TO CLIPS INDEX - Clips for March 27, 2008

House OKs bill to quit No Child Left Behind Act
The Arizona Republic - March 27, 2008 12:00 AM
Move would cost state $600 mil in U.S. education funds
The Arizona House of Representatives is on the verge of opting out of the controversial No Child Left
Behind Act, President Bush's premier educational accomplishment. On a voice vote Wednesday, the
House approved a bill sponsored by state Rep. David Schapira, D-Tempe, that would make Arizona
the first state in the nation to leave behind the act and its education mandates. It would take effect on
July 1, 2010. But it would leave the state with a $600 million hole in its schools budget, as it would
lose federal education dollars by opting out of the program.

Board OKs Gehler as new SCC president
The Arizona Republic - March 26, 2008 01:41 PM
SCOTTSDALE - Scottsdale Community College has a new president. The Maricopa Community
Colleges governing board voted unanimously Tuesday to hire Jan Gehler as president of Scottsdale's
college. Gehler is dean of the Community and Technical College at the University of Alaska at
Anchorage. Gehler begins her new post July 1.

City boasts 3 new pride points
The Arizona Republic - March 27, 2008 12:00 AM
Jewish center, library, ASU West all honored as sites to brag about
Phoenix is getting three new Points of Pride - two more than usual in a city contest held only once every
four years. The Cutler-Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center, Arizona State University West and the Burton Barr
Central Library were close enough in votes that members of the Phoenix Pride Commission decided
Wednesday all three should receive the honor.

Arizona's economic future is . . . algae?
The Arizona Republic - March 26, 2008 08:27 PM
What's green and slimy and might just be an answer to Arizona's future? Algae. Seriously. The Buzz has
not been sniffing glue. Arizona State University Professor Mark Edwards - author of the recent Biowar 1:
Why Battles over Food and Fuel Lead to World Hunger - maintains they are products of the future that
could help Arizona innovate globally.

ASU women tops in academics
The Arizona Republic - March 26, 2008 08:47 PM
The Arizona State women's basketball team finished on top of the Pac-10 in academics as the Sun Devils
had seven student-athletes named to the Pac-10's Women's Basketball All-Academic teams.

Legislators craft Ariz. schools' exit from No Child Left Behind
East Valley Tribune - March 27, 2008 - 12:13AM
The state House voted Wednesday to yank Arizona schools from federal No Child Left Behind regulations
- but only if it doesn't cost too much. On a voice vote, lawmakers gave preliminary approval to the measure
that says the state will withdraw from the controversial Bush administration program after the 2009-10
school year. That move follows complaints about No Child Left Behind, including from state lawmakers
who object to what they see as federal meddling in a state issue and educators who question the
program's validity.

Police link man to arsons at ASU dorm, Wendy’s
East Valley Tribune - March 26, 2008 - 6:22PM
A 21-year-old Arizona State University student was arrested early Tuesday morning on suspicion of arson at
a Tempe fast-food restaurant and in a college housing facility, authorities said. Police officers arrested Abel
Rodriquez shortly after they were dispatched to a Wendy’s restaurant. Witnesses had called police at 12:19
a.m. with reports of a man setting fire to a trash bin in the restaurant at 1314 S. Rural Road.

ASU, 10 companies to mark SkySong grand opening today
East Valley Tribune - March 27, 2008
Crow likely to announce new activities for facility
Representatives of 10 international companies will join Arizona State University today in marking the
school’s grand opening at SkySong in Scottsdale. ASU President Michael Crow is expected to make
major announcements regarding new programs and partnerships, ASU officials said. SkySong, a
joint collaboration between the ASU Foundation, Scottsdale and developers, is a planned high-tech
hub on the southeast corner of Scottsdale and McDowell roads.

Editorial: NAU 'stimulus' plan seems too ambitious
Arizona Daily Sun - March 27, 2008
Our view: Investing $310 million in building all at once might prove unaffordable or preclude other needed
campus spending. When does nonresidential construction become "economic stimulus?" When it amounts
to $310 million pumped into a small market like Flagstaff in the space of three years. On the other hand, if
Flagstaff and, more specifically, NAU, had $310 million to spend all it once, would it really want to put it all
into bricks and mortar, as President John Haeger is proposing? What about shoring up faculty salaries or
developing remote learning sites?

Ready to launch
Arizona Daily Sun - March 26, 2008
In the full-production kitchen on the ground floor of NAU's new High Country Conference Center at Flagstaff,
Sous Chef Hector Pinedo spent four hours Monday carefully carving out 1,400 red potatoes in the shape of
mushrooms.Pinedo is one of dozens of workers who scurried around the center Monday afternoon preparing
for the first social event of the facility's debut season -- a formal dinner dance tonight, to benefit the Flagstaff
Symphony Orchestra. "This is one of the biggest fundraisers in Flagstaff in recent memory," said Tonya
Watson, FSO executive director. "We've sold 408 tickets, and that's capacity for our set-up, with orchestra
and a very large dance floor."

AZ universities seek $1.4B as construction boost
Arizona Daily Star - March 27, 2008
Officials at Arizona's three public universities are floating a proposal that calls for state lawmakers to put
$1.4 billion toward new campus construction and renovation to stimulate the lagging construction industry.
Already approved by the Arizona Board of Regents, all of the building projects have detailed plans and in
the last two weeks have been repackaged and presented together as an economic-stimulus plan that
university lobbyists have brought to lawmakers.

Editorial: UA wrong to renege on scholarship offers
Arizona Daily Star - March 27, 2008
The latest effects of the coaching turmoil in the University of Arizona men's basketball program have rippled
out of McKale Center and are casting the rest of the university in a bad light. As if the uncertainty surrounding
Lute Olson's absence for much of the season wasn't enough, now Olson is back as head coach and is telling
three high school seniors who were offered scholarships by interim head coach Kevin O'Neill that the UA is
not interested in them after all.

Ariz. personal income sees slower rise
Arizona Daily Star - March 27, 2008
Demographics, marketing of state take toll
PHOENIX — Personal income in Arizona rose at a slower rate from 2006 to 2007 than in any other state.
New figures Wednesday from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Estimates put per capita income last year —
total income divided by population — at $33,029. That is up just 3.4 percent from the prior year, compared
with a 5.2 percent increase nationwide. The result is that Arizona has slipped one notch, to 40th in the nation,
in personal income. In 2000 the state was ranked 37th.

O'Neill's future turns murky
Arizona Daily Star - March 27, 2008
KO plans to take over eventually; AD not so sure
The Arizona Wildcats' succession plan has become shrouded in a haze. Kevin O'Neill, announced as Lute
Olson's successor in December, said Wednesday he intends to stay at Arizona and succeed Olson when
he retires. But UA athletic director Jim Livengood said the announcement was a contingency plan intended
for the possibility Olson wouldn't be back in 2008-09. Now that Olson is on the job again, the offer may be
off the table.

Guest opinion: Sen. Tim Bee: Goal: Affordable, accessible universities
Tucson Citizen - March 27, 2008
It's called a quiet crisis. Our nation is not producing enough educated, skilled workers, which is threatening
our dominant position in the global marketplace. Arizona is not immune to this crisis, either. We are now
showing signs of lagging behind in major measurements of educational performance. We are no longer
competing just with other states to attract high-paying, high-growth jobs, but with other countries.

O'Neill plans to stay as assistant
Tucson Citizen - March 26, 2008
Former Arizona interim basketball coach Kevin O’Neill said he intends on being an assistant under Lute
Olson next season. “I have a two-year commitment and I plan on honoring that commitment,” O’Neill said
at his season-end news conference Wednesday. “To me, if you have a commitment you should honor
them. I plan on doing that." But O’Neill added that if a job comes open that he likes, he won't be opposed
to going after it.

Opinions: Playing it by ear
ASU Web Devil - March 26, 2008
Imagine, if you will, Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-AZ, as a down-on-his-luck magician performing at a birthday party
for little kids. Next, imagine that one of the little kids partying the day away is President Michael Crow and —
how fortunate is this? — Crow is the lucky assistant for Mitchell's next trick. Houdini (Mitchell) asks Little
Mikey to come up front, where he reaches behind Mikey's wee little ears. And what does he pull out? A shiny
new quarter.

Best Hall anything but for some residents
ASU Web Devil - March 27, 2008
Puddle of goo, leaky showers, mold among resident complaints
When freshmen Stephen Charnicki and Brady Emerson turned on the light in their Best C Hall room one
night after watching a movie, they thought the wet spot they saw on their floor was spilled Coke. The spot,
no bigger than a magazine when it first appeared in November, soon turned into a six-foot-long, two-foot-
wide stain that saturated the carpet with a thick brown liquid. The puddle, later deemed potentially
hazardous by the University, forced Charnicki and Emerson out of their room.

When cards collide …
ASU Web Devil - March 27, 2008
ASU mulls turning Sun Cards into debit cars — in 5 to 7 years
ASU is considering joining universities nationwide who are using student ID cards as debit cards — but
don't start cutting up your existing cards just yet. Eight of the 15 largest colleges and universities in the U.S.
— like Miami-Dade College and the University of Minnesota — have teamed up with banks to use their
student ID cards as ATM cards to promote the use of checking accounts, while bringing in more revenue
for the universities, according to an article published last week in USA Today.

Fletcher Library celebrates 20th anniversary
ASU Web Devil - March 27, 2008
As ASU West's Fletcher Library prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary on March 31, Fletcher Library
Director Marilyn Myers said she has reflected on the past and future of what students simply refer to as
"Fletcher." The library was the first named building to be completed on the West campus, given its title in
honor of the Robert L. Fletcher family of Peoria in recognition of a gift of land to the ASU Foundation in
1988, according to the Library's Web site. The proceeds from the sale of the land established an
endowment, which provided the funding for the perpetuity of the library.

ASU, Dept. of Energy partner on solar power
ASU Web Devil - March 27, 2008
ASU to receive more than $600,000 to develop technology, test products and increase efficiency
As the cost of energy rises, ASU is working with the federal Department of Energy to convert the power
of the sun into a less-expensive form of energy. ASU — as part of President George W. Bush's Solar
America Initiative — will be one of 11 universities around the country working to develop solar energy
technology, funded primarily by the Department of Energy.

Sun Dollars spreading
ASU Web Devil - March 27, 2008
More and more downtown businesses are accepting Sun Dollars, which means students at ASU's
Downtown Phoenix campus can now use Sun Dollars to buy haircuts, textbooks, sandwiches and
even auto services. Sun Dollars, which are loaded onto a student's Sun Card and then deducted as
they are used, can be used both on and off campus, which one student says is news to her.

Gmail not spreading to other state schools
ASU Web Devil - March 27, 2008
NAU, UA officials say they have no plans to follow ASU's lead
ASU's partnership with Google has received a positive reaction from students and administration in its
first six months, but other state schools have no plans for switching their e-mail systems to Gmail. Since
ASU stopped using the EMMA system last October, students said they have experienced few problems.

Plan would stimulate economy and address vital capital projects
Inside NAU - March 26, 2008
A construction stimulus program that is framed around the capital needs of the state's public universities
could keep Arizona from the grips of recession by pumping more than a billion dollars into the state's
economy and creating about 31,000 jobs during this current downturn in Arizona's construction industry.
The plan proposes to invest $1.4 billion in revitalizing decaying buildings at the state's three universities
and in constructing much-needed new facilities. At Northern Arizona University, it would mean $310 million
in construction projects—$169 million to address critical building maintenance issues and $141 million to
construct a new health professions facility and a high-tech classroom building.

UA racing for the moon, $20 million
UA Daily Wildcat Online - March 27, 2008
Science and Technology
In international contest Team Astrobotic has until 2012 to get robot traveling on lunar surface
The UA is in the midst of a $30 million international contest to get a spacecraft on the moon. The UA was
included among the first 10 teams announced last month to be participating in the Google Lunar X PRIZE
competition, the first private robotic mission to the moon. The UA's Team Astrobotic is a partnership of the
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon University and the Raytheon Co.'s Tucson-based Missile
Systems. Its funding is being provided by UA research funds.