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Show Track team sets school records UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Page 9 Logan, Utah»Campus Voice Since 1902 www.utahstatesman.com Monday, Jan. 22,2007 'Isotope' gets $5,000 grant Swimsuits BY DAVE EDWARDS Staff Writer MEMBERS OF THE SWAT TEAM jump into the Hyrum Reservoir Saturday morning. People jumping had to raise donations of at least $25 lo no toward Speci.il Olympics, and one participant raised nearly S1300. People jump into Hyrum Reservoir to support Special Olympics BY D t v i i s FELIX Staff Writer About 150 people plunged through a hole in the ice covering Hyrum Reservoir Saturday morning while dozens of emergency rescue workers and law enforcement officers stood by laughing. Rather than getting angry, however, the soaking people joined in the laughing, at least as soon as they got their breath back and dried off. They were participating in the annual Polar Plunge and helped raise about $7,000 to benefit the Utah Special Olympics. Participants raised money by seeking pledges and donations from friends and family, ventured into the 17-degree weather and jumped in while about a hundred spectators watched and cheered. "It's always colder than you expect," said Cameron Robb, who participated last year as well as Saturday. "It was just as bad as I remembered it from last time." In one notable way, however, this year was quite different from last year for Robb. He and Danell Heagren were married in a ceremony performed there on the ice just moments before jumping in, dressed in a suit and wedding dress. Robb volunteers as an assistant coach for the Special Olympics, and Heagren is also involved in the program. They are from Salt Lake City but decided to come to Hyrum for the wedding because Heagren had already taken part in previous Polar Plunges in each of the other three Utah locations where the event takes place. Some jumpers went alone while others jumped as groups of friends or family. Some wore costumes, and others wore very little clothing at all. Several students from USU participated as well as a large number from area high schools. Several awards were given, including awards for the youngest jumper, 7. and the oldest jumper, 55. An award for most money raised went to Leticia Richards, a 15-year-old Mountain Crest High School sophomore from Providence. Richards sought donations by contacting friends and family, sending e-mails, creating a Web site and going door to door. Within three days she had raised $1,282. "It was cold, but I was expecting it to be a lot colder," Richards said. "Once you jump in. everything goes so fast, you don't really even pay attention." Volunteers from the Cache County Sheriffs Office began cutting the hole in the 12-inchthick ice Friday night, and the job took four to six hours Lo complete, said Willie Duersch, who announced the event. When it was over, they put the ice slabs back into the hole to allow it to freeze over again more quickly and prevent anyone from falling in by accident. Law enforcement and emergency personnel were on hand in case anyone needed medical attention and also because some were participating. This was the second Polar Plunge held at Hyrum Reservoir. All money raised benefits Special Olympics, which provides sports training and opportunities for people with disabilities. -dfelix@cc.usu.edu Utah facing teacher shortage BY DEVIN FCLIX Staff" Writer Utah will face "a severe teacher shortage crisis unlike anything it has ever experienced within just a year or two," according to a recently-completed study by David Sperry, dean of the College of Education at the University of Utah. The problem is that Utah's swiftly growing student population has created a demand for new teachers which is not being matched ^ ^ ^ by the numbers of new teachers graduating from the state's colle es a n d A closer look at issues S universities, according to Sperry's study. New student enrollment in the state has increased dramatically in recent years and is projected to increase by about 14,000 each year for the next ten years, Sperry said. At the same time, enrollment in the state's 10 teacher education programs has remained constant or even declined slightly. During the 2005-06 school year, nearly 1,400 more teachers were hired in the state than graduatexl from Utah colleges and universities, according to the study. Compounding the problem is the fact that nearly half of the teachers currently teaching will be eligible for retirement within the next five years. "When you compare the number of new teachers in the state against the numbers of new children and retirements coming in the next few years, you've got a recipe for disaster," said D. Ray Reutzel, director and endowed chair of USU's Emma Eccles Jones Center for Early Childhood Education. Many school districts are already feeling the effects of the teacher shortage, especially in certain subject areas. Districts struggled to fill many teaching positions in the 2005-06 school year, especially in math, science, special education and early childhood education, said Sperry. The student population grew so much in Jordan School District, located in southern Salt Lake Valley, that administrators had to take people who worked in the district offices and use them as classroom teachers just to be able to have enough teachers to start the current school year, said Brad Wilcox, associate professor of teacher education at Brigham Young University. The problem is worsened by the fact that a large number of teachers leave the profession within the first few years, which has caused teaching to become a "revolving door," said Jim Dorward, interim head of USU's elementary education department. Nearly half of teachers in the state who left their districts after the 2005-06 school year did so after teaching five years or fewer, the study said. What is causing fewer students to become teachers? And why are so many new teachers leaving the profession? Sperry, Reutzel, Dorward and Wilcox each say there are many factors, but inadequate pay is the root of the problem. Utah currently ranks 38th in the nation in teacher pay while consistently having the • TEACHERS .see page 4 Isotope magazine received a prestigious grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. USU's literary magazine, Isotope, magazine recently won a prestigious grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for fiscal year 2007- The $5,000 grant will be used to broaden circulation of the magazine. Isotope is unique in that it was chosen from a slew of other journals to receive the grant even though it was a first-time applicant, a rare occurrence, said Managing Editor Leslie Brown. "We knew it was probably a long shot since it was our first time to apply, and these grants are very competitive," said Brown. She said after receiving the grant, she was "shocked, excited, relieved and very gratified!" The grant money received will aid Isotope in expanding its circulation nationwide. Isotope currently has a circulation of about 1,000, pretty good for a literary magazine, but with the grant they hope to increase to 5,000. Their goal is to get Isotope into larger bookstores, such as Borders and Barnes & Noble, as well as making it available in more college communities and major cities. Brown said completing the grant application was quite an obstacle in and of itself. She said the greatest challenges were the sheer quantity of paperwork that had to be completed and figuring out the budget and financial sections. "I had never written a grant application of this magnitude or detail Defore," she said. Brown said she was lucky to get help from a professional organization, the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, as well as from the Literary Arts Specialist at the NEA, Amy Stolls. Isotope magazine has already garnered significant notice nationwide. An increasing number of presses have been contacting Isotope considering excerpting material for their own compilations. Recently, works published in the magazine have appeared in books published by Beacon Press and the University of Arizona Press. In addition, selections from recent issues have been broadcasted on "The Naturalist's Datebook" on Martha Stewart Living Radio. According to editor Christopher Cokinos, part of the reason that Isotope has been so successful is because of its unique offering. It is a "Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing," offering poems and reflective essays by scientists about their own work and thoughts. It differs from other nature writing journals in that the selections are neither shallow celebration of the natural world nor elegy, but a deeper sort of writing. "There are readers out there who are hungry for work about our relationship to the natural world and science that mows beyond simple black and white reactions," Cokinos said. It may seem that science writing and literary writing would have trouble fusing successfully, but Cokinos said, "At the fundamental level, they're much closer than people realize. Writers are good observers. Scientists are good observers. Writers are curious about the world. Scientists are curious about the world." The result is an eclectic mix of emotional literature ranging from poems regarding children's daydreams about whales being struck by underwater lightning to essays comparing human consumption of birth control pills to bio-accumulation of toxins in avian populations. Cokinos said even with all the recent national attention, it has been a challenge to get Isotope recognized within the local community. Many students at USU don't even realize that the magazine exists, "It's hard to get one's own11community to notice certain things, he said. M I just want the university community to know we're here," However, he said he is proud to be Patrick Oden/poden@cc.usu.edu UTAH IS GOING to have a teacher shortage within a few years. Student enrollment is increasing while fewer teachers are graduating from Utah universities. • ISOTOPE see page 3 |