National statistics say that one out of every three women in college has been sexually assaulted. Studies have also shown that as many as 60 percent of sexual assaults go unreported and as many as two out of every three sexual assaults is committed by someone the victim knows.

The first six weeks of a college student’s time on campus are one of the most important times in their career. Those six weeks are also the time when a woman is most vulnerable to sexual assault. SDSU is not immune to the problem.

“I think it’s important to remember that sexual assault happens at all campuses,” said Deb Johnson the clinical counseling supervisor. “It’s a common trauma that we deal with here.”

Last week the SDSU Campus Women’s Coalition sponsored “The Week to End Violence.” The event’s goal was to raise awareness about the issues surrounding sexual assault and domestic violence — an issue that the Campus Women’s Coalition feels SDSU isn’t doing enough about.

Libby Trammell, the president of the Campus Women’s Coalition, said the organization has been trying to get some form of sexual assault awareness training built into orientation. “We think it’s almost negligent for the university not to address the issue,” Trammell said.

Doug Wermedal, assistant vice president for Student Affairs, said there are good reasons why the topic isn’t covered at orientation.

“Students and parents are not typically focused on those issues at orientation,” he said. “People are more focused on what classes they have and where their classes are.”

Wermedal went on to say most freshmen will get the training as part of Residential Life programing. He also said SDSU tries to make sure Residence Hall staff are fully trained on what to do in the event someone has been sexually assaulted comes to them for help.

“We have a program called Fight Like a Girl that is used by many (Residence Halls),” Wermedal said. “It’s a big part of Community Assistant training.”

SDSU’s Director of Orientation Adam Karnopp said another reason sexual assault is not specifically covered at orientation is limited time. The orientation program usually starts around 2 p.m. on the first day and is over by 5 p.m. on the second day and there is a lot to squeeze into that time frame.

“The topic is touched on,” he said.

According to Karnopp there is at least one program every year that focuses on the transition into college life. He said there is a lot of focus on alcohol awareness and sexual assault is touched on as part of the consequences of drinking.

“We would like to cover everything, but we can’t,” Karnopp said.

One of the Campus Women’s Coalition concerns is making sure people know that there are victims of sexual assault on campus and that those who are victims know that they are not alone.

“I know for a fact that there are girls on this campus that haven’t reported being raped,” said Senia Hiltunen, secretary of the Campus Women’s Coalition, who said she herself has been a victim of sexual assault.

The SDSU Counseling Center offers counseling to victims, as well as a class about sexual assault awareness to campus groups can be requested. Johnson said there are many students who go to the counseling center for help after being assaulted, whether the incident happened on campus or not. Councilors are not required to make a report if a victim comes to them, so victims are guaranteed anonymity.

Trammell said it is important for victims not to be embarrassed about what happened to them. She stressed making all students more aware of sexual assault should be a priority and talking about it doesn’t have to be scary or accusatory.

“It’s a common occurrence and it’s something we need to talk about,” she said.

The SDSU Wellness Center is looking to expand as the student body grows.

The Wellness Center Advisory Committee created a subcommittee last fall to do research on what an expansion to the facility should include. The subcommittee conducted a survey of SDSU students and held a series of focus groups. The members of the subcommittee also visited a number of SDSU’s peer institutions in the effort to gather information.

Members of the subcommittee presented the results of their research at the April 9 Students’ Association meeting. They detailed some of their ideas for what could be included in a 58,300 sq. ft. expansion, likely to be built on the north side of the existing Wellness Center. The subcommittee’s work has been done as part of the first step in the process of building the expansion.

“We’re just getting our ducks in a row,” said Evan Robb, a former SA senator and member of the Wellness Center Advisory Committee subcommittee. “All the stuff we’re doing is so that we can go in front of the Board of Regents for a request for proposal.”

Before any construction can begin it must first be approved by the BOR, which is a three-step process. The first step is gaining approval to issue a request for proposal to construction firms on the cost and design of the expansion. There is no firm time line yet for the construction of the expansion to be started, much less completed.

“It could be next year, it could be two years, and it could be three years. It really depends on what (SA) does,” said Marysz Rames, vice president for Student Affairs.

BOR priorities will play a big role in determining when the Wellness Center will be expanded, according to Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs, Doug Wermedal. Right now the BOR is focused on the construction of new residence halls and academic facilities.

“Where (the Wellness Center) fits into BOR priorities, I don’t know,” Wermedal said. He went on to say that he hopes to establish more concrete dates next fall.

Members of SA are looking forward to moving forward on the Wellness Center expansion project. Robb explained that because of the extended timetable involved, the subcommittee will likely have to present their findings again in the fall.

“It will eventually happen, we just don’t know when,” Robb said.

The subcommittee’s survey found that the top priority for students in the expansion was aquatic facilities, which are now shared with the HPER. The second priority students listed was extended hours. Students also shared some of their top complaints and the first was that the Wellness Center was too crowded — a problem likely to get worse as the student body continues to grow.

“Once we have 802 more beds on campus we’re really going to need (the expansion),” said SA President Jameson Berreth.

The expansion that was presented on April 9 would include office space, a pharmacy, an area for children and a new heated pool. It is projected to cost more than $13.5 million and would require a raise in the General Activity Fee of around $4. The Wellness Center is funded in large part by student fee dollars.

“That fee raise wouldn’t happen without student consent,” Robb said.

Mark Dawson uses a group of volunteers from the audience to illustrate some of his points. (Collegian photo by Nick Lowrey)April 18.

Dawson was brought in as the keynote speaker for the The Week to End Violence now taking place at SDSU. The presentation entitled “Hookin’ Up and Gettin’ Some”, was not exactly about what the name evokes. It was in fact a discussion of how to date safely, get consent when needed and the facts about sexual assault.

The presentation began with an explanation of communication and a dispelling of myths surrounding gender roles in dating. Specifically Dawson addressed popular culture’s affect on how people act in intimate situations.

“We live in a gullible society,” he said, explaining that people often do things only because family, friends and the larger society tell them to. Dawson’s point was that people should communicate more clearly about their feelings toward potential partners.

“The main message is consent and getting consent and the people giving consent need to be clear too.” he said.

Dawson has spent the last 12 years becoming an expert on the issues revolving around dating, communication and sexual assault. His interest in the topic was sparked when his girlfriend at the time told him that she had been raped. Dawson was already a professional speaker, when he decided to take on the issues surrounding sexual assault.

SDSU student Jared Timmerman who was in the audience for extra credit said he was exposed to a few new ideas.

“In the beginning it was a lot of new stuff, the communication thing was a big one,” he said.

Libby Trammel the president of the SDSU Campus Women’s Coalition said that Bringing Dawson to campus was an effort to attract more men to the event.

“We thought by bringing (Dawson) to campus we would attract a different audience,” she said, “I think a lot of men, when it comes to this topic feel accused we didn’t want that.”

The Week to End Violence is sponsored by the SDSU Women’s Coalition and will continue through the end of the week. Thursday evening will feature  the Take Back the Night  event at 7:30 p.m. in the old fire hall downtown.

Anatomy interns have been helping their fellow students learn the inner workings of the human body for twelve years. They prepare the lab for class and clean up the mess when it’s over. But there’s more to the job than laying out models of the human body and sweeping floors.

“Our role is to be a set of answers for students,” said Ethan Snow, a sophomore and one of the more than 38 undergraduate anatomy interns.

The interns provide Anatomy 221 students with a unique resource, one that a lot of other schools simply don’t have. Each of them has recently completed the class themselves and can provide invaluable help to students in a difficult course of instruction.

Each lab section has two interns in addition to a graduate teaching assistant, which effectively cuts the teacher student ratio by more than half.

“I think it’s easier. Instead of having one teaching assistant you can get your questions answered more quickly,” said freshman anatomy student Ryan Verschelde.

The interns themselves are not much older than the students they’re helping teach, in some cases they can even be younger.

“They make it easier to ask questions because they’re closer to your age,” said Sam Wagner, also a freshmen anatomy student.

The interns each bring their own unique set of experiences on how to learn and remember the many intricate details of human anatomy.

“I like having different perspectives on things. If one thing doesn’t work for you, something else might,” Wagner said.

During April 11’s lab, as Snow explained the course that food takes through the body he showed his students how to use their own bodies as study tools. As Snow showed his students the path of food in the dissected cadaver, he would pause and explain how they could find the structures in their own bodies.

“Everything that we are learning is your body … you can walk in to an anatomy exam and you’ve got the biggest cheat sheet there is because it’s your own body,” Snow said.

Snow came to SDSU from Tekamah, Nebraska and is a Biology Major on the premed track. He’s a sophomore with plans to go on to medical school and then specialize in anesthesia. He also gets really excited about human anatomy.

“All of my friends think I’m a little crazy because of how into it I get,” Snow said with a barely concealed smile. “One night I was studying fetal circulation … I was in my room curled up on the futon with my eyes closed trying to trace fetal circulation. My roommate walked in and busted a gut, he couldn’t figure it out.”

The anatomy interns, along with two other undergraduate teams, help to support and teach the 320 students who enrolled in Anatomy 221 for the spring semester. The two other undergraduate teams are the teaching team and the dissection team. Both teams were started in spring of 2006 and are made up of anatomy interns that have finished the program.

Members of the dissection team actually have the opportunity to dissect a human cadaver. For undergraduates like Snow, that is incredibly rare. Most undergraduate anatomy programs only get cadavers after medical or other graduate programs.

“Other schools bring cadavers in, but they’re already dissected,” said Dr. Scott Pedersen, the professor in charge of the anatomy intern program.

The experience and the leg up comes with a significant commitment, however.

“You arrive early and you leave late. You’re the one who arrives 15 minutes early to make sure everything is set up and you’re the one that leaves late to make sure everything is clean and put back into place,” Snow said.

According to Pedersen some interns put five or six times the amount of hours the university requires them to.

“They’re nuts … the level of dedication I see is incredible,” he said.

Snow, for his part, spent a portion of his April 11 lab on his knees on top of the desk at the front of room 369 pointing out on his own body how food makes its way through. He had found an online video that didn’t have sound so he filled in as the voice-over and secondary visual aid.

Snow was attracted to SDSU in large part because of the anatomy internship program. In high school he decided that he wanted to go into the medical field. When he started to look at colleges he didn’t see anything like the SDSU program anywhere else he visited.

“Going back to high school I knew there was a dissection team here (SDSU), and the chance to dissect a human cadaver before medical school really brought me up here,” he said.

Pedersen said students gain a deeper understanding of how the body works and thus get a leg up on their competition when applying for professional programs like medical school.

“I’d say 90 percent of the combined teaching and dissection teams go on to professional programs,” Pedersen said.

Spring is typically the time of year when prices see an uptick of around 10 to 20 cents as oil refineries switch to a cleaner burning summer gasoline. According to Patrick DeHaan, a petroleum specialist with Gasbuddy.com, there are several reasons for the switch, not the least of which are Environmental Protection Agency rules.

“Prices have gone up in the last six weeks,” he said. “Some refineries do maintenance before making the switch so there is lower production and more expensive ingredients.”

According to the Energy Information Administration, there is a significant amount of regional variation in the price of gasoline. The average price per gallon in South Dakota for March was $3.78 to $3.88. Which was actually below the national average of around $3.94 per gallon.

One of the largest factors in the state is transportation. There are no refineries in South Dakota, which means all gasoline sold in the state must be brought in from other areas. The nearest refinery to eastern South Dakota is actually in Minnesota. The Black Hills area has a refinery just across the Wyoming border, giving Rapid City some of the cheapest gas in the state at around $3.49 a gallon.

Gas stations themselves ultimately set the price of the gasoline they sell, and have their own unique challenges to meet. Deawna Leitzke the executive director of the South Dakota Petroleum and Propane Marketers Association said that one of the biggest challenges is the price credit card companies charge for

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processing fees.

Gas stations can be charged as much as two percent or more of every transaction, which stations have to along with the other factors affecting price.

“It’s the cost of business and stations will decide what they charge based on that,” DeHaan said.

Speculation on oil commodity futures contracts by brokers on Wall Street may also play a part in the price of gasoline. DeHaan believes there is some impact but the extent to which it affects prices is hard to track.

“All we have is a suspicion that speculation is driving up prices,” he said.

Oil prices in the United States are up 8.9 percent over last year due to a number of factors not the least of which is an increase in demand. The largest single influence on gas prices is the price of crude oil. Demand for crude surged during the last decade, with emerging markets like China and India buying up far more of the world’s oil than they were previously.

Higher global demand is just one of many forces causing prices to rise. Variables like transportation, speculation in the commodities markets and several drops in production are playing their part as well. Unrest in oil producing countries like South Sudan, for instance, has served to further restrict global crude oil supplies, especially for Europe.

Gasoline prices have been higher in the past, but only once. In 1980 the price of oil surged following a series of crises in the middle east. Adjusted for inflation, the cost of driving a mile in 1980 was 23 cents on average. Today it is around 16 or 17 cents per mile on average.

SDSU is taking advantage of low natural gas prices and making the switch to a cleaner fuel.

The SDSU physical plant that heats campus should finish burning its coal pile and start burning gas in the coming months, allowing the physical plant to burn the lower carbon emission fuel: natural gas.

SDSU will buy its gas from Cornerstone Energy under a state contract. The plant’s boilers are able to burn either fuel source but until recently, gas was too expensive to justify.

“We can’t arbitrarily make decisions that are good for the environment but would create a financial hardship for the university,” said Lynne Finn, assistant director for facilities and services.

Over the last few years, natural gas prices have fallen dramatically due to increased production and the development of more efficient recovery methods. Coal, on the other hand, has increased in price because of rising demand in countries like China — allowing the plant to make the switch to the cleaner fuel.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the price of coal has been rising steadily for the last 10 years. Coal consumption, meanwhile, with the rise of alternative methods of power generation, has fallen in the U.S. However, prices could see a fall in the next few years, which could in turn lead the physical plant to return to coal. There are currently no plans to do so, but because of the possibility the plant will not remove any of its coal handling equipment.

“We want to stay as agile as possible,” Finn said.

Environmental groups consider coal the dirtiest fossil fuel because of the carbon, sulfur and various other pollutants that burning coal puts into the atmosphere. Gas, however, emits far fewer pollutants when burned and has gained favor among environmental groups like the Sierra Club.

“All things being equal, we choose natural gas,” Finn said.

Natural gas is not without controversy. Recently, producers have come under fire for practicing hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” The mining technique involves shooting water and chemicals into the ground to help break apart rock containing gas. Opposition groups like Food and Water Watch say the chemicals can have a negative effect on ground water.

The physical plant is used to heat most buildings on campus. The plant burns fuel to heat water into steam, which is then piped to a building’s heat exchanger that heats glycol. The glycol is then piped to radiators, heating rooms and hallways.

Finn said gas has other advantages over coal. The first and most important is that natural gas is transported by pipeline which makes transportation much cheaper. When SDSU buys coal it must be carried by river barge and truck to Brookings from the Appalachian region. The physical plant operates under title five of the Clean Air Act and cannot use coal from western sates like Wyoming, which is considered to be dirtier than eastern coal.

The move to natural gas is just one example of the SDSU facilities and services department’s efforts to keep energy costs lower and environmentally friendly. According to Kattelmann, the new buildings on campus have been built to the LEED Silver standard of “green” construction. Future projects will also be built to the same standard.

Kattelmann also noted university policy says all appliances brought on to campus are supposed to be energy star rated, though that is easier said than done.

“The biggest thing is getting people to take ownership (of their energy consumption),” Kattelmann said.

Despite the massive increase of square footage in recent years, — around 400,000 sq. ft. between 2009 and 2011 — and a significant increase in the size of the student body, the cost of energy has decreased per square foot. The price is now just $1.68 per square foot and utility costs are $401.12 per full time student a year. Other universities with the same type of buildings and research operations range on average between $600 and $700 per student.

“Gross square footage went up but costs have leveled,” Kattelmann said. “We’d still use less if we’d get people to buy in.”

Finn said facilities and services’ goal is to keep things working without disrupting anything else happening around campus.

“We want to operate behind the scenes without anybody noticing,” she said.

In 2006, Noem was elected to the state legislature where she served until she was elected to be South Dakota’s only U.S. representative in 2010. She sat down with The Collegian on Jan. 26 to talk about her position on some of the issues facing the country.

The deficit

According to Noem, the biggest problem facing the country today is the national debt. A debt she says is increased by deficit spending.

“We have a situation that all of the revenue that the federal government generates are eaten up by just our entitlement programs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” she said. “One out of every three dollars that the federal government spends is borrowed.”

Social Security was paid from payroll taxes until recently when it began to run a deficit of its own. That deficit is paid from interest paid by the federal government on treasury bonds held by the Social Security Trust Fund.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, Medicare and Medicaid combined are the largest expenditure of the federal government. These programs pay for the medical care of senior citizens who otherwise can’t attain insurance and those who cannot afford it.

The economy

Noem said the best way to fix the problems arising from the national debt is to improve the economy.

“Our economy is pretty strong here (in South Dakota). I think that all the students would like to know that there is a job out there waiting for them,” she said. “[While] the rest of the country has stagnated, we’ve had the highest sustained unemployment rate since the Great Depression. The best way to address our problems is to get the economy going again.”

The way to get the economy going again, according to Noem, is getting people off of government programs and helping them attain jobs. To get people jobs, she advocates reducing the corporate tax rate and closing loopholes in the tax system.

“If we can fix our tax code and if we can encourage people to come and invest in America again it would stimulate our economy,” Noem said.

A dysfunctional Congress

Noem said the big reason for most of the problems in Congress is a divided government – one party controls the House the other party controls the Senate. If one chamber passes a bill the other doesn’t have to look at it.

“Right now we have two different agendas where people don’t agree and the bills one chamber passes are ignored by the other,” Noem said.

Noem is now trying to put together a group of freshmen Congress-people who will look at some of the congressional rules and try to change them.

10 p.m.

She arrives at the Brookings Area Transit Authority depot just before 10 p.m. on a Saturday night. The sky is overcast, masking the moon and stars behind a layer of clouds glowing orange in the reflected light from the city. The wind picked up on the drive from her house to the terminal, blowing the light snowfall into a frenzy.

It’s cold as she throws open her door and runs to the keypad, but she types the code that opens the gate with a steady hand, despite the temperature. She drives through and parks next to a corrugated steel building. There are two BATA busses waiting outside with their engines running.

Kylie Schaeffer, a junior Spanish major, has been a Safe Ride monitor for about a year. She doesn’t look like someone who would boss people around; she looks like an average 20-year-old student — not intimidating, yet quietly confident.

Kylie Schaeffer, has been a monitor on the Safe Ride busses for almost a year. The program is designed to help people get a ride home safely after a night out. (Photo by Nick Lowrey)

Kylie begins the preparations for her shift, heading into the garage by the Brookings airport. There, she finds a bodily fluids clean-up kit to use for the night. She’s responsible for cleaning up after riders if they make a mess.

“It’s really not fun when people puke,” she says.

One night, she spent 45 minutes scrubbing vomit off a seat while the rider, who threw up, sat and watched. The seats are simple cloth and have a tendency to soak up whatever is spilled; it’s one of the reasons no food or drink is allowed on the bus.

“He felt so bad,” she said. “I had to keep telling him that it’s my job.”

She grabs the clipboard with the map and log sheet and throws it on the box full of cleaning supplies. She walks back out the door into the howling wind with the box and clipboard in one hand, using the other to pull the bus door open. She stores the box in the overhead compartment and sits down with the clipboard.

Randy Kleinsasser, the bus driver, hops in through his door and sits down, throwing the bus into gear and pulling through the gate, starting out on the first of three routes they’ll run before their break at midnight.

10:10 p.m.

The busses run two routes, Yellow and Blue. The Yellow Route stays to the north side of town near campus, while the Blue Route, the longer route, goes south as far as Sawgrass Drive. Her first route of the night is Yellow. It starts slow; Prairie Lanes is the first stop. The snow is still falling lightly, but the wind has died down.

“No one usually gets on here,” Kylie said. “We won’t stay long.”

And they don’t. Randy shoves the bus back into gear and heads toward the next stop near Meadows North and South halls.

“Thursdays are the worst,” Kylie says.

There’s only one bus on Thursdays, and the Safe Ride phone stays with the

monitor. Instead of a route on Thursdays, the bus accommodates to the phone within the confines of established Safe Ride stops.

“I hate having the phone, the ringtone is really annoying,” Kylie said.

No one gets on the bus at Meadows North and South either, so the bus trundles on down the road toward Waneta Hall. The residential streets near campus are empty. The streetlights cast their orange-white light on the thin layer of snow collecting on the streets, causing an eerie glow to illuminate the city.

10:15 p.m.

The night’s first rider gets on at a stop south of Sixth Street. He wants to go to a house near Brookings High School. Kylie has to explain the bus can’t go off the route, but there’s a stop at Country Crossing Apartments, fairly close to where he wants to go.

He takes a seat near the front and Kylie takes the backpack he’s wearing, holding it until he gets off.

He talks about the weather and other mundane topics, and for 10 minutes there’s an awkward silence as everyone listens to the engine noise and radio. At Country Crossing, he hustles off the bus and lights a smoke within a few steps of the door.

The bus is slightly ahead of schedule, so it waits for a few minutes to let the clock catch up. It’s not long before five more riders hop on, ready for the trip downtown. Country Crossing is Yellow Route’s last stop before heading to the 72-hour parking lot downtown.

This group of riders has already been drinking and the bus is filled with the smell of alcohol. They’re as loud and obnoxious as only the drunk can be to the sober, and Kylie takes it in stride. This isn’t her first rodeo.

10:27 p.m.

The bus arrives at the 72-hour parking lot and riders pile off into the night with a quiet “Thank you.” The bus takes off again, this time starting on Safe Ride’s Blue Route. It travels in a circle as far north as the Campus View Apartments, or The Blues, and as far south as Sawgrass Drive.

Kylie asks Randy to change the radio station from dance music to a country station. A Toby Keith song comes on as the bus rumbles down Sixth Street.

On Hobo Day last October, Safe Ride counted more than 1,600 people riding the busses.

“It gets crazy,” Kylie says. “One night the bus was really crowded and this guy started pole dancing.”

Kylie goes on to explain the pole the guy was using happened to be supporting the divider between her seat and the steps leading to the door. Eventually the driver hit the brakes and threw the guy offbalance, and then Kylie forced the guy to sit back down.

11:34 p.m.

The bus again stops at Waneta Hall, and almost immediately a woman comes running out of the darkness shouting for the bus to stay.

“It’s so funny when people run to the bus,” Kylie says. “It’s not like we’re going to leave them behind. One time this girl was running to the bus and she biffed it so hard on the ice that she slid under the bus.”

That doesn’t happen this time. The rider jumps through the door, up the stairs and breathlessly announces there are more people coming and the bus shouldn’t leave yet. The rest of her party shows up before long, and it’s a mix of men and women enjoying themselves after Capers.

The new riders shout their destination to the world, “Main Street Pub.” It’s a boisterous crowd alternately shouting “Capers,” and a drawn-out “Party,” as the bus rolls along to the next stop.

Kylie just smiles and shakes her head at their antics.

11:44 p.m.

Two more women rush through the door and up the stairs from the married student housing. They’re greeted with a resounding “Woo,” from the already crowded bus. It’s loud in the bus now, with everyone shouting back and forth.

At Fifth Street and 11th Avenue, two more men pile into the bus to catch a ride downtown. They’re greeted with the same enthusiasm as the last two and another raucous “Woo,” breaks through the disharmony of drunken conversation.

One of the riders changes the radio station and Snoop Dogg blares through the bus, adding to the already loud atmosphere.

Kylie has to stand and tell the man to sit back down, which she does with an unexpectedly forceful smile. He goes back to his seat while Kylie rolls her eyes at his back and sits down herself.

Midnight

The bus pulls up to 72-hour parking for the third time, emptying its inebriated cargo downtown. They hurry off into the night rambunctiously. Four other riders take their place inside the bus and ask to go to Countryside Estates. They’re quiet.

Kylie rests her feet on the partition in front of her. She yawns slightly, almost bored by the behavior of the crowd that has just left the bus. She’s seen it all before and worse.

“The bus was really crowded one time and somehow someone pulled the emergency levers on one of the windows and the whole window fell out,” she says.

That night she had to go back along the route to look for what was left of the window.

The bus arrives and the four riders, three men and a woman, get off saying, “Thank you,” politely and grateful.

“You meet a lot of nice people,” Kylie says, “but there’s usually one or two that are just mean.”

12:11 a.m.

Kylie and Randy meet the other bus crew at the Shell gas station for their 30-minute break. After their break, the crews will switch from circular routes and start taking people home. They generally stick to the assigned stops but try to keep one bus at the 72-hour lot at all times.

“It’s so people don’t have to stand around in the cold for too long,” Kylie says.

She takes the phone after break, it’s her turn to take the calls and explain to people where they can get on the bus.

Safe Ride is funded by a state grant, which pays the monitors and drivers. Monitors like Kylie log the number of riders and the miles the busses drive. The logs are then sent to the state to ensure continued funding for the program.

12:40 a.m.

Break has ended and the bus is headed west on Sixth Street toward downtown. The phone rings and Kylie quickly answers, anxious to silence the ringtone.

“There’s a bus downtown right now,” she says. “You’re welcome.” And she hangs up.

It’s something she’ll be doing frequently over the next few hours.

12:42 a.m.

A couple gets on the bus at the 72-hour parking lot. One of them, Liam, is a regular, and like Kylie, is a graduate of Watertown High School. He’s with his girlfriend. He and Kylie chat about Watertown and SDSU for a while as they wait for the other bus to finish its run.

Another couple arrives at the bus and they have a pizza with them. Kylie asks their destination, it’s The Blues. Then she tells them they can’t get on unless she holds onto the pizza, which the couple isn’t happy about.

“No food or beverages — that’s the hardest thing. People get mad,” Kylie says.

It’s just another issue she’ll struggle with through the rest of the night.

1:09 a.m.

The bus pulls up to 72-hour parking yet again, as the other bus pulls away on its next run. Another couple gets on; they’re headed to Village Square. The phone rings twice inside of a minute – Kylie cringes slightly each time.

1:19 a.m.

Randy spots the other bus in his mirrors, slams the bus into gear and is off to Village Square to drop off the only couple on board. They’re tired and quiet, almost falling asleep in each other’s arms.

The phone rings again and Kylie shakes her head answering with a sardonic smile.

“There’s a bus downtown right now,” she says, closing the old, battered flip phone.

1:35 a.m.

The bus is waiting for another load at 72-hour parking. It’s still fairly quiet – the radio matches the rumble of the engine. It’s late, but there are still cars on the road.

Eight people come running down the street, it’s a mix of men and women. They’re drunk, but not rowdy. Kylie logs them in and asks for their destination.

Kylie keeps a sharp eye on her passengers as the bus trundles off yet again.

“You have to have an eye for pukers, so you can get them the trash can in time,” she says. “The guys are the hard ones – girls will say they have to puke, guys don’t.”

No one throws up this time.

“Usually, once someone pukes it’s like a chain reaction,” Kylie says.

As the bus pulls up to Sawgrass, Jay, the other bus driver of the night, calls to tell Randy his bus is bursting at the seams and he’s leaving downtown.

It’s then the phone blows up. It rings in 30-second intervals the entire way back to 72-hour parking.

2:02 a.m.

There’s an ambulance on Main Street.

The bus is back at 72-hour parking. It’s the busiest, most frustrating time of night, and there’s 30 people waiting in the cold, obviously drunk. They try to push forward out of the cold and into the bus. Many aren’t wearing jackets. Kylie shoots to her feet, stopping them in their tracks. She logs them in and asks where they’re headed.

Four of them have slices of pizza, she has to force them back outside until they’ve finished eating. They comply without a fight. A rather rotund man with pizza tries to get on amid the crowd and Kylie is forced to shove her pen against his chest.

“Hey, you can’t get on with that,” she says.

He starts to object, she pushes harder with the pen and he shoves the pizza in his mouth, solving the problem.

A guy with a pizza box slips by in the confusion and makes it to the back where he sits down. All told, more than 30 people pack into the small bus. It’s chaos.

They’re all drunk, most of them very drunk. There’s a couple making out in the back.

“See what I mean by too much P.D.A.,” Kylie says pointing to the back of the bus. “That’s not even the worst I’ve seen.”

It’s loud inside the bus. There’s barely room to stand and the temperature is rising in the cramped space. The windows are fogging over. Kylie quickly works out a makeshift route designed to get most people off first.

“That makes it so much easier,” she says.

2:15 a.m.

Two stops into the last run of the night and only six or seven riders are off. The bus pulls into Village Square and stops. Kylie shouts the destination through the noise, and half the riders pile out of the bus, one or two being supported by their friends.

“The hardest part of being a monitor is dealing with drunk people,” Kylie says. “We have to make sure they get home. Sometimes I have to half-carry them to their doors.”

2:25 a.m.

The bus rolls off yet again and heads toward The Blues. Three people get off, able to move on their own.

The bus then heads south down 22nd Avenue for the Southland Lane stop. It’s mostly empty now, the noise has faded and the radio is audible again. Somehow, in the midst of confusion, the station changed from country to pop, and “I’m like a bird” by Nelly Furtado comes on. A few of the women left on board start to sing along.

“(Slow songs) make me sleepy,” says Kylie.

The streets are empty now, the stoplights are flashing yellow and the windows are defogging themselves. The bus pulls to a stop along Southland and the bus empties of the night’s last few passengers. They stumble off the bus and the door shuts behind them.

2:30 a.m.

“Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO comes over the radio as the bus rumbles off on its way back to the BATA depot.

Kylie does one last look over the bus, there’s no puke, trash or beer cans. She takes the paperwork and cleaning supplies back to where they belong. She says goodbye to Randy and Jay and steps out the door into the cold night air.

It’s been an easy night.

Dan Houg, an SDSU alumnus and avid outdoorsman, had been working with my dad for several years at this point and had just convinced him to participate in what he assured both of us was a favored pass time of the SDSU student body. I didn’t find out until years later why he was laughing as he said it. We were going coyote hunting and no, we weren’t anywhere near Vermillion.

In fact, we were fairly close to Brookings as I recall. Given the high winds and blowing snow, we relied very heavily on the truck’s heater and a good pair of binoculars to find the wily predators. Not the manliest form of hunting to be sure, but then again, it was really freaking cold.

These were the days before the widespread use of electronic calls, before predator hunting had even begun to regain its popularity following the demise of state-sponsored bounties and the fall of fur prices.

Coyotes, despite being South Dakota’s state animal, are listed as varmints. This means they’re considered troublesome animals and in this case they’ve been known to eat livestock.

Because of their varmint status, anyone who holds a South Dakota resident hunting license can shoot as many coyotes as they want, year round. The S.D. Game Fish and Parks Department has even set up an online registry for hunters to post their contact information so that farmers and ranchers can find people to help control the predators on their land.

Coyotes in S.D. have spent the last few years recovering from a widespread outbreak of mange, a parasitic disease that causes coyotes to scratch off their fur. This tends to kill them fairly quickly during the cold winter months. West River has seen an especially large increase in coyote numbers and East River has a fairly sizeable population as well.

Ever since North American wolf populations were decimated, coyote numbers have been steadily increasing. They are one of the most adaptable predators in North America and can be found wandering as far north as Alaska and as far south as Mexico. They’re so adaptable that in some cities, like Los Angeles, Calif., for instance, they’re found in large numbers and make a habit of eating house cats.

Coyote hunting is usually better during the winter; the snow and low temperatures combine to get them moving around and looking for food. This makes them easier to call in and has the added bonus of giving them a thicker more luxurious coat, which can translate into some extra adult-beverage money for those who are of age.

A 10-year-old is very impressionable and I’ll never forget the first coyote I ever had the chance to hunt. It was making its way across a pasture on top of something like 24 in. of snow. My dad placed a remarkable 200-yard, open-sight shot into that coyote’s pump station and it dropped on the spot. Naturally, I took off running toward the dead dog before my ears stopped ringing. I dragged that thing all the way back to the truck myself.