Statesman April 3, 2023

Utah State University, Logan, Utah

Former graduate student files lawsuit against USU

By Savannah Burnard NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Greg Noel, a Black Haitian American and former graduate student at Utah State University, filed a lawsuit against USU for alleged racial discrimination.

According to a lawsuit filed on March 20, the Marriage and Family Therapy, or MFT, program director at USU allegedly drew a “Coon” Caricature of Noel in class in January 2020.

The drawing, as shown in the lawsuit, depicted an individual with dark skin, a hairstyle similar to Noel’s, and exaggerated features.

According to an article published by The Salt Lake Tribune on March 20, “The professor didn’t appear to realize others could see the image, as he played a prerecorded training on a screen at the front of the room. But the drawing reflected from his computer onto the screen, where it was visible to the class.”

A student took a picture of it and shared it by text message with the other students in the class, according to the lawsuit.

This was not the first incident Noel says he experienced with the program director.

According to the lawsuit, in October 2018, Noel was working on a school assignment in a private study room when the computer he was working on lost four pages of his assignment.

The lawsuit says Noel used profane words and pushed a rolling chair aside, but no one else was in the room with Noel and the chair didn’t hit anything.

According to the lawsuit, days later, the director of the MFT program invited Noel to a meeting with the professor and himself to discuss the incident.

The lawsuit says they met a week after the incident in a private meeting where the director and professor

expressed concern that Noel would be “violent towards others” and “violent towards his wife.”

In the meeting, the lawsuit says the director asked Noel if the incident was him “going full Haitian” and then told him if he wanted to stay in the MFT program, he needed to meet with multiple therapists to get his anger “under control.”

According to the Tribune article, Noel’s attorney’s said schools cannot require students to receive counseling, but Noel signed up for counseling offered at USU to remain in the program.

After the incident, Noel said he felt offended but tried to brush it off and move forward because he knew all students had to take several classes from the professor. He did not report the incident at the time, according to the Tribune article.

The article reported, Noel said in March 2020, he filed a written report against the director to the Office of Equity because he felt that he was close enough to graduation that he could bring up his concerns, even though he still had two classes with the professor.

According to the lawsuit, the Office of Equity and Noel entered a formal investigation agreement in which it was stated Noel could present evidence and witnesses.

The lawsuit said the investigator for the Office of Equity only interviewed people identified by the director of the MFT program.

In August 2020, the Office of Equity issued its Final Report of Investigation and Findings.

The Office of Equity found that, “There is a preponderance of the evidence that the offensive caricature Respondent drew was intended to depict Complainant and the exaggerated features were included based on Complainant’s race and/or color.”

However, the lawsuit said the Office of Equity determined there “was not a preponderance of evidence to support a finding of adverse action discrimination based

on race and/or color.”

The director received a written reprimand for his actions in January 2022. Noel graduated in 2020.

Noel appealed the decision made in the report, but according to the lawsuit, after several requests for updates from the hearing panel, Noel went a year without hearing from USU or the Office of Equity.

The lawsuit says in May 2022, Noel received an email from USU stating the then-Provost, Francis D. Galey, withdrew the written reprimand from the director’s personnel file and that the case would be closed.

According to the lawsuit, that same day, Galey wrote a memorandum to the director of the MFT program telling him the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee concluded that the written reprimand was “unjust and must be removed from your personnel file.”

In the lawsuit, the memorandum said while Galey disagreed with the panel’s decision, he would respect their decision and withdraw the written reprimand.

When asked for comment, the Office of Equity referred the Statesman to a USU spokesperson, who referred to the public statement USU released addressing the lawsuit.

The statement said because Noel’s attorney’s reached out to the media before the university received notice of the lawsuit, the public should know that they are getting one set of facts from one perspective.

“In this case, as in all cases, the university followed its non-discrimination policy, procedures, and process to their conclusions and dedicated significant resources to the matter,” the statement said.

Read the rest of this story at usustatesman.com. — Savannah.Burnard@usu.edu

Noelle Cockett delivers final State of the University address

By Kate Stewart NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Utah State University President

Noelle Cockett delivered her final State of the University address on March 27 in the Eccles Conference Center Auditorium.

Bill Plate, vice president of marketing and communications at USU, introduced Cockett before her address.

Plate touched on some of the accomplishments USU saw during Cockett’s time as university president.

“Her attention to student success has allowed for many accomplishments — including welcoming the university’s largest first-year class, despite daunting admission trends for universities across the nation,” Plate said. “Under President Cockett’s leadership, USU also saw a 60% increase in student completion certificates and degrees.”

During the address, Cockett said she has loved her time as USU president.

Cockett spoke on the current state of the university, various achievements USU has reached during the 2022-2023 year and future goals and plans for the university.

According to Cockett, USU had the largest incoming class they’ve ever had this past fall.

There was a 1.9% increase in total student enrollment, and a 16.3% increase in enrollment of first-generation college students.

“One of the things that we’ve really been focusing on is to bring college to people and families who did not have that in their history,” Cockett said at the event.

Cockett touched on how USU has moved up in research rankings when compared to other land-grant universities.

“It’s a point of pride that all of us can have in our research program here at Utah State,” she said.

Another 2022-2023 highlight Cockett spoke on is the formal partnership USU formed with Fort Valley State University.

FVSU is a historically Black public landgrant university in Fort Valley, Georgia.

Cockett said they selected FVSU for the partnership because of the FVSU president’s connection to USU.

According to Cockett, Paul Jones, the FVSU president, and his wife, Sylvia, are both USU alumni who came to Logan in the ‘80s.

“This idea of partnering with people who know Utah State and who have lived here in Cache Valley is just an incredible opportunity,” Cockett said.

USU and FVSU signed a five-year agreement to facilitate research collaboration, develop education programs and collaborate student trainings and staff and faculty exchanges.

Another accomplishment mentioned by Cockett was the USU Moab campus ribbon cutting.

“We are there providing education, extension and research to that community,” Cockett said.

USU’s Moab campus is the first combustion-free, net-zero building at USU.

Additionally, Cockett spoke on the board of trustees approving the Heravi Peace Institute. This institute promotes direct, structural and cultural peace.

During the last year, USU had the largest fundraising year in history, raising $110 million.

According to Cockett, they also had an excellent year with athletic accomplishments.

USU had 191 scholar-athlete honors, which is the highest in the Mountain West Conference.

The USU men’s cross-country team placed 26th at the NCAA conference, the women’s volleyball team won the title of Mountain West Conference champions, the USUEastern’s women’s volleyball team were the Scenic West Conference champions and the men’s basketball team received an at-large NCAA tournament bid.

In addition to athletic student successes, Cockett spoke on many items that occurred during the year which contributed to academic student successes.

Cockett said the number of students in exploratory majors was reduced, the sys-

tem for first-generation students — Aggie First Scholars — was established, peer-topeer academic coaching increased and the Career Design Center was redesigned.

A year ago, a strategic university action plan, Aggie Action Plan, was created under Cockett’s direction.

This plan includes a specific mission, vision and strategic direction statement regarding the overall goals of the university.

Cockett said the Aggie Action Plan committee is going to determine where to allocate certain university funds based on the action plan through the next round of budget hearings.

This plan is a “fantastic road map for USU in the coming years,” Cockett said. Cockett announced her resignation as university president in November 2022.

In a press release sent to all USU faculty, staff and students, she said she would be stepping down on July 1, 2023. Read

PHOTO BY Heidi Bingham

President Noelle Cockett gives her last university address in the Eccles Conference Center on March 27.

Logan School District to start implementing pride flag policy

By Jenny Carpenter NEWS STAFF REPORTER

After a four-month-long debate on pride flags in classrooms, Logan City School District’s updated policy on symbols in classrooms came into effect on March 3, the final date of the legislative session.

On Dec. 13, the district board members voted in a 3-2 decision to revise the district’s Standards for Media Use policy, which supports Utah Code 53G-10-202. This dictates that any classroom materials must not “endorse, promote, or disparage a particular political, personal, religious, denominational, sectarian, agnostic, or atheist belief or viewpoint.”

The policy does not require a principal to remove personal items from a teacher’s desk — including pride flags — as long as they “do not disturb the learning process.”

Before the district enforces any changes, superintendent Frank Schofield and the district’s five other board members will initially train with administrators on how to implement the policy in unique situations.

The administrators will subsequently train the staff at their schools, according to Shana Longhurst, the district’s director of communications and public relations.

Logan City School District board member Larry Williams mentioned his perspective on the policy.

“What we want to do, from my personal perspective, is we want to minimize putting the teacher on the spot, and that’s why there’s going to be a building administrator principal involved in determining what’s appropriate,” Williams said.

Frank Stewart, the vice president of the board, said the policy and training will help teachers better know the answers and processes for student and parent concerns.

“We just want every teacher to have and feel like they have the backing of our administration in every circumstance so that they have answers when a parent comes to address on specifically about their student or their child — that there’s a good process in place to make sure that we consider all the options on ways that we can best help them,” Stewart said.

Schofield noted that the board has delayed putting their training together to take any legislation into account, specifically relating to neutrality in classrooms. “We know there are going to be a lot of novel situations that are going to come up just because of the complexity of the issue,” Schofield said.

Andrea Sinfield, a Logan City School District parent, kickstarted the discussion on classroom symbols when she saw a pride flag with the words “safe space” on the front door of a few kindergarten classrooms in her

daughter’s school, Hillcrest Elementary.

The first meeting to debate the symbols took place on Sept. 13 at a Logan City School District board meeting. From the initial public comment on Sept. 13 to the policy’s voting on Dec. 13, several school board meetings included public comments from students, teachers and parents speaking for and against implementing restrictions on symbols in classrooms, according to the board’s forum minutes.

“There is no hate for these people. Neutrality is not hate or exclusion, and I think the school needs to be a neutral place, with the teaching and with the symbols,” Sinfield said.

Mary Morgan, a special education teacher at Logan High School, had differing thoughts, which she expressed at the September meeting.

“To me, personally, if you ban a pride flag, that’s basically taking away someone’s identity and not allowing them some representation,” Morgan said.

Sinfield expressed concerns with the association between the symbols and the teachings in the classroom.

“Legally, they’re not allowed to teach about anything gender theory, then them posting that picture on the front door that represents it, what is a parent supposed to think — if legally, they’re not supposed to but then put images for what they’re supposed to think, you would think any reasonable parent would be like, ‘Oh, they’re teaching that,’” Sinfield said.

Jay Bates Domenech, a senior at Logan High School and president of the high school’s Gay Straight Alliance,

or GSA, said in the first debate on Sept. 13 that, “The simple use of a pride flag is not something that is going to affect anyone negatively.”

The policy states, “Materials that do not convey the district’s educational message or are determined by the building principal to be in violation of the guidance in this policy, may be removed by the school principal. An educator or other employee who uses instructional time or space to convey a political, religious, or personal message after being directed not to may be subject to disciplinary action.”

Longhurst explained the policy “does not require anyone to remove anything from their classroom, unless it violates the policy. Nothing needs to be removed at this point and will not need to be based on the implementation of this policy.”

Sinfield expressed frustration with the current policy, noting that she feels as if nothing has changed in regards to pride flags in classrooms.

“It’s a little disheartening to me because of all the work that me and other people that have been on board with this too that we have done to try to create a neutral classroom, because that’s what it is,” Sinfield said.

In a text message, Sinfield suggested the Logan City School District could implement a district-wide symbol of inclusion similar to the Cache County School District.

Schofield said there hasn’t been a discussion with the board yet on creating a district-wide symbol for inclusion.

“As we have the conversation of ways to communicate inclusion for all students, one of our board’s commitments is to do that in a way that doesn’t inadvertently send a message of exclusion for groups that identify with a particular symbol,” Schofield said. “We haven’t finalized anything because our board is extremely aware these images have strong emotional impacts on students and their families.”

“It really is our hope that we can continue to do everything we can to help students feel accepted in every capacity,” Stewart said.

PHOTO BY Kate Smith

A pride flag displayed in a classroom during a Logan School District board meeting on Dec. 13.

Jenny Carpenter is a junior studying journalism, Chinese and English. In her spare time, Jenny loves writing novels, reading novels and watching Netflix.

Crispy Cones makes a deal on Shark Tank

By Andie Allen NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Jeremy Carlson, a student at Utah State University’s Huntsman School of Business, appeared on Shark Tank on March 17 with his wife and business partner, Kait Carlson, in hopes of growing their business — Crispy Cones.

According to Jeremy, standing before the Sharks was extremely emotional and intense. He felt as though his “whole life had come down to this moment.”

Even though they originally sought $200,000 for 10% equity, when Barbara Corcoran offered them $200,000 for 20% equity, they accepted.

“The reason we accepted her offer at $200,000 for 20% was that something about it felt super right. And I can’t quite pinpoint what it was, but it was in my heart, and I just felt like she was worth it,” Jeremy said.

Jeremy applied for Shark Tank in January 2022. He and Kait were flown to Los Angeles in September 2022 where they pitched and filmed. The episode was released on March 17.

According to Carlson, they were not allowed to discuss the show or their deal with Corcoran for six months. However, they have been working closely with her in the meantime.

“She’s kind of like our grandma, you know, she takes care of us. She is super genuine. We can call her, we can text her. And she works really closely with us, her and her team,” Jeremy said.

They couldn’t be happier with their decision.

“Overall, I guess it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made for the company is to partner with her, and have her expertise and her knowledge of the company and how to grow it,” Jeremy said.

One of the major benefits of being on the show, according to Jeremy, was their move from a state audience to a national audience.

“We now feel like we’re on a national stage where we can really grow our company now and be trusted and taken seriously,” Jeremy said.

Crispy Cones has sold 11 franchises since filming Shark Tank in

September, and the stores will open in phases. The first two will be located in Utah and Arizona. Carlson plans on having 46 operating stores by the end of 2024.

The Logan store has been much busier since the episode aired, according to Allie Berry, a supervisor, and Hannah Gunnell, a team member.

“We’ve had a few people tell us that they’ve driven hours to come to try us out because they felt like they were close enough to drive that few hours,” Gunnell said.

“It’s been crazy to see how Crispy Cones started and now watching it grow since Shark Tank,” Berry said. Jeremy said his relationship with his professors at USU has helped him navigate being a business owner and a student.

For example, Shauna Fairbanks was Jeremy’s accounting professor and for the last three years has been Crispy Cone’s company accountant.

“My professors were teaching me how to be a good entrepreneur in life. And that is what was valuable, and that is why we pay for school,” he said.

You can learn more about Crispy Cones’ products at thecrispycones. com or try them out at 532 S. Main St.

— Andie.Allen@usu.edu

PHOTO BY Aspen Marshall

Allie Berry prepares an ice cream cone at Crispy Cones in Logan on March 29. The store is located at 532 S. Main St. in Logan.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Jeremy and Kait Carlson appear on Shark Tank in September 2022.

Andie Allen is a senior studying English and journalism. Outside of writing, Andie loves the sun, reading and watching her to-be-read list grow.

Avenues of Hope Local organization helps families who’ve lost a loved one to suicide

By Jacee Caldwell NEWS EDITOR

Editor’s note: This article contains content related to suicide. If you or someone you know struggles with issues related to mental health, you can contact on-campus Counseling and Psychological Services at 425-757-1012 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

Suicide was the ninth leading cause of death for ages 10 to 64 in the U.S. in 2020, with an estimated one suicide every 11 minutes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reported 45,979 deaths by suicide and an estimated 1.2 million suicide attempts in 2020, an average of 130 suicide deaths per day.

Suicide was the leading cause of death in 2020 among Utahns for ages 10 to 24, the second leading cause of death for ages 25 to 44 and the fifth leading cause for ages 45 to 64, according to Utah’s Public Health data. It continues to be ranked in the top 10 consistently. There were 651 suicides in Utah in 2020, and the state averages 648 suicide deaths per year, according to the CDC.

Cache County saw a huge spike in suicides in 2021. Cache Valley Daily quoted David Zook, the Cache County Executive, in 2021 saying the county saw 13 suicides in the first two months of the year. Zook said four or five of the 13 were USU students.

From 2017 to 2021, Smithfield and Hyrum combined had 15 suicides, North Logan had 15 suicides, Brigham City had 30 suicides and Logan had 57 suicides, according to Utah’s Public Health data.

That’s where Avenues of Hope, a non-profit organization in Cache County dedicated to helping families who have lost a loved one, steps in.

Makenna Burnell is the co-founder and daughter of the founder of Avenues of Hope.

“We lost two members of our family to suicide,” Burnell said. “I lost my older brother and my younger brother to suicide.”

After their loss and going through their own grieving process, Burnell and her mother, Lisa Mitchell, decided to find a way to help others in similar situations.

The thought started at a Wingers with some ideas written on a napkin. Since 2019, when the organization started, it has grown to 10 board members and continues to have new ideas blossom for how to help families and prevent suicide.

Their most recent idea is gift baskets.

“Our goal with the baskets is to bring that sense of community and get our products out there and get people the help they need to work through their grief,” Burnell said. “It’s to be able to reach out to those that have lost a loved one with things that might bring some comfort.”

The items inside the baskets differ and are designed to be customizable for the needs of the person or family receiving the basket.

Avenues of Hope relies on donations, either from companies or anyone who wants to, to make the baskets.

Some examples of gifts in the baskets they’ve already made include a Planet Fitness membership, an Amazing Grace Salon gift certificate, an Angie’s gift card and a Spark Your Soul yoga class.

The baskets can also include handwritten letters to give hope and help people know they aren’t alone in what they’re going through.

Basket deliveries are based on referrals and word of mouth.

Unfortunately, people who’ve been affected by suicide aren’t as hard to find as some people may think.

Heather Jackson, a first-year student at Utah State University studying finance, knows the pain all too well.

Jackson said she played on the tennis team in high school, and her team became her second family.

“After my senior season ended, one of the couples on my tennis team broke up and then one of them committed suicide,” she said. “10 days later, the other one

committed suicide.”

Jackson explained how she felt lucky to have her whole team as a support system and to help her through her grief. She said it changed her perspective and made her more aware of what people around her were going through.

“Any time someone posts anything that could be seen as remotely concerning, I always check in,” she said. “Now I know that if there’s something I can do, I’m going to do it.”

Randy Anderson, president of the board for Avenues of Hope, said their organization has the same goal — to do everything in their power to help.

He explained it’s not just about supporting people with their grief but also preventing further suicide.

“If one person commits suicide in the family, the suicide risk to the rest of the family is much higher than if it had never happened in their family,” Anderson said. “Our major goal is to prevent that next suicide; we want to be there for support.”

Other than the gift baskets, Avenues of Hope offers resources including yoga classes, support groups, equine therapy, life coaching, talk therapy, artwork healing and

PHOTO BY Jacee Caldwell

From left to right: Lisa Mitchell, Makenna Burnell and Randy Anderson sit down and pose with one of the gift baskets made for a family who lost a loved one to suicide.

music therapy.

Avenues of Hope founder Lisa Mitchell said some of the resources they offer are some of the things that ended up saving members of their family after her sons’ suicides.

She said spending the time creating an organization to help others the same way has benefited her own grief.

“We’ve always been told that serving others is really what heals yourself, and I’ve seen that in myself and in my daughters and my spouse,” Mitchell said.

Healing can look different for different people. For Jackson, staying busy at work and having good roommates to talk to helped her a lot.

Both Mitchell and Jackson explained that it’s not a wound that can fully recover with time, either. Their resources, like grief, don’t have a time limit.

“You don’t ever really get over it,” Jackson said. “It still affects me pretty prominently.”

“It’s not a hill you can climb and get over. It’s just taking a breath one moment at a time, one day at a time,” Mitchell said. “Let people love you and give yourself the time and the space you need.”

Avenues of Hope is there to be that someone to show love, and they chose the sunflower to be their organiza-

tion’s symbol to represent that.

Sunflowers are attracted to the light of the sun, and turn up toward it during the day. On a cloudy day, people think they turn to the ground — in reality, they end up turning toward each other for energy.

“The circumstances of our lives we have no control over, but we can control how we respond to them,” Mitchell said. “Just don’t give up, keep going.”

“There are too many deaths by suicide, and it’s something that isn’t going to go away,” Anderson said. “If we can stop one suicide, it’s worth it.”

To donate or send a referral to Avenues of Hope, visit their website at avenuesofhope.net.

If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact a professional through the SafeUT app or talk to the suicide crisis lifeline at 988, both available 24/7. Through USU, you can schedule an appointment with Counseling and Psychological Services, or CAPS, by calling 435-797-1012 or visiting usu.edu/aggiewellness/ caps. Therapy sessions are available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and are free for students.

Jacee Caldwell is senior studying broadcast journalism. Other than writing, Jacee loves the sun, dancing and Pepsi. Jacee also looks forward to seeing the Utah Jazz win this Saturday against the Denver Nuggets.

— Jacee.Caldwell@usu.edu

PHOTO BY Jacee Caldwell

A close up of one of the gift baskets made for a family who lost a loved one to suicide.

College of Engineering sails forward in a concrete canoe

By Avery Truman LIFESTYLES STAFF REPORTER

Utah State University’s College of Engineering has been working to draft, mold, cast, create and sail a canoe made of concrete for The American Society of Civil Engineers’ annual competition.

Brett Safely is a junior majoring in civil engineering. “This is probably the biggest event of the year for us, outside of our actual conference,” Safely said. “It’s a good experience for any student. We’re particularly proud of the fact that we’re able to bring students from all across the program, so freshman to senior, and they’ve made valuable contributions.”

The students began working on the project back in August, and in April, they will take their canoe to Reno, Nevada, to compete.

In September, engineering students are given a packet of rules of around 70 pages, which outlines the proposal format, canoe dimensions and more.

“In the concrete mix, we were given some pretty strict details on what’s included,” Safely said. “All concrete is made of two and a half main parts, a binder and an aggregate.”

According to Safely, Portland cement will be their basis material this year.

“Of all your binders, only 30% can be normal cement,” Safely said. “So we looked at what we had on hand here at the university, or locally available, and settled on using a balance of silica fume and fly ash, which is a byproduct from coal power plants.”

Safely said this is a good option because it complies with the competition requirements, and it is significantly lighter than regular Portland cement.

Rocks and gravel are usually used as aggregate. Since these materials are heavier, the students ended up going a different route.

“It’s just recycled expanded glass,” Safely said. “That’s much, much lighter than any standard rock that we use, and that comes in various sizes for us to put into the mix.”

According to Safely, the boat cannot be taken out on the water in Logan due to environmental regulations, but the team can still practice paddling and racing before heading to Nevada.

“The next major step is getting ready for the casting date, which is when we actually place the concrete formwork after we’ve done all the design,” Safely said. “This year we spent about three hours casting, which is really good. We’ve seen it range all the way from three hours to almost 17 hours depending on how intricate your actual mix placement is.”

for various reasons.

“The first and most important is that it’s hands-on,” Ball said. “We take the materials that we talk so much about in classes, and we do something with it. And there’s a lot of learning that comes from that — both from the frustration side, but also from watching it come to fruition side. Recognizing the differences between the theoretical and the practical.”

Ball said the team develops soft skills like communication, working as a team and taking a project from a concept to construction.

“You get a group that, you know, become friends and the camaraderie that results from that,” Ball said.

He said he does not consider soft skills “side benefits” because of how important they are.

“And then, of course, there’s the credibility to the college,” Ball said. “We show that USU has the technical prowess to compete at this level. So there really is a whole host of benefits from being a part of this competition.”

According to Ball, the goal is to send three teams from USU to the national competition this year.

“I think the travel is probably their favorite part,” Ball said. “I do think that competing and showing off their work is definitely, you know, a moment of pride for them.”

Ball said 39 students are traveling to Reno to compete this year.

“I’m just genuinely looking forward to their experience this year,” Ball said. “I think that they’re going to do incredibly well, and I couldn’t be prouder of my Aggies.”

The students will compete before judges against other universities from Utah, Idaho, Arizona and Nevada.

“USU tries to participate every year since 1988. I think only two years have not had competitions, and those were 2020 and 2021,” Safely said. “We look forward to actually being out there again and having a greater competitive edge.”

Austin Ball, ASCE faculty adviser at USU, advises the approximately 60 members of the chapter. He said participating in competitions is a good opportunity for students

Avery Truman is a first-year student pursuing environmental studies and geography. She is passionate about astronomy, writing and reading science fiction and learning about wildlife.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Engineering students working on this year’s concrete canoe for The American Society of Civil Engineer’s annual competition.

USU hosts annual hackathon

By Tyler Bodily LIFESTYLES STAFF REPORTER

Utah State University hosted the annual HackUSU in Huntsman Hall on March 24 and 25. The event began Friday evening and ran through the night to Saturday. Attendees were students from high schools and colleges across Utah.

The event kicked off with a keynote speaker from the title sponsor NICE, a software company that promotes coding in countries around the world.

Other speakers discussed topics such as “How to Fund your Startup” or “Technical Writing in a STEM Field.”

Coding workshops and activities ran the whole time, offering participants insight into broader aspects of the coding and engineering world. Companies such as L3Harris and Lightning Kite sent employees to provide opportunities for students to network and get help from experts.

The variety of speakers and workshops allowed for participation of all skill levels from introductory to graduate.

The event also featured a coding competition with categories for game development, artificial intelligence & machine learning, data analytics and hardware. A major goal of the event was to encourage students to code and connect them with resources to explore the vast opportunities their degree can offer, from mechanical engineering to computer science.

Students were encouraged to develop ideas for projects before the event. However, participants were only permitted to use code they created during the event itself.

During the all-night event, many students fell asleep at tables, curled up in sleeping bags, and scattered around Huntsman Hall to catch some z’s.

Nathan Hincon, a sophomore studying electrical engineering, said the hackathon was a great opportunity for

beginners to get to know and be around other people who were able to help them with issues.

“I think the best thing was that there were lots of people who were all working on similar projects, so everyone was super friendly and willing to help,” Hincon said.

Hincon submitted his own project, a Python program that generates groups of ballet movements. His project included self-made charts of positions from plie to rond de jambe and allows the computer to create a sequence that can be smoothly followed by a ballet dancer. Final project submissions occurred mid-afternoon Saturday and were followed immediately by a final networking event to connect employers with students. The event follows the trend of hackathons across the nation. As coding becomes more pertinent to an increasing variety of jobs, events like hackathons help get students excited about coding and provide expert help to code something they are personally passionate about.

The need for coders goes beyond typical positions such as information technology or data analytics. A report from 26 million U.S. online job postings showed that half of all programming openings are in industries like finance, health care and manufacturing, not just technology.

Tyler Bodily is a sophomore studying computer science. When he isn’t writing, Tyler loves reading, playing piano, and listening to musicals.

— A02356369@usu.edu

Mayson Garrett is a sophomore majoring in International Studies and Aggie Radio’s PR Director. One of her goals for Aggie Radio is discovering and promoting up-and-coming local bands. Here are some songs by some of her favorite bands in the local music scene!

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY Sam Warner

“Sex Educated”

Bonnie Young’s mission to end sex stigma for LDS women

By Avery Truman LIFESTYLES

Bonnie Young is a Latter-day Saint and Ph.D. student at Utah State University studying marriage and family therapy. As a licensed therapist, she has found that many young LDS women struggle with sexuality, which provided the inspiration for her book “Sex Educated.”

Young works to help clients with anxiety, religious obsessive-compulsive disorder and sexual issues. Young’s experiences gave her the knowledge to publish “Sex Educated,” a book formatted as a series of letters written to her younger self.

“This book is meant to be read by women of all ages,” Young said in a phone interview. “It’s really accessible. It’s really safe. I’ve had readers from all different ages say that they couldn’t put it down.”

Young said her book is meant to educate women and help them to heal and develop a healthy relationship with sexuality.

“Writing about sexuality, especially in a Latter-day Saint context, is a really important job,” Young said. “It’s such an important and sacred and special topic. Being able to approach it in a really accessible, non-threatening way is also really important.”

According to Young, the process of writing and publishing her book from start to finish took years.

Young said it is important for women to be educated and share their experiences with other women.

“I think that historically and culturally, there’ve been a lot of things that worked against us,” Young said. “I think that there’s a lot of potential for fulfillment and joy in sexual relationships. A lot of the women that I work with clinically really struggle to have that experience.”

She wrote her book to create a resource she wished she had when she was first married.

“It was born out of love and affection for my own experience, but also others’ experiences as well,” Young said. During Young’s time at Brigham Young University, Tammy Hill, a professor and a marriage and family therapist, was a mentor to her.

In an email response, Hill described Young’s book as “A wonderful, human approach to understanding sexuality in the perspective of a young girl growing up.”

According to Hill, the information in Young’s book is important to help young women have a healthier perspective on sexuality.

Hill said women often face challenges in their sexuality.

“They are responsible for men’s thinking, and for gatekeeping the level of physicality in the relationship,” Hill said.

Jennifer Finlayson-Fife, an LDS therapist, helped review the book in its final stages.

“Bonnie does a really nice job of speaking at the level that an early adolescent girl could understand and literal-

ly benefit from,” Finlayson-Fife said in a phone interview. “It does a nice job of speaking right to the heart of what many girls would be feeling and offering a much healthier, self-accepting and sexuality-embracing perspective that is still about living a good, moral life.”

Finlayson-Fife said Bonnie’s book uses her adult wisdom to talk at the level that her younger self needed.

“There’s often this feeling that sexuality is something to be feared,” Finlayson-Fife said. “Something that can kind of pull you towards evil or something dangerous — an anxiety that you kind of have to keep at arm’s length.”

According to Finlayson-Fife, many of the women she works with feel unprepared for marriage because of negative feelings toward sexuality.

“They also feared their sexuality — saw it as a sort of Satan’s pathway,” Finlayson-Fife said. “A lot of women are trying to find a way to rethink sexuality and how it can be part of a good, moral safe space of life.”

She said young girls should try to see their sexuality as valuable and worthy.

“Even though it’s a very powerful part of being human, and therefore sometimes a little scary, it’s a really beautiful part of being human,” Finlayson-Fife said. “I guess my message would be not to be afraid of sexuality, but to understand it as a gift.”

Emmalee Fishburn, the senior prevention specialist for USU’s Office of Equity, said it is important to make accessible education and resources regarding sex.

Read the rest of this story at usustatesman.com

— A02385315@usu.edu

STAFF REPORTER

PHOTO BY Paige Johnson

Dr. Bonnie Young speaks to the audience about her book at the women’s sexuality event at Herm’s Inn on March 24.

Avery Truman is a first-year student pursuing environmental studies and geography. She is passionate about astronomy, writing and reading science fiction and learning about wildlife.

BFA seniors display capstone works

By Carlysle Price LIFESTYLES STAFF REPORTER

In room 209 of the Fine Arts Visual building, the artists have put together what they refer to as the Frida Kahlo Lounge. It’s a space in the studio with couches, artworks and a portrait of Kahlo herself. This was a comfortable space for Klint Johnson, a senior in the department of painting and drawing.

Johnson held up the poster he helped design for this year’s annual Bachelor of Fine Arts Capstone Exhibit — a gallery created by the 12 BFA seniors to highlight their artworks. Each student in the program volunteered for a role to help make the show a reality, and Johnson was on the public relations and poster design team.

-The poster read, “A Collision of Forms,” which was this year’s gallery theme. According to Johnson, the concept was meant to be open-ended to allow all artists’ work to fit together cohesively.

“Everyone would be comfortable sharing their own mark that they like to make,” Johnson said.

The poster featured a small framed portrait of a doodle of a person.

“I think we all kind of empathize with him,” Klint said about the doodle. “Artists see every mistake throughout the whole process. So the show feels like a big moment, but we don’t feel grand, just like the guy in the frame.”

Johnson’s work leans towards the human figure, specifically the male body. He credits this to their block-like shapes and how easy it is to hide a mistake by adding a beard. For Johnson, identifying with the guy in the frame is very literal. The artwork he displayed was a self-portrait titled, “This is the place.”

Beyond just aesthetics, Johnson said it’s important to have a deeper meaning to artworks.

“What are you trying to communicate? Is there something going on internally that you want to kind of share?” Johnson said. “Is there something going on in the world that you want to extrapolate or conceptualize?”

Senior painting and drawing student Sarah Bonzo has similar ideas when it comes to

Show me a Scotsman, who doesn’t love Dua Lipa.

Show me an Englishman who doesn’t love Dua Lipa.

Show me a true blooded Aggie from Utah, who doesn’t love Dua Lipa, where the sage brush grows.

creating her artwork.

Focusing on oil paintings, Bonzo creates what she described as documented-style paintings.

“I like to do a lot of interior spaces and paint what I see. I find interesting compositions within that — and you kind of see a presence of a person without seeing the person in that sense,” Bonzo said.

Bonzo said she hoped her works would be nostalgic and thought-proving to viewers, allowing them to slow down

and reflect.

Bonzo’s job for the exhibition was distribution — getting word out about the show.

Other roles to prepare for the exhibition included organizing refreshments or making sure frames are hung exactly 28 inches apart — which is just the type of very important and specific detail that artists notice, according to Johnson.

The experience of being in a gallery is very important to the students, especially for those that have artistic ambitions.

“That’s what most of us are working towards — to hopefully be working artists and really get our work out there,” Bonzo said.

Part of that experience includes how shows work, and how the process of getting into an exhibit works, according to Bonzo and Johnson.

Department head Kathy Puzey said this year’s exhibit featured different disciplines, including photography, ceramics, print-making, art education and sculptors.

“The work in the exhibition represents a culmination of refined skills, ideas and perspectives that took students several years to develop and master,” Puzey said over email.

According to Bonzo, diversity of perspectives is one of the many highlights of a gallery experience.

“It’s beneficial to see art shows, because a lot of the time we’re not getting that exposure to different things,” Bonzo said. “It’s good to get other experiences and see what people have to offer besides what you’re used to.”

Do you ever feel like a ludicrously capacious bag?

— A02311769@usu.edu

wes anderson and greta gerwig both have films coming out this year and neither of them feature saoirse ronan. we used to be a country, a proper country

PHOTO BY Elise Gottling

A group of people examine Victoria Johnson’s “The body is only a vessel” during the BFA Capstone Exhibit reception at the Tippetts & Eccles Galleries on Tuesday, March 21.

Carlysle Price is proud of her extensive magazine collection which has surpassed 50 editions, all of which have been read thoroughly. She would never skip to the cover story.

USU Football player Josh Davis saved by athletic trainers

By Jake Ellis SPORTS EDITOR

On Thursday afternoon at Utah State Football practice, things went from a game to life and death. There was a medical emergency: redshirt freshman wide receiver Josh Davis suffered “non-traumatic sudden cardiac arrest” while warming up for practice.

USU athletic trainers jumped into action. Assistant athletic trainer Kendra Gilmore was first on the scene to start evaluating Davis. Meanwhile, Mike Williams, associate athletics director for sports medicine, rushed over and noticed Davis “gasping for breaths.” Gilmore talked to him, trying to help him breathe, but knew he was going to need more help.

Brady Mollner, another assistant athletic trainer, brought over an automated external defibrillator and the team hooked Davis up to the machine while administering CPR. Gilmore did breaths while Williams did chest compressions.

They were able to revive Davis and transitioned care to EMTs, who transported Davis to Logan Regional Hospital where he was stabilized with “initial critical treatment.” Afterward, Davis was taken to the intensive care unit at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden to receive “treatment with therapeutic hypothermia to lower the body temperature to preserve his neurological function.”

The day after Davis was rushed to the hospital, USU announced he had been upgraded from critical to fair condition. On Saturday, USU Football tweeted a video of teammates visiting Davis in the hospital, which included a message of gratitude from him to fans.

“What’s up, Aggie Nation?” Davis said in the video. “This is Josh Davis coming in. Feeling a lot better. Just wanted to thank you guys for all the support and all the prayers, and I can’t wait to be back soon. Go Aggies.”

A week later, Davis was able to walk on his own into a press conference alongside his parents Chrissy and Matt Davis, the athletic trainers, head coach Blake Anderson and Jerry Bovee, USU’s interim athletics director, on March 30.

His message in the press conference was focused on gratitude.

“Just want to thank God for the opportunity to be here standing in front of you guys today,” Josh said. “Exactly a week ago, I was lying on the field fighting for my life. Now I’m able to walk in this room and talk to all of you, so I’m just very blessed to be here.”

He also made sure to thank Williams, Gilmore and Mollner specifically.

“Without the three of them, I really would not be here today,” Josh said. “There’s no question they truly saved my life. Every doctor I’ve spoken to during the last week said that the CPR 110% saved my life. So I can’t thank you guys enough, and I’ll never forget what you guys did for me.”

Josh’s parents rushed to the hospital from Carlsbad, California to support him. They said they were grateful for USU and the hospitals for keeping them updated until they could get there. Matt said it was “unbelievable what everyone did.”

“When you send your first kid away to college, it’s always a little nerve-wracking,” Matt said. “Then when it’s an athlete, it’s even more so. You’re always worried — you know, ‘Who’s watching them? Who’s taking care of them?’ And I can say to anybody that’s watching this, that’s not something you have to worry about in Utah State.”

To thank the athletic trainers that saved their son, the Davis family is making a donation to start an endowment for sports medicine in USU Athletics in the names of Williams, Gilmore and Mollner.

“We hope anyone watching this will consider also making a gift in support,” Matt said.

He added that he hopes people will join them to grow an endowment that can help fund USU sports medicine for years.

While the athletic trainers were administering CPR, Anderson was on the ground next to Josh, yelling and encouraging him to keep fighting for his life. Anderson said he did this because his own father told him that while he was being worked on during a heart attack, he could hear the medic and his wife, even though he couldn’t respond.

“Every time I yelled his name and every time I told him to keep

fighting, he tried to open his eyes, and Kendra (Gilmore) was doing the same thing,” Anderson said. “I wasn’t going to quit. I just wanted him to know he wasn’t alone and that we were right there fighting with him and that people were helping him. So I just felt like that as long as he keeps fighting, I’m going to keep fighting with him. I don’t know if it made any difference at all, but I think we’re all products of our environment, so having been through that a couple of times and had those conversations, I just felt in my heart he could hear me, and I wasn’t going to quit on him.”

Anderson said he was grateful “God stepped in” to save Josh.

About a year ago, Josh had a previous medical incident that took him off the field. Williams called it a “seizure-like episode,” but Anderson said “a lot of doctors looked at him and cleared him to come back to play” afterward.

“Hadn’t had an issue since,” Anderson said. Anderson believes that Josh’s preexisting condition may have started the emergency during warmups. The official medical cause of his cardiac arrest was unknown by Williams at the time of publication.

As for his future on the gridiron, it’s not looking too bright.

“As far as the doctors that I talked to, the short answer for playing football in the future is probably not, but I’m kind of not really worried about that right now,” Josh said. “Kind of just taking it slow. Taking it day by day and we’ll see what happens in the future, but obviously, as Coach said, I’m always going to be grateful to be a part of this Aggie family.”

Utah State Football canceled practice on Friday after the emergency and took the weekend to see how Josh progressed. After receiving good news over the weekend, they took the field inside the Stan Laub Indoor Training Center on Monday.

“They’re grateful that he’s OK,” Anderson said about the vibe of his players at practice. “It’s a great teaching opportunity too, just to remind guys that life is short and fragile, and you need to make sure that you’re appreciative of every opportunity you get.”

With positive news, USU Football players were able to focus on the work they needed to do on the football field, according to Anderson.

“I think you got to keep it in perspective, and I feel like the guys have done that,” Anderson said.

Read the rest of this story at usustatesman.com.

PHOTO BY Jake Ellis

From left to right: Matt Davis, Chrissy Davis, Josh Davis, Blake Anderson and Mike Williams at a press conference inside Maverik Stadium on March 30.

Jake Ellis is a senior studying journalism from Orem.

March Sadness: How a USU cheerleader went viral

By Alivia Hadfield NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Utah State cheerleader Ashlyn

Whimpey is now a viral sensation after a clip of her crying during USU’s March Madness game on March 16 sent waves through the internet.

“I just said, ‘The TV people hate me,’” Whimpey said, joking.

This was Whimpey's second time being recognized by the camera. During the USU vs. Boise basketball game on March 4, Whimpey ended up being the thumbnail for a YouTube video covering the game.

“I was pretty embarrassed by that YouTube cover already,” Whimpey said. “Then for me to get another TV moment — I’m like, wow, they hate me. Now they are getting me crying.”

Whimpey first learned of her TV appearance from her family group chat. Minutes after the game, she was getting hundreds of friend requests on Instagram. The next morning, she would wake up with 13 thousand followers.

The cause of Whimpey’s tears was a mix of emotions.

“I was definitely sad that we're losing, because I'm dating Sean Bairstow,” Whimpey said. “I've gotten super close to the team this season.”

It also happened to be Whimpey’s last season with the USU Spirit Squad.

“I'm applying for a nursing program right now. I mean, if I don't end up doing nursing school at Utah State, it's not even possible for me to be on the Spirit Squad,” Whimpey said.

However, Whimpey does not count on this being her last time in the cheering world. She shared her hopes of coaching cheer as a mom or even trying out to be a pro cheerleader.

“It kind of just depends on how life goes a little bit. I wouldn't be opposed to trying out for another team at the pro level or teaching,” Whimpey said.

While the internet can be cruel, Whimpey said she was “pleasantly surprised” by the number of positive comments.

One tweet from @MyWorldofDavid read, “She’s great!!! Let’s u know she’s a team player. Unconditionally team player.”

Another tweet, from @Mika44624948, read, “Awww. She a fan too!!!”

The video has been viewed more than three million

This Week in Aggie Athletics

Golf

April 3-4: @ Wyoming Cowboy Classic Chandler, Arizona

Tennis

Men’s April 6: vs. Air Force

Sports Academy & Racquet Club

times on Twitter and has over a thousand comments. Whimpey has also gained a huge following that grows each day.

When asked if she would ever consider being an influencer, Whimpey was ambivalent.

“I wouldn't be against doing some influencer stuff because I honestly enjoy that,” Whimpey explained. “But I just don't feel like it's enough for me to be like, ‘Nope, not going to do nursing anymore.’ I'm not going to totally change my life and try and be a content creator or an influencer.”

Whimpey said her parents gave her advice on this rare opportunity of gaining thousands of followers.

“My parents talked to me — they told me that this is an opportunity that not many people get, and said it’s something you could capitalize on,” Whimpey said. “They said, ‘It's kind of up to you, and if you want to do something about it, it's probably smart to do it like, now’ — while I’m relevant.”

April 8: vs. San Diego State

Noon, Sports Academy & Racquet Club

Women’s April 7: vs. New Mexico

Colorado Springs, Colorado

April 8: vs. Air Force

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Softball

April 6: vs. San Diego State

4 p.m., LaRee & LeGrand Johnson Field

April 7: vs. San Diego State

4 p.m., LaRee & LeGrand Johnson Field

April 8: vs. San Diego State

Noon, LaRee & LeGrand Johnson Field

— alivia.hadfield@usu.edu

PHOTO COURTESY OF Bleacher Report

Ashlyn Whimpey appears on the national TV broadcast of the Utah State-Missouri March Madness game on March 16.

Alivia Hadfield is a first-year student at USU and loves being an Aggie. Alivia’s other passions include songwriting, reading and competing in pageants.

By Heidi Bingham STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Heidi Bingham is a junior studying journalism with an social media emphasis and a minor in marketing. Along with taking photos, she enjoys hiking with her dog Milo, thrifting, going to concerts and playing soccer.

WELCOME BACK STUDENTS!

Step up, give back, and get rewarded for making a difference this school year

Earn your extra spending money by being a life-saving plasma donor.

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Monday Writing: Locked In 5-8 PM LIBRARY 154

The key to freedom is several writing tasks that can be completed to earn your way out! There will be a raffle and food.

Tuesday Student Social

4-6 PM TSC INTERNATIONAL LOUNGE

The Graduate Student Council and School of Graduate Studies invites undergraduate students interested in graduate school to join the School of Graduate Studies at their monthly social.

Wednesday

5 Minute Thesis Competition

1-3 PM TSC HUB

A competition for graduate students to present their thesis or dissertation to a panel of judges and their peers. Prizes will be given to the top 3.

Thursday DoNut (Do Not) Work Fair

11 AM-2 PM TSC INTERNATIONAL LOUNGE

A designated time for graduate students to not work and not feel bad about it. Donuts, coffee, and cocoa will be served. There will be games and booths.

Sudoku puzzles are provided by www.sudokuoftheday.com.

Last week’s solution:

50 Influential Aggies

Nominate influential students, faculty and staff, alumni, and community members for The Utah Statesman's 50 Influential Aggies!

Nominations will be accepted until April 14.