Bravo to the upcoming cross-country Pac-12 Championships here in Phoenix. Saturday’s meet is the newly formed Pac-12’s first title competition across all sports, and ASU has the honor of hosting it at Litchfield Park. The cross-country championship is loaded in talent, with five nationally ranked teams in the men’s race and six in the women’s. While there’s a slim chance another title game will be held in Sun Devil Stadium this year, let’s not forget the football team is on track to represent the South division in the Pac-12s as well. Hopefully this could be symbolic for what’s in store for ASU Athletics in this new conference era.
Boo to Tempe’s honesty. Honest Tea set up a rack of tea bottles on the street, and customers could either buy the tea for a $1 — like they were supposed to — or take it for free. Tempe only scored an honesty rate of 71 percent. The nation’s three biggest cities — New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago — scored higher than Tempe. Chicago had the highest rating at 99 percent, followed by Los Angeles at 88 percent. Even New York City, where people are protesting the greed in that city, had an honesty rating of 86 percent. Hopefully Tempe gets a second chance.
Bravo to the NCAA Rules Reform Package. The Division I Board of Directors voted Thursday to several reformations on athletic scholarships in every sport, including an option for conferences to decide on adding $2,000 to a scholarship to cover the “full cost-of-attendance,” the power for schools to award multiyear scholarships and outlawing scholarships to be revoked based on athletic performance. While this isn’t exactly a solution to stop scandals regarding improper benefits (ahem, Miami), this is a positive step toward correctly compensating student-athletes without violating Title IX rues.
Boo to the port-a-potty that someone set on fire on the West campus on Monday. Now, we weren’t present at the scene, but we highly suspect it reeked something powerful. We thank ASU police officer Rebecca Garcia and the Fire Captain for doing what we could never do, responding to a flaming pile of poop. Hopefully, police will catch the arsonist. We stand in solidarity with the students on the West campus. If you need some Lysol to make your campus stop smelling, we have your back.
Bravo to the plan to renovate store fronts in Tempe. Through the recession and housing mess, many places in Tempe, and around the country in general, fell into disrepair. As a result, they need serious improvement, and the City of Tempe realizes that. The Community Development created a Storefront Improvement Program to spearhead the effort. To encourage renovation, it suggests waiving all project fees and encourages local contractors to provide their services for free. With a sustained effort to improve the looks of an area, it will improve the economy since it makes businesses more appealing.
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