ARIZONA SUMMER
Tricksy lil’ hobbitses One movie to rule them all: “Lord of the Rings” is back in theaters. Check out the On the Beat blog at DailyWildcat.com
WILD CAT TUCSON, ARIZONA
JUNE 15-21, 2011
dailywildcat.com
SHELTON TO RESIGN UA president leaves to head Fiesta Bowl
By Luke Money ARIZONA SUMMER WILDCAT Robert Shelton’s five-year tenure as UA president is drawing to a close after Shelton agreed to take a position as executive director of the Fiesta Bowl. His hiring was announced during a press conference on Tuesday at the Fiesta Bowl headquarters in Scottsdale. “This is an opportunity to take over the leadership of a highly visible and important economic enterprise in our state,” Shelton wrote in a statement. Shelton will take over the much-maligned bowl, one of the top four bowls in the Bowl Championship Series. The former executive director, John Junker, was fired in March after an investigation showed widespread instances of
Ginny Polin/Arizona Daily Wildcat
By Bethany Barnes ARIZONA SUMMER WILDCAT
By Amer Taleb ARIZONA SUMMER WILDCAT The Department of Defense announced last week it would award the UA five grants to finance research for both military and nonmilitary applications. The Defense University Research Instrumentation Program, or DURIP, will split $37.8 million into 165 grants for 83 academic institutions. Awards will range from $50,000 to nearly $1 million, with the average award totaling $230,000.
Stacking up against the Pac # of DOD grants awarded this year 6 — Stanford 5 — Arizona 3 — USC Bethany Barnes/Arizona Summer Wildcat
The view of Likins Hall during a tour with Residence Life Director Jim Van Arsdel on June 8. The building’s design, with its many windows, is intended to give students a sense of Tucson.
Van Arsdel said. “Everywhere you look, metal is used.” Van Arsdel added that, having worked with him before on several UA buildings, the architects knew this was something he had never wanted to do before. Another decision Van Arsdel made was to forgo painting the ceilings of stu-
continued growth in the UA’s research endowment and cross-disciplinary professional development. “These past five years of my life have been years of passionate devotion to the University of Arizona, and its mission as a premier public research university and as our state’s land-grant institution,” Shelton wrote. “My top priority during this daunting economic time has been to preserve and grow the quality of what we do at UA, because it is the quality of our effort that sets this institution apart.” Shelton will assume his new position on Aug. 1. There is no word on who will replace him, though the topic will be discussed at Thursday’s meeting of the Arizona Board of Regents. SHELTON, page 2
UA garners five research grants from the Department of Defense
A look at Likins Hall With staff hired, student furniture in place and furniture for common areas slated to be delivered today, Likins Hall is starting to look more and more like a place where someone could house a mini fridge or do a walk of shame on their way to English 101. The Arizona Summer Wildcat toured Likins Hall with Residence Life Director Jim Van Arsdel on June 8. Likins Hall began construction three months after Árbol de la Vida Residence Hall but both halls will open this August. Research has shown that freshmen who live on campus tend to have higher retention and graduation rates, Van Arsdel said. He said he thinks part of this difference is community. “It’s possible to have too much privacy,” Van Arsdel said. Architecture plays a part in engaging community, according to Van Arsdel. The building’s design is intended to give students a sense of Tucson with ample windows and many aspects of the building transforming under different conditions. Examples of this are areas of the building where a wall is patterned with missing bricks that allow light to come in during the day and go out at night. “Being in Tucson, we like the idea of a building looking different in different conditions,” Van Arsdel said. “Because that’s how the desert is.” Van Arsdel described the building as an Egyptian hieroglyphic “I” or “a really bad circle.” Likins Hall weaves in a river pattern that water used to take when it rained in the area prior to construction. Early in the process, Van Arsdel said he could envision using some metal in the design. “With these architects, I knew that I was saying something big,”
corruption and misspending. Shelton is currently a member of the presidential oversight committee for the BCS. Shelton reportedly agreed to a fouryear deal worth $455,000 per year, plus incentives that could take is contract up to around $620,000, according to the Fiesta Bowl. Shelton had a base salary of $470,000 last year, with total benefits reaching a value of more than $610,000, according to reports. “I have been enormously impressed with the commitment of the Fiesta Bowl board, and believe that I am joining the organization at a time when we can make big strides in expanding the impact of their important work,” Shelton wrote. Shelton lauded the accomplishments achieved during his tenure as the 19th president of the UA, namely
dent rooms because he thought the concrete “looked cool.” “A residence hall should be designed to be an artful place,” Van Arsdel said. The concrete ceilings have varying spots, patterns and shades. He LIKINS, page 2
2 — ASU, Colorado, Washington 1 — Oregon State, Oregon, UCLA, Cal 0 — Washington State, Utah
“These awards are prestigious and bring strength to the research community at the UA,” said Armin Sorooshian, an assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering. “This adds to the strong reputation of UA being a leader in research. Our own College of Engineering got two awards and six (Pacific 12 Conference) schools got only one or no awards in total.” Nasser Peyghambarian, a professor of optical sciences who will work on packaging a 3-D holographic display system, said he expects his project to have a “dual-use application,” meaning civilians and the military will both directly benefit from it. Armed personnel could use the 3-D technology to scope out a scene of interest or communicate via telepresence, virtual technology that records 3-D images in one location and displays them somewhere else in real-time. Those in fields such as telemedicine, advertising, entertainment and design may also find use for it. “It is important to realize that much of what the military funds is really fundamental research,” said J. Scott Tyo, another professor of optical sciences who has been funded by the Air Force to develop an instrument that will accurately measure polarization properties of reflected light. “The Air Force is interested in using this research to improve their ability to have situational awareness on the battlefield.” Tyo said that, though the work is funded through the military, GRANTS, page 8