Amplify Utah supports and facilitates dynamic journalistic storytelling to celebrate diverse points of view. By partnering with traditional media, we cultivate an environment that encourages stories be shared widely and made easily accessible for our communities to read, hear, watch and engage.
11-05-2025 By Vanessa Hudson
From photojournalist to public servant: Bruin alum Jesse Valdez aims for mayoral seat
10-21-2025 By Pearl Ashton
'I think we deserve to start telling our own narrative rather than let others do it for us.'
Speakers at censorship ‘teach in’ at Weber State encounter rain outside, restrictions indoors
10-04-2025 By Alfonso Rubio, Jared Mitchell, James Gordon, and Kyle Greenawalt
The “uncensored version” of the Unity Conference began outdoors. When weather forced participants inside, they were told to adhere to the limits of Utah’s anti-DEI law.
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Salt Lake Community College’s custodial staff, which is responsible for cleaning and maintaining over 50 buildings every week, is experiencing a staff shortage.
Of the 156 total custodial positions at the college, 65, or 42%, are currently unfilled, and there has been a gradual decline in the number of employees since the pandemic first hit in March 2020.
Having recently attended the quarterly meeting with the Utah Collegiate Custodial Association, David Earl, maintenance and custodial manager at SLCC, said the shortage is widespread.
“There’s not one university or college that isn’t having this problem,” Earl said.
At the beginning of October, hourly pay for entry-level custodial positions increased from $12 to $14. Bob Askerlund, associate vice president of facilities, hopes the increase will improve the situation, but he acknowledged the ongoing difficulty.
“It’s hard to keep people, let alone recruit them,” Askerlund said, adding the college recruits any way it can, including the placement of a QR code on staff vans that sends users to the main HR landing page for applicants.
Pedro Leonardini, a custodial supervisor, said they haven’t had many people apply for these positions since the pay increase, suggesting this may have to do with the fact that there are similar jobs that pay the same hourly rate, if not higher.
“Many companies such as hotels offer 16 to 20 dollars per hour for cleaning and customer service employees, even offering bonuses if they stay more than 90 days,” Leonardini said.
Leonardini, who has been an employee at the college since 1994, said the pandemic has completely changed the thinking of the employees.
“Many of them didn’t want to expose themselves to COVID-19 and left work [which] caused more tasks to be assigned to the employees who still remained,” he said. “Some of them felt that they were overloaded with their assignments and also decided to quit work.”
Any increases in hourly pay for part-time employees at the college is an institutional decision, and a costly one at that, according to Askerlund.
“You’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, when you [increase wages],” he said. “Our only source of revenue is tuition, but student enrollment is declining right now, so that makes it especially difficult.”
Askerlund met last month with the faculty and staff associations, as well as members of the COVID-19 Task Force, to find ways to help the custodial staff — which could included faculty cleaning their labs themselves, and better communication if instructors change rooms to prevent custodial staff from cleaning unused rooms.
Askerlund said this meeting brought a much better awareness to this issue.
“I think that was pretty effective — just to have that conversation and get that out there [which] has helped spread the word,” Askerlund said.
After the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said most people get the coronavirus through direct contact with someone who was sick or airborne transmission, not a contaminated surface, Askerlund said his staff could be more efficient.
“Once that came out, David [Earl] got some fogging machines that hit the classes, and I think we’re more effective with those rather than trying to wipe every desk, seat, and flat surface,” Askerlund said.
Other safety measures the facilities and custodial department has taken include increasing the density of air filters and introducing more fresh air through the heating and cooling systems, which can reduce airborne transmission.
Andrew Christiansen wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. It is published as part of a collaborative including nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune.
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We also request organizations include the following text either at the beginning or end of the story text :This story is jointly published by nonprofits Amplify Utah and [Your Media Organization's Name] to elevate diverse perspectives in local media through emerging journalism. Andrew Christiansen wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. For more stories from Amplify Utah, visit amplifyutah.org/use-our-work.
A permanent exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Utah is designed, according to one of its curators, to inspire optimism and action for a better future in the face of climate change.
“A Climate of Hope” — NHMU’s first new permanent exhibition in 12 years — is meant to be different from other such presentations focused on climate change, said exhibit developer Lisa Thompson.
“Typical museum exhibits about climate change were very data heavy, and they tended to be very gloomy … and they tended to often focus on faraway places,” Thompson said. “And we know from the field of climate communication research that’s been growing … that those just aren’t very effective ways to help people learn about climate change or to help them know how they can be part of climate solutions.”
The interactive exhibit shows how climate change impacts Utah, and how people around the state are implementing solutions. Visitors are shown volunteer opportunities in which they can take part to combat climate change at the local level.
(Natural History Museum of Utah) The entrance to "A Climate of Hope," a permanent exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Utah. Opened in November 2023, it's the first new permanent exhibit at NHMU in 12 years.
Thompson said NHMU has been developing the exhibit, which opened in November, since 2019.
“[We did] interviews and surveys with visitors to understand what they know about climate change, what they feel about climate change and what they would like to see in the climate change exhibit,” Thompson said. “We did that just before the pandemic shut everything down.”
Jason Cryan, NHMU’s executive director, said the exhibit is a part of the museum’s larger climate initiative.
“The ‘Climate of Hope’ initiative also includes large-scale sustainability measures,” he said. “We’re trying to see what it’s going to take to make this a net-zero carbon neutral operation. We have several research programs that are kind of aimed at sustainability, biodiversity and those kinds of things, so all of this wraps up under a very big umbrella.”
Lynne Zummo, NHMU’s curator of learning sciences, is conducting a four-year study to see how people respond to the exhibit’s message framing.
“The whole goal of the research is to understand the learning processes that people go through as they’re experiencing the exhibit,” Zummo said.
Participants in the study, Zummo said, will view the exhibit strapped with cameras and recorders.
“We’ll look for themes and patterns across groups and really try to unpack what are the different influences that come into play in learning around climate change in the exhibit,” Zummo said. “Because it is a very different learning process than around other science issues.”
After seeing the exhibit, participants will complete a survey to learn how they cope with climate change, followed by an interview a few weeks later. The exhibition will adjust its messaging in response to the study’s results.
“We’re excited to see if it helps people feel a little more hopeful, feel like they can take meaningful action, and feel like Utah is a place where a lot of really cool things are happening,” Thompson said. “And then we’re going to find out, which I think is a really unique part of this project, that what Lynne learns is going to help museums … and people all over the country better develop theories and ways of teaching about climate change.”
The exhibition is open daily, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (until 9 p.m. on Wednesdays). It is free for University of Utah students, faculty and staff.
Giovanni Radtke wrote this story as a journalism student at the University of Utah. It is published as part of a collaborative including nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune.
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We also request organizations include the following text either at the beginning or end of the story text :This story is jointly published by nonprofits Amplify Utah and [Your Media Organization's Name] to elevate diverse perspectives in local media through emerging journalism. Giovanni Radtke wrote this story as a journalism student at the University of Utah. For more stories from Amplify Utah, visit amplifyutah.org/use-our-work.
Art has been a journey for Luis Novoa, and one part of that journey was a calligraphy course he took at Salt Lake Community College.
Now, years later, Novoa and two of his colleagues have completed a mural for the college’s new Peace and Justice Garden, at SLCC’s South City Campus on Salt Lake City’s State Street. Administrators say they hope the garden will become a place for people to come together to heal from past traumas and build connections.
The artists – Novoa, Alan Ochoa and Miguel Galaz, all former SLCC students – formed the Roots Art Kollective in 2019, based on their shared vision to enrich their community with public art. They say their experiences as Mexican American artists drive their mission to create environments that help people learn about different cultures.
Roots Art Kollective’s works can be found all around the Salt Lake City area: On a Japanese restaurant near downtown, in a people’s garden along Jordan River Parkway, outside a barber shop in the Fairpark neighborhood, on a car repair shop in South Salt Lake (as part of that city’s Mural Fest), and on a Mexican bakery in Kearns, among others. In 2021, the trio created one of the murals for an ongoing exhibition in the great hall of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.
The garden’s intention, as a place honoring peace and justice, informed the mural’s design, the artists said.
“Lotus flowers grow in harsh environments, but turn out to be very beautiful,” Novoa said. “That represents that kind of struggle but also the peace that you find there.”
When looking for a color palette, Galaz said they reflected on healing and relaxation. “The color palette ended up being the same as SLCC’s, which was a cool coincidence while designing this piece,” he said.
A main component of the mural is the monarch butterfly, which the trio said is a symbol for migration and rejuvenation — as shown by the butterfly’s migration from northeastern North America to Mexico every autumn.
The mural also features calligraphy on both sides, a connection to Novoa’s past — and the calligraphy class he took at South City Campus.
Novoa said he spent that class “learning those basic structures, and now we’re working on a mural and doing some calligraphy there. … So hopefully it’s received by my calligraphy teacher pretty well.”
The artists said they hope everyone — not just SLCC students, staff and faculty, but local high school students and anyone who has a chance to see it — will appreciate the mural. Novoa said the message they hope to convey with the mural is that, with enough determination, anything is possible.
“There will be a lot of youth walking around there, and hopefully they will find some motivation or inspiration from that,” Novoa said.
The mural is on the north wall of the Peace and Justice Garden on South City Campus. For more information about the Roots Art Kollective, visit the group’s website, RootsArtKollective.com.
Zane Smith wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. It is published as part of a collaborative including nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune.
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We also request organizations include the following text either at the beginning or end of the story text :This story is jointly published by nonprofits Amplify Utah and [Your Media Organization's Name] to elevate diverse perspectives in local media through emerging journalism. Zane Smith wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. For more stories from Amplify Utah, visit amplifyutah.org/use-our-work.
Native mascots are gradually being removed across the United States.
In 1972, Stanford University dropped the headdressed Indian as its mascot after 55 Native American students and staff petitioned the school.
In Utah, the Bountiful High Braves, a fictitious Native mascot, changed in April 2021 to the Redhawks after advocating efforts from Native American activists, including James Singer, a Salt Lake Community College assistant professor, and Carl Moore of Peaceful Advocates for Native Dialogue and Organizing Support.
“Researchers have repeatedly shown mascot use disproportionately affects Native students in negative ways. It reinforces the racist ideas that White Americans have towards Native Americans,” said Singer, co-founder of the Utah League of Native American Voters. “If you get rid of a Native mascot it doesn’t harm anyone, but if you maintain a Native mascot people will be harmed and there will be persecution and contention.”
“There has been a long-standing solidarity between black and indigenous communities and our stories are so intertwined with the formation of this country and resistances to injustices,” said Dr. Luhui Whitebear, a member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation.
Whitebear, a scholar, mother and Indigenous activist, was elected to the Corvallis, Oregon school board in 2021. Taught as a young girl that her voice mattered, her mother marched with Cesar Chavez and her father was an active member in the historical American Indian Movement.
Whitebear believes the murder of George Floyd, occurring in the pandemic when everyone was isolated, has catalyzed a greater social awareness that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. The world slowed down enough to finally listen to what social justice groups have been voicing for decades.
This shift globally motivated groups to put pressure on businesses and sports organizations to “change the mascot.”
Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team, which was previously known as the Redskins, responded to pressure back in May 2013 during an interview with USA Today.
“We’ll never change the name...It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps,” Synder said at the time.Years later, that pressure has increased, and now those sports teams are starting to change. The Washington Football team plans to announce a new name and logo in early 2022.
Because of social and financial pressures, more sports teams are joining the shift, including the Cleveland Indians, which recently changed their mascot to the Cleveland Guardians, and discontinued the use of the mascot “Chief Wahoo.”
Some schools, universities and sport organizations continue to use mascots and imagery from Native American tribes. For example, the University of Utah has a standing agreement with the Ute Indian Tribe to provide education and support to their tribe in exchange for use of the “Ute” name.
“We’re honored to continue using the Ute name, and we acknowledge the special responsibility our athletes and fans bear to the Ute Indian Tribe,” stated Mark Harlan, University of Utah athletic director during an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune in 2020. The Ute tribe continues to support the agreement with the university.
Whitebear made it clear she does not speak for sovereign nations that she is not a part of, and it is within the sovereign rights of their governing bodies to act how they see fit.
She does remind people and organizations to consider the behavior of those associated with rival schools.
“There is no responsibility to the opposing teams and how they mock sports teams with Native mascots,” Whitebear said.
American sports fans will talk trash with their opponents during games, sometimes derogatory imagery including signage that has included the words “Trail of Tears Part 2.”
“[Mascots] are not a remembrance or honoring of Native peoples, but the creation of what the ‘Indian’ is in terms of the white settler colonizer,” said Singer, who is also the coordinator of ethnic studies at SLCC. “It is a way to assuage their fears and a way to comfort themselves from the past, which was a physical and cultural genocide that continues today.”
Native people have often been told by defendants of Native American mascots that they should be honored by the noble and brave sports team mascots that represent Indigenous heritage in a positive light.
“These types of depictions of Native imagery wouldn’t be necessary if Indigenous nations were seen as equals in a democratic society,” Singer said. “Public schools are required under law to be as equitable as possible to all of our students.”
Singer has seen the inequity among indigenous populations. He would often travel to Navajo Nation as a child to visit his grandmother and noticed she had no running water, yet nearby at Lake Powell visitors would have access to all amenities, including running water.
Singer is working on his PhD at Utah State University in sociology, researching labor markets and social policy.
The removal of Native American mascots and Indigenous activism has in part rested on the shoulders of Native scholars, who are active community members and involved parents raising the next generation of leaders.
“We are so much better than what we have been told and we have so much to offer...and I am optimistic,” Singer said. “Our teachings, our Indigenous knowledge can actually help heal ourselves, each other and our planet.”
Valene Peratrovich wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. It is published as part of a collaborative including nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune.
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We also request organizations include the following text either at the beginning or end of the story text:
This story is jointly published by nonprofits Amplify Utah and [Your Media Organization's Name] to elevate diverse perspectives in local media through emerging journalism. Valene Peratrovich wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. For more stories from Amplify Utah, visit amplifyutah.org/use-our-work.
