The UA's first privately funded housing complex, La Aldea will offer on-campus graduate housing 3 years after closure of Christopher City apartments

It might look like a bunch of wood now, but soon it will be the southwestern-style home of more than 300 graduate students and families.

La Aldea, a $20 million, 163-room graduate housing complex, located at North Euclid Avenue and East Fifth Street, will offer one- , two- and four-bedroom apartments. Each apartment will be equipped with high-speed Internet connections as well as access to private business and fitness centers. [Read article]

When President Pete Likins called last year for a 12 percent tuition hike, UA student lobbyists countered him with a proposal they said would protect students from being victimized by a cash-starved legislature.

Don't raise tuition, the lobbyists told the Arizona Board of Regents.

The regents raised tuition, but not nearly as much as Likins had hoped.

Around that time, Doug Hartz, the then-student body president-elect, had hinted that during his presidency, he might be more willing to accept a tuition hike. [Read article]

Two weeks ago, Gary Pivo, dean of the Graduate College, said he was certain that graduate students had the administration's full support.

Now he's not so sure.

On Wednesday, administrators announced a plan to cut his job as dean of the graduate college, a job that pays him more than $120,000 per year.

This announcement came one week after Pivo found out top administrators wanted to eliminate the School of Planning, where he teaches urban planning to graduate students. [Read article]

Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano attended the Arizona Board of Regents' meeting for about an hour Friday morning. Accompanied by three guards, Napolitano listened and asked questions as regents discussed a technology transfer initiative.

The governor also talked to regents about the upcoming debate over the state budget. She said her plan keeps universities safe from additional budget cuts, but she's concerned that the Republican plan to be released this week will ask the universities to return more money. [Read article]

Freshman in all-guys' dorm Īkind of' regrets lack of women, but manages to find some in classes

WILDCAT: So · what brings you to this part of campus at this time of night?

CHOI: I'm bored and that's about it.

WILDCAT: Do you live in the dorms?

CHOI: I do. Cochise.

WILDCAT: How's that for you?

CHOI: It's OK except for the fact it's all guys. [Read article]

Blood Drive
· Project Volunteer Blood Drive, 10 a.m. ÷ 4 p.m. UA Mall near the Cactus Garden

Change of Schedule
· Change of schedule form-processing resumes in the Curriculum and Registration Office. Administration building, Room 210

Lecture
· Actress Mia Kirshner speaks about Chechen Refugees, 7 p.m. Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering building, Room S202
· "Steward Observatory: Past, Present, & Future," by Dr. Peter Strittmatter, director, Steward Observatory. 7:30 p.m.. Steward Observatory, Room N210
· Free Your Back! Awareness Through Movement, 3 p.m. ÷ 3:45 p.m. University Medical Center Wellness Center, Room 2823. $6 per session
· "Quality in Long Term Care Facilities. "3:30 p.m. ÷ 5 p.m. Arizona Health Sciences Center, Room 8403
· "Causes and Consequences of Viral Evolution," by Michael G. Worobey. 4 p.m. Biological Sciences West building, Room 310
· "Stress Pathways in Cardiac Muscle Diseases: From Z Disc to Conduction System, "4 p.m. -÷ 5 p.m. Arizona Health Sciences Center, Room 5403

Writing Workshop
· "The Process of Writing, Getting Started, and Overcoming Writer's Block" 5 p.m. ÷ 6 p.m. Modern Languages building, Room 413

Scooters

Daily Texan ÷ The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies agreed earlier this year to increase production of crude oil by 6.5 percent. The soon-to-fall gas prices, however, will have little to no effect on Schonna Manning and her blue Honda Aero 50 moped.

Manning is one of a handful of students, faculty and staff who use mopeds and scooters as their primary mode of transportation to and from campus.

÷ Matt Hardigree

Ancient discovery

Aquinas Times ÷ When three University of Arkansas students went looking for fossils Monday near Interstate 540, they hoped to find a 3-foot fossil of a certain mollusk. What they found in a ditch was almost three times that long ÷ what is believed to be a world-record fossil of an actinoceratoid nautiloid, an ancient cephalopod related to modern-day squids or octopuses.

The three geology majors ÷ Sarah Kee, Jonathan Gillip and Kevin Morgan ÷ finished excavating the find Wednesday afternoon.

÷ Denise Malan

Football troubles

Daily Northwestern ÷ Twelve Northwestern University football players had taken NCAA-banned supplements before a 2001 preseason drill at which their teammate Rashidi Wheeler collapsed and died, NU's lawyers disclosed in court this week for the first time.

NU filed the brief Wednesday as part of a wrongful death lawsuit brought against the university more than a year ago by Wheeler's family. But Thursday, a football player named in the brief disputed part of the university's claim.