EDITOR'S NOTE: Friday's Wildcat contained a fake news story saying the university would save funds by not turning on air conditioning. The opinions pages also had a point/counterpoint debating the merits of a fictitious ban on maids. Some got the joke ... others didn't.

Bicyclists create a hazard

Your article gives me hope. I daily use the Olive pedestrian underpass and have had two near misses in the last week with bicycles zooming past me when bicycle riding is prohibited in the passageway. We need more UAPD down there in from 7:30 a.m. until 8:10 a.m.

Please start ticketing these bicyclists - they are dangerous.

Kristy Schmidt
planning degree program administrative assistant

Republicans repeatedly remove people from Bush meetings

The removal of a person wearing the T-shirt critical of Bush was not an isolated incident.

Wednesday's Washington Post describes a nearly identical episode in Denver: Three people were evicted out of one of Bush's meetings on Social Security by an "anonymous staffer," after he saw a "no blood for oil" bumper sticker on their car. At first, the staffer identified himself as a Secret Service agent, but the Secret Service later said he was a Republican Party volunteer. The Washington Post's article also refers to an earlier meeting in Fargo, N.D., where a full 40 people were barred from attending the event. The Washington Post also confirmed that those who got to speak in that "town hall style meeting" were carefully screened party activists who rehearsed their speeches with the president's team beforehand. I guess that after "exporting democracy in the Middle East" so much, the United States has very little of it left for domestic consumption.

Giorgio Torrieri
alumnus

Crackdown on bikers, pedestrians shows misplaced priorities

Of all things to be given money for in this day of budget cuts, it is the cracking down of people not crossing the street at the crosswalk?

"You have the power to minimize your involvement in a collision," Mejia (the UAPD spokesman) said.

In school they taught me to look both ways before crossing the street. If that is done and there are no cars coming, especially if they are stuck behind a red light down the street, then I have used that power to minimize my involvement in a collision.

Since there are so many regulations in today's society, chances are that at any moment you are probably breaking at least one of them. But in the so-called post-September 11 world we live in, one might think priorities would be set to protect the homeland.

They raise tuition, cut financial aid, but yet are given money to fine or intimidate money-starved students for not crossing an empty road at the proper lines of latitude and longitude?

David Morales
applied math graduate student

Point/Counterpoint: full of laughs

I almost pissed myself laughing at the point counterpoint on Friday. The sad thing is we all know people like that, but then again, that is why it is funny. Now where is Maria when I need her to turn on that hot thing that cooks food?

Joshua Brink
alumnus

A/C more important than Alumni Plaza

In the article, "Budget cuts lead to hot, sweaty plan: no A/C," it is mentioned that $15 million could be saved by not using air conditioning. Near the end of the article it says that "leftover" money may go to make a new Alumni Plaza! First of all, I really don't think our university will ever have "leftover" money. But what really bothers me is that perfectly good, tree-and-grass-filled areas are ripped up and replaced with new plazas just because someone can't think of anything better to do with university money! The Alumni Plaza area was just fine before the new plaza was built. Now, when I walk by it, I hear those tour guides bragging about our new Alumni Plaza to the potential students. Are these plazas just to make outsiders think our university is so pretty, while the departments are laying off secretaries and staff just to try to meet their budgets?

Kirsten Lovette
Molecular and cellular biology senior

Glad story was April Fools' joke

When I read the story "Budget cuts lead to hot, sweaty plan" I was outraged, but thankful that I work in a building whose air conditioning will not be turned off. But when I shared the article with some of my coworkers, they said, "Oh, it's April Fools!" Please tell me they're right and I'm wrong.

James Uhrig
library specialist

April Fools stories great part of Wildcat

Thanks again for a wonderful April Fools' Day article ("Budget cuts lead to hot, sweaty plan: no A/C"). Each year I look forward to it, and each year I send my compliments. I must say this article was particularly persuasive, and you had me going for the first few paragraphs. Thanks for the laughs!

Until next year ...

Shelley McGrath
coordinator, academic advising

Students have it easy, don't need maids

I greatly enjoyed your opinion page about the UA ban on maid services. It truly opened my eyes to the overwhelming responsibilities that plague UA students. In the midst of daily duties such as skipping class, drinking, cashing my parents monthly stipend check and spending it at the mall, how can I be expected to

tend to daily complications? Complications like studying, earning money, cooking my own food or cleaning up my own messes. I'm really not sure what I would do if I actually had to take responsibility for my own actions. Allowing poor women to clean up my messes really lets them take pride in their lives and live the American dream.

Seriously though, undergraduate education is about learning that you don't live under Mommy and Daddy's roof anymore, understanding that the free ride is over and earning your way into the real world. If you said you were too busy with medical school and two jobs to clean your room I might sympathize, but the idea that you can't clean up your own mess because you were too busy playing Ken and Barbie makes me sick. Please excuse me while I vomit.

David Townsend
mechanical engineering junior

Cutting A/C not best option for campus

Is it just me, or is Tucson in the middle of the desert? Whose idea was it to just shut off the A/C and hope for the best. I understand the UA is constantly trying to adjust its budget, but turning off the A/C definitely doesn't sound like the best plan. The weather isn't too hot right now, but what happens in a few weeks when that 100-degree weather kicks in and we're stuck in a classroom with 300 other people with no A/C. And the real kicker, the UA might spend the leftover savings on another Alumni Plaza, yeah, that's just what we need. If you're going to steal our A/C, at least spend the savings on something useful for students, not another plaza that's there just to look pretty.

Brian Leahy
Marketing senior

Other ways to save electricity

Wouldn't it be more comfortable to have all employees and students turn off computer equipment, copiers, etc. at night instead of leaving the equipment on during the week and also on weekends?

Kristy Schmidt
Administrative assistant, planning degree program

Students need A/C to perform

In my opinion this idea is wrong in the fact this is only going to become harder to concentrate in class and especially classes of long periods of time. The warmer the climate is the more fatigue the body will endure, thus the more tired a person will become. Also warmer temperatures are a breeding ground for germs and other allergies that will breed on warm environments making it easier for students to become ill.

It is bad enough we have to walk to class in the heat, much less sitting in a classroom which many have no ventilation at all without the HVAC system running, and yes I understand the university wants to save money, but it seems all we are asked to do is pay more! I just can't wait to send my kids to a school and have them live in a dorm, pay all these increases so they can lay in a puddle of sweat all night, well sure we could go out and buy these fans, just more money to spend. UA, I think this is the least you could do is provide a comfortable environment for our students. What's next? No heat next year when it's 40 degrees outside? Bring your own space heater and take the chance of burning the dorms down!

Jay Salazar
Tucsonan

A/C cut makes study abroad appealing

I am studying abroad this semester is Spain, but I still like to get online and check out what's going on back at the good ol' UA. But, after reading "Budget cuts lead to hot, sweaty plan: no A/C," I don't want to go back. Thank God I won't have to deal with it in a dorms, but no A/C in the classrooms? Count me out! I remember last spring, when someone had shut off the A/C to our wing in Cochise, it was unbearable. It's not that we hadn't been drinking enough water (which is what the UA's solution is), it was the fact that we couldn't sleep at night because it was so damn hot. Let me tell you, we had a lot of hot, steamy sleepless nights; and not the good kind!

Furthermore, the article says the leftover money will be used to pay for a new Alumni Plaza? Praise the Lord! Why not use the money to give the alumni more seats to the basketball games at cheaper prices. That sounds like another brilliant idea from the UA administration.

All I'm trying to say is that even though this sounds like a good idea to save money, it's only going to produce a bunch of pissed off and unproductive students! And I guarantee you, drinking three gallons of water won't make it any better.

Kyle Nelson
sophomore majoring in Spanish

Article overstates problems with football team

I think that Tom Knauer is overstating the troubles of the Arizona football team. First off, Rickey Parker has not found himself in some legal trouble. His dismissal from the ASU football team occurred in 2003. He spent the last two years at a community college, and has not had any legal trouble. Certainly, he made a mistake when he threatened his roommate in a heated situation back in 2003, but everybody deserves a second chance. If coach Stoops and his staff felt that Parker was going to be a troublemaker, I'm sure they would not have offered him a scholarship. The same goes for Byron Smith, who has been charged but not convicted of anything. Sometimes people do stupid things when they're young, and learn their lesson. Perhaps that is the case with Smith and Parker, and if so, the Wildcat team can benefit greatly.

I also had to laugh at the suggestion that coach Stoops allows his players to roam free from the expectation to follow rules. Just because we don't know what disciplinary action he takes doesn't mean no action is taken. Gilbert Harris and Yaniv Barnett were kept out of games last year, and we don t know what other action was taken against them. The same goes for Paul Phillip. One minor infraction does not warrant a severe penalty. The football program is far from out of control.

Andrew Lichtmann
Pharmacy graduate student