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Show Mailei takes next . step to NFL WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY See page 6 Last Lecture' co-author in town Co-author to tell Pausch's story Zaslow shares his reflections on writing the book By Ryan Smeding correspondent I The Signpost By Jessica Schreifels editor-in-chief I The Signpost Jeffrey Zaslow said he remembers Randy Pausch being able to make him laugh. "He was a funny guy," he said in a telephone interview with The Signpost. "He was able to touch me just like he touched a lot of people." Zaslow spent hours on his cell phone talking with Pausch during the course of three months. The result of the 53 phone calls was one book: "The Last Lecture." The book, about overcoming obstacles and seizing every moment, sprang from a lecture Pausch, a computer science professor at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, gave at the university in September 2007. It is not unusual for professors to give IMAGES SOURCE: DAVIS EDUCATION FOUNDATION their hypothetical last lecture. They think When Randy Pausch (left) discovered he was dying of pancreatic cancer, he hesitantly about what parting words of wisdom they began to work with Jeffrey Zaslow (right) on writing a book. The book, inspired by would give to students and colleagues if Pausch's final lecture to his students at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, was it were the last lecture they would ever intended for his children. Zaslow will speak Thursday, Feb. 26 in Davis County. give. Only for Pausch, who was dying of didn't go to the lecture, but drove the 300 "From the first morning, I started pancreatic cancer, it truly was his last miles to Pittsburgh. getting e-mails from people who were lecture. Inhis lecture, he spoke not about "When I got there, I knew I had seen touched by Randy's message," he said. dying and of his cancer, but rather about Pausch was invited on "Good Morning something pretty astonishing," he said. "I the importance America" and "Oprah" after the lecture, didn't think it would of overcoming //... / knew I had seen touch the world, and and talk of a book about his life and his obstacles, of lecture were emerging. neither did Randy." "Randy wasn't sure he wanted to write enabling the something pretty After the lecture, a book," Zaslow said. "He was dying and Zaslow wrote his dreams of others, aastounding.' ^ , „ , # ; „ „ //• cf f he didn't want to take time away from his and seizing every column and four JHM _*-_.. .. . , moment. minutes.. of. video, .kids." • Zaslow, a Wall But Pausch agreed to the book, and were put on the Wall - Jeffrey Zaslow, Street journal columnist Street journal Web while he was riding his bicycle an hour columnist, site. The response a day to get his much-needed exercise was at that last to the lecture was to help with the cancer, he would call lecture. Because great, Zaslow said. Zaslow and share stories and ideas for his column talks about life transitions, People were sharing the video with one the book. Pausch's lecture seemed to be a good another, and word was spreading about idea for a column. Zaslow said he almost the inspirational lecture. See Zaslow page 5 Jeffery Zaslow, award-winning journalist and co-author of the nationally acclaimed bestseller "The Last Lecture," will be coming to Utah to give a public lecture tomorrow. A pre-lecture dinner will take place at the Davis Conference Center in Layton, where fans of the book can meet with each other and Zaslow. Following the dinner, the general lecture, titled "Life Transitions: Living From a Front-Row Seat," will take place at Northridge High School in Layton, in the main auditorium. "The Last Lecture" was inspired by Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. Pausch had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and was given the chance to truly give his last lecture. The lecture titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" embraced Pausch's love of life. Elaborating that his lecture wasn't about dying, but rather the importance of seizing the moment, overcoming obstacles and-enabling the dreams of others. Jeffery Zaslow was there and was inspired to write the book. "It's about overcoming adversity, turning to a positive outlook rather than a negative," said Brent Severe, Davis Education Foundation assistant director, See Pausch page 5 Senate proposes suspension other senators supported the creation of a Davis Campus vice president. "We wanted to keep student government from becoming By Spencer Gam the bill is not passed, the Davis two separate governments," correspondent I The Signpost Campus student director position Kofoed said, "meaning an would be replaced by the new, Ogden studentgovernmentand On Monday, a bill was student-elected vice president. A a Davis student government." Kofoed said he hopes the introduced to the Weber State vice president would take on many student senate will unite and University Student Senate that of the same responsibilities of "fix the problem before it would postpone the election of a the director and some additional becomes a problem." vice president for the WSU Davis ones as well. To compensate Several senators said they Campus indefinitely. for the greater workload, the felt the Davis Campus students Last year the senate passed a bill vice president would receive are not connected to*, the to include a vice president for the higher pay and a larger tuition Ogden Campus because the Davis Campus on the upcoming reimbursement. election ballet. At the time the Opponents of the bill believe present governing structure senate felt the new position would that . having a vice president does not support the necessary These help meet the needs of a growing serving the Davis Campus is an communication. student population attending the essential step in keeping the Davis senators said they worry that as the Davis Campus grows, these Davis campus. Although some and Ogden Campuses unified. 1 senators would still like to see a "As it stands right now," said communication breakdowns vice president elected for the next WSU Election Committee Chair will become more pronounced, school year, others believe the Mike Kofoed, "we're fairly unified, hurting the wellbeing of the funds should be spent elsewhere. but you can already see the cracks university as a whole. "If we continue on with the The proposed bill will be starting to form. legislation that is already in debated and voted upon next When Kofoed was serving place," saidWSU Davis Campus Monday at the Davis Campus. If as a senator last year he and Senator Victoria Thompson, "I think that we will find that this is a very good provision. It will help the Ogden Campus, and it will be good for everybody." Not every senator shares Thompson's position. Senator James Price, who proposed the new bill, said he agreed changes must be made to facilitate the growth of the Davis Campus, but argued that those actions would be premature and fiscally irresponsible. "Its time for us to be responsible," he said. "It's not time for us to increase our spending when everyone else is cutting back." Price said he would like to see the funds that have already PHOTO BY CHRISTA BOYD | THE SIGNPOST been allocated to support a Athletics Senator Todd Gilbert (center) stands to defend Health Professions Senator Jamey Price (on Gilbert's right). Price proposed a Davis vice president reabsorbed bill Monday that would suspend the election of a Davis Campus vice president. This would overturn a bill passed by the senate last year. See Senate page 5 Davis Campus senator position may not be in this year's budget News in Brief The Laramie Projeer plays this weekend ' The Weber State University Department of Performing Arts presents "The Laramie Project," directed by Tracy Callahan at 7:30 p.m. Feb 27, 28, and March 3-7 in the Val A. Browning Center Eccles Theater. The performance is heralded as the bestknown artistic reaction to the 1998 murder of openly gay university student Matthew Wayne Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. "The idea was to capture the emotions, reflections and reactions of the people who were most closely related to the crime," Callahan said. "Our objective in producing this play now at Weber State University is to explore the issues of homosexuality, religion, class, economics, education and non-traditional lifestyles by recreating in the form of social drama the residents' raw responses to the incident." Tickets are $5.50 for students, seniors and those with military ID, and $8.50 for others. • •. .• , Tuition-increase proposition meeting Weber State University is proposing to increase second-tier student tuition rates. The increase would range from 5-9 percent, which is $79-S142 per semester for a fulltime resident undergraduate student. The tuition increase would benefit program preservation, at rates of $1.5-$3.2 million, and benefits/compensation at rates of $300,000 to $800,000. > ^ ^ ^ ' All concerned students and citizens are invited to a public hearing on the proposed increase to be held in the Shepherd Union Building, Room 305 on Thursday, March 5 at 1 p.m. ' : v ' ^X;S Day for Deliberative Democracy March 4 Storytellers Oianne Farlatte and Tim Tingle are two of the featured storytellers who will attend this year's Storytelling Festival. Power of stories Storytelling Festival emphasizes benefits to elementary-aged students By Eric Turner correspondent The Signpost Nearly 100 national, regional and local storytellers and thousands of story lovers have been celebrating the art of storytelling since Monday morning at the 13th annual Weber State University Storytelling Festival. This year's celebration successfully started at Peery's Egyptian Theater and the David Eccles Conference Center by bringing more than 2,500 elementary school students to hear the stories and be entertained. Festival Director and Teacher Education Professor Ann Ellis said the WSU Storytelling Festival is the only storytelling festival in the nation that is hosted by a university. "Storytelling impacts reading skills tremendously," Ellis said. "It's not just fun and games, there's a lot of purpose behind it." The storytelling continued all day Monday and Tuesday with stories being told at several venues in downtown Ogden, schools in four different Weber and Davis county school districts, and in Elizabeth Hall at WSU. Planned and directed by WSU faculty members in the teacher education department, the festival is supported by WSU in many ways including partial funding. The funding from WSU and various other organizations and individuals in the community have made it possible for attendees to come to the festival this year free of charge. Even though all of the festival events are free, the directors of the festival spared no expense in bringing four of the most wellknown national storytellers to the festival, and according to some of the storytellers, the expenses are considerable. One of the performers, Randal McGee of Hanford, Calif., said his fee per each of his 11 40-minute performances is $400. He also said the festival must cover his travel and lodging expenses as well as a See Stories page 5 DeliberativeDemocracy Day is coming to Weber State University on Wednesday, March 4 , 2009. A panel discussion exploring Utah's immigration patterns is scheduled for 1 p.m. in Shepherd Union Ballroom B and is open to the public. Deliberative Democracy Day is a nationwide event taking place at 16 college campuses across the country, including WSU, and is based on the work by the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University. The center conducts research about democracy and public opinion, introducing the first deliberative polling project in 1988 at the University of Texas at Austin. ^ i ! ; The panel is scheduled to include experts Paul Mero from the Sutherland' Institute, Agnes Chiao from the United Way, Armando Solorzano from the University of Utah and Bill Evans, from the Utah Attorney General's Office. For more information, visit prbgrams.weber. edu/americandemocracy/ ddday.htm. |