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Show Folklore not just about legends, it's also about everyday life events sis within the English major or a separate minor. Wilson said undergraduate students are required to collect many folk objects such You may think of Red Rover, kick the can as old family pictures, children's games and and telling ghost stories as things you did urban legends that add to the Fife Folklore when you were a child. However, to a folklor- Archives in the library. ist they are much more than that - they are The idea for the club began in McNeill's subjects to be studied, and more importantly, Survey of Folk (English 2720) class as she celebrated and passed on. expressed her surprise that a strong folklore "Everyone has experience in folklore," said program like USU's did not already have a Stephanie Wilson, a junior technical writing student folk society. Several students, includmajor who is minoring in folklore. "You can ing Wilson, agreed with her and took it upon apply things in folklore every day in your life. themselves to form the society, McNeill said. It's all about what people do every day." McNeill said many people who take folk Wilson, along with faculty adviser Lynne classes enjoy them, but are disappointed McNeill and several other students, has when they discover that they can't major in recently formed the USU Folk Society, the the field. They would like the society to "help first student folklore organization on campeople feel it's OK to be interested in folklore pus. as a discipline." The concept of folklore as a field of study "We hope we can let people know what is fairly recent and often not understood, folklore is so the program will grow," said McNeill, a lecturer in the English Woolfton said. department. She said introductory folklore However, perhaps most importantly, the classes always begin the first several classes folk society gives students and other particisimply defining and understanding exactly pants the chance to actually participate the what folklore is. practice of folklore. "Folklore is the informal, everyday tradi"The goal is not to be too academic about tions of a group of people," McNeill said. "It it and enjoy the stuff of folklore rather than is the things we learn from each other." just study it," McNeill said. The USU Folk Society hopes to clear up Wilson said the society allows them to some of this confusion and make folklore experience the processes of passing on folkaccessible to many students, faculty and lore that they regularly talk about in the staff, McNeill said. classroom. "We would like to broaden people's hori"The interesting and wonderful thing zons to know that folklore means a lot of is that it's passed in a group informally," things," said Amanda Woolfton, a senior his- Wilson said. "Without an informal setting to tory major also minoring in folklore and a practice folklore, it can't be perpetuated." co-founder of the club. "It's what people do." However, both McNeill and Wilson Folklore traditions can range from domes- stressed that anyone can feel welcome to distic activities like bread baking or various cuss folklore. crafts to legends and stories like the local "Everyone can relate to it," McNeill said. Logan stories about Old Ephraim or the "Everyone knows the stories they know and nunnery in Logan Canyon. can tell them with some expertise." Wilson said many academic fields struggle The Folk Society's first activity will be to apply their study to real life. The folklore on April 20 as part of the Day on the Quad. field, on the other hand, has the opposite It will feature storytellers from the Native dilemma of taking all the traditions and cul- American Student Union and from the local tural oddities that make up everyday life and community, and people can make "God's fit them into a discipline of study. Eyes," a Native American craft somewhat McNeill said she was surprised that USU similar to a dreamcatcher, Wilson said. They did not have a student folk society because are meant as a way to remember that God is the folk program is so strong here. The USU watching over someone, Wilson added. program is one of the best in the western The USU Folk Society is currently in the United States, McNeill said, and it draws process of writing its constitution and applystudents from all around the country. The ing to ASUSU to be an official USU club. department often hosts major events, like the They hope to have regular activities throughLegends Conference coming this summer, out next year at least once a month. Anyone and hosts a large Western folk collection in interested in participating in the USU Folk the Merrill-Cazier Library. Society can contact Stephanie Wilson at Undergraduate students have played a stephwilso@hotmail.com for more informalarge role in the development of the program, tion. which currently can be studied as an empha-tliljegreri@cc.usu.edu BY T O M LILJEGREN Senior Writer Tyler Larson/tmlorson@ctusu.edu GETTING BETTER AT MAKING ESPRESSOS is one of Mattie Kennedy's favorite things about working at the Quadside Cafe. She also likes that she gets discounts on food. Labs, food and sports Students tell what they like about on-campus jobs B Y M A N E T T E NLVVHOLD Assistant Features Editor Even though it may mean minimum wage and no health benefits, according to Jodi Burton, a sophomore in exercise science, working on campus has its perks. "I really like it. It works with my school schedule and I can swatch shifts with other people so I'm able to do my homework," Burton said about her job at the Quick Stop in theTSC. Burton's job behind the cash register is just one of the many jobs on campus. Others work with food, computers, sports and even copy machines. Burton has been working at the conveniece-like store since the beginning of the school year and plans to work there next fall as well. Since she doesn't have a car, working in the TSC is close and convenient. She also has a good schedule, only having to work, at the latest, until 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 P-m. on Fridays, and 3 p.m. on Saturdays. So basically, Burton can always do something fun on weekend nights. And, she added, her schedule is rotated so sometimes she doesn't have to work weekends at all. Some of the unknown perks include getting a free meals every time she works at The Marketplace in the TSC as well. If students work at the library, they don't have to pay library fines and working at the bookstore pays when employees get free textbooks every semester. To get that benefit, however, the student must work at the store for a year. Mattie Kennedy, who works at the Quadside Cafe in the library, said she gets discounts on some of the food. Her favorite thing about the job is meeting people and getting better at preparing drinks and sandwiches. "Even though I don't drink coffee, I like making espressos and knowing that I've made them perfect," Kennedy said. Kennedy is not a student this semester, but will be in the fall. She said it will be nice to have ajob that is close to classes. Chris Tingey, a senior in English, worked for two years as a scorekeeper for intramural sports and said the biggest benefit of that job was only having to work about five hours a week and that it worked with his school schedule. He would recommend any student working on campus. "It's a really good opportunity, especially if you're having a hard time finding ajob in Logan," Tingey said. He said he now works at Cafe Rio but admitted he liked score keeping more. He really liked his supervisors and all the other scorekeepers. Cristian Vasquez, a junior in civil engineering, jokingly said the best part of his job in student lab services is flirting with beautiful girls. He says even when they don't respond he does what he can. Vasquez has been working for student lab sendees for more than a year and said he likes it because he doesn't have to do very much. When students don't need help, he can do whatever he wants, whether it be homework or just playing on the computer. He did say every once in a while he has to tell people to get off of inappropriate Web sites though. But even that doesn't bother him. "I just say 'excuse me, if you don't get off that site I'm going to kick you out,'" he said. "I'm not afraid of them." Vasquez has gotten a couple of raises since he began working but still only makes a little more than $6 an hour. "It's not bad for doing nothing," he said. Students who work on campus also get holidays off and many of them move home for the summer and Christmas break. So in spite of low pay, on-campus jobs can be beneficial. -mnewbold@cc.usu.edu Tyler Larson/tmlarson@(cusu.e(jv CRISHAN VASQUEZ, A JUNIOR IN CIVIL ENGINEERING, said he likes working on campus because he gets to meet new people and do whatever he wants on the computer when its not busy, which is most of the time. Do hateful comments deserve to be defended? I'm not sure Unless you have been living under a rock that rapping and trying to be funny." After all the is itself covered by an even larger rock, you've harm that his words have caused, we can only heard of Don Imus' comments, apologies and hope that some good will come out of this. We tiring. It's a shame that Imus picked this week to can only hope that Imus and Vanilla Ice start a implode, because he overshadowed the death support group for misunderstood male rappers. of novelist Kurt Vonnegut. Both were sometimes Kurt Vonnegut said some pretty dangerous over the top, and both managed to things in his career too, but he would offend a lot of people in their time. Zach Pendleton never have gone so far as to insult But Vonnegut did a much better job a group so undeserving of insult for of it. something so arbitrary as their race. Vonnegut made a career of showSomeone wrote a letter to the ing us just how awful we were to editor this week calling the attack ourselves. He satirized the world we on Don Imus "anti-intellectualism live in and made us realize just how and anti-Americanism at its most terrible we are sometimes. At his best, repugnant." Despite the triple-word he was also pretty funny about it. score the writer gets for using the Nietzsche word "repugnant," I'm going to have zpendleton@cc.usu.edu If Don Imus and Kurt Vonnegut to disagree with the rest of his letwere to be memorialized with holiter. days, Imus would be a little like that Thanksgiving Imus did not just do something stupid: He did where everyone was having a great time until something brazenly idiotic and hateful. Among Uncle Eddie had one too many and took off his the members of the Rutgers women's basketball pants. Vonnegut, on the other hand, was more team, there is a valedictorian, an aspiring doctor like a New Year's party where, among all of the and the Division I Women's College Basketball fun and the revelry, you have a moment of clarPlayer of the Year. Imus' comments struck a ity that allows you to look back on all of last nerve because they suggested that because of year's mistakes and to anticipate all of what next their race, a group of accomplished women like year can be. this will always be nothing more than "nappyheaded hos." In Imus' defense, he has said the comments DON IMUS were not hateful but were in the "process of us see page 8 JOB SEARCH BOOT CAMP APARTMENTS WE WANT YOU! fflftTC A RESUME scovHurrrai HUCTKMHMEWINC ALUMS fflPlDYEB APPIY PDR c w m posnnws SEATING IS LIMITED! OR CALL (4351787-7777 SPONSORED BY CAREER SERVICES^ |