will be rotated are Barbecue District, Mighty Bowl, Chopsticks and Tavolino. Menus for all four restaurants can be found at USD.Campusdish.com. Barbecue District features Kansasstyle slow-cooked meats and sides. Might Bowl features “globally-inspired grain bowls packed with flavor.” Chopsticks offers modern stir-fry options. Tavolini is an “Italian comfort food” restaurant that features traditional pastas. Even though WOK is no longer available, Chopsticks might be an alternative for students and faculty, since it’s menu offers a few similar options. “Chopsticks has some of the same side options (as the WOK) available but the entrée items are different,” he said.
Even if the new restaurants offer new options, some students are upset about the closure of the WOK. Arenne Marksbury, a sophomore studying communication studies said she’s upset the WOK is no longer available. “I loved the WOK,” Marksbury said. “I got rice and chicken, extra teriyaki sauce and broccoli every day.” Marksbury said she’s open to trying the new restaurants, but it will be weird. “I’m just honestly scared to try it because I liked the WOK so much,” she said. “It’s like, ‘do I really want to try this?’” Kaci Reiser, a junior studying English, said she’s sad to see the WOK go, but she understands why. “I think I saw that they have something like the WOK and I guess I understand that they’re trying to get more variety here, which I think is a good idea,” Reiser See WOK, Page A3
The Muenster University Center and the I.D. Weeks Library have changed their hours of operation for the new academic year. Last year Sunday to Thursday the MUC would close at 2 a.m. but this semester the MUC and I.D. Weeks Library will close at midnight. Doug Wagner, director of the MUC and student programming, said for the past two years desk workers would take attendance in the MUC throughout their shifts. On average, there were five or fewer people in the MUC after midnight. “I want to make sure it makes sense and as somebody who is a supervisor who cares about students being successful, a lot of the students the shift that we used to have was 11 p.m. to 2 a.m,” Wagner said. “So I’m asking myself, is it really in a student’s best interests to sit See MUC, Page A3
NEW MUC HOURS Regular schedule Monday - Thursday 7:30 a.m. - 12:00 a.m. Friday
7:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Saturday
10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Sunday
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 a.m.
Finals week schedule To make sure students have adequate study time, I.D. Weeks Library will remain open until 2:00 a.m. during Finals week.
Fun Fact: In the 1960’s, I.D. Week’s Library was open until 2:00 a.m., but only men were allowed after midnight.
SGA analyzes recent student survey Rachel Newville
Rachel.Newville@coyotes.usd.edu
USD Student Government Association discussed the responses to the State of the University Survey in their unofficial meeting last week. The survey was sent out to students on May 9. The survey, which was constructed by Sorbe and Green last semester, asked USD students their concerns with the campus and policies. 63 students responded to the survey. Sobre and Green presented the results with President Gestring earlier this month. “Instead of it just being Madison and I giving our perspective on what we think the students are feeling right now, it’s 63 students plus Madison and I giving our perspective,” Sobre said. “It really diversifies the opinions and it gives us a concrete document for us to refer back to.” While 63 responses is a starting point for student feedback, it’s less than 1 percent of the student population. Sorbe said that for a first-time survey, he isn’t too worried about the response rate and is recommending future administrations to do more surveys. “(With 63 responses) it’s hard to paint a more indicative picture of that. SGA had never done something like this before,” he said. “So now that we have done it once, I’m going to write up like a transition thing to whoever the next president is to do it again. I still think it’s good to do it at the end of the year because students are reflecting back on their time. (It should be distributed) probably like the week before finals week to give students some more time.” Green said the survey will make a good “point of reference” moving forward with the semester and helping Gestring become familiarized with USD students. “President Gestring doesn’t know the ins and outs of the student body as well as we do, because we interact with them every day,” Green said. “We are the voice of the constituents. Until we make surveys like this, we don’t know what’s going on. I am excited to see something like this go forward. President Gestring said she is excited to receive more student feedback in the future. “I got to look at SGA’s state of the university survey, and I am looking forward to getting more feedback from students in the future,” she said.