New town, new team
FEELING BLOGGY?
Check out the new sports, perspectives and arts blogs at dailywildcat.com
Junior college transfers make fast friends before football season. SPORTS, 7
GO ONLINE: dailywildcat.com/blogs
ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
thursday, september ,
tucson, arizona
dailywildcat.com
Greeks conquer ASUA
Student researchers boost Biosphere 2 attendance
By Jazmine Woodberry ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
Lisa Beth Earle/Arizona Daily Wildcat
The million-gallon tropical ocean is one of the many climate-controlled habitats housed within UA’s Bisophere 2. The world’s largest living science center also incorporates such habitats as a coastal fog desert and a tropical rainforest.
Public prefers interacting with students during visits By Bethany Barnes ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
Lisa Beth Earle/Arizona Daily Wildcat
From left: William Quade, a student at Carthage College, and Tyler Halle, a student at University of Georgia, investigate ecophysiological and competitive interactions between native and invasive grasses at Biosphere 2. Research interns have many opportunities to interact with visitors to the science center by answering questions during tours and presenting current research being conducted.
Attendance at the Biosphere 2 is up 30 percent, in part because of student researchers. By focusing on visitor interaction last year, the Biosphere staff discovered that the public enjoys interactions with UA students during their visits. “We know that when they (the public) see students on campus up there that’s a real positive thing —that they tend to take more from the whole experience— they can actually articulate what’s going on in the research projects better,” said Travis Huxman , director of Biosphere 2. Ten undergraduate students conduct research internships under the guidance of Biosphere staff and five graduate students display their research at the Biosphere 2. “We are training our future scientists and future generations and providing them with the tools and the resources to find solutions to climate change challenges facing our planet,” said Hassan Hijazi director of external affairs at the
UA Biosphere 2. Huxman says students tend to have fewer barriers when interacting with the public. “The best way to describe it is something like this: if you put what the public imagines as the typical scientist in the facility —you know white coat, sort of older, professional they don’t have the same kind of interactions with that kind of a person as they have with a 20 something year old undergraduate who’s working sort of in a very non traditional way,” Huxman said. “Because of that they tend to have very, very different interactions. They have more sustained interactions, they ask deeper questions, they spend more time with those students and they are more likely to talk about sort of controversial issues of the day.” The Biosphere 2 assesses the effectiveness of its tours by taking interviews and collecting data. The UA College of Education helps collect and analyze the data. “One of our goals is not only doing good science … we have this big goal of science communication and science
“When you know someone, that is really an in,” Johanne Jensen, director of UA’s Fraternity and Sorority Programs, said when asked which Greek Life students would be best to interview. For the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, the same standard holds true. Most ASUA appointments are from within, with either ASUA or ASUAaffiliates standing a better chance than unaffiliated students. Likewise, legacy sons and daughters rushing sororities and fraternities have a much better chance of getting into their Greek house of choice.
Elected ASUA Greeks:
Emily Fritze, Chi Omega Taylor Bilby, Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Kappa Psi Courtney Campbell, Chi Omega Deanna Mariner, Alpha Phi Omega (Professional) Lindsay Hartgraves, Chi Omega Mary Myles, Chi Omega Dominick San Angelo, Delta Chi
Numbers
Only 12 percent of the student population is in Greek Life. Out of the 13 elected executive positions, six members are in social fraternities or sororities. Both parties feel it is a misconception that this unites the groups in any unique way. “Many of the Student Government leaders and officers of numerous other organizations on campus are involved with the Greek community,” is
BIOSPHERE, page 3
GREEK, page 3
Return of the prof UA teacher makes a comeback after falling from a horse, breaking her vertebra By Yael Schusterman ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT It was Sheila Pitt’s fear of horses that motivated her to ride, with the notion that if she could overcome this fear, she could accomplish anything. Her fear quickly grew to a passion, resulting in horse ownership. “After a while, a rental horse is no fun to ride,” said arts Professor Pitt said. “You want to train your horse your way and want the horse to learn how you respond and they respond to you and work back and forth.” After owning several horses, she got involved in showing and doing dressage: teaching and schooling the horses. “But every form of riding, the rider and the horse form a special relationship and
that’s the beauty of owning your own horse,” Pitt said. Every rider falls. Pitt said she considered herself lucky because in the past 10 years, she fell “maybe twice.” She tried hard to not fall and on Feb. 2, 2008, and her fall felt like it was going to be a simple one, she said. That Saturday around 10:30 a.m. she had gotten a new saddle to use on her horse Donovan. They started to trot in the dressage arena, Pitt said, when he fell in a hole or tripped on a stone and she fell forward landing on her head and breaking her neck. She realized that she could not move and an ambulance, followed by a helicopter, came to lift her to the Barrow
COMING FRIDAY
Behind the scenes
RETURN, page 6
A look at the men behind the curtain for Arizona Athletic’s pre-game football video
Hallie Bolonkin/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Michael Farmer, a junior majoring in painting, consults art professor Sheila Pitt about his project in his relief printmaking class on Wednesday. Pitt recently returned to teaching in a studio setting after being in a serious horseback riding accident which left her disabled.
QUICK HITS Buddhist Meditation and Philosophy, meditations for peace 10 a.m. at Tara Mahayana Buddhist Center 1701 E. Miles St.
News is always breaking at dailywildcat.com ... or follow us on
D.R.I. Live at 5:30 p.m. back to school music at The Rock, 136 N. Park Ave.
: @DailyWildcat
WORKSHOPS
Adobe and Apple workshops! Espresso Book Machine Demos!
4GB iPod Shuffle
VENDORS MobileEdge, Moshi Monde, Apple, Skull Candy, Adobe, Logitech, Asus and Cox.
uabookstores.arizona.edu
We do more than exchange product for money.™
Check out our prize wheel, spontaneous giveaways and ENTER TO WIN AN APPLE TV this coming Friday!
Through Friday, September 10