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Show DAILY THE . wmmi mi ii CHRONICLE UTAH i h (i' tit i'i . imii,iiMiiajuiiiw THE CHRONICLE'S VIEW Wea, I'M te n "Eatt I'm &v)r& l.'UI jr etfa Ja& His.-rrpA- -- me; Js mtia Creativity Large cardboard angel wings the casket of Shepard. Friends and families of the young man, who was killed solely because he was gay, raised the wings to block out the hate emanating out of "Pastor" Fred Phelps. Since the funeral, Phelps has gained nationwide attention for his protests claiming that God hates gays and lesbians, ile has used a hate crime to spread his message and continues to do so. Phelps will r. rotc&t on the University of Utah campus Friday at 11:30 a.m. The impetus: It is the third anniversary of Shepard's But Ike these friends and families at i's funeral, Salt Lake City's py and lctbian population will try to combat the insensitive and hateful' messages that Thtlps tries to promote. Instead of lare arj;el winrs, Salt. Lexers will fsght the hate with cold, hard cash. An informal pledge drive is circulating around the com;nurJ-t- y (one can find copies st the Utah AIDS Foundation or the Gzy and lesbian Community Center) that will bring money t5 aoriafioris, Including; the Us and Gay Student Union. r.hi--p"- i fay-friend- ly tl.? blcjn "Zero Tolerance for Ir.iolercr.ce," sr.d we must remember tiv.t this slcgan should not only relate to she hate unfortunately thrown at the feet of Muslims, but all groups who are still discriminated against. Some Americans continue to treat ays end lesbians as m inferior group. While continuing to battle this problem head on, tlus country needs to see more creative ways that tern snti-prhetoric cn its head. rn - EDITOR Straight From the Parking Horse's Mouth Editor: In response to Joshua Black's narrow view of our campus parking situation in his Oct. letter, I would like to share a few facts about Parking and Transportation Services. The million figure stated in the pending lawsuit is the total revenue generated by auxiliary services (I will not list all of the departments here, they are available on the University of Utah's Web site). h of that amount was generated by Only about of that revparking services, and less than enue comes from citations. The "free" campus shuttle service costs over $1 million a year to operate. Apart from a relatively small stipend from UTA, it is funded through parking services revenue. 1 $42-pl- us one-tent- one-four- ori- th It costs just over $500,000 per year just to maintain existing lots cleaning, resurfacing, crack sealing, snow removal, lighting, etc.). On a busy day, parking enforcement will issue about 400 tickets (average is closer to 300). Of those, about half are permit violations. At the busiest time of the week, 8 a.m. to noon, Monday through Wednesday, there are at least 400 empty stalls in lots located west of Wasatch Drive (yes, we do keep track). If every permit owner who was caught parking in violation would move to the areas where parking is available, there would still be more than 200 empty stalls. g, see PARKING, page 10 Center Dreu wis MJeserve the Wrecking Mull CANHAM Editor in Chief niiiViiiir "tV the University of Utah forked up the cash conduct a campus-wid- e survey on student what would sit at the top the list? Parking, tuition, the cost of textbooks, maybe the quality of education or the lack of campus community. What? Recreation isn't on this list? How can that be after the Associated Students of the University of Utah put so much effort into plans for a new student recreation center last year? Well, the answer to this question is fairly obvious while many students believe recreation is important, not too many rate it high on their list of concerns. The U's administration, and the new student government for that matter, are rightly following If suit Both say they are waiting for a donor to pitch in $10 million for the project before they start any sort of groundbreaking. The center, roughly 122,000 square feet in size, would cost $19 million to construct. It would include an indoor track, sport courts, a juice bar and a cyber cafe. Vice President for Student Affairs Barbara Snyder even said that the rec center isn't that g priori high on the administration's fund-raisin- ty list. Rightly so, administrators have identified g thrust. scholarships as their main Last year's ASUU administration, led by President Jess Dalton and Vice President Emilie Decker, formed a coalition of student groups, which included Greek Row and the Residence Halls Association, as they lobbied for a new rec center. These associations put together a spiffy PowerPoint presentation that tried to persuade students that the U could not continue without new basketball courts and a climbing wall. After short presentations to other student entities, the presenters asked what the audience fund-raisin- Chronicle m TO THE -- TTm MATT I LETTER ?f p )m " U- K- Administrators made buttons defamatory to an Individual or group because of race, ethnic background, gendtr, appearance or teiual entation will bt edited or will not bt published. ... M vr. ;h Unsigned editorials reflect tht majority opinion of The Doily Utah Chronicle Editorial Board. Editorial columnt and letters to the editor are (trictiy tht oplnloni of tht author. Tht forum creattd on tht Opinion Page If ent bated on vigorous debatt, while at tht 11 me time demanding toltranct and rasptct. Materia! Mee y Viffill i fci For every minute Phelps protests, these associations will make money. Every time he says the word "fag it will financially benefit a gay and leibian organization. Trie community should applaud such an ingenious way to combat hate. It should also remember this nest time someone comes around saying that one gender is better than another, cne race is better than another or one sexual preference is bttter than another. Since the terrorist attacks, it has become ail too obvious that Americans still have a problem with religious intolerance. Some have targeted Muslims and people cf Mid dle F.rtern cesecnt, r,!yh they look L'k the terrorists. thought. Then they combined this information with informal polls of students at athletic events and those who use the already existing recreation centers at the HPER complex and the Field House two places where students who want additional recreation facilities would be much easier to locate. The student government tried to turn over this information to the administration and call it a valid sample of student opinion. Finally, they solicited the opinion of the Student Senate and General Assembly. These two entities are designed to represent the student body, and they include members from each of academic colleges. The General Assembly glossed over the proposal before voting overwhelmingly in favor of the rec center. The Senate, on the other hand, debated earnestly about the need for a new center and the effect of raising student fees before voting in favor of the rec center 10 to 5. the 16 While few actually mistake the Senate for a representative body, at least its members debated the measure. The current Senior Class President AnnMarie Allen, who at the time was a student senator, even told the Senate that their vote does not represent the opinions of the campus at large. Current ASUU President Ben Lowe also holds this opinion. He said that if administrators located a donor, he would want to conduct another survey to find out if the students truly are willing to incur a fee increase for a new rec center. This time the survey wouldn't be conducted by supporters at locations like the men's basketball games or outside of the Field House. Lowe said he would hire an outside polling group to conduct a professional survey. Really, no survey is needed. Compared with the other needs of students, a rec center isn't worth the effort Students are not clamoring for another place to drink juice, play on a computer or run a lap. families Most have jobs, and housing. Why would they want rec-ccnt- er off-camp- us off-camp- us off-camp-us to come back to campus to exercise? Those who workout regularly are already members of a gym near their house. If the campus was clamoring for a new rec center, the Field House would be overflowing with students, but as it is now, it is overflowing with alumni, faculty and staff. The existing rec centers do improvements air conditioning House would be nice however, failed to demonstrate a definite need some in the Field ASUU has need for a CHRONICLE OPINION EDITOR LAURA B. WEISS LETTERSCHRONICLE.UTAH.EDU square foot facility, especially in light of more the pressing issues that students are concerned about. When one looks at the amount of frustration generated by the cost of parking and the lack of parking stalls, it becomes fairly obvious that students would like to see something done in that 122,000 arena. Lowe and his administration say they are working on a slew of parking initiatives. ASUU has yet to announce exactly what the initiatives entail. Lowe says students will need to take a measured and patient approach to the problems instead of just clamoring for a parking structure. Well, if students really want it, the funds they would have dished out to a rec center would more than cover the costs of a structure. A parking structure with 600 stalls would cost about $7 million to build. The fee increase for the proposed rec center would cost students an additional $30 per year, adding up to $9 million for the project. d While Lowe needs to take a and d approach, students should continue to clamor for a parking structure or anything else that they believe will improve the atmosphere on campus. Parking already costs students too much money, but ASUU and the administration would spend student fees much more wisely if they took that $30 and built a parking structure than if they took it to build a rec center. Mart welcomes feedback at: rncanhamchron-icle.utah.ed- u or send a letter to the editor to: level-heade- multi-facete- 581-704- 1 |