Zona Zoo ‘spam’ esponsible for ticket sales

We would like to apologize for the mass amounts of e-mail that were sent to the Zona Zoo listserv. Some would say that we were abusing our right and spamming the listserv, but it was for an important reason. The student section that took years of fighting to bring to a reality is in serious jeopardy of being reduced or, even worse, completely disbanded.

The new ticket policy, requiring you to register your Zona Zoo pass and then to register online before even purchasing a ticket, was poorly introduced. We are taking full responsibility for that. As your Zona Zoo Crew, we are supposed to do the best job we can of informing you of these new policies, and we admit that we could have done a much better job.

Realizing the situation, we chose to take a risk to ensure that every student was informed of this policy through mass messaging, knowing full well that numerous students would become irritated.

Since we began sending out the e-mails, we incurred the largest volume of phone calls regarding ticketing policies ever. Before we developed our blitz marketing strategy, the number of Zona Zoo tickets sold was abysmal. Our student section did not accurately reflect the talent of our basketball team and program. Before this week, the average Zona Zoo attendance was 443 students out of a possible 2,371, and only one-half of the Zona Zoo had registered their passes.

In addition to getting more students to register their Zona Zoo passes, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill game sold out in five hours. As of yesterday afternoon, there were no tickets available for the ASU game. Obviously, although our tactics may have been aggressive, we seemed to have hit the right note with students.

Monday’s record-setting ticket sales demonstrated that you, the students, do in fact care about the future of this program. If we continue to sell out and thus fill up the student section, you might just be saving the future of Zona Zoo. Bring the energy, bear down and wear red.

Michael Biegelman, Nick Sproul and David Roost Zona Zoo Crew, Associated Students of the University of Arizona

Hey, people, it’s just snow

Excused absences. Classes cancelled. You would think, stepping outside Monday morning, one would encounter mountains of snow, massive power outages and jack-knifed semis rather than the 2 inches that coated Tucson. Yeah, the paradox of snow glazing a saguaro cactus is neat, but the “”snow-gasm”” that the UA seemed to have en masse was a little excessive.

A good portion of students opted to sleep in, and multiple instructors decided to cancel classes rather than put on mittens and “”brave the elements”” (that’s our tuition at work!). Unfortunately, the staff at the Student Union Memorial Center was quick enough to rope off the frozen staircases, so we weren’t able to witness natural selection in action.

As if the UA’s collective overreaction wasn’t enough, anyone who made the mistake of turning their TV to a local station (myself included) was greeted by anchors tossing around headlines like “”Bitter blast”” and weathermen peeing their pants in excitement.

The hysteria seemed to trickle down to the public, where Tucson Unified School District stopped bus service and SunTran scrubbed half their routes. Hey, people, it’s just snow. Make a snowman, throw a snowball, maybe even a snow/dirt angel; then get back to your lives.

Andrew Austin
media arts senior

Basketball ticket blitz a ‘fiasco’

After this morning’s fiasco with purchasing tickets for two highly awaited games (ASU and UNC), I have decided it is not our loyal fan base that should be faulted for not filling the student section at games, but the completely inept and worthless job Zona Zoo and the athletics ticket department have done selling these tickets.

After an advertising blitz that borderlined as harassment, the university’s servers were not up to the challenges of selling an anxious, loyal and excited student body their tickets. Fifty-seven minutes, two sets of UNC tickets, two sets of ASU tickets and multiple other server crashes leaves this fan wondering what exactly we are waking up early for.

Zona Zoo has chosen to sell tickets the way Stalin sold bread in Communist Russia: No rhyme, no reason, and long lines. Well, UA fans are not taking it sitting down; we want our people’s revolution and quality servers! Alas, just as this young Wildcat fan’s hope was dwindling, the server comes through with two tickets: one to ASU, one to UNC at 7:08 a.m. Go ‘Cats!

Joshua Offenhartz
pre-business sophomore

LGBT community needs bolstered UA support

I just want to echo the sentiments that Sam Feldman has expressed regarding the need for an LGBT center on campus (“”LGBT center necessary, not too costly””). Not only is it a positive step for the gay community, but it is a necessity for the school in general.

While Pride Alliance has been an amazing program for the student body, it unfortunately no longer has the resources to adequately serve the LGBT community in all aspects. While I have tremendous respect for some of the people who run it, like Sam, I am annoyed that they focus on the extremes of the gay community and not on the general populace.

Frankly, it is damaging when stereotypes are promoted. Call me crazy, but last time I checked drag queens and transgendered individuals were two separate things. Drag queens are people who dress as the opposite sex for laughs and for show as well as money. Transgendered people are individuals who live as the opposite sex because it is who they are on the inside.

Frankly, I think it is insulting that we give so much attention to drag queens when they have nothing to do with transgenderism. By doing that, you are equating the two and demeaning transgendered people as promiscuous pole dancers who like to act foolish and put on public shows.

Students may have negative opinions about the LGBT center now. However, I feel that this is simply because they do not know all the facts yet. I also believe that opposition to it is not out of homophobia or even “”homonausea,”” but rather a misunderstanding of the needs of the LGBT community at large.

When this center becomes a reality (and it will), I believe the overwhelming supermajority of students will be glad that it is there and will support its continued existence. Let’s not forget that Tucson and this university have had a long history of tolerance toward the gay community.

I ask all students – gay, straight, male and female – to take a second look at what is being done here and understand that in the long run, when you lift up those who are constantly at the bottom of the barrel, you lift yourself up as well.

Joel Shooster
political science junior

UA Mall no place for abortion photos

Yesterday I grabbed a slice of pizza from the Student Union Memorial Center, and as I walked out, I noticed a sign that read, “”Warning: Graphic images ahead.”” Curious, I tilted my head up slightly to see a most disturbingsight: Numerous photos, small and large, of decapitated fetuses and limbs from abortions. One poster was, by my estimation, about 20 feet high.

As my slice of pizza began creeping back up, I realized I wasn’t disturbed as much by the photos themselves than I was with the people who would allow such photos to be put up, in a high traffic area such as the UA Mall, no less.

I really hope someone in the administration who allowed these photos to be put up has been disciplined or at the very least talked to, so that no student will ever again have to witness such a sight. Maybe the photos should be taken a more appropriate place to protest – like, say, an abortion clinic!

I have trouble understanding why someone would want to subject students to this, for whatever noble cause they think they are speaking for. Furthermore, anyone who needs to put up grotesque photos in order to prove a point probably doesn’t have a good point to begin with.

I realize this is a political issue, but I am neither conservative nor liberal and my political standpoint has nothing to do with my outrage toward these photos. I am, however, a human being and do not wish to view pictures of bloody babies on my way to class or while I am eating.

Tim McDermott
pre-business freshman

For everything else, there’s Macintosh

In response to Alex Hoogasian’s letter, “”Macs ‘useless’ to most computer users,”” I couldn’t disagree more. If we’re talking about average consumers here, Microsoft Office is probably the most popular tool from Microsoft. Office is and always has been available for the Macintosh. Enough said.

Also, if you buy a Mac and still want to use Windows-only applications, pick up a copy of Parallels, which will let you run Windows applications right on top of OS X. You can even partition a part of your hard drive so that you can directly boot up in Windows.

The idea that gaming has become the primary use of computers is ridiculous. What about music, movies, photography, writing, IM, programming, e-mail or just plain surfing the web? Not to mention the uses in business, science and education markets.

If Microsoft products are really the “”best computer experience for the greatest number of users,”” then why is it that a majority of new features in Windows Vista are already present in Mac OS X? It is not likely that people purchase a Mac only for games, but they do purchase it to use a stable and robust operating system for productivity or whatever else they enjoy.

One thing that is for sure: “”most computer users”” are not deciding between Windows or Mac OS X because they are worried about the performance of “”Doom 3.”” If you are game-intensive, buy a console. For everything else, I recommend a Mac.

Jessica Thrasher
computer science senior