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Show ! 3 The Daily Utah Chronicle "TT TT TT" 1 T "T" "X Wednesday, February 5, 2003 THE CHRONICLE'S VIEW J Into ition Trouble GREAT VLA(5 m 6WHINO Task-Force-d These are important goals. But tuition is hard enough administrators ignore the fact the to deal with. plan of U policy will harm students. to force students to higher-up- s Often, "serious" students regisfork over their money earlier is a ter for classes with every intention of attending, but are unable bad idea that will only make stuto come because they unexpectdents' difficulties worse, A plan recently discussed by a edly get a job, get married or have to tend to emergencies. These committee made of faculty, students don't deserve to be punand students administrators would make U students pay a ished by forfeiting the fee they $ioo fee early in paid to register. For college-ag- e the registration process each students, life situations change semester. Though students will be rapidly and important decisions allowed to register before the fee pop up frequently. It's easy for is due, if they don't come up with administrators who have been the cash by the due date, their through college to demand money registrations will be canceled. from students whose plans Since the due date will come well change, but these students are before the beginning of classes, real people with sometimes very students will have to find extra difficult financial situations. Additionally, many students money to cover classes much earlier than they do now, or else regmay not be able to come up with much later. the fee early enough for the deadister The people proposing this new line. They may work during the summer to earn their tuition and policy seem only to be interested in expediency and their own may not have a spare (too laying administrative convenience. The around in Spring Semester. justification offered for the policy Should these students have to regis that it would make it easier for ister late and get excluded from administrators to lcecp track of classes just because they don't have much money? enrollment and separate the "seriAdministrative convenience is ous" students from the "not serious" students who register for important, but so is the welfare of students. classes without actually coming. fj Rising UJl le Unsigned tutorials reflect the majority opinion of TH Daily Utah Chronicle Editorial Beard. Editorial columns and letters to the editor are strictly the opinions of the author. The forum created on the Opinion Page encourages vigorous debate, while at the same time demanding tolerance and respect. Material defamatory to an individual or group because of race, ethnic background, sex, appearance or sexual tation will be edited or will not be published. orien- snore! ca LETTER J TO THE EDITOR ijuana Trip Students Speaks Out Editor: would like to put the whole Tijuana incident into perspective for all of those who weren't there, and since I was, I will let everyone know what really happened. First of all, our intent in going was not to get "plowed" or "plastered" as previous articles have made it sound (In fact, no one got drunk who was there.) We were going simply to say we went to Mexico and maybe buy some authentic Mexican merchandise. As for going to a club and drinking, that was NEVER our plan. I will admit what we did was wrong and against not only school code but our contract as well. For that I I apologize for giving any organization involved a bad name. However, in response to Dan Roberts' Feb. 3 letter to the editor, "Honor More Important Than Code," I object to being called dishonorable. I have personally gone and talked to the Dean of Students and 'fessed up for what I did and took the proper punishment. This obviously doesn't make me any sort of martyr, but I do think it disqualifies me as dishonorable. So to say ethics is a joke is entirely inappropriate for all involved.. We made a mistake and are facing the consequences for our poof decision. However, at least we are coming forward and accepting that we did something wrong. And since I know there's not a single person reading this who doesn't make mistakes, I'd like to ask one last thing: Do you always come forward and accept responsibility for your actions (especially in the face of so much publicity)? If not, then where do you get off judging? If so, then you know why I'm upset about being judged without people knowing what really happened. BRANDON HANSEN Freshman, Political Science and Psychology Life Goes on After the Sule of The Tvihufie JOHN MORLEY Chronicle pro-LD- Opinion Columnist th simple words: I told you so. Last when I wrote a column arguing sale of The Salt Lake Tribune to Denver-base- d media magnate Dean Singleton did not mean the end of life as we know it, I received letter after letter hounding me for d moron. "You have no being a idea how completely the expletive LDS Church will own Utah when this sale goes through," one angry reader wrote. It was as though The Salt Lake Tribune was the only thing standing between the free world and a d Gordon B. totalitarian state. Give me a break. Since the old Tribune was finally put out of its misery with Singleton's takeover last August, the paper has retained every bit of the "independent voice" it has always claimed to be. It hasn't toned down its coverage of the LDS Church in the slightest and it leans further to the left politically than it ever did before. Far from becoming a stooge for the LDS Church, Singleton, who is not LDS and claims never to have told anyone that he would restrict the Tribune's editorial freedom, has actually improved the paper Four short-sighte- Hincklcy-masterminde- so-call- ed considerably. Take, for instance, the paper's coverage of the Main Street Plaza controversy. Nobody could reasonably accuse the Tribune of an S unfair slant. The paper not only covered the day by day developments on the issue with an even hand, it also did stories that leaned against the LDS Church. It commissioned a study by a U law professor, for example, that, according to a Tribune headline, said the LDS Church did not have "a legal leg to stand on." The paper also consistently supported the mayor over the church on the opinion page. On Dec. 10, after Rocky Anderson proposed a plan to limit protestors to one side of the plaza, the Tribune ran a house editorial arguing that, since "in a free society, it's impossible to legislate good manners," the mayor's rules for regulating speech on the plaza were "about the best the city could do." This despite the fact the LDS Church vehemently opposed the mayor's compromise. The Tribune hasn't changed its politics much, either. Though it's still not a bona fide liberal newspaper by national standards, most long-tim- e readers agree the Tribune is even more staunchly Democratic than it was under the old ownership. The U's very own Ted Wilson the quintessential Utah Democrat-obser- ved what he called "the new leftward tilt of The Salt Lake Tribune" in his weekly Deseret News column with LaVarr Webb last Sunday. Since the ownership change, the Tribune point-counterpoi- nt CHRONICLE OPINION EDITOR JOHN MORLEY started putting Holly Mullen, a predictably liberal columnist, on the front page of the local section and enshrined Robert Kirby, famous for his pot shots at LDS culture, in the same spot. More importantly, the paper began endorsing political candidates under Singleton-apopinion editor Vern Anderson. The Tribune's endorsements were so thoroughly Democratic that it backed 3rd Congressional District incumbent Chris Cannonwho everyone knew would win regardless of what the Tribune said just so the paper could say it supported a Republican. Far from running the paper into the ground (as the old ownership claimed he would), Singleton has deepened its coverage, expanded its staff and widened its scope. Instead of wringing profit out of the paper, Singleton dumped money into it, hiring 10 new reporters, including a permanent Washington, D.C., correspondent, as soon as he took over. Admittedly, the new Salt Substitute section's only good use is as a liner for bird cages, but the rest of the paper has benefitted from the leadership of someone with a wide vision and national experience. So, what does The Salt Lake Tribune sale teach us? If someone tries to sell you something in the name of the LDS Church, don't buy it. It doesn't matter if they're playing on your love of the church or your hatred for it, and it doesn't matter if they're selling newspapers, political ideologies, music or beer. If they try to manipulate your attitude about Mor- pointed LETTERSCHRONICLE.UTAH.EDU monism, they're probably up to no good. left side of People on the Utah's political spectrum already know very well that people like Gayle Ruzicka and John Swallow, who misstate and overemphasize church policies about abortion, sex education and alcohol to advance their own political agendas, are wolves in sheeps' clothing. Why don't we bring the same level of skepticism to people like Dominic Welch, the former publisher of the Tribune? Welch, one of the most bitter opponents of the sale, knew he stood to lose his job if Singleton took over. How's THAT for a journalistic conflict of interest?! Of course, the Tribune's comically angry house editorials condemning Singleton never mentioned Welch's personal agenda. They instead played on fear of the church the biggest, baddest beast in Utah politics to in try to save Welch's butt. Mormo-phobe- s Utah ate it up with a spoon more than 1,000 Tribune readers canceled their subscriptions in a paranoid hysteria about Singleton's editorial machinations. The Tribune's former owners manipulated their positions as journalists and the peculiar g Utahns to make up for gullibility of their own bad business decisions and journalistic complacency. They prophesied a destruction that never came, and too many Utahns believed it. Don't say I didn't warn you. John welcomes feedback at jmorleychroni-cle.utah.edSend letters to the editor to ever-declini- ng left-win- u. 581-639- 7 |