Bluegrass artist will highlight HASS Week
Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband, a local group from Ogden, Utah, that has a top-30 hit, will be playing at Utah State University on March 1 at 7:30 p.m. to kick off Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Week, HASS Senator Felicia Horsely Poteet said.
While hosting Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband was a big-ticket event for the college, Poteet said she thought it was a “big way of highlighting HASS Week.”
“The college of HASS is the biggest college by far with almost 4,000 undergraduate students,” Poteet said.
There are 14 departments in the college, said Associate Dean R. Edward Glatfelter, and that “presents a lot of fun.” The dean has to be aware of many different fields, he said, because the research and the teaching are so different for each major.
The college is “spread across the entire campus,” Poteet said, which makes HASS “the hardest college to do something like this for.” At the same time, “it makes my job more fun because there’s a whole variety of things that we’re involved with,” she said, and that is why she was interested in becoming HASS senator initially.
Because the college is so large and diverse, Poteet said some students don’t even have any idea they are in the college.
HASS Week seeks to fix this problem by making students, university wide, aware of the college, Glatfelter said.
Poteet said HASS Week is meant to highlight all of the departments and she thinks that will be accomplished this year. The activities will showcase things that go on all year long, she said, and all the events are “kind of like appetizers.”
There will be a HASS fair in the Taggart Student Center Sunburst Lounge March 6 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. that will provide information about the majors and departments, highlight clubs and showcase music and art.
Because the music department is part of HASS, having Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband play incorporates talents that the college seeks to develop, Poteet said. It is a good way to start the week, she said, because they are local, so students can relate to them and “they have done well for themselves because they are all very skilled musicians.” The concert will be held in the Kent Concert Hall and tickets are sold at the Ticket Office for $4 with student ID and $6 at the door, she said.
Three other musical performances will be held during the week. In order to involve other departments within the college, the HASS council has arranged for guest speakers to give presentations on different topics, she said.
Randy Simmons, political science department head and mayor of Providence, will give a presentation about campaign strategy March 6 at 3 p.m. in the TSC Sunburst Lounge, she said. This works well because ASUSU elections are the same week, she said.
March 7, the HASS student council will provide a chili bake on the TSC Patio beginning at 11:30 a.m., Poteet said, and the elections committee will be involved. Candidates will be having debates inside the TSC at the same time and the hope is to get more students aware and involved with the elections, she said.
Julia McGarry, HASS Week chair, said, “If you want to enjoy USU, you’ve got to get involved.”
She said she helped Poteet campaign last year and wanted to get involved herself, which is why she interviewed for the position. She said she hopes HASS week will make people more aware, proud and appreciative of their college and said she hopes people will get more involved once they realize all of the things that go on within the college.
The Student Involvement Center is also available to help students get involved in extracurricular activities at college and is located in Room 326 of the TSC. Poteet also recommended e-mailing the college senator after elections to join the college student council.
-afox@cc.usu.edu