Several senate candidates gathered in and around the SA office April 4 anxiously awaiting the SA election results. When the numbers were posted at around 7:50 p.m. elated shouts of victory were accompanied by the somber looks of defeat.

The presidential race was anything but tight this year as Jameson Berreth and Wyatt DeJong collected a total of 1,279 out of 2090 votes cast. That amounted to just over 61 percent of the votes cast – a landslide by any account.

“I’m very happy, very relieved, and I’m so glad we got so many students out to vote,” said president elect Jameson Berreth.

Jared Ellefson and running mate Libby Trammell came in at a distant second with 434 total votes, while Brady Duxbury and his running mate Josh Johnson received 377 votes. Berreth’s running mate said the margin of victory is not what really mattered.

“For me personally it’s not the margin,” DeJong said. “I’m just very thankful for the students’ confidence in us.”

Senate candidates had their own victories to celebrate as well. When the results were posted on the SA office window Kaytlin Pelton, an incumbent, literally shouted for joy upon seeing her name highlighted as one of the College of Agriculture and Biology victors.

“I’m excited for the outcome and I’m excited to continue working on what I was working on before,” she said.

Hassan Ali, the top vote getter for the College of Arts and Sciences, was no less excited about the results. He said that the new Senate will be very active over the course of its term.

“I think some great candidates won,” he said. “Next year will be a year of activism.”

It wasn’t all smiles when the announcements were made; every election has its winners and losers. One of tonight’s was sophomore Daniel Vellek who missed out on a Senate seat by just three votes.

“I had a hard campaign,” he said. “I think I reached a lot of students. This just goes to show that every vote counts.”

The vote totals for each candidate can be found below. (those elected are underlined)

President and Vice President

Brady Duxbury and Josh Johnson: 377 votes

Jameson Berreth and Wyatt DeJong: 1,279 votes

Jared Ellefson and Libby Trammell: 434 votes

Senators for Respective Colleges

College of Agriculture & Biological Sciences

Ben Sesso: 174 votes

Ben Stout: 206 votes

Bradley Cihak: 137 votes

Brett Lynch: 148 votes

Cody Wehner: 237 votes

Derek Haupert: 171 votes

Jeremy Noem: 128 votes

Kaytlin Pelton: 289 votes

Olivia Siglin: 284 votes

College of Arts and Sciences

Ben Ruggeberg: 116 votes

Bryce Kummer: 56 votes

Caleb Finck: 133 votes

Courtland McCranie: 112 votes

Dan Roberts: 118 votes

Denielle Meyerink: 189 votes

Erica Swanson: 119 votes

Hassan Ali: 214 votes

Jameson Goetz: 172 votes

Jim McLain: 154 votes

Matilyn Kerr: 122 votes

Shannon LaJoie: 116 votes

Vanessa Dykhouse: 184 votes

College of Engineering

Austin VanderWal: 129 votes

Daniel Vellek: 123 votes

Logan DeBoer: 130 votes

Michael Rauenhorst: 126 votes

Umar Mohammed: 108 votes

College of Nursing

Amir Mohamed: 75 votes

Lindsey Hompe: 68 votes

Madeline Moeller: 121 votes

College of Pharmacy

Ashley Weber: 74 votes

Colleen O’Connell: 85 votes

Jessica Nowak: 82 votes

Murphy Mack: 77 votes

Education and Human Sciences

Amanda Chicoine: 144 votes

Brandi Murley: 96 votes

Laura Barber: 168 votes

Graduate School

Raj Bhandari: 107 votes

Thomas Shileny: 35 votes

The SA has a tremendous influence over more than 30 percent of the money collected as part of the University’s General Activity Fee. Last year that amounted to over $2.4 million, which senators divided amongst various student services and groups.

The top two recipients were The Union and student health and counseling at The Wellness Center, with $860,000 and $697,000 respectively.

One of the SA’s primary functions is to assist the University in deciding how to allocate GAF funds to student organizations and functions. The GAF is currently $24.95 per credit hour or $ 374.25 for a 15-credit semester and is collected as part of tuition.

Student organizations apply for student fee dollars through SA’s finance committee. During last year’s budget cycle 29 student groups applied for funds including SA itself. The SA’s budget recommendations include clubs ranging from the quarter scale tractor team to Colleges Against Cancer.

Excluding The Union and Wellness Center, SA’s was the third largest allocation of student fee money at $70,008. The money is used to fund the student senate’s operations and scholarships for the executive board. The president and vice president both get $4,500, while the administrative assistant and three committee chairs each get $3,000.

“Instead of me going and working for 20 or 30 hours a week somewhere else, I can devote my time to serving students,” said SA vice president Anthony Sutton.

SA allocated a total of $20,216 for salaries for the SA’s legal aid attorney and a portion of the salary for the student activities secretary, a position that is currently unfilled. $3,565 was also budgeted to pay the benefits for those positions. SA also budgeted $4,000 to pay its part-time office assistants. Ultimately SA allocated $49,608 on salaries and benefits for its employees and scholarships.

Another $3,000 was spent on dues for the South Dakota Students’ Federation. Those dues are based on the size of a university’s student body. In SDSU’s case that amounts to about 40 percent of the federation’s total budget. All six of South Dakota’s public universities are represented equally with two members on the board.

“A lot of people look to us,” said SA president Mark York. “We’ve kind of been on the leading edge of things.”

Last year was the first time in the last three years that SA spent money on leadership development. A total of $2,400 was spent on things like binders for each senator, bringing in speakers to their retreats and purchasing training materials.

“Our senators serve on a lot of different organizations,” said SA finance chair Brian Gottlob. “Ultimately we’re here to represent students and that’s what that $2,400 was for. We’ve got new senators every year and we’ve got to bring them up to speed.”

$500 was budgeted as miscellaneous, according to Sutton. The money was included in case something unexpected happened. Gottlob said the money was used, this year, to help fund the Bum-a-Bike program. He went on to describe SA as more fluid than other student organizations because they don’t have a specific event or set of events they work on throughout the year.

“We don’t exactly know what next year is going to do,” Gottlob said.

Postage, printing, rentals, supplies, insurance and chamber dues rounded out the SA’s budget for operations with a combined total of $3780.

SA does not have the final say in how student fee dollars are spent. Instead, they are the first of three groups that evaluate student fee requests. SA receives requests through its finance committee where they are discussed and evaluated.

SA then votes to recommend the budget request to the University Activity Fee Budget Committee, which then sends its recommendation to SDSU president David Chicoine for approval.

“We don’t really make decisions, we make recommendations,” York said.

Last year Chicoine instructed the SA to revamp its budgeting process to better reflect industry standards. SA did some research and discovered the system they were using was behind the times. That discovery prompted a change in the way they recommend funding to the president.

“If he says jump, we ask how high,” Sutton said.

The budgeting process was divided into two tiers. The first was set aside for The Union and student health at the Wellness Center, while everything else was put into tier two. The two first-tier budgets were slated to be considered first because they were the largest and had the potential to affect the most students.

“The reason The Union and Wellness Center went first is because if the president were to look at those budgets and say ‘I think you guys screwed up’ we’d have had to go back and change every other budget,” Sutton said.

Implementing the new system proved to be more difficult than first thought. The budget season was supposed to have started last October, however, due to a series of scheduling delays and some issues in the State Legislature, the first-tier budgets weren’t decided until February. This pushed the second tier budgets back into March.

“I did not realize it would take that long,” Gottlob said.

“We found a harvestable surplus,” said John Kanta, the GFP regional wildlife manager for the western third of South Dakota.

The population has remained stable and even grown since 2005, which has prompted GFP to raise season limits.

Lions are managed to maintain what has been deemed a socially acceptable population level, which is somewhere between 150 to 200 individuals. Socially acceptable, according to Kanta, is a number that maintains a healthy population while at the same time limits livestock depredation, impact on other game species and negative human contact.

Not all South Dakotans support a mountain lion hunting season. The Black Hills Mountain Lion Foundation is one such organization. According to the foundation’s website it’s goal is to preserve mountain lions on the landscape. The foundation’s president, Dr. Sharon Seneczko, could not be reached by the time of publication.

Mountain lion population estimates going into the 2012 hunting season stood at around 250 individuals, well beyond the desired population limit. According to Kanta, the quickest and easiest way to lower the population is through hunting, though not trophy hunting.

“I don’t necessarily want to kill big (males),” Kanta said. He explained that removing females from the population is the surest way to keep populations in check. SDSU professor of natural resource management Jonathan Jenks, who studies Black Hills mountain lions for GFP, said that the females are very good at reproduction.

“We had one female who lost her kittens to infanticide during the summer, then went back into estrus and had another litter in December [and] those kittens survived,” Jenks said.

According to Jenks, up to 90 percent of male lions born in the Black Hills end up leaving the area.

“We had one radio collared (lion) that went to Oklahoma,” he said.

Jenks went on to say that lions with genetic links to the Black Hills have been found as far away as Chicago and Connecticut.

The mountain lion season operates much like other big game hunting seasons, in that hunters must apply for a tag in order to hunt. Anyone who applies for a tag will receive one but they are bound by special rules.

Hunters must check in every morning before going into the field and they must call and register any kill within 24 hours. GFP can then monitor the number and gender of lions that are harvested. The 2012 season’s quota was actually set at 70 total lions or 50 female lions. Three additional lions were killed on March 1 because the hunter who killed the 70th lion did not register his kill before the start of the next day.

“That’s not going to make or break the population,” Kanta said.

For nearly 100 years, lions were absent from the Black Hills until the 1980s, when they began to reappear. By the late 1990’s, lion sightings began to increase and in 1998, the first modern population studies began.

“They came back on their own,” Kanta said. “We (GFP) did not reintroduce them.”

Tuition has been on the rise for more than a decade, due in part to the South Dakota Board of Regents not having an established funding formula.

In 1998 the BOR made the decision to drop its enrollment-based funding formula. At the time high school graduation rates were falling and so was college enrollment. Since then there has not been an increase in the BOR budget base, except when there was a specific request for funding. In effect the state has been allocating money to the BOR based on the number of students that were enrolled in 1998.

The lack of a funding formula has led to a dramatic shift in how higher education is paid for in South Dakota. As few as 10 years ago, the state paid 59 percent of the cost of higher education— this year, state support was at 39 percent. Tuition and fees are one of the only ways the BOR has to make up for the loss of state support.

“There has certainly been a shift in costs,” said BOR executive director Dr. Jack Warner.

When enrollment numbers began to rise and universities began to grow, there were fewer state dollars available per student. In response, tuition rates increased.

Warner also said, while there isn’t a funding formula, the BOR has been successful in lobbying the State Legislature for funding of specific projects. The recent approval of $10 million of one-time money from the state to make up for federal stimulus dollars that were lost this year is one example.

Monte Kramer, the BOR’s vice president of finance and administration, said the regents made an agreement with the legislature in 1999, called the Resource Compact, which would have provided for inflationary increases to its budget base. This would have made the BOR the only state agency to receive inflationary budget increases.

The agreement would have helped slow the growth of tuition costs had the state followed through. However, the governor’s office has never included the increase in its annual budget recommendation, which the legislature bases its budget process on. Thus the BOR never got the inflationary budget increase.

“It’s a loss of around $300,000 to $400,000 a year,” Kramer said. “It’s in the neighborhood of $3 million the BOR has had to make up with tuition.”

Until the recent economic downturn the BOR had success in lobbying the legislature to support specific programs and priorities. According to Kramer, this was just one of the reasons for the long absence of a funding formula.

“Once you abandon a formula it’s hard to bring on a new one,” he said. “You have to get people to buy in.”

During this year’s legislative session, Senator Bob Grey of District 24 introduced SB 122, a bill that would have created a new performance-based BOR funding formula. It was ultimately tabled in committee, but represented some interest in a BOR funding formula for the first time in more than a decade.

“We need to develop a formula based on performance,” Grey said. “Ultimately we want our universities to produce graduates.”

Grey, who tabled the bi

Varilek, who spent nearly seven years as a member of U.S. Senator Tim Johnson’s staff, announced his candidacy Dec. 2, 2011. He is one of two Democrat candidates vying for the chance to run against Republican Congresswoman Kristi Noem.

While working on Johnson’s staff, Varilek worked as Johnson’s economic development director. He was born and raised in Yankton, and now lives in Sioux Falls with his wife, Maggie, and two daughters, Willa and Mae. Varilek sat down for an interview with The Collegian before his campaign event Jan. 25, to talk about why he decided to run for Congress and some of the issues facing the country.

Why he’s running

Varilek said he’s seeking South Dakota’s lone house seat because he doesn’t feel that South Dakota’s people are getting the leadership they deserve. Varilek explained by saying he has two main priorities. The first is to focus on the issues of working-class and middle-class people. The second is to seek common ground between the two parties in Congress.

Varilek said Noem is not doing these things.

“Kristi Noem is not just a participant in, but a leader of, the Tea Party movement and her priorities in terms of policy, I think, are extreme,” he said. “She voted, for example, to privatize Social Security. She thinks we should tackle the budget deficit only through cuts and she wants to protect subsidies for the oil companies.”
Ideas about the Economy

Varilek’s ideas mirror the Democrat party line, a line that consistently pushes for spending on things as infrastructure and tax increases on the top tax-brackets. He said a “cuts only approach” is harmful to South Dakotas economy.

“If we try to tackle the deficit through a cuts only approach, if we say we have to protect Donald Trump from a tax increase at all costs, that means we have to cut so deeply into things like Medicare procedures for seniors, Pell grants for college students and university research here at SDSU, helping college students become great employees, or even employers… [but] that’s how we grow into the future,” he said

Social Security

As the U.S. population ages and the Baby Boomers retire, more and more people will be collecting money from Social Security, which is already spending more than it makes. “It’s important to remember Social Security doesn’t contribute to the budget deficit because it has a separate funding source. It has now gotten to a point where the money coming in isn’t equal to the money going out. It’s partly a demographics issue, but we can make adjustments to that program and keep it strong for the future,” Varilek said.

Varilek also supports cutting payroll taxes for one year, which would contribute to the gap between revenue and spending in Social Security. Social Security is prohibited from directly impacting the deficit, however, the trust fund supporting the program is required to buy government debt in the form of treasury bonds if there is a surplus in revenue. The interest on those bonds is what will be used to pay for the funding gap, essentially using tax dollars to make up the difference in Social Security funding.

This year’s chief planner, or Grand Pooba, Briana Troskey is looking forward to homecoming week and Hobo Day, which is Nov. 5.

“I’m really excited about Hobo Day,” she said, “Hobo Day is a big deal to me. I love the events throughout the whole week, but the parade is what I get most excited for.”

Though the schedule has yet to be finalized, Troskey is plan­ning a zombie walk and a scary movie night for early in the week. Wednesday will feature the Miss Homely Coming competition. While on Thursday there may be a bonfire though nothing is cer­tain yet.Friday evening will feature Cavorts, a talent show held for the student body at the Performing Arts Center. Hobo Day itself will have the parade starting at 9:30 a.m. and the football game against Southern Illinois, which will kick off at 2 p.m.

According to Troskey, Hobo Day and the events held during home­coming week are all designed to bring the student body together.

“I just want to see even more stu­dents come out of their shells,” she said, “because Hobo Day is so much fun and its kind of a bond­ing experience for the entire cam­pus.”

Hobo Day began in 1912 when the administration of what was then the South Dakota State Col­lege, determined that the existing tradition, a nightshirt parade, was “undignified” for women to par­ticipate in. Soon after a student by the name of Adam Ducher saved the day, when he suggested the student body dress as hobos and greet the opposing football team as they arrived at the train station. So on Nov. 5, 1912, the South Dakota State College student body was waiting at the train station to greet the opposing football team dressed as hobos, and a new tradi­tion was born.

Richard Johnston, owner of the Brookings Book Company, boasts nearly 40,000 books in his businesses archive. - Collegian Photo by Nick Lowery

Downtown contains not only the traditional student favorites of Nick’s Hamburgers, George’s Pizza and the Lantern Lounge, but also some surprising busi­nesses that may go unnoticed by the average student.

Two of those businesses are: Trendz, a consignment clothing store focused on reusing fash­ionable clothing, and the Brook­ings Book Company (BBC), which is unique because it spe­cializes in books that are rare or out of print.

Trendz started as a children’s recycled clothing store in 2005. Within in a few years, the store had moved, doubled in size and expanded to two locations, one for children and another for teens and adults. In 2009, the two loca­tions merged into the store’s cur­rent location at 314 Main Ave. and now serves over 4000 clients.

Sara Roland, the owner and manager of Trendz, started the business for several reasons.

“I wanted to create a retail-like environment for recycling clothes,” Roland said. “I wanted people to come in here and be proud that they’re saving money and not feel like they have to set­tle for less.”

Trendz holds itself to a high standard of quality.

“Our policy has always been that we accept the best so that (our customers) can expect the best,” Roland said. “All of the items we sell here are hand selected by our staff and ulti­mately by me.”

Another feature of Trendz is it’s local artist boutique or LAB.

Sara Rowland, owner and manager of Trends, includes a consumer base of over 4,000 people, almost all local residents. - Collegian Photo by Nick Lowery

“It’s something I’m really pas­sionate about,” Roland said. “There’s a lot of people I’ve met that are stay at home moms and they’re incredibly creative. So I thought ‘lets just have a place inside my store that offers a mini business for them.’ It gives peo­ple in our community a place to buy local hand made stuff.”

The Brookings Book Company has been around since 1998 and in downtown since 2004. There are nearly 40,000 titles in its inventory, ranging from the most popular paperback best sellers to foreign language books and antiques.

Richard Johnston, the store’s owner spoke about the store.

“We carry primarily used books, we have an extensive selection of comic books and graphic novels also. We try to carry books on all topics with a few exceptions like travel guides and computer manuals,” He said.

One thing that sets the BBC apart from similar businesses is its collection of comic books and graphic novels.

“We do a lot of comic book and graphic novel business with col­lege students,” Johnston said. “We offer a subscription service; we pull the comic out so the cus­tomer can just come in to the store and pick it up.”

Joshua Bell, a former employee, current customer and friend of the store, said that the comics and graphic novels have a spe­cial place at the BBC.

“In the first week of every May they (the BBC) has a free comic book day,” he said. “This year there’s going to be people dressed up in costumes, and cake too.”

Downtown Brookings has a lot more to offer students than just night life. The stores and restau­rants are all well worth a visit.

From shopping to eating, downtown Brookings has everything a college student wants or needs.

Downtown Brookings is full of options for students. Main Avenue is lined with businesses perfectly suited to the student life style. The restaurants serve excellent food at a reasonable price and in many different styles. The stores sell everything from bicycles to books. For those who are of age, the local taverns provide an excellent location to relax and enjoy the company of friends.

Downtown Brookings was founded in October of 1879, when the railroad bypassed three existing communities and needed a new station. It wasn’t long before stores packed up and moved onto what is now Brookings’ Main Avenue.

Since then, downtown has grown and changed. There are now almost 200 businesses operating in the area.

Downtown Brookings Directory

Trendz

Fergen’s

Sports Connection

The Country Peddler

Sioux River Bicycles & Fitness

Cover to Cover

Wink’s Fine Jewelry

Let It Bead

Main Barber Shop

Cottonwood Coffee

Mango Tree Coffee Shop

Allegra

Nick’s Hamburgers

The Ram & O’Hares

Sun-Dried Tomato

Boss’ Chicken & Pizza

George’s Pizza

Lantern Lounge

Ray’s Corner

Showcase Cinema

Artistic Images by Jael

Gold Medal Gymnastics

Powershop Gym

Wells Fargo Bank

First Bank & Trust

Hometown Service & Tire

Brookings Custom Image

Threads of Memories

Party Depot

Sonnies

Brookings Engraving

Micro Computer Systems

Willert Wellness & Chiropractic

Greenleaf Management

State Theatre Company

Showcase Cinema

Gatzke Appraisal & Rentals

designArc

State Farm Insurance

Rude’s Home Furnishing

Workers lay groundwork at the new Dairy Plant facility in early May. Several projects on campus are ongoing. - File Photo

Campus will look slightly different next fall.

SDSU will be making a number of cosmetic improvements to campus in addition to completing the new dairy plant over the summer. Walkways will have improved lighting, the band will have new bleachers at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium and Greek Village will be made ready for the construction of new houses.

Much of what the facilities and services department will be doing, however, might go unnoticed.

According to Dean Kattelmann, SDSU’s Assistant Vice President for Facilities and Services, the university is in the process of completing $3 million worth of energy saving projects. Some of those projects include putting a new air-conditioning system into Pugsley Hall and Wagner Hall and Bailey Rotunda will get new air handling equipment. The heating plant will receive an upgrade to the equipment used to control its output.

“When students come back in the fall, we’ll have some cosmetic things done that we’ve known about, but just haven’t done because of all the construction,” Kattelmann said.

The new SDSU dairy plant will be completed and fully functional in August. The new plant represents an almost 10-year effort to update the university’s dairy facilities. When completed, the dairy program will be able to grow from 85 students to 120 across two majors.

Dairy Plant Manager, Jacob Anderson, is enthusiastic about the new facility. “The (new) plant will give us the option to make our ice-cream more well known,” he said.

Anderson added that industry partners played a key role in building the new plant. “(Our) industry partners really made the plant possible,” he said.

Another project for the SDSU Facilities and Services Department will be to upgrade the lighting along several walkways around campus.

“This summer, we’ll be putting in additional lights to make a nice lighted pathway between Hansen Hall and the Wellness Center,” Kattelmann said. Kattlemann also explained that his department will be installing lights along the walkways between Coughlin-Alumni Stadium and the southeast corner residence halls.

The SDSU Athletic Department will also be improving some of its facilities. Most notably the department will be adding a new set of bleachers on the south end of the football field at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium. The new bleachers will allow the school’s band, as well as students, to sit in their own area.

“I think the students will enjoy it,” Kattelmann said. “What’ll be nice is the people in the stands can actually hear the band instead of just the visiting team.”

Two new medians will also be constructed over the summer. One will be built at the north entrance to campus on Medary Avenue, and the other at an entrance farther to the south on 13th Avenue, next to the southeast commuter parking. Both medians will be lined with trees and are intended to enhance the campus’s appearance when people enter.

By the end of May, all the earth work will be completed at the site of the planned Greek Village. Fraternities and sororities will then be able to build new houses for their chapters on the site. Though none of the Greek organizations have made any official plans to do so yet.

Another project planned for the summer is moving the university motor pool, where university vehicles are stored, from it’s current location, to a new location on the northeast corner of campus.

“Hopefully in May we’ll start on the building, and this summer be able to move the vehicles up there,” Kattelmann said. In addition to the new motor pool the northeast corner of campus will have two new gravel parking lots for students. The lots will be available to park in for students who have paid a $5 vehicle registration fee.