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ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
wednesday, september ,
tucson, arizona
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Highest college enrollment influx in AZ By Luke Money ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT Undergraduate enrollment in Arizona schools has more than doubled over the last decade. According to statistics from the 2011 almanac for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Arizona schools experienced a 121 percent growth in undergraduate enrollment from 1998 to 2008, the highest rate of growth of any state during that time. Undergraduate enrollment at the UA also grew markedly, albeit at a much slower rate. It increased approximately 12 percent from 2000 to 2008. This is compared to a 38 percent increase at Arizona State University during the same time frame. UA President Robert Shelton cited in an e-mail that the UA’s comparably slow rate of growth as evidence of the university’s commitment to putting
“quality first.” Melissa Vito, the vice president for student affairs, echoed his sentiment. “The demand for the UA has just been very high over the past few years, and even as we’re looking at our latest data for next year, it looks like next year’s class will be even bigger,” Vito said. “But we also want to make sure that we deliver quality, and it’s the balance between what our capacity is and making sure the students that are here have access to everything they need.” Kasey Urquidez, interim assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of admissions, discussed some of the problems with ever-burgeoning enrollment. “Growth can be challenging,” Urquidez said. “Not only is it important to bring in a qualified group of students, it is important that we are proactive and keep the campus aware of the growth. We
Illistration by Stephanie Thayer/Arizona Daily Wildcat
ENROLLMENT, page 3
Funding requests tabled again By Jazmine Woodberry ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
Gordon Bates/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Janet Glenn, a UA material science alumna, and Nathan McLiesh, a junior in physics and math, meet with the UofA Rockoon Team in the Innovation Room of the College of Mines and Metallurgy Tuesday. Glenn discusses the state of the nose cap of the rocket with the other members of the team as McLiesh holds the 21-inch long, 3-inch diameter solid fuel motor that will bring the 25-pound rocket to a final altitude exceeding 100,000 feet.
Rocket group to blast off By Livia Fialho ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
Building a rocket was their dream. Now it’s a reality. The Rockoon Team, a group of 15 students, is close to test launching a rocket it has been designing and building for the past year and a half. The rocket is in its final stages, and the team expects to do its test launch at the end of September. Measuring approximately 14-by-14-inches, it also has an 8-foot-tall wooden platform. Carrying eight pounds of fuel, it will have a GPS so that it can be retrieved, as long as it doesn’t “smash into a million pieces,” Janet Glenn, recently out of graduate school for materials sciences and engineering, said. The
structure is made of carbon fiber, so they don’t anticipate total destruction; but when falling 150,000 feet, anything is possible, the students said. Out of all other groups alike within the UA, it is the only one to has built its craft’s parts mostly from scratch. As a result, Discovery Channel Canada contacted the group to possibly do a special on the rocket, although nothing has been confirmed. Two former graduate students lead the mostly junior and senior group. Glenn describes herself as “the rocket mother.” With Matt Goodman, now a doctoral student at University of Texas, she started the group to “teach the undergrads how to do their own engineering project from con-
COMING THURSDAY
Ghost ridin’
cept to design, to build, to test, and to launch … to get that going for the next generation of engineers.” Among the Engineering and Aerospace students, there is Sara Meschberger, a communications and linguistics sophomore. Meschberger is one of two members with a special rocket launching certification and has been doing this since she was 13. Her dad, a propulsion engineer building rocket motors, led her to a hobby she hopes to turn into a career. She is part of other teams that have been in space-related conferences as well as other engineering projects. “What prevented me from doing engineering was the math,” she said. Meschberger
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wants to work as a spokeswoman for a private space industry company, combining her major ’s space and astronomy focus with her passion. “I think sometimes the skill engineers kind of lack is being able to communicate effectively to other people outside of the engineering community,” she said. The group initially got together two years ago to prepare for a one-time competition of the National Students for the Exploration and Development of Space group. The event fell through, but the students kept on their goal to launch a rocket 150,000 feet and recover it. The Rockoons had difficulty with funding, but they initially paid for the materials needed ROCKETS, page 3
The only action item for approval at the ASUA Senate meeting today is the consent agenda from the Appropriations Board’s Monday meeting, which received unanimous votes. This week’s Monday consent agenda meeting served up a total of $2,439.70 out of the more than $12,000 requested, leaving the National Pan-Hellenic Council’s request of more than $4,500 still tabled and a request from Delta Chi Lambda, a group seeking Asian American awareness in the Tucson community, for $1,044 still up for discussion as well. More than $2,400 was allocated to the American Society of Civil Engineers and Students on Stage, the former serving the civil engineering industry, and the latter a theatre club for those with or without a theatre major. The consent board meets each Monday to approve club requests from the various ASUA-recognized organizations and ASUA Senate levies final approval during their Wednesday meetings. Most of the meeting will be devoted to informational pieces. The first regards parking and transportation, presented ASUA, page 3
IF YOU GO ASUA meeting
Ventana Room on the fourth floor of the SUMC – 5 p.m.
DJ Chucky Chingon every Wednesday night at Sharks, 256 E. Congress St.
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