Weber State Comment, Fall 1990 WSC athletes excel in collegiate academics Despite a national trend of poor academics among collegiate athletes over half of Weber State’s 220 athletes made the honor roll this last year. The 1989-90 academic year saw a 31 percent jump in the number of student athletes on the honor roll, raising the average GPA of Weber State athletes to 2.90, only slightly below the overall WSC average grade point average of 2.95. “Fans don’t, over coffee, spout a player’s GPA—trather, it’s points, rebounds and passing yardage they're interested in. But my feeling is that a university must create athletes who are academically sound and competitive. Academics has to be a priority for athletics,” said Dr. Lee Sather, Weber State’s faculty representative for athletics. The fact that 118 athletes at the college made the 3.0 honor roll at least once during © the last academic year is no small event, nor does it happen by accident, Dr. Sather said. “Credit the coaches. They’re doing a tremendous job,” he said. During the last year the athletic department established regular group study times, called study tables, to encourage scholarship. Coaches also keep close tabs on their players’ scholastic accomplishments in order to ward off problems before they develop. “I receive detailed reports on each individual player,” said Dick Hannan, athletic director at Weber State. “If a particular player has a problem I can call the coach and ask what we’re doing, and I’ve found that most of the time the coach is very much up on any problem and has a plan formulated.” The athletic department is hiring an academic coordinator to work specifically on academics. In addition, coaches take advantage of tutors, campus academic advising officers and other educational sessions, Hannan said. “We give attention to those in the bottom 5 percent, but it’s just as important to give enrichment to the top. We’re doing some enrichment for those stellar students, and we’ll be doing more of that,” he said. A year-end banquet formally recognizes those placed on the honor roll. “What our kids have proven is that the term student athlete makes sense. They balance some tough time demands, and that’s not easy,” Dr. Sather said. “Some of our kids may not be 3.0, but they are not borderline dropouts either. They have become better students, and that is also significant,” he added. plaques receiv ed as part of their graduation. Graduates from the WSC/Toyota program hold “Oh, what a feeling” for first T-Ten grads Ten students recently graduated from a cooperative education program between Weber State and Toyota as the first graduating class from the college’s program. “This is a very important event,” said Larry H. Miller, an area Toyota dealer and keynote speaker at the graduation. The program, named T-Ten, is a joint effort between the automaker and Weber State to train technicians. Toyota provides training materials, including new automobiles, engines and other parts, and WSC faculty do the training. The ten recently completed the two-year program and will be employed by Toyota dealerships. “Toyota, in its first 20 years, had $1 million in sales. Now we make $1 million each year, and dealers are overwhelmed,” said Bill Porento, Toyota’s national technical services manager. “We needed new technicians and we needed better training for existing technicians.” The result was the T-Ten program at Weber State and at 59 other institutions throughout the nation, Porento said. “They are not all the same quality as the program at Weber State University, but they are fine programs,” he said. The training program will cost Toyota $3.4 million a year, Porento said, but both he and Miller noted that the expenditure is a worthwhile investment. : “The challenge for the 10 of you is to take the base of learning you’ve received and keep learning,” Miller said. The 10 who graduated from the Weber State program include: Brant Baird, Trent Boman, Robert Griffiths, David A. Hancock, Kurtis Haslam, Clay Hintze, Robert Jenkins, Robert L. Maxwell, Michael Nash and Corey Spencer. Dr. Lawrence C. Evans, former Weber State educator and administrator. BR WSC educator/ ‘administrator dies Long-time Weber State educator and administrator Dr. Lawrence C. Evans died in July of cancer. He was 73. “The thing that was unusual about Larry is that not only was he a profound scholar and deeply involved in many student affairs, but he had a most remarkable sense of humor,” said Dean Hurst, a former college vice president and associate of Dr. Evans. “Almost everyone who ever knew Larry spoke of his sense of humor. He was not a typical egg-head professor,” he added. Dr. Evans was barn March 29, 1917 in Ogden to Lawrence H. and Ireta Evans. He married Catherine Smith in 1941. He attended Weber State, and earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate of philosophy degrees from the University of Utah. He taught for 39 years at Weber State, from 1946-1985, during which time he served as chairman of the department of political science and philosophy for four years and as dean of the School of Social Sciences for eight. He was a member of a great number of committees and taught thousands of classes in English literature and philosophy. “He was a zealot for perfection. It bothered him if people didn’t use the right syntax and he was not above telling his best friend when he was in error,” Hurst said. Near the end of his life, Dr. Evans wrote an essay of his recollections of Weber State for the college’s centennial history. He wrote: “The bronze Louis F. Moench (statue) facing east, about to step forward boldly and confidently, is not looking back. And neither, I suppose, should any of us. We need to get our bearings every so often, but mostly we cannot risk the luxury of too many backward glances. Neither could Lot’s wife or Orpheus. The past is prologue, as someone wisely said. The present is a razor’s edge. Only of the future can we be sure, and only then that it is coming.” Dr. Evans received the Distinguished Service Award in Social Sciences in 1980 and the H. Aldous Dixon Award, the Alumni Association’s top honor, in 1984. He had served as a night city editor at the Salt Lake Tribune and was a feature writer at the Ogden Standard-Examiner. The Comment notes his passing with sorrow and expresses sympathy to his family.