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Show Tuesday, March 6, 2012 THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice Since 1890 www.dailyutahchronicle.com Vol. 121 No. 98 ©2012 ACADEMIC SENATE Comm Dept to be revamped n DEGREE CHANGES Speech and Mass Comm majors combined, ASL Teaching eliminated, mechanical engineering gets focus Lindsey Wilbur speech communication majors. The Senate passed the proposal presented by Robert Avery, communication department chairman. "This is a proposal that is 4o years in the making," Avery said. "Virtually ioo percent of the students if you ask them 'what is your degree in?' will say 'communication.' Often they are surprised STAFF WRITER Numerous changes to the degrees offered at the U will go into effect as a result of yesterday's Academic Senate meeting. Degrees amended through Senate proposals included combining the mass communication and when their diploma specifies mass communication or speech communication." Avery argued in favor of his proposal by informing the Senate that none of the classes offered through the Communication Department will be eliminated. However, some of the current classes will be updated. An example included in the proposal is Introduction to Mass See KIMBERLY ROACH The Daily Utah Chronicle The senate passed legislation to combine mass communication and speech communication into one major. They also voted to remove the ASL teaching major. DEGREES Page 3 Magazine pushes science students to write creatively Megan Gessel STAFF WRITER Magazines aren't usually found on trees, but for staff members of The Sponge, it's just another day. The student group, which publishes a literary magazine written each semester by and for science and engineering majors, tied copies to a tree by the Warnock Engineering Building to advertise in December, embodying the creativity central to the publication. Nick Nolta, a doctoral student in bioengineering and the publication's editor-in-chief, said the magazine offers traditional science students a creative outlet and a unique opportunity. "It's just really different and fun and unexpected," he said. "All these science people always have really technical papers and classes ... but we all have an appreciation for some kind of art and writing and this gives us a way to express that and appreci- ate ... others' amateur efforts." Nolta said the name of the magazine reflects its purpose of being inclusive and unique. "The idea is that we soak up whatever content people want to send us ... we're hydrated by the diverse interests [of science students]," he said. The idea for The Sponge emerged when he was in a meeting for the bioengineering Graduate Student Advisory Committee and creative ideas were invited, Nolta said. "A lot of people had some really great feedback and that encouraged me," he said. Bioengineering professor Richard Rabbitt allocated funding from the department for the first issue, which received fewer than a dozen submissions and printed in Fall 2010. The group then looked into publishing online only to save See SPONGE Page 4 Shooting skills ASUU elections Voting opens at Union, HC, and library Marjorie Clark STAFF WRITER Two months of campaigning came to an end today as voting for the new ASUU student government begins. "We had about 4,200 students vote last year," said Bryce Williams, elections registrar for ASUU. "That's only 14 percent of the student body." ASUU spent $1.5 million of student fees last year and its members would like to see more student input on programs and deciding how money is spent, said Andrew Davis, a senior in political science and campaign manager for VOTING BEGINS the Open Party. "We need to take ad• Voting opens 7 a.m. vantage of the demotoday and closes 10 cratic process and dep.m. Wednesday. cide who is going to • Only students, both spend our money," he undergraduate and said. "I would like to graduate, can vote see more side-by-side You vote by logging marketing from ASUU. I think the videos are a into CIS and clicking good start, but I would the voting tab. like to see more money Winners will be anleft for advertising." nounced March 8 on Some students don't the Union Patio. vote because they aren't aware of campaign platRead an in depth interview forms. "I'm uninformed, what of the candidates: www.daiare the issues?" said Ben lyutahchronicle.com/news/ Nelson, a junior in com- campus/asuu-candidates puter science. He said he probably won't vote. ASUU ran the Run, Vote, Engage campaign this year to generate interest in student government elections. The campaign included online videos produced by ASUU telling students why they should be involved in student government and about the voting process, Williams said. Posters were also around campus to help students become more aware of the election. Some students said the issues need to be better advertised to ensure that they vote based - ROTC COMPETITION Cadets from five Utah colleges gather to compete in hopes of winning a German military award >) 5 ERIN BURNS/The Daily Utah Chronicle U Cadet Joe HerrNeckar fires a 9mm pistol Friday at the Hobble Creek Shooting Range. Participants had to hit the target with five out of five rounds in order to qualify for the gold badge. Historian: Rock climbing culture becomes lonely Megan Gessel STAFF WRITER The focal dynamic of rock climbing has shifted from social to individualistic, said an environmental historian at a lecture at the Marriott Library on Monday. "Climbing Alone: The Estranging Trend in Outdoor Sports" focused on the relationships between people, nature, technology and how modern climbing culture has evolved as a result. "What we find consistently through time is that this is a sport in which more people seem to be running away from society to nature, and the only way to understand them in nature or society is through the relationships," said Jay Taylor, a published historian and professor at Simon Frasier University in Vancouver, British Columbia. "Outdoor play requires a broader perspective. We need to take [it] seriously because civilization and nature have always been tangled." Taylor began his presentation See CLIMBING Page 4 See VOTING Page 3 Scientist develops brain interface Ainsley Cook STAFF WRITER Miniscule devices implanted into your brain could help treat diseases such as blindness and deafness. Dr. Kensall Wise, a professor at the University of Michigan, spoke about his neural interfaces project Thursday. His team is building an electronic interface to the brain. Wise is the founder of the Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated Systems and the director of the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility and the Solid-State Electronics Laboratory at Michigan. He is working on a neural interface project. "The brain uses neurons, circuitry uses electrodes. I want to meld these two systems together," Wise said. Wise wants to use this study to treat disorders in the brain to create a functioning neural system. This opens the door for neuroprostheses, silicon-based neuroprobes that can substitute for neural systems such as motor, sensory or cognitive modalities that are damaged from injury or disease. Wise referenced cochlear im- LARON WILSON/The Daily Utah Chronicle Dr. Kensall Wise describes the neural implants he uses to treat diseases during a lecture at the Molecular Biotechnology Building on Monday. plants, a form of neuroprosthetics. He said neuroprosthetics can also be used to treat glaucoma, blindness and deafness. "I think so far this project has been successful. We're just on the edge of See INTERFACE Page 4 "We're almost ready to spark a revolution in prostheses." DR. KENSALL WISE |