#south Dakota university

[coochiequeens]

Why would a drag show on a university campus ever be described as “family friendly?”

South Dakota’s regent board will devise a policy to “enhance the protection of minors” during campus events, following strong conservative backlash against a drag show at one of its universities.

The governing board, which controls the state’s six public four-year universities, voted unanimously at a December meeting to move forward with the policy, despite not having language drafted for it.

The Gender and Sexualities Alliance, an LGBTQ student organization at South Dakota State University that sponsored the drag show there, billed it as “kid-friendly” and appropriate for families to attend.

The new policy represents the latest in campus culture wars, which have also included fights after conservatives objected to critical race theory, a decades-old academic framework that describes racism as systematic.

A conservative movement has demonized drag shows performed in front of children. Republican policymakers have suggested drag artists are exposing children to sexually explicit routines and even gone so far as to accuse them of grooming young people. 

Drag supporters say the art form is not intrinsically sexual, that it only serves as a way to break gender norms and that no evidence exists showing children have been harmed at a drag show. 

Still, several state legislatures, including those in Tennessee and in Missouri, have recently introduced bills intended to curtail drag shows. 

Conservatives quickly registered their objections to the South Dakota State drag show. One Republican state representative, Jon Hansen, said on Twitter that he wrote to South Dakota State President Barry Dunn, telling him it was inappropriate for children to take part in the event. 

“Drag, as you likely know, is mostly cross-dressing men masquerading around as hyper-sexualized women, often times in scant lingerie,” Hansen said. “Drag is hyper-sexual by its very nature, and kids should not be invited to partake in this.”

So intense was the uproar that Dunn in November made a public statement clarifying the student group organized the event and did not dip into university funds to do so.

In December, the regents chimed in. The regent president, Pam Roberts, said in a statement then that the board asked university presidents to temporarily block minors from attending campus events sponsored by student organizations.  

“We respect the First Amendment, but none of us are happy about children being encouraged to participate in this event on a university campus,” Roberts said. 

Late last month, the board held an impromptu meeting to discuss the controversy. During that meeting, regents voted in favor of a new policy, directing their central office to craft one.

A board statement did not reference when regents will make a finalized version of the policy public. It said that in the interim, officials “will review all upcoming events involving the presence of minors on campus to confirm adequate protocol and safeguards are met.”

Another Republican state senator, Julie Frye-Mueller, told the regents at an earlier December meeting she intended to file a bill restricting drag shows in the state.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

How bananas can be used to fight the plastic waste crisis

Bananas are one of the most popular and widely consumed fruits in the world. They are also the fourth most grown crop in the world, trailing only rice, wheat and corn. What could this tropical fruit have to do with fighting the ongoing plastic waste crisis? A lot, potentially, according to Srinivas Janaswamy, associate professor of food chemistry in South Dakota State University's Department of Dairy and Food Science. His study, titled "Biodegradable packaging films from banana peel fiber" was published in the journal Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy. "Many of us consume at least one banana a day," Janaswamy said. "After enjoying the delicious fruit, we discard the peel. What if we could find a use for the peel that helps eliminate plastic waste?"

Read more.

[dailyoceanoconnellrosenberg]

Today's Ocean is Rachel Maggert from The University of South Dakota!

[ttheatre-trashh]

RAHHH SPACEDOLLS

[athleticperfection1]

South Dakota Soccer

[reasonsforhope]

“The 45,000 or so residents of Dunn County live off on the western side of Wisconsin, not far from central Minnesota, but not close to much of anything. Like other rural counties, it leans heavily Republican, going by double digits to Donald Trump in 2020. This year, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., notched a 14-point margin there, and Tim Michels beat the incumbent Democratic Gov. Tony Evers by 9 percentage points.

But when it came to health care, Dunn County voters said they would support a national health insurance program. The overwhelmingly Republican residents of this farming community approved a ballot measure that affirms their support for a single-payer public health insurance program. The idea, which passed 51-49, ran 11 points ahead of Evers, who was reelected statewide, and 16 points ahead of Senate candidate Mandela Barnes.

The largely unnoticed rural election result affirmed support for nationalizing and expanding health insurance, a program popularly known as Medicare for All. While the national media discourse about the election largely ignored health care issues beyond abortion rights, voters across the country registered support for progressive reforms focused on improving health care access and reining in the for-profit industries that dominate the medical system.

In Arizona and South Dakota, like in Dunn County, progressive health care initiatives outpaced Democratic Party candidates by a wide margin. Arizona voters passed Proposition 209, a measure that reduces the allowable interest rate for medical debt and expands exemptions for what can be garnished by medical debt collectors, with a landslide 72 percent in favor. South Dakota became the 40th state to expand Medicaid coverage, making an additional 40,000 residents eligible.

Oregon passed Measure 111, making it the first state to enshrine a right to “cost-effective, clinically appropriate affordable health care” for every resident in the state constitution. In Massachusetts, voters enacted Question 2, which forces dental insurance companies to spend at least 83 percent of premiums on actual dental care, rather than administrative costs and profits...

The support for an expanded public support for health care across the country gives the administration a mandate as it drafts rules implementing key provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which allows Medicare to negotiate prices on the costliest prescription drugs covered by the program.” -via The Intercept, 11/29/22

[petsincollections]

Mules skidding logs, undated

Caption: "Artillery mules from Ft. Meade skidding logs. Tornado area in background. Custer sawmill camp. Harney."

Black Hills National Forest Historical Collection

Digital Library of South Dakota

[harriswalz4usabybr]

Saturday, September 14, 2024 - Kamala Harris & Tim Walz

Hitting the campaign trail today in Mukwonago High School gear on the heels of last nights great game in Wisconsin. The Vice President was happy her team won the friendly bet and looks forward to pictures from the principal of Muskego High School on Monday.

Today the campaign was focused on Governor Walz's state of Minnesota and South Dakota. The 'official' campaign schedule is below.

Rochester, MN Event Location: Mayo Clinic Event Type: Facility Tour and Industry Leader Meeting Event Time: 9:00 - 11:00 CT *Mayo Clinic is a juggernaut in the healthcare industry. The campaign was honored to tour the facilities while also meeting with some clinicians and healthcare professionals. Healthcare is a key component of our campaigns policies.

Minneapolis, MN Event Location: Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota Event Type: Campaign Rally Event Time: 13:00 - 15:00 CT *Full-text of this speech will be available shortly.

Sioux Falls, SD Event Location: Wegner Health Sciences Library at the University of South Dakota's Sanford School of Medicine Event Type: Listening Tour Event Time: 19:00 - 22:00 CT *The campaign met with medical school students, faculty, and clinicians from across the state of South Dakota to host a listening tour to learn more about how policies shape healthcare, specifically in rural America. We know that health outcomes are not always the same, which garners concern from our campaign. We were honored to meat with over 300 guests during this evenings listening tour. We are hopeful that we can impact rural healthcare from the White House.

~BR~

[subsidystadium]

Jeff Berding continues to push for a new arena in Cincinnati, he cites other cities as successful. But are they?

For the third year in a row, FC Cincinnati co-CEO, Jeff Berding, has gone in front of the Cincinnati Regional Chamber and pushed for a new arena to be built, with or without a sports team attached to it. This year, Berding spoke about how the size of Cincinnati and the fact that many other cities of Cincinnati’s size have arenas. But I am writing this to discuss comments he made to the Regional…

[williamneilsonjr]

Jeff Berding continues to push for a new arena in Cincinnati, he cites other cities as successful. But are they?

For the third year in a row, FC Cincinnati co-CEO, Jeff Berding, has gone in front of the Cincinnati Regional Chamber and pushed for a new arena to be built, with or without a sports team attached to it. This year, Berding spoke about how the size of Cincinnati and the fact that many other cities of Cincinnati’s size have arenas. But I am writing this to discuss comments he made to the Regional…

[saykaa]

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[masterofthearcaneturtles]

Alternate US

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Could spent coffee grounds provide an alternative to plastic packaging?

Next to water, coffee is the most popular beverage on Earth and is the world's second most traded good, trailing only oil. It is estimated that humans drink more than 2 billion cups of coffee per day with over 60% of Americans having a cup each day. As a result, over 8 million tons of spent coffee grounds are disposed of on an annual basis. What if, instead of ending up in a landfill, those coffee grounds could be used as a sustainable, climate-friendly packaging material? While this may seem like wishful thinking, a new study from Srinivas Janaswamy, associate professor in South Dakota State University's Department of Dairy and Food Science, has revealed how spent coffee grounds can be made into biodegradable films—material that could one day replace plastics.

Read more.

[gazellesapphire]

How a South Dakota national park was robbed to extinction

[xtruss]

It Was A Popular National Monument, Until It Was Robbed To Extinction

— Saturday July 08, 2023

NEXSTAR — For decades, National Parks have served to protect sites with some sort of natural or cultural significance. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always go smoothly. That’s especially true for one former site.

In the late 1800s, ranchers in South Dakota’s Black Hills, near Minnekahta, stumbled upon fossilized prehistoric plants from the Cretaceous period — and lots of them. It wasn’t long before scientists from institutions nationwide caught wind of the discoveries and came to the area to buy up the fossils, Atlas Obscura explains.

Among the Scientists was Yale University Paleontology Student George Reber Wieland, who had already gained recognition for discovering the largest marine turtle ever documented, the Achelon Ischyros.

He also had a special admiration for fossilized cycads, even placing some among his backyard plants at his Connecticut home. Wieland was so interested in the fossilized cycads found in the Black Hills that in 1920, he filed for 320 acres of the land under the Homestead Act — after trying to convince federal lawmakers to designate the area as a national monument.

Yale paleobotanist George Wieland and NPS officials oversee a CCC field crew in a test excavation at Fossil Cycad National Monument, South Dakota, 1935. NPS photo

It wasn’t until the fall of 1922 that the land became known as Fossil Cycad National Monument, thanks to a designation from President Warren G. Harding. In his Presidential Proclamation, Harding said the monument deserved protection in order to preserve “rich Mesozoic deposits of fossil cycads and other examples of paleobotany.”

At the time, it was the third federally-protected site dedicated to fossils, according to the National Park Service. The first was Petrified Forest, declared a monument in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt, followed by Dinosaur National Monument, established in 1915 by President Woodrow Wilson.

Unlike Petrified Forest and Dinosaur, the situation wasn’t promising at Fossil Cycad by the time it received its designation.

Part of the problem was the environment. The focal points of Fossil Cycad National Monument — the fossils — were being eroded before more could be exposed, the NPS explains.

Those that were exposed faced another predator: humans.

“Fossil cycadeoids were being taken by the thousands for research purposes and to display in museums,” a report on the agency’s website explains. “The loss of the exposed petrified plant remains eventually left the site devoid of fossils and ultimately without a purpose to justify its existence as a unit of the National Park Service.”

Among the most egregious fossil collectors was the monument’s biggest advocate: Wieland himself.

“He had a scientific interest in the collection, but he almost seemed to become obsessed with the resource,” Vincent Santucci, a geologist and paleontologist with the National Park Service told the Capital Journal in 2014. Wieland is believed to have taken thousands of the fossil cycads from his beloved plot of land.

It wasn’t just Wieland. Despite small signs at Fossil Cycad warning tourists not to prospect, they would come and collect the fossils exposed, even though the monument never officially opened to the public. The more exposed fossils became, the more visitors the monument attracted, and the fewer fossils were left protected at the site.

Original sign for Fossil Cycad National Monument. NPS History Collection, HFCA-01244

To Wieland’s credit, historians say he did want to create a visitor center at Fossil Cycad, even if it was mainly to house his favorite collections from the site. And he often pushed for funding for the monument.

But, four years after Wieland’s 1953 death, and after the site had lost its most crucial resource, Congress de-authorized Fossil Cycad National Monument.

In 1955, Representative E. Y. Berry of South Dakota introduced legislation to abolish the monument, a report from the NPS explains. It was the NPS itself that requested the legislation be introduced. (At the time, visitors to Fossil Cycad probably would not have seen any fossilized cycad.) The legislation would later pass, and Fossil Cycad lost its national monument status, instead becoming part of the Bureau of Land Management.

The NPS released a statement amidst the abolishment, saying it “was requested by the NPS in line with its policy to eliminate from the National Park Service those areas considered to be of less than national significance.”

The legislation did stipulate that should fossils be found during construction or excavation, they would become the property of the federal government. That happened in the 1980s, according to NPS. In 2015, the BLM designated the 320 acres of the former monument as an ACEC, or area of critical environmental concern, protecting it from future mineral leasing, fossil gathering, development, and more.

Still, there are no signs or other indications of where the national monument even was anymore, instead serving as a reminder to “leave no trace and take only memories and pictures.” Meanwhile, the prospected cycads are now part of collections at Yale, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and other museums — and likely some private collections.