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Letters to the Editor

Spring Fling 2000 safe

To the editor,

Working as the Director of Operations and Security for Spring Fling 2000, I had the opportunity to speak with your reporters on numerous occasions. While being interviewed a month ago, I was asked to describe the security plans for the upcoming carnival. I went into great detail describing the many levels of security and law enforcement which would be in place, from student volunteers to officers to two different police agencies. Your reporter was very cordial and it seemed as though she was taking careful notes throughout our interview. The story running the following day, although manipulated in a few ways, was essentially the same information I had provided.

Weeks later, I was contacted with a question regarding the apparent shortcoming in security which I was unaware of. Your reporter stated that there would be a massive shortage in security and asked if I would be able to keep everyone safe with such low numbers. This issue was a complete surprise to me, as the numbers I had on record represented one of the largest Spring Fling security staffs in history. I addressed the issues and concerns of your reporter, assured her that there was no story here, and assumed that this would be the end of it.

During the carnival, I was asked to address the same question from the same reporter. Again, I provided the information that my staff was the largest it's been in recent history, and the police presence on the field ranged from the high teens to the high twenties at any given time. At this point, I was getting tired of answering the same question so many times.

On Friday, April 28, the "collaborative stance of the Arizona Daily Wildcat Opinions Board" was represented in an editorial on page four. I was blown away by the second to last paragraph describing the "problems" with the Rilllito Fling, which included "transportation and limited security." Limited security? Again? Arizona Daily Wildcat... Please get your pens and pencils ready... There was no limited security. I say again... There was no limited security. My twenty field supervisors, eighty redshirt officers, hundred or so Perimeter and Parking staff, dozens of Pima County Sheriff's Deputies, dozens of University of Arizona Police Officers and lil ol' me made for a very real, very competent, and very professional security presence at Rillito Downs from April 13 through the 16th. There were numerous incidents which came up during the course of the carnival which were handled patiently, professionally, and so well that very few of the 47,000 patrons had even the slightest idea any situation was even in progress.

I am writing for a few reasons. The first is to encourage your reporters to take better notes during interviews. If they're going to waste someone's time, I recommend that they don't pick up the phone in the first place. Second, I wanted to thank my staff and the UAPD officers which made it so readily obvious that there was no such thing as "limited security" at Spring Fling 2000. The numbers speak for themselves, both in the number of security staff we had on the field and the number of dollars Spring Fling raised for student activities. Regardless of whether or not we made money as a carnival, Spring Fling made a record amount of money for the students. This in itself is the primary reason so many of us put so much time and effort into the largest campus event in the country, so the least you could do is report the facts as they are. Making up the details to fit your pre-determined agenda is nothing more than bad journalism, and I hope you respect your newspaper more than to sink to such a level as journalists-to-be.

Jason Kalan

Communications Senior

Director of Operations and Security, Spring Fling 2000

Classified sabbaticals helpful

To the editor,

As a member of the classified staff, many classes required for my degree are not available during the evening. If I didn't have a boss who allowed me flexibility to take classes when they are offered I would not be able to pursue my degree. Unfortunately the tuition reduction is a benefit but not necessarily honored or respected by numerous department heads or supervisors.

As a previous employee of the law school I ask, "Where did this student get his facts?" The majority of law classes are during the day, how can a full-time, 8-5 employee, take law classes and graduate in three years? One class is twice a week, another class the other two evenings, that is only six or seven units per semester. The majority of the students I met while there had quit their full-time jobs to return to law school, most obtained jobs with law firms doing research and assisting attorneys. These jobs paid $6.50- $8.50 per hour, seldom did any job offer more $10 or more an hour. Is this enough to pay their tuition? Students I worked closely with, were on financial assistance, even those who had already worked full-time and saved money towards their law degree. One of the many complaints from law students was that there are very few evening classes, thus preventing them to keep their full-time day job and earn their law degrees in the evenings.

The issue of what staff would learn by taking a sabbatical is he implying that custodians and staff only want to learn more about their jobs. Does he not realize that humans have the capability of learning beyond their job?

Example: The custodian who had a passion for sewing, Disney gave her the paid-time to become certified. She took twelve weeks paid time off, attended an intensive training in another state was certified and now works as a costume designer training other employees. She did not wish to go to Honduras to learn new mopping techniques. She earned an honorable living for herself and her children, but she had a dream and it became a reality because someone was willing to give her the opportunity instead of suppressing her ambitions and telling her she could only do job task training. Did her employer benefit from this opportunity? Yes, they have an excellent person who has hired extremely well qualified seamstresses amd costume personnel, trains them superbly and the turnover rate has declined tremendously.

As a program coordinator, I have continued to take classes and am pursuing my degree. Juggling classes, work, and family does burn me out. Sometimes I wish I could quit my job just to speed up my studies but how would I support myself or a child? I am a single parent with no child support. I must make house payments, buy foor and other necessities. Perhaps Mr. Zeckets could come up with a solution to handle work, school, family obligations and no child support.

No one can function as a head of household, a student, and full-time employee without some burn out. How many full-time students without a job, burn out and drop out of school because they can't handle the work load.

Who is he to mock or degrade staff, regardless of their job duties, for wanting the opportunity to learn something that will give them the ability to advance? Not everyone desires to be a professor but they do deserve the same equality in learning education opportunities.

I challenge Mr. Zeckets to earn a bachelor's degree in four years, while working full-time, without burning out. The definition from the Cambridge International Dictionary are "a period of time when college or university teachers are allowed to stop their usual work in order to study or travel, usually while continuing to be paid." Clearly states stop their usual work. Why shouldn't staff be able to stop their usual work to pursue their education or develop themselves professionally into a new field of work or opportunities?

Amanda Palma

Office of Technology Transfer

Staff merit sabbaticals

To the editor,

I think the author of "Masters in Mopping" should consider all the variables before making generalizations. He neglected to realize that although "janitors, secretaries and similiar employees" are in the Classified Staff Labor Pool, so are: Editors, Engineers, Instructional Specialists, Nurses, Policemen and Social Workers. Wouldn't these individuals gain from exposure to methods, practices and training made possible by Staff Sabbaticals?

It is true that historically only faculty have had the opportunity to take sabbaticals, but does that mean that they are the only ones to benefit from them. Ultimately the entire campus benefits from increased knowledge and experience.

Six weeks gives someone who is working on a Masters degreethe opportunity to write a draft of their thesis. Or it gives someone who is completeing a work-related certification, the opportunity to study for boards. While in many cases individuals may not need advanced degrees to progress in their fields, there are a significant number of positions that require either a degree or an advanced degree to progress. Assuming that everyone who isn't a faculty member is not a professional is a mistake. This campus is a microcosm of society. In fact, you could argue that it is a small city requiring many of the same job classifications you would find in the "outside world." And indeed, the major corporations are investigating sabbaticals for their employees.

Wouldn't students prefer to know that the nurse at Student Health has the most up-to-date skills, rather than whatever he/she learned when they were in Nursing school at the age of 20? Wouldn't parents want the police officer who is investigating a major crime on campus to have the most wide-reaching experience in the field. And lastly, wouldn't the taxpayers like to feel that the Information Technology managers on this campus be as experienced and knowledgeable as possible when they are spending millions of dollars on administrative, instructional and research computing? These are the opportunities and experiences that are being juxtaposed with a degree in mopping.

Brian Atkinson

Computing Manager

Social and Behavioral SciencesVersity.com a valuable

Versity.com a valuable supplement

To the editor,

I would like to set the record straight on several issues regarding Versity.com that have been raised in the last two issues of the Daily Wildcat. First, the notes available at Versity.com were never intended to replace lecture attendance. They are simply provided as a supplement to attending class. The company was founded with those intentions and has not deviated since. Second, posting notes to Versity.com is not a copyright violation. If it were then Versity.com would no longer provide free class notes to over four hundred thousand students across the continent. Students pay to sit in class and thereby have the right to take notes. If they choose to publish those notes, then they may. They are not stealing intellectual property because the information discussed in classes is not the property of the professors discussing it.

There have been notetaking services that charged for their notes at this campus in previous years. Those services are no longer available because they folded for financial reasons. With the rapidly spreading popularity of e-business came the opportunity to provide online lecture notes for free. This may shake up officials and professors, but there is nothing illegal or unethical about this service.

The quality of the notes from Versity.com was also put into question as they have been "deemed" unreliable and error-filled. I don't believe that each professor on this campus has taken the time to read each set of lecture notes and then taken further time to "deem" them unreliable. If so, I don't think they informed the more than five thousand students at this school who regularly use the notes about their error-filled content. Versity.com is a great benefit to the students at this school and to students around the country. They employ intelligent, diligent people to work for them, all with the simple goal of making college a little less stressful. This is a web-site dedicated to aiding in the academic success of its users through supplementing their lecture notes, and providing other means of obtaining information. If professors frown on using this site, then they truly do not have the interests of their students in mind.

Luke Denmon

Marketing and Business Management Junior

Campus Operations Manager-Versity.com