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. GOT AN OPINION ON MICHIGAN SPORTS, THE OSCAR NOMINATIONS OR THE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION TRIALS? VISIT THE DAILY'S ONLINE FORUM AND VOICE YOUR OPINION AT WWW. MICHIGANDAIL Y.COM/FORUM 71 WIIt1 1) ANYhINGfl FOR M11K Looking to gain valuable advertising or sales experience? THE CALENDAR What's happening in Ann Arbor today Don't know where to turn? Positions are now available in advertising at EVENTS mental issues Commis- for Judaic Studies, Aaron " m nn.tstnn SERVICES .5siogn meetings, t.uu LJeiiSiy wmn speaKx, invn, --I