Honors College celebrates students’ success

Samuel Feldman is right to say, in his Tuesday opinion column about the Honors College, that “”we have smart kids too.”” The UA does have high-ability students – many of them. This fall, for example, the Honors College enrolled 1,086 new freshmen and transfer students. It’s very important to correct the notion that these students were admitted to the Honors College “”by not doing anything””; they were selected because their academic achievements set them apart. We should celebrate and acknowledge the accomplishments of these students. Moreover, those 1,086 students join a large number of other talented students, making the total number of students enrolled in the Honors College a robust 3,875 – not an elite group, but certainly a community of scholars who are serious about their studies and who enrich the courses in which they enroll, as does any student who works hard in and out of class.

To suggest that the work in honors courses and through honors contracts is a “”trifle”” or matter of “”a couple of extra papers”” is not just wrong, but unfair to the many faculty on campus who spend those extra hours with students, arranging and supervising significant additional work and projects; not to mention demeaning the intensive work honors students perform in these courses. In addition to long hours in classrooms, labs, studios and practice rooms, honors students enrich our campus, community and world through their leadership and commitment to social responsibility. The true test of an education is not “”after college, in the application of knowledge,”” or at least that is not how we think of education at the Honors College. Education is a process and an experience; it is connected to the world you will enter after you complete your studies here, but it is not a ticket to a career or the promise of a paycheck. Education is about a critical and thinking engagement with all aspects of life. Graduation with honors is not a goal for every student, but it is a possibility for every student at the UA. Many students join honors after coming to the UA, and any student in the Honors College may choose to graduate with honors. Our job is to celebrate and support those aspirations, and the surprise is that we are able to do it so well for so little.

Patricia MacCorquodale, Honors College dean
Laura C. Berry, Honors College associate dean

Music belongs in concert halls, out of real life

I admire Andi Berlin’s ability to use the word individualistic in more paragraphs than I thought could be done, differentiate “”personal”” headphones, and confuse “”Paranoid Android”” with “”Tommy”” (In Thursday’s “”Radiohead is not for football games””). I admire it so much that I was moved to write in and agree with her piece.

Alcohol, roughhousing and music should never be mixed! Music is for concert halls and powdered wigs, not bars. A few years ago my buddy Dave Brubeck was writing this album that was going to actually revolutionize the way pop culture views time in music. He was going on and on about how he couldn’t get into any clubs to play because of this or that. I kept telling him, “”Davie, screw the bars. That’s no place for music!”” Could you imagine if jazz audiences had been drunk? They never would have been able to grasp the complexity of the music.

And what is with Jay Reese thinking he has the right to cover a band that is so widely masturbated over by college kids? I mean, he and the band work their asses off to create the No. 1, hardest-working marching band in America and suddenly he’s allowed to play Radiohead? I mean, come on! They really just ought to play “”Bear Down, Arizona”” over and over again. Never mind how cool it is to hear music played by different groups in different genres. Maybe the band could see this more clearly if they were in the same positions we true fans are in.

Let’s keep Radiohead underground, all right fellas?

Ben Stoddard
journalism senior

Union management should allow school spirit

I am writing this letter to express my disappointment in the student union management. I have been the relatively friendly campus mail truck driver for three years, and under my three direct bosses, I have been treated respectfully for all of those years. I also pride myself in my ever-growing school spirit which I and my fellow mail truck drivers strive to demonstrate. For the recent football season, we have taken our own time to put up our signs on the mail truck for Saturday home games in support of our team. We have taken diligence and thoughtfulness to ensure that these signs exhibited the utmost amount of respect yet maintained the pride and competitive will of our fine university. Fans of ours and our opposing teams’ fans have reacted in only the friendliest competitive manner possible. The signs have excited fans in an incalculable fashion that gives me great joy. What has diminished this was this recent decision to no longer allow this demonstration of school spirit, an admonishment that has befallen my superiors as much as me. I will maintain professionalism and steadfast obedience to the union, but do not be surprised if you see me in my own car on Saturdays, cheering for our team as I once thought our management did.

Tom E. Deakin
industrial engineering senior, student union mail truck driver

Radiohead not too good for football games

In regards to “”Radiohead not for football games,”” WildLife writer Andi Berlin surely will be ridiculed for classism and snobby intellectualism. Instead, this behavior of hers should be commended. To have the fortitude to lather a grossly askew interpretation of a halftime show with self-pity and personal opinion is a rare, uncommon gift. As a Radiohead fan myself, to think that they would be chosen for the halftime show music is at first apparently misdirected. I understand in this day and age it is difficult to believe that a professional of more than 10 years would know what he is doing, but maybe, just maybe, the influence of the music was intended to be shown to the audience.

Supporting the idea that there is a certain place for music of an intellectual nature only prevents the exposure of this art to all people. Rather then being offended that music is being preformed in a setting that can be considered inappropriate for it, the performance should be celebrated for taking the message to a new audience. Berlin could be right in believing that the music she idolizes is not for everyone and that people won’t get it like she does. If the football games and their audiences are really the dumb drunks with no sense of art that the author suggests, then what better place to convey Radiohead’s message then through a familiar medium, the always on-point Pride of Arizona Marching Band.

Joseph Gibbs
UA alumnus

Pride of Arizona has pushed envelope for years

I would like to take issue with Andi Berlin’s column “”Radiohead is not for football games”” in Thursday’s (9/28) paper. To be honest, I found her column to be personally offensive, specifically annoying and in bad taste.

I feel offended because it is clear that Berlin has not been paying attention to the selections of the Pride of Arizona marching band over the last decade. Since 1996, we have played selections from some of the most influential, creative, forward-thinking musicians of the past century. To claim that the members of the band have “”ignored and misunderstood”” the music of not just Radiohead, but also Pink Floyd, the Red Hot Chili Peppers (twice), Oingo Boingo and others merely by presenting their music on a football field is an insult of epic proportion. Please do not devalue the hours of work by hundreds of musicians and performers who pour our hearts into every performance, be it for a stadium of rowdy fans or just for ourselves during rehearsal.

Perhaps what I find most annoying is Berlin’s obliviousness to the fact that for the last century, the Pride of Arizona has pushed the envelope of what a marching band is and what it can do. The goal of the band is not to play “”immediately recognizable”” songs. Our goal is to create socially relevant artistic statements and bring them to the public at large. Maybe at halftime on Saturday, Berlin can find herself at the top of the student section near the 50, and, after listening to the show, she can determine whether or not we have upheld “”Radiohead’s ideals.””

In conclusion, Berlin, you seem to have a truly great sense of musical appreciation. Unfortunately, you have grouped yourself with the “”drunken crowd”” who does not truly understand what the Pride is about. I would like to personally invite you to attend Band Day on Nov. 18. After you hear us perform the Radiohead show at 7 p.m., you will truly know why we are called the Pride of Arizona.

Logan Gaither
engineering senior,five-year Pride of Arizona member

Band is progressive, individualistic just like Radiohead

I am writing in response to Andi Berlin’s column about the band playing Radiohead music at halftime. As a member of the Pride of Arizona, I find it appalling that a fan of Radiohead would be the first to complain about what music we are playing. As a die-hard fan of Radiohead, instead of commending us for being progressive and individualistic (because I can damn well assure you that no other band would touch the music we play), you go straight for the throat. The fact that you are personally offended by what a marching band plays is absurd. Your blatant ignorance toward what you are arguing about disgusts me. Who are you to tell us what we should play at halftime? Why would you want us to stop playing music you love and replace it with “”generally grating and bad songs of all kinds””? Is it such a bad thing that we play something that no one else plays? If you don’t like us, you can go to Arizona State University, where the band butchers Arrowsmith, or Stanford, where the marching band is no longer allowed to play at football games. We are here, we play progressive music, and damn it, I wouldn’t have it any other way. So next time you hear music that you love but don’t want to hear because of the environment it is being played in, go buy a hot dog and eat it by candle light. We’ll be on the field playing Radiohead.

Chris Riegert-Waters
journalism junior