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BASEBALL REACHES FOR THE TOP Arizona slides into an 11-game winning streak as nonconference play winds down
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Arizona Daily Wildcat
The independent student voice of the University of Arizona since 1899 tuesday, march , dailywildcat.com
tucson, arizona
Senate passes AZ sexting law New UA athletic director hired By Alexandra Newman ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
The Arizona Senate passed a bill on March 10 making it a class two misdemeanor for minors to send or possess sexually explicit text messages to or from another minor. Chris Segrin, UA department head of communication and psychology professor, defines “sexting” as people taking nude or semi-nude photographs of themselves or others and sending them as picture messages by e-mail or cell phone. It can also include sexually explicit written text or e-mail
messages, but he said those cases are less common in terms of prosecution. “It is ordinarily enacted by young people with images,” Segrin said. Segrin has conducted research about sexting between minors and knows of three surveys on the topic, geared mainly toward young adults ages 14 to 18 who have sexted or know someone who has sexted. “Only about 10 percent of the people that do it end up getting caught doing it, and these are minors,”Segrin said. Jenna Bauerlein, a retail and consumer sciences junior, said sexting is just something that kids that age do
and that a law won’t prevent everyone from doing it. “It’s so common that I can’t imagine they could successfully keep kids from doing it … you’re going to get a lot of kids getting in trouble,” Bauerlein said. “Kids are always going to find loopholes in technology to do something they shouldn’t.” Segrin said it’s important that this legislation was passed because the law is specific to this offense, unlike before. “Originally, the only law you could use to prosecute would be child pornography and the spirit of the law,
why it was written, did not apply for sexting,” he said. “The law wasn’t right for the problem.” Segrin said the seriousness of a sexting charge is about the same as a shoplifting charge. The consequences are not extremely serious, and court can be avoided if the minor participates in a 90-day diversion program, which can include counseling, community service or life-skills training. Segrin believes there will be more prosecutions for sexting now that the bill has been passed, and eventually, SEXTING, page 3
By Nicole Dimtsios ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
HAVING A BALL
Gordon Bates/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Sisters from the Sigma Kappa sorority took time from Monday’s chapter meeting to sign the giant beach ball that the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity rolled up Greek Row. The ball is sponsored by local companies who will donate money to Childrens’ Miracle Network of Tucson on a per signature basis.
UA4Food drives for donations By Luke Money ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT UA4Food, a campus-wide collaborative effort, is holding several food drives as part of the sixth annual UA4Food Drive to benefit the Community Food Bank’s Child Hunger and Nutrition Programs and the Emergency Food Assistance Program in Tucson. “Six years ago, there were many food
drives at the university,” said Holly Altman, the director of outreach and community partnerships in the UA office of community relations. “UA4Food was developed to be an umbrella organization to oversee existing programs as well as develop new efforts.” While the faculty and staff food drive is focused primarily on receiving donations from those employed at the UA rather than those attending, students
still have several options to donate and help UA4Food. The “Stuff the CatTran” event, which is in its second year, is an ongoing effort aimed at filling an entire CatTran with donated food. “This was an interesting idea that we had last year,” said Joyce Childers, a program coordinator for Parking and Transportation Services. “I’m a member of the Staff Advisory Council, and I
work for Parking and Transportation, so I figured I had the ability to make this happen and put our own UA stamp on a ‘Stuff the Bus’ kind of event.” Students can also parlay donations into discounts at the upcoming Spring Fling. According to Lexy Keffeler, the executive director for Spring Fling 2010, in exchange for four canned food items
UA President Robert Shelton announced Monday that Greg Byrne, current athletic director at Mississippi State University, would take over as athletic director at the UA with the Arizona Board of Regents approval. “From my perspective, this is a very exciting day for the University of Arizona athletics,” Shelton said. “He’s very excited about coming. I want to make it clear that we had Greg Byrne quite a process Athletic in arriving at director this gentleman, and I am thrilled that he is coming to the University of Arizona.” Pending ABOR approval in a meeting on April 30, Byrne, an ASU graduate, would take over athletic director duties from interim Athletic Director Kathleen “Rocky” LaRose starting May 1. Jim Livengood, who served as Arizona’s athletic director for 16 years, left for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on December 17, 2009. “Arizona is one of the truly elite programs,” Byrne said in an Arizona press statement released Monday. “They have great traditions, great support from their fans and a deeply rooted commitment to helping studentathletes succeed.” If the hire is approved, Byrne’s salary will start at $390,000 in addition to any academic and athletic incentives, Shelton said. In 2009, then-athletic director Livengood’s salary was $372,600. “I made every effort to convince Greg to remain in Starkville, (Miss.), including offering a generous package of financial incentives, but as he conveyed to me, his decision was driven by family considerations more than financial compensation,” said MSU president Dr. Mark Keenum in a statement released Monday. Byrne has been the athletic director at MSU since February 2008. During that time, Byrne hired three head coaches, including head football coach Dan Mullen.
FOOD DRIVE, page 3
UA prof links small talk to unhappiness By Laura E. Donovan ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT Unhappy? Perhaps too much small talk is the problem. UA assistant psychology professor Matthias Mehl and other researchers at different institutions found that happier people participate in less small talk and more substantive conversations. Mehl and other researchers rated the participants’ conversations on depth and substance. The researchers used the Electronically Activated Recorder, a method developed by Mehl, to aid them in their research. The Electronically Activated Recorder is a device attached to participants that samples their activities and conversations as they go about their daily lives. Participants came to Mehl’s lab, got the recorder and a microphone, and the device was activated every 12 and a half
UA psychology researcher Matthias Mehl with other researchers of different institutions discovered that people who engage in less small talk and more substantial conversation are generally happier.
minutes to record the sounds around participants. “We counted the percentage of participants’ conversations that were small talk and the percentage of people with substantive conversations and found that happy people had reliably and quite a bit less small talk and quite a bit more substantive conversation,” Mehl said. A total of 79 people participated in the four-day study. Counseling and Psychological Services Assistant Director Glenn Matchett-Morris said that CAPS couldn’t draw any conclusions from Mehl’s study but still found the research “thought provoking.” “The study Dr. Mehl proposes next could be very informative if he finds evidence that less small talk and more substantive conversations result in more
Rodney Haas/ Arizona Daily Wildcat
HAPPINESS, page 3
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