UA, ASU and the state of Arizona: All down for the count?

As the long road of the 2008 presidential election finally comes to the exciting conclusion on Tuesday night, hopefully more attention will be focused on how things are going not only in Tucson but across the state of Arizona as well.

In the last week alone there have been some interesting stories that should be talked about more but the presidential election is something that comes only once every four years. But after the election life must go on for all and things right now are not looking so great in the state as far as the economy is concerned.

The first story I found looks at the upcoming layoffs and the reorganization efforts on the campus. The $1.2 billion that makes up the entire budget of the UA is astonishing when you take the time to think about it. The possibility of research grants not being offered to researchers on campus is a problem that could keep people from coming to the UA and that is not something the university needs.

The second story I found talks about some of the services being cut by the city of Tucson due to the budget shortfall of $51 million. The cutting back on hours of recreation centers, swimming pools and reassigning staff workers involved with the Community Food Banks are some of the topics listed in the story. I understand the need to cut certain things from the budget but cutting back the hours during the day that a recreation center is open is not really the best idea out there. Taking away a place for people of all ages to go to is a recipe for disaster.

The third story I found looks at the economy of the state of Arizona and how it is being affected by the lower amount of spending. The biggest part of the story is not any money figure thrown out there about how much the state is in the red. Instead the most notable part of the story is from Gov. Janet Napolitano. The governor is looking for the federal government, in the event of another round of stimulus checks, to have them sent to the state instead of the individual taxpayer. I think it would be very interesting to see the reactions from people who may not have heard of such a possibility.

The last story I found looks at how Arizona State University is also struggling in the economy and is being forced to make cuts to its faculty and budget. As if class sizes, outside of our journalism department, are not big enough, think again. While as a UA I could bash ASU and laugh about the situation, but it's not worth it. Most people, including myself, have to pay a decent amount of money to go to school and the last thing needed is to be in large lecture classes for most of the lower level courses.