Playing chicken

It's a common refrain among student government officials that the average UA student "just doesn't care," but it probably has more to do with the 13-year-old mentality of the officials themselves than the immaturity of the student body. In recent weeks, the political scene has come to resemble something of a middle school playground, with various leaders from the Associated Students of the University of Arizona and the Graduate and Professional Student Council locking horns in a fight-to-the-death power struggle to determine who gets to sit at the cool kids' table. In the world of campus politics, 'twas ever thus, and it remains to be seen whether it will always be so. But for reducing the level of campus discourse to something comparable to a schoolyard spitball match, this latest infantile fracas gets a Fail.

The athletic odyssey

In the past, Homecoming at the UA might be compared to a pregnancy: All the fun's in the anticipation, but the ending's usually more than a little painful. Not so this year. Despite tight restrictions designed to curb underage drinking and the specter of an undefeated University of California, Los Angeles football team looming large at the gates of Arizona Stadium, the celebrations were raucous, the parade went off without a hitch, and our boys in red and blue somehow managed to dismantle the befuddled Bruins. For bringing home a victory of Homeric proportions, and for helping to prove that hoops and hardwood might have a little competition as the No. 1 UA sport, the Homecoming festivities get a Pass.

A less cluttered concourse

For anyone who still remembers the monstrous hole in the UA Mall during the building of the Manuel T. Pacheco Integrated Learning Center, the construction (or lack thereof) this semester might seem a blissful respite from the usual clanging, yelling and welding. Knowing the UA's enormous appetite for questionable projects (a hill shaped like an embryo and water fountains in the desert, anyone?), this reprieve probably won't last long. But for holding off on major surgeries to our beloved Mall, the lack of construction this semester gets a Pass.

It's all about the readers

Just as a leader without followers is just a man taking a walk, a newspaper without a readership is, well, a waste of a product. Much was made about the Arizona Daily Wildcat receiving top honors from The Princeton Review, but it was entirely based on the overwhelmingly positive student response to the content within these pages. As your No. 1 news source here on campus, we are humbled daily by the letters to the editor (no matter how heated), the suggestions (no matter how inane) and even the complaints (no matter how critical). For taking the time to care about more than Police Beat, Sudoku or the crossword puzzle, the Wildcat's readership gets a Pass.

Opinions Board

Opinions are determined by the Wildcat opinions board and written by one of its members. They are Lori Foley, Ryan Johnson, Damion LeeNatali, Aaron Mackey, Mike Morefield, Katie Paulson and Tim Runestad.