The cross country teams begin the championship season this weekend, as they travel to Fort Collins, Colo., for their first ever Mountain West Conference Championships.The race at Collindale Golf Course on Saturday will mark the first time a TCU athletic team has competed in a MWC tournament, coach Patrick Cunniff said.

"We are very excited about being the first TCU team to represent the university in a Mountain West Conference championship," Cunniff said.

It's 8:15 a.m. Inside Room 215, 20 hunched-over students scratch and scrawl away with No. 2 pencils on their first task of the day.

It's both familiar and uncharted territory for these high school juniors and seniors. And for 25 minutes of a grueling three-hour-and-45-minute SAT exam, like the nearly 1.4 million students across the nation who took it in spring and early summer, they must complete not only multiple-choice questions but also, for the first time, demonstrate their writing ability.

A special election will be held Nov. 8 to fill a vacancy in the House of Student Representatives after a representative of the College of Science and Engineering resigned last week. Rep. Thomas Guidry, a junior computer science information major, cited in his resignation letter "distress and heartache" as reasons for leaving.

Guidry had been a representative in the House for five semesters. Vice President Trevor Smith said he is disappointed about Guidry's resignation.

Almost 90 percent of sexually active college students contract a sexually transmitted disease and are not even aware of it, local experts say.Among the 20 million Americans who have genital human papillomavirus are the high percentage of sexually active college women and men, said Dr. Jayanthi Lea, a gynecologic oncologist at University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center.

"I would venture a guess between 70 and 88 percent," Lea said.

TCU females can learn self-defense techniques and then practice on their instructors at the Rape Aggression Defense class Saturday and Sunday.The class is designed to teach females to avoid and escape attacks, said TCU Police officer Mike Fazlinejad, co-instructor of the course.

Fazlinejad said the class begins with a discussion about prevention of potential attacks. He suggests closing blinds at night so no one can see inside and parking in well-lit areas.

The instructors then teach technical punches and kicks, Fazlinejad said.

At Hangman's House of Horrors the volunteers have a large role in the planning and production of the haunted house.They play a part in everything from the theme to the sets, said Aryn Young, a 2002 TCU graduate and production assistant for La-De-Da Productions, the theatrical production company that sponsors Hangman's.

According to www.hangmans.com, "It takes more than 1,000 volunteers to bring this house to life!"

In a creative meeting in late spring, the volunteers selected the "Final Cut" movie theme as well as the overall direction of the house, Young said.

President George W. Bush will start looking for a female candidate with credentials similar to those of Chief Justice John Roberts following Harriet Miers' withdrawal from the nomination process, faculty members said Thursday.The White House said Miers had withdrawn because of senators' demands to see internal documents related to her role as counsel to the president, according to the Associated Press.

TCU is awarding above-average financial aid packages to Hispanic students, according to university records, beating a national trend that shows Hispanics receiving the lowest average amounts of any racial or ethnic group.A study by Excelencia in Education, an organization that studies Hispanics and higher education, reports that the percentage of Hispanic students receiving financial aid to pay for college is at an all-time high. However, in 2003-2004, Hispanics received the lowest average award packages nationally.

It was expected but rather sudden when the announcement was made Thursday morning.During an interview with NBC News' "Today" show co-anchor Matt Lauer, conservative political columnist and author Ann Coulter discussed the possibility that Harriet Miers would likely withdraw her nomination as Supreme Court justice in the media pandemonium of the anticipated indictments of White House officials. Miers would simply disappear in the chaos.

Then it happened.