TO CLIPS INDEX - Clips for March 5, 2008

State universities to arm police with assault rifles
The Arizona Republic - March 5, 2008 12:00 AM
Police departments at Arizona's three universities plan to arm their officers with military-style assault rifles
within the next year, officials said Tuesday. The new rifles would give campus police officers long-range
shooting capabilities, allowing them to hit targets at the end of long hallways or atop tall buildings, officials
said. Arizona State University will be the first of the three schools to use the weapons. Officers there will be
trained to use the rifles in the next few months, said ASU police spokesman Cmdr. Jim Hardina.

Jarvis speaks out about allegations
East Valley Tribune - March 4, 2008 - 10:08PM
Arizona State pitcher Jason Jarvis on Tuesday disputed claims by a former Sun Devil team manager that
his grades are not legitimate. Mikel Moreno, a graduate manager on last year’s Sun Devil squad, recently
told the Tribune several players took tests for Jarvis, including former Sun Devil Brandon Macias, now at
South Mountain Community College.

Recording industry wins subpoenas for info on 14 at UA
Arizona Daily Star - March 5, 2008
A federal judge has granted the recording industry's request to subpoena the University of Arizona to turn over
personal information of 14 students accused of copyright infringement. The students are currently identified
as John Does in a lawsuit that alleges they illegally downloaded or shared music files over the Internet. The
initial complaint was filed on Feb. 21 in U.S. District Court. On Feb. 26, attorneys for the Recording Industry
Association of America asked Judge Susan R. Bolton to subpoena the UA to provide the names and contact
information for the students now identified by computer IP addresses. Bolton agreed in an order signed
Monday.

AIMS break for seniors may become permanent
Arizona Daily Star - March 5, 2008
PHOENIX — Less than three months before graduation, state lawmakers are considering coming to the rescue
of high school seniors who have yet to earn a passing grade on the required AIMS test. State Rep. David Schapira,
D-Tempe, is seeking to make permanent a formula passed in 2005 that inflates AIMS scores if a student has taken
the exam each time it was offered, has completed and passed all coursework and has taken part in tutoring offered
at school. So far, he's finding bipartisan support for the move.

UA's eye on Mars captures what appears to be an avalanche
Arizona Daily Star - March 5, 2008
There may not be life on Mars, but there’s action. The first photo of wait appears to be a landslide on a steep Martian
slope was caught by accident at the University of Arizona when an employee was routinely examining photos from
the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera. “I was looking at the image just to see if it was OK. I
happened to see a puff of dust. I said, “Is that a landslide or just a low cloud? “Honestly, my first response was,
“What is that?,”” said Ingrid Daubar Spitale, the uplink operations lead on the HiRISE imaging team at the UA’s
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory.

UA's shooting for the moon in $30M contest
Tucson Citizen - March 5, 2008
University joins with Raytheon in robotic mission
University of Arizona scientists and students are reaching for the moon in a quest for a $30 million payoff. The
mission, if successful, could change the way space exploration is done, help UA students find jobs and enrich
southern Arizona, backers said. The UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Aerospace and Mechanical
Engineering Department have teamed with Raytheon Missile Systems and Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh to design, build, fly and operate a robotic lunar lander mission.

Regents may OK raising rates for university housing
Tucson Citizen - March 5, 2008
Students at the three state universities could be paying higher housing rates next year if the Arizona Board of
Regents approves proposed increases at its two-day meeting this week at Arizona State University. The regents
meet Thursday and Friday to receive reports from various committees, but their main action item is setting the
2008-09 rates for residence halls at the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University and ASU. In addition,
new rates will be set for leased apartments at UA, family housing at NAU and ASU and meal plans at ASU and
NAU.

Colleagues press Senate holdout on Republican budget
The Associated Press-Tucson Citizen - March 4, 2008
PHOENIX — Senate fiscal hard-liners are trying to pressure a fellow Republican who says he won't budge in his
opposition to a GOP-drafted plan designed to cut a projected revenue shortfall. Several senators said during a
Senate Republican caucus Tuesday that GOP leaders should put the stalled plan to a vote to stop protecting an
unidentified holdout. They didn't name Sen. Tom O'Halleran during the caucus but one did later and O'Halleran
raised his own hand during the meeting and afterward during an interview.

Scholarships pushed for safety officials
ASU Web Devil - March 5, 2008
Arizona Department of Public Safety employees seeking degrees at universities like ASU could get a financial
boost if a Senate bill passes the state legislature. Senate Bill 1433 would create a DPS Employee Scholarship
Fund, paid for by gifts, grants and donations under the Arizona Board of Regents, the governing body of state
universities. The bill passed both the Republican and Democratic parties' caucuses Tuesday, and will next go
to the senate floor for a vote.

Fire breaks out in NAU dorm
Lumberjack Online - March 5th, 2008
Residents of Wilson Hall were evacuated this morning after a small fire caused minor damage. According to a
press release from the Flagstaff Fire Department, the fire started at 4:15 a.m. The fire was only in 1 room and
the resident woke up to his smoke detector and quickly evacuated, escaping without any injuries.

Students’ voices lead to legislative success
Lumberjack Online - February 28th, 2008
About 25 NAU students traveled to the Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 19 to mark the 21st Annual Student Lobby Day.
The Arizona Students’ Association campaign “Brighten Arizona’s Future, Invest in Higher Education” coordinated
the event. ASA’s goals were to avoid university budget cuts, to increase financial aid and to pass textbook legislation
that would make textbooks more affordable.

Hiring freeze bill moves through Senate
UA Daily Wildcat Online - March 5, 2008
PHOENIX - A measure to freeze all university hiring and promotions for the remainder of the fiscal year moved one
step closer to fruition yesterday after the Senate Appropriations Committee approved HB 2043. On Feb. 21, the
governor's office instituted a hiring freeze across all state government executive agencies, except those deemed
vital to the health or safety of the public or to the collection or investment of state revenues.

University of Arizona to provide academic content for new Chinese school
The Business Journal of Phoenix - March 4, 2008 - 3:15 PM MST
The University of Arizona will provide all of the intellectual content for certain degree programs at Nanjing Inter-
national University, being built in China. The Tucson school signed an agreement with the Jiangsu Provincial
Department of Education to serve as the primary academic service provider for the new university, which is
expected to reach an enrollment of 10,000 students within its first 10 years of operation.

UA research on terrorism gives low-risk rating to Phoenix, Tucson
Phoenix Business Journal - March 4, 2008 - 1:02 PM MST
Phoenix and Tucson residents can rest easy, according to University of Arizona research that ranks the nation's
132 largest cities by their vulnerability to terrorism. Phoenix ranked 18th from last, while Tucson came in 25th
lowest, both earning the safest green ranking. "Size didn't matter that much," said Walter Piegorsch, an expert
on environmental risk at the UA. Los Angeles fell in the middle of the rankings, while New Orleans had the
highest risk, and New York the fifth highest, he said.

Politicians’ actions in face of sagging economy is hard to explain
Inside Tucson Business - February 29, 2008
When I taught journalism at the University of Arizona between 1967 and 1994, I urged my students to take state
and local government courses so they could cover those beats. That’s still good advice, but political science
classes won’t explain how our state, county and city politicians are behaving this year. Arizona and its counties
and cities have been hit by a sagging economy. Sales tax collections are down, and every level of government
either has a shortfall now or will have one soon.

In the rain forest
Explorer News-Tucson - March 5, 2008
Research, tours begin anew at UA-managed Biosphere
Visitors to Biosphere 2, the University of Arizona research facility south of Oracle, can now feel the damp and
humid air of a rain forest. For the first time, Biosphere 2 has opened doors to its equatorial, .47-acre rain forest,
which now is sealed off from the adjacent ocean and high savanna environments. While people are touring the
rain forest, UA graduate and undergraduate students are studying within the facility. “The idea of this is to do this
completely in the eye of the public,” said Travis Huxman, director of Biosphere 2 and an UA associate professor.
“People can come and see how science is done.”

Native American law students compete in moot court
Arizona Business Gazette - February 28, 2008 12:00 AM
The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University was the site for students from 20 universities
around the country to gather on Feb. 21-23 for the 2008 National Native American Law Students Association Moot
Court Competition. It was a chance for Native American and other students to improve their oral and written legal
skills by arguing a dispute about how land-use and zoning laws apply to a parcel of land on an Indian reservation
where both a tribe and a municipality want to apply their own zoning laws.

Baby Steps in Web 2.0 Education
Red Orbit - March 5, 2008, 06:00 CST
Colleges are using social media to enhance education. Consider what that might mean for the workforce of the future.
If you think that only uber-geeks use Twitter and wikis, consider what Northern Arizona University professor Alan Lew
is using to communicate with his students. A lot has happened to the business of knowledge sharing since intranets
and portals gave way to webinars, flash demos and animated- to-death PowerPoint slides. Sooner or later a new
flavor arrives to give a temporary fillip to information distribution.