In one month, Paxton Motheral will become the first student to receive a bachelor's degree from TCU's ranch management program.Motheral first enrolled at TCU as a finance major and planned to receive certification from the ranch management program because his family is involved in the ranching industry.

TCU began offering a degree in ranch management in 2004, but before applying for the degree, students must first complete TCU's university core curriculum requirements, said Kerry Cornelius, director of the ranch management program.

The H20 Frogs are using Saturday's meet against the BYU Cougars as a way to guage their performance going into the start of conference competitions, said head coach Richard Sybesma.Led by senior distance swimmer Alejandro Gomez and senior sprinter Erica Tate, the Frogs were able to muster 169.5 points against the Cougars aquatic powerhouse.

"They have an advantage getting to train at altitude," Gomez said, "but I felt good, and we had some good races."

The Horned Frogs (17-12 overall, 5-9 conference) faced another 3 game loss against No. 18 BYU Cougars (20-4 overall, 10-3 conference) Saturday night.The Frogs fell short at the beginning of game one and started to climb back up with 12-17. Lauren Otto served three straight aces and there were several kills by Nirelle Hampton and Kourtney Edwards. The Cougars kept their lead however with several blocks with the final score of 30-22.

In case no one has heard, the Dixie Chicks are in the news again. They have a new documentary coming out soon titled "Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing," which highlights the controversy that has followed...

Although the dance department is continuing tradition by presenting an end-of-semester performance, there's something noticeably different about this fall's show.Act II of the classic ballet "Giselle," the second half of the production, will be performed in its entirety.

A restaging of a classical ballet like this has not been presented by the dance department for two years, since "Grand Pas Romantique" was performed in 2004, said Alicia McConnell, a junior ballet and radio-TV-film major.

Many American college students blow off the opportunity to do something people on the other side of the world risk their lives to do.Tuesday is Election Day, and unfortunately, students who are eligible to vote in Tarrant County may treat it no differently than any other day of the year.

That's a shame.

The deadline for registration has long since passed, and if you did not register, you lost your chance to vote and your right to complain about the candidate who is elected.

Face paint, colorful outfits and exposed bellies: Fine for TCU cheerleaders, bad for little girls. Last week, on my way back from church, I witnessed a caravan of pint-sized cheerleaders crossing the street as they left their competition at the University Recreation Center.Seriously, none of these girls could have been more than 6 years old. While I could go off on a tangent about how parents nowadays need to dress their young ones a lot more modestly, I'm not going to go there today. What deserves everyone's attention is what these girls were doing here.

Students say they are unsure about whom they're voting for in Tuesday's election for Texas governor.The gubernatorial race includes two independents, a Democrat and a Libertarian, who are all attempting to oust Republican Gov. Rick Perry from office.

Candidates have made border security, gambling, education and taxes the key issues in this election.

Taylor McKittrick, a freshman business major, said he is going to base his vote on issues such as immigration and homeland security but would not say for whom he is going to vote.

The women's swimming and diving team was defeated in a close meet against the Colorado State Rams on Wednesday night in the University Recreation Center.The Rams stole the win in the Frogs' first Mountain West Conference meet with just an 11-point lead.

Head coach Richard Sybesma said overall the Frogs swam well against Colorado State (4-0 in conference meets) and, while he said he expected to win, his team still fought hard.

"It's not that we lost to a team that's not on our level," Sybesma said.

Attention! Attention! All registered Texas voters! It is time to go to the polls and vote. The gubernatorial election is upon us, and it is time to choose a candidate. If you haven't heard, Texas has five candidates for governor. That's right, five candidates.

So, who is running? If you missed the debate, I'll give you a lively recap. When I watched the debate between the incumbent Rick Perry, Kinky Friedman, Carole Strayhorn and Chris Bell, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.