June 25th, 2009
By DailyWildcat on June 25th, 2009
By Steven Kwan
According to several news reports, Michael Jackson, hailed as the King of Pop by his fans around the world, died today at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He died due to a reported cardiac arrest.
Club Congress will be holding a tribute set in honor of the singer tonight at midnight.
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June 19th, 2009
By DailyWildcat on June 19th, 2009
From the Arizona Board of Regents meeting in Flagstaff:
To conclude the meeting, President-Elect of the Regents Ernest Calderon conducted an overview of the 2008-2009 academic year and outlined a plan of attack for the issues he hopes to address during the 2009-2010 academic year.
His call to action centered on reforming the Arizona school system architecture, increasing the access to higher education for Arizona residents and inspiring and motivating students.
Calderon expressed his support for a partnership between high schools, community colleges and universities that will funnel students down specific paths of study at reduced costs. He encouraged the presidents of the universities to view the public as consumers of education and to identify what they want out of a system of higher education.
Calderon stressed that utilizing university resources to their fullest extent is of paramount importance.
Rather than constructing new facilities, Calderon suggested that universities should establish prerequisites for the construction of new classroom space.
“Unless we show the public that we are better stewards of their resources, their confidence is going to continue to erode.”
The president-elect next addressed the issue of intercollegiate athletics, athletes’ success in the community and the accountability of coaching staff. He said that unless high profile, high paid coaches provide a valuable contribution on and off the court, then salaries may need to be reevaluated.
Calderon concluded his plan of attack by addressing opportunities for centralization and growth of the university system’s resources.
He stressed the importance of establishing a database that tracks the success of students and outlined a plan to make the Arizona system a key provider of education to returning military personnel and other non-traditional students by 2012.
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June 19th, 2009
By DailyWildcat on June 19th, 2009
From the Arizona Board of Regents meeting in Flagstaff:
The three state public universities presented information on their current research performance and outlined the metrics by which research universities are judged late Friday morning.
The UA’s Dr. Leslie Tolbert gave a brief presentation on the current focus of the university’s research goals, as well as the main benefactors that provide the money to maintain and hopefully expand our research potential.
The UA is currently the leading research university in the Southwest, the fifteenth overall for public universities in overall research and the first in the nation for space sciences, Tolbert told the Regents.
The UA expects to receive approximately $118 million in stimulus funding from the government for this fiscal year.
Tolbert explained, “Our research philosophy is that every investigator/researcher is an entrepreneur… with our main focus in environmental sustainability and policy and space and biosciences.”
The university will have applied for approximately $280 million in grants from the government and private investors by the end of the month.
The Council of Regents made the point that while the research that is currently going on at all three state universities is revolutionary in nature, the federal government does not see university research as a priority for stimulus dollars in our current economy.
Regent Robert Bulla stressed that all three universities need to come up with a way to communicate the gravity of the university system’s research to the public.
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June 18th, 2009
By DailyWildcat on June 18th, 2009
The Arizona Board of Regents approved UA Men’s Head Basketball Coach Sean Miller’s seven-year contract at their meeting in Flagstaff on Thursday. The contract was originally approved as a five-year deal, with a clause adding two years to the contract after Miller’s first two years as coach, barring any reason for termination.
Miller will receive a $900,000 base salary, along with the use of a private jet and other incentives.
The contract was approved after several brief questions from the Board in regards to what non-athletic benefits can be derived from signing someone of Miller’s stature.
UA President Robert Shelton responded by pointing out the challenges that intercollegiate athletes face on and off the court and his great faith in Miller’s ability to be a positive influence on student athletes.
“We believe that Miller is a stellar individual, and has a great record of graduating his players,” Shelton said.
If Miller finishes out his contract, he will net an extra $1 million. If the coach leaves early, though, he will be forced to pay the UA $500,000.Incentives included $50,000 for winning a conference championship in the regular season or Pacific 10 Conference Tournament, as well as $300,000 if Miller’s Wildcats make it to the final four. A national championship would give the head coach $675,000.
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June 18th, 2009
By DailyWildcat on June 18th, 2009
From the Arizona Board of Regents meeting in Flagstaff:
The Board finalized a decision to raise the qualifications for resident transfer students from community college into state four-year universities.
Analysis of the success of Arizona transfer students implies that the policy of assured admittance for students who have obtained 24 credits and at least a 2.0 GPA is insufficient, the Regents said.
The proposed policy change limits assured admission to transfer students who either complete the Arizona General Education Curriculum and have a 2.5 cumulative GPA or an associate degree and have a 2.0 GPA.
The Board stressed that the primary objective of this change is to establish higher standards for transfer students and will also improve the success rate of transfer students enrolled in the universities.
“Some people might think that this change is being elitist, however it is preparing transfer students for the reality of university education,” said Student Regent David Martinez
The changes will go into effect in Fall 2010.
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June 18th, 2009
By DailyWildcat on June 18th, 2009
From the Arizona Board of Regents meeting in Flagstaff:
New branch universities that offer students accredited degrees from an Arizona state school at reduced cost are already underway.
Yavapai Community College is currently planning on offering bachelor degree programs in cooperation with Northern Arizona University this coming fall. Yavapai will not be a replication of NAU, but will rather consist of programs that meet the needs of the work force.
A traditional four-year education at NAU Flagstaff costs approximately $12,684 to complete a four-year degree. Yavapai Community College will be offering an accredited NAU degree for about $4,820, and students can complete their degree according to their own pace.
Both the Arizona Board of Regents, as well as the Yavapai College Board, will determine administrative decisions for the new institution. The Regents view the example of Yavapai as a possible precedent for future branch programs for the Arizona State University System.
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June 18th, 2009
By DailyWildcat on June 18th, 2009
From the Arizona Board of Regents meeting in Flagstaff:
Serious budget problems, coupled with Arizona’s standing among the nation’s worst in providing bachelor’s degrees to its high school graduates, were the key concerns behind a plan for a revised Arizona University system.
Rather than creating entirely new four-year institutions of learning, the Arizona Board of Reagents, along with the presidents of NAU, ASU and the UA, proposed utilizing existing resources in the form of various community colleges that could be developed into four-year degree program institutions.
“Our goal is to produce high quality, extremely relevant degrees at lower costs that are relevant to the communities in which students will be studying,” said President Robert Shelton.
The plan calls for a 37 percent increase in enrollment by the year 2020. Ten thousand of these new students will come from community colleges that are restructured into branch universities, primarily in southern Arizona, where the UA has close ties with regional community colleges.
The plan calls for 1,700 bachelor degrees to be issued off-campus annually compared to only 800 new degrees issued per year at the UA main campus.
The Council of Presidents emphasized that these new four-year degree programs would draw primarily from community college graduates who do not go on to seek a bachelor’s degree.
With only 1,500 out of 9,500 annual community college graduates pursuing a bachelor’s degree, the Council of Presidents and Board of Reagents hope to increase this number drastically by creating programs that cater to industry and development in particular regions of the state.
“Regional communities have to see the value of a degree in a real way,” Shelton said.
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April 30th, 2009
By DailyWildcat on April 30th, 2009
If you’ve seen an unusual number of grasshoppers around town recently, don’t worry: Tucson isn’t being visited by a biblical plague.
Pallid-wing grasshoppers often migrate in large groups to look for food, said Elizabeth Bernays, retired professor of entomology.
“As the food dries up they migrate looking for new pastures, often making use of weather fronts to move quite long distances, and often ending up in odd places, such as the middle of cities,” Bernays said in an email.
An April 22 story in the Tucson Citizen reported that at 1 a.m. that morning a swarm of hundreds of grasshoppers landed outside the Chicago Bar on East Speedway and later touched down near East 22nd Street and Kolb Road.
“It is a very common grasshopper species at any time but occasionally, after good rains, they build up in numbers and form rather dense populations,” Bernays said. “They are desert grassland grasshoppers and they like open areas, so one will find them landing in big parking lots and other places like that.”
Although the large swarms of grasshoppers may appear terrifying, they are completely harmless, she said.
“Many people just don’t like things flying around them and when numbers are high they get a bit frantic,” she said. “This is especially true when people don’t know they are harmless.” -Tim McDonnell
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April 30th, 2009
By DailyWildcat on April 30th, 2009
When all the lights in the stadium had been turned back on and spectators began filing for the exits, the media personnel gathered up their equipment in the “press pit,” all wondering how many tickets ASUA had actually managed to sell for the concert and how many people had shown up.
In the end, estimates ranged from 8,000 to 13,000, so obviously some of us have not yet mastered the art of counting. I went with 12,000, and I’m really hoping I win the pool.
All in all, Jay-Z played a little over a half-hour set—much of which was spent by the artist either stopping the music to talk to the audience or tossing out random shout-outs to “homeboy in the gray shirt! Wait, is that gray? Turquoise!”
That being said, the crowd ate it up and gave Jay-Z a strong standing ovation following his goodbye.
After unsuccessfully trying to track down ASUA officials for some answers (finally), I realized I still needed another quote or two for the next day’s story. Running out of one of the tunnels, I grabbed the only two kids I saw. “Are you guys UA students?” I asked. Turns out they were high school freshmen. I need a new job.
-Shain Bergan
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April 30th, 2009
By DailyWildcat on April 30th, 2009
Now that Jay-Z is a few songs into his set, there seem to be about 13,000 people who have filled out the West side of Arizona Stadium, several thousand more than were here during the other acts.
Crowd members are now raising their arms in unison. There is clearly an attitude and excitement that has swept over the crowd that wasn’t there with Kelly Clarkson and Third Eye Blind.
Jay-Z just stopped the music to ask the crowd to cheer for Third Eye Blind and Kelly Clarkson.
-Shain Bergan
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