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Show "It was patriotism, not communism, that inspired me." Ho Chi Minh 72 Friday, March 9,2007 797-1762 statesman@cc.usu.edu www.utahstatesman.com Utah Statesman A new deadline with the same questions :___ Staff Dorms are a staple at every university in the nation. Jam-packed with mostly lower classmen, they epitomize the free feeling of being away from home and being allowed to eat pizza, make out all day and stay up all night. But dorms have to be done to be lived in. That's the problem USU is facing with the Living Learning jr rp center, the new university hous- Olir VIGW Editorial in on tne west s e 8 '^ °* Editor in Chief Elizabeth Lawyer News Editor Di Lewis Assistant News Editor Arie Kirk Features Editor cam us P - Three of the six buildings are still not finished. That's right. They're still not done. The whole complex was supposed to be finished by now. The new expected completion date is more than a year later than when they were supposed to be done. Our question is: how are they still not done and will they even fill up? Housing says they ran into problems removing the steam plant that was in the nill and had a lack of workers. There are unforeseen things that happen with any undertaking, but how much extra money has it cost USU to continue building a year past what was expected? We were told the LLC would be done at the end of last semester, now we're being told it will be done at the end of this semester. How much longer can we afford to build the LLC? The other problem housing is facing is a lack of students to fill up the shiny new buildings. There are only half of them done, yet those three buildings are not filling up. Maybe it's the price tag - the LLC costs more per semester than most other student housing does for the entire year. Or maybe it's the meal plan - part of the price tag is the meal plan and students don't seem to like having only one option of where to eat for two meals a day. Or maybe it's just the roommates - the suite-style housing puts more students in one unit than other on-campus housing. Whatever it is, perhaps housing should revisit the logic behind the LLC. It might not be worth building pretty new dorms if you spend more money than you ought to and then can't fill them up. Housing - we realize you needed a cool selling point, but it could grow old pretty quickly if nobody wants to live there. And the candidates for office are .i_r_ii] Holly Mitchell Assistant Features Editor Manette Newbold Sports Editor Seth Hawkins Assistant Sports Editor Samuel Hislop Diversions Editor Steve Shinney Copy Editor Letters to the Editor Public Forum .„£•&& Running like clockwork To the editor: 1 have recently noticed, as I'm sure some of you have, that the clocks in classrooms around campus are not always Rebekah Bradway Photo Editor the same. They sometimes differ as much as 5 minutes. This may not seem like much time, but when we only have 10 minutes to get to our next class, a 5 minute difference makes a huge difference. I think everyone would benefit if the clocks were all set to the same approximate time. They could even be set to the clock on Old Main. This weekend would be the perfect time to do this, since daylight savings is coming and all the clocks need to be changed anyway. Elaine Johnson The (herbal) essence of advertising • after I got out of the I was in the shower recently and found Devin Felix shower and looked in the mirror, realizmyself reading the ing the shampoo had back of my roommade every hair I'd mate's bottle of shamever lost grow back. poo {for lack of betThe TV commerter reading material), cials for this brand and I came across this of shampoo a few bold claim: "Wildly exciting is our nor- M y o n e Cent ^ e a r s a&° mall" "Naturally, WahiralK/ Ii f women screaming mal!" dfelix@ccusu.edu , .? t l L was excited to get out as they used it, this hi miracle i l shampoo h obviously overcome b l onto my head and start expe- by the shampoo's ability to riencing the wild excitement please them far better than the bottle had promised. Even any husband or boyfriend if the shampooing experience ever could. Maybe one of it provided was only mod- these women would suddenerately exciting, that would ly show up! already make it worlds better None of these things hapthan all shampooing experi- pened, however. The clean ences I'd ever had. Up until hair and temporarily lingerthis point, my most exciting ing flowery scent were pretty hair-washing experience had nice, but it would have to be been when ! was a kid and a really slow day for me to ate some of the shampoo consider that "wildly excitthat's supposed to make your ing" (and I have had days that head tingle and discovered slow). Really the most excitethat it makes your tongue ment I got from this shampoo tingle too. That was interest- came from the idea I had to ing, but I'm sure it wouldn't write a column about it. qualify as wildly exciting. It al! led me back to a conMaybe mildly amusing, or clusion I've come to many just plain stupid. times before: advertising So, I lathered up and can be very silly. Advertisers waited for the excitement to show young, skinny people begin. Maybe it would be enjoying life in order to sell like a drug trip, with hal j second-rate hamburgers that lucinations and seeing in lead to obesity that ends your five dimensions. Maybe the life. To sell shampoo, adverwild excitement would come tisers claim, or at least imply, The new catch phrase for These are some other early 2007 apparently is "explor- reports as the exploratory atory committee." Nobody is committees start to send back running for office any more information via secret encodunless they first give a nod ed messages to an anxious to Lewis and Clark and send public. In the process, many out an exploratory commit- lives were lost as members of tee. I image these commit- exploratory committees were tees suiting up behind a long taken hostage by angry voters line of sherpas as if mount- demanding less scary candiing an assault on the Everest dates. summit or an expedition to These are a few random find the last living unicorn. quotes decoded from their In my mind's eye, they are messages: parachuting out of planes When asked any question, and then hacking their way 75 percent of NASCAR fans through dense forests of the replied, "Huh? Speak up." voters' psyche all across North When asked about Hillary America. What will they find? Clinton, they said, "Hey, how'd Will they survive? ^ — ^ she get rid of her The media waits for Dennis Hinkomp Arkansas accent? answers like astronWasn't she maromers searching for ried to a president? proof of life in other Wait, she's from To engage or attack? This is the quessolar systems. New York? What's tion gripping pundits on U.S.-Iranian relaNo doubt this up with that? Isn't tions as the United exploratory zeal Bill Clinton married Nations deadline will spill over in to what's-her-name for Iran's compliother aspects of life now?" ance on its nuclear as we shop for cars, Slightly Left Other Voices B a r a c k program has come order pizzas or get of Center Obama is getting a and gone, and as U.S. officials plan to take married. I think denni$.hinkomp<§>usu. edu lot of buzz, but half part in talks on Iraq's future that might we should replace the people think the concept of "engaged to Obama is an Irish name, and be married" with "forming the other half thinks he's relatan exploratory committee to ed to Osama Bin Laden. More ascertain the feasibility of our than 10 percent of voters corunion." The family pet will be rectly identified him as "the subjected to an approval-rat- black guy." ing poll before we decide to Word on the street about PATRIOTISM ISA keep it for another four years. John Edwards is "Didn't he 24-HOUR-A-DAfDUTYl Something is very wrong. lose as a vice presidential OTHERWISE, HOW CAN NOJ CALL NDUR5ELF TRULY It's only January 2007 and candidate last time? How this premature infatuation is can he run?" Regarding New like Home Despot putting out Mexico's Bill Richardson, their Christmas decorations in they said "He's a senator July. from Mexico, how can he run Just to test this exploratory for president of the United committee thing, I sent out States?" my own to get a better idea of All voters polled seemed my electability. My explorato- to know about John McCain ry committee came back and is that he's always angry, but reported, "Dude, you really they could not correctly idenshould change your name and tify if he was a Democrat or move to Iowa because you Republican. have more skeletons in your Those polled by the explorcloset than the Millers' kill atory committees also verifloor." OK, so the world is a better place and my relatives are less embarrassed if I don't • PRESIDENTS run for office. seepage 13 that it will bring you nearly unbearable ecstasy and make you forget that you haven't been on a date in over a year. To sell breakfast cereal, they made cartoons with elaborate plots about a rabbit who wants to get some cereal but is always thwarted by these cruel and selfish kids, or a leprechaun who wants to keep the kids from getting his cereal but can't, or three Tittle elves named Snap, Crackle and Pop who live in your bowl of Rice Krispies and help Santa make toys (Is that how it went? For some reason, the few years after the tingly shampoo-eating incident are kind of a blur). But the funny thing is that it works. Didn't you beg your parents to buy you the cereals the rabbits and leprechauns were fighting over? Doesn't McDonald's continue its relentless march across the globe, with over 99 jillion served, despite the fact that giving its food to war prisoners is against the Geneva conventions? As ridiculous and silly as advertising can be, it certainly seems to work. Maybe that just means humanity is even sillier. Devin Felix is a senior majoring in journalism. Comments can be sent to dfelix@cc.usu. edu. Time for Iranians to engage Iranians Nat'l View SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! AMERICAN? include Iranian representatives. The hawks dismiss the existence of a real internal Iranian resistance and lament that a war between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran has become inevitable. Like the hawks, the engagers • IRAN AND THE U.S. see page 7 3 Jamie Crane Assistant Photo Editor Tyler Larsen Editorial Board Elizabeth Lawyer Di Lewis Seth Hawkins Steve Shinney Holly Mitchell About letters • Letters should be limited to 350 words. • All letters may be shortened, edited or rejected for reasons of good taste, redundancy or volume of similar letters. • Letters must be topic oriented. They may not be directed toward individuals. Any letter directed to a specific individual may be edited or not printed. • No anonymous letters will be published. Writers must sign all letters and include a phone number or e-mail address as well as a student identification number (none of which is published). 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