Search

ARCHIVES
CONTACT US
WORLD NEWS

Letters to the Editor

Students need to speak out

To the editor,

Very few times in a student's college career does a student get the opportunity to speak directly to the administrators and policy makers who shape their college experience. Now is one of those few times. On Thursday, Mar. 30 at 5 p.m. in Harvill, Room 211, students will have the opportunity to speak live and via satellite to administrators and voice their concerns and tell their stories. These tuition hearings are an opportunity for all students to speak directly to the Board of Regents and the University Presidents regarding not only tuition, but all university fees and costs.

The Arizona Students Association (ASA) would like to encourage all students who feel that they have something to say and would like their voice to be heard. If you have any questions feel free to call ASA at 621-6306.

We hope to see you there.

Francisco V. Aguilar

ASUA Student Body President

Business college exemplifies struggle

To the editor,

The collaborative effort of The Wildcat seemed to be seriously lacking on Tuesday, Mar. 28 about business college policy. I have just recently attained advanced standing through the Eller Business College and found it to be a very positive experience. First of all, your comment about the 200 students who did not get accepted to the business college as "not being good enough" is an obvious overstatement to anyone embroiled in the Advanced Standing process this year. If you had done some research, you might have found that the majority of these students who did not get accepted had not yet fully met the requirements of advanced standing, such as attaining a 2.75 GPA or have taken or in the process of taking the necessary classes. It wasn't simply that these individuals weren't good enough to be a part of the business college. Also, these students have an opportunity to re-apply every semester, not wait an entire year as stated in your article.

Secondly, the Eller College pulls in a great majority of its money from sources other than what's granted to them by this institution and are always in the hunt for more. To state that the Eller College of Business and Public Administration should just draw from a seemingly limitless pool of funds from corporate sponsorship and alumni is very naive. The MIS program is a great example of the financial struggle that faces the college: to maintain it's 5th ranking amongst public and private institutions, it must constantly find ways to keep its high-rated faculty from accepting a higher pay from a private institution that can afford it. From what I've learned about my college thus far, I truly believe it was absolutely necessary to institute a degree of competitiveness to ensure that a limited faculty can accommodate the students and to ensure that our degrees mean just as much as our predecessors.

Thirdly, the interview process we were all subjected to was hardly "forcing students through an interview process." Again, a little research would've shown that the interviews held little weight in the decision-making process. The interviews were created to give us business students a chance to experience a business interview in how to dress properly, how to showcase abilities and refine communication skills. In turn, the alumni and corporate representatives got a chance to see where their donations are going. As a result of my interview, I now have a strong contact point with Phillip Morris, one of the ten biggest corporations in the world.

Finally, I have a good degree of pride in my college. So, if you're going to attack the biggest college at the University of Arizona, you might want to include some facts to back up your opinions.

Mike Schrade

Management Information Systems sophomore

Laptops not the solution

To the editor,

Both Moniqua Lane and Creighton Anderson wrote some interesting articles about the need of computers to students. It is true that the World Wide Web has become one of the most important tools of education.

Students can learn through online classes the same way they can in class.

In the future, we might just have only online classes. Students can get notes online, to tutoring, and now many professors in computer sciences as well as non-technical areas have been using the Web for educating students.

That, indeed, brings out the need for computer literacy. It is true that laptops in class rooms will be essential. If any one of non-BPA students visited the BPA classes you'll classes having ethernet connections for laptops. Instead of bringing big posters or displays, students can present their Projects via the class projector from their laptop. They might have different softwares than the main computer class. The prices of laptops are falling greatly, and I doubt it that Professors would make students buy the high-priced laptops.

Almost all office applications to class related materials to your favorite pictures from Spring Break can be saved on the net. The cheaper Internet appliances as well as other computers will become the backbone of education and businesses. As a result laptops would loose much of their value in the market. Students should not pay 3,000 dollars for laptops? With all these new innovations in the computer world, the students won't need to!

Finally, if colleges do propose students to buy laptops or get out, many computer businesses will make sure to provide inexpensive computers for student use. All in all, students waste a lot of money with credit cards on stupid stuff, and go down in debt. With the long lines in computer labs, having any computer is a good investment. In the end, it is the big lecture hall which will have to start packing and let the online classes move in. The only classes students would need to do is take proctored tests, and only go to classes where they need hands-on experience like chemistry labs, music classes, engineering labs, you get the point ... .

Ahmad Saad Nasim

ASUA Senator