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Show Mike Addams ponders scholarship discrimination Governor Herbert speaks atWSU , / • ; New student body president announced at WSU party By Thomas Alberts sr. news reporter I The Signpost A triumphant Lonald Wishom stood in front of a crowd of cheering Weber State University "cowboys" and "cowgirls" at the annual Cowboy Up dance on Friday night. The winners for the WSU Student Association officer elections were announced to a crowd in the ballrooms of the Shepherd Union Building. Wishom, a junior at WSU, is the first AfricanAmerican elected to the office of diversity vice president. Overall, the activities at theCowboy Up proved popular among students who attended, including the mechanical bull, which made its final appearance at WSU due to new state regulations. In the ballrooms, stomping boots and Jeopardy music led down to the announcement of By Ryan E. Nelson & ShayLynne Clark sr. news reporter, news editor I The Signpost See Eco page 6 AT A GLANCE EDITORIAL BUSINESS&SCIENCE CLASSIFIEDS WSUSA election results roll dice at 'Cowboy Up' Public officials inform students about environmental issues Gov. Gary Herbert came to Weber State University's campus on Friday as a keynote speaker for the second annual Intermountain Recycling and Sustainability Summit. Herbert's address focused on balancing economic growth and sustainability on planet Earth, and concluded with an open meeting of the Utah Recycling Alliance. The goal of the summit was to educate the public regarding recycling and sustainability issues, exchange ideas on best practices, and promote innovative ways intermountain west communities are reducing their carbon footprint. "It's been a really diverse attendance," said Bridget Stuchly, the Salt Lake City Sustainability Division Outreach coordinator, "with students'as well as businesses and government agencies, and it seems like one of the most beneficial things coming out of it is creating networks and partnerships, and a lot of students or residents who have come here have had a lot of questions about how they do recycling in their community." This is the second annual summit, built on last year's summit, with scheduled presentations and breakout sessions, including discussions on recycling and sustainability, glass recycling, renewable energy programs and environmental issues associated with recycling pharmaceutical products: "So I think there is a great educational opportunity here, as well as networking to make those partnerships that are going to help create and sustain recycling programs," Stuchly said. Last year's summit brought about 70 participants to the organization, and this year there were more than 250 attendees Libya troubles cause issue at U.S. gas pumps ...page 4 PHOTO BY NATHAN CAULFORD See Cowboy page 6 \ Above left: WSU students enjoy the casino portion of the Cowboy Up party on Friday. Above right: WSUSA's new student body president, Kyle Braithwaite, will be sworn in as student body president later this semester. By ShayLynne Clark •news editor I The Signpost On Feb. 25 and 26, students involved in the Weber State University Collegiate DECA Club took more first-place awards at the state career development conference than any other university. WSU has participated in these competitions before, but never with such a successful outcome. "Nearly every university in Utah had students in attendance," said Seth Dickison, a WSU senior and state president of Collegiate DECA. Collegiate DECA is a nationwide club. that focuses on marketing, business and entrepreneurship, offering participants real-world experience in the business world. Currently, ^SU is the only college in the state that offers a DECA class in addition to the club. . "Collegiate DECA is a lot like the college version of the Chamber of Commerce," Dickison said. "The Chamber of Commerce is a group of companies that come together and are interested in legislative things impacting the community, building each other's business, through networking, and that is what DECA is for the college atmosphere." Every year, Collegiate DECA holds two Competitions: a statewide and a nationwide competition. Each competition includes challenges such as business simulation, case studies and prepared events. The statewide competition offers 20 categories to compete in; WSU competed in 16 of them and brought back nine first-place See DECA page 6 Utah House and Senate put restrictions on open government _V Fridays legislative session stirred strong reactions from media and open-government supporters when the tJtah Legislature pushed through HB477. The bill, which will go into effect immediately if approved by the governor, restricts what public record Utahns previously had access to. ^ :^5^i Along with providing spe-' cial privacies to legislature, the bill allows public agencies to charge more than before to obtain public records and limits which documents, like text messages and video conferences, are now classified as public. Despite lawmakers' claims that the changes would keep private exchanges of information out of the hands of the media, the current law works to omit private information when a request is made to see e-mails or other popular modes of communication. One of the more controversial points Of the bill was the speed with which it was introduced through committee and passed in both the House and Senate. In less than 48 hours, the bill was sent to the governor's desk in what the legislature admitted was a move to avoid public scrutiny and a sudden influx of requests for public records. Now HB477 is awaiting Herbert's final decision; he might still choose to veto the bill and send it back to the legislative level. Th'e governor said he would treat the matter with care, but as the final step for the bill, supporters for open government remain on edge. Forbes ranks Salt Lake City as one of nation's most toxic cities Inversion continues to be a topic Utahns can't.shake as a new reportfromForbes Magazine ranked Salt Lake City as the ninth most toxic city in the nation, due to its air and water quality and chemical emissions. The report took U.S. Census data and looked at the nation's 80 largest metropolitan areas. Salt Lake City had the highest ranking for chemical emissions as reported by the EPA. Rankings like Forte'-are used by developers when they scope out new areas for growth. In Utah's case, reports like Forbes' have the potential to cut the state off from "greener" companies. 2 3 4 5 |