The Signpost from Ogden, Utah • 4

The Signpost Monday, September 15, 2003 Editorial Editor in Chief: Wendy Leonard Phone: 626-7121 ft VIEWPOINT 1 AMD Tr-fe Page 4 SEPT. 1 Sprc wfl 1 Fanfiction is funfiction. Sinking the scholarship Academic tuition waivers help many students through college. For some, a scholarship is the only thing keeping them in school. This year, though, many who faithfully kept the 3.75 or higher GPA necessary to renew their tuition, waivers suddenly found themselves without scholarships.

Stripped of their life preservers, these students are treading water, desperately trying to keep their heads above water. Others had to sit this one out, setting their schedules back a semester or longer. This is because the new policy requires every Weber State University scholarship applicant to have a 3.92 GPA, to even have a shot at one. This is a difficult feat for those entering the last phase of their major; juggling upper-division classes with work and family. On the flip side of the coin, numerous scholarships are going to new freshmen who only have 4.0s because they filled their high school schedules with remedial English, pottery and junior choir.

Of those scholarships, many are going to students who would never have applied for one because "Daddy" is paying for their education anyway. Scholarships are being taken away from those who really need them and are being given instead to those who accept them only because they were offered. The applications are there for a reason. They prove need better than anything else, because only those who really need the money will bother to apply. Those who don't have to earn their way to college think it's just another application to be filled out and usually not worth the, time it takes to write in their name.

Those who earn every cent they live on know that paper is the only thing standing between a comfortable college experience and a college experience with three jobs. Also, factors normally considered when determining need, such as total family income, do not always reflect reality. Students can be overlooked because their parents are rich, even if they don't help them through school. If a rescue ship came across two people in the ocean one relaxing in a raft, and the other fighting the waves with a baby in each arm a life preserver wouldn't be thrown to the person in the raft. Yet, by considering only the GPA in determining who gets scholarships, that is exactly what WSU is doing.

The Signpost Editorial Board Jacob rover fJJ columnist FanFiction.net is a wonderland, more, wondrous than John Mayer could ever envision that pervert. This site provides a place to share your stories and get peer reviews on them, which is a wonderful thing for anyone who craves positive I hope they like this column. Please, let them like this column.) Even if you don't write, go read. They have everything from sitcoms to published books, to Anime, to video games. Chances are your favorite shows or books have been written about by many other authors, and you may find thousands more stories about the characters you know and love.

I hopped onto this scene about four years ago, back when Fanfiction.net was just a school project by Xing. I threw my name on there and have had a positive experience ever since. If you like it, they've got it. I think the number of authors on the site is now up to 500,000, where I jumped in at about 16,944 or some other crazy random number. I've never been into the Dungeons and Dragons kind of stuff, but I happen to Reign supreme when it comes to the BSSM stories.

You might even say that this column has ulterior motives It is my Slightly Maniacal Objective to get you to go to this site and expand your mind. That's right, it is my SMO. If you have an SMO of your own, invest your time in FanFiction, either through reading or writing. Gather your SMO into your hand and stand up to your reluctance! Read a FanFiction! I dare you. I bet you don't have the SMO for it.

Perhaps you're watching your favorite TV show one day, and those motherless sitcom writers dare to do something to your favorite character that you don't approve of. Shame on them! How dare they use their own creation to tell their own story! Are you fed up with those people liberally doing the thing they get paid for? Write your own story! Don't try and sell it, or you'll end up in the Bang Bleed house with whispers in the dark as your lullaby. This new insanity I speak of is called FanFiction. It is a force not yet seen as valuable to Corporate America, so it is still a free realm for creative defecation. To clarify, FanFiction is when someone has a creative sneeze about their favorite show, rock band, right-wing conservative, etc.

and promptly writes their own story using existing, and more importantly, copyrighted characters. Unless you have permission from the owners, and you don't even want to know what things you have to do for that, you cannot use this forum for your own profit. Some people won't even allow you to write stories with their characters even if it's just for fun, but there is a strong belief that those people are just communists. If you, or someone close to you, is already involved with FanFiction, there is help. Editor in Chief Wendy Leonard 626-7121 Managing Editor Paul Garcia 626-7614 News Editor Natalie Cutler 626-7655 Sports Editor Travis Clemens 626-7983 Sports Editor Danielle Blaisdell 626-7983 Copy Editor William Hampton 626-7659 Features Editor Colleen Coleman 626-7614 Entertainment Editor Kendra Allred 626-7105 Business Editor Carolyn Losee 626-7624 Graphics Editor Amanda Pace 626-7661 Photo Editor Jennifer Larson 626-6358 Advertising Manager Devon Cms 626-6359 Online Editor Phil Ludlow 626-6358 Distribution Dave Witesman 626-7974 Office Manager Georgia Edwards 626-7974 Advisor Allison Hess 626-7499 Publisher Dr.

Randy Scott 626-6464 Signpost Fax 626-7401 ife mm me mm The Signpost is published every Monday Wednesday, and Friday during the semester. Subscription is $9 a semester. The first copy of The Signpost is free, each additional copy is .50. The Signpost is a student publication, written, edited and drafted by Weber State University students. Student fees partially fund the printing of this publication.

Opinions or positions voiced are not necessarily endorsed by the university. The Signpost welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must include name, address, telephone number and the writer's signature. Anonymous letters will not be printed. The Signpost reserves the right to edit letters for reasons of space and libel and also reserves the right to refuse to print any letter.

Letters should not exceed 350 words. Bring letters to the editorial office in SUB 267, mail to: The Signpost, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah 84408-2110. Attn: Wendy Leonard, or e-mail: wendyleonardmail.weber.edu..