Sugar Bowl Bound? PAGE 12 PAGE 1 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2010
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Vol. 105, NO. 15 UATRAV.COM
OVER
y d Per Da
the Line by SABA NASEEM Staff Writer
It’s no secret that parking around campus can be complicated, and fines can be costly for violators. Find out where most tickets are given, what can be done to resolve a ticket and even whether ticket-givers are paid on commission. Story on page 5 Map on page 2
217 Parking C
itations Daily
More than 42,000 Tickets Last Year
Photo Illustration
Dead Day Hardly ‘Dead’ for Students by MIKE ROACH Staff Writer
File Photo Students storm Mullins library last spring for a flash rave during finals week. Dead day allows students to rest, study or find other ways to prepare for finals.
Every semester many campuses across the US choose to give their students a moment to breathe, prepare, and blow off the proverbial steam before the onslaught of finals week begins. This semester, Wed. Dec. 8 is Dead Day. Without classes to occupy their time, students will be able to do as they please, whether that means studying in Mullins Library or taking one last day to relax and have fun before getting serious about the series of tests and final papers that close out grades for the semester. With only one week of class left, the end of the semester is steadily approaching, for some students this may mean that time is now their most valuable asset, making Dead Day a precious commodity.
“Dead Day is hardly a ‘dead’ time for students—most of the students I teach and advise use this time productively to prepare for finals, recoup after an exhausting semester, and make the mental switch from absorbing new information to synthesizing it for exams and essays,” said Lisa Hinrichsen, an assistant professor in the English department. “It’s an important day for both undergraduates and for graduate students, many of whom use the day to work on producing the lengthy and demanding end-of-term essays that we require in the English department—you absolutely need a block of uninterrupted time to write these essays well.” “I rested. To me, in my head, that was prepping for finals—a day of rest,” said Meredith Miller, UA alumnus class of 2004. “I think that one down day is
good before the finals you have right after—that first day of finals, you need that one day to study for them, if it was back to back classes then it was kind of an unfair advantage.” The day off can also be beneficial to staff who have to prepare the curriculum for students. “When you are working as a teaching assistant or a research assistant throughout the semester, you need this ‘extra’ day to make the switch to finalizing and editing your own work,” Hinrichsen said. “As I have for the past two years, I’ll be using this day to host mock interviews for graduate students in the English department on the job market. Having a day without scheduled classes or finals allows us to be able to bring together faculty and students for this necessary event.” During Dead Day patron-
age on Dickson Street is traditional. “We just get a whole lot of studiers that are coming in,” said Irene Pritchard, a hostess at Hog Haus Brewing Co. “They kind of sit around just drink some beers and eat a lot of appetizers.” The same is true of Common Grounds Gourmet Espresso Bar and Restaraunt on Dickson. “We get a lot of studiers hanging out for several hours reading books, we both have Wi-Fi you know you can come in plug up get onto campus and get all of the stuff that you need,” Pritchard said. These trends typically continue throughout finals week as well, and offer students somewhere other than the library to study. Dead Day proceeds finals week this semester which will last from Dec. 9 until 15.
Saturday Finals Eliminated for Spring Lack of Legislation by KRISTIN COPOLLA Staff Writer
Finals week is undergoing changes once again to further student and teacher satisfaction. Beginning spring semester, Saturday finals will be eliminated. These changes have been in the making for quite some time. Mattie Bookhout, last year’s ASG President, worked to have 7:30 a.m. finals and Saturday finals removed. This semester is the first one with no 7:30 a.m. finals. “Sharon Gaber and I met with Mattie Bookhout,” said Susan McCray, vice provost
for enrollment and dean of admissions. “The Provost [Gaber] was very supportive of the changes that [ASG] wanted to make, and she asked that the Registrar’s Office review ways to make a finals schedule that was more student friendly as well as faculty supportive.” Rather than tacking on an extra day to make up for the missing Saturday finals, the schedule is being rearranged to fit all of the finals into five days. Because the schedule has been condensed, 8:00 a.m. finals will be the first finals of the day, unlike this
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2010 VOL. 105, NO. 15 UATRAV.COM
semester when the first final will begin at 8:30 a.m. This isn’t a drawback to many students. “I have no problem with 8:00 a.m. finals as long as there are no 7:30 a.m. finals,” said Junior Emily Timpe. “I think it’s really nice that there are no Saturday finals. It’s nice that people can take a break to sleep-in and study.” Another change being made in the scheduling is that finals will be closer to the time that the class actually meets. “We responded to a
WEATHER FORECAST
TODAY 53°
THURSDAY 58°
request that… if [students] were taking an afternoon class, they actually had a final in the afternoon instead of the early morning,” McCray said. “Students who deliberately didn’t take early morning classes because they didn’t perform well in the early morning, aren’t now suddenly taking early morning finals, which was happening before. Now the time frame of the final will approximately be the time frame of the class.”
see FINALS on page 6
FRIDAY 59°
WEEKEND 55°
Continues in ASG by JORDAIN CARNEY Asst. News Editor
With one senate meeting left, members of the ASG Senate passed about six pieces of legislation in the fall semester. The semester included a three-week gap during which no legislation was introduced. “I feel like we could certainly always be writing a lot more legislation,” said Veronica Johannesen, ASG Senate Chair. Writing legislation can be confusing, she said. She’s working on an improved training system to help the senators feel more comfortable with writing legislation. This was not the first year that there was a gap in the flow of legislation for the senate. The
gap between sessions without legislation was possibly longer last year, she said. “Unfortunately it is a quite common precedent in ASG,” Johannesen said. To help spur legislation in the future ASG executives are trying to come up with different ways to help senators write legislation. “Recently we’ve decided that the most effective tactic will be pinpointing specific senators,” she said. A particular senator would be asked to write the legislation, and then the ASG executives would work with them through the writing process. A variety of ideas have considered at the ASG retreat and
see ASG on page 5