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Show Friday, Nov. 18, 2011 UtilhStat•ST "Campus Voice Since 1902" • Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.utahstatesman.com Today's Issue: Campus News Marijuana arrests rising on campus BY CHRIS LEE senior news writer National campaign hits campus for tobacco awareness. Page 2 Features A USU alumnus paints with his own blood. Page 4 Sp orts Arrests for the use of controlled substances such as marijuana at USU have nearly doubled from last year, according to Capt. Steve Milne of the USU Police. "For 2011 we have 41 arrests for controlled substances," Milne said, "compared to 22 for all of 2010." Milne said there has also been four more alcohol-related arrests this year compared to last year, and he pointed out there is more than one month before the year is over. Most of the students arrested for substance abuse have been firstyear students, Milne reported. He said many of the freshmen are not aware of a freshman student who died of alcohol poisoning during a fraternity hazing incident at USU in 2008. "I think a lot of it has to do with the freshmen students that are entering school have no idea who Michael Starks was," Milne said. "When that happened, I think they were roughly freshmen in high school, and I don't think they paid much attention to what was happening in the outside world." Milne said arrests involving drugs and alcohol decreased for a period after Starks' death, but are currently on the rise. "It's always been here," Milne said. "But this is definitely, by far, our busiest year. We've seen more cases of it than I've ever seen in the 29 years I've been here." Ryan Barfuss, prevention specialist at the Student Wellness Center, said recently fewer USU students claim to have tried marijuana than in past years. "It went from — in 2011 — 89.8 percent of students have not used," Barfuss said. "In 2009, 89.2 percent of students had not used. So actually the numbers have gone up of people who have not used." Barfuss said many students think drug use is more common than it actually is. According to UNIVERSITY POLICE COLLECT high amounts of marijuana and paraphernalia used to smoke it. On campus, use of marijuana has gone down, but due to electronic warrants, arrests have almost doubled since 2010. DELAYNE LOCKE photo illustration his survey, only 2.8 percent of students at USU have used marijuana in the last 30 days. However, the 2011 American College Health Association Survey reports perceived use is at 43.3 percent of college students, within the last 30 days. "There's some use, but not a lot of use," Barfuss said. Barfuss said the use of marijuana hasn't really gone up, but more people are getting caught. Milne said it used to take hours to obtain a search warrant, but now with the the ability to apply for an electronic search warrant, officers can obtain warrant within 20-30 minutes. He said officers used to find a judge to sign the warrant, but now they apply for it digitally, and a rotating shift of judges will review it any time of day. This change is one of the reasons Milne said he thinks police have an easier time catching students with illicit drugs. "A lot of the drug See DRUG, Page 2 Governor promotes use of alternative fuel BY ALLIE JEPPSON staff writer Utah State hockey bested San Jose State 6-4 in the first game of the Beehive Showcase. Page 7 Interact Now! USU broadcast students have been busy. Check out their latest broadcast: Did you hear all the drums beating on Friday? Get some culture here: Gov. Gary Herbert visited USU Wednesday morning to officially declare the month of November as Alternative Fuel Vehicle Awareness Month, a declaration signed at USU's alternative fueling station. The event was held at USU because of the university's dedication and perseverance to alternative fuel, said Alden Erikson, shuttle supervisor for Parking and Transportation Services. "It has been a great morning for me here, working with Utah State and other businesses to find better ways to do things and better ways to use our energy," Herbert said in a pre-signing speech. "We're making sure that we have quality of life ... in more environmentally sensitive ways." In its third year, AFV Month was supported by 47 mayors statewide, a huge increase from its eight supporters in 2010 and four the previous year. "It's a great honor to have the governor take time out of his day and come down," Erikson said. As part of USU's Energy Efficiency and Innovation Tour, the governor was able to see USU's efforts to improve the economy by taking a tour of USU's alternative fueling station. The station features a slow-fill system and allows a bus to be out all day without refilling. "I think we're the only one in the state with this fueling system primarily for the CNG (cornpressed natural gas) fleet buses," See HERBERT, Page 3 AGGIE SHUTTLE UTAH GOV. GARY HERBERT visited USU Wednesday to kick off Alternative Fuel Vehicle Awareness Month. Mayors across Utah are participating in the events, but he chose to come to USU because of the effort the university puts into using alternative fuel for the Aggie Shuttles. KATRINA ANNE PERKINS photo Innovative USU-built satellites orbiting Earth BY BRIANNA BODILY staff writer Wanting to g et a head start on a change of housing for next semester ... or next year? Check this out: Online exlusives, blogs, a place to comment on stories, videos and more. Free Classfieds, too. www.utahstatesman.com CRYSTAL FRAZER RAN tests and analyzed the results on the DICE satellite before it was launched. Photo courtesy Space Dynamics Lab After two years of engineering Yahtzee and Farkle — two nanosatellites created predominantly by USU students — currently circumnavigate the world every 90 minutes. The Dynamic Ionosphere Cubesat Experiment (DICE) was launched into space Oct. 28. Named Yahtzee and Farkle after the board games, these satellites are the first of their kind, Charles Swenson, a faculty participant of DICE, said. He said cube satellites have revolutionized the space industry. "We literally have people all around the world watching to see what happens with the DICE spacecraft," Swenson said. "Other people have made these cube-sats, but they haven't been as capable as what we've been doing. We've been packing more into them." Swenson said the team recruited the services of L3 Communications to help develop the miniature radios that are essential for communication to and from the satellites. The company hopes to sell the system to other people who will follow DICE and want to build their own small satellites. "Everyone has been looking at this and watching, because there really is a revolution coming," Swenson said. "If we can build such capable things the size of cellphones, why aren't we flying them in space too? Why do we have to build something the size of a desk or a bus to do things?" The goal of the team is to measure ionosphere density and magnetic fields in geomagnetic storms in an effort to understand how these storms affect our world, Swenson said. After piggybacking its way into space on a NASA weather satellite, the nanosatellites disappeared, Swenson said. For three days, members of the DICE team had to wait and watch, hoping Yahtzee and Farkle survived the trip. "We knew where they were supposed to be, and we were pointed where we thought they were supposed to be, but that's not where they actually were," Swenson said. "It's a real emotional rollercoaster to do this kind of stuff. Because, you know, you could put this See SATELLITES, Page 3 |