At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 9, the Filene Ladd Music Hall in the Arthur Zankel Music Center was packed with students waiting in anticipation for a presentation by "This American Life" producer and host Ira Glass. Glass spoke about his show and the journey that brought him to his position at NPR.

On Wednesday March 10, The Beehive Design Collective presented "The True Cost of Coal" in the Spa to spread awareness about the coal industry's effect on America.

The Beehive Design Collective, formed in 2000, is a non-profit, political arts organization.

On March 2, Marion Nestle enlightened both the the college community and the Saratoga Springs public about the effects our culture has on people's food choices.

Nestle presented her PowerPoint entitled, "Food Politics: Personal Responsibility or Social Responsibility?" It explained the American food industry's role in increasing obesity rates, which have risen since the early '80s.

On March 25, the garden sub-committee of the Environmental Action Club is teaming up with Lively Lucy's for a fundraiser to benefit the college's garden.

"Beats for Beets" will be in Falstaff's with performances by the Accents, Houseboat, and Baliwick. There will be a suggested donations bin at the door.

Peshawar, Pakistan - On Wednesday, six employees of World Vision, an American Christian charity group that has been working in Pakistan since the earthquake in 2005, were shot and killed.

Others were also injured when an attack was launched on the group's offices in a small village in the northern part of the country.

When students and faculty go to the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery they see exhibits strategically assembled in a way that is visually appealing. But what really goes on behind the scenes at the Tang? "I think that those experiences that students and other visitors have when they come to the museum hides all of the work that goes into making that experience possible" said Chief Curator and Associate Director of the Tang, Ian Berry.

As of Tuesday, March 9, with the deadline just two weeks away, 55 percent of the class of 2012 had not yet declared a major.

Declaring a major can be a significant stress, even for those who already know what they plan to study. One of the most confusing aspects of declaring can be choosing a faculty advisor.

Homophobia in sports has is unfortunately something that is still a common occurrence. It is something that is started in youth sports, carried throughout high school and college, and into the professional leagues. The locker-room aspect of the sporting world is a large reason why we see this homophobia.

"Thornton Wilder: The Trivial and the Divine," opens in a manner far more in line with the latter adjective in its title, as a young boy-poet is confronted with nothing less than the lighter and darker elements of human nature.

One could not be blamed for feeling as if they have been dropped into the climactic scene of some obscure Greek dram; you know, the one where the hero finds out his destiny from a prophet with an overly dramatic voice.

It's 8:00 P.M. on Saturday, March 6 in Ladd Auditorium, Zankel Music Center, and I'm about to watch the college orchestra in concert. Why? Because it's only eight o'clock and, nerd alert, I'm even kind of excited to go; it will be the first orchestra concert I've been to since I dropped my high school's "Chamber Ensemble" after my sophomore year in favor of an independent study in rock music.

Spoon's new album feels a little like an inconsistent movie, where a couple of characters really draw you in and a couple of characters really turn you off. For most bands this, might suggest an inability to maintain an even level quality over the course of an album, but Spoon has been one of the most consistent bands of the past decade.

From Monday, March 1 to Thursday March 4, in the Faculty Staff Club on the second floor of Case Center, the photographer, Frank Cordelle, brought his exhibition, titled The Century Project, to the college. The exhibit, brought by Becca Kolins '12 and Stephen Bissonette '12 consisted of nude portraits of women ranging from newborns to 100, also accompanied with their personal stories.

Skidmore was recently named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The college's incredibly active community service club, Benef-action, is no doubt a major factor in receiving this award.

Benef-action has been active since the 1980s.

Imagine a world where college students are actually encouraged to take a nap between classes, or while doing homework or studying. Well, fellow Skiddies, prepare yourselves, for I come bearing some excellent news.
While the encouragement of daytime dozing might be a little far-fetched, an occasional snooze might actually "prime the brain for learning.

In the fall Saratoga Apple provides a festive atmosphere for a trip off campus, but the frigid upstate winters make excursions to the orchard a less than ideal activity.

Luckily, the orchard also comes to Skidmore every Friday throughout the year to provide local grocery options to students and faculty.

For the past three months, we should have been living our lives like every moment could be our last. And now we no longer need to.

Physicists in Europe this week announced plans to turn off the Large Hadron Collider for a year, saying the machine is too dangerous to continue operating.

Women's Tennis
This past weekend, the Skidmore women's tennis team took two 8-1 wins over William Smith and Ithaca.
In No. 4 singles, first year Nataly Mendoza beat William Smith's Melissa Slack 6-2, 6-3 and Ithaca's Sarah Hollis 6-0, 6-4. In No. 1 doubles, Mendoza and senior Danika Robinson defeated William Smith 8-1 and Ithaca 8-6.

After taking a 6-3 victory against the University of Southern Maine on Feb. 27 in the ECAC quarterfinals, the men's hockey team went on to play Babson on March 5 in the semifinals.
In the first period, the teams scored only a combined seven points. It took Babson nine minutes to take its first shot on goal.

Between Feb. 15 and Feb. 26, three burglaries occurred on campus. The events are unrelated, and the intruders are suspected to be students at the college.

Campus Safety would not reveal the residence halls in which the break-ins occurred, as an attempt to keep the victims identities disclosed.

The University of California's Board of Regents met last Thursday and approved a plan that will raise the cost of undergraduate tuition 32 percent next fall.

This has sparked debate from both students of California Universities as well as students from other institutions showing support.

On Feb. 27, the Environmental Action Committee hosted its first Dinner and Dialogue, an event to spark conversation among all Skidmore community members who wish to discuss environmental issues around campus, over a meal. The event will be hosted once a month.

"We have a lot of money and we want make sure that we are using our money to the benefit of the students," said Student Government Association President Raina Bretan '10, in reference to the budget surplus of approximately $400,000 to $500,000.

"It's tough to peg down an exact number for the surplus.

Recycling is important, but RecycleMania seems slightly off base. With three weeks remaining in RecycleMania, North Quad and Northwoods lead South Quad and Scribner Village, respectively, in the race to increase recycling output.

RecycleMania winners are determined based on volume of recycling per capita in each campus region.

Ever since we hit puberty, we are told what parts of our body are now private.

This past weekend, we got some much-needed exercise dancing to the melodic sounds of Houseboat and The Down Low. Temperatures rising as they often do in a cramped Fallstaffs party, one of us began to peel off her sweat-stained tank, when she caught the eye of a disapproving bystander.

Dear Editors,

On behalf of our women's basketball team, I would like to thank our student body, staff, faculty, administrators, board of trustee members and greater Saratoga community members for the tremendous support of our women's basketball team during the regular season and our run at the Liberty League post-season championship.

Opening this weekend in the Blackbox of the Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater is "Thornton Wilder - The Trivial and the Divine." The play will be performed at 7 p.m from March 5 to 6 and 8 to 10, and at 2 p.m on March 7. While tickets for the weekend shows are sold out, there are still plenty available for the March 8 to 10 shows.

On Feb. 24, one of the theater department's workshops performed three of David Ives' one-act comedic plays, "English Made Simple" and "The Universal Language" in a studio as small as the environment was informal.

The production, featuring quick-witted dialogue exchanged between comical characters with sharp tongues, was the directorial debut of Ruth Morrison '12.

Sometimes, a rap feud can taint a rapper's entire career. For Canibus (Can-I-Bus, sometimes shortened to just Bis), this is definitely the case. Ever since Bis's infamous feud with LL Cool J, ignited by his verse on the latter's "4, 3, 2, 1," the former has largely been panned by critics and listeners as a wannabe.

Nov. 9, 2009 was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Peter Maurer '10, who already had an interest in "the struggle between Communism and Capitalism," felt that such an event should not pass by without some sort of tribute, and so he wrote and directed a play called "Cold Wall," which set out to portray an accurate view of a divided Germany.

At 8 p.m. on Feb. 24, Reginald Lilly of the philosophy department gave the Moseley lecture, the highest honor bestowed on a faculty member at the college. Lilly spoke about trauma and beauty and how these concepts affect our understanding and experience of time.

I'm sitting at the counter at Supremo's, better known as the pizza station in the Murray-Aikins Dining Hall, watching George DeMers shuffle one pizza after another from the oven to the counter. We're talking about music.

"Metal's my favorite, man. I was always into metal when I was growing up in Texas and, when I moved up to New York, I met up with my family here, and my cousins all played guitar.

A music lover's pastime is digging in the crates?for old records, that is. In this day and age, the holding of a physical record, the anxious inserting into a player for a listen; these things are fading away.
What is replacing them, year by year, is the digital downloading of music and albums through applications such as iTunes and file sharing programs.

The Hurt Locker" is up for nine academy awards this Sunday, including Best Director, Best Picture and Best Screenplay. The story is about a US Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team - the Army's bomb squad.
As the movie begins, three soldiers are standing in a deserted street.

On Feb. 26, the women's basketball team defeated Hamilton

65-51 and earned a spot in the Liberty League championship.

Skidmore initially took the lead in the first half, but Hamilton stole the lead 36-27 before the end of the half.

But, in the second half the Thoroughbreds came back with strong defense and a 16-4 run.

Men's hockey

On Feb. 27, the men's ice hockey team defeated the University of Southern Maine 6-3 in an ECAC Men's East quarterfinal round game.

At the 1:06 mark of the second period, Southern Maine scored, putting the Thoroughbreds behind 3-1.

Scoring his 10th goal of the season, sophomore forward Tyler Doremus decreased the deficit to one just seconds after Southern Maine had scored.

Skidmore College is in the process of reviewing roughly 5,600 regular decision applications, narrowing down the most qualified candidates and having Mary Lou Bates, Dean of Admissions, sign each acceptance letter.

At 5 a.m. on March 26 the college will send out acceptance letters to prospective students in the college's Class of 2014.

Joseph Bruno, former New York State Senate Majority Leader, Skidmore alumnus and convicted felon, scrambled to shell out over $75 million in last-minute grants at the end of his office in July 2008, including money for the college and Saratoga Springs.

Bruno, 80, who graduated in 1952, attempted to fund various projects in the Capital Region shortly before he resigned from his position as State Senator, most of which failed to process.

The campus is in the full swing of RecycleMania, a nationwide competition that promotes waste reduction across campuses.

The college has two inter-campus competitions, which began Feb. 1 and end on Mar. 27, between Northwoods and Scribner and North Quad and South Quad.

On March 2 Vera Rubin, an award-winning astronomer, will deliver a lecture on her research on dark matter.

She will open with a brief historical introduction and discuss evidence that most of the matter in the Universe is dark and alternatives to this explanation, some of which she chooses to support.

The Arthur Zankel Music Center has been in use for five weeks. "Within weeks the building has been put to the test and passed with flying colors," said choral Director Janet McGhee.

The building is 54,000 square-feet and cost $32.5 million to build. The funding came from the late Arthur Zankel, a Skidmore trustee who donated $46 million to the college, $15 million being allocated to the music center.

On Tuesday, Feb. 23, the college community received notice of three reported on-campus burglaries. The outburst comes as a shock since such occurrences are rare at the college.

We are fortunate to live in a very safe area. We study during the week and celebrate on the weekends without much conflict.

Why are people always sorry? In this new politically correct world, everybody is way too scared of hurting feeling, roughing up feathers? whatever figure of speech works for you. For instance, in the past few days, ESPN suspended analyst Tony Kornheiser from his weekday show "Pardon the Interruption" for two weeks.

Fred Tomaselli's works lie somewhere between precision and chaos, imitation and reality; geometry and nature. He creates a partnership between psychedelia and a universe of ambiguity. "I really would like people to have transcendental experiences with the works, so in that regard I think of these works as both a window into another world and a mirror to the world that we live in," Tomaselli said in a video from the James Cohan Gallery.

We were born from a grizzly bear and nanny goat in 1840?"
So begins the interview with Gung Ho, Skidmore's premiere Saturday night rock band. They've been playing their unique blend of Blonde on Blonde era Bob Dylan, electric blues and punk influenced pub-rock for over three years now, and soon their debut album, currently being recorded with John Nazarenko at The Creek Studio, will be out.

Anually, the Honors Forum selects a distinguished Skidmore faculty member to deliver the Ramsey Honors Forum Lecture. Flip Philips, chair of the neuroscience department and a professor of cognitive psychology, received the honor this year. Philips gave his lecture, which centered around his diverse range of interests and professions, on Monday, Feb.

Pavement - "Quarantine the Past" - March 29

What better time for Pavement to release a greatest hits album than a few short months before their eagerly anticipated reunion? Granted, anyone who cares enough about the 1990's indie rock darlings to buy tickets to one of their summer shows probably owns all their albums anyway, but since when has something like that stopped a record company from skimming a little bit more green off of fans who either have fat wallets or haven't yet discovered or approved of bittorent? Them CDs only cost a few pennies to manufacture these days, so why not? On the bright side, quite an interesting title.

Twice a month, 12 lucky members of the Saratoga Springs community have the chance to join seniors Molly Baz and Mikaela Bloomberg for a completely unique culinary outing.

Private Dining Experience is a supper club operated out of Baz and Bloomberg's home on Lincoln Avenue.

The media platform known as social networking is no longer just a tool for procrastination or a collection of embarrassing pictures. Social networking sites are now important resources for job information and potential employers.

Nearly every college student is a member of one of the popular social networking sites, such as Facebook or Twitter.

As we are now well settled back into college life after a long break at home, the inevitable sicknesses of the winter months are beginning to hit all college students.

Being in close proximity to everyone on campus tends to lead to illness. This brings about a serious question: are college students able to correctly dose themselves with liquid medicines such as Dayquil, Nyquil and Robitussin?

These unpleasant-tasting liquids are sometimes the best defenses against winter colds and the flu, but it is also important to know how to appropriately measure and take these medicines.

An upstart company in Silicon Valley, Bloom Energy (http://www.bloomenergy.com), announced a product on Wednesday that it claims will revolutionize American energy production. A so-called "Bloom Box" is a large fuel cell designed to power a home or business. A fuel cell is often likened to a battery.

Entering the weekend of Feb. 20, the Skidmore men's basketball team held an impressive 15-8 overall record and was tied for first in Liberty League with an 8-4 league record.

The team had surpassed many of their water marks: winning their first game, passing the 10 win plateau and securing an above .

Men's hockey On Feb. 19, the Skidmore ice hockey team fell to No. 6-ranked Middlebury, 3-1. The Thoroughbreds are now 8-14-2 overall and 7-9-2 in the ECAC. The scoring began in the first period at the 16:01 mark with a power play goal from first year Alex Riccio.

On Feb. 17 President Philip Glotzbach hosted a fireside chat with students in the Murray-Aikins Atrium. The purpose of the event was to discuss topics of interest with students.
The previous day he delivered a presentation to the Student Government Association Senate where he discussed the college's financial status and the value of a liberal arts education.

On Feb. 15, Lucy Van Hook, an independent carbon consultant, delivered a lecture on energy efficiency and the 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference.

Hook has managed the Carbon Quantification Project at the Maine Housing Authority since January 2008. The environmental studies department and Sustainable Skidmore sponsored the lecture, held in Davis Auditorium.

On Feb. 5, Roy Ginsberg, professor of government and international affairs at the college, published "Demystifying the European Union: The enduring Logic of Regional Integration," his ninth book.
He published the first edition of the book in 2007, which sold approximately 3,500 copies.

Health Services received a shipment of H1N1 vaccines with first priority to faculty and staff this month. The past two clinics were exclusive to students.

"College students are one of the CDC [Center for Diseases Control and Prevention] priority groups, so they wanted to provide vaccinations to the priority groups before anyone else," said Patty Bosen, nurse practitioner and clinical director at Health Services.

On Friday, Feb. 16 Skidmore College President Philip Glotzbach gave a presentation to the Student Government Association Senate concerning college costs, financial aid, and the value of a Skidmore College education.

"We were trying to help people understand some of the issues regarding the cost of college, the cost of your college, and the cost of other expensive colleges and universities today," Glotzbach said.

Despite the college's small student population, there is an alarming lack of unity on our small campus. Even as a small school, there seems to be a divide between students; we seem to be unable to form a interrelated community. We have low attendance at our sporting events, lectures, and low turnouts for the Student Government elections.

Eyes scanning across a circle quickly become the spinning eye of an old wine bottle. The rotating bottle slows down and lands on an eager face, which triggers the screaming of the crowd. Without any hesitation an equally eager body meets its counterpart in the middle.

In the 1890s, infamous inventor and noted crazy man Nikola Tesla designed enormous generators that would make huge magnetic fields to power any electric device on the globe, or so was Tesla's plan. Although he ended up sending minor shocks through people nearby and made the ground around his laboratory glow blue with electricity, his plan to power the world didn't come through.

Skidmore's Harmony for Haiti benefit concert, which took place on Feb. 11, was more than just the first student performance in the new Helen Filene Ladd Performance Hall.

It was an unmitigated success that provided a stunning example of the Skidmore music community's ability to direct its vast stores of creative energy towards a humanitarian goal, while also putting on a great show.

It's 1981 and I'm chain-smoking in the back of an abandoned-warehouse-turned-dingy-bar, floor to ceiling painted black. Leaning against the concrete wall, I have a full range view of my peers: lonely young artists covered in different forms of dark fabric and silver spikes to protect themselves against plebs.

In 1961, Marvel Comics-which had existed in various floundering incarnations since its inception as Timely Publications in 1939-began publishing the superhero comics that would make it a household name. Led by such luminaries as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and John Romita, Sr.

The Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater's main stage auditorium was filled to bursting on Friday, Feb. 12, as the 21st annual National College Comedy Festival commenced. With a record of 178 participating members and 20 college comedy troupes, the hilarious occasion went off without a hitch, minus a bent chair leg or two.

In hip-hop, there has always been a thin line drawn between street credibility and exaggeration. Perhaps Fat Joe put it best in "Pendemic" when he asked of the listener "don't you know all of us rappers are great liars?" Even the concept of "street cred" is amorphous: does it mean one has lived what you rap about, or is it a distinction one earns from being present in the scene for a substantial amount of time? The answer is different depending on who you ask.

On January 26th, Adriana Vetrano '11 launched the Skidmore College branch of "Her Campus", an online magazine targeted at college-aged women. "Her Campus "was founded in 2009 by three Harvard undergraduates - Windsor Hanger '10, Stephanie Kaplan '10 and Annie Wang '11.

Falstaff's was covered in love-themed decorations to celebrate Ujima's 'Food for the Heart and Soul' dinner this Valentine's Day. The dinner is a Ujima tradition open to the entire Skidmore community.
"Basically we're just celebrating love. Black love, and love of all kinds," explained Ujima vice-president Linda Leandre '10 in her welcoming message to the guests.

Books; you can't live with them, you can't live without them. For college students this sentiment rings truer than most. If you're a bibliophile, though, what does it matter?
The magical world of the book offers an escape only available within its pages. For those with an itch to explore those worlds beyond what is required for courses, an unassuming downtown Saratoga book shop is the key.

The newly built Zankel Music Center was filled to capacity as the Rust Brothers performed the final song of the Harmony for Haiti fund raiser on February 11.
The band's talented bassist is not a professional musician, or even a music professor at Skidmore.

Chocolates, flowers and romantic comedies are so last decade; this past Valentine's Day, mountains, snow and extreme sports were all the rage. Well, at least they were for the 260 people who spent their evening in Gannet Auditorium watching the latest films from the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour.

Skidmore basketball celebrated Senior Day on Saturday, Feb. 13 with a sweep of the Vassar Brewers as part of the college's annual Big Green Scream in front of a packed crowd at the Sports & Recreation Center. With the wins, the women's team clinched the regular-season Liberty League title, while the men remained in a three-way first-place tie Union and St.

Men's Hockey
On Feb. 12, the men's ice hockey team defeated St. Michael's College 5-2 in South Burlington, Vt.
In the first period, sophomore Tyler Doremus scored the first goal of the night at the eight-minute mark. Junior Alex Mykolenko and first year Zack Menard assisted Doremus.

Dining Services has expanded the Atrium Café in an effort to boost sales and offer more variety to students.

The Atrium was renovated over winter break and has been in operation since January. Bill Canney, director of Dining Services, has been planning the expansion for the past year.

On Feb. 9 the Student Government Association hosted a speech night in the Spa for SGA Senate candidates, including the Student Entertainment Company president position. All other positions were uncontested.

Melissa Tannenbaum '12 ran against James Lyness '13 in the SEC election.

As part of the Focus Skidmore series, several of the college's organizations are teaming up to sponsor a teleconference between students and the United Nations Ambassador's Club to discuss climate change. Using an innovative technology unit termed the Tandberg system, students will be able to directly interact with panelists from around the world.

The college has received a $550,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) toward the science departments to purchase modern equipment for the Skidmore Analytical Interdisciplinary Laboratory (SAIL).

The lab program will integrate the biology, chemistry, environmental studies and anthropology departments through collaborative research.

During the '09-'10 Winter Break, 34 students participated in the Job Shadowing Program, run through Skidmore's Career Services. Job shadowing gives students a brief opportunity to observe and work with professionals in their career field of choice.

The Job Shadowing Program is run by Penny Loretto, Assistant Director of Career Services.

In his Feb. 1 letter to students and faculty, President Philip Glotzbach outlined recent changes to the college's financial status. After the recession caused it to plunge to as low as $220 million in February 2009, the college's endowment has recovered most of its losses, now standing at $270 million.

What is it about fiction writing that leads its authors to a life of alcohol abuse?
Whether writers use alcohol as a means of channeling their artistic genius, or as a coping mechanism for every-day life, it has definitely been a mystery as to why a major portion of 20th century American writing has been attributed to boozing writers.

Imagine R2-D2 with a bazooka.

Researchers for Robotic Technology Inc. (RTI) are developing a robot that will never need to be refueled, controlled or even maintained by a human.

It's a project being funded mostly by the U.S. Armed Force's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Feb. 6 marked the 19th annual iteration of the Ujima Fashion Show. "Eclat," which means brilliancy of success or effort, glamour and splendor, was the theme of this year's show, which was held in the Janet K. Bernard Theater.

Hosts Randy Abreu '11 and Ronald Solis '11 opened the event, adding their flavor of humor by delivering satirical advertisements of household name brands and inviting the audience to participate in trivia games throughout the show.

On Feb. 5, members of the ACJW ensemble performed at the opening of Helen Filene Ladd performance hall in Zankel. Though not the official opening of the hall, which will take place next October, it was the culmination of many years of planning and construction.

Vaginas. They're all over the place (certainly a majority at Skidmore), but it's probably safe to say that they're underrepresented in conversation. For years, the college's branch of the Feminist Action Network, an organization devoted to feminist and gender issues, particularly sexual violence, has made its mission to play a part in ending this genital injustice by staging annual productions of the "Vagina Monologues".

A hotel room in Hell may conjure images of red, devilish figures and torture devices. While a hotel room in hell may indeed be the setting for John Paul Sartre's "No Exit," the picture created by the playwright is very different.

The play begins when Garcin (Tristan Shaffer-Goldman '11) is led into a room by the valet (Brandon O'Sullivan '11).

Phantogam
"Eyelid Movies"

Saratoga's own Phantogram will release its debut, "Eyelid Movies" on Feb. 9 via Barsuk, the former label of indie giants Death Cab for Cutie. Phantogram is a two-piece that plays something akin to glitch techno mixed with the indie dream-pop of a band like Beach House.

It may still be single digits outside, but applications for summer jobs and internships are already open. An ideal place to start applications, whether or not a student has successfully searched for an internship in the past or is clueless about the process, is Career Services.

At the beginning of each weekend at Skidmore there are a few things to be expected: Scribner-hopping, ventures off campus, Falstaff's dances, and binge drinking. However, students are much less informed about the dangers that can accompany binge drinking.
Alcohol emergency situations are not uncommon at Skidmore, and we've been very fortunate to not have many alcohol related deaths on campus.

Earlier this week, residents of Northwoods were informed of new composting opportunities in the community. The project, led by members of the Environment Action Club, is not the first attempt to bring composting opportunities to campus.
A composting program was in place a few years ago, but momentum faded and the program was discontinued.

Men's Hockey
On Feb. 6, Skidmore's men's ice hockey team tied the University of Southern Maine 3-3 at the Saratoga City Rink. The draw moved the Thoroughbreds to 7-12-2 overall and 6-7-2 in league play.
At the 2:10 mark of the first period, first year Brendan Cottam scored his seventh goal of the season, putting Skidmore up 1-0.

On Saturday, Feb. 6, Skidmore hosted its 4th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day in the Sports and Recreation Center.
With 117 girls in grades 3 through 8 participating in the event and 82 Skidmore student-athletes assisting the girls, the celebration was the largest it has been in its four years.

At 8:56 p.m. on Feb. 2 a sprinkler system pipe in the ceiling of the southwestern corner of the Murray-Atkins Dining Hall froze and then collapsed, prompting the alarm system to go off and a student evacuation.

Massive amounts of water spurted out of the pipe, flooding the area around Semolina's pasta station by about two inches.

After over 20 years of discussion and 33 months of construction, Skidmore's Arthur Zankel Music Center is complete.

The building is a voluminous 54,000 square-feet, over twice the size of the Therese W. Filene Music Building. Music majors are enthusiastic about the spaciousness of Zankel, which cost $32.

The college's Student Senate, the legislative body of the Student Government Association (SGA), held the first meeting of its 13th session on Feb. 2. The Senate discussed potential ways to spend the SGA's $340,000 budget surplus. SGA currently has an endowment of $650,000.

On Feb. 11, Barbara Love, a professor from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, will deliver the keynote speech for Skidmore's annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial observance.

The Office of Student Diversity Programs and Office of Religious and Spiritual Life are sponsoring the lecture, which will take place at 7 p.

Skidmore has received a $750,000 grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation to extend the tenure of anticipated retiring faculty and hire new faculty for the next three years.

The Mellon Foundation has granted funds to various liberal arts colleges, such as Union College, Hamilton College, Colgate University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and St.

Imagine if New Orleans didn't just have to deal with Katrina, but two more hurricanes and a magnitude seven earthquake. It puts the situation in a little more perspective" said Professor Winston Grady-Willis, director for Intercultural Studies.

Skidmore clubs, faculty and individual students have been organizing Haiti crisis relief efforts for the upcoming weeks and setting long-term goals.

Dear Editors,

The beginning of our new semester represents an appropriate moment to update the Skidmore community regarding our financial situation and address an issue that I know has been very much on all our minds.

As you will recall, last May I announced that we needed to achieve an additional $3.

Upon returning from winter break, college students were welcomed with the opening of the brand new Arthur Zankel Music Center. With 54,000 square feet of teaching and practice space this $32.5 million building is sure to provide music students with the facilities they need to perform at their best.

So a couple fruit flies walk into a bar? Not a surprise for bartenders in at least one part of the country. Biologists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have discovered that they can turn fruit flies into alcoholics. The experiment started out simply by setting up two food sources for the flies: one was a tube filled with just sugar and yeast, and one contained sugar and yeast with ethanol, the same alcohol you find in liquor and beer.

On a visual level, "Avatar", James Cameron's latest epic, is close to perfection. He and his crew have taken computer animation to the next level, crafting a world more realistic, distinctive and downright gorgeous than any other animated film, period. This world will suck viewers in the moment it jumps out of the screen (for once, shelling out a few extra dollars for 3-D glasses is worth it, even essential).