Wildcats fail to tear up the golden bears
Wildcat football suffered a close and embarrassing loss last Saturday, losing to the University of California 24 to 16. Arizona is ranked fourth on the Pacific 10 Conference list of schools, higher than Berkeley, which is in sixth place. Wildcats who didn’t make the trip up to Northern California huddled around televisions at home and on University Boulevard, unsatisfied with the game’s results. There’s still hope for next week’s home game against Oregon, even though the Ducks currently dominate the Pac-10. And perhaps Arizona has a shot at winning the University of Southern California and Arizona State University football matches, especially since they’re ranked lower than Arizona at present. Here’s to a clean beginning this week and an even stronger ending if Arizona beats Oregon this Saturday.
CATwalk returns
Fraternity and Sorority Programs, members of the UA community and Tucsonans joined together on Saturday morning to participate in CATwalk, a popular annual fundraiser for women’s cancer research. All money raised goes to the Bobbi Olson Endowment at the Arizona Cancer Center. Events included everything from a non-competitive walk to a 10k run, so individuals of most physical skill levels could participate. As of Friday’s Wildcat report, 3,068 people registered for the walk. Because greeks were heavily in attendance, as always, CATwalk sends a positive message about Greek Life philanthropic involvement. Fundraisers like this remind the university community that Greek Life and students can get very excited about volunteering, especially with regards to cancer research.
Arizona Board of Regents president talks about financial state
On Friday, the Arizona Board of Regents President Ernest Calderón spoke on Arizona Illustrated about the financial issues facing the three Arizona state universities. When asked by the anchor if he’d call the financial state “”grim,”” Calderon responded, “”I’m an optimist. It’s a challenging situation, probably the worst budget situation we’ve seen since the Great Depression, but I don’t believe we should just give up or wallow in the negative. We have to marshal our resources and spend better than we’ve spent.””
In September, Calderon wrote a guest column in the Arizona Daily Star about intercollegiate athletics and how they serve the university as a whole. “”Critics often point to massive department budgets, escalating coaches’ salaries (the hiring of University of Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller has been the subject of great debate) and subpar academic performance of student-athletes as indications of a system in need of reform,”” Calderon wrote.
On Friday’s broadcast, Calderon alluded to his concerns with athletic spending. “”The public saw lay-offs at the university. Are we really reaping the benefits of athletics that we think we are?”” Will Calderón use his column and interview’s reasoning while planning what he should do about the financial state of Arizona’s public universities? Calderon’s recent interview and article lead Tucsonans and members of the UA community to wonder how the board will handle the current budget problems.
Editorials are determined by the opinions board. They include Shain Bergan, Alex Dalenberg, Laura Donovan, and Heather Price-Wright.
