As the school year winds down, students grow excited that summer is just around the corner. Not only do students anticipate the freedom that summer brings, they also anticipate the activities that come with the season.

For many students, going to the pool is an activity that is the epitome of summer, and for others it is the cool taste of ice cream.

The first week of April marked the annual opening of Zesto’s, a popular ice cream joint on Sixth Street. Zesto’s has been a part of the Brookings culture since 1950 and is a favorite stop of SDSU students in the spring and summer.

“Most of our business comes from students who just walk up from campus,” said Zesto’s manager Craig Vis. “It’s a privilege being located so close to the school.”

Zesto’s has a variety of flavors of ice cream and parfaits. The Snickers peanut butter parfait is popular among students, Vis said.

“I love the parfaits at Zesto’s … all the flavors are delicious,” said freshman Ashley Westerman.

Dairy Queen is another popular ice cream spot for students during the season. The restaurant offers a variety of ice cream flavors and special treats like Blizzards, parfaits and ice cream cones.

Many students also like the fact that there is a swimming pool located nearby.

A new water park is under construction on Sixth Street. Set to open in late May, it will feature a pool and water slides.

“I can’t wait to come back this summer and check it out,” said Westerman.

Plans were finalized in March for the downtown hotspot Cubby’s Sports Bar and Grill to buy out the neighboring nightclub, the Chevy Lounge.

The Chevy Lounge went up for sale and caught the eye of Gus Theodosopoulos, owner of Cubby’s. Theodosopoulos’ partners in this new club will be Chris Stoltenberg and Jeremy Deutsch, bar managers at Cubby’s Sports Bar and Grill.

“We heard it was for sale and we thought it might be fun (to buy),” said Stoltenberg. Stoltenberg will be one of the owners of the new club, whose name still has not been decided.

“Chevy’s will be keeping their name until May; we still have not made decisions about that yet,” said Stoltenberg.

When the year is over, the remodeling will begin and the name will be decided.

So what does this mean for the Chevy Lounge?

The Chevy Lounge mainly attracts the late-nighters and includes a bar and a dance floor, but after the changes start, there will be a whole new feel to the place.

“We hope to attract the earlier crowd and make it sort of like a lounge,” mentioned Stoltenberg.

Employees at the Chevy Lounge were re-interviewed and most were able to keep their jobs.

Most bartenders that work at Cubby’s Sports Bar and Grill are students and they will stay at Cubby’s.

“Chevy’s and Cubby’s will remain two separate businesses; a few of us are just taking over Chevy’s,” said Stoltenberg.

Bar-hoppers and club-goers can look forward to the new remodeled club this fall.

This month marks the three-year anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq.

The turmoil began on September 11, 2001, when four United States airplanes were hijacked by a group of terrorists who crashed the airplanes into the World Trade Centers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

They also failed a mission when the hijackers were overtaken by passengers and crashed the plane into a field in Philadelphia.

The United States immediately pointed fingers at the group of terrorists called Al Qaida, led by Osama bin Laden. After September 11, bin Laden went into hiding in his country, Afghanistan, and President George W. Bush ordered U.S. troops to invade Afghanistan to locate and remove bin Laden.

After an ongoing search failed to locate bin Laden, suspicion was placed on Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. His regime was thought to have played a role in the September 11 attacks, so U.S. forces launched attacks on Iraq in search of Hussein.

During the war, American people tuned into radio reports, TV news briefs, and newspaper articles to find out the latest information. They heard about the countless deaths of Iraqi citizens and the deaths of United States soldiers.

One SDSU student experienced the war first-hand. Luke Perman, a range science major, is a member of the South Dakota Army National Guard and in January 2003 was sent to Missouri. When the war started in March, Perman was sent to Iraq.

“When I was in Iraq, I saw how poor people were, and even though I was an American soldier, they were still friendly, and if they didn’t like President Bush, they still liked our troops,” said Perman.

Now, three years later, U.S. troops remain in Iraq, leaving the American people speculating.

“We need to ask ourselves the question ‘What is the right thing to do now?’” said Robert Burns, distinguished professor of the political science department at SDSU.

“It is a very difficult decision because sooner or later we need to withdraw … this situation is deteriorating into a real civil war between the Shiites and the Sunnis and depending on how you define ‘civil war,’ it could already be one, and that might accelerate the withdrawal (of the U.S. troops).”

In a March 13, 2006, article on cbsnews.com, it was stated that “General William Wallace, the senior Army commander, told his troops that, ‘we’re going north, and then we’re going home’ but after ‘going north’, they went into Baghdad but have not returned home.”

Bush hasn’t given a reason as to why the United States has continued their stay in Iraq, but, according to Burns, “We need to rebuild the economic base (in Iraq) because the war destroyed what was already there.”

“I think Americans have lost sight of why we’re over there,” said freshman nursing major Jordan Schettler.

“It started out because of September 11, yet we haven’t found any weapons of mass destruction, so I think Bush should analyze why our people are still in Iraq.”

“Americans are impatient about everything, and people were expecting this to be short, but it could take ten years to build a stable government in Iraq,” said Perman.

In Iraq, the war is still going on and is stronger than ever. A few weeks ago, five hundred civilians were killed in the bombing of a Shiite shrine.

Also, according to MSNBC.com, the United States military is sending around 700 troops to Iraq during Ashura, an Iraqi holiday, because there will likely be problems.

No one really knows why and how long the United States troops will remain in Iraq, but Americans can only hope for the safe recovery of all of our U.S. troops.

“Iraq has definitely improved since we’ve been over there,” said Perman.

“Good things are happening there – there are schools that are being funded better and new construction, and I think now Iraq is better off than before.”

#1.884588:1227790591.JPG:IRAQ.JPG:Luke Perman and an Engineering Core built a bridge across this river in order to maintain supply lines:

Frequent visitors to the Chevy Lounge in Brookings may soon find themselves boogying to a new beat. The Chevy Lounge, located at 303 Main Ave., could be bought out by neighbor Cubby’s Sports Bar and Grill.

Plans are in the works for the Chevy Lounge to be replaced by a dance floor for the expanding Cubby’s.

“I go to the Chevy Lounge and Cubby’s quite a bit so this could be a lot of fun,” said 21-year-old senior bar-hopper Mike Blundell.

This isn’t the first of their changes, either. Cubby’s closed their doors last August to remodel the banquet room into a game room.

Because plans for this project will not be finalized until later this week, owners of both hotspots weren’t able to give the Collegian many details.

However, student hopefuls should be able to expect the change within the next few months.

Jack’s Place was packed Wednesday night, but not because people were hungry. SDSU Originals was in full effect once again.

SDSU Originals is an outlet for guitar players, singers and other talented students to perform their songs and show off their talents.

Senior Nathan Maas was one of several guitarists performing that night. He calls himself “This Fragile Frame.”

“I’ve been playing at events like this for a few years, trying to get my name out there,” said Maas.

For talented students who like to write, perform music, sing or tell jokes, SDSU Originals will host another event March 22 at Jack’s Place.

If you are a musician, singer or performer of any kind, you are invited to join others Friday, Feb. 17, at the United Church of Christ for the Brookings Community Open Microphone Series (BCOMS).

The United Church of Christ is hosting this event with hopes of bringing aspiring talent together to raise money for Harvest Table, a local food program that helps people in need.

The BCOMS is a new effort in the community. Future plans are to hold three of these events each year.

The inaugural event was held last October.

This Friday’s event will be this year’s second, with the third scheduled for June.

Performers interested in participating can sign up Friday at 7:15 p.m. at the United Church of Christ. No professional experience is expected.

If you are interested in being a spectator, the show will start at 8 p.m. with musician Rosie Baker kicking off the night’s events.

Food and refreshments, provided by Bagel Works, will be for sale.

BCOMS is open to anyone with an appreciation for the arts. The cost is a $3 donation at the door.

Pancake lovers flocked to the Brookings County Resource Center in Brookings on Saturday for Kiwanis Pancake Day. The benefit was put together by the Kiwanis Club’s Debbie Peterson in an effort to raise money for children.

From 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Saturday, people who attended the event paid an admission fee of $6 and devoured pancakes.

The Pancake Day is held annually in Brookings to raise money for community projects for the kids of Brookings.

Christina Hoeck

First Bank & Trust is adding yet another Brookings location to its roster. At 520 6th St., a new, bigger branch of the bank is being built. As a result, the bank’s east location on 5th St. and 5th Ave. in downtown Brookings will close and move into the new location on 6th Street.

In comparison to all the other banks in Brookings, the new First Bank & Trust will be one of the largest banks in town. The bank will add its trust building to the new bank location, which is currently located across the street from First Bank’s downtown location.

The Wal-Mart and Hy-Vee stores in Brookings also hold branches of First Bank & Trust, as do the cities of Vermillion and Garretson.

With branches in two of the largest college towns in the state, college students make up a larger percentage of the bank’s business. Employment is also an option at the bank for students looking for a career.

“We weren’t primarily trying to target college students, but it was very convenient to have locations in Brookings and Vermillion,” said DeAnn Moulton of First Bank & Trust. “We hope to attract more attention to our bank with this new building.”

Construction for the new First Bank & Trust building began May 1, 2005, and will be completed August 2006.

#1.884785:2976711838.jpg:newbank_aa.jpg:The 22nd Street First Bank & Trust is scheduled to be finished in May 2006.:Amber Armstrong

It’s that time of the year again. Students have just finished working, and in some cases, re-working their schedules for the spring semester. And now most students are contemplating their next move: ridding their desks of old textbooks and buying new ones.

The Bookstore in the Student Union gives students the option of returning their old, used textbooks for a refund equaling a small percentage of what they originally spent. However, that amount usually does not leave students with enough money to buy their books for next semester, so some turn to other sources to purchase their books.

Amazon.com, a Web site that sells many things, including books, offers college textbooks for a reduced price.

Students also have the luxury of having the books mailed directly to them. This option does have it’s risks, however. If you purchase a book from this Web site, there is a chance it’s not quite the book you need, so you would have to send it back. It might not arrive on time, or it might be out of stock.

It does prove effective, though, if you know exactly what you are looking for.

Another alternative to buying books in the Bookstore is purchasing them from a friend.

Students usually offer to sell their old textbooks to other students for a cheap price.

“I like buying books from friends better than the Bookstore because it’s way cheaper,” said freshman Amy Bertrand. “I’ll probably keep doing it in the future.”

Thanks to these quick, easy and cheap options, buying textbooks does not have to be such a pain, and it leaves students with more money and less stress.

Walk through campus during the day and you’ll plainly see that sweatpants and sweatshirts are the icons of college life. Students wake up in the morning, and if they are anything like the norm, they jump off of their five-foot lofts, throw on shoes, and jet out the door in the clothes they had worn to bed. This is called the ‘laid-back’ look. For some, though, it’s a hit or miss situation and they go from laid-back to the DON’T section of a fashion magazine. Some fashion-conscious students, on the other hand, like to take the extra time to put together the perfect outfit and look their best while strolling to class. Either way, the campus is a smorgasbord of fashion. These are the fashion dos and do nots of SDSU.

1. Nick Rossman shows that a preppy polo paired with skater sneaks is always a DO.

2. Sophomore Summer Hendricks proves that playing up your personal style with funky accessories is always a DO.

3. Sporting SDSU gear like sophomore Aubrey Graham is always a DO.

4. A tasteful skirt, like senior Amy Vickroy is wearing is a good way to pull off a classy look.

5. Senior Kathleen Grode shows that a colorful scarf adds a playful touch to a basic coat.

6. DON’T be a walking advertisement!

7. If you’re a guy, when wearing butt-hugging jeans, tucking in your pheasant-patterned camouflage shirt spells DON’T.

8. DON’T wear a red plaid shirt under a red puffy vest ? unless you’re out on the farm.