A note from Mr. President

Today marks the last day of my presidency but, more importantly, the first for newly-inaugurated student body president Emily Fritze. This is a bittersweet moment in my life as I leave office, but I will carry with me fond memories of this year. It has been the highest honor and a profound privilege serving as your student leader, and I want to thank all of my peers for allowing me this opportunity. I have had an amazing time and am so grateful for all of the extraordinary experiences.

ASUA had a successful year, and I am proud to say we have accomplished many things on behalf of students. While we have enjoyed a productive year, I will be the first to admit that ASUA and I are in no way perfect. We have our flaws and strengths like any other organization. However, it is my hope that the university community believes us to have dedicated ourselves to the work of improving both the student experience and student life on campus. Our passion is rewarded if even one student has been directly or indirectly benefited from our impact.

I want to thank all students for their pursuits in higher education, commitment to their college careers and the overall advancement of our university. It is you we strive to represent and have the responsibility of doing so. Please continue to be engaged and keep your elected student leaders accountable to you.

In closing, I’d like to express my appreciation for the students, the university and my colleagues for this year. Congratulations to President Emily Fritze. She will be a committed student advocate and true Wildcat for life.

This university and its students will be in great hands under her leadership next year.

— Christopher Nagata

President, ASUA, 2009-10

Gunning for rights

Thirty-three students and teachers died at Virginia Tech in 2007 for no reason.

We all remember hearing the story of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the massacre that occurred there, all because an armed man decided to commit an act of violence and went unhindered. The same process happened here at the University of Arizona in 2002, when an angry student killed three professors before he could be stopped by police.

These events occurred due to both schools’ policy of a “”weapon-free campus.””

Signs posted on every door here at the U of A remind students that our campus is a “”weapon-free zone,”” where weapons simply are not allowed. This is an extremely effective way of letting all know that every law-abiding citizen on our campus is walking around unarmed and defenseless.

However, recently, a bill passed that would allow teachers to carry a concealed firearm on campus, provided that they had the proper certifications. When ASUA Senator Tyler Quillin threw a fit about this, many students who care about their safety on campus objected to Quillion’s idea that

U of A should be excluded from this bill.

Now that the Arizona Legislature has said that Arizona citizens do not need a permit to carry their firearms concealed, the law changes for the U of A this coming September.

Now, whether or not the ASUA Senate likes it, all students and teachers over the age of 21 will be able to carry firearms on campus concealed. This does not change much, however, because the weapons will be concealed, therefore out of sight. Nobody will be able to know my peers, my teacher or I are choosing to exercise our Second Amendment right.

Many people are under the opinion that this will turn Arizona and its institutions into a free fire zone, much like the Wild West, but we forget that three states already have the same liberties, and they also have less crime than Arizona. I don’t think many people thinking of shooting up a classroom would enter it knowing that any and all of its occupants could be packing heat, and this is the way it should be.

People should be given the right to exercise whatever self-preservation rights they so choose, and if I sound like a crazed redneck, clinging to my gun, I don’t much care.

— Brandon Knox

Political science undergraduate

Not on the dollar menu

In your piece, I totally agree on your stand, and teaching has become a significant problem in Arizona for whatever reason. I have lived with a teacher for my entire life, aka mom. This also happens to be the worst teacher, but, in any case, my mother has gone from country to country and has told me that the main problem in the scientific world is the ability to communicate with others and tell them how to do specific tasks. I once tried to apply to Embry-Riddle University, and one of the things that they told me was that they don’t even look at the reading and writing scores for the ACTs or SATs, which goes to show the level of importance of communication with others not only by spoken words but written as well. I, for one, would like a teacher to perform his or her job successfully — otherwise I have just paid for a class that didn’t teach me anything, and, with budget cuts and the prices rising for tuition, it isn’t fair to me to have to spend more and more money on an institution that doesn’t provide me with the specific training that I need as a student. It is no doubt significant that the University hires someone who knows what he or she is doing and knows that particular subject and has been trained in but also that they have the skills to pass on their knowledge effectively. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that I pay for this service and training, and I pay a lot of money because I’d like to live a better life and have a family and live comfortably, but I can’t have that if I dont have the training necessary. So in conclusion, I agree, I would rather not pay $100 for a Big Mac.

— Caleb Eary

Quite articulate

The story on Kevin Wos is very inspiring to me. My best friend’s younger sister is suspected of having Asperger’s Syndrome. Having spent much of last summer with that family, it was hard to see how difficult it is to interact with her. She has not quite developed social skills and acts a few years younger than she is. Her family worries about what her social life will be like when she gets to the age to go away from home. This article shows an example of a student who has thrived in his later teens and overcome many of the social obstacles he faced. I am glad that I read that article because, now, I can look forward to my friend’s sister’s growth as she gets older.

— Elia Jones

Undergraduate majoring in French

Brother judgemental

As a student at the University of Arizona, I live in a residence where there are two types of people: those who study and those who don’t. But there are hundreds of different types of religions, and every one of the 30,000 students at the University has a religion that is personal to that individual. Whether they are Jewish or Christian or Muslim it is their choice and their right as a citizen of the United States to be able to exercise these beliefs. Thanks to the Founding Fathers of our great country, we have a list of civil rights that are promised to us. These rights protect everyone from persecution.

But still I suffer persecution. Verbal stones cast upon my name and my character. As a child, I experienced persecution in a private Christian school, and now I experience it on the campus of a public university. I was told that my soul would be eternally damned to hell for my beliefs, or lack thereof. At the University of Arizona, near the Student Union Memorial Center, I am told, along with my peers, that because of our differential belief system that contrasts to that of our “”Brother”” Jedd, we all are going to hell.

These words, “”You are going to hell!”” can burn at you as if you were already there. No one can prove that you are actually going to a hell, so why are they allowed to say it? They’re not. In a case of slander that predates the American Revolution, a man by the name of John Peter Zenger proved that if a statement is not slanderous, it must be the absolute truth without any sign of falsehood.

Telling someone that he or she is going to hell is not absolutely true, and to prove it as such would be impossible.

The damage that slander causes is determined, not by the person who has made the comments, but by the person who feels victimized by the words.

It is the fact that I am hurt by these words that makes it slander. No one should be allowed to have the power to judge those they do not know. Get these judgmental people off my campus and off my country’s promised freedom.

— Thomas Randall

Business undergraduate