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Show UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY THE Are you a funatic? Page 4 Logan, Utah • Campus Voice Since 1902 www.utahstatesman.com Friday, March 9,2007 Student seeking volunteers for local air quality questionnaire random questionnaires completed, Marquit said he is still welcoming volunteers. Those interested in participating can A USU graduate student is contact him at 797-8101 or conducting a survey to assess jmarquit@cc.usu.edu. local perceptions of air quality and the effectiveness of polluIn the survey, participants tion advisory and educational answer question regarding their programs available in the valley. perception of air quality probAs part of his thesis in exper- lems, various impacts and their severity, and the effectiveness imental and applied psychoof strategies the health departlogical science, Josh Marquit is working in conjunction with the ment uses to attempt to reduce air pollution. Questions dealBear River Health Department ing with pollution advisory and to receive feedback from residaily activities in respect to air dents regarding air quality. oleanliness are also included. "I approached the health department with the idea of The survey will be conducted looking at some of the various for the next three months. Once education programs implethe data has been configured, it mented in the valley," Marquit will be posted on the Bear River said. "We also wanted to look at Health Department's Web site, whether or not they are effective www.brhd.org. in abating pollution." Grant Koford, an environmental health scientist with Using a database of all city the health department, said the blocks in Cache County, housedepartment will be using the holds are chosen at random to results to further develop its participate. The anonymous education and warning systems. survey is left on door knobs for The health department will completion and is picked up at also have a better idea of the a later time. Marquit said they community's feelings regarding have received a good response the issue, their efforts to lower — more than 100 people have pollution and contributing facparticipated. tors to red and yellow days. Volunteers are also welcome to contribute. After an article "(Marquit) is conducting the ran in The Herald Journal, survey to get the opinions and Marquit said around 50 people attitudes of the folks in the offered to also complete the sur- community about air quality," vey. Koford said. "This will help gage public perception and Hoping to have at least 400 BY ARIC KIRK Assistant News Editor public opinion on our efforts to curb the air quality problem. We will be using the results to customize our educational approaches and making them more effective." The greatest impact this survey can have is alerting Cache Valley residents to the gravity of the problem, Marquit said. "I think the most important thing with the survey is to build awareness concerning problems and possible solutions," he said. "It will build more awareness of this issue and more awareness of things to do to prevent red days from occurring." Marquit said citizens need to know what is going on and play an active role in their community. He said he fears people don't fully understand issues like air pollution and don't know what they can do to help. He also said it is important for community members to know their efforts to minimize pollution do make a difference. People must also realize the results of the air quality survey will only be one of many factors that will be used to influence policy, he said. "Your efforts do help, and your opinion does matter," Marquit said. "The results will be used to influence policy in the future and will be a part of decision making." ~ariek@cc.usu.edu Ball raises $1,000 for a scholarship honoring deceased Utah State student BY D A V I D EDWARDS Staff Writer The College of Natural Resources held its 64<th annual Loggers' Ball on Thursday night at Hamilton's restaurant. The Ball was used to help raise funds for the new Jessica Clark Tayon scholarship. The event raised more than $1000 for the scholarship. People were encouraged to donate during the days leading up to the Ball and during the event itself. Donors were entered into a drawing to win various prizes. The drawing was held midway through the night. Among the prizes were two Beaver Mountain ski passes, a nature photo tour, an elk hunt, an antelope hunt, and a chainsaw. Daniel Reynolds was the winner of the chainsaw. When his name was announced, he jumped up smiling, pulled his wife Crystal to her feet, and kissed her in front of the whole crowd. Dr. Fee Busby, the winner of the antelope hunt, had a different response to winning his prize. He told James Stuart, the CNR senator who was officiating at the drawing, to either sell it to someone else at the Ball or on eBay to raise more money for the scholarship. The scholarship is in honor of Jessica Clark Tayon, a student in the College of Natural Resources • LOGGERS' BALL see page 3 p. ifc* r - Researchers in various departments on campus are working together to create an alternate form of fuel. While many other universities around the country, such as MIT and Berkley, are working on other angles to create biofuels, USU's method of using microbes, such as algae, to do so involves a new method. w We have a unique technology even though other institutions are using algae," said Byard Wood, dean of the mechanical and aerospace engi- Victors announced after close race comes to end BY D I LEWIS News Editor Peter McChesney is the new ASUSU president after beating Staci Meacham in the final elections by 377 votes. Most of the races were a clear decision between the two candidates. However, Sonny Bryant's 20-vote victory over MJ Tran for diversity and organizations vice president was the closest of the ASUSU elections with 2,578. This was one of four races in which the person trailing after primaries won the final elections. The other races were programming vice president where Jake Cook beat Tyler Neal, business senator where Edward Norton beat Joseph Ure and engineering senator where Spencer Tell Naser beat Paul Wilson. In a speech before the new ASUSU officers were announced on Wednesday, current president Noah Riley gave advice to the candidates. ''Whether you're elected or not is kind of insignificant as to the impact you can have in the university," he said, encouraging the runners-up to stay involved in USU activities. "I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of Aggies - past, present and future - and there are a lot of successful Aggies and a lot of those successful Aggies have run for offices." In his acceptance speech, McChesney quoted Noah Riley s speech from last year. McChesney said, "There are many opportunities to get involved at Utah State. With extracurricular activities conies a learning that doesn't happen in the classroom." McChesney said he was excited to be president and promised to work hard and devote the next year to the students who elected him. The election winners celebrated • ELECTIONS see page 3 And the winners a r e . . . • Agriculture Senator • ASUSU President Peter McChesney Staci Meacham Jamie CromffQmieaQne@cc.usu.edu THE LOGGERS'S BALL was held at Hamilton's on Thursday. Money was raised for a scholarship honoring Jessica Clark Tayon, a College of Natural Resources student who passed away in January. Donors were entered into a drawing lo win prizes. Researchers creating alternative fuels BY RANAE BANGERTER Senior Writer Rachel SchulzJmtochs@ccusu.edu PETER MCCHESNEY won the ASUSU presidency over Staci Meacham by 377 votes. Election winners were announced Wednesday. neering department. The uniqueness to USU's project is the solar collector and the way the researchers grow the algae. "They take a gas that's one of the bad guys, a greenhouse gas, and they convert is into a compound that it used as a fuel," said Lance Seefeldt, professor of chemistry and biochemistry. The project is just in the beginning stages, but the idea began in 2000. The federal government funded them in the past, but now USTRI, The Utah, Science and Technology Research Initiative, fund the researchers. • Executive V.P. Nate Naegle Jacob Roskelley 1,717 • Student Advocate V.P. Bryan Olsen Christopher Barney • Education Senator 1,416 Christi Olcott 1,017 Jacob Wilkey •Athletics V.P. Megan Darrington - • . ' , ' • • • To begin the project, they need to build two greenhouses: one smaller, the lab scale, and one larger, the pilot scale. "The microbes are just plants and we have to provide • Programming V.P. a greenhouse, if you will, to Jake Cook grow them," Wood said. "We're bringing the sunlight in through Tyler Neal fiber optics from a solar collector, and so it really is kind of a really sophisticated green• Service V.P. house." German Ellsworth Since they are just in the beginning stages, neither of the Tessa Taylor see page 3 886 • Academic Senate President Kevin Abernethy 2,167 • Campus Diversity and Organizations V.P. MJ Tran Sonny Bryant > FUELS 1,531 Lisa Rose 1,184 Julie Ung 2,226 • Business Senator Joseph Ure Edward Norton 131 93 145 205 176 330 • Engineering Senator Spencer Naser Paul Wilson 201 •HASS Senator Nick West Ben Pollock 410 1,279 • Science Senator 1,299 Brittany Webb • Graduate Studies V.P. 1,321 Jeri Brunson 1,255 • Natural Resource Senator Ben Abbott 1,410 Katie Santini 1,105 150 244 241 67 22 39 |