USU grad students host summer workshop

Two Utah State University graduate art students are heading a week-long summer portraiture workshop in Helper, Utah — the same place they learned to paint themselves.

“I don’t think I would still be doing art if I didn’t have this opportunity myself when I was younger,” said Zachary Proctor, who is currently teaching a Drawing II class at USU. “It was a make or break for me. This will give art students a serious jumpstart and help them to become really competent in a short amount of time.”

The workshop will be held June 1-5 in what Proctor called “an old brothel building” in a “small town with few distractions.”

“Don’t worry, they’ve changed all of the sheets since then,” Proctor said. “Really though, it’s been 30 years. No one will be seeing any ladies of the night. It’s an ideal space for art. There really is a great energy in there.”

Matt Larsen, who will be teaching the course with Proctor, said that their instruction will be well worth its $580 price tag.

“They’ll have a second instructor to help them problem solve,” Larsen said. “That’s a really rare thing. They’ll get the same information in two different ways. We can complement each other. Where one of us is lacking, the other one can make up for that.”

The price will include instruction and private lodging over the five-day workshop. Participants are responsible for bringing their own supplies and providing their own meals. Proctor and Larsen are currently looking for interested models as well as up to 20 artists.

“We really wanted to open this up to students before we advertised it in communities,” Larsen said.

Proctor echoed the sentiment: “We want a younger crowd. We think it will be more fun and beneficial for everyone.”

After graduating from the University of Utah 12 years ago, Proctor was offered a four-month internship at the Helper studio. While there, he apprenticed under David Dornan — a painter who will be hosting his own still life workshop at the end of July.

“I planned for four months, I ended up staying for 24,” Proctor said. “About 98 percent of everything I am as an artist comes from my experience there.”

During his stay, he was provided with a private bedroom and large studio in exchange for doing laundry, cleaning the facility, chopping wood and stretching canvas, among other chores.

“It was how people used to learn art,” Proctor. “They’d study under someone. It’s very different from the university setting. With the workshop, students will get to see what it’s like to be an artist for six days. By the end of the week, eating and sleeping will be a chore.”

Before his time at USU, Larsen said that he learned most of what he knows from painter Paul Davis. Davis will host a figure painting workshop in June.

“Ours will be a lot cheaper than his, not to mention we’ll have two instructors,” Larsen. “I really hope students take advantage of this.”

Proctor and Larsen’s workshop will focus on both drawing and painting the head. They will work with charcoal for four hours each morning and with oil paint for four hours each night. Time in between is for students to do as they wish.

“There’s people that teach because they have to teach, and there are people who teach because they love to teach and love to see people progress,” Larsen said. “That’s what we are about. If our students can paint better than us by the end of the week, that’s great for us. People will ask who their instructors were.”

Student organic farm heads into busy season

Members of Utah State University’s student-run organic farm are heading into their busiest time of the year.

“I’m going to have to make sure we have enough vegetables for our shareholders for the entire summer,” said junior Alanna Nafziger, production manager of the farm. “There’s always a lot to do to make sure that happens.”

The organic farm will cater to 55 shareholders for 20 weeks starting on May 7. The university has hired five paid interns for the summer farming season who will begin their terms that same day.

Despite her position as production manager, Nafziger won’t be receiving any compensation from the university for her work.

“I myself am really just a volunteer,” Nafziger said. “It’s vital to have volunteers. Without volunteer help, the farm definitely couldn’t run. It takes a lot to keep things going and working organically as far as weed control and seeding and things. We need a lot of help.”

Amanda Hawks, manager of the farm’s finances, said that she also recognizes the important role volunteers play in the farm’s success.

“We need lots of volunteers if we expect to keep the farm running,” Hawks said. “We are always looking for more volunteers.”

Hawks is not a volunteer herself. She serves as one of the farm’s five paid interns and has been involved since October 2010.

“It can get stressful,” Hawks said. “With the new season starting, I am in charge of making sure we have customers right now. I manage the records of people who buy into the farm. We have to keep them happy throughout the season if we want to get all of their checks in.”

Hawks said that the farm’s greatest strength and struggle both stem from the fact that the land is managed by students.

“We’re all amateurs when it comes to business and farming, so we’re all trying to learn while we’re all trying to farm,” Hawks said. “At the same time, I think having it be student run is its best quality. We have to take charge and make it work. The fact that it does end up working out is so great.”

According to Hawks, the interns are hoping to secure a booth at the Cache Valley Gardeners’ Market for the farm’s first time.

“We’ve done stands on campus before, but now we’re really hoping to expand and sell our vegetables at the farmer’s market,” Hawks said.

The farm started in 2008 under the direction of agriculture professors Jennifer Reeve and Dan Drost. It wasn’t until 2009 that the public could buy shares of the land.

“They came together and came up with the idea,” Hawks said. “They wanted to have practicum experience for students so they could get hands-on experience at a farm. At first, it was just growing and selling. It was a year later that they worked to grow enough vegetables for a committed group of people.”

Sophomore Jessica Gosar was a student in one of Reeve’s classes last fall and said that she didn’t like the experience.

“We had to work a certain amount of required hours on the farm,” Gosar said. “Honestly, I’m glad I’m done with that class. With organic food, you can’t use a lot of pesticides. I don’t like it because if something happens, you can’t do anything about it. I really didn’t like that feeling.”

As the recently-inducted senator for the college of agriculture, Ashlee Diamond said that despite the fact that she doesn’t have any direct responsibilities with the farm, she is considering ways to incorporate them more into the college’s activities for the next school year.

“We had them set up a stand at our closing social last week and there was a lot of positive feedback about that,” Diamond said. “I hope we can do more with that in our events next year.”

Diamond said that she loves to see students selling the farm’s produce on campus.

“It is a great opportunity for students at Utah State to support local agriculture and connect with what it means to be at a land grant university,” Diamond said.

Building better men, race directors

Utah State University’s Sigma Phi Epsilon Balanced Man Triathlon will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 28 in honor of the fraternity’s mission to “build balanced men.”

“They chose a triathlon because it’s all about sound minds and sounds bodies,” said freshman Garrett White, director of the race. “And it’s evolved from that into hopefully becoming our biggest philanthropy project of the year.”

The race will consist of a 500-yard swim, a 9-mile bike ride and a 5K run around campus. Teams of multiple athletes can be formed. Everyone willing is encouraged to participate.

“You can get involved in a ton of different ways if you want to,” said sophomore Matt Kearl, special events coordinator for the fraternity. “You don’t have to do the entire triathlon. You could even have 13 people on a team. I’m going to be on a tandem bike for the cycling portion of the race. It’s just going to be all about fun and a good cause. As long as there are people supporting and helping the cause, that’s what it’s all about.”

According to Bracken Allen, volunteer coordinator for the triathlon, money raised in the past has gone to benefit the fraternity’s national philanthropy, Youth AIDS. This year, he said, the USU chapter of the fraternity teamed up with the Logan chapter of Best Buddies instead.

“Best Buddies provides people of literally all ages who have mental disabilities with a non-handicapped friend and mentor to create one-on-one relationships with,” Allen said. “The main reason we made this change is because the organization lost a lot of their primary donors this year and are running on nickels and dimes.”

Allen said that the fraternity was originally hoping to raise $3,000 of profit from the event, 75 percent of which would benefit the Best Buddies program. The remaining 25 percent would go toward the group’s annual Balanced Man Scholarship, an award for incoming freshmen who effectively maintain a balance of sound body and mind.

Allen estimated that they are more likely to profit around $2,000. If that goal is met, approximately $1500 would be sent to their philanthropy and $500 to an incoming freshman.

“The most difficult part of getting participants is deciding which type of person would be the best to target, whether it be a traditional triathlete or someone naturally sympathetic for Best Buddies,” Allen said. “The marketing of all of that was complicated to really brand the race the most effective way.”

The lack of interest could also be attributed to the busy time of the semester, according to White.

“People are so focused on other things,” White said. “They aren’t willing to spend the time training for it right now.”

White said that heading the race has helped him to become a more balanced man himself.

“It’s tradition for the fraternity to put a new freshman in charge of the triathlon,” White said. “The hardest part about planning the whole thing is trying to visualize the day itself. I’ve never seen it happen before, so it’s hard to plan and organize from something I don’t really know about. It’s been a good learning experience though.”

Kearl said there is “a method behind the madness.”

“As a fraternity we believe in building better men, so how can this happen if the most qualified person does the hardest thing?” Kearl said. “Instead we give the responsibility to those who show potential and work together to build them into the most qualified person.”

Merrill-Cazier Library offers help and forgiveness

The Merrill-Cazier Library is currently offering students both help and forgiveness.

The ongoing “Write Now!” and “Forgiveness for Fines” programs were created to provide students with some relief during dead week, according to Vicki Read, head of circulation.

“The whole goal of the library is to support students faculty and staff,” Read said. “By doing all these different things, that’s what we’re doing. We’re supporting them all in their research and helping students get what they need when they’re the busiest.”

The Write Now! program led Flora Shrode, head of reference and instruction, is heading into its final semester of its third year on campus. According to Shrode, the program offers specialized one-on-one help with research papers, essay formatting, PowerPoint editing and more.

“Our instruction coordinator is always trying to think through finding added ways to reach individual students who might feel weird about coming to the information desk but might feel better about sitting down with a writing tutor,” Shrode said.

Librarians, writing tutors and computer lab assistants will be available to help students in room 122 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for the duration of the week. No appointment is required.

Shrode said that over 70 students have taken advantage of the help so far and she expects that number to climb.

“It’s hard because some students wait until the last day to come and they don’t realize that there’s going to be a big line,” Shrode said. “The earlier you come, the better the chances are of getting the help you need.”

The Forgiveness for Fines program is being offered this week at the library’s circulation desk. Headed by Read, the program is a slight alteration of the forgiveness offered in years past.

“We used to have students bring cans in to forgive a certain portion of their library fines,” Read said. “This time we were like ‘nah, we don’t want to deal with that. let’s just get rid of their fines.’ We’re giving students good karma by getting rid of all of their fines, so we simply ask that you pass that goodness forward. If somebody needs something from you, step up and help them.”

Read said that fines typically reach more than $10,000 in a given school year.

“Most students have fines that are only a couple of dollars,” Read said. “But that adds up quickly.”

This semester, 1,667 students are eligible to have their fines waived. Read said that for fines to be forgiven, all that a student has to do is ask.

“Only 24 students have taken advantage of the offer so far,” said Nick Schockmel, circulation supervisor. “I suspect the low number can be attributed to a lack of marketing and publicity.”

The offer does not apply to interlibrary loan or lost book fines.

“Our mission is to try to reach people who have needs,” Shrode said. “People don’t always realize that we are here to help. These programs are just one more effort to be visible. It’s sort of like we are saying that we’d like to help you in whatever setting you need.”

Former USU professor heads Cache Valley Gran Fondo

A former Utah State University professor is organizing a long-distance bicycle race to be held in Cache Valley on July 14.

Troy Oldham, once the executive director of marketing and branding at Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, is now the executive director of the Logan Regional Hospital Foundation.

According to Oldham, the foundation’s committee was looking for a fun way to engage the community in a healthy activity and simultaneously raise money for the hospital’s new Interventional Cardiology Center.

After several negotiations, the Cache Valley Gran Fondo concept was born.

“We have such a tremendous bicycling community and our location is so unique that we thought it would be great to introduce a new event that would celebrate the local area as a great bicycling community,” Oldham said.

In order to get the word out for the event, Oldham has reached out to the classes of former colleagues in the marketing and public relations departments.

“Our main thing right now is that we have just been trying to develop an online presence, especially through social media,” said Thomas Broschinsky, a senior in Steve Reiher’s PR Agency class. “I really enjoy cycling, so Troy was a client that I really wanted to work with. He’s phenomenal and he has a lot of ideas.”

A 100-mile, 70-mile and 40-mile course will be offered. Oldham said there will be hydration stations, aid stations and food for riders at approximately every 20 miles where family and friends are allowed to wait. A “Gran Feed” will be held at the end of the race.

“We’ve been partnering with local charities with similar missions as our foundation to help us with our support stations,” Oldham said. “Local bikes clubs and training studios have also been getting on board.”

Oldham said that the greatest challenge has been dealing with the ride’s expansive reach.

“These rides take in a lot of miles and go through many small towns and cross state lines twice,” Oldham said. “We want to make sure we are compliant with all the rules and processes for setting up a ride of this magnitude so that the riders are safe and can enjoy the course. We also want to make sure we are building positive relationships between the bike community and the towns where we ride.”

Oldham said that there are about 200 currently registered. He is hoping for at least 750 participants and will cap the event at 1000. Efforts to promote the event will continue through July.

Ty Mortensen is a student working with Broschinsky on the project’s publicity and said he has enjoyed the involvement and seen the results.

“Before we got on there, there was a post or two per week online. Now there’s a post per day,” Mortensen said. “We’ve got people interacting. We’ve got pictures. We are creating a dialogue and connecting with people that would be interested.”

Mortensen said that working with Oldham has been a “really positive experience.”

“He has a background in PR and education and he knows your side of things,” Mortensen said. “He knows you’re in it to learn, but at the same time he wants results. He holds you accountable and he expects good things. He’s open to any idea. I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Those interested in registering for the race should visit http://www.cachegranfondo.com.

Chariot race causes parking problems on 800 East

Monday’s Red Bull-sponsored chariot race, put on by the Student Alumni Association as a part of this semester’s A-week, created parking dilemmas on 800 East across from the Health, Physical Education and Recreation building.

Kyle Hardy, vice president for the SAA, is the student life representative for the Red Bull company and was one of a handful of students assigned to clearing the roads for the event.

“It was definitely stressful having to deal with it,” Hardy said. “We knew we were closing down the road, but we didn’t want to make it just some giant surprise for all of those who live in the houses there. We didn’t want anyone to show up the day of and have to ask, ‘Why can’t we park here?’”

In an attempt to prevent confusion, the committee visited each of the houses located directly along the road a week in advance. The night before the event, they blocked off the sides of the roads using traffic cones and small metal fences.

If cars were parked there that night, they blocked them in.

“One moment my car is just sitting there, and the next moment it’s trapped,” said Shawnica Garza, a resident of a house along 800 East. “It was really annoying. I just had to move the tape myself so I could get out before they closed the whole road down.”

At 2 p.m., just four hours before the event, the block of road between 700 North and 800 North became inaccessible.

“We had five or six cars there all morning long,” Hardy said. “We still had one car left a couple of hours before we had to shut the whole area off. I was getting really nervous about that one because it was actually on the course.”

After unsuccessful efforts to locate the owner of the last car, Hardy said that the committee was “very relieved” when the driver showed up and drove away at 1 p.m.

Even students living off campus were affected by the parking situation.

“I left my car on the road on Sunday not thinking anything of it,” sophomore Jake Westwood said. “When I got back to my car, it was stuck behind some yellow tape. I feel like there should have been signs or something if they were planning to do that. I don’t know how that was even allowed.”

According to Hardy, the road closure was approved by campus police and Parking and Transportation Services.

“Parking wasn’t even an issue last year,” Hardy said. “There wasn’t a single car that didn’t belong on the side of the road on the day of the race. It was a little more difficult this year.”

Documentary stirs up feelings among audience

Film director and producer Brian Patrick presented his documentary “Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre” at Utah State University’s Performance Hall on Thursday at 5 p.m.
The film documented the modern-day conflict and reconciliation between descendents of the 1857 massacre victims and current members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Approximately 120 men, women and children were killed in a series of attacks on a passing wagon train traveling from Arkansas in September 1857. According to Patrick, members of the LDS church “disguised as Indians” were responsible for the brutalities — and for reasons that he said are still under debate.

“It was a difficult and risky film to make in Utah,” Patrick said. “What took place at Mountain Meadows is still shrouded in controversy, and many people would prefer that the massacre remain forgotten.”

Patrick said that the 90-minute film was meant to be unbiased.

“I tried to get lots of different opinions on what’s going on,” Patrick said. “I tried not to leave stones unturned, which is, unfortunately, easy to do. I understand that a lot of people had vested interested in this subject. I honestly tried to tell the story fairly. I didn’t come into this looking to favor one side or the other.”

Sophomore Emily Hellstrom attended the showing and said she didn’t feel the same way.

“He says that it’s two-sided and that he wanted both sides to have a fair say, but that was definitely not the case,” Hellstrom said. “He’d have a statement from one LDS person, then he’d have clips from four people who said the opposite. It was so far from unbiased.”

In a post-film question and answer session, Patrick received both criticism and praise. One woman stood up to say how disgusted she was that the rifles involved in the massacre were soon to become a state symbol and asked Patrick’s thoughts on the matter.

A teary-eyed man in the back of the auditorium slowly raised his hand and waited for his chance to speak.

“As a Mormon myself, I want to applaud you for being as objective as you were. Something needs to be done about this even today. We need to say sorry.”

Patrick was invited to present his 2004 documentary at USU by art professor Alan Hashimoto.

“It was a good time to present it because it has relevant background information for one of the plays we have going on in the theater department this week,” Hashimoto said.

“Two-Headed,” a play written by USU graduate Julie Jensen, had its first performance on Monday. Two more performances will be held on Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.

The play focuses on two aging women with different religious perspectives who remain friends even throughout the time of the massacres.

“I recommend that you go see the show after you’ve seen this film,” Hashimoto said.

Bull Pen wraps up its first year

Monday afternoon marked the semester’s last formal meeting for The Bull Pen, the English department’s creative writing club.

“Next week is our party. Get excited about that,” said club president Anna Bullock to a group of seven students meeting in the bottom floor of the Ray B. West building. “Be sure to wear your t-shirt because then people will see us outside having so much fun and they’ll say ‘I want to be a part of that. Sign me up.’”

Club member Isaac Timm piped in: “Or they’ll call the cops and report a strange group of people.”

To celebrate what club director and English professor Jennifer Sinor calls a “successful first year,” Bullock announced that the group will have a party next Monday at 3:30 p.m. on the Quad. All students are welcome to join.

“I love that there are students in the club who aren’t even majors,” Sinor said. “Not English majors, not creative writing majors. I wouldn’t normally get to interact with them. I enjoy students. I like to be around them.”

At this last meeting, the group spent an hour and a half workshopping poems inspired by a lecture from two weeks prior. Members who wanted to share their work read it to their fellow club members and asked for feedback.

Timm volunteered to go up first, moving to the front of the room in his motorized wheelchair. He posted his “Between Light, Flashing” on the projector — a poem detailing his struggles from the hospital bed.

“I like how your organization helps the poem move.”

“Is your first stanza set in the same place as your last?”

“There’s this strange intimacy with the hospital. I think you could do some more with that.”

“I wonder if you could make the contrast between your stanzas stronger.”

After 15 minutes of conversation, Timm removes his piece and returns to his original spot in the small classroom. Tessa Ryser, vice president of the club, moves to the front of the room with her “My Dance” poem in hand.

“I just like meeting other students,” Timm said. “I’m pretty busy, so these meetings are just about the only times I have to meet my peers. As an older student, I tend to have more in common with my teachers than other students, so it’s good to see these other students creating and get to know how they’re doing things.”

According to Sinor, the creative writing club was primarily created to fill the void left behind by the removal of capstone courses last year.

“One of the things the capstone course did was introduce students more to the actual profession and to the writing life,” Sinor said. “The creative writing club is a place where we can do some of that work, so we bring in other writers from faculty and the area to talk about what it means to be writer.”

This semester, the group attended a Helicon West reading to listen to writers who visited from out of town. Sinor said that the group is already planning a one-day workshop as an opener for the fall semester.

“We’re talking about going up into the canyon. We’ll have opportunities for people to share work and we’ll hold short classes,” Sinor said. “At the end of the day, maybe we’ll sit and read around the fire. We try to give students extra opportunities that we can’t fit into our courses. It’s just another way to create a community for our students because a writing community is really important.”

Busy tutoring season not busy for all

Sydnee Jenkins is busy, busy, busy — and with the end of the semester coming to a close, she’s only getting busier.

Jenkins is a second-year tutor for beginner and intermediate psychology classes. Last year, one of her professors asked if she would tutor a girl who was struggling in his class.

“Since then, my business has all been word of mouth,” Jenkins said. “I can only tutor two students for each semester though. It’s really, really time consuming.”
She spends three hours a week with each of her students and charges an hourly fee of $15.

“The worst part is telling someone you can’t help them,” Jenkins said. “I get a lot of students at the end of the semester who say they really need my help but I really can’t take on any more.”

Jenkins has a full load herself — she’s an undergraduate researcher with a part-time job and she’s taking 17 credits.

“It can get really stressful, but it’s definitely rewarding,” Jenkins said. “They’re always grateful for anything you can help with. I just wish I could help more people.”

While Jenkins finds herself with too many students at the semester’s end, many tutors find themselves with no students at all.

Megan Hansen is a Spanish tutor. She advertised her tutoring services on USU’s private tutor board at the beginning of the semester — she even cited two study abroad trips to Spain.

“I’ve had no one contact me,” Hansen said. “I posted that listing in January. I was really hoping to be able to use that to supplement my income. I was willing to take students on, even now when I’m busiest.”

Andrew Elmer uses the same tutor board to advertise. He is a junior studying math education. According to his posting, he is qualified to tutor four beginner-level math courses: MATH 1010, 1050, 1060 and 1210.

On Logan campus alone, there are 21 sections of MATH 1010 with over 800 students total. There are eight sections of MATH 1050 with over 700 students total. Elmer charges an hourly fee of $8 — the cheapest price on a mathematics tutor board where the tutors’ prices reach up to $30 for a single session.

“There are hundreds of students taking math, but I’m not tutoring anyone right now,” Elmer said.

Hansen and Elmer are not alone.

“I just don’t get it,” said Ashley Szpindor, a registered tutor and human movement science major. “I thought I would have more business with finals coming up. I’m the only tutor listed in my area on that board.”

But Szpindor said she is not complaining.

“It worked out for me in an odd way,” Szpindor said. “The money would have been nice, but I have classes to teach and my own finals to take. I’m totally stressed out. I don’t have the time right now.”

Sexual abuse awareness event could not be stopped by rain

A herd of men and women sporting flower-adorned high heels marched around campus through the rain on Thursday for the “Walk a Mile in her Shoes” event.

Sponsored by the university’s Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information center, the national event made its eighth appearance to the school.

“It’s to show the idea that most men aren’t violent,” volunteer Kayleen Mangum said. “The whole idea that every man is the same just isn’t true. It’s not just about abuse of women. They both have to deal with it. Men not only have to worry about their own sexual abuse but also about women they care about having to deal with sexual abuse.”

Women and men were both encouraged to participate.

“Everybody can walk,” Thurgood said. “Guys wear the high heels and girls walk alongside them. It’s not just for guys. We have everybody who wants to walk, walk.”

In honor of the cause, booths were set up from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Taggart Student Center Hall. The Student Health Center, the Family and Child Support Center and the Center for Pregnancy Choices were there with handouts and presentations for those interested.

USU Dining services provided water bottles and fruit for students passing by. SAAVI volunteers spent the earlier part of the morning recruiting men to sign up for the free-of-charge event. Bins of decade-old donated heels lined the walls.

Codie Thurgood, SAAVI intern and volunteer coordinator, said that 34 men pre-registered online for the walk. About 50 men and women, she said, ended up walking for the cause.

Thurgood said they all finished “with plenty of time to spare and without any accidents.”

“It was really cool to see everybody at the starting line and just to see the amount of people that were there and to see all those guys that were in heels,” Thurgood said. “We even had lots of different athletics teams represented.  It was cool to see all these people lining up and coming to see the reality of something.”

Despite the ongoing rainfall, the event was held outside. The men walked a marked one-mile loop around campus that started and finished inside the TSC.

“Luckily, the rain slowed down right as we were getting ready to walk. That was nice,” Thurgood said. “I can’t think of a single thing I would have done differently. It went super smooth. We didn’t have any hiccups or anything that went wrong.”

Junior Alex Myers participated in the walk for his first time. He said that he was passing through the TSC when SAAVI volunteers convinced him to participate.

“I was already worried about the whole heels thing,” Myers said. “Adding the rain to that worried me a little. I think I did pretty good, all things considered.”