Dear Editor, I am responding to the Aug. 30 opinion piece addressing the Honors Program curriculum. The Honors Program serves students of all majors and our courses are explicitly designed to be interdisciplinary in nature, allowing students to share their perspectives with one another. As a result, according to an exit survey of a 2016 […]

I politely disagree with Mr. Clay Conover’s assessment in the April 6 issue of The Volante that “high school literature classes are a waste of taxpayer dollars.” One of my undergraduate majors is in English and after 10 years in the banking industry, I decided to pursue my dream of teaching high school English — […]

To the USD Community: The South Dakota state legislature has considered legislation in the past few months that further marginalizes our lesbian, gay, bisexual and especially the transgender community. The Student Services division in cooperation with the President’s Council on Diversity & Inclusiveness would like to reach out to these important members of our USD […]

No matter who you are or where you come from, we all desire the same exact thing: to be treated with the same respect and dignity as our fellow humans. This is something we all want and need. Unfortunately, not all of us receive it. The incident we had several months ago, when pictures of […]

The University of South Dakota has, institutionally, continued to strive for an inclusive environment. While this is a great direction for the university, what speaks louder is that the students are taking action as well. As student representatives at a school where many efforts are being made toward making the campus more inclusive, the USD […]

The Volante has proudly been the “students’ voice since 1887” here on the campus of USD. However, there is a large group of students whose voice isn’t heard on campus and that is anyone with conservative beliefs. The front page article concerning Donald Trump is disgraceful. The title of ‘Questioning Hillary’ or ‘Questioning Bernie’ would […]

Kudos to the University of South Dakota and especially the Coalition of Addiction Students and Professionals Pursuing Advocacy (CASPPA) for inviting Chris Herren to speak on the topic of addiction. In both the sports world and addiction recovery community, Mr. Herren’s story and life are legendary. It was vital in many ways for student athletes, […]

The past few weeks in Vermillion have been eventful to say the least. Particularly Dakota Days have once again lowered the bar in terms of dignity and self-respect for the entirety of campus. The alleged sexual assaults have left a bitter aftertaste in everyone’s mouth, or at least they should have, because they serve as […]

Halloween at USD and in the community is a time of celebration and creativity, but it is also a time to be mindful of the university’s policy of creating a campus and community that practices and values inclusive excellence – where all should feel valued, respected and accepted. The President’s Council on Diversity and Inclusiveness […]

Dear Editor, Your article “First monthly grocery store trip draws one student” by Sydney Mook (Sept. 2, 2015) undermines the efforts of Student Services in promoting diversity at USD. I want to surface few of the many initiatives led by Student Service, Center for Academic and Global Engagement (CAGE) and Center for Diversity that benefit both […]