'Sorority girl' comment insensitive to assault reality

In Thursday's issue of the Daily Wildcat, staff sports writer James Kelley wrote, "LSU had its way with the UA like it was a drunk sorority girl." As the director of the ASUA Campus Acquaintance Rape Educators and as a student of this university, I am disappointed that the Wildcat would choose to publish Mr. Kelley's statement and trivialize the serious issue of sexual assault. Nearly one in four college women are the victims of an attempted or completed rape. The great majority of these assaults are committed by someone the victim knows and involve alcohol use by the victim, perpetrator or both. The scope and magnitude of this violence makes sexual assault not just a women's issue, but everyone's issue. Mr. Kelley's statement not only trivializes rape, it tries to make it humorous and normalizes this criminal and violent behavior. By letting such a thing be published, the Wildcat harmed its own reputation as a professional newspaper and showed a lack of concern for the safety of the students on this campus. We are all responsible for ending sexual assault, and I hope in the future the Wildcat will do its part. [Read article]

Nearly a year and a half after Tempe voters enacted a ban on smoking in restaurants, bars and bowling alleys, State Rep. Linda Lopez (D-Tucson) plans to introduce legislation that would do the same statewide. She plans to introduce a bill that would ban smoking in all public places, which includes bars and bowling alleys.

In 1999, the Tucson City Council, with the energy of since-retired Council member Janet Marcus, passed a ban on smoking in restaurants. Pima County followed suit in 2001, rendering the question of "smoking or non?" obsolete. [Read article]

Every day I get out of bed and drive to campus. I, like the vast majority of the UA community, am a commuter. We all brave the roads of Tucson to further our education.

To some the most frustrating part of this adventure is finding a parking spot. Well, the leg of the trip I loathe the most is the 10 - 15 minutes from when I pull out of my apartment complex to when I get to campus. Every day it seems I run into another driver who doesn't know how to use a four-way stop, hesitates when changing lanes or holds up the line of cars turning left when they aren't sure if they can get through a hole in traffic large enough for even the UA football team to make it through. [Read article]