October 3, 2023

NEW LOOK

STUDENTS RETURN TO PIERSON HALL AFTER YEARLONG REMODEL

Greek Life recruitment change results in less members PAGE 3

Volleyball falls in home opener Thursday PAGE 16

Collegian photos by JOCLYN HAVEN and ZOEY SHENTZEL(SHE/HER) Hunter Dustman prepares to kick a field goal at Saturday’s game. Grand Pooba Regen Wiederrich drives the Bummobile at Saturday’s parade.

STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION BRIEF Senators approve new club, Hobo Day Committee addresses senate

GRETA GOEDE Editor-in-Chief

Students’ Association Senators approved a new club on campus that will focus on competitive disc golf.

Leif Bredeson a senior electrical engineering major from Darlington, Wisconsin, addressed the senate to get a competitive disc golf club on campus.

“…We aim to get competitive players and casual players together to create a disc golf club community on campus,” Bredeson said.

The motion was taken to a roll call vote and the club was approved. From here the club needs to get approval from Jennifer Novotny, senior director – student actives.

If students are interested in joining, they can contact Bredeson through his student email.

Other Business

This year’s Grand Pooba Marissa Vogt and other members of the Hobo Day Committee addressed the senate to talk about Hobo Week coming up next week. The committee will be tabling in the union this week and Hobo Day merchandise is now available in the bookstore.

This Thursday is hobo gear prep night in the Breezeway of the Volstorff Ballroom. John Petersen, events assistant Pooba said Goodwill has been saving clothes for this event since November. The event will also have needles and pins for students to put patches and other accessories on their clothes.

Bum-A-Meal is happening Monday, Oct. 9. The signup went live at 8 a.m. Monday and was already at half capacity by 7 p.m. that night.

“If you want to get signed up for that personally or if you know friends who want to get signed up, please do that soon,” Petersen said.

The committee discussed the details about more events like Bum-Over that will be Tuesday Oct. 10 in the Student Union and the Bum-Fire which will be Thursday Oct. 12 behind the football sta-

dium. Rally at the Rails will be Wednesday Oct. 11 from 5 to 9 p.m. in Downtown Brookings.

The Hobo Day Parade Saturday Oct. 14, has 51 student entries, 34 community entries, eight bands registered and 27 dignitaries that have RSVP’d.

The committee is still looking for security and transportation volunteers. Students who are interested can sign up through the Linktree on the Hobo Day Committee’s social media.

Student Organization Reports

The American Indian Students’ Association will have beading circle for beginners Wednesday Oct. 4 from 4-6 p.m. in the art room of the American Indian Student Center.

The Gender and Sexuality Alliance is preparing for National Coming Out Day. The organization is also preparing their Hobo Day float and discussed their annual drag show that is a little more than a month out.

The Unified Council talked about their upcoming All Greek Formal at Old Sanctuary happening Nov. 3 from 7 to 11 p.m.

University Program Council reported that the Cancer Awareness 5K had over 60 participants and raised over $500 for the American Cancer Society and MakeA-Wish. Next week the organization is hosting the Mulligan Stew Cook-Off

Tuesday, Oct. 10 from 7 to 10 p.m. in the union and Jacks Got Talent Friday, Oct. 13 in the Performing Arts Center starting

at 6 p.m.

Unfinished Business Senators voted on Commemoration 23-1-C. The commemoration was for Mr. Jay Molock, Multicultural Student Success adviser for African American students in the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Accessibility.

Mr. Jay has aided the Black Students Alliance and helped coordinated the first MLK Marade in South Dakota

“Only over a little over a year at SDSU Mr. Jay has unequivocally impacted the students of SDSU to a great degree,” Hannah Dayaget, communications chair said.

The commemoration was taken to a roll call vote and was approved.

Collegian photo by GRETA GOEDE

The Hobo Day Commitee address the senate about upcoming events for Hobo week. Prep night for the events is Thurday night in the union and Bum-A -Meal will kick off the start of the week on Monday.

Greek life membership takes a hit after change in recruitment style

Sarah Kastner Reporter

Alpha Xi Delta, Chi Omega, Ceres Women’s Fraternity, and Alpha Omega Epsilon (AOE) recently underwent a partially structured recruitment style. Recruitment was held Aug. 24 through 28, which was two weeks earlier than usual, but that wasn’t the only change.

Four of the sorority chapters on campus tried a new recruitment style, partially structured, with this new style the College Panhellenic Association (CPH), the unifying and governing body for sororities, are hoping to include the smaller chapters in recruitment to build up Greek life numbers in all chapters. In the past, Greek life used fully structured recruitment, which only included the two larger chapters on campus, Chi Omega and Alpha Xi Delta.

“At first, we were not very open to the idea of switching from a formal recruitment style to a Partially Structured Recruitment style,” said Emma McMillan, Alpha Xi Delta recruitment chair. “We thought that it would take away from our fraternity’s traditional values. Now, that we have participated in the Partially Structured recruitment style, we noticed that we really enjoyed the change of pace and setting.”

With holding recruitment two weeks earlier than usual, not as many people heard about recruitment. There were 54 total girls who signed up, 24 got bids (an invitation to join a chapter), and only two of the four chapters got new members.

“Due to the earlier date, we had less people sign up for primary (structured) recruitment,” said Ashton Pauling, Chi Omega recruitment chair. “I think it was good that we tried the earlier date, but it was proven later dates work better for our campus.”

The new recruitment style was meant to build numbers, but instead it tanked them. Instead of helping all four of the chapters gain new members, it recruited less members for Chi Omega and Alpha Xi Delta, Ceres and AOE did not receive any new members.

“Due to the much lower turnout for primary structured recruitment, initially our fall new member class was about half the size it usually is,” Pauling said.

“In previous semesters we would receive one new member, but this year we received none,” said Destiny Graphenteen, Ceres Women’s Fraternity president.

In previous years, Ceres and AOE did continuous open bidding (COB) recruitment, instead of a structured recruitment style. When doing COB, the chapters put on small events for potential new members to see what the other members are like, and to see if they would be a good fit in the chapter. COB would cause the chapters to gain one or two new members to keep growing their chapters, but this year they tried structured recruitment to

hopefully gain a few more new members.

Partially Structured Recruitment is the blend of fully structured recruitment and COB, there are four days, the first two consist of a more casual setting, getting to know the potential new members by doing crafts with them. The third day is more professional and a little bit more structured and the fourth day is professional and structured. Throughout the process potential new members will go to each chapter and talk to people to get to know them and learn more about the chapters to find which chapter they would like to join. At the end of the weekend, we have “bid-day” which is the day the new members get their invitation to join the chapter they were invited to.

Ceres had not completed structured recruitment in three years, along with every member having to learn to correctly complete recruitment, they also had to find ways to get more girls interested in joining their chapter.

“Partially structured was easier for us to learn, but it didn’t seem very organized

– the potential new members seemed over it by the last day of recruitment,” Graphenteen said.

AOE also had not completed structured recruitment in three years, “We liked partially structured recruitment,” said Fiala Herceg, Alpha Omega Epsilon recruitment chair. “It was a good way to get back into formal recruitment.”

Health in Greek Life

When asked, how healthy are the Greek life numbers today compared to 5 years ago, Katie Yunker responded with “The past 5 years do include COVID, which caused a general dip in student organization involvement at SDSU and nationally. Fraternities and Sororities at SDSU have recovered from pandemic membership declines and membership numbers are currently steady.”

With all these mixed reviews, the Greek Life Adviser, Katie Yunker, is overwhelmed with the data from the “post satisfaction survey” that was sent out. This survey is used to collect and look over the overall thoughts of partially structured recruitment. When going through the information collected, the national and university CPH boards will then decide what is going to change or remain the same for next year’s structured recruitment.

photo submitted by Chi Omega Members of Chi Omega posing for a group photo here on campus on bid day 2023.

Local farm hosts weekly pizza night

KATRINA BUNTJER Reporter

Right under your nose, you’re going to find a woodfired pizza farm wrapping up their 2023 season located on the edge of Brookings, SD.

Good Roots Farm and Gardens is not only a 40-acre event venue for weddings and other gatherings, but it also hosts weekly Sunday night pizza. Bill and Julie Ross, the owners, started their version of the third-generation farm by growing vegetables, however, they had a surplus of veggies, and it was extremely labor intensive. While on vacation, they heard about “pizza farms” up and down the Mississippi River, which are exactly like they sound, just fresh wood-fired pizzas made on the farm. They went to look at a few and saw that is exactly what people were doing with their excess veggies. According to Julie, “We needed to do something else, and since we had already done events out here, we figured it would be a good combination.”

“We went and had training at a hippie farm in Wisconsin,” Julie said. “It was the best training we could’ve possibly had.” Once they thought, yeah, we could do this, Bill and Julie ordered the pizza oven kit

and learned how to make it. Julie also said, “We also knew we needed animals to make this a real farm, so we got miniature goats, and now get a new set every two years.”

“Our events start in May and go through mid-November; however, our Sunday pizza nights go from early June to mid-October. Our last pizza night for this year is going to be October 8th,” Julie explained. “We have only ever canceled a pizza night one or two times, so we are making pizzas rain or shine.”

Pre-orders open on Tuesday afternoon for the following Sunday night, with a new menu introduced every two weeks. “Since it takes 3-4 minutes to make a pizza, wait times got to be up to an hour when we had just started, so we had to switch to pre-ordering online,” Julie said. “You choose your pick-up time; we start firing pizzas at 4:30 and go until 7:30.”

Since the pizzas are served picnic style you bring your own utensils, chairs, or blankets, and even yard games, whatever you need for the perfect picnic on the farm. Beverages are available for purchase, including select beers, wines, and homemade lemonade.

The homemade pizzas are priced at $20 each. They are made from scratch using almost all organic ingre-

dients, they also offer thin crust and cauliflower crust as well. Bill also stated, “We can make anywhere from 60-80 pizzas, but our numbers have been right around that 70-75 mark.”

“We have 40 acres of land, 4 of which are our Aronia berries, half-acre is the vegetable garden, and then we also have an apple orchard,” Bill said. “We have rented out some of the land as well.”

Paxten White and Maddie Jongeling are just two of the 10 summer staff employees, and both girls are sophomores at Brookings High School.

When asked what her favorite part of the job was, White said, “I love all the experiences I have had, and I also love experimenting with the leftover dough and ingredients. We came up with these really good pizza balls they may add to the menu next year.” According to Jongeling her favorite part is, “Meeting all the new people each week.”

“This is a really good job to start out with,” White said. “Our hours are extremely flexible, and it is only on Sundays from 3:30 to 8:30 at the latest.”

“Julie and Bill are great bosses to have for a first job, and it is honestly like we are one big family,” Jongeling said. “I have been trained in all steps of the process and can do whatever is needed each Sunday. Specifically,

Collegian photo by Katrina Buntjer Bill Ross, owner of Good Roots Farm and Gardens bakes a pizza for customers.

Collegian photo by Katrina Buntjer

Good Roots Farm and Gardens also hosts weekly Sunday night pizza besides offering the venue for weddings and other gatherings. The last pizza night for this year is going to be on Oct. 8, 2023.

firing a pizza is a lot easier than I thought it would be, but it still takes a lot of practice.”

The farm values of Good Roots Farm and Gardens are what Julie believes sets them apart. They care for the earth, care for each other, and continue to build Brookings. “Our farm values are what makes this place so different and what drives us,” Julie said.

The last pizza night for the 2023 season is going to be Sunday, Oct. 8. A great deal of their advertising is by word of mouth; however, they are on Facebook and Instagram as well. Their Facebook page is where you will find the most current information. Let your nose lead you to the delicious smell of wood-fire pizza at Good Roots Farm and Garden.

Collegian photo by Katrina Buntjer/Good Farms

According to Bill Ross, 40 acres of land includes four acres of Aronia berries, half-acre of vegetable garden and also apple orchard. Some part of the land has been rented out too.

Hobo Week Preview

The Smokin Jacks are set to perform at BumFire this year.

SAMANTHA MOSER Reporter

South Dakota State University’s only student led band is scheduled to play at BumFire this year and it’s the only part of all the events happening during Hobo Week this year, Oct. 9-14.

“I was so happy that we were able to do this,” said lead singer Karter Kenis, lead singer for The Smokin Jacks. “We are pumped up for it. It’s gonna be a lot of fun!”

Kenis, a senior, and his bandmates Mason Machtemes, a sophomore, and Sawyer Lee, a senior, think their band is the only student led band on campus. All three have been playing music for years and were excited to get a band together.

The Smokin Jacks play southern rock country music, writing originals and singing covers.

They began their career playing at the Wild Hare, a local Brookings bar. The Smokin Jacks have since played for private events in Albert Lea, Minnesota. Over the summer, they opened for country singer Michael Ray at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.

The Smokin Jacks are scheduled to play at BumFire (north of the Sanford Jackrabbit Athletic Complex) on Thursday, Oct. 12 from 8:45 to 10:30 p.m.

Grand Pooba for Hobo Day, Marissa Vogt, said she has wanted to do a live band in past years. Vogt and the Hobo Day Committee are hoping that the band is loud enough to hear from campus and that makes people wonder what is going on and causes them to stop by.

This year BumFire will be “more than standing around a fire and drinking hot chocolate,” Vogt said. In addition to the band and bonfire, there will be yard games like bean bags and giant Jenga for attendees to play.

This is only one of the events happening during Hobo Week. The Hobo Day Committee, comprised of 18 students and one faculty adviser, has been work-

ing for the past nine months to plan this year’s events.

“Go to the events. I never experienced [the events] from the student side, I’ve only ever been on the committee and that is one thing I regret, not going to the events [as a student],” Vogt said, who is a transfer student.

Hobo Week begins on Monday with Bum-A-Meal. This is an opportunity for over 540 students to dress up like hobos and get a home cooked meal from a host family in the Brookings community. Registration opened Oct. 2 for this event, and it filled up quickly, so students need to be sure to sign up as soon as possible.

“It’s definitely the coolest event,” said Ainsley Plack, member of the Hobo Day Committee. “It’s so cool to be able to network and get a home cooked meal from people in the community.”

Tuesday’s events include Bum Over and University Program Council (UPC) Mulligan Stew Cookoff. Bum Over is an opportunity for students to gather in the Volstorff Ballroom in the Student Union to form teams and build carboard shanties.

The University Program Council’s Mulligan Stew Cookoff invites student organizations to make a stew for others to try and vote on which stew they think is the best.

The Rally at the Rails is Wednesday starting at 5 p.m. in downtown Brookings. This is an opportunity for members of the community and SDSU students to come together and celebrate the hobo spirit. There will be a live band, food trucks, a beanbag tournament, vendors, and speakers, including President Barry Dunn.

Friday night UPC is hosting Jacks Got Talent at the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center at 6 p.m. This is an opportunity for students to showcase their talents. Participants can compete for a chance to win cash prizes or gift cards. Winners are selected by a panel of judg-

es and the audience, according to information on Jacks Club Hub.

Hobo Day is Saturday and is the biggest one-day event in the Dakotas. The day begins with the Hobo Day Parade at 9.30 a.m. The parade is just over a mile long and features SDSU student organizations, The Pride of the Dakotas and other local high school bands. This event typically draws a huge crowd with people standing four to five deep in some spots along the route.

President Dunn has said that the past couple years have had some of the biggest crowds he’s ever seen, according to Matilyn Kerr, program adviser for university traditions.

While the event is popular with people in the Brookings community and beyond, it raises one of the biggest challenges the Hobo Day Committee faces. They need 40+ student volunteers to help organize and run things on the morning of the parade.

“Volunteering is a fun way to [be involved], truly you are just helping the school and the community,” Plack said.

In addition to the parade, the football team plays the University of Northen Iowa at 2 p.m. This is a sold-out game with expected attendance of over 19,000.

To end the Hobo Week celebrations, the Hobo Day Committee will host Hobo Night Live in the Oscar Larson

Performing Arts Center from 7.30 p.m. – midnight. This is an opportunity for students to play games, attend live entertainment, and win prizes.

“South Dakota State University wouldn’t be here without Brookings, and I don’t know if Brookings would’ve seen the economic growth or success without the university thriving, so I’d say it’s very mutually beneficial and symbiotic in a way,” Kerr said. “I don’t know if any other university has the opportunity to do what we do here because the Brookings community is so inviting and inclusive.”

Hobo Week Events

Monday, Oct. 9: Bum-A-Meal

Where: Volstorff Ballroom

Tuesday, Oct. 10: Bum Over and Mulligan Stew Cookoff

Where: Volstroff Ballroom

Wednesday, Oct. 11: Rally at the Rails

Where: Downtown Brookings

Thursday, Oct. 12: BumFire

Where: Backyard (North of Sanford Jackrabbit Athletic Conplex)

Friday, Oct. 13: UPC’s Jacks Got Talent

Where: Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center

Saturday, Oct. 14 (Hobo Day) : Hobo Day Parade, Football Game, and Hobo Night Live

Where: Medary Avenue - Downtown Brookings, Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, and Oscar Larson Performing Arts

One of the Bummobile’s most well-known passengers is President Dwight Eisenhower. He attended the 1952 Hobo Day during his election campaign.

Hobo Day Parade comes alive

SDSU’s Design 2D class contributes to the Hobo Parade.

ALEXIS MORAN Reporter

This year’s Hobo Day Parade, as of Sept. 29, has 75 floats in the parade with 44 of them being student entries. The Design 2D class for the past few years have been contributing to the Hobo Parade with various creative ideas. This year the class is making wearable sculptures for the parade.

Students of the Design 2D class have been working in groups of four to five students each to design and create a large wearable sculpture form. There are two sections of this class that consists of about 65 to 70 students per section.

The class instructors are Kristy Weaver, instructor in Studio Art, Elizabeth Tofte, assistant professor in landscape architecture, Shannon Frewaldt, lecturer in Studio Art, and Mark Stemwedel, senior lecturer in Studio Art.

“Every year, the concept of the project evolves a little,” Stemwedel said. This year’s project is inspired by Nick Cave’s “Soundsuits.”

Each project the class does this semester emphasizes elements and principles of design. For this project, students are focused on developing elements of texture, form, and color, along with the principles of movement, repetition, and unity in their forms.

The objectives that are going to be achieved during this project are working collaboratively to create a wearable design, developing problem-solving and critical thinking skills, filter ideas through the creation of sketches and maquettes, which is an unfinished sculpture, and maintain a high level of craft and project engagement.

“This class is teaching me about the many different aspects and principles of design,” Kendal Kinsley, student of the Design 2D class, said. “Applying these principles through studio projects is critical for your creative growth as a designer

in all areas within the school of design.” Students have been working on this project for about a month. They have been working through many different workshops to help them create their final sculpture. For their first workshop, each student had to make small models of their ideas. Then they share those maquettes with other groups through in-progress critiques to get feedback on their designs.

“I think that the workshops we did for the project were very helpful,” Kinsley said. “Making small versions of our design really helped us to see what we like and where we may have been lacking in different areas. This gave us a chance to see what we wanted before starting on a much larger scale.”

These students also underwent many challenges which consisted of structure support and possible bad weather conditions that they had to think about. They were also required to have each form have some element that extends at least 4 feet off the body, which strained the structure support. Groups will need to consider the design of the overall form, structure, materials and textures they want to apply. This class’s designs have a strong impact on the parade. “I think they bring a different aspect to the parade that helps break up the flow of floats within the parade,” Marissa Vogt, 2023 Hobo Day Grand Pooba, said. “The students that participate in the Design 2D class project their creativity and display their hard work and dedication they have to art, and I think that is very unique.”

Thursday, Sept. 28, was the first day that all the groups started on their life size model that they will wear for the parade. They have until the Thursday before the Hobo Parade to be finished with their wearable design. There should be about 36 different sculptures walking in the parade.

“I think people should come see the sculptures in the parade because the designs being created are super unique and interesting,” Kinsley said.

Collegian photo by Brayden Byers

SDSU Design 2D student’s work on making wearable sculptures for the 2023 Hobo Day Parade.

SPEAKER LECTURES ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

KENNETH REBELLO Assistant News Editor

Arijit (Ari) Sen encouraged the use of Artificial Intelligence to augment reporters and humans, but not to replace them during his Pulitzer Center Crisis Reporting Lecture held on Sept. 28, at the Lewis and Clark room located in South Dakota State University’s Student Union.

Sen, an award-winning computational journalist at The Dallas Morning News and a former A.I. accountability fellow at the Pulitzer Center, discussed ways A.I. could be used and potential risks of A.I. in journalism.

“A.I. is often vaguely defined, and I think if you listen to some people, it’s like the greatest thing since slice bread,” Sen said as he proceeded to quote Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, stating A.I. as the most profound technology humanity is working on.

According to Sen, A.I. is basically ‘machine learning’ that teaches computers to use fancy math for finding patterns in data. Once the model is trained, it can be used to generate a number and predict something by putting things into categories.

Sen feels that a rather important question to focus on is how A.I. is being used in the real world and what are the real harms happening to people from this technology.

“There is a really interesting thing happening right now. Probably about since 2015, A.I. is starting to be used in investigative journalism specifically,” Sen said, as he speaks about a story reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) on doctors and sex abuse, where around 100,000 disciplinary complaints had been received against doctors. Due to numerous amounts of complaints, AJC used a machinery model to train

and feed in data about complaints that were related to sexual assault and those that were not related to make it easier for them and compile a story.

Although, A.I. can prove to be useful for investigative journalism, Sen explained about the risks of A.I. technology and questions pertaining to people behind the model. He talked about factors about people who label data, intentions of the A.I. creator and humans working on the same content with a longer time frame.

“The other question we need to think about when working with an A.I. model is asking if a human could do the same thing if we gave them unlimited amount of time on a task,” Sen said. “And if the answer is no, then what makes us think that an A.I. model could do the same thing.”

Sen further elaborated on A.I. bias and fairness by bringing in another case

study of how Amazon scrapped its secret A.I. recruiting tool after it showed bias against women. Amazon used its current engineers resume as training data to recruit people; however, they realized that most of their existing engineers were men which caused the A.I. to have a bias against women and rank them worse than male candidates.

“One of the cool things about A.I. in accountability reporting is that we’re often using A.I. to investigate A.I.,” Sen said as he dives into his major case study on the Social Sentinel.

Sen described Social Sentinel, now known as Navigate360, an A.I. social media monitoring technology tool used by schools and colleges to scan for threats of suicides and shootings.

“Well, I was a student, just like all of you at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and there were these protests going on,” Sen said. “You know,

I being the curious journalist that I was, I wanted to know what the police were saying to each other behind the scenes.”

Sen’s curiosity led to him putting in a bunch of records requests and receiving around 1,000 pages in the beginning. He ended up finding a contract between his college and Social Sentinel that led him to wonder about his college using a ‘sketchy’ A.I. tool. Sen landed an internship at NBC and wrote the story which had been published in Dec. 2019.

“Around that time, I was applying for journalism at grad school, and I mentioned this in my application at Berkeley,” Sen said. “I was like, this is why I want to go to grad school; I want two years to report this out because I knew that straight out of undergrad no one was going to hire me to do that story.”

He recalls that he spent his first year doing a clip search on reading about Social Sentinel and found out about no one looking at colleges, which he stated was ‘weird’ as the company had been started by two college campus police chiefs. The remainder of time he spent was calling colleges and writing story pitches.

Sen added details on his second year at Berkeley, where he was paired up with his thesis advisor David Barstow and conducted tons of record requests from all over the country for at least 36 colleges and every four-year college in Texas.

“We ended up with more than 56,000 pages of documents by the end of the process,” Sen exclaimed.

After having all documents prepared, Sen went on to build databases in spreadsheets, and analyzed Social Sentinels alerts sent as PDFs. He later began analyzing tweets to check for threatening content and look for common words after filtering out punctu-

Collegian photo by BRAYDEN BYERS

Journalist Arijit (Ari) Sen, left, speaks with a student after his lecture titled (AI and Journalism: Looming Threat or Massive Opportunity) in the Lewis and Clark room in the University Student Union on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023.

ation and common words.

“You can see the most common word used was ‘shooting’ and you can see that would make sense,” Sen said. “But a lot of times ‘shooting’ meant like ‘shooting the basketball’ and things like that.”

With all this information acquired, Sen got going on speaking with experts, former company employees of Social Sentinel, colleges that used the service, students and activists who were surveilled.

Through this reporting, Sen came up with three findings. One, being the major was that the tool not really being used effectively to prevent suicide and shootings but was used to monitor protests and activists. Second, Social Sentinel was trying to expand beyond social media such as Gmail, Outlook etc. Lastly, the tool showed little evidence of lives saved, although Social Sentinel claimed that they were doing great.

Sen concluded that the impact of the story reached various media houses who later published on A.I. monitoring student activities and eventually, UNC stopped using the service. Sen later took on questions from the audience.

According to Joshua Westwick, director for the School of Communication and Journalism, the lecture was timely, especially considering the increased conversations about AI.

“Ari Sen’s lecture was both engaging and informative. The examples that he shared illuminated the opportunities and challenges of AI,” Westwick said. “I am so grateful we could host Ari through our partnership with the Pulitzer Center.”

Westwick further explained that the lecture was exceptionally important for students and attendees as A.I. is present throughout many different aspects of our lives.

“As journalists and consumers, we need to understand the nuances of this technology,” Westwick said. “Specifically, for our journalism students, understanding the technology and how to better report on this technology will be important in their future careers.”

Greta Goede, editor-in-chief for the Collegian, described the lecture as one of the best lectures she has attended. She explained how the lecture was beneficial to her as Sen spoke about investigative

journalism and how to look up key documents before writing a story.

“He (Sen) talked a lot about how to get data and how to organize it, which was really interesting to me since I will need

to learn those skills as I go further into my career,” Goede said. “I thought it was a great lecture and enjoyed attending.”

NEW HANGOUT FOR HOBOS

Remodeling project also includes new windows and furniture

Story by ANNIE WITT Reporter

Photos by Allie Weber

After being closed for the 2022-23 academic school year, Pierson Hall has reopened with various new updates.

Pierson Hall, on the South Dakota State University campus, has opened to students this school year after being worked on and remodeled during the 2022-23 academic year. With updates such as new windows, heating and cooling system, furniture, and appliances, many students are happy to have Pierson’s doors open again.

Rebecca Peterson, director of Housing and Residential Life, said the Pierson remodel had been on the docket for awhile. It started off as a heating and cooling project along with windows, but often realized that by taking the building “offline” that they would need to fulfill some aesthetic pieces. Their main goal for the beginning of the year was to have the rooms done and ready for the students.

Pierson Hall, which houses freshman and sophomore students, has many updated features compared to some of the other dorms around campus. One of those updates is open-beamed ceilings. Peterson said having the beams open was a “purposeful” decision.

“We purposefully kept it open because we thought it would look better and cleaner as opposed to putting in a drop ceiling,” Peterson said. “In Jackrabbit Village and Schultz Hall, the ceilings are a little bit higher, and we

wanted to create more space in those rooms and that was one way to do it.”

Many students also enjoy the added height of the ceilings in the dorm and agree that it adds a more spacious feel to the dorms that can often feel so small.

Another update to Pierson Hall was the furniture. There is new furniture in the study, areas, the main lobby, and also in the rooms. The new beds though have had mixed reviews. Some students do not enjoy the new beds due to not being able to move around and personalize their room.

The new beds have a built-in desk in the bottom,

ladders, and a side protector to ensure you don’t roll off your lofted bed.

Sydney Simonson, who lives in Pierson Hall said how she was “bummed” about not having as much drawer space compared to other halls, but enjoys the various pull-out mechanisms that are connected to the desks.

Peterson said that the reason for the new furniture in the dorms was simply just to try something new and to “give students more of an option to self-loft in a different way.”

Peterson does recognize that the tricky part of the new furniture in the dorms is the space underneath and is not sure if the same furniture will be chosen in future projects.

Some other updated features are new windows that bring in more light, especially if you are in the study areas and the lounges on floors two, three, and four. Another feature are adjustable lights/dimmers in the rooms along with new furniture for the “Hobo Hangout” located in the basement of Pierson.

Even though the “Hobo Hangout” is not finished yet, Peterson said that they hope to have it finished in mid-October.

“It’s a collection of things. You have to get the main part done and figure out the other pieces, but it all comes together,” Peterson said.

Rebecca Peterson

EFFORTS BEING MADE TO BRING MUSIC BACK TO CAMPANILE

be many factors to consider.

The Coughlin Campanile lost its abilities to chime out due to a mishap during Lincoln Hall renovation project, leaving students and alumni wondering when it will return.

The tradition of the Campanile’s music dates back to its creation in 1929. The Campanile’s musical capabilites included hourly chimes and a playlist of songs played by an organ, located in what has been known throughout the years as Lincoln Library and then Lincoln Musical Hall. Most recently, was updated in 1995 with a new sound system, but in the last few years, no music has been heard.

According to Barry Mielke, the vice president of Facilities and Sevices at SDSU, the Campanile’s musical source is a carillon organ located in Lincoln Hall, which transmits its music to the sound system at the top of the campanile via an electrical line through the underground tunnels.

“We believe the problem is the electrical line that runs from Lincoln Hall to the Campanile and that’s where the failure is,” Mielke said. “Somewhere between those two buildings that line has been compromised.”

Jonathan Meendering, the director of campus planning and design, narrowed down the area and the time the line was compromised.

“When it comes to when the system stopped working, it hasn’t been that long,” Meendering said. “Probably around three years ago at the start of the Lincoln Hall renovation project the electrical line was cut.”

According to Meendering, the Carillion organ was originally meant to be shut down temporarily during the renovation of Lincoln Hall, as the whole building was rewired.

“After the rewiring when they were doing the demolition, we assumed they just didn’t know what the line was and cut through it,” Meendering said.

When asked what efforts are being made to get the music back up and running, there appears to

“We’ve made several attempts to repair it and just haven’t made it a priority,” Mielke said. The Lincoln Hall renovations seemed to prevent most of the early repair efforts.

Meendering, who has actively been involved in the system’s repair efforts said, “We’re actively working on it. Both, to make sure there’s not another fault in another part of the line and to figure out whether the system’s controller even works anymore.”

Efforts have been made by the SDSU Facilities and Services department to reach out to the manufacturer of the system, Schumacher Bells, for assistance in repairs and possibly upgrading the system.

“If it’s just wiring, it could be fixed next week,” Meendering said. “But if it’s not it wouldn’t. We’re doing a diagnostics right now to figure out the problem to know what we need to repair, if it can be repaired at all.”

Previously, the musical system could be programmed to play at any time for both timekeeping purposes and special events.

Students could put in a request to play songs from a set list of classical, seasonal, patriotic, and general musical selections. These included songs like “Fly Me to the Moon” and “America the Beautiful”. For 30 minutes it cost $10, and for 30 to 60 minutes, the cost was $15.

Jan Rowe, a 1968 SDSU graduate, recalls how on Sundays there would be concerts where the Campanile would play music for the students; however, many new students weren’t aware that the Campanile had any musical abilities at all.

Ainsley Plack is a sophomore at SDSU and a member of the Hobo Day Committee. When asked if she knew that the Campanile could play music, she had no idea.

“I don’t think many current students would know it played music either,” Plack said.

Both Rowe and Plack hope the Campanile makes music again soon.

“I feel like it’s an important campus tradition that should continue here at SDSU,” Plack said. “I’d love to hear the music when it’s fixed.”

THOMAS NIEMAN Reporter

Collegian Photo by EVAN PATZWALD

The Coughlin Campanile playing music was a tradition dating back to 1929, including hourly chimes and a playlist of songs.

Taylor Swift Society turns one

TAYLOR LINDEKUGEL Reporter

Just a year after it was created, South Dakota State University’s own Taylor Swift Society claimed the title of the biggest club on campus with its 69 members.

Created by executive board members Olivia Petrik and Emma Stalboerger, it’s the first and currently only music industry related club out of the 256 active clubs that students can join. Taylor Swift being a growing topic of conversation around the world, the Taylor Swift Society saw a boost in the number of people interested in the club.

“We’ve built a community,” said club Vice President and Secretary Emma Stalboerger. “We didn’t have that last year.”

The executive board members have noticed that they have more regular members this year, and they’re getting more comfortable around each other. With both new and returning members, the passion for Taylor Swift has never wavered. The board agreed that even without the rise in Taylor Swift’s popularity, the club still “would’ve had the same passion” with a smaller crowd.

Even with Taylor Swift Society being the only Taylor Swift related club in the state, club President Olivia Petrik knew she would find people with the same passion as her. Starting the club from scratch was difficult, but she was determined to do it.

“Getting the whole thing started from nothing is kind of a lot of work, but once we got through that, it was fine,” Petrik said.

Since then, there have been meetings including all sorts of activities, such as game and trivia nights, friendship bracelet making, watching Taylor Swift’s Reputation Stadium Tour movie on Netflix, and sharing hot takes. But no matter what the activity is, newcomers can always expect “energy and fun

chaos.”

“My favorite part of the club is the people and the environment,” Ainsley Plack, who has been a member of the club for a year in a half, said. “Every time I go it’s a warm and welcoming environment and a fun way to relax and bond with people, I don’t see all the time.”

Lizzy Pickering, who has been a member since the first meeting, said that her favorite part of the club is “being able to share joy in something without judgement.”

The current executive board hopes that members like Pickering and Plack will be the ones to keep the club going. That was their biggest goal for this year, and one that they’ll want to keep accomplishing in the coming years.

“The people who keep coming back is what will keep the club alive when we’re gone,” said Emma Brown, who handles public relations for the club. She was welcomed onto the executive

board last spring along with Halle Whaley, the club’s treasurer.

Since it started, the club has wasted no time going big with their activities. Last fall, they held a “Midnights” listening party in the union basement. With the recent announcement of “1989 Taylor’s Version,” the club is already planning for this year’s listening party, which is set to take place in the union basement on Oct. 26. They plan to sell their newly created Taylor Swift Society shirts, along with stickers, pins, and bracelets to fundraise for it. The club will also have a float in this year’s Hobo Day Parade.

“We’re just a bunch of girls talking about something we all care about,” said Pickering. “TSS is the epitome of girlhood.”

Fall 2023 Meetings

(all meetings held at 6pm in Herold Crest 253)

Oct. 3: Collab with Fashion and Apparel Club

Oct. 17: Eras Tour recap

Oct. 31: Collab with FEM

Nov. 14: Member presentations

Nov. 28: Christmas/ Thanksgiving get-together

Photo from Taylor Swift Society

The executive board members have noticed more regular members this year. Both returning and new members have a lot of enthusiasm and passion for Taylor Swift.

Celebrate National Newspaper Week

Collegian Editorial Board Editors

Oct. 1 through the 7, 2023 marks the 83 National Newspaper Week. The purpose of the celebration, sponsored by Newspaper Association Managers, is to take a week out of the year to promote and drive home the importance of local newspapers across the United States and Canada.

CONNECT COMMUNITIES

This applies to student newspapers as well. Campuses across the nation are viewed by those who are and have been a part of them as a community. A student newspaper’s job is to inform that community of what is happening.

74% of Americans believe it is important to have a local newspaper.

Newspapers define the culture of a commmunity.

The theme this year is “In Print. Online. For You. #NewspapersYourWay.” This tagline drives home the fact that newspaper readers are from all generations, community leaders and voters consumed in many different mediums.

A 2023 study conducted for America’s Newspapers shows that Americans are hungry for reliable, accurate local news and information. The study by Coda Ventures found that 8 out of 10 Americans still get news and information from a local print or digital source.

Nearly 75% of respondents confirmed that a local newspaper is important and 43% said local newspapers or their websites were the most accurate source for news and information.

“Local news is critical to the well-being of a community,” The author of the study wrote.

In the survey of 5,000 people, those who are 39 and younger listed social media as the No. 1 way they prefer to access news along with news websites and email alerts.

Here at the Collegian, we strive to give the campus community accurate and timely reporting, providing students with what they need to know and want to know. From in-depth coverage of the Students’ Association to telling the stories of students and athletes that may otherwise go unnoticed, this local news source is a vital part of the campus community and the city of Brookings as a whole.

So, as National Newspaper Week concludes, pass along the paper to a friend or a colleague to support the work the

Collegian does for this campus.

74% of Americans believe it is important to have a local newspaper. Newspapers define the culture of a commmunity.

Jacks win 2 against North Dakota schools

BOSTEN MOREHART Assistant Sports Editor

After winning seven of their first nine games, SDSU’s women’s soccer team secured two more victories this past week against two opponents from the state of North Dakota.

In their first match, the Jackrabbits played NDSU on Sept. 28 at the Fishback Soccer Complex.

When talking about the NDSU game, head coach Brock Thompson gave his thoughts on who was in control during the game.

“I thought the NDSU game on Thursday particularly was really played kind of the way they wanted to play it. A little bit more direct and a little bit more combative.”

Thompson thought there were times the team could settle into their style rather than NDSU’s. Although they were not playing their style, he felt they were still dominant.

A goal from senior forward, Jaden Carrillo in the first half would be the only score of the match. Carrillo scored this goal in the 17th minute of the match.

Carrillo’s goal came off a pass from junior midfielder, Avery LeBlanc which led to her first shot that was blocked by NDSU goalkeeper Abby Wilkinson. Carrillo then took possession of the ball again and put the ball into the back of the net for the goal.

For the rest of the first half of play, the Jackrabbits continued to put the pressure on the Bison forcing Bison goalkeeper Wilkinson to make five saves. The first half would end with score 1-0 in favor of the Jackrabbits.

In the 50th minute of the match NDSU put its first shot on goal which was followed by a strong effort the rest of the second half.

Jackrabbit goalkeeper, Jocelyn Tanner made three saves in the second half adding to a strong performance by the SDSU defense. The offense also had a strong performance finishing with a 17-8 advantage for shots and they finished with an 8-3 advantage for shots on goal.

Carrillo finished with a game-high six shots, five of those being on goal.

The Jackrabbits then faced the Fighting Hawks of UND in a match at Fishback Sunday, Oct. 1.

While handling the possession for the matchup, the Jackrabbits did not score until the 15th minute of the game. SDSU had the first four shots of the game three of which were saved by UND goalkeeper Madi Livingston

Kaycee Manding, a senior defender for the Jackrabbits took advantage of a penalty shot opportunity coming from a penalty in the box. Livingston blocked Mading’s initial shot, but she regained possession and kicked the ball into the net putting SDSU ahead 1-0.

Goalkeeper Jocelyn Tanner made two saves in the first half and the Jacks held a 13-3 advantage in shots during the first 45 minutes.

UND’s Amelia Loeffler tied the game up after shooting the ball past Tanner off an assist from teammate, Brynn Belcher.

When speaking on how the game went, coach Thompson was proud of how the reacted to the tying goal.

“I thought the response when we gave up the equalizing goal was really good. I thought not just the goal we scored but leading up to it, I thought we saw a little bit of the maturity in our team.”

No more than 10 minutes after the Fighting Hawks tied the game up, freshman forward, Katelyn Beulke passed the ball to junior midfielder, Laney Murdzek, who fired a shot into the top right corner of the goal. Murdzek’s goal put the Jackrabbits back in the lead in the 66th minute of the match.

Murdzek spoke on her goal and gave her description of how it played out. “KB passed me a really good ball and I dribbled it a little bit and shot it… and it went in the back of the net,” said Murdzek.

At the 71-minute mark of the game, a pass from senior midfielder, Katherine Jones found freshman midfielder, Taryn Hettich who took a shot that was saved by UND’s Livingston. Beulke was in position to receive the deflection and put the ball in the net putting the Jacks up 3-1 for the final score.

The Jacks improve to 10-2 on the season and 3-0 in Summit League play. They travel to Denver for their next match Thursday, Oct. 5.

JACKS NOTES

• The win against NDSU was their sixth straight against the Bison.

• Manding’s goal against UND was the first of her college career. Murdzek scored her first goal of 2023 and Beulke notched her third goal of the slate.

• The victory over UND was their seventh straight against the Fighting Hawks.

• The Jackrabbits outshot

Photo by DAVE EGGEN/INERTIA

South Dakota State’s Katelyn Buelk (#9) drives on the pitch during a 5-0 win over the University of Green Bay Sept. 10, 2023 at Fishback Soccer Park in Brookings.

Volleyball drops home opener to Denver

Photo By: RAENA VISNESS

The South Dakota State volleyball team lost its first home game of the season last Thursday in Frost Arena.

Frost Arena has been under construction the past year, but was able to open its doors and welcome Jackrabbit fans to come support the SDSU Volleyball team.

“It’s something that you don’t realize how much you’re going to miss until you have months without it,” Elyse Winter, junior outside hitter said. “And then going back it was a great feeling.”

The Jacks competed against the Denver Pioneers in a thrilling four set match. All sets ended with close scores, but the Pioneers were able to persevere and win the match 3-1.

“We were disappointed,” head coach Dan Georgalas said. “We feel like we let one get away, where our opponent played sloppy enough for us to win and we could’ve played cleaner on our end.”

Following a 21-25 loss in the first set, the Jacks were searching for an answer to take set two. An SDSU run late in the second set would put things away for the Jacks as they evened things out winning 25-21.

Tied up at 1-1, the Jackrabbits were off to a great start early in the third set up 8-3. Unfortunately, Denver was able to regain momentum and take the set 25-23.

Similar to the third set, set four was a back-and-forth battle between both teams. Neither team was able to make a substantial run until halfway through the fourth set. The match came down to a 1-point game, but Denver was able to pull away and take the final set 25-23.

Outside hitter, Katie Van Egdom, climbed her way to the top notching 17 kills, both team highs. Raegen Reilly totaled 38 assists on the night coupled with Rylee Martin’s 14 digs. McKenna Moehrle finished with seven blocks, both team highs.

Amidst this loss, the Jacks will drop their second match in a row and land themselves at 1-2 in conference play.

“The silver lining is that two of those sets were 25-23 that we lost,” Georgalas said. “To lose in four, there was a great competitive effort, and the margin of victory is just that much.”

This week, the Jackrabbits will remain home facing off against North Dakota State on Thursday at 7 p.m. and take on Omaha on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Collegian Photos by RAENA VISNESS Katie Van Egdom prepares to serve against the Pioneers in their 3-1 loss.

Collegian Photo by EVAN PATZWALD LEFT: Freshman Rylee Martin serves to Denver during a Summit League volleyball match last week at Frost Arena.

Collegian Photo by EVAN PATZWALD

Jackrabbit volleyball players Rylee Martin (from left), Elyse Winter, Raegen Reilly and Sylvie Zgonc clap to the school fight song.

NO. 1 SDSU SET TO PLAY NO. 22 ILLINOIS STATE

MARSHALL MINIHAN Sports Editor

SDSU will travel to Hancock Stadium in Normal, IL to play the Illinois State Redbirds in a primetime game at 6 p.m. on Oct. 7. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and on Midco Sports 2.

After starting the year 4-0, No. 1 ranked South Dakota State sets off to play the No. 22 Illinois State Redbirds, their third ranked matchup so far this season. In SDSU’s last 18 games, they have defeated 10 ranked opponents.

Previously, the Jacks stomped the Redbirds in a 31-7 blowout late last November, but Illinois State is off to a hot start this season.

Illinois State

Along with six other Missouri Valley Football Conference schools, Illinois State sits at 1-0 for conference matchups (3-1 overall) and finds themselves ranked No. 22 nationally.

The Redbirds’ only loss this season came in week 3 at Eastern Illinois where they came up just short in a 13-14 finish, though bouncing back against Lindenwood last week in a grewsome 48-17 victory.

Last time they played, the Jacks shut down quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse all game, but Zach Annexstad is back in control of the Redbird offense, and he has been very effective moving the ball down the field this season.

In just four games, the senior from Minnesota has thrown for nearly 1,000 yards, averaging 241.3 yards per game along with a touchdown, 38th most yards in all of the FCS. Annexstad also has 38 yards on the ground along with a score.

Mason Blakemore leads the Birds in rushing this season with 294 yards but isn’t the only Illinois State back finding

his feet on the ground. Two other backs, Cole Mueller and Wenkers Wright both have over 100 yards of their own. Mueller with 170 and Wright with 111 yards.

Blakemore leads the team touchdowns with five total touchdowns, all coming from their dominant ground game.

Annexstad’s favorite target has undoubtedly been Daniel Sobkowicz. Currently, Sobkowicz leads the MVFC in receiving yards with 355 yards and

sits 13th in the FCS, tied with Christian Fredrickson from Idaho State.

Tight end Cam Grandy and wide receiver Eddie Kasper have also been offensive threats for Illinois State this season. Both players have caught 18 passes and one touchdown but Grandy sits at 205 receiving yards while Kasper is at 187 yards.

Defensively, Tye Niekamp leads the Redbirds with 31 total tackles while Keondre Jackson sits closely by with 26.

Both players have a combined total of nine tackles for loss. Though NebraskaKearney transfer Amir Abdullah leads the team in that category with seven tackles for loss total out to 47 yards back. Abdullah also leads the team with 5.5 sacks on the season.

Though South Dakota State is a force to be reckoned with offensively, they aren’t counting out this Redbird defense.

“They’re really explosive on defense, they have great athletes,” said head coach

Collegian photos by JOCLYN HAVEN

Running back Amar Johnson carries the ball in the Jacks’ 42-21 win over the Fighting Hawks Saturday at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in front of 19,231 fans.

Jimmy Rogers in his weekly press conference. “Our hands will be full for sure, very kind of similar to UND. But their front is really talented.”

Illinois State has two interceptions under their belt this season coming from Steven Curtis and CJ Hodgdon

South Dakota State University

The 2022 FCS National Champions have shown no sign of slowing down this season. Currently, The South Dakota State Jackrabbits are number one in the nation in two of the most important categories: scoring offense and scoring defense.

Now the healthiest they have been all season after getting Jadon Janke and Adam Bock, two key players on both sides of the ball back, the Jacks have their eyes set on not only the MVFC, but the FCS as a whole.

SDSU’s dominant rushing attack has taken every defender they have played this season by storm. 6’1 Isaiah Davis leads the charge from the backfield for the second season in a row with 294 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 40 attempts.

“He’s special,” said Rogers on Davis. “He’s got a great O-line in front of him, great wide receivers and tight ends blocking for him and creating the extra yardage. If you look at the film, there is always an extra push from behind to get him those extra yards.”

Though Davis isn’t the only talented tailback on this roster, Amar Johnson and Angel Johnson both have racked up 200 yards of their own.

Quarterback Mark Gronowski has also proved himself on the ground this season. He currently has 78 yards on the ground and four touchdowns.

The dual-threat quarterback has been successful in the passing attack too for the Jacks. Completing 65.82% of his throws, Gronowski has 698 passing yards along with 9 touchdowns and an interception.

After the UND game, Gronowski passed Dan Fjeldheim, SDSU quarterback from 1999-2002 for the seventh most passing yards in Jackrabbit history.

With Jadon Janke back, defenses now have four threats to watch out for in the passing attack. Jaxon Janke currently leads the team with 205 yards and two

touchdowns on the season with true freshman Griffin Wilde sitting in second with 146 yards and three scores.

Tight end Zach Heins has been proving himself this season, taking up the starting tight end reigns after Tucker Kraft was drafted. Heins has two scores of his own with eight catches for 103 yards.

Saiveon Williamson has been the driving force on defense this season in the absence of star linebacker Bock. Williamson through four games has 26 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry.

Jason Freeman currently has 18 tackles and one tackle for a loss. Bock through just one game had 10 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack for a loss of eight yards.

Teams have been struggling to throw the ball on the Jacks this season, throwing four interceptions and 580 total passing yards against the No. 1 overall team in the FCS.

SDSU will host the University of Northern Iowa on Oct. 14 at 2 p.m. for the Hobo Day matchup at the Dana J. Dykhouse at 2 p.m.

Quarterback Mark Gronowski carries the ball in the Jacks’ 21-point victory over North Dakota Saturday at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.

Photo by JOCLYN HAVEN