Annual Alumni Weekend

Alumni weekend turns into another successful event

By Armond Prude


CINCINNATI, OH.— This past weekend marked another successful Alumni Weekend in the history of the University of Cincinnati. From the annual parade, an opera performance, reunion dinners, to the ever so popular Sigma Sigma Carnival, this alumni weekend was one to remember. Visitors were surely not going to leave the Queen city without having an all around good time.

The annual Alumni weekend celebration kicked off on Thursday night with an Alumni reception. All of the UC alumni in attendance were given the opportunity to catch up with their former classmates as they kicked off the long agenda of events. All that came out to the Kingsgate Marriott were catered with appetizers, drinks and entertainment.

The following morning provided our UC family with the UC spirit needed for the rest of their fun filled Friday. All proud UC alum came out to join in celebration for the MainStreet Stride. Everyone from our Bearcat alumni, students, staff and fans came out to march through the uptown campus displaying their Cincinnati pride. This was a fan favorite especially to our proud alumni members such as Richard Worthy. Mr. Worthy commented on the parade, stating that, “This is always a proud moment for us University of Cincinnati alumni, we take exceptional pride in representing our allmumatur”.

Following the parade, UC alumni were given the chance to share the pride in music that the CCM program brings us. Alumni were able to experience the quality performance skills of the College Conservatory of Music and their exceptional members. Premiering in 1896, La Bohème is Puccini's quintessential romantic opera about love, tragedy and the bohemian life. This was an excellent performance and received rave reviews by members of our alumni. A true appreciation for musical skill was shown by the applause of the audience.

Next, was the ever so famous trip to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Visitors enjoyed all day discounts to one of the best zoos in America. The Cincinnati Zoo is an exceptional example of the pride and tradition that is deep rooted into the city of Cincinnati. The zoo offered these visitors a view of everything from African elephants to rainforest frogs. The new rainforest exhibit is world renowned and has brought satisfied visitors from all over the country.

The annual Sigma Sigma carnival was the biggest hit of the weekend. The 69th annual Carnival once again drew in a massive crowed as members of our UC family came out to have a great time. Saturday’s weather was excellent and remained that way as the crowd came out to enjoy the best that spring has to offer. Proceeds from this event went towards a future gift for the university. Having a chance to attend this event I was able to ask alumni member of the graduating class of 1974 and Cincinnati native Allen Spencer how he felt about the annual parade and the alumni weekend as a whole. Mr. Spencer told me that “This is the highlight of my spring being a UC graduate… this time of the year is when I cannot be more proud to have attended the University of Cincinnati”.

To being things to a solid finish, alumni members were sent out with a classic Sunday brunch. The Golden Bearcat Club hosted a lovely meal consisting of everything that the appetite could desire. 
President Nancy Zimpher and the University of Cincinnati Alumni Association were their to host honor towards all alumni members who graduated fifty or more years ago. Alumni members were honored to witness the appreciation that the UC program had shown to them throughout the entire weekend.

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Airlines struggle as the price of oil soars

Currently you can't open a newspaper or click to a Web site without stumbling across one or more front-page stories about the airlines. The situation has made headlines in several ways over the past year or so. From Bankruptcies, safety scandals, fuel woes, you name it, there have been all kinds of issues that airlines seem to be dealing with. The major trend here is that all of these situations are negatives.For carriers the future looks uncertain at best, nightmarish at worst. This time the potential situation may be completely devastating. The culprit nowadays is the rising price of petroleum. Jim May, president of the Air Transport Association, says that soaring fuel prices are "the worst economic shock since 9/11, and, possibly, one that is worse." The cost of jet fuel has gone up 70 percent in the past year alone. A week ago oil hit $125 a barrel, and in some corners of the globe a gallon of this fuel is selling for upward of $6. Five years ago, the average cost per gallon was less than 86 cents. Ten years ago, it was 51 cents.The past year's increases have already impacted the world's airlines to the tune of $65 billion. Experts say they don't know how bad things may possibly get. There's a decent chance that oil will climb past $200 a barrel, at which point the airlines will face massive realignment. Fuel makes up the biggest piece of an airline's cost, a bigger cut than labor, aircraft leases or anything else. This is what makes the situation such a challenging issue. As discussed here in the past, weaning commercial aviation away from fossil fuels will be a long and challenging process, if it happens at all. Airplanes, unlike cars, are already extremely efficient. With employee wages and benefits already decreased long ago, airlines have no choice but to pass these costs along to customers. All in all, I find that this is a situation that has no end in sight. Airlines will be struggling to find a way to provide cheaper fuel to their planes for quite sometime. I don't believe that things will change until the U.S. finally finds an efficient fuel alternative to petroleum based gasoline. Flyers are going to have to find alternative methods of transportation in order to escape the wrath of out of control airline prices.

Feds penetrated drug culture easily at San Diego

Undercover agents who posed as college students to bust more than 100 suspected drug dealers at San Diego State University never had to crack a book to gain acceptance on campus. All it took was cash and a little bit of outside work. The Federal agents that did this went to a few parties but never had to show their faces in class or even around the dorms. In place of this, there strategy was to simple arrange meetings with the drug dealers and ask about buying the cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine marijuana and other drugs that were being sold around the San Diego State campus. San Diego County prosecutor Damon Mosler said that things were as simple as saying "Hey, I go to State, can you hook me up?". Dealers made handoffs in front of dorms, in parks, behind frat houses and even in broad daylight in full view of surveillance cameras. It was stated that they never thought that there could possibly be an investigation going down. At least 75 people arrested during the five-month sting were San Diego State students, and 13 of them were from seven fraternities. All together, there were 128 arrests, 61 on Tuesday. Theta Chi had the highest number of students arrested, with five. Campus police were forced to start this action a year ago after the tragic death of a freshmen sorority member due to a cocaine overdose. University President Stephen Weber defended the decision to bring federal authorities onto campus. "Some have asked what we think this publicity has done for SDSU's reputation. I have told them I am proud of the action taken by SDSU to proactively address this serious threat to our students," Weber said in a statement Wednesday. "As a parent I would want my son or daughter to attend a university committed to providing the safest possible environment." On the other hand some students and parents complained that the bust was heavy-handed. Parents joined students at a campus rally Wednesday calling for more drug-abuse treatment instead of tougher enforcement. Overall, I was very interested and entertained by this piece of news. Being that I am a college student I felt that this article had a direct correlation to the atmosphere that I live in currently. I began to realize how this incident could be taking place at any university including the one I attend now. Personally, I find that this practice that the police used may be helpful as it will keep our campus clean of the unnecessary "rift-raft" that we already deal with living in Cincinnati. As long as this can be conducted in a safe and organized manner I find that this can be a very useful tool to keep our universities safe and in an overall clean state.

Worldfest: Taste of India

This year’s Worldfest turned out to be quite an excellent experience for the students of the University of Cincinnati as well as local Cincinnati residents. The beautiful May week brought great weather that helped assure that this years Worldfest would be one of the best. I was lucky enough to take part and follow the cultural food and dance celebrations that took place. Featured delicacies from all over the world were handmade to bring everyone a brand new eating experience. There were so many interesting choices to make yet I wanted to make sure I had choose something that would be a new experience for me. I choose to attend and cover the Taste of India celebration. This family oriented celebration of Indian cuisine and culture was held this past Saturday, starting at 3 p.m. This event opened my eyes to unique varieties of Indian food, music, dance, arts and other customs like Mehendi (temporary henna tattoo) and Rangoli. Never before had I seen such an interesting style of dance and artwork, not to mention the intrinsic food varieties. My favorite part of this experience was to no surprise, my sampling of authentic Indian cuisine. I consider myself to be a “picky eater” yet; the authentic spices and flavorings of the Indian cuisine seemed to delight my taste buds. I had spoke to local Clifton resident Kemar Bhakta about his perception of the Taste of India celebration he was attending. When asked how authentic this food was, he stated that, “These fine dishes can be compared to the quality of food my family and I prepare at home”. I can officially say that I have developed a true appeal to fine Indian cuisine. The next part of the event was the performing of the cultural folk and classic dance forms of India. The colors and unique designs of the dresses and outfits that the performers wore, seemed to make this demonstration that much more exciting. I was brought a completely new perspective for the Indian styles of dance, that is considered very near and traditionally important to them. I asked one of the organizers of the event, Sridhar Rajam, how proud he was to be able to share his own culture with such a large group of people. Sridhar replied, “This event is the highlight of my spring as I’m able to see a true appreciation for the traditions of India”. In my perspective this traditional dance performing was a one of a kind experience and one that made me glad I could come out to share the wonderful opportunity. Overall, this was an all around wonderful event to share with my peers. There couldn’t have been a better learning experience to occupy such a beautiful May after noon. All in all, I can honestly say that I have come out with a solid understanding for the traditional values of Indian culture.

President Bush sent lawmakers a $70 billion dollar request Friday to fund U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring, which would give the new president breathing room to make his or her own war policy. The money will be for the budget year that begins Oct 1. It has been stated by Congressional analysts that Bush's request would bring the total spending since September 11th, 2001, to fight terrorism and conduct the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to $875 billion dollars. This request is following the Democrats on Capitol Hill are struggling to move Bush's pending $108 billion request for the current year. Anti-war Democrats are angry at their inability to force the president to scale back on war operations and hate to vote to keep the Iraq war going. Yet, Bush had promised to veto the war funding bill if Democrats add money for domestic programs and present him with a bill over his request. The majority of the new money, $45 billion dollars would fund U.S. combat operations, but there's also $3 billion dollars to deal with roadside bombs and $2 billion dollars to cope with rising fuel costs. Overall, i feel that there is an abundance of things that keep adding to the mistakes of our current president. I find that many of these issues are due to his inability to follow through with his initial word. For example, I would have to completely blame him for the current issue of escalating gas prices. The American people might as well realize that these are issues that he could careless about and will not be taken care of during his presidency. In terms of the money that is being spent, I am not at all in disbelief. For the last seven years, billions of dollars have been thrown towards a war that we have no business fighting and dying in. For some reason President Bush doesn't mind blowing billions of dollars for a war that will have no real outcome once it's finished. I'm truly beginning to wonder when the next president will honestly have us out of this mess. Realistically, thats a question that I'm sure very few people can accurately answer right now.