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Show Beaver Mountain Ski Resort UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Friday, Jan. 26,2007 TATESMAN www.utahstatesman.com Earn cheaper and easier credits using a CD-ROM Page 4 Logan, Utah • Campus Voice Since 1902 The skull bone's connected to the The CD-ROM or WebCt independent study courses last 52 weeks. Once that Senior Writer period is over, they can extend two different times for three months a piece. "If they A cheaper way to earn credit without don't get done in time, they have the option having to pay student fees is credit by CDto extend up to 18 months," Larsen said. ROM. Financial aid will pay for the "print In the distance education department based" classes, but the classes must be at USU, students can pay just tuition and class fees without paying extra student fees. completed within a semester. "The way we work that is a student will But, full-time student tuition does not sign a contract stating that they will commerge with independent study tuition. "At the current time it doesn't fit in with plete the course within the semester, and if they don't complete the course within the student's plateau tuition on campus. the semester, they have to take the grade That's one problem we have had, because they've earned. They can't extend it at all, it starts over at the bottom again because and they can't get an incomplete," Larsen it comes from two different tables," said said. Vicky Larsen, the independent study coordinator. "It just follows normal campus policy, "But they're trying to fix that so we hope so extenuating circumstances like a bad accident they can get an incomplete for, but within this next year, that we've merged they have to complete it in that semester or with main campus now, that they'll take our tuition and merge it so it will be part of financial aid will not pay for it," she said. the tuition plateau." Students can register at any time or exit at anytime within the 52-week period. CD-ROM credit and WebCt is different from broadcast classes because it is "print Not only can on-campus students regisbased." Print based means students turn ter; students anywhere in Utah can sign up. their assignments in, on paper to the disBut there is one catch. The tests are proctance education office, and when they're tored, so if a student wants to take a class ready to take the test, they go to the testing independent study and they do not live by facility in the same location. a USU extension, they must get someone to About 500 students are enrolled in inde- proctor their exam, Larsen said. pendent study courses, and general educaThe distance education department tion courses are primarily offered. is located in the basement of the Eccles Conference Center. Some examples of the classes the program offers are Math 1050, Statistics 3000, For more information about independent English 2010, U.S. Institutions, Biology study, students can visit its Web Site at disand Introduction to Music. tance.usu.edu or call its office at 797-2137. -ranaehang@cc. usu. edu Larsen said they are trying to add more breadth and depth courses for the students. BY RANAE BANGERTER Tyler LarsonAmlarson@tc.usu.edu DURING SCIENCE WEEK, replicas of skulls were brought as part of a presentation given by Duane Jeffery. He brought a collection of 30 skulls to USU on Thursday in the TSC Ballroom. USU students were able to examine the skulls that included replicas of ape skulls and those that closely resembled modern day humans. Jeffery, a biology professor at BYU, has been studying the link between evolution and religion for more than 10 years. Aggies host event to increase awareness of killings in Africa BY ARK KIRK Assistant News Editor — ~ r r ~ r : ~ Rochet Sbulz/mra(hs@<cusu.edu A U N LlGHTMAN, physicist, novelist, essayist and educator, spoke to USU students Wednesday at the Kent Concert Hall, He spoke of his career, the difference between art and science, and pursuing his passions. Visiting physicist gives advice to USU students BY CHRIS GAKFP Staff Writer A physicist who loves poetry and art as much as he loves math and science described the differences and similarities between the two fields and told students to find something they are passionate about to hold onto. Alan Lightman, a physicist, novelist, essayist and educator, spoke Wednesday afternoon at the Kent Concert Hall for the ongoing events of Science Week. "Ever since I was a young boy, my passions have been equally divided between science and art," Lightman said."I have been fortunate enough to make a life both as a physicist and a novelist." Lightman, a professor of humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the main difference between art and science is that science looks for the answers to questions, which bring order things, whereas in the arts, it's the question itself that is important because definite answers do not exist in the arts. "We need both types of questions. We need questions with answers, and we need questions without answers," Lightman said. "Both kinds of questions are part of being human." Lightman said there was "substantial common ground" between the two fields. "The physicist and the novelist both seek beauty, unity and balance." he said. "Creativeness is a hallmark of great science and great art." The most common similarity between the science and the arts, Lightman said, is they both seek truth. "For the novelist, truth in the world with the mind and the heart," he said. "For the physicist, truth in the world through mass and force." He said in both fields, people have to be alone with a problem and lose all sense of time and ego. "The scientists and the artists that I have known have at least one last thing in common," Lightman said. "They do what they do because they love it and they could not imagine doing anything else. "This compulsion is both a blessing and a burden," he said. "It's a blessing because the creative light is not given to all of us, and it's a beautiful light, but it's a burden because when the call comes, it can be unrelenting and can drown out the rest of life." To students here at the university and students at heart, Lightman said, "Find something you are passionate about. You may find it in a classroom, you may find it outside of a classroom, but find something that you love and are compelled to do. "Find it and hold onto it, because only with a passion, you are truly alive." -cbg@ccusu.edu More than 400,000 people have died in a conflict of which few Americans are aware. But thanks to the work of Aggies for Africa, USU students are becoming more knowledgeable about the conflict in Darfur, a region in Sudan. More than 200 people attended the Darfur Conflict Awareness Panel that was hosted on Tuesday by Aggies for Africa. "In Darfur, 10,000 to 15,000 people die every month. That's another 9/11 every week, another Hurricane Katrina every five days," said Ashley Linford, president of Aggies for Africa. Dani Babbel, president of Amnesty International at USU, said, "We want to first and foremost inform students not only of the severity of the conflict but also the background issues. Then, inspire students to get involved and to pursue avenues to do something about it. Also to form ideas for a solution." Members of the panel included Yared Fubusa, a graduate student at USU from Tanzania; Tiffany Ivins who has traveled around the world working with refugees and USU Professors Chris Conte and Peter Mentzel. They discussed the origins of the conflict, common misconceptions about it and how students could help resolve the situation that many are now calling genocide. The panel agreed the violence was not the result of religious differences. Mentzel said the people of Darfur are overwhelmingly Muslim and known for their religious devotion. "A lot of people, I think, are under the impression that the problem in Darfur is a religious conflict. We can rule out, pretty definitely, it having anything to do with Islam," Mentzel said. Calling the genocide the result of differing religious beliefs is a "cop out to a very complex conflict," Ivins said. Mentzel and Conte suggested the clash might be an extension of leadership and ter- ritorial battles earlier in Sudan's history. Fubusa, however, believes the reasons behind the conflict are easier to define, blaming resources and race. "You have to wonder—if this happened in Europe to people with blond hair and blue eyes, would the response have been different? I believe so," Fubusa said. "This is not complex. That is language of excuse. If we can go to the moon, why can't you stop something as small as genocide? Once you acknowledge it as genocide, you have to act." Mentzel disagreed, believing the problem is more complicated and has a more complex background. • A G G I E S FOR AFRICA see page 3 Patrick Oden/poden@ccusu.edu YARED FUBUSA, a graduate student at USU from Tanzania, participated in the Darfur Conflict Aware nes»Panel, |