PERSPECTIVES Failing professors should meet students’ standards
Goals of the Oyen soccer era
New coach hopes to see freshmen shine SPORTS, B2
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ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT friday, august ,
tucson, arizona
Mars life closer to discovery
Need to graduate on time?
UA research team builds camera to detect gases that would indicate life
English dept. creates classes to help 4-year degree seekers By Nicole Siegel ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
An impact crater on Mars’ North polar cap is shown as a Digital Terrain Model representing a topographical area on Mars’ surface. The image was created by combining two HiRISE images. More can be viewed and downloaded for free at www. uahirise.org.
Erich Healy/Arizona Daily Wildcat
A full-scale replica of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera sits on display in the Charles P. Sonnet Space Sciences building. The images from HiRISE show never-beforeseen views of the planet and help future missions select suitable areas of the planet to land.
Courtesy of NASA/ JPL/University of Arizona/USGS
By Abragail Kappel ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT The mystery of whether there is life on Mars is getting closer to being solved. “It’s one of these really fundamental questions. You know you grew up reading science fiction about it,” said Leslie P. Tolbert, UA vice president of research. “The point is, there are real questions to ask about where does life come from as well as where does the universe come from.” Alfred McEwen, UA professor of planetary sciences, and a UA
team will be building a color stereo camera for an orbiter scheduled to launch in January 2016. “(McEwen) is the perfect person to lead a project like this,” Tolbert said. “He is somebody that has a really stellar – that was a pun – really stellar track record.” NASA is funding the camera while European Space Agency will be producing the telescope. The purpose of this mission is to study trace gases on Mars in detail with sensitive instruments to understand as much as possible about these gases being released on Mars. “(The project) builds on the last
Mars mission, which looked for water on Mars,” Tolbert said. “Carbonbased life needs water, and so they found evidence for water and made everybody very excited.” ShaneByrne,assistantprofessorfor the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, estimates the camera will begin returning its first images in 2016. Once the originating point of the gases is found, the camera will take 3-D topographical pictures. “We take a picture looking slightly forward. Once we pass the target, we swivel the camera 180 degrees and we take a picture slightly backwards, and we can put those two pictures together with those two view points to make a three-dimensional map,” Byrne said. “We look at the same patch of surface from two different directions. We can figure out the height of mountains and the depths of craters and
things like that.” By taking topographical pictures, the camera will be able to tell how the methane is being released. “Something is releasing methane into the atmosphere,” McEwen said. “It could be some active geological process, or even biological.” Methane is one of the primary gases released by natural biological processes and could be an indication of life. “A couple of people have discovered methane in the Martian atmosphere from ground-based telescopes and from other space crafts,” Byrne said. “That’s really interesting because methane should be destroyed really quickly there, so we wouldn’t expect it to hang around for very long, so something is producing it right now. The two main MARS, page 3
Renting dos and don’ts
Easy ways to avoid scams, fines and deadbeat roommates By Brenna Goth ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT Apartment living presents its own challenges. Students living off-campus for the first time may be unfamiliar with leases, landlords and paying monthly rent. Simple advice can help prevent problems down the road.
Leases
The number one mistake students make is not understanding their lease, according to Lilian Alelunas, property manager for the student apartment complex, College Place. “They don’t realize when they sign it what they’re signing,” Alelunas said. “Once it’s signed, you’re committed. It’s a legal, binding contract.” It can be difficult to nullify a
lease once it’s signed, but there are options. Some apartments allow breaking the lease for a fee. Other alternatives include trying to sublease which involves leasing your apartment to another person. The Associated Students of the University of Arizona funds a service on campus that offers free legal advice for students who may need to break their lease for any reason.
The apartment
Note all of the damages in your apartment as soon as you move in. “Whenever you move in, document every little thing that’s wrong with it,” said anthropology senior Iran Andrade, the student lead for UA Off-Campus Housing. Many apartments provide forms at move-in to note damages. If not, RENT, page 3
Rodney Haas/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Pre-nursing sophomore Ariel Good checks into her new apartment at NorthPointe Student Apartments on Aug. 20. Good lived in Coronado Residence Hall last year.
Tucson officials reject rental tax By Alexander Vega ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT UA students and Tucsonans will not have to pay an additional rental tax after elections this fall. The City of Tucson Core Tax and Permanent Override ReviewCommittee voted down a proposed 2 percent residential rental tax Thursday afternoon. The tax was on track for suggestion to the mayor and City Council at the committee’s last meeting on Aug. 20, but the committee decided to reconsider the proposal. While a rental tax isn’t directly applied to those who are renting but rather their landlords, the
renters would still likely make up the 2 percent difference. Around 30 concerned renters demonstrated their disapproval outside Tucson Fire Department headquarters, where the committee met before the meeting. Huddled in rain, the renters brought signs voicing their dissent toward the rental tax. “We needed to make our point to the committee before they decided on the tax,” said Barb Dolan, Arizona Multihousing Association government-affairs liaison. Dolan presented on behalf of the AMA to the committee before they considered the final taxing suggestions.
COMING MONDAY
System overload
The committee decided not to let the outcome of the fall vote on the Core Services Tax, Proposition 400, affect the vote on the rental tax.. The rental tax was proposed to help offset the Tucson City budget by raising $10 million. Proposition 400 was proposed to raise $11 million dollars for the deficit. The council first voted to approve the rental tax even if Proposition 400 passed, but the motion was defeated. On the second vote to pass the rental tax if Proposition 400 were to fail, the council stood firm and voted against it. “We would be essentially influencing the results of the elec-
Daily Wildcat investigates the high number of administration positions on campus during budget crisis
tion passing the core tax,” said Committee Member John Kromko. The other hot topic deliberated was proposed cuts and fare hikes for the Sun Tran. The city already enacted a fare increase in 2009 that resulted in a ridership loss. The committee voted to not raise fares in order to increase revenue. They also decided against suggesting budget cuts for transit overall. Also, the committee voted to suggest a sales tax on advertising to raise an additional $1 million. The committee will finalize their suggestion on Monday at 3 p.m. at the Fire Central in downtown Tucson.
Imagine your degree program not having enough classes to accommodate you. That was the UA English and creative writing departments’ problem last spring. They created more classes for this semester to accommodate each student. Alyssa Spungen, a creative writing junior, experienced difficulty while trying to enroll in certain English classes. “When I registered for my classes last spring, I was not able to get any core classes I needed except for junior seminar,” Spungen said. She became so frustrated that she changed to a completely new major — philosophy. Spungen was upset because she only had access to upper division English classes, as opposed to the classes she was interested in. “I wasn’t that upset about taking upper division electives, because I’m sure they are all interesting. However, I would have felt more confident with a more rounded schedule this year, being a junior,” Spungen said. Many were taken aback at the predicament that the departments were faced with. “I didn’t realize how popular of a major creative writing was,” UA professor Jason B. Brown said. His surprise continued upon learning of the new classes that were added; courses such as script writing replaced more traditional English courses. “I feel like some of the substitute classes offered are a little random,” Brown said. “There are so many students who want to take higher English classes, but there is just simply not enough room. I have students who are stealing chairs from other classrooms just so they can be in my class.” Brown is also a UA academic advisor and sees how, despite the squeeze, the new class setup has some benefits to the department and the university overall. “The university is struggling a great deal financially, so there are limited classes. However, it forces students to enroll in classes at a much earlier date instead of waiting until the last minute,” Brown said. “It is a much more organized system.” Some of the younger students agree with Brown that the organization of the system as a whole is good idea. Carina Enriquez, a creative writing freshman, had many of the same troubles as Spungen despite her recent arrival but remains positive about the future. ”I think this way it will help freshman take the basic major classes, then work their way up to the harder division classes,” Enriquez said. Contrarily, older students are frustrated to use a new system that changes their graduation plans. “A lot of students just want to be able to graduate in four years, and this new system is holding us back,” Spungen said. The UA is undergoing many changes due to an increased freshman population and budget cuts, and these changes are making situations like those within the English and creative writing departments even more common. CLASSES, page 3
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