Boo to the looming federal government shutdown. As of Friday night at midnight the federal government runs out of money unless Congress can pass a budget. Congress and the White House are trying to hammer out a deal that would fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year. Disagreements stem over how much to cut — talks have it between $33 billion and $39 billion, which is pennies in Washington money — and measures that House Republicans want to attach to the spending bill. Several of the measures would remove federal funding from Planned Parenthood and strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its ability to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases. On the bright side, the shutdown will at least give the government an excuse for not doing anything.
Bravo to The Onion staff writers Sam West and David Kornfield who came to the ASU Tempe campus to speak to students. The satirical news publication brought their A-game Tuesday night as they had students in stitches with headlines like “Gay Teen Worried He Might Be Christian.” Of course, ASU was not exempt from being made fun of during their presentation. One headline they showed read “Prospective Student Had Most Fun Getting Drunk at Arizona State.” Though these ASU jokes are plentiful, West and Kornfield did the entire ASU community a service by lightening the mood as we near the end of the semester.
Boo to allowing guns on campus. The state House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow people to carry firearms on campus. The measure is now sent to the governor’s desk where it awaits Gov. Jan Brewer’s signature. The bill would not allow guns in classrooms, but they could be carried around outside and on the campus walkways. While it is more restrictive than the original measure, which allowed guns to be carried anywhere on campus, we still aren’t fans of this. Guns and education do not mix.
Bravo to the Memorial Union’s sprinkler system. A fire broke out Tuesday around 5:30 a.m. The building’s sprinkler system put it out, thankfully. Those of you who were around for the “Great MU Fire of 2007” can appreciate the importance of having the building open and in working order. Anyone who was around in the 2007-2008 year can tell you how frustrating it was to conveniently find food when the MU was closed down, and we’d hate to have to go through that again.
Boo to the tuition talks that went on down in Tucson on Thursday. The Arizona Board of Regents met to set tuition for next fall and the results were not pretty. ASU will see its tuition for freshmen go up 19 percent, with incoming students paying $9,716. The state Legislature cut $198 million from the state university system, which is much more than the $170 million university presidents and regents had been anticipating. No matter the situation over the past few years, students have always gotten the short end of the fiscal stick. This year proves to be no exception.
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