The Signpost Investigative Issue Thursday | April 18, 2019 | Volume 89 | Issue 62

Thursday | April 18, 2019 | Volume 89 | Issue 62

Aubree Eckhardt | The Signpost

2 | MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019

1. Which famous Western Europe structure caught fire April 15, severely damaging the centuries-old building? a. The British Parliament in London

b. Former Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker c. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld

b. The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

3. Which news organizations won Pulitzer Prizes on April 15 for reporting in the past year?

c. The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa

a. Capital Gazette and The Washington Post

2. With mayor of South Bend Indiana Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign announcement on April 14, 18 Democrats have declared their intention to unseat incumbent President Donald Trump in 2020. Meanwhile, the first Republican candidate has announced his bid for the nomination. Who was it?

b. The Los Angeles Times and The South Florida Sun Sentinel

a. Former Governor of Ohio John Kasich

b. Google c. Microsoft 5. Which franchise announced last week that two new movie trilogies are in the works, but they don’t have set dates for release yet? a. “Star Wars” b. “The Walking Dead” c. “Marvel”

c. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal 4. Shareholders in which tech giant company recently claimed that its CEO has too much power and called for the sale of other businesses the corporation owns? a. Facebook

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg holds a rally to announce his run for president in the 2020 election on Sunday, April 14, 2019 at Studebaker Building 84 in downtown South Bend, Ind.

Tribune News Service

ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS ON PAGE 21 Other Side of the Hill

by BC Sterrett

4 | MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019

The Signpost Archives

WSU's athletic department is responsible for 330 athletes.

GUARANTEED GAMES ENSURE

MONEY FOR WSU ATHLETICS

By BRANDON MAY Investigative Reporter

Each year, Weber State University athletics spends $14,901,150 on all their 16 NCAA teams on campus, with 27 percent of that spending going to the football team.

Of the 11 universities that compete in the Big Sky Conference, Weber State ranked third in spending behind the University of Montana and Montana State University.

Weber State’s athletic department is responsible for over 330 student athletes.

Many of these student athletes use their scholarship opportunities to receive their undergraduate degrees and may not have had the opportunity to do so without NCAA sports.

In 2017 and 2018, Weber State athletics requested $2,294,840 from Wildcat student fees. Athletics then requested $2,347,955 for the 2018-19 academic school year.

For 2019-20, Wildcat athletics re-

quested $2,397,955 from student fees.

WSU uses the funds from student fees to help pay for scholarships, which takes $1,970,915. $201,500 goes toward travel, $157,000 goes to medical costs, $38,540 goes to athletic trainers, $5,000 goes to softball coaches and $25,000 goes to the spirit squad.

WSU’s spirit squad funding includes gear, apparel and assistance but also helps out the dance team.

Because running a Division I program is expensive, smaller Division I programs like Weber State's use guaranteed games to help fund their athletic programs.

Each year, major Division I teams pay smaller schools, like WSU, to play at their home stadiums. Guaranteed games allow schools like the University of Utah to fill their stadiums, sell concessions and play what should be a guaranteed win.

Guaranteed games also mean there is guaranteed money for Weber State. Bigger schools will pay WSU Athletics anywhere

from $200,000 to $700,000 to play them at the beginning of the season.

“Many of the Football Bowl Subdivision schools will pay our schools from $200,000 and up,” commissioner of the Big Sky Tom Wistrcill said. “The money goes to their athletic program, and each school decides on what they want to do with it.”

Because Weber State’s income doesn’t match the spending, WSU is forced to play in one or two of these games each year.

The University of Montana and Montana State compete in the Football Championship Subdivision but don't play guaranteed games. Because of their huge fan support, boosters and other income streams, neither school needs to play in these games.

For as long as Athletic Director Jerry Bovee has been at WSU, he has scheduled only one guaranteed game for football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball, respectively, each year.

“I’ve always been an advocate of one game,” Bovee said. “When I got here, we

played two each year to help with our budget, but since then, we are not in that place anymore.”

Bovee said the money made in guaranteed games doesn’t just go to football but into the general budget for Wildcat Athletics.

“The money we get from guaranteed games goes into our general budget,” Bovee said. “Even though football programs are expensive to run, we don't allocate it to just football. We don't budget that way.”

Last year, Weber State’s expenses for football reached $3,986,758. WSU spent $1,930,140 on men’s basketball and $1,107,780 on women’s basketball. The rest of the 13 NCAA teams on campus spent a combined $4,542,555.

Weber State’s funding from boosters, ticket sales and other income doesn’t quite reach the total expenses, hence the necessity for guaranteed games.

“It’s a lot more expensive to run a football program,” Bovee said. “From the equipment and from the squad size. You’re

MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019 | 5

WSU plays guaranteed games for extra income during the season.

By NIC MURANAKA Desk Editor

The 'Cats have lost their last three guaranteed games.

The Signpost Archives

dealing with 95 to 100 students on just the one squad.”

Last year, Weber State’s football team had 99 student athletes on their roster, accounting for 27 percent of the Weber State student athletes. The football roster is three times the size of any other team on campus.

“It’s just a huge expense running a Division I football program,” Bovee said. “Right now, we can’t get covered in donors, ticket sales and other income streams.”

Bovee and the rest of the front office don’t just look at the money when scheduling these games. They also look at the strategic side. Weber State wants to play in games in which they feel they can compete.

“I think the athletes want it,” Bovee said.

“A lot of them came here with aspirations of playing at Power 5 schools. They want to play at the highest levels, showing they are elite athletes.”

Power 5 schools include the Athletic Coast Conference, PAC 12, Southeastern

Conference, the Big Ten and the Big 12.

Power 5 schools are considered the top level of college football and will pay smaller Division I programs.

Cornerback Parker Preator started his collegiate career at Snow College before transferring to Weber State. Preator took in the experience of playing in a guaranteed game last year against the University of Utah.

“As a player, getting to play in front of a sold-out stadium is something special and everyone dreams about playing in them,” Preator said. “One of the biggest things I realized was what money can get you, such as a bigger venue, nicer locker rooms and more fans.”

Running back Treshawn Garrett experienced multiple guaranteed games throughout his tenure at Weber State.

“I’ve been honored to face teams all over the country and competition at all levels of college football,” Garrett said.

“Playing out-of-conference games are always exciting."

While there are upsides of guaranteed games, there are some negatives, too.

Bovee finds evaluating the team after playing elite schools to be difficult.

“It’s hard to measure where we are at,” Bovee said. “We try to play teams that we can compete in, and that’s why we decided to play San Diego State and Nevada next fall.”

Last year, Weber State lost to Utah 41– 10. In 2017, the ’Cats lost to Cal Berkeley 33–20. In 2016, they lost to Utah State 45-6.

“We go to Colorado State a few years ago and then Cal," Bovee said. "At times, we are just a few snaps away from winning the game. These games just make it really hard for us to evaluate us and see where we are.”

Weber State also has had to deal with injuries during guaranteed games the past few years.

Garrett found himself sidelined after the Utah State game in 2016 and University of Utah game last year. Garrett missed the

whole season in 2016 and was sidelined for the first three games last fall.

“Unfortunately, injuries are a part of the game,” Garrett said. “I experienced a game-ending injury so early in the game.”

Garrett felt he not only let himself down but also his teammates and coaches.

Weber State football isn’t the only team on campus that plays guaranteed games.

“Some of our men’s and women’s basketball teams also compete in guaranteed games,” Wistrcill said.

However, because college football has the greater revenue, they pay more for each game.

Weber State and the rest of the smaller Division I programs use guaranteed games to help pay for their expenses and to update their facilities. Although it’s a tough game to start the season, it provides opportunities for the university and its athletes.

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RACIAL SEGREGATION THRIVES

Wikimedia

By JENNY GUZMAN Investigative Reporter

One thing Ogden considers a strength is the ethnic diversity of its residents.

However, studies and geographic websites show evidence of racial segregation and the long-term effects of Ogden’s deeply rooted, racist past.

According to Ogden’s 2017 census, the city’s race and origin breakdown shows that the majority of its residents identify as white at 61.5 percent. Hispanics come in next at 32.3 percent. Blacks, Asians, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders average 1 percent each.

While there is racial diversity in Ogden, Harrison Boulevard plays a major role in segregating people of color from Caucasians. East Bench and Shadow Valley are neighborhoods that statistically have a higher rate of white and Asian residents, averaging well over 80 percent, according to statisticalatlas.com. Areas such as East Central, Downtown Ogden and West Ogden have a higher percentage of residents who identify as black and/or Hispanic.

Originally, segregation was used to keep people of color out of certain neighborhoods, but nowadays the rising cost of housing can be what deters some homebuyers from purchasing a house of their choice.

“When you choose where to live, you

can’t just say, ‘I’m going to live on a mansion up on the hills,'" said Weber State University assistant professor of sociology Pepper Glass. “If you can’t afford it, you’re not going to be able to move there. You’re going to have to choose something that’s within your means."

Glass conducted a study on the intersection of race within the Ogden community. Glass’ study originated from his curiosity about stereotypes and gossip he heard from residents upon his move to Ogden.

These stereotypes are often outgrowths of certain areas being labeled as “ghettos” or “bad neighborhoods.”

“As I’ve said in the study, there’s a connection that other researchers have found that people will associate bad places with people of color living there,” Glass said. “That’s especially for white people. They would prefer to live in allwhite neighborhoods, whereas if you ask people of color, they’re much more even handed and want a more equally integrated place.”

Glass found that participants said Harrison and Monroe Boulevards were the dividing lines between areas that were considered good and bad, with the higher eastern parts of the city seen as more desirable while the lower west housed a “dirtier” appearance. These comments came from participants of various ethnic backgrounds.

These seemingly defined yet slowly integrated areas are a hold over from a long series of segregation. The history of segregation within the city of Ogden appeared long before World War II and the Civil Rights era.

“The history of (Ogden), is that (it) has traditionally been a place where immigrants and people of color come,” Glass said. “That tradition is carrying on today even among people who don’t even know that history, like the railroad.”

Nearing the end of the 1800s, Ogden was one of the biggest railroad towns and shipping centers on the West Coast. With this came an influx of migrants, often of varying ethnicities, coming to work on the railroad.

Upon their arrival, these new workers were put into ignominious neighborhoods based on their racial background.

Often forced to live in these areas, housing seemed impossible to find elsewhere.

“For example, the African-Americans could live south of 25th street and about Wall to Washington,” said Sarah Singh, head of special collections at the Stewart Library at Weber State. "The Hispanics had 23rd and 22nd and Wall and then west. A lot of them lived west of Ogden and west of the rail depot.”

Also included were Japanese and Chinese migrants, who were placed between 25th, 24th and Lincoln. People

who could pass as white, such as Greeks or Italians, were spread out and had an easier time, according to Singh.

These barriers were placed by residents of the town, preferring to keep people of color out of more desirable neighborhoods. Efforts to move out of these areas were often met with hostility, a trend that continued well into what Singh described as the “booms” of migrants after World War II. The first wave occurred during the active use of the railroad in the 1800s.

During World War II in Northern Utah, an onslaught of new jobs with the four military depots — Hill Field Air Force Base, Clearfield Naval Supply, Ogden Arsenal and the Defense Depot Ogden — brought forth the newest boom of migrants from the South and the West.

These new workers were still subjected to the racial neighborhood boundaries set forth almost 50 years earlier.

In the 1950s and 1960s, segregation by neighborhood was commonly known across America, not solely within Ogden city. While hostile attempts at keeping people of color out of white neighborhoods came from residents, bank and mortgage lenders were making it harder for people of color to get loans in order to move into desired neighborhoods.

The official term for this tactic is known as redlining.

“I’ve talked to a lot of African-Ameri-

MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019 | 7

Concrete wall, one half mile long, Detroit, Michigan. This wall was erected in August 1941 to separate the Negro section from a new suburban housing development for whites.

DESPITE NEW-AGE INTEGRATION can families, and they would try to move outside of that area, and there would be petitions from the neighborhood,” Singh said. “They would be denied bank loans, and (some houses) were tarred and feathered. This was the ‘60s and ‘70s, so not too far long ago.”

“Hispanics in the Mormon Zion, 19121999” by Jorge Iber describes the disadvantages Hispanics and Latinos faced when it came to segregation along the Wasatch Front.

“In Ogden, Spanish speakers tended to live near the Union Pacific depot, between the Weber River and Adams Avenue and 25th Street south to the city limit,” Iber wrote.

In 1968, the Fair Housing Act was put into place, which made it “unlawful to discriminate in the terms, conditions or privileges of sale of a dwelling because of race or national origin.”

However, Ogden’s neighborhoods continue to be separated by race, with more white people living on the east end and more people of color living in the west.

“I always laugh that they say Harrison is this barrier, that if you live above Harrison, you’re in the richer upper-class, lowcrime area,” Singh said. “Harrison is not this invisible force field that keeps crime and everything out, but I think they purposely have higher house values, and it makes it more difficult for people to live (there).”

The rise of housing could be one of the biggest factors regarding the integration of people of color in more commonly known white neighborhoods in Ogden.

Lower-income families oftentimes don’t qualify for these homes.

Housing prices in Utah have gone up, especially within the last decade. According to movoto.com, a real estate website for homeowners, just five years ago, the median cost of a home in Ogden was approximately $135,000. As of April 2019, the median list price is $249,000.

“In Ogden, you still see a lot of areas that are more affordable, but usually, they are also areas that people are more hesitant to move into for probably some of the demographic reasons,” said Ogden Realtor Kristi Eversole. “I truly believe there is a spot for everyone.”

Eversole says realtors have strict guidelines and a code of ethics they must follow, set by the Fair Housing Act and the office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. Potential buyers are safeguarded against protected classes: race, religion, sex, national origin, color, familial status and disability.

Eversole and her colleagues almost never give direct answers to questions like “Is this a good family neighborhood?”

The same cannot be said for home sellers who use websites like Facebook and Craigslist to rent or sell their property.

Laws put in place to stop housing seg-

regation are sometimes ignored by real estate companies and private sellers using social media, often looking for a specific seller.

On March 28, the Department of Housing and Urban Development charged Facebook with violating the Fair Housing Act by letting real estate companies choose who could view their ads based on several of the protected classes listed above.

“When I list a house for (a client), I always let them know up front: ‘I am not allowed to discriminate,’” Eversole said.

“Even if they were to tell me, ‘I don’t want anyone to buy my house who isn’t of this race or anyone to look at my house who has this color.’ I can’t discriminate like that.”

More homes and proposed redevelopments have been put in place to bring more ownership downtown, especially within the last year.

These new developments have the potential to give grants to new buyers, but according to Eversole, many of the applicants who would want to apply for the grants wouldn’t qualify because their income would be too high.

Utah and its surrounding states have been experiencing a massive population growth within the last decade. According to worldpopulationreview.com, Utah’s population growth is “expected to continue over the next few decades, and by

2060, the state should have a population of 6.84 million people.”

This makes the real estate market turn around more quickly than usual, which could be the answer to diversifying the city. Homes listed in other areas usually stay up on websites for approximately six months. In Ogden, they last less than one.

“Boise, Salt Lake, Ogden, Denver, Colorado Springs — all of those areas — the population growth they’re experiencing I think is unprecedented,” Eversole said.

“Everyone is playing catch up and doing the best they can.”

Newcomers from out of state with little to no knowledge of the preconceived stereotypes of Ogden, as well as a new generation of homebuyers, have the ability to change the long-standing effects of Ogden’s racial divide.

This new migration and population growth within the city echo the migrant booms of the 1800s and after World War II. Instead of jobs, however, people are looking for homes.

“We’re in the midst of it,” Singh said.

“We’re getting so many people moving in here and people of all different ethnicities who are putting down roots, and they’re establishing businesses.”

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THE EVOLUTION OF

8 | MyWeberMedia.com| April 18, 2019

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

By KELLY WATKINS

Investigative Reporter

If you drew an imaginary line from West Wendover, Nevada, to Dinosaur, Colorado, where cannabis is legal both medicinally and recreationally, what would fill the space between the two towns?

The answer is Utah, where in November 2018, medicinal cannabis was voted legal by a majority of Utahns through Proposition 2.

Under the proposition, approved illnesses and conditions such as HIV, cancer, autism, epilepsy and various others, would be eligible for treatment by medicinal cannabis.

After Prop 2 passed, anxiety and anticipation ensued from the community when the Utah Legislature altered the bill.

Ashalea Wilkerson, an 18-year-old Salt Lake City resident and Prop 2 supporter, went door-to-door in her community, passing out flyers and advocating heavily for the bill.

“I was so excited to see medical marijuana pass here, especially in my first election,” Wilkerson said. “But then the bill was changed, and I almost felt betrayed by my own government, even though I don’t qualify for medical cannabis.”

Wilkerson took an interest in sharing her approval of the bill and wanted fellow Utah residents to take interest in the topic as well.

“I would strike up a conversation with anyone who even glanced in my direction and would ask them their thoughts and opinions on medical marijuana,” Wilkerson said.

In 2017, The Salt Lake Tribune and the University of Utah Hinckley Institute of Politics found that 75 percent of Utah’s voters were either strongly-for or somewhat-for legalizing medical cannabis. In October

of 2018, a Hinckley Poll showed that only 51 percent of voters surveyed approved of Prop 2.

“I think that the LDS church has a major influence on the government here in Utah,” Wilkerson said. “They might not oppose medical marijuana entirely, but it is something, in my mind, that they are not happy with.”

Officials of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had previously said the Church was not opposed to medical marijuana; however, the Church openly opposed Prop 2 in its original form.

In May of 2018, the Church released a seven-page memo with legal responses to the original proposition. The memo was prepared by the law firm Kirton McConkie, a firm frequently used by the Church.

The memo addressed the legalities and potential issues the Church saw in the proposed bill, such as dosage and patient monitoring.

“Once a person has a medical cannabis card, which is good for six months unless the physician recommends a shorter time, the cardholder can buy the maximum amount allowed under the law every 14 days and use it as he or she chooses,” a memo under a section pertaining to a lack of prescription under Prop 2 stated.

Elder Jack N. Gerard, a member of the the Quorum of the Seventy of the Church, said the Church does not object to medical marijuana, so long as it is prescribed by doctors with specific dosages and obtained through a licensed pharmacy.

“We are deeply concerned by the history of other states that have allowed for medical or recreational use of this drug without the proper controls and have experienced serious consequences to the health and safety of their citizens,” Gerard said.

With the replacement law on medicinal cannabis that the legislature passed, patients with approved conditions will have

to receive a recommendation from a qualified medical provider before applying for a medical cannabis card, according to the Utah Department of Health.

Qualified medical providers are physicians, osteopathic physicians, advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants.

When Prop 2 passed, Intermountain Healthcare delayed letting their qualified employees issue letters recommending patients for cannabis. In February 2019, IHC announced it would be moving forward and letting its providers recommend patients for the medical cannabis cards.

“Intermountain providers, based on their knowledge, experience and level of comfort with medical cannabis, will be able to provide the (recommendation) letter to patients who have qualifying conditions defined by the Utah Medical Cannabis Act,” said Mark Briesacher, Intermountain’s chief physician executive, in a statement to the public on Prop 2.

David Sanders, a Murray resident, was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2016. Sanders recalls being ecstatic when a hospital near his neighborhood began allowing healthcare providers to issue recommendation letters to patients.

“I didn’t have a lot of faith in the state of Utah or in the doctors in this state when medical marijuana was proposed here,” Sanders said. “I had even been considering moving to another state where marijuana is legal so that I could treat my epilepsy and alleviate some of my suffering.”

Sanders and his girlfriend of two years, Shyla Holmes, had inquired about jobs and apartments in Oregon, Colorado and Nevada. Holmes was hesitant to leave Utah initially. When Prop 2 was proposed, the couple decided to wait it out and see if the bill would pass.

“It was a weighted choice. Utah is home, and I know David needs cannabis to help

with his epilepsy,” Holmes said. “I would have done it for him in a heartbeat if necessary. But now that Prop 2 has passed and is being implemented, it is less of a concern personally.”

Sanders watched the election statistics for Prop 2 closely from his desk at work on election day 2018.

“I kept checking the numbers online on my phone and cross checking them again every spare moment I had. I felt like I couldn’t breathe the whole day,” Sanders said.

Eventually, in the evening, Sanders recalled feeling exhausted and defeated by the numbers.

“The votes no had overtaken the votes in favor,” Sanders said. “I gave up, absolutely drained physically and emotionally, and went to bed for the evening.”

The next morning, Sanders checked his phone first thing and was shocked to see that the bill had passed.

“I remember being in a state of awe and disbelief, and it lasted all day,” Sanders said.

Sanders and other patients with qualifying conditions are currently waiting for the next steps of the law to be implemented, so they can receive prescriptions for the product.

There are no current facilities that are licensed to sell medical cannabis in Utah.

However, the Utah Department of Health projects that by March of 2020, there will be up to seven pharmacies throughout the state, privately operated by the state health department, to dispense marijuana to qualified patients with a Utah medical cannabis card.

If no pharmacies are located close to patients, patients will have the option of a state central fill pharmacy, which will take orders and deliver to a health department location of the patient’s choice for pickup.

To meet demands and needs, the orders

NV

$ 530 Million in General Sales (2017-2018)

UT

7 Pharmacies 4 Types of

Medical Cards

CO

$ 1.5 Million in General Sales

(2018)

Monika Clarke | The Signpost

must be delivered two days after placed.

According to the Utah Department of Health, medical cannabis will be available as tablets, capsules, concentrated oils and other edible products. Smoking marijuana is not legal under the Medical Cannabis Act. Patients can instead use vapor pens to take the cannabis into the respiratory system.

There are currently four specified cards that will be available by March 2020: patient, guardian, provisional patient and caregiver cards.

Patient cards are required in every case.

The other three cards will be issued in conjunction with the patient card under the pretense that the patient is a minor or is unable to attain or consume the medicinal cannabis on their own.

Fees for the cards have not yet been established but will be required upon card renewal, which is required after the first 30 days of issuing and six months following initial 30-day renewal.

At this point, it is unclear how the state of Utah will benefit fiscally from the legalization of medical marijuana.

Two of the states that share borders with Utah and have legalized marijuana, Nevada and Colorado, have benefited financially from the marijuana industry.

According to the State of Nevada Department of Taxation, Nevada’s taxable sales from dispensaries from July 2017 to June 2018 was near $530 million. Tax revenues for the fiscal year 2017-2018 were at $48.97 million.

The Colorado State Retail Sales Tax Return reported that sales of marijuana in Colorado reached over $1.5 billion in 2018. Tax revenues for 2018 in Colorado were approximately $266.5 million.

“The popularity of treating illnesses and conditions with medical marijuana is only going to grow, and demands are going to get higher,” Sanders said.

Utah has faced its own legal struggles with medicinal marijuana. The system that will be used for the treatment is not yet in place, so information on how this will benefit the people of Utah is not yet available to compare.

“We, as a state, have only overcome one obstacle. We still have more conditions to think about that should be eligible for medical weed,” Wilkerson said. “We have only scratched the surface here in Utah, and I am looking forward to digging deeper.”

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A COLLEGIAL CULTURE CLASH:

WHY WEBER’S GRADUATION

RATES CONTINUE TO DWINDLE

AUBREE ECKHARDTD | The Signpost

April 19

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April 20

Dearth, Ghost Aquarium, and White Clouds at 9PM

By TORI WALTZ

Investigative Reporter

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April 19

Bill n' Diane at 7:00PM

In 2003, 18-year-old Christina Huerta entered Weber State University a wide-eyed first-generation student looking to pursue a degree in communications. Nearly 16 years later, she is receiving her diploma.

Huerta had “mentally checked out of school” after her first two years, causing her grades and academic scholarship to slip. With no way to pay tuition, she decided to drop out during her fifth semester.

“Going straight from high school to college was a lot to handle,” Huerta said. “I came from a low-income family, and I had to work.”

She later revisited her education as the mother of a 1-year-old son, with another soon on the way. A week after giving birth to her second child, she returned to campus determined on finishing

her degree.

“I was in a different mindset at that age than I was when I was 18,” Huerta said. “I had a baby, and I came back a week later to take finals and everybody was like ‘What are you doing here?’ I want to graduate; that’s what I’m doing here.”

Huerta’s academic persistence makes her an anomaly. Other students facing similar challenges at WSU drop out at substantial rates.

According to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, the rate of freshmen at WSU who graduated in six years as of 2017 was 38 percent.

That, coupled with the fallto-fall student retention rate of the same year — which was 65 percent — places the school below the national average in terms of students who successfully graduate on time.

In 2014, WSU experienced an initial cohort enrollment of 2,168 students, according to

the university’s Student Persistence and Success Institutional Research. By fall semester 2015, nearly half of those students had dropped out.

Additionally, the research showed WSU’s six-year graduation rate between 2008 and 2012, reaching a high of 21.2 percent and a low of 18.5 percent.

These numbers are undoubtedly short when stacked up against schools like Brigham Young University and University of Utah, whose graduation rates lie between 60 and 80 percent.

However, when compared to Utah Valley University and Dixie State University, two institutions with student demographics similar to Weber’s, the numbers are right in line.

The data shows the amount of students in 2017 who graduated within six years of enrollment at UVU was 30 percent, a rate lower than WSU’s. At Dixie, that number was 18 percent, placing it at the bottom of the

list of major universities and colleges in Utah.

One of the common factors linking Weber, Dixie and UVU are their open-enrollment policies in student acceptance.

Students are welcomed into the schools with open arms, regardless of high school grade point averages and college readiness assessment scores.

“If you compare us against BYU, then that’s going to be a very different comparison,” Associate Provost for Enrollment Services Bruce Bowen said.

“Most of the lower students that we admit here would have never gotten into that institution.”

While this allows schools like Weber to reach a wider array of individuals, it also means a higher proportion of part-time students, working parents and students who require remediation to some degree in preparation for university-level coursework.

Those factors are obstacles in a student’s education. Accord-

MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019 11

80%

90 % 80 %

100% 80%

64%

77% 72%

70 %

73%

70%

74% 68% 60%

60%

65%

62%

55%

50%

38%

35% 40%

30%

40 %

71%

70%

49%

60 % 50 %

FALL TO FALL RETENTION

20%

30 %

18%

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

20 % 10 %

Above: PEDS fall-to-fall retention rate at Weber State University from 2007 to 2017

0%

Left: Freshmen graduated in 6 years in 2017 at different Utah universities according to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.

Weber State University

Utah State University

Brigham Young University

University of University

Utah Valley University

Dixie State University

Southern Utah University

ing to Weber’s Office of Academic Affairs, individuals under the extra burden of financial and familial obligations can often become discouraged in their studies, instead choosing to prioritize more urgent matters, like putting food on the table.

“Students who come to us who are on a little less secure footing may find that they are more challenged, and it may be more difficult for them to stay in school,” Provost Madonne Miner said.

This contributes to lower retention and graduation rates at universities like Weber with a higher number of first-generation, low-income students.

“We are looking at, in part, for some students, a real culture clash in coming to college,” Associate Provost for Academic Programs and Assessment Eric Amsel said.

Another major component in this relationship is the greater need for student remediation found in open-enrollment schools. Individuals like Huerta who come in as first-generation students often aren’t equipped with the necessary resources to succeed in college.

“We’re just not really prepared. I think that’s what really disheartened me my first time coming,” Huerta said. “I was in a program made for first-generation college students, and they tried to prep

me as best as they could, but when I came in and tried to take the test to see where I was going to be placed, I still needed remediation.”

One of the academic areas at WSU often seeing the most students in developmental courses is mathematics.

Kristi Sheffield — a 58-year-old criminal justice major — has been a student at WSU for the better part of eight years, with the majority of her time spent in preparatory math courses.

After a falling-out with the head of the developmental math department, she enrolled in the Math 0990 course for a total of six times before she was able to advance on to 1010. During that time, she took a two-year hiatus from college after a hold was placed on her registration for failing the class too many times.

“My experience here at Weber has been anything short of warm and fuzzy,” Sheffield said. “But I’m not a quitter. I’ve got a lot of money and time invested here. I started here, and I want to finish here.”

Tyler Hall, another student with a prolonged college education, spent two years in remediation before he was able to earn credit to satisfy his general math requirement.

“Once you clear that math hurdle, that

is a good day,” Hall said. “The day I passed math I realized I can actually graduate now if I finish all this other stuff.”

WSU officials have been working to solve the dilemma of student remediation — particularly in mathematics — for several years.

After implementing the Real-world Explorations Active Learning Pre Algebra course in 2014, which provides a learning environment similar to the Pathway course for Math 950 students, the department saw a 6 percent increase in passing rates, according to the Utah System of Higher Education.

With a heightened focus on improving student retention, Miner and her team in Academic Affairs are also looking to create programs that help students feel supported on campus.

“It’s hard to feel a sense of belonging if you’re being told that you don’t belong in college,” Amsel said. “We are experimenting with all kinds of ways of supporting students in college-level classes without remediation.”

One of the most notable potential solutions is Starfish. Embedded within student accounts on Canvas, officials believe Starfish will decrease the number of students falling through the cracks by using

a series of notifications to alert faculty and advisors when a student is excessively absent or not performing well.

The school is also encouraging professors and academic advisors to pay more attention to students who are struggling.

Rather than only including those who show up to class, Miner stressed that it is equally as important to make sure the students who are floundering feel just as involved.

“We are pushing our retention advisors to be more hands-on, just as Starfish is hands-on and touching students more frequently,” Miner said. “Having that human power really matters.”

Despite the effort being made to increase student retention and graduation rates at Weber State, Miner and her team are not worried about the effects these numbers may have on state funding.

“The Legislature pays attention to what our retention rates are, but they also recognize that each of the eight USHE institutions has a different mission,” Miner said.

“We’re not Utah State University. We’re not University of Utah. We’re Weber State, and we’re doing pretty well.”

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12 | MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019

MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019 | 13

CREATING AN ON-CAMPUS COMMUNITY

AT A COMMUTER SCHOOL

By HARRISON EPSTEIN Investigative Reporter

Thirteen percent. Students who live in Weber State University housing for four years graduate at a 13 percent higher rate than their counterparts who don’t.

While Weber has long been known as a commuter school, dorms remain a popular option for young students because it helps them transition into living on their own.

According to Morgan Kerr, the marketing coordinator for WSU housing, the existence of the dorms helps students stick with the university. She has been with housing since 2012, when Kerr started as a resident adviser.

“Students, freshman and sophomore students who live on campus are retained on a seven percent higher rate than their peers,” Kerr said.

Since October 2000, Weber State has had a management contract with Century

Campus Housing Management, a third-party company in charge of the day-to-day operations.

On May 1, the university is bringing the management of the dorms in-house. While this represents a massive logistical overhaul for Weber State, according to Executive Director of Auxiliary Affairs Daniel Kilcrease there will be no change in how the buildings are managed.

Before becoming the executive director of Student Affairs Auxiliaries in the fall of 2018, Kilcrease served as the director of housing at Weber State since 2002, before the opening of University Village.

When the contract was originally signed back in 2000, it was done so by Vice President of Student Affairs Anand Dyal-Chand and was designated management over, “Promontory Tower, Wasatch Hall, Stansbury Hall and LaSal Hall.”

The contract was amended in May 2002 to include University Village, just off Har-

rison Boulevard. On the ground that once held Promontory, Wasatch, Stansbury and LaSal are now the three buildings of Wildcat Village. While the minutiae of housing are well-known among residents, a majority of the student body lives off campus.

One student who did make a home of Weber State housing was Hunter Olsen. Olsen is finishing his senior year but plans on coming back for his self-described time as a “super senior.” A native of Taylorsville, Olsen made the choice to live in housing instead of commuting and has lived in both villages with an assortment of roommates.

However, according to WSU, there are 26,000 students in the 2018-19 academic year while there are only enough rooms for a maximum occupancy of 1001 students — approximately 3.85 percent of the total student body, which means that at any given time, a narrow portion of the student population is living on campus.

The dorms are available for any students,

as long as they are registered in classes, regardless of whether or not they are traditional students. The only time a non-registered student can live in housing is during the summer, so long as the student is registered for either the spring semester before or fall semester after the summer.

Despite allowing any student to stay, the dorms are tailored more for the traditional students of WSU. “Weber State is such a nontraditional school, and that’s a great mission that they have for our nontraditional students,” Kerr said. “But, it’s a great place for our traditional students to stay engaged on campus and have what they want out of college that they’ve dreamed of since they were little.”

For Olsen, one prominent aspect of living on-campus was meeting people in a similar situation as him.

“I was involved with people who are around my own age, I mean some people — I had a 40-year-old roommate — so that’s kind

of out of the way,” Olsen said, “but essentially, it put me in an environment where it was a bunch of people like me, going through the same situation as me.”

“But essentially it put me in an environment where it was a bunch of people like me going through the same situation as me.”

HUNTER OLSEN WSU Student

With the management changing, Kilcrease said the goal is to ensure students do not feel the transition in terms of the housing accommodations — just as it was not a requirement for residents to know about the

differing interactions between their university and the administrators running their dorms.

“The integration is as seamless as seamless goes,” Kilcrease said. “There’s not an, ‘Oh, and they collect rent at $600 a month and then decide how much to give the University.’ No.” While Weber State did not run the management of the buildings, they still employed the maintenance staff and, primarily, owned the land.

“The university said, ‘Here’s land. You build the building. You fill the beds.’ We decide together on rates, and terms, and policies,” Kilcrease said. “Then, when we make money, we all make money.”

Both sides profit when students enter the equation. Students rent each of the 1001 available beds, which are split between 476 beds at University Village and 525 at Wildcat Village.

As of the 2018–19 academic year, there

are 380 standard rooms and 96 luxury rooms within the five buildings of University Village. A standard room for the full academic year will cost $4,796 per student while the luxury room is $5,280.

According to Kerr, University Village is designed more with upperclassmen in mind — students who are less interested in finding new friends and have more established social groups, adding that it was built more for students who want to focus on their studies.

Things began to change for the residence hall landscape, literally, in 2011, with the beginning of what is now Wildcat Village.

Before construction began on the new dorms, the university demolished all of the original buildings except for Promontory, which stood until 2012. In successive years beginning in 2011, WSU unveiled Residence Hall 1, Stewart-Wasatch Hall and Residence Hall 3.

Costs are different for rooms in different buildings with varying prices that are

adjusted even more with the addition of meal plans. The cheapest meal plan costs $2,500 annually, and plans are required for students who live at Wildcat Village.

This village is designed to be more helpful for freshman and sophomore students and built to help them increase their social circles.

“They have to go to the dining hall, and while there, they have interactions with other students,” Kerr said. “In Residence Hall 3, for example, there’s community living rooms, community kitchens and community bathrooms, so they are forced to go out and meet people, and it’sJOSHUA a really good environWINEHOLT | The Signpost ment to do that.”

Room prices range from $3,345 per year in an RH3 double room to $5,438 per year in an RH1 super single, which includes a free Powder Mountain ski season pass.

“It’s not the best price to live someplace, CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

KELLY WATKINS | The Signpost

14 | MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019 >>CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

especially if you live in (Wildcat Village) because they make you pay $1000 for food that is subpar, but besides that, it’s all right,” said Olsen.

Living in housing offers a significant number of advantages for the average student over an off-campus apartment, a big one being a single bill. Students who live in housing have access to Weber State’s secure Wi-fi network, don’t pay individual bills and have access to the maintenance staff free of cost.

Kerr believes one of the main obstacles for getting students to move into housing is the upfront price tag, but she sees it as a perk of housing that all of the costs are lumped together instead of listing rent and then applying individual bills.

“I think that’s a barrier that students find, but if they look a little bit more in-depth, it’s really not different than what they would be doing off campus,” Kerr said.

For students, issues with the amenities can cause headaches.

“For some reason a lot of the amenities break,” Olsen said. “I’ve had doorknobs break; I’ve had lights, fans and even shower heads break, and I know that comes from use, but it also comes from the amount of money put into those things.”

According to both contracts signed by the university, there are rooms set aside for each member of the professional staff as well.

Kilcrease and his family live in Wildcat Village, along with Unique Harston.

Harston is the area coordinator for Wildcat Village. She lives in University Village with her family, as does Shane Rivera, the area coordinator for Wildcat Village.

While the Wildcat Village trio is the most recent construction for housing, it does not represent the end of the property that WSU owns. There are also two houses on Birch Avenue, as well as five other houses in the areas surrounding the main campus.

Two houses are used by faculty and five by students. There’s currently one empty house and one rented by a Weber State staff member. These properties are not listed as ones available to rent by Weber State because there are so few that can be used, and some of the properties were already lived in when WSU purchased the buildings.

“We haven’t listed it on our website and marketed it because you put it out there and you’re getting 1,000 phone calls for something that has vacancy, like, once every three years,” Kilcrease said.

However, there is no plan for housing

to expand by individual houses in any specific way. Weber State simply feels it is in their best interest to purchase property near campus when the opportunities arise, rather than leave the houses vacant.

One of the few possible long-term plans for the houses focuses on the few between RH1 and the Dee Events Center. If the proposed Bus Rapid Transit line is built on campus, the pathway would plow through, or near, those homes.

Ahead of the switch, the housing professional staff made another change — this time back to a process they thought worked better. Since about 2012, students who wanted to check out of their rooms could come by the housing offices whenever they pleased to fill out the exit forms and drop off their keys.

Now, students must schedule a checkout time in advance with housing to have a 20-minute meeting with the student and walk their rooms.

There will be almost 40 employees to assist the students over the week in rotating groups, beginning on April 22. This is done because, while most universities give 24 hours after the student completes their last final to move out, Weber State faculty mostly uses the testing centers to administer their finals. Students have until April 19 to select their checkout time and must be moved out by April 27 at noon.

While the change in checkout procedures can come as a shock to students who were used to the old system, it’s another step in the employees’ belief that they can determine what works best for the students and for themselves — and it has nothing to do with who signs their paychecks.

Kilcrease maintained that housing has worked hard for nearly two decades to ensure the operation worked as seamlessly as possible, and he doesn’t believe future residents should notice any changes.

“We know that most students don’t know that there’s any difference between Campus Living Villages and Weber State University,” Kilcrease said. “They just believe they’re at Weber State and they’re a student and that it’s all seamless, and so I really don’t think that the average resident is going to notice any difference.”

Ultimately, the next batch of residents will decide if the change in management equates to a difference in campus life or if it will be more of the same. They could also be like Olsen, who was left with one feeling: “I wish it was a little bit better,” Olsen said.

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Overlooking the Community Center and building 3 at University Village.

KELLY WATKINS | The Signpost

The food court in Stewart Wasatch Hall before opening for dinner.

KELLY WATKINS | The Signpost

The sign at University Village entrance.

KELLY WATKINS | The Signpost

MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019 | 15

HOW MATH IS CHANGING THE GAME OF BASKETBALL

By JOHN KEEFFER Reporter

Zach Braxton dramatically dunks during his final game.

JOSHUA WINEHOLT | The Signpost

Brekkot Chapman inbounds a pass in his final career game.

JOSHUA WINEHOLT | The Signpost

Zach Braxton goes up for a dunk during one of his final games with the Wildcats.

JOSHUA WINEHOLT | The Signpost

During the first half of the Weber State home men’s basketball game against Sacramento State on Feb. 2, Jerrick Harding stole the ball from an opposing guard and led the Wildcats on a fast break. As Harding drove the lane, instead of cutting to the basket, all of the other Wildcats ran to a different spot behind the three point line.

Harding passed the ball to left, and then the ball swung around the perimeter for an open 3-point attempt by junior power forward Brekkott Chapman. In the moment before Chapman shot the ball, all five Wildcat players were behind the 3-point line.

For good measure, he made the shot.

This is just one example of how analytics is changing the game of basketball. Just ten years ago, if this same play occurred, the player taking the three would likely have been pulled from the game for taking an unnecessarily bad shot.

“The advantage of using analytics is that you can get both the team and player to be as efficient as possible,” said Weber State lead assistant coach Eric Duft.

“Efficiency is all about maximizing the chance of each shot going in.”

The use of analytics has become more and more predominant in basketball.

The concept is to take emotions out of the game and to focus on what the numbers and math are saying about how it should be played. So, what is it telling us?

Offensively, it is stressing the importance of taking shot attempts as close to the rim as possible, or from 3-point range, while eliminating everything in between. This is based off the typical shooting percentages from those ranges.

According to NCAA Stats, the average 2-point shooting accuracy is 46 percent,

while the 3-pointers go through the net an average of 37 percent of the time.

If two players attempt 100 shots each, with one only taking threes and the other taking twos, based on the typical averages, the one taking threes would outscore the other 111 to 92.

The effects of these anayltics have been on full display at Weber State. Ever since Randy Rahe was appointed the head coach in 2006, Weber State has been a leader in the country in threepoint shooting.

In 2005, Weber attempted 388 threes, which ranked 324 out of 330 Division I college basketball teams in the country. The number immediately grew with Rahe, and by 2008, the Wildcats attempted 631 threes during the campaign.

Think about that for a second: over the course of just three years, they were attempting around 250 additional threes per season. Since that 2008 season, Weber has only once failed to clear 600 triples attempted in a season, and they have twice cleared 700.

A critical part of this shift has been driven by offensive assistant coach Eric Duft, who joined the program in 2006 alongside Rahe.

Duft is known as the “analytic guru” in the coach’s office, and he provided valuable insights on the use and importance of analytics at Weber.

“What you’re trying to do is increase your efficiency on both ends of the court, offensively and defensively,” Duft said, “trying to take what you are seeing with your eyes and then looking at the numbers to see if you are seeing the same things. We do that a lot here.”

They focused on two primary changes on the offensive side of the ball: getting shots at the basket and stressing the importance of the three.

“The old style was just to try and take a CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

16 | MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019 ››CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

good shot, but we didn’t really have the numbers to say what a good shot was,” Duft said. “Now we know that some shots are better than other shots. Now we know specifically the shots we want to take on offense and the ones we want to take away on defense.”

While 3-pointers are all the rage nowadays, getting a shot at the basket is still more valuable because it is made at such a high rate – especially if attempted by a big man.

This type of data isn’t tracked at the college level, but as a reference, but both

Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors of the Utah Jazz are finishing above 74 percent when attempting a shot within 3-feet of the basket.

“One of the least efficient shots in basketball is the post-up, so we’ve worked with bigs like Zach Braxton to find more efficient ways to get them involved. One way is to put them into the pick and roll and get them dunks and shots at the basket by being the roll man,” Duft said.

Weber State now focuses their scouting efforts on prospects that match this analytic profile. Coaches want guards who are capable shooters with the ability to get to the

basket and forwards and centers who can either stretch the floor by shooting threes or who are strong rollers to the basket.

When Zach Braxton was recruited out of high school, he was recruited by Weber State specifically because he was a high efficiency player.

Braxton said he loves being able to back a player down and trying to score on his defender with a variety of post moves, but he realized that that is not a high percentage shot.

“I’ve talked to Coach Rahe, and the best ways I’ve scored in the last two seasons has been scoring out of the pick and roll and

playing in the short corner to get dump-off passes for easy dunks,” Braxton recalled.

He explained that short corner is also called “The Gutter,” and it allowed him to be one of the leaders in the Big Sky for made dunks in a season. As a Weber State guard drives to the basket and Braxton’s defender slides over to provide defensive help, he would make himself available for easy shots at the basket.

One of the surprising ways Weber State has tried to improve through the use of analytics has been on the defensive side of the ball. Just like there are smart shots to take on offense, there are smart shots to

MADISON OSBORN ANDERSON | The Signpost

“THE USE OF ANALYTICS HAS BECOME MORE AND MORE PREDOMINANT IN BASKETBALL. THE CONCEPT IS TO TAKE EMOTIONS OUT OF THE GAME AND TO FOCUS ON WHAT THE NUMBERS AND MATH ARE SAYING ABOUT HOW IT SHOULD BE PLAYED. “

MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019 | 17

Israel Barnes attempts a layup agaisnt University of Montana.

JOSHUA WINEHOLT | The Signpost

force an opponent into on defense.

In coach Duft’s office was a sign reading, “No Threes. No Paint. Contest Every Shot.”

This is the defensive philosophy of an analytically conscious coaching staff.

In 2012, Weber State enlisted the assistance of Ken Pomeroy, the creator of the college basketball stats website kenpom. com, who currently works for the Utah Jazz analytic department.

“I have always been fascinated by the story that numbers can tell and was doing this before it was cool,” Pomeroy said. “I live in Utah and was happy when Weber State reached out to pick my brain.”

Without even watching a basketball game, Pomeroy was able to look at the numbers on his site to determine that there was one glaring weakness for the Wildcat defense.

At the time, Weber State was leading the Big Sky Conference in defensive field goal percentage, but they were not a good defensive team.

“We asked Ken to take a look at our stuff to see if he could help out,” Duft recalled. ”Without even watching any game film, he looked at the numbers and found that we were giving up way too many 3-point attempts.”

He said teams in the Big Sky Conference have long taken and made more threes than any other conference in the country, so they had to build a defense around that setting.

“We changed our entire defensive philosophy from what he told us,” Duft said.

“You can’t necessarily control how well a team shoots because some of that is just on the talent of the player, but you can eliminate the attempts. We learned that by eliminating the attempts, you are eliminating the chance of them making more threes per game.”

Since the change, Weber State has led the entire NCAA in 3-point attempts allowed per game on three separate occasions, and they have never been below 20th.

While the numbers and analytics can be fascinating, the goal of any team is always to win. So has this analytic focus led to winning?

Since taking over at Weber State, Randy Rahe has gone 266–153, a win percentage of .653. Weber has had the best record in the Big Sky five times, they have won the conference tournament three times and they have made three NCAA Tournament appearances.

While Duft has been a leader of this analytic movement here at Weber State, he was quick to point out that winning is always going to be about more than just numbers.

“There is a place for analytics, but there is also a people component,” Duft said. “You can definitely take it too far because, at the end of the day, you still need the guys with the courage late in games to take and make these shots.”

As former Detroit Piston guard and current Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas once said, “The secret of basketball... is that it’s not about basketball.”

Weber State has worked hard to recruit not only the most talented players but athletes with character.

“You have to have guys who are competitive and passionate. You have to have a chemistry to your team where they enjoy each other,” Duft said. “Basketball is too much of a team sport to have it be all about the numbers.”

Zach Braxton goes up for a dunk during one of his final games with the Wildcats.

JOSHUA WINEHOLT | The Signpost

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18 | MyWeberMedia.com| April 18, 2019

Jake Constantine looking to hand off the ball.

The Signpost Archives

A WILDCAT TURNAROUND

By JOE TRAUB

Investigative Reporter

Weber State quarterback Jake Constantine dropped back to pass on 4th and 12 and appeared doomed to be sacked. He fought away from three defenders, threw up a HailMary-type pass hauled in by Devon Cooley in the back of the end zone but was insta ntly ripped from his grasp by a Maine Black Bears defender.

For five minutes, a national ESPN2 audience anxiously waited to see if the play would be called a Weber State touchdown or a Maine interception. It was December 7, 2018 and the Wildcats were playing in a quarterfinal playoff game at home.

“Walking down the sideline, I knew that ball was mine. I went up and got it,” Cooley said. “I knew I came down with it.”

Five years ago, this would have been unimaginable. Weber State football on na-

tional television in the FCS Playoffs? Getting past two wins was an accomplishment in the early 2010s.

Yes, the Wildcats would go on to lose this game to the Black Bears despite the play being called a touchdown. But WSU has been through seemingly all the ebbs and flows of college football in the last decade and this served as a microcosm of what the team is on the cusp of achieving.

Weber State was sitting pretty with Ron McBride as head coach in the mid to late 2000s. The well respected McBride held the reins at the University of Utah for over a decade before coming to Ogden in 2005.

He helped a struggling program get on its feet, reaching the FCS Playoffs in 2008 and 2009. McBride eventually retired at age 72 after the 2011 season.

WSU finished a respectable 5–6 in McBride’s final year and he felt confident that

the team would be on the upswing even after his departure.

“The team I left was really good,” McBride said. “They were young but in good shape. I was hoping everyone would stay together without any transferring.”

What happened next was unimaginable.

After the 2011 season, WSU hired John L. Smith, who played both linebacker and quarterback in Ogden, to be the team’s next head coach. The Smith era lasted all of four and a half months.

Unforeseen circumstances at the University of Arkansas created a situation in which the Razorbacks were in need of a head coach. They swooped Smith away from Weber State, leaving the Wildcats to turn to Jody Sears as its new leader. Sears had been hired by Smith as defensive coordinator only three months prior and was now in charge of a full-blown rebuild.

The ‘Cats lost their identity under Sears.

Weber State went 4–19 two years with him at the helm, and the results were as ugly as they looked on paper. WSU gave up an average of 37 points per game while being outscored 849–429.

“It was horrible to watch,” McBride said.

“It was very disappointing because we spent seven years building the program only to have it go to ground zero in two years. It was just tragic.”

Director of Athletic Communications Paul Grua, who has worked at Weber State since 2004, said he felt the program was thrown into disarray following Smith’s sudden departure but also due to a challenging schedule.

“When (Smith) left, it kind of spiraled a lot of things. In Sears’ defense, he was kind of handed the reigns in a tough situation,”

MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019 | 19

.

The Signpost Archives

LeGrand Toia intercepting a pass.

Grua said. “We had a tough schedule too. (Sears) had to play BYU and Fresno State the first year, had to play Utah and Utah State the next year as well as McNeese State on the road.”

The FCS-FBS games were not kind to the Wildcats, especially in 2013. WSU fell at the University of Utah 70–7 before dropping their contest to Utah State in Logan 70–6. Grua said these results led athletic director Jerry Bovee to rethink his philosophy for finding non-conference opponents.

“We try to avoid two FBS games unless it’s a 12-game season,” Grua said. “Since 2013, we haven’t done that and it has made a big difference.”

Weber State’s defense has been on the rise the last four years, becoming one of the most feared groups in the FCS. However, the defense first went through a rough patch that included surrendering a pro-

gram record 41.4 points per game in 2013.

Jay Hill, a defensive-minded head coach, has completely changed the philosophy of defense at Weber State. He now leads a group that held opponents to a record-low 17.6 points per game in 2017 and just over 20 points in 2018.

McBride coached Hill at Utah in 1998 and 1999. He said he was confident that Hill would turn around Weber State’s program after he was hired.

“They are very well coached under Jay Hill,” McBride said. “Kids play with a lot of passion. He has recruited speed and toughness. The program is in great shape and it should last.”

Hill said he has been fortunate to work with defensive players such as Devonte Johnson, Taron Johnson, Tre’von Johnson and McKay Murphy. All four of them have reached the NFL..

Most notably, Taron Johnson was drafted in the fourth round by the Buffalo Bills in 2018 and had a successful rookie season.

His most notable accomplishments included a sack and forced fumble of Green Bay Packers star quarterback Aaron Rodgers, then intercepting Titans signal-caller Marcus Mariota later in the year.

Grua said a big difference has been the recruiting process that Hill goes through.

Hill has a knack of recruiting players who display positive attitudes and hustle on and off the field. He wants quality individuals who are successful in life to join his team.

“His recruiting has improved the quality of players,” Grua said. “He’s done that in the sense that he has had players buy into what he wanted. I think it took a few years, and he will even admit that there were struggles in his first year or two. He’s really got that magical touch and they have been

able to turn into a balanced team.”

Hill has worked with many defensive coaches in his first five seasons and has a lifelong appreciation for their efforts.

“They are everything to me,” Hill said.

“They’re the ones in the film room grinding and doing the hard work. I have the fun job.

I just get to go call it on gameday.”

Hill also noted that he has lost a lot of assistant coaches to higher positions at other schools but has also kept many and is grateful for them.

Former Weber State cornerback and special teams playmaker Xequille Harry said it meant a lot to have his four years as a player coincide with Hill’s first four seasons as head coach.

“It’s a family dynamic. I was part of Coach Hill’s first recruiting class in 2014 Continued on page 20

20 | MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019

The Signpost Archives

Weber State fell to Maine in the FCS on national television Continued from page 19

and when I got there, it didn’t seem like there was a family aspect to the team,” Harry said. “Coach Hill instilled that aspect into the team along with holding people responsible, getting everyone to buy into the team and hiring great coaches.”

Harry’s final career game at WSU was also played in front of a Friday night national ESPN2 audience. The Wildcats battled neck and neck with top-ranked James Madison University in Virginia, holding the lead for most of the game. Weber State ended up falling in heartbreaking fashion when a last-second field goal split the up-

rights for the Dukes.

Harry graduated after the 2017 season and moved to Europe to play professional football. He watched the 2018 season-ending loss to Maine on television and said the key for the team going forward is to believe they can make it past the quarterfinals.

“They need to believe they can make it,” Harry said. “It’s like my junior year to my senior year. We made it to the playoffs for the first time in a while and my senior year we believed that wasn’t enough for us. We had confidence in making it out of the first round and taking it game by

game. We just came up short against James Madison.”

Constantine has not been the starting quarterback at Weber State for very long, but he is aware of what the program has been through in the last decade.

“I was grateful to come here out of junior college and into a winning program,” Constantine said. “That made my job a lot easier. There is nothing better than the tradition coach Hill brought into this program. He has solid discipline, and we are all brought into his plan of winning.”

As the Wildcats continue their quest to bring home their first-ever national cham-

pionship, Constantine is feeling confident in his team.

“We need to get over that hump in the playoffs and make it to the national championship,” Constantine said. “This program is definitely good enough to do that. I think we should have been there the year before I got here and then last year as well.

We have leadership now, and I think this is the year we get over that hump.”

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MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019 | 21

QUIZ ANSWERS FROM PAGE 4 1. b. A fire partially destroyed the Notre Dame Cathedral on April 15, according to DPA. The 850-year-old structure caught fire in the early evening and continued to burn for hours. Firefighters reported that they were able to save the edifice and much of the artwork in the cathedral, but the spire fell. According to DPA, the Paris prosecutor’s office has reported that there is no evidence of arson, but the cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

2. c. Weld announced his campaign for the 2020 Republican nomination on April 15, according to New York Daily News.

Weld has sought political office many times

in the past: he served as running mate to Libertarian Gary Johnson in 2016 and made a bid for governor of New York in 2006, losing to Democrat George Pataki. Weld also unsuccessfully attempted to unseat Democratic Sen. John Kerry in 1996.

3. b. The Los Angeles Times and the Sun Sentinel both took home Pulitzer Prizes April 15 for their coverage of former University of Southern California gynecologist George Tyndall sexually abusing students over three decades and coverage of the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, respectively. Capital Gazette received a special Pulitzer citation

and $100,000, which the Baltimore Sun reported as the highest ever awarded, for their coverage of the shooting at the Capital Gazette office in Annapolis.

4. a. According to The Mercury News, multiple shareholders have filed proposals that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has too much power. The company will review the proposals at its annual meeting, including one which calls for the sale of other businesses Facebook owns. Half of the proposals decry Zuckerberg’s position with 57.7 percent of the voting rights in the company.

5. a. Despite Disney shelving the “Star Wars Story” line of movies, “Star Wars” movies will keep coming after the release of “The Rise of Skywalker” in December this year. The Chicago Tribune reported that at the Star Wars Celebration at McCormick Place this year, Lucasfilm announced two new movie trilogies, one directed by “The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson and one directed by the creators of “Game of Thrones.” However, Disney president Bob Iger also announced last week that “Star Wars” movies will be on hiatus for a few years following the current arc’s conclusion.

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Tribune News Service

Smoke and flames rise from Notre-Dame Cathedral on April 15 in Paris, France. A fire broke out that afternoon and quickly spread across the building, collapsing the spire. The cause is yet unknown, but officials said it was possibly linked to ongoing renovation work.

22 | MyWeberMedia.com| April 18, 2019

DIGGING DEEPER INTO

DAVIS COUNTY JAIL DEATHS

By DEBORAH WILBER Investigative Reporter

Within the confines of the Davis County Jail, between 2005 and 2017, 19 inmates have died as a result of injuries sustained in custody.

In the wake of her daughter’s death on Dec. 21, 2016, Cynthia Farnham-Stella of Reno, Nevada started piecing together the last hours of Heather Ashton Miller’s life.

Miller had come to Utah three months earlier with a career prospect as an Information Technologist. However, she returned home to her mother in a box.

Miller, a 28-year-old mother of two, died as the result of a ruptured spleen that occurred while incarcerated in the Davis County Jail.

Weber County Detectives Jeff Lemberes and Garn Sever were called to investigate the incident. Their findings were later turned over to the Utah Attorney General’s Office. In a public statement issued by Attorney General Sean Reyes on April 28, 2017, all jail employees were cleared of any criminal conduct, and he would not consider charges.

Farnham-Stella’s attorneys, Tad Draper and Daniel M. Baczynski, filed a lawsuit in federal court against Davis County, Sheriff Todd Richardson and jail medical staff for the wrongful death of her daughter.

Because there were no protocols in place for the medical staff, Baczynski could only speculate as to why criminal charges would not be filed.

“I don’t think there is any excuse for why there are no protocols in place,” Baczynski said. As such, he is left to wonder who is supervising the medical staff and if they are being trained properly.

The events leading up to her daughter’s death were disturbing for Farnham-Stella.

“They let my kid die,” she said.

The investigations conducted by multiple entities revealed conflicting statements and inconsistencies all the way around.

In a written report provided by Cpl. Johnson with the Davis County Jail, at 6 p.m. on Dec. 21, 2016, Deputy Lloyd called for medical to check on Miller after her cellmate alerted him that Miller had fallen from the top bunk.

Cpl. Johnson stated in the incident report that she responded to see if she

could be of assistance, at which point Miller reportedly told Johnson her ribs on her left side were hurting and she could not breath.

According to Johnson, nurse Anderson arrived on the scene moments later. Johnson stated in her report that “Miller did not act as if it hurt” when Anderson touched her left side.

According to the lawsuit filed by Farnham-Stella’s attorneys on Jan. 3, 2018, Anderson failed to check Miller’s vitals after the fall and instead moved her to another cell, where she bled internally for hours.

A video-recorded interview with Farmington City Investigators Office was given to Farnham-Stella, in which Anderson tells investigators that he didn’t think to bring his medical bag with him when he was asked to respond to Miller’s cell.

Anderson admitted to investigators that he should have taken Miller’s vital signs, but rather opted to move her to a cell on the first floor where she would be alone and on a bottom bunk. In the recorded interview with Farmington City investigators, Anderson was asked to describe Miller’s physical condition when leaving her original cell.

“She sat up, put her shirt on, looked in the mirror at her hair,” Anderson said.

Johnson acknowledged that both she and Anderson had to assist Miller to the stairs by each supporting one arm.

Before starting their descent down the stairs, it appeared that Miller was becoming dizzy and they encouraged her to sit down.

Anderson told investigators that when Miller said she could not walk, he left her at the top of the stairs to obtain a wheelchair.

Although it is unclear how they planned to transport Miller from the upper tier to the lower tier in a wheelchair without a ramp, Anderson told investigators that he went to get the wheelchair in order to bring Miller down the stairs.

As Anderson left to retrieve the wheelchair from the medical unit, Johnson asked Miller to lower herself down the stairs.

“He had the wheelchair ready when we got to the last step,” Johnson said.

James Ondricek, the supervising nurse of the medical unit, said not being able to walk without assistance is by itself an indication that she should have been sent

to medical.

Anderson later admitted bias against Miller in his deposition, saying he thought she was in withdrawal and it would not have made a difference if he had taken her to medical because he would not have paid her any attention.

Although the initial incident involving Miller’s fall from the top bunk occurred at approximately 6 p.m., Miller had apparently gone unnoticed until 8:30 p.m., when Deputy Lloyd took toilet paper to her cell.

Lloyd reported arriving at her cell to notice her lying on the floor in nothing but her bra with blood on her chin.

Deputy Lucius, however, wrote in his report that he could not see her face as she was lying with her head up against the door. Sgt. Wall responded to assist with Miller, as she was nearly naked and found unresponsive.

“Her skin was grey, cold to the touch and sweating profusely,” Deputy Lloyd wrote.

According to a statement provided by the attorney general’s office, Anderson said Miller “looked dead” when she arrived to medical in a wheelchair that evening.

At this time, deputies assumed she had experienced a seizure. However, the autopsy report showed she suffered from decerebrate posture – a type of posturing associated with severe damage to the brain.

Signs indicative of Decerebrate Posture are abnormal body posture involving rigidity of the muscles in which the arms and legs are stretched out, toes pointing downward and head and neck arched backward.

In the recorded 911 call to Farmington Fire and Rescue, Sgt. Wall was asked by dispatch if the inmate’s condition is the result of a fall. Sgt. Wall responded to the inquiry, “She, uh, no, no.”

Deputy Paramedic Nicholas Pollock felt it was improper not to convey more of an urgency and found fault with the jail staff for not allowing Miller to be brought up for an expedited departure.

With the exception of the time it took Anderson and Johnson to move Miller to a different cell, there are more than two hours unaccounted for in all reports provided by the Davis County Sheriff’s Office.

Pollock voiced his concerns with his supervisor over the situation. “There were a lot of different variables that didn’t add

up,” Pollock said.

Chase Harvey, the first paramedic to administer aid to Miller, told investigators that he was concerned as soon as he walked in and saw Miller. Harvey said she wasn’t moving, her pupils were fixed, dilated and not responding to light, “a huge concern.”

According to Harvey, Miller was no longer breathing by the time they reached the ambulance, at which point he had to stabilize her airway.

In route to the hospital, Miller went into cardiac arrest, requiring Pollock and Harvey to perform resuscitation efforts. Miller was later pronounced dead at McKay-Dee Hospital.

According to expert witnesses provided by both the plaintiff and defendant, Anderson did not follow minimum nursing standards.

“I don’t think we can give him a pass on that,” Baczynski said.

A partial summary hearing is set for May 7, at which point Draper and Baczynski will show that Anderson exhibited deliberate indifference.

Deliberate indifference is the conscious or reckless disregard of the consequences of one’s acts or omissions, and is the high standard used to determine if a professional has violated an inmate’s civil rights.

American Civil Liberties Union discussed the possibility of requesting a special investigation by the Department of Justice for violating civil rights, however, they decided it was not a prudent investment of their resources at this time.

Stella started her investigative journey to get justice for her daughter, but she has since made it a mission to change policy regarding medical care for all inmates in the state with the highest in-custody deaths in the nation.

“My daughter will not die in vain,” Stella said.

Stella and her attorneys are hopeful for a long-term change in medical protocols and holding the medical staff accountable to them.

If anything comes of this case, that’s where it will be, Baczynski said.

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MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019 | 23

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