Habitual readers of The New York Times may have been surprised over the weekend when a huge exposé about the weaknesses of large state universities featured the UA almost exclusively. The 6,000-word piece chronicled the problems of large classes, anonymity and the lack of advising through the tales of five students.

Although mostly noting that the UA's problems are symptomatic of all large state universities, it wasn't particularly complimentary. The writer accused students of avoiding hard classes, being "maze smart" and avoiding guidance. The piece also accused professors of being impersonal, and said teachers and students are engaged in a "mutual non-aggression pact," whereby teachers give good grades for minimal work in order to be able to focus on research, and in exchange, students give the teachers good evaluations despite bad teaching.

President Peter Likins, interviewed for the story, seemed to deflect blame, citing "economic necessity" and the budget cuts as the source of problems. Instead, the administrations should learn something from the piece.

The overriding lesson should be that there is a lack of accountability. The New York Times seemed particularly astute at distinguishing economic necessities, such as large classes, and more systematic problems, such as grade inflation (one student in the story manages a 3.0 grade point average without going to class, and one student received a "C" in a class for which she stopped going and didn't even take the final).

Problems like grade inflation and the abundance of effortless classes don't require funds to fix. Increasing freshman retention is so much more than decreasing faculty-to-student ratios. For example, freshman retention can be improved by simply increasing admissions standards.

Still, the administration is absolutely correct when it says that the tools students need to graduate are in place, but too many students don't use them. Indeed, students deserve some blame. Robin Bhalla, featured in the piece hitting a beer bong, is not alone in putting partying before academics. For many at the UA, getting by with minimal effort seems to be cause for bragging rights. Sooner or later the lack of skills will catch up.

One area in which students and faculty need to work together is advising. The advising at the UA is admittedly below what should be standard, with too few advisers employed and many of them unqualified. It is, however, an area in which the UA is improving, but to improve requires that students make the effort to seek and receive advice.

In the end, the piece probably won't be the wake-up call it should be. But it was interesting to see the UA get such prime-time attention, and some would even call it a marketing coup. Even the Arizona Daily Wildcat received mention, when a professor said that students need to put down the paper in class.

To think, the Daily Wildcat makes you dumber.

Opinions are determined by the Wildcat Opinions Board and written by one of its members. They are Evan Caravelli, Brett Fera, Caitlin Hall, Ryan Johnson, Jesse Lewis, Lisa Rich and Tim Runestad.