By Amy Lieberman

Arizona public universitiesArizona campus police officers will soon be armed and, if the occasion arises, more than ready to go. The Arizona Republic, the University of Arizona’s student-led daily, reported Wednesday that all public universities in Arizona plan to supply their campus police officers with military-style assault riffles.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, officials at Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University said that this move is unrelated to the killings at Virginia Tech last year and Northern Illinois University last month.

As the Arizona Republic reported, “ASU has bought four of the new rifles at $700 each, and is looking to find money to purchase four more.”

Officers will have to undergo 40 hours of training over the next few months, and according to the article, “when not needed to respond to an incident, the weapons will be stowed in officers’ patrol cars.”

The universities say that the rifles will offer long-shooting capabilities.

On the West Coast, this tactic is old news-already, several campus police departments in the University of California and California State University are armed with military-style rifles.

The article didn’t quote any students or have much feedback on this announcement, but one ASU faculty member, Jan Kelly, didn’t seem too perturbed by the news.

“I don’t think the police are going to target students,” Kelly told the Arizona Republic. “If they [the guns] aren’t visible, most won’t really know about them.”

Gee, thanks, Jan Kelly. That really clears everything right up.

Oklahoma Christian University

Forget the Bulletin. Oklahoma Christian University has come up with a new way to connect students with campus life – or just to act as an incentive for prospective students considering the Oklahoma City university. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Oklahoma Christian announced on Friday that starting in May, it will distribute an Apple laptop computer and an iPhone (or an iPod Touch) to all incoming students.

In 2001, Oklahoma Christian gave its students PCs. This time around, in a pseudo Barack Obama as Apple, Hillary Clinton as P.C. format, Oklahoma Christian released a YouTube video featuring its president, Mike E. O’Neal and a student, posing as a P.C. and Mac, respectively. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfsjPSmtS40&feature=related

According to Oklahoma Christian’s website, its current students will have the opportunity to trade in their PC laptops for Apple MacBooks.

Oklahoma Christian’s student newspaper, the Talon, says this choice isn’t something students have had the chance to make in the past seven years.

“Beginning in August, students will be faced with a number of different choices,” the Feb. 29 article, “Campus chooses Apple,” reads. “Buy-in or not? iTouch or iPhone? Mac OS X or Vista?”

Oh, man.decisions, decisions!

Oklahoma Christian’s website dubbed the plan a “MacBook mobile learning initiative.”

Or it’s just a fairly decent reason to choose Oklahoma Christian over another school. If someone dropped a brand new laptop and iPhone into your lap, would you complain?

Exactly.