In the coming weeks, the nation’s attention will be captivated by the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball tournament, colloquially known as “March Madness.” While a football team may never happen, March Madness appearances, another source of school spirit, are well within the realm of reasonable possibility, as evidenced by the UCSD Women’s Basketball team’s recent success.

Also, in the editorial you state that schools such as Oklahoma State University and the University of Arizona are “athletics powerhouses with horrible academics.” In my opinion, it is reckless journalism and an insult to the many students, faculty and staff who work hard to make the University of Arizona a fine academic institution to characterize it in such a manner. Any Division-I institution will have some student athletes who do not fit the first half of that title, but to characterize entire universities like this, without giving any quantitative evidence, is irresponsible. 

The University of Arizona is one of the leaders in the field of astronomy. Additionally, the University of Arizona operates the Phoenix Mars Mission, which aims to “study the history of water and search for complex organic molecules in the ice-rich soil of the martian arctic” (taken from the NASA Phoenix Mars Mission fact sheet). Its Steward Observatory operates the Mount Graham International Observatory, which serves as an observatory for the Vatican Observatory. At the Steward Observatory’s mirror lab, telescope mirrors are cast, including ones which are (or will become) part of the Magellan telescope in Chile.

—Benjamin Pope

Alumnus ‘08