Former Addict Ears Degree educational system, Utah State University and Iowa State University. The University helped provide Janice Olson White with the tools she needed to graduate: financial aid, academic counseling, self-esteem. The self-esteem was most useful. “When you feel good about yourself and you like yourself, you can move mountains,” said Ms. White, a nontraditional student with a troubled past. > Campus Currents > Medicine Man 6 WSUAA News WSU Committed To Undergraduates Ms. White, a 35-year-old 7 Alumni Update GRIMY GAMES — Homecoming 1994, Oct. 15-22, will feature muddy games for students and cleaner fun for alumni. single mother, graduated magna cum laude in June with a Spanish degree. As one of the commencement speakers, Ms. White had the opportunity to thank the professors, counselors and fellow students who helped her through school. Little in Ms. White’s history foretold such a conclusion to her college career. A REEL FUN — Kayla Miles, 2, of South Ogden, hopes to hook one of the 400 fish planted in the Ada Lindquist Plaza pond during the Junior Cats Fishing Derby held May 12. The event, sponsored by the Young Alumni Council, lured 45 children and their alumni parents to campus. Drug Addict International Winners students, faculty, staff and New Buildings For 14 years, Ms. White A FINAL GOODBYE —Some 2,000 graduates left the University after commencement exercises. Diets and Publications <DINO MIGHT — The University gave management of the Eccles Dinosaur Park to Ogden City in April after the park added four new dinosaurs to the exhibit. Postmaster Send address changes to: University Times Weber State University Ogden, UT 84408-3701 ou may have heard the story about the man who was so thin he disappeared when he turned sideways. University Times is not quite that slim, but the publication did tighten its financial belt this year. Limited state funds and an enrollment decline forced the University to cut expenses for non-classroom activities. This slimmed-down version of University Times is one result. We’ ve cut pages, reduced colors and streamlined production. But we haven't eliminated our commitment to quality. Our award-winning staff will continue to bring you interesting stories about alumni, faculty, staff and students. We’ll tell you about campus events, show you photographs of campus life and let you know what your former classmates are up to. Your publication will be thinner, but we’re determined to make every issue worth your time. Think of the new University Times as a publication on a diet. There may not be as much to hold, but what’s left is worth looking at. We hope you like what you see. i foi fe Craig V. Nelson Editor abused alcohol and drugs. She recalls always being strung out, drunk or hung over. “Basically, | didn’t have any goals in life,” she said. “I felt worthless and didn’t feel I had a future.” When she realized she was jeopardizing her son’s future as well, she decided to change. “T loved him and wanted to be a better mother than I had been,” she said of her son who is now 16. “I saw him growing up without me and I knew he needed me. I just looked at him one day and woke up.” She stopped drinking and “shooting up” cocaine and a year later enrolled at the University so she could replace her dead-end job with a career. Ms. White, who barely graduated from high school, surprised herself by getting good grades her first year. Then she got a C on her first Spanish test and burst into tears in class. Anthony Spanos, associate professor of foreign languages, A Trait that earned the University the 1993 Newcomen Society Award — a “commitment to quality undergraduate education” — will continue as the institution’s core value, President Paul H. Thompson told faculty and staff. At a spring meeting, Dr. Thompson reiterated the institution’s commitment to quality teaching. “By the turn of the century, Weber State will be the university of choice for undergraduate education in its region,” Dr. Thompson said. “It will be a center of learning for Blind Reader took her aside and suggested she take some classes to improve her study habits. Ms. White said he also “gently suggested” that she talk to someone at the Women’s Educational Resource Center. Counselors there and in the community helped her resolve the issues that led her to drug and alcohol abuse. She said they helped her repair damage caused by sexual abuse in her childhood and by a dysfunctional family life. Ms. White said she did not overcome her low self-esteem problem overnight. In fact, it took her almost as long as it did to earn her degree — nearly five years, Now she feels confident she can accomplish anything she sets out to do. She hopes to get a master’s degree and doctorate so she can provide counseling to others. “Everyone needs at least one other person to say, “You can do it,” she said. “People at Weber State did that for me. Now I want to do that for others.” (This article by Joan O'Brien appeared in the June 9 edition of the Salt Lake Tribune. Reprinted with permission.) @ Donors Give $50,000 ToWSU Dale and Adele Young of Brigham City have donated $50,000 to the University’s College of Education. The donation is the first part of a $100,000 pledge. The Youngs also fund the Dale W. and Adele C. Young Nursing Scholarship Endowment. Mr. Young, Class of °38, and his wife are active supporters of Heritage Theater in Brigham City. They donated land for a 20-acre park in Perry in 1989, and have provided scholarship funds for the Mormon Church community members, where all are expected to think, contribute and excel.” The Newcomen Society of the United States honored the University last year for its commitment to quality undergraduate education in the liberal arts and sciences and a variety of vocations and professions. The Newcomen Society said the University has “a tradition of honoring excellence” and is “known for its small classes and the commitment of its faculty and staff to students.” The Newcomen Society also praised the University for sponsoring the nation’s only undergraduate literature conference and developing a “Writing Across the Curriculum” program that is “a model for many other universities.” The Newcomen Society is a non-profit organization based in Exton, Penn., that honors achievement in American business and society. The University joined Princeton University and Notre Dame as 1993 recipients of the award.