More than 40 percent of programs slated for termination saved

Seven programs originally targeted for elimination under Focused Excellence received yesterday the good news they had been hoping for from President Pete Likins and Provost George Davis.

Those programs, which include the School of Information Resources and Library Sciences, landscape architecture, planning and the Flandrau Science Center, learned they will not be cut. [Read article]

Hearing will determine length of prison sentence

A Tucson man convicted of sexually assaulting a UA student last year while she was showering could face up to 21 years in prison. after he was found guilty last month.

Esteban Rodriguez, 25, was found guilty of sexual assault last month. He is still awaiting sentencing in Pima County Jail. He has a mitigation hearing scheduled Monday morning at 10 a.m. in front of Judge Howard Hantman in Pima County Superior Court. [Read article]

The Flandrau Science Center moved one step closer yesterday toward a future home downtown and one giant leap away from the financial chopping block.

Flandrau was one of seven programs that managed to avoid elimination under Focused Excellence, as announced yesterday by President Pete Likins.

The program was originally targeted in Financial Planning Bulletin No. 24, a report earlier in the year outlining the university's recommendations for 16 programs scheduled for restructuring or elimination. [Read article]

While many students struggle to define what is appropriate to do and say during war, Lisa Hunter, a graduate assistant who conducts UA's wind symphony, has already made that decision.

In an attempt to stay out of the way of controversy and possible protests, the wind symphony backed out of a tentatively planned performance for Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 29.

Hunter, who filled director Jay Rees' position when he left on sabbatical, has worked all semester with wind symphony students on "Holocaust Suite," a composition by Morton Gould. They were planning to perform the memorial until recent conflicts caused debate over whether the performance would be appropriate. [Read article]

Wearing her sash and crown at all times, UA grad Sunita Krishna spent last week representing the state of Arizona at the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C.

As the reigning 2003 Arizona Cherry Blossom Princess, Krishna, along with 55 other state and territory representatives, spent the week participating in festival celebrations. The almost century-old celebration commemorates Japan's gift of 3,000 trees to the people of Washington, D.C. [Read article]

Art history senior has two dogs; not too into the idea of public displays of affection

WILDCAT: So what is all this stuff you're playing with here in the art building? It's kind of goopy.

CONOVER: I'm making a print actually.

WILDCAT: Have you ever forged any documents?

CONOVER: Um, no.

WILDCAT: Just thought I'd ask. So you're graduating in May. What color is your tassel? [Read article]

· Sitophobia is the fear of food.

· In 1976, President Ford sent out 40,000 Christmas cards.

· Dirty snow melts faster than clean snow.

· It costs more to buy a new car today in the U.S. than it cost Christopher Columbus to equip and undertake three voyages to and from the New World.

· Cancer causes one death in the U.S. every 90 seconds. [Read article]

Quotes this week from campus and the world

"Within five minutes, we saw a naked guy in a tree, a homeless guy in a chicken suit and a bonfire."

- Sophomore Lindsay Skorupa on Syracuse's night of revelry after winning the NCAA championship.

"You can talk about hunger until you die, but there is nothing like a personal experience to change someone and then change the system." [Read article]