UVSC College Times, 2004-04-12

              Life a Death !fmAYaJt mcr!aaF mm-.mm?!&mim UTAH VALLEY STATE COLLEGE WW .. J vUvlJyiiJjlJiyMLj EL BUEN FANO EN ELARCA SE VENDE MONDAY, APRIL 12,2004 l VOLUME 32TTSUE 3t Sports w" -r 1 Giddy up cowboys! UVSC Rodeo knows the ropes. Sports starts on Page 9. Your Campus LA Leaders have the world in their hand thanks to Sigma Alpha Lambda. See Page 8 to find out how. UVXPress l"TtHtfy Ap' 2004 villi! I HLfcUiUilll WfUl "TL See rage 8 Boring weekend? UVXPress is the answer. Pick up a copy every Thursday. UVXNews ? fV Emily Hibbert UVXNews gives you the news you can use, and looks good doing it! Check out the TVs in the halls. FflH 7 FARTS Your Numbers Days until graduation Your Weather Mon tJ Sunny Tue Sunny Wed I Partly Cloudy High 64 High 71 High 68 Low 41 Low 45 Low 41 v - m u u hi . I In ' ..a n.n.i 1 1 u c 4 - I l-c1 y A 3 C. cr .. L I V oiSi 1000 continues to he one o tiie touyiicst classes on campus. I' : o L By Vegor Pedersen fll'HS Slilff Dan Lewis is spending yet another night scratching out equations in the Math Lab. His wife is five months pregnant, and right now he wants to spend more time with her and less time with numbers and variables. "It is frustrating because I have taken (Math) 1,050 twice now, and it isn't getting any easier," said Lewis, who is busy studying for his upcoming final. "This is the hardest class I have ever taken." Lewis is like a lot of students at UVSC. For many, Math 1050 is one of the most feared courses in the catalog. "I hated 1050." said Brooke Paynter, who graduated from UVSC last year. "It took me two semesters, and I just barely passed. Jut the thought of thai class makes me sick." Kathy Van Wagonecr knows something about math anxiety. She is the Math Lab coordinator as well as the director of the Math Advantage Program. "It all boils down to foundation." she said. A good math foundation is something that UVSC students have been struggling with for awhile. According to a 2003 report submitted by Institutional Research director Jeff Hoyt. almost half of incoming freshmen need remedial math classes. Students who struggle with entry-level math skills often wind up in Math 0950. Math 0990. or Math 1010. Van Wag-oneer feels that these prerequisite classes are not currently challenging enough to prepare students for the difficulties they will face in Math 1050. "My point of view is that it is not the college algebra that is time consuming, it is the prerequisite skills that are rusty and poorly developed," said Van Wagoneer. "My solution is that we need to beef up the pre-reqs in Math 0950 through 1010." "We are working on creating a 0990-1010 level mathematics review course so that people can get that foundation. It would be a mastery-based course and be set up so you couldn't move on until you proved a 90 mastery," Van Wagoneer said. "Anybody can master something in a given amount of time. Are you smart enough and capable enough to learn it in one semester?" -Kathy Van Wagoneer Math Lab Coordinator & Director of Math Advatage But according to numbers provided by Jeff Hoyt at UVSC's Office of Institutional Research, those prerequisite classes might be already too tough. The most recent data shows that Math 1010 is the second most failed course on campus (when you look at the total number of students failing the course). Math 0950 is the third most failed course, with Math 1050 at sixth, and Math 0990 in eighth. "Math 1050" cont'd on pg. 4 Hen. Chris Cannon sncads at UU3G By Shawn Mansell ct.nis Staff Congressmen Chris Cannon spoke on a variety of subjects Monday during a public meeting held in the McKay Events Center. Cannon is the latest speaker to visit UVSC as part of the Democracy Project. Following an introduction by President Sederburg, in which he thanked Cannon for his support of UVSC, Cannon delved into several issues facing the nation. Cannon addressed the loss of American manufacturing jobs. He said that the jobs weren't lost but rather transferred to the technology sector. "We haven't lost a single job to Mexico or China, not a single one," he said. The congressman, who is up for re-election this year, also explained his reason- - 1 1 - ...... .. I ....1 :7', -1.1".,- ! ;ili.illt'V J Rep. Chris Cannon spoke at UVSC Monday April 5. Cannon, who is running for another term this November, spoke on many issues including immigration and education. ing for backing immigrant friendly legislation. "A lot of the people illegal immigration opponents are against choice," he said, "they want zero population growth." Cannon also expressed concern over how heated the immigration de bate has gotten. "One caller to a radio show said we should get the people illegal immigrants) on a plane, fly over Mexico and push them out the door." The fact that an estimated 40 million Americans are "Cannon" cont'd on P9. 4 GGI ill year's student ally By Vegor Pedersen .oi.i'ttsSla Student government's new executive council, made up of Jim Bassi. Brooke Arnell, Joe Vogel, and Tiffany Caller, selected their 2004-2005 Student Council members this past Thursday. "I did this two years ago," said incoming president Jim Bassi, who previously served as a vice president under Ryan Vogel. "It was competitive then, but this year we had so many qualified people, so many people who could have done the job and done it well. It was so hard to decide, because you knew that they could do the job." Soon after Bassi and his team won the elections in March they started looking at applications for the new student council. "We had about 80 applicants, some people applying for multiple spots, so we had over a hundred applications total," Bassi said. "We went strictly off of applications for people to get interviews, and we went strictly off of interviews and applications to decide who got positions," Bassi said. Adding to the difficulty of the process was the fact that this year's executive council was made up of members from Bassi's Team Insight and Brooke Arnell from Team Impact. "I was very impressed with the four of us and how we worked together. Even though we were a split team, "Council" cont'd on pg. 3