OCR Text |
Show Friday, April 18,2008 THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE T h e U n i v e r s i t y o fU t a h ' s I n d e p e n d e n t S t u d e n t Voice S i n c e 1 8 9o Vol. 117 No. 162 ©2008 200 S. chaos Beats the Bookstore Ana Breton ASST. NEWS EDITOR Bucks4Books opened this week with a sign that promised students a "refreshing" new experience in textbook buying. However, because the bookstore opened in the 1330 E. 200 South spot where a branch of Beat the Bookstore Inc. used to be, the new business might have to work to clear the negative baggage that comes with its location. Beat the Bookstore has been in turmoil since the franchise near the U closed without warning in October. The owner of that independent store closed its doors without telling its corporate headquarters or customers, leaving many U students who purchased books there without the credit they were owed. The store's owner, Zachary Neipp, hasn't been in contact with Beat the Bookstore's headquarters since he closed the store six months ago, and his attorney, Steve Chambers, hasn't heard from him since December. David Monk, the co-founder and president of Beat the Bookstore, resigned in February to the surprise of his staff members, and Beat the Bookstore's corporate headquarters in Utah has since sold its assets to Next Stage Partners, a venture capital fund based in Delaware, said Jeffrey Thompson, the business' attorney. Phone numbers of the company have been disconnected, and records of students' store credits have yet to be obtained, as they might have been left with Neipp, said Martin Venturing the former corporate in marketing of Beat the Bookstore, in an earlier interview. Most recently, the Utah Division of Consumer Protection is taking Neipp to court to enforce a $10,000 fine against him. The division originally filed an administrative citation in December against The Atherton Group, the company that owned the franchise, but it was never paid. See BOOKSTORE Page 3 Employees Ronda Lynn and Mike Mason help Cindy Montgomary, a business student, sell back her books to the new Bucks4Books bookstore located on 1330 E. 200 South. Bucks4Books took over the location where the old Beat the Bookstore used to be. Course canceled after complaints Michael McFall STAFF WRITER About half of one section returned to learn the rest of the course material and turn in a few more homework assignments to help decide final grades. The other half chose not to return and was allowed to leave the course with a passing grade. "I have heard in the hallways of the school people bragging about how they 'beat the system'...the point of the class was to try and prepare for the real world," Gwilliam said on the course's WebCT discussion board. "I am not sure if the real world system can be beat." Some students had approached Don Wardell, chair of the management department, and told him that the class was too difficult and asked A business law class was canceled indefinitely after some students complained the workload was too difficult. Class officially ended last week for the 108 students enrolled in both sections of Management 3410, Business Law-Commercial. Regardless, some students requested that the classes continue and have attended the remaining sessions to hear out what the rest of the course could provide. "While the majority felt (the workload) was unfair, it was very mis representative of the minority," said Aaron Gwilliam, a senior majoring in business administration who returned to the course. See COURSE Page 3 Recycling program needs work Rochelle McConkie ASST. NEWS EDITOR Campus sustainability leaders said the U could have done better in this year's Recyclemania competition of colleges and universities nationwide, but they said the U did respectably in its premier year of organized recycling. Out of 400 universities, the U placed 84th for recycling paper and 139th for cardboard. "In the first year, overall we did well," said Taylor Couvreur, director of the Associated Students of the University of Utah Recycling and Sustainability Board. "There were a lot of universities competing, but our competitors smashed us." Brigham Young University and Utah State University beat the U in the semester-long competitions for recycled paper and cardboard. BYU placed 46th for paper and 56th for cardboard, and USU placed 75th for paper and 112th for cardboard. Both schools have more established recycling programs and collect more items, said Joshua James, recycling coordinator for plant operations at the U. He said BYU is a more campus-oriented university, and it's harder to recycle on a commuter campus like the U. The U collected an average of 5.39 lbs. of paper per person on campus and r.28 lbs. of cardboard per person. Director of Plant Operations Cory Higgins said students and faculty need to change their habits for the U to place higher in the competition. "We need to change behaviors, which takes time," Higgins said. Couvreur said the board didn't do enough to market the competition to students, and there was no big kickoff event at the beginning of the Spring Semester. Next year, the See RECYCLING Page 4 How much is the U recycling? Recycling since June 2007 •148,480 lbs. office pack (74 tons) •440,900 lbs. mixed paper (221 tons) •589,380 lbs. total paper (295 tons) Cardboard since July 2007 •159,100 lbs. (80 tons) Total landfill avoidance •748,480 lbs. of paper and cardboard waste were diverted from landfills (374 tons) Source: U Plant Operations New technology could speed computers Carlos Mayorga STAFF WRITER AARON SCHWENDIMAN/Wf Ooiif Utah Chrwdt Kamdem Thaddee, Physics major at the U, examines metal fragments on a computer screen that have been magnified by a microscope in the Department of Physics at the U. Researchers recently used this equipment to help harness terahertz radiation, and hope the research will lead to faster information systems. Super-fast computers that operate on farinfrared light rather than electricity could be developed in as few as 10 years, said a group of U engineers that developed circuits to guide the infrared light. Engineers explored the use of this infrared light, called terahertz radiation, which is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The researchers were able to create stainless steel foil sheets that served as waveguides to carry the terahertz radiation from one point to another. Terahertz radiation is the only part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is not used for communications and other such purposes. The electromagnetic spectrum ranges from high to low frequencies and includes gamma rays, Xrays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light (including terahertz radiation), microwaves, FM and AM radio waves and television. Ajay Nahata, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, along with doctoral students Wenqi Zhu and Amit Agrawal, conducted the year-long study on terahertz radiation. The use of terahertz radiation to speed up computers could lead to faster data transfers, such as the ability to download an entire movie in a matter of seconds. Today, there is not much of a need for super-fast speeds, but researchers conducted the study to address the technological needs of the future, Nahata said. "Looking into the technological needs of the future, there will be a need (for) it," he said. "Downloading movies takes time even with the high speeds of today. I don't see why people wouldn't want to have higher speeds." With this study, researchers took the first step in making this possible by making circuits with the ability to transfer terahertz radiation, which could make computers operate at speeds 1,000 times faster than computers of today. "We started on this last year, and at that time there were only a few experiments on this idea of building these wires," Zhu said. See RADIATION Page 4 Diversity board Father, son both to receive degrees on same day honors MEChA Lana Groves The ASUU Diversity Board recognized the student group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan with the first annual Activism and Social Justice Award. This award recognizes M.E.Ch.A for its excellence in community building, affirming positive identity and cultivation of leadership on campus and the Salt Lake community. "M.E.Ch.A is about social justice and education," said Luciano Marzulli, Latina/o Program Coordinator and M.E.Ch.A. adviser. "And on the way there, we're hoping to encourage Latino and Chicano students to attend higher education and give back to their communities." M.E.Ch.A began as. a national organization during the first civil rights See AWARD Page 4 STAFF WRITER Mark Menatti was 6 years old when he stood in a stadium watching his father graduate from California Polytech State University in San Luis Obispo. Twenty-three years later, he will be the one standing with the cap and gown ready to graduate. His father, John, will have worn the same cap and gown just five hours earlier. The father and son will both graduate from the U in May with master's degrees. "I held my son in 1980 when I graduated, and he said that looking at that pic- ture of us motivated him to go to college," John Menatti said. "We hope it'll have the same effect on my grandson." John Menatti didn't intend to graduate with his son. He started working on his Master of Science and Technology degree four years ago while working for the Department of Environmental Quality as a manager. "We just ended up finishing at the same time and thought it was really cool," Mark Menatti said. "It was something we discovered a while ago." See MENATTI Page 4 • ->. i,y.\- • .,:r. 1 \ 'I TYLER CQRWfhtOeTy Utah av&kk When John Menatti began working on his master's degree, he didn't know at the time that his son, Mark Menatti, would graduate the same day with an MBA of his own. |