Month: January 2014

The air quality in the Wasatch Front is in crisis, and Utahans across the board should be striving for cleaner, healthier air. 

Harsh winter weather and topographic elements negatively impact the air of the Wasatch Front. While St. George is within compliance with the air standard of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Wasatch Front is constantly struggling to be within compliance. According to UPHC.org, air quality directly effects health and estimates  that the current air pollution levels can shorten lives by two years.

Gov. Gary Herbert created the Clean Air Action Team Oct. 15 to help find ways to improve air quality.

According to the Action Team’s press release published Jan. 30, the action team is pushing toward bringing cleaner cars and fuel to Utah and to eliminate wood burning.

“The Action Team’s recommendation will cover the gamut — everything from regulation, legislation, education, research and transportation,” Herbert said in a press release on Utah.gov. “I want to assure you that no possible solution will be left unturned.” 

William Swensen, St. George air quality manager, is working with Mayor Jon Pike to get a second air monitor in St. George.

Air monitors measure the amount of small particles in the air that enter the lungs and are less than 2.5 microns in diameter, otherwise called particulate matter 2.5.

“We’re using the monitor to regulate Little Valley right now,” Swensen said. “We move the monitor when we see problem areas.”

Air pollution can come from a multitude of sources, according to EPA.gov. Some sources include factories, power plants, smelters, cars, buses, planes, windblown dust and volcanic eruptions. Monitors are placed in areas of St. George that may be experiencing a higher amount of these pollutants.

Swensen said monitoring and measuring the air is the key to maintenance. St. George is currently within compliance with the EPA. To find an hourly-updated air quality measure, visit airquality.utah.gov. 

Kelcey Polliei, a freshman general education major from Salt Lake City, said she notices a distinct difference between the air in Salt Lake City compared to St. George.

“The air in Salt Lake is definitely bad,” Polliei said. “I went up there last week, and I could feel a difference in my lungs.”

Swensen said the youth and elderly are especially susceptible to the affects of pollution in all regions and encourages people to join the Southern Utah Air Quality Task Force to be proactive in keeping St. George’s air quality up to standard.

The task force is made up of citizens and public officers who are proactive in taking measures toward better air quality. The people involved in the task force try to come up with innovative ways to maintain good air quality and spread the message.

“Become involved,” Swensen said. “Join the task force, join a carpool and avoid idling your car.”

Brock Butler, a junior business major from Carlsbad, Calif., said St. George doesn’t seem to have obvious air quality issues like the Wasatch Front, but people should still be mindful of the impact each of us has on the air.

“If individuals have the drive to do something to help, that’s great,” Butler said. “Lots of grains of sand will eventually do something big.”

Being socially, entrepreneurially or ideologically sound can take a lifetime, but the next Dixie State University president may have to exhibit all these qualities to appease students. 

The DSU Presidential Search Committee held three public meetings Thursday to gauge staff, student and community member expectations for the committee while searching for a new president. At the student-oriented meeting, committee members described the process of selecting a president before opening up discussion for comments.

David Buhler, Utah commissioner of higher education, said the search committee will take ideas from constituents into account when developing a position announcement, which goes out nationally. He said after that, students and staff can expect quiet for some time until the committee names finalists for the position.

“There is no timeline,” he said. “We will take as long as it takes to find the best person to be president of this great institution and to build upon successes from the past.”

Students then gave opinions in regards to their hopes for DSU’s direction in the future and what they think a new president must embody.

Zac Stucki, a senior business major from St. George, said DSU administration, staff and students face a crossroads and can create dialogue to both go against the status quo and empower students. The ultimate path taken depends on DSU’s future president, Stucki said.

“We actually, at Dixie State University, have a wonderful opportunity to brand ourselves as something unique and distinct, or we have an opportunity to brand ourselves as followers,” he said.

Stucki also said the new president’s ultimate ability to inspire students dictates whether DSU can constantly improve while influencing other universities to provide students with a well-rounded education.

“President Nadauld found a way to [instill] hope in every single student,” he said. “The instant they walked on this campus and saw President Nadauld, they knew in their hearts, ‘You know what, this is going to be hard, but dang it, I can do it.’” 

Like Stucki, other students said a candidate who builds on Nadauld’s impact at DSU should be chosen.

Mariah Stout, a senior elementary education major from Evanston, Wyo., and Dixie State University Student Association education senator, said Nadauld goes out of his way to associate with students. A university president so immersed in campus happenings is rare, she said.

“A really good characteristic of a president of this school is somebody who actually wants to get involved with the students — someone who doesn’t have a problem going and talking to the students on campus and coming to the activities,” Stout said.

As DSU continues its growth and development with a new leader, attendees voiced concerns that dealt with more specific issues.

Alex Lambson, a junior CIT major from St. George and DSUSA CIT senator, said DSU’s role in southern Utah’s economy should bolster and eclipse other sources of revenue like tourism. To meet this demand, whoever replaces Nadauld must peer into the future, he said.

“[We need a president] who looks really, really far into the future — like we’re talking 20, 30 years here because you know times are going to change [drastically],” Lambson said. “If we don’t upgrade our infrastructure and things like the Internet … we’re going to get left behind by the other schools that are constantly upgrading all that.”

As committee members scribed notes, students drew from personal experiences for suggestions.

Kelsey Jetter, a junior English major from St. George, said the university could use a president who values public speaking and debate. Christine Arlotti, a senior English major from Los Angeles, said Nadauld’s successor cannot ignore the challenges to undergraduate females on campus.

“We are a family-oriented community, and so a lot of our female students get married early and have children, but they don’t have any help with child care or services to help them [graduate],” Arlotti said.

The DSU presidential search committee will hold another meeting Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. to garner more feedback from constituents. In addition, staff, students and community members can provide input by submitting comments at dixie.edu/presidential search under “Public Input.”

Think of your life as a soundtrack.

You have a song that turns up when you know you’re about to discover something big. A different song plays when your world seems to crumble down, and another song emerges out of nowhere along with the butterflies that suddenly ram against the walls of your tummy.

“Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn reads exactly like that, except the soundtrack is shared by two people who are thrown into each other’s lives with an unexpected springboard of a rash kiss. Told in alternating “he said, she said” narration, a story of love, music and friendship unfolds in one, long roller coaster of a first date in Manhattan.

I was enticed to read “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” when I found out the idea was born one afternoon while two of my favorite authors were out for lunch. Levithan and Cohn shared a passion for teen literature and music for many years. Cohn told Levithan she’d been stirring a story idea around her head where two youngsters would meet at a music club in Manhattan. Without more said on the matter, Levithan agreed to help Cohn begin her novel.

Months went by, and Cohn had almost forgotten about the conversation when she received an email from Levithan with the words “Chapter One” in the subject line. From there, the two emailed chapters back and forth, picking up each chapter where the other left off. Nick and Norah’s story slowly came to life. 

Cohn and Levithan have a magical talent that I previously thought was only the province of John Green: they get teenagerdom right. They write the characters as perfect portrayals of the teenagers they really are.

I’ve encountered a lot of books where teens sound how the authors wish them to sound. One classic example — committed by most female young adult authors (I’m looking at you, Stephanie Meyers) — is they make teenage boys sound like their ideal 30-year-old men. They’re not fleshing out characters when they do that; they’re just making use of puppets molded by their dreamy notions and frustrations.

That’s not the case with Nick or Norah.

Norah meets Nick at a club in downtown Manhattan. Nick is stuck in his usual, emo-depressed state due to his recent break-up with Tris, who had inspired him to write beautiful songs. Norah comes from a bad relationship with a very politically-oriented boyfriend, Tal, whom she’d dumped about five times in the last three years. Both stories offer an element of truth that any reader can relate to.

This is why I think the Cohn-Levithan duo is such an exquisite collaboration. They are so in-sync with each other that you can only wonder how they can flawlessly make the story go on, yet you  know who’s penned what because of their distinctive styles. Admittedly, I’ve only read one other book by Cohn, but Levithan’s writing had the undertones of his “Will Grayson, Will Grayson” and “Boy Meets Boy” that are recognizable by his fans.

I’m not easily impressed by most love stories, but this novel thawed my frosty literary heart from the first page. Some parts of the story were actually painful to read — not because they were bad or wrong, but because they were so right that they were touching raw, emotional spots leftover from teenager-hood that I didn’t realize I still had. Like when Norah decided to jump the turnstile to catch the train with Nick, it’s those same leaps of faith that reminded me of the leaps I took as a teen that got me to where I am now.

Even though readers may personally feel like they’re nothing like Nick and Norah, the emotions and sensations they go through are so familiar that I’d wager they’re universal.

If this novel is an album, the listeners will encounter a lot of songs about strippers in nun costumes, taxi driver wisdom, five-minute relationships and heart-versus-mind debates.

One message Levithan and Cohn clearly voice is that we tend to anchor memories to music without even trying. It’s rare when we’re conscious enough to pay attention. But when we do, each moment is a note, each event is a song, and each connection with another person is a soundtrack. If we’re lucky, something or someone forces us to tune in and know when it’s time to go along with where the music is taking us.

A forced, sloppy kiss or a pawned-off dinner tab can leave a person swearing off dating for life.

Dating is simply a part of life for young adults, and unfortunately, dreadful dates seem inevitable. Like Pat Benatar said, “Love is a battlefield.” Everyone’s fighting to score a winning date with a trophy girl or guy, but put on your armor — it may require conquering some bad dates in order to discover a gleaming one.

Jonathan Morrell, Director of Student Support Services, is all too familiar with bad dates, and looking back, he said he wishes he would have handled his poor date situations differently.

“It was a Sadie Hawkins dance,” Morrell said. “It was a mercy date. I went because she asked, and it ended up being a waste of her money and my time.”

Morrell said in order to have a successful date, both people involved have to want to be there, and in hindsight, he should have been honest with the girl who asked him out and not attended the dance.

“A lot of people go on mercy dates in this culture,” Morrell said. “Just rip the bandage off. Truth is important in dating.”

Jay Phillips, a freshman CIT major from St. George, has strong opinions about what could turn a date sour.

“If a girl kept talking and distracting me from a movie, it would be so annoying,” Phillips said. “I once went on a really bad date when I didn’t have a car. After, I walked the girl home and my parents had to pick me up.”

There are many aspects that can transform a pleasant date into a crummy one, and part of a successful date is knowing when to take a hint, said Cadie Erickson, a freshman general education major from Hurricane.

“On this one date, we went on a bike ride,” Erickson said. “After the bike ride, he wanted to hang out, and I’m too nice to say no, so he hung around at my apartment literally all day. I told him I didn’t feel good, and he still wouldn’t leave. He hung around for hours.”

Luckily, Erickson now has a strategy for future dreaded dates.

“My backup plan is to tell them I’m epileptic and say I’m slipping into a seizure,” Erickson said. 

While dealing with another person in an awkwardly romantic situation can be uncomfortable, it’s important to take chances and have hope, Erickson said.

“Go on a date with an open mind,” Erickson said. “Hope for the best. Hope the person isn’t creepy.”

Morrell said it’s also important to not be selfish when dating, and respect the other person by making him or her a priority.

“Leave the electronic devices at home,” Morrell said. “Focus on the person you’re with.”