Piggy Banks for Collecting Change

Decorated paper mache piggy banks lined a table on the Taggart Student Center patio earlier this week.

The Aggies for Change club held the College Competition event, where students were asked to donate their spare change and put it in piggy banks throughout the week.

“We have piggy banks for all eight colleges and students donate to the college they are in or that they want to be in,” said Blake Nemelka, the Aggies for Change student giving chairperson. “That money will be given back to the dean and they decide what to do with the money.”

The donated change goes back to the students in the form of school sponsored trips or is used for student scholarships, according to Nemelka.

“No donation is too small and all of the proceeds will be used for student scholarships in our college,” said Beth Foley, dean of Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services.

The college that collected the most money will win a trophy called the “philantro-pig” to keep for the next semester until the next College Competition event. Along with the pig trophy, the winning college will also have the donated funds matched by the administration, according to Nemelka.

“We thought, ‘we need to get students involved in this,’ but it’s unfair to ask students to donate a lot because we already pay tuition and fees,” he said. “I don’t think students realize that our tuition really is cheap and it needs to stay that way. The only way it is going to happen is to have donors. In order to have donors later, we need to get students accustomed to donating now, just in small amounts.”

“Most of us have spare change,” said Weston Packard, the marketing chair for Aggies for Change. “The biggest thing we try to do is encourage students to give back to their colleges that give a lot to us.”

“We think Aggies for Change is a great way for faculty, staff and students to give back to the college and get involved in philanthropy, even if in a small way,” Foley said.

The College Competition is not the only event Aggies for Change members raise money for.

“The one other thing we’re in charge of is the senior gift,” Packard said. “We had a booth over in the grad fair collecting donations from the seniors.”

The gift the seniors chose to give to the school is a drinking station to be put near the Quad on campus. According to Utah State University’s website, the water station will include at least one drinking fountain and a water bottle filling feature to encourage health and wellness for students.

For information regarding donations for the senior gift, go to www.usu.edu/seniorgift.

Humans Versus Zombies

Nerf guns and orange bandanas could be seen on the students all over Utah State University campus this week. Bandanas worn on student’s heads meant they were zombies. Bandanas worn on the arm meant they were still human.

Humans Versus Zombies is a popular game that was played by USU students this week.

“It’s just basically a glorified game of tag,” said Brice Colby, one of the administrators of HVZ.

This semester held the fourth HVZ game to be played at Utah State and a new aspect was added to it. In past games, there were storylines connected to HVZ that would be played out like a real zombie apocalypse. It was all the same this semester but in addition, there were more characters than just humans and zombies.

“We split the humans up into three different groups,” Colby said. “This time we thought it would be a little more interesting, so they’re kind of competing against each other for mission objectives, while at the same time trying to fight off the zombies.”

There was a group of humans with a storyline focus to find a cure for the zombies. There was a group who were warrior type with the objective to kill all the zombies. Lastly there was a group that was in-between with the objective for reconciling differences between the humans and the zombies, Colby said.

“They’re just more of a fun thing to do,” said Dallen Baldwin about the storyline and character objectives. “I played last semester and there were issues I had about the story. I think this one’s actually really fun. It kind of makes it more like a real zombie apocalypse idea.”

Even with the new addition, students still commented on the lack of participation this semester.

“For the first three games, we’ve had well over 800 people sign up,” Colby said. “This time we’ve had about 400 sign up and about 300 actually playing.”

Some students think the lack of participation was because of bad timing.

“It’s because they decided to do it after spring break,” said Baldwin. “It was harder to do advertising. If they would have waited one more week, they would have had more people.”

Because of the lack of participation, some students feel it brings a damper on the game.

“This year it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of zombies trying,” said Zak Ricklefs, a student that played HVZ. “This zombie snuck up on me at the TSC while I was on the stairs. I turned around and saw him and he was probably 15 feet from me. He said, ‘Ah, you got me.’ I was like, ‘you’re not even going to try?’”

Despite some problems, students have continued to love and play the game.

“I played fall semester too and I loved it,” said Baldwin. “It kind of caters to a specific audience and I love it.”

CSCO vs Service Center Funding

Clubs and organizations at Utah State University need money for them to thrive and to keep people coming to events. There are two different resources that provide funding for clubs and organizations from the school.

The challenge is receiving enough money based on the needs of the organization.

The Council of Student Clubs and Organizations funds most of the clubs on campus, while the service center funds other organizations centered around service.

“Any random club can be funded by CSCO if they uphold the qualifications to be a club,” said Maddie Busteed, the service center council director.

Kristy Scott is in charge of Fight the New Drug, a chapter of a bigger organization for fighting against pornography addiction. USU Fight the New Drug is funded by CSCO.

“We actually applied at the beginning of this year for service center and didn’t get in because we were so new and we didn’t have a real structure,” Scott said. “Basically what they want is something that is sustainable, also a really solid service plan.”

“We haven’t gotten a whole lot of funding, so we’re applying to be a part of service center next year,” Scott said.

“To be a program in the service center, they have to meet goals and needs of providing service to the school,” Busteed said. “Then they can be funded. I’m not going to bring a club into service center just to give them funding. They have to meet the standards of a service group.”

But according to Busteed, CSCO has more clubs that they are responsible for funding than the service center does, stretching CSCO’s budget thin.

“Funding a club or organization usually isn’t a big deal, it’s just usually how much,” said Garrett Erickson, diversity council funding advisor for CSCO. “Based on our budget we will make a decision. Sometimes we’ll give them a little bit and then some advice on how they can raise the rest themselves.”

“There are more than 150 clubs on campus asking CSCO for money. They are strict compared to the service center,” Busteed said.

Fight the New Drug was given some money from CSCO but it wasn’t enough, according to Scott. She believes the group would get more funding from the service center than what it already gets from CSCO.

“Another big thing is, service center clubs tend to get more publicity – it is run better,” she said. “The people who run the service center are volunteers, so they’re very motivated”

To stay away from the need to rely on CSCO, some clubs resort to providing funds for the group on their own.

“This club feels it is important that we provide for our own club. Most of our starting fund still exists thanks to that philosophy,” said Clelia Rivera about the USU Utaku club – a club that explores Japanese pop culture. “At the moment, we provide for weekly meetings through membership fees but we do currently have some fundraisers in the works to provide for future events.”

Clubs at USU that require funding can apply through CSCO or the service center.

“We look for groups that are going to benefit a large variety of students,” Erickson said. “We look for things that can springboard more campus involvement.” 

Welcome to aggiesclubsandorganizations.blogspot.com. Here readers will be able to read about different clubs around Utah State University campus and read about events put on by these clubs. Aggies Clubs and Organizations is mainly for student use and to inform students about lesser-known clubs and organizations on USU campus.