Several grants totalling $1.8 million have been awarded to faculty members and academic departments through Vision In Action's Strategic Initiative Fund, said Leo Munson, associate provost for academic support.About $1.6 million of the fund has already been allotted, Munson said. Chancellor Victor Boschini said the majority of the grants will be used for projects that will improve the student-faculty relationship.

Kasey Davis' favorite football teams were Oklahoma University, TCU and the Conroe High School Tigers."He loved football ever since he grew up in Oklahoma," said Davis' mother, Jenny Cantrell.

Davis, a redshirt freshman kicker for the TCU football team, was shot in the chest early in the morning Jan. 3 in an apartment complex parking lot in Conroe. Police found his body in the Chevy Tahoe he borrowed from his mother. He was 20.

Between the hot shooting of junior forward Ashley Davis at one end and a stalwart team defensive effort at the other, the TCU Lady Horned Frogs coasted to a 71 - 57 victory over Air Force Saturday.The Frogs, who led by as many as 24 late in the second half, continually frustrated the Falcons on both sides of the ball. TCU's aggressive full-court press forced 18 turnovers and led to 27 points, while Davis strung together a second consecutive strong performance with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

Last fall everyone took a political beating; this fall we took a beating from nature.Sure, we had Cindy Sheehan and some indictments to stir up the political stew a bit, but energy prices soon knocked those out of the news.

TCU football regained its rightful place as a Top 25 program.

And this semester, we seem to have made it through without a major sexual controversy. That may speak volumes about the lack of dating at TCU, which the Skiff has covered quite thoroughly.

All in all, 2005 is a bit of a mixed bag, but it has been fun.

Changing the schedule to cancel classes on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is one thing, but changing the weekly schedule to a four-day week will not happen, said Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic AffairsNowell Donovan."There are too many scheduling issues," Donovan said. "There's not enough time in one week and not enough room for that to be possible."

For the 2006 spring semester, there are approximately 460 classes held Fridays that would have to be rescheduled and incorporated into 80-minute Monday and Wednesday classes.

When Jennifer Klein graduated from TCU in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in English, she fought with her parents about her future."My parents were determined I would go to graduate school right away," she said. "I told them I couldn't go when I really had no idea at all what I wanted to study."

Klein, like other TCU students, was unsure of what to do with her future.

Tracy Williams, associate director of TCU Abroad, said after college graduation is when most students first have to really think about what they want with their lives.