Wednesday October 17, 2001

Sean Joyce

Last summer, I got one of those annoying letters in the mail from the University of Arizona.

What had I done now? Was it a fine for a library book? Maybe my tuition wasn't received on time and I was being fined. Or maybe it was notice reminding me to buy my football tickets for the upcoming season?

Instead, it turned out to be a lot more important than that. It notified me that a Fall 2001 political science class I registered for was cancelled.

Brain drain hit UA hard. Many professors left because of the opportunity to go to another school where the grass seems a little greener. And, well, the green is a little greener, too.

William Mishler, head of the political science department, said the department wasn't equipped to handle the number of students enrolled.

"We were canceling classes right, left and center this fall because we just didn't have the faculty to fit them in," Mishler said.

In fact, 10 classes were cancelled in the political science department alone. But this has been a problem for the entire school.

In the last two years, the political science department has lost nine professors, while only hiring three.

Now let me ask you this question: Have you been to an Arizona football game this season?

Other than seeing a disappointing football team, I hope you noticed a couple of the nuances that now grace the Arizona football team and its stadium.

As the team takes the field, fireworks go off - a visually stunning, yet completely unnecessary practice that seems to be a danger even to the players that stand a few yards from the explosions.

Are the fireworks necessary? As far as I can tell, they aren't making the team perform any better.

In addition to the fireworks, the Red Zone, behind the south end zone, was supposed to be the new home for rabid Arizona fans painted red and blue.

The only rabid activity I saw in the fourth quarter of the Washington State game was a scuffle in the crowd for a bottle of the new Code Red Mountain Dew.

Arizona is attempting to become a mainstream football powerhouse in the public relations realm. But the UA doesn't have as much to market as one would think. People in Southern Arizona only have Wildcat athletics to cheer for; there is little else for a football fan to do than attend games at the UA on a Saturday night. What's the reasoning behind the increased marketing push?

My roommate informed me that on a recent trip southeast of Tucson, he saw a billboard between the distant cities of Naco, a town on the Mexico border, and Bisbee praising new head coach John Mackovic and the football team's new look.

Seems like an example of unneeded spending in a town more than 100 miles from Tucson.

Some reports estimate that the Arizona football team has spent as much as $3 million on public relations and other cosmetic improvements to the field.

It's understandable that the athletic department is caught in a Catch-22 here. To improve a mediocre football program, the athletic department must increase spending, making the team more marketable to potential recruits.

Yeah, the football team generates more money than the political science department. But that's no excuse to frivolously spend the revenue on ridiculous marketing tactics. If there's cash burning a hole in Jim Livengood's pocket, he should talk to William Mishler.

I like to think back to the good old days - it wasn't even that long ago, 1998 - when our football team went 11-1, beat Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl and ran onto a field minus expensive pyrotechnics and an idiotic Red Zone.

The same year that the political science department employed six more professors to teach me classes I needed to graduate.

Go Cats.