Trapp elected president, ARC approved, in student elections

To cheers and tears, the results of the ASUSU elections were announced.

The future ASUSU Executive Council will be:

•ASUSU student body president: Christian Thrapp

•Executive vice president: Ben Wilson

• Academic senate president: Jordan Hunt

• Athletics vice president: Karson Kalian

• Diversity vice president: Mariana Ochoa

• Programming vice president: Chaise Warr

• Student advocate: Christian Orr

• Service vice president: Jeremy Nef

Additionally, the proposal on the Aggie Recreational Center and the constitutional changes were both approved.

Hannah Blackburn, who had led during the primary elections, was unable to gather enough votes to win the final election. She was out-voted by Thrapp by a margin of 316 votes.

“I know that I’m ready,” Thrapp said. “This is a big responsibility to be the voice of the students and I’m going to work my hardest to do my best.”

Thrapp’s campaign manager, Mandy West, said after the primary elections they tried not to do anything different. Instead of focusing on any specific groups the team spread itself out, a tactic that gained them more votes — especially among the Greek community, she said.

Blackburn declined to comment after the results were read.

“Hannah put her whole heart and soul into this, I can see why she was upset,” said Orr, the newly elected student advocate.

Wilson outpolled Abigail Kingsford by 669 votes.

“I’m glad I worked hard,” Wilson said. “Maybe would’ve focused a little bit more on school and not so much on the elections if I had been aware that the margin was what it was.”

In his election speech, Thrapp defined his purpose.

“This is all for the students,” Thrapp said. “Everything that we’ve done is all for you and we can’t thank you enough.”

“It looks like a great group,” said James Morales, vice president for student services. “It’s hard to tell at the beginning in terms of how it’s all going to come together. Given the power that these young people have, I feel confident that we’re going to have a very successful year.“

Matt Skabelund, Parker Jeppesen, Jessica Jolley, Katie Carter, Adison Pace, Victoria Hepworth, Julia Stock and Joe Bagnes contributed to this report.

USU club fights obesity with 'Get Your Plate In Shape' challenge

Nearly one out of every four Utahns is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That’s more than 600,000 people.

Utah State University’s Nutrition and Food Sciences Department can’t help all of those individuals — who are at greater risk of diabetes, heart disease and other negative health outcomes — but it can challenge those on campus to start living healthier lifestyles.

And that’s just what the USU Dietetics Student Association will be doing starting March 4, when it launches the “Get Your Plate In Shape" challenge.

The challenge is a three-week plan that includes eating healthy and getting adequate sleep.

“There are a lot of simple behavior changes that can have really big outcomes,” said Cami Jo Satterthwaite, president of the DSA. “Eating right and getting enough sleep can benefit our nutrition overall. These little, itty-bitty changes are all it takes to feel better.”

DSA member Megan Schmidt said the group is issuing challenges that are important to the health of students but relatively easy to accomplish. These challenges include eating a healthy breakfast, ensuring that plates are at least half-full of fruits and vegetables, and getting the proper amount of sleep.

According to the CDC, adults who slept less than six hours had the highest rate of obesity and those who slept seven to eight hours had the lowest.

“I’ve watched a lot of people become unhealthy just because of lazy behaviors,” Satterthwaite said. “The world is a different place now. You can access things without even leaving your couch. Because of the simplicity of things, we need to become more proactive than we ever have before.”

Teams will include of four students. Each team will receive weekly points for posting pictures of themselves on Facebook fulfilling the challenges. Prizes will be given to the team with the most points at the end of each week.

“I think it is very important for everyone to do it,” said Karen Schmidt, a USU student participating in the challenge. “Being healthy can change your life.”

“By taking care of yourself first, you can help other people improve their lives,” Satterthwaite said.

Rebecca Eisenhower, Eric Jungblut, Trevor Anderson, Ryan Neeley, Marisa Nielsen, Trey Williams, Nicole Murray, Bailey Nielsen contributed to this report.

Local jam maker inks contract with Harmon's

There’s about to be new Butcher in Harmon’s Grocery stores.

Butcher’s Bunches, a jam business founded in Cache Valley, finalized a contract with Harmon’s on Tuesday to sell a guava-filled cheese bread made in partnership with Salt Lake City’s Cheese Bread Mania.

Butcher’s Bunches founder Liz Butcher said the partnership will greatly increase the customer base and income for the business.

“We have landed a couple of other small stores, but we’ve been waiting for Harmon’s to join us,” Butcher said. “This is going to be awesome.”

It’s not the business’ first success. Since the opening in 2009, Butcher’s has filled orders for many high-profile customers. The business was commissioned by the Sundance Film Festival to create a “Back in Black” chocolate blueberry jam for attending celebrities. Butcher’s has also filled orders for actor Ben Affleck, Marriott hotels and is currently negotiating an order with celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.

Butcher started her business with limited ambitions. She was selling her homegrown produce at the Cache Valley Gardeners’ Market when the social winds and market forces pushed her to try something new.

“Everyone has a garden these days and the price of tomatoes went down,” Butcher said. “I wanted to sell something different from everyone else at the farmers market so I started this business on the side. I didn’t know it would take off like this.”

Her jams are all sugar-free and contain produce grown by businesses around the Utah area.

“I like to use locally grown fruits and vegetables,” Butcher said. “I like promoting Utah businesses.”

The jams are primarily made by Butcher and her daughter-in-law, Alycia Butcher.

“It’s really fun,” Alycia Butcher said. “I’m basically involved in everything and get to see the product from start to finish and I love every bit of it.”

Kyndall Peterson, Paige Sjoblom, Aaron Griffiths, Lauren Handy, Heather Foster, Jill Dean and Cambria VandeMerwe contributed too this article

Students assist in research aimed at finding healthier fat substitutes

The average person consumes more than five grams of trans fatty acids each day, according to the University of California Davis.

But that level of consumption can be extremely unhealthy. And that’s one of the reasons why four students at Utah State University devote much of their time to researching replacements for trans fat in every day foods.

Silvana Martini, an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences­, is advising the undergraduate international students in a research project in which the group’s members are attempting to replace lipids and trans fats with something healthy but still holds its structure.

“There is a big tendency in the food industry trying to replace trans fat,” Martini said. “The main problem is when you try to take the trans fat out and try to put a fat that is a little bit healthier in, then you don’t get all the good properties in terms of structure. One of the functions of fatty food is that it provides structure.”

It is difficult to find something to replace fats to make a product healthier, without losing much if its structure, she said.

“There has been a tendency of using waxes and vegetable oils to generate a lipid structure that is hard enough to be used as a trans fat replacement,” Martini said.

By way of example: A stick of butter.

“So when you have butter,” Martini said, “when you take it out of the fridge, it has to be solid. But when you put it on your toast, you want it to start melting. And then when you put it in your mouth, you want it to completely melt. That is what we call the melting profile.” ­­­

Chin Yiap Tan, also known as “Rex,” is a sophomore from Malaysia, and one of the undergraduate students working on this research.

“I actually spend all of my free time here,” Tan said. “Today, I finished my class at 9:50. I spent from 10 until 5:30 or 6 in the lab.”

Tan completes tasks ranging from measuring stability to inputting data into the computer system.

The undergrads constantly test how lipids and oils will hold substantially in food products. Pictures are taken of wax crystals and their reaction over time.

“We use the microscopes to look at wax crystals,” Martini said. “Because we think that the crystallization behavior is going to depend on what types of crystals we have.”

David Thomas, Brie Geller, Mackinzie Hamilton, Marissa Shields, Ashley Howell and Danielle Manley contributed to this report.

Utah State students debate proposed recreation projects

The hottest debate in this year’s ASUSU elections isn’t between the candidates — it’s over the proposal of new recreation facilities at Utah State University.

On the final elections ballot, students can vote on a proposal known as the Aggie Recreation Center and Aggie Legacy Fields. The proposed building project would include a new recreation center for students, as well as new synthetic turf fields to replace the existing HPER fields.

USU officials proposing the ARC say it will support an expanded vision of student recreation, providing a much-needed improvement of current facilities and amenities in the heart of the campus.

If approved by the student body, construction for the ARC and ALF is estimated to cost approximately $30 million. The projected completion date for the ARC is Aug. 2015, while the ALF could be completed by Aug. 2012. Both the ARC and ALF are on the ballot as one proposal for student’s approval.

In order to pay for the new facilities, students will pay a fee of $25 per semester from Fall 2012 to Spring 2015. This fee will increase to $75 per semester beginning Fall 2015.

But there is a hot debate about whether the ARC and accompanying fees are necessary — with some students actively campaigning against the proposal.

“Any time student fees go up or tuition is raised it disenfranchises a certain percentage of the student population, as well as it will kill local businesses,” said Mikey Rodgerson, a student and member of Students Against Academic Waste. “There are several local businesses that depend on students from Utah State University for their business.”

SAAW is a recently formed organization specifically founded to combat the ARC proposal. Rodgerson and Brayden Smith have both devoted time to try and educate students as to why they shouldn’t vote in favor of the proposal.

“We’re just kind of an organization, all the students are working together to pursue a common goal of getting the ARC voted down,” Smith said.

Some opponents of the proposal are also worried that building the ARC will negatively impact local businesses in the community.

“It will hurt, it will be a huge financial impact. It could be a 10 to 15 percent hit on us financially,” said Dan Smith, general manager at the Sports Academy and Racket Club.

Dan Smith, who is not related to Brayden Smith, questions whether the university truly understands the need and eventual cost of the future facilities.

“Why spend $30 million? I would guarantee it will not be $30 million. It will be $35 or $40 million,” Dan Smith said. “Right now the school is having a hard enough time getting private donations that fund athletic programs as far as buildings and the stadium renovations and the Spectrum. They keep saying they will go get donations for a student rec center and I don’t see it happening when the athletics department is already having a hard time.”

Despite the people and organizations that oppose the new rec center, many feel it would be a great improvement to the university.

“The Aggie Recreation Center is really a part of a broader initiative to fully develop more indoor and outdoor recreational spaces for students on the Logan Campus,” said James Morales, vice president of student services. “The Aggie Recreation Center is simply one of the pieces that fits into that larger agenda.”

“It will bring prestige to the University, it will increase the value of your degree. When people use these facilities their GPA goes up, they’re happier, they’re less stressed. The benefits are just really endless” said Erik Mikkelson, current ASUSU president.

Morales said this is a student-driven initiative that has been in the works for over a decade, and would actually benefit local businesses.

“For example there are different ways to build climbing facilities.” Morales said. “The ARC will provide maybe the basic level of climbing, kind of learning the ropes if you will. But then, partnering with the local businesses, Rock Haus for example, it will benefit them in two ways. Maybe they can come in and provide some instruction at the basic level, but when those basic level students are ready to move to the more advanced and technical training, we won’t provide that. We’ll let the local businesses provide that. We feel like we’ll feed those local businesses.”

“The ultimate goal was to put it before students for referendum.” Morales said.

Julia Stock, Parker Jeppesen, Katie Carter, Adison Pace, Victoria Hepworth, Joe Bagnes, Jessica Jolley and Matt Skabelund contributed to this report.