Higher Education

OGDEN — Kelsie Godfrey peered through open doorways in the new Weber State dormitory — the place she will call home when school starts later this month.

“I heard about the open house and I came to check it out,” said Godfrey, an incoming freshman with a microbiology major. “It’s super nice. I really like the room setup.”

Godfrey will make the move from her hometown of Rigby, Idaho.

OGDEN — A Weber State student ambassador led her group of about 20 new students through a mingling exercise at Thursday’s orientation session.

“Movies over books,” she said, pointing her arms in opposite directions, sparking her charges to move right or left to choose sides. Movies won.

“Cake over ice cream,” she asked, causing most to move to right, for ice cream. One student planted herself in the middle, refusing to choose between two loves.

OGDEN — Rocky Mountain Power Foundation has donated $3,000 to Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College for scholarships to assist students in the college’s electrical trades and business programs.

Since 2004, the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation and the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning have contributed a total of $20,500 to the college foundation to support the scholarship fund and college projects.

As a result, 17 academically talented, low- to moderate-income students have been helped with scholarships.

HAVRE, Mont. -- Leaders of the Montana University System issued new policies Friday for handling claims of sexual assault, the latest development in a controversy that has led to a federal investigation into whether a college botched its response to rape reports made by female students.

The U.S. Justice Department earlier this month opened a gender-discrimination investigation that looks into the way the University of Montana, its football team and the city of Missoula responded to sexual assault and harassment reports. The federal Education Department's civil rights division opened a similar investigation shortly thereafter.

The university has come under fire as alleged rape victims and authorities have accused officials of mishandling rape investigations over the past two years, including cases involving football players. The football coach and athletic director were fired in March, mostly without explanation, but a cloud still hangs over the program.

OGDEN — When a small, piston-powered aircraft gets a flat tire and blocks the sole runway at your rural airport, you can’t exactly call the auto club.

“Bottom line, your runway is closed,” said Angie Johannsen, vice president of Redtail Aviation, which owns airports in Moab and Price. “Planes cannot land or take off. You need the damaged aircraft off the runway ASAP.”

But Cessnas and other small planes aren’t tow-friendly, and trying to drag the aircraft to one side for repairs often results in destruction of the wheel system. The only other option is to fly in an airplane mechanic with tools for on-the-spot repairs, but that takes both money and time.

OGDEN — There were days when Jason Covington thought he would never finish his associate degree in nursing from Weber State University.

“Today feels awesome,” said Covington, 36 and from Ephriam, standing in cap and gown, waiting for WSU’s 139th commencement ceremony to begin after 51⁄2 years at Weber State. “It’s a lot better than I imagined. It’s been stressful, but I always remembered what I had made it through already to help me get through the next hard thing.

“Everything you do makes you grow differently,” he said, with a tired smile.

LOGAN — A single Earth Day, officially April 22 this year, did not seem nearly enough to celebrate the planet that gives us all we have, and that needs our protection.

So Roslynn Brain, a Utah State University College of Natural Resources assistant professor and Sustainable Communities Extension specialist, decided with her students to throw a weeklong event in honor of Earth.

“When I look back on this week, I smile,” Brain said. “We’ve had other sustainability events, but this has been our most successful project all year.”