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Show Thursday, March 28, 2013 DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE 3 `Love letters' comfort people in need Carolyn Webber STAFF WRITER When most people visit their mailbox, they find typical bills, local advertisements or maybe a letter from the university or another organization. Few receive personalized letters anymore, and some students are starting to see these letters as a lost art. University of Utah Campus Cursive Love Letters is a new student group that writes letters to people in need. Anyone can request a love letter to be sent to someone they know, and the letter-writing committee will respond, said Dylan Adams, a junior in music and theatre, who founded the U's group. Cursive Love Letters is spreading across the country, and the U has received overwhelming support. Though only a couple months old, they have already written many letters and received many requests. The letters might include a quote, song lyrics or anything that can positively boost the receiver's day. Adams said these are not meant to solve the person's problems but to let them know that someone cares. The writers are all anonymous, and they only know the information that was disclosed in the letter requests, which are filled out online. Adams believes this makes the letter writing all the more exciting. "That's part of the fun of it, because you really never know who wrote it," he said. "You just get a genuine letter. Someone was kind enough to take a few minutes out of their day to write a little tiny note." The group is trying to reach out to everyone and get a wide range of involvement. They already have a • —6 1, 1 COURTESY OF HANNAH BRENCHER The Campus Cursive Letter club hopes it can help people have a better day by delivering anonymous letters of encouragement and love. good mix of genders, ages and majors, said Jenny Jones, a senior in international studies. She is the international relations coordinator and aims to include international students, who could be wary to join a club because of lan- guage barriers. Jones has hosted workshops for foreign students to teach letter writing and how the U.S. Postal Service works and said it is something anyone can take part in. Both Jones and Adams are believers in the effect of let- ters, and they have seen a range of people who are just stressed out to the verge of suicide in the requests. With the thank-you notes they have received in response, they feel like they are really making a difference. "It's a small community, but we are able to have a large impact," Adams said. While the group is already connected with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center, they hope to work with the Bennion Center, Counseling Center and Primary Children's Medical Center, along with any other interested organizations. "It creates a healthy environment. There has been research which shows that letters help with mental health," Adams said. He hopes to create a healthier environment at the U by putting letters that have a brief, uplifting message Filmmaker celebrates stories GMOS Anna Drysdale said the food industry's reluctance to reveal whether foods contain GMOs signifies potential danger. "The core of the issue is your right to know what you eat, and the desire of these food manufacturers to avoid the transparency is a giant red, waving flag," Rosenberg said. Han Kim, associate professor of public health at Westminster College, said that so far, scientific studies show GMOs are safe. "There are a few studies that had some mainstream coverage and were in peerreviewed journals, however there were some significant drawbacks to those studies and a lot of controversy about whether their results are valid or not," Kim said. Though Kim acknowledged that there might be some possibility for currently undiscovered risks associated with GMOs, the potential benefits of GMOs for poor populations outweigh them. Kim cited Golden Rice, a species of grain genetically modified to contain large amounts of beta-Carotene, STAFF WRITER Twenty-five years ago, Mira Nair's film "Salaam Bombay!" became one of the first Indian films to hit the global scene. In the film, Nair, who believes the truth is more interesting and sometimes even stranger than fiction, focused on the lives of street children in India. She used the profits of her film to found the Salaam Balaak Trust, an organization that now provides a safe haven for 5,000 children in India each year. Nair was the speaker for the annual David P. Gardner Lecture at Kingsbury Hall on Wednesday. In her speech, she shared her experiences about and firm conviction to create art rooted in a sense of identity. Throughout her career, the writer, producer and director has been successful in the worlds of independent and Hollywood film. She was even asked to direct "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," but turned it down, at the advice of her 4-year-old son, who happened to be a fan of the series. "Mama, many good directors can make 'Harry Potter,"' he said. "But only you can make `The Namesake." At the time, she was in the ASUU Continued from page 1 that ASUU is kind of cliquey, not as open or welcoming as it could be," Ortiz said. "Rather than waiting for students to approach us with concerns, we want to really be more proactive in reaching out to students and going to where students are already at rather than assuming they will eventually get to us." Another plan is to make ASUU meetings more accessible. Ferre wants to put meeting agendas and minutes online. "One of the things we would like to do is explore the possibility [of] making sure that all of our meetings are streamed, either podcast or streamed live, making those available LEGISLATURE Continued from page 1 Regional Dental Education Program and public services such as the Natural History Museum of Utah and seismographic stations. Most of the bills affecting the U have gone through the legislative system with few hold ups, though there has been some concern about the additional spa million that SB 42 proposes to appropriate to the medical school. Even bill co-sponsor Rep. Michael Kennedy, R-Alpine, admitted that the cost of the bill would not be easy to absorb. If the bill receives Herbert's signature, the BRENT UBERTY/The Daily Utah Chronicle Director, writer and producer Mira Nair gives a lecture titled "Between Two Worlds: Creating Identity" for the David P. Gardner Graduate Lecture Series at Kingsbury Hall on Wednesday evening. pre-production stage for "The Namesake," which she had decided to film after reading the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri after her mother-in-law's death. Nair's films have won many awards, such as the Prix du Publique at the Cannes Film Festival and a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe. She believes that she has a clear pathway to follow in her filmmaking. "If we don't tell our own stories, no one else will tell them," Mair said. That path is not always easy. Mair has turned down Hollywood contracts and was once denied funding because she did not include a white protagonist in the film Mississippi Masala. The film turned out anyway, and it starred a young Denzel Washington. Mair's belief that everyone has to tell their own story is the motto of Maisha, a film school she founded in East Africa. Today, she sees film as a way to jump over barriers and reveal humanity. "Now more than ever, I think, we need cinema to reveal our ... worlds in all their little particularities," she said. It is often in the tiniest details that the relatable human quality of a film comes out, according to Nair. Her film "Monsoon Wedding" epitomized this belief. She shot the film on a low budget in just 3o days. Many of the 68 actors were her own family members. "They were absolutely free," Nair said. So were most of the props. The authentic costumes, art and the jewelry in the film all belong to Nair's family. Though she is an internationally acclaimed director, Nair wants to be known for her roots, not her wings. "The great gift of being Indian is that my roots are deeply imbedded," she said. "I want my work to be defined not by its flight, but by its roots." Kartik Verma, a doctorate student in economics, particularly liked Nair's focus on identity. "It's a burning question that I really think of a lot," Verma said. "I really liked her views on the subject." Continued from page 1 a.drysdale@ chronicle.utah.edu for students who can't make it at that time but would like to gather the information prior," Ferre said. This year, the ASUU assembly received $50,000 in rollover funds that were allocated to student groups in the 2011-2012 academic year but were never claimed. Ortiz wants to increase ASUU's involvement with student groups to make sure these funds are spent. "We will be asking our assembly representatives to be liaisons between several student groups. One assembly representative could pick two or three students groups, and they would be responsible [for] going to one of their meetings every now and then, at least keeping in touch with their leadership," Ortiz said. "This is more than just a typi- cal follow-up that happens after a bill is run through. We want to have more consistent connection with these student groups." Ferre said another way is for the director and associate directors of the Campus Relations Board, which oversees student groups, to more closely monitor the allocated funds. "After a certain period of time, two weeks, a month, if [the student groups] haven't submitted for reimbursements or if they haven't made plans on using that, we are touching base with them to find out exactly why," Ferre said. "Perhaps they need the resources that ASUU has, our professional resources in planning the events that they had initially intended the money to be used for." The new administration will not have concrete sustainability plans until a Sustainability Board Director is chosen, Ferre said. He said the goal is to have a more holistic sustainability plan that includes the whole university. The administration plans for the Sustainablity Board to increase its scope and work with other ASUU boards to make their events more sustainable. "We want to lead by example. I may not be able to tell the orientation office to be more sustainable — that is not in our purview. If we can show them how it's done and do it effectively, then that will open the door for other departments to follow suit," Ortiz said. medical school will be able to increase its size by about a third. Of the admitted students, 82 percent must have graduated from a Utah high school or an institution of higher education. Other bills awaiting final approval are less controversial. HB 254 would help veterans receive college or university credit that is related to training or experiences that they already received while serving in the military. Dave Buhler, Commissioner of Higher Education, said the bill would be a good step toward helping veterans reintegrate into normal life. HB 28 does not face much chance of veto either. It is a simple bill to clarify that university police officers are authorized to order threatening or peace-disturbing persons off of campus. Most of the laws that went through this legislative session had to do with funding, either increasing for university programs or providing and tweaking scholarship options for students. SB 4o, for example, will help Navajo Native Americans receive the funding they need to attend college by empowering commissions already granting scholarships to Navajo students to continue granting funding. According to Sen. Kevin Van Tassell, R-Vernal, these commissions are spending about $5oo,000 a year, and more than 200 tribal members are going to college. Another bill, SB ioo, raises the bar for students on the Regents' and New Century Scholarships, which are funded by the state. SB 5i, which was supported by the presidents of all state institutions of higher education, will give presidents the opportunity to offer instate tuition to an unlimited number of outstanding nonresident students. The bill will give presidents an extra tool to boost enrollment and fill seats left empty by departing missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. across campus in random spots. Also, the club will be writing and giving out letters the week before finals to as many students as they can to share positive words of encouragement. The club was recently approved by ASUU as an official student group, so the stationary, paper, advertisements and postage costs will be aided by ASUU funds. Adams said anyone can become involved and join the team, because it benefits the writers while also helping the receivers. He feels it is far more personalized to see writing on paper and know that someone wrote it rather than sitting on a computer and sending out a fast email. "Just forget about yourself for a couple minutes and give yourself to someone else's situation and give them support," Adams said. c.webber@ chronicle.utah.edu as an example of a product that could reduce the ongoing problem of micronutrient deficiency around the world. "[It is estimated] up to half a million children go night blind due to a lack of [betaCarotene] in their diets," he said. "To be able to provide a crop like rice, which most of the world eats, that has Vitamin A already in it is potentially a huge boon to global health." Several students expressed concern over how GMOs will affect not only human health, but the condition of the overall environment. Hole explained that food production, GMO or not, has a huge impact on the health of the environment. "Our food production system in the U.S. today ... is dysfunctional. But genetically modified products aren't the reason for that," Hole said. Rosenberg argued that his food-conscious customers wouldn't be willing to jump on board the ever-accelerating GMO train. "People want to know that their food has integrity. Whether there are health impacts or not, people want to know," Rosenberg said. a.wrigley@chronicle.utah.edu gaily:UTAH CHRONICLE INVITES YOU AND A GUEST TO THE ADVANCE SCREENING OF IN A GAME DIVIDED BYCOLOR. HE MADE US SEE GREATNESS. t.webb@ chronicle.utah.edu a.drysdale@ chronicle.utah.edu 111CDIER011 CHI111113 MIDDfNO<fAND• [11C8figl{ HAhlIEWLAIIR flYA1111111111111'Il CINININ6 • If 1111)[ P[1111',1111lIY.)1[1 Allil f[RINRJUIJIA.':,:21111521KJOUSil i \NCtA111( 1- 1g611A111[ "'I "`BDIADHf16EMHD -• APRIL 12," MONDAY, APRIL 8 AT 7PM PLEASE STOP BY Dail UTAH CHRONICLE ROOM 321 - OLPIN UNION TO RECEIVE YOUR COMPLIMENTARY SCREENING PASS! THIS FILM IS RATED PG-13 for thematic elements including language. 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