Some might call President Peter Likins the enemy of undergraduate education. Some students even say he's more alumni friendly than student friendly.

After all, from his office on the seventh floor of the administration building, students say, he can see the Alumni Plaza, but can he really be aware of what matters to students? Or just look at his past track record.

Over the past two years, it seems that the most significant changes and financial decisions at the UA focus solely on business and scientific research, not undergraduate education. Last week administrators announced a tuition hike and a slew of program fees for architecture, technology, business and engineering. For the past two years attention has focused on securing money for science buildings and funding for the improvement of science programs, including the new buildings for the biotechnology buildings in the Arizona Health Sciences Center. And on top of all this, proposals are sitting before the legislature right now asking for money for hydrology and health sciences. [Read article]

The response to two controversial comments within the academic community have some UA professors scared for their jobs. History and political science professor David Gibbs used to share his viewpoints freely in class, but these days he's learning to keep his mouth shut. With the state of academia these days, it's hard to blame him.

The recent uproar over academic speech has two superstars: Harvard University President Lawrence Summers and University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill. Summers suggested at a January conference that between men and women, "in the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude." [Read article]

Grad schools all about GPA, LSATs

It sure would be nice to think, as Mr. LeeNatali and the admissions officers quoted suggest, that grad schools look at the "big picture" when admitting students. For the most part, however, it's simply false. Perhaps most glaring is the inclusion of the law school admissions rep, considering a substantial portion each incoming James E. Rogers College of Law class is selected only on the basis of GPA and LSAT scores. [Read article]

Presidents day as important as MLK

On Friday's Opinions page, Alexander Cook brought a legitimate argument to the Presidents Day topic. More than a decade ago, the state legislature removed Presidents Day from the list of paid vacations replacing it with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Dr. King is a civil rights hero, and because of his and other's efforts, I am privileged as a white male to work beside many talented non-whites instead of having them serve me. [Read article]