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CALENDAR ....................... 2 EDITORIAL ....................... 3 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT. ......... 4 SPORTS .......................... 6 HELP WANTED .................. 7 93°/ 72° Marc’s Remarks: Not opposed to trying yoga page 6 Salt Lake celebrates arts festival page 4 WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY VOL 84 ISSUE 6 TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013 WWW.WSUSIGNPOST.COM Weber State University has hosted both renowned and budding musicians from around the world with the Sid & Mary Foulger In- ternational Music Festival, running June 30 through July 13. The festival featured 15 guest artists, along with students from places as di- verse as Taiwan, California and China, with students ranging in age from 11 to 26 years old. Kimi Kawashima, fes- tival manager, said this is the first year the festival has been of this magnitude and had this sort of config- uration. Kawashima said that in the past, it’s been a week-long music camp, but expansions in the mu- sic department and dona- tions and support allowed a larger festival this year. The music festival brought in guest artists to teach music students in a two-week camp, including pianist Lydia Artymiw, vio- linist and concertmaster of the San Francisco Sympho- ny Alexander Barantschik, and violinist and concert- master of the Minnesota Orchestra Erin Keefe. Peter Mack, an award-winning Irish pia- nist and professor of piano performance at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seat- tle, Wash., came to WSU to perform and work with stu- International music sounds off at WSU PHOTO BY TYLER SAAL | THE SIGNPOST A group of music students participate in a demonstration with violins in the Val A. Browning Center at Weber State University. The gathering was for the international music festival at WSU. BY TYLER SAAL news editor | The Signpost dents at the festival. He said he was having a great time at WSU, especially sharing the experience with other artists. “Some of the other facul- ty are living legends,” Mack said, “so it’s been a real thrill and a real honor for me to be with them, because I’ve heard of them from afar, but I’ve never met them. And now we get to spend two weeks with them. For me, coming as a faculty member, that’s a real thrill.” Nicholas Maughan, a se- nior studying piano perfor- mance at WSU, was at the festival as an accompanist for students. “The great thing about summer music camp is you get to meet students and faculty from all over the country,” Maughan said. “So you start creating these relationships with people who will be your future col- leagues and relationships with teachers who really become mentors.” Maughan said he at- tended music camps as a child and is still in touch with friends and mentors he met at those camps. “You’re really with top-level players, so you get to hear amazing per- formances and you get to learn new pieces that you would not have dis- covered without having been in a place like this,” he said. “It’s really an in- tensive, really immersive kind of music-making ex- perience.” Misha Galant, who studies piano, traveled from the San Francisco area for the festival. He said he’d had a lot of fun and that he’d definitely come back again. “I like the teachers a lot,” Galant said. “They’re really helpful. I’ve got good advice.” Kawashima said host- ing the music festival Federal Stafford Loan (student loan) interest rates rose to 6.8 percent July 1, because the U.S. Senate was unable to come to an agreement on a bill passed by the House of Representatives, mak- ing Congress unable to come to a compromise by its June 31 deadline. A group of bipartisan senators, including Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, put together a compromise that would permanent- ly lock in a lower rate on student loans. However, the Senate majority lead- er did not agree. “What happened to- day in the Senate is unac- ceptable,” said Hatch in a press release shown on his website. “It’s time the President weigh in and get Senate Democrats to say ‘yes’ to our students who deserve a more af- Student loan interest rate now 6.8 percent fordable education.” Congress now has a daunting task ahead of it as its Aug. 5 summer break approaches. If the issue remains unre- solved, millions of stu- dents will be faced with the problem of whether or not they can afford a 6.8 percent interest rate on their student loans for fall semester, potentially causing the postpone- ment of their college ca- reer. “Getting an education is actually a dream of mine, and one I’ve been fighting for for the past three years,” said Weber State University senior Clarissa Parker. Parker, a creative writ- ing major and photogra- phy minor, said her cred- its qualify her as a senior, but that she still has a long way to go. Though the interest rate change won’t affect her until she graduates, she said that if Congress allows the rate to stay at 6.8 percent, she’ll definitely struggle with paying off her stu- dent loan debt while she breaks into her new ca- reer. The problem of stu- dent loan interest rates is becoming an annual occurrence for Congress. This makes it difficult for financial-aid councilors to map out long-term plans for students’ edu- cational careers. When it isn’t known what the rates The Student Involve- ment and Leadership and Weber State University Student Association offices are undergoing remodel - ing this summer to expand workspace and give more of a home to students in- volved in those organiza- tions. The offices are lo- cated in Room 326 of the Shepherd Union Building. Aaron Newman, direc- tor of leadership education and associate director for Student Involvement and Leadership, said the office was retrofitting the current space to better meet the students’ current needs. “When this was de- signed over five years ago, our organization was a much smaller entity,” New- man said. “We’ve gone from being an organiza- tion of approximately 60 students to just shy of 140 students.” Over that time, the Greek organizations on WSU’s campus lost their office space. Reconfiguring the offices allows providing office space and workspace for more of the WSUSA stu- dents. The remodeled offic- es will include a graphic artists’ studio, production room, storage and dedi - cated workspaces for the leadership team, diversity programming team, clubs and organizations, WSUSA Supreme Court, student senate, and Greek organi - zations. The remodeling began yesterday and is ex- pected to last roughly three weeks. SIL offices under construction BY TYLER SAAL news editor | The Signpost are going to be over time, it is very difficult to find that plan, said Congress- man Jim Matheson of the fourth district of Utah. Matheson said there are several reasons the compromise was unable to be met by the deadline; some officials are inter- ested in creating a broad- er reform and would like to further the discussion. “We shouldn’t hold the issue off and have rates go up on students,” Matheson said. “I don’t think that is fair. I think we should keep the rates low while a conversation is going on for ways to re- form the system.” Matheson and 169 of his 435 colleagues have signed on as sponsors for Bill H.R. 1595, which would keep interest rates at 3.4 percent for a two- year fix. Matheson said he feels that is the right step to take, but that he thinks Congress needs to take some long-term steps in the student loan program to create certainty over a longer period of time. Matheson also said BY SKYLER PYLE asst. news editor | The Signpost See MUSIC page 5 See LOANS page 5 GRAPHIC BY AUTUMN MARIANO | THE SIGNPOST “I think we should keep the rates low while a conversation is going on for ways to reform the system.” JIM MATHESON Utah congressman THE
