It was our impression that the Living Wage Forum last Wednesday was set up to open discussion on a delicate issue. As students in Dr. Klopfenstein's Labor Economics class, we have studied this issue thoroughly and felt the economic side of the issue was well underrepresented.Economists are viewed, much like businessmen, to be for nothing but profit and void the human factor completely, but that just is not the case.

We believe we have some possible solutions, but first let's take a look at the problems.

University ministries wants the community to walk a mile, or 3.1, in another's shoes.University Ministries and local organizations are coordinating the annual 5K CROP Walk to benefit worldwide and local hunger relief efforts at 2 p.m. Saturday at Frog Fountain.

The walk is both functional and symbolic, said Laura Hagadone, a junior religion and social work major helping to coordinate the event.

"It's to educate people about worldwide hunger and how to alleviate hunger," Hagadone said. "The theme of the CROP Walk is, 'We walk because they walk.'"

At my urging, members of my labor economics class attended the Living Wage Forum with a panel of four TCU faculty members (one each from social work, religion, political science and management) last week. We have spent weeks exploring the causes and consequences of growing income inequality in the United States as well as policies, including the living wage, directed at compressing the income distribution, so my students had valuable insights to contribute. However, their voices were not welcome at the forum.

Bay-area band Rogue Wave returns with album "Descended Like Vultures," the follow-up to 2004's "Out of the Shadow." From the first few notes, it's clear this Sub Pop band has taken another step forward.

More mature that its predecessor, "Descended Like Vultures" pulls from a wide variety of styles. Some elements recall memories of early Pavement whereas others seem at home with contemporaries The Shins.

"How cool are you? You're on Facebook!" a TCU professor's stepson told her after he found her profile on the popular Web site.Almost 7,500 TCU accounts are registered on Facebook, a Web site students check as often as their e-mail.

But the Facebook is not reserved for students only.

Fourteen faculty members are registered on Facebook; Nine joined this semester.

Carol Thompson, an associate professor of sociology, is a TCU faculty member on Facebook and is seen as "cool" by her stepson at the University of California, Berkeley.

How are we supposed to save money on gas when the city deprives us of the most basic alternatives?The lack of sidewalks and bike lanes along the streets of Fort Worth is appalling. Bike lanes simply do not exist in this city. As I travel down South Hulen, I notice the sporadic placing of sidewalks - they exist in front of Compass Bank but stop at the end of its property.

This is a pattern throughout the southwest portion of the city.

After reading "Time to grow up: Limits not suitable for 18+," I felt the article served as little more than as bitter diatribe.I understood its point, but I felt the argument lacked substance. However,...

As a person who is 18 twice over (and then some), I should be able to drive as fast as my car will go. I should be able to drive on the sidewalk to avoid traffic jams. I should be able to leave my trash...

The English department's edict came down as it did every week.Teachers at Southwest High School in Fort Worth, like many other schools, are given a list of what objectives to teach, the vocabulary on which the students should be drilled, the books students should be reading and what questions the teachers should be asking about those readings.

All of this is done to prepare students for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, a standardized test given to all students statewide to gauge what they have learned in their classes.

It almost goes without saying that vigilance is the key to crime prevention, but vigilance requires knowledge of your environment.This is the purpose of the Clery Act - a law requiring university police to keep a log of crime statistics available to the public and issue crime warnings.

The more students know about the crimes that go on around them, the easier it is to protect themselves from attack.

Although the act is an incredibly useful tool and a great benefit to campuses around the country, it doesn't go far enough.