They then saw SDSU take the floor and quiet any IUPUI upset hopes of their own, as the Nate Wolters-led Jackrabbits took home a 77-56 win in which they made 57-percent of its shots from the floor and forced NBA prospect Alex Young to a 3 of 14 night and just 10 points.

Coach Scott Nagy’s only gripe rested on SDSU’s 12 turnovers, and for every one of those, Wolters found an open man cutting inside and the Jacks forced the ball the other way via nine steals.

That Young – Division I’s active career-scoring leader – finished with more shots than points? Exactly the game SDSU strove to achieve, forcing the left-handed Young to go to his right and shade him the other way. Young said afterward that every shot he hit “was well deserved.”

“They set a lot of ball screens, so we knew we’re gonna get him kept and contained,” junior Tony Fiegen said. “Coaches said we did alright with that.”

SDSU’s containment of Young and overall defensive strength – they allowed 43 percent shooting but forced the Jags to hit just six of 19 3-point attempts – created a balance on the offensive end, Nagy said.

Enough for the Jacks to not worry about taking so many 3-point shots – they took just 10 and instead found holes in the paint. Wolters led that interior aggressiveness, again finding ways to blow past the opposition in finishing with 22 points on 9 of 18 shooting, with seven rebounds and six assists. What’s more, starters Fiegen and Braydon Carlson turned in efficient scoring numbers, finishing with 11 and 12 points while each taking just seven shots. Bench spark-plug and freshman Taevaunn Prince added 10 in only 18 minutes, and helped mark the ninth time SDSU has had four players score in double figures. SDSU’s 9-0 when it reaches that plateau.

It turned out the games’ perhaps most-talented player, Young, was perhaps the least efficient.

“We took a really good player and frustrated him all night,” Nagy said of the senior. “And we took less 3’s. We haven’t been telling our guys that, but we’re making more.”

The Jacks appeared steady in its demeanor as well, taking the court to a crowd of 6,614 mostly Jacks fans, marking the biggest attendance for a tournament game since 1994.

Likewise, IUPUI failed to quiet the partisan crowd early, falling behind nine points in the opening minutes. They cut the deficit to one on after a Young bucket and foul, but allowed a 7-0 scoring spurt in what amounted to an SDSU lead that steadily grew to 21 late in the second half.

“We didn’t get much traction out of the gates,” first-year Jaguars coach Todd Howard said. “But I gotta give them credit, they’re playing at a high, high level.”

In overall tournament terms, SDSU’s win pushed their overall record to 3-3 in the annual league tourney and was just the second time IUPUI lost a first-round matchup in 13 years. And for the first time since becoming tournament-eligible, SDSU gets a day-off before the semi-final round against the winner of Oakland and Southern Utah.

“It’ll be nice,” Fiegen said. “We’ll get to prepare more and watch more film, last year we played back-to-back. It’ll be good for our legs.”

Jill Young defends IPFW guard Sarah Haluska in Saturday's first-round Summit League Tournament game at the Arena. Young finished with eight points in SDSU's 80-57 win. - Collegian photo by Aaron Stoneberger

SDSU made good on its previous outings in the Summit League quarterfinals, cruising over the bottom-seed IPFW Mastodons in a 80-57 win Saturday afternoon, their 10th-straight win in the league tournament they’ve never lost.

That margin of victory, coinciding with previous convincing first-round wins of 28, 39, 11, and now 23 points gave the largely SDSU fans at the Arena only sparse moments of excitement, and plenty of time to confirm what was expected of a conference champion facing the last team to clinch a tournament bid on what has become SDSU’s quasi-home floor.

And after all, they’ve clinched an NCAA tournament bid three-straight years and are the front-runners to represent the league for a fourth time.

“Good start for us,” said Jacks coach Aaron Johnston, whose team plays again Monday against NDSU or IUPUI in the semis. “It’s difficult to get that first game going leading up to it because people have been talking about it for a while … I thought we played really well, defended well throughout.”

“Really well” also means a total team effort on the offensive end, with SDSU’s bench totaling 38 points and matching IPFW’s total point production at halftime (18) by itself.

Sophomore Tara Heiser led that non-starter charge with 10 points (nine of those in the first half) and five rebounds, matched equally by junior and Pierre native Katie Lingle’s 12 points on 5 of 8 shooting and six rebounds. Gabrielle Boever, in her first tournament game, missed none of her three shots from the floor and added four assists in 20 minutes.

All of that production came after SDSU’s starting five missed its first five shots from the floor, attributed maybe to opening-game jitters Jennie Sunnarborg said afterward. Heiser’s lay-up nearly four minutes in provided the Jacks’ first points after replacing Ashley Eide, who drew two fouls early.

“They’re good,” junior guard Steph Paluch remarked about the bench play. “We’re really deep and that’s exciting, it’s nice – Ashley (Eide) got in foul trouble and we were still able to do pretty well in the first half … everyone does a good job of coming out and doing their jobs.”

Thirty-eight bench points contrasts sharply to IPFW’s thin production outside of three players. Senior and second-team all-league forward Stephanie Rosado scored 17 points, outscored by guard Amanda Hyke’s game-high 19 points. But after Sarah Haluska’s 10 points, the rest of the Mastodons roster added only 13. SDSU’s high-scorer, Sunnarborg added 14 for the Jacks in 22 minutes.

Yeah, the Jacks rounded up 80 points even with a jittery start, even with no single player playing more than 28 minutes and even with potent shooter Jill Young not attempting a shot in the first half. Plus SDSU slowly built its lead, cresting at 28 points with almost six minutes left in the game, allowing every freshman to gain some Arena experience and giving the Jacks a coasting win before heading back to Brookings tomorrow for practice on the team’s off-day.

“We had a good start but didn’t take advantage of it” said IPFW coach Chris Paul, whose teams’ seasons have ended three-straight years to the Jacks in the tournament. “They hit a few more shots than we were able to.”

Paul added: “It’s a good basketball team. I think I’m stating the obvious there.”

About the only blip came from the free-throw line, where the Jacks finished just 9-for-17. But they bested that effort shooting even better from 3-point range, with seven players making a shot from beyond the arc for a combined 11 3’s on 18 attempts.

That adds some more evidence that SDSU’s current run of post-season dominance over its league foes takes on more than one form for the hosts, backed by the lofty crowds of friends, family and “randoms” they’ve seen every time out in Sioux Falls, as termed by Paluch.

“It’s amazing every time,” she said.

You can say SDSU lost to a power conference, a Big 12 team with some name recognition. Or, you can take a look at the math and wonder what happened.

The Jacks had their poorest performances shooting from the field in more than 10 years in a 63-46 loss, recording just 11 field goals on 22 percent shooting in a tie for their most-lopsided defeat at home since turning Division I in front of 3,302 fans at Frost Arena Saturday night.

Adding insult to injury, SDSU tallied six more turnovers than field goals, had one player finish in double figures scoring, and almost matched their offensive output from the free throw line as they did shooting from the floor.

“We’re just not working as a team,” said junior forward Katie Lingle, who finished with 10 points, which on this night managed to mark a team-high. “A lot of individuality, we need to be aggressive and not rely on one person to get it done.”

Some of the shooting figures are staggering. SDSU started 0 of 16 from field goal range, then sat at 2 of 30 and didn’t score their first point until more than eight minutes into the game. That would almost certainly go down as the most forgettable performances offensively in program history, but the Jacks shot 22 percent and also scored 22 points against Cincinnati in Cancun, Mexico just three weeks ago.

As for the Wildcats, they turned out a less-than stellar offensive showing of their own. Point guard Brittany Chambers scored 18 points to lead Kansas State, but on 17 shots from the field. Their bench managed to combine for seven points. But with a 24-point lead in the second half, they didn’t need much firepower.

“We got out to a great start in stringing up some stops and making it an uphill climb,” said Kansas State head coach Deb Patterson. “Tonight it was, for us, about our defense.”

Kansas State entered the game allowing more than 60 points twice all season and allow an average of 53 points per game. Meanwhile, this marks the fourth game or so coach Aaron Johnston believes the Jacks’ offense has shown a complete lack of order.

It’s appearing like SDSU either plays really good, like in their biggest wins over Utah State and Washington State last month, or really awful.

“Defensively, I thought we played well enough to win,” he said. “But it didn’t seem like it because we were down 20, we missed a lot of easy shots.”

Most of the congregation filtered in over the last 10 minutes, and a majority of them brought their children in winter coats, avoiding them from the chill frosting the grass on their front lawns and windshields.
Soft, acoustic guitar music plays through the sanctuary’s speakers, and at 10:25 a.m. on Dec. 4, those sitting in First Lutheran Church in Brookings at the confluence of 8th Street and Main Avenue are in dialogue with a collective emotion

Members of Equip, an SDSU college ministry, sing Nov. 30. Each week, Equip members eat a meal, discuss Bible passages and form discussion groups. A survey shows students’ religious habits change once beginning college, with the percentage of weekly church attendance dropping nearly in half. -Collegian Photo by Kathy Kroether

sounding equal parts jovial and civil.
They take part in a “contemporary service” at the church, popularly known as Touchdown Jesus after the tall, painted mural of Jesus Christ standing elevated facing toward downtown.
On that morning, the early clouds break and illuminate the mural so brightly it appears computer-generated.
On the inside, Pastor Dave Schoeld walks up the stage in a beige sweater and says “Good Morning,” to which most below, especially the kids, shout “Good Morning!” in reply. Some laugh at the exuberance.
The sun begins to align itself with the building’s east windows, and by the time Schoeld begins his sermon its light gives the sanctuary’s large, metal-plated cross a shadowy glimmer and highlights the subtle contours of the symbol. The gold-colored edges look like it could cut flesh.
The congregation shakes hands, sings along with live music, takes communion and passes an offering plate in a choreographically determined way that seems to imply a routine and unanimous lack of confusion.
In this crowd, third and fourth-year SDSU students Betsy Hansen and Jace Harwood, Minnesota natives, sit in the fifth-to-last row. They walk in just after the service starts, but in fairness, it started a few minutes early.
Hansen and Harwood say they periodically attend church in Brookings, apart from their hometowns of Marshall and Jackson, Minn., but it isn’t routine. Hansen prefers her home church and admits that regular church attendance overall has seemed to take a hit during college.
“We’re college kids,” she says.
They represent evidence in a grander case study of the habits, beliefs and practices associated with college life. In a crowd dominated by husbands, wives, sons, daughters and even the elderly, a casual observer at Touchdown Jesus on that morning would conclusively find the least represented age bracket as 18 to 22-year-olds.
But like Hansen and Harwood, students at SDSU and all colleges are forced to take their faith on the road with them. The result can drastically reshape the complexion of a student’s entire religious conventions.
Some find a church or join an on-campus religious group and consider their faith stronger than it was years ago, or they find themselves back home for the same Sunday morning church proceeding they’ve had since childhood.
Others may find themselves caught up in a preponderance of social activities unearthed by individual freedom of choice associated with higher education. Away from home and away from Mom and Dad, those who used to attend church weekly may go months before attending again.
Others’ beliefs might completely change. Some may stop any beliefs for good.
Shoeld’s pacing the front of the aisles now, polling the members by a show of hands on the progress of their Holiday shopping and Christmas plans. It all circles around the preparation of life’s big events. How they just happen, he’ll describe.
“When do you know that you’re finally, fully ready?” Schoeld asks.
“When the day comes,” a child says.
“Great answer.”

***
The math of students’ religion

The SDSU student body is constituted from a majority of in-state students, with most other out-of-state students in neighboring states. Together, its collective childhood was largely based on Christian values – baptism, Sunday School, catechism, church youth group, confirmation and a belief in a son of God.
A survey conducted by The Collegian has revealed trends in the beliefs and the overall importance of faith and religion in an SDSU student’s life, from the time before they turned 18 to the moment they started attending college.
The results may surprise you.
Of the 235 respondents to the 10-question poll, almost 56 percent said they went to a church function on a weekly basis before they started in college.

SDSU students recently responded to a survey listing a majority of their religion under Christianity. More than 55 percent said they attended church regularly in high school. In college, the number drops to 29 percent, and nearly 25 percent say they've stopped going altogether.

After moving to Brookings, that weekly frequency dipped nearly in half to 29 percent, while nearly all other less-frequent options increased. To that end, those answering with “almost never,” “never,” or “only on religious holidays” more than doubled.
Right now, more than one-third of all SDSU students surveyed have almost completely abandoned their previous religious habits since starting college. And 18 percent overall said they’ve stopped going to church altogether.
That trend doesn’t particularly baffle sociologists, who are quick to allude to the time spent in college as being a transient moment in early adulthood.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” says sociology professor Ronald Stover. “But I think the interesting thing is to see if they start going back once they’ve completed school. I think what you’ll see is that some will start going back. You see a reflection of those results (of the survey) in going to class. In high school, kids had pressure to go to class or had outside pressure in going to class. They get here and all of a sudden Mommy and Daddy aren’t over their shoulder.”
But among SDSU students there is still a legion of young adults still invested in faith and active in a religion-oriented lifestyle. The most common answer to how frequently students attend church-related functions was still “weekly.”
In contrast, the second largest group of students said they no longer attend church — ever. It is as if students decide to attend church regularly, or not at all.
The answers contain no verifiable circumstance — it seems as though no wrong or absolute right reason exists. And how complex are the reasons for why or why not?
“For some people church is not just a connection with God, it’s a connection with people,” says 23-year SDSU religion professor Ann Marie Bahr. “Maybe they feel bereft of their community and they haven’t formed a new one of that sort — maybe other communities.”
Evidence in the survey may point to that. Nearly three-fourths of the respondents said they were not a part of a religious group on campus — and several exist. That percentage also shows little variance from 18-year-olds on up to fifth-year seniors.
Moreover, 83 percent categorized themselves as Christian, and a majority of those labeling themselves under Christianity stated the importance of religion in their lives to at least an 8 on a 1-to-10 scale.
Another 75 percent believe in an afterlife while 15 percent said they were “unsure.”
It appears – at least – students stand active on a spiritual level, but appear in limbo when it comes to a functional religious lifestyle.
“I think it’s the fact that they’ve moved away, and I don’t think we’d see the same trend if the same people were still back home — we wouldn’t see the same religious behaviors,” Stover says.
The male and female variances in beliefs show some decisive differences. A resounding 64 percent of females said they attended a church service weekly, and 75 percent of them overally claimed to attend church at least once a month before college. After high school, that weekly group drops nearly in half to 29 percent, with about one-fourth of all females claiming to attend seldom or not at all.
Females also seem to have a higher value of their religion. About 65 percent listed their faith a seven or higher on a scale of one to 10.
Males were less likely to attend church weekly growing up, with just 48 percent claiming to do so. The drop-off after college is less drastic than with females, with about 28 percent saying they go to church weekly.
But there are more males, overall, missing church than attending it regularly. The change of habits between genders is subject to hypothesis, but a faction of those familiar with the traits of students entering college say that females tend to like forming groups. That sentiment may extend to feeling like a member of a church, or church organization.
“From what I’ve observed, females may like the feeling of being a part of a community,” Bahr says. “There’s a connection there that attracts them.”
Bahr says she sees the spiritual curiosity throughout her time teaching religious courses at SDSU. Students routinely ask for the details of her religious beliefs, but that discussion in recent years on the topic of Christianity and other religions may be less volatile than ever before.
“Students seem to be maybe a bit more open to those different beliefs,” Bahr says.
With a change in scenery comes a change in behavior, says Stover. The impact of campus living, of thousands of kids in the age group away from home for the first time in their lives, can mean a strong reformation of habits, social activities and beliefs.
“There’s all sorts of experimenting going on,” Stover says. “Kids are beginning to think about relationships, kids will start drinking, deciding whether they get in to drugs, the kinds of ways they present themselves. And I think [religion] is just part of the same thing.”

***
Faith on the road

It’s like a full-time job.
Most hear that sentiment when mentioning the workload of a student athlete. And there’s a case for that, with practices, weight training, film study, walkthroughs, traveling, away games, home games, weekend series at Oral Roberts, eight-game road trips, 24-game road trips, the weekend conference championships in Michigan, long tossing, batting practice, conditioning at sunrise at Larson Hill, and on.
Pick a sport, then list demands. They all have them.
Then factor in a regular school schedule of quizzes, tests, papers, discussion posts, practicals, studios, readings, lectures, midterms and finals.
That load comes to a head in-season. In football, it means morning workouts and afternoon practices. Men’s basketball spent a portion of their Thanksgiving break on the road for eight-straight away games in a span of 19 days. For the women,

The weekly committments of playing team sports at SDSU put a strain on athletes to make use of their time off the court. Teams like the SDSU women's basketball team do prayers in hotel rooms during road trips when they can't attend church back home. -Collegian Photo by Kathy Kroeger

they were more than 2,500 miles away from home in Cancun, Mexico, on Thanksgiving Day for the Caribbean Challenge.
Next year, the baseball team will spend eight weekends traveling to states like Arkansas, Illinois and Colorado to begin their season.
“Some Sundays we’re on the road, and obviously we can’t come to church,” says women’s guard Jill Young, a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, along with several others on the women’s basketball team. “We’ll have a service or a devotion in someone’s room, but it’s not mandatory or anything.”
It’s an alternative way of living for four months during the season. The Jacks women’s basketball team in particular has, in a little more than month, been to four states and Mexico. By the end of the season, they’ll have traveled to a dozen states. During the conference season, that means a Saturday night, Monday night pairing of games in different states.
Sunday often turns into travel day.
“You have to do some things a little differently, whether it’s walking through an airport, or before a game — whether it’s praying then or whatever you like to do,” says Young, a senior guard part of three SDSU teams that have experienced loads of on-court success via NCAA Tournament bids, and off-court success with team Grade Point Average.
Men’s basketball head coach Scott Nagy senses the spirituality that seems to come with his teams during his 15 years at SDSU. Nagy has headed Division II teams with perennial winning records, coached teams in the early days of Division I that lost up to 24 games one season and currently has his team in position for its second-straight winning season competing at the highest level.
And he notices the impact the schedule can have on his players. The Jacks just finished the longest road trip of his entire career.
“I don’t know if it’s any different from others’ circumstances; everyone’s challenged by circumstances,” Nagy said. “It can be tough, we get tired and are glad to be home.”
Forward Leah Dietel represents a minority in The Collegian’s student survey. The junior from Jordan, Minn., believes the tight-knit bond between athletes of her team has strengthened her religious beliefs.
“A lot of us are strong in our faith, and actually I’d say I’ve grown in my faith since I’ve come to college because of my teammates … we’ve become so close as friends that it’s just another aspect that we have.”
Then there’s pressure to perform. Some athletes make pre-season all-conference teams, or the hope to turn pro after their college career. Football players played their home games to an average crowd of more than 10,000 fans. The men’s basketball team played against power conference schools Minnesota, Georgia and Nebraska all on the road.
The women’s team has a chance to go its fourth-straight NCAA Tournament in just four years of eligibility at the Division I level. No other school has made the tournament in even its first two years of eligibility.
In moments where teams only have each other to fall back on, the willingness to rely on faith may increase for an athlete expected to perform.
“There’s a sense in sports, speaking in generalities, a sense of spirituality,” Nagy said “… To be on the spot like that, to have the pressure to fail, I think when you get put in those situations it generally makes you follow God … Just this sense of high intensity and nervousness to want to do well and trying to draw from an extra power.”

***
Worship
It’s the 13th Equip meeting of the school year at the Brookings First Baptist Church the night of Nov. 30, and right now Christa Juntenen stands on the sanctuary’s stage with a microphone in her hands. Her weight shifts to her left leg and then back to her right, and she’s sort of skipping in place like she’s slightly nervous.
At an even five-feet tall, she stands shoulder-level next to junior Caleb Nordquist, the Equip member to her right. She appears like a front-runner for shortest member of Equip.
Twenty-eight others sit in four rows of pews in conversations while others take the stage at the piano, drums and mic stand. The Equip attendees are about to sing, and Christa helps lead them.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.

The First Baptist Church has the atmosphere of every modest-sized place of worship constructed in the last century. Its floors creak; there’s the faint scent of wood lightly varnished faintly in the air. The doors take a full-body requirement

This is a common scene Wednesday nights as members of Equip speak to each other on the sanctuary's stage at First Baptist Church. Christa stands far shorter than fellow Equip members Ryan Buse (right) and Caleb Nordquist (left) so much so that the music stand almost completely blocks her face. -Collegian Photo by Kathy Kroeger

of braced foot planting, and an equal reliance of the shoulder muscles to adequately move the door ajar.
Like most buildings of its kind, the basement’s ceiling rests lower than most are used to, and the height of the floor seems to change depending on which area you walk.
On Wednesdays, the building hosts Equip, the church’s college ministry allowing anyone an opportunity for food, fellowship, singing and prayer. Its members are treated to dinner, play impromptu ping-pong and carpet ball with two-and-a-quarter inch regulation size balls, inquire about their Thanksgiving breaks and carry themselves with an aura that they want to be there. And it’s January.
Christa’s done eating at the front table, her boyfriend, Tyler, across from her.

Christa Juntenen sits at the edge of her chair in prayer with members of Equip, a campus ministry on campus. -Collegian Photo by Kathy Kroeger

“Eat some more,” he says.
“I’m full!” she says.
They talk more and at one point lock pinkies.
The night moves upstairs into the sanctuary. The light fixtures’ glow gives everyone inside the subtle pallor of greenish-yellow skin. The pews in rows of three contain holsters holding two Bibles and a book of hymnals. One after the other, from back to front.
There’s congestion in the stairway and the sound of children from inside tells Christa and her fellow Equip members to wait outside.
Some peer through the small, circular window into the sanctuary and see the kids jumping around. Eventually their lesson ends and a few run through the center aisle, rapidly past the pews, through the crowd, and down the stairs. The action brings some to laughter.
Up front now stands Ryan Buse, leading a prayer in a Green Bay Packers sweatshirt. He’s stammering, but the tone of his words indicates he knows what to say, but wants more than one word to come out at once.
There’s urgency in his voice. By the end, it’s nearly trembling.
“We’ve all hated God,” he’s saying. “We’ve all been angry at you, but we know how, how … awesome you are, God.”
The singing’s over, and now the members are embroiled in a week’s schedule that takes a vastly different approach from their usual night.
“It was a lot different this week,” Tyler says. “This was some heavy stuff.”
Equip’s staff member Brandon Pederson wants to raise money, in any way possible, to help fight against worldwide sex trafficking. No pressure, he says. It’s the holidays, and most members will unmistakably be with family back home.
“This is real,” Brandon says. “As Christians, we have to care and try and help these people.”
Christa is in the second row to the front, and Tyler has his left arm over her neck resting on her left shoulder. Her mind’s thinking she’s heard this somewhere.
This happens. A lot, she says. Thinking of one thing, then weeks later, she comes across that fleeting thought, or that prayer. Like deja vu. Echoes, she calls them.
“I was thinking about [sex trafficking] like three weeks ago,” Christa says. “I believe that God tells me something more than once in different situations intentionally.”
They break off into groups and now there are three sections of Equip members in various corners of the sanctuary. The fervor of the singing is a stark contrast to the quiet murmuring from the three groups immersed in prayer.
Christa’s in a metal folding chair by the back doors, elbows on her knees, face in her palms with the heels of her boots holding her feet on the horizontal rod near the floor. They take turns, one by one, in an undetermined cycle. Whoever wants to goes next.
“We just pray that we be captivated by your power,” Christa says.

***
Journey to faith

Christa cannot remember the point when her faith changed. It’s not like she drove to Walmart where she worked last summer

Christa Juntenen reads in the parlor of First Baptist Church. Juntenen, who transferred to SDSU last spring, plans to finish school and work in a hospital. -Collegian Photo by Kathy Kroeger

in South Carolina and had a revelation at a stoplight. She did not find God during one of her regular runs. She didn’t suddenly see something that previously wasn’t there. The moment didn’t happen in a surge of epiphanies.
She doesn’t know. It’s just always kind of been there. Sometimes weak, sometimes strong.
But that faith strengthened on a trip to Mississippi while rebuilding a house and volunteering at a nursing home. Something in the music she listened to, in the people she met, in the places she saw coalesced together. She formed a trust in God. It dug her out of what she thinks was depression.
Her friends describe her as goofy, spunky, bubbly, introspective, kind-of-private, wise, encouraging and compassionate. She likes compassionate. She agrees with compassionate. And she would also include introverted.
She remembers growing up through the church, in a way. Sometimes she would hide under the covers Sunday mornings, a thin attempt at having her parents forget she was in their own home.
She moved from Wisconsin where she was born, to
Darwin, Minn., a town of 300 whose hallmark rests as the home to the World’s Largest Ball of Twine. The parades are so

Christa Juntenen stands on the front steps of First Baptist Church. She stops there weekly. -Collegian Photo by Kathy Kroeger

short, they say, that the floats make two circles around, not one.
Her and her brother Jason’s friends would go to movies or bowling or have bonfires together. When they were younger, they played Pokémon or they’d set up a dancing act with music demos and routines they’d practice because, after all, they charged a quarter admission.
They did water sports including tubing on lakes around Darwin. They would sling each other around, Jason says.
They drove to school then back home after drumline practice in Jason’s 1999 Chrysler Neon.
“We always got along well,” she says. “Always been close, we haven’t fought much.”
She worked for the family business as a side job. One day, their father had an idea to convert old family videotapes to DVD’s, and Electric Canvas was born and is still in business — growing, actually.
And she can still hold a rhythm, her refined skills at drumming in middle and high school now showcased as a better-than-average djembe player in the Equip worship team.
Her college education didn’t start at SDSU, though. Transferring from North Central College, she ended up closer to home.
She’s noticed a change in the people.
“It seems like there’s a little more open-mindedness (here),” she says. “I’ve met some Buddhist friends — it’s really been interesting to see the differences in how they think.”
She thinks she’s found a place she’ll stay.

***
The kid with the sharp mind

He lives in an apartment with four other guys, a one-level place over by the Brookings mall with bunk beds, a $200 monthly rent check and a room of four computer screens no larger than a regular bathroom known simply as the “game” room.
Inside the game room are empty cardboard boxes, a TV resting high on the southeast corner, empty Mountain Dew cans, an XBOX 360 and Jason Juntenen with his best friend Tyler Thielsen playing the latest Role Playing Genre computer game on their laptop computers — League of Legends, aptly named.
They grew up talking together in front of a computer screen, they admit. For fun, they currently match up four-against-five

Jason Juntenen spend his childhood going to church with his family like many kids growing up. After graduating high school and starting college, his previous religious beliefs began completely changing. -Collegian Photo by Kathy Kroeger

in a battle sequence that lasts 40 minutes and ultimately leads to the two of them laughing about the outcome.
“We were mismatched,” Jason says. “And

Two faculty members have moved from the building into a different office said Michael Keller, an English professor in the bottom level of Scobey Hall and vice president of the Faculty Senate. Plans have been made to place air filtration units for staff requesting them and to build new windows to spur air circulation in the 70-year-old building on the west side of campus.

In the meantime, an indoor air quality policy revamp is in the works, Senate President Robert Watrel said. The University’s Environmental Health and Safety office plans to emulate an air safety program at the University of North Carolina for its improved, and more aware, complaint filing and resolving system. A separate office to coordinate the required paperwork could also be created, Watrel said, and a complete proposal could be finished by the beginning of Spring Semester.

It’s the start of a solution that may see consistent stopgap measures until construction of more office buildings eventually rendering Scobey Hall useless.

“I would just ask that we get a little bit more time in completing the process and coming up with a more thought-out resolution for this,” Watrel said at the Senate meeting Oct. 26.

Two weeks ago, SDSU Faculty Senate reserved an open discussion on its agenda to work conditions in some buildings on campus. It brought to light a confusing, uneasily accessed system of filing complaints, crippling health issues for some faculty susceptible to the effects of mold and an underlying fear of speaking up to administrators.

“We’re very happy with how it’s gone so far,” Keller said of the process, “The administration’s been great about it.”

The process is far from over. Dean Kattelmann, Assistant Vice President of Facilities and Services, advised that classrooms 026 and 020 in the basement of Scobey Hall be closed down.

The classrooms were recently transformed into “smart” classrooms equipped with projector screens and computer equipment totaling thousands of dollars. Keller said it’s uncertain what will become of the equipment if and when the rooms close down. Compounding the problem was EHS office information apparently being lost during its transfer to the new SDSU website.

“And (the classrooms are) in use, pretty much 9 to 5,” he said.

Student Association President Mark York was at the Faculty Senate meeting Oct. 26, and said a matter of students’ prolonged exposure to mold in Scobey is something he thinks the association could consider.

“Truth be told, I think it’s something we need to look more into,” York said. “(Dean) Kattelmann recommended they be evacuated, and yet they’re still being used.”

Some faculty also don’t want to move to a different office away from their respective departments throughout Scobey. Substituted office space is also at a limit, Keller said.

The building was constructed in 1940 as a residence hall before switching to faculty offices and classrooms in the ‘70s. Since then, infrastructural changes have been made to the roof and plumbing system, among other changes. The building was also without running hot water for decades.

The start of modifying and improving policy addressing problems with the building’s air quality has been warmly welcomed.

“After our meeting last week, I ran up to third floor and talked to about half of the people that were concerned,” Keller said. “They were all happy and grateful that we’ve gotten progress on this – that looks very promising.”

Professors and students leave Scobey Hall and the basement of Wagner Hall sometimes feeling sicker than when they entered.

SDSU Faculty Senate members hope to improve awareness of this threat and to revamp a policy to improve communication about unsafe work environments. This initiative comes after complaints of poor conditions and sightings of mold in rooms throughout Scobey Hall.

Last week, the senate dedicated a chunk of its agenda to an open discussion on an issue that English professor and Senate Vice President Michael Keller said, “is serious enough that we shouldn’t just dawdle with it.”

Some faculty members with offices in Scobey Hall believe the building’s mold and mildew problems present a high potential for allergic reactions and several respiratory problems. Individuals have varying susceptibility to the effects of mold buildup, but Keller heard several informal complaints of deteriorating health from people in the building upon investigating the severity of the issue.

“I was quite stunned actually, to hear from all the people that said ‘I have all these health problems, I’m going to the doctor,’” Keller said.

SDSU’s current procedure for filing formal complaints on environmental safety in buildings on campus takes multiple steps. Campus Facilities and Services take complaints, but the process only finalizes after filing the complaint to the Human Resources department. The method “veers off into two different ways,” says Faculty Senate President Robert Watrel.

Some staff members simply do not know the proper filing procedure. Watrel said the webpage to list a complaint contains a small link, “not purposely hidden, but it’s not in a very obvious spot.”

Other institutions use programs garnered specifically towards air quality safety in campus buildings. At NDSU, an air quality program receives complaints or concerns with odors or potential moisture and mold problems. The program has its own website.

Mike Borr, an associate director for Environmental Health and Safety at NDSU, said the program predates his arrival to the university six years ago.

“It came about, as I understand it, based on issues that we experienced in buildings similar to SDSU’s,” Borr said.

The program hears comments or complaints and directs the filer to its website. Borr said persons in the Environmental Health and Safety department will visit the faculty member personally. From there, they evaluate how widespread the problem appears, and try taking action to resolve any issue with air safety. Some air problems will undergo a week or two of data gathering while others are, “tracked down immediately,” he said.

“It has helped some, but it has not cured every problem,” Borr said.

Problems in Scobey

Improvements and repairs to Scobey Hall happen periodically since its construction in 1940. In the mid-‘70s, the building changed from a residence hall to a faculty office building, with some rooms transformed into classrooms. In that time, the building received a new roof, an air conditioning unit and new plumbing, among other things.

Robert Burns, a retired distinguished professor and former dean of the Honors College, had an office in Scobey Hall for decades before his retirement in 2008. Burns witnessed faulty bathrooms that leaked feces onto the floor, malfunctioning heating and said the building went a long time without running hot water.

Keller said the current state of Scobey Hall — particularly the bottom level — has been recommended to close two classrooms in the basement due to poor indoor air quality.

It’s an issue that Burns said, if history holds up, will be handled accordingly.

“The university’s made every effort to address these problems,” Burns said. “We have to realize the building is 70-years-old. It’s aging, and there have been issues.”

SDSU hired INTEK, a Sioux Falls-based cleaning and restoration business, last summer to scrub Scobey Hall of accumulating mildew and other dusts. The cleaning was scheduled after an examination determined a need for special cleaning. Dean Kattelmann, assistant vice president of Facilities and Services, said the company did an air inspection afterwards and declared the air safe.

New windows for Scobey Hall are in the works, Kattelmann said, and could potentially be finished in 2012.

Faculty and students face effects

Some staff members faced a score of health problems while working in the areas believed to have a mildew buildup. Professor and former Nursing Department Head Marlys Bohn worked in the offices formerly located in room 131 on the bottom level of Wagner Hall. She said her personal health deteriorated rapidly during her time in the office.

Bohn pointed out one circumstance she believes sparked several health issues over approximately one year in Wagner Halls’ bottom floor. She removed a floor mat around her desk for cleaning crews that scheduled to wax the building’s floors that night.

“I broke the seal on something that was toxic,” she said. “I don’t know what it was. I immediately lost my voice and in time, started losing my hair.”

Bohn left the offices for three weeks with another issue, and said her hair grew back in that time.

Three secretaries also developed health problems over the same time span.

“It seemed like an obvious cause-and-effect thing,” Bohn said. “I would say my experience was a little bit like banging my head against the wall, because everyone I talked to said it wasn’t their issue.”

“We’re looking at things that are really bad in some of our buildings.”

Katie Ishol, a fifth-year English student, has class six hours per week in the bottom floor of Scobey Hall. Last month, Ishol said she contracted a “really bad head cold” and missed a week of school.

Ishol found out about problems with mold in that area of the building during a linguistics class with Doctor John Taylor and noticed her symptoms worsening each time she went to those specific classrooms.

“My headaches got worse, my cough was getting much worse,” Ishol said. “It was so bad that I would have to leave the classroom.”

Element of fear

Keller believes some of the problems with SDSU’s communication stem from scared faculty members unwilling to voice their concerns because of fear of reprisal from higher level figures in South Dakota state government. Keller said this fear does not apply to current administrators on campus.

“People were afraid to register formal complaints,” Keller said. “People are simply afraid that by registering a complaint, somehow, someone’s going to come after them … I assume that this is not the case.”

Provost Laurie Nichols said the truest way of curing confusion with any concurrent workplace hazard rests in amending a clearer proposal. Nichols researched other university protocols from around the area regarding air safety – all of which had programs centered on environmental safety.

“We’re behind the times,” Nichols said. “We need it.”

To that end, Keller said he and others see a history on campus “where they’re going to address a situation, and the situation (does) not get addressed.”

A comprehensive review of mold in buildings on campus has not been conducted. Scobey Hall and the basement of Wagner Hall are considered the chief points of concern and the need for increased awareness and a better air quality policy. Plans for a new social sciences building are in development and would remove occupants from Scobey Hall permanently.

“I think with time as this talk with safety and security gets brought up, the whole environmental safety and security will move under it,” Nichols said. “We do need an indoor air quality and mold policy.”

Last week, the senate dedicated a chunk of its agenda to an open discussion on an issue that English professor and Senate Vice President Michael Keller said, “is serious enough that we shouldn’t just dawdle with it.”

Some faculty members with offices in Scobey Hall believe the building’s mold and mildew problems present a high potential for allergic reactions and several respiratory problems. Individuals have varying susceptibility to the effects of mold buildup, but Keller heard several informal complaints of deteriorating health from people in the building upon investigating the severity of the issue.

“I was quite stunned actually, to hear from all the people that said ‘I have all these health problems, I’m going to the doctor,’” Keller said.

SDSU’s current procedure for filing formal complaints on environmental safety in buildings on campus takes multiple steps. Campus Facilities and Services take complaints, but the process only finalizes after filing the complaint to the Human Resources department. The method “veers off into two different ways,” says Senate President Robert Watrel.

Read more in Wednesday’s edition of The Collegian.

New faculty member in the Geography Department, Trisha Jackson, traveled the world before landing at SDSU – something she believes prepared her to teach geography to college students. (Collegian photo by Drue Aman)

Jackson landed a job in SDSU’s Geography Department this summer, moving her and her family to Brookings.

Part of her travels: a combination of a graduate student program in the world’s largest island, Greenland, and tours with a rock band. Jackson spent her time in different places and worked plenty of jobs – up to three at one time. She eventually enrolled in graduate school at the University of Kansas. She received her doctorate in August and was teaching physical geography to students on campus within a month.

“I was out in the world, trying to figure out what it was I interested in doing for the rest of my life,” Jackson said. “… I would say I was always interested in science and I liked to travel a lot. Fortunately, geography lets you study a little bit of all the different sciences.”

Question: It’s so lightly inhabited, so what was it like being in Greenland?

Answer: My experience was different from someone who lives in Greenland. I travelled with the military, basically. Where Americans do research there is highly militarized, old bases. I flew on a C-130 (military aircraft) to get there. And then I stayed in a facility that was especially there for American and international scientists. I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to talk to local people there – I took every opportunity I could. Right next door to a high school – but I don’t remember what they called it – was full of 16-year-olds, and so I talked to that group quite a bit. I could talk to them when they were out of school interacting with each other. They knew how to speak English pretty well.

Q: How did all that traveling get you ready or disciplined for a teaching job?

A: I had liked science, but I didn’t really know what to do with that. As an adult when I traveled, with some knowledge of physical geography, I could start to put some of the school knowledge I had, but the cultural aspect is important too. It broadened my thinking. I understood how little I knew.

Q: What got you to SDSU, do you think?

A: I had several research positions before I went to graduate school and I really wanted to do research. I had a professor who said I should be in academia, because I could do research. Well, then as a graduate student I had the opportunity to teach and so I really enjoyed that. That’s when I changed my mind. I decided that instead of doing research for the private sector, academia was the right thing for me where I could do both research and teach.

Q: It’s been about a month since you started teaching here, what has that month been like instructing college-aged kids?

A: It’s been on-the-job training, really. My plan has come to be not the best plan. I’ve tried to adapt as I go. I’ve asked for feedback from the students and they’ve given me some great ideas, so that’s been a really effective strategy, I think.

Q: A lot of kids will take a geography course not exactly out of a lot of interest, but because it’s sometimes a requirement in the curriculum. What case would you present that geography is a worthwhile class to take?

A: Because it’s the one class that’s going to give you knowledge of your world. You can use geography every day.

South Dakota’s largest university dropped 91 students from last year’s headcount to 12,725 students.

Statewide, enrollment fell 337 students, just shy of a 1 percent decrease. That figure sounds insignificant, but it marks the first drop in university attendance in 13 years and comes on the heels of an 8 percent single-year increase last year. It also overshadows a growth in overall enrollment in full-time students, rising nearly 100 students overall from last year’s record-setting state enrollment.

“This wasn’t entirely unexpected,” said South Dakota Board of Regents executive director Jack Warner of the enrollment drop. “… Last year’s growth was probably not sustainable.”

SDSU President David Chicoine accounted most of the decreases from less graduate students taking one or two courses and a loss of about 100 transfer students. Conversely, new student enrollment met the expected target range of 2,200 to 2,300 students and that retention rate is anticipated to exceed 80 percent. Those numbers will not affect the university’s Master Plan phases that will expand residence halls and form new athletic facilities, he said.

The university’s dealings with 10 percent reductions in state appropriations last spring is believed to have little effect on enrollment numbers. Chicoine said increased tuition from an average of $6,800 to $7,400 recovered half of the reductions and did not figure into this year’s numbers of new student enrollments. That could change.

“What happens is you challenge lower income households to access to higher education in our state,” Chicoine said. “We’re mindful in trying to raise private scholarships.”

Rising attendance numbers could become a greater challenge in the next several years. High school enrollment numbers in South Dakota expect to decrease each year until 2018. Evidence of that factor is also found in the state’s technical schools, which dropped 1.7 percent from last year after similar gains with state schools.

The question becomes whether SDSU’s and the state’s 2011 figures are the beginning of a trend or a one-year blip after last year’s nearly 8 percent cumulative uptick.

“It’s a very small decrease,” Warner said. “We’ll find that we’ll be back on the growth path, it’s just likely to be more moderate.”