As the newness of the semester wears off, so does the glitz of the new meal plan.

Students understand the ins and outs of the plan, and it's still coming up short. The fact that students can only use their swipes at Market Square is irrational. Not only is it cause for a suffocatingly-clogged Market Square at meal times, but it is also cause for the suffering eateries that used to be campus favorites.

Despite a meeting Monday evening between Chesapeake Energy and representatives of the University West Neighborhood Association, a resident said he is still concerned about the university's proposed natural gas drilling site currently located on campus north of Amon G. Carter Stadium.

Charles Kendall, a member of the University West Neighborhood Association, said he still has concerns about the lease despite the meeting. Kendall said in a telephone interview last week that he has safety concerns about the location of the drilling site.

A United Nations inspector told the Associated Press last week that North Korea planned to reactivate its nuclear reactors. But a familiar face was missing from the spotlight. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was missing from the public's eyes; he was not present even for the 60th anniversary of the Communist nation last month. There have been reports about Kim's health, ranging from rumors of a stroke to a brain surgery and even death. The haziness of knowing which rumor to believe is the nature of our relationship with Kim.

This campaign season is not an ordinary season. It involves an election that deals with a variety of socially-conscious issues regarding race. When Barack Obama announced he was running for president last year, his campaign was setting a precedent for years to come for young black leaders. His campaign will either be looked upon as transformational, a path to a nation where everyone could succeed based upon the content of his or her character, or it could set back racial progress we've been making as a country.

It's a message Stephen Sprinkle says he will never forget.

"'We know you walk to school,'" said the person on his voicemail about 10 years ago. "'We know what route you take. One day, you will not come back.'"

The Brite Divinity School director of field education and supervised ministry, who is openly gay, propmptly notified the Fort Worth police, which resolved the situation after tracing the call to a TCU student's phone number.

"I'm one of the very lucky ones," Sprinkle said of his experience with hate crimes.

The snow is falling, the stockings are hung, and there is holiday cheer everywhere. Turn on the television and the heart-warming sight of holiday advertisements greet you.

But wait. It's September and 90 degrees out, and what I felt on my walk to class was the furthest thing from holiday cheer.

Welcome to the season of inopportune advertising. Let the complaints begin.

A new scholarship for students at the Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences will address the problem of nursing shortages by increasing student enrollment, a Harris College official said.

Marinda Allender, director of undergraduate programs at the Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences, said the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing awarded $80,000 through their New Careers in Nursing scholarship program to the Harris College to expand the number of students on the accelerated baccalaureate track.

After the football team defeated the then-No. 7 Oklahoma Sooners in 2005, it seemed like most TCU fans were wondering why the Horned Frogs are in the Mountain West and not the Big 12.

Now that the Frogs have lost to the now-No. 1 Sooners this year and the University of Texas last season, that argument has significantly weakened.

While moving to the Big 12 would be a great opportunity and would boost recruiting, right now TCU is right where it belongs in the Mountain West.

As the newness of the semester wears off, so does the glitz of the new meal plan.

Students understand the ins and outs of the plan, and it's still coming up short. The fact that students can only use their swipes at Market Square is irrational. Not only is it cause for a suffocatingly-clogged Market Square at meal times, but it is also cause for the suffering eateries that used to be campus favorites.