USU Distance Network

I was recently in Salt Lake City to pick up my wife from the airport. After spending three weeks at her parent's house, I was glad to have her back. As I was making my plans, I realized that in order to make the trip, I would have to miss a very important lecture.

To resolve the situation, I contacted the USU Salt Lake Center and found out that they were bringing the lecture in to their site. Apparently, they had one student that had dropped the class, but still had it on the schedule. Problem solved. I went to class, visited my new advisor at the U, and picked my wife up right on time.

Some of you may travel a bit as I do, and may want to take advantage of the network of USU campuses across the state. I certainly don't want to wear out my welcome or be a hassle to other site coordinators, but it is nice to know that if you're in a bind like this, you have options as a USU student.

Spring Break Shutdown

I'm sure that most of you guys are as ready for Spring Break as I am. During the time that many of my regular IVC classes aren't meeting, I was hoping to get caught up on other classes while I have some freetime. If you were planning on doing the same thing, you may be interested to know that you won't have any opportunity to take proctored tests at the center over the break. I didn't find this out until yesterday.

Apparently, all university staff are required to take an unpaid furlough, apparently due to the budget constraints that the State is facing. I'm wondering, was this mandated by the State of Utah or is it a university measure? Also, who can I complain to? I realize that the decision makes sense, but life as a student doesn't just stop for spring break, especially if you're doing online or independent study.

Any feedback or thoughts from any of you out there?

Luncheon Report

Hi guys,

Just wanted to report a bit about the luncheon with legislator's spouses that was held by USU in the Wells Fargo Building last week.

I showed up right on time, leaving directly from a math exam at the Salt Lake center.  I walked into the room and was stationed at a table where I would welcome guests and share my story and what USU Distance Education has done for me.  Everything went really well.  We had a great meal prepared by USU's catering crew and enjoyed the view as the snow fell over the city.  Arrangements were made for a few classes to be brought in to see how the IVC system works, and there were even a few students that shared some testimonials over the system from different sites around the state.

I believe that what was shared will make an impact, but only time will tell.  Our leaders have some serious decisions to make, and the bottom line is that funding will be cut in certain areas.  Hopefully the importance of higher education was communicated effectively and we'll dodge the bullet.

Meeting with the spouses of the State Legislature

By now all of you have heard about the proposed budget cuts at many of the schools here in Utah.  On Wednesday at Noon, I'll be sitting down to lunch with some of the spouses of Utah lawmakers to share with them what USU Distance Education has meant to me.  

On another note, the travel will cause me to miss my first Math exam.  Fortunately, I've been able to make arrangements to take the exam with a TA at the Salt Lake City USU site.  I've got to say, it's pretty cool that we can travel around on business with the school and not worry about missing important classes.  USU Regional Campuses are awesome.

My Thursday

I was recently asked to share what an average day of a USU Moab student looks like.  Here's what I do every Thursday:

I have a class that I teach at a local high school that starts at about 7:20.  After class I head home, I eat breakfast with my wife and daughter and then head into class.  I make the 30 minute drive into Moab and usually have about a hour to study before my first class.  It's usually a little crazy around the house, so the Moab Center is a great place to study.

Thursday I have a 12:00 class with Jon Moris, an Anthropology professor based in Blanding.  He's one of the best teachers I have.  After class I eat lunch and take care of any errands I have to do in town.  I have plenty of time, because my next class starts at 8:30 pm.  It's quite a bit of time between classes, but I make the most of it and get a bunch of homework done.

Usually I'll go to the Moab Diner and get some pancakes before my 8:30 science class.  Because it's a broadcast class from Vernal, I can chomp down on pancakes and no one really knows--unless I accidently hit the microphone.  After the pancakes, I try not to fall asleep.  If the lecture gets out early, I might get home by 10:30.  It's a long day, but by far the most productive.

The bottom line is that with some hard work, getting your degree is doable, even here in Moab.  If I can do it, so can you.

Selling your books...again.

Ok guys, this is probably my last post on selling books.  I've been trying some new things and thought you'd be interested to know.

My check finally came back from Bookbyte.com, the purchaser that I blogged about earlier.  I sold my books to them about a week before selling one book to the USU Bookstore.  I got my check over two weeks later.  They said that they had some bad weather, and that it was lost in the mail.   I'll never use them again, even though they did send be some glitter lotion as a free gift.  *sarcasm*

What has been working well is selling my books back through Amazon.  I'm able to sell books that schools/other websites don't want to buy pretty easily, and I'm getting more for them -- sometimes twice as much before Amazon takes their 15%.  And the purchaser pays a flat shipping rate that is credited to the sale.  The profit is credited to your checking account twice monthly.

Guys, there's no real comparison for the convenience bookstore, at least when they're on top of things, but if you want to hold out for more cash, set up a seller's account on Amazon.  I don't regret it at all.

USU Budget Cuts - Sign the Petition!

Here's the link to the petition that's being signed:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Utahs_Future/

According to the info that's been sent to me, a 19% budget cut would be a loss of 30 Million dollars.  A small site like Moab would be dramatically effected by this.

Please click the above link and sign the petition!