Tuesday | April 21, 2020 | Volume 91 | Issue 21
THE
ISSUE
INVESTIGATIVE
02 | MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020
DO YOU KNOW YOUR NEWS? By JENNIFER GREENLEE Section Editor
1. Which major tech company has banned the Zoom platform from use by its employees? a. Google b. Apple c. IBM
3. How many coronavirus cases have been reported nationally at the time of writing? a. 500,000
a. Alabama, Florida and South Carolina
b. 625,802
b. Oregon, Washington and Illinois
c. 712, 235
c. Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia
d. 746,300
d. Idaho, Arizona and North Dakota
4. How many hotel rooms has the Los Angeles Government secured for
the elderly homeless population and the homeless with medical conditions? a. 10,000 b. 15,000 c. 18,000 d. 20,000 Comment on this story at signpost.mywebermedia.com
pixabay.com
d. Microsoft
2. Which three states have had protests over stay-at-home measures President Donald Trump has openly supported?
COVID-19 has affected society in many ways, such as people wearing masks in daily life.
ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS ON PAGE 19
MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020 | 03
HOW WEBER STATE ATTEMPTS
TO ENGAGE STUDENTS ON
CAMPUS
By RYAN MARION Correspondant
Across the country, hundreds if not thousands of events occur on university campuses every week. Getting students involved in these events is one way to keep those living on campus constantly engaged at an intellectual or physical level. But for students who live off campus, it can be more difficult. Students who live off campus will typically have to deal with limited student parking or public transportation. Often, time spent on campus is kept at a minimum with little regard for extra-curricular activities. According to U.S. News, Weber State University has about 28,250 students currently enrolled with only 4%, roughly 1,130 students, living on campus. Finding ways to improve student involvement at Weber State’s on-campus events, therefore, is about finding ways to adapt the advertisement and accommodations of said events for the commuter student majority. We’ll start by looking at what has been done at some long-running events to see what has contributed to long-term success
and attendance. This may provide clues as to what other event organizers can do in order to improve student involvement in their own events. One example of a long-running event on campus is the Ralph Nye Lecture Series that is organized by the Goddard School of Business and Economics. This event, according to Weber State University Dean of the Goddard School of Business and Economics Matthew Mouritsen, has a long history of bringing “national business and government leaders” to speaking events on campus for students, faculty and the public. Since the event’s inception, it has been held at noon every Thursday. “For 20 or so years, the noon hour has been used for our guest speaker series. The timing allows many students to attend after most classes conclude but before they leave campus for their jobs,” Mouritsen said. “As we know, students are busy and don’t have time, or don’t make time, for these types of events. We created a one-credit hour course called ‘Executive Lectures’ and made it required for all upper-division business majors.” Beyond the convenient timing, the date
of the events themselves had an advantage when the series first began. “Many years ago, there was actually an open hour on campus on Thursdays. No classes were scheduled so that events like the University’s Convocation could be held,” Mouritsen said. “In our school, we scheduled guest speakers during this time as an optional way for business students to engage with prominent members of the business community.” The event itself also accommodates the lecturer and guests with fresh food and beverages, as well as holding Executive Lectures at 5:30 p.m. on Mondays if students are unable to attend. “In the off-chance that students can’t attend on either Thursday at noon or Monday evenings, we grant a small group of students the opportunity to complete the course online by watching recordings of the guest speakers and submitting a brief summary,” Mouritsen said. According to Mouritsen, because the event is a requirement for business students, more people attend compared to other on-campus events, and he believes word of mouth from students plays a role as well.
“Roughly 80-100 students participate each Thursday, with another 75 on Monday evenings, each semester. The engagement between students and the speaker is excellent,” Mouritsen said. “(On Feb. 26, 2020), as an example our guest speaker, Chase Saxton from Adobe, essentially had a dialog with students about digital marketing, entrepreneurship and life in tech. Our Executive Lectures course is a highlight for many students and offers them a chance to open new doors and engage opportunities”. The Ralph Nye Lecture Series is not the only event to take advantage of what used to be the “Open Hour” on campus. In fact, during the fall and spring semesters in 2018, events that began at noon and 1 p.m. made up a large portion of events that occurred on campus. This came from data compiled from the Events Calendar on the Weber State website and largely included events held on campus that were available to the public, including speaking events, workshops, petting animals during finals week and more. Many other events held on campus reflect the days of the week when the Ralph
STORY CONTINUES ON PAGE 4
04 | MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 Nye Lecture Series take place. According to both fall and spring semesters of 2018, the most common days of the week that events are held on campus are Wednesday and Thursday, most commonly held during either the first or second Wednesday or Thursday of the month. Relatively fewer events are held during the first and last months of the semesters. During both semesters, only nine events happened on the same day at the same time. A total of 95 events happened during the spring semester and 114 events were scheduled during the fall semester in 2018. While some events, like the Ralph Nye Lecture Series, are assigned for a course, many others are recommended to students or offered as a way to earn extra credit by many course instructors and faculty members. Cultural Anthropologist Professor Mark Stevenson is one of many faculty members on campus who believes in the importance of recommending and assigning extra credit when students attend events on campus, especially for students on campus to attend his offline courses. “I typically, in fact, always make it extra credit because our students have really tough schedules sometimes. Most of them work; many of them can’t be here when events are taking place,” Stevenson said. “I don’t require them because some students can’t make it work with their schedules, so I make it extra credit.” For Stevenson, he finds events that he can assign as extra credit the same way most people on campus do: spotting flyers or posters when walking around and speaking with other faculty and students to discover what events they’ve heard about. From Stevenson’s experience, subscribing to the monthly email newsletter sent out from the eWeber Portal’s Announcements tab is another way to discover upcoming events. “(Events are) one of the really advantageous aspects of being a part of an institution such as this that you have this opportunity to attend these wonderful different offerings from this university,” Stevenson said. “To me, it really enhances and enriches the whole student experience as not just going to class, going home, taking your test.” To Stevenson, helping introduce his students to events on campus is often the most common way they hear about events. He believes that getting involved in the “intellectual life” of the university is a critical
part of the educational experience. “And the good news is, you don’t have to be a student to attend those,” Stevenson said. “Most of these events are open to the public as well. Don’t think you can’t come back and attend these events just because you graduated.” Even when attending an event on campus will earn a student extra credit, typically a very small number from his class will take that opportunity. However, Stevenson believes it’s more to do with their availability than their willingness. “Sometimes, where the event was recorded and is available later, I’ll tell them they can watch that, then the number will go up,” said Stevenson. “If the extra credit opportunity is available online, that number will go up again. It’s not a high percentage, I’d say.” To better engage students through their portals, the monthly email’s infrastructure has recently been improved, as of March 9. According to Executive Director of Marketing and Communications John Kowalewski, this new infrastructure allows a user to customize how often they receive emails and the content of them. In addition, all new faculty and student email accounts are subscribed by default in an effort to help bring about awareness and improve communication on campus. This was in large part due to feedback the department received when asking faculty and teachers on campus for ways to improve communication back in 2016 and 2017. According to Kowalewski, chief among them was the issue of communication due to their shift to the eWeber portal in 2009. “The announcements have been a part of Weber State in some form or another for close to, if not longer than, 20 years. When I was employed in 2001, I would receive an email every day with what was then called the ‘Bulletin Board,’ a predecessor to the Announcements,” Kowalewski said. “I would get an email of things that I would be interested in. Communication was sent to all employees, and you automatically received it by default when you began working at Weber State University.” Once the eWeber Portal was introduced, many faculty still retained a regular email about events on campus on a regular basis, but newer faculty were no longer subscribed to this service by default and would have to do so manually in order to receive it. This was because when the eWeber Portal was first introduced, the events list
was already there when students and faculty logged in. It was years later that it was eventually minimized in importance before ultimately disappearing. “When the announcements were no longer a featured item on the interface, that’s the point when, potentially, a lot of our campus audiences would not be aware of, or familiar with, the announcement resource,” Kowalewski said. After receiving feedback from faculty and staff, a committee was involved in developing the new interface to replace the Announcement’s current infrastructure. Representation among the committee was influenced by the Student Affairs department, who believed the student population would also greatly benefit from this redevelopment of email subscriptions of events on campus. “When we made the decision that the announcements would automatically default for all employees, the decision was made that, also, all students would have this sent to them on a weekly basis, rather than a daily basis,” Kowalewski said. “But, all recipients, students and staff, are subscribed by default and can go in and change the frequency of how they receive this email.” Even with these changes, it can be very difficult for commuter students, or students who live off campus, to find the time to be able to attend classes and these events. One freshman student, Natalya Vega, often has her classes conflict with attending events on campus. “I think the perfect way for me to find out about events would be through both fliers and the event calendar,” Vega said. “I think the reason I have not attended any events is because they are usually a bit later into the day. This is a problem for me as someone who rides the bus and spends a majority of their morning on campus.” Before COVID-19 began affecting her student life and eventually transitioned all of her courses onto Canvas, one of her teachers taught the class about the Announcement tabs on their eWeber portal. Students were shown how they can still be engaged with virtual events, workshops and other resources on campus as they stay home. “After COVID, many events that I wanted to attend were canceled, but I still know how to look for details about upcoming events,” Vega said. “Without the teachers telling me these things, I may have not been aware of many of the events or announcements that Weber State has had to offer.”
After Weber State University’s Ogden campus became closed to the public due to COVID-19, many events originally held on campus have also made the transition online. One such example was Weber State University’s Women’s Center Feminist Leadership virtual workshop. According to Women’s Center Program Coordinator Alex Dutro-Maeda and Student Assistant Haylee Oyler, April 8 was their first virtual version of their workshop event about information sharing and promotion of gender equity. “Aside from the workshop needing to be held over Zoom, one major difference between this week’s workshop and our usual programs was the discussion format. Many of our events’ learning processes are based on discussion; we enjoy creating the space for folks to discuss the issues that are important to them and try out new ideas in a place that feels accepting and relatively secure,” Dutro-Maeda said. However, there are still drawbacks to hosting discussions on a virtual platform. “Because of the limitations of the virtual space, we can’t have as many small-group discussions and participant feedback as we would usually like, so the workshop was much more of a one-way experience,” Dutro-Maeda said. She also believes it can be more difficult to advertise the event online, as everyone else is doing the same, but is confident that more students, faculty and the larger public will be able to find out about their events in the future, as they slowly adjust to everyone’s technology issues and conducting all of their other events online in the near future. It can be difficult to improve student involvement in a university where a majority of students are commuters. Adjusting the events email infrastructure was one step to engage students with campus events. With everything moving online because of COVID-19, it may, in fact, be the perfect time to improve email subscription services. More and more Wildcats are checking their email and Canvas more often, but there are still new problems that arise. As many events were scheduled during optimal times on campus, there may be a better window of time to schedule events since most students are staying home. In addition, this pandemic won’t last forever, so event planners will need to think ahead when it comes to planning future events. Comment on this story at signpost.mywebermedia.com
MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020 | 05
AUBREE ECKHARDT | The Signpost
24 | MyWeberMedia.com| April 14, 2020
WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY
SAVE LIVES AND MAKE UP TO $430 IN YOUR FIRST MONTH OF PLASMA DONATION There are 3 local donation centers for your convenience! VISIT WWW.GRIFOLSPLASMA.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION!
Biomat USA Ogden 3073 Harrison Blvd. Ogden, UT 84403 (801)392-2296
Biomat USA Clearfield 375 South State St. Clearfield, UT 84015 (801)825-1195
Biomat USA Roy 1951 W. 5400 S. Roy, UT 84067 (801)825-0111
Weber State Students! Make a difference in the lives of people who need plasma derived medications to live and make some extra money for your time!
GET OFF THE WAITING LIST AND ON TO A NURSING DEGREE!
THE D A LO N W O D
E E FR CASH S U P CAM
Evening degree programs • Associate’s degree in Nursing
APP
• Featured Live Feed Deals
• Classes start monthly
NEW EVERY DAY!
• All the coupons from the booklet! • Filter deals by category! • Map view for what’s around you!
OgdenNursing.com
Call 801-284-3216
or stop by for a campus tour. For graduation rates, the median debt of graduates, and other data, see stevenshenager.edu/studentinformation.
CAMPUS
CASH
West Haven (Ogden) Campus 1890 South 1350 West
NEW!
10 | MyWeberMedia.com| ### ##, 2017
06 REASONS
MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020 | 07
TOJOIN JOIN TO
THE SIGNPOST SIGNPOST THE
Tuition Assistance Build Your Resume
Build A Network of Friends/Colleagues
Get Your Voice Heard
Unique Experiences
Career Opportunities
08 | MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020
FAITH, DOUBT AND MODERN-DAY MORMONISM
By FRANCISCO RUIZ Correspondant
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, colloquially known as the Mormon or LDS church, has always emphasized the importance of faith and prayer in overcoming life’s doubts and problems. During the Second Great Awakening of the 1820s, a period of American religious revival, 14-year-old Joseph Smith, the LDS church’s first prophet and founder, claimed to have received the visitation of God the Father and Jesus Christ. This was in response to a prayer over his doubt about which church to join. However, modern-day America may as well be in a different universe than the America of the Second Great Awakening. The number of religiously unaffiliated Americans is growing. The share of Americans who identify as Christian is shrinking. Millennials, as defined as people born between 1981 and 1996, represent the largest portion of the American population to reject church membership or Christianity, according to the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan organization focused on opinion polling and demographic research. The data indicated that between 2009 and 2019, the percentage of Americans who identified as Mormon stayed steady at about 2%. However, America’s declining religiosity is taking its toll on the church, as Mormon young adults are caught between faith and doubt. According to the church’s website, since Smith’s “First Vision,” the church has grown to a membership of over 16 million worldwide, thanks to zealous proselytizing efforts. Over 65,000 missionaries, many as young as 18 years old, work in 399 missions worldwide. They preach the news of modern-day prophets and apostles who claim to be following the literal leadership of Jesus. Church missionaries and members encourage those who are investigating the church to pray to ask God about whether Joseph Smith was a prophet and whether the church is the “true” church. Devout members will claim that God answered their prayers in a moment of spiritual transcendence. Members refer to this moment as “conversion,” or “being
converted,” when all doubt is overcome by faith. The church has a tradition of having members share their conviction, or “testimony,” with others. As is the custom of many religious traditions, church leadership expects church members to adhere to doctrines and a certain lifestyle. The church’s teachings forbid the use of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis. Sex outside of marriage is second only to murder in terms of seriousness. Members should marry fellow members and have children. Church doctrine prohibits homosexual relationships of any kind. If members begin to question church history, doctrine or their faith, church leaders urge those members to doubt their doubts, not their faith. Bobbi Bowman, a 32-year-old yoga instructor, tries to share her story of faith and doubt with as many people, especially youth, as possible. She hopes her example of overcoming her own personal difficulties through religious devotion will help others to do the same. Bowman’s athleticism, infectious laugh and genuine friendliness draw people to her. She credits her faith for being the reason why she attracts so many people, both Mormon and non-Mormon to her friendship and yoga classes. “When I was 18, I was so numb, I couldn’t feel anything, love or hate,” she said. When Bowman encountered her cousin, who had recently returned from his time as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she felt and saw what she described as tangible light and love emanating from her cousin’s persona. “I was like, ‘What is it about this person?’ It woke me up to what love can do for people. I just hadn’t had a strong connection to God,” she said, her voice swelling with emotion. Not long after that experience, Bowman prayed with the most sincerity she had ever expressed. “I said, ‘Heavenly Father, I don’t know what I believe in, and I need to know,’” she said. “If this is true, I really need help comprehending this. I will do anything to know.” Bowman said the answer to her prayer
was an almost indescribable feeling of happiness and joy. She also began to voraciously read Scripture. For Bowman, the prayer and reading quenched her spiritual thirst. Bowman said that in a world of Google, Netflix, Amazon and instant gratification, faith can be hard because the rest of the world demands results. She urged others to love and be patient with God and themselves. However, the internet has played a key role in helping critics, and the curious, to thoroughly investigate the church’s claims and history. What was once the domain of street corner protesters and specialty literature is now readily available on Google, Twitter, Reddit and Wikipedia. The “exmormon” subreddit, with over 161,000 subscribers and over 1,000 daily active users, is a forum for doubters and critics to discuss information and church history away from the church’s dogmatic lens. Some of the historical critical approaches to the church involve its history of polygamy, lack of archaeological evidence for the Book of Mormon (the church’s companion to the Bible) and inconsistencies with Smith’s recounting of his various visions. More recently, and perhaps more importantly to millennials, critics have found issues with the church’s views on homosexual relationships. Critics also focus on the church’s patriarchal structure, as Mormon women cannot be members of the organization’s lay priesthood. Another hot button issue is the perceived institutional racism in the church’s history. In general, black men were not allowed into the church’s lay priesthood until 1978. Jocelyn Mossi, a 32-year-old former member of the church, believes the current online support community of former Mormons has made it easier for doubting members to educate themselves and leave the faith, if necessary. Mossi had serious doubts about the faith since she was 14 years old. Her parents were very devout and disciplinarian towards their children. For believing Mormons, the family unit is the most important vehicle for salvation, so parents teach their children adherence to the faith
early. According to Mossi, doubting or rebellious children are always the “troublemakers.” However, she did not want to disappoint her family, friends or church leaders, so she observed church teachings and tried her best to have a conversion experience akin to Bowman’s. The moment never came. Instead, the pressure she felt from her family and church leaders to conform left her depressed and even suicidal. She has since completely severed her relationship with the church, but she wishes she had acted on her feelings earlier. “I think with today’s online resources and support system, this younger generation has the courage to do what I could not,” Mossi said. “I allowed myself to be trapped in it for a long time.” The church did not respond to inquiries regarding its official statistics on retention or defection rates for millennials. However, social media outlets such as Twitter and Reddit provide clues to the number of people who have requested that the Church remove their names from its records. QuitMormon, an organization dedicated to helping disaffected Mormons leave the Church, tweeted in July 2019 they had helped over 33,000 people resign from the Church between 2016 and 2019. Likewise, the “exmormon” subreddit contains several posts that claim that the actual number of defections is greater than available data. Many disaffected Mormons simply stop attending church without going through the formal resignation process. Bowman has many friends, including a former bishop, who have left the Church. However, her faith remains unfazed. “Even if gnarly things happen to me, I know my experience happened,” she said. “I think a lot of people leave because they feel isolated. But, if you have the Holy Ghost with you, you are never alone.” Comment on this story at signpost.mywebermedia.com
MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020 | 09
AUBREE ECKHARDT | The Signpost
10 | MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020
MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020 | 11
AFTER SERVING TIME, FORMER CONVICTS FIND THEMSELVES PUNISHED THROUGH
UTAH HOUSING PROGRAMS By BETHANY WEST Correspondent
THE GOOD LANDLORD PROGRAM Over 10 years ago, Utah rolled out a statewide program called the Good Landlord Program. The program incentivizes landlords to uphold certain standards, such as keeping their properties up-tocode and clean. Landlords who register in the program can receive deductions on property taxes and costs to relicense their properties. While the state requires that landlords must comply with the Fair Housing Act, Ogden City mandates a unique policy that landlords refuse housing to people who have been convicted of a crime in the past four years. The policy excluding former offenders from renting quickly caused problems. Andrew McCain, the center director for the Northern Utah Community Correctional Center — also known as the halfway house — said that Ogden City “tried to villainize parolees” by implementing that policy, blaming them for crime in the city. “I don’t believe the crime problem in Ogden is the parolees at all,” McCain said. “Research will show that parolees are not the problem.” Regardless, the program used the policy to keep the landlords’ properties free from “criminal activity,” as stated on Ogden City’s website. McCain strongly believes that the program was first implemented to push parolees out of Ogden, because the halfway house brought a large number of them into the city. Part of McCain’s job at the halfway house is to oversee the process of parolees finding housing. Before the Good Landlord Program, he decided where to direct parolees to find housing. After, the program did that for him, but rather than spreading parolees throughout Ogden, it pushed them out altogether.
McCain said that this caused tremendous difficulty for parolees who were trying to rehabilitate themselves post-incarceration. After the state threatened to become involved, Ogden City, which, according to the Business Licensing Department, currently has about 1,200 registered Good Landlords, found a loophole to keep the policy in place by implementing a Waiver Program. In the Waiver Program, former offenders may apply for a waiver that Ogden City assesses along with Ogden’s Adult Probation and Parole Office to determine their level of risk. Risk level is calculated from the former offender’s history of employment, education, mental health and recidivism rates. Former convicts may rent the Good Landlord property if their risk level is low, and many who do apply for a waiver are approved to rent there, according to McCain. Lt. William Farr, from Ogden Police Department, actively participates in assessing the waivers and said that he has seen a decrease in property crimes since the program was implemented, especially in larger properties where police saw most of the crime. “The decrease in crime is not because we are pushing people out of Ogden,” Farr said. “It is because it makes landlords more aware of what is happening on their properties.” Farr believes that the Good Landlord Program empowers landlords, because it encourages more communication between landlords and Ogden PD. Farr recognizes that many people, like McCain, believe that the program decreases crime in Ogden City by pushing former offenders out. However, the exclusionary policy is only a small part of the program,
A GOOD LANDLORD’S OPINIONS Scarlett Cheney, a property manager in Ogden and registered Good Landlord, sympathizes with former convicts because of her extensive experience volunteering with the recovery community. However, she agrees with Farr that the program creates a safer environment for residents living in Ogden. “I think it’s a great program,” she said. “It definitely maintains the integrity of my property.” Cheney said that she never gets tenant complaints or issues with crime. Cheney attributes some of this to the policy that prohibits former felons from renting on her property, but she is more than willing to help them with the waivers. Every time an applicant does not pass the background check, Cheney refers them to the Waiver Program. In her two years of managing properties, only two applicants followed through with the Waiver Program, she said. In one instance, Cheney discovered that a former offender was living on her property with previous tenants. She referred him to the Waiver Program, but he refused to complete an application. She had no choice but to evict him from the property. “It’s unfortunate,” Cheney said. “I don’t want to make anyone homeless, but it is my job to make sure they are playing by the rules.” Cheney believes that if the resources are available to former convicts, such as the Waiver Program, it is up to them to follow through with it. “I do know that people need second chances, but I also know that they need to work for it,” she said. McCain, who has worked with parolees for many years, said that since the city implemented the Waiver Program, parolees have had more opportunities to find housing. But, housing insecurity persists.
UNAFFORDABLE RENT McCain believes that the high cost of housing is more problematic for parolees
than the Good Landlord Program, and the inability to secure a well-paying job only complicates the problem. According to McCain, the only housing that former felons can find and afford in Ogden are old and rundown. “Ex-convicts don’t want to live there because they are scummy,” he said. “But it’s all they can afford.” Lightner lamented how unaffordable rent is because of his inability to secure a well-paying job after his conviction. He spent six months trying to find a job after his first conviction in 2015, and he was under serious pressure. “My parents told me to shape up and get out, but I couldn’t get any jobs, not even the shitty retail jobs,” he said. Lightner eventually found a job working in a local warehouse, but only because his brother secured it for him. Additionally, finding affordable, decent apartments was incredibly discouraging to Lightner, who referred to apartment hunting as a lose-lose situation. “They were disgusting. I don’t know how an inspector would have passed that,” Lightner said, describing apartments available to him as a former offender. Because of Lightner’s record, he can only work low-paying jobs, and his housing options are even more limited. Brian Wood, a former felon, was lucky enough to live with family members when he could not find housing post-incarceration. However, this is not the case for many felons, who have no choice but to live in a halfway house. While many believe that this is a suitable option for ex-convicts, Wood described a halfway house as “the most awful place to live … a cesspool.” Wood said that programs should do the opposite of what the Good Landlord program does; they should encourage landlords to rent to former offenders. Lightner and McCain share this belief. They believe that a program that incentivizes landlords to rent to former convicts could potentially decrease rates of housing insecurity, offering these people a chance to start their life over. “Everyone makes mistakes, but everyone deserves a second chance,” Lightner said. Wood agreed. “I would remind people that people do change,” he said. Comment on this story at signpost.mywebermedia.com
DELANEY NYE | The Signpost
By age 20, Nic Lightner had served two nights in jail and completed community service for possessing marijuana on two separate occasions. He never expected he would be paying for his crimes for the rest of his life. “What is the purpose of serving time if you are going to spend the rest of your life being punished?” he said. Four years after his conviction, Lightner still struggles to find a job. He and his partner dread the time when they must find a new place to live. He faces two problems because of his record: no one wants to hire a former offender, and no one wants to house one. Lightner struggled for months to find housing because of his record, and he is not the only former offender who cannot find housing after being convicted. Many former offenders’ experience housing insecurity after being convicted of a crime, and Ogden’s Good Landlord Program complicates the issue with a policy that excludes former offenders from renting specific properties. According to the activist group Prison Policy Initiative, American felons who have only been to prison once are seven times more likely to experience housing insecurity than those who have never been to prison. With over 6,000 people incarcerated in Utah prisons, according to the Utah Department of Corrections, housing insecurity is a pressing problem. Eric Barker, the administrator of the Release and Reentry Unit in Utah, said former convicts face problems finding affordable housing throughout the state. Many other states have programs that help rehabilitating offenders afford housing after prison.
Utah does not. Barker believes that Utah needs these types of programs, if only to save taxpayer dollars. The Board of Pardons and Parole suggests that convicts have an address before the state releases them from prison. If convicts cannot find housing, they must remain in prison for a longer time, increasing cost to the state. According to Barker, incarcerating one felon costs about $32,000 per year, or about $2,667 per month. Average monthly rent for a 900-square-foot apartment in Ogden is about $1,000, according to “RentCafe.” “We can’t just release these people into homelessness,” Barker said. “So, it would be way less expensive to pay for a month of their rent.” The only alternative to prison is a halfway house, but these also cost taxpayers dollars, and most offenders view a halfway house as the last resort. Additionally, housing insecurity has severe negative effects on a former offender’s mental health and decreases the chances of successful rehabilitation, according to researchers Amanda Geller and Marah A. Curtis. When describing his experience with housing insecurity, Lightner said, “It gets exhausting and depressing, not being able to find a place to live.” Lightner spent months searching to find an apartment in Ogden with his partner and said that they were continuously turned away because of his former offenses. Lightner believed that landlords did not think that he had morals because of his previous crimes and that social prejudices kept him away from certain neighborhoods. A popular program in Ogden only complicates the issue.
and the rest of the program emphasizes good business practices. Only one paragraph in the 57-page Good Landlord training manual discusses the policy that prohibits former offenders from renting Good Landlord properties.
12 | MyWeberMedia.com | April 21, 2020
COLLEGE ATHLETES
EYE LUCRATIVE IMAGE,
LIKENESS DEALS By IAN SYME Correspondent
The NCAA has made monumental changes that will shape the college sports landscape for years to come. New rules allow student athletes to receive financial benefits from commercial likeness and image deals. The changes come after years of public pressure and recent legislative changes in states across the country. Student athletes attend school with two concurrent goals: to pursue education and learn the skills necessary for future jobs and to represent their schools by participating in various sports. In terms of compensation, players can receive scholarships and use the funds for schooling and related expenses. Current NCAA rules stipulate that while enrolled at an NCAA school, student athletes may not “promote or endorse a product or allow their name, image or likeness to be used for commercial or promotional purposes.” Weber State alum Damian Lillard struggled financially during his time as a student athlete. In a 2018 interview with The Signpost, Lillard said that “even though we didn’t have the burden of paying tuition, books, etc. our cost of living was still more than what is being offered by stipend and scholarship checks.” Since entering the NBA in 2012, Lillard has received numerous endorsement deals from companies such as Adidas, State Farm, Hulu and many others. According to Forbes, Lillard earned $14 million from endorsement deals in 2017. California legislators passed the first laws concerning student athlete compensation for name, likeness and image in Sept. 2019. Since then, 31 other states have drafted legislation, and one state,
Colorado, passed its own laws concerning the matter on March 20. However, California’s law does not take effect until Jan. 1, 2023. Colorado’s new law has the same effective date. The passing itself of California’s law, however, had an immediate effect. In Oct. 2019, the NCAA announced that its governing board “voted unanimously to permit students participating in athletics the opportunity to benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness in a manner consistent with the collegiate model.” The board reaffirmed that athletes are students first and that they are not considered employees of their schools. Schools are instructed that student athletes’ success should still be founded on the priorities of education and the college experience. The argument that student athletes should be compensated for their performance is nothing new. Over the past several decades, different arguments have arisen regarding the inequities of the amateurism rules of the NCAA. In 1990, University of Detroit Associate Law Professor Lee Goldman argued that the monopolistic control of the NCAA over student athletes amounts to an antitrust violation. Goldman stated that “it is hypocritical for the NCAA to restrict payments to student athletes when its member universities continue to seek new ways of increasing revenues, often at the expense of educational interests.” Despite Goldman’s arguments, antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA’s policies have been ineffective. More recently, Michigan State University law professors Robert and Amy McCormick advanced the argument that
college athletes are employees of the university. Because the athletes’ school schedules and selections of majors must fit with the practice schedules of their sports, the McCormicks argued in 2011 that they are not students first and athletes second. Some athletes who have performed under the NCAA’s rules contradict the McCormicks’ hypothesis. Tommy Amaker, a Duke University basketball player from 1983 to 1987 and current Harvard University basketball coach, told Kenneth Cooper of Diverse Magazine in 2011 that he never felt like an employee of the university. “I had a chance to have my education paid for at an incredible school,” Amaker said. In 2019, the NCAA reported an overall revenue of over $1 billion. The majority of those profits came from the television and marketing rights of the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship and all sports championship ticket sales. Over 90 percent of the money goes back into programs that support NCAA schools, conferences and nearly half a million student athletes. None of the revenue currently goes directly to student athletes. Fewer than two percent of athletes who participate in collegiate sports will go on to play professionally, where they have the potential to sign lucrative endorsement and likeness deals. For most college athletes, the benefit of these deals will be lost after graduation. Sabrina Ionescu from the University of Oregon women’s basketball team first gained recognition after becoming the NCAA’s all-time leader in triple-doubles early in her junior season. She later became the first Division I
player to finish her collegiate career with at least 2,000 points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds. Ionescu is projected by many to be the No. 1 pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft. Ionescu’s prominence in the game positively affected attendance and revenue for Oregon and their opponents. During Ionescu’s four years as a Duck, average attendance at Oregon home games rose from 2,595 in the 2016-17 season to 10,852 in the 2019-20 season. Weber State women’s basketball head coach Velaida Harris believes that Ionescu’s play and influence is a great example of why student athletes should receive compensation. “Think about what she has done for the brand in women’s basketball and basketball in general,” Harris said. “Why shouldn’t she be compensated? Numbers have increased as a result of a person like Sabrina Ionescu.” As more states pass legislation for student athlete compensation, the need for uniformity grows. Colorado governor Jared Polis told the Fort Morgan Times that he thinks “it’s only a matter of time before we have national, federal legislation that aligns with what we’re doing in Colorado.” One early proponent of legislation on a federal level has been Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah. Just days before the NCAA board of governors announced its decision to change its rules, Romney sent a strong message to the NCAA. KSL Sports said Romney intends “to help these young athletes in the future and the athletes of today make sure that they don’t have to sacrifice their time and sacrifice, in many cases, their bodies, without being fairly compensated.” On Feb.11, U.S. Senate Commerce
MyWeberMedia.com | April 21, 2020 | 13
Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade and Consumer Protection held its first hearing about the name, image and likeness issue. Five witnesses from the NCAA, the National College Players Association, and the Big 12 Conference answered the subcommittee’s questions about the issue. Deliberation and drafting of federal legislation is still forthcoming. University athletic programs throughout the United States are largely supported by their football and basketball programs. These sports draw larger crowds and maintain higher revenue intake than the other college sports combined. Weber State’s football and basketball players are no different. The university relies on these programs to produce revenue to support the athletic department. Wildcat football and basketball players will likely be in the public eye more than other athletic programs. As such, football and basketball players could be affected by the NCAA’s rule change more than other athletes. Sam Schiess, a junior on Weber State’s volleyball team, says that she and many other Wildcat athletes won’t be affected by the changes due to Weber’s status as a smaller school. “It’s not uniform across all schools,” Schiess said. “As a Weber State athlete, it
doesn’t really affect me. I’m not going to get these lucrative opportunities to sell my likeness.” Schiess feels the proposed changes will not just influence bigger sport programs but will also affect schools in Power Five conferences like the Pac-12 and SEC more than conferences like the Big Sky Conference. Attitudes regarding student athlete compensation are changing. The recent groundswell of support for athletes to be compensated for the use of their names, likenesses and images is not founded on any legal argument or right. Rather, the current demand for change is founded on the principle of fairness to the athlete. “The NCAA is like a business. We have a job. We should be compensated for everything for it. We shouldn’t be getting ripped off,” Weber State junior women’s basketball guard Liz Graves said. “If we were getting compensated for this, we’d have so much more new equipment and our program would grow because of it.” Volleyball head coach Jeremiah Larsen disagrees. “I think student athletes are going to get exploited even more than what they already claim to be,” Larsen said. He feels that most athletic departments have the best interests of the student athletes in mind, especially at Weber State.
Larsen points out that some people don’t understand how much money student athletes get from universities in terms of scholarships, gear and travel. “Stipends are going up and up every single year. It’s silly because it almost devalues an education a little bit and says, ‘Likeness is more important than education,’” Larsen said. Larsen also notes that third-party companies are not focused on students’ best interests. “I could just see a whole can of worms opening up if these laws do pass where these student athletes will get exploited,” Larsen notes. With the rapid change in legislation and the NCAA’s actions concerning the matter, Schiess believes that the current changes are “going to change the game and change the way that student athletes look at schools.” Harris agrees. “If there’s any fear, it’s at the recruiting level because if an athlete can receive compensation from a company by being my student athlete, that’s an issue. It has to be regulated in such a way that we know what’s going on,” Harris said. The NCAA board cautioned that schools must design rules that will guarantee that student athletes are not compensated for performance or participation in
sporting events. They further directed schools to protect the recruiting environment so that athletes are not enticed to attend or transfer based on compensation opportunities. Harris sees a helpful upside to the NCAA rule change. “It would benefit us in terms of exposure. If you see athletes regionally in a commercial or on a billboard, that’s going to help us with recruiting,” Harris said. “In terms of exposure to the university and the program, not only does it help the program itself but also the school.” Larsen cautions that there should be some control on how student-athlete payments should be dispersed as student athletes across the nation are compensated to some degree. “I think there’s a lot of pitfalls that could get student athletes in trouble,” Larsen said. “There has to be some legislation towards that, but I don’t think giving them free rein is a good idea, either.” As the legislative process moves forward, no law has been discussed or created in Utah. Like all other Division 1 schools, Weber State is working to align its policies to conform to the new NCAA guidelines by Jan. 1, 2021. Comment on this story at signpost.mywebermedia.com
MONIKA CLARKE| The Signpost
14 | MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020
MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020 | 15
U S W a e B
TRADITIONS KEEPER!
25
Traditions Keeper
weber.edu /traditionskeeper
16 | MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020
HOW A PANDEMIC AFFECTS OGDEN’S HISTORIC 25TH STREET
ALLI RICKARDS | The Signpost
By ADAM RUBIN Reporter
Historic 25th Street in downtown Ogden looks a lot like an old-fashioned Main Street, U.S.A., with locally-owned shops lining both sides of the street and business owners watching out for one another when needed. Haille Van Patten, community relations manager at The Ogden Downtown Alliance, said that the word she could come up with to best describe the environment of Ogden’s 25th Street Historic District is “community.” But behind the facade is a reliance on what had once been considered the mortal enemy of traditional retail: the internet. The internet has been a curse for some
mom-and-pop retail stores, but it’s also become an essential, lifesaving tool for others. There’s no secret platform or social media recipe for Ogden-grown retailers to succeed. When local retail businesses thrive, they help provide the community with its unique flare and charm, which only Ogden has to offer. This has been reality for many small retail stores on Main Streets all across America. According to the January - February 2020 American Planning Association’s PAS Memo, written by Bobby Boone and Rick Liu, in 2016, “96 percent of Americans with internet access had made an online purchase, and more importantly, 80 percent of them had made an online purchase within the past month.”
The memo goes on to state, “Not only is this disrupting brick-and-mortar retail businesses, but it is fundamentally changing the way retailers market and transact with their customers.” In a 2019 Forbes article by Trevor Clawson, he describes the environment on an average British shopping street. Due to online shopping trends, “The number of shops lying empty rose by 7,500 in 2018, more than 43,000 shops, pubs and restaurants opened in that year but this was offset by 50,828 closures, feeding through to a net closure rate of 37 percent.” Those numbers don’t reflect Ogden’s situation. They do provide insight as to what local businesses have been up against with the introduction of — and increased use of — online shopping options and how retail
business is conducted in the internet-era. The above visualization shows how Ogden’s Historic District has changed in the past 14 years. Businesses are split by category of business-type, such as service, restaurants, entertainment, retail, etc. on the 100 and 200 Blocks. “It’s a big risk owning a small business,” said Janet Kendrick, owner of Four Sisters Furniture & Custom Framing, one of 25th Street’s newest retailers. Kendrick knew what she was getting into before she became the owner of her business, having taken over after working there on-again, off-again for 29 years. “The store had a stale website when I took over,” Kendrick said. “It was there but dormant.” To get the business up to speed, Kend-
MyWeberMedia.com| April 21, 2020 | 17
rick changed locations. She immediately knew that the business needed a stronger online presence. Kendrick knows that people are shopping in their pajamas. “It’s convenient,” she said, and she admits that she’s no different. Having reopened in July of last year, Kendrick’s goals are to make sure that every product in her showroom at her store is also on her new website, which is still a work in progress. She also wants to begin offering options for her clients to purchase online and have the items shipped to their homes, including larger furniture items. Kendrick utilizes social media to stay engaged with her clientele consistently. However, at the moment, her website is her bigger priority. Another colorful, locally owned retail store on 25th Street is The Queen Bee, a “hodgepodge” bookstore and chocolate treasure trove. The Queen Bee is known by locals for their excellent chocolate varieties, local crafts and unique gifts. They also carry crafts from over 20 local cosigners. “The Queen Bee doesn’t have a website,” said owner Robyn Stark. “It did at one point, but social media is invaluable to our business.” Stark didn’t change the business model of the store when she took over. The Queen Bee’s business model has been doing well; Stark just added her own touch. Like most business owners, Stark uses the internet on a daily basis, often to research new products that might be a good fit for her store and clients. Stark does her best to be sure that she’s promoting The Queen Bee on social media consistently, which helps her keep open communication with her clientele. With the seemingly unending variety of products that The Queen Bee offers its clients, Stark knew she needed a program that was simple to use and headache-free to help her keep track of her diverse inventory and to free up time for her other responsibilities as an already busy business owner. There are plenty of platforms to choose from so that retailers can save time and conduct business online effectively. Square is a much used point-of-sale platform that is being increasingly utilized by both small and big business owners. According to Glassdoor.com, at its capacity, Square has provided 5,005 jobs since they were founded in 2009. Statistia.com reports that Amazon.com employed just under 800,000 persons in 2019. As mentioned above, there’s no secret platform for retailers to follow to succeed.
Stark did her research before she decided on which point-of-sale platform she was going to implement. If you type “Best point-of-sale systems for small business” into Google, nearly 500,000,000 results come up. The Queen Bee, depending on the circumstances, uses multiple point-ofsale platforms to help manage the business they do. “I use a program built specially for Mac in my shop and Square when I am off-site,” Stark said. “The checkout program helps me keep track of inventory, print labels, run transactions and returns.” However, COVID-19 has significantly changed how businesses are operating all over the U.S.A., and for the community of local business owners who are located on 25th Street, it’s no different. With Davis County ordering closure of all non-essential businesses as of midnight, April 3, these are tough times for many businesses. Some Weber County retailers have taken it upon themselves to shut down for the safety of the community. Others are still keeping their doors open, including The Four Sisters Furniture & Custom Framing and The Queen Bee. One business that has closed its physical doors to the public, just for the time being, is The Needlepoint Joint, which has been located on 25th Street since 1996. Amelia Jones took over the reins of her mother’s business and describes The Needlepoint Joint as a “destination business,” often drawing clientele from up to four hours away. The Needlepoint Joint has filled a very specific niche in the Ogden community since the early 1970s. Adapting to the internet and the increased use of online shopping were both things that Jones knew The Needlepoint Joint had to plan for many years ago. “We saw the writing on the wall pretty early on,” Jones said. “We first had a website in the late 1990s; people would call us and come pick up their orders in person.” Jones doesn’t sell through Amazon. com at all. The Needlepoint Joint has and maintains a website with full capabilities to ship products all over the world. They also maintain an active relationship with their social media channels. “We display our products with pictures,” Jones said. “Textiles are tangible, so we try to use vibrant colors when we post on our social channels.” Recently, due to COVID-19, The Needlepoint Joint has been active on their social media outlets to keep communication open with their customers. This allows
them to keep their clientele base informed and updated on events. They now offer online group “knit night” sessions through the Zoom app. This has helped them retain as much of normal routine as possible, even while their doors are closed. An April 8 article in The Standard-Examiner by Megan Olson quoted Gov. Herbert’s words of advice: ‘“My encouragement, my call to action to help us with the economic recovery, is for every Utah business with less than 500 employees that has been impacted by COVID-19 to apply for a (Paycheck Protection Program) loan, an emergency disaster loan or both as soon as possible.”’ Many businesses have already applied for government aid, including The Four Sisters Furniture & Custom Framing. In the meantime, 25th Street businesses are reaching out to the community to show support and to provide support. Kendrick doesn’t believe she’ll receive any federal aid until late summer 2020, based on the influx of applicants and her experience with applying. Most of the businesses in the area are offering curbside pickup for clients who prefer this option while all of the restau-
rants are only offering this option now. Tattoo parlors and salons have been forced to shut their doors until further notice. “This street, its businesses and business owners, are a tight-knit group of passionate individuals who want Ogden to be vibrant, diverse and successful,” Van Patten said. “We’ve seen a lot of ‘local supporting local’ content on Facebook and Instagram, businesses joining forces to do giveaways on their different platforms — encouraging people to follow each other’s accounts, in the midst of COVID-19, local businesses have been utilizing the internet to share their wins — no matter how small. They’re sharing positive messaging centered around Ogden’s strong local community.” The Ogden downtown community has come together during this economic tremor in a new way. Currently, retailers and other businesses on Historic 25th Street who are still open are serving the community in any ways they can as well as supporting each other while still doing their best to stay competitive and to stay in business. Comment on this story at signpost.mywebermedia.com
CAMPUS REC
18 | MyWeberMedia.com |April 21, 2020
Spring 2020
Updates
Closed Until Futher Notice • • • •
Wildcat Center/Stromberg Complex Swenson Pool Weber Rocks Climbing Wall Davis Fitness Center
• •
Outdoor Program Rental Center Wildcat Village & University Village Fitness Centers *For residents only
Open
Canceled • • •
Outdoor Adventure Program Activities and Trips Club Programming Intramural Sports
WEBER REC
For more information go to Weber.edu/CampusRecreation or contact us at CampusRecreation@Weber.edu *All events/times are subject to change
So what happens to my dining dollars? RESIDENT MEAL PLAN HOLDERS:
WSU STUDENTS DINING DOLLARS WILL ROLL OVER TO THE SUMMER & FALL SEMESTER. IF YOU ARE LEAVING WEBER THROUGH GRADUATION, ETC., YOU ARE ELIGIBLE FOR A REFUND OF THE DINING DOLLARS YOU HAVE LEFT, IF IT IS OVER $10.YOU MUST REQUEST THIS REFUND FROM THE HOUSING OFFICE. VOLUNTARY MEAL PLAN DINING DOLLARS:
THERE ARE NO REFUNDS ON VOLUNTARY MEAL PLAN DINING DOLLARS. THEY WILL, HOWEVER, ROLLOVER TO THE SUMMER AND FALL SEMESTERS. IF YOU ARE A WILDCAT VILLAGE RESIDENT, THIS INCLUDES DINING DOLLARS THAT YOU MAY HAVE ADDED TO YOUR RESIDENT DINING MEAL PLAN TO SUPPLEMENT IT.
MyWeberMedia.com | April 21, 2020 | 19
DO YOU KNOW YOUR NEWS? QUIZ ANSWERS FROM PAGE 2
1. a. Google banned the use of Zoom on company computers, according to The Hill. Zoom competes with Google Meets, but in addition to not using a competitive product, Zoom has had several security breaches over the past weeks. Google is not the only one to take this stance: NASA, SpaceX and many other government agencies have banned the use of Zoom on company computers for fear of information being hacked through Zoom. 2. c. Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia. President Trump has supported protests in Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia over stay-at-home orders that were put forth by the governor, according to NBC News. These protests were held in states with Democratic governors; Trump has not openly supported protests in states with GOP governors. Several of the GOP governors and officials are criticizing President Trump for handling the protests poorly since they are in direct contradiction to the plans he has put forth in the past days.
reported in the United States. In the world, 2,382,000 cases have been diagnosed and COVID-19 has been found in 212 countries. 40,400 people who contracted the illness in the United States passed away due to the virus. 4. b. 15,000. According to the L.A. Times, 15,000 hotel rooms have been secured for the homeless population who are also high risk. The initiative rolled out by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority has had support from the state, including the Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. The project, dubbed “Project Roomkey,� could potentially prevent 350 deaths and 1,400 hospitalizations in this community. Comment on this story at signpost.mywebermedia.com
3. d. 746,300. According to NPR as of April 19, 746,300 cases have been
PEXEL
As of April 19, 746,300 cases have been reported in the United States. In the world, 2,382,000 cases have been diagnosed and COVID-19 has been found in 212 countries. 40,400 people who contracted the illness in the United States passed away due to the virus.
NEWSPAPERS HAVE YOUR BACK We are grateful for those who have our back in this important time. The list is long, but we want to thank our first responders and front-line workers.
Especially in critical times, newspapers have your back. COVID-19 is a national story that is impacting you at home and at work. Your local newspaper is keeping you informed with current events in your neighborhood and is bringing communities together in these challenging times. From the actions your local government is taking, to lists of local stores that are delivering and tips on what to do while you’re at home, your local newspaper is committed to bringing you the news you need, when you need it.
WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER Support your local newspaper. Subscribe in print or online.
KEEPING CONNECTED WE ARE STILL HERE FOR YOU! Find virtual services and engagement opportunities:
weber.edu/keepingconnected TRACY HALL SCIENCE CENTER
SHEPHERD UNION