Students Skate into a New Semester
Laughter, music and the steady glide of skates filled the Sanford Coyote Sports Center on Jan. 22, as the Campus Activities Board’s skate night offered students a lively break during the first weeks of the spring semester.
While CAB had previously thrown their first skate night last school year, planning for this year’s skate night started around late November, right before students left for winter break.
“The planning was super fun,” Karley Stands, Co-President of CAB, said. “We had started originally with just skate night, and then we wanted food, so we decided to have concessions. Then we got a character artist here and a photo booth. We just hoped that people would just come and enjoy, even for the people who aren’t skating.”
Nostalia Rivera is a student that attended the event after seeing CAB’s Instagram post. She has skated previously and thought that the event would be a good stress reliever to help with the first few weeks of classes. While she has plenty of skating experience, she shares this piece of advice to new skaters.
“When I first started, it’s so discouraging to always be falling and going slow and seeing people zoom past you,” Rivera said. “The feeling of getting it is so good, and I always just want to share that to people, so if I can help them get it, then that’s my goal.”
Tyler Larson was told about the skate night from Rivera, and invited his whole friend group to come. He has skated a lot back home in Rapid City and had a lot of fun at CAB’s event.
“I feel like the semester started off kind of slow, so it’s kind of nice to have a big kickoff event where everybody could kind of come together,” Larson said.
Around 140 students attended CAB’s skate night. Nadia Wipf, Co-Director of Programming and Logistics, said that no matter if people attended alone or with others, they saw so many different groups of people.
“We’ve seen different friends and we’ve seen people skate around,” Wipf said. “There’s pros, there’s people probably skating for the first time. It’s just a lot of different people around campus having fun.”
One of CAB’s main goals is to have fun. Skate night was an event that aimed on keeping vibes high, making memories and people getting out of their comfort zones.
“I’m so happy that people are getting out of their comfort zones comfortably, and I’m glad that they’re comfortable with CAB to do that,” Stands said. “I’m so excited that they’re able to come and enjoy experiences with their friends, whether they tried it or not.”
CAB will be tabling at the Spring ‘26 Student Organization Fair in the MUC on Wednesday, Jan. 28, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Their next event will be two days later, on Jan. 30. Their annual Coyote Night is themed after Nickelodeon, but with a USD-themed twist, called MUCelodeon. It will take place in the MUC from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m., and will feature an obstacle course, photo booth, free food and more.
