ASU emergency should concern UA

I was disappointed to see a lack of coverage about the fire at Arizona State University’s Memorial Union. Granted, this is the student paper for the University of Arizona. However, many students from the U of A, including me, hail from the Phoenix metropolitan area. Many of us have friends up north at ASU. Therefore, it would of been nice to see at least a small article on the fire.

Granted, we have a long-standing rivalry against ASU. However, the safety issues that ASU faces are similar issues we face down here. While it is nice that our Student Union was renovated and expanded in 2001, we have many buildings that are older than the buildings at ASU. Given the fact we have a emergency text messaging system similar to ASU’s, there should be some concern to our system given the fact that ASU’s text messaging system didn’t inform students until after the worst of the fire was over.

-Jonathan Yeh
engineering sophomore

Students: Get involved in cultural events!

I was fairly surprised to see that (yesterday’s) paper did not mention anything about (Sunday’s) All Souls Procession. The All Souls Procession is a huge cultural event in Tucson. Then, I had to wonder, do people even know about it? Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the event: “”In many U.S. communities with migrants from Mexico, Day of the Dead celebrations are held, very similar to those held in Mexico. In some of these communities, such as in Texas and Arizona, the celebrations tend to be mostly traditional. For example, the All Souls’ Procession has been an annual Tucson rite since 1990. It was begun by artist Susan Kay Johnson as a way to process her feelings about her father’s death. She combined elements of traditional Dia de los Muertos celebrations with those of pagan harvest festivals. The first procession had 35 participants but the 2005 process had over 7,000. The parade progresses from Fourth Avenue to the downtown Tucson area, with people in masks, carrying signs honoring the dead and an urn in which people can put slips of paper with prayers on them to be burned.”” I went for the first time (Sunday) and thought it was very cool. But I also overheard a girl on campus calling the procession “”a bunch of freaks.”” I urge UA students and the Daily Wildcat to become more involved with Tucson’s cultural events and to not forget that we, too, are a part of this awesome city.

-Simrit Khalsa
environmental studies senior