We can all rejoice at the news that the UA has stumbled out of the technological dark ages it’s been mired in while our peer institutions implemented on-campus wireless networks. With the UA’s own wireless network up and running Monday, Wildcats will be able to check e-mail on the UA Mall, blog in the Student Union Memorial Center and Facebook stalk on every floor of the Main Library. The rest of the system should be up and running by the end of October. We’re grateful to our tireless Associated Students of the University of Arizona senators for keeping the issue in the public eye, and for the Center for Computing and Information Technology’s implementation. For bringing us into a tech renaissance, these crusaders get a pass.
There are more than 37,000 students and 14,403 employees at the UA. In contrast, there are only 9,882 parking spots spread throughout the seven garages and Zone 1 lots on campus. Of course, parking spots are sparse and it’s inevitable some people may have to wait, but a waiting list of more than 2,000 students suggests that the situation has gotten out of control. As the UA grows as an institution, planning must take into account that growth means more people, which means that our facilities have to expand as well. President Robert Shelton says plans are in the works for building new parking lots and garages, so let’s hope he helps out the people at Parking and Transportation Services. Until the waiting list is out of quadruple digits, however, campus parking gets an incomplete.
It’s not often that we find ourselves thanking the police for issuing tickets, but we’ve got to applaud the University of Arizona Police Department for the well-planned handling of Labor Day weekend’s events. Over the long weekend, the police department deployed extra staff on both the DUI patrol and “”party patrol”” and set up checkpoints around the UA area to combat incapacitated students leaving the UA football game, fraternity Bid Night and Labor Day festivities. With an alcohol-related death occurring roughly every 20 minutes in America and the UAPD stopping more than 60 impaired students this weekend, it doesn’t take a mathematician to suggest that lives may have been saved. For reminding us that safety on campus and the surrounding community is a primary concern, the UAPD DUI and party patrols get a resounding pass.
Users of the popular social networking site Facebook.com logged in on Tuesday to notice something gone horribly wrong. Instead of the normal birthday reminders, message list and group invitations, users were greeted with a rolling “”news feed”” of seemingly every little detail about every friend. It has always been possible to be an amateur stalker on Facebook, and the company has now made it easier than ever. In light of a flood of user protests, Facebook representatives have promised changes, despite having told the Wall Street Journal that the “”news feed”” and “”mini-feed”” are here to stay. Hopefully, Facebook will regain some of the privacy that made it popular in the first place. But for freaking out thousands of its users this week, the service gets a fail.
