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M i k a y l a K a p p [email protected] • 678 • 3196 With the release the 2015
USUSA Elections Packet in December, it was revealed that the student body president’s compensation was increased by $8,000. On Feb. 18, the executive coun-cil passed a resolution “to secure
all USUSA Scholarship Funds.” The resolution, ECR 2014-01, was debated several days earli-er, and many council members expressed concerns about con-f lict of interest — the funds they were allocating would affect their own scholarships. Steven Mortenson, then busi-ness senator, said in the meet-ing that he “(had) a problem
with the conf lict of interest.” He felt that the people who would receive the scholarship the next year shouldn’t make the deci-sion. “The student government didn’t feel right giving them-selves a raise, but they did feel right (about the) administration doing it,” said Student Body President Douglas Fiefia.
Ultimately, the council agreed with Mortenson and the bill passed without the addition of increased compensation. However, there was a compen-sation increase this year. Beginning this year the stu-dent body president’s annual stipend and scholarship total is $17,000. Last year it was $9,000— a 89 percent increase.
The elected members of the executive council’s compensa-tion went from $6,600 in 2014 to $8,400 this year— a 27 percent increase. None of this could be account-ed for in the executive council’s meeting minutes; ECR 2014-01 specified that the council’s bud
Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015 • www.usustatesman.com • (435)-797-1742 • Free single copy
the utah
Graphic by Mikayla Kapp
CensoredThreats and attacks inspire dis-cussions of freedom of speech
Two distinct events — a ter-rorist threat on a U.S. movie studio in November and 12 cartoonists killed in France this month — brought the sub-ject of free speech to the fore-front of global conversation. Late last year, Sony Pictures discovered a cyber hack had collected over 100 terabytes of stolen data. These hackers made terrorist threats if “The Interview,” a comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, was released in theaters. On Jan. 7 the off ices of Charlie Hebdo, a Parisian satir-ical magazine, were attacked. The shooting left 12 dead and 11 wounded. “This is the first time real-ly in our nation’s history that has provided an opportunity in which, when we exercise our freedom of speech, we are exer-
cising it for the entirety of the world,” said Matthew LaPlante, assistant professor of journal-ism at Utah State University. “The Interview,” a comedy depicting a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was originally scheduled for a Dec. 25, 2014 release date. The cyber hackers threatened to terrorize any theater that showed the film. “Remember the 11th of September 2001,” the hackers wrote in an email to Sony in December, as published in The Daily Beast. It’s still unclear whether these threats came from North Korea itself. Miles Vaughn, a sophomore majoring in biology, shared his thoughts on the movie and the related events. “The whole thing, their movie getting pulled because
USUSA budget adjusts stipends
A tradition of comedy
CHLOE HILLIARD PERFORMS her comedy routine in the Taggart Student Center Ballroom on Tuesday night as part of Traditions Week.
Kyle Todeecheene photo
Ancient plants examined by ecology center speaker
Hope Jahren, a professor at the University of Hawaii who studies ancient plants, visited Utah State University Wednesday as part of the Ecology Center Seminar Series. Jahren spoke at 6 p.m. last night and will continue to interacting with students and faculty today until her second speech at 4 p.m. “Dr. Jahren’s work on ancient and modern ecosystems is really exciting,” said Andrew Durso, co-chair of the Ecology Center Seminar Series committee. “She takes fossil plants and looks at their stable isotope chemistry to find out what ancient climates were like.” Jahren said she is interested in how plants have survived through periods of climate change and how they will adapt to environmental change in the future. “Our environment is changing a lot right now,” Jahren said. “What will that mean for plants as we move forward, not
just in our lifetimes, but in 100, 200, 300 years from now?” In addition to her background in research, Durso said Jahren was invited because she writes a blog about being a woman in academia entitled “Hope Jahren sure can write.” He said it might invite conversation among students. Jahren said it used to be rare to be a
woman in her f ield and that changed the way she did science. “ I s o l a t i o n leads to inde-pendence, and I think when you don’t f it the mold, you have the o p p o r t u n i t y to embrace
doing things differently,” Jahren said. She said being in academia is a lot of work, but it is important to “stay close to the part of it that you love.” “I think that we always have to first and foremost keep in touch with how learning makes us grow as people,” Jahren said. She expressed that there is always something new to learn, even though peo
4By Melanie Christensenstaff writer
4By Brenna Kellystaff writer
4By Whitney Howardstaff writer
jSee THREATS, Page 3
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What will that mean for plants as we move forward, not just in our lifetimes, but in 100, 200, 300 years from now?
Hope Jahren ecology center speaker
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jSee PLANTS, Page 2
News
Students collect canned goods for the hungry Several student organiza-tions are holding food drives to help feed the hungry this holiday season. Since the beginning of October, Hane Crevalari, a sophomore majoring in inter-national business, and 10 volunteers have been stand-ing in front of Smith’s Which Smith’s? from 1-3 p.m. every weekend trying to get shoppers to donate canned goods. They will continue through the first two weekends of November. The donated food collected by Crevalari’s group will be donated to the Cache Valley Food Pantry. So far they have collected almost 2,000 pounds with a goal of collecting 2,500 pounds. They have been rais-ing awareness through Aggie Radio, Facebook events and
posters around campus. They also encouraged students to donate food at PoBev for donat-ing three cans. On Thursday from 6-7:30 p.m. stu-dents and community m e m b e r s are invit-ed to sort through the 2,000 items of canned goods at the food pantry. “I believe it’s good because it is really hard to get food this holiday and win-ter season, especially if you have families with a lot of children,” Crevalari said. “It only costs a dollar to buy a can
of food and it really helps get food to those who really need it, and it makes a difference in their life.”
The Val R. C h r i s t e n s e n Service Center is also hold-ing a Stuff-A-Bus event every Monday this month from 7-9 p.m. V o l u n t e e r s go house-to-house handing out bags for c o m m u n i t y members to f ill with non-p e r i s h a b l e goods. Later, students are “ s t u f f e d ” into an Aggie
Shuttle and driven around the community, collecting the bags.
According to Chloe Raphael, a volunteer with the service center, Stuff-A-Bus is the larg-est food drive in Cache Valley. The goal this year is to raise 5,000 to 10,000 pounds of food items for the Cache Valley Food Pantry. Many groups on campus participate, including several fraternities and the Student Alumni Association. The ser-vice center will also be collect-ing food for the last two home football games at Romney Stadium. The USU Office of Global Engagement will be holding “Mr. and Miss International” on Nov. 22, during International Education Week. Students can bring canned food and receive a dollar dis-count on the regular price of admission.
4By Deonna Edgarstaff writer
FRESHMAN SUZANNE RHODES and senior Nick Pontifex weigh donated food.
Annie Hall photo
It only costs a dollar to buy a can of food and it really helps get food to those who really need it and it makes a differ-ence in their life.
Hane Crevalari business major
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www.usustatesman.com
s i n c e 1 9 0 2
Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014
FIRED.Trigger warning and editor’s note: The following article con-tains references to sexual assault
that could be triggering to some. The Utah Statesman respects the
privacy of victims and survivors of sexual assault by not disclos-ing identifying information, unless otherwise requested by him or her.
Following allegations of rape originally reported to the Logan City Police Department on Sept. 5, the assistant vice president of student engagement and diversi-ty was terminated by university administration. Marvin Roberts was placed on administrative leave Sept. 11, followed by dismissal from his position Sept. 18. “We became aware of the sit-uation and took immediate action,” said Tim Vitale, execu-tive director of public relations and marketing for USU. “Once we found out, once we did our own review, we immediately put Mr. Roberts on administrative leave, conducted further review and determined that it would be best to terminate him.” Vitale said Roberts’ dismiss-al is a personnel matter, and university policy dictates that reasons for termination are not
disclosed. According to the LCPD report, officers received a call in early September for a pos-sible rape involving Roberts. The report includes details that Roberts invited the vic-tim to his home, where the events occurred. The report cites that the Cache County Attorney’s Office reviewed the case and that charges against Roberts have been declined due to insufficient evidence. Reporters from the Utah Statesman attempt-ed to contact Roberts on Wednesday, but he said he was not available to make a comment at that time. Roberts was hired for the position in July 2013, which did not exist before he held it. Vitale said Roberts was
not required to go through a competitive hiring process due to Human Resources policy 385 entitled “Appointments of Opportunity.” This policy allows the foregoing of usual procedures in cases involving “Affirmative Action” and “Institutional Need” with the approval of the Office of the President for positions in non-academic areas. Roberts was a student at Utah State University in the late ’60s and early ’70s. According to the National Retired Basketball Players Association website, he received national attention for his performance in the Elite Eight of the 1970 bracket. He was eventually drafted and played for multiple teams in the ABA as well as the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA after the two organiza-tions merged. He returned to USU as an employee more than four decades later in July of 2013, as previous-ly stated. Alec Player, a sophomore majoring in biology and anthro-pology, expressed disappoint-ment with the loss of that level of administrative representation. “From my perspective, just my experience as a student, the posi-tion was created, and it created a resource that we hadn’t had before. It was like suddenly there was an ally in diversity affairs for the university,” Player said. “Suddenly, to lose that the way we lost it is just kind of frustrat-ing that someone we thought we could rely on ended up not being reliable.” Vitale said the university is not actively searching for Roberts’ replacement at this time.
— Mariah Noble, Manda Perkins and Jeffrey Dahdah contributed to
this report.
University administrator terminated after accusations of sexual assault
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Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014
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USU wins campus cup despite low voter turnout
According to the Cache County Clerk’s office, 40 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots in Utah, a historic low that has not been matched since 1960. However, Utah State University active stu-dent electorate did win the Campus Cup, a voter registration competi-tion hosted by the Lt. Governor’s office. Within the eight voter precincts on and near campus, 4,905 people registered to vote, and 897 of that number voted this election. For campus elections last spring, how-ever, 3,693 students participated. “I would imagine more students actually vote in our student elec-tions than government elections,” said Casey Saxton, student advo-cate vice president. “I think it’s probably because the students feel like the student elections here impact them more, and it’s also easy to vote. You just log in on a website and vote. The government election voting process is a bit more complicated, and you have to register to vote.” The Government Relations Council (GRC) is group of 21 stu-dents appointed to advocate for student interests in various politi-cal settings. Around election time, their primary concern is for voter registration and student voter turnout. In 2012, at 51 percent voter turnout, Utah ranked thirty-ninth nationally in voter participation. “What we hear is there’s not a lot of really competitive races,” said
Justin Lee, deputy director of elec-tions for the Lt. Governor in an interview with Utah Public Radio. “I think — and other people think this, as well — that it’s the compet-itive races that really drive some turnout.” Saxton agreed. “I think that because races aren’t competitive all the time in Cache Valley, it just causes people to not really be interested in voting,” he said. USU recently won the Campus Cup, a trophy which distinguishes the university from other Utah col-leges for higher voter participation. “Part of the competition was voter registration, and at Utah State we registered 910 students to vote,” Saxton said. “Part of it was a social media component, which was simply meant to drive voter turnout since we can’t track who actually does vote.” After voting, students were encouraged to post a picture of their “I voted” sticker or sealed absentee ballot to Twitter, Instagram or Vine with #usuvotes. “This Campus Cup is a win for all of us,” said Ian Nemelka, GRC member. “With this victory, Utah State has once again proved that we want to be heard. We put a lot of effort this year into getting stu-dents excited about voting — and not just voting, but making an edu-cated vote. We know students are busy, so we try to be the advocates between them and the state and local governments. This way the students can still stay involved and
Students celebrate Asian culture
THE ASIAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION hosted an event called Finding Asia: Origins in the Taggart Student Center on Saturday. The event showcased Asian Culture. Stephen Merkley (top left) dances at the event and Nini Pongpommard, 9, performs the Thai candle dance.
Ryan Costanzo photos
International education week showcases diversity
To celebrate the diversity of countries represented at Utah State University, the Off ice of Global Engagement and International Student Council has set up International Education Week from Monday to Saturday. The week will start with “Around the World Family Night,” which Marci Falvey, study abroad staff assis-tant in the Office of Global Engagement, said will be an awareness night of all the cul-tures on campus. “Each country will have its own booth and the students will be behind the booth,” Falvey said. “And they’ll have different activities for kids.” Though Falvey did not give specifics about which activ-ities would be featured, she said they may include cook-ing. She said last year there was an origami booth. According to a press release sent out by the Office of Global Engagement, there will be a study abroad photo contest from Monday to Thursday. It will take place in the second f loor of the Taggart Student Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Students will be able to vote on the photos in several cat-egories: Aggie spirit, people and places.
On Friday singer Alex Boyé will come speak at USU. Falvey said he is expected to sing that day as well. The week will end with Mr. and Miss International on Saturday where internation-al students will compete by showing off their culture with native dress, videos and mul-ticultural talents. “That’s probably the high-light of the week every year is that contest,” Falvey said. “It really puts in the forefront our international students in things that they don’t get to do here very often, which is wear their traditional clothes and do their talents from their own countries.” Yuzhen Luo, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering and member of the International Student Council, said American stu-dents can also take part in the contest. “America itself does, I believe, have their own cul-ture,” Luo said. “If it’s like a mix of different cultures, if you can bring all of that on-stage, that will be bril-liant.” Falvey said the purpose of International Education Week is to promote aware-ness of the opportunities USU students have to study abroad
4By Brenna Kellystaff writer
jSee VOTE, Page 2
4By Chris Campbellstaff writer
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897
People who actually voted
People voted in mid-terms
People vot-ed in student elections in the spring
People registered to vote
897
4,905
3,693
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M i k a y l a K a p p [email protected] • 678 • 3196
Experience the Campus Madness...
Submit a bracket by March 17 for a chance to win more than $1,000 in prizesUSUSTATESMAN.COM/BRACKETS
s i n c e 1 9 0 2
‘Clery
sex offenses (forcible)
2011 3
2012 6
2013 5
Dating violence
2011 n/a
2012 1
2013 2
Stalking2011 n/a
2012 2
2013 5
Burglary2011 n/a
2012 2
2013 5
Drug Arrests
2011 17
2012 13
2013 13
Liquor Arrests
2011 25
2012 38
2013 85
CampusOn
Report’
s i n c e 1 9 0 2
www.usustatesman.comTuesday, Jan. 27, 2015
435-797-1742Free single copy
Utah State University’s Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report, more commonly known as the “Clery Report,” was released last week.
Under federal law, institutions of higher education are required to make security infor-mation available, including crime statistics for campus and the surrounding area. The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Police and Campus Crime Statistics Act requires institutions to maintain and release crime statistics for the previous three years; the most recent report con-tains statistics for the 2013 calendar year.
The largest increase of arrests on campus per-tained to liquor law violations, jumping from 38 arrests in 2012 to 85 in 2013.
To view the complete report including the fire safety portion visit www.dps.usu.edu and click on “Annual Camps Security and Fire Safety Report” on the left-hand navigation bar.
USU announces new coordinatorsThe Utah State ath-letic department announced the hir-ing of new offensive and defensive coor-dinators on Friday. Josh Heupel (left) will be the new offensive coordina-tor and Kevin Clune (right) will be the new defensive coor-dinator. For the full story see page 5.
Thakary Minson photos
“Crafting a Continuum” exhibit comes to NEHMA
A knitted superhe-ro suit, combs weaved into wall art and pottery sculpted by blindfolded women are all now on display in the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art as part of its new exhibit, “Crafting a Continuum: Rethinking Contemporary Craft.” The exhibit, which opened to the pub-lic on Jan. 23, is a trav-eling exhibition from the Arizona State University Art Museum. It replaced NEHMA’s pre-vious upstairs exhibit, “Enchanted Modernities: Mysticism, Landscape and the American West.” The exhibit features the artwork of more than 60 American and inter-national artists from the
1950s to the current decade. Adriane Dalton, assistant curator at the museum, said only one piece in the exhibit is completely two-dimen-sional. “ ‘C r a f t i n g a Continuum: Rethinking Contemporary Craft’ is a unique exhibition for our students because most of the objects in this exhibition are t h r e e - d i m e n s i o n a l , sculptural objects,” said Katie Lee Koven, the museum’s director. The exhibit “paints a broad picture of what is happening in craft right now,” Dalton said. She said “Crafting a Continuum” shows the “blurring line” between craft and decorative art. “Formally in art histo-ry, craft and decorative art fall into separate catego-ries,” Dalton said.
Craft was once loosely defined as an individual craftsman who created art with a medium he was skilled in — most com-monly ceramic, metal, f iber, glass or wood, Dalton said. Decorative art, she explained, was once cre-ated by guilds of artists
for upper-class buyers to decorate their homes. “There are no longer distinctions and neat categories,” Dalton said. “It is my opinion that the sep-aration of these cat-egories is less to do with actual creation of works than it is to do with the social percep-tions.” One of the eye-catching art-ists, according to Lee Koven, is Mark New port, whose inspiration for his
knitted superhero suit and embroidered comic book is to question masculine gender roles. She said Sonya Clark, who wove together dozens of combs, is also an artist of note. “Her work is about iden-tity in the sense of being an African-American woman,” Lee Koven said. “Most of her work has to do with hair.” Pottery sculpted by Claydies, consist-ing of blindfolded Danish women, is also on display. “They’re making vessels and dinner-ware, but they’re doing it blindfolded as a different way of interacting with the material,” Dalton said. The exhibit is the inspiration for many of this semes-
ter’s events at the muse-um, the f irst being the Contextualizing Craft and Design Symposium, which will be held Friday and Saturday. The symposium will feature many keynote speakers, such as Jenni Sorkin, Del Harrow, Glenn Adamson, Heather Lineberry and others. There will also be two panels about craft and design and a reception Saturday night at the Logan
Country Club. The symposium’s full schedule is located at ht t p://a r t museu m.usu.edu/htm/spotlight-news/ArticleID=27474. “Anyone is welcome to come and stop in for a session and for something that they are specifically interested in,” Lee Koven said. She said students and
community members are welcome to stay for the entire symposium. This semester’s Museum and Music series will also use “Crafting a Continuum” as inspiration for some of its events. Everyone can find some-thing they like at the events or the exhibit, Lee Koven said. “I think students will be very surprised at the seri-ous skill that goes into the making of these objects,” she said. “There’s also a lot of humor and a lot of fun that these artists and makers infuse into their making process and into their ideas conceptually,” “Crafting a Continuum” will be on display until April 15. “It’s a really fun exhibit,” Lee Koven said. “Anyone visiting can enjoy some-thing.”
4By Manda Perkinsasst. news editor
4By Melanie Christensen
staff writer
Mark Bell photos
hitchedThe Utah Statesman Bridal Guide 2015
SAMI JO PHOTOGRAPHY
