Illustration by Cody Angell

Basketball isn't for dumb people any more. In a meeting last week involving UA Athletics Director Jim Livengood, Dean of the Honors College Patricia MacCorquodale, Dean of Students Melissa Vito, President Pete Likins, Provost George Davis and student body President Doug Hartz, a new policy was undertaken as the next step in Focused Excellence. The backbone of the policy revolves around a new system of basketball ticket sales. Under the system, undergraduate students with a minimum 3.0 GPA and 3.5 for graduate students would only be allowed to purchase season tickets. With the drive behind Focused Excellence to make UA more elite, the new policy will encourage students to work harder in their classes. "UA basketball isn't a common good anymore," said Livengood. "Attending the game will now be an honor." Although basketball isn't Likins' favorite sport, he is very excited about the new policy.

"Focused Excellence must be embraced by all arenas of the university, from the classroom to McKale." The Honors College also supports the proposal. "Students who commit more hours in the classroom should be rewarded with basketball tickets. It should be added that students with a 4.0 GPA will contend for front row seats that have been awarded by members of the Alumni Association," noted MacCorquodale. Davis added, "If admission standards are to be raised, it isn't unreasonable to expect the same from our most dedicated fans." President Hartz is firmly against the plan, although he will support it if fall break is passed. So, it's April 1 (April Fool's Day to most), the season is over, and students are asking themselves: Is this a fair policy?

Merit-based system rewards brightest students

Finally, the administration has decided to throw a bone to the students who give a damn about their education.

No doubt, advocates of pure democracy ÷ the political system that holds justice is whatever the majority mob claims it is ÷ will be foaming at the mouth, ready to storm Old Main with their pitchforks and torches over this proper, merit-based system.

You know, I am so sick and tired of below-average students whining about everything they're entitled to: a higher grade on the latest test ("You're going to curve this, right?"), lower tuition ("Like, I feel society owes me a nearly free education") and basketball tickets ("I have a right to express my school spirit as much as the next guy").

Too bad. Every individual has one fundamental choice: to think or not to think. And if you'd rather spend your afternoons exhaling bong hits through dryer sheets and swilling Bud Light by the case than learning about the foundations of Western civilization, by all means go right ahead.

But don't come crying to me when the bookworm down the hall gets to scope out the cheerleaders firsthand and enjoy the thrills of a Wildcat basketball game while you're stuck in your room eating crow.

Erik Flesch is a geosciences junior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Graduate students held to unfair standards in new basketball ticket distribution system

Wow ÷ in the first place, hats off to the administration for masterfully killing two birds with one stone. Instituting academic requirements for basketball ticket sales will certainly go a long way toward regulating this hot commodity ÷ linking ticket sales to academic performance will make ticket-window riots a thing of the past. The new policy also deserves kudos for giving Focused Excellence a much-needed boost.

Although academic excellence should be its own reward, the prospect of a UA basketball ticket gives hard-working students an immediate, tangible goal. Currently-discussed plans to offer courtside to students sporting 4.0 averages should also be encouraged ÷ look out, Pac-10, here comes the cum laude corner! No plan is perfect, however, and the proposed 3.5 GPA requirement for graduate students is an unfair quirk that must be reconsidered. While their busy schedules leave less time for basketball, many grads are devoted ÎCats fans ÷ this year we took to McKale Center in droves to cheer on our fellow graduate student Luke Walton. Why should grads be held to a different standard? Grad students are expected to perform at a higher level ÷ our professors already hold us to much more exacting academic standards.

If anything, the GPA threshold for graduate students should be lower than the one proposed for undergrads ÷ what would be wrong with 2.5?

Phil Leckman is a graduate student in anthropology. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

So studying might actually get a person somewhere in life after all

GPA requirements for basketball tickets? Just when I thought the UA powers-that-be could not get any dumber, they go and do something like this.

And totally redeem themselves.

Giving diligent students the first and only crack at season tickets is reasonable when you consider that UA is trying to streamline itself into a hardcore academic institution.

But for rabid basketball fans like myself who have spent most of their formative years sniffing glue and bonging beers, thereby pulling an O.J. on every brain cell that was once worth having, this policy gives an added incentive to academic success. Simply put, spending time hitting the books for once can actually do short-term good by rewarding us with some prime tickets.

Of course, those even more mentally challenged than the rest of us "lower-tier" thinkers can take solace in the fact that all those geeks with season tickets should be easy to beat up and fleece of their possessions. Sort of the new millennium equivalent of an old-fashioned lunch money beating.

In fact, I better not only dust off my books, but get back in the weight room, as well.

On a totally unrelated ending note, Slam Magazine is right. Luke Walton needs to grow out a Îfro.

Bill Wetzel is a creative writing and political science junior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Save our stupid; they're our greatest resource

Once again, Pete Likins has totally missed the mark with one of his harebrained Focused Excellence schemes. If basketball tickets are going to be assigned on the basis of intelligence, not a single person involved in this decision should be allowed within a mile of McKale Center.

We are lucky to have an incredible basketball team on campus. However, we do that team a disservice by sticking them with a geriatric crowd and no student section. If there is one thing the team could benefit from, it is a raucous, rowdy student section. Having a bunch of snooty, sleep-deprived honors students filling up the few student seats available will completely eliminate the home court advantage. We need a bunch of Neanderthals with nothing better to do with their time than paint their bodies and think up obnoxious cheers. President Likins: The stupid are our greatest asset!

Not only does this plan put our team at a disadvantage, it puts Fourth Avenue in serious danger. The last thing the bars and shops there need is a huge crowd of chest-thumping, volatile, piss-drunk imbeciles. For the love of God, there will be riots after every game!

The university needs to immediately rethink this short-sighted, moronic plan. If it fails to do so, our team, our school pride and our very community will be left in dire straits.

Caitlin Hall is a biochemistry and philosophy sophomore. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

No need to be elitist about basketball tickets

Populists on campus, myself included, were frustrated beyond belief when UA announced its new policy severely restricting access to student basketball tickets. Making it an honor only for students who hold a 3.0 GPA not only reduces the number of basketball fans, but it uses basketball tickets as a way to punish students with bad grades.

Those who can't make the grades will have problems far beyond missing any basketball game in their futures. There is nothing wrong with encouraging students to keep higher grades, but restricting basketball tickets so severely disproportionately affects the underprivileged students who would not be able to pay full price for tickets and cannot afford to hire tutors or re-take classes they get low grades in.

The only requirement for purchasing student basketball tickets should be whether or not the buyer is a student who has waited in line long enough to earn the rights to buy them. Making grades a factor would only make our school more elite among any ranks besides those of the pretentious and the supercilious. Those who are interested in furthering education at the UA would not waste valuable time shutting the underprivileged students out of basketball games, but would focus on retaining faculty and reducing class sizes.

Kendrick Wilson is a political science sophomore. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Policy provides rewards for students who have their priorities straight

Up until recently, I was never a huge fan of the Focused Excellence plan. With this latest addition, however, I can now honestly say that I support it 100 percent. Not only does this new policy award those who work the hardest and are therefore more deserving, but it also lends a much needed hand to those who are incapable of getting their priorities straight.

Those who don't meet the minimum GPA standard should be thanking those who implemented this new policy. They are actually doing them a favor. For most of them, Friday and Saturday nights are already wasted on partying and Sunday is a day of recovery. By allowing them to go to the games on Thursday, it would only encourage them to begin their weekend early, after an expected UA victory.

The truth is, they should be spending their time a bit more wisely, rather than wasting more of Daddy's money. I'm sure their parents would agree.

And how many of them actually understand what is going on at a basketball game anyway? Playing basketball on the Game Cube doesn't make you an expert.

Don't worry, you can still watch the games on TV. That is, if you can figure out how to work the remote.

Steve Campbell is a senior majoring in Spanish. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.