Repping the Rural

The state Legislature’s recent passage of a bill requiring that two members of the Arizona Board of Regents come from rural counties represents a new and positive focus on the “”other Arizona.”” the needs of Arizona’s rural communities are often overshadowed by the mammoth concerns of Maricopa and Pima counties. This trend has also been reflected in the makeup of the board of regents, the governing body of Arizona’s university system, which currently has no member from a rural area. This lack of rural voice is unfortunate, especially given that NAU, as well as UA’s satellite programs in Sierra Vista and Douglas are all located in rural counties. Though the new plan isn’t perfect – its stipulation mandating the selection of new nonvoting members evenly between political parties is contrived at best and constraining at worst – the commitment it represents in making sure all of Arizona is spoken for by the board of regents gets a pass.

Mind the gap

This week’s big data story was that the UA greek community has a lower average GPA than the rest of the campus. However, another disappointing fact culled from the same survey of student grade point averages was that, on average, the men on this campus have GPAs about .25 lower than those of their female counterparts. Yikes. The UA has always been a bastion of female academic excellence – going way back to the university’s first graduating class, comprised of two women and one man. But just because the women are excelling doesn’t mean the men shouldn’t be as well. It’s doubtful that the males on campus are just less able than the females -ÿso, what gives? Whatever the reason for this data discrepancy, it’s time for the average guy on campus to step up. Until the statistics show that happening, this gender gap gets a fail.

The incredible unsellable egg

Bad news for women: A bill that passed the Arizona House of Representatives this week would make the sale of human eggs a felony in the state. Egg “”donation”” is necessary for in-vitro fertilization when a would-be mother is unable to produce viable eggs of her own. With a persistent shortage of adoptable babies in the state, the bill will make it even more difficult for infertile women to become mothers. Sadly, it’s not the commodification of genetic material that worries lawmakers, but rather the fact that women are making money from selling their eggs – supposedly because women, under financial duress, lack the ability to make rational choices. Apparently, the same doesn’t go for poor men – they’ll still be free to be “”exploited”” by sperm donation. For taking an important decision out of the hands of women and their doctors, but leaving it in the hands of men, the state Legislature gets a fail.

Back on the ballot

After last week’s disqualification of executive vice presidential candidate Rhonda Tubbs in the student government primary, the plurality of students who voted her on must surely have believed a strong candidate for the job was sidelined by a technicality.

Elections violations are serious, and complaints against any candidate should be examined on their merits. However, the code that governs Associated Students of the University of Arizona elections is written tighter than any concocted by Hammurabi.

It appeared likely that arcane protocol would remove Tubbs, currently an ASUA senator. But the ASUA supreme court showed that justice isn’t found in technicalities.

In overturning the decision to disqualify Tubbs, the supreme court proved that the ultimate process safeguarding student elections is just. For judicial oversight that pays attention to the bigger picture, the ASUA supreme court gets 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.