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Grand Targhee removes student season passes

Isabelle JusticeLeave a comment

This was the first article I ever wrote for Scroll. I had family connections with Grand Targhee in Alta, Wyoming, so I was able to reach out to the marketing team and get inside information. I received a positive response to this piece, and it remains my most viewed (and personal favorite) article.

Trending article on the old Scroll website

Grand Targhee is a ski and snowboard resort located an hour east of BYU-Idaho in the small town of Alta, Wyoming. Known for its one-of-a-kind snow and views of the Tetons, Grand Targhee offers a small-town and affordable option to enjoy the mountains compared to the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Student passes were originally $370 during the annual April sale. The replacement of a young adult discount caused the prices to rise to $509 during the month of April, $609 from May 1 to Sept. 30 and $899 on Oct. 1, according to Grand Targhee’s website.

Nate Hollingshaus, a junior studying software engineering, was one of the many students from BYU-I affected by this change. To show student backlash toward the removal of the discount, he created an online petition.

“I just wanted to show Targhee how much business they would be missing out on if they didn’t reinstate this pass,” Hollingshaus said. “Maybe if Targhee saw how much this would affect the students and how upset people were, they would reconsider.”

Lack of communication was the most frustrating part of the change for BYU-I students, specifically for those who have been going to Targhee for years.

“Most of my friends and I that have always bought that pass and have been doing it for two to three years,” Hollingshaus said. “I felt like it was a little disrespectful to those kids. There should have been some sort of formal email to those that did have one of the student passes.”

Halle Jae, brand and advertising manager at Grand Targhee, gave clarity on why student passes were discontinued.

“We were having a ton of issues with pass fraud and identifying who was a student, what it meant to be a student and what was fair to everyone,” Jae said. “I feel like there was a lot of controversy along the lines of who falls in this demographic of being able to use this huge discount.”

But college students were not the only reason for this change. Targhee has tailored the young adult pass toward 19 to 22-year-olds in Teton Valley.

“I do think that the kids that are working hard to pay rent in the valley now have this discount available to them,” Jae said. “Now they can ski and ride without being a full-time student and still getting a discount.”

After relaying reasons for ending the student discount, Hollingshaus explained that if Grand Targhee had put a statement explaining these issues, he would have had a different perspective.

“I’ll be honest, that makes sense,” said Hollingshaus. “I would have created a very different petition if I was provided that information … To students, it looks like they were just casting us out.”

Now in May, the season pass sale has ended, and students have come to terms with the young adult price.

“I think at the end of the day, you’ve got to move on,” said Hollingshaus. “I realized I’m married — I got other expenses to pay, and I might not be able to buy a season pass this year. I do think it would be good to have this conversation with Targhee to explain why we were frustrated.”

Skylar Kauf, marketing manager at Grand Targhee, indicated understanding toward those who are affected by the cancellation of the student discount. Kauf explained that Grand Targhee’s intention was not to kick college kids off the slopes but to combat pass fraud and increase inclusivity amongst young adults, specifically those in the Teton Valley.

Only time will tell if BYU-I students will continue the trek to Alta, Wyoming, this winter.

View Nate Hollingshaus’s petition here.

The World at Our Fingertips

Isabelle JusticeLeave a comment

With the rise of new technology, there are the critics. The skeptics. The ones who believe that your iPhone will melt your brain. To what extent have smartphones influenced us? How has it changed our social development?

On the stage of Macworld in 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone as “an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator.” Soon after, tech companies surrendered to Apple’s grasp on the market because of their innovative ideas. According to TIME Magazine, the iPhone was a status symbol and the foundation of what a smartphone should accomplish. In 15 years, we’ve been able to see the effects of such a powerful device.

“While it offers many opportunities for positive and rewarding uses, there are also clear negatives to the smartphone,” wrote Heidi Hackford in her contribution to the Computer History Museum. “People can become addicted to constant connection and feel powerless and depressed without it.”

Since 2010, iPhone users trickled down from adults to children. Being the oldest of five siblings, I have seen the difference in childhood between each sibling. For example, my younger sister started looking more mature than I did when I was her age. The same has gone for my brothers.

Katie Webb, 21 years old and a full-time college student at Utah State University, understands this difference. She has also seen the first-wave effects of the iPhone and is part of the iGen, a group of children that knew a childhood without a smartphone and entered Junior High with one.

“The people I followed I wasn’t actually friends with I think that shows what I thought social media was even before high school,” said Webb. “You’re supposed to post things that show your identity. You’re supposed to make yourself seem desirable or presentable … for me, (social media) wasn’t something that I did for fun, it was something that I did because I felt I was supposed to.”

I remember this clearly in the mid-2010s. Social media was viewed as a portfolio of your life at the mercy of the internet. It was a game, a comparison, but that mindset has shifted in the last 5 years.

“It’s more just for the fun of it,” explained 14-year-old Esther Facer. “Some of my friends ask why I don’t post and it’s just like I don’t really care. I think it’s more about your personality than your age. Most of the personalities of our age group look at social media as a joke than serious like people your age did when they were younger.”

Why was my experience so different than hers? Zhaocai Jiang, a psychologist who led a study for BMC Psychiatry based on screen time, found that the adverse effects of screen time apply to everyone, but are amplified due to personality traits and self-control. He believes the more we give in screen time, our self-control is negatively impacted. And this is much worse for those with obsessive tendencies.

Technology is viewed as negative and addictive by a large portion of the media.

“There’s not a single exception,” said Jean M. Twenge in her editorial for The Atlantic. “All screen activities are linked to less happiness, and all non-screen activities are linked to more happiness.”

While this is proven to be true, Vicky Capua commented that perhaps it is a double-edged sword. Capua explained that technology is a powerful tool and its results are dependent on how you use it. Webb also felt we should put some of the responsibility on ourselves.

“It’s going to be better for the people who have a different mindset of how they look at social media and that’s what going to affect their children,” Webb explained.

Whether it’s the fault of big-tech incentives or self-discipline, a common parenting goal is to make our children’s generation a happier one, even with invasive social media.

“It’s time for us to consider another possible explanation for why our kids are increasingly disengaged,” said Alexandra Samual in her editorial for Jstor Daily. “It’s because we’ve disengaged ourselves; we’re too busy looking down at our screens to look up at our kids.”

I have studied the ramifications of screen time, started a conversation with others, and looked at my own habits. In doing so, I can better understand those who believe that “the iPhone will melt your brain,” as well as the argument that our outcome is dependent on us.

As I watch my siblings grow up, keep in contact with childhood friends, and set my own boundaries with technology, I understand that screen time will continue to evolve. The world will revolve around it. After all, innovation is one of humanity’s strengths.

Ultimately, we are social creatures and we need each other. Society can reach to understand the effects of screen time while creating a better world for the future generation. Although a predicament, smartphones are a powerful tool, and it’s up to us how we use it.