The presidents of Arizona's three state universities said they were concerned about the decline in international student attendance at a briefing yesterday in the Student Union Memorial Center.

Statistics have shown that the number of foreign students in Arizona has decreased by 1.8 percent since last year.

"We have historically had a good number of students from the Middle East and we've had a good relationship with many Middle Eastern countries. That relationship is now jeopardized," said UA President Peter Likins. "I'm used to celebrating International Week as a triumph of higher education." [Read article]

Financial reasons force Showtime to cancel UA's 'Freshman Diaries' series

"Freshman Diaries," a television documentary that began filming in October, was officially cancelled last night, six months before it was supposed to end.

Showtime, the cable television network that would have aired "Freshman Diaries," cancelled the show for financial reasons, said Blake Lebin, a field producer. [Read article]

As today's Arizona Board of Regents meeting begins in the Catalina Room of the Student Union Memorial Center, people within the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture are keeping their fingers crossed.

Tomorrow the regents will vote on whether to approve the expansion of the architecture building that will require an additional $2.2 million for construction.

Melissa Dryden, the program coordinator for facilities design and construction said the college needs to expand because it has simply outgrown its space. [Read article]

People selling magazines on campus might be trying to scam students, warned a UAPD campus fraud alert.

UAPD released the alert yesterday after a student who paid $40 for a magazine subscription from an individual on the UA mall on Nov. 18, was unable to verify her subscription.

The student received pamphlets and a brochure from the individual. When the student went home, she tried to log on to a website to verify the subscription, but was unable to find one. [Read article]

Kara Keegan, an education freshman, has been smoking cigarettes for three years. Today, she is thinking about not lighting up.

"I might try to quit for the day," Keegan said. "Especially for a gift certificate."

Keegan is referring to the more than 100 restaurant gift certificates being handed out to smokers who hand over their packs for the day, as part of the Great American Smokeout.

The Student Health Advisory Committee will be distributing the gift certificates to any student who pledges to quit smoking for the day, said Rachit Kumar, physiological sciences senior, and director of the SHAC. [Read article]

They played with fire and demonstrated how to shoot a monkey if trapped in a jungle. One professor even sandwiched himself between two beds of nails.

At the 20th annual Physics Phun Nite professors and students put the "ph" in "phun."

Approximately 300 onlookers, mostly children and their parents, filled the Physics and Atmospheric Science auditorium to watch the various experiments.

"We do these physics demonstrations and have a good time with it," said physics professor Bill Bickel. "We don't explain the physics behind it. It is just for fun." [Read article]

ASUA senators had a heated debate about the elections code for the 2003-2004 elections.

Senators spoke out of turn, and Melanie Rainer, Associated Students of the University of Arizona executive vice president, often had to remind senators of correct meeting conduct and procedures.

The discussion concerned whether to lower the number of signatures needed to run for an elected ASUA position.

Sen. Jacob Reuben, who was against lowering the requirement, said that if candidates want the job, then they should be willing to get more signatures. [Read article]

Freshman doesn't mind bathroom interviews, says her 'chill' mom will tell everyone her daughter peed

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part On the S-potty series where the Wildcat interviews someone doing their business in a bathroom stall.

Wildcat: My name's Liz and you're On the S-potty. Do you read the Wildcat?

Silverman: Yeah, I do. My favorite is Police Beat. It's just amazing the stupid things people do. [Read article]

Addressing all your most

important questions and concerns

Question: Why is the broken seesaw sculpture still outside Old Main? Will it ever be fixed?

Answer: To be honest, the first time I saw this piece of art, I had no clue what it was supposed to represent. Then, all of a sudden someone broke it, making the purple hunk of metal something of an eyesore. However, I recently found a deeper meaning to UA's very own piece of playground equipment. [Read article]

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