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Arizona Daily Wildcat
The independent student voice of the University of Arizona since 1899 friday, march , dailywildcat.com
tucson, arizona
New degree caters to military men By Jazmine Woodberry ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
A year in the making, a new degree program in meteorology at UA South caters to men enlisted in the Air Force through flexible class offerings and online availability.
Based on the education provided by the associate’s degree through the Community College of the Air Force, administrators worked a full year to open the program, which started a week after UA’s spring registration closed in January. “It was motivated by the needs of the
Air Force personnel at Davis-Monthan (Air Force Base),” said Yolande Serra, UA research associate professor of atmospheric sciences. “Eric Betterton, our department head, saw there’s a gap in their education that the UA could help with.” The degree offers theoretical backing
to much of the practical application learned through the military study but will soon be available to any student with an associate’s degree in meteorology and later to environmental and base sciences as well.
Visit atmo.arizona.edu to learn more about the degree
DEGREE, page 3
Grad students fundraise for Chile UA grads
receive bigger salaries By Matt Lewis ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
Valentina Marinelli/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Edee Burke, a special education graduate student, and her dog Tatunka participate in the event raising money for victims of the earthquake in Chile by putting a sign on Tatunka that says “Pet the Puppy, Support the Restoration of Chile” on the UA Mall Thursday.
Graduate College rallied in support of Chilean students’ families after quake By Jonathan Prince ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT Chilean students from the UA graduate college raised money Thursday for victims of last month’s devastating earthquake in Chile. The event was held in front of
Canyon Café from noon to 3 p.m. There was music and a picture slide show. The proceeds from the fundraiser will be donated to the southern town of Concepción, Chile, the epicenter of the earthquake. On Feb. 27, Chile was declared a “state
of catastrophe,” by former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. The 8.8–magnitude quake that struck the country was the fifth largest quake in the world since 1990. Approximately 1.5 million people have suffered from the earthquake’s activity.
“We want to help destroyed villages, schools and support the smaller areas of Chile,” said Maria Paz Gomez, a philosophy doctoral candidate and organizer of the fundraiser. CHILE, page 3
PSU concert to ‘Rock for Hunger’ By Emily Moore ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT The second annual Rock for Hunger event — a free concert featuring five bands, a volleyball tournament, prize drawings, the empty bowl project and free stuff — will be held tonight at the Park Student Union. Featured bands will include We Shot the Moon, The Half-way Trick, My Girl Friday, It’s Like Love and Hello Hollywood . “All these bands are up and coming, so they may not necessarily be bands people have heard of before,”said Jessica Berger, coordinator for the University Activities Board’s Friday Night Live. “But they’re still just as good, and they may be popular later on.” Sponsored by the University Activities Board, KAMP Student Radio and the Residence Hall Association, the event was started last year as a means to get more people to PSU because “there wasn’t much going on there,” Berger said. The University Activities Board’s
IF YOU GO
Friday Night Live series provides one large-scale event at the PSU per month. It was responsible for this year’s Think Pink Fashion Show, a casino night event, a swing-dancing event, among others. The Rock for Hunger festivities aim to give students on campus something fun to do while also raising funds and awareness for the Tucson Community Food Bank and the local homeless population. About 100 people showed up to last year’s event. “We’re definitely expecting a whole lot more people this year — hopefully 500 people at least,” Berger said. Rock for Hunger starts at 5 p.m. at PSU and lasts until 10:30 p.m. People who plan on attending the free event are encouraged to donate a few dollars or non-perishable food items. “I think it would be great for people to come out and support Tucson Community Food Bank, learn a little bit about what they do, while also having a good time,” Berger said.
Where: Park Student Union When: 5 - 10:30 p.m. Why: Support Tucson Community Food Bank Bring: Non-perishable food, money
Gordon Bates/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Members of the University Activities Board placed hundreds of plastic spoons in the grass south of the Park Student Union in recognition of the many homeless and hungry residents of Tucson. The spoons are meant to announce the Rock for Hunger event, a concert to raise food, money and awareness for the homeless, to be hosted by KAMP today.
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According to a recent study by PayScale.com, you get what you pay for. The study found that UA graduates, who pay the highest tuition out of the three state universities, had a higher starting salary. Graduates made about $47,000 on average in 2009 and would make about $87,000 on average later in their careers. According to Al Lee, Director of Quantitative Analysis for PayScale. com,“PayScale.com is the leading online provider of employee compensation data in the world.” He added that the site is “the world’s largest database of individual compensation profiles (with) over 18.5 million unique user profiles.” Susan Miller, senior coordinator for marketing and special events in career services at the UA said it is hard to get a good estimate of starting salaries for students. “We have always been challenged to get the starting salary data from students once they graduate. Grads are under no obligation to give us the data, and, though we do ask for it, a small percentage responds,” Miller said. Kitty McGrath, executive director of ASU Career Services mirrored that sentiment. “I have no reason to doubt that the salary data that was reported in PayScale’s survey reflected the information that they received … for the sake of argument, let’s assume that they didn’t fudge the numbers. The real question is whether PayScale’s response rate was high enough to be considered truly representative,” she said. McGarth says ASU has been able to collect information from about 35 to 40 percent of their graduates. “Would that be high enough to do cross-institutional comparison with a degree of confidence? Probably not. Trying to obtain data ‘later in their career’ is even more difficult. Response rates plummet even several months after graduation,” she said. To determine students’ starting salaries, McGarth says ASU surveys its graduates prior to graduation and asks them if they have accepted a position and what their salary will be. Lee said that, for PayScale’s survey, there were thousands of respondents for large schools like the UA and ASU. Graduates from ASU had a starting salary of $46,000 on average and were making $83,000 on average later in their careers, according to the PayScale.com study. Northern Arizona University graduates had an average starting salary of $42,000 and were making an average of $72,000 later in their careers. Sonia Gonzales, senior career and academic advisor for NAU, had no comment for the Arizona Daily SALARIES, page 3
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