Why lack of 9/11 coverage in Daily Wildcat?
When I picked up the Arizona Daily Wildcat for September 11, 2008 I wasn’t surprised to see that the only mention of the events that occurred seven years ago was a few lines in the “”Three Things to Know Today”” section. What surprised me was that when I looked through the entire paper the only other reference I could find to September 11, 2001 was on page four in the form of an opinion comic.

I thought I must have missed any real coverage of memorials that might be held today, so I looked at the Wildcat online and found the same results. Nothing. Really? I am sure there will be great coverage of all the flags that were displayed on campus today in the next edition but the fact that the Daily Wildcat couldn’t find any space to maybe say, “”We support the families of those affected,”” or provide pictures of prior events and memorials held on campus, is ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is the fact that there was yet another article that had something to do with Starbucks and more information on Paris Hilton than there was coverage of the events of 9/11.

Apparently, the Daily Wildcat has forgotten.

Rachelle Perry
education senior

Rec Center needs restructuring
Not all UA students know how to properly use the Rec Center’s weight room equipment and that leads to intimidated students, frustrating fitness progress and costly painful injuries.

I joined the Rec Center a few weeks ago and have enjoyed that decision so far. The weight rooms are adequately stocked with cardio equipment, dumbbells, free weights and machines. The weight room monitors are personable and the facility is clean. The only thing that I find lacking in the Rec Center is a commitment from the facility managers, to provide the students with free information about how to properly construct workout routines and how to safely utilize the equipment in the weight room. (Two services commonly provided at other Rec Centers.) When I asked the staff about this lack of instruction and demonstration, I was told my only two options were to hire a personal trainer at $40 an hour or to use the more common method, trial and error. The latter leads to dangerous injury and the minimum results achieved with it usually dissuade the average person from fully incorporating weights, machines and dumbbells into their exercise routine, and the former is justtoo expensive.

I suggest there is a third option. I propose the Rec Center creates a few universal exercise routines based on the equipment currently used in the Rec Center, and provides, free of charge, a dozen or so workouts, a couple handouts for upper and lower body stretches and a handout or two about the cardio equipment. There is even an unused display rack conveniently located at the entrance to the weight room just waiting to be filled.

Providing exercise and stretching routines can increase revenue for the school and decrease injuries and frustration for the students. This is a win-win for both the university and the Rec Center members.

Robert Harrold
family studies and human development junior

Students should demand more class sections, more faculty
Every year the UA is having to add more and more students, and is being forced to accommodate the increasing amount of high school graduates interested in attending college. The university receives a certain amount of money per new student, but not nearly enough to hire the needed faculty and build teaching centers to satisfy the growing student body. At the end of every semester, registration for the following year rolls around, and this is where you and I are directly affected.

I hate that by the time it’s my registration day all the classes are full. Not even the boring Western Civilization General Education classes are open. All gone. After a summer break of checking WebReg 10 times a day, the first day of class rolls around and I still need three more courses. But I’m not too worried because the courses I still need are required for my major, so how could my own department turn me away? Well, it’s the second day of school and I’m sick of being a fire hazard!

If we cannot get into our classes required for the degree, how will we ever graduate? Can the university really not provide large enough classrooms or offer more sections to equally serve the students? So I go to an adviser and she says, “”Check WebReg and keep talking to the professors. Sorry, that’s all I can tell you, the classes are full.”” Well I’m sick of WebReg and would really like to find an adviser who at least pretends to care!

In some departments the faculty-student ratio is 100-1. Outrageous. Most of these students never get to take a class taught by a faculty member during their undergraduate career; graduate students often teach the classes. We, the student body, need to demand more class sections, more faculty and bigger classrooms and learning facilities. With the rising tuition and book prices I can’t afford to spend the rest of my life waiting on WebReg!

Taiya Gehrels
speech, language and hearing sciences sophomore