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Show `A TEAM-FIRST GUY' Ogbe brings a positive force to the court and makes most of playing time 0 6 tc PI- -fr a Bailey Carver argues happiness is most important part in choosing a major n 4 Le,ic 15 3 ez Lume.lf\eYt "ttli5 Will -Fa ke Wednesday, January 22, 2014 rTHE DAILY UTAH CH www.dailyutahchronicle.com The University of Utah's Independent Student V 90 75 © Student pays tuition in single bills Anna Drysdale NEWS EDITOR CALVIN CHHOUR/The Daily Utah Chronicle Sophomore Luke Mughal shows the cash he used to pay for his tuition Tuesday. Luke Mughal paid his tuition in onedollar bills yesterday. After four semesters of paying thousands of dollars in tuition with a card, the sophomore in electrical engineering thought it was time for a silent protest. A week before tuition was due, he had the idea to pay his bill with a chest full of small cash. "I had to pull some serious strings to even get everything to pay for my tuition this semester, and I wanted it to feel worthwhile," he said. "I decided that ... I would feel a little better if I did it like that." Mughal had to go to three banks to cash enough one-dollar bills to pay his $2,000 tuition bill, which is half of the full cost of his classes. The other half is covered by scholarship, since his father works at the U. One by one, the banks ran out of small bills. In the end, he ended up with a metal case filled to the brim, with just a few five-dollar bills to make up the difference. When he arrived around 2 p.m., the line to pay tuition wound all the way along the basement of the Student Services Building. He joined the hundreds of students lined up to pay their tuition in person, carrying his hefty metal case. Two and a half hours later, he opened the latches at the cashier's window. "Everyone was peeking over my shoulder when I opened the chest," he said. Other than that, there was "nothing too eventful." The cashier just accepted the cash. "She didn't even count it," Mughal said. Mughal, who attends classes from 8 a.m. to to p.m. every day and works 16-hour shifts on the weekends at the Home Depot, said you have to work hard to be successful. Paying his tuition in small bills reminded Mughal of the sacrifice he is making to go to school. "When you spend cash, you feel every dollar that you hand over to someone else," he said. "You feel that you're losing that. If you just swipe your card, it could be to,000 or poo,000 bucks and you don't really feel it. When you actually slide over a huge pile of cash, you really feel like you've spent that. That's your money, and you also want to make that worthwhile by doing well See TUITION page 3 ASUU ASUU Supreme Court keeps order Nathan Turner sembly and Senate, does not meet regularly but only when they are called upon STAFF WRITER to resolve a dispute. When there is a dispute within ASUU, "We are ready to go whenever a dispute whether it be between elected student arises," Black said. government officials or within a student Although Black doesn't anticipate anygroup, the ASUU Supreme Court is called thing coming up, he said Spring Semester upon to resolve the issue. is usually the busiest time for the court Daniel Black, a law student, has been because of the ASUU spring elections. the chief justice for the Supreme Court Black said that an example of this was since May 2013. He previously served on in the 2012 elections when the court was the court as an associate justice since called upon to resolve an issue with the Fall 2011 when he first enrolled in the Fresh Party, which was disqualified for College of Law at the U. Black said the pre-campaigning. Supreme Court, unlike the ASUU As"There were allegations that they were campaigning before Redbook permitted," Black said. "In the end the whole campaign was disqualified [from the elections]." Black said disputes are usually resolved by the Supreme Court in a matter of weeks, and in some cases, it only takes a couple of days. The Supreme Court does not have control over any ASUU funding, like the Assembly or the Senate. Instead, the court's purpose is to keep ASUU in check. "They are vital to ASUU," said ASUU vice president Sara Seastrand. "Without them, there's no checks or balances." n.turner@chronicle.utah.edu Optimism encouraged in same-sex activism Emilie Trepanier STAFF WRITER Kate Kendell's mother is proud of her. "She takes care of all the gays and lesbians in the world," she said of her daughter. Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, spoke at the S.J. Quinney College of Law's symposium on Tuesday. The event focused on finding equality in the LGBT community after and beyond marriage. Kendell is a firm believer in "same love" and shared her insights and taught LGBT supporters how to teach others their side with a respectful approach, encouraging activists to be as friendly as possible at any rally or event regarding marriage equality. "Take doughnuts, shake hands and say `Sorry, you're not going to win the games," Kendell said. Admitting to be the kind of person who sees the glass half full, Kendell shed a positive light on events such as the Proposition 8, a voter-approved amendment that defined marriage as between one man and one woman that has since been struck down by the courts, in California. She said the passing of Prop 8, although a discouraging experience in her life, caused people to force out fear and start talking about the issues. Kendell said bringing the topic into the spotlight helped supporters of Prop 8 remember justice, equality, dignity and hu- See ACTIVISM page 3 CHRIS SAMUELS/The Daily Utah Chronicle Kate Kendal, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, speaks on equality and the LGBT community. Rice-Eccles tower to host Ultimate U Wedding Ivy Smith STAFF WRITER On March 8th, Rice-Eccles Stadium will host something a little more romantic than a football game — its tower will be the venue of the Ultimate Utah Wedding. The 2014 wedding winners are Alexandria Woodall and Jordan Burningham, a couple from Bountiful who originally met each other in high school and were engaged last August. Woodall and Burning- ham applied in fall 2013 to be considered for the event and went through a rigorous process to become one of the final two couples in consideration for the prize. Their win was announced last week, and they now have two months until their nuptials. The wedding winners are chosen through online voting and determined to be "the biggest U fans." Woodall's connection to the U is through her five-year old son Koda. He was treated for leukemia at Primary Chil- dren's Medical Center and had a good experience because of U student resident doctors. Because of the medical costs of Koda's treatment, Woodall and her fiancé Burningham have not been able to save money for a wedding. "We were trying to pretend we were saving money, but it really wasn't going anywhere, and so we decided to set [the wedding] back for a year or two," Woodall said. "The contest was perfect timing." See WEDDING page 3 PHOTO COURTESY OF ALTA SKI AREA Skiers pose on the slopes of the Alta Ski Area. Alta's current policy of no-snowboarding is being challenged in court this week. Snowboarders sue to protest Alta's 'skiing only' standard Kevin Tao STAFF WRITER Alta ski resort's no-snowboarding policy is being challenged in court this week for allegedly violating snowboarders' constitutional right to lawfully use public land. Jonathan Schofield is the litigator representing Wasatch Equality and Rick Alden, Drew Hicken, Richard Varga and Bjorn Leines, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Alden, Hicken, Varga and Leines were prohibited access to Alta's slopes on Jan. 12 despite having bought lift tickets. The problem? They brought snowboards with them. "There is no legitimate reason to ban snowboarding," Schofield said. The lawsuit states that "skiers and snowboarders engage in the same activity ... The only difference between the two is the orientation of a person's feet on the skis or board." The plaintiffs are alleging a violation of the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, and would like to see the fall of a policy they think is based on "antiquated stigmas and stereotypes" concerning snowboarders. The lawsuit emphasizes that Alta is located on public land, which does not afford it the same privileges as a resort such as Deer Valley. Alta operates under a permit issued by the U.S. Forest Service. In order for the permit to be renewed every year, the Forest Service must approve Alta's Winter Site Operation Plan, which includes the statement that Alta "reserves the right to exclude any type of skiing device that they deem creates an unnecessary risk to other skiers and/or the user of the device, or any device they deem causes undue damages to the quality of the snow, or is not consistent with the business management decisions." The lawsuit argues that snowboarding is not detrimental to the skiing experience and points to Alta's acceptance of the monoski, which it describes as "a single board nearly identical to a snowboard in shape and size but with feet facing forward." Schofield agreed Alta may ban certain equipment "as long as they have a rational basis," such as a safety concern. Resorts were divided between skiers and snowboarders until the 199os when snowboarding surged in popularity. Since then, skiing and snowboarding have been allowed together on all resorts on public land in the U.S. with the exception of Alta, 85 percent of which is on public land. The lawsuit quoted Alta's general manager Onno Wieringa, saying that despite their popularity and prime location, banning snowboarding was "really just a business decision" and Alta "can make enough money to be sustainable by just offering skiing, not getting into tubing, not getting into ziplines and bungees and snowboarding." The plaintiffs reject the notion that Alta is merely trying to provide the best environment to ski. They claim in the lawsuit that "the real purpose and motivation behind the policy's creation was to disadvantage snowboarders based on privately held beliefs unsupported by any legitimate basis." Alta declined to comment. Currently, Alta is operating normally, as the Forest Service has approved its permit for the year. k.tao@chronicle.utah.edu |