It’s a new year, a new semester and a new beginning for the Arizona Daily Wildcat’s opinions pages. Here’s your chance to meet the people charged with delighting and enraging you this semester. Several members of previous semesters’ columnist staffs return, but you’ll also find plenty of fresh faces — and voices — on this term’s opinions pages. Without further ado, meet the talented 10 (and their editor):\
Caitlin Hall graduated from the UA with degrees in molecular and cellular biology last May. She is sticking around in a not-at-all-pathetic way to recover from undergrad before heading to law school in the fall. She enjoys video games, dinner parties and weeping during Chase credit card commercials. Caitlin returns as opinions editor for her ninth semester at the Wildcat. She has previously served as columnist, copy editor, opinions editor, wire editor and editor in chief, making her kind of a big deal.
Lori Foley is a senior majoring in French and English. She likes acronyms, fondue, finishing crossword puzzles and the Jersey Shore. She has been permitted to return for a second semester at the opinions desk despite the fact that she destroyed part of a wall on her first day in the newsroom by walking into it. On a related note, she was kicked out of karate class in high school for, in the words of the sensei, “lacking grace.” She studied abroad in Morocco and France, and she is interested in international politics, foster care policy and education. Her columns will appear on Mondays.
Michael Huston is a political science and philosophy junior at the UA who intends to pursue law school after graduating. As a returning columnist, he hopes to have earned a reputation among his peers for being honest and fair, and his columns have been lauded as nearly always relying on distinct and straightforward logic to form their conclusions. Michael is also the co-host of the political talk radio show “Look Both Ways” on KAMP Student Radio and is actively involved with many state and local political campaigns. His columns will run on Wednesdays.
Ryan Johnson is an economics and international studies senior. If he were on death row, his last meal would be an Argentinian Steak, chips and Macayo’s salsa, Manna Bears and a Jamba Juice. He returns as a fourth-time columnist and has worked at the Wildcat since 2002, having served as opinions editor and as a news reporter. He is also active in the UA Economics Society, Mortar Board and Pi Kappa Phi. He recently converted to an iMac, and doesn’t plan on ever buying another PC. He’ll use it to write all of his columns, which will appear on Thursdays.
Tawfik Maudah is a non-degree-seeking graduate student originally from Yemen, land of mocha, who has been living in this beautiful country since 1993. He moved to Tucson four years ago and married one amazing, extremely wise and beautiful woman, his beloved wife Kawther Alshamiri. He took one philosophy course and immediately fell in love with all things philosophical. By establishing the first public debate club at the UA, he hopes to start a revolution at the university and make public dialogue and the exchange of ideas the norm on campus. Look for his columns on Tuesdays.
Mike Morefield is a political science senior returning for a second semester on the opinions desk. Morefield loves the UA so strongly that he has spent many nights on Mill Avenue singing “Bear Down, Arizona.” Never one to keep his opinions to himself, he has been likened to a bulldog on a short leash; he’s always ready for a “light-hearted” debate. A storyteller by heritage, you can usually see him, or hear him much farther away, relating crazy incidents to anyone within earshot. He lives his life one day at a time, one story at a time, because he realizes that the only way to absorb as much college life as one man can handle is to experience it firsthand. His columns will appear on Wednesdays.
Janne Perona, pronounced “Jan,” like the middle sister on “The Brady Bunch,” is a criminal justice administration sophomore, though she started out in biochemistry. First and foremost, she is conservative, which she considers a shameful rarity at the Wildcat, but she has a few liberal tendencies. Her passions are politics and criminal investigation; her aim is to inform UA students of pertinent issues outside of the college bubble, whether they be national politics, international affairs or something right here in Arizona. Her columns will run on Fridays.
Shurid Sen is a political science junior and a product of Catalina Foothills High School here in Tucson. He has visited 12 countries on three continents, and he hopes to do much more traveling in the years to come. He believes that the best way to understand others is to be aware of the diverse cultures that the world has to offer. Shurid is addicted to Madden football on Playstation and will destroy you because he plays it way too much, but he believes that Tecmo Bowl is still the best video game ever created. He has also run into more cactuses than he cares to admit. His columns will appear on Thursdays.
Matt Stone is an international studies and economics junior with a taste for cheap books and expensive wine. After a semester in central Siberia, Stone is back, no strings attached, commenting on the gratuitous and mundane from Vladivostok, Russia, somewhere between North Korea and the North Pole. He draws his inspiration from intellectual heavyweights like Hazlitt, Solzhenitsyn and Nietzsche, although he admittedly ranks as a featherweight on the intellectual scale. Fortunately, he doesn’t like boxing, so the metaphor is negligible. Stone is distantly related to the Norwegian royal family. Look for his columns on alternating Mondays.
Jonathan Riches is a second-year law student who has returned to the opinions desk after taking a semester off to nurse a bruised ego from his last go-round. Though an Arizona native, Riches went to school at Boston College, where he confirmed that, with the exception of Fenway Park, the West Coast remains the best coast. He enjoys travel, foreign affairs and current events. This semester he may be found at the law library, at the Student Recreation Center or in front of his TV, if a Suns game is on. Riches is an aspiring judge advocate lawyer who misses your mail because it reminds him that he should not choose journalism as a career. His columns will run on alternating Mondays.
Vanessa Valenzuela is an economics and international studies sophomore. When she’s not in class, you can almost always find her in Starbucks reading and making random friends. Don’t tell Starbucks, but she has recently been wooed by Espresso Art’s promise of free wireless Internet, strong coffee in a real mug, and a closing time of 2 a.m. Valenzuela has an interest in the political and economic roller coaster that is Latin America and hopes to have a career that allows her to live there or at least travel there often. You’ll find her column in the Wildcat on Fridays.