ÎChoreographed efforts' at tuition hearings frustrate some regents

The Arizona Board of Regents president has some advice for students planning to address the board at its tuition hearing tonight: Speak for yourselves.

Board President Chris Herstam said he's been frustrated in the past by what he perceives as "choreographed efforts" by student leaders to pack the hearings with people furthering identical interests. [Read article]

Earlier this semester, a former student decided to attend Keith Lehrer's lecture sans clothes, wearing only his tennis shoes.

Former UA student Matthew Kramer, who had an American flag decal on his chest, claimed his actions were to protect the country.

As a result of Kramer's full disclosure, a UAPD officer now sits outside of Room 306 in the CŽsar E. Ch‡vez building every Monday from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. [Read article]

The ASUA primary elections begin today, and come Friday, two presidential candidates will be eliminated from the race.

Alistair Chapman, Brian Raphel, Amanda Meaker and Josh Shapiro are running for ASUA president, but only two can move on to the general elections, March 3 and 4.

The student body president is chief executive officer, chief financial officer and representative for UA students.

Melanie Rainer, ASUA executive vice president, said it is important that students vote in the primaries. [Read article]

Janitors at the UA see the calm side of the union as they spend the night cleaning up the trash a day of student activity leaves behind.

Two of the 15 full-time janitors for student unions, Stella Siqueiros and Ed Bare, clean bathrooms, floors, kitchens and food service areas from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. four days per week.

Students are messy sometimes, Siqueiros said.

She said she frequently cleans up bathrooms that seem messier than they should be at the Student Union Memorial Center. [Read article]

Next time students have a run-in with a UAPD officer, they may be in for a shock.

UAPD officers are now equipped with Tasers, weapons that use electrical shocks to immobilize someone temporarily.

The Taser fires two electric probes up to a distance of 21 feet and transmits pulsed energy into the central nervous system of the target, causing immediate incapacitation.

UAPD Sgt. Robert Summerfeld offered reporters a demonstration of how the Taser works in the UAPD lobby yesterday, allowing one of the 10 Tasers to be deployed on him. [Read article]

The Graduate and Professional Student Council passed a letter to administrators at its meeting last night, asking for free tuition for all graduate assistants.

Jani Radebaugh, president of the GPSC, said the letter is intended to inform President Peter Likins and Provost George Davis on how significant the issue is to graduate students.

"We hope it will inform the administration and the board of regents of the importance of graduate students to the university for teaching, research and academic endeavors," Radebaugh said. [Read article]

Brian Raphel came to the UA from California expecting a top-25 party school, but what he got was something else.

"I got screwed," Raphel said about the fact that the UA and Tucson community have tightened the reins on alcohol use on and off campus.

Raphel, a pre-business junior, is running for Associated Students of the University of Arizona president and said he plans to spice things up if elected. [Read article]

Josh Shapiro is proposing dramatic changes to ASUA.

"ASUA needs to do a better job of representing the student body," he said.

Economics junior Shapiro, who has no experience in the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, intends to use his outsider status to his advantage.

Shapiro said ASUA officers currently represent the leaders of clubs and not the entire student body. In order to get an accurate representation of the student body, Shapiro would expand the senate to 18 members to represent every UA college. [Read article]

Amanda Meaker learned as an industrial engineering student to observe a system and then propose ways to make it work more effectively.

Meaker, presidential candidate and junior, said she is using that principle to figure out how student government could be improved.

"The UA is a system of organizations, and it is the obligation of people in ASUA and administration to make sure the system is operating to its fullest capacity. I'd like to see it do that," Meaker said. [Read article]

Alistair Chapman's mother has always told him to "go the extra mile."

And Chapman, a physiology and molecular and cellular biology senior, said he has done nothing less during his four years with the Associated Students of the University of Arizona.

"My work ethic will be directly reflected if I get elected as president," he said.

Chapman said he was originally a shy and intimidated freshman when he entered student government for the first time as an ASUA basketball league coach for fifth-graders. But he was welcomed with open arms into student government, and eventually his participation in ASUA changed his college career, he said. [Read article]

Hazmat crews, firefighters and police officers responded last night to a report of a chemical explosion in the Koffler building, 1340 E. University Blvd.

After investigating the scene, officers found there was no explosion, only a broken test tube.

Sgt. Michael Smith of UAPD said around 8 p.m. a student broke a test tube in a lab inside the building.

All the proper procedures were performed to clean up the spill, he said. [Read article]

Psychology sophomore won't cover herself with bologna, but will mother pink alien babies

Wildcat: Hi, I'm Claire from the Wildcat and you're on the spot.

Marchello: (laughing) Cool!

Wildcat: Have you ever been abducted by aliens?

Marchello: No, I haven't ever been abducted by aliens.

Wildcat: Are you sure?

Marchello: I'm pretty sure. I hope not. That would be a pretty scary thing not to know. [Read article]

Things you always never wanted to know

KUAT-TV anchor honored

KUAT-TV's Bill Buckmaster was honored with the first Alzheimer's Disease Public Awareness Award, presented by the Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Consortium.

Buckmaster, anchor and managing editor of the station's weeknight TV newsmagazine, "Arizona Illustrated," has produced more than 20 segments about Alzheimer's during his 16 years with the program.

He also produced a half-hour special program about the disease and its impact on families in Southern Arizona. The "Arizona Illustrated" special aired Jan. 21 in conjunction with a national PBS program, "The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's." [Read article]