There’s more than
STEM in education
Suresh Garimella, the 23rd President of the University of Arizona speaks during his Installation ceremony at Centennial Hall, 1020 East University Boulevard, Tucson, Ariz., March 25, 2025.
Thank you to University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella for again making public comments without mentioning athletics.
However, also absent from Garimella’s April 13 Arizona Daily Star op-ed — his manifesto for the UA, if you will — was any mention of social sciences, humanities, business, economics and the fine arts.
One fears he has revealed what he is — and is not — interested in. He is the fourth of the last five university presidents from STEM fields — science, technology, engineering, mathematics.
Like his predecessors, he is steering the university to STEM while seemingly ignoring 20,000 or more students and faculty studying, teaching and researching in other fields.
Garimella must know we need to understand humankind through experiences in the humanities, social sciences and the arts. Even engineers, astronomers and physicians require skills in language, democratic structure, the economy, music and human expression.
Keeping those as top of mind as STEM is essential for the education of Arizonans.
Michael A. Chihak
West side
Tucson’s best days are behind it
As a native Tucsonan, I have witnessed many changes to our city over the past 59 years. For the most part, those changes have been positive. However, with the acceptance by the new University of Arizona president to deny DEI in any campus-related matters, the state legislators’ implementation of Trump’s cruel policies (especially toward immigrants) and the recent failure of the sales tax proposal to attract more police and fire personnel to our city, it’s time to move to a kinder state. Unfortunately Tucson’s best days are behind it.
Sarah Walker
East side
Democratic Party standards falling?
The chairman of the Pima County Republican Party has taken local Democratic officeholders to task for ways in which their management of county and city governments fall short of her desires. That’s fair but I don’t think it’s what parties have chairmen to do. I would offer a few observations. As I’m sure a former congressional candidate knows, campaign chairmen or chairwomen aren’t expected to run campaigns but to lend their recognizable names and maybe money-raising talents to them. Incidentally, after working as a volunteer in seven local congressional campaigns, I never knew the chair people but was well acquainted with the campaign managers. I believe the most important part of the job of a party chairman is finding, encouraging and supporting candidates for elective office. Here in Pima County, where are the well-qualified and well-supported Republican candidates for Tucson Mayor and Council, for the Board of Supervisors, County Attorney, Sheriff, Recorder, Superintendent of Public Instruction, etc.? Will they be in place for elections this year and next?
Fran Bergen
Northwest side
Trump the comedian
Several writers have submitted letters in which they claim that Democrats don’t want to cut the deficit, which is odd because I never heard a Democrat say that. In fact, the last president to sign a balanced budget was Bill Clinton. In 1968 and for several election cycles after, the comedian Pat Paulsen ran a satirical campaign for president of the United States, mostly on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Paulsen got big laughs whenever he said, “I vow to cut taxes, spend more, and balance the budget. Sure, why not?”
Donald Trump and the Republicans do not get many laughs when they say essentially the same thing in 2025. That’s odd, because it’s still just as funny.
John Vornholt
Northeast side
Musk & Trump
Elon Musk suffers from a disease that afflicts the ultra-successful — arrogance. He sees the world from a rare perch, and assumes he surveys all there is to see.
He also lacks empathy, a related disease affecting the same population. This combination can do much damage to our world.
Musk may be well-intentioned. But these afflictions cause him to break as many things as he creates.
Donald Trump, by contrast, is carnal. Ultra-selfish. Even if he can fake “well-intentioned,” Trump is not.
Musk is trampling around in our society, smashing the pottery from clumsiness. Trump is sucking as hard as he can to drain society for his personal gratification.
That’s the difference.
Larry DeWitt
Northeast side
Free lunch
Writers advocating free bus service leave me confused. One today said that the driver doesn’t need to waste time by giving change and the riders needn’t be concerned when they don’t have the proper money for a ticket. And that, to him, means a win-win for taxpayers. Arguably if I grab things from a Circle K without paying, the clerk shouldn’t be bothered and I shouldn’t worry about having cash in my pocket, isn’t that right? Someone said once, “there is no such thing as a free lunch,” and I believe it. The taxpayer does not realize a win-win as he inevitably pays for the bus, gasoline, drivers, upkeep and etc. Since the City has no real money of its own the taxpayer must subsidize the (free) rides. I have no problem with a reasonable charge for fare but no charge just doesn’t cut the mustard.
Philip Reinecker
East side
DACA
I recently saw an interview with a young woman who is here under the DACA policy. She is married to a U.S. citizen, employed, paying taxes and has broken no laws. She and her husband have made the heartbreaking decision to move to Mexico, leaving family behind. She was a 2-year-old when her family brought her to America.
Although she is a good citizen, she is terrified that ICE will come for her and lock her up in a place far from her home.
In March, the courts ruled that the DACA policy shall remain. A majority of Americans support this. Unfortunately, it has been used as a political bargaining chip for years. Now is the time for all Americans to stand up for these people. Put yourself in their shoes and remember the saying, “There, but for the Grace of God, go I.”
As Americans, not us against them, we should all stand up for justice for those who have no voice.
Donna Pierce
Northeast side
Betting that Burke Will “B” the best
First, was Bonvicini who brought prominence to the U of A Women’s basketball program. In 17 seasons at the helm, she took U of A to seven NCAA Tournaments & won the PAC-10 in 2004. Next, we had Butts who in 2008, was named the first African-American head women’s basketball coach at Arizona. Subsequently, Barnes took the reins. Barnes, an Arizona product who achieved three-time all-conference selections as a player, became the 2nd-winningest coach in school history, while being the 1st coach in program history to win 20 or more games in five consecutive seasons. Now enters Becky Burke from the Buffalo program. Burke just led the University at Buffalo Bulls to their first-ever WNIT championship including a program-record 30 wins. Over Burke’s three seasons at UB, the Bulls won 61 games and earned three straight appearances in the Mid-American Conference Tournament, including a MAC title game appearance in 2024. I’m looking forward to Burke becoming a bastion for fans to behold. Bear Down!
Max LaPlante
Southeast side
Step up, Congress
Kristie Noem standing in a tight t-shirt and smiling in front of men caged like sardines is not a good look. Picking up people legally in the country walking down the street, then whisking them off to a conservative jurisdiction for deportation is not a good look. Housing detainees in prison conditions which would never be acceptable in the United States smells of concentration/labor camps. The military setting up along the Roosevelt Reservation for a “national emergency” when illegal crossings are at a record low smells of upcoming martial law. Letting the President bring us to the brink of a global depression when the Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate tariffs makes the GOP complicit. Congress needs to take back its power and reestablish the checks and balances set forth in the Constitution. Our democracy depends on it.
Janet Martin
West side
Hiding in plain sight
Hey, DOGE, look over here! Need to cut $880 billion from the budget? A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office says that “the government is currently overpaying insurers in Medicare Advantage about $1 trillion over the next ten years.” According to the Cornell Chronicle, “Medicare Advantage (MA) is a program operated by private insurance companies and paid for by Medicare ... The evidence shows that the Medicare Advantage plans cost much more than the traditional Medicare plans because they use many financial tactics to increase their profits.” UnitedHealthcare has been under investigation for years for its questionable billing practices leading to overpayment by the government. By addressing waste and fraud by insurance companies providing Medicare Advantage, DOGE could realize its desired $880 billion saving without touching Medicaid, without anyone losing health care coverage, and without any reduction in quality of care.
Cheryl McRill
Midtown
Ciscomani & town halls
I have been in contact numerous times with Rep. Ciscomani and was pleased to receive the invitation to his recent telephone town hall. But receiving the email at 6:16 p.m. for a 6 p.m. call enraged me. He’d better do some honest PR about how he has or is going to “keep an eye on” or protect the programs that we need here in Southern Arizona, instead of towing the standard party-line babble. No more leeway from this voter, for sure.
Steve Poe
Midtown
Garimella’s opinion piece
As an Emeritus Professor from the UA College of Humanities, I was disturbed while reading the opinion piece by the new UA president, since all the examples he cites to demonstrate the excellence of the UA come from the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields, and there are no references to the social sciences, fine arts, or humanities. I hope that President Garimella will show more awareness of these other very important disciplines in his future communications.
Thomas Kovach
Foothills
Between the lines
While watching the Howard Lutnick interview on the 4/15/25 airing of “This Week ... “, I reviewed what was said to be confirm what I heard.
The moderator, Johnathan Karl, asked Secretary of Commerce Lutnick, “How concerned are you about the weakening dollar?”
Secretary Lutnick replied, “I am not concerned about it. We are focused on tariff policy.”
Did he just say the current Presidential Administration can’t walk and chew gum at the same time?
James Abels
Midtown
What’s up?
Thank goodness that Trump is suspending the visas of foreign students with traffic violations. This is a much bigger threat than Waltz and Hegseth communicating battlefield maneuvers in real time on an unsecured line.
It’s confounding that no MAGAs wrote to downplay the seriousness of that battlefield broadcast and are now not crowing about this brilliant program to keep us all safe in our beds at night. Perhaps their minds are reeling from having recently checked their 401K balances?
Rick Cohn
West side
Do the DOGE math
Trump and Musk fired 60,000 federal employees. If each employee cost $100,000, the cost is $6 Billion dollars per year. Space X contracts total $13 billion. In 2000 the US population was 282 million. In 2025 the US population is 340 million. This is a 17% increase. That is 58 million additional people for the federal government to provide services to. How do you increase the population by 58 million people, then cut 60,000 Federal employees who serve 340 million citizens? Then spend more than 2x the salaries of the 60,000 federal employees to buy rockets from Musk. There were 3 million federal employees before the cuts. That is an average of one employee providing services for every 113 citizens across all government service areas. Health Human Services, Homeland Security, IRS, CDC, Education, DOJ, CIA, FBI, Agriculture, Energy, etc. Do the math.
Richard Bechtold
West side
Shower water
So Trump has ended the restriction to limit the amount of water coming out of shower heads because he needs more water to make him wet. “I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump told reporters yesterday in the Oval Office.
According to his right-hand man Elon Musk Trump’s plan is to “make showers great again.”
I never had a problem getting wet in the shower, have you? How much water do you think it takes to get a whale wet?
Jose Salgado
Northeast side
Cory Franklin article
Re: “For Kennedy conspiracy theorists, no defeat is final.” April 12. I agree 100% with Franklin’s article. The recent release of the last classified documents about the 1963 Kennedy assassination had no evidence of a conspiracy nor a cover-up after the shooting. As Franklin stated, you just can’t prove a negative such as there was no conspiracy. There are two points I want to make. First, if you study Lee Harvey Oswald’s personality you will conclude no sane person would hire Oswald to be part of a conspiracy. He was undependable, delusional, an egotist, and he just wouldn’t follow orders and keep his mouth shut. Second, Jacqueline Kennedy, and many others, were greatly disappointed when they learned that Kennedy was assassinated by “a silly little Communist.” They would have preferred a vast- right-wing conspiracy so that Kennedy would be a true martyr.
Douglas R. Holm
East side
The President’s health
President Trump’s doctor said he is fully fit to serve, is in excellent health, with robust cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and general physical function. I’m really glad to hear it if happens to be true. We’ve always known that politicians play fast and loose with the facts, it’s simply accepted. But to Trump the truth is something you utilize when all lies have been exhausted. So is he really extraordinarily healthy, as the report would suggest, or somewhat less, as most suspect? Who knows?
Philip Reinecker
East side
Campaign promises
News reporting has lost focus on two of Trump’s campaign assurances, ending the war in Ukraine and bringing peace to the Middle East. Vladimir Putin has taken advantage of these distractions by significantly increasing bombings and incursions in Ukraine. Most recently, Russia bombed Sumy, killing at least 34 of which two were children, the second large-scale attack in just over a week. Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to authorize bombing hospitals in Gaza, killing at least 21. According to the Guardian, 100 or more children have been killed daily since Israel renewed aggression, along with over 1,000 medics. President Trump must return to his promise to end these conflicts and promote genuine peace talks rather than ignoring Putin and Netanyahu’s ongoing atrocities.
Roger Shanley
East side
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