Laura Donovan's Blog

I’ve spent the past six weeks writing a UA Greek Life research story, and I just wanted to fill you in on where I’m at.

I talked to Senator Daniel Wallace two weeks ago and I’m planning on contacting the Dean of Students once again in light of the Phi Psi link to mass Wildcat theft . I hope to be done with this story by the end of the semester.

I’d like to thank all contributing sources and I applaud ASUA senators for transparency. I can’t exactly say the same for certain Deans of Students who won’t comment on anything, it seems.

So stay tuned for my big story!

Be sure to check out my sub-blog, Creepshow Watch, a documentation of all the bizarre and unwanted encounters I’ve had with creepy guys. It’s a funny and entertaining blog to read, and I’m hoping it will make all male readers re-evaluate their own tactics in approaching women, but thankfully, most of the readers that I know of are not creepy in any way, shape, or form.

Sit back and be entertained by some of my outrageous creeper stories!

This tragedy is non-UA related, but it exemplifies one of the first things my dad ever told me, “life is unfair.”

To say the least, the death of 21-year-old Brianna Becker is truly unfair.

I only knew Brianna very briefly, and she made quite a lasting impression on me. We met at a Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute event last summer. We were both conservative interns in northern Virginia, and we had so much to talk about. I felt a real connection with Brianna and the other CBLPI interns, all of whom were conservative female students looking to spread conservatism to young high school girls in Maryland. I even wrote about the event in my Townhall column, which Becker later commended me for writing.

Brianna at CBLPI (I walk past the camera in the beginning)

It’s a shame when anyone dies young, but it’s so sad to see someone like Becker pass away. When I met her, I knew she had so much to offer to this world. A University of Texas senior, she was heavily involved with politics and of high aspiration. I have no doubt that she would have been a famous conservative politician. She would have been the smarter, more prepared version of Sarah Palin that everyone would have taken seriously. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she became president.

She had a long-term boyfriend who I’m sure is devastated. I can’t even imagine how he and her family must feel. Sadly, she died such an unnecessary death:

On the evening before taking her admission test for law school, Brianna Becker decided to go for a run to clear her mind, friends and family members said.

As she was jogging west on the West 15th Street sidewalk near Colorado Street about 5:40 p.m. Friday, police said, a Nissan Pathfinder leaving a state parking garage struck Becker as she ran in front of the garage.

Why does anyone have to die so young? Why does someone with so much ahead of her have to be victim of a freak accident?

Even though I didn’t know her very well, I kept track of her accomplishments via Facebook after leaving the D.C. area, and I’m sad that she’s no longer with us. I feel for her family, and most of all, I’m sad for her. It’s horrible that she couldn’t go on to change the world like I knew she would.

Be grateful for the time you have on this earth. You never know when something beyond your control is going to snatch your life away.

RIP Brianna Becker

Brianna at UT

Apparently, the charges against the chalk users on the UA campus are being dismissed.

Thank you, Evan Lisull and Jacob Miller for reminding the UA campus of the importance of free speech. It’s insane that it took so much fuss for the UA to finally realize the ridiculousness of these charges.

According to Sally Gradstudent:

Evan Lisull was detained, cited, and released by the UAPD at the SE intersection of University and Park. The charge was criminal damage, and the arrest occurred at 644 AM today, Monday, Sept. 28.

So far from what we know, he was arrested for participating in today’s reaction to the Jacob Miller arrest on Thursday. A group of students planned to write “Chalk is Speech” on ground surfaces (thereby abiding by the law as it is written) in an effort to exercise their right to free speech.

This blogger is on the side of Evan Lisull and I support his right to free speech.

Wildcat columnist Tiffany Kimmell argues in the Friday Wildcat that sex with no strings attached is the new relationship. She definitely has a point, as disappointing as it may be. Her best excerpt is in the third paragraph of the article:

Unfortunately, girls put a lot of pressure on each other to label and define relationships, even during the first few weeks of dating. A friend of mine use to ask me daily, “Is he your boyfriend yet? Do you want him to be your boyfriend? Where do you see your relationship going? Do you think he wants you to be his girlfriend?”

If you’ve just met up with a guy you like, there’s nothing more annoying than a friend who badgers you with such questions. It’s almost as if she wants to make you feel bad that the guy won’t immediately jump into a relationship with you. If you even want one in the first place, you’ll be unsatisfied, and you don’t need friends to remind you that he’s just not that into you.

Thanks, Tiffany, for reiterating that the college dating scene is not black and white. There are so many in-betweens and shades of gray.

I’m the new Opinions Editor of the Arizona Daily Wildcat college publication, but I’m of course continuing my blogging and staying faithful to the Arizona Desert Lamp blog. Keep reading my blog, the Wildcat, and the Desert Lamp for input on University of Arizona life. Soon enough, I plan on publishing a much-researched blog entry on a specific campus issue I’ve been obsessing over for months. Stay tuned!

Starting Saturday September 26, the SUMC UA Bookstore will celebrate banned books by making them all 20% for an entire week.

Here are some banned books that you can expect to see on sale:

Count me in on the banned book sale!

“Rape, like many things, is kind of a class matter. You have to not deserve it for the world to care even a little bit.” -Charles Bowden.

Though likely unrelated to rape, the recent Yale University grad student slaying reminds me of this quote. A young woman is found dead in a university building and the world acts as if this kind of thing is so unusual and shocking. Unfortunately, people are murdered everyday, and these tragedies aren’t publicized in the same manner.

An English professor used to talk about society’s fascination with the tragedies of women, and he mentioned Edgar Allan Poe’s Raven theme that the death of a beautiful woman is the most poetic thing in the world. Across the country, everyone knew when Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, and Natalie Holloway went missing, and now, audiences are mourning the loss of Yale’s Annie Le.

Society can use this unfortunate event to be more cautious. Believe it or not, someone is unfairly killed more than once a year, the news just chooses not to give each case substantial amount of coverage.

I wouldn’t normally use this blog as a pseudo-diary, but I’d like to muse over some of the unusual things that happened to me on campus this afternoon.

As I was walking towards my parking garage, a strange man approached me and said, “You just think we’re all following you, DON’T YOU?!”

I just laughed, and he repeated himself.

Today, my professor made a scene in front of the entire class because I chose not to sit in my usual front row center seat. I instead sat in the back of the room, and apparently, this was really bizarre to my instructor. In the end, though, I’m glad to have a professor who cares enough about my academic success to advise me to sit closer to the board.

Weirder things have happened to me, but aside from getting screamed at in Italian by “fake business/briefcase man,” bothered by the biggest creeper ever for an entire academic school year, and bombarded by numerous naive freshmen boys constantly seeking advice, life has been pretty normal on the UA campus.

Because I’ve been accosted so many times, I have some tips on how to carry yourself on campus:

1. Maintain a city mentality
Last year, I had two-hour breaks between each class, so I used that time to catch up on my course reading requirements. I’d usually read on Heritage Hill, in the UofA Bookstore, or on the campus benches by Modern Languages.

In each of these locations, I was bothered by some lunatic stranger or another. The creepy stalker found me reading by Modern Languages, and even after I threatened to call the police on him if he ever talked to me again, he’d still walk past the Modern Languages benches everyday, often complaining loudly to his friend about the “redheaded girl who rejected [him].” Because I’m incredibly stubborn at times, I refused to find a new reading spot. When he ended up joining one of my favorite on-campus clubs, I shamelessly warned all the girls, only to find out that he’d harassed more than five members.

Case in Point: If you’re studying and a random person approaches you, it’s probably not the best idea to say more than a few words to this person. Seriously, if he has to creep on random on-campus girls to find a date, he’s definitely not the best you can do. Avoid suspicious strangers and keep to yourself.

2. Remain Anonymous in Class
This is only a good idea if you want to blend in and just eek through a course. I actually love most of my classes and enjoy engaging with the other students, but on days like today when I just want to sit in the back for no particular reason at all, I’m scolded, and it’s all because I usually go the extra mile as a student. For the most part, it’s better to be the initiative student, but on your off days, you probably won’t want someone else to make you feel lazy.