StatesmanCampus News
Friday, Oct. 12, 2007
Page 3
Briefs
Nobody knew
Campus & Community
USU students’ families invited for the weekend
During National Coming Out Day, students gathered on the TSC Patio to support and listened to fellow Aggies as many related their expereiences with revealing their sexual orientation in a conservative community. There was also a student panel. The events on Thursday were held by Allies on Campus and GLBT. CAMERON PETERSON photo
A-TVNews: Growing audience
Ecologist Gene Likens spoke Wednesday to students about the importance of conservation. He said scientists should be compelled to share their knowledge regarding global warming. TYLER LARSON photo
Visiting ecologist urges campus conservation By G. CHRISTOPHER TERRY staff writer Late in Gene Likens’ speech at the Eccles Conference Center Wednesday night, the distinguished ecologist asked if students living at USU has interdormitory contests to conserve water or throw away less trash. He was met with shrugs and finally a single, resounding “no.” Likens’ overarching message was that human-accelerated environmental change due to tools that are “better than we are” is everyone’s problem. He extolled scientists in the crowd to “feel free and obligated to speak out if you have knowledge on a topic,” such as global warming. He even encouraged graduate
students to become science writers to inform the general public of ecological problems in an accessible way. A winner of the prestigious Tyler Prize and an electee of the National Academy of Sciences, Likens has adjunct professorships at such universities as University of Rhode Island, Cornell and Yale. His claim to fame is the groundbreaking Hubbard Brook experiment, which Likens began when he was teaching at Dartmouth in 1963 and continues today. The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is groundbreaking because Likens was conducting ecological research at a
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students don’t even touch equipment until their senior year. Penny said by having the students learn just as much about anchoring as producing, it’s paying off. “The reputation for producing is now very strong,” she said. Penny said when students graduate from USU and tell their future employers that they want to be a producer, the people believe them. A-TVNews is online at the journalism and communication online newspaper, the Hard News Cafe, on its own Web site at www.usu.edu/atvnews and now at the Northern Utah Television Web site at www.northernutahtv.com. Northern Utah Television’s founder Stephanie DeGraw started the online news outlet last year in an effort to give northern Utah a voice. DeGraw, who has been in broadcasting for 25 years, started the site after her plans to keep up a northern Utah TV station fell through. She said she wanted to give the students at USU and Weber State an outlet for their programming as well as provide programming that would relate to people’s interests in northern Utah. To build the site and be able to stream video “was expensive and time consuming, but I think it’s worth it to offer something to the community,” DeGraw said. The site features programing for local issues, arts and entertainment, sports, business, city council, public debate, high schools and college student broadcast news. “We want to have this become the community TV station; it just happens to be online,” DeGraw said. Everyone can go to the site and upload their own programming, but it will not
be officially posted until the content it is screened by DeGraw. “I wanted to screen it so my viewers know that it’s family-friendly and there’s not going to be anything inappropriate on there,” she said. She said she wants the Web site to be really interactive, so she has included comment boxes below all of the broadcasts. “I’m really excited because I think students would be more likely to print their own news,” she said, noting if someone wants to film a local rock band and post that in the entertainment section they can. “We can give them exposure, and it helps the site to always have lots of interesting, fresh content all the time,” DeGraw said. She said through the Web site www. statcounter.com, they have 200 visitors from around the world daily, and those who come once come back and stay online. Northern Utah Television is based in Ogden, at 205 26th Street Ste. 23, on the corner of 26th Street and Grant Street. Its studio is open to individuals who would like to produce commercials or programs. It also has a green screen for anyone to use for about $25 an hour. Another outlet for A-TVNews even more locally is the new TV station KUTA8. KUTA8’s Station Manager Courtney Western said he is looking for local broadcasts to air on his station. A-TVNews currently runs daily at 12:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. For more information on KUTA, visit them at 3006 N. Main Street or online at www.kuta8.com. –ranae.bang@aggiemail.usu.edu
- See LIKENS, page 4
Retention: First symposium held -continued from page 1 2005 academic years, there was a significant reduction in enrollment numbers, and the university lost about 700 full-time students, Albrecht said. Some of the reasons students leave are to serve missions, get married or transfer to other universities, but many choose to leave for financial reasons, Albrecht said. Out of 1,600 students contacted by telephone who had stopped attending USU, he said about 950 cited financial reasons behind their decision. “It’s not an unhappiness with the institution or the environment in which they find themselves,” Albrecht said. “Most students say that in making the decision again, they would still choose to come to USU.” Albrecht said while many people compare the rising costs of tuition to other expenses such as health care, prescription medicines or the purchase of a new car, the rise in tuition costs are dramatically higher. From 2001 to 2007, tuition costs at USU rose 70 percent, he said. This semester, there are more than
17,000 full-time students enrolled at USU, and the freshman class has 683 students more than it did two years ago, Albrecht said. “What we have seen is a significant reduction in state investment in higher education resulting in a need on our part to find other ways to do what it is we’re doing, and one of the ways to do that is to increase tuition costs,” Albrecht said. Next to comparable universities, though, USU is still one of the lowest in terms of cost of tuition, he said. “We are still a good bargain,” Albrecht said. “We are 19th out of 20 western institutions in terms of tuition and fee costs for a student coming here.” While it is important to recognize that, Albrecht said the university must still be concerned about retaining students who are having financial difficulties. Albrecht said the university plans to focus next on increasing endowments so it can, in part, provide resources to help take care of the students who are dropping out for Kenny Reid, senior in broadcast journalism, prepares to film an A-TV program. A-TV’s financial reasons. –bri.jones@aggiemail.usu.edu audience has seen substantial growth during the last two years. DEBRA HAWKINS photo
Parents and families of USU students are invited to reunite for a weekend of activities Oct. 12-14 during USU’s Parent and Family Weekend. “Parents and families can visit their students on campus and experience a beautiful fall weekend in Logan,” said Aaron Andersen, associate director in the office of Retention and First-Year Experience at USU. “We have an exciting weekend planned, with events and activities in the community and on campus. We want to get the word out early so parents can make plans to join us.” Registration for the weekend is under way. Complete information and registration forms are available online (www.usu.edu/ parents/weekend). Many of the weekend’s activities are free, including Aggie Family Day on the Quad, held in conjunction with Parent and Family Weekend. Other free events include activities at the USU Museum of Anthropology and a USU Women’s Soccer game. For those attending, there are plenty of activities off campus as well. A free walking tour of downtown Logan Saturday begins at 4 p.m. at the newly restored Cache County Courthouse, 199 N. Main. Tickets for a variety of performances and activities are available at event-specific venues, and ticket information is linked from the USU registration site. Repertory Dance Theatre is appearing at the Ellen Eccles Theatre, 43 S. Main. Halloween movies are showing at the Utah Theatre, 28 W. Center, and a variety of corn mazes operate throughout the area. Other activities include canoeing expeditions on the Bear River marsh, Muddy Road Outfitters, for reservations call 753-3693 and guided horseback tours at Beaver Creek Lodge in Logan Canyon for reservations call 753-1076. The weekend’s major event, a brunch, requires advance registration. The Parent and Family Brunch is Saturday, Oct. 13, at 10:30 a.m. at the Sunburst Lounge in the Taggart Student Center. Registration is due Oct. 5 and should be completed online. Registration is ongoing. For information on USU’s Parent and Family Weekend, contact the office of Retention and First-Year Experience, 797-1132.
NRCS leading project to restore vegetation Natural Resources Conservation Services is participating in a service project Saturday. The Stream Restoration Service Project will be 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Natural Resource Building. The event is free but advance sign-up is required. Sign up in the CNR Academic Services office in the Natural Resources Building, Room 120. Roll up your sleeves and join others in a stream restoration service project led by NRCS. The project takes place in Paradise, in southern Cache Valley. Volunteers will restore vegetation in a flood-damaged streamside area. Participants should wear work gloves, shoes and clothing appropriate for the weather. NRCS will provide the plants and tools. The CNR student council will coordinate rides for participants. Volunteers should meet at 8:15 a.m. in the Natural Resources Building parking lot. Lunch is provided at the work site, free of charge, by the CNR Student Council.
U.S. Congress looking for abstracts, posters It is increasingly important that the scientific community works to ensure that those in the U.S. Congress who provide funding for science and science education have a clear understanding of the programs they fund and why these programs are important. Nothing more effectively demonstrates the value of undergraduate research than the words and stories of the student participants themselves. In the Spring of 2008, CUR will host its 12th annual undergraduate poster session on Capitol Hill. This event will help members of Congress understand the importance of undergraduate research by talking directly with the students whom these programs impact. CUR is calling for students to submit an abstract of their research that represents any of CUR’s divisions (Biology, Chemistry, Geosciences, Mathematics/Computer Science, Physics/Astronomy, Psychology, and Social Sciences). They are also accepting abstracts in the Humanities. Posters on the Hill is tentatively scheduled for April 30, 2008 in Washington, D.C. The deadline for submitting applications is November 15, 2007. More information and the application are available at: http:// www.cur.org/postersession.html.
-Compiled from staff and media reports