Author: Jesse

A team of biological, Earth and environmental scientists from North Carolina State University, Stellenbosch University and the University of Minnesota has found new types of ancient eggshells in the Mussentuchit Member in Utah. Their study is published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

The Mussentuchit Member is a sedimentary rock layer that is part of Utah’s Cedar Mountain Formation. Researchers have been digging at the site for more than half a century. It was also the site of the first fossilized egg find from the Cenomanian age. Because of work conducted at places like the Mussentuchit Member, a new branch of science called “oodiversity” has evolved, which is the study of the diversity of fossilized eggs.

The researchers examined the range of ancient eggshells recovered from the Mussentuchit Member over the years to learn more about the creatures that laid them. Their work involved studying more than 4,000 fossilized eggshell fragments and attempting to categorize them based on their features and data found at the dig site, such as fossilized bones that might have been associated with the eggs and their shells.

They also put them under microscopes to learn about their structure and to differentiate them from one another. In some cases, they went even further, using scanning electron microscopes to better understand some of the details in the fossils.

Their task was difficult, to say the least, but they still managed to find a category for most of the samples they studied. They also found some eggshell types that had not been identified before and were able to confirm that at least six egg-laying species lived in the area approximately 100 million years ago—three that had been laid by oviraptorosaur dinosaurs, two by ornithopod dinosaurs and one by a crocodylomorph, a type of ancient reptile.

The research team notes that several of their findings mark the first time that these eggshells have been identified in North America. They suggest that Cretaceous North America was more complex than has been thought.

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After more than a year of searching, Utah Tech University finally has a new president.

Shane B. Smeed, currently the president of a small liberal arts college in Missouri, was named Wednesday to take the helm at the St. George school. At the announcement of his name, a room on campus filled with students, faculty and staff waiting to welcome their next leader erupted with cheers and claps, and many jumped up from their seats.

The roar didn’t stop until Smeed, wearing a red tie to match Utah Tech’s signature redrock color, got to the podium.

“The momentum is here,” Smeed said. “It’s already here.”

Smeed was named last week as one of three finalists for the job that has been open since January 2024 — one of the longest vacancies for Utah’s public institutions of higher education and for a school that’s been dogged by turmoil in those months.

“Our new president will lead Utah Tech as we come together,” said Deven Macdonald, a member of the university’s board of trustees and co-chair of the search committee, on Wednesday.

Of the candidates, Smeed has the longest record as a university administrator — a nearly three decade-long career in academia that started in 1998 when he was named a manager and advisor at the private for-profit DeVry University.

That’s also where Smeed got his bachelor’s degree in business operations and a master’s of business administration, in addition to a master of arts in student personnel administration from St. Louis University; none of the state’s other public school leaders have received their education at a for-profit school. Smeed worked his way through enrollment management positions and later became president of DeVry from late 2007 to 2011.

DeVry has a controversial reputation, which includes being chastised by the U.S. Department of Education in 2022 for being among four for-profit schools in the country that had misled students into taking loans by making false promises about about their job placement rates.

That included some of the time when Smeed was president.

Education Department investigators said, according to reporting from NPR, that students who attended DeVry from 2008 to 2015 were eligible to file claims for loan relief. DeVry had attested that 90% of its students who graduated found employment. Job placement rate was actually about 58%, investigators said.

DeVry was originally on the hook to repay some of the money, but the loans were later forgiven under a federal program during President Joe Biden’s administration. It’s the last of four for-profit schools that remains open and accredited today.

After his time at DeVry, Smeed went on to be a vice president and the chief operating officer at Ottawa University, a private Christian school in Kansas, for two years. And he spent a year as a vice president of Kaplan University, now Purdue University Global, another for-profit school.

He leaves his current position as president of Park University — where he’s been an administrator since 2015 and president since 2020 — to come back to his native Utah. He’ll be Utah Tech’s 19th president.

“I’m excited to return to my home state to serve this deserving student body and work closely with our dedicated faculty and staff,” Smeed said in a statement Wednesday after the announcement.

The Utah Board of Higher Education, which is tasked with hiring and firing presidents, added in that message that “transition details are still being finalized,” including a start date for Smeed.

Controversy with previous president

He takes over Utah Tech University at a difficult time, after it was embroiled in controversy for the past year and has waited 14 months for a permanent leader to find a way forward.

The previous president, Richard “Biff” Williams, stepped down in January 2024. It was later revealed in a lawsuit that he did so while he was under investigation.

Williams is accused of leaving a phallic gag gift for one of his vice presidents after the man had surgery in November 2023. Williams left a note with the present that credited the gift to staff members who are now suing — the university’s top attorney, its second-in-command attorney, and its Title IX coordinator, who is tasked with responding to complaints of sexual misconduct.

Those three employees — Becky Broadbent, Jared Rasband and Hazel Sainsbury — say in their federal case that attributing the gift to them felt like payback for their efforts to clean up issues with harassment and racism at Utah Tech University. They say the school has a toxic culture that stems from the top.

The lawsuit claims that the Utah System of Higher Education conducted a “sham investigation” that served to protect Williams. He continued to receive pay from the school for six months after stepping down, until he started as president of Missouri State University in July 2024. Williams has acknowledged that he left the gift and apologized.

A few of the administrators who are also named in the lawsuit and were alleged to have contributed to that environment had thrown their names in to be the next president of Utah Tech. That includes Courtney White, who was serving as the school’s interim leader.

None of them were selected as finalists, though. And that was a welcome development for many faculty members who signed a resolution last year pleading that the next president be an outsider who could come into the school with a fresh perspective.

The Utah Board of Higher Education acknowledged some of the controversy Wednesday during the announcement.

Board chair Amanda Covington said the search for a new president was thorough and deliberate. Members of the board and search committee, she noted, reviewed every comment sent in about the candidates.

“We know how critical it is for the next university president to be a bridge-builder,” she said.

She thanked White for his work in the interim. And she said: “I feel very confident in where we’ve arrived today.”

Smeed will be faced with addressing the continued fallout from the previous administration and restoring trust. In his bio, he wrote that he’s ready for the job.

“Recognizing the importance of transparent communication and collaboration,” he said, he has “introduced an extensive communication plan to foster engagement and trust among students, faculty, staff and other stakeholders” at his previous institutions.

‘An exciting new chapter of growth’

It’s also looking like Smeed could be the last public university president in the state named in an open process.

Currently, Utah law requires that a presidential search committee publicly name three to five finalists. Staff, faculty, students and community members are then invited to weigh in, give feedback and vet the candidates.

State lawmakers, though, are currently moving forward with SB282, a measure that would shift that selection to behind closed doors.

Search committee members would be required to keep all discussions confidential. They would forward three picks, in ranked order, to the Utah Board of Higher Education. The board would only vote on one finalist in a public meeting.

It’s all part of a massively shifting higher education landscape — in Utah and across the nation — that comes as Smeed takes the post.

In that whirlwind, he’ll be tasked with impending budget cuts set by the Legislature, which amount to a $2.6 million reduction for Utah Tech University. State leaders have instructed that schools can earn that money back if they prove they’ve cut low-enrollment programs and reinvest in majors that have higher wage and job outcomes.

There’s also increasing pressure from the federal government and likely cuts to several budget items that universities rely on for funding.

On a local level, Utah Tech University, too, continues to face a battle over its name. The school switched in 2022 from a name that had been tied to slavery and the Confederacy of the Civil War South. But many in the community still hold firm to the heritage the old name had. Smeed gave a nod to that during his speech Wednesday.

“So many people have given their blood, sweat and tears to building up this community and this university,” he said.

Only a decade before that, in 2013, the school also shifted from operating as a college to a university.

Today, Utah Tech has more than 13,000 students and a strong technology and career focus. And its burgeoning campus is growing with expanding enrollment each year and new buildings, including a general education center currently under construction.

“Utah Tech has accomplished much over the last decade-plus,” Macdonald, the trustee, said. “But there’s more work to do.”

Macdonald said Smeed is the right person “to build on our legacy and now lead Utah Tech University into an exciting new chapter of growth and development.”

The search committee was particularly excited by Smeed’s work at his previous schools forming partnerships between institutions and businesses, such as the collaboration at Park University with the Kansas City Chiefs football team. Macdonald said that would serve students well at Utah Tech, as they learn to work with industries while still studying in their programs.

Smeed thanked his wife, Angela, and three kids, Samantha, Andrew and Landon, as he accepted the post, saying he looks forward to bringing them to Utah and building a home here.

And after more than a year without a president, he said to the students and staff at Utah Tech, he’s most excited to come in “to lock arm and arm with each of you.”

One of the trends so far this NHL season has been a slow-moving block of teams announcing themselves as sellers.

Which has been frustrating for the buyers.

“It’s still a sellers’ market out there today,” one NHL team executive told The Athletic on Tuesday.

“There’s not a big group of players available right now,” another said.

That’s just 10 days out from the deadline. There just aren’t as many sellers — not yet anyway — as in a normal year.

Utah Hockey Club is one example of why. They have no intention of being sellers if they can avoid it. They feel they’re still in the playoff race in the West, trying to chase down the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames for the last playoff spot.

“We’re right in the race,” Utah general manager Bill Armstrong told The Athletic. “We’re right in the hunt. It’s kind of where we thought we’d be, to be honest with you. It’s what we always talked about, playing meaningful games and pushing to see if we get into the playoffs.

“I like our team. I like our fight.”

So while the Utah Hockey Club has some intriguing pieces, such as pending unrestricted free agent center Nick Bjugstad — who I believe would interest the likes of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers, among other contenders — pending UFA forward Alex Kerfoot and pending UFA goalie Karel Vejmelka, for now the idea is to keep all hands on deck and stay in the race if possible.

There’s a couple of reasons for Utah being reticent to sell. One is that the former Arizona Coyotes have been stockpiling for years, and the last thing they truly need is more draft picks. Secondly, they’re in a new market making a splash and playing meaningful games as late as possible this season matters more than it would to other teams in the same standings situation.

“Absolutely,” Armstrong said. “We’ve had a million picks. We think we have five really good, high-end prospects in our organization. … We have a lot of room on the salary cap. We have a good team on the ice. And we’ve got a lot of good prospects coming. So for us, we do want to start building it in front of our fans and continue to take a step. And we do that with the guys that are fighting (for a playoff spot) right now.”

They took an important step toward that end last offseason when they traded for defensemen Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino and signed forward Kevin Stenlund, then earlier this season when they traded for Olli Määttä because of their blue-line injuries.

It’s been about adding, not subtracting, and they hope to stay in the race long enough to continue on that path. A 2-1 win over the Canucks on Sunday didn’t hurt — and featured a key positive element.

“Here we are in late February, and Sunday was our first night we had our whole team together,” Armstrong said, referring to long-term injuries to Marino and Sean Durzi, in particular, that the team was able to survive. “So there’s a little bit of an unknown, to some degree, to exactly how good we are.”

So the time is now to make hay.

“Right now, we like our group,” Armstrong said. “We’re going to see what we can do.”

In the meantime, obviously Armstrong will keep working the phones. Could there be a hockey deal out there that makes sense, not just for this season but beyond?

“It’s got to be something dynamic to add into your group for us to make moves,” he said. “Something dynamic that fits into our timeline.”

What’s that mean? Armstrong wouldn’t spell it out, but I think if there was a way to package some picks with a player or two from his current roster for something more “dynamic” — a real hockey deal — he looks at it.

Easier said than done, of course. Those are more summer-type deals, like with Sergachev and Marino.

On Vejmelka, meanwhile, there have been ongoing contract-extension talks. That’s another thing to watch.

“We continue to have a negotiation,” Armstrong said. “You do that with all your people you’re trying to sign. We’ve got a lot of time on the clock. It’s a healthy situation for us.”

Blue Jackets’ big decision

These next few games before the deadline are massive for the Columbus Blue Jackets as they decide what to do with top-four blueliner Ivan Provorov, the 28-year-old pending UFA who is second on the team in ice time at more than 23 minutes a night. The sides exchanged offers last month and weren’t close in their positions, and my understanding is they haven’t circled back yet.

The Blue Jackets are torn, to be sure. They’ve got a team that is legitimately in a playoff race, an incredible story given preseason tragedy. So on the one hand, if you’re GM Don Waddell you would hate to take away from the roster. But on the flip side, if Provorov remains unsigned, can you really let him walk out the door July 1 and get nothing in return? Is that good asset management for a team still building?

It’s really going to come down to how the team fares over the next 3-4 games before the deadline but also the quality of trade offers coming at Columbus. If there’s a first-round pick on the table, can you really pass that up? All around, a really tough call.

Ivan Provorov has been a good fit in Columbus, but can the Blue Jackets afford to walk him to free agency? (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

Kings’ deadline desire

The Los Angeles Kings are playing some of their best hockey of the season and should not be the forgotten team in that battle with the Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights for the Pacific Division title. They also don’t have a screaming, glaring hole to fit ahead of the March 7 trade deadline.

My understanding is they want to land a mid-range, top-nine forward who can add some offense — someone who can jump on a second line and chip in offensively.

Seth Jones trade scenarios

Agent Pat Brisson has been working behind the scenes with the Chicago Blackhawks for a few weeks now on Seth Jones trade scenarios.

I’ve chatted with a few teams who view the 30-year-old, right-shot defenseman as a second-pairing blue-liner at this point in his career, which obviously doesn’t justify his $9.5 million salary. But they still do see a good player who can play important minutes.

That contract has five years left after this one. So there’s no question in my mind if the Blackhawks are able to move Jones, it will require either retaining salary or taking back a bad contract. At $6 million or $6.5 million a year, I can see teams perking up. Retaining salary for that many years may seem somewhat onerous if you’re Chicago, but it would improve the actual return on the deal.

The Dallas Stars, according to league sources, would top the wish list for Jones — Dallas being his hometown. Would the Florida Panthers make sense given that Aaron Ekblad is a pending UFA who hasn’t been extended?

It goes without saying, though, that Jones may not end up getting dealt by the deadline given the contract complexities at play.

Seth Jones would be an attractive trade acquisition at a discounted cap hit. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

GO DEEPER

Kyle Davidson must do right by the Blackhawks, not Seth Jones. But will he be able to?

Jake Evans watch

It’s status quo as of Tuesday morning on the Jake Evans contract front, which is to say, as I reported on Feb. 9, both sides remain far apart on an extension. This close to the deadline, that makes it more and more likely the pending UFA center gets dealt unless either the Canadiens or Evans’ camp have a change of heart in their positions.

At a $1.7 million cap hit, Evans should be sought after by contending teams with little or no cap room. And teams need not waste the Habs’ time. They’ve collected a lot of draft picks the past few years and are not inclined to move him for a middling pick. I think a second-rounder will be the floor.

But as colleague Arpon Basu has suggested, the idea of packaging Evans with fellow pending UFA and penalty-killing mate Joel Armia is an intriguing scenario if it means a better return. The Canadiens are indeed giving that concept some thought and have talked to some teams about it.

GO DEEPER

What I’m hearing and seeing about the Canadiens nearing the NHL trade deadline

Latest on Yanni Gourde

Pending UFA center Yanni Gourde had surgery for a sports hernia on Jan. 31, and at the time, the Kraken put his timeline for a recovery at five to seven weeks.

Five weeks puts him right at the March 7 trade deadline. He’s resumed skating, and obviously contenders are paying close attention to his recovery. I’m hearing Gourde hopes to come back and play March 4, right before the deadline. Whether he can remains to be seen. He’s got a modified no-trade clause, but I’m told the two-time Stanley Cup champion with Tampa Bay would welcome a trade to a contender.

I’ve always liked him as a possibility for Toronto if the Leafs strike out on centers higher on their list.

(Photo: Alex Goodlett / Getty Images)