ASUA only invited Moore, not others
There is nothing more than I love to see in the Wildcat Mailbag than a well-researched letter proclaiming the injustices that ASUA continually seems to be inflicting upon its poor conservative students.
However, that was not the case when I read the Garrett O'Hara's complaint, "Poor oversight in picking speakers."
ASUA is only responsible for bringing Michael Moore to the University of Arizona campus.
Amy Goodman was sponsored by the television network Access Tucson and radio station KXCI.
As for Ted Kennedy, he propositioned ASUA to come for free (since all current public officials are free of charge) but our Speakers Board Director declined since ASUA, being a nonpartisan organization, did not want to only bring in liberal speakers.
The University of Arizona College of Law therefore contacted Sen. Kennedy and is sponsoring him as a speaker.
So Mr. O'Hara, continue to toot your horn against the supposed overbearing liberals in ASUA, but do your research first.
Ela Cudilo
executive director of the Women's Resource Center
Don't go if you don't like Moore
As to the ever-bitter debate about "conservative" voices on campus and "liberal" voices on campus, it makes sense to point out two things.
First, the campus Republicans have spent an inordinate amount of time lamenting ASUA's decision to bring Michael Moore to campus. What they are not talking about, in their quest for a free-market economy, is this: If students didn't want to hear what he has to say, they wouldn't buy tickets, nor would they attend.
The contention that ASUA is "paying Mr. Moore $27,000 to speak" at UA is ridiculous. ASUA stands to make money on bringing him here, and if you do the math you find that ASUA only has to sell approximately 5,400 seats to break even (many fewer than McKale's capacity).
On this same point, this whole hoopla begs the question: Are the conservatives on campus bitter because Jim Kolbe can't draw $5 per person or that he can't fill McKale?
Second, (whether you) agree or disagree with Mr. Moore, ASUA has done its job, which is to get students talking about politics. Like it or not, students are more interested in this election, given all of this publicity. I can't for the life of me understand why the campus Republicans would be upset about that.
Jonna Lopez
women's studies graduate student
Ticket system should be refined for hoops
Something needs to be done about the basketball lottery. The first thing wrong with it is that people will get tickets who didn't even want them that much. If you can't make the effort to actually sign up for a lottery separate from just simply buying a Zona Zoo pass then you don't deserve tickets.
Secondly, there is no preference for class that I know of. I haven't gotten tickets after three years of trying and it would be nice to get them before I graduate. A couple ideas for a solution: Make people sign up online for the lottery, while giving more tickets to upperclassmen.
Or do it like Duke does and sell tickets separately for each game. People have to wait in line for however long it takes, at least this way everyone gets a shot at getting tickets for a game or two. I don't know if these are good solutions, but something needs to be done. The system in place now is worthless.
Collin Douglas
pre-business junior