Abortion has been discussed, debated and defended for decades.

Since 1973 more than 50 million abortions have been performed in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights research organization.

On its website, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America says abortions are “very common.”

“In fact, more than one out of three women in the United States have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old,” it says.

The South Dakota Department of Health reported that South Dakota has one of the lowest abortion rates in the United States. In 2010, 737 women had abortions in South Dakota, and 279 were 20 to 24 years old.

Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls is currently the only clinic in the state that performs abortions. Sanford Health does only in specific situations.

“Sanford Health does not perform elective abortions,” said Cindy Morrison, vice president of Health Policy at Sanford. “The rare, sad and unfortunate termination of a pregnancy occurs only in the extreme case of a life threat to a mother, the terminal condition of a fetus or the removal of an already expired fetus from the mother.”

The Brookings Health System does not perform abortions, and Avera McKennan’s representative was not available for comment.

The abortion debate involves several issues, both legal and moral.

“For me what it comes down to is figuring out what exactly a human life is,” said Libby Trammell, president of the SDSU Campus Women’s Coalition. “When does it go from a bundle of cells to a baby?”

For some on the anti-abortion side of the debate the effect of abortion on the mother is a concern as well.

“It’s always tears,” said Deborah Dyer ,the executive director of the Elizabeth House in Brookings. “And if there isn’t tears, you can just see that they would go back and do things differently.”

These and other abortion-related issues have caused heated discussions in South Dakota in recent years. During March of 2011 Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed a law that required women to wait 72 hours and undergo counseling at pregnancy help centers before aborting their baby.

However, judge Karen Schreier of the Eighth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals granted an injunction on June 30, 2011, that blocked the law from taking effect. The injunction will last until a lawsuit can be settled in court. Currently, women still must wait 24 hours to have an abortion in South Dakota.

On its website, Planned Parenthood states there are three options for a pregnant woman: “abortion, adoption and parenting.” It warns against people who would say otherwise.

“Beware of so-called ‘crisis pregnancy centers,’” it states. “These are fake clinics run by people who are anti-abortion. They often don’t give women all their options.”

Dyer said the women she has known who have had abortions almost always regret it.

“At least with the women I’ve worked with, they’ve never said, ‘After I had my abortion, I still feel like it was a ball of tissue,’” Dyer said. “What they do say is I know that was a child.”

According to Dyer, Elizabeth’s House exists to help women not make the choice to have an abortion.

“It’s the most backward, hateful thing,” she said. “How is it ever normal for a mother to give up her child?”

For Trammell the debate comes back to the question of when life begins.

“I realize that for many anti-choice people life begins at conception,” Trammell said, adding that her views do not reflect the Women’s Coalition. “A fertilized egg is a human life. To me this is ridiculous. If that is true, then we should all be celebrating our birthdays nine months earlier, and we should be calling eggs ‘chickens’ or calling bails of cotton ‘T-shirts.’”

The views on abortion are not always black and white.

“I may be pro-choice, but it doesn’t mean that I like the abortion statistics,” Trammell said. “I would rather a woman never have an accidental pregnancy.”

Jen was 22 years old when she arrived at the Bellevue Health Clinic in Bellevue, Neb.

It’s an old building on the corner of one of Bellevue’s main streets. Instantly her eyes were drawn to the large, green letters that spelled “abortion and contraception” in capital letters.

On her way in she walked by a woman hiding behind a fence.

“She was crying, and she begged me not to go in,” Jen said.

She walked in, filled out the paperwork and paid $384 in cash. There wouldn’t be any record on her checking account that way. Then she went into the full waiting room.

There were some couples and some women sitting by themselves.

“Nobody looked at each other,” Jen said.

A nurse called Jen’s name and explained her options. She thought the abortion pill “sounded terrible,” and they ended up using the dilation and curettage method.

The nurse asked if Jen had any questions.

“I asked if I’d be sad,” she said.

Jen went through years of pain before that day at the clinic. She said her “downward spiral” started in high school.

She grew up in a Christian family in Yankton, S.D. When she was 16 years old, she went to her first party with alcohol present and she was raped. She told her parents right away.

“After my family found out that drinking was involved, they told me it was my own fault,” she said. “I had to apologize to my rapist.”

And she had to sit behind him in math class.

Jen continued to party in high school and after graduation she went to Doane College in Lincoln, Neb. She quit after two years and moved back home to Yankton.

“During that time I was on seven-day drinking binges,” she said.

This involved drinking heavily for seven days, and then staying sober for seven days. That summer, she met someone.

“We just started sleeping around, and it was casual,” Jen said.

She passed her morning sickness off as hangover symptoms. After a couple weeks of it she found out she was pregnant, but she didn’t tell anyone. She was overwhelmed.

“I’m like, ‘I don’t have a college degree. I have a drinking problem. My parents hate me. I can’t keep a job,’” she said. “It’s not even like [the father] was my boyfriend. He was like my drinking buddy.”

So she wanted an escape. When she searched for abortion clinics online, Bellevue came up and Jen made her decision.

Jen said the clinic’s environment was “very casual.”

“They weren’t encouraging [my abortion], but they were very apathetic to the whole thing,” she said.

After the abortion was over, Jen had to wear a large pad to absorb the bleeding, and then they asked her if she wanted to see the baby. She said no.

She sat on a recliner for a half hour as the bleeding subsided and was offered water and a cookie. She said she felt hopeless and numb.

“This might not be what it is for everyone, but [through] the whole process of it you’re just hoping someone comes up to you and asks you to stop,” she said.

When she got home, she felt relieved. That night, she went out drinking, like normal.

“Nothing changed, except for the fact I wasn’t pregnant anymore,” Jen said.

But the relief didn’t last.

“It didn’t take long for what I did to sink in,” she said. “In a matter of weeks or months I was devastated.”

Six months after her abortion, Jen told her family everything.

“At that point I felt like I had nothing to lose,” she said. “My life was seriously such a mess, so what would be the difference?”

Jen said her parents didn’t completely understand the extent of what happened, but they “opened their arms and poured their love out on me.”

She decided she wanted to get her “life back on track,” so she came to SDSU to finish school. She was still severely depressed.

“I just felt the weight of a life,” she said. “You start to realize what it is you just went through with.”

Jen started seeing a counselor for depression and continued this on a weekly basis for two years. She described the sessions as “painfully honest.”

“It really felt like my last resort,” she said. “It was either that, or I probably would have drank myself to death or done something more permanent.”

She started going to the Brookings Wesleyan Church, where she met Deborah Dyer, the executive director of Elizabeth’s House, a pregnancy help center in Brookings.

After her counseling at SDSU Jen has wanted to share her story “in some way” to “make an impact.” She’s currently a volunteer at Elizabeth’s House.

“I just thought that when I got pregnant, that was the end-all,” she said. “That was the end of my life.”

But it wasn’t. She is now married and plans to have kids someday. She currently works at Kid’s World Learning Center and volunteers at the Brookings Youth Mentoring Program.

It’s still hard for her to share her story, but she does it because she wants to offer hope and comfort to others with similar stories.

“For those that have had abortions, know that you have a Father that loves you, and your life can be beautiful again,” she said. “You can have true peace and enjoyment.”

At least 100 students were evacuated from The Union around 4:15 p.m. Tuesday.

The exact cause is still unknown, but Union Director Jennifer Novotny said six to 10 buildings lost power, and The Union was out the longest.

David Law, project manager engineer with Facilities and Services, said “it’s construction-related,” but the workers didn’t do anything that caused the outage. He said it probably happened when university workers were switching the wires.

In the past Novotny said construction caused power outages were a somewhat regular occurrence.

“I’m guessing this will probably not be the first of its kind,” she said. “It’s probably going to happen again, but we’ll try to keep it to a minimum.”

Along with losing power, two of the buildings — The Union and Larson Commons — had to evacuate due to a fire alarm.

In The Union, smoke was detected in Weary Wil’s Sports Grill, said Keith Skogstad, assistant director of The Union. When the power went out, the exhaust fan stopped working, and there was still smoke and steam in the air.

“With nothing pulling it out, the room filled up with smoke,” Skogstad said. He said Larson’s situation was probably similar.

Novotny said a difficult aspect of the process was evacuating students from The Union.

“You have to evacuate,” Novotny said. “It’s not optional.”

Everyone was let back into The Union at around 4:26 p.m.

Students wait outside The Union after power outages and fire alarms force them to evacuate the building. (Collegian Photo by Cat Hill)

GSA member Rachel Willson holds a sign saying "I love girls and God loves me." (photo by Emma DeJong)

For several hours today a noticeable crowd was outside The Union using freedom of speech to the fullest.

Three men from Milbank Christian Fellowship in Milbank, S.D., came to SDSU to preach the message of “eternal life and forgiveness,” said Alvin Esh, one of the men.

They brought resources to distribute and signs to display. One saying “homosexuality is sin” has upset several students, including members of the SDSU Gay Straight Alliance.

“They told us that because we’re gay we’re going to hell,” said GSA President Joshua Sulloway.

Other students not part of GSA joined the protest as well. One student joined the rally carrying a sign saying “If God is real he would love everybody.”

The sign causing the most attention is "homosexuality is sin." (photo by Emma DeJong)

Esh said they did not want to “cause a disturbance,” rather they only want “to preach the gospel.”

“The Bible is very clear that we all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory,” he said. “The Bible said he became sin. He took our sins upon himself.”

GSA member Rachel Willson said she listened to the preaching for more than an hour and then decided to bring her sign.

“God is also a loving God,” she said, holding a sign reading “I love girls and God loves me.”

Sulloway said he “is not against religion,” just against what was being said today.

“What these people are saying is not true,” he said. “It’s just their opinion.”

Esh said homosexuality is not their focus, but it is a sin.

“The only reason we [preach] is because we believe God has something better,” he said. “We just believe with all our hearts that the Bible is the message of hope and peace for everyone.”

An early morning fire burned the entire middle section of the SDSU Cow/Calf Unit on March 2.

Shawna Reuer, a junior animal science major, was the student on duty when the fire began. At the time she was monitoring the cows for new calves.

“It was about a quarter after 4 a.m., and I started noticing there was something different in the air,” she said.

She stepped outside and saw “one of the big windows engulfed in flames.” She immediately called the Brookings Police Department and then let out the livestock.

The SDSU Police Department and the Brookings Police and Fire departments responded within 15 minutes, she said, and the fire was under control by around 8 a.m. No person or animal was injured, and the total cost in damages has not yet been determined.

The north and south wings of the building were untouched. However, almost nothing was saved in the middle, Kevin Vander Wal, the unit’s manager said.

Reuer said it took a while for the fire to be contained because of the vehicle equipment, three propane tanks and abundance of straw and hay in the building.

“There was just so much fuel for the fire to just keep going,” she said.

Vander Wal said the cause of the fire is still unknown and will likely “stay a mystery.” The only machinery plugged in overnight was a tractor, but Vander Wal said that possibility has been ruled out.

Now the Cow/Calf unit is focused on moving forward. Plans for relocating the unit were already approved by the state legislature last month, and were in the works before the fire. The timeline is still not set in stone, Vander Wal said, but the new Cow/Calf unit will be located near Volga, S.D. in the future.

He added the unit will have to make a few adjustments in planning for Little International at the end of March, but “we’re getting by with that,” he said. 

And so were all the other sixth graders in Kenya.

“People find [my dancing] fascinating and exciting,” she said. “And I’m just like, ‘This is something everybody did,’ so it’s not that exciting.”

Woche, a freshman biology andpre-dental major, has never loveddancing. She didn’t even want tolearn. But growing up in Nairobi,Kenya, it was part of the culture.The traditional Kenyan dance isall about movement in the hips she said. She learned the moves inmiddle school, which she doesn’tremember fondly.

“It sucked,” she said, despite thegrin on her face. “It was painful.”

Woche said the instructors heldher stomach in place until shegot the motion down. Now, shedoesn’t dance much. In fact, she has never danced in front of peoplesince living in Kenya, until thisweek.She was one of almost 30 students who performed in SDSU’sfourth annual Africa Night at 6p.m. Feb. 26 in the Volstorff Ballroom.More than 250 people cameto the Sunday night event. “I was really, really nervous,”Woche said. “That’s for sure. Andpeople yelled my name. That made me even more nervous.”

Despite the nerves of Woche and the other performers, Alem Berhanu,the president of the African Student Association, said “It wasbetter than expected.”

ASA Vice President Halima Mulamba said Africa Night is agood opportunity to have fun, aswell as educate the community about life in Africa.“We don’t live in a bush,” sheadded jokingly.

Twenty-one out of 54 African countries are represented on the SDSU campus, and people whoattended experienced a taste of African food, dance, poetry, fashion and comedy.

Lekan Oguntoyinbo, associate professor ofjournalism from Nigeria, Africa,was one of the night’s speakers.“We do this because this is theway we can tell our story on thecampus,” he said.

Like many other African students, Woche’s story comes fromtwo continents, not just one. Sheand her family left Kenya andmoved to Sioux Falls in 2007. Woche was 13. She is the oldest of five children,and she’s the only one who can still speak her native language,Swahili. It’s what she still uses totalk with her dad — even though he speaks English.Woche said her outgoing personalityhelped her adjust to thenew country, as well as to collegelife this year. She has become“very observant,” as she had tonotice the differences betweenAmerican English and British English.“I’ve never heard anything likepants,’” she said. “They pointedat it, and I was like, ‘Oh, my trousers.’”The trick is to just pay attention and listen, she said.

Which, for Woche, is not the trick for dancing. She said herbody just “moves with the beat.”

And it’s this music and rhythm that runs so deeply in African culture, as different countries have different styles.“This is Africa,” said Sefa Kwaben Adekpui, who emceed Africa Night. “Colors, beauty, different people. But it’s all put together on one continent.”And that, Woche said, is whatAfrican dance is all about.“It brings people together,”shesaid.“That’s the main point.”

A group of about seven students are in the process of creating SDSUni, a campus unicycling club. They are still working to make the group official but hope it will be approved in a few weeks.

They say the unicycle has brought them together. It’s how sophomore Regan Duvall became friends with freshman Nelson Lahrs. “Everyone would tell me, ‘Regan I saw a guy unicycling. You need to go meet him; he’s your soul mate,’” Duvall said.

And others in the group have similar stories. After all, unicyclists don’t exactly blend in on a college campus. Their first performance as a group was in last fall’s Hobo Day Parade. “[The] parade is always so fun,” said Jennifer McLaughlin, a freshman undeclared major. “You have people screaming and telling you how wonderful you are.”

A love for performing and entertaining was born. Since then the group has met semi-regularly to practice cycling and to discuss the future of SDSU.Unicycling at SDSU is not a new phenomenon. Tammy Kula, formerly Tammy Marsh, created the SDSU Juggling and Unicycling Club as a freshman in 1999. Her sister Tanya, who is three years younger, joined the club while still in high school.

The Marsh sisters — daughters of Bill Marsh, who currently works in the SDSU Bookstore — learned to ride at ages 18 and 15 by their uncle, Ralph Thomas. He too attended SDSU. “The story was he learned to ride in the narrow dorm hallways,” said Tanya Svec, now 28.

Their passion for the sport quickly spread on campus.

“We were very evangelical about it,” Svec said. “If you wanted to be friends with us you had to ride a unicycle.”
Riding to class was just a small portion of what they did. They participated in several festivals, both local and national.
Their first long distance tour was across Minnesota, from the southern part of the state to the northern. In 2001 they did a 12,000-mile tour from Cologne, Germany to Barcelona, Spain. This included cycling across the Pyrenees mountain range.

Now, both sisters are married with families. Kula is teaching English in Kyrgyzstan, and Svec just returned from teaching in New York for four years and is now teaching Spanish in Brookings. They still unicycle some, but not like they used to.
Svec said there is hope for any beginner learning to ride. “I remember thinking when I first started, ‘Like wouldn’t it be cool to just jump on and ride?’” she said. “And now it is really that easy.”

She is excited a group is starting again. SDSUni could follow in the former group’s footsteps, and may possiby participate in MONDO, “the largest annual gathering of jugglers, unicyclers and yo-yo enthusiasts in the Midwest,” according the website. The festival is held in St. Paul, Minn., every spring.

While they wait to be officially established, they spend time practicing everything from peddling 10 yards to jumping down stairs. They hope becoming official will allow them gym space, which will help them avoid having to unicycle in the snow.
There is a possibility that SDSUni will be more than unicycling. Lahrs said a few students who juggle have contacted him, and they may combine their talents into one club. At this point, though, nothing has been decided.

McLaughlin, who will likely be the group’s president, said anyone can join, regardless of experience level. Everyone in the group took multiple weeks to learn, but they said it’s possible for anyone.

Lots of practice is the way to learn, said Clark Kocourek, a sophomore human development and family studies major.
“You get to like 100 yards, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I just learned how to ride a unicycle,’” he said.

Sophomore Levi Buresch died Jan. 6.

Levi Buresch, a 20-year-old sophomore agronomy and animal science major, died Jan. 6 near Lakefield, Minn.

Buresch was always making people laugh. Family and faith were important to him, and he loved the outdoors and working on the farm.

One friend on Facebook said “apparently God needed a good farm hand in the heavens.”

Kelley Tilmon, associate professor of entomology, was Buresch’s student adviser.

“Levi Buresch was a wonderful young man, hard-working and full of promise,” Tilmon said. “People who taught him in our department remember him very fondly as a good student and a truly good person. The Plant Science Department is grieved at his loss and we have the deepest sympathy for his family, friends and his loved ones.”

Buresch highly valued his his family. He is survived by his parents, Keith and Pauline Buresch, brother and sister, extended family and friends. He will be missed by many.

“You were a good person but moreover a great friend,” one friend wrote on Facebook. “You inspired me and many others to live each day to the fullest.”

Many people had memories to share.

“I am going to miss all those midnight Walmart trips when we really didn’t even need to buy something,” another friend wrote. “Also all those Walker Texas Ranger nights watching Chuck Norris do what he does best.”

And many knew him as a classmate.

“Classes with you were always the most fun,” one wrote. “I’m going to miss you in stats next semester, and forever.”

While in highschool at Jackson County Central, he was a member of FFA and was a member of the Soils team with his brother, Luke, which won the Minnesota State championship. Levi was later a member of the State Champion Meats Team. He was also the Premier Crops Showman at the Minnesota State Fair in 2009 and 2010.

Buresch was a big sports fan, especially baseball. He loved outdoor sports, like target shooting and water skiing.

The funeral service was Jan. 9 at the First United Methodist Church in Windom, Minn.

Tilmon attended the funeral, and she said it was a “deeply moving event.”

She estimated there were about 300 people in attendance, “making it clear how deeply Levi and his family are loved.”

Osterberg Funeral Home contributed to this report.

Two instances of vandalism last semester in The Union caused damage totaling $1,500. If the same person committed both crimes they could be charged with a Class 4 Felony, said SDSU Police Department Chief Tim Heaton.

Both illustrations were done in black permanent marker with matching artistic techniques and similar messages. Union Director Jennifer Novotny listed a few.

“Free thinking, evolution, free your mind — that sort of thing,” she said.

The first crime was committed Oct. 12, between 10 p.m. and midnight, Novotny estimated. The drawing was on a booth in Einstein Bros. Bagels, scrawled on the plastic seat cover and expanding up the wood paneling.

Outside help was hired to completely replace wainscoting wood and the upholstery, totaling $1,500.

The second occurrence was reported to the SDSUPD Nov. 18. It was in a stall of the men’s bathroom in the lower level of The Union. Novotny said there were drawings covering “the entire stall.”

Union staff estimated the repair cost could have been another $1,500, or possibly up to $20,000 if the stalls needed to be replaced completely. However, one of the custodians spent nearly three hours coming up with a chemical mixture that took off the marker from the sides of the stall, and the stall door was then repainted for less than $25.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Novotny said. “We thought we were going to have to rip out the whole stall.”

At this point, after two unresolved offenses, Novotny said she and the Union staff are at a loss for what action to take.

Security can only go so far. Fingerprinting is not an option with the particular locations. And surveillance cameras have their limits, which include bathroom stalls.

“We can’t do a lot,” Novotny said. “… We’re just looking for other good stewards of the building,” to help identify the person responsible.

She said a cash reward is available for anyone who is willing to come forward with information. Anonymity could be provided, as well.

Novotny does not think this property damage was hateful; the person may have just needed an outlet. She is brainstorming possible solutions for this, and she has considered the possibility of putting up large Plexiglas sheets for students to write on.

“Maybe there’s a more mature way to express your ideas than Sharpie,” she said.

There were 18 reported vandalism cases last semester on the entire campus, according to the SDSUPD’s crime logs. Heaton said this is average in comparison to other semesters and there is no sign it’s going away.

“We have a sense that this is probably going to continue to occur,” Novotny said.