Kyle Jameson has never worried about his car breaking down.

“It never interested me. I had better things to do,” said Jameson, an advertising sophomore. “And I have AAA.”

For many college students today, this attitude shows how easy it has become to rely on repair shops for everything from complicated repairs to small maintenance details.

“When I was a kid, we were all gear heads. Now they just get in, turn the key and go,” said Grant Pederson, owner of GP Auto Service and Repair in Brookings.

But in this college town, garage owners say knowing how to care for an automobile’s basic needs can be much more than a hobby. The ability to complete simple repairs or vehicle checks can save car owners money on potential repairs by professionals, extend the life of a car and make driving safer.

Kevin King said his business, Automotive Service Center (ASC), gets a lot a business from college students in Brookings. His employees try to teach students about car care, along with current fixing problems.

“You can save yourself an incredible amount of money,” King said. “The big thing is to educate themselves.”

King recommended reading the owner’s manual and taking advantage of the Internet’s many Web sites on car care.

“Learn as much as you can,” he said. “Take care of the vehicle now.”

Kasey Bickel, a fourth-year hotel and food service management student, tries to do exactly that.

“I can check my tire pressure and I can put air in my tires. I also keep track of when I need to change my oil and have that done when I need to,” she said. “I do that so I feel safe when I’m driving long distances-like going home.”

Bickel’s drive home to Timber Lake, in north central South Dakota, covers a few hundred miles, with long distances in between many of the towns.

“It makes me nervous because I am 300 miles from home, and if I ever had any problems, I’m a long way from anyone who could help,” Bickel said. “I’d say that the average college girl doesn’t know as much about her car as she should. It’s dangerous to at least not know how to change a flat tire.”

So, does Bickel know how to change a tire?

“No, and I think it’s stupid that I don’t know how,” she said. “I asked my dad to show me how to change a tire once, but he never did.”

It isn’t just college “girls” who are car-maintenance impaired, said Ron Dobesh, who owns Ron’s Auto Repair in Brookings.

“I’ve had some girls who know a lot more than the guys do.”

Brady Mallory, from Austin, Minn., agreed. He admits he doesn’t know as much about car care as he should, but said it’s something he wants to work on.

“I’ll probably deal with it [car trouble] as it comes up, but I do realize it’s something I need to learn. It’s not just girls who have problems with it,” said the psychology sophomore, whose mechanical abilities are limited to changing a tire-a skill he picked up last year after friends had to help him change a flat tire.

“It’s nice to know if something like that happened again, I wouldn’t have to rely on anyone else,” he said.

Mallory likes to think of car maintenance as another part of his college education. He said from cars to finances, students eventually have to stop relying on their parents for help or to take care of problems.

So, before college students take to the road for their next road trip or trip home to see their families, they should consider learning how to do cruical repairs or upkeep tasks.

Hobo Day Week at SDSU observes old traditions while starting new ones. While President Peggy Miller readies herself for the next phase of her life beyond SDSU, she also has many fond memories of all the hobos that have come and gone during her tenure.

This Hobo Day, Miller’s ninth as SDSU’s leader, is also her last as president. The last nine years have given her some great memories, like her favorite Hobo Day theme, “Camelot” in 2000. “Camelot” also produced one of Miller’s favorite Hobo Day memories, a float decorated to coincide with the theme.

“I still laugh about the float that was a truck bed covered in artificial grass and there was a cardboard camel standing on it,” Miller said. “The sign said ‘Camel Lot.’”

When Miller first arrived at SDSU, she enjoyed the different events of Hobo Week and the number of students that participated. Miller was also impressed that students organized all of the events.

“Of course, it is pretty well-known that I think SDSU students do everything well, but this is a large undertaking, and I was very proud,” said Miller.

This year’s Grand Pooba Sarah French said she definitely felt Miller’s pride in the students and the school while going through Hobo Day preparations. Miller attends as many of the week’s events as she can, said French, and she goes through the parade last instead of first in order to support the participants throughout the route.

Overall, French said, Miller is very supportive and passes her enthusiasm for SDSU on to students, showing them that even faculty members can “hang out with hobos.”

Kasey Bickel, Grand Pooba in 2004 and 2005, had similar experiences during her years working on Hobo Day. She doesn’t know much about the new president, but Miller will be “hard to top,” Bickel said.

“You couldn’t ask for more school spirit,” said Bickel. “She [Miller] fully understands the traditions behind Hobo Day and goes above and beyond to make sure the Hobo Day Committee is excited for the week’s events and the parade.”

Miller is always a good sport, Bickel said, from wearing the construction helmet given to her during 2004′s Hobo Day “Hobos Under Construction” to hosting a meal for the Hobo Day Committee during Hobo Week.

“On a scale of one to ten, President Miller rocks,” Bickel said.

As for the students of SDSU, Miller hopes they will remember that Hobo Week is a great chance to have fun on campus and do things with fellow students.

“Of course, I also hope they will remember that they didn’t get into any trouble!” said Miller.

In the future, Miller plans to return for the annual Hobo Day celebrations in Brookings. What will she miss most?

“I hope I won’t have to miss anything since I plan to come to all of them,” she said.

#1.884151:3490058064.jpg:Miller 2005.jpg:President Peggy Gordon Miller shows off her Hobo Day spirit in this photo from the 2005 Hobo Day Parade.:

South Dakota State University’s men’s and women’s fraternities will hold Greek Week activities Sept.18-22. But compared to other schools, the percentage of students participating in those events at SDSU is small.

Members of SDSU’s nine international and national fraternities comprise around three percent of the student body, compared to North Dakota State University’s five percent and the University of South Dakota’s 15 to 20 percent, according to last year’s figures.

USD Greek Life adviser Cody Siewert attributes USD’s sizeable fraternity system to aggressive recruitment and Greek leaders networking with other students in campus organizations. Joshua Boschee, Greek Life coordinator at NDSU, said NDSU and SDSU actually have very comparable fraternity systems in terms of size and involvement. Trisha Nordaune, program adviser for Greek life at SDSU, said State’s Greek population is smaller than similar-sized schools but has unbelievable potential to go from good to great.

Why, then, do few SDSU students choose to ‘go Greek?’

“The Midwest typically has smaller Greek systems than the South and Northeast,” said Elizabeth Overmoe, an education leadership consultant for Alpha Xi Delta. She travels the United States, assisting chapters with problems ranging from recruitment problems to hazing violations.

Rachel Lewis, a junior pre-med major and president of SDSU’s chapter of Alpha Xi Delta, said she thinks State’s Greek life may be smaller is because its program has only existed for around 40 years. This differs from Greek programs like USD’s, where Siewert said fraternities began in the late 1800s.

Drawbacks of being Greek may also stop some students from joining. But members of several SDSU men’s and women’s fraternities dismiss many of those reasons.

“The only drawback that I’ve found so far it that we’re constantly forced to defend ourselves,” said senior Stephanie Erschens, president of Chi Omega at SDSU. “Movies like ‘Animal House,’ ‘Road Trip’ and ‘PCU’ have created negative, false stereotypes. I love those movies, but I know they don’t represent real fraternity life at all.”

“One of the hardest things that I and other Greeks encounter is stereotyping,” Lewis said. “The sorority life shown on television portrays women’s fraternities as party houses filled with cutthroat bimbos. It becomes difficult for non-Greeks to see past the movie facade.”

Carson Dinger, the social chair of SDSU’s Delta Chi chapter, said being Greek sometimes creates the perception of paying for friends. “This is so far off, because I was friends with all the guys before I even joined, and I’d still be friends with them even if I had not decided to go through with it,” he said.

Fifth-year history major Brian Baskerville, president of Delta Chi, said belonging does take some time and money, but payback depends on the individual.

“There are members who live, eat and breathe the fraternity, and there are members who pay dues and come to meetings,” he said. “It all depends on how much you want out of it.”

Although Greek life at SDSU isn’t very large, the community has produced many of the leaders on the SDSU campus. The current SA president, as well as at least three before him, all Greek, and many SA senators are as well. However, SDSU provides a good mix of Greek and non-Greek leaders. The University Program Council, for example, has a very low number of fraternity members.

Overmoe said this mix is typical of schools in the Midwest, but at schools with large Greek communities, campus leadership tends to remain within fraternity ranks.

“Sure, the university could survive without Greeks, but if you look at all the Greeks who have basically agreed to hold themselves to a higher standard, they are the ones serving on the student senate, acting as club and organization officers and taking part in all the activities that keep the Jackrabbit spirit alive,” Baskerville said.

The small number of Greek members doesn’t stop those students from taking full advantage of the benefits fraternities offer, including friendship, community service and campus involvement.

“The high points of my involvement are all of the people I have met through the Greek system and all the doors it has opened for me,” Dinger said.

Greek members help SDSU and the community of Brookings. Students can volunteer with programs like the March of Dimes or the Children’s Miracle Network Dance Marathon.

“The Greek system works really hard for the school,” said Dinger. Programs Greeks sponsor or assist with include campus clean up, the adopt-a-parking-lot program, volunteering at the Art Museum and supporting Jacks athletics.

Having a small Greek population does have other advantages, too, Erschens said.

“A part of me would love to have so many people involved in the Greek community,” she said. “But I also know that if there were hundreds of more members, I couldn’t be as close with all of them.”

Recruitment weeks for the governing bodies of men’s and women’s fraternities wrapped up Sept. 11.

Students interested in more information about SDSU’s Greek life can check out its Web site at http://studentaffairs.sdstate.edu/Greeks/index.htm.

#1.884367:3411873462.jpg:Greek Life 2.jpg:Jim Harriman of Farmhouse, Senior Britta Dahl of Alpha Xi Delta and Andy Truve of Sigma Phi Epsilon meet to plan Greek Life events.:Christy Wey

Home Federal Bank has found a new way for SDSU supporters to show their Jacks pride and assist scholarship funds – writing a check.

But the check doesn’t have to be written to SDSU to still help the school.

The bank began offering check designs featuring the Jackrabbits on July 17, after the popularity of a design for the Brookings Bobcats inspired requests for a style showcasing SDSU, said Brookings Home Federal branch manager Chad Weier.

The checks are designed with the “Jacks No. 1″ logo in the center and the intertwined SD symbol in the upper left-hand corner. Every box of checks has 150 blanks, with standard checks running $13.25 per box and duplicate checks at $18.25 per box.

Eight percent of the net sales of every box of checks purchased will go into a scholarship fund at SDSU, according to Home Federal’s business development executive Ginger Thomson.

“Not only can you show your loyalty by writing a check, but it’s also giving money back in a painless way, since you need checks anyway,” Thomson said.

The scholarship fund is contributed to through the SDSU logo royalties that Home Federal pays to SDSU. The royalties are sent to the SDSU Office of Finance and Budget, which will handle the funds as they handle all matters related to logo royalties, said Assistant Vice President of Finance and Business Wes Tschetter. The money goes into a scholarship account for the benefit of students.

Thomson said response to the check design has been very positive in the Brookings community. Mostly employees or alumni have purchased the new design. With classes just beginning, the student response is still being determined, but Thomson hopes the large number of SDSU students who bank at Home Federal will gravitate towards the Jacks check design.