A more global university
Anyone who hasn’t noticed China’s growing importance on the global scale just hasn’t been paying attention. Thankfully, the UA has shown that it’s on track in training its students for global interaction. Henry Tsang spoke on Tuesday to students interested in studying in China through a new and innovative partnership between our university and the Yangtze International University. This collaborative program will work to improve both universities through facilitating cultural interchange – and it represents an understanding of just how necessary it is to maintain educational bonds with China. For its foresight and demonstration of competence, the UA’s partnership with Yangtze International University gets a pass.
Bid on this
Admit it: How many of you honestly knew there was an office where the UA stores old university property until it can be auctioned off weekly via live and electronic bidding? This fact is definitely not well known. In addition to providing a solid new piece of UA trivia for the Arizona Ambassadors to memorize, the program deserves praise for its good sense to dispose of unusable university property in a way that brings money back to the departments it came from. Perhaps even more impressive is the way that the Surplus Property Office has effectively integrated technology into its efforts with an online bidding site, a high-tech trend one can only hope other university entities will adopt. For showing students where to dig up some long-lost UA antiques, the Surplus Property Office receives a pass.
Harvard buckles to whiny professors
This week, Harvard University President Lawrence Summers was forced to resign as a result of political backlash to a speech last year in which he suggested women may not be as good as men when it comes to math and science. With the value of speech being so hotly debated lately, it is shameful that one of the nation’s premier universities has weighed in on the wrong side of the issue. Institutions of higher learning should be bastions of controversial thought – not enemies to those who hold unpopular views. For refusing to take Summers’ comments in stride and contextualize them as part of a larger debate, the professors who forced Summers out get a fail.
It’s safe to go greek again
The UA has certainly had its share of problems with hazing in the past. In recent years, several fraternities have lost university recognition for pushing their pledges too hard, sometimes even beyond legal limits. The role a university should play in policing the private behavior of its students remains an open debate, but there’s good news for everyone involved: According to the Dean of Students Office, hazing violations have markedly decreased of late. For apparently successfully teaching members the value of behaving like mature, responsible adults, greek organizations on campus receive a pass.
Opinions are determined by the Wildcat opinions board and written by one of its members. They are Nina Conrad, Lori Foley, Caitlin Hall, Michael Huston, Ryan Johnson, Aaron Mackey and Tim Runestad.
