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Show NEWS !J 4 eni Dining braces for change r 4,44.4., r4 , 6. DSU recognizes community during annual Dixie Awards f '" 1 "I think the purpose of the awards is recognizing the good efforts of the faculty and staff across campus," Mike Peterson, interim chair of the English department, BYJONN HOLLAND a trippyjedi , k 1 .: I, ' , , ,,,,,,,,PAt , 6 - 0- ' .. , . , -- I '',1 ' , , ..,,.., 1 1. .::, ' b z - ......., I': , , ,.. ! r ' ' r- - - t ,,,, . , A I .,..---.- - L. It ,,., ... -- , . , -- . z ,.. ' . - , - , .... , ' I ,' , Zack Gates, the interim director of dining services, takes a student's order at the cafeteria located in the Kenneth S. Gardner Student Center. He is making changes to dining in hopes to create a great atmosphere for Dixie State University students. . BY KRISITI HARRIS kristihDSN Dixie State University Dining Services has been in the process of making changes to create a more fun and inviting atmosphere for students. Zach Gates was hired as the interim director of ing services in January 2019 after the previous director, Martin Peterson, was let go. Gates said his goal for dining services is to create a fun university vibe and increase student involvement. "We want to be the place that makes people smile when they walk into the cafe," Gates said. "Or make people smile when they come into Brooks Stop or Stacks or Infusion." Executive Chef Mikyla Richardson said she has been able to put her full abilities to work and there has been a change in the dining services work environment and plans since the hiring of Gates. Richardson was brought on roughly two years ago as the first chef to ever work at DSU. She started as a sous chef and was promoted to executive chef after one year of working. The previ ous position was a food service manager who specialized in a cafeteria style. DSU transitioned to having a chef to provide gourmet catering options and offer a wider variety of meals. Richardson previously restaurant worked at a in Logan after graduating from the culinary program at Utah State University. Richardson said Peterson was not accustomed to working with a chef. She said he had lower expectations and limited their ability to make changes because he was used to working with a food service manager. Richardson said Gates has provided an opposite experience; he has been open and accepting to changes. Gates said he even seeks out new ideas by visiting a dozen universities in California. Gates said he has a few ideas he wants to execute, but nothing is concrete yet. These ideas include food eating contests such as eating a hamburger under a certain amount of time, karaoke night and a new health and performance building to bring a healthy eating option on campus for students who are on a meal plan. Dining services already provides catering sessions and taste tests for events and weddings. However, Gates and Richardson have been working together to expand options for the two. Gates said they are creating brand new catering menus and coming up with more ideas for student event taste testing. "The taste testing shows Richardson's abilities and it also gives you ideas to put on a good show for whatever event you're going to have," Gates said. The biggest change currently under construction is the addition of ChickFil-A and Pizza Hut next to the Cafe in the Kenneth S. Gardner Student Center dining area. Chick-Fil-is expected to be built by April 26 and open for business two weeks after that. Pizza Hut's schedule will follow two weeks behind A Chick-Fil-- A' s. "I think they're all really good changes," said Tyson Price, a sophomore computer science major from Roswell, New Mexico and a Cafe worker. "I've been working here a while, so I've seen the improvement the management has made." The annual ceremony at Dixie State University, which celebrates the accomplishments of students, professors and staff who exceed expectations, is again upon us. These awards are known as the Dixie Awards. This year, the Dixie Awards differ from past 5 ment The scheme began in 2011 and centered on a Newport Beach, Calif, college placement firm nm by William "Rick" Singer. Parents are accused of paying Singer to help their children cheat on college entrance exams and to falsify athletic records of students so they could secure admission to top universities ' including the University of Southern California, UCLA, Stanford, Georgetown and Yale, .court records show. USC and UCLA have said they would cooperate with the probe. Prosecutors allege that Singer instructed parents to donate funds to a fake charity he had established 'as part of the scheme. Most of the parents paid at least $200,000, but some spent up to $6.5 million to guarantee their children admission to top universities, authorities said. Parents were then able to deduct the donations from their income taxes, according to the Internal Revenue Service. The scheme itself was fairly simple, prosecutors said: Singer instructed parents to seek extended time for their children on ACT and SAT exams. In at least one instance, a student claimed to have a learning disability to obtain medical documentation required by the College Board and ACT Inc. to grant additional time on the tests, according to court documents. The Associated Press reported that in addition to Yale, the Department of Education is also pmbing Wake Forest, Stanford and Georgetown. USC, the University of San Diego, the University of Texas at Austin and UCLA. Federal regulators requested a variety of records and information about students and employees implicated in the scheme. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeNTos foreshadowed such an investigation shortly after the massive scandal was publicly revealed earlier this month. "Every student deserves to be considered on their individual merits when applying to college, and it's disgaceful to see anyone breaking the law to give their children an advantage over others," DeVos said in a March 13 statement "The department is looking closely at this issue and working to determine if any of our regulations have been Peterson said he likes the nomination process because it isn't about things the administration sees, but what faculty and students see working with each other daily, such as seeing something commendable that administrators might not be aware of. He said being able to make nominations online could make people more likely to submit a nomination. "The way the awards are set up is they identify five finalists for the awards and then you're invited to the awards ceremony and you don't find out that you win until they call your name during the announcement of the category," said Lish Harris; associate professor of criminal p.m. Some of the categories female student include of the year, male student of the year, teacher of the year, and the "Dixie Spirit" award. Del Beatty, assistant vice president and dean of students, said the reason for having separate awards ceremonies is because the ceremony was getting too big with academic and Dixie Awards combined. "Each college will do their own academic awards in conjunction with their graduation open houses," Beatty said. "We will just do the Dixie Awards at the Dixie Awards ceremony. It's going to be great." According to the Dixie Awards website, nominations can be submitted by anyone and only a single nomination is needed to qualify for consideration.. When nominating someone, be sure to include information for the person being nominated so they can be contacted for interviews and be sent notification of their nomination and a clues- tionnaire. violated." The investigation is separate from the criminal probe headed by the Justice Department, which has so far resulted in dozens of arrests coaches to administrators to admissions counselors to wealthy parents. "I can confirm that the university received a letter from the Department of Education yesterday," University of San Diego spokeswoman Pamela Gray Payton said Tuesday. "I have not read the letter But the university will comply with the letter's request" USD was implicated in the effort to fraudulently admit two students from the same Beverly Hills family, although only one ended up attending the university. Its former men's basketball coach, Lamont Smith, has been identified as the unnamed coach accused in court documents of accepting bribes on behalf of the students, but he has not been charged. (c)20 19 Los Angeles Times. justice. Harris said when he received "Teacher of the Year" it was a special experience for him because there were students in the audience who had nominated him. He said for him, knowing that he had made enough of a difference in their lives for them to choose him for the award and applaud him while accepting the award made the experience more meaningful. "I'll always associate that particular award with those students that were there," Harris said. If there is a student, professor or staff member who has been a good influence or made a lasting impression, you can nominate them for next year's awards. Categories for academic and Dixie awards are listed on the website and the ceremony for the Dixie Awards will be held May 1 at 7 p.m. in the Dolores Dore Eccles Fine Arts Center Mainstage Theater. said. years with a ceremony for students and a separate one for faculty. Nominations were available on the Dixie Awards website until March 31 at Several universities under investigation in midst of college admissions scandal The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into several of the universities involved in the college admissions scandal Yale said the "preliminary investigation" involved it and seven other universities "whose employees or applicants were named in the federal bribery investigation" and was examining whether they had "complied with regulations and requirements pertaining to the federal student aid pmgram." "We are reviewing the department's requests and will respond appmpriately," Yale President Peter Salovey said in a state- '40; .1L LT' . - s' I .i , I , P lc 1 i . 4 k,..i - , , 201g - ,- ,, - ' r ,1 i ,, ;:- z ,, ) - ? .4 .'s c t' ,'' , Paul "Lish" Harris :- - A , ,?,, I ,' : TEACHER OF THE YEAR , , - , ; !,.,,, ' , I , .. ,i...: 1 . , 1 , ,, , ,... t s , - , t , ,, 1 ' I. I ' ,, ,,, y 1 iI - 0 : i AVV,441?':6,' (;) I , i I - - , .. ., .- --. .,,,..------ --- - , Lish Harris, associate professor of criminal justice, earned the 201 8 Dixie Award for "Teacher of the Year." This year's award ceremony will be held May 1 at 7 p.m. in the Dolores Dore Eccles Fine Arts Center. PROCRASTINATION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 sarily have the motivation to start something," said Sarah Bell, assistant professor of psychology. "There's sort of an emotional priority that comes before whatever that task is." Bell said our brains are trained to look for things that might cause us anxiety and as a protective measure will give us a warning that the task is stressful and should be avoided. "If you think about a project, or think about doing something and you feel anxious, you might just put it off because that's protecting yourself," Bell said. "Protecting yourself from more depression or anxiety." Jones said a simple task like reading a chapter in a textbook can feel overwhelming to individuals who have depression or are in a depressed mood. He said being depressed can make procrastination worse and missing deadlines or doing poorly on assignments can make the situation worse. "It's a real struggle I think, for students who are feeling depressed and just not finding that motivation," Jones said. "We need to be supportive of them, find ways to get them assistance and help to work through it." One way students can deal with unpleasant or overwhelming tasks more effectively is to break them down, Bell said. She said it's a method called "problem focus coping" where you take a project that seems big and overwhelming and break it down into smaller pieces that are easier to manage instead of putting it off. "I think it would be valuable for faculty and others on campus to kind of spread awareness about procrastination and when it can really make your life as a student difficult," Jones said. "I think it's just education and support and encouragement for students to get things done. Don't wait until the last minute. I really stress that to my students, especially with projects that are pretty time consuming." f |