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Show t i 11 Aug. 27, 2008 editor (^tatesman.u$u.edjJL! ah@cc.us AboutUs OwrView Editor in Chief Arie Kirk Aggie pride shoukl be plentiful ; STCKE FOR PERILS ANP RTCR? your educational experience. The more you put in, the more you'll get out. So put on that blue shirt and be proud of your A. Pats and Jabs A pat on the back for the instructional technology department for going green. And a jab in the ribs to the Hub for serving icy cold Mexi-Fries. Statesman The Utah Statesman is the official campus newspaper of Utah State University, puhlished three times each week of the academic school year. The Statesman is produced entirely by students. The paper is distributed to on-campus locations and selected locations in Logan every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The offices of the Utah Statesman are located in the Taggart Student Center, Room 105. Mailing address: The Utah Statesman, P.O. Box 1249-USU, Logan UT 84322-0765. Our phone number is 435-797-NEWS- Fax: 435-797-1760. Our e-mail address is: statesman@cc.usu.edu and the online newspaper can be accessed at www.ulahstatesman. com. Please follow the following suggestions regarding letters and commentaries submitted: Letters should be limited to 350 words and may be edited and condensed for grammar, clarity, good taste or length. Preference will be given to shorter letters. Letters must be topic oriented, on a subject of general interest. Letters directed toward individuals or to hurt an individual or organization 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 for verification. Letters representing groups — or more than one individual — must have a singular representative clearly stated as author of the letter. Writers must wait 21 days before submitting successive letters — no exceptions. Letters can be hand-delivered or mailed to The Statesman or can be e-mailed. Click on www.utahstatesman.com for more letter guidelines, examples of letters and a submission box. Debra Hawkins Assistant News Editor Rachel Christensen A s this year's game day shirt boldly exclaims, we are proud of our 'As/ Excitedly lining up for that first chance to kiss on the A at midnight, grabbing a scoop of free Aggie ice cream whenever the opportunity presents itself and eating cheeseburgers in the shape of hot dogs are all a part of what makes us Aggies. Educating students since 1888, USU has a rich heritage and deep-rooted traditions. Thousands of students have walked these grounds and called it their home, and thousands proudly boast their alma mater. So, while we're here, we should be proud of USU. There are many USU students who consider USU a second-rate university, preferring to go to other "more prestigious" schools, while for some reason or another ended up here. Instead of embracing their school, many of these closetCougars continue to sulk in corners watching football games from hours away instead of heading down to the stadium and partaking of what is in front of them. So the football team isn't what any school would envy. That doesn't make watching them play any less a part of the whole college experience. Every time students don their Aggie Blue, they are showing some school pride. School pride. What does that mean exactly? It's tossed around like some collegiate buzz word, but what does it mean to have school pride, Aggie pride? For starters, come to athletic events. Believe it or not, there are more sports than football and basketball. These smaller sports boast talented teams that perform well in the WAC. In fact, one of the smallest teams, the cross country and track teams, are the only USU athletic programs to have a WAC title under their belts. When you come to an athletic event, cheer. It's not a time to text message your love interest or do homework. Come to enjoy the event and time with other fans. Join in on the chants. Make opponents fear the Spectrum. * -t Besides athletics, there are many academic ways to show school pride. USU was recently named one of the best in the West universities by the Princeton Review. That should evoke some pride. Our engineering and education programs are some of the best in the country. Even if your specific program isn't one of those, seek to build your program up. Get involved in active learning by participating in study abroad, service learning and internships. When you do, you carry the banner of USU to wherever you goSchool pride is all about what you make of News Editor Features Editor Courtnie Packer Assistant Features Editor Amanda Mears Sports Editor Samuel Hislop Assistant Sports Editor Tim Olsen Copy Editor Lisa Christensen Networks proof of tribal beings his month, The New York Times reported that Rielle Hunter's lawyer, who issued a statement in December that Hunter was not carrying John Edwards' child, and Andrew Young's lawyer, who shortly thereafter issued a statement that Hunter was carrying his client's child, were not unconnected to each other. Instead, both had worked on legal cases with Fred Baron, the influential trial lawyer and former finance chairman of Edwards' presidential campaign. The link between two supposedly independent players via a key Edwards adviser suggests that attempts to control the scandal have been much more extensive than first reported. We would have known all this from the start if the three lawyers, like so many millions of other people, had set up profiles on a social networking site such as Linkedln or Facebook and connected to each other. But, of course, high-profile lawyers don't tend to spend much time on such sites, and, when they do, they're not likely to announce connections they would rather the rest of us not know about. Which is too bad. Because as the latest wrinkle in the Edwards drama shows, networks are important, and it's usually the unstated ones that matter the most. We might not like what this implies about how opportunity, resources and information are distributed in society, but it's a reality T that social scientists and advanced technologies are increasingly forcing us to face - and make the best of. Networks are the channels through which our social capital flows: who influences us and whom we influence, whose resources we can call on in advancing a cause or weathering a crisis. Those who master the power of networks reap other benefits: the ability to draw on new ideas when trying to solve a problem, the authority to broker a compromise between warring parties, a reputation for trustworthiness. Social scientists are refining our understanding of the pervasive role networks play. They have found, for example, that corporate boards whose members are highly connected to the members of other boards award their chief executives higher compensation, suggesting a path through which rising salary norms get passed from group to group. Mutual fund portfolio managers seem to invest more heavily in - and enjoy greater returns from -- companies with a top officer who attended the same college or graduate school as them. Most of us have our own networks of friends, classmates and colleagues - largely Photo Editor Cameron Peterson Assistant Photo Editor Tyler Larson Web Editor Seth R. Hawkins Editorial Board Arie Kirk Debra Hawkins Courtnie Packer Sammy Hislop Lisa Christensen Seth R. Hawkins 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. LI See NETWORKING, page 17 Writers must sign all letters and include a phone number or email address as well as a student identification number (none of which I uan Antonio Samaranch, the former head despite their misgivings about Beijing's horI of the International Olympic Committee rific human rights record both domestically is published). Letters will I who helped engineer Beijing's successful and abroad, and announced with a clamor not be printed without bid to host this summer's Games, was quick as loud as the 2,008 drummers who perthis verification. to dub the extravaganza "the best Olympics formed at the opening ceremony that it is a • Letters representing ever" as the proceedings closed on Sunday. rising power that should command respect. groups — or more than Such pronouncements are as subjective as a Yet what planners in Beijing miscalculated one individual — must gymnastics score, but it's beyond question is that no matter how well you teach perhave a singular representhat China can say it has hosted the most formers to smile, the strain behind the lips tative clearly stated, with expensive Olympics ever and, quite possi- is still detectable. The near-hysterical drive all necessary identificably, the most rigidly controlled. by Chinese leaders to put on the biggest, tion information. Historians might debate the latter point. most spectacular sporting event ever, and to Adolf Hitler's 1936 Berlin Games were just engineer a generation of Chinese medalists • Writers must wait 21 as much an international propaganda cam- regardless of the financial or human costs, days before submitting paign as the 2008 event, carefully choreo- is rather more disconcerting to the outside successive letters — no graphed to demonstrate the glory of the world than convincing. If it was Beijing's exceptions. Third Reich. But even Hitler couldn't control intention to prove China's greatness via the • Letters can be hand the weather. Chinese leaders, terrified that Games, what it has demonstrated instead is delivered or mailed to Beijing's lung-blackening air pollution would the fragility of its ego. The Statesman in the cast a pall over the city's image as well as British officials are no doubt wondering TSC, Room 105, or can its skies, directed the Weather Modification how they can possibly top the spectacle be e-mailed to Office (yes, there really is such an agency) to of Beijing when London hosts the Summer statesman@cc.usu.edu seed clouds throughout the Games so that Games in 2012. They shouldn't even try. The rainfall could flush away the filth. Yet rain British have nothing to prove, and it will be or click on www.utah ' wouldn't do during the opening and closing refreshing to watch an event in which athletistatesman.com for ceremonies at the open-air Bird's Nest sta- cism matters more than image. The London more letter guidelines dium, so hundreds of rockets were fired into Olympics will probably be messier and less and a box to sumbit let the clouds to chase them away. awe-inspiring than the Chinese Games, but ters. In the end, China got precisely what it paid it's a good bet they'll be more fun. more than $41 billion for. It won far more Online poll gold medals than any other nation, perThis editorial was published Tuesday in the suaded world leaders to attend the Games Los Angeles Times Do you actually read the syllabus? Tarnishing gold medals WHAT 15 THE MEANING OF IT ALL? . . . WHY ARE YOU COMING TO /WE? . . . WHY DONT YOU DO WHAT D/ERYBODY ELSE IS DOING? . . . GO A5K OBANVA. • No I peruse it I scan it I throw it away Visit us on the Web at www.utahstatesman.rnm to cast your vote. Check out these links on www.utahstatesman.com: • Archives • Forums • Joke's on You! • Puzzle answers • Activities and events • Classifieds • Wedding/Engagements • Slide shows & Video |