UVU Review, 2011-02-28

              WW Mj1a XT VOL T -j JUE 25 FEBRUARY 28, 2011 www.uvureview.com Are laptops in Classrooms hurting students' grades? B4 F f Continued election debate on A10 .1 YALLE? UiiiiEL. r 4 C VW r v -1 : . Gilbert CisnerosUVU Review UVU Botany club members identified pressed plants, similar to the one shown above, at their recent competition. Planting seeds for success By Alex Solomon News Writer . Students from this university have once again proven their excellence at the Society for Range Management conference in Billings, Mont. The conference was held on Feb. 8, where the UVU Plant ID Team placed seventh out of 20 other schools. The team is made up of three students: Biology education major Misty Kurtis and Botany majors Aaron Searle and Christiana Laudie. They were coached by Ally Searle, who is the school's botany lab manager in addition to being the team adviser. After memorizing 200 different plants all year long,' students arrived at the competition to be tested on 100 pressed plants. They had 60 seconds to identify each plant correctly."I'm very proud of our Plant ID team. They put a lot of work into this all year," Searle said. "They did really well against other range and agricultural schools, which says a lot about the caliber of our students." The team placed first in the state competition in November 2010. Students also get the chance to network with other biology and botany students, teachers and professionals in their field of study. The Plant ID Club also provides valuable experience and networking. It also allows students the chance to present themselves to professionals and alumni agencies in their fields. This opens possible employment opportunities, much like Kurtis' experience with the club. "I'm very thankful for the work opportunities I've had," Kurtis said. "I would not have been able to get that experience if I weren't a part of the team. This club and competition has taught me a lot about botany in the professional sphere." Ally Searle said that other students interested in biology or botany should seriously consider joining the Plant ID team. With the school's new Botany degree, Searle hopes that they will be able to draw in more students to help bolster the team's membership. Even students deciding between majors are encouraged to join. Leadership training Richard Portwood, Chris Loumeau and Sarah Standing, three of the five executive council members, pose for a photo last year. Photo courtesy of Student Government An inside look shows what student government is all about By Sterling Gray Assist. News Editor Each Thursday, the student government council meeting begins when Student Body President Richard Portwood asks a council member to lead the group in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. From seemingly small tasks like delegating who leads in the pledge of allegiance to counseling together about how to spend more than 12 million dollars in student fees, student government officers are trying to gain what their website calls "valuable leadership experience." To see how they go about doing this, it might help to take a peek at a normal student government meeting. On Feb. 17, the group convened at its normal location, a conference room next to student government offices. Portwood banged his gavel on the table, the group stood to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and the meeting was underway. The first order of business was student fees. On Jan. 20, 27 and Feb. 3, student fee hearings were held. The student council listened to accounts given by various departments that received funding from student fees. Their accounts detailed what they did with the student fee money allotted to them and their sugges tions for any change in the amounts they receive. Once the student fee hearings were over, the council discussed and voted upon changes to the current student fee structure. This is a unique feature of this university; rarely, very rarely, do administrators hand over so much financial responsibility to student leaders. Of particular interest on Feb. 17 was what to do about Utah Transit Authority's (UTA) price hike. UTA had previously provided students with a year-long bus pass for only $20. UTA, however, called that a Continued on A3 TYiition set to increase 4 to 9 percent ..... tlUJJ rf h 6 sf y 51138900 R ' V' i iff! X' ! 1 7 5H38900 R III ll Mi'i'i'i.rft ihlilit Photo courtesy of Stock.xchng Tuition hike expected in light of oncoming state cuts By Matt Petersen News writer Students here pay among the lowest tuition rates in the nation compared to other universities. That will still be the case next year, but the rates themselves will increase anywhere from four to nine percent ($73-$ 165 per semester), according to the school's latest tuition proposal, issued Thursday, Feb. 17. The tuition hike is, according to President Holland, a necessary measure made by the state legislature's planned cuts within their higher education budget. Such a move is, Holland said, the opposite of what the university needs. "The challenge is the state doesn't want to give us money. They want to cut," Holland said at the truth in tuition hearing. The amount the slate is likely to cut back is 7 percent, or $4.3 million. That proposal falls under "first tier tuition," a set of financial decisions that lay within the state's power of judgment. UVU's proposal is under "second tier tuition," the tuition plan individual schools make after the state's decision. Given the expected cut from state legislature, the university has to look to other sources to make Continued on A2 Dangerous immigration rhetoric Students and faculty humanize immigrants By David Self Newlin Editor-in-Chief There was standing room only as students and faculty gathered to hear two perspectives on the power that words and labels have in an ongoing battle over immigration. The hour-long session was billed as "They Don't Belong Here: The Dangerous Rhetoric Behind Illegal Immigration." According to organizer Agus-tin Diaz, the discussion was meant to "get away from the politics and legalities of the situation. To come back to the reason we all think this the treatment of immigrants is wrong." The event came just five days after HB70, a bill sponsored by Rep. Stephen Sandstrom and modeled after Arizona's SB 1070, passed in the Utah House. Diaz said the idea for the session came from a cousin who had been harassed by customers at a restaurant in Orem, for being Latino. He said they told his cousin, in very offensive words, that she should go back to Mexico. "My task is to put a face on the so-called illegal immigrant and make them into human beings," said presenter Lynn England. Much of England's presentation focused on the term "illegal" and its implications. " 'Illegal Immigrant' is not a neutral term," he said. "We talk about immigrants today as though they were strange." England also "confessed" that he had done illegal and unsafe things, such as speeding with his grandkids in the car, and questioned whether this act was really any worse than crossing the border illegally. "In a sense, I am illegal," England said. Presenter Albert Walker focused on the long history of immigration to the U.S. and how Americans have "long feared foreigners." "All my ancestors are immigrants," Walker said. . He also pointed out that all of Utah once belonged to Mexico and the irony of now enacting legislation to keep Mexicans and other Latino immigrants out of Utah. Walker later said that laws being enacted against Latino immigrants are a step toward genocide, after drawing parallels between the treatment of Latinos now and Jews in Poland, Belarus and other European countries before and during World War II. Walker became visibly emotional near the end of his remarks. "He who hates his brother is a murderer already in his heart," he said, referencing John 3:15. But he also claimed that appreciating all humanity as such was an important factor in preventing atrocities, citing the extremely low death rate of Jews in Belgium during WWII, where they were treated "as fellow countrymen" rather than foreigners.