February 13, 2023- The Utah Statesman- Utah State University

Utah State University, Logan, Utah

What do USU’s plans to increase student enrollment mean for student housing?

With plans to increase new student enrollment each year, Utah State University faces the challenge of continuing to provide housing resources for its students.

Katie Jo North, the executive director of new student enrollment at USU, said there is a 2% increase each year in student enrollment statewide, with an exception in 2020 due to COVID-19.

North said as of fall 2022, enrollment was just under 28,000, which includes all 30 locations of USU, as well as online.

The Office of Analysis, Assessment and Accreditation has enrollment summaries from 2018-2022, and according to these summaries, in fall 2022, the Logan campus had the highest number of incoming students the university has ever seen.

Amanda DeRito, the university’s associate vice president for strategic communications, said by 2028, the university has a goal to have 30,000 students enrolled statewide.

“When we talk about increasing by 2,000 more students, that’s a statewide number. So we’re not saying we want to increase Logan enrollment by 2,000; the impacts will be spread across the state,” DeRito said. The university determines the demographics of enrollment by looking at three specific goals. The first one is a head count, which determines the number of students a university can actually enroll.

The next goal is called net tuition revenue, or NTR. This determines how much tuition is brought into the university. North said the university has to find a balance between providing scholarships and tuition costs.

The third goal is to determine what each class looks like in terms of in and out-of-state students, high ability

students, nonresidents, and underrepresented students. However, there have been times when determining enrollment hasn’t been as straightforward.

North said one instance is when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lowered the age at which missionaries could start serving missions. She said when this happened, the university created a task force to look at how to help students with deferment processes.

When COVID-19 started affecting universities, North said task forces looked at ways to provide opportunities for different classes so students could still attend.

“That’s what we do whenever we have a challenge like that. We look at the specific situation, bring the people in who need to be involved and figure out solutions. Sometimes those things provide us with more tools going forward,” DeRito said.

North said in 2020, the waiting list for on-campus housing filled, and it has stayed that way until spring of 2023.

DeRito said it’s hard to know for sure why it is, but the university guessed it was because they offered more resources to students during COVID-19.

When students needed to quarantine, the university provided food. DeRito said there was a certain appeal of living on campus because with an unsteady housing market in the private sector, university housing was stable.

Whit Milligan, the director of residence life at USU, said she thinks one reason the university saw the waitlist remain full after COVID-19 was because students were eager for normalcy after restrictions were lifted.

With plans to increase student enrollment each year, one might wonder how the university will continue to provide housing resources for its incoming students, and what they will do if waitlists fill up again.

DeRito said the proportion of students living on campus is measured by looking at enrollment and the num-

ber of on-campus beds that are filled.

As of fall 2022, roughly 20,000 students were studying at the Logan campus, with 4,500 living on campus, approximately 22%. DeRito said this percentage has stayed in that range for at least the last few years.

USU relies on the private sector to house the rest of its students, and DeRito said the university is seeing housing facilities being built that will benefit students in the coming semesters.

She said when it comes to making investments in housing owned by USU, the university has to be careful because these investments are made with taxpayer money. She said it’s a long-term investment, and the university has to make sure there is a need for housing they will actually be able to fill.

“Housing and our business services are looking at those options, trying to figure out what the best solution is, but I think it’s less clear when you look at all the numbers, and you have all the data to say, ‘Oh, we should just build more housing,’ because we don’t know if that’s actually a good investment five years down the road,” DeRito said.

Milligan said because on-campus housing doesn’t get any state funding, the university has to keep the revenue stream coming from rent, so they haven’t been able to demolish some current residence halls that need to be torn down yet.

“All that revenue has to be put into maintaining buildings, paying the staff, replacing roofs and boilers and buying furniture and carpet and all of that stuff,” Milligan said.

The housing department has a strategic housing plan, but it is not yet available to the public. DeRito said this plan focuses on maintaining and rebuilding current housing.

Right now, USU is working with a consultant on a housing needs study, and DeRito said the university should have results in the next few months.

By Savannah Burnard NEWS STAFF REPORTER

PHOTOS BY Elise Gottling

Students sit in the Canyon Crest Suites lobby on Feb. 7.

To ensure spots for students in on-campus housing, North said the university implemented an enrollment deposit this year.

After paying a $200 deposit, students can then sign up for housing. North said the deposit just goes towards tuition, but this way, it shows commitment from students. She said the university hopes by doing this, the waitlist can be shortened because they won’t have students signing up for multiple housing areas and then dropping out at the last minute.

This past fall, the university opened another on-campus housing area called Canyon Crest, which added an additional 402 beds. The university also has a website with a list of resources for students living off campus at usu.edu/housing/ off-campus/renter-education.

Through a text message interview, USU student Logan Huber said he had a lovehate relationship with living on campus. He lived in Summit Hall in 2017 and said he liked how he was able to make friends easily because he was constantly interacting with other students who also lived there.

Huber said the process of applying for student housing was relatively smooth.

“What I did like about the whole process is that you paid the whole rental portion with your tuition. Luckily I was not waitlisted because there was a cancellation, and that’s how I got into my room,” Huber said.

However, there were a few things he didn’t like during his experience with on-campus housing.

“The carpet was hard, the rooms were small and there was barely any storage. There were two half bathrooms, one had a sink and shower with some minimal storage, and the other bathroom had just a sink and a toilet. There was just very little space and hardly any sound barrier,” he said.

Milligan said most conflicts people have with on-campus housing could be resolved by talking to somebody.

“We have some people who leave and say ‘I hated living on campus.’ Well, it’s not for everybody, but I’m like, ‘Did you tell anyone about it? Have you asked for help?’ The only person they told about it was their friends they’re complaining to about it,” Milligan said.

She said her staff is committed to taking action whether it be through reporting, moving the student, or having a meeting

with housemates to ensure students have a positive experience with their housing situations.

“For me, students that want to be Aggies, I want to help them get here. That’s one of my main priorities. Whether it’s through admissions and scholarships, or housing or events that they come to, we want to make sure that they have a good experience, and if they want to be here, we’re going to provide those opportunities,” North said.

A complete list of on-campus student housing and additional resources can be found online at usu.edu/housing.

Savannah is a junior studying journalism. Savannah loves to travel, try new foods and meet new people in her free time.

— Savannah.Burnard@usu.edu

Canyon Crest Suites is USU Housing’s newest building on campus that opened in fall of 2022.

Conversational Space Makers USU students bridge conflict through conversation

studies at USU, is the program director of Conversational Space Makers.

“This is a unique program to Utah State. The closest thing that you would find is something like peer mediation or conflict coaching, but there isn’t a program quite like this anywhere else,” Canfield said. Canfield emphasized how important the resource is and that it’s available to all USU students.

“What happens in space essentially stays in space. And not only that, but we believe in double confidentiality, which means that we won’t talk to other people about it — about what happens in the appointment — and we won’t bring it up to the person that we’ve made space for,” Smuin said.

Seegrist said they hold all of their space making appointments via zoom out of respect to double confidentiality.

By Kate Stewart NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Conversational Space Makers is a conflict resolution program offered to Utah State University students by their peers.

The program provides students with a neutral, safe amd confidential environment to talk about their challenges in a confidential setting.

According to the USU Space Makers website, a space maker serves the role of a listener for students. “They are not there to judge, advise or solve. Instead, you’re the boss and you set the boundaries. You choose where the conversation goes,” the website states.

Nicole Hardy is a senior pursuing communication studies at USU. She works as a conversational space maker, and said her favorite part about being a space maker is helping people feel more peace in their lives.

Hardy said students can meet with a space maker to resolve and talk about any conflict they may have — whether it be roommate conflicts, relationship struggles, overwhelming emotions or big life decisions. “Conflict can be stressful, and it can bring anxiety and stress and just darkness in your life,” Hardy said. “But being able to help people work through their conflicts and seeing the peace and the calm and the happiness that can come to them is probably my favorite part of space.”

Clair Canfield, a senior lecturer in communication

“It’s not uncommon for people to have troubles with their roommates, troubles with their group projects, troubles in their relationships, troubles with interactions with professors, with family members. There are a lot of reasons why all of us face conflict on a pretty regular basis, and it’s really normal,” Canfield said. “We know that even though everybody has to work through those things and make decisions on their own, it really helps to have somebody who knows how to support you as you navigate that.”

Similar to Canfield, Hardy said regardless of what major someone is in, conflict is something everyone is going to face at some point in their life.

Space maker Justin Seegrist said he understands how people can initially feel hesitant or nervous to sign up for a space making appointment.

Seegrist has worked in the space making program for six semesters. He said he likes watching people come to realizations they initially didn’t think they could.

“We don’t tell people how to resolve the conflicts, and we don’t fix the problem for people. We enable them to work through it on their own, and we help them learn the tools that they need in order to navigate the conflicts in a more meaningful way,” Seegrist said.

He also said space is up to the student utilizing the resource. It is about where they are at and what they want to share.

“If they want to share the little details, they could share the little details. Or, if they want to share some more, then they can share some more,” Seegrist said. “A lot of people have said that it’s a lot more comfortable than they thought it would be, and that it’s a lot more helpful than they thought that it would be.”

Space maker Mara Smuin is a senior studying history and communications.

She said everything is confidential in the space making program.

“In a space making appointment, there’s a couple rules or boundaries that the space maker follows. We choose to not judge the person, and we choose to keep the conversation confidential. We believe that everyone is a human who deserves to be loved and respected. And we believe in everyone’s capacity to change,” Hardy said.

Canfield said he loves seeing how space making empowers students. He said those who receive space feel empowered because they recognize they can actually work through their conflicts and their challenges on their own.

“My observations have been that there are a lot of people, not just students, who have experiences in life where they need a really good listener. They need a witness, or they need somebody who knows how to make a conversational space for them to work through what they’re facing, and we want to be able to offer that to those people who need it,” he said.

Thanks to space making, Canfield said he’s seen people work through grief, make really big decisions in regards to their education and their career goals, navigate the forgiveness process and heal family relationships.

Smuin said space making changed her life, and she hopes more people are able to learn about it and come to an appointment.

“We are excited to hopefully expand our reach and have students from all across Utah State — have all the Aggies — be part of the program and get helped with their conflicts,” Hardy said.

There are 26 different USU students trained as spacemakers who are available to meet through appointment. Students can schedule with them through the USU space making website, chass.usu.edu/ communication-studies/space-makers.

Follow @givespaceusu on Instagram for more updates and information.

Kate is a junior studying journalism and marketing. Kate is from the Portland Oregon area and loves all things family, friends, thrifting and the outdoors.

— Kate.Stewart@usu.edu

GRAPHIC BY Bailey Rigby

‘POLICE BLOTTER’

*If you have any more information regarding these cases, contact the USU Public Safety Department at 435 7971939. Summaries are from USU Police Chief Blair Barfuss. You can fnd these and other USU reported crimes at www.usu. edu/dps/police/daily-crime-log

TRAFFIC HIT AND RUN CENTRAL SUITES

FEB. 1 — Student reported damage to their vehicle by unknown suspect. Video review of the location showed a large truck back into the vehicle, and a license plate was obtained showing registered to another student who lives on campus. Contact was made with the student who reported they believed they hit a snow pile. Information was shared for insurance purposes, no citation issued.

ALCOHOL OFFENSE TAGGART STUDENT CENTER

FEB. 3 — Nineteen-year-old student observed intoxicated at Mardi Gras. Alcohol testing resulted in a blood alcohol concentration of .295. Due to high BAC, student was transported to the hospital for medical evaluation. This student received a criminal citation due to this alcohol offense being their second alcohol related arrest in two weeks. A disciplinary referral was forwarded to Student Affairs offce to provide the student with additional resources and assistance for alcohol abuse.

USUSA Elections Statesman Debates

Executive Leadership Board debate: Feb. 22 at noon

Both debates will be held in the Hub, streamed to The Utah Statesman YouTube and broadcast on Aggie Radio.

Logan Executive Council debate: Feb. 27 at noon

Bricks and Minifigs Lego store open in Cache Valley

By Avery Truman LIFESTYLES STAFF REPORTER

Bricks and Minifgs, a Lego store located at 555 W. 100 N., Providence, opened on Jan. 7.

Jason Messer, the owner of Logan’s Bricks and Minifgs, said the company currently has 60 stores, but is rapidly growing. Messer owns two other locations.

“There’ll be 80 of them by the end of this year at minimum,” Messer said. “They already got 20 in the pipeline.”

Messer has family members with roots in Cache Valley and said he was excited to open a store in Logan.

“I’ve just fallen in love with Cache Valley. I love it,” Messer said. “But really what I’m most excited about is just the customers and how appreciative and excited they are to come into the store.”

While he enjoys his store in California, Messer said the shop in Logan will have younger customers.

“California is great as far as our customers are awesome,” Messer said. “But they tend to be a little older and tend to be focused a little more on collecting for really fancy builds. And there in Logan, it’s a lot of little kids just having a lot of fun, which is a lot of fun to be around.”

Messer said he hopes the new store will impact Cache Valley positively.

“One thing that I instantly took the opportunity to engage in was the librarian at the middle school right up the street,” Messer said. “They’ve got a reading program and if middle school kids read the books, she gives them little gift certifcates and stuff. We gave her basically an unlimited supply of free minifgs cards.”

Messer said he loves supporting education.

“I’m really excited to be supporting something positive in middle school,” Messer said. “And just already seeing them come in after school, drop in at the store.”

According to Messer, middle schoolers come in with their friends and talk about their memories with Legos.

“We have customers from as young as two years old, to as old as in their 90s,” Messer said. “There really is something for everyone now.”

Messer recommends curious onlookers stop by the store to see what others have created.

“Young families come in, where the kids are responsible for conducting the transaction, actually pay for their Lego,” Messer said. “I would expect it’s not something families in Cache Valley can do at, say, a Walmart. They really are able to come up to the register as a person.”

In addition to selling Legos, the store will buy and trade used Lego sets for a portion of the original price.

“Sometimes families just want to see it going back to other families,” Messer said. “The easiest way is to set up an appointment, and they can do that on our website.”

On Trader Tuesdays, customers under 15 years old can trade Lego sets for 100% value up to $15.

Steven Martinez, the area manager of Bricks and Minifgs in California, has a personal love for building with Legos.

“I was a big Lego kid in my family when I was younger,” Martinez said. “I made stuff out of my mind, my imagination.”

Martinez said when hard times hit his family, the Lego store was a great place to enjoy himself.

“You’re making people happy when they come in here,” Martinez said. “People come in happy, and they leave happy.”

Martinez said his favorite part of working for the company is creating builds from his imagination.

“There are times when I make people like Rick and Morty, Louise from ‘Bob’s Burgers’, Cosmo and Wanda, The Powerpuff girls,” Martinez said. “I’ve made a Star Wars sign out of Legos. It’s just the creativity here in the store.”

Martinez said people come in often and reminisce about the Lego sets they owned as a child.

“Lego has basically touched everyone’s lives, even if they don’t know it,” Martinez said.

More information can be found at their website bricksandminifgs.com/logan-ut.

Mayson Garrett is a sophomore majoring in International Studies. Her show, Shut Up And Listen, features just about anything she feels like playingalternative rock, r&b, jazz, punk, and more. Tune in every Friday at 3 p.m. on Aggie radio.

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Avery Truman is a frst-year student pursuing environmental studies and geography.

PHOTOS BY Aspen Marshall

The new Bricks & Minifgs store is located at 555 W. 100 N., Providence, Utah.

Aggiepella: Building a group to last

By Harrison Larson

Aggiepella, a Utah State University a cappella group, began as a senior capstone project three semesters ago. Since then, the group has offcially become a USU club, taking on a more formal structure. The group’s goal is to last and grow for years to come.

Lauren Knowles started Aggiepella with several friends she invited from USU chamber singers. When the group began meeting, it had an informal structure, which changed when Knowles graduated from USU.

Aggiepella is now is led by club president Michael Ellefson, who is one of the only remaining members of the original group and a student at USU. In a virtual interview, Ellefson said he was asked by Knowles to run the group after she graduated.

“Lauren was also in that choir, she had been there for quite a while. So when she decided that she wanted to start an a cappella group for her capstone project, she just kind of grabbed all the emails from that semester that we were in there, of people in the choir, and sent out a big mass email and said, ‘Hey, if anybody is interested in doing this with me, this is kind of what I’m planning on doing,’” Ellefson said. “And I just thought it sounded like a blast, so I just responded and said, ‘Yeah, that would be great,’ and so, jumped on that very frst semester, and then after she was graduating and moving on, she asked if I would kind of take over leading the group for her.”

Ellefson said that Aggiepella is a campus a cappella club run by students.

“If people don’t know or aren’t familiar with a cappella, it’s like a choir, but it’s a small group, and we don’t use any instruments or backtracks or anything,” Ellefson said. “We make all the music with just our voices or our bodies, so it kind of makes it fun that way.”

Ellefson said the current goal of Aggiepella is moving forward to create a better system to manage the group.

“Last semester we kind of worked on becoming an offcial club at USU, which was a big step,” Ellefson said. “Prior to that, it was kind of a group of us getting together, so that was a really big step for us, and so now we are working on creating a better management system. People can have some different roles, leadership roles when it comes to utilizing the campus’ advertising resources or things like that, and so far it worked great. We did

some new things for our auditions, and we had a pretty decent group of auditions come in this semester, which was really amazing. So that, I think, is going to be my big push this semester. Make sure we get a good strong core group and get some leadership experience for people, and I think that will really help the longevity of the club.”

Ellefson said he wants to see the club continue in the future.

“I hear that there have been some clubs that have cropped up in the past that have just kind of died away with time, and I would like for this to be able to just continue on, and I think just creating a good foundation will help make that happen,” Ellefson said. “So that is kind of my vision for now, and we can travel to competitions and do stuff like that later on, but for me, I just want to make sure the club is strong and can continue on.”

While Ellefson’s focus is on the longevity of Aggiepella, other members expressed a desire to make the group more well-known.

Jonah Giesler, the head of media for the group, said during a virtual interview his interest is in growing the scope of Aggiepella.

“I would say defnitely right now the push is to get word

out more, because it is a fairly new group and so as time goes, we’ve been kind of under the radar,” Giesler said. “So now we’re trying to be like, ‘Hey, we go sing at gigs, we can go and do all that stuff.’ I don’t think that a lot of people know that we have an a cappella group here on campus.”

Giesler said he has a passion for the atmosphere of Aggiepella and is appreciative of the ability to create music through the group.

“It has just been really fun. It feels so much more like a fun get-together of a group of friends that have these talents of singing and creating music, and getting together and making that into a product,” Giesler said. “We all have these creative juices fowing through us, that we were like, ‘OK, where can I put this,’ so I feel like, especially for me, this group has really helped us to guide that energy into it.”

Giesler said the group holds auditions once a semester, most recently being Jan. 24.

“We do auditions once every semester — we try and get through the semester, then we try and work on those pieces and keep the group fairly stable during that time,” Giesler said. “Every semester we’re trying to look for new

LIFESTYLES STAFF REPORTER

PHOTOS BY Claire Ott

Aggiepella auditions were held in the Chase Fine Arts building on Tuesday, Jan. 24.

talent, for people who want to help out, to raise the group to new heights.”

Giesler said Aggiepella is looking for people that will add something new to the group.

“Of course, it’s great to have experience, it’s great to know music, and especially, you know, experience with arranging, even if that’s not necessarily with a cappella music,” Giesler said. “But just arranging in general, knowing some theory, but also, I feel like right now, we have a very open mind. We are just looking for whatever people can add to it. We’re open-minded to what can be new.”

Ellefson said anyone interested must have musical independence because the group is a cappella.

“Really, there’s not much required when it comes to joining the club, but there does need to be a sense of some musical independence,” Ellefson said. “That you need to be able to learn, to sing your part. You need to be able to own it, because there aren’t very many people and there are many times in a cappella where you are singing your own part, on your own, and you have to be able to hold it well, so there does need to be a certain level of musical independence and comfortable with performing and singing — other than that, there’s not much required.”

Ellefson said that Aggiepella has yet to fnalize where their performance will take place this semester.

“I really don’t know where it will be this semester, but I’m open to wherever,” Ellefson said. “There are quite a few

spaces that could work well because it is such a small group, but we’ll make sure to be really transparent and try to get the word out as best we can on social media and posters and things on campus.”

For those interested in Aggiepella, the club’s YouTube channel is called Aggiepella and they are on sInstagram @aggie.pella.

Harrison Larson is a freshman pursuing his English degree in creative writing. When he has spare time, he loves to explore and fnd new things to do with friends and is always looking for a good documentary.

— A02360639@usu.edu

By Sam Warner STAFF

— A02383353@usu.edu

Sam Warner is a frst-year student studying photography and outdoor product and design. He enjoys skateboarding, photography and playing guitar.

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