The Utah Statesman, March 26, 2012

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Monday, March 26, 2012

Utll

"Campus Voice Since 1902" •

Utah State University• Logan, Utah

CHaSS Week highlights research

Joday's Issue: Campus News

The Home and Garden Show gets locals ready for spring as temperatures rise l'age3

Features

Thousands gather at a Hindu Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah.

BY LIS STEWART staff writer CHaSS Week includes a hat tip to the Oreo cookie this year, in addition to other events like Slam Beat Poetry night and a student-run research symposium featuring projects from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, according to Erika Norton, CHaSS senator. "This creates an opportunity for students to display their work, and they can put this on their resume," Norton said of the research symposium. A lot of students don't think they can participate because they see research as just writing a paper, Norton said. The submitted projects were divided into categories of journalism, multimedia, research and creative writing. Projects were

judged on several criteria, but the main one was creativity, she said. CHaSS is a unique college in that its majors range from quantitative to literary studies, Norton said. "Pretty much everyone in our college could

casual. CHaSS Week starts with a universitywide quiz bowl at noon in the TSC International Lounge, said journalism major Rhett Wilkinson, the senior in charge of CHaSS Week public relations. He said he hopes

LAST YEAR'S CHASS WEEK featured a "Nifty Fifty" dance party and other events. This week is the 2012 CHaSS Week which will include a research symposium, a quiz bowl and a Dean's Convocation with CHaSS Dean John Allen. File photo

interest in the quiz bowl will spread. "We hope to generate more excitement than last year," he said. The Dean's Convocation on Tuesday at 2 p.m. in the TSC Auditorium includes a speech by CHaSS Dean John Allen, who will speak on the week's theme, "Ignite Your Passion." "He'll be speaking about the college in general and how we are passionate about the things we do," Norton said. Instead of pizza, the usual refreshment, Wilkinson said the planning group picked Oreo cookies to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the cookie's inception, per the suggestion of Michael Lyons, interim director of the political ►) See

CHASS, Page 2

Campus group organizes safety campaign

Page4 BY JULIA STOCK staff writer A group of 10 students and a member from Zero Fatalities displayed their texting and driving awareness campaign presentation known as "Txt L8tr" next to the Business Building March 23.

Sports

submit something with those themes," she said. Prizes will be given to researchers for the bestjudged projects in each category. The public can see the finalist projects Thursday at 7 p.m. in the David B. Haight Alumni Center. Dress is business

Lora Hudson, a Zero Fatalities outreach coordinator, said using a phone while driving can impair a driver's reactions. "Texting while driving is the same as if you had a blood alcohol level of (.16). So it's as if you had double the legal alcohol limit for adults in your body,"

Hudson said. "People die all the time from distractions in general." The group had a table set up with a poster that stated: "With this thumb I commit to keep both hands on the wheel." The group provided an ink pad for passers-by to leave a thumb or

Aggie men's basketball scored tnple-d1g1ts Sunday and will go

on to the CIT hampionsh1p. f'ase7

Opinion n vtrtu onsc1ous

iat TO DISCOURAGE TEXTING AND DRIVING, the campus chapter of Zero Fatalities constructed an obstacle course on campus. Students rode a Big Wheel through traffic cones while texting. They were told that texting while driving has the same effect as driving with a blood alcohol level of .16. DELAYNE LOCKE photo

fingerprint to pledge support. Students involved in Txt L8tr are part of management 3110, the business class that usually sponsors yearly SEED fundraisers. Justin Berry, a student involved in Txt L8tr, said this year the class focuses on organizing local service projects rather than raising money. Also on display was a page dedicated to Taylor Sauer, a USU student who recently died after the vehicle she was driving reportedly crashed into a semitrailer at 88 mph. According to a press release from Idaho State Police, Sauer used her cell phone extensively throughout the fatal trip. Hudson said the Txt L8tr group told her it wanted to do the project in honor of Sauer when it first contacted her. "Anything that takes your eyes off the road for one second can cause exactly what happened here with the Utah State student," Hudson said. As a part of the display, the group set up a row of cones through which people could ride two Big Wheel bikes to simulate the effect of texting while driving. ►) See

GROUP, Page 2

Alumnus speaks about social media BY TAVIN STUCKI

sports editor

Today: Mercer? Where the heck and what the heck is Mercer? Check it out:

Added Value!

. English is a continually evo"lving language that has undergone changes for centuries. During his speech Friday, the latest installment of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences' Distinguished Alumni Speaker Series, author Brandon Schrand spoke about issues regarding the way modern trends in the English language are perceived both positively and negatively. Schrand called his speech "The Virtue of Misbehavior in the Digital Age; Or, How the Humanities Taught Me to Take the Time." Reading from his own essay, titled "Esto Perpetua," named after Idaho's state motto, which is Latin for "let it be perpetual," the 2003 USU graduate spoke specifically of the way social media like Facebook and Twitter are changing the English language. "Twitter is unabashedly all about compression and acceleration," Schrand said. "Twitter has not only made email seem clunkish and antiquated, but it seems to be rerouting the way we communicate." Jasilyn Brinkerhoff, a sophomore majoring in English education, said she thinks language is destroyed when condensed too much. "I feel there's a certain structure in

the way to make everything fit for what we need to say, but there are rules that apply," she said. "You can change things and everything, and I feel like a big part ofEnglish is coming up with different creative ideas of how to switch things around and say it. But I feel when we to start to shorten things and be lazy about all those rules, you start to lose something more about the language." Brianna Anderson, a sophomore majoring in creative writing agreed. "I think it's also affecting people's abilities to write," Anderson said. "My little sister - I'd read over what she writes, and I could tell it's like texting or Facebook or something." Brinkerhoff said she's noticed things such as diverse vocabulary are going the way of the dodo because of 140-character limits in the way people have started to express themselves - Twitter posts are limited to 140 characters. "There's so many vocabulary words that are missing nowadays that can add so much to what you mean and what you say," Brinkerhoff said. "I think everyone could speak a lot stronger and have more meaning to their words if people would stop shortening things." Schrand shared an experience he had in his current position at the University of USU ALUMNUS BRANDON SCHRAND talked Idaho as an assistant professor in which about the impact Twitter and other social media are affect► .,.)_S_e_e_TW --ITT __E _R _,_P_a_g_e-2- - --

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ing the way people think, talk and communicate in today's society. CURTIS RIPPLINGER photo


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