UVCC College Times, 1993-03-17

              Me New future for two-year colleges Tire in the Sky1 burns up the box office See Page volume 21 Issue 9 1? march 1993 utoh valley community coBeae See Page ( i V 'You are feeling very sleeeepy...' Hypnotist Bruce McDonald brought his talents to UVCC Friday night, and mesmerized the audience. The volunteers performed several entertaining acts, and some of themeven spoke 'Martian,' danced like M.C. Hammer, and even won the Mr. Universe Contest. UVCC will house new Utah Fire Academy Due to House Bill 155, passed by the Utah legislature March 3, UVCC will be the home of the new Utah Fire Academy. The bill, sponsored by Repre-senitive John Valentine of Orem, modifies the Utah Fire Prevention Law (Utah Code 49-5-301) to provide a comprehensive training program, as well as grants a program for safety equipment for fire departments. The bill assigns revenues from insurance premium taxes to a Fire Academy Support account within the State Fire Marshal's office. The Fire Marshal and the Fire Prevention Board currently contract with UVCC to provide fire training and certification services on a small scale. Steve Lutz, the Diretor of Utah State Fire Training here, said thata new contract will be negotiated between UVCC and Public Saftey to operate the Academy at existing facilites until a new capus is built for the Fire Academy. 'Tor the immediate future,officesand classrooms will be housed at the UVCC Provo campus, but the main focus of the training will be on outreach programs. Classes wil be held at facilities around the state using training coordinators from UVCC, as well as part-time instructors located in other areas." pi (A h ( ( A The funding is phased in over four years. The first year $250,000 will be available, and $500,000 the second year. Valentine said that the intention of the legislature to make firefighter certification training available to every community in Utah. "Certification simply means that a person has met the minimum standard of competence for a particular job by passing written and manipulative skills test. Right now, about 80 of Utah's 5,500 structural firefighters are not certified to the lowest level of competence, Firefighter I. "We didn't want to mandate certification; too many small towns felt it beyond their reach. We think we can actually get more cooperation by 'hold ing out a carrot' in the form of a grant, than we could by jamming the program down their throats." In order to be eligible for grants, a department will have to be working towards certification. Lutz said that helping create the bill was probably the first time the Utah fire service was able to unite and work effectively to get a major money bill through the legislature. "We began over a year ago to put a strategic plan on paper and gain a concensus on what we need ed. Up until then, the focus of the dream was on brick and mor 1 Photo by Alan Pack 7 Coiy nm tar, but it was obvious that the route would take until the turn of the century. "This way, once we get the programs and people in place to do the training statewide, it will be a lot easier to convince the legislature that we have a viable program that needs a permanentstate-of-the-art fixed facility. "The beauty of the new law is that by giving us a percentage of insurance premium taxes, our budget will automatically increase to meet inflation." The Fire Academy will be able to conduct emergency vehicle driving courses at the driving range (built by Public Saftey two years ago). Up to this point, the course has been used almost exclusively by law enforcement, even though fire service efforts secured the land and contigous parcels for future Academy development. The new law assigns specific responsibilities to the Fire Prevention Board. These include establishing the fire academy to provide instruction and training for paid, volunteer, institutional, and industrial firefighters; new methods of fire fighting and fire prevention; training for arson detection; public fire education; fire service certification; and facilities for teaching firefighting skills. Student Government allocates student fees Nathan John Saydyk Staff Writer Student government met Thursday in order to reallocate existing student fees. Discussion focused on funding for the library, athletic department , and theater department. Bonnie Henry, acting dean of learning resources and services, spoke for the library saying that the library is 50,000 books short of meeting the minimum standard for a two-year school. "We still don't meet standards for a two-year school and we are moving toward four years," she said. Henry went on to say that the library would need one million dollars in order to get up to normal. She also stated that if the library received the books they would need to hire more personnel in order to get the books into the Dynex system and onto the shelves. The athletic program wasn't asking for more money but they were concerned about their budget being cut. Mike Jacobson, athletic director for UVCC, did not Appreciation Day rally planned to honor Utah County legislators Jeff Myers Staff Writer Student government will be sponsoring an "Appreciation Day" rally in honor of Utah County legislators this Thursday, March 18at 11:00 a.m. in the Ballroom. Student Body President Paul VonStrahl will conduct the rally, with UVCC President Kerry D. Romesburg attending. The rally honors and thanks Utah County legislators for their support in UVCC's four-year proposal. The rally will include three speakers from the legislature: Sen. LeRay McCallister, Rep. Byron Harward, and Rep. John Valentine. These legislators will also be presented with UVCC sweatshirts. According to VonStrahl, "All I I -l0ormor ED -5.0 to -9.9 E3 -0.1 to -4.0 f-ljl , 7(2) fiSr show up for the first student government meeting, but he did get a chance to voice his concerns at another meeting held later that night. Student Council was adamant about cutting their budget at least a little. Jacobson was equally adamant that if they cut his budget he would be forced to cut some programs.The council decided that they would cut the budget two dollars and give the money to the library. They said that the athletic department has enough money to operate and that the two dollar cut will not force cuts. "Naturally I'm not pleased," said Jacobson, "We have worked hard to build up the program and now it's being cut" The money will be added to the library budget. The theater department receives 50 cents per stu-dent per semester. Although they did not ask for any more money the council belives they need it. In the coming year the theater will be moved into the new student center. The sta ge will be twice See STUDENT FEES, page 14 three of these legislators were major factors in helping UVCC receive four-year appropriations." The rally will include a question and answer session, and free lunch will be served to those students who attend. There is a possibility of free t-shirts being handed out as well, but that could not be confirmed at press time. VonStrahl encourages all students to attend the rally. "They the legislators helped us out a lot, so we want to do something to make them feel good," he said. "If students are happy about the funding for the four-year proposal, these are the people to thank. I want to personally invite all UVCC students to get involved," VonStrahl added. 0.0 to 4.9 E3 5.0 to 9.9 E3 -t10.0 or mor