On ‘Do you really want a killer tan?’ April 5

And getting a tan out of bottle introduces all sort of nasty chemicals into your body that don’t belong there … as opposed to UV, which the human body needs, to some extent …

— Squeek

On ‘To Catch a Cheater: Eller’s GoodCat Hotline utilized,’ April 5

Hey Mike Natale — wake up call from someone in the business community. These cheaters are competing against YOU for jobs, grad school, etc. When you ignore this stuff, it hurts you and ultimately hurts the reputation of your school when we find out people who looked good on paper aren’t really prepared. Get your head out of the sand, and don’t let these people take your job offers.

— Anonymous

On ‘GPSC reveals election results,’ April 5

Looks like some of my quotes were edited here, but I think that Alison Betts is an excellent, incredibly competent counterpart, and I am thrilled to have the chance to work with her again. I am also pleased that Sutton and Crescioni will remain on the council. Crescioni’s expertise in public health should prove very helpful in upcoming healthcare talks. In addition to the graduate center, my vision is for the University to move toward empirically-supported teaching methods, with frequent, cumulative electronic tests. This format will naturally reduce TA workload, reduce time to degree, and has been shown in the laboratory to increase classroom performance anywhere from 13-25 percent. I believe we have the capability to make sweeping, positive changes this year in spite of incredible financial stress, and I am eager to get started.

— Connaly

Congrats to Em and Alison! They will move the council forward in a time of great challenges. I also hope more grad students step up to fill vacancies! As a former exec and current post-doctoral, I know that GPSC can fit in to a busy grad student schedule — and, yes — you can still graduate. 🙂

— BB

On ‘Threats limit creativity,’ April 2

It seems that UA has placed itself out of serious consideration for a young writer to attend. I find it interesting that this school paper also has a perhaps worse threat to comment writers: that they should self-censor or be “”banned.””  The fact that UA, which, by the way, is not particularly known in this world for its literary excellence, has determined that it knows how to judge the difference difference between “”what has no socially redeeming value”” and the works of George Orwell, Marquis D’Sade, Thomas Paine or George Bush, just to name a few writers, reason being perhaps one can assume, because we have entered an age of “”terrorism””, makes it a place where talented writers with much to say, will decide, “”I just don’t want to even go there!””

— Anonymous

Contacting police about a work of fiction is not censorship, it’s oppression.

— Anonymous

It is unclear to me whether this is an and/or ban. Are they saying students cannot write sexually graphic or violent novels that simultaneously reference others in the class? I think that would be reasonable. That’s a case in which the right to free speech would infringe on the rights of other students to have a healthy learning environment. If the issue is writing anything violent or sexual, regardless of who it references, or referencing anyone in class, regardless of content — that would be overly restrictive.

— Anonymous