Students’ Association is sponsoring Gubernatorial Debates for students, faculty and community members to get to know the candidates and their stances on the issues.

The Republican Gubernatorial Debate with Mark Barnett, Mike Rounds and Steve Kirby was held today at 6:30 p.m. in the South Dakota Art Museum. The Democratic Debate with Jim Abbott, Robert Hockett, Jim Hutmacher and Ron Volesky will also be in the Art Museum on April 30 at 6:30 p.m.

Abbott, of Vermillion, was the 17th President of the University of South Dakota. He was a former State Representative and was a Congressional Candidate in 1996.

Hockett filed as a gubernatorial candidate just recently. He is a LaRouche Activist.

Hutmacher, a Water Well Drilling Contractor of Oacoma is a State Senator.

Volesky is a State Senator and Attorney

Republican Candidates are Mark Barnett, Steve Kirby and Mike Rounds.

Barnett is South Dakota’s Attorney General.

Kirby, a Sioux Falls businessman, is a former lieutenant governor.

Rounds is a businessman and an former State Senate Majority Leader.

SA Senator Molly Lefholz hopes that a large number of students will attend the debates. Leholz said she believes many students don’t get involved in politics because they don’t believe the government directly affects them.

“The apathy with most college students is extremely high,” Lefholz said. “It makes my heart hurt to even think that someone doesn’t take a mere moment to read up on issues and express their power through the civil responsibility to vote. You cannot complain about anything at all unless you vote.”

Some students and faculty members have started taking notice of the advertisements candidates are running. Democrat Delmer Lonowski, associate professor of political science at SDSU, has been struck by the inconsistency of the Kirby ads.

“He stresses that he is a conservative Republican. First, is there any other kind in South Dakota?” Lonowski said. “Second, his ideas about job development and education really seem quite liberal. Is he really a conservative?”

Frost Arena will have a slightly different look April 5.

The lower level of the arena will become the vision of the final frontier for Space Day 2002.

Space day will feature talks with former astronauts, exhibits, aerospace-related activities and teacher training. Many freebies will be given away as well and SDSU ice cream will be served from 2:30 p.m. until it is gone. The day is geared to middle school and high school students and the general public. Dr. Ed Gibson, former Sky Lab astronaut, will speak twice at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. in Doner Auditorium. Tickets are required but still free, and are available for Gibson’s afternoon session. For tickets call Kim at 688-4184.

Dr. Bob Polcyn, who was involved in the Galileo Mission, will have a standing exhibit and will visit with visitors

throughout the day. Polcyn is South Dakota’s Solar System Ambassador. One of the exhibits to be shown is a large international space station built by the Rutland High School students. It is a large-scale mock-up of plastic, inflated compartments where people would live and work in space. Charnel Petersen, outreach education outreach coordinator for the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium, is especially proud of what the Rutland students created.

“The whole school got into it,” said Peterson. “They had a showcase performance, made uniforms, wrote a script and put Lite Brite stations inside the cells, because that’s what the computing technology like in space,” she said, “It’s designed to be robust and easy to fix.”

All of the Space Day exhibits deal with earth science, space science and technology. Some will enlighten as to the various jobs available in the aerospace field; astrobiologist, acoustic engineer, exobiologist, facility engineer, icing researcher, electrical engineer and intellectual property officer. Workshops will train teachers to show their students how to look at things from a different perspective with “Where on Earth Are You?” and “Space Exploration/The Galileo Mission.”

Petersen said they expect 1,500 to 2,000 people to attend Space Day, which is sponsored by the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium and is held in a different city each year. Space Day is being held in conjunction with the 48 annual Regional Science Fair, which will be held on the upper level of Frost Arena. Check out the Space Day web page at http://www.engineering.sdstate.edu/spaceday2002.htm.

We’ve totally changed.

The Collegian website has been completely updated, and (at the risk of sounding like a really cheesy ad), it’s bigger and much better than ever.

Whether you forgot to pick up the paper or just hate the black marks it leaves on your fingers, sign up for the e-mail version of the Collegian.

It’s a great way for students, parents and alumni to keep up on what’s happening at SDSU. You also reach the homepage at www.sdsucollegian.com.

From the homepage you can read summaries of the main stories. To read the full story, just click on the headline. Are you quoted in the story? Do you want to send a copy to your mom or friends? You can e-mail any story to anyone with a click of your mouse.

If you click on an author’s name, it will give you their photo and a short biography. It also has a link to each story that they’ve written. Because our site is new, the archives section only dates back to November 6.

The online edition comes out the same day the print edition comes out. If you want to find an old story, just click on the archives link. You can also use the search function.

The sections of the Collegian are listed on the right of every page, so you can decide which sections you want to read, just like in the print version.

Want to know just how bundled up you should be before you walk to class? The local weather tells you the highs and lows of the day, along with a five-day forecast.

In addition to the regular print edition features, the online version of the Collegian gives readers even more opportunities to express their views.

The new site features a different poll every week. Why not share your opinion on topics like parking or the mold on campus?

One of the best features of the site is accessible to registered users only. When you register, you have access to the message boards and receive an e-mail when the site is updated.

The online edition also provides more than just local news. Under the 24 hour news, we now have sections for entertainment, technology, sports and world and national news.

Other channels are “Attack on America” updates, shopping, uBid auctions and a special GradZone for those almost ready to move on from university life.