TO CLIPS INDEX
- Clips for April 29, 2008
Commentary: You
pay more so they don’t have to
East Valley Tribune - April 29, 2008 - 1:11AM
Emboldened by their victory in killing a modest reform of a tax break that only
large developers and big
companies receive, backers of government property lease excise taxes are seeking
to expand their
usage for just a few more at the top. If you are a small business owner in
Arizona or a homeowner, GP
LETs affect you, too, because you’ll be picking up the tab for the revenues
cities are losing by giving
large corporations and developers huge property-tax breaks in the name of
“economic development.”
ASU Polytechnic
ramps up its offerings
East Valley Tribune - April 27, 2008 - 3:56AM
Like everything coming out of ASU Polytechnic in Mesa, the literary magazine
Superstition Review has
a technological bent - eschewing a traditional print run, it'll be published
exclusively online. Managing
editor Patricia Murphy says it's both intentional and incidental that the
magazine will be online-only. "We
don't have a budget," says Murphy, with a laugh. "Part of my own specialty is
online learning. I've taught
43 classes online. It seemed most natural that it was an online magazine rather
than a print magazine."
Guest Opinion:
Graduating students, consider teaching career
Arizona Daily Star - April 29, 2008
My Sunday morning routine; coffee, a bagel and a quick read of the Arizona Daily
Star, was extended to
late afternoon on April 20 as I read with great interest the Senior Class
Achievers 2008 supplement.
Although the student biographies were brief, I was incredibly impressed with the
depth of the students'
individual academic and extra-curricular achievements along with the diversity
of their leadership and
community-service experiences. I congratulate all these seniors and commend the
Arizona Daily Star
editors, staff and sponsors for their yearly commitment to spotlighting
extraordinary seniors. I challenge
anyone to read this section and not be in awe.
UA expert
to hunt quasars with grant
Tucson Citizen - April 29, 2008
Xiaohui Fan wants to look at what is essentially a "baby picture" of the
universe, and thanks to a grant
from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, he'll get his chance in the
fall. Fan, 36, a
University of Arizona associate professor of astronomy at Steward Observatory,
is the only Arizonan and
the only astronomer to win a Guggenheim this year. He will use his $42,000
fellowship to help fund his
sabbatical leave at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg,
Germany, where he'll try to find
the oldest quasars in the universe.
Our
Opinion: AZ's budget clock ticking on $2 billion deficit bomb
Tucson Citizen - April 29, 2008
There are 63 days left in the state's fiscal year - 63 days in which the
Legislature must come up with a
balanced spending plan for the year that begins July 1. Despite the approaching
deadline and a budget
in which about 20 percent of the ink is red, legislators seem blissfully
unconcerned about what one law-
maker rightly calls "a real train wreck coming." It took legislators three
months to solve a far less serious
problem with the current year's budget.
New
registration system's kinks being felt
ASU Web Devil - April 29, 2008
After a bumpy first year, ASU hopes to make its new instant-enrollment
registration system easier for
students to use. Ever since the University introduced a newly redesigned ASU
Interactive in March 2007,
many students get out of bed early at least twice a year to register for classes
in the morning. But to get
the classes they want, students not only have to log in as early as 7 a.m. to be
first in line, but also use
a system that requires many clicks and offers limited tools — a situation the
University is trying to improve,
said Leah Lommel, the University Technology Office's student systems director.
"Our next big goal is
improving [the] student experience," Lommel said.
Cracking codes is day-to-day business in one campus building
ASU Web Devil - April 29, 2008
President of forensics company that operates out of ASU building says work is
like what can be seen
on CSI
In the Downtown campus's 411 building, there is a glassed-in hallway only
accessible by security card
or an inside employee. This area, labeled "Suite 170," is home of Forensics
Consulting Solutions, LLC,
or FCS. When two large companies sue each other, FCS, which is not affiliated
with ASU, is hired by the
company's lawyers to sort through information on corporate computers. FCS
employee Joan O'Meara
said her company is a money saver for many of its clients.
Senate passes textbook bill
ASU Web Devil - April 29, 2008
Proposal to force book publishers to disclose price info to professors
ASU students may see lower textbook prices for the fall semester because the
State Senate passed
House Bill 2230 Monday. The bill, which was initiated by the Arizona Students
Association, requires
publishers to disclose facts about new textbooks, such as prices and information
about what's new in
each edition, that could influence professors' decisions in choosing required
materials for their classes.
If signed by Gov. Janet Napolitano, the bill will become law.
Collaboration provides students with resources to succeed
ASU Web Devil - April 29, 2008
ASU teams up with Department of Education to prepare education graduates for
real world
In collaboration with the Arizona Department of Education, the University of
Arizona and Northern Arizona
University, ASU will be providing education graduates with access to a new and
unique resource library.
The resource library will provide new teachers, students and parents with
instruction tips from veterans
in the field, education materials and state guidelines and research.
Editorial: We don't need no stinkin' state
UA Daily Wildcat Online - April 29, 2008
Facing fiscal uncertainty, UA should aggressively seek private funds
The $11 million cutback to the UA's budget announced last week by the Arizona
Board of Regents wasn't
a surprise for anyone. Arizona's economy has started to cool, and the state
budget has been a fiscal
disaster for months. With an already-stingy state Legislature facing a huge
budget shortfall of its own, a
measure of fiscal prudence is inevitable, and in the current climate it makes
sense for the regents to
prepare Arizona's universities to cut back. But though the cuts were
predictable, they won't be pleasant.
Student loans: The latest credit crisis
UA Daily Wildcat Online - April 29, 2008
An integral credit market full of risky loans suddenly seizes up. Borrowers
can't find the capital they need,
and banks are hesitant to lend in an uncertain and unprofitable market. The
result? A sloppy, billion-dollar
bailout courtesy of the federal government. Thinking of the credit crunch that
resulted in a $30 billion rescue
of investment bank Bear Sterns by the Federal Reserve last month? Think again: A
similar cycle of uncertainty
is underway in the market for student loans, and it could have big consequences
for those who need to pay
for a college education in the coming academic year.
Gov. to see textbook bill
UA Daily Wildcat Online - April 29, 2008
Student-based legislation would make publishers give more details on books
PHOENIX - A student-initiated bill aimed to curb textbook costs passed the state
House of Representatives
and Senate yesterday and heads to the Gov. Janet Napolitano's desk this week.
The bill, HB 2230, requires
textbook publishers to provide more information, such as price and differences
in editions, to faculty and
others who make textbook decisions for universities and community colleges.
Survey to address SUMC improvements
UA Daily Wildcat Online - April 29, 2008
Underground to be revamped starting in fall
UA officials believe the basement level of the Student Union Memorial Center is
losing popularity, and they
want the campus community to spend the next week giving ideas for improvement.
Anyone with a UA NetID
can give suggestions until May 5 at midnight by taking a survey on
www.union.arizona.edu. The survey, which
went online yesterday, asks a series of questions designed to gauge what aspects
of the basement level
students value, and which ones should be changed or replaced.
Scientists and Engineers Use
Autonomic Computing to Study the Secret Lives of Plants
UA News - April 28, 2008
Scientists and engineers at The University of Arizona's Biospehere 2 are teaming
up to study the secret
lives of plants – secrets that the plants have kept well hidden until now.
Biosphere 2 – the University's 3.14-
acre, glass-enclosed living laboratory –provides the perfect controlled
environment for precisely pinpointing
those moments when plants initiate changes in their environment or are changed
by their environment. Until
now scientists had two less-than-satisfactory avenues for studying the effects
of plants on their environment
and vice versa – lab experiments and fieldwork. Conditions can be tightly
controlled in the lab, but the
experiments are done under far-from-real-world conditions. On the other hand,
fieldwork provides real-world
conditions, but scientists have little control over the variables.
Some Rich Students 'Merit' Financial Aid
U.S. News & World Report - April 29, 2008 8:25 AM ET
Although college tuition prices are at an all-time high, colleges are, on
average, issuing stingier financial aid
packages this year, say counselors who've been helping families with their
college finances. Counselors who
have examined awards from many colleges say that only a few dozen extremely
generous schools are making
sure that every student who needs financial help gets enough scholarships to
attend. Meanwhile, a growing
number of schools and states are awarding scholarships to students from wealthy
families.
New Medical College's First Class Will Receive Full Scholarships
The Chronicle of Higher Education - April 29, 2008
When the University of Central Florida College of Medicine opens in the fall of
2009, all 40 members of its
inaugural class will have four-year scholarships covering their tuition, fees,
and living expenses, college
officials announced on Monday. The medical school is the first in the United
States to offer full four-year
scholarships to an entire class, according to the Association of American
Medical Colleges, which reports
that the average debt of a medical-school graduate in 2007 was $139,517. The new
medical school just
completed a yearlong campaign that raised $6.4million for scholarships, each of
which is worth $160,000
($20,000 a year for tuition and $20,000 for fees and living expenses per year.)
Donations came from doctors,
hospitals, business people, and local companies throughout Central Florida.