ASUSU president to request booting change
Associated Students of Utah State University President Les Essig will go to the Logan City Council Tuesday to ask the council to repeal, or change, the city booting ordinance.
The booting ordinance in Logan is illegal because of due process and proper procedure for seizing property, Essig said. He said he has met with attorneys to learn the legalities of the procedure and that he has a lot of support concerning the issue.
“President Hall agrees that the boot has too much power,” Essig said.
University attorney Craig Simpser will accompany Essig to the city meeting. Essig said the legal work against booting is already done and that if the city does not change its law, people could begin to sue when booted.
Essig and other council members also expressed their concern about the safety of those being booted, stating that people who have been booted commonly have to walk at night to an ATM or their homes to get enough money to pay for the boot to be removed.
If the city booting ordinance is changed or repealed, the number one concern is then continuing to maintain parking order.
“We are going to give them several options and alternatives,” Essig said.
One of the options mentioned were giving specific parking spots to each apartment tenant. Then, the individual would be in charge of calling a booter if someone is illegally parking in their individual spot.
A bill was passed Tuesday night at the ASUSU Executive Council meeting asking USU to abandon its booting policy, encouraging students to call USU Police when booted, and allowing ASUSU to present their case to the city council.
The Executive Council itself cannot change the law, but hopes to encourage the city to change its law. Essig said he hopes to provide students with a packet educating them about their rights when booted.
Also at the meeting, Executive Vice President Tagg Archibald outlined the goals of the Utah Students Association. The association recently made goals on a national, state and university level.
Nationally, Archibald said, they hope to allow students to vote in their universities student center.
On a state level, they hope to encourage same-day voter registration, he said. States with same-day registration have a higher percentage of people who vote, Archibald said.
On a university level, Archibald said they want to repeal House Bill 331. House Bill 331 was passed in 2001 and changed Utah’s residency laws from a one year minimum, to gain residency, to two years.
In the years since the bill was passed, USU has lost approximately $2.5 million a year in tuition. Students from the Northwest, who would have normally come to USU, are no longer coming, Archibald said.
“The state legislature ignored us last year, but they’re not going to ignore us this year,” Archibald said.
The committee planning International Education Week also talked to the council about the possibility of bringing Indian guitarist Prasanna to Logan. Prasanna, an esteemed musician in many types of music, is scheduled to come to Logan on Nov. 15. Prasanna would give a concert, as well as a free workshop for university music students. The event is being sponsored by the Office of International Students and Scholars as well as the music department. However, they are still short of funds and said they hope ASUSU will be able to help.
Gabe Carter, ASUSU diversity vice president, spoke for the Indian Student Union asking for additional funds for the seventh Annual Celebration of Diwali. The celebration will be held on Oct. 23 and is a festival of lights celebrated in India, Kenya, Thailand, Siam and Malaysia, Carter said.
A bill obliging departments and colleges to post all available scholarships, grants and waivers in a generalized location, both physically and electronically, was read at the meeting as well.
“This is something that can only help. It can’t hurt,” A.J. Rounds, graduate studies vice president, said.
-hilaryi@cc.usu.edu