Powers of 10
A new student group has set a lofty goal for campus contribution: It hopes to encourage UA students to spend at least 10,000 volunteer hours serving the local community. By finding 1,000 students to donate at least 10 hours each, organizers hope the drive will help in “”bridging the gap between the UA campus and the Tucson community.”” Best of all, if the goal is met, they’ll reward all the volunteers with a free concert. 10,000 hours is a great goal, but keep in mind that our campus population just hit a record 32,217. That would average to a measly 18 minutes of volunteer work for each student. There’s nothing wrong with giving back to the community, but the 10,000-hour project should be bigger by a magnitude of 10. Community service always deserves a pass, but the majority of apathetic students who ignore it warrant an Incomplete.
Football fellowships
Next month, ASUA will begin the selection process for a brand-new, cumbersomely named student award: the “”ASUA Zona Zoo Erin Hertzog Scholarship,”” designed to grant a $1,000 scholarship to three or more students who demonstrate themselves as committed fans of UA athletics. Rewarding die hard fans on campus is a good concept, but a scholarship like this shouldn’t be paid for by other Zona Zoo ticket holders. Here’s a really spirited idea: Put the money for the scholarships back into the Zona Zoo program and encourage more student fans to attend athletic events. UA students have enough financial aid problems already; they shouldn’t be paying to subsidize their super-spirited peers with ridiculous scholarship awards. For taking from fans, and giving to … other fans, this birdbrained bursary gets a Fail.
Shock awe
The Taser – the popular non-lethal stun gun that fires pointed barbs into its targets’ skin and jolts them with tens of thousands of volts of electricity – is taking university campuses by storm. UA students should be familiar with the nasty device: Just last week, two students were tasered at a football game – not an unusual occurrence, as student taserings have become as regular at many sporting events as the halftime show and seventh-inning stretch. But more and more often, university students are being tasered for infractions other than rude, drunk or rowdy fandom. Last year, police at UCLA zapped a student for refusing to present his ID while studying after hours in the library. A University of Florida student was dragged away and shocked on Monday after complaining that his microphone was cut off during a Q-and-A session with Sen. John Kerry. Both incidents were caught on camera phones and posted to YouTube, complete with audio of anguished screams and video of the writhing victims of stun-gun attack. Though some of the Tase-ee’s agonized reactions may be theatric, and in most cases, the police who do the Tasering are following established procedure, the new trend of Tasering students to keep them in line is deeply disturbing. The growing proclivity toward trigger-happy Tasering warrants a Fail.
Worth your wait
This fall, the UA political science department is set to present a series of public lectures meant to educate and inform voters about the election process. It may sound as ho-hum as the wrinkly old guy from the American Legion who droned to your high school civics class about the importance of voting, but the planned topics include some fascinating ones, including electronic voting, the changing role of the media in elections and the rise of early primaries. Part of the UA’s mission as a university is to educate the community at large. For performing that duty, UA’s Vote Smart lectures get a Pass.
Editorials are determined by the Wildcat opinions board and written by one of its members. They are Allison Hornick, Sarah Keeler, Connor Mendenhall, Jerry Simmons, Justyn Dillingham and Allison Dumka.
