“We’re hoping that if all this goes through we can start the renovation this coming July, which will be huge,” ASUW President Megan Degenfelder said.

Partial funding for Half Acre has moved up, and if it goes through, the gym can start to be remodeled in this coming July. (Photo: Edward Timmons)

She said the Capital Construction Budget Request, which contains several other university construction plans, has moved up to the State Building Commission for a recommendation; the next step is approval by the state legislature. Degenfelder said, before seeking state funding, the university was seeking a private donor, but because the facility was not an educational facility, finding a donor was difficult.

Degenfelder said, if funding for the facility is approved, it would pay for half of the $27 million project. She said the other half will be paid for in student fees.

“It’s not like a one-time big student fee type of thing; it’s spread out over time,” Jon Hunzeker, director of government

affairs, said.

Degenfelder said the renovation calls for $15 million in student fees, and will work in a similar way to how the renovations to the Wyoming Union were paid for. “We are still paying off union debt in student fees,” Degenfelder said.

“We are very fortunate in the state of Wyoming that we have the chance to even apply for these matching funds,” Hunzeker said.

Hunzeker said Colorado State University paid for a $67 million facility, which is all paid for in student fees. “All of that cost is passed on to their students,” Hunzeker said.

But what is wrong with the facility?

According to a renovation report, a design team assessed Half Acre and came to the conclusion it was in excellent condition for its age. However, the report suggested there is much need for improvements.

Hunzeker said one major problem is the circulation of visitors into the facility. He said, right now, visitors must enter through the west entrance then go through gender-specific locker rooms. Hunzeker said newer gyms do not require visitors to go through the locker rooms, and would like to see Half Acre with similar attributes.

Degenfelder said the building lacks elevators and other forms of disability access. She also said the separate stations inside Half Acre are currently too small.

“It’s just not suitable for our current population of students,” Degenfelder said.

Degenfelder said on any given day 2,000 students go to Half Acre. This means the building will have to expand, but Hunzeker said most of the expansion would go up, not out.

According to the report, the renovation will add 146,793 square feet of new repurposed space. Degenfelder said this space would be filled with new multi-purpose courts with a softer floor and a new, bigger climbing wall which will mirror Vedauwoo.

Vice President of Special Events Carol Frost spoke to several Associated Students of the University of Wyoming senators Tuesday about a proposal to raise the University of Wyoming assured admission requirements.

“Problem number one is getting more students in K-12 interested and ready to go to college,” Frost said. The goal is to ensure first year students are well prepared for their college education at UW, he said.

Frost said, according to current ACT statistics, 17 percent of Wyoming students taking the ACT are considered ready in the four benchmarks, English, math, reading and science. This is in contrast to the national percentage, which is 24 percent. Frost also said, out of 100 high school students in Wyoming, only 44 will go to college. However, Frost said, in 2010, the average ACT score of Wyoming students was 24.2 and the average GPA 3.43

Frost presented four proposals, which will raise the assured admissions requirement. The first proposal is to raise the admissions standards to match the Hathaway success curriculum. This will require students to do better in math and science, and also adds a minimum foreign language requirement. The second proposal is to raise the GPA requirement from 2.7 to 3.0. The third proposal is to raise the minimum ACT score to 21.

The fourth proposal is to improve the conditional admissions requirement. Frost said, currently, the Synergy program on campus has 150 openings, and helps students who have not met the assured admissions requirements. “Synergy is not a penalty, it’s a good thing,” Andy Hansen, Associate Provost for Undergraduate and Graduate Studies, said.

Hansen said 90 percent of UW students will not be affected by the four proposals, and 10 percent of incoming students will be integrated into the Synergy program. But ASUW Senator Alex Sullivan-Brink has concerns for minority students.

Sullivan-Brink said he doesn’t feel the Synergy program effectively helps foreign students succeed at UW. He said he thinks these proposals, if ever implemented, could reduce the number of foreign students on campus.

“I’m hoping they’ll give me more clarity and less statistics,” Sullivan-Brink said.

Frost said the Synergy program has reduced the probation rate from 60 percent to 40 percent and raised students’ GPAs by 0.3, but Sullivan-Brink said he feels Frost and Hansen know how minority students will be affected.

“I’m afraid that just putting them into this Synergy program isn’t going to work, because it’s not working now,” Sullivan-Brink said.

Frost said, “We are not trying to keep people out; we don’t want people to come here and have a bad experience.”

Associated Students of the University of Wyoming Arts and Sciences Senator Alex Sullivan-Brink asks people among a crowd about their opinions regarding smoking on campus outside of the Union. (Photo:Edward Timmons)

At a meeting Tuesday night, Associated Students of the University of Wyoming (ASUW) proceeded with the first reading of a bill that recommends the creation of a University Regulation (UniReg) that bans smoking on campus.

ASUW Senator Noah Hull, an author of the bill, said ASUW cannot write a UniReg. He said the bill only recommends the creation of such a regulation. “Last semester ASUW barely passed a resolution in support of the Laramie Smoking Ordinance and the University Regulation that dealt with smoking,” Hull said. “I am in favor of this change to move the University of Wyoming in the direction of a smoke-free campus.”

Meg Lanker-Simons, a UW student, addressed the senate in Tuesday’s meeting, voicing her concerns of making UW a smoke-free campus. She said second hand smoke isn’t as dangerous outside as it is inside, and made other arguments against a smoke-free campus. “Just giving you food for thought,” she said.

Lanker-Simons said she is a smoker, but according to a 2011 National College Health Assessment study, 85.5 percent of UW students do not smoke. “We have polled the students, staff and faculty on such and all are in the majority to move to a smoke-free campus,” Hull said. But ASUW Senator Alex Sullivan-Brink took an informal poll yesterday in the union, which showed much different results.

“I’m not sure on how to vote for this yet, so I figured I’d go ask the students because they are the ones who are ultimately going to be affected by it,” Sullivan-Brink, said.

Jared O’Brien and Sullivan-Brink both stood in the Union asking students what they thought of the bill. Sullivan-Brink said he talked to 75 students yesterday. He said 54 students said the senators should vote no, 14 said they should vote yes, seven said they don’t know and one gave an improper response.

Sullivan-Brink said he plans to do the same thing today at 2 p.m. and encouraged ASUW senators to join him. “I think the message to senators is they need to be talking to students instead of just voting like we have seen in previous years,” Sullivan-Brink said.

“It’s a much more traditional look, especially for the drum majors,” Western Thunder Drum Major Michael Jaycox said. Lynn Hartly, also a drum major for Western Thunder, said the new uniforms are a white jacket with brown pants and a gold sash running across the chest. Hartly said the old uniforms were the opposite, with a brown jacket and cream pants. “It looks really sharp,” he said.

Hartly also said the drum major uniforms changed dramatically as well. He said the old uniforms were all black suits with black cowboy hats, whereas this year the uniforms are white with cowboy hats and a gold half cape. Hartly and Jaycox agreed the new look is sharp, and better represent the university.

Jaycox said the gold on the old uniforms was more of an actual gold and not a game day gold. He said game day gold is more yellow, and the new uniforms display this color. “This represents the university in a much better way,” he said.

Jaycox and Hartly said new uniforms were purchased because of a donation from the McMurry family in Casper. Jaycox said the band wanted to show their appreciation by having members spell out McMurry on Jonah field during rehearsal. Hartly said a photo was taken of the formation and it will be framed and sent to the family.

“It’s the least we could do to show them how much we truly appreciate what they have done for us,” Hartly said.

Jaycox and Hartly agreed Saturday’s half-time show couldn’t have gone any better. Hartly said the theme for the show was rock, but Hartly said the show was unconventional.

“The songs we chose didn’t really fall into the same genre that you would usually pick for a rock show,” Hartly said. The marching band opened the show with “Sellout” by Reel Big Fish, then played “Hey Jude” by the Beatles and closed with “Call me” by Blondie. “Over all, it went really well,” Jaycox said.

“The new uniforms, new instruments and all the donations that the band has received in the past year really helped boost our confidence level,” Hartly said.

Jaycox said Western Thunder’s next show, scheduled for Sept. 10, will be a patriotic show, dedicated to our troops and veterans. Jaycox said they will open the show with America the Beautiful, then play a patriotic medley featuring songs which represents the four branches of the military and will close with God Bless America.

The “Talismans of Protections from Chosŏn Korea: Antique Lock, Latches, and Key Charms” exhibition will open to the public on Sept. 3 in the niversity of Wyoming Centennial Complex Art Museum. Margo Grant Walsh will also be leading a walkthrough of her exhibit, “Silver & Metalwork of the 20th Century: The Margo Grant Walsh Collection,” Sept. 9

“This exhibition ties into a larger theme of all of our fall exhibitions, which is metalwork,” Assistant Curator the UW Art Museum Rachel Miller said. She said the items in the new Korean exhibit were donated by Lock Museum in Seoul Korea. Miller said there is more than 160 pieces on view and contain many talismans of protection from the Chosŏn Dynasty. “There are several types of key charms that each served a different purpose, from being purely functional to commemorative,” Miller said. She said turtles were considered protective animals during the Chosŏn Dynasty, so they were used as locks. The turtle locks on display will hang on the south wall of the exhibit.

This isn’t the first time the UW art museum housed art from a different country. An installation piece called “NACHI” by Japanese artist Etsuko Ichikawa was recently taken out of the museum for the new Korean exhibit.

“Part of our mission is to bring international art and artists to the museum, the state of Wyoming, students and the community. We like to have diversity in our exhibitions and our programming,” Miller said.

“Some of the objects in this exhibition are 500 or 600 years old. To see the detail and intricacy of the wood, silk, and metalwork is really impressive considering both how old these objects are and the fact that they were hand crafted,” Miller said.

The exhibition was organized by The Korea Society and will remain in the UW art museum until Dec. 22. The exhibition was partly funded by Edelweiss Funds, Chevron USA, Inc. and the National Advisory Board of the UW Art Museum.

Margo Walsh Grant, owner of the “Silver & Metalwork of the 20th Century: The Margo Grant Walsh Collection,” will also be hosting a walkthrough of her collection at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 9 in the art museum. It is an exhibition of more than 185 silver and metal objects from around the world.

Outside funding

ASUW violated Section IV, subsection A, paragraph four of the ASUW financial policy, which states, “The availability of outside funding shall be considered and discussed before requests are granted by the RSO Funding Board. ASUW funds will not be granted when other such funding sources have not been explored and it is determined those sources are available and appropriate.”

This sparked an argument in Tuesday’s ASUW meeting when funding for a Brazilian awareness event was passed. ASUW Senator, Noah Hull, was upset the RSOs hosting the event, Education Without Borders and the Brazilian Club, did not even try to find outside.

Hull had no problem supporting ASUW funding for the Mid-Autumn Festivity hosted by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association. Hull said he supported a yes vote for funding the event because it had a good turn-out in past years. However, the RSO for the Chinese Students and Scholars Association said they didn’t look for outside funding, only that they anticipated additional funding in the future.

ASUW Senator Phillip Abernathy said he does not think requiring RSOs to have outside funding is fair. “I don’t think it’s fair to require a lot of outside funding when the school year literally just started,” Abernathy said.

Resignation 

ASUW Senator for the College of Engineering, Sam Rubino, resigned in Tuesday’s meeting. He apologized to the elections committee and said he hoped they found another candidate soon. Rubino said he resigned from the ASUW senate because he took on a research project with a professor and there was a time conflict.

Bill 2317

Argument rose Tuesday when Senate Bill 2317 became the topic of discussion. The bill changes the policy on switching colleges while running for a position on the ASUW senate.

ASUW Senator, Robert West, voted against the bill because he has problem with colleges’ involvement with the voting system. “I personally have a fundamental problem with our obsession with colleges and our voting system,” West said.

West also said he did not like the fact that what college you’re in can currently dictate ASUW senate positions, but Kalayla Hough seemed to be on the other side of the spectrum. She compared the ASUW senate to the United States government, as in the way Wyoming Senators cannot leave Wyoming and still represent Wyoming. Hough applied the same principal to colleges. But West still disagrees with the current system.

“School is a place where you learn, and you should be able to switch majors as many times as you want. Being an effective student leader should have no kind of inhibition based on what college you’re in,” West said.

ASUW Senator, Emily Bennett said she thought too much time was spent on bill 2317. “It’s not a waste of time, but it only affects 30 people, instead of affecting the entire campus,” Bennett said. She said she would like to see more legislation that affects all students on campus.

Director of Facilities Planning, Roger Baalman, said the $8.6 million renovation will help update some of the building’s systems. “Major maintenance improvements to the building systems,” Baalman said.

Baalman said the construction team, Sampson Construction, is updating mechanical systems, such as heating, ventilating, air conditioning and electrical systems, such as lighting. Baalman said several fume hoods are being updated and asbestos is being removed. However, the asbestos removal was not included in the $8.6 million fund.

Baalman said funding for this project came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) – State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF). “This project is one of several major maintenance projects funded by ARRA-SFSF,” Baalman said.

Baalman said the Governor provided $27 million in Jan. 2010 to be used for major maintenance projects on campus. Baalman also said the funds were to be contracted out by June 30, and completed by Sept. 30.

“Construction work on the Physical Science Building specifically began with the bidding and ordering of the large ventilation fan systems in Feb. 2011,” Baalman said. Baalman said the construction team is on schedule, and he expects they will be finished by the deadline, But is this too much work for Sampson?

“There’s no doubt that we are hustling,” one Sampson Construction representative, said. Baalman said Sampson Constriction was hired because it has experience with completing major projects in short periods of time. “The University also had some positive previous experience with the firm,” Baalman said.

If you have walked near the Physical Science building, you may have noticed a large crane on the north side of the building. Baalman said the crane is being used to lift large fans to top of the Physical Sciences building and the Pharmacy Building. Baalman said the crane will also be used for other maintenance projects funded by the ARRA.

“This project was going to be a challenge to accomplish in the time permitted by the State of Wyoming and the ARRA funding,” Baalman said. But Baalman said his expectations are being met, and he remains optimistic of the project’s completion. “It appears the university will spend the funds and meet the time expectations.  Many persons from the Facilities Planning Office, the Physical Plant and the State Construction Management Office have been focused on making this challenge a success,” Baalman said.

[singlepic id=26 w=320 h=240 float=left]

[singlepic id=25 w=320 h=240 float=]

Jeremy Adtkins, founder and president of QAN, said, “Random Acts of Homosexuality” is used to send the message that homosexuals are just like everyone else.

The group set several signs on posts near Prexy’s pasture that read “Caution: random acts of homosexuality.” The group then sat behind yellow caution tape just “literally living our lives,” QAN member Amy Van Cleave said.

Adtkins said the whole point of the demonstration is to send a message, the message that homosexuals are no different from straight people. “We are all just normal people, doing normal things,” Adtkins said.

Van Cleave said the group’s biggest problem is recruiting new members, which is another goal of the demonstration. QAN members were also handing out flyers to people passing by the closed-off section of Prexy’s pasture, promoting their welcome back reception.

The reception is scheduled tonight from 6–7 p.m. in Room 506 of Coe Library. The QAN will be welcoming back past members and supporters, as well as, meeting new faces.

QAN also welcome and encourage anyone to attend to learn more about their organization. Van Cleave said they highly encourage involvement from straight people, and highly appreciate their involvement. “I’m not even gay, but I thought it would be cool to come and support,” QAN member J.D. Wagner said.

Van Cleave said QAN meetings aren’t just for students. She said faculty members have attended meetings in the past, and members from the Laramie community are also welcome.

Van Cleave said QAN also participates in many other events such as Allies Week. Adtkins described Allies week as a week of LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Trans) activities and topics.

Adtkins is the president of QAN for now, but Van Cleave said QAN is switching to a co-president system.  Van Cleave and Adtkins are both running for the co-president positions.

“They didn’t try to get any outside support,” ASUW Senator, Noah Hull said. When the motion to give the organizations funding for the event was approved, ASUW’s financial policy was directly violated, Hull said.

Hull said the policy states ASUW cannot give money to an organization, unless they have tried to get outside support. “I was disappointed because the vote was to approve that funding board,” Hull said.

Hull said he liked the idea of funding a Brazilian awareness event, but it went against the financial policy.

However, the ASUW passed the decision. “I don’t think it’s fair to require a lot of outside support when the school year literally just started,” ASUW Senator Phillip Abernathy said. Abernathy voted in favor of granting the funds. “We cannot make changes to the financial policy on the board,” Hull said.

Hull said he didn’t like how the policy was overlooked. He said if there are concerns with the financial policy, senators should draft new legislation addressing it.

Although Hull disagreed with the approval of giving money for the Brazilian awareness event, he did agree with approval to give $4,260 the Chinese Students and Scholars Association for its Mid-Autumn Festivity.

Tim Kuhfuss, the IT new director of research support, said the computer will be one of the top 25 best super computers in the world. “It’s a world class complex,” he said.

However, Bryan Shader, assistant to the vice president of research and economic development, said it will be in the top 25 for different reasons. “They are deliberately investing more money in designing the storage and access to storage rather than on speed. Everything in that building is about sustainability and maximizing the sciences,” Shader said.

Khfuss said 20 percent of the supercomputer’s power can be used by UW Earth Science researchers.

Shader said the supercomputer center will be available strictly for the research of atmospheric and Earth sciences.

However, Khfuss is working on bringing a smaller version of the same computer to UW for all researchers and faculty. “The goal would be to have a computer at five percent of the capacity of this,” Shader said. Kuhffs said he expects to have the mini supercomputer ready by next summer and it will replace the 18 computer clusters currently administered by individual research groups.

Shader said the computer is estimated to have 75,000 to 100,000 CPUs, which will cost $25 million. The NWSC facility itself cost $70 million. Shader also said Wyoming contributed $20 million and the legislature agreed to contribute $1 million a year, for 20 years, to the project. “We are moving really fast into this and that’s why it is exciting,” Kuhfuss said.

Kuhfuss was hired Aug. 1, by the UW IT department, and said he is excited to be part of the supercomputing UW is involved in.

Kuhfuss said the following is being done to expand on UW’s cyberinfastructure:

A new IT facility

UW recently opened its new $34 million IT facility, which houses a state-of-the-art student computing lab and a $6 million, 6,000 ft2 data center with Tier II+ redundancy. These investments are aligned with Wyoming Science & Technology plan.

World-class connectivity

UW is one of the founding members of the Front Range Gigapop (FRGP), which currently provides 10-gigabytes a second bandwidth connectivity between UW, Colorado universities and other institutes including NCAR. It provides an excellent way gateway to the Teragrid. An additional 10-gigabyte per second connection will run between UW and the NWSC and will connect the Bison Loop of the FRGP.

Research IT support

A cadre of IT specialists designed to enable faculty and student research is being developed through consolidation, reorganization and new positions (including a Research IT Director hired in July 2011 and Application Specialists.)

HPC education and training programs

These will include courses especially designed for entering graduate students, courses in parallel computing and visualization and regular joint workshops with NCAR.