LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 14, 20011- 3
4IIGHER En
City offers pay-by-phone parking tickets
Students protest
cancellation of
Monologues'
Saint Mary's College students lined
* hallway outside President Marilou
Eldred's office last week in protest of
her decision to not allow the "Vagina
Monologues" to be performed on
campus.
Jen Wagner, organizer of the sit-in,
said the censorship of a theatrical per-
formance on a college campus is con-
trary to academic freedom.
According to organizers, between
25 and 40 people attended the sit-in in
support of the cause. In addition,
anizers were looking for signatures
on a petition in opposition to censor-
ship at the campus. Nearly 300 signa-
tures were collected on the petition,
Wagner said.
The organizers planned the sit-in to
correspond with parents arriving on
campus for sophomore parents' week-
end at the college. This was a strategic
move so more than students would hear
at the they had to say, Wagner said.
Although Eldred has made her final
decision regarding the Monologues,
some students express hope she will
change her mind because of the protest.
BYU cancels
classes during
second week of
Winter Olympics
*Brigham Young University will
cancel classes for four days during the
second week of the 2002 Winter
Olympics in Salt Lake City,
announced BYU President Merrill
Bateman last week. The cancellation
of classes is part of efforts to get stu-
dents to volunteer at the games.
To make up for the canceled days,
bruary 19-22, the university will
Oust the schedule for Winter Semester
2002. BYU will start four days earlier
than usual on Jan. 3 and cancel two
reading days before exams in April.
The university's schedule is such
that it was impossible to arrange
classes and semesters to allow for two
entire weeks of canceled classes con-
sidering the university does not have a
spring break.
Those who volunteer for the entire
Sweeks of the Winter Olympics
9 be allowed to make up classes
and work missed during the first week
of the Games, said BYU Olympic
Coordinator Lee Bartlett
Members of the Salt Lake Organiz-
ing Committee were thrilled that the
university changed its schedule to allow,
students to volunteer, Bartlett said.
With the cancellation of classes, uni-
Ity faculties are developing pro-
s ssefor the student volunteers. Bill
Eggington, associate chair of the Eng-
lish Department, is organizing students
to act as translators during the Games.
Students prey for
spring break scams
The college student's quest for the
least expensive travel options can
leave them vulnerable to fraud, said
exs Rochefort, a public relations
cialist with the Institute of Certi-
fiedfravel Agents.
,Rochefort said that there are two
vey common types of scams. The
first is the misrepresentation of
products and service, namely
where the conditions of lodging are
exaggerated.
The second most common type
of fraud is the overbooking of air-
0es and lodging, often leaving
students stranded at airports or
their destination because of a lack
of seats or rooms.
April Chappell, a travel adviser
with STA Travel, said in order to
combat scams, students must under-
stand a few travel truths.
First, a reservation does not hold an
airline price and seat, no airline price
is guaranteed until ticketed. Students
also need to understand that chartered
hts, which are especially popular
during Spring Break season, have spe-
cial guidelines.
According to the ICTA, charters
are legally allowed to cancel flights
up to 10 days before departure and
may change schedules up to 48
hours without and compensation
for travelers.
- Compiled from U-WIRE reports
by Daily Staff Reporter Jane Krull.
By Kara Wenzel
Daily Staff' Reporter
Ann Arbor is known to be tough on
illegal parking - so tough that the
city found it necessary to recently
institute a service allowing ticketed
drivers to pay fines over the phone
with a credit card.
The city collects an annual average
of $2.4 million in parking fines, frus-
trating both new and old Ann Arbor
drivers.
"I have a meeting here in 10 minutes
and no idea where to put my car
because I have never visited before.
There is no parking lot for the Union
and I feel very inconvenienced having
to come here," Ann Arbor visitor Rayan
Goppell said yesterday.
Parking shortages lead many students
to invent creative ways to avoid getting
ticketed. Many students place a previous
ticket on their windshield in the belief
that an attendant will not issue a second
one. But there is no rule stating a person
cannot receive more than one ticket per
day.
"I know the parking attendants are
really tough so I try to park my car in a
residential area without meters. I think
it's working because I have not received
"Obey the rules and you won't get a
ticket."
- Mike Scott
Ann Arbor manager of parking and street maintenance
a ticket yet," LSA sophomore Larry
Benenson said.
"Obey the rules and you won't
get a ticket," said Mike Scott, man-
ager of parking and street mainte-
nance for the city of Ann Arbor.
"All we're doing is enforcing the
ordinances as they are written.
Comply with them."
Four or more unpaid parking tick-
ets violates city codes and the car, if
found and ticketed again, can legally
be towed.
"We go to court and get a writ of exe-
cution to seize property after four
unpaid tickets. In this case, the property
is your vehicle," Scott said.
Trying to bargain with or bribe
meter maids to not give tickets is not
recommended, Scott said. Putting
money in the meter for the time you
expect to be away from your car is
the easiest and safest way to go
home without a ticket.
Even though there is free parking on
Sundays and holidays and the Ann
Arbor City Council instituted a 10-
minute grace period on all expired
meters last November, resident Anne
Marcum said one meter attendant did
not observe the rule. 8
"I was on my way to my car,
approximately two minutes after its
meter was supposed to expire, and I
had to wait and watch the meter
guy write me a ticket. I asked him
to give me a break, but he told me
he had to write the ticket or he
would be in trouble with his super-
visor," Marcum said.
"I've gotten three or four tickets
for not putting enough money in
the meter. I didn't know there was
a 10-minute grace period, though," BRENDAN O'DO
L S A sophomore Rich C antI ey As there are no regulations for receiving multiple parking tickets in one da
said. are left on a windshield outside a parking structure yesterday.
MSA angered about
Get on the bus
NNELL/Daly
ay, two
By Carrie Thorson
Daily Staff Reporter
JEFF HURVITZ/Daily
Tyree Guyton and Jenenne Whitfield talk to a group of art students on their
bus outside the Heidelberg Project in Detroit.
S e l StmeltorS
At last night's Michigan Student Assembly meeting
Vice President Jim Secreto and Students Right Com-
mission Chair Mike Simon addressed the assembly on
what they called the administration's unfair treatment
of MSA amendments to the Code of Student Conduct.
"We have something to be very upset about," Simon
said.
None of MSA's substantive proposals to the Univer-
sity's Code of Student Conduct - now called the
Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities made
it to the final draft.
"We got the big shaft;' Secreto said.
MSA President Hideki Tsutsumi will speak atmthis
week's University Board of Regents meeting to express
the assembly's opposition to the Code revisions.
President Bollinger "will get a piece of MSA's mind
Thursday," Simon said.
Last night's meeting also marked the end of the
process in which student groups submitted applications
to the Budget Priorities Committee for funding. The
BPC allocated student fees to each group, funding their
existence for the rest of the semester.
MSA distributed $95,841 among 294 student groups
with no objections.
"This is traditionally the most important thing MSA
does every semester," said LSA Rep. Jessica Cash.
The proposal presented at last week's meeting to
support and fund DTWBus airport transportation was
reduced to simply supporting the endeavor. The sys-
tem, the brainchild of SNRE freshman Neil Greenberg,
is intended to transport students to and from Detroit
Metropolitan Airport for a low cost. Greenberg with-
"We got the big shaft."
- Jim Secreto -
Vice President, Michigan Student Assembly:.'
drew his request for money when he realized he would
be making a profit.
"It doesn't make sense to tie this into MSA with all
of the politics and things," Greenberg said.
"He came up with a good idea that intrinsically-
linked students and student concern," Secreto said.-",
"We are giving authenticity to this."
Some assembly members were still opposed to sup-
porting Greenberg's operation because profit was
involved.
"We're a student government, and endorsing profit
business isn't good," said student general counsel Alok
SAgrawal.
The resolution passed with a vote of 26-3.
Assembly representatives who attended two student'
government conferences last weekend, including the'
Association of Big Ten Students at Ohio State Univer-
sity, reported on their experiences last night.
"Michigan is by far the most hated school in the con-
ference," LSA Rep. Reza Breakstone said, adding that?;
other Big Ten students acknowledged the University's°.
superior academics and athletics.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Commis-F.,
sion Chair Ben Conway explained the "Friends of-
Dorothy Campaign" to the assembly.:
"In the context of this week, 'Are you a friend of
Dorothy' refers to are you a member of the LGBTq
community or are you an ally," Conway said. Queer
Visibility week has been successful so far, he added.
LINWOOD, Mich. (AP) - The
National Rifle Association is training
hundreds of people to provide the gun
safety classes that will become manda-
tory when Michigan's concealed
weapons laws are relaxed this summer.
Some of the state's 83 counties
already require training for holders of
concealed weapons permits. Safety
classes will become mandatory when
the new law takes effect July 1.
The NRA, which fought for passage
of the controversial measure, is taking
a leading role in training the trainers.
Classes like the one Brian
McCreery of Alma took this past
weekend at the Linwood-Bay Sports-
man's Club will "make it safer for the
people, because the individual will
know how to properly carry a firearm
and when to use it in a self-defense
situation," he said.
McCreery and 27 other people
attended the training session super-
vised by four certified training coun-
selors. The NRA usually holds four or
five such classes per year, but will
probably conduct six to eight sessions
because of the anticipated increase in
CCW permit holders, said counselor
Al Herman, who also is president of
the Linwood-Bay Sportsman's Club.
State Police say the new law could
more than double the number of
Michiganians carrying concealed
weapons, from the current total of
51,954 to about 125,000. The estimate
is based on the experience of other
states that have loosened their CCW
laws.
"The first thing that they learn, that
we stress a lot, is a firearm is a tool of
last resort;' said Liz Schreur, who with
her husband Al joined Herman and
Dick Hembling in conducting the
weekend einn
"This is not TV' Al Schreur told the
trainees. "Going near a bad guy is not
good news; people in blue uniforms
don't even like to do it."
For the state to certify a gun safety
course, it must offer at least eight hours
of instruction in topics including safe
storage; ammunition knowledge and
fundamentals of pistol shooting; and
civil liability issues involving firearms.
The NRA classes are certified and
will be 12 hours, Herman told The
Bay City Times for a story published
Monday. The first class for applicants
in the Bay City area is scheduled for
April21, he said.
An antigun activist said the new
law's training requirements wouldn't
do enough to foster either expertise or
accountability.
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