Utah State announces more changes to housing, fitness services due to COVID-19

By Sydney Kidd and Marcus Lamb

More students are trying to find their way home from Logan now as growing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic have brought about updated policies at Utah State University.

On Monday, the university sent out an email requesting students staying in on-campus housing return to their permanent homes “if possible.” 

According to the email, Utah State will also be closing the Aggie Recreation Center, USU Fieldhouse and recreational facilities in the Health, Physical Education, and Recreation building starting Tuesday. 

Last week, USU told students not to make any immediate decisions about leaving campus. The school also sent out an email saying that housing services would remain open. The new announcement said USU would continue to provide services to those unable to leave.

“I honestly don’t know what I’m doing yet. I don’t really want to leave,” freshman Mattiekay Rackham said. “If I stay I can study with people and still be with my friends.”

Rackham lives with her cousin, Anna Gustin, in on-campus housing. Both women are from Kuna, Idaho. Gustin has elected to move out and will get the prorated rent refund being offered by the university.

“It’s not because I am panicked or too concerned,” Gustin said. “I just have the opportunity now to finish up the school year from home.”

The closure of recreational facilities is another way USU is trying to limit the spread of COVID-19. 

“This decision was not made lightly,” director of Campus Recreation Daniel Lawerence said. “This was a university-wide level decision to help mitigate the virus.”

Previously, the school had elected to keep these facilities open, closing them down twice a day for hour-long sanitation procedures. 

“We kept our cleaning up to a strict schedule,” Lawerence said. “... doing everything we possibly could to give our athletes the cleanest and safest gym to exercise in.”
Students who attend the gym regularly have expressed disappointment over the closures. 

“I’m very sad; I think it’s a great way to help keep students’ mental health in check,” Bently Fife said. “Thanks to the online classes and the closing of the ARC, students will be in their apartments more and it will affect them in a negative way.” 

Fife is a junior at USU; she has been attending the ARC regularly since her freshman year of college. 

But Lawrence said there may be other options for the gym aficionado to try out while the gym was closed.

“We're trying to do the best we can to make sure our top athletes are healthy, safe, and in top shape,” Lawrence said. “We are planning on using online videos and online regimen to keep the students active whenever they go.” 

At Utah State, coronavirus becomes a showstopper

By Emma Feuz

A new Utah State University play made its debut Tuesday night but has since been canceled amid the coronavirus health crisis. 

“Title of Show,” directed by USU professor Michael Shipley, was intended to run for five days at the Caine Lyric Theatre but instead was cut to a one-night-only performance.

“The tragedy in all of this is that our students, who have worked so hard since January, will be unable to share their incredible work,” said Stephanie White, the choreographer of the play. “I hope, at some point, they will be able to perform for a larger audience than their opening night crowd.”

“Title of Show” is a one-act play featuring only four actors, four chairs and a keyboard. It is a musical about four people writing a musical, and it’s based on real people writing a musical through real events, Shipley said.

Brian Bohlender, Bryson LaBar, Madison Archibald and Camie Randall held the leading roles. On Friday, they had been looking forward to performing before an audience that was to include Susan Blackwell, a member of the musical's original Broadway cast.

“We've been rehearsing for two and a half months in this project, having it swiftly taken from us was upsetting,” Bohlender said. “The cast and crew put all their hearts into this project. It's hard to see them hit.”

“Title of Show” is not the only event affected by COVID-19. USU has canceled all university events and is preparing to transfer to an all-online class format in the next week. According to an email sent to students and staff at the university, these actions are an effort to slow the spread of the virus and assist public health officials and health care providers.

Despite good intentions, USU’s actions have still been met with frustration as many events that students have been working toward will no longer be possible. However, many already have eyes on the future.

“This will not be my last show, at USU or in my career,” Bohlender said. “So it's about moving on and hoping the scare dies down.”

And White believes there may be dramatic silver lining in this moment in history.

“I wonder,” she said, “what interesting theater will come out of our current pandemic experience.”

Utah task force wants to make coronavirus go viral — in a good way

By Lance Johnson

Utah’s lieutenant governor is hoping a new social media campaign will help combat “fake news” about Coronavirus in his state.

“An information vacuum will always be filled,” Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox said, “so we want to make sure it is filled with accurate facts.”

The Utah Coronavirus Task Force was created to help limit the spread of COVID-19, more commonly referred to as Coronavirus. The task force is using social media as a way to combat inaccurate information that has spread across those same platforms.

Cox encouraged Utahns to follow the task force Twitter account, @utahcoronavirus, for updates, prevention tips and additional instructions.

“We primarily use Twitter since it is the preferred platform for most members of the media and they help us spread the information,” Cox said.

The Twitter account had nearly 7,600 followers as of late Saturday.

The Task Force is also utilizing Facebook and Instagram, using the same @utahcoronavirus handle. The accounts include answers to frequently asked questions, and confirmed case updates.

“False and misleading information is often circulated on Facebook and in other media,” Cox said. “The social media profiles were created to keep the public informed through this unnerving time.”

Some of the claims that have circulated include prevention formulas, temperatures at which the virus will supposedly die, and the contention that a runny nose rules out COVID-19. These assertions have all been debunked by health experts.

Fake news expert Ellada Gamreklidze believes there are several dimensions to the phenomenon of social media’s ties to false reporting.

“People do not know much about how viruses work,” said Gamreklidze, a communication and mass media professor at Angelo State University​ in Texas who formerly taught at Utah State University. “Science communication is still struggling to speak the language of an average information consumer.”

Trust is another reason people believe fake news.

“People are always more willing to believe a friend or a person just like them than an expert,” Gamreklidze said.

Social media figures can also be particularly influential.

“There are opinion leaders who are active on social media,” Gamreklidze said, “and people, again, will believe them over experts.”

Some of those voices include​ far-right conspiracy theorist​ Alex Jones and televangelist Jim Bakker, who advertised to their followers products they claimed would kill coronavirus. Both men were sent cease-and-desist orders by New York Attorney General Letitia James this week.

“When faced with the unknown and dangerous, people will seek comfort and solution even if there really is none,” Gamreklidze said, “especially if it goes along with what they already believe.”

Alison Berg, a journalist for The Utah Statesman, sees the benefit of social media when reporting on COVID-19.

“College students aren’t likely to pick up a physical newspaper, but we all live on social media and, to that extent, social media is great,” Berg said.

But it isn’t all great.

“On the other side of that, social media journalism is on the rise, which means anyone and everyone can just pick up a phone and say whatever they want,” Berg said. “That can be a problem because that’s what partly leads to actual fake news.”

The Utah Coronavirus Task Force is working closely with the World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cox identified these additional sources as trustworthy.

“We ask the public to exercise caution when consuming information from other sources other than the WHO, CDC, or our state’s task force,” Cox said. “We hope people will look to a trusted source and we are that source.”

The Utah Department of Health announced on Saturday a new case of COVID-19 that was the first known instance of community spread in Utah —meaning the sources of the infection was unknown.

Additional information on the Utah Coronavirus Task Force is available at coronavirus.utah.gov.

'In the blink of an eye,' Aggies have played their last game

By Dalton Renshaw

Utah State University men’s basketball players are coping with the realization that their season has come to an end.

"It's crazy how everything happened so fast, and the turn of events just happened in the blink of an eye,” senior guard Diogo Brito said.

The Utah State University men’s basketball team was one of 13 teams to have qualified for the NCAA tournament after the Aggies’ victory over No. 5 San Diego State in the Mountain West Conference title game. But when the tournament was cancelled on Thursday over coronavirus concerns, the conference championship retroactively became many players’ final game.

“Some guys were saying their goodbyes and I just couldn't wrap my mind around it,” Brito said. “I just wasn't ready to say goodbye.”

It will be the first time since the tournament began in 1939 that “March Madness” will not be held.

Senior guard Sam Merrill was an instrumental part in Utah State pulling off an unexpected win in the final game. He became the first player in Mountain West history to win back-to-back tournament MVPs.

Still, the realization that he wouldn’t be able to play in the NCAA tournament was hard to process.

“We were expecting it was going to happen, just because of all the cancelations that had gone on,” Merrill said. “But even then, when you’re expecting it, it was tough knowing that not only we weren’t going to play in the tournament, that we weren’t going to have that opportunity.”

Both the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, as well as all spring sports in Division One athletics, have been cancelled.

"This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities," NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement Thursday.

Merrill said it took him some time to process the announcement.

“Thirty minutes later it finally hit me that, like, that was it,” he said. “My career ended just like that.”

Utah State University professors prepare to take courses online

By Harley Barnes

Hundreds of Utah State University professors are rushing to meet a Wednesday deadline for moving their courses online. 

Utah State announced Thursday that all classes would be taught online as a safety measure during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Although Peter Crosby has long used elements of technology in his U.S. Institutions course — with students offering video responses to online learning prompts — he said moving all class content to the web has been a challenge. 

In his course, students typically hand in a paper copy of their essays. Lectures have always been done in person.

“It is definitely an adjustment, but the technology we are lucky enough to have makes the transition very possible,” he said. 

Crosby said it also helps to have a few days to prepare. All USU classes were cancelled on Friday and will remain on hiatus through Wednesday to allow professors to adjust to the new system.

For some, the adjustment won't be too tough. 

Sociology professor Jason Leiker said his previous experiences with online classes are a big help.

“I have taught online for over a decade and currently teach this course online, which should be of benefit,” he said.

Leiker said he has great students, and they will continue to succeed whether they are on-campus or off. 

For English professor John Engler, though, something meaningful will be lost in the transition.

“Frankly, I’m pretty glum about missing out on the last five weeks of class with the students who have become my good friends,” Engler said. “Teaching online simply doesn’t hold the same appeal for me.” 

The university also announced a limited number of courses may still require in-person participation where additional safety measures will be taken. Those courses have not yet been identified.

Utah State students react to classes going online

By Sydney Kidd

Students at Utah State University had mixed reactions to the news that their school was suspending face-to-face classes in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

“My entire life is focused on Utah State, and now it’s not,” senior Shelby Black said, “and I don’t really know what to do.”

Most classes will be moved online under the new policy, announced Thursday, which sent shockwaves across campus as students tried to come to terms with how they would be affected.

Some students were initially excited about the announcement, happy with the prospect of being able to sleep in a few more hours in the morning. With a little more time for reflection, however, going online lost some appeal.

“It'd be kind of hard to do everything online, and it might get really boring,” freshman Hannah Leong said. “It's kind of weird to think about.”

Leong she doesn’t expect most of her professors will have too much trouble moving classes to a digital space. She isn’t so sure, though, about her human development class. “I'm not sure how testing is going to work,” she said.

Freshman Janae Teichert said the sudden shift has been off-setting.

“I just think it's super crazy right now,” she said. “There's a lot of decisions that I need to make.”

Teichert isn’t sure, for instance, whether she’ll stay in Logan or head home to Wyoming.

Like about two-thirds of students at Utah State, Teichert is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And, like many young Latter-day Saints, she has been preparing for entrance in a Missionary Training Center, or MTC, in advance of serving a mission for her church.

The pandemic has made her wonder if she should “postpone going on a mission until things calm down a little bit,” she said. “Because I'd rather go to an MTC and have it be, like, normal.”