A recent racially motivated assault on an Arab UA student has many in the Islamic community fearing for their safety, in light of misguided anger from the war in Iraq.

President Pete Likins addressed about 50 Muslim students and Islamic community leaders at a meeting Wednesday of the Muslim Students Association, to diminish growing fears sparked by the Feb. 14 attack on a UA student. The Muslim student's life was threatened after two men forced their way into his apartment. [Read article]

While the conflict in Iraq deepens and more military units are deployed, UA ROTC members and peace activists alike agree that everyone should support the troops.

Despite rumors to the contrary, attacks on military students have been relatively few in number.

"We've had a few incidents of people being yelled at, verbal attacks, pretty much minor-league stuff," said U.S. Army Maj. Stewart Slatton, department of military science enrollment adviser. [Read article]

University offers financial aid, healthcare benefits

Graduate students over the years have feared that graduate education had lost value in the eyes of the UA administration.

That fear climaxed this year when, in January, administrators proposed the elimination of the dean of the graduate college, and then, one month later, asked regents for the largest tuition increase in UA history, a $1,250 hike for resident graduate students. [Read article]

He waited seven years to be accepted as one of 12 police officers in the state each year allowed to attend a law enforcement training program with the FBI.

But this year, Cmdr. Brian Seastone finally made it, the last member of the UAPD command staff to attend the 10-week program, heralded as one of the most prestigious in the world.

Seastone, a 23-year veteran of the University of Arizona Police Department who recently took the helm as the commander of the majority of field operations for the more than 50-member police force, was accepted into the FBI National Academy, based in Quantico, Va. There, he will work alongside management officers from around the world, said UAPD Chief Anthony Daykin. [Read article]

What started out as a simple prank on a fellow fraternity ended up costing Sigma Alpha Epsilon its recognition.

About five Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledges tore paper off of Delta Tau Delta's homecoming float Nov. 8, violating the Student Code of Conduct and their fraternity's probation status.

After investigating the incident, Associate Dean of students Veda Kowalski placed the fraternity on a suspended loss of recognition, meaning that the fraternity is not formally recognized by the university or allowed to participate in university activities until it fulfills a variety of sanctions. [Read article]

Over 100 community members, including several UA students, spent yesterday afternoon painting "A" Mountain red, white and blue with over $2,000 worth of privately donated paint.

Four days after the "A" was painted black by a group protesting the war, local disc jockeys called on listeners and city officials to coat the "A" with the nation's colors.

The idea was surrounded by controversy, as some city officials contested it violated city ordinances. However, four city council members took part in the event, including UA alumnus Fred Ronstadt. [Read article]

Charges against the UA employee who was arrested March 5 after she and three students locked themselves to a railing in the Administration building were dropped Wednesday.

The students were referred to the diversion program.

Rachel Wilson, a speech and hearing sciences employee; political science sophomore Yuske J. Banno; engineering and physics sophomore Shawn Nock and biology freshman Laura Showalter were arrested earlier in the month on charges of interfering with the peaceful conduct of an educational institution and criminal trespassing, both misdemeanors. [Read article]

Computer students on the fence about UA basketball

WILDCAT: Are you going to root for UA in the game tonight?

GUPTA: I don't think so.

WILDCAT: How long have you been at UA?

GUPTA: One year.

WILDCAT: And you're not a true Wildcat fan yet?

GUPTA: I'm not really into sports but, you know, I'm thinking.

WILDCAT: You're thinking? You've got to get going and start going WOOHOO! Go Wildcats! No? [Read article]

· One-fifth of all dogs have arthritis.

· After a fight broke out on $1 hot dog night, the Minnesota Twins limited each fan to only five hot dogs.

· Ted Martin spent nine hours kicking a Hacky Sack a record 63,326 times without a miss.

· There is a Starbucks in China's Forbidden City.

· "Dicks of America" is a United States organization founded to popularize the name Dick. [Read article]

"You live by the three, you die by the three."

÷ Jason Gardner, anticipating Notre Dame's deadly 3-point shooting

"All the fat's been cut. What they're going to need next is a meat ax to cut the bone."

÷ UA lobbyist Greg Fahey, responding to Republican lawmakers' suggestions that UA needs to trim the "fat" from its budget.

"It has a way of airing out dirty laundry, sometimes in a very raw way; yet within that rawness, there's a gentleness also there." [Read article]