Monday, Feb. 22, 2016 | Volume 211| Number 103
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STUDENTS ENGINEER E-WEEK Committee organizes week of social activities, speakers, networking
By Andria.Homewood @iowastatedaily.com
F
or 50 years, The National Engineers’ Week has celebrated what it means to be an engineer — and for Iowa State, it hits close to home. From agricultural engineering to software engineering, Iowa State has many top-rated programs to offer its talented students. The Executive Committee for this year’s Engineers’ Week, also known as “E-Week,” wants to help engineers all over campus celebrate what it means to be an engineer. This year’s Engineers’ Week started Saturday and will end with a party on Friday. Since 1965, this hard-working committee has shaped and molded the celebration of Engineers’ Week in its own way. This event falls on students’ radars as soon as they arrive on campus in the fall. However, because of other events
like career fairs, the committee made the decision to move the event to the spring semester to line up with the National Engineers’ Week. This year’s Engineers’ Week kicked off Saturday with ISU alumnus and astronaut Clayton Anderson. The executive committee hoped that with speakers such Anderson and companies such as 3M, NetApp and Pella giving “Tech-Talks” during Technology Night, students would see how exciting things can be after they complete all of their hard work in their classes. “[The companies] talk about the exciting research, technology and engineering that’s going on in their fields right now,” said Sheila Evans, co-president of the Engineers’ Week Executive Committee and senior in aerospace engineering. “[Tech-Talks] shine a light on [being an engineer]. If you go through all [the work] and you become an actual engineer, this is the exciting stuff you can do.” While some of Engineers’ Week
may be serious, it will also be full of fun social events and games. “We wanted to find cool and interesting ways to engage the engineering student body more socially than, say, academically as some of the other events do,” said Cody Hancock, vice president of the Engineers’ Week Executive Committee and senior in chemical engineering. “We kept the basis of some sort of athletic competition but also added a little bit more engineering problem solving. That’s what became E-lympics.” E-lympics, a play on the words “engineer” and “olympics,” was an event that made students work not only their bodies but also their minds. The event took place Sunday at Lied Recreation Athletic Center and the Forker pool. Games included Mario Kart, Minute to Win It tug of war and a cardboard boat building contest that held money prizes, which were given to the winners. E-WEEK p8
Additions to grow Bessey Top musical talents on display at Varieties by 64,000 square feet By Jake.Dalbey @iowastatedaily.com With the rapid growth Iowa State is currently experiencing, changes are being made around campus to accommodate not only students but also professors. One such change is the new addition currently underway for Bessey Hall’s east wing, a project that will hopefully add space and functionality for the students of bio sciences. “This has been in the planning process for several years, and one of things that had been identified is that it would be good to add so that we would have a central focus for the undergraduate bio sciences teachings,” said Associate Provost Dave Holger, co-chair of the biosciences facilities planning effort.
Problems have arisen with Bessey Hall as there is currently not enough room for many of the introductory science labs, leaving some of the basic biology labs running from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday. After the addition, Bessey Hall will grow by 64,000 square feet of space and receive several basic biology labs, new classrooms, faculty and graduate student offices and research laboratories. “This will hopefully make Bessey even more of the focal point for undergraduate biology teachings than it already is,” Holger said. The current estimate for the addition is slated at $22 million and production will start this week with fences constructed around Bessey and will be finished by
BESSEY p4
By Mike.Burvee and Joe.Badger @iowastatedaily.com
The Great Room of the Memorial Union was host to the finals of “Let the Beat Rock,” the 85th Annual Varieties Talent Competition this weekend, put on by the Student Union Board with the pairing Two Hearts Beat as One winning best overall performance. Emcees Connor Klein, Sammy Jordan and Kaitlyn Trampel announced that the finalists had been working on their acts since October, and that the 20-minute “mini-musicals” and the shorter vignettes, where students display their individual talents, were the “kings amongst peasants.” Singer and songwriter Leo Helm, an international exchange student from Scotland, opened the evening event by playing his
Justin Bader/Iowa State Daily
Members of Kappa Kappa Gamma and Alpha Delta Pi perform Friday and Saturday.
own love song. Helm’s personal acoustic piece was followed by an upbeat, pop-sounding song titled “Hot Lemonade.” The opening pairing of the night was a modernized version of the classic Toy Story, entitled
“Unbroken: A Toy’s Story.” The performance featured some classical characters such as Ken, Buzz and Woody, as well as some new characters such as Sam
VARIETIES p4
Censure looms ahead of BOR meeting By Mitchel.Anderson @iowastatedaily.com Student Government’s censure on the student member of the Iowa Board of Regents is still lingering ahead of this week’s regents meeting. This week’s meeting is the first since Rachael Johnson, a student member of the board from the University of Northern Iowa, was censured — or given a vote of no confidence — by the ISU undergraduate’s governing body. On Jan. 20, the Student Gov-
ernment Senate voted unanimously to censure Johnson. The senators passed this resolution because Johnson voted in favor of a $500 tuition raise a year for international students at the Dec. 2 regents meeting. The outrage from the Senate sparked Student Government to pass a resolution against the tuition increase late in the fall semester and sent the bill to Johnson to review. However, she had received the bill only 24 hours before the vote because of an issue with the time line. Johnson declined to comment
on the censure, but Student Government President Dan Breitbarth said relations are still strong. “Our relationship with [Johnson] is still good,” Breitbarth said. “We discussed it. We had a conversation after the vote and we had a conversation after the censure. It’s still her job to represent us, and it’s still our job to represent the students, so that’s where we are at moving forward.” Breitbarth also clarified why the censure was toward Johnson and not the whole Board of Regents. “Not only [Student Govern-
ment], but the state of Iowa looks to her to represent all students from the three regent institutions,” Breitbarth said. Speaker of the Senate Ben Crawford added what he hoped to get out of the ordeal. “I guess we’re just looking for some trust going forward and communications on both ends,” Crawford said. “That just wasn’t working out very well.” The Board of Regents meeting will be on Iowa State’s campus at the Alumni Center this Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday’s meeting will take place from 8:30
a.m. to about 2:15 p.m. Thursday’s meeting begins at 8 a.m. with a breakfast with student leaders and adjournment is anticipated to take place at 3 p.m. Agenda items relevant to ISU students include a proposal to increase the housing, meal plan and parking rates on campus. The regents will also discus a new criminal justice major at the university, as well as a $3.8 million in funding for a bathroom remodeling project in the Richardson Court dorms. More information on the meeting can be found at www. regents.iowa.gov.