University of Idaho - Gem of the Mountains Yearbook (Moscow, ID)

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A Mother's Day Molly Walker needed the helping hands and guidance of her mother on the faith- ful day at the altar. Students found the support of their parents important for juggling a marriage and a college career. (Walker) A Familiar Ring Despite tight budgets and tighter finals schedules, Joe Corsini and his fiancee hit local jewelers in search of that per- fect ring for their May wedding. (Clark) Balancing the Books School and marriage provided a difficult mix for students as they tied themselves down to a family and a major. Keeping the ‘‘books balanced ’ academically and financially kept newlyweds on their toes. (Clark) Weddings 23

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Divine Presents More than their older or out-of-school counterparts, student newlyweds looked to wedding presents as 4 way to stock a new home until graduation allowed a career to begin. Randy and Emily Hayes discovered Pyrex at their gift table. (Spiker) 2? Weddings Itared Plans came with student marriages First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes midterms, and finals, and papers. This may not be the normal, white-picket-fence view of young newlyweds, but it became a reali- ty for scores of students who took the plunge into matrimony. Life- long commitment to spouses didn’t always compliment college commitments, though. “The toughest year was the senior year,’ said Jennifer Mah- ler. “‘If you can make it through those last semesters without seeing each other at all and studying all the time, then you’re home free.”’ The Rev. Jim Worsley of St. Augustine’s Catholic Church said he watched newlyweds confront similar problems. “ Students,’’ he said, ‘have concerns about their ability to balance school and a marriage, whether they will be able to spend enough time with their spouse to make the marriage work, as well as maintain their academic standards.”’ A number of students entering the marriage game looked only to their immediate goals of gradua- tion, Worsley said. According to Matt Bertagnolli, pressures sometimes kept him and his spouse from planning ahead. We just want to work towards getting out of school keeping whatever jobs we have to in the meantime,” he said. ‘‘We can’t be planning for a family or the ex- tended future until we know what that future might be.’’ Worsley agreed. Most of these students are ad- justing to a new way of life, com- ing usually from a group living arrangement of one kind or another. They only can plan for the next one or two years,’’ he said. Worsley said students worked hard to make marital relationships work. Amid rising divorce rates, they were also more practical about relationships than their par- ents may have been, he said. “ Students don’t want to repeat the scenario their parents went through with divorce,”’ he said. “ With the rate of divorce on the rise for the past decade, having separated parents is more the rule anymore than the exception. How they’ve dealt with divorce as chil- dren affects their feelings on how well a marriage will work out.’’ Young marriages can also be- come strained due to financial har- ships, Worsley said. For Mr. and Mrs. Joe Corsini, the birth of their first child in- creased the financial pressures the couple was already facing. We can’t plan for a future or a family yet. Matt Bertagnolli “It will all work out somehow,”’ Joe Corsini said. ‘‘A baby costs about $2,500-3,000, and we don’t have anything near that to spend, “There are programs to help pay for the medical expenses though, so that should be taken care of,’’ he said. ‘‘It will be hard to find the time though to go to school and raise the baby, and pay for it all on top of that.” The Corsinis and student cou- ples like them discovered few op- tions when faced with the realities of love and college. Said Corsini, ‘‘In this situation, though, what else can we do?’’

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betecrip 4 ADesigner’s Hell There’s only one university class where students received three credits for investing hundreds of hours of time and promising to work a week of all-nighters. And it was the only course where stu- dent work was critiqued by more than 8,000 people. Creative Process and Design (CP D), gave students the chance to complete a group design project under ‘“‘real world’’ conditions, according to instructor David Giese. Their first mission in the second semester of the class was to decorate the SUB Ballroom for the Mardi Gras Beaux Arts Ball. Stu- dents also designed and built the floats that have become the hallmark of the Mardi Gras celebration “The students can be involved at various levels, from the nuts and bolts to the supervisory, de- pending on their standing,’’ Giese said. ‘ The seniors will handle the supervisory work and the decorat- ing of the mall. They can all also enroll for two additional work- shop credits for decorating and clean-up.”’ Those taking CP D aren’t given much to work with by nor- mal standards, Giese said. They can only use black and white paper on the decorations, and only the latter on the floats. Aside from the economic considerations of nar- rowing the materials down, the students respond better to the im- posed color and materials, he said. “With only white to work with on the floats, the students can let their creativity run wild and produce ‘mental colors’ with shape and texture. Their minds don’t get slowed down with choos- ing which colors to use, et cetera,”’ Geise said. So why do students put them- selves through the torture of work- ing on a tight deadline schedule day and night, only to have to throw it all away the next day? Julie Benton, an interior design major, saw CP D as a chance to stretch creatively. “‘We are given only minimal guidelines on how to start on our floats, and we take it from there. It is a great deal more work than I had first thought — what with having to handle all the moving and cleaning up ourselves too,”’ she said. For Art’s Sake Design students like Brian Duffy and Car- rie Grey were responsible for building floats for the parade. In addition, design- ers decorated the Palouse Empire Mall and the SUB Ballroom. (Fritz, Fritz) License to Spud Unwilling to go through the Mardi Gras pa- rade without the comforts of home, parade marchers took a few necessitites with them. (Hayes) 24 Mardi Gras