Fall farmers market returns
By Shayla Stimpson STATESMAN REPORTER
The Christensen Office of Social Action and Sustainability holds a farmer’s market for students from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the TSC plaza. This market kicked off on Sept. 4 and will come to an end on Oct. 9, repeating weekly on Wednesdays.
The market features a variety of vendors, selling both food and handmade items, live music performed by local musicians and a program designed to give students more spending money.
“The farmers market started a couple of years ago, and the purpose was to actually work with a grant called Double Up Food Bucks,” said Ella Leonelli, the student sustainability engagement lead. “What it is, is you give me $1, and I give you $2 that you get to spend on food at the USU Farmers Market.”
Originally launched in 2017, the farmers market aims to promote sustainable choices for the economy and environment, as well as create a space for students to socialize with one another.
“The farmers market is kind of just a way to promote local goods within the campus community,” said Mercy Smith, the True Blue Reuse & Repair lead. “A lot of the time, local goods are a little bit more sustainable when you think about the transportation costs. There’s just less of that industrial aspect.”
Sustainability is one of COSAS’s main goals. The
farmers market runs on sustainable practices, such as choosing local vendors, keeping food from going to waste and promoting organic goods. The market also encourages students to adopt more sustainable habits by emphasizing the importance of reducing food waste and supporting local businesses.
“Part of what they get to do with the USU Farmers Market is any of the food that people don’t pick up or wouldn’t have been purchased that week, they get to sell at the farmers market. So that’s food that would have gone to the waste that is now being diverted from the waste stream,” Leonelli said.
Shayla is a sophomore majoring in biology and with plans to go to become a dermatologist. She often spends time with her cross-eyed cat named Winston.
— a02416397@gmail.com
PHOTO BY Jack Burton
Live music is played by Tanner Lokey at the farmers market on Sept. 4 outside of the TSC.
Logan city conducts rental revisons
By Bailey Daniels STATESMAN REPORTER
The Logan City Council met on Tuesday, Sept 17, 2024, to discuss proposed changes to the existing Land Development Code. The propositions concerned regulations on accessory dwell-
as in a basement. However, the new plan aims to enable them to exist externally and within the current exclusion zone. This could allow for more affordable rental housing near campus.
Jeannie Simmond who serves as the chair of the council offered many thoughts throughout the meeting.
“There are currently only restrictions
while going to school since they are only available on a month-to-month basis.
“Additional STRs, wherever they are, reduce dwellings available for long-term rent or for sale,” Simmonds said.
Eli Hopkins, a property manager from North Logan, claims that this is not the case.
“As of yesterday, Cache Valley has 479 homes for sale but only 161 under contract
ing units and short-term rentals surrounding Utah State University’s Logan Campus.
Accessory dwelling units, also referred to as ADUs, are small independent living units connected to or on the same property as a single-family dwelling. Currently, ADUs are not allowed around campus. The area exclusion zone exists from second East to 16th East, 14th North to Logan River, and third South.
Mike Desimone Logan City’s Director of community development, brought the new proposals to the city council.
“ADUs could provide additional housing on existing, developed lots with minimal investment for a variety of residents, whether student or non-student,” DeSimone said.
This limits current residents on their ability to utilize their current property for rental purposes.
The current ordinance only allows for ADUs to be within the existing home, such
regarding ADUs around campus. Should we lift those restrictions, there is a chance that owners will create an ADU inside their house or, if space is available, on their property. If created, I would assume that some of those would be available for students to rent,”
Simmonds said.
There were proposed revisions surrounding short-term rentals or STRs. An STR is a dwelling rented for 30 days or less, typically used for vacations. Currently, they are banned in single-family residential zones. The new plan seeks to rid of these bans, allowing for more STRs to be available in Logan.
Some residents argued against the allowance of more STRs, stating that there is already a housing crisis and vacation rentals will take housing away from residents who want to buy a home. This can affect students because it is less likely they will utilize STRs
and that gap continues to grow. We don’t have a housing shortage, but we have affordable housing issues,” Hopkins said.
Bailey Daniels is junior majoring in technology systems. She loves Lana Del Rey, sweet treats and all things whimsical. — Bailey.Daniels@usu.edu
PHOTO BY Bailey Daneils
Rental property in Logan City.
CHaSS charters a new building
By Justin Brewster STATESMAN REPORTER
On Oct. 11 at 2 p.m., the Mehdi Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center will open at Utah State University’s Logan Campus, on the Quad. After its opening, a party will occur.
The festivities includes multiple speakers, a blessing ceremony, food and music, as well as thanking the various donors of the building.
The building is planned to house the Department of World Languages and Cultures.
Among its amenities and resources, are what are dubbed cultural hubs, areas that are associated with the different languages offered at USU.
“These cultural hubs are rooms that have lots of different resources to support students in engaging in their languages and learning about their culture associated with this language,” said Rebecca Walton, the executive associate dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “Each of the cultural hubs will have a mini fridge, because food is such an important part of culture. They’ll have big monitors that can be used for lots of different things, like for example, watching movies or other sorts of media in that language. Perhaps for Zooming with groups of other students who are heritage speakers in a country that speaks the language that students here are studying.” These hubs are also designed to be
to practice their translation skills. The interpretation lab will serve to reinforce the skills as far as medical interpreting and court interpreting.” A specialized area for translating and interpreting is being created as well, complete with a translation booth. Here, translation and interpreting services are offered to students and faculty At the moment now, the only language being providedis Spanish, but there are plans to expand to other languages.
Furthermore, proficiency certificates can be acquired through the translation center. At the moment, there are two certificates available, medical interpreting and translation, and business and legal translation and interpretation. Both certificates are 16 credits. These certificates are also open for the broader Logan community.
“We are offering those classes to the community for free, which is usually a certificate that willcost around $700,” Perez said. “Right now, we have around 100 individuals that have been trained.”
of the CHaSS. “You can either go down the legal route or you could go down the healthcare route.”
A reflection room, a quiet place for meditation, prayer or just for reduced stimulation, will also be available. This reflection room will be open for all.
A major reason for the new building is to give better opportunities for students learning foreign languages. “Utah is a major leader in our nation in language study,” Walton said. “So it’s really important for the land-grant university of the state to offer topquality resources to students who want to study other languages and cultures.”
comfortable settings, where the aim is for students to be able to practice with fellow students in the language they are studying, as well as for being storage areas for a variety of resources for those learning that hub’s language. In addition, the language clubs are also strongly encouraged to use these hubs as well according to Walton. “They’re designed to support several different kinds of engagement amongst students,” said Walton. However, the cultural hubs aren’t the only amenity offered. “Along with this is going to be a translation center, and interpretation,” said assistant professor Elsa Perez, who also works as a translator and interpreter for the department of World Languages and cultures. “The purpose of this translation center will be to be a place for students
This program already has plans for expansion to other campuses, as well as offering courses in other areas. These include Navajo at Blanding, Spanish at Moab, and a Russian course in the Salt Lake Area due to Ukrainian immigration. “With these two certificates, we believe it’s going to better equip the students to have a more practical way of using the language to just to have a minor,” Perez said.
In addition, there are plans in motion for the creation of a degree in translation and interpreting, which at the time of writing is in the final stages of getting approval. This decision was made in part because there has been a demand for translators and interpreters. “The Bachelor’s itself kind of has two different tracks,” said Jared Colton, the associate dean
Justin Brewster is a sophmore currently studying international studies. In his spare time, he enjoys video games, learning about history and political and social sciences and writing. He is also an avid fan of the comedic.
- justin.g.brewster@usu.edu
Photos By Kelly Winters
The new Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center located on Champ Avenue. It is set to open on Oct. 11, 2024.
The Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center before its offical opening.
Study Abroad Fair displays opportunities for students to explore global cultures
By Samantha Isaacson STATESMAN REPORTER
The USU Study Abroad Fair took place in the TSC lounge on Sept. 18 for any students to attend. This program gives students the opportunity to study abroad, with over 1,000 possibilities in over 85 countries.
Students met with faculty leaders and representatives from a collection of third-party program providers like International Studies Abroad, International Student Exchange Program, Council on International Education Exchange, Study Abroad Italy, School for International Training and Semester at Sea at this event.
Monika Galvydis is the director of study abroad at the Office of Global Engagement.
“I’m a part of this program because when I went abroad, I felt like it opened the world to me. I felt like I could do anything,” Galvydis said. “I grew a lot personally, and I want other students to experience that.”
According to the usu global engagement webpage, students can enrich their education by diving into a new culture, living life like a local and gaining valuable real-world experience by studying abroad.
Galvydis said studying abroad helps students have experiences that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to enjoy in Logan.
“We want students to study deeply in unique settings that they just can’t have on Logan Campus,” Galvydis said. “Studying the Mediterranean diet in Greece, studying engineering marvels across the world, studying museums in London and Paris, studying culture in Armenia. We want students to have those experiences that they can’t have here in Logan.”
Mayu Mecham, a study abroad advisor, is a senior dual-majoring in international studies and sociology.
“I have found that this was one of the most valuable experiences I have ever had,“ Mecham said. “This has added so much to my education and to my personal growth as well. I really want to help people also get to have those experiences.”
Mecham said this program is not only great for academic growth, but personal growth as well.
“It’s really encouraging our students to be engaged citizens of not just our state, or our country, but of our world. It is really encouraging people to get out of their comfort zones,” Mecham said. “It is really good for personal growth, and can enhance their experiences in education. It also puts them in situations where they can
have more intercultural relationships and just be better because of that.”
The program has opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students.
According to Galvydis, the members of this program care a lot about the students and do their best to give each person a good experience when studying abroad.
“I think there’s a lot of people in the program that are personally looking out to make sure that people are having good experiences abroad,” Galvydis said. “We want to show students what the world has to offer, what they can bring to it and what their place is in the world.”
Beth Fauth is a professor in human development and family studies at USU. She directs the Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Research Center.
“Having compared our programs to other universities, one of the great things is the flexibility that they give the faculty to build the course in a way that they think is important.” Fauth said. “We have had a ton of success in being able to change the course every year if a new opportunity comes up.”
The programs vary in length, from 10 days long to a full academic or calendar year. Students can choose how long they want to go and don’t have to worry about having to stay longer than they want to.
According to Mecham, studying abroad is attainable for any student, with scholarships and other opportunities available to them.
“Study abroad is attainable. If you want to study abroad, even a little bit, don’t count yourself out. Come talk with us — we are super happy to get you there. There are so many scholarships and ways we can make that happen for you,” said Mecham.
If a student is interested in studying abroad, they can visit the usu.edu global engagement page to set up an appointment with an advisor, search and apply for different study abroad programs or explore funding. They can also visit the Office of Global Engagement, located in the Military Science building room 115 at the USU Logan Campus.
Samantha Isaacson is a junior majoring in journalism with a double minor in art and psychology. She loves to read and spend time outdoors.
Bringing you a mix of modern and nostalgia, sit back and listen to the girl with the southern drawl’s Monday mix! Better known as the Alt. Y’all Hot Mess Express - It’s the “Hey Y’all” Show with Lindsi! Tune in every Monday at noon on Aggie Radio 92.3.
PHOTO BY Jack Burton
QCNR Camp gives students taste for the field
By Claire Ott STATESMAN REPORTER
Elexis Bernstein, forestry club president, organized a club event to update the forestry club scrapbook in the spring semester of 2022. Bernstein and another student, Ellie Tenbrink, discovered Forestry Camp while looking through historical photos to put into the scrapbook.
According to Bernstein, Forestry Camp started as an eight-week course provided at many forestry schools for foresters to learn relevant skills and techniques needed for work in forestry that ended in the early 2000s due to a Hantavirus outbreak.
“I was just kind of jealous of the opportunities that we used to have and that a lot of students around the nation had that I didn’t,” Bernstein said. “And so I was like, ‘I have to make this happen for me and my peers.’”
She also talked to students that missed out on valuable field work experiences due to the pandemic, which led to many feeling lost about where to go post-graduation.
“That really motivated me to provide that for everyone,” Bernstein said.
There are more degrees available now than before according to Bernstein, and she felt the desire to give people the opportunity to learn about a wide variety of natural resources-related topics.
“I wanted to expand from doing it just with forestry club to more of an open-minded, let’s gather as many skills as we can,” Bernstein said. “And that’s why I opened it to all of the departments.”
From this discovery and assessment of need by Bernstein, QCNR Camp was born.
The Quinney College of Natural Resources held its third annual QCNR Camp Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 21 and 22.
Stephen Bunnell, chairman for the QCNR Camp committee this year, mentioned a common barrier to access within the natural resources field is people often feel as
though they don’t have enough experience to start.
“I’m a firm believer that natural resource education, an opportunity to be in the field and work in the field, should belong to anyone,” Bunnell said.
According to Bunnell, field work is a vital component to work in the world of natural resources.
“It’s vital – without being in the field, you can’t hope to understand ecology,” Bunnell said.
With this in mind, he had similar goals as years past for the camp this year.
Bunnell said, “The goal of the camp is to provide the opportunities to help people get that job and to build confidence so when they do get into the field, or if they’re thinking about joining the college, they get a chance to build that confidence and feel like they have the experience to belong.”
Bunnell began prep work for the camp in March, when he assembled a committee. From there they decided what they hoped to accomplish this year.
“Last year, we focused more on hard techniques. This year, we’re focusing a little bit more on good things to have background in going into the field,” Bunnell said.
Bunnell organized the camp previously in 2023, without the help of a committee and compared the experiences.
“We were all there to work, to learn, and so having a committee with me helped me have a better camp experience,” Bunnell said.
To limit barriers for people to attend the camp, the committee provided camping gear at no additional cost to campers from the Outdoor Programs rental shop located on USU campus.
Bunnell said the committee helped coordinate a lot of those things such as rentals, meal plans and van reservations.
“I didn’t have to worry about some of those little things that needed to get done, but I just didn’t have the time or capacity to do,” Bunnell said.
According to Bunnell, the camp included two days of
activities that featured professors, students and USU alum who taught various skills and talked about various topics.
The schedule provided by Bunnell showed the camp opened with a land acknowledgement walk by Jack Greene, USU sustainability staff.
Also scheduled were activities such as a GPS and orienteering, hand tools and hitch preparedness workshops.
Tenbrink, a senior in forest ecology and management and restoration of aquatic ecosystems, taught the hitch preparedness workshop.
“When you’re preparing, designate some time to sit down and think through, not necessarily every possible scenario, but lots of scenarios,” Tenbrink said.
She hoped to pass, at times hard-earned, knowledge down to the campers she’s acquired through three years of field work.
“I’ve had some experience and some time to experience trial by fire, so that I could pass on some of the knowledge, so that hopefully, as these people get their first field jobs, they don’t have to do as much trial by fire, and they already have a few things under their belt,” Tenbrink said.
Claire Ott is studying journalism and environmental studies. She enjoys being a photographer for the Statesman because she gets to capture some seriously cool things that are going on.
PHOTOS BY Claire Ott
Five members of the QCNR Camp committee pose for a photo at the campsite in Franklin Basin on Sept. 22.
Two QCNR campers use probes that measure the chemical properties in water to assess river water quality at QCNR Camp on Sept. 22.
USU joins the Pac-12 for the 26-27 season
By Ashley Dorius STATESMAN REPORTER
Utah State University announced on Tuesday that it will be joining the Pac-12 Conference for the 20262027 season. It is the fifth school to leave the Mountain West Conference for the Pac-12, following Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State.
In a joint press release, USU and Pac-12 revealed they are excited about this collaboration, saying USU and the other schools joining Pac-12 will “collectively build the new era of the Pac-12 Conference.”
They also reported that USU submitted a formal application to join the conference, and the board of directors unanimously voted to admit the Aggies on Monday. USU will officially join the conference on July 1, 2026. In the press release, Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould shared that the Pac-12 was thrilled to admit USU.
“With President Elizabeth Cantwell and athletics director Diana Sabau at the helm, Utah State brings invaluable strategic insights and leadership that will greatly benefit our conference and its members, as well as a history of competitive excellence and success,” Gould said. “Today marks another exciting step for the Pac-12 – and it’s just the beginning of phase two.”
Since joining in 2013, USU has won several MWC Championships, including a school-record four in the 2023-24 season. USU’s combined winning percentage from football and men’s basketball is 59.1% over the last 10 seasons. This percentage ranks them third in current Mountain West schools, just behind Boise State and San Diego State.
USU also has a history of academic success, leading the MWC with 440 academic honors in the last academic year. Academic All-Mountain West recognition was awarded to 249 student-athletes, and 191 were named Mountain West Scholar-Athletes.
USU President Elizabeth Cantwell said this new conference fits with USU’s mission and future plans.
“The vision of the Pac-12 Conference firmly aligns with USU’s mission and our commitments to the future,” Cantwell said. “This move unlocks new possibilities by directly enhancing the student-athlete experience and will significantly strengthen our reputation for competitive success, academic achievement and research excellence.”
Vice President and director of athletics Diana Sabau added to Cantwell, expressing that
this change is a great opportunity for the university and its community.
“Joining the Pac-12 Conference exemplifies our commitment to elevating USU academics and athletics,” Sabau said.
“This will position all our teams in a multibid league for the NCAA postseason and championships. This is an incredible opportunity for our student-athletes, as well as our alumni, investors, the HURD and our Logan and Cache Valley communities and all of Aggie Nation.”
This shift has also sparked an antitrust lawsuit from the Pac-12 regarding the MWC’s “poaching” penalty fees, which are currently over $50 million for the schools that have left. The lawsuit was filed the same day the Pac-12 and USU announced its new partnership.
The lawsuit was filed by Keker, Van Nest & Peters in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Pac-12. Pac-12 is suing MWC, claiming an “anticompetitive and unlawful ‘Poaching Penalty’ that the MWC imposed on the Pac-12 to inhibit competition for member schools in collegiate athletics,” according to the lawsuit. Eric H. MacMichael, a partner at the firm, will represent Pac-12 in the lawsuit.
“The Mountain West Conference’s attempt to charge the Pac-12 exorbitant poaching penalties as a condition for scheduling football games is unfair, anticompetitive and unlawful,” MacMichael said. “We’re proud to represent the Pac-12 in standing up for fair competition on and off the field.”
Ashley Dorius is a sophomore studying journalism. She really needs a nap, but energy drinks will replace that for the time being. If anyone has a good flavor recommendation, let her know.
Escape and Evasion: Two journalists’
By Malory Rau STATESMAN REPORTER
Illuminated only by a waxing gibbous moon, the branches breaking beneath my boots were the only sound heard as we strategically trekked through where the sagebrush grows. My heartbeat drummed in my ears to the beat of my steps as I trudged through the night of this past Friday the 13th. My only thought: don’t get caught.
Weeks prior, in the early days of August, on a river rafting trip, I asked my colleague and friend Matt Richey about a post he had reshared on his Instagram story. I thought it looked like an intriguing event for a future article. Little did I know I would soon be gearing up with black and green face paint and headed into the darkness of Logan Canyon for a night of Escape and Evasion. Escape and Evasion, or E&E, is an annual event held by the Air Force ROTC, or Detachment 860, at USU. It is different every year, but it always consists of six hours spent overnight in Temple Fork, up Logan Canyon. This year, cadets were split into groups of four to five, besides our group of six, considering us two reporters were paired with a team. We were given a set of objectives to accomplish throughout the night, and each objective was worth a point amount.
There were also upperclassmen, those who are enrolled in the Professional Officer Course, referred to by cadets as POCs — I quickly learned that the ROTC communicates in acronyms— looking for teams of GMC, or those enrolled in the General Military Course, which was us. If your group got caught, points would be subtracted from your total.
Each team was given a score sheet that they would turn in at the end of the night, and whoever had the most points out of roughly 60 cadet teams would win. There were teams from all over the Northwest Region detachments.
The two of us, Statesman reporter Aubrey Holdaway and myself, signed up for E&E the Tuesday beforehand. This gave us little time to mentally and physically prepare for an overnight experience from the hours of 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Our only prior knowledge came from an article done by the Herald Journal years prior and brief descriptions from Matt Richey and the official ROTC leaders who helped us with the forms and sign-up.
Aubrey and I attended a safety briefing earlier in the day that all participants were required to go to. It became clear the moment we walked in that we stood out like zebras amidst a lion’s den. We were entering a world that was not our own, and it was about to give us the VIP experience. At the debrief, we went over rules of engagement, or ROEs. The most emphasized one was no running at all. This did not make sense to me at the time but became very clear later on.
After the ROEs were gone over, all the lights in the room went out and a man clad in uniform started yelling. He went over the night’s objectives and an overview of the area. It was this shock to the system that had me questioning if it was too late to turn back, but I knew I needed to stay. If not for myself, then for journalism’s sake. We made our way up to Temple Fork by roughly 7:30 that evening. We arrived upon all the participants setting up camp. Cadets were asked to camp the night after the exercise is over to keep them off the roads at extraneous hours of the night.
Before arriving at base camp, Aubrey and I vlogged our prior thoughts. Our biggest concerns going in were being able to document the experience and being physically able to keep up with the cadets, while also learning and being respectful of the culture of Detachment 860. At the campsite, we met our group, which consisted of three women, Cadet Gavle, Cadet Sears and Cadet Wallace, and one man, Cadet Lee. I did not know why, but I was surprised to be on a team that was majority consisting of women. This was the first of many military stereotypes that I, as an outsider, saw broken that evening.
As we walked to startex, the starting point of the exercise, Lee jokingly asked Aubrey and me if we were conditioned and ready to escape and evade. He also emphasized that he was not there to mess around and that we would be completing as many objectives as possible. With his words and the shouts of the safety debrief still ringing in my ears, I was truly questioning if I could do this, but it was too late to turn back now. As they announced the exercise was beginning, all the groups began to take off in a speed walk, not run, into the 2,000 acres of land that would be our home for the next six hours.
The first 30 minutes of the exercise consisted of a walkand-talk scenario. We were getting to know our group as well as introduce ourselves. I asked Gavle, the only member of our group who was not a first-timer, how similar this exercise was to the video game “Fortnite,” and she told me to think more of it like “The Walking Dead.” This left a pit in my stomach.
Eventually, we entered POC territory. Gavle told us we were now going to minimize noise and light pollution. Less than 30 seconds later, we were pulled down to the ground, stuck still making sure there were no POC around us. I had practically landed on top of Aubrey in my haste to get down. This is when I learned that our group was going to have to get very comfortable with each other very fast. Once we knew it was safe, we continued trek-
king on. It was this repeated process that would keep us safe throughout the night.
We ended the first hour of our night lying still in a row on an upward climb of a hill. This was our first situation where the POCs were so close we could make out their exact conversation and see the outline of where their flashlights passed by us. It had gotten dark enough at this point that my 18-dollar brown Walmart parachute pants, snow boots and jacket from Aubrey’s closet blended in with the dark surroundings.
As the footsteps and flashlights of the POCs faded, we made our way up the hill, steadily assessing what the tent at the top of the hill was. We quickly learned that it was the medical tent and used that to reorient ourselves and pinpoint where we were on the map.
Our group eventually fell into a comfortable routine. Lee would lead with Aubrey close behind, as she could not see without her glasses and often had to stay close to the person in front of her. They were followed by myself in the middle with Wallace and Sears behind me and Gavle keeping an eye on our tail.
These hours were purely consisted of adrenaline. The temperature eventually dropped enough for us to all put gloves on, which eventually became very helpful when we had to quickly drop to the ground in uncomfortable positions.
A cadet dressed in camoflauge at E&E.
The safety debrief for E&E.
journalists’ overnight escapade
We were roughly two hours in, walking on the edge of the road listening to nothing but the gravel being crushed beneath our feet, when a flashlight came out of nowhere. We all dropped to the ground, but it did not matter. We had been caught.
The rules when you got caught were you were not allowed to run away. If they saw you and stated that they saw you, you were caught. Gavle emphasized the importance of not self-identifying to us. If the POCs could only hear us and shouted at us to come out, we were not to move a muscle until they could see us themselves.
Once we were caught, Gavle immediately switched from the silent leader of the group to a chatty criminal defense attorney. She was ready to ask the POCs how their evening was if they needed any candy or hand warmers she had on hand. This was when a new key player in E&E was revealed to us — the art of bribery.
We later learned the bribery aspect is popular amongst E&E participants. We heard tales of cadets bringing Chickfil-A and Redbulls to help them get out of the POCs’s grasp.
Unfortunately, Gavle’s bribery attempts failed, and the POCs were done marking we had been caught on our sheet. We continued on, back to the silence from before. At this point, we were relatively far into the territory. We found ourselves close to objective four which was to locate a high value target, or HVT, who would be wearing a bright orange vest.
Trying to locate this HVT took at least the next two hours of our night. We found ourselves in a marsh, ankledeep in mud. I found myself grateful for the white aspen trees that were illuminated by the moon because they were one of the few things I was able to see clearly in the darkness and use to study myself on uneven terrain. Eventually, after getting wacked in the face by multiple branches, crab-walking and sliding down a mound of dirt and hiking the steep uphill around a fence, I heard shouting. The POCs were shouting, in varying accents, about the HVT they were guarding. Eventually, as we crept toward them, Lee was caught, followed by the rest of us, and we realized we were going to have to talk our way out of this one.
Aubrey and I knew us being reporters would partly handicap group — there was no way it could not. Our group was bigger, so it would be easier to get caught. Our group didn’t know each other prior, which created room for miscommunication. What we did not expect was our reporter-ness to actually help us.
Upon getting caught by the POCs guarding the HVT, Gavle, on-the-spot, told them that our group had two high-value reporters they were transporting to interview the HVT. We, as reporters, played along and immediately came up with three Statesman-worthy questions for the HVT. We were not allowed to record anything, but in exchange for our three questions, we were let go by the POCs, finally with points on our sheet.
Gavle later explained to us that a lot of Escape and Evasion is just “playing into the bit,” and if you do so, you’re often let off the hook.
It was after we located the HVT that we made our way to our next objective, which was called friendly forces. By now, the moon was truly the only light source we had, and we could clearly see stars above, including the Big Dipper. It was this part of our trek, out of the trees, that had the most stunning scenery.
This was also where the exhaustion started kicking in. We had roughly an hour left, so we pressed on but most definitely at a slower rate from when we started. We walked inside the tree line, just next to the road. We saw POCs walking up and down the road, and if just one had turned their flashlight in the right direction, we would have been caught. Once we eventually deemed there were no more POCs, we moved to the road, hoping to hit our objective in the next 100 steps.
All of a sudden, two POCs from the University of Utah lit up their flashlights and caught us. They said that in that spot, they had caught roughly 20 groups of GMCs in the past hour. They let us off easy and told us all we had to do is tell them what we wanted to do after college. After each person shared, including us two reporters, who as one can imagine, had very different after college plans than the rest of the group, another group of GMCs showed up, and we took that as our cue to leave before they changed their minds about catching us.
We soon hit friendly forces, which to my surprise, was a table of snacks, a speaker playing music and the light of some truck headlights. They told us the only thing we had to do for them was dance to their music, Then we would get a password to go tell to those located in the friendly village. After loading up on candy and snacks, we set off for the final hour of our trek.
Our group was feeling more relaxed, and we knew were safely away from any POCs on this part of the map, so it was safe to talk. We all, in our exhaustion, reflected on the night. We chatted, getting to know each other, and laughed about the scenarios we had previously found ourselves in. We never found the friendly village, but we
did make our way back to the road and started heading back to base camp. We eventually got picked up by a truck driven by POCs and ended up hearing about the night of other GMC groups.
We found out that a good sum of groups had self-eliminated before the six hours were up. Aubrey and I were pretty proud of ourselves for lasting the whole time considering we were the only two non-cadets that participated.
Once we arrived back and camp and said our goodbyes, we both acknowledged how sore and exhausted we were. With permission to not camp the night, we safely made our way out of the canyon and back to quiet Logan at about 2:30 a.m.
Another team from Detachment 860 with 80 points total took home the E&E trophy, making it a win on home turf. I find myself extremely proud and grateful for the experience. I never would have thought of myself as someone who could go rough it with the Air Force ROTC for six hours overnight, but I was pleasantly surprised by what Detachment 860 had to offer. Although I do not think I will be signing up for the draft anytime soon, I do now understand what the experience taught me not only about the nature of the armed forces, but about the importance of participatory journalism in those settings. I will move forward after this experience hoping I can open the door for more student journalists to be submerged in a world that is not their own and look at it from a new perspective.
Malory is a junior studying journalsim. She succesfully survied E&E and attributes that success only to her friend Aubrey and the lack of running involved.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF DETATCHMENT 860
The E&E campsite up Logan Canyon.
Isaiah Jones hired as associate AD
By Ashley Dorius STATESMAN REPORTER
Utah State University announced the hiring of Isaiah Jones as the first associate athletics director for student-athlete programming and community engagement on Thursday, Sept.19.
Jones, an alum of USU and former Aggie football player, said he has deep roots with the Aggie community.
Jones walked onto the USU football team and played from 2009-12, winning a conference title in 2012. His father Paul Jones also played football and participated in track and field, his sister Daphne Jones ran track and his wife Josselyn White-Jones played for USU volleyball, where she was a four-year letterwinner and still is ranked in the top 10 all-time for total blocks.
“My family are all alumni,” Jones said. “Dad was a student-athlete here. My sister was a student-athlete in track and field, and then my wife and I. So actually, it feels like a full circle of starting in athletics.”
Jones previously worked for USU for close to two years as senior director for inclusive excellence and for four years as the USU Parent & Family Orientation coordinator. During his time with inclusive excellence, Jones worked on creating, promoting and maintaining relationships between USU groups, community organizations and the inclusive excellence division across Utah. He said returning to athletics after playing and getting his start there was very exciting.
“It’s kind of all the way back, like, ‘Oh, I’m home again,’” Jones said. “I’m really excited just to serve student-athletes and faculty staff and community members.”
Jones’s new role will focus on increasing opportunities for student-athletes to connect with the Aggie community and overseeing community engagement and service initiatives. His work will also focus on building collaborations between USU and local groups “in addressing regional and societal challenges,” according to a press release from USU Athletics.
“Community engagement would be the keyword, and collaboration,” Jones said. “I think when you’re at a university that’s as large as Utah State, you have to be really intentional about making sure that we’re not duplicating efforts, making sure we’re creating the best partnerships across campus and off-campus that can enhance the experience for student athletes or coaches or community members and thinking about how we can build pathways.”
Jones shared how this new role will allow him to do things to improve the experience of student-athletes, and he will take things he remembers from his time at USU. As a native of Macon, Georgia, he especially hopes to help athletes from outside the Logan community adjust to life in Utah.
“You go through the canyon. Your head’s popping out of the window. It’s beautiful,” Jones said. “Then you get to Logan, and you recognize that it’s incredible, but there’s also a lot that’s different about it. For myself as an outof-state student, or some of my teammates were international students, and so it took us a little bit of time just to get situated and into the Logan community.”
He added that he hopes to help athletes thrive academically, emotionally and socially. When he was a student, he participated in programs to help his peers.
“I was a student-athlete mentor, and that was a great experience. I was able to mentor younger student-athletes,” Jones said. “I was a teaching assistant, and I think that for me, just being able to pull all those pieces together in an intentional way, especially with all the improvements that have happened since 2012 and really utilize that will help to enhance the student-athlete experience.”
Vice president and athletic director Diana Sabau shared in a press release how excited the athletics department is to have Jones on the team.
“With the addition of Isaiah Jones as our new leader in this space, we are striving toward an enhanced level of support for our student-athletes,” Sabau said. “His familiarity with Aggie athletics and the challenges facing today’s student-athletes are outstanding assets, and his enthusiasm and knowledge make him the perfect person to begin implementing these initiatives.”
When it came to starting on his journey of becoming and continuing to be an Aggie, Jones said it started with his father and family.
“I did grow up looking at my father in pictures with Utah State,” Jones said. “We would watch the games, and then we would travel here from time to time. We would go to any games, or a lot of games where Utah State would play southern teams — so when they were playing Alabama or Clemson. I just grew up a huge, huge fan.”
He said that USU changed the trajectory of his father’s life and seemed like a magical place to him as a kid.
“It holds a special place for us in our family,” Jones said. “My dad coming from south central Los Angeles to Logan, Utah was probably the most significant thing that’s impacted who he is today, which is a president of a university. And so growing up, it was always like Hogwarts or something. How do I get there, you know? And so when I had the opportunity, I had to check it out myself.”
When Jones found out they had a spot for him on the team, he said he blasted the USU fight song through his PlayStation speakers, and his mom jokingly asked, “Did you get in?”
Jones said that coming here changed his life, just like it did his father’s. It allowed him to meet his wife and have a family with four kids, which he said is fun but creates a busy household.
Jones started in physiology and then took some history classes, which almost made him switch majors, but he was advised against it and was told to instead get a master’s degree in history. He graduated with those degrees from USU in 2012. His focus on European history, Latin and Greek and religions inspired him to go after a philosophy degree, which he did at Notre Dame as a Lourdes fellow. He’s currently working on his MBA with the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business.
“I love to learn,” Jones said. “It’s a lot of personal interest, and it’s turned into professional. It was just curiosity.”
He expressed that history, and especially the history of higher education, is a passion project he loves to learn about and discuss. He also said he loves talking about anything football or sports-related. But he said his favorite thing to “nerd” about is philosophy.
“I love talking philosophy and academic philosophy,” Jones said. “Hearing people’s ideas of leadership, hearing their ideas about success, those are probably what I’m most passionate about. Philosophy is the one thing that trumps all the rest of it.”
He said his goal is to make sure everyone has an opportunity to follow their dreams, which he said is partially inspired by stories like “Rudy” and “Rocky.”
“If people have the right structure and support, they can do incredible things,” Jones said. “I get really hurt when someone has written someone off but haven’t taken into account the right support they needed. I get really passionate about just ensuring people have what they need to get a shot at what they’re really passionate about and not dismissed right off the bat because they have no experience, or because on a surface level, they can’t see it happening.”
He said he’s driven by passion, curiosity, wonder and wanting to be a force for good in the community.
“How can I use all that knowledge to facilitate positive change to a community in a world that is in need of that?” Jones said. “It keeps me working because I know it takes a lot to even understand.”
PHOTO BY Jack Burton
Isaiah Jones poses for a photo in front of his new office in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Sept. 23.
a senior studying print journalism and professional autumn enthusiast.
spent a solid 20 minutes trying to write this bio and came up with nothing. — a02329420@usu.edu
Aubrey Holdaway is
She
Opinion: The impact of information warfare
By Aubrey Holdaway STATESMAN REPORTER
Isuppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that participating in an overnight ROTC training exercise as a participatory reporter would lead me to reflect on the role journalism plays in war.
As I lay on my stomach in the sagebrush, barely breathing as the “enemy” searched for us mere feet away, I couldn’t help but imagine the terror one would feel in this training simulation. Adrenaline pumping through your veins, knowing you could be discovered and killed in a matter of seconds. It made me consider the risks that not only face the people willing to fight for our country, but those who risk their lives to document the stories of war in all it’s danger and brutality.
War journalists are indispensable in today’s cultural climate. Misinformation runs rampant online, and many governments are unafraid to censor things they deem unsightly or damaging to their image. War only exacerbates these problems, and according to the Geneva Academy, there are over 110 ongoing armed conflicts worldwide.
Professional journalists are some of the best-equipped people to report on war. They’re trained to contribute facts to public understanding, hold governments accountable and document the good, bad and the ugly. Their importance can’t be overstated — they provide a necessary check on power, illuminate the realities of war and contribute to global awareness and peace.
The Vietnam War and My Lai Massacre is a prime example. On March 16, 1968, American soldiers were instructed by Lieutenant William Calley to “search and destroy” the Vietnamese village of My Lai. The mission quickly dissolved into the massacre of over 300 unarmed civilians.
An article from PBS painted a horrible picture of the massacre: “According to eyewitness reports offered after the event, several old men were bayoneted, praying women and children were shot in the back of the head, and at least one girl was raped and then killed.”
The horror of My Lai remained completely unknown to the public until November 1969, when journalist Seymour Hersh published a story detailing the massacre. He wrote the story based on his conversations with a Vietnam veteran Ron Ridenhour who had learned of the events from some of the men who had been there.
Ridenhour learned of the events at My Lai from members of Charlie Company who had been there. Before speaking with Hersh, he had appealed to Congress, the White House and the Pentagon to investigate the matter. The
military investigation resulted in Calley’s being charged with murder in September 1969 — a full two months before the Hersh story hit the streets.
Many other journalists worked to expose war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Vietnam, and their reporting played a crucial role in shifting public opinion on the war and influencing U.S. policy.
In more recent times, the work of journalists in Syria and Afghanistan has similarly exposed war crimes and human rights abuses, challenging the narratives presented by warring parties.
Accountability and transparency are paramount to the success of democracy. The public must be able to make informed decisions, and to do so, they have to know how their leaders are conducting themselves in times of war. By documenting the actions of governments, military forces and other actors in conflict zones, journalists hold them accountable for their actions.
During the U.S. occupation of Iraq, journalists like Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn reported on the devastating effects of the war on Iraqi civilians and the mismanagement of the occupation. Their work provided a counter-narrative to the official rhetoric, contributing to a broader understanding of the war’s consequences.
Most poignant to me is war journalism’s documentation of the human cost of conflict. War is not just a geopolitical event, it is a human tragedy that affects millions of lives.
Photographs, videos and written accounts from conflict zones offer a window into the lives of those most affected by war. Images of bombed-out cities, refugee camps and grieving families humanize the statistics and remind the world of the real impact of war.
Unfolding in real-time, human suffering has been the subject of focus for a lot of independent coverage of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
At the beginning of the conflict, Israel imposed strict controls on international journalists, requiring military escorts and pre-broadcast reviews of their footage.
According to an update written by Ali Harb for Al Jazeera, “Critics of the policy argue that the restrictions
against the entry of journalists into Gaza are an attempt by Israel to prevent coverage of its attacks, which have killed more than 23,000 Palestinians.”
Because of these restrictions and concerns over mainstream media bias, social media has been the main tool for sharing information.
In Gaza, local content creators such as Hind Khoudary, Plestia Alaqad, Motaz Azaiza and Bisan Owda, document their experiences. They share photos and videos of decimated cities, dead and injured civilians and tell stories of brutality.
In Israel, social media has been used to rally public support for military actions, and Israeli influencers and content creators such as Ella Kenan and Eve Cohen have spread pro-Israel content and satire.
The digital landscape has certainly transformed war reporting, making it more immediate but ethically gray. It requires the navigation of information warfare, where misinformation and disinformation are rampant.
Still, the importance of uncovering truth and highlighting the human condition in times of conflict remains at an all-time high.
PHOTO COURTESY OF Grace Lowry
Participants of the ROTC ‘Escape and Evade’ on Sept. 13.
By Essence Barnes STATESMAN REPORTER
As the Halloween season rolls around, I often find myself in search of music, movies and books that can help bring the spooky season to life. Scary movies and The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack tend to do the trick, but nothing satiates my thirst for Halloween spirit quite like the novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley. This horrifying and thought-provoking gothic horror classic has withstood the tests of time and continues to shock readers since its conception within the nightmarish mind of 18-year-old Mary Shelley.
The story came to Shelley in a nightmare one night while on vacation in Switzerland with her husband and friends. After being confined to their villa due to the unrelenting stormy weather, the group was inspired to read horror stories and dark poems to pass the time. Soon, a competition was suggested among the group: to write a story scarier than the ones they had all read. And Mary would do just that.
The novel begins with a ship sailing out in the bitter cold of the Arctic in search of the North Pole. The sailors stumble upon an emaciated, weak man, traversing the ice and snow on dog-sled. They bring him aboard the ship, and he introduces himself as Victor Frankenstein. The novel continues as Victor tells the captain his life’s story and his greatest mistake that brought him to this point in his life.
As a young man attending university, Victor becomes fascinated, if not completely obsessed, with the sciences of life and death. After years of studying and research that often included digging up rotting corpses and analyzing their decay, Victor believes he has finally discovered the secret to life itself. Blinded by pride and drunk on godlike power, he fashions an eight-foot-tall, abhorrent humanoid creature out of decaying body parts and brings it to life. But unlike many modern-day adaptations, Victor does not triumphantly throw his hands in the air and manically cry, “It’s alive!” He rears back in horror and disgust at the monster before him and runs out into the night, abandoning his creation out of fear and realization of what he has done.
The monster follows suit and takes off into the forest, now exposed to the elements of nature and the elements of humanity. The monster begins to learn the intricacies of what it means to be alive and more specifically, what it means to be human. He learns to talk and read. He learns of love, hatred, kindness, history and religion, all while hiding
The monster begins to learn the intricacies of what it means to be alive, and more specifically, what it means to be human.
— Essence Barnes
in the cottage of a poor family.
But he also learns through his interactions with others, which often end in them screaming and running from him, that human isn’t quite the word one would use to describe him. The monster is forever plagued by the grotesque nature of his appearance and the understanding that he is utterly alone in this world. Despite his own acts of kindness and attempts to fit in with civilization, humanity still fears him. Rage and envy boil inside of the monster towards his creator and towards mankind for their rejection of him, and he sets out to enact his revenge upon them both.
Mary Shelley creates a twisted web of social dilemmas and moral conundrums that leave the audience wondering to the very end: Who is the real monster of the story? The selfish scientist who let his own apathetic desires drive him to “play God” and create a monster? Or the
monster who justifies his own evil actions by blaming them on the ignorance and prejudice of his creator and of society?
Every time I read this novel, I stay up even later at night, pondering the relationship between creator and creation. The themes of justice vs. revenge and nature vs. nurture are complex, and Shelley’s construction of them throughout the story make them even more difficult to rationalize. The novel takes readers on a wild ride of heartbreak and tragedy, while also inconspicuously prompting them to question their own values and morals.
What makes the story so horrifying isn’t only the imagery it conjures of a gruesome monster being created out of corpses and coming to life to murder innocent people. It is the haunting questions readers are left with, where they must decide for themselves what is good and what is evil. And what could be scarier than that? It is Mary Shelley’s spell-binding literary prose and ability to articulate what really keeps people up at night that keeps me coming back, Halloween after Halloween.
Essence Barnes is a student who can’t come to terms with deciding a major. She enjoys reading, writing and spending money she doesn’t have on coffee.
— a02413313@usu.edu
Letter to theEditor
My name is Makenzie Weatherspoon, and I am a junior here at Utah State. I hope this message finds you well. I’m reaching out to share my concerns about a troubling trend I’ve noticed at the testing center over the past couple of weeks.
Every time I pass by our only testing center, I see a line extending out the door. I’ve not only heard stories of long waits but have also experienced them myself.
As you know, our student population on the Logan campus has exceeded 25,000 as of Fall 2023 and continues to grow. Given your position as a fellow student, I’m sure you’re familiar with the process for scheduling and taking exams at the testing center. Students are required to make an appointment, but the available slots are limited and fill up quickly. Despite these reservations, it’s increasingly common for students to wait in lines that stretch well past the front doors and onto the sidewalk, often resulting in waits of 45 minutes to over an hour during peak times. When it comes time to close down the testing center, students are required to finish their exams, whether they are done or not. A very good friend of mine shared a story where she made a reservation allowing her enough time to complete her exam. However, after waiting in line for 45 minutes, she was given only 15 minutes to finish her
entire exam before the center closed and she was asked to leave.
These students are real people with busy lives, and nobody wants to spend valuable time waiting in line to take an exam. I’d like to know what plans you and the university have to address this issue before it escalates further. Are there considerations to extend the testing center hours or potentially open a second location to accommodate the overflow of students? If there are no current solutions in place, I’d be interested to understand why. Thank you for taking the time to address my concerns. I look forward to hearing back from you.
-Kenzie Weatherspoon
Good afternoon Makenzie, Thank you for reaching out! My team and I are definitely aware of this issue. Several of us (me included) have run into the same problems you’re describing. One of the current issues we expect to be resolved is that many students are first time test takers, and require an extended explanation of how the testing center works at checkin. As the amount of first time test takers decreases, the lines ought to move more efficiently.
I’m not totally satisfied with waiting and seeing if the problem will be resolved though, so my team and I have discussed a few courses of action we’d like to pursue. Just as a disclaimer, these are extremely preliminary and may not all be feasible. That’s why we’ve tried to come up with a range of options to pursue. They’re still in the development stage and wouldn’t be able to be implemented for a while, depending on whatever course of action we end up being able to adopt.
Extended hours: Finding a way to let students who still have time on their exams to stay after to ensure they aren’t cut off. Hopefully this would require less personnel (because check-in wouldn’t be running) so we wouldn’t be keeping the whole front desk for an indeterminate period of time. However, this wouldn’t decrease the amount of time it would take to check in.
Second testing center: There are plenty of computer labs on campus, and to my
knowledge none of them are used to capacity. Converting one of them into a testing center could alleviate a lot of pressure from our main testing center, even though it would likely be smaller. This would likely take a good chunk of time and funding, but I think is the most feasible long-term solution.
Digital check-in: This method would allow students to check-in online and receive a text when they’re ready to be admitted into the testing center. I’m not really looking into this idea too seriously, because the lobby of the testing center isn’t too big, and implementation of this system would potentially have a massive learning curve, and one I’m not convinced it’s worth it to get over.
Finally, pre-test training: For students who are taking a test for the first time, we would require them to complete a training prior to scheduling their first test. This would include all the info they would otherwise get at the front desk when checking in. Hopefully this will be a cheap and easy fix, but I tend to doubt the efficacy of these kinds of trainings. At the very least, it wouldn’t hurt I don’t think.
Again, we’re still looking into feasibility of these different options, but hopefully will have solutions before finals week of this semester. If you have any feedback on these ideas, please let me know! These were all brainstormed fairly recently and could likely use a lot of work. I really appreciate you reaching out.
This is a letter emailed to USUSA President Matt Richey and President Richey’s response.
Update your address now! Register to vote now! or visit vote.utah.gov
Online registration deadline is October 25th
by www.sudokuoftheday.com.
I’m an Independent because the red vs blue antics aren’t getting us to a better place.
I’ll work every day to
• Lower rent & housing costs
• Proect our environment
• Ensure the economy works for all
