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Show StatesmanCampus Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 News Page 3 Prof. and student run in local elections Briefs Campus & Community BY KYLE STUBBS staff writer Local municipal election campaigns are underway, city council seats are up for grabs and certain USU faculty and students are running for office. Assistant professor of political science Damon Cann and freshman political science student Daniel Eyre both submitted their names for candidacy. "For years I've been telling my students how important it is to be involved," Cann said. Now, he said, it's his turn to make a difference. Cann is running for an open city council seat in North Logan. He said he wasn't planning on running for council until his neighbors approached him and urged him to run. They recruited him based on his political science background, he added. "It is time for a new generation of leadership," he said. The father of four children said it's important that he makes sure North Logan remains as good as it currently is. Cann said he hopes to fill one of the three empty seats that will be vacated by retiring council members who are simultaneously resigning. The North Logan primary election was held on Sept. 13 and the field of nine candidates was thinned to six, who will compete in the general election, in November. According to North Logan's website, Cann finished fourth, with two votes separating him from third, and 19 votes between him and second place. "This underscores the point I make to my students that every vote counts," Cann said. "The general election will be close, every vote will matter." He said close races like these illustrate the importance of citizens participating elections. Cann said he has enjoyed applying the political analysis he teaches at USU to his own race. Eyre ran for Brigham City Council. He said he has wanted to run for public office since he was 11 years old. "American history was my favorite subject growing up, I loved studying Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln," Eyre said. While Eyre's family does not include any politicians, his father works for the Department of Defense. Eyre said this brought talk about government and national defense into family discussions. "Government policy kind of affects his job," he said, regarding his father. Eyre said while most candidates aim to change Brigham City, he ran on a platform to maintain it. "People wanted to bring jobs to Brigham City and making Brigham City more job friendly. I said that things will work out, just be friendly with the job environment. USU's regional campus is going to bring a lot of jobs." "It's not really about what you've done," he said. "It's about what you're going to do. The qualifications are being 18 years old and a resident of the city." Even though he did not advance to the general election, Eyre said he was prepared for it. "My age, still being a student and not being married were factors. The common question is 'are you going to be here in 4 years?" Eyre said he's considering running again in the future, either for city council or something else. "I'm not done with politics," he said. Cann, who looks to the November general elections, said they will be held Nov. 8. "Whether people vote for me or not, the political scientist in me says, 'Go USU PROF. DAMON CANN vote," he said. - kstubbs88@gmail.com Gun rights activist will visit campus Robert Levy, the chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Cato Institute, will be coming to USU Oct. 4 to talk about his involvement in the gun rights movement. Specifically, he will talk about the 2008 Supreme Court case D.C. v. Heller in which he was a legal co-counsel. In that case the Supreme Court struck down portions of the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 as unconstitutional and ruled that individuals have a constitutional right to own handguns. Gun rights groups around the country immediately challenged gun regulations in court. Based on its ruling in D.C. v. Heller, the Supreme Court would later decide in McDonald v. Chicago that individuals at the state level have a right to own guns. These rulings are significant, as this was the first time ever that the Supreme Court explicitly stated that individuals had a right to gun ownership under the Second Amendment. Levy is being hosted by USU Students For Liberty, a student group dedicated to free markets and a free society. "We are extremely excited to have Robert Levy come to our campus to speak about gun rights. Utah is among the strongest pro-gun states in the union. Nobody has seen the result of Mr. Levy's work more clearly than we have," said USU Students For Liberty President Justin Hinh. and USU student Daniel Eyre (not pictured) both entered races for seats on city council. Eyre, who ran in Brigham City, was eliminated in the primary election. Cann, who is running in North Logan, advanced to the finals and will compete with five other candidates for one of three seats. DELAYNE LOCKE photo From Page 1 Turf could lengthen hours of HPER Field accessability Kobe said, "not to mention students just wanting to throw a Frisbee out on the field. They didn't have a plan for what we were going to do in the meantime while this program was going on. We've had to turn students away from the HPER Field because of all the construction." By replacing the grass with turf, the area will be dedicated to student programs and activities, he said, and the Quad does not exist for recreational purposes. "At some point we just said `Enough is enough. What is going on here? What is the recreation master plan for the campus?' We are pretty landlocked up here and wanted to get the most use out of one piece of ground," Kobe said. Mikkelsen said artificial turf fields could eliminate any need for mowing, line painting and aeration maintenance — among other costs. Snow can also be removed from them more easily than from normal grass fields. However, Mikkelsen said, they do require grooming a few times a year. He said, overall, the cost of field maintenance should be reduced in the long run. Mikkelsen said the new fields will include a lighting system, which the current fields do not have. "Now you can only use the HPER Fields until dark, and with the new fields you will be able to extend playing time until midnight," he said. These additions to campus were the "brain child" of 2009-11 ASUSU President Tyler Tolson, Mikkelsen said. Architects are currently working on the building's feasibility plan, which will estimate how much the completed building will cost. Morales said the ballpark cost for the ARCC building is currently $30 million, and the structure will be much more than a fitness center. "This is about community building," he said, "and creating a focal point where students can connect with each other and enjoy the kinds of activities that are going to be housed there. We want this to be part of the Aggie experience students look forward to." Because the ARCC is a student community building, USU's athletics teams will not be permitted to use it. It will be solely intended for student leisure, Morales said. Numerous "peer institutions' recreation centers" inside and outside of Utah were observed to collect ideas for USU's facility, he added. "All of these institutions have done something within the last 10 years, and we are kind of coming late to the game, honestly," he said. Dozens of student recreation possibilities and services are outlined in the ARCC sketches. Some of these include a lap swimming pool and hot tub area with a plasma screen television, a new health center, a café, group exercise rooms, an outdoor rock climbing wall and a roller hockey court. "Other campuses have had tremendous response and student use," Mikkelsen said. "Their student use has doubled, if not tripled, in all these areas. It's something students have been starved of here. We have the dimly-lit Fieldhouse." Starting a new recreation facility is a project USU has looked to do multiple times in the past, but the idea has always lost momentum, Mikkelsen said. Upon his election in spring of 2011, Mikkelsen said he promised to help more students find ways to be involved at USU, and believes the artificial turf fields and a new recreation center will serve as catalysts for student engagement. - catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu. edu Anderson hopes to involve faculty in policy debates - kstubbs88@gmail.com Professor Moeller's Honors 3020 class is participating in the XBOX 360: Gaming and Giving for Good (G3) charity event to benefit Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City. The class has committed to game for 24 continuous hours, starting at 8:00 a.m. Oct. 1, to raise donations for each hour of gameplay. Moeller's honors course is subtitled: Social Change via Gaming, and it looks at ways computer games are designed to affect positive change in the world. "This charity event," Moeller said, "is a way for our class to use computer games to do good and to raise awareness of games' potential to do good. Too often, persuasion in computer games is looked upon negatively by our culture." Moeller's students have formed a team called MagicCircle, and they encourage the USU community to support their efforts by donating. Workshop teaches fraud protection In today's ever-changing investment environment, fraud, unfortunately, is a growing concern for many investors. A free workshop sponsored by the USU Family Life Center's housing and financial counseling services will address many of these important issues. The Utah Division of Securities is pairing with the Family Life Center as a workshop sponsor. Organizers say the four-part workshop is an excellent opportunity for individuals to learn about basic investing information, with an emphasis on avoiding fraud. Workshop sessions will be taught by representatives from the Utah Division of Securities. Topics to be covered include saving and investing, financial markets, making an investment plan and investment fraud. Workshop participants will receive a free pack of information materials. From Page 2 fundraising to help sponsor students who apply for internships that are currently unfunded, she added. Abercrombie said he plans to eventually create a advisory board made up of "influential alumni and friends of USU in the Washington, D.C. area," who can help open doors for internships. Abercrombie said a secondary goal is to "provide a vehicle to promote campus research with policy implications." "We also want to involve faculty members in policy debates, in Utah," McNamara said. Anderson said these efforts are intended to identify faculty whose research is applicable to current policy debates in Utah and help promote research and allow USU to contribute relevant knowledge to the policy process. The institute has been organized with two rotating co-directors, one from the political science department and a one from a different college, to facilitate program expansion. Faculty involved in the institute visited classes around campus to explain the new opportunities to students. Abercrombie said the growth of this program "assumes demand from students." Honors students play video games for a cause ClarifyCorrect The Statesman ran an article titled "Music helps find cure for diabetes" which stated that 175,000 people in the world have diabetes, and about 10 percent are Type 1. The actual figure is 175,000 in the state of Utah alone. STUDENT LOBBYING INTERNS from the 2011 Utah Congressional Legislative Session pose with USU mascot Big Blue. The majority of government interns have usually been political science majors. Photo courtesy of Neil Ambercrombie a Co mp iled from staff and media reports |