Fences went up on Feb. 15 to mark off a portion of the HPER field where a new thermal energy storage tank (TES tank) is being built. Darrell Hart, associate vice president of Facilities, said the central cooling plant on campus is running out of the air conditioning capacity needed to satisfy all buildings, but this tank will help remedy the problem. “We either had to buy another chiller or construct this tank,” Hart said. He said USU’s air conditioning system currently runs on four chillers, but the central cooling plant only has room to add one more chiller. Ben Berrett, director of Facilities Planning, Design and Construction, said “adding additional chillers doesn’t save money, this does.” Lorin Mortensen, mechanical engineer for USU Facilities Planning, Design and Construction, said the system could save the university around $100,000 per year in electricity costs. Berrett said, “That’s under current prices. Those savings could be larger if power rates go up.” “It saves us money by reducing the amount we pay for elec- tricity. We can run our chillers at night during the off-peak hours when energy costs are lower,” Mortensen said. “Typically, we run those chillers during the peak heat part of the day, which is also the time of peak energy cost,” Hart said. “Cold water storage will chill the water at night when energy costs are low.” Berrett said the tank is 30 feet tall, will hold 2 million gallons of water and will be completely buried under the HPER field by December of this year. He also said the field is expected to re-open at that time. In the wake of the Jan. 28 settlement of a multi-party lawsuit resulting from a tragic landslide that killed three people, Logan City officials look to develop the land where the slide occurred. “When we were going through the mitigation side of this lawsuit, the family was down there,” Logan City Mayor Randy Watts said. “I told them we felt, as a city, it’d be fitting that we put a memorial to the mom and her two children. When we get the thing cleaned up we can find out where that memorial would be positioned.” He said he pictures something similar to the Olsen Memorial Park on Canyon Road where a memorial for Merlin Olsen’s mother and father was established near their former homestead. On July 11, 2009, after heavy amounts of precipitation weakened a canal wall near 915 Canyon Road in the Island Neighborhood, sever- al tons of earth gave way. The resulting landslide demolished the home of Evelia Jacqueline Leavey, burying and killing her and her children Abbey Alanis and Victor Alanis Jr. The lawsuit was between plaintiff Victor Alanis Sr. – the husband and father of the deceased – and USU, UDOT, Logan City, Logan Northern Irrigation Co. and the former owner of the property. “It’s been a long, drawn-out process,” Watts said. “Now that the lawsuit is behind us, we can move ahead to making some great strides with what we’re doing to clean up Canyon Road.” Logan City Parks and Recreation director Russ Akina said he and the Mayor have dis- cussed turning the site into a public park of some kind once the city purchased the homes and cleared the area. “There are a couple of things that are going to need some attention,” Akina said. “That includes continuation of the stability of that slope.” The site is located at the foot of a bluff that supports Interstate 89 and USU property. Akina said most people think of a park as a place with baseball fields and volleyball pits. With the space that is available, he said it will most likely be more of a passive park with bench- es and easily maintainable plants. The trail that once ran along the canal was washed out by the landslide. Public Works direc- tor Mark Nielsen said City Council members have said they want the canal trail put back into use. The current national debt is not an immediate problem, said Michael Lyons, USU political sci- ence professor, Tuesday night in the auditorium of the TSC. According to usdebtclock.org, the national debt is above $14 tril- lion and a little over $127,000 per taxpayer. The debt problem isn’t urgent but it’s getting worse, Lyons said. Lyons spoke prior to the docu- mentary screening of I.O.U.S.A which was hosted by the College Democrats and College Republicans Lyons said there are a lot of misconceptions about the national deficit and debt in America. He said Republicans like to blame Democrats and social spend- ing programs for the debt, but Democrats like to blame George W. Bush and the two wars for the debt. The real problems and causes of the debt are more a matter of struc- ture, Lyons said. “We’ve always had deficit spend- ing,” Lyons said. “Our nation was born in debt.” Lyons said two senators for each state and representatives for con- gressional districts creates “very perverse spending incentives.” Tax money goes into a pot, then states get the money with no rela- tion to how much money they con- tributed to the pot, Lyons said. “The incentives are to take as much money out of the central pot as you possibly can for your district or state because somebody, some- where else, is paying most of the bill,” Lyons said. The other problem deals with two-year election cycles, which don’t exist anywhere else in the industrialized world. “It puts tremendous pressure on members of congress to take quick action that is momentarily satisfy- ing to members of their districts,” Lyons said. “It puts pressure on congress not to raise taxes.” Longer congressional terms and less frequent elections might make it easier for members of congress to shift their focus to long term instead of the short, Lyons said. Lyons quoted former president Jimmy Carter, who said, “Our tax system is a disgrace to the human race.” Lyons said that statement was an understatement. “Our tax system is a disaster,” Lyons said. We have a huge deficit right now because of the recession and high unemployment rates which lowers government revenues, he said. One of the best ways to fix our national deficit and debt problem would be to implement a national sales tax, Lyons said. This would make everything more expensive but it would give people more money to start with. Lyons said people with honest jobs that honestly pay their taxes are carrying the burden of dishon- est people like drug dealers who don’t very much in taxes. Having a national sales tax would solve that Utah Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.utahstatesman.com S tatesman The Campus Voice since 1902 Inside This Issue 3/02/11 Maranatha Baptist combines with the non- denominational Alpine Church on Main Street. Page 5 Aggie wom- en’s tennis defeated in-state rival Weber State at home. Page 8 www.utahstatesman.com Official Student Newspaper of Utah State University • “It’s All The News You Need!” Check out Big Blue’s Best Calendar, the best master calendar on campus. Send something in ... let people know what you’re up to. Wednesday, March 2, 2011 Logan City remembers three landslide victims Cooling tank may save money By DAN SMITH news senior writer By KEATON REED staff writer A GREEN SPACE WILL be landscaped at the site where the Logan Landslide occurred July of 2009 as a memorial for the tragedy which killed three individuals who were in their home. BRECK BYINGTON photo - See WATTS, page 4 - See SYSTEM, page 4 Career Fair suggests economic recovery MICHAEL LYONS, POLITICAL SCIENCE professor, addresses current issues involving national debt in an event including the College Republicans and College Democrats, Tuesday. CARL R. WILSON photo - See GOOGLE, page 4 - See TES, page 3 Lyons: Debt due to lack of structure By BLAZE BULLOCK staff writer By CATHERINE MEIDELL news editor With more than 130 companies attending Wednesday’s Career Fair, students will have a better chance at entering the post-graduation work field than they have within the last few years, said Melissa Scheaffer, associate director of USU Career Services. Randy Jensen, who is also an associate director of Career Services, said 120 companies registered to participate in the fair last year. Just as the number of companies registered for the Career Fair has increased, Scheaffer said she has seen the number of career opportunities she has informed students about increase.
Transcript
Fences went up on Feb. 15 to mark off a portion of the HPER field where a new thermal energy storage tank (TES tank) is being built. Darrell Hart, associate vice president of Facilities, said the central cooling plant on campus is running out of the air conditioning capacity needed to satisfy all buildings, but this tank will help remedy the problem. “We either had to buy another chiller or construct this tank,” Hart said. He said USU’s air conditioning system currently runs on four chillers, but the central cooling plant only has room to add one more chiller. Ben Berrett, director of Facilities Planning, Design and Construction, said “adding additional chillers doesn’t save money, this does.” Lorin Mortensen, mechanical engineer for USU Facilities
Planning, Design and Construction, said the system could save the university around $100,000 per year in electricity costs. Berrett said, “That’s under current prices. Those savings could be larger if power rates go up.” “It saves us money by reducing the amount we pay for elec-tricity. We can run our chillers at night during the off-peak hours when energy costs are lower,” Mortensen said. “Typically, we run those chillers during the peak heat part of the day, which is also the time of peak energy cost,” Hart said. “Cold water storage will chill the water at night when energy costs are low.” Berrett said the tank is 30 feet tall, will hold 2 million gallons of water and will be completely buried under the HPER field by December of this year. He also said the field is expected to re-open at that time.
In the wake of the Jan. 28 settlement of a multi-party lawsuit resulting from a tragic landslide that killed three people, Logan City officials look to develop the land where the slide occurred. “When we were going through the mitigation side of this lawsuit, the family was down there,” Logan City Mayor Randy Watts said. “I told them we felt, as a city, it’d be fitting that we put a memorial to the mom and her two children. When we get the thing cleaned up we can find out where that memorial would be positioned.” He said he pictures something similar to the Olsen Memorial Park on Canyon Road where a memorial for Merlin Olsen’s mother and father was established near their former homestead. On July 11, 2009, after heavy amounts of precipitation weakened a canal wall near 915 Canyon Road in the Island Neighborhood, sever-al tons of earth gave way. The resulting landslide demolished the home of Evelia Jacqueline Leavey, burying and killing her and her children Abbey Alanis and Victor Alanis Jr. The lawsuit was between plaintiff Victor Alanis Sr. – the husband and father of the deceased – and USU, UDOT, Logan City, Logan
Northern Irrigation Co. and the former owner of the property. “It’s been a long, drawn-out process,” Watts said. “Now that the lawsuit is behind us, we can move ahead to making some great strides with what we’re doing to clean up Canyon Road.” Logan City Parks and Recreation director Russ Akina said he and the Mayor have dis-cussed turning the site into a public park of some kind once the city purchased the homes and cleared the area. “There are a couple of things that are going to need some attention,” Akina said. “That includes continuation of the stability of that slope.” The site is located at the foot of a bluff that supports Interstate 89 and USU property. Akina said most people think of a park as a place with baseball fields and volleyball pits. With the space that is available, he said it will most likely be more of a passive park with bench-es and easily maintainable plants. The trail that once ran along the canal was washed out by the landslide. Public Works direc-tor Mark Nielsen said City Council members have said they want the canal trail put back into use.
The current national debt is not an immediate problem, said Michael Lyons, USU political sci-ence professor, Tuesday night in the auditorium of the TSC. According to usdebtclock.org, the national debt is above $14 tril-lion and a little over $127,000 per taxpayer. The debt problem isn’t urgent but it’s getting worse, Lyons said. Lyons spoke prior to the docu-mentary screening of I.O.U.S.A which was hosted by the College Democrats and College Republicans Lyons said there are a lot of misconceptions about the national deficit and debt in America. He said Republicans like to blame Democrats and social spend-ing programs for the debt, but Democrats like to blame George W. Bush and the two wars for the debt. The real problems and causes of the debt are more a matter of struc-ture, Lyons said.
“We’ve always had deficit spend-ing,” Lyons said. “Our nation was born in debt.” Lyons said two senators for each state and representatives for con-gressional districts creates “very perverse spending incentives.” Tax money goes into a pot, then states get the money with no rela-tion to how much money they con-tributed to the pot, Lyons said. “The incentives are to take as much money out of the central pot as you possibly can for your district or state because somebody, some-where else, is paying most of the bill,” Lyons said. The other problem deals with two-year election cycles, which don’t exist anywhere else in the industrialized world. “It puts tremendous pressure on members of congress to take quick action that is momentarily satisfy-ing to members of their districts,” Lyons said. “It puts pressure on congress not to raise taxes.” Longer congressional terms and less frequent elections might make
it easier for members of congress to shift their focus to long term instead of the short, Lyons said. Lyons quoted former president Jimmy Carter, who said, “Our tax system is a disgrace to the human race.” Lyons said that statement was an understatement. “Our tax system is a disaster,” Lyons said. We have a huge deficit right now because of the recession and high unemployment rates which lowers government revenues, he said. One of the best ways to fix our national deficit and debt problem would be to implement a national sales tax, Lyons said. This would make everything more expensive but it would give people more money to start with. Lyons said people with honest jobs that honestly pay their taxes are carrying the burden of dishon-est people like drug dealers who don’t very much in taxes. Having a national sales tax would solve that
UtahUtah State University • Logan, Utah • www.utahstatesman.com
StatesmanThe
Campus Voice since 1902
Inside This Issue 3/02/11
Maranatha Baptist combines with the non-denominational Alpine Church on Main Street.
Page 5
Aggie wom-en’s tennis defeated in-state rival Weber State at home.
Page 8
www.utahstatesman.com
Official Student Newspaper
of Utah State University • “It’s
All The News You Need!”
Check out Big Blue’s Best Calendar, the best master calendar on campus. Send something in ... let people know what you’re up to.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Logan City remembers three landslide victims
Cooling tank may save money
By DAN SMITHnews senior writer
By KEATON REEDstaff writer
A GREEN SPACE WILL be landscaped at the site where the Logan Landslide occurred July of 2009 as a memorial for the tragedy which killed three individuals who were in their home. BRECK BYINGTON photo
-See WATTS, page 4
-See SYSTEM, page 4
Career Fair suggests
economic recovery
MICHAEL LYONS, POLITICAL SCIENCE professor, addresses current issues involving national debt in an event including the College Republicans and College Democrats, Tuesday. CARL R. WILSON photo
-See GOOGLE, page 4 -See TES, page 3
Lyons: Debt due to lack of structureBy BLAZE BULLOCKstaff writer
By CATHERINE MEIDELLnews editor
With more than 130 companies attending Wednesday’s Career Fair, students will have a better chance at entering the post-graduation work field than they have within the last few years, said Melissa Scheaffer, associate director of USU Career Services. Randy Jensen, who is also an associate director of Career Services, said 120 companies registered to participate in the fair last year. Just as the number of companies registered for the Career Fair has increased, Scheaffer said she has seen the number of career opportunities she has informed students about increase.
11111111
Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.utahstatesman.com
World&Nation
Wednesday, Mar. 1, 2011Page 2
Gadhafi’s forces retake
towns near capital
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) – Moammar Gadhafi’s forces battled poorly armed rebels Tuesday for control of towns near the capital trying to create a buf-fer zone around his seat of power. The increasingly violent clashes threat-ened to transform the 15-day popular rebellion in Libya into a drawn-out civil war. Amid the intensified fighting, the international community stepped up moves to isolate the longtime Libyan leader. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he ordered two ships into the Mediterranean, including the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge, and he is sending 400 Marines to the vessel to replace some troops that left recently for Afghanistan. Army updates PT tests
for 1st time in 30 years
FORT JACKSON, S.C. (AP) – The Army plans to toughen its fitness tests for the first time in 30 years to make sure all soldiers have the strength, endurance and mobility for battle, adding exercises like running an obstacle course in full combat gear and dragging a body’s weight. Officials at Fort Jackson, a major Army training center, said Tuesday the new regimen would replace twice-a-year testing that focused on push-ups, sit-ups and a two-mile run. Trials are starting this month at eight bases and the plan could be adopted Army-wide after reviews later this year.
The policy of The Utah Statesman is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at 797-1762 or TSC 105.
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Monday, Feb. 21, 2011 –Top 10 Little Known Facts About United States Presidents
10. William Howard Taft was so fat, he’s considered our 27th and 28th president.9. Teddy Roosevelt answered the phone, “Helloosevelt?”8. The “K” in James K. Polk stood for “Kanye.”7. Like the cartoon cat, James Garfield loved lasagna and hated Mondays.6. To conserve energy, when possible, Jimmy Carter would travel via pogo stick.5. During one of his fireside chats, FDR accidentally burned down the map room.4. John Tyler was the only president to work his way up from the mail-room.3. Zachary Taylor’s vice president was a cocker spaniel named Angus.2. Our only unmarried president, James Buchanan, was fond of posing as his own first lady.1. George W. Bush was not born in the United States.
Calif. lawmaker pushes for gay marriage SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – California’s attorney general on Tuesday joined lawyers for two same-sex couples and the city of San Francisco in asking a federal appeals court to allow gay mar-riages to resume while the court consid-ers the constitutionality of the state’s voter-approved ban. The latest offensive against Proposition 8 came when state Attorney General Kamala Harris told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a letter that sponsors of the measure approved in 2008 were unlikely to prevail in their appeal of a trial judge’s ruling last year that struck it down. Keeping Proposition 8 in effect therefore is a fruitless violation of gay Californians’ civil rights, Harris said. “The public interest weighs heavily against the government sanctioning such discrimination by permitting it to continue,” she wrote. The move also came as supporters of gay marriage grow impatient with the slow pace of court proceedings. The California Supreme Court reiterated Tuesday that it would take at least until the end of the year to consider a legal
question asked by the federal court as it tries to resolve the appeal. Gay marriages have remained on hold until the 9th Circuit decides the appeal. Lawyers for the gay couples who successfully sued in the lower court petitioned the appeals court last week to lift the hold, as did the city of San Francisco. Harris also said the case for allow-ing gay marriages was bolstered by the Obama administration’s announcement last week that it would no longer defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the U.S. government from recognizing same-sex marriages. While not directly relevant to Proposition 8, the administration’s new position “substantially diminished” the likelihood the measure’s sponsors will be successful in their effort to get the lower court ruling overturned, she said. “Events have demonstrated that if the stay ever was justified, it is no lon-ger,” Harris said in her letter. Andy Pugno, legal counsel for the coalition of religious and conservative groups that put Proposition 8 on the
November 2008 ballot and campaigned for its passage, disputed the attorney general’s contention that the prospects for a successful appeal were any more dim now than they were last summer. “It’s a highly politicized case, and this is just a reminder that we need the initiative process exactly because state officials sometimes refuse to do their job,” Pugno said. “The fact that President Obama has made a carefully calculated political decision in no way changes the law and the role of the court to decide Prop 8’s validity.” Harris, a Democrat who previously served as San Francisco’s district attor-ney and who was a strong supporter of Obama’s in 2008, succeeded Gov. Jerry Brown as attorney general in January. Brown had refused to defend Proposition 8 in his previous role, as did then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Last year, both men asked the 9th Circuit to let gay couples marry during the appeals process. The push by Harris to quickly get same-sex marriage reinstated in California could further enflame conservative activists angered by the
administration’s declaration that it considered the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.
Officials: Harmful bacteria at Playboy Mansion LOS ANGELES (AP) – The bacte-ria that cause Legionnaires’ disease were found at the Playboy Mansion during an investigation into an illness that affected about 200 people who attended an event there last month, a health official said Tuesday. Other infection sources have not been ruled out as the cause of the ill-ness because the bacteria Legionella is common in moist places, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health director Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding said. “We are still considering several possible causes of illness,” Fielding said in a prepared statement. County health officials opened an
investigation Feb. 11 after attendees of an Internet conference reported symptoms mostly consisting of fever, chills, malaise and coughing. In a statement, Playboy spokes-woman Teri Thomerson said people at the mansion, which is listed as an asset of the media company, were cooperating with the investigation. “To date, there have been no confirmed cases of any respira-tory or other illness arising out of any Playboy Mansion function,” Thomerson said in the statement. Hefner has not left his residence, she said. “There has never been any rea-son for him to evacuate during this investigation,” Thomerson said.
The DOMAINfest Global Conference took place Feb. 1 to Feb. 3 with events at several hotels and a fundraiser at the Holmby Hills estate where Playboy founder Hugh Hefner resides. About 700 people from 30 coun-tries attended lectures and work-shops at the conference. The county is investigating the outbreak with state and federal health officials to track illness outside Los Angeles. Health officials declined com-ment on where the bacteria were discovered at the mansion, calling it only a water source. That could mean anywhere from a kitchen tap to the famed grotto, where Playboy bunnies have mingled with guests in
a hot tub. Legionnaires’ disease causes respiratory illness and its symp-toms include coughing, malaise, chills and fever. Fewer than 18,000 Americans are hospitalized for the illness every year. In annual financial filings, Playboy said the mansion is used for corporate activities, film and televi-sion production, magazine photog-raphy and charitable and civic func-tions. At least one major event is planned at the sprawling 29-room mansion in coming months. Hefner, 84, intends to marry fiancée Crystal Harris, 24, at the mansion this sum-mer.
Newt Gingrich prepares for White House bid IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The biggest obstacle to a Newt Gingrich presidential bid might be Gingrich himself. The twice-divorced former U.S. House speaker has admitted an affair with a former congressional aide who is now his third wife. His career in Congress is remembered as much for his dramatic fall – the federal government shutdown, his censure and the loss of Republican seats in the House – as his rise. His polar-izing style sometimes leaves would-be voters cold. “I don’t think it will be Newt’s moral issues that will keep him from winning the presidency,” said Tom Perdue, a Georgia-based GOP political strategist. “When he had a chance to govern, he proved that he couldn’t.” Unlike many candidates, Gingrich won’t have to struggle to make a name for himself. People already know Newt Gingrich. What remains to be seen is whether that hurts or helps him. “The problem for Newt may be that some voters know him too well,” said Ed Failor Jr. of Iowans for Tax Reform. “I think people can get past it, but it’s not going to happen overnight.” Failor met with Gingrich on one of Gingrich’s recent trips to Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state he has visited eight times since May 2010. The strategy Gingrich is using in Iowa provides a glimpse of how he might try to overcome his personal baggage to win the GOP nomination.
Gingrich, 67, is widely expected to take another step toward a run this week. He and his wife, Callista, have scheduled a meeting Thursday with Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, a key supporter. Gingrich’s lawyer, Randy Evans, has said the former Georgia congress-
man will announce the formation of an exploratory committee in the coming days and he expects it will happen in Georgia. As media attention surrounding the Georgia visit intensified, his spokesman Rick Tyler took pains to suggest that Gingrich was not traveling to the state with the intention to announce that he will form the committee. The trip is funded by his tax-exempt conservative group America Solutions for Winning the Future, which cannot endorse specific political candidates. Gingrich will hold a media session with Deal following their meeting. If Gingrich announces Thursday, he would become the first Republican to get into the race, giving him extra time to answer questions about his past and then try to turn the focus toward issues. as media attention intensified about the trip, campaign took pains to separate itself from America group and presidential ambitions resources used via group be used for presi-dential Any doubts that his personal life would flare up were erased during a speech at the University of Pennsylvania last week where a student confronted him about the affair. “I’ve had a life which, on occasion, has had prob-lems,” Gingrich replied. “I believe in a forgiving God, and the American people will have to decide whether that’s their primary concern.”
CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL Kamala Harris gives her
first news conference in Los Angeles in
this photo taken Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010.
AP photo
FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER Newt Gingrich
addresses the Conservative Political Action
Conference (CPAC) in Washington. The biggest
obstacle to a Newt Gingrich presidential bid might be
Gingrich himself. AP photo
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Meanwhile, Facilities asks for students to have patience as construction continues on the north end of the field. Berrett said that every precaution is being taken to ensure safety around the construction zone, especially considering the proximity of the Edith Bowen Laboratory school. He said large dump trucks and cement trucks will be coming in and out over the next few months. “It’s an inconvenience to students who want to use the field, but in the big picture it will save a lot of money,” Mortensen said. Berrett said that the project doesn’t only save money. “It is a buffer to our system, if our chillers go off line, the system can run off the tank until we get things restarted.” He said this is critical in temperature sensi-tive places, such as the USU data center, where campus servers operate. “This makes our chilled water system more stable and dependable.” He said. Hart said, “There was a power outage at the central energy plant and we couldn’t make chilled water, we started seeing problems in places like the data center within 15 minutes.” He said the new tank will be able to cool down the data center, and other places on cam-pus, in case of an emergency or if some mainte-nance is required at the central cooling plant. “We already have a small thermal energy storage tank used to cool the NFS building, we built that about five years ago and it works really well,” Berrett said. The overall cost of the project is about $2.5 million, but it absolutely saves money, Hart said. “Little maintenance will need to be done,” Mortensen said. “There will be some tempera-ture sensors that will need to be calibrated every few years.”
Berrett said, “There will be inspections on the inside of the tank for sediment and cracks and leaks, but it will be almost maintenance free.” Hart said this is a great time to start the project because construction companies are competitively seeking contracts. “There were eight or nine firms interested, and we narrowed that down to three firms who
drew up proposals and had ties to specialty tank manufacturers, and then we chose the best of the three,” he said. Hart said he feels the school is getting the best price, the best product and the best sched-ule that is available.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011 Page 3StatesmanCampus News
-Compiled from staff and media reports
Utah State University alum-nus Dr. Richard F. Daines, former commissioner of health for New York state, died suddenly of an apparent heart attack Feb. 26 at his family farm in New York. He was 60. Dr. Daines received a bachelor’s degree in his-tory from USU in 1974. He received his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1978. He is survived by his wife, Linda; his children, William, Katherine and Andrew; one grandson; and his parents, Newel and Jean of Logan, Utah; and sib-lings. News of Daines’s death was noted in The New York Times. He was earlier fea-tured in the summer 2009 issue of Utah State magazine.
Senior project will restore the “A” block Graduating seniors have the opportu-nity to donate $20.11 to help beautify the block “A” on campus as part of their senior gift. The senior gift is a 100-year-old tradi-tion centered on giving back. “It is our responsibility, as Aggies, to give back to this University. The senior gift can be our way to show gratitude for the experience USU has provided us,” Tessa Goodall, 2011 Senior Gift Chair, said. The block “A” was chosen as the bene-factor of the gift money because it is start-ing to sink to the East and the ground is a muddy mess during the winter months and True Aggie nights. If seniors donate by March 25, they will get a line in the commencement pro-gram to thank someone that contributed to their college experience, Goodall said. Past senior gifts have included the Utah State University sign on 400 North, the campus map next to the Eccles Conference Center, and the bike rack next to the Natural Resources building. There are three tiers to the Senior Challenge. First, if $1,500 is raised, a con-crete foundation will be laid underneath the “A”. For $5,000, brick pavers will be laid around the foundation to keep the area free of mud. Finally, if the senior class can raise $7,000, ground lighting will be added to light up the area. Seniors will be receiving phone calls from their peers February 28 to March 3 to learn more about how and where they can contribute, Bare said. The benefits of donating include one year free member-ship to the USU Alumni Association along with the pride of taking part in a 100year campus tradition, Goodall said.
Alumnus, N.Y. health commissioner dies
RICHARD F. DAINES
Museum event looks at holistic medicine The Utah State University Museum of Anthropology next presents “Holistic Medicine: Healing the Mind and the Body.” As a premiere event in the ongoing Saturdays at the Museum program, the day promises to provide new and interesting information on holistic and alternative healing prac-tices. The museum hosts six speakers for the event who will share their special-ties and experiences with the Cache Valley community. The presentations will be accompanied by an audience collaborated home remedy wall. During the day’s activities, families can make a medicine bag, and per-haps find something special to put in it, event organizers said. “The Museum is very excited for this Saturdays holistic healing event,” said program coordinator Melissa Allen. “We have never hosted an event of this scale, covering the many aspects of alternative healing and we are thrilled to have so many experts support this event to promote mental, spiritual and physical well-being.” The museum will be open for its normal operating hours on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Teams create green-friendly light fixtures
By the light of 17 fixtures built from objects like hangers, trash bags and packing peanuts, judges paced the stage with clipboards as they chose the winners in the Caine College of the Arts Design Star com-petition, Design Star, Monday night. Four winning teams went home with trophies topped by a golden light bulb and prize packages, some including Jazz tickets. Teams ranging from one to three people were given one hour to put together hanging lamp fixtures out of recyclable materials and a light. Kylee Groskreutz, president of USU’s chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers, said recyclable materials were the theme because it was cost effective and would push creativity. After coming up with design plans for their light, the 17 teams crowded the area where boxes and tables were piled high with everyday materials such as plastic office trays, cardboard tubes, duct tape, clothing hangers and beer cans. “On your mark, get set, design, go!” Groskreutz said. And they were off. Having not a second to lose, the competitors made a mad dash to the tables and boxes, some carrying away armfuls of hangers and cans, and set to work on their masterpieces. The team Baczuk, Buynak and Graves, who won the people’s choice award, was wrapping the light cord in wire and building an orb-like structure wrapped in clear plastic garbage bags to put around it. “We’re calling it Industrial
Sophistication,” said Ryan Lee, a sophomore in mechanical engineer-ing. Even the judges, ASUSU President Tyler Tolson and arts senator Alan Dangerfield decided to try their hand at making a light fixture. Dangerfield said he actually was going to sign up to compete, and then he was asked to be a judge, so he was excited for the opportunity to be involved.
“Alan, I think we should use this,” Tolson said, pointing at the table-cloth with the leftover materials. Proving that interior design is not just for interior design majors, peo-ple from different majors competed. “We just wanted everyone to come together and have fun,” said Trevor Keith Call, who teamed up with American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) from the U.S. Green Building Council to plan the
event. Freshman and English major Lauren Tuttle, of the team Edison Fuse, hammered plastic hangers into little pieces to hang suspended around her light. “I took an interior design class last semester, and I like it,” Tuttle said. Date night turned into success for husband-wife team Andrea and Jay Casto, who took the grand prize for their square-shaped light made of plastic office trays. “I liked having to think on the go about how to use things that you typically wouldn’t use for that,” Jay, a junior in business, said. Andrea, an interior design fresh-man, said it sounded like fun to compete, especially when she found out the event was open to more than interior design students. Two other prizes were for runners-up, which went to the team Marty’s Boyz, and most innovative use of materials, to Sean Arnold for his use of balloons. Though not everyone took home a prize package or a trophy, the com-petitors proudly showed off what they created. Sophomores in interior design Emily Williams and Dani Stoddard giggled over their creation of wire hangers hung with white gar-bage bags and embellished with red, white, and blue shoe laces. “We’ve been laughing the whole time, and that’s all that matters,” Williams said. Call and Groskreutz said they hope this will be an annual event for the Caine College of the Arts, and the lights will be displayed on cam-pus in the near future.
ALAN DANGERFIELD, SENATOR for the Caine College of the Arts
(left) and Tyler Tolson, ASUSU president (right) look closely at student teams’
light fixture designs that are made from recycled materials. STERLING BOIN
photo
A SITE ON THE HPER FIELD began construction Feb. 15 for the installment of a cooling tank that is
estimated to save USU $100,000 annually. CARL R. WILSON photo
ASUSU organizes seminar to teach leadership By STEVE KENTstaff writer
The Institute for Communication and Leadership, in conjunction with ASUSU officers, is offering a professional development seminar cover-ing topics such as interpersonal communication and conflict resolution. “We’re looking to help our students gain the edge in the job market,” said ASUSU president Tyler Tolson. The classes will be held from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on March 3, 17 and 31, in the Eccles Conference Center. ASUSU council’s cooperation, along with the ser-vices Eccles Conference Center have contributed to the lower cost of the training. Students may register for the event online for a fee of $40, and attendees who complete all three classes will be presented with a certificate of completion. Matt Sanders, assistant professor of speech com-munication is one of the founders of the Institute for Communication and Leadership. Sanders said that he wanted to provide students with training that they would otherwise have to get from a corporate
training program. To attend such a program, a resi-dent of Cache valley would often have to travel long distances and pay as much as $200. Price and location are not the only differences between the upcoming seminar and corporate train-ing; the seminar uses a different approach to teach-ing skills, Sanders said. “A lot of these programs will say, here are three things you need to do in order for people to trust you … it’s kind of a cause-and-effect silver bullet idea,” Sanders said. Through role playing exercises and assign-ments for the attendees to apply the skills they’ve learned, Sanders said that the content of the course is designed for group participation and immediate application. A large portion of course will focus on conflict resolution. “We’re all good with people, but we’re good with the people that we like to be good with and we like to be around. I think the bigger question is, can I be good with people when things are tough?” Sanders said. Sanders said that communication courses are
already offered at USU, but that availability is lim-ited and the classes often fill up the day they open. Tolson said he would like the seminar to become a regular event, giving more students the opportu-nity to attend. Several students have emailed him expressing desire to attend, though because of sched-uling conflicts they won’t be able to attend this time around, Tolson said. Bertha Morris, an undeclared sophomore hop-ing to enter the business program at USU is one such student. Morris said she found out about the seminar through the USU website and thought it would be a good way to gain marketable skills. If it were possible, Morris said she would like to see such seminars offered two or three times a semester for the benefit of students and faculty. “Because I’m a mother of four kids, I work full time, I go to school part time, I don’t have a lot of opportunities. When something like this comes along, I want to take advantage of it … so I can make more money for my family,” she said.
TES: Construction begins on cooling tank, school will save money -continued from page 1
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StatesmanCampus News Wednesday, March 2, 2011Page 4
“The number of employers who are attending the Career Fair really indi-cates the bounce back in the economy,” she said. “The employers come back because of the students that they see here.” This year, Google will attend the event, held in the TSC Ballroom and International Lounge from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Scheaffer said they will be a must-see booth because of 6,000 positions they must fill due to the company’s growth. In its 22nd year, the fair is the larg-est of its kind in the state of Utah, and anywhere from 3-5,000 students attend the event, however, Jensen said his goal is to increase the number of those who attend. Enterprise Rent-A-Car recruite Melissa Ceballos has been attending the USU Career Fair to find future employ-ees for nine years, ever since she got started in the recruiting program, and has seen several USU students hired into the company. “Finding students at the fair is really hit or miss,” she said, “but when it’s a hit the student comes prepared with a lot of work experience.” Out of Ceballos’ entire region, which includes Utah and Idaho, she said USU’s Career Fair is in the top three most ben-eficial to her company. She said they are open to hiring students from all majors. This year, 24 employers will inter-view students they meet during the Career Fair the day following, Schaeffer
said, so they will receive immediate results from the event. In addition to long-term career opportunities, student can find temporary occupations as well as internships. Some USU students signed up to be student hosts, which means they assist the visiting companies’ employers. USU initiated the first student host program in the state and Scheaffer said some of these students have been offered jobs dur-ing “hiring freezes” from the company they assisted. “We know having that face-to-face impres-sion, that human con-nection, is really valu-able,” Scheaffer said. There is not only one group of students who should consider attend-ing the Career Fair, Jensen said. Students who are unsure about what they are interested in studying may benefit from attending the fair and learning about their future career options, he said. Other students are reaching a point where they are seriously considering career options should “dress to impress” and be prepared with resumes. “The majority of students need to be able to assess their skills and show how they can add value to a potential
employer,” Scheaffer said. Upon arriving at the Career Fair, Jensen encourages students to find the information booths in order to view all of the companies that have attended. Those companies who will interview prospective employees the following day will be emphasized on the list. Scheaffer said the larger companies to expect at the event, in addition to
Google, include GE Energy, Goldman Sachs, Goodrich Corporation, Intermountain Healthcare and Rocky Mountain Power. “We have a lot of students that report back to us after having had success from the fair,” Jensen said. “We have a great response and we always get good feedback from employ-ers about the fair itself.” If nothing else, Jensen said, it is wise for any student to go for networking opportuni-ties they may not other-
wise have access to. “Whether a student is interested in engineering or non-profits, there is something there for them,” Scheaffer said.
Google: More companies attending fair, students given opportunity to network and apply for jobs
-continued from page 1
“The number of employers who are attending the Career Fair realyl indicates the bounce back in the economy. The employers come back because of the students that they see here.”
– Melissa Scheaffer, Career Services associate
director
“It’s always been our goal in the Department (Parks and Recreation) to connect parks with trails,” Akina said. “The location of a public park, that Canyon Road location and the canal would seem to make a lot of sense in terms of that idea.” Nielsen said the Canyon Road site is just over two acres of land and consisted of five separate properties. The Public Works Department has recently cleared a large portion of the area, which caused frequent road closings in order to allow bulldozers and other land moving equipment room to work. “We do have one more house that’s being closed on,” Nielsen said. “We now have all the houses that were involved in that slide.” Watts said most people didn’t realize there is a lot of nice property behind those Canyon Road homes. The owners of the last remaining piece of property were going to begin a lawsuit just before Logan City officials arranged to buy the land. “It’s unfortunate that the residents down there have had to put up with this eyesore for such a long time,” Watts said. “I really, truthfully could not move any quicker than the lawsuit moved along. As soon as the attorneys and the insur-ance people got that behind them, now we’re making prog-
ress.” In May, when the City Council does a budget review, Akina said the Council has asked that he present a priority list of capital projects – proj-ects that require city funding – that his department recom-mends for fiscal year 2012. He said there is an existing memorial on the property put in place by the survivors of the landslide victims that will be preserved by the city. There has been no talk, however, of naming the park in honor of those victims. “There aren’t any resources at the time, in terms of what to work with,” Akina said. “We would be working with the City Council as this firms up from what to do, to design, to funding it.” He said closer to May, he and the other city officials involved should have a better idea of what is going to happen as far as development of the Canyon Road site. Nielsen said another decid-ing factor rests in the hands of Logan Northern Irrigation Co. and whether the canal is refur-bished and put back into use. “If that canal goes back in service, you’ve got to stabilize that canal,” Nielsen said. “What now may be a 100-foot wide lot may be a 25-foot wide lot. We don’t know any of those details so that’s why it’s really unknown what this is going to be.”
Watts: Mayor says land was an ‘eyesore’
-continued from page 1
problem. “There is a much better tax system our there, somewhere, than what we have today,” Lyons said. Terry Camp, chairman of the College Republicans, asked Lyons if there were specific areas where he believes the budget should be cut. Lyons said the only areas that can get less money are national defense, Social Security and Medicare, but the real solution is to fix the tax system. Lyons said Medicaid is very expensive because health care costs are so expensive. “There are lots of ways we can get a handle on health care spending in the United States. And even though in real life I’m a Democrat, I would have to say the democratic health care plan did nothing to bring health care costs under con-trol that I can see,” Lyons said. He thinks replacing the social security tax with a national sales tax would help with the debt problem because value added taxes usually bring in more revenue. He also said he’d get rid of taxes on corporations which would help the economy grow and bring in more revenues.
System: Tax regulations not helping debt problem
-continued from page 1
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AggieLife Wednesday, March 2, 2011Page 5
Church Caffeinated
Midterms through teacher’s eyes Charity vs. chillin’
Alpine church descends on Cache Valley
Alpine Church, a non-denominational church in Utah, recently teamed up with Logan’s Maranatha Baptist Church to connect the Logan church with the 2,000 people who worship at Alpine campuses throughout Utah. The transition from Maranatha to Alpine occurred due to the similar aims of both churches. Maranatha was involved in a pastor search and Alpine was looking to extend their ministry to Logan with a new campus, said John Abbott, who serves as a church elder in Logan and has been involved with Maranatha for the past 30 years. Instead of one pastor, the congregation now has four pastors. Abbott said three pastors are teaching pastors who rotate through the three campuses while the campus pastor is a shep-herd to the Logan community. Abbott said the transition is adding to what Maranatha had been working toward with no theological changes. He said the changes are both challenging and exciting. Chad Hewitt, a native of Utah, is Logan’s campus pastor. He and his family are moving from Provo where he has served as a pastor. Hewitt said his hope as pastor is to connect people to God and show others that it is a rela-tionship worth having. “Lots of us grew up in churches, but there comes a point when we must pursue God on our own,” Hewitt said. Though this is Hewitt’s first time as an Alpine pastor, he has been a pastor for about
10 years and said that doctrinally there is no difference because the authority comes from the Bible. Debbie Bornholdt, a church member, said Alpine Church’s mission statement is impor-tant in what they do. “Everything they do is Biblically based, not ritual or routine or protocol, but everything is based off of their mission statement, ‘Helping people pursue God,’” she said. Brad Ewton, a freshman in nursing, said the transition has made everything very straight-forward. “I love the simplicity of Alpine,” he said. Alpine Church has two other campuses, in Riverdale and Layton. Bryan Dwyer, one of the teaching pastors, was part of the vision behind the church 10 years ago. Dwyer said the opportunity to be a positive inf luence in Cache Valley is very exciting. The change hasn’t been wrinkle-free, with technological issues that reminded Dwyer of when the first campus began. He said these problems are not as stressful this time. Bethany Pereboom, a junior in viola perfor-mance, has been a part of the Maranatha con-gregation for two and a half years. Though she jokingly said that having coffee in church has been the best part, she said bringing in Alpine has made the church feel more unified. Pereboom said before there wasn’t a pastor, just people who spoke in church. Having some-one lead in the name of Christ every week and to speak for God on Sundays has been very
By GENEVIEVE DRAPERstaff writer
-See CAFFEINE, page 6
THOUGH MOST STUDENTS do not enjoy the midterm season, sometimes it isn’t much better for teachers. Some teachers give exams that they have assistants grade, some grade their own exams, and some assign papers instead. BENJAMIN WOOD photo
THE ALPINE CHURCH has moved into the former Maranatha Baptist church on Main Street. The church went through two months of building renovations before it opened. BRECK BYINGTON photo
The sun is calling, the long week is ahead and students are tired of waiting. It’s the week before spring break, and there are teachers who insist on giving tests and assigning papers, but they say it is for the benefit of the students, not to make their lives miserable. Andy Anderson, principle lecturer for the biology depart-ment, is teaching three classes this semester: Bio Ethics, Advanced Physiology and Human Anatomy. He said he gives four midterms, two quizzes and a comprehensive final in his human anatomy class, but students can drop the lowest test. “The catch about having all those tests and quizzes is that my students are thinking about it all the time. It makes sure they’re learning.” Anderson is a lucky teacher though, because he rarely does any of his own grading. He said he has teaching assistants (TAs) that do the grading for him, and he creates his tests so that his TAs can easily grade them. He has a multiple choice section on scantrons, an essay section and a fill in the blank section. “I ask very specific questions – there’s only one answer, so even foreign TAs can grade the tests,” Anderson said. “Since I don’t grade my tests they have to be very precise.”
Anderson has nine TAs and many undergraduate volunteer teaching assistants in order to help prepare students for tests and to grade tests. Anderson puts in hours writing his own tests, however, and he grades any tests taken outside of class. Anderson said since his TAs do his test grading, he makes sure any breaks don’t interfere with their grading time, by giv-ing them plenty of time to grade tests to be sure all grading is done before a break starts. “My test Monday is a small class, so the TAs will be done grading by Wednesday,” he said. “In my anatomy class, there was a test last week, and my TAs had finished grading by Saturday.” Anderson said he tries not to interfere with spring break too much, because he knows the students need the break, although he encourages them to get ahead. “When students come back for the last few weeks, there are tests and projects, and all sorts of things. So I tell students to take time over break to get ahead,” he said. Anderson’s advice is well-used – by himself. He plans to spend part of his spring break at his office, in the quiet of the Veterinary Science Building, getting ahead on his lecture notes for a new class he’s teaching this semester.
By APRIL ASHLANDstaff writer
Many students choose to head somewhere warm during spring break. Others need to stay in Cache Valley for work, financial limits or other obligations. These students might be disappointed they are not beach-bound, but there are many opportunities for them to warm their hearts through local ser-vice. Ang Haroldsen, graduate in psychology said, “Doing service not only helps other people, but it provides opportunity for growth and resume building. It helps you make connections and lasting memories.” Haroldsen works with USU’s Student Service Center through the Americorps VISTA program. She will be travelling to California for an alternative spring break helping with an eco-logical service project, graffiti removal and meal and bedding preparation at a homeless shelter. Though it is too late for students to plan for University-arranged alternative service trips this year, there are plenty of local charity opportunities available. Haroldsen is dedicated to serving the community and said she hopes other students will find ways to serve over spring break. Jordan Hunt also works at the service center. He chooses to spend his time serving because it gives him a venue to develop his ideas. “Other people should be involved in service because it is a great way to meet people and get involved,” Hunt said. He said there are plenty of ways to serve in Cache Valley. “I would encourage things like making blankets. If you have free time and want a stress reliever – and if you already know how to make blankets or hats, you can always use those skills to make (items) for CAPSA,” Hunt said. Karrie Freeman, a Community Abuse Prevention Agency (CAPSA) representative said there are many opportunities for willing volunteers. They are currently preparing for a 5K and are looking for people to sign up and sponsor other runners. If people are interested in the race, but cannot participate, they can hang up f liers to promote it. Freeman said there are always volunteer opportunities avail-able, and if interested, people can contact CAPSA and the staff is willing to help provide service ideas. Hunt serves for the Food Pantry. He said if students do a food drive during the break, they could provide the pantry with goods when school reconvenes. The pantry often needs more supplies after the holiday season, when giving becomes less popular. Marinda Zaleski, a senior in social work, is an intern for the Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information (SAAVI) Office. She is the volunteer coordinator and said they are always in need of volunteers. Zaleski organizes and mobilizes the centers’ volunteers so they can have as many opportunities as possible to serve. “Our office was created specifically to deal with interperson-al violence. That ranges anywhere between domestic violence and sexual assault to hazing, stalking and other situations that include violence or the threat of violence,” Zaleski said. Along with helping victims of assault, the office also serves a purpose to spread awareness and educate the campus. “These things do happen and we need to confront them, rather than ignore them,” she said. “Without our volunteers, we would not be able to do a whole lot. The education part becomes
By NATASHA BODILYstaff writer
-See MIDTERMS, page 6
-See CHARITY, page 7
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AggieLife Wednesday, March. 2, 2011Page 6
positive. “You feel like you are cared for,” Pereboom said. The change from Maranatha to Alpine also included about two months of building reno-vations. Alpine brought a team from Ogden to help over the holidays, but local members volunteered their services. Abbott said one day saw 80 people working to improve the build-ing. The most noticeable renovation was in the creation of the welcome lobby from what was previously the gym. The basketball standards and carpet with a painted-on court were removed. The area received new carpet, a blue paint job, and welcome tables that include free Bibles and also some refreshments, such as coffee, tea and hot chocolate. There is a college Bible study group Sunday mornings, which includes many members of campus’s F.O.C.U.S group. A number of students share their musical talents in the worship teams for Sunday services. Abbott said there are four different teams who rotate through the month. Darin Linder, a junior in cellular molecular
biology, has played the drums in a worship team for the three years he has been in Logan. “I really love the drums and worship music. It is the best way for me to commune with God,” Linder said. He said the drums are clearly a God-given talent because he is not coordinated in real life. Blake Ewton, also a junior playing in a worship team and a mechanical engineering major, said he got involved with the worship music as a freshman. He said it has been an awesome transition from Maranatha to Alpine. Ewton had known some of the Alpine staff before. He is involved with Focus and other church activities. Ewton said these con-nections have made him feel “very connected and involved and valued.” Alpine Church holds hour-long services, Sundays at 9:30 and 11:00. Greeters and pam-phlets are available before and between ser-vices for visitors with questions. Information can also be found at alpinechurch.org.
“I’ve kept up with my students so far, but not all of my lectures are complete, so I’d like to finish through the end of the semester over break,” he said. Blair Larsen, temporary lecturer, has set up her tests so that she doesn’t have to grade any of them – she creates them as multiple-choice tests and uses scantrons. Larsen teaches three classes this semester as well, Natural Disasters, a depth science class, online as well as face-to-face, and Geology 1010. She said she has a grader, but she utilizes her grader for assignments rather than tests. “I have done it before – I’ve had a test or a project due before spring break so I can spend the break grading, and space it out,” Larsen said. “But I don’t really mind either way if the project is due before or after a break.” Larsen said the reason she is giving a test this week is for the benefit of the student. “We know students are not going to study during the break. So it’s better for them, they tend to perform better than if the test is after a break,” she said. Larsen has 300 students enrolled in her Natural Disasters class, so she said she cannot give essay tests, despite the fact she believes essay tests are the most effective way to assess learning. Larsen said the most difficult thing about having a test before spring break is that students try to prolong the break even more. “I have students come to me before the break, and say, ‘I’m leaving early, can I take the test early?’” she said. Larsen had the same issue in Fall 2010 before Thanksgiving break, so she has set aside a time for students who were leaving early to take the test, and for those who cannot make that, she had options. “They can drop the test. I allow one test to be dropped, and if they get a zero that’s the test I drop,” she said. Kyle Hancock, assistant professor in the psychology department, is teaching four classes this semester. He said he only gives tests in his undergraduate classes, and one of his classes has a test this week with mostly multiple choice questions, but four short answer questions. Like Anderson, he uses TAs and scantrons to grade, but he said the hardest part of testing for him, is writing the actual test. He said it’s difficult to make a test fair for all students, and yet differentiate between who knows the mate-rial and who doesn’t. “There is a lot of science that goes into the creation and scoring of an exam that I believe many students do not adequately appreciate,” he said. In fact, in one of his classes, Psychometrics,
he has his students write an exam, and he said students learn that writing a test is much hard-er than they expected, and blames it on lack of awareness. “I think it is often easy to lack appreciation for the effort required to create a good exam that adequately serves the purpose of identify-ing and differentiating students’ abilities until you have attempted to do so on your own,” he said. John Engler, lecturer in English, said he has about 80 papers due this week in individual conferences with his students in English 2010, but that he’s not grading them over spring break. Instead, he will be meeting with his stu-dents and discussing the paper. “The assignment is graded on completion,” he said. “It’s a second rough draft of an argu-ment paper, and we meet and talk about the differences, what they’re learning through
research, etc.” Engler said he doesn’t treat spring break any differ-ently than any other week of the semester – the students leave on a Friday, and they arrive on Monday in class again. “If it happens that there’s a test this week, that’s just how it worked out. I don’t organize it that way,” he said. Susan Anderson, also a lec-turer in English, said she tries to make papers due the week before, rather than the week after, spring break. She said she believes it’s nicer for the students to have the paper out of the way, so they don’t have to think about it over the break. But she doesn’t mind the
time spent grading the papers she gets. Susan said she has a class of about 27 students who will be turning in papers this week, and that she will grade over spring break. “At minimum it should take me four and a half hours to grade these papers, which really isn’t too bad,” she said. “I should be done quickly, since the papers are only three pages or so.” Anderson said she doesn’t have TAs to help her with grading, but she’s fine with that, because she would always be the one to assign a grade to a paper. “All the classes I teach are small enough that it’s not an issue,” Susan said. Other than grading papers and spending time with family, Susan said she plans on using break to catch up on other work she has. “My husband doesn’t get a spring break, so it’s a good time to really get caught up,” she said.
A night to remember “ T h a t ’ s a nice kilt, man.” T h a t ’ s what he said to me. My friend Mike and I were walk-ing on air, feeling simi-larly to what I’m sure Rachel Leigh Cook felt at the end of “She’s All That.” A week’s worth of hard work and creative stress all worth it when those words came from his mouth. Most people find triumph and accomplishment when they win something or fall in love. This was different. This was substantial, because tonight Mike and I finally met Brian Green. I grew up a devout sports fan in northern Los Angeles. Amid all the frustration of growing up and the turmoil of being in an urban Southern California society there were at least three things that kept us SoCal kids happy: Arcade games at donut shops, “Alf” re-runs and basketball. Basketball has always been a deep-set part of my life; more a moral strength for me than a sport. This, I suppose, is why my friend and I harbored imme-diate respect for Green, the hard-working, team-spirit mul-tiplier with a 3-point shoot-ing range of roughly 6.7 miles – the cross product of Jimmy Chitwood in “Hoosiers” and Scott Howard from “Teen Wolf” in the flesh. In a state where we have people who treat a certain Utah county, weird-named player like a demigod, here in Logan we have our hometown hero in Green – the well-ambitioned neighbor’s son who you secretly wish had asked your daughter to prom. All this is why meeting him easily outperformed giving “Mean” Joe Greene a Coke (and a smile, mind you) and multiplied it by at least 27. And to think that kilt made it all pos-sible. Though I do label myself a sports fan, as previously noted, I’ve never been one to act too die hard at a sporting event. I’d just as easily go as far as wearing the team’s colors without so much as thinking of strap-ping on a giant fan and lowering in through the ceiling – I guess I have my limits. This should explain why I was hesitant at first when Mike called me up and said, “Hey, we should do something big for the last home game.” I had no clue what he had in mind, which was good news because neither did he. We sat in his living room for hours working at something creative – all we could think of is doing something, anything really, with face paint or possibly kidnapping one of the opposing players just like Dan Akroyd and Daniel Stern did to Daman Wayans in “Celtic Pride.” Then it hit us both like a lightning bolt, or an NBC “The More You Know” shooting star. We had something good, something outrageous, something we, surprisingly, could credit to Mel Gibson. Music almost began playing as we both said it aloud in unison. “Let’s do a ‘Braveheart’ theme.” What screams “pride” and “victory” to the hearts of two pale-skinned, blond Utahns like anything Scottish-themed? Outside of the Stanley Cup Playoffs or most Macauley Culkin movies, nothing. Within seconds we found ourselves in a fabric store looking for, of all things, dark blue plaid sheets and measuring our waist sizes while doing our best William Wallace impressions. Deep inside we seemed to drink it in: standing courtside, screaming bloody murder and gaining mounds upon mounds of respect from an entire student body who now see us as much more than “those two guys who make fun of Bobcat Williams outside the Quickstop.” Neither of us knew how to sew, but we
managed to make it work with some thread, staples and more masking tape than any-one should ever need. We strapped on our smurf-colored placemats, painted our faces and stood tall. It was off to a hardwood-induced war. This was going to be a night to remember. Things didn’t go as swiftly as planned, as we only made it to the 11th row (evidently people like to show up early if the game is preceded by a women’s game) and my kilt started to fall off. Luckily for me, and I assume, everyone within sight range of me, I had a belt and was able to at least keep thing strapped to my person, even though it made breathing a little rough for the time at hand. We screamed in the loudest brute voices or Woody Allen vocals could summon,
enjoyed a spectacular game with each wholehearted chest bump and even had a few pictures taken of us. At this point, we felt it a job well done. This was when we stormed the court after the Aggie vic-tory – jumping, screaming and attempting any form of sing-ing with a throat that at this point felt about as exhausted as the Power Rangers do just before calling on their Zords. We walked around the hard-wood for awhile as excited as most people around were, and that was when Mike saw Green out of the corner of his eye. Our time to pay our own personal Jimmy Chitwood some respect was finally at hand. We ran over, shook his hand and thanked him for a great season. He smiled,
laughed, looked down at what we were wearing and laughed some more. Then, without much hesitation upon my request, took the silver sharpie I had in my hand (though I can’t confirm where it came from), and signed my kilt. Looking at my face, you would’ve thought Superman just asked me to go to a party with him at Chuck-E-Cheese. And there it was, my first experience as a paint-clad crazed fan. Who knew my newly labeled man-skirt became the beacon of a night that swiftly went from good, to great, to inexplicably magnificent. How sweet it was.
Caffeine: Local volunteers helped -continued from page 5
Midterms: Assistants grade exams -continued from page 5
“At minimum it should take me four and a half hours to grade these papers, which really isn’t too bad. I should be done quickly, since the papers are only three pages or so.”
– Susan Anderson, English lecturer
TAKING THE IDEA FROM Braveheart, Steve
Schwartzman promoted Aggie pride by wearing
a kilt to the last home game. He was also excited
because he got to meet Brian Green. photo cour-
tesy STEVE SCHWARTZMAN
“In a state where we have people who treat a certain Utah county, weird-named player like a demigod, here in Logan we have our hometown hero in Green – the well-ambitioned neighbor’s son who you secretly wish had asked your daughter to prom.”
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AggieLifeWednesday, March. 2, 2011 Page 7
especially in need of volunteers because only Monica (SAAVI coordinator) and myself can-not reach the whole campus.” Zaleski said volunteers are an important part of the organization. “There is not enough money to employ peo-ple to help with the problems that our society faces and I have seen with just a little help from our volunteers, we have the ability to make the move toward necessary change,” she said. Currently, SAAVI’s focus is on their biggest event of the year – Walk a Mile in her Shoes. This event raises about half their budget for the following year. Casey Allred, founder of Effect International, said he thinks serving over the break is a great idea and is very rewarding. Effect International is a non-profit organiza-tion dedicated to building schools and reading rooms in India and Nepal. “If people are interested in ways to help out,
Effect International would be a great outlet,” he said. “We are always looking for more vol-unteers, and over the break specifically, people could help out by collecting books, raising money and awareness and learning more about the cause.” According to their website, the Cache Valley Volunteer Center said they have a mission to promote volunteerism in Cache Valley, increase citizen involvement and to promote causes and services. Their website provides a list of more than 30 charitable organizations with contact information. Zaleski said students who are staying local can have a fulfilling break and can continue to serve when school starts again. “A little bit of help from everyone can do a whole lot,” she said.
Charity: Many options are available -continued from page 5
Information gathered by Armen Hovsepyan
“Going to
Mexico.”
– Katie Wilde,freshman
undeclared
“Vegas for WAC
game.”
– Nicole Zhang, sophomore
graphic design
What are your plans for spring break?
“Road trip to Las
Vegas and San
Diego.”
– Ani Zaqar, sophomorepsychology
“Travel to San
Diego for rock
climbing.”
– Tony Kusbach, junior
geography
Street Speak
Planning for the future as interns and scholars
HELPING WITH A BOOK drive is just one way to give back over spring break. Though many stu-dents take vacations or travel miles away to help with charity organizations, there are many other ways to volunteer in towns across the nation. Statesman file photo
The hunt for scholarship funding and intern-ships can seem daunting. Fortunately, there are options available for USU students. Career Services provides opportunities for students to locate internships that cater to their future careers.
internships
Donna Crow, executive director for student services, said students can visit Career Services in person or online to view internship opportuni-ties. She said they can navigate the Career AGGIE online job posting system and there are several hard copy guides available in the Career Café for students to check out. To create a profile on Career AGGIE, students must create a login and complete a profile. Once students have completed this step, they can start searching and applying for both internships and jobs. Job seekers can specify the type of job and start dates they are looking for. They can submit resumes through the site. “There are some supply and demand issues with opportunities in Logan,” Crow said. She encourages students to broaden their geographic preferences to increase their chances of obtaining an internship that fits their career goals. “Students who have completed internships are more marketable in a global economy,” Crow said. “They receive approximately 10 percent higher starting salaries, 60 percent of the time they have an offer from their internship employer by the time they graduate, and they are more likely to stay with that company compared to non-interns.” Career Services will be holding its 22nd annu-al Career Fair Wednesday, March 2 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the second floor of the Taggart Student Center. Students with questions about intern-ships can learn ways to prepare for interviews at the fair. The Service Center recommends six steps to Career Fair success: research organizations, pre-pare your resume, dress for success, prepare your approach and introduction, ask questions and follow up. According to the Career Guide provided by Career Services, when students graduate with internship experience, they position themselves for more meaningful career employment. “Internships allow you to combine career-related work experience with academic course-work to enrich your total educational experience, while earning academic credit and pay,” states the internship section of the career guide. The guide explained there are tools and strate-gies for searching for ideal internships. Crow also recommends using a career coach who will help create a strategy for finding the internship that matches a student. If students are interested in interning for a specific company, Crow said they are more than
encouraged to reach out. She said they might want to access their system to save them time. “This just makes the process more effective for students,” she said. Kirk Miller, a senior in accounting, said he realized employers look for potential and can look past lack of experience. Miller is interning for Allred Jackson, an accounting firm in Logan. When he first applied, they told him he was not qualified enough for the job. “To my surprise, I got a phone call a month later saying I had an interview for the position,” he said. He did not think he had a chance so he said he took the pressure off himself and joked with the interviewers. Fortunately, he said, they loved his jokes. “But once again, (they saw) how my qualifica-tions were very weak,” Miller said. Two weeks later, they offered him the position. “It has been the biggest blessing for me and my career as well as the skills they are teaching me,” he said. Kristen Johnson, a senior in interdisciplinary studies, has an internship with the Real Salt Lake soccer team. “I had one of my professors with connections there contact them and inquire about available positions. Then I sent in my resume. I followed up with them, got an interview and got the intern-ship,” Johnson said. As a soccer player, this internship suits her and her career goals well.
Scholarships
In addition to internship hunting, many stu-dents look for scholarships. Often, they do not know where to look and the process seems over-whelming. “I’ve looked a lot (for scholarships), but noth-ing has really worked,” said Mckelle Tobey, sophomore in psychology. “My new scholarship is called ‘grandparents,’” she said. Tobey said she searched all over the Internet, talked to her department, the honors department and the financial aid office. Tobey said she felt that you have to accomplish something different from every other college student in order to receive private scholarships, “which fails when that is the goal of every college student.” Other students express similar disappoint-ment in scholarship searching. “I have applied before and never heard back,” Selina Weighill, a junior in biology, said. Jake Matthews, junior in sports medicine, said he never hears about scholarship opportunities. “I haven’t heard about them since high school,” he said. He is frustrated with how scholarships and other financial aid venues are set up. “I hate how they give huge scholarships to incoming freshman who had good GPAs in high school, but I can’t get grants because my parents make too much money,” Matthews said. Though the scholarship hunt can be frustrat-ing, there are many resources where students can search for and apply to a variety of private schol-
arships. Online, students can go to fastweb.com, scholarships.com, finaid.org and college-schol-arships.com and create personalized profiles. These sites will find scholarships that cater to the profile. Many scholarships exist that specify to specif-ic types of students based on many factors. Often, scholarships are not well publicized and are not awarded to anyone because no one applies. According to the College Money Unlimited website, hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarship money go unawarded each year. The site recommends students take the time to sift through the many applications and apply for any-thing that fits their qualifications. It said students should not get discouraged when they do not hear back right away.
Scholarships are available within the univer-sity as well. Despite budget cuts, each college has some money allotted for financial aid. Students can look to their own college for details on what is available. Utah State has scholarships for freshman, transfer and returning students. More details on requirements are available on USU’s website. For students with disabilities and health struggles there are 16 scholarships available through the Disability Resource Center (DRC) scholarships. Students can be discouraged by the specificity of private scholarships, but through searching, they are likely to find something that matches their skill set and experiences.
‘TIS THE SEASON for applying for internships and scholarships. Though this can be daunting, there are many resources available to help students with the process. ARMEN HOVSEPYAN photo
SENIOR INFIELDER KELLEY KANESHIRO broke the Utah State softball home run record Feb. 19 against Cal-State Northridge. The senior cranked out No. 26 to put herself in the record books, and help her team to a 9-1 victory during the University Nevada-Las Vegas Louisville Slugger Desert Classic. The Aggies currently hold a 3-7 record. BRECK BYINGTON photo
Aggie men’s basketball ends season on road
SENIOR FORWARD TAI WESLEY pictured here checking out during the final minutes of Senior Night against Idaho on Saturday will be looking to lead the Aggies to a pair of road wins this week. The senior finished with 22 points in his final home game as an Aggie and will be looking come up with another strong performance against New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech. TODD JONES photo
By TYLER HUSKINSONassistant sports editor
Men’s Basketball
WACStandings
WAC OVERALL
Women’s Basketball
WACStandings WAC OVERALL
TouchBase
AggieSchedules
Women’s Basketball
Men’s Basketball
88
9999
When we sent off the 2011 senior class of players from their final home game, it was still February. At this point in the sea-son, I feel it would be safe to say that it has indeed been a great season, but the things that truly make a season take the step from greatness to a thing of leg-end are the things that hap-pen in March. I don’t think I speak alone when I say that I would love for this regular season to be wrapped up with one of the final two victories coming on the road against New Mexico State. If Utah State vs. Nevada is an example of a respectful and peaceful rivalry, then the opposite end of the spectrum of hostility is Utah State vs. New Mexico State. Maybe this is due partly to the fact that NMSU is the only Western Athletic Conference school that hasn’t been entirely dominated by Utah State since the current WAC came to fruition in 2005, but for me, and I’m sure plenty of others, the hatred toward the red Aggies of the WAC is due to a complete lack of respect for how they operate their program. Either way, it is a game that is auto-matically one of the biggest of the year for each school, which automatically qualifies it as a rivalry. And when schools start bust-ing out the gimmick promotions for those games, like New Mexico State’s idea of having a pajama party for Wednesday’s game against USU, you know they are dying to get the house packed and rock-ing against the four-time WAC champs. This is the kind of rivalry where the majority of fans want nothing but the worst to happen to each team throughout the course of a season. It’s fueled by hate, and there’s a certain unique passion that comes from hate. It makes every win over that team that much more enjoyable, and every loss that much more agonizing. Now, keep in mind that this is all within the context of sports, and nothing else, but it definitely intensifies things. It intensi-fies it in the way that any win against the
other usually holds major implications for regular season standings, or is a do-or-die game in the WAC tournament.
The differing levels of animosity toward a program are the reason why if Utah State were to lose to a more respectable program like Nevada, I generally won’t lose sleep over it. I can’t say the same for New Mexico State. It’s two different ani-mals. Hate aside though, what’s
really important is that Utah State finish off this regular season with a bang, and to do that, they have to go through one of those teams that everybody seems to hate. The Aggies are in prime position to land the highest seed in the NCAA tournament that head coach Stew Morrill has ever had in his time at USU, if they can just win their next four games. If that happens, that NCAA Tournament monkey that has been hanging on the Aggies’ back since 2001 might finally be shaken loose. Granted, NCAA Tournament wins for teams in USU’s position are, and always have been rare, but Utah State has worked its way to the fringe of transcending the mid-major label. In order to work past that fringe, winning in the big dance has to happen a bit more. And what better an opportunity than with the best senior class in school history? The calendar has officially turned to March. The first of the madness can been seen on ESPN2 when Utah State faces off with its most hated conference rival, then it’s off to the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas and hopefully off to achieve NCAA Tournament glory after that. In other words, let the madness begin!
LOGAN, Utah - Utah State men’s track and field senior sprinter Armahd Lewis has been named the America First Credit Union Utah State Student-Athlete of the Week for the period ending Sunday, Feb. 27, an award that is voted on by a state-wide media panel. Lewis, a native of Stockton, Calif., (Edison HS/Sacramento City College) won two individual titles and was named the co-Track Athlete of the Meet in helping Utah State finish tied for first at the 2011 Western Athletic Conference Indoor Championships. Lewis won the 60m with a career-best time of 6.77 to rank fourth all-time at USU in that event, and also won the 200m in 21.46. This is Lewis’s first USU Athlete of the Week honor of not only the year, but also of his career. It is the third USU award for an Aggie track and field member, as men’s high jumper Clint Silcock
earned the accolade on Feb. 7, followed by wom-en’s distance runner Ruth Hilton collecting the honor on Feb. 4. Those athletes that qualify will be compet-ing in the NCAA National Championships, in College Station, Texas on March 11-12. Clint Silcock is the lone Aggie who has already quali-fied when he cleared 2.24m in the high jump at the New Mexico Classic on Feb. 4, for an auto-matic qualifying mark. The championship field will be announced on March 7. If not selected, USU track & field teams will be in preparation for the opening of the outdoor season, which kicks off March 17-19 at the University of Arizona Willie Williams Invitational at Tucson, Ariz. Utah State’s lone home meet of the season, the Mark Faldmo Invitational, is Saturday, April 16 at the Ralph Maughan Track Stadium.the Trojans with 21 sto-len bases (21-of-21) and a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage.
BY USU ATHLETICS
Matt Sonnenberg
The View from
Section F
Aggies need to finish strong
Going into the f inal week of regular season play, only one thing is clear in the Western Athletic Conference standings, and it’s the same thing that has been clear all along. Utah State is No. 1 in the conference by a wide margin, and that’s about all anybody can say for certain. The race for the No. 2 seed in the WAC Tournament is still wide open, despite Boise State’s position as the current leader of that pack. As it stands, four teams could end up with 9-7 records at the end of the regular season, leaving the tour-nament seeding to be decided by tiebreakers, and leaving whichever team lands at the bottom of those tiebreakers without any kind of bye in the WAC Tournament.1) Utah State (26-3, 13-1) The Aggies are No. 1 and it isn’t even close. Since the last power poll, USU has racked up a revenge win against the one WAC team to pull out a win against them and soundly beaten a top 25 team on the road at Saint
Mary’s. The f inal week of the sea-son has one major test on the road at New Mexicao State, but looking at it, the Aggies can put all their eggs into the basket of winning that game, seeing as how last place Louisiana Tech is the follow-up game to Wednesday’s showdown of Aggies on ESPN2.2) Boise State (17-11, 9-6) The Broncos are just one win at home away from being the second WAC team to win 10 games, and are
just one of two teams who even have a chance to do so. Boise State has cur-rently won four
straight games in conference play, and will essentially put a lock on its position as the No. 2 seed for the WAC Tournament if they can seal the deal on senior night against San Jose State.3) Idaho (16-12, 8-7) Despite the fact that the Vandals have already been swept by both New Mexico State and Boise State, the two teams next to them in the stand-ings, the Vandals arguably have the best chance at land-ing at No. 3 in the f inal standings with a f inal home game against
Fresno State. They also get major kudos for power poll favoritism given that they are the lone team to claim a victory over Utah State.4) Hawaii (17-10, 7-7) While Idaho managed to pull off the shocker against USU, Hawaii
came awfully close, and with two more games on the schedule against teams outside of
the top six in the conference, the Warriors are looking to be in good shape to also f inish 9-7. It might not be all sunshine and rainbows for Hawaii though, as they look to be in bad shape for any massive second or third place tie in the standings.5) Nevada (11-17, 7-7) Losing three straight games has dropped the Wolf Pack from the drivers’ seat for the No. 2 seed, to poten-tially f inish-ing sixth in the standings. Nevada has the same f inal two games as Utah State though, and should be able to propel itself upward in the stand-ings into 9-7. The Wolf Pack open this weekend’s games at last place Louisiana Tech and f inish at New Mexico State, a team that the Pack
has generally had the number of, even on the road.6) New Mexico State (14-15, 8-6) While the southern Aggies cur-rently possess a better record than the three teams directly above them
in the poll, NMSU has to f inish off the year hosting Utah State and Nevada. While USU has always
struggled for wins in Las Cruces, nobody can logically bet against Utah State in WAC play right now, especially with NMSU’s Troy Gillenwater seeing a drop in pro-duction as of late. Nevada seems to always play spoilers to New Mexico State too.7) San Jose
State (15-12, 5-9) At this point, the Spartans are essentially battling for the chance to potentially avoid Utah State until the WAC Tournament f inals if they can pull out f irst and second round victories in Vegas. They host Hawaii in their f irst chance to play spoiler to a team aiming for the No. 2 seed, and then have to go on the road to play Boise State in what would be another opportunity to put a dent in a
team’s dream of f inishing in second place.8) Fresno State (13-15, 5-9) The Bulldogs’ chance to play spoilers takes them first to Moscow,
Idaho where they can shat-ter the Vandals’ hopes of f inish-ing better than third place.
Then they get the chance to put Hawaii to the test to knock them out of contention for a top-two f inish. The role of spoiler is about all that Fresno State can do at this point as they, along with San Jose State, appear hopelessly buried down in seventh and eighth place.9) Louisiana Tech (12-18, 2-12) There’s not much else to say other than “Thanks for playing”.
The Bulldogs have to go out facing Nevada on Thursday, and then get to end their season against Utah State for what will probably be
one f inal kick in the rear to end a season that once appeared to be a promising one. They are already mathematically eliminated from WAC Tournament play.
SOPHOMORE KRISTINA VOYTSEKOVICH seen here returning a serve during a singles match in a 6-1 loss earlier in the season,
helped the Aggies to 5-2 victory over Weber State with a 6-2, 6-0 singles victory over Wildcats’ Annika Karlsen, and a doubles victory with
partner Jacyln West. The Aggies face San Francisco on Wednesday, March 24. CARL R. WILSON photo
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Views&OpinionWednesday, March 2, 2011Page 11
Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.utahstatesman.com
First and foremost, pay attention while I explain what an opinion column is. There is definitely one thing that it is not, and that is responsible journalism. I am not here to please the masses and provide a neu-tral view. I desire to express my view, which I believe is shared by many members of the student body. We have a lot to expect from our newly elected leadership. First and foremost, we expect greatness from our newly elected student body president, Erik Mikkelsen. When I say that we expect greatness, it is not to say that I am counting on it. My hope is that he will take on responsibility which is beyond himself, beyond his frater-nity and beyond the executive council itself. Erik, your most prominent campaign promise was to put students first. Which students? I hope that when you said that, you meant the general interest of the ENTIRE student body, not just those who love big parties and athletics. You say that you admire Abraham Lincoln for not surrounding himself with yes-men? Be inspired and do the same. If you surround yourself with appointed cronies from your fraternity, then you will have not fol-lowed through on your promise. If you truly want to put students first, appoint somebody who disagrees with you and encourage the rest of the council to do the same. A compromise among differing views is the only way to have a fair, democratic operation. We’ve seen this year what an Executive Council full of best friends and yes-men can do. They produced disasters like the BJ Novak event, and the most poorly-planned Howl that I have ever heard of, let alone attended. Now, let’s see what a balanced Executive Council with differing views and people who are willing to work for the good of the student body can do. Do not let personal agendas get in the way of what is best for the average student. Take the initiative to figuratively wave a flag of open mindedness
OurView
When we get back from Spring Break, WAC play will be over for our Utah State Aggie men’s basketball team.
We will have finished regular-season WAC play against New Mexico State and La-Tech, rocked it at the WAC tournament in Las Vegas, Nev. and will know our seed for the NCAA tournament. This basketball season has been a phenomenal one so far, and Senior Night was definitely one to remember, with the career-capping perfor-mances, sweet revenge for our only conference loss against the Idaho Vandals, celebration of our fourth championship in as many years and a whole row of Wild Bills – but it’s not over yet. This postseason has the potential to be the biggest and best ever for Utah State. These 12 athletes – Tai Wesley, Nate Bendall, Brian Green, Tyler Newbold, Pooh Williams, Matt Formisano, Brady Jardine, Morgan Grim, James Walker, E.J. Farris, Brockeith Pane and Brad Brown – have built for themselves the chance to go further than any other team ever has in the NCAA tourna-ment, bringing March Madness closer to home than ever before. In each of the previous occa-sions that we’ve made it to the NCAA tourna-ment, we’ve lost in the first of six rounds.Several times in the past dozen seasons, we’ve come close. This is head coach Stew Morrill’s 10th championship in his 13 seasons at the helm of Aggie basketball, and if that doesn’t say that this is a top-notch program, I don’t know what does. We are ranked No. 21 in the nation right now – that’s 21st out of more than 300 teams in the country. That is impressive. This is a really spe-cial team. Aside from the one conference fluke against Idaho, the Aggie men have lost only two games this year, neither at the Spectrum and both to teams that were ranked when we weren’t. And BYU, now ranked third in the nation, needed some pretty bogus calls to bail them out of a near-loss at the Marriott Center. If you don’t have Spring Break plans yet, see about getting down to Las Vegas to get in on a piece of history and cheer our Aggies on to vic-tory and into the history books. The team is going to need the Spectrum on Wheels with them in Nevada, if not for the Spectrum Magic, then to have someone to celebrate with when they win. We at The Statesman are fans of Aggie basket-ball, and we want to make sure we give Stew and his crew due credit for entertaining, inspiring and delighting us this season and let them know as they head into the postseason – We believe that they will win.
Aggie men: Is that not
the winning team?
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Benjamin C. Wood
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A final plea from a
common man
-See PLEA, page 12
All roads lead to heaven and hell This week, I want to discuss the ideas of salva-tion, damnation and the afterlife within a religious framework. What do these terms mean, and how did our contemporary under-standing of them develop? The following is a brief sum-mary of what I have discov-ered and pondered regard-ing these topics. Separate realms in the world to come – one for good people and one for bad – have often existed within the commonly held beliefs of respective reli-gions. In the polytheistic beliefs of ancient Greeks, the souls of men went to the underworld of Hades upon death. Those who had led good lives in their mor-tal existence entered into a paradisa-ical region of Hades known as Elysium. Those deemed wicked would be sentenced to dwell in Tartarus, a hellish region of torture and d e p r a v i t y . Contemporary individuals are familiar with similar realms now referred to as “Heaven” and “Hell,” and like their Greek prede-cessors understand one to be the destination of “good” people and the other a des-tination for “bad.” While the common religious man understands the purpose of these two realms, one finds a wide spectrum of belief regarding who enters into each of these realms, and even whether such realms exist. Religions commonly
referred to as fundamental, due to their strict belief sets, often construct a narrow path for salvation within their established doctrine. Often times, one must believe a certain set of prin-ciples and may be required to live in accordance with a certain lifestyle to avoid damnation. Within such reli-gious ideologies, salvation
becomes a lot-tery of sorts. Those of us lucky enough to have waded through the sea of differing ideologies and e s t a b l i s h e d belief in the one deemed correct receive the prize. Those who die holding a differing reli-gious ideol-ogy, and even those who u n d e r s t a n d -
ably leave religion alone due to the confusion that comes with seeking truth, become the victims of dam-nation. More middle -of- the-road religions may believe in heaven and hell, or some place of reward contrast-ed by a place of punish-ment, but have less clearly defined beliefs about who ends up where. They may believe everyone enters into a similar afterlife and hell is a state of mind result-ing from the regret carried
over from mortal life. Universalist religions tend to believe that god loves all and wishes damna-tion upon no person. Theirs is the god described in 1 Timothy 2:4, “who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (NIV).” Like Judaism, Universalist ideology tends to be less concerned with self-interested avoidances of hellfire and more inter-ested in connecting with something bigger than the individual. Such religions often believe there is no hell or damnation. Traditional Judaism, in which both Christianity and Islam are rooted, was much more concerned with cov-enants or temporal duties to God and fellow men than the afterlife. In fact, there is no official agreed-upon doctrine regarding the afterlife other than the acknowledgment that there is one. The closest idea to hell found in Judaism is that of Gehinnom or Sheo’l. This was a place in which the souls of the wicked were purified for up to 12 months. Even this unof-ficial idea of post-mortal punishment ends up being a temporary stay, much dif-ferent than the eternal hell-fire and brimstone which came about in later centu-ries. Official Jewish doc-trine states that all nations have a place in the world to come. Modern religions seem to be outgrowing tradi-tional concepts of hell. Religions such as Judaism and Roman Catholicism have less clearly-defined stances on what exactly hell is and who goes there. Mormonism, the dominant
The ’Low Down
Tyler Barlow
Faith and Reason
Cam Davis
Faith and Reason
-See DAMN, page 12
“While the com-mon religious man understands the purpose of these two realms, one finds a wide spectrum of belief regard-ing who enters into each of these realms and whether such realms exist.”
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Wednesday, March 2, 2011Page 12 Views&Opinion
Damn: The truth is hard to find -continued from page 11
and inclusiveness as opposed to the exclusive nature of previous regimes. Please note, this is not at all an attack on Tyler Tolson. I believe he did the best that he could with the executive council that he had. Having said this, I expect Erik Mikkelsen to follow through on his promise to use an individual approach with the other ASUSU officers to ensure that they are keeping their campaign promises. Always remember to ensure that their goals and accomplishments work toward achieving your ultimate goal of putting the students first. As for the other officers, there were few surprises. Kirsten Frank staved off an ambitions write-in campaign for Executive VP with about the same percentage of votes as your average democratic presidential candidate pulls in the District of Columbia. Ry Bay fared about the same as Athletic VP. One bright spot in the interest of change is the victory of our new VP of Programming, Zach Larsen. In a debate hosted by The Statesman, Larsen and his opponent Jackson Cozzens were asked whether it is bet-ter to have bigger events or a variety of events throughout the year. While Cozzens maintained that bigger is better, and that he wanted to make the big events huge, Larsen asserted that big is good, but variety is just as good. While this is not exactly what I believe, it’s better than making the already overblown events even big-ger. I would much rather have fre-quent occurrences of something good then a handful of huge events that are hit and miss. On that note, another promise from president-elect Mikkelsen is to ensure that events are planned that will be of interest to more members of the student body. So, Mr. Larsen, do your best to fol-low through on your words and help our Student Body President to do the same. Perhaps the biggest shock of last week was the approval of the Blue Goes Green Fee. It appears that even
the efforts of Wild Bill could not con-vince voters to educate themselves about how open-ended the Blue Goes Green proposal really is. The fact that it passed has been taken as a huge vote of confidence by support-ers, to the point of verbally rubbing it in the face of those who disagree with it, like yours truly. To the sup-porters, I have one simple thing to say. Don’t screw the pooch. You are to be entrusted with almost $100,000 of your fellow student’s money per year. Do not disappoint. Many of us see this as a horrendous waste of our money, and an unethical way of tak-ing said money from students by put-ting the “green” flag on it. The main consequence will be research money for a select number of students all managed by a full-time coordinator. While I question the wisdom of it all, I am going to give it the benefit of the doubt since the fact that it passed signals that the approximately 5,000 students that voted have spoken their opinion. As for the thousands of students on campus who did not vote, I believe that you have no right to an opinion about how things turn out because you didn’t even bother to go to a website and click eight buttons to make that opinion known. Odds are, however, that you are not even read-ing this article and could care less about $3 in fees or how the parties that you don’t attend turn out. I envy your capacity for ignorance. I wish I could not care, but I do. So, to all the winning candidates, I tip my metaphorical hat in congratulations for quality wins. I do so expecting your best efforts to shore up student confidence in your leadership and disappoint as few people as possible. Go therefore and do! Tyler Barlow is a sophomore majoring
in computer engineering. He can be
reached at tyler.barlow@aggiemail.
usu.edu.
faith of our community, teaches that all but those who deny the Holy Spirit will achieve some degree of eternal glory. In other words, you have to know – in a knowing sort of way, not in a testimony meeting sort of way – that God does indeed exist, and then deny him. It is hard to believe in a god who would damn one of his creations to an eternity of suf-fering. Such a god is undeserv-ing of the love and reverence so many give unto Him. This god is definitely not the loving God I learned about in Sunday school. Anyone who has experienced a doctrinal debate or taken the time to investigate different reli-gious ideologies has likely found that it is difficult to find truth out
there. Each has their beacons of truth as well as their black marks. Perhaps our primary con-cern should be how our faith moves us, acting as more of a guide than an insurance policy with which we bash the compet-itors. This is, of course, a brief look into the subject fit into the allotted column space. I would love to hear from those of you interested in expanding upon the issue, or simply presenting a different perspective.
Come see “Mrs. Hill” pre-sented by the Theatre Student Association March 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre. Tickets are $5 and $3 for TSA members.
Celebrate the 123rd Founders Day of Utah State University March, 4 at 6-8:30 p.m. This is an awards event celebrating alumni and friends of the university. Cost for the evening is $35 per person.
Want information on how to have a safe spring break? Come to the library entry March 2 from 10-2 p.m. to get a Safe Spring Break Kit!
Religious Studies Club presents Prof. Richard Sherlock on March 2 from 4-6 p.m. in Old Main 121.
Jared Farmer is this month’s highlighted speaker for the HASS Distinguished Speaker Series. The title of his presentation is “Possessed by the Past.” A light lunch will be served. He will discuss how USU influenced his life and will talk about the value of a history education. March 4 at 12:30 p.m.
USU’s dance company Full Circle is holding guest artist auditions for their show “CHROMATICS: LIFE IN COLOR” on March 3-4. Registration starts at 3 p.m. and auditions at 4 p.m. at the Kent Concert Hall. There is a $5 Audition fee! Questions: Contact Krissy at [email protected].
Darrin Brooks and Nancy Hills present, “Big Hair, Big Chair: The Power and Influence of Women in the 18th Century” as part of Women’s History Month. The event is free and is open to all. Library 101 March 3 at 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
Mrs. Hill
Founders Day
Safe spring break
Richard Sherlock
Jared Farmer
StatesmanBack BurnerWednesday, March 2, 2011
More Calendar and FYI listings, Interactive Calendar
and Comics at
WednesdayMarch 2
ThursdayMarch 3
FridayMarch 4
Page 14
Strange Brew•Peter Deering
Deep End•tyson.cole@aggiemail
Guest auditions
You need to know....
- Recent Alumni Art Exhibit, Tippetts- Communication and Leadership Seminar, Eccles Conf. Center, all day- Career Fair, TSC, 9-3 p.m.- Safe Spring Break, Library, 10 a.m.- Meditation Club, TSC, 1:30 p.m.- Math Anxiety Workshop, TSC, 3:30 p.m.- Wild Wednesday, Stokes Nature Center, 4 p.m.- Religious Studies Club Lecture, Old Main 121, 4 p.m.- Aggies Against the Grain Club Meeting, Business 202A, 5:30 p.m.- Reuse, Reduce, Recycle Auction, 6 p.m.- Men’s Basketball at New Mexico State, 9:05 p.m.
- Spring Book Sale, Library- Alumni Speaker Jared Farmer, Haight Alumni Center, 12:30 p.m.- USU Founders Day, TSC Ballroom, 6 p.m.- Women’s Gymnastics vs. Cal State Fullerton, 7 p.m.10 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
- Communication and Leadership Seminar, Eccles Conf. Center, all day- Spring Book Sale, Library- Weight Watcher Class, TSC, 11:45 a.m.- Free Fitness Assessments, HPER, 12 p.m.- Big Hair, Big Chair Presentation, Library 101, 3:30 p.m.- Wii Lumber Jacks, NR Building, 5 p.m.- CIL Short Course, ESLC Auditorium, 5:30 p.m.- CPR Certification Course, HPER, 7 p.m.- Macey’s Little Theater Cooking Classes, 7 p.m.
Today’s Issue
Today is Wednesday, March 2, 2011. Today’s issue of The Utah Statesman is published especially for Jessi Timothy, a sophomore majoring in speech comunications from Bennington, Idaho.
Weather
High: 40° Low: 34°
Skies: Rain and
snow.
Today in History: In 1904, Theodor Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, is born in Springfield, Mass. Geisel, who used his middle name as his pen name, wrote 48 books that have sold well over 200 million copies and been translated into multiple languag-es.
Almanac
Annual Spring Book Sale. From beach reading to scholarly texts, there’s something for everyone. All books only 25 cents, only 3 days. Sale starts 9 a.m. March 2, continues dur-ing regular library hours, and ends 5pm Friday, March 4. Come to the Atrium of the Library, and find some-thing to entertain, feed, or boggle your mind from our diverse selection. Pancake Breakfast on the TSC Patio. Enjoy a hearty breakfast while supporting Prevent Child Abuse America March 16, 8-11 a.m. ShamRock ‘Till You Drop! The only place to be on St. Patrick’s Day! Dancing, photo booths, games, inflatables and concessions for the prevention of child abuse. March 17, 7-11 p.m. in the TSC Ballroom. 20 percent of all proceeds go to Prevent Child Abuse America and 80 percent of all proceeds go to the Child and Family Support Center. Spring fever? It is time to get started with seeding and transplant-ing. Get weekly up dates on what you can do to help at the Student Farm. Always a blast! [email protected]. Ceremony to honor women over 65 from the community for Early Career and Lifetime Achievements. Awards will be presented. TSC Ballroom 6 p.m. on March 14. Macey’s Little Theater cooking
classes is hosting Heritage Cooking with David Sidwell. He will teach us how to make perfect Sour Dough Delights! He will even have a starter straight from San Francisco. Come Hungry-Leave Happy! March 3 at 7-8 p.m. Dance United. Come learn social dance or expand your already amaz-ing skills! Cha Cha, Swing, Salsa, Foxtrot, Waltz, ect. Thursday nights from 8-11 in FAC room 104 (the band room). It’s free your first time but every time after that it’s $2 for non members, $1 for members. Included dance lessons are from 8-9. First Club Meeting for the USU Aggies Against the Grain: Celiac
Awareness and Support Club will be held March 2 at 5:30 p.m. Business Building room 202A. EVERYONE is welcome, no need to be Gluten Intolerant.
