Fill that stadium

There is no bigger Arizona fan than me, and I have friends who are all over the country who are proud to see the ‘Cats make it back to the national stage and get ranked again in The Associated Press polls for the first time in nine years.

But we’ve got to do something about that partially filled stadium on game day. I’m in Dallas, Texas, graduated in 1990, and I remember what it was like to be good. From 1975 to 2000, Arizona was always competitive, some good bowl wins tucked in there, tailgating was a big deal and no one had any questions about what they were doing on Saturday night.

I guess years of being mediocre have lowered the expectations as well as the priorities of most students. But living in Big 12 country is a real reminder about what being a fan is all about. Texas A&M is horrible, but still sells out every game ­— and their stadium holds 80,000.

UA needs to start spreading the word that there is only one place in town to be on Saturday nights when there’s a home game. We’ve got a big home game against Oregon coming up people.

For those thousands and thousands of national alumni like me, who scratch and claw to pick up any televised game we can — it would be nice to see the local fans work a little harder to make us look good.

Fill that stadium. The players and coaches have earned that respect. Reward them, and make some noise. That Oregon game is going to be huge. If you spread the word now, that stadium should be shaking come kickoff time!!

Jeff Johnson

Mailbag opinions are too esoteric

The Mailbag opinions recently have become entirely too esoteric. Like that one last week that was talking about that article from, like, a week and a half ago. Seriously, how am I supposed to know that thing that guy was talking about? Sure, I got the gist of it, especially at the beginning where he was talking about that one thing. But once I got to the second paragraph, it’s like I needed a freaking “”Works Cited”” page to understand any of it at all.

How else am I supposed to know what he’s talking about? Especially that part right near the end where he went completely off subject. It’s just like that opinion article about that one university-related thing — you know, it was printed maybe two, two and a half weeks ago? You’d know it if you saw it. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. All I’m trying to say is that guy was a total hack.

David Neff

Media arts junior

Engineering: so easy, a caveman can do it?

So engineers are stupid? That was the implication I got from a quote in the gender and woman’s studies article on Friday.

In the article, a student in gender and women’s studies was quoted as saying, “”I had studied mechanical engineering, geological engineering … I wanted to ask bigger questions … rather than just design the next new BlackBerry or iPhone.”” Is this student implying that engineers don’t ask big questions or that BlackBerry’s and iPhone’s aren’t as relevant as “”tools for analyzing the large-scale implications of our actions?””

Because this student left engineering and went to gender and women’s studies to ask “”big questions,”” does that mean that engineers ask “”small questions?””

Now what could that mean? I especially liked the quote, “”Despite doing very well in all my courses, the material did little to challenge my perception of the world.”” So what? Engineering wasn’t challenging enough, that’s why he went to gender and women’s studies?

What was the point of including those quotes in the article and why was he the only student in the department interviewed in the article? For all I know all gender and women’s studies majors think that engineers are simple-minded people who ask “”small questions.”” I have no idea if this opinion is just his or if everyone in the department shares it. Surely not all gender and women’s studies majors think this.

If I was a gender and women’s studies major I would feel misrepresented. Additionally, as an engineering major I too feel misrepresented. To say that we just design BlackBerrys or iPhones is ludicrous.

Engineers make our world. We design buildings to shelter us, medical devices to save our lives, cars, boats and trains to transport ourselves and our goods and we do even more. With everything that is designed, there are many trade offs to be analyzed and decided on and design decisions to be made, decisions that could have wide ranging consequences depending on the application. Therefore there are large-scale implications and big questions in engineering to, not just in gender and women’s studies.

W.A. Garrett Weaver

Computer engineering junior