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Show StatesmanCampus News Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010 Page 3 Briefs Club members work long hours to restore cabin By MARISSA BODILY staff writer The Forestry club is in the process of renovating Doc's Cabin, built up Logan Canyon in the 1950s by USU students and professors. The cabin was originally built for students to stay in during the summer while they were working on the school forest said James Long, USU Department of Wildland Resources professor. The school forest is now called T.W. Daniel Experimental Forest. Ray Moore and T.W. Daniel, both late natural resources professors, supervised the construction of the cabin by students, Long said. For years the cabin was used as a research station and was well kept, said Donovan Birch, last year's USU Forestry club president and undergraduate forestry major. Birch has been a leader in the restoration of Doc's Cabin. "As roads got better, the commute time to town became short enough that students no longer stayed in the forest at night and the cabin wasn't used much," Long said. The cabin was used from the 1950s until the mid 1970s, Long said. It was used for students so that they wouldn't have travel to do their research, but as the commute from school to the forest became easier the cabin was abandoned and used only to store things. Doc's Cabin was named for T.W. "Doc" Daniel, a late College of Natural Resources professor. The Cabin is also referred to as Daniel Cabin. "The renovation of the cabin will mainly affect the student community because forestry and natural resources students can use it as a base to operate and do research," said Mike Kuhns, USU wildland resources professor. About two years ago, the Forest Service decided to destroy the cabin because it was not being used and was considered a safety hazard. The Forestry club decided to intervene. By restoring the cabin, Birch said he hopes to help students develop a connection to the forest and its history that has been lost because the cabin was no longer used. Groups of volunteers, usually consisting of four or five students, travel to the cabin to help with the renovation. "We try to go up twice during the fall semester and hope to get up there at least once during the spring semester," Birch said. The Forest Service closes the road to the cabin when there is too much snow, which makes it difficult to travel there, but it is always accessible with snowmobiles. The renovation of the cabin began last fall when volunteers cleaned out the cabin. "There was year's worth of junk and lots of really old paint in the cabin, which was kind of weird," Birch said. It took the whole day just to clean everything out." Even though the cabin was a mess, it was still structurally sound, he said. Many different animals made their homes in the cabin so the group had to clear them out. The next step in the restoration of Doc's Cabin is to make repairs, which the group is working on this fall. "It sounds like the cabin really needed to be restored," Kuhns said, "so it's good they are doing it now before it has the chance to deteriorate even more." The club wants to make the cabin Campus & Community Students to create sanitation awareness - USU'S FORESTRY CLUB RENOVATES a cabin located in Logan Canyon in order to create a place the public can rent out for events. The club stopped the Forest Service from demolishing the cabin. Photo courtesy Donovan Birch available for public use by restoring it to a more usable condition. People could stay there now, but it Birch said it probably isn't "too safe" yet. The group is hoping it will be ready to rent out by next fall. The cabin will be used for student outings, skiers and snowboarders and the public. Public rental of the cabin will be available through USU's Outdoor Recreation Center. Because it has been costly to repair the cabin, it will be good to start making money off the project when the cabin can be rented out, Birch said. The restoration of Doc's Cabin has been funded by USU's Forestry Club. The club has had to purchase a wood-burning stove, among other things, for the project. To help fund the project, the club sells firewood in amounts varying from small amounts to truckloads, Birch said. The club can be contacted at forestry@aggiemail.usu.edu. — marissa.boddy@aggiemausu.edu Stench prompts canceled classes at USU-CEU Faculty, staff and students were overwhelmed with a stench in the Student Activity Center (SAC) building last week. "From the time I entered the building until hours after I left work, my head would ache. By Thursday, my sinuses hurt and my head was throbbing," said Susan Polster, whose office is in the SAC. She advises The Eagle newspaper staff, whose lab is located in the building. "I watched two maintenance people pump water and raw sewage out of the manhole in front of the SAC building, Thursday, and into the sewer line located in the middle of the grassy area between the theater and Reeves Building," she said. By Friday, the smell was still lingering and Robbin Snow, The Eagle Station manager; Linda Davis and Debbie Prichard, cosmetology instructors, as well as Jan Thornton and Tammie Pantelakis from the counseling office, all reported headaches and sinus issues. Prichard, Davis and Pantelakis are both getting nose bleeds with Prichard and Polster continuing to have headache symptoms throughout the weekend. Thornton missed work the following Monday. Many of Prichard's students experienced the same problems as the employees in the building. Jason Llewelyn, Carbon County Emergency Services and Homeland Security director, tested the quality of the air in the SAC building. He told the residents the gas level was low and the sewer gases would affect the olfactory nerves of the nose for 1015 minutes upon entering the building. The sewer gases are not life-threatening, Llewelyn said. USU-CEU biology and chemistry instructor Jon Krum said, "Sewer gases are typically derived from raw sewage ... poop. They are toxic. I do not recommend breathing them for long periods of time." Because of the foul smell, Prichard cancelled her cosmetology class for four days. She is worried about the health problems associated with the origin of the smell. Her three adjuncts all called in sick with headache, sinus and dizziness problems. Snow planned to put out the mail in the post office, but not stay once it was out. She closed the post office for three days. The Health and Wellness Center closed Nov. 3 and 4. Thornton did not allow her part-time employees to come in for a few days because she did not want them to get sick. Prichard and Davis said they are concerned because if the air is toxic, they have two pregnant students in their program breathing it daily. In an e-mail to Polster on Nov. 1, Sheila Burghardt, USU-CEU maintenance supervisor, wrote, "The problem in the SAC is a continuous one. The structural integrity of the building is failing as can be seen by the uneven floors and door frames." Burghart said: "In addition, the service systems, HVAC, plumbing and electrical are compromised by the movement of the building. The recent incident was caused by a slight drip coming from the restroom in the north hall. The drip was at a point where one pipe connected to another and the movement of the building caused the connection to shift. Keep in mind the construction material in the basement part of the building is over 70 years old and the underground water in the dirt crawl space cause most of the old smell." Dean of Students Alex Herzog has received complaints about the air in the SAC by students. He said: "A number of students have complained to my office that the stench in the SAC building is unbearable the past week, thus making for an intolerable learning environment. I personally have found the SAC building to have an irritating odor at times, so it is of no surprise to me that there may be a problem." Habit: Center hopes to cure some smokers of their habit I continued from page 1 homes. More than 443,000 Americans — 18 percent of all deaths — die because of smoking each year, and that number is expected to escalate. Worldwide, smoking is on pace to kill 6.5 million people in 2015 and 8.3 million more in 2030, with the biggest rise in low-and middle-income countries, Barfuss said. While the event offers assistance to a group that lost 5.4 million people last year due to tobacco usage, several students are unaware of such a day, or that it is being recognized at their school. Junior geology major Heather Sparrow said she knows near 20 friends that smoke, and estimated perhaps one-third of them desire to quit the habit, but doubts that the Smokeout can be the answer. "I think it's good to raise awareness, but I don't know if it will help because you have to have that personal desire, and be willing to work for it," she said. However, according to previous Smokeout history, as many as one-third of the nation's 46-plus million users could be taking the day off from lighting up, according to www.quitsmoking.com . Christina Wittwer, a mechanical engineering major, said she does believe the day is beneficial to helping smokers, even though she does not know if any of her five or so estimated friends want to kick At noon on Friday, Nov. 19, USU environmental engineering graduate students will be hosting a "Big Squat on the Quad" to bring awareness to the 2.5 billion people in the world without any form of sanitation. This event is part of "World Toilet Day" sponsored by the World Toilet Organization and participants will be joining sanitation advocates around the world for this first ever Big Squat event in Utah. Ryan Dupont, a professor of environmental engineering, will give some remarks and then participants will join with people all over the world to squat for one minute to bring recognition to 40 percent of the world's people who are still waiting for their right to a safe toilet and clean water to be realized. "The Big Squat" is a movement for the 2.5 billion toilet less people and participants will mimic a pose which nearly 40 percent of the population do everyday when they openly defecate. This movement puts a spotlight on the current sanitation crisis that many are ignorant of or too shy to talk about in hope to generate awareness and accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goal on Water and Sanitation. Sanitation is vital for human health and contributes to dignity and social development. the habit. "If it's something they would be (willing) to hear about, it would be beneficial for them," said the freshman. Wittwer said though she now knows about the Smokeout, she would still be nervous to tell her friends for fear of offending them. Senior Chris Saunders had not heard of the day either, and said he did not personally know any smokers, but thought the Smokeout was a great idea, as long as the smokers were open for suggestions to walk away from the addiction. "If people want help, then it's good to (seek) help," he said. The purpose of the booths on campus are only to reach out to those who are willing to hear the advice, said Karinne Van Wagoner, a senior in community health education who collaborated with Barfuss in organizing the event. "Some people think it isn't any of our business to help people quit smoking. We are not forcing people into anything, just raising awareness that we are a resource for those that may decide to quit," said Van Wagoner, who worked alongside fellow Wellness Center intern Ashlee Cannon in preparation for the day's events. "We are non-confrontational so whoever wants to quit smoking can. They will be the ones who receive the information and help if they want to," Barfuss said. The Great American Smokeout event grew out of a 1971 event in Massachusetts, in which state citizens were asked to give up cigarettes for a day and donate the money they would have spent on cigarettes to a high school scholarship fund. In 1974, Lynn R. Smith, a newspaper editor in Minnesota, was the catalyst for the state's first D-Day, or Don't Smoke Day. Within the next two years, the idea caught fire. On Nov. 18, 1976, the California Division of the American Cancer Society succeeded in getting nearly one million smokers to quit for the day. The first national Great American Smokeout was held in 1977 with the sponsorship of the American Cancer Society, who still backs the Smokeout today. There are several important objectives meant to be accomplished by the Smokeout, Van Wagoner said. "We hope that smokers will commit to quit for the whole day of the Smokeout, and that they will utilize the Wellness Center for the resources we have to help them quit smoking," she said. "I personally enjoy ... providing people with the tools to make their lives healthier." PR student receives national award USU public relations senior Natalie Curtis was selected as the recipient of a coveted scholarship for PR students. Winners of the Betsy Plank scholarship were presented at the annual awards ceremonies during the PRSSA 2010 National Conference in Washington, D.C., in October. Curtis received a check for $750 and a silver mug engraved with her name and the award, named for longtime "matriarch" of the national Public Relations Society of America Betsy Plank, who died in May. "It's a great feeling to get national recognition and especially to put Utah State on the map for our public relations program," said Curtis, a senior in USU's Journalism and Communication Department. "I was so surprised when I got the phone call." Candidates for the award were selected based on four criteria of academic achievement in public relations and overall studies, demonstrated leadership, practical experience and commitment to public relations. Curtis has accepted a marketing job with Obelis European in Brussels, starting in June. "I decided to accept the position to gain international experience and I've always wanted to live abroad," she said. Course removes points from driving record The Utah Safety Council is now offering a four-hour defensive driving course for individuals in the Logan area. The courses will take place on Saturday, Dec. 4 and 18, at the Sheriff's Complex second floor from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. The four-hour course consists of classroom instruction and focuses on accident prevention, driving confidence, awareness of hazards and improving driving skills. Drivers may complete the course for a 50-point reduction from their Utah driving record, once every three years. Individuals 55 years of age and older, may qualify for insurance discounts after completing the course. Registration is $40 per person, or $10 for those age 55 and over that are only seeking a reduction in their insurance rate. For additional information or to register, please contact the Utah Safety Council at 800-9335943 or visit www.utahsafetycouncil. org. 11 Co mp ile d from staff and media reports |