Rec Center scraps expansion plan

In lieu of charging students additional fees that administrators have determined to be too lofty, the Student Recreation Center has modified its expansion plan.

Since its opening in 1990, the Student Recreation Center was projected by its former director to be a successful project for students to turn to in developing a healthy college lifestyle and be a distraction away from the pressures of school.

Now, 15 years later, Juliette Moore, director of campus recreation, said she can't believe the success story the Rec Center has written for itself.

But an over-populated weight room and student demand for more workout machines in hopes of cutting down wait time for the various workout machines has forced Moore and other Rec Center administrators to think of ways to enhance and expand the 15-year-old building.

Last semester, Moore proposed a $35-million expansion to the Rec Center, which would have included a bigger weight room, new basketball courts and a new swimming pool, among many other proposed amenities.

However, sometime over the summer months, Moore had talks with ASUA, Saundra Taylor, the vice president of Campus Life, and President Peter Likins, and plans for the expansion were scrapped for the time being as the leaders determined that listening to students' concerns in keeping fees to a minimum would be in their best interest.

Moore said she hopes the Rec Center can have the same success for the next 15 years but said success won't come at the price of expanding the structure, which was tentatively scheduled for 2009.

"We've agreed to let our students continue paying the $25 existing fee for the next 30 years to help pay the bonds," Moore said.

The Rec Center will ask students to continue paying a $25 fee every semester. The other option would be to ask students attending the UA from 2009 through 2011 to dish out an extra $34 in yearly tuition to fund the now tentatively defunct $35 million expansion project.

The increase would have raised the Rec Center's student yearly fee from $50 to $84 a year.

Taylor said students will have to be asked again in a vote sometime this year to pay the $25 semester fee, but said she doesn't foresee passing it to be a problem.

Given money pressures on students, Taylor said the cost of education is tough and that adding more fees for students to pay doesn't seem like a reasonable thing to do at this point.

She said sticking to the current fee is "reasonable."

"I think it's a compromise," Taylor said. "(But) we won't be able to do what we set out to do. Students see this as a decent alternative."

Taylor said she would also like to talk to more people and get a sense of what graduate students feel about the issue.

While she's still looking at expanding the Rec Center weight room to 35,000 square feet, Moore said a three-court basketball gym, a mat gym, a track and two multi-purpose spaces have been cut from the expansion plans.

"The weight room is still our number one priority since students always complain about lines," Moore said. "We would love to have it all, but we listened to the students in this matter and it was their main concern not to have additional fees. Hopefully all this will be a priority to have in the future."

Moore said the Rec Center will push the resolution to continue the $25 semester fee again in October.

"The Rec Center, as it stands now, doesn't serve the demand of students at this time." Taylor said. "And a proposal to expand for the future would help ease these problems."

- by Zach Collick

Suspects held in UA shooting

Police have arrested two teens in connection with the shooting of a University of Arizona Police officer in early July after the officer tried to make a traffic stop.

Sgt. Eugene Mejia, UAPD spokesman, said police suspect that Jose Antonio Miranda, 15, was driving a stolen Dodge Stratus westbound on East Sixth Street near North Highland Avenue when a UAPD officer tried to pull the driver over for speeding.

The driver did not stop and the car's passenger, who police suspect to be Gilmare Agramon, 19, shot twice at the officer, missing both times.

A car chase followed with the suspects' car reaching speeds of 60 to 65 mph and eventually eluding police.

The Tucson Police Department later found the stolen car abandoned.

Agramon and Miranda are both Tucson natives.

Mejia said police began investigating the shooting the day of the July 4 incident.

UAPD and TPD worked together on the case with TPD investigating the stolen car and UAPD investigating the aggravated assault.

Police gathered evidence from the scene and the vehicle, which led to the arrest of Miranda two weeks later after an on-foot pursuit.

"Through further investigation, police were able to obtain a warrant on the passenger," Mejia said. "The warrant was activated nationwide."

Gilmare was picked up in Las Vegas during a Safe Streets operation early last week by Las Vegas Metro Police. Agramon is currently being detained in Clark County Jail in Nevada.

UAPD and TPD detectives traveled to Nevada to interview Gilmare on Thursday, Mejia said.

"We are working on an extradition so that the suspect can face the charges," he said.

The case will have to be presented to the Pima County Attorney, but Mejia said police most likely would be seeking to charge Miranda as an adult because of the violence of the crime.

Miranda could also be charged with aggravated assault along with Gilmare because of his involvement.

Mejia said prison time will definitely be involved if the two suspects are found guilty.

"They displayed a total disregard for life and property that day. We're fortunate that they did not run into anyone during their flight because the vehicle was operated recklessly," he said.

TPD deserves much credit for their involvement in the case, Mejia said. Their resources and expertise made it a solvable case, he said.

"They recognized that if people are shooting at cops they are likely to engage in other dangerous activities and need to be taken off the streets," Mejia said.

- by Holly Wells

New grant to fund research abroad

A new grant will help a UA program send 40 UA students to do research in other countries over the next four years.

The Biomedical Research Abroad: Vistas Open! program started in 1992 and has helped to send 138 students pursuing biological research abroad.

A $915,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health will help to send more students.

The grant will allow eight undergraduates and two graduates to be sent per year, said Carol Bender, director of undergraduate biology research and head of the BRAVO program.

The two graduate students must be minorities and it is preferred that the eight undergraduates are minorities, Bender said.

BRAVO started as a means of introducing research-experienced undergraduates to the international community, according to a press release.

Participants have worked in research labs in 27 different countries and projects last between 10 weeks and a year, Bender said.

Students can only go to countries where their UA faculty sponsor has colleagues and related work is taking place, Bender said.

Airfare is paid for and students receive an allowance for room and board.

"Science is international and it's great when UA students and foreign scholars can work alongside," said Bender.

Charles R. Martinez III, a UA student studying the dynamic parasite Giardia lamblia in Peru, said at first visiting a foreign country sounded scary to him.

Martinez said he is now glad he took advantage of the opportunity.

"It gives you space to grow intellectually, you become responsible for solving your own problems," Martinez said.

Bender said the application process is fairly strenuous and weeds out students who are not serious about the program.

"Students have to have an in-depth knowledge of the research topic," she said.

Students who do not meet the qualifications for the National Institutes of Health grant may still be able to go because the program receives additional funding through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bender said.

Although students do not get school credit through the BRAVO program, many have been able to get independent study credit.

Applications for the Spring BRAVO program are due October 1.

- by Holly Wells