-- 2- WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, DIXIESUNNEWS.COM 20j Watch Carly Radmalls video about tax preparation at DixieSunNews.com. BY LAL REN DAVISON Staff Writer Dixie State University accounting students are administering free tax preparation services to fellow students and community members, and everyone is cashing in the benefits. Volunteer Income Tax Assistance is a tax preparation program that offers free tax assistance to people who make $52,000 or less and need assistance preparing their own tax returns, according to irs.gov. DSU students majoring in accounting have the opportunity to become to prepare taxes for the public. Accounting students are providing free tax preparation in the Udvar-Haz- y Building every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. until March 6. Steven Day, an assistant professor of accounting, oversees the accounting students and ensures quality and accurate tax preparations. You're dealing with certified accounting majors who have gone through a very rigorous program, Day said. The program is also overseen by accounting professors here at Dixje State. We "watch them through the process every night, and we also review every return one at a time the following morning. Accounting students gain hands-o- n experience through the VITA program, and Shalee Farnsworth, a senior accounting major from Enterprise, views the service as helpful to the public and the accounting students. It's a big responsibility, Farnsworth said. We were all pretty nervous on the first day, but it gives situation of how things really happen you a real-lif- e and what you do with all the things: what write offs are, how to handle tuition statements, and how to handle different things. It's not just a class you have to sit through; it actually prepares you for life. IRS-certifi- ed Farnsworth advised students to be cautious about preparing their own taxes. After being in this program, I've learned a lot about taxes and how everything works, Farnsworth said. I would definitely, if you're going to do them on your own, make sure you ask someone to review it before you submit it. Because there are just tiny things that even our advisers help us with that could make your return so much bigger than you originally had. Double check it. Bree McCoy, a senior accounting major from Farmington, N.M., said students simply should not do their own taxes. Dont do it, McCoy said. Don't file your taxes for the first year. It's a lot more difficult than what people think it is. So I would suggest coming to VITA and have us do it. Community member Gardner Black initially went somewhere else to get his taxes prepared, but he ended up going to the accounting majors in the Udvar-Haz- y building to file. Before I came to VITA to do my taxes, I went to H&R Block, Black said. It was less personal. They were trying to just hurry me out and get to the next person. Here they actually take time to ask you questions. Black said tax preparation is more reliable at ' 1 A) f. fcj !rf t 91 $6 ii s 1 y 1 Sr, si J I i f fV rt V i f) r; Sffl j 4fV DSU. feel more comfortable because it's actually being done by accounting students and also being looked over by professors, Black said. Day encouraged DSU students to take advantage of the free tax preparation service and support fellow students simultaneously. We would love to have the students participate, Day said. We do it right, we do it for free, and you also get to help the accounting program grow and provide some training for those students on campus. I .' V f EMAIL DEBATE continued from page 1 The comments and replies involved issues of the purpose of Dixie, morality and values, religion, the tendency to label people as outsiders, liberals and atheists, whethei evolution occurred, the purpose of Latter-Da- y Saint missionaries, and belief vs. knowledge. William Christensen, executive vice president of academics, said some people said things they may not have meant, and there were also misunderstandings. He said there were also insightful comments from participants who suggested looking at the bigger picture of the vision of DSU. He said it is tough to try and handle a controversy like this because administration doesn't want to close down the conversation, but it also doesn't want to inflame it. I don't think it was healthy, but just because it wasn't healthy doesn't mean that I in would, any way, want to prohibit it, Christensen said. Trying to stifle things like this would be a much worse thing than letting an unhealthy conversation take place. Students who are employees at Dixie State University also received the many emails throughout the debate, and some students were appalled at the arguments taking place. Bryan Poulsen, math lab lead support technician and a junior CIT major from Hurricane, helped faculty and staff become aware that students also receive the dixieall emails. I just wanted people to know that it does affect the views of professionalism in the students eyes, Poulsen said. Poulsen said some students thought the conversation could have been a nice discussion, but it turned into childish bickering. They said the emails just became obnoxious, and the students lost respect for those involved. I had one student tell me they would never take a class from one of the professors involved, and they couldn't respect them because of their comments, Poulsen said. Poulsen said faculty and staff weren't worried about their appearance to students because they believed it was a healthy discussion, but he said, from a student's perspective, it does affect the professional image. Christensen said the main reason why this happened was because of the lack of socialization with each other and not embracing each other's differences. He said that will hopefully change with future forums and meetings, but this is a symptom of becoming a university. He said faculty, staff and students need to harness and embrace diversity on campus because it can be beneficial. But he said if don't harness this controversy it can be they DSUs destruction. It could be our downfall, Christensen said. There is a danger in this, but the hope in it is that instead of letting that hurt us, we can harness that passion and enactually ergy to send us in a positive, but new, direction. d,u mere may oe a lack ot leadership, but faculty and staff need to becon leaders and move forward. Its demotivating on the faculty level, Rodrick said. I can't imagine anybody fir mg that motivational people knocking each other down and going at each other -is Just bad energy. It's a bad vibe. We cant afford that. We have work to do The conversation ended with apologies and kind gestures to try and fix feelings of discomfort. t Christensen said this was a wake-u- p call for the administration. It realizes there need to be measures taken among and to staff become friends. He said there i faculty obvious division in the faculty and staff, but he believes they are capable of agreeing 6e dCmandS they shW mutual and resPect professionalism towardoi anothef We all want to be loved; we all want to be happy; we all want to be appreciated; and we all want to be respected, Christensen said.