Top 10 - The "best and worst" of '96-'97

Manuel Pacheco will take over as the president of the University of Missouri System Aug. 1, almost seven months after he announced his resignation as the UA's president.

Pacheco announced his resignation Jan. 8, saying he believed he had been at the university long enough.

In his resignation statement, Pacheco said, "When I arrived, I said that I believed presidents are most effective in their first five to seven years. . I set several goals that now are either accomplished or well on the way to being accomplished."

Although Pacheco's contract at Arizona does not end until Dec. 31, the Arizona Board of Regents said it would allow him to leave his post early.

The board is now seeking a new president.

A search committee made up of regents, students, faculty and community members met for the third time Friday to discuss applicants and nominees for the position behind closed doors.

Committee members have said they expect to name finalists in the search by early- to mid-June and they hope to name a new president by Aug. 1.

2. UA wins 1st NCAA nat'l title in men's basketball

The Arizona Wildcats beat the University of Kentucky Wildcats in overtime, 84-79, March 31 to win their first National Championship in men's basketball.

Both sets of Wildcats passed the lead back and forth throughout the game, and Arizona took a slim 33-32 lead to the locker room after the first half.

As the final seconds of the overtime period ticked off the clock, students and others from the community reacted by pouring into the streets. Fans watching the game turned North Fourth Avenue into a sea of people who climbed light poles, tore down street signs and overturned a police car.

On campus, thousands of students swarmed the UA Mall where they ran through sprinklers and cheered as the Student Union bell tower tolled 84 times to commemorate the Wildcats' 84 points in the championship game.

East Speedway Boulevard came to a halt between North Campbell Avenue and North Sixth Avenue when occupants of horn-blaring cars left their vehicles to celebrate.

Tucson police used pepper spray, tear gas and flex batons, small bags of pellets shot from shot guns, to disperse crowds on Fourth Avenue early the next morning. University and Tucson police reported six arrests were made during the celebrations.

3. UA enrollment drops in fall 1996; results in deficit

The UA's student head-count dropped by 1,273 students from fall 1995 to fall 1996 - 1,334 students when that figure is adjusted to reflect full-time equivalents. That means the fall semester's full-time equivalent enrollment dropped to 28,485.

The decrease forced the UA to face a funding deficit of about $2.8 million, and each college was asked to shave 1 percent off of its operating budget.

Arizona State University saw an increase of 1,430 full-time equivalents, and Northern Arizona University lost 440 full-time equivalents.

4. AIC opens, soon after faces legislative ultimatum

The first classes at the UA's Arizona International Campus started at 11 a.m. Aug. 22 as 45 students and seven professors began classes at an unconventional campus that has received a lot of criticism and an ultimatum from the state Legislature.

AIC was created with the goal to fill the gap between community colleges and state universities by bringing in a greater liberal arts education element.

Although a July 1994 report expected AIC to start out with an enrollment around 1,000, as of the April 15, 1996, application deadline, only 48 applications were received for an expected incoming class of 100 students, and the deadline was extended.

Earlier this year, the state Legislature added a footnote to the Arizona university system's budget which stated that funding for AIC would be cut off if the campus did not enroll 250 students by fall 1997. The Legislature later removed the footnote, alth ough campus officials said they are still striving to meet the goal.5.

5. Projects bring UA to scientific forefront

• A surveyor designed by members of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., early Dec. 4, en route to Mars where it will photograph the red planet's atmosphere and surface.

  After two unsuccessful launch attempts, the $6 million Imager from Mars Pathfinder is expected to arrive on Mars July 4, when it will begin taking pictures of the planet - the first photos since the 1976 Viking project.

• A UA-designed Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer was installed on the Hubble Space Telescope Feb. 14.

  The $105 million instrument will allow scientists to explore some of the oldest regions of the universe. It gives Hubble the ability to "see" the temperatures of distant objects.

  After its installation, however, scientists encountered some difficulties with NICMOS after one of the instrument's three highly sensitive detectors went out of focus.

  Some of the frozen nitrogen in NICMOS' case redistributed itself, moving the detector out of focus. The nitrogen cools the instrument to minus 200 degrees Celsius as it evaporates so it does not pick up heat from itself when making observations.

  UA scientists were hopeful that the instrument's focus would be restored after more of the nitrogen evaporates.

• The Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory cast an 8.4-meter telescope mirror - the world's largest - by slowly heating 20 tons of borosilicate glass in a spinning furnace beneath Arizona Stadium.

  After loading the glass into a mold on the two-story, mushroom-shaped furnace, it was heated to 1180 degrees Celsius and spun at 6.8 revolutions per minute until the glass melted to form the mirror's parabolic shape. The mirror was then slowly cooled in t he spinning oven until it took its solid form.

  Once polishing and finishing are completed, the mirror will be installed on the Large Binocular Telescope at Mount Graham. A second, identical mirror will then be cast for the scope. When it is completed, the LBT will have the light-gathering capability o f a single 11.8-meter telescope - a larger collecting power than any other existing or planned scope in the world.

6. New hotel, commercial development opens near UA

The Marriott University Park hotel and a new commercial development near East University Boulevard and North Euclid Avenue is boosting business at the UA-area's newest shopping mecca.

Gentle Ben's Brewing Co., which relocated from its former location at North Tyndall Avenue and East Second Street, opened Oct. 16 in the new West Main Gate Center area.

The Marriott University Park began housing guests Dec. 1, and Bath and Body Works opened Feb. 14. The Gap opened in the center March 28 and the Coffee Plantation opened April 16.

The City of Tucson has also renovated the area near the West Main Gate Center with new sidewalks and additional parking. The Marshall Foundation and J.L. Investments Inc. have plans to renovate existing store fronts along University, between Tyndall and N orth Park avenues, as well.

Commercialization of the University Boulevard area has drawn criticism from people who favor the older, relaxed style of the area, and local neighborhood associations, which have complained that there is a lack of parking around the new development.

7. ASUA president tries for 2nd term

ASUA President Rhonda Wilson's re-election attempt was squelched when she was suspended from campaigning the general election because of a campaign rules violation.

Former Undergraduate Senate Chairman Gilbert Davidson received 71.85 percent of the votes in the March 4 and 5 general election after Wilson's campaign privileges were suspended March 3 through March 4.

Associated Students elections officials said Wilson violated campaign spending regulations when she did not list poster paper she received from her mother as a no-cost item on her expense forms.

During Wilson's appeal of the suspension, the ASUA Supreme Court ruled that Wilson did not "knowingly and willfully" violate the ASUA Elections Code, but she did commit a technical violation of the code.

Wilson was the first ASUA president to run for re-election. Wilson won the 1996 election with 50.06 percent of the votes. She was the first African American and the fifth female to take the presidency.

8. KAMP Student Radio successful in referendum for stronger antenna

KAMP Student Radio will be able to purchase a 5,000-watt antenna with the capability to broadcast throughout Tucson after its proposal to enact a $1-per-semester student fee was passed during the ASUA general election March 4 and 5.

The KAMP referendum passed with 82.65 percent of the votes. Students will see the new fee on their tuition bills this fall. The fee will be assessed for five years, giving 8-year-old KAMP about $70,000 per year, depending on enrollment.

9. Disabled students protest ASUA's selection of new director for ASD

Members of the Association of Students with Disabilities battled the Undergraduate Senate and split to form their own organization after an ASUA vice president appointed a student unknown by the group's members to lead ASD.

Mindy McCollum, Associated Students vice president of programs and services, selected Ann Fowler, a psychology sophomore, as the director of ASD.

McCollum said she chose Fowler to head the organization because, as a recently disabled student, she would be more sensitive to disabled students' difficulties on campus. Fowler lost the use of her legs in 1995 after an automobile accident. She had never been a member of ASD.

Members of the group fought against Fowler's appointment, saying she was unknown by the group's members and that the group had nominated Eric Olson, an optical engineering sophomore, for the directorship based on input from ASD's members.

Disabled students spoke out against the appointment at the Senate's Sept. 11 meeting, when the Senate approved Fowler's appointment after meeting behind closed doors, which was in violation of ASUA bylaws.

In late September, 14 of ASD's 24 members left the student government-funded program and formed their own organization.

Last month, the Senate approved its programs and services bylaws for the upcoming year without including ASD as an ASUA program.

Upon a recommendation from Fowler, McCollum did not forward ASD's bylaws to the Senate for its approval.

Disabled students protested the cut, but the Senate decided not to reinstate ASD, instead giving the group the option of becoming a recognized club that could apply for ASUA funding on a case-by-case basis.

However, before the Senate's final meeting April 30, disabled students marched to the meeting in protest, demanding ASD's reinstatement. At the end of the meeting, the Senate voted unanimously to incorporate ASD's bylaws into the new constitution, even th ough the bylaws were not on the meeting's agenda.

10. Arizona State steamrolls UA 56-14 in annual rival football game

The Arizona State Sun Devils stomped the UA Wildcats 56-14 at Arizona Stadium Nov. 23 during a rivalry game that brought on fights on the field and in the stands, unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and the ejection of five players in front of a record crow d of 59,920.

The Rose Bowl-bound Sun Devils faced a strong Wildcat defense early on, as Arizona stopped ASU on four straight series. But just one minute and seven seconds after the Wildcats' offense scored its seventh - and last - point, the Sun Devils were in the en d zone to respond, and ASU began to dominate the rest of the game.

The only other Arizona score came on a 98-yard interception return by safety Mikal Smith, but it wasn't enough to close the gap on the scoreboard.

ASU fans who made the two-hour trek from Tempe stormed the field in the final seconds and tried to tear down the goal posts. Although police were on hand, they did not intervene as the fans made a futile attempt to dismantle the goal posts, which are spec ially designed not to collapse. Security personnel started pulling people off the bright yellow crossbar and clearing them from the field about 15 minutes later.

This article was compiled from Arizona Daily Wildcat archives.