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Show . - " V'-'S features Meet this year's Signpost staff, page 1 0. news Former WSU student mascot Malt Maw who was injured last year will receive an honor this Thursday , page 16. rind out about Wildcat Football's plans against Western Stale College Thursday night, page 14. Volume 63 Issue 1 0 Wednesday, August 30, 2000 r 1 1 1 .. .,. , 41 The IGNPOST w B R T A T U N V R T Y Lira sQonaflcgntiG SGSDflS Q0DE7 OHOD By Wes Hanna campus affairs editor The Signpost Two student senators stepped down from their positions before the first senate meeting Monday. Jose Ruano, the senator for Latino Chicano Hispanic Students, and Jonathan Hartsgrove, the senator for education, cited personal reasons for stepping down. Hartsgrove said that he resigned because he no longer needed the tuition waiver that the position provided. He also said that he is working with members of his area council who are interested in filling the education seat. Each senator has an area council of interested students who volunteer comment into the legislative process at Weber State University. Ruano was not available to comment on his resignation. Mandy Medina, coordinator for student government, said that applications to replace the senators are being accepted immediately and she hopes to fill the positions as soon as possible. One of the concerns that Medina expressed is the planning of the Latino Chicano Hispanic Emphasis week, that occurs the 6th week of fall semester. Senators become more PC Two senators introduced legislation on Monday to' change the names of their positions. David Moses changed the name of his seat from Black Student Senator to African American Stu dent Senator after polling several students from his constituency. Charles Kano changed his position's name from Asian Pacific Islander Student Senator to Asian Polynesian American Student Senator after attending a conference on Asian issues. The senate will vote on these changes in two weeks because of the Labor Day holiday. Online deals take time to find By Tanna Barry managing editor The Signpost With the costs of tuition and fees continually rising, many students are struggling to find ways to save money during their college experience. Many of them have turned to book bargain hunting, often using the powerful world of the Internet to cut the costs. "Books at the bookstore seem so expensive." said Katrina Elggren. a Weber State University junior. "There has got to be a cheaper way." Elggren is one such student who is using the Internet to find less expensive books and compare prices. This search isn't frowned upon by the bookstore management, either. Scott Mickelson. assistant bookstore manager, encourages people to look online and compare prices. However, he reminds students not to forget the costs of shipping and handling. "You need to compare apples and apples." Mickelson said. "And look at the total transaction price. You need to compare everything." In addition. Mickelson said students should look at non-monetary issues such as convenience, customer service and the ease of returning and exchanging books. Putting the retailers to the test Tlw Signpost found three students at WSU. took their schedules and compared the WSU Bookstore prices of new books to both ecampus.com and varsilybooks.com. Elggren. one of the students selected, is working to get a bachelor of integrated studies degree with an emphasis in nutrition as the emphasis. She had her first experience with shopping online this year. "It took a little bit of time." Elggren said. "But one of my books was cheaper online." In fact, the book for her Nutrition 2320. "Nutrition Throughout the Life Cycle." cost S6 1 .80 at ecampus.com and $67.66 at varsitybooks.com for the new book price. Both prices are cheaper than the bookstore's price of $68.65. Another " - , " . - f ' f i : r. - it 1 ' ) r Jake Shoff, a Weber State University student, is trying to find his last book for this semester's classes. one of her books was also cheaper online (see chart). Elggren said she also thinks the bookstore is convenient and easy to use, but she is looking for ways to save money. "Shopping online is far better if you can save some money," Elggren said. Elggren plans to continue comparing prices each semester. "It's not really too much time to compare." she added. "I'm going to start looking more closely at the prices." This is exactly what some of the online retailers want students to do. Sam Heitner, communications director with varsitybooks.com. said, "We understand the advantages that bookstores have because they're on campus. But we offer choice and competition to bookstores." Heitner said that online bookstores are another alternative that can be cheaper than the bookstore on campus. "In most cases, we have all the books and beat the campus price." Heitner said. The Signpost found Heitner's statement See Deals page 4 WSU student journalist wins national award By Mark Cray news editor The Signpost Anyone who has been around Leo Dirr for any matter of time knows he's animated and colorful about nearly everything. When it comes to Dirr's recent award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the largest organization of journalists in the world, he pulls a complete 180 and turns into a soft-spoken, modest human being. Dirr recently received the Mark of Excellence Award for best general news reporting in his article "Election Declared Invalid," an article about the much publicized voided online election of 1999 in which social security numbers of Weber State University students were stolen and later used to cast fraudulent votes. "It's an honor to be recognized in that way but I'm still nowhere close to where I want to be," said Dirr, a journalism student at WSU and special assignments editor for The Signpost. "I find the award encouraging, but I still want to improve myself a lot more." The judging criteria for the contest depended on readability, effectiveness of interpretation, accuracy and completeness, enterprise, style and resourcefulness of the reporter in overcoming obstacles and interest. The judges saw something in Dirr's writing that some of his colleagues saw long ago. "He's one of the best writers I've ever known." said Angie Welling, the 1999-200C editor in chief of The Signpost. Weiling and Sheree Josephson. the adviser to Vie Sign post, sent Dirr's articles to the nationally respected organization. "He has a really big passion for doing what's right ." Welling added. The award was a wonderful ending tc an issue that Dirr fought so hard for. When the election frau ook place there was an immediate story wr n about it. Several follow-up stories wouK oon follow. Din still wasn't satisfied ith hi-access to things th . he b be known to the s ident t tempts to gair ved, needed tc WSU. namely See Jc ;rnalist page 4 |