I gave my honest thoughts on the theft story to a TCU reporter Thursday and again yesterday, Oct. 10, I read the article and was appalled when the entire interview was summed up to my thought that TCU...

Retention was on the minds of the Faculty Senate, Staff Assembly, Student Government Association and TCU administrators Tuesday night at the Joint Assembly.Retention has risen from 71 percent in 1990 to 84 percent in 2004, Catherine Coghlan, assistant director of institutional research, said.

Unmet expectations were a part of why students did not return to TCU, said Kim Appel, Brown-Lupton Student Center activities coordinator.

Every school has a sales pitch, she said, and when students get to school, their experience is different than the pitch.

Nowell Donovan, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said he wants to make sure student-athletes are treated with the same fairness as any other student, receiving an "academic experience of great quality."Because of recent coverage of violations in the track and field program, Donovan sent out a letter to all faculty members Tuesday stating the expectations of the relationship between student-athletes and the faculty.

"If we want to make TCU a standout university, we need to make our scholar athletes stand out, too," he said.

The student-activist group Frogs for Fair Trade is currently mounting a campaign to convince TCU officials to only purchase fair-trade coffee for use on campus.The group's efforts should be applauded. Not only are these students standing up for their beliefs; they are looking past the boundaries of campus to actively take part in important social issues as well.

According to Make Trade Fair, part of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, the world's 25 million coffee farmers only receive 2 percent of the total selling price.

The women's golf team brought home the title from the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational with a 21-stroke margin of victory yesterday, while the men's golf team took 11th place at the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate.The women shot 287-283-299-869 (+5) to beat out second place Nebraska at the par-72, 6,046-yard Colbert Hills Golf Course in Manhattan, Kan.

Catherine Matranga finished third with a 74-68-75-217, followed closely by junior Camille Blackerby and Stacey Bieber, who tied for fourth. Kansas State's Helene Robert took first place with a 75-70-70-215.

Dating becomes an issue about the time boys and girls stop having cooties and start becoming attractive to each other.It can be divided into phases:

Elementary school: Boys chase girls around the playground or pull their hair in class.

Middle school: Dating, or "going out," consists of sitting next to each other at lunch and meeting at the movies for a group date.

High school: Serious boyfriends or girlfriends who do everything with you from high school proms to family dinners.

TCU: Dating, huh?

The University Council voted to make changes to TCU's academic calendar in a meeting Monday based on students' requests.The changes include starting school on a Monday rather than a Wednesday in August, and adding a Thursday to Fall Break and a Wednesday to Thanksgiving Break.

"The students initiated the changes that have been made," said Don Mills, vice chancellor for student affairs.

For the first time in TCU women's tennis history, a player has won a grand slam event in collegiate tennis. Sophomore Nicole Leimbach won the Riviera/ITA All-American Championship on Sunday in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

"It makes you feel good when you are the record setter or whatever you want to call it, but I really don't think about it that much." Leimbach said. "It makes you feel good knowing you are setting goals so someone else can break them."