USD Students Allowed To Move Back To Dorm

University of South Dakota students forced to evacuate from Coyote Village Monday night were finally able to move back into their dorms on Thursday.

“It's nice to know where we are going to sleep at tonight because the first two days were kind of iffy. We didn't know if we were going to be able to move back or where we were supposed to go or sleep so it's really nice," said Machaela Mehlbrech, a sophomore at USD.

Nearly 500 students were displaced from the dorm after a water pipe burst on Monday night. While students are grateful the school provided them with a hotel and food, some said they wish there had been better communication on the university's part.

“We didn’t really know anything that happened until one or two in the morning when they sent out an email so I wish they would have told us what was going on,” explained Mehlbrech.

Due to the electricity being shut off, students were only allowed inside their dorms during daylight hours Monday and Tuesday. But after 5 P.M. the doors were locked and students weren't allowed in.

“It was just stressful coming back and getting stuff everyday because they kept telling us it was only going to be a day or two or only going to be a day. So we packed the bare minimum," said Marissa Miller, a sophomore at the university.  

While the residents of Coyote Village still had to go to class while they were displaced, they said teachers were very understanding of the situation.

“Our teachers have been cool. It happened Monday night so on Tuesday they sent out an email to all our teachers saying we aren't excused from class, but if we did miss for them to be understanding and they were pretty cool about that," said Benjamin Gardner, a freshman.

The University of South Dakota provided hotels rooms for the students as well as food while repairs being done to the residence hall.