A Shakesperean comedy, Love's Labour's Lost, is the current effort of the USU Theatre. See Page 9
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..... weekends are the best -if not the only - times for fathers and sons get reaquainted and set aside problems of jobs and educational pursuits. This past .....,_. found many married students and their children hunting for eggs on Old Main Hill. Jeff Alfred
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Balancing job, school, family is married student's chore many non-student employees may not like doing,"
he said. Off-campus employment offers other advantages. For instance, the university offers some benefits to students who are on contract and, according to Watkins, plans are underway to phase out contract employment to part-time students. On the other
hand, Miller's student employees are entitled to such benefits as medical insurance and up to two weeks vacation depending on employment duration, said Rawlings. For some families, learning to do without some comforts is their only best way to come to grips with a meager income. 'We no longer have a new car as we did before I became a student," Weaver
said. 'We get help from Suzanne's parents, holding garage sales and my wife does some baking."
Against all these odds, one might wonder why married students make all the sacrifices.
The need to better their lot seems to be the common thread that runs through these families. Hamner, for example, graduated with a degree in animal science years ago, but could not find suitable employment because of an economic recession. So he scratched-Qut a living driving a truck while his wife worked as a seamstress.
'We decided that I should go back to college and obtain a degree in agricultral education," explained
Hamner. 'With two degrees, I hope a whole range of teaching opportunities will open up for me, and my wife will not have to work ."
Weaver, on the other hand, went to college after working for many years as a realtor. One day he sustained a back injury which reduced his capacity to performas a realtor. We decided that he should do what he always wanted, that is, get a college degree,"Suzanne said. So, with nearly after 13 years of working and also becoming a father of six children, Weaver is now a college student, hoping to obtaina degree in either electronics of mathematics. But giving up employment to become a college student demands maldngsac:riÂŁic:es thattranscend monetary discomforts. Pemaps themost noticeable
is a disruptiuon of family social life "It was not easy," recollected Velda Campbell
lye, wife of William lye, USU's vice-president for university relations. "I would be jealous when he
would be studying and I wouldn't," she said. "Some wives forced their husbands to quit college
because they needed a home. But I looked at a home as a long-term goal, with scholastics coming first." Suzanne Weaver concurs. "He is my husband,
and whatever he achieves belongs to the family. We, therefore, budget out time to enable him to study." The Weavers set aside Sundays as a "family day" when parents and children spend more time
together, than they can during the week. "Sometimes, I wake up the children in the mornings to pray together. That way they see me in the mornings as well as at night," Weaver said. Relations between student fathers and student children can be competitve. Weaver said he didn't hesitate to tell his children whenever he gets a low grade "because I like to appear human to them." For Jason Weaver, 10, such openess serves as an incentive. "I sort of try to get a better grade than
dad's," he said. For international students whose spouses and
children are thousands of miles away for Logan, the long, albeit temporary separation can be hard to bear. "If I had my family here, the impact of the isolation I am experiencing would not be so great,"
explained Dahir Amarre, a USU graduate student whose wife and children are back in Somalia. ''Having been married for so many years it is
hard for me to live like a bachelor." According to Lucy Thompson of the International Programs office, some scholarships provide money that is intended to meet the needs of an individual student. "For married students who intend to bring their families, they must prove that they have sources of income besides the scholarships, and must have a (continued on page 3)