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Show W E B E R U N I V E R S I T Y Signpost Golf team in full swing see page 8 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2006 NEWS BRIEFS S T A T E Vegas fun for underagers see page 6 wsusignpost.com VOLUME 68 ISSUE 69 Cravens benched Student senate Panel to discuss suicide remembers Elton The Social Work Department is sponsoring a suicide awareness and prevention seminar today at noon in the Shepherd Union Building Wildcat Theater. A five-member panel will discuss the signs a suicidal person exhibits and explain how to help someone who is threatening to commit suicide. By Nate Bringhurst campus affairs editor This week the Weber State University Student Association Student Senate meeting started and ended in the same way-with a moment of silence. The first moment of silence is a normal procedure among the student senators. They use this moment of silence to reflect on their duty and responsibilities associated with their calling. It is a tradition practiced in many organizations. The second was for fellow Weber State University student, Raechele Elton. Elton was raped then stabbed to death at the hands of a young man she was trying to help. Elton, 21, was a criminal justice major and expected to graduate this December. She worked at a youth independent living home in Clearfield. Ryan Starks, WSU Student Association president, attended Election packets due today Weber State University Student Association elections packets are due today at 4 p.m. in the Student Association office Room 250 in the Shepherd Union Building. AsofTuesdayJour students had submitted packets, but the .office has given out hundreds of them. Wildcats United is the only registered party. Weber State University hosts faculty forum Faculty members will display their work at the second annual faculty forum, "A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Activities" on March 2 in the Shepherd Union Building. Posters, papers and performances will be presented from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. All seven colleges will be represented. F.AnnMillner.WSU president, and Michael Vaughan, WSU provost, will speak at the ceremony. Faculty, staff, students and the general public are invited to attend. For a complete list of the presentation schedule, visit faculty.weber.edu/forum. WSU sponsors conference for women A series of presentations and workshops will be held Saturday, March 11 from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. during the Aspire Higher in the Game of Life conference. The conference costs $10 per person. The topics for discussion include leadership, dating and relationships, scholarships and financial aid, time-management and creating a home-based business. The seminars are . designed for women of all ages. Women in attendance will have the opportunity to win a $500 scholarship. Poet, playwright and actor Carol Lynn Pearson will be the keynote speaker. She will perform her onewoman play "Mother Wove the Morning" Saturday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Shepherd Union Building Wildcat Theater. The price of admission is $10. A free reception will be held Friday, March 10 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Universe City Gallery, 2556 Washington Blvd., Ogden. The conference is sponsored by eight organizations, including WSU's Services for Women Students, Women's Studies, and the WSU Student Association. For more information or to register for the conference, call 626-6090. The Signpost Joe Cravens yells at a referee during a men's basketball game earlier this season. Cravens was released from his duties as head coach of the basketball team Monday after coaching two back-to-back losing seasons. He has two years left on his contract and will be offered another position within Wildcat Athletics. Cravens out after second losing season then seven straight losses, four straight wins and ending with four straight losses. The roller coaster After two consecutive losing of emotions and success meant seasons, and a last-place finish the Wildcats did not make the Big in the Big Sky Conference, Weber Sky tournament for the first time State University men's basketball since 1981. Head Coach Joe Cravens was But consistency wasn't always released from his duties Monday a problem for Cravens. The morning, along with much of his 2002-2003 season will never be coaching staff. forgotten. In that season he led Although many factors are the Wildcats to a Big Sky title, involved in the decision of letting a perfect record in Big Sky play a coach go, WSU Athletic Director and he was named Coach of the Jerry Graybeal said that it was just Year. He will also be remembered this final weekend of play that for being a part of the infamous added "finality" to the decision. upset over the University of North "As a coach you strive for Carolina in the first round of the consistency, and you strive for 1999 NCAA tournament. winning - that's the bottom line," Former Weber State center Graybeal said. "As coaches, you try Joey Haws was a part of the 1999 to win all of the time, but there team and said Cravens played a is a mark of consistency that can significant part in that game as provide stability. Unfortunately, the assistant coach. in the last couple years we haven't "He played a major role in maintained that." putting a game plan together Consistency was especially a - the defenses, the scouting," factor in this last season as the Haws said. 'As an assistant coach I Wildcats started off the season respected him greatly because he winning five straight games, never got out of line." then losing six straight games, Haws was at the coaches' followed by three straight wins, luncheon on Monday where the By Jon McBride sports editor | The Signpost announcement was made. He said it was the first time he had been to the luncheon in two years; he just decided to go on that specific day, not knowing there were any plans for an announcement. He was visiting with some acquaintances and was shocked at the news. "It's a tough situation, it's a tough business to be in and in sports in general, college or pro, you've got to win, that's the bottom line," Haws said. Sean Moore was another former player of Cravens in 1999. He said it was sad hearing the news but said even with the bottom line of winning, he has taken away from the game more than that. "After you're around basketball for a while you kind of forget the wins and losses you had with guys, but you always remember the relationships you build," Moore said. Cravens' relationship with Moore affected him a great deal. Moore is now the head basketball coach at St. Joseph High School in Ogden. Moore said Cravens is See Cravens page 9 Elton's funeral services. "It's a very sad situation," Starks said. "I think it would be very appropriate for the senate to be mindful of her and her family the next few weeks." Starks also wants to make sure the student senate is mindful of forthcoming students and faculty members who pass away. "I think it would be a good idea for one of the senators to come up with some type of change to either the policies or bylaws," Starks said. "And enforce the senate to take a moment of silence and maybe have a brief overview of any student or faculty member who passes away." This week the Hispanic Area Council will continue holding their Hispanic emphasis week. On Thursday, March 2 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. all students are invited to come to the diversity See Senate page 3 Do-gooders do spring break nation and we have a good time giving back to the community and experience something new." With three other universities, the With spring break fast group plans to build six houses for six approaching, many students are families in the area during the week. planning vacations to southern "A great tiling about Habitat for Utah and elsewhere. Weber State Humanity is that the families, or University's Volunteer Involvement the owners who are going to have Program offers students more, with the house, have to put a certain an alternative to the typical spring amount of time and effort into it as break vacation. well," Fessler said. "They come on "Alternative Spring Break is an the weekends and after work. So it's opportunity for students at Weber not just a giveaway, they have to put State to take a vacation and volunteer some effort into it as well." at the same time," said Blake Fessler, Fessler said the Volunteer Alternative Spring Break chairman. "We sign up with an organization Involvement Program will plan to charter a bus from Weber and do volunteer work." For the last few years, Alternative State to keep the cost of the trip Spring Break has joined forces to a minimum, and the group with Habitat for Humanity to build will be accommodated at a local homes for low-income families in church. The $100 cost includes various areas. Habitat for Humanity transportation, housing and food. International is a nonprofit housing "I don't know if there's any spring program with a goal to eliminate break trip that you could go on for poverty housing and homelessness $100 and have everything provided from the world. Past trips with for you," Fessler said. "A lot of people Habitat for Humanity have been to have already been to St. George and San Fernando, Calif.; Spokane, Wash.; done die whole spring break tiling, and Albuquerque, NM. This year the and been there and done that. They group is going to Oakland, Calif. should come and give this a try." "We work four out of the five Fessler said that there would be days from about 8 in the morning a lot of free time in which students to about 4 in the afternoon," Fessler attending can visit various sites said. "We build houses with other See Break page 5 university students from across the By Brad Fidler sr. news reporter | The Signpost A view of the Green River as it runs through Dinosaur National Monument. The monument is located near Vernal, Utah and bridges the border to Colorado. The two major rivers that flow through the monument, the Green River and the Yampa River, are threatened by exotic species, controlled burning and other forms of human intervention, according to Hal Crimmel, WSU English professor and Dinosaur National Monument researcher. WSU professor shares views on Dinosaur National Monument's Green, Yampa rivers By Jason Staley monument. Crimmels appreciation for the national monument began because of his love for rivers English professor Hal Crimmel filled the and in trying to get to know Utah, he told the Weber State University Alumni Center Monday audience. The other thing that interested him with more than 50 audience members to about the place was that it was a cold desett hear his presentation "A Place of Rivers: The with an extreme temperature flux from 100 Canyons of Dinosaur National Monument." degrees Fahrenheit in the summer to minus Crimmel was February's Weber Flistorical 40 in the winter. Society speaker. Crimmel's presentation "It is not what most people think of when was about the importance, the history and you think of desert; it is cold desert," Crimmel the troubles of the rivers at the national said. "I said to mv friend Rex Burrow, 'Rex, I managing editor The Signpost have a desire to go to Mongolia (another cold desert).' He said, 'Hal, why would you want to go to Mongolia? Just go to Wyoming.'" Throughout the presentation, Crimmel tossed historical anecdotes about the area. Most of the stories were about the John Wesley Powell expedition down the Colorado River drainage. Other stories included outlaws such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who hid in the area of Brown's park in Dinosaur National Monument. Outlaws hid out in (he area because it was close to three states, so if the local law enforcement was after the outlaws, the outlaws could slip into another state. "Brown's Dark was also attractive because the boundary between being an outlaw and a law-abiding citizen was kind of blurry," he said. "People had the habit of rounding up cows that may or may not have belonged to them and claiming them as their own." One of the main features of the presentation was Crimmels discussion of the effects human intervention has had on the monument's environment. According to the presentation, years offiresuppression created an environment where sagebrush has run rampant across some of the grasslands in the area. In addition to natural species getting out of sink thanks to the lack of fires, exotic species of plants (tamarisk) and animals (like See Dinosaur page 5 |
