This town isn’t your playground

We, the students of USD, are a parasite to this town.

That’s a bit dramatic, but it definitely gets the point across.  

University students everywhere are wondering how many days they have left on their campus before getting sent to their parent’s basement or cooped up in their apartment yet again. Amidst this wondering, there can be found quite a few college students who prefer to pack the bars to the brim and throw CDC guidelines out the window for a night of drunken fun. 

Most years locals of Vermillion cannot wait for the town to be filled with students again because that means football games, specifically Dakota Days, are coming.  

However, this year poses a different perspective. COVID cases are now dropping in Clay County and within USD’s campus, but before this week the numbers weren’t looking promising. 

Conversations started trending on Twitter about college students’ disregard for the towns they inhabit for 9 months of the year and how harmful their effects are on the townspeople.  

Vermillion is home to much more than just USD and many years, students seem to forget that. 

COVID is very evident in the lives of college kids today as over 500 students and staff were in isolation/quarantine just last week. Many chose to look at it from the perspective of their health and the health of those who also attend university.

The majority of students attending USD are between the ages of 18 and 25, the odd for a person of that age range to get sick and die of COVID isn’t high. However, according to the United States Census, over 12% of Vermillion’s population is over 65 years of age. That includes business owners, the old people grabbing coffee at HyVee and USD staff members.  

It is disrespectful and incompetent to believe that your actions as a college student don’t have an effect on the greater community of the towns we live in while in school.

“College towns,” as they are many times called, aren’t our playgrounds and we need to stop treating it as such.