Monday, Oct. 18, 2010
Utah Statesman The
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List suggests students becoming impatient By CATHERINE MEIDELL news editor
ONE OF THE CONSEQUENCES of technology is students tend to multitask while performing schoolwork, which makes many students’ assignments less than adequate. ARMEN HOVSEPYAN photo illustration
With every incoming college class comes a new perspective on education and life in general, which is represented through the Mindset List, co-created by Rob Nief and Tom McBride of Beloit College in Wisconsin. In their speech and discussion with USU faculty and staff, McBride and Nief shared their most recently published Mindset List for the Class of 2014, in order to help these employees effectively connect with and understand the students at hand. McBride, who is also an English professor at Beloit, said “generational change is fraught with wounds” and the Class of 2014 is wounded with the inability to write in cursive as well as the impression that e-mail is not a fast enough way to communicate. It is important that professors and other university student mentors educate their stu-
dents about the past, so they may understand the world from a different generation. This includes improving general skills, such as formal communication, which many now lack due to technology, he said. “I have found students really lack a sense of context …. They just don’t understand some elementary distinctions,” McBride said. Today’s college students are hopeful as well as worrisome to their professors and parents, Nief said, because they have grown up with a progressive attitude toward race and gender, they understand they must find a way to cool the heating planet, improve health care options and urge competition in the U.S. McBride said he has sensed tension in classrooms during his research for this year’s Mindset List. Students think their professors are less intelligent than they are, and profes-
- See CLASS, page 3
Thank you letters acknowledge tuition donors By MARISSA BODILY staff writer
USU students wrote letters of appreciation to university donors, who help make up the 84 percent of total tuition that students are not required to pay. Students, alumni, faculty, staff and the public were invited to thank USU donors by writing letters last Wednesday just outside the Evan N. Stevenson Ballroom in the TSC from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. “Students only pay about 16 percent of their tuition, the other 84 percent comes from private donor support and federal grant support,” said Elizabeth Bare, adviser for the Student Giving Committee. The event was organized by the Student Giving Committee, which runs
the Aggies For Change program, said committee member Carlie Pennington. “We are 16 percent through the school year, so we are holding this event now because students pay 16 percent of their tuition,” Bare said. Participants signed up before writing their letter and included a club they belong to or any on-campus club of their choice next to their name on the sign-up sheet. There was a competition to see which club had the highest number of participants because the one with the most thank-you letters written received a prize of $200. The Honors Students won the prize after taking the lead for most of the event, Pennington said. Papers with guidelines for writing the letters were available.The guidelines included ideas for the introduc-
tion, body and closing of the letter, and asked students to include their major, year and involvement at USU. Those who wrote letters of appreciation received a card for free Aggie ice cream and a button that read “I said thank you.” “Students don’t realize that they only pay a small percentage of their tuition,” said committee chair Tessa Goodall. “They don’t feel like they need to give back.” Money from donors supports student scholarships, tuition assistance, student travel and participation in competitions and conferences, cultural opportunities, equipment for labs and classrooms, construction and enhancement of learning facilities, lectures, performances and exhibits. The committee was also passing
out piggy banks at the event. Laurel Mallonee, volunteer coordinator for the Student Giving Committee, said the club is handing out the small plastic piggy banks for students to put their spare change in. All the proceeds from the change collected will go back to the student body towards scholarships and events, Goodall said. The coins from the piggy banks are collected once every semester. This semester, they will be collected on Thursday, Oct. 21 and Friday, Oct. 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the TSC patio. There will be a paper mache piggy bank there, Bare said. Those who are interested in participating can pick up a piggy bank in Bare’s office, Old Main room 110. She said the Student Giving Committee is in charge of the senior
celebration, senior gift and senior events. The senior gift for 2011 has not yet been chosen. More information on the gift can be found on Facebook by searching for USU Senior Gift. Two weeks ago, the Student Giving Committee was in charge of ribbon cutting ceremony for last year’s senior class gift, which was a covered bike rack. The Student Giving Committee can be found on Facebook by searching for USU Aggies for Change. Those interested in joining the Student Giving Committee can e-mail Goodall at t.a.good@aggiemail.usu. edu.
– marissa.bodily@aggiemail.usu.edu
NWUN visits to further partnership with USU members from USU’s BioSystems Center to go straight to NWUN to provide training. The Chinese delegation first visited USU in March and then again in September. After their recent visit to USU, a delegation of Ken White, the CIB’s Interim Director and departChinese scientists from Northwest University for ment head for Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences, Nationalities (NWUN) in Lanzhou, China, are expect- associate director Rashid and a group that also ed to return again in December, expanding the notoincluded Afifa Sabir, education coordinator for the riety of the Center for Integrated BioSystems (CIB) CIB, and Ben Sessions, Animal, Dairy and Veterinary training on an international scale. Science laboratory manager, visited the campus in The scientists’ interest in USU’s CIB laboratory Lanzhou during the end of May and beginning of facility began last year, said CIB associate director June. They gave classroom lectures Kamal Rashid, when a visiting scienand teach hands-on application of tist from NWUN spent a year at USU “One of the things basic, scientific concepts in order to and grew interested in the center. they’re concerned use a functioning bioreactor. They wanted to look further into about is if they can “The experience was very positive. efforts to provide training on bioreThey received us very well,” Rashid produce adequate actors – vessels in which chemical said. amounts of vacprocesses are carried out. The group also visited two vital vacEstablished in 1991, the Center cines to prevent cine facilities, one in Lanzhou and for Integrated BioSystems (CIB) has disease in millions one in Urumqi, China. With more been home to state-of-the art equipthan 60 vaccine production sites in and millions of ment for use in fermentation, proChina, manufacturing could be made people.” tein purification, and cell culture. easier through the use of the bioreacNot only do USU researchers use Ken White, tors for which USU faculty members the equipment and receive training CIB Interim Director provide training. at the Center, but off-campus and “One of the things they’re concerned industrial collaborators as well. about is if they can produce adequate As a result of the international amounts of vaccines to prevent disease in millions interest, a collaboration between NWUN and USU and millions of people,” White said. “They’re lookwas formed that allows for faculty members from ing at it from an animal standpoint and also human. NWUN’s College of Life Science and Engineering They’re interested in what’s involved to rack up their to come to USU for hands-on training, and faculty By ARIANNA REES staff writer
Inside This Issue
10/18/10 Women’s soccer stays undefeated in WAC play after tieing Boise State and beating Idaho. Page 3
KAMAL RASHID, associate director for the Center for Integrated BioSystems, demonstrates the use of a bench-top bioreactor to faculty and staff of Northwestern University for Nationalities’ Key Laboratory. Photo courtesy the Center for Integrated BioSystems
capability with bioreactors.” Interest in USU’s training is such that NWUN intends to establish laboratories and obtain equipment in China so that they may potentially have their own sister program to train scientists and increase vaccination production, Rashid said. With the possibility of another
Multiple attractions open to give the community a Halloween full of scares. Page 5
delegation visiting this December, both White and Rashid agree that the Center’s influence is positive and widely successful, and that further collaboration is likely. – ariwrees@gmail.com
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