Latin, Michael "Kramer" Richard's career and common courtesy - what do all three of these things have in common? That's right, they're dead.Just before finals last semester, I was headed over to Smith Hall for my poetry class. Noticing there was a female student walking behind me, I followed the universal "man law" of holding the door open for a lady. I swept the door open, moved off to the side and then looked up at her for the final step: acknowledgment.

The TCU shuttle-bus system, T.R.A.C., was designed to alleviate the disastrous parking situation by shuttling students from the distant lots they are forced to park in to their campus destinations. It is unreliable, inefficient and desperately needs to be improved. Picture this: It's around 1:50 p.m., and the temperature is below freezing. A male student gets out of his class in a building on the east side of campus. Because the parking lots around the building were full, he was forced to park at the Sandage Lot, which is about a quarter of a mile away. But no worries, right?

Senior Allison Robinson has spent four years encouraging conversation about cultural and ethnic issues facing students.Robinson's idea evolved from forums on black and cultural issues and interracial dating to the Black Student Symposium held Tuesday in the Student Center Lounge.

Inspired by activist Tavis Smiley's State of the Black Union program, Robinson created a similar panel discussion among black faculty, staff and students. The symposium was an effort to generate positive dialogue in the black community on campus, Robinson said.

Student Government Association representatives are now required to complete 10 hours of community service a semester, the SGA deputy chief of staff said at a meeting Tuesday night.SGA Deputy Chief of Staff Lauren Nixon presented the new service requirements to SGA members, which include five hours of service to the university and five hours to the community, during the SGA's weekly meeting.

Our grandparents had world wars to worry about. Our parents had AIDS and the nuclear scare, and our generation has the most imminent problem of all: the state of our planet. By now, I'm sure you're sick of hearing about global warming and how we are ruining our planet with fossil fuels and waste. But it doesn't matter because it's not just the far left crying for action anymore.

Businesses, politicians, college campuses and scientists are all taking significant action to save the Earth.

Following the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Bush administration launched Operation Iraqi Freedom and began sending American troops into Iraq on March 20, 2003. In May of that same year, when no weapons of mass destruction materialized, some believe President Bush just came back with a new plan: The United States redefined the goal of invasion as regime change. Now it has been four years and billions of dollars, and some ask, for what? As 2006 began, it was estimated that 2,172 U.S.

The Greek community is working to unite for a week of philanthropy and fun. The Greek organizations are drafting plans to hold a weeklong celebration coined "Greek Week," which would unite the 15 sororities and 14 fraternities on campus.

Panhellenic President Hannah Munsch said they hope the week of events will take place sometime in April, if each organization's schedule permits but stresses they are still in the early planning stages.

The university will drill for natural gas on its property in order to financially boost all operations for several years to come, the provost said during a Staff Assembly meeting Tuesday.Provost Nowell Donovan said the drilling will be into the Barnett Shale reservoir 7,000 feet underneath campus.

The money from the drilling will be used to further university interests and help create a better breeding ground for leaders, Donovan said.

"The cult of beauty is a cultural insanity," according to The Hindu Magazine. Truer words about beauty have never been spoken. In today's age, everyone must be and is beautiful. Some people go to surgeons for cosmetic operations, others seek tanning salons to darken their skin and most everyone has changed their hair color or tweezed their eyebrows from time to time. Why do we do all this?

Even though Universidad de las Americas officials have returned the university newspaper to its students 16 days after shutting it down, not everyone is commending the administration.On Jan. 16, UDLA, TCU's sister school in Puebla, Mexico, stopped publication of its newspaper, La Catarina, in what the administration told students was an effort to restructure the publication to better reflect the community service project it was intended to be.