This is the real world - almost.In an effort to make living on campus more reflective of life outside TCU, the new residence halls will have a 24-hour visitation policy, an administrator said.

The visitation policy was adopted after considering the maturity level and social and study habits of students, said Craig Allen, director of residential services.

Allen emphasized that the visitation policy will allow visitors, not additional roommates, and said administrators aren't endorsing intimate relationships with live-in partners.

It was nearly five years ago the admissions staff recognized the growing need for knowing Spanish. They decided to learn the language, and they took it seriously - all the way to Guatemala."Learning Spanish was an attempt on our part to signal to the community that we really wanted to build some bridges," said Ray Brown, dean of admissions.

Although most prospective students will know English, Brown said, it is important that the admissions staff be able to communicate with parents. He said they have developed a bilingual brochure especially for that purpose.

TCU Police have identified a group of teenagers they say are responsible for $20,000 worth of theft and vandalism on campus over the last three years. A group of 14- to 15-year-old boys from the TCU area have been linked to several incidents with damage totaling about $20,000, according to police estimates. The total includes the Dec. 28, 2006, vandalism of a campus bus stop and a radio-tv-film department truck windshield that caused about $10,000 worth of damage, TCU Police Sgt. Kelly Ham said.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. has been hovering through headlines the past two years because of health care policies that indicate human resources will start firing smokers.An article in the "Billings Gazette" from December 2005 called out the new nonsmoking regulation, but that was just the beginning of a series of new regulations the company is taking to lower health care costs by keeping employees in a fit state.

Although construction of new fences around campus has decreased the number of vehicle burglaries in many parking lots, according to TCU Police data, additional methods are being implemented in other areas where crime remains frequent. TCU Police statistics indicate that fences on campus have made parking lots safer, significantly decreasing the total number of vehicle burglaries, yet crime in certain areas is consistently high.

Now tied for second place in the Mountain West Conference, the Lady Frogs are ready to put their current four-game winning streak to the test tonight.The Lady Frogs (19-7, 9-3) will play the Wyoming Cowgirls in a critical conference match-up with a home-court advantage.

The Frogs have not lost a home game in a school-record 19 games, but they did lose to the Cowgirls on Jan. 20 when the teams last played each other.

With the conference tournament rapidly approaching, senior guard Ashley Davis said the team is ready to put it all on the line tonight.

Before getting out a jar of Peter Pan for a tasty peanut-buttery treat, it might be a good idea to reconsider.On Feb. 13, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report to the Federal Drug Administration on a recent epidemiological study in which 288 cases of salmonella were discovered in 39 states. These cases were all traced back to one simple food product, which many Americans delight in daily: peanut butter.

The Horned Frog baseball team is riding a wave of confidence heading into its four-game weekend on the East Coast.TCU moved up three spots to No. 18 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Poll after sweeping Oral Roberts University (2-3), and now the Frogs (6-1) have high expectations going into the Baseball at the Beach Classic hosted by Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina.

Last week my grandmother turned 90 years old and danced at her party.Only in the past year has my grandmother said she is beginning to actually feel old.

Age is a number that represents us chronologically, but does it really represent who we are?

A political scientist would argue age is an excellent basis for making an educated guess about a person's political view.

For example, people in their early 20s are more likely to be politically liberal than those in their 30s.

An upcoming Chinese program might grow with support from other departments.TCU currently only offers one Chinese course, but the course is being taught in English with an emphasis on culture solely. Sharon Fairchild, dean of the department of modern languages, said the AddRan College of Humanities and Social Sciences hopes to add an actual language component to the curriculum.

The Chinese culture and civilization course is important because it can't be taught like mathematics, Fairchild said.