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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2014
VOLUME 108 • ISSUE 8
ELECTION 2014
GOP hits DuVal over tuition
SPORTS - 6
ARIZONA VS UTSA FOOTBALL PREVIEW
BY ETHAN MCSWEENEY The Daily Wildcat
A recent ad funded by a Republican group targeted Democratic gubernatorial nominee Fred DuVal for voting to approve tuition hikes when he served on the Arizona Board of Regents. The 30-second TV ad from the Republican Governors Association hit DuVal for voting for the tuition hikes that caused the cost of tuition and fees at the state universities to rise by 99 percent while he served on the board.
A fact check from the Arizona Republic rated the claim in the ad as true, giving it four stars. DuVal voted to raise tuition each year and it doubled over the course of his six years as a member of the board of regents, the Republic said. The board of regents sets the rates for tuition and fees at the UA, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University. DuVal served on the board from 2006 to 2012, and during that time, in-state undergraduate tuition at the UA increased from $4,600 to $9,100. The DuVal campaign, however,
contends that the increases were necessary due to cuts in funding to the state universities from the Legislature. “Governor [Jan] Brewer and the Arizona Legislature cut higher education by more than $400 million during the recession, more than any other state in the country,” said Geoff Vetter, a spokesperson for the DuVal campaign. “Fred [DuVal] kept the doors of our universities open.” Mark Killian, the current chair of the board of regents, said the ad is misleading and lacks context on
why tuition had to be raised. “What the ad leaves out is the Republican-controlled legislature cut the universities by nearly half a billion dollars while at the same time saying, ‘we want you to educate more students, we want you to give quality education,’ and left us holding an empty bag,” he said. The regents and the universities worked to save on costs and keep campuses open, but raising tuition was necessary, Killian said. He added that the state’s universities’ per student contribution is now as
TUITION, 2
SPORTS - 7
THREE WAYS TO WIN, THREE WAYS TO LOSE
STARRY NIGHT
New app, elections on ASUA agenda BY BRANDI WALKER The Daily Wildcat
SCiENCE - 3
DISEASE BEHIND ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE
OPINIONS - 4
MILITARIZATION OF COPS HOSTILE TO DEMOCRACY FIND US ONLINE
COOPER TEMPLE/THE DAILY WILDCAT
STUDENTS BROWSE FOR POSTERS in a tent on the UA Mall on Wednesday. The tent is set up annually to provide inexpensive posters for students looking to decorate their dorms and apartments.
A new safety app and senate elections were the highlights of ASUA’s first senate meeting of the fall semester on Wednesday evening. One of the first topics addressed at the meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona was senate elections for the following year. A motion was approved to set the election dates in early March before students leave for spring break. Jordan Allison, ASUA executive vice president, said senate elections will begin in January with interested applicants getting packets about the positions they will be running for. According to Allison, there are 13 positions within the student government: the president, executive vice president, administrative vice president and ten senators. Allison said students interested in running for ASUA will still have to get signatures, but ASUA has not determined the amount of signatures applicants will need to retrieve for senate elections. “It’s a really cool opportunity to go network with all the students, meet people, get your name out there,” Allison said. Allison encouraged students to
ASUA, 2
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WEATHER HI
STORMY
101 74 LOW
Elephant Pass, Sri Lanka 90/79 Lion, Malaysia 90/ 73 Monkey River, Belize 89 / 75
QUOTE TO NOTE
“
It turns out that one of the best medicines out there is having white skin, and it is an endemic problem that occurs worldwide.” OPINIONS — 4
Budget cuts Severity of droughts in for AZPM, Southwest researched internships for students BY MAX LANCASTER
The Daily Wildcat
Less funding means more opportunity for UA students looking for internships and jobs at Arizona Public Media. This summer, the UA announced that AZPM will lose $2 million in funding over the next five years, or $400,000 each fiscal year. Jack Gibson , director and general manager of AZPM, believes the budget cuts will create better prospects for students. “Internships have increased due to budget cuts,” Gibson said. “Since we are unable to hire as many faculty, that gives more opportunities for internships and our training program.” Though losing funding often leads to difficulties, Gibson is positive about how AZPM has budgeted. “The cuts have not been easy to endure, but we increased staff and production, and we will continue to try and maintain or increase production each year,” Gibson said. Michael Chihak, the news director at AZPM, understands the university’s fiscal cut-down. Chikak said that the UA is growing but has a finite revenue pool and administration has to look campuswide for funding. Chihak also understands that cuts are a part of the job. Gibson is confident about getting through the first year of cuts, but cannot
AZPM, 2
COURTESY OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
RESEARCHERS FROM THE UA and Cornell University are studying the likelihood of a megadrought in the Southwest region of the U.S. According to the researchers, a megadrought is a drought lasting 35 years or more.
BY MAX RODRIGUEZ The Daily Wildcat
Researchers from Cornell University, the US Geological Survey and the UA recently conducted a study gauging the possibility of prolonged droughts occurring in the Southwest. The researchers looked at the risk of both a decade-long drought and a megadrought, which they defined as a drought lasting 35 years or more. Julia Cole, a co-author of the study and a professor of geosciences at UA, put the risks in perspective. “The most notable result has to do with the future risk of these prolonged megadroughts,” Cole said. “Depending on where you are in the Southwest, and depending on the amount of carbon dioxide, the risk of a 35-year drought can be between 20 percent and 50 percent.” Cole said the risk for Arizona in particular is
around 30 percent, or a 1-in-3 chance for most of the state. Cole, along with Toby Ault of Cornell University, assessed the risk by looking at paleoclimate data, instrumental rainfall data and climate models to interpret realistic climate behavior. Cole described climate models as “big computer programs that mimic the physics and circulation of the atmosphere.” They are used to model how greenhouse gases will affect the climate. As for how this would affect the environment in Arizona, professors did not hold any punches. Victor Baker, a regents professor of hydrology and water resources, focused on the effect such a drought would have on Arizona’s water resources. “[A megadrought] would be severe stress on water resources because of the dependence
DROUGHT, 2