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Show I THE UN IVJmSITY JOURNAL• SOUTHERN UTAH UNlV,ERSITY • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1997 THE CAMPUS .. 33 1 E-mail system still upgrading Tax help offered atSUU By AMY NAY JOU RNAL STAFF WRIT EI\ By. TODD RANSOM JO URNAL STAFF WRITER Well, it's tax time again, and if you 're li ke most students and don' t know a 1040 from a 1099, tbcn it's the part of the year th ey dread. But don't reach for the Prozac ye t. T here is help availab le, and it's free. Volunteer Income T ax Ass istance, or VITA, is a servi ce that provides cax he lp to th e community. lts ma in Gradu ate student Brent Peterson, helps senior, economics mniot Sta cie purpose is to help those with Talbot with her taxes. Tax assistance is available to s tudents Monday low or fix ed in come, through Thursda y from 6-8:30 p.m . in Husiness Building room 209. di sa bilities, o r no n-English rev iew ing a required IRS manual and have take n spc;iking people, and especiall y stude nts. ACCT 320, whi ch is an ind ividual tax return class. Si nce VITA is a volunteer servi ce, they fil e only Every yea r these vo lunteers dedicate abou t 450 ho urs I 040EZ, I 040A, and some I 040s. In other words, of their time and serve about 400 studen ts . This they can't do la rge co rporations , bus inesses, or makes VITA the largest volunteer service business partnersh ips. Ju st bas ic tax return s. VITA is sponsored by the Prokssiona l Accountancy organization on SU U's ca mp us. VlTA has been operat ing since February 3 and will Clu b a nd managed by professor Jeffrey N. Barnes, continue until April 15. Those who wou ld like to who handl es all th e filed tax form s direct ly with t he take adva ntage of this valuab le service should go to IRS. Gradua te students Becky Sullivan, Guy Fran ce, room 209 in the business bu ilding, Monday through and Ch ris Yoakum oversee 40 to 50 unde rgraduate T hursday evenings, from 6-8:.30p m. accounting students t hat wo rk w ith the VITA Students need to bring th is year's tax pa ckage clients. and/o r label, all W-2 and 1099 fo rms, information Th e tax forms arc fi I led o ut by hand and done on about oth er income, deductibles, and credits, and a the computer program TURBO TAX from Intu it. copy of last yea r's tax return . All VITA vo lunteers have spent 20 to 30 hours Last qua rter N etworking Services was updating t he lBM compute rs' Pegasus Ma il syst em. Th is left t he Macintosh's Pegasus Mai l system inoperab le. Ma ny tudcnts were left looking for ot he r options to com mu nicate via E-mai I. The students, though few in numbe r, were forced to s hare the IIlM computers with the othe r studen ts. Tom Compagno, a senior comp uter sc ience majo r fro m Salt Lake Ci ty, works at Networking Services. He says that as soon as th e P-Mail on Mac im osh is upgraded by its creator the n students he re at SUU will be abl e to ret urn to using their E-mail on bot h systems. But un til that time, stude nts must choose o ne or the other (IBM or Mac) to util ize thei r emai l accoun ts. N o s tudent is auto matically issued an E-mai l account on Maci ntosh compute rs. Lf th is system is th e easier way for yo u to access yo ur account th en yo u can si mply go to Room 008 in the General C lassroom bui ld ing and sign up for one. Over Spring Break, Mark Walton an d Netwo rking Services we re busy mak ing this new a rrangem en t possible. There 1s no set or know n time as to when e-mail here on our cnmpus wi ll be compatible with both IBM and Ma cintosh compute rs. But until that time, students can s till use their E-mai l accoun ts. They just need to decide on which sys tem best suits their needs. SUUSA officers fulfill their campaign promises One goal accomplished was increasing the communication between students, administration By BECKY RUBBELKE JOURNAL STAI-F WRrl ER At SUU, st u~e nt government leaders aren't typical politicians. In man y cases, politic ian s don' t upho ld t heir campaign promises. Howeve r, SUU's student government lea de rs have do ne most o f what they sa id they wo uld do during th eir campaigns. Last spring, when Valarie O lson was running for SUUSA pres ident, one o f her goals was to create a process in whic h stude nts could graduate from a four-yea r coll ege program in four years. According to O lson, she has been work ing on co mmuni catio n with incoming frcshmcn. SU USA also has its own web page now. " It's so easy to sec what SUUSA entails," Olson sa id. It is a lso a good recruiting tool, she sa id . Ano ther of Olson's goa ls is to let students kno w what the increases in studen t fees arc and bow the students benefit from them. "Th ere ha ve n' t been any in creases in student fees yet," Olson sa id . If the re is to be a raise in th e fees, it will take place during spring quarter. T he change from quarters to semesters is another conce rn that Olson wa nted to concentrate on. According to O lson, there a rc student representatives sitting on the semester conversion committee. However, there is still anot he r year before the se mester cha nge occurs. "Next year's admin istration will have to continue working on that," 0 1.son said. Olson has also worked toward helping t he communi cati on betw een administration and students. She has had t he opportu nit y to sit on vario us committees. "13y bein g in volved th ere, I can be a better advocate fo r the students," said Olson. O ne of these commi ttees has been the Presidenti al Search Committee. T his has been the highlight of O lson's term in offi ce, she sai d. "It is the most wonderful experience I have had as a student at SUU." 'My goal has been to leave senate better than I found it,' said Treion Muller, SUUSA academic vice president, speaking of his campaign promise. Treion Mu ller, academi c vice president, a lso fuifilled hi s campaign promises. Duri ng hi s ca mpaign, Mu ll e r stated, " I want to make senators and myse lf more visib le, active, and accoun table." Muller has acco mplished this goa l in many ways. Much of th is has been done t hrough t he senate goa ls. T he senators have been conducting quarterl y apart ment wa lks. "A lot of people have given their poin t of view," Muller said. Mu ller has also altered hi s pos ition to a more proact ive o ne. " I' ve c hanged m y job descripti on from just overseei ng the senators to mo re of a fu nct ional pos iti on," Muller said . He has acco mplis hed thi s by work ing on some of h is own projects with t he help of the senators. One of these projec ts is a poss ible book let on facu lty informati on, such as areas of emphas is and whe re they have studi ed. Muller feels that he has acco mpl ished hi s goals while in office. " M y goa l has been to leave senate bette r than I found it, but I also hope t hat next year's academic vice president wi ll do the same." Fina ll y, Keri Mecham, activities vi ce pres iden t, has also accompl ished many of her campa ign prom ises. First, she wanted to have mo re t hemeoriented dan ces. Man y of the t raditi onal theme dances were kept, suc h as the '80s and Halloween dances. The 007 dan ce was a new theme dance th is year. " It was something we tried th at was different and it went reall y we ll ," Mecham sa id . Seco nd, Mecham wanted to sec th e C&O budget committee be m ore objective. According to Mec ham, this year the budget committee membe rs had to s ubm it a resum e and had to be ap proved by C&O. In yea rs past, t he committee was just appoi nted. Anot he r acco mp lishme nt made by Mech am has been to make t hi ngs better than th ey have been before. They have a lso t ri ed to increase attendance to acti vi tics. "We have added quite a bi t of variety to what we arc doing," she sai d. They have a lso tried to make their activit ies appea l to a m ore un iversal gro up of |