Tiospaye Celebrates 50th Wacipi This Weekend

     This weekend, Tiospaye Student Council will host its 50th annual Wacipi, a cultural celebration of tribal traditions for both students and alumni.        Anna Harlan, co-president of Tiospaye Student Council and member of the Omaha tribe, said the student council has taken an interest in extending invitations to the community.    […]

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Vermillion Commission Seeks Student Representative

Vermillion’s Human Relation Commission is seeking a student appointee for the upcoming school year. The Human Relations Commission was established six years ago, focusing on preventing discrimination and advocating for Vermillion residents who have experienced discrimination. The commission works alongside the Vermillion City Council to settle cases where residents may have experienced discrimination related to […]

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Unity Week End with the Unity Ball

Throughout next week, the College of Fine Arts will be sponsoring Unity Week. This is a week-long event to celebrate diverse experiences, stories and journeys at USD with multiple events and panels.  President of the Union of African American Students (UAAS) Bennett Clary said they were unable to secure the MUC Ballroom for the spring […]

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South Dakota Book of the Year Author Visits USD

On Sept. 15 the South Dakota Book of the Year author made a visit to Farber Hall. Nick Estes is a historian based out of Minneapolis. His novel, “Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance” was published in 2019 and won the 2022 […]

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Dispatches from the CDC: celebrating differences at USD

This is the second installment of a series recording the experiences of students and faculty involved with the former Center for Diversity and Community. The Center for Diversity and Community (CDC) housed many different organizations on campus. Tiospaye Student Council was one of the student organizations housed within the CDC. Although the CDC was dismantled, […]

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Opportunity Center stakeholder meetings held, planning for Opportunity Center continues

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Volante’s Bennett Clary and Miles Amende contributed for this article. The third and final Opportunity Center stakeholder meeting was held Oct. 25, in which members of the Opportunity Center Task Force met with the Student Government Association (SGA) and the Environmental Club to gather input on how the center should operate.  Laura McNaughton, university President Sheila Gestring’s chief of staff, said the plan is for the […]

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Native American Day celebrated in South Dakota

This year, for the first time in history, the United States president recognized the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In 1990, Columbus Day was changed to Native American Day in South Dakota. USD student Rachel Overstreet is the new Tiospaye Student Council president.  “Indigenous people, especially in South Dakota and in the […]

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USD opens new mentoring program called Peer 2 Peer

September was Suicide Prevention Month and USD has opened a new mentoring program called Peer 2 Peer. The program connects USD students struggling with mental health issues with a peer mentor to help support them at USD.  Shelea Schloss, a graduate assistant with the Student Counseling Center, said she believes Peer 2 Peer will help […]

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Tiospaye receives budget exemption for Wacipi

Tiospaye Student Council received a budget exemption for their annual Wacipi at this week’s SGA meeting. The Tiospaye Student Council petitioned SGA to appeal the vote from last week to deny the budget exemption.  “In previous years, SGA has been generous in giving us this exemption,” Tiospaye President Julianna Benge said. “With the knowledge that […]

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SGA denies Tiospaye budget exemptions, cuts Spectrum budget

USD’s Student Government Association (SGA) discussed exempting some budget allocations for the Tiospaye Student Council, a Native American student group on campus, in order for the student organization to properly award dancers at their annual Wacipi, the largest cultural event at USD. Wacipi is a word loosely meaning “they dance,” and is similar to a […]

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