Editor:
As a UA student and football fan, I cannot believe the audacity that the university administration has displayed in asking students, staff, and faculty to vacate parking lots early for the Sept. 8 football game against Georgia Tech. While I am sure that the university is receiving an impressive amount of money in return for television coverage of this game, I would also like to remind our administrators that the combined tuitions of some 35,000 students, to say nothing of the minor fortune paid each year for parking privileges, is a significant sum of money as well. Undoubtedly, Tucson and the UA will experience a minor windfall from the Georgia Tech fans staying in Tucson . however, the students, staff, and faculty of the UA contribute to this community, both financially and personally, year-round, and should be accorded more respect than the visiting fans from a college football team.
I feel that asking departments to bend work schedules to allow employees to vacate parking early, as well as telling students to pursue alternate means of transportation to school, is an insult to the academic integrity of this school. With administrative policies such as these, which place higher priorities on athletics and income than education, I can see why the UA has gained something of a national reputation as a primarily non-academic, "party school."
Jason T. Figueroa
Astronomy and Physics Junior