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Show W E B E R Full coverage of Saturday's game see page 5 S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y Signpost MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2005 Series examines political careers see page 6 wsusignpost.com VOLUME 68 ISSUE 47 No more pay phones on campus Courtesy, emergency phones remain By Cory Duclos asst. news editor | Thv Signpost Black triangles denote emergency phone locations, meant only for 911-like situations. Reaching out to touch someone may not be as easy these days. Weber State University has seen a dip in the use of pay phones, causing the phones to be removed from campus. "The pay-phone company was not making money on any of them, so they decided to remove them," said Kyle Stoddard, WSU Telecommunication Services coordinator. WSU had to pay the phone company approximately $55 a month for each pay phone, but could generate revenue from their use. "They would charge the university X amount of dollars to have the pay phones in place," Stoddard said. "If the amount of revenue exceeded that, they would pay us back that much, but none of the pay phones were making any money, so it was in their best interest to remove them." According to Don Gardner, WSU chief information officer, the reason for the decrease in pay phone use is the increased use of cellular phones. "The pay phones belong to the people who own them, and they just were not profitable anymore because everybody's using cell phones," he said. Gardner said the national trend of increased cell phone use has cut into pay phone use everywhere. Even though pay phones have been removed, 40 courtesy phones are available throughout campus and 25 emergency-only phones are also available. Courtesy phones only costs about $17 a month to the university, so they are more cost effective than having an unprofitable pay phone. See Phones page 3 Student's film debuts at Wildcat Theater Wildcat slams By Nikki Garrett A&E sr. reporter | The Signpost Above: Taylee Case attempts to bowl a strike during the Pajama Jam Saturday night. The all-night party included dancing, bowling, pillowcase painting, Dance, Dance, Revolution, and other activities. The jam helped students have one last bash before the end-of-semester studying and cramming begin. Right: Weber State University guard/forward Coric Riggs goes for a lay up above Boise State University forward Tyler Tiedeman in Saturday's game. Riggs scored 10 points and had eight rebounds, but the 'Cats lost 66-74 against the Boise State Broncos. Earlier in the season, the WSU men's basketball team defeated Boise State on the Broncos' own court. The Wildcat season stands at 3-3. 9 Speaker seeks to crack Da Vinci Code By Blair Dee Hodges news edrtor| The Signpost While "The Da Vinci Code" is a good read, it's not accurate Christian history, a guest lecturer said Friday, The Scotland-born Stuart McAllister, who was in town on the invitation of the Washington Heights Baptist Church, spoke to nearly a hundred people Friday afternoon in the Wildcat Theater. Brad Bertelsen, area director for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, said he enjoyed his read of Dan Brown's best-selling fiction novel "The Da Vinci Code," but became concerned that it might create confusion about the authenticity of the New Testament and Jesus Christ. Bertelsen, in partnership with other WSU Christian organizations, invited McAllister to give a Christian viewpoint to Brown's book. "He addressed some of the questions that I thought the book totally raised - the deity of jesus, the reliability of the New Testament, the issues of sexuality - those were legitimate, key issues in the book that I felt the book didn't fairly represent," Bertelsen said. After spending time in sales and being a bouncer at a dance hall, McAllister converted to Christianity at age 21. He spent the next few decades traveling the globe distributing Christian literature, which he was imprisoned for in Yugoslavia. "I was able to encounter the KGB and the Czech secret police and various others over the years and got many opportunities to experience their , 'hospitality,'" McAllister said. Upon learning so many different points of view during his travels, McAllister said "The Da Vinci Code" has been published during an "age of suspicion," making it easy for people to view it as an expose", radier than a work of fiction T h e jacket of the book states: "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." "Many people would read that and say: 'Therefore, it's really an accurate, philosophical takedown of the subject matter because it's based on truth,'" McAllister said. "We have fiction as a vehicle for truth. The book talks about things that should be talked about; but without considering other sources it can be misleading." D e s p i t e disagreeing with some of the book's claims, McAllister triumphed Brown's right to write it, but said because it attempts to analyze Christianity, it should also be analyzed. See Crack paee 3 The Wildcat Theater hosted Saturday night the premiere of "Hero to Me," an independent film directed by Weber State University student Scott Halford to more than 150 viewers. The film was accepted to screen at the Hollywood DVD Festival next month. This screening raised money to produce the 20-minute "Hero to Me" into a feature-length film. "I just want to step up and make a production that feels like a real movie and show my skill and the skill of people who are helping and start being recognized as a filmmaker and start to make big budget movies," Halford said. Halford, who will walk in December with a bachelor of independent studies degree in multimedia, business systems and technical sales, has been involved with 30 short films in the last four years. "This is my first post-college movie," Halford said. The film is about a man who needs a wheelchair after he is beaten while saving a woman's life. The story follows the character's frustration at not being able to do the things he used to do and his realization of what a hero really is. "I got teary-eyed a couple of times," said Penny Hanzlik, whose son was an extra in the film, after watching "Hero to Me." Written by Halford and co-producers j.D. Sherwood and Ryan Pearce, the story is not entirely fiction. Pearce, who graduated from WSU in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in musical education and communication, came up with the story idea based on his personal experience about four years ago. "A lot of it is embellished," Pearce said. "This is one way to fight back from my injury to my feet." Pearce's injuries caused the nerves in his feet to become pinched between the metatarsals, which makes walking a painful experience. "I'm not an invalid," Pearce said. "I can still walk; it's just harder now." Also shown was "Ignoble," an original piece directed by Murray Triplett, who wrote the script and produced and directed the film. Triplett graduated from Salt Lake Community College with an associate's degree in visual arts. "1 was talking to some actors about this idea I had and they said 'Oh, I want to do it,' and I hadn't written it yet, so I basically wrote the parts for the actors," Triplett said. The story follows two medieval priests who hire a legendary soldier, Derricker the Great, to obtain a relic that is supposed to help them win a battle. Derricker leaves with 50 men and returns with only three. They are ambushed by marauders and must return through a mountain pass where they face a supernatural evil in order to safeguard the relic. See Debuts page 3 |