What do you do if you dislike your sibling’s significant other? What if you can’t see what your friend sees in his or her boyfriend or girlfriend? What if you know your friend/sibling is making a huge mistake if he or she commits to an everlasting engagement with that person you can’t stand?

I’m not talking about the typical “I hate my in-laws situation,” where you dread when your mother and father-in-law come to visit. If you want to find out how to deal with that, go find the episode in your favorite sitcom. I guarantee, it’s been done.

I’m talking about the situation where your sister is dating a guy no one in your family can stand. I’m talking about your best friend being engaged or married to someone who grates on your nerves just by looking at you.

I have friends who have been in this situation, even family. My aunt will do anything to gainsay my grandfather, her father-in-law, just to make him mad. If he says he likes something, she will not admit to liking it in front of him, just because. To be fair, my grandfather also does a few things just to make my aunt mad. My uncle deals with it amazingly well.

I also have a friend who absolutely cannot stand her brother-in-law, and they do not speak to each other at all, not even a polite, “Please pass the potatoes.”

Personally, I feel bad for her sister, who is caught in the middle of it all. I would hate to be in that situation. I don’t think I could be. If my siblings, parents, friends, etc., all disliked the person I was with, I don’t know if I could stay with him. I would have to wonder, why is it they all dislike him? Is it something I’m overlooking because, as they say, love is blind?

I’m not saying that I would advise someone to break up with a significant other just for the reason that people seem to take an instant disliking to that other. Maybe there is something that they don’t see. Maybe all your friends hear, sometimes, is what they did to make you angry, and they don’t hear about the way your significant other makes you feel most of the time. They don’t hear about the little things that make it worthwhile.

I have no advice to give for anyone in this situation, either as the person stuck in the middle or as the sibling/friend/relative who dislikes the significant other. It’s a tough situation either way. If you’re the friend or sibling, should you say something? Would that drive the person away, or would they thank you for it? Should you keep your trap shut and just mentally shout at them, “Break up already!”

I keep my mind open and try to see what the couple sees in each other. I try and remember not to let first impressions cloud my entire judgment of a person. I always tell myself that there’s something to like in everyone, even if it’s just, “She tells a good joke once in a while.”

Other than that, the phrase “grin and bear it” comes to mind, as frustratingly painful as that might be sometimes.

To graduate from college, every student at SDSU has to have 128 credits under their belts. For Arts and Science college students, 30-some of those have to be upper credit classes. Then of course there are all the required classes every student has to take which basically seem to take up half your time here.

You’d think, with all these classes we are forced to take – many of which seem to have nothing to do with our majors or anything we’re even interested in – we would be taught everything we need to know for any career we’d ever want to take up.

If they did, though, why would many majors require internships?

The truth is, the classes don’t teach you squat beyond the basics and some of the bigger things you might need to know. Don’t get me wrong, those basics are important. Without those, you wouldn’t even be able to get a start. The minute you step out into the real world, though, if you don’t have any experience, it’s just as hard to get that start in almost any career. That need for experience is the reason why majors often require internships.

Even if your major doesn’t require an internship to graduate, it’s a really good idea to try and find one anyway. It’s not that impressive for a recent graduate’s résumé to only have the classes they’ve taken and a few odd jobs that have nothing to do with the job they are currently applying for.

As I am one of those overachievers who will have completed three different internships by the time I graduate, I thought I would give three important tips – or at least what I believe are important tips – for those searching for internships.

Number one, be straight and to the point on your résumé. Don’t waste words, but be complete in what you’re trying to say. Remember, you’re basically selling yourself through that piece of paper, so represent yourself well.

Number two, think about the references you list on your résumé. These people and what they might have to say about you could be the deciding factor in whether or not you get the job. Don’t think you have to keep the same references for every job. If you have someone who would say good things about you who used to work for that company or knows someone who works there, list them.

Number three, follow up. This is very important to do. After you’ve submitted your résumé, wait a couple weeks and then call the employer or e-mail them and ask about the status of your résumé. You probably won’t get much of an answer – something along the lines of “It’s being processed” – but doing that only shows that you are very interested in the job and puts you ahead of all those other applicants who never followed up. After you get an interview, don’t forget to follow up as well, either with a thank-you card or a phone call a week later, again checking on the status of the internship. I know it’s a hassle sometimes, but it really only takes a few minutes, shows how much you want the job and puts you ahead of other people. I’m fully convinced that following up is part of the reason I got my second internship.

Toward the end of your college career, one thing begins to happen more and more often: people getting married.

For those without a significant other or who just have yet to get married, there’s the joy of being a bridesmaid or groomsman. I’ve only been a bridesmaid two or three times in my life (if you count the time I was a flower girl/junior bridesmaid) but I have a friend who’s been a bridesmaid seven times already, and she’s only a junior in college. Being one isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, of course – you have to dress up and wear uncomfortable shoes and get your hair done and then just stand there the entire ceremony, telling yourself not to lock your knees so you won’t pass out, and wondering if you applied enough deodorant earlier that day or if you need to reapply before the wedding supper and dance. Your job is to stand there and make the bride look good. (That’s why bridesmaid dresses have the reputation of being ugly, gaudy things – you can’t be prettier than the bride, after all.)

Then there are those people who are closing in on that wonderful question. You have a significant other who you’ve been with for a while and could see yourself getting married to someday. Of course, then going to these friends’ weddings brings the ultimately dreaded question of “So, when are you two going to get married?”

I hate that question. My boyfriend and I have been dating for two and a half years, and we’ve gotten that question at every wedding we’ve been to for the last year and a half. At first it was said more jokingly, but now it’s become an honest question. His mom even asked him about it just last month. At his cousin’s wedding, we were asked five separate times about our impending doom, once even on the dance floor by the bride herself, where we thought we might be safe.

Because of all the friends I have that are engaged and because of all the pestering, the thought has run through my mind more than once in the past year. And while I know my boyfriend has good taste in jewelry (at least so far) I decided, well, maybe I’ll just figure out what I want in an engagement ring, should I ever receive one.

So I went to a Web site and decided to design my own ring, thinking it might be easiest. Then I found out that there are about 10 different shapes I can have my diamond in. Well, I have no idea what will look best on my hand, but I went ahead and chose round. Simple enough. I read underneath where you can select your diamond’s price range that the store has over 36,000 round diamonds ranging in price from $288 to $2,280,544! (If only I was dating a billionaire ?)

The next screen made you choose the carat, cut, color and clarity of the diamond. Then there were advanced criteria talking about polish, symmetry, depth percent, table percent, fluorescence, price per carat and culet ? whatever some of those are.

Let it suffice to say that I quit while I was ahead and decided to just let the boy worry about all of this stuff. That’s his job, right?

The moral of this story is, of course, that marriage is all well and good, but only when the timing is right and you are forced to deal with all of these decisions. All that worrying and planning just for one day can stay far away from me for now, though I’ll undoubtedly be doomed in the near future. Until then, I’ll stick with being a bridesmaid and worrying only about deodorant, being uncomfortable and remembering not to drink too much champagne.

The Brookings City Council unanimously approved the proposal by the Students’ Association to look at bicycle routes throughout the city and get a plan hammered out to start putting them in this spring.

“I think it’s a great project,” Council member Ryan Brunner said. “It’s something we can easily support and extend in the future.”

SA President Chris Daugaard and Vice President Eric Hanson explained the proposal to the City Council at the group’s meeting Oct. 14.

Having bike lanes not only on campus, but throughout the city, Daugaard said, would be beneficial for all.

“This type of development provides the city with an image of very forward thinking,” he said. “These are not bike trails. These bike lanes are ? a viable transportation option.”

The bike lanes would also help with traffic flow and safety, so bicyclers would not be jumping out in front of traffic or disobeying traffic laws.

“I don’t feel it’s right to tell a rider to follow the rules of the road when we don’t provide them with a safe place to ride,” Daugaard said. “Bike lanes are the safest places for riders to ride. ? When it’s easy to ride a bike, people will do it.”

After seeing “virtually a doubling of bike traffic this fall,” according to Daugaard, the SA is already working with the Physical Plant to have lane striping and marked signs up on some campus streets before the first snow, with other streets having lanes added as well in the spring.

Daugaard and Hanson presented a plan to the council that included a Phase One for bike routes to possibly begin this spring. The bike lanes would connect to bike lanes planned on campus streets and extend along most of Eighth Street and parts of 10th and 11th Streets, 12th Avenue East and 22nd Avenue. Phase One would also include bike routes through the Safe Routes to School Grant Application for the south side of Brookings.

The entire drafted proposal plan has bike routes connecting the north, south, east and west parts of the city, as well as lanes connecting with the recreational bike trails.

Daugaard said they had met with people in the private sector, who are agreeable to the proposed bike lanes.

“There’s a lot of interest and financial support for something like this in the private sector,” he said.

The council members expressed excitement for the proposal.

“I think it just comes down to it’s the right thing to do,” Deputy Mayor Tim Reed said.

Council member Tom Bezdichek said that he is “looking forward to seeing this go through,” but he would also like to see a bike exchange or bike rental pilot program discussed as a possibility along with these bike lanes. He also suggested that it would be nice to see if the campus police would endorse this plan as well by riding bicycles around during the day and during tailgating before football games.

“There’s nothing more meaningful than seeing the authorities do this,” Bezdichek said.

There was some concern from the council about the overall cost. According to the project proposal draft, an estimate would mean the entire project would cost nearly $387,272.

There were also concerns about exactly which streets would have bike lanes and removing parking to make room for the lanes, though Daugaard said they have taken parking into account in their proposal and tried to minimize the parking issues.

“This is a huge quality of life issue for the community,” City Manager Jeff Weldon said. “What I would suggest is that we continue to work over the winter months with the SA. We want to make sure we follow through with this with due diligence and get it right.”

This Monday was a holiday for the students and faculty at SDSU, giving them a day off from classes (or at least another day to procrastinate and avoid doing the homework they should have done earlier in the weekend). I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who had plenty to do to fill that free day. As I opened my student planner (bought from Barnes and Nobles), I saw that the holiday was called Columbus Day. Looking at a friend’s SDSU planner, however, proclaims the holiday to be Native American Day.

How can one holiday have two names?

After some research and reading an e-mail forward from a professor, I learned two things: first, that Columbus Day has been celebrated since the beginning of the 20th Century, though it wasn’t declared a national holiday by Congress until 1971. Second, the 1989 South Dakota state legislative session established Native American Day as a state holiday and set it on the same day as Columbus Day.

We all know that Columbus Day was started as a way to celebrate the (supposedly) first person from Europe to set foot in North America, though there is debate about that. Native American Day was established in order to celebrate Native American culture and to encourage people to learn about their heritage, their traditions and their part in South Dakota’s history.

The difference between the two holidays is the fact that one is a state holiday and the other a national holiday.

Some might say, well, which are we supposed to celebrate? The national or the state one?

I say, why not celebrate both?

Whatever some might say about Columbus, without him, Europe wouldn’t have known about America – or at least wouldn’t have known about it for a while longer – and in a roundabout way, we might not have the U.S. now. I think everyone can agree that, for whatever its many problems, we don’t really wish that we weren’t living in the U.S. today. Because of that, I see no reason not to celebrate that holiday.

At the same time, I don’t see why we shouldn’t celebrate Native American Day and celebrate culture in general. Native Americans are a part of South Dakota and its history.

This summer, I covered the Gathering of the Sacred Pipes Sundance in Pipestone, Minn., for the Argus Leader, where they were also celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the American Indian Movement. I met Clyde Bellecourt, Yaqui Joe Morales and several other interesting Native Americans. From them, I – a white female of German, Irish and Scandinavian descent – learned things I didn’t know about their culture, such as, among many other good values, how important community is to Native Americans.

Personally, I think we should all take a day, look back at our cultural heritage and celebrate it as well. We should embrace our pasts and learn about other people’s heritage. The more we learn about other cultures and about each other in general can only foster better relationships and less problems, like racism, that can divide our country.

Candidates have chosen their running mates. Millions of people across the country have taken sides, rooting for their favorites and booing and throwing trash at the opposition. The pairs give each other the Evil Eye as they line up. Get ready ? set ?

Wait. I’m not convinced.

Between the garbage slinging, long-winded speeches and random media attention on details about the candidates and their running mates that should have nothing to do with the election but do anyway, it has been difficult to pick the lesser of two evils.

I have decided here to put down my thoughts about the candidates from both parties and their running mates and why I have yet to choose anyone. Perhaps in reading this you will begin to get a picture of which side I am leaning toward, but even that changes from day to day for me.

Barack Obama is admirable in many aspects. He’s the first minority to be this close to becoming president, and he’s developed quite a following, especially among the younger people who do not necessarily pay that much attention to anything for very long, let alone a political race. My younger brother’s girlfriend is a staunch Obama supporter and has no problem spouting his praises.

Despite this, I have several issues with Obama. No, I don’t think he’s a closet-Muslim. I disagree with him on many of the issues. From what I have found, Obama rarely votes any other way than at the very left end of the spectrum, and many of his ideas zoom that way as well. While I don’t have enough room to be as specific as I’d like, I will say that sometimes I see him leading us toward socialism, and I am definitely not for that.

I do like Joe Biden for the fact that he is currently the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Foreign relations are extremely important to Americans today, and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon. There are also Republicans and Democrats alike who say that Biden is willing to “reach across the aisle” get issues solved – and has done so on many occasions.

Sometimes it seems, though, that Biden is trying too hard to sell Obama as the best man for President. Also, how is he adding to Obama’s ticket of “change” when he has been in the Senate long enough to see seven presidents come and go? His political positions are consistently ranked by various interest groups as mostly – if not completely – on the liberal side of the spectrum. It makes sense, given his party, but I’d prefer someone more in the middle to represent America.

My family has consistently been involved in the military for generations, and I would not mind seeing someone with a military record like John McCain come to bat for the U.S. He has always been known as a “maverick” who votes how he thinks is right.

Not all of McCain’s ideas agree with me, however. I do not support us staying over in Iraq any longer than it takes to get all of our soldiers out safely, for example. Then you have to factor in his age. Despite the fact that his mother is alive and healthy, as people get on in years, their health becomes more fickle. Besides, women are noted to live longer than men, so who says McCain is going to follow in his mother’s footsteps that way?

While I could make a quip about Sarah Palin being a beauty pageant runner-up, after being acquainted with the last two or three Miss South Dakotas, I have resolved never to make fun of women involved in pageants. I admire the fact that she does have a family and an amazing career, which I aspire to do as well, and she does balance out the McCain ticket well, I think. For the most part, I agree with her on many of the issues.

However, there are some disturbing parts to her ideologies that I don’t adhere to. She is extremely pro-life, and I am a little wary of anyone who is not willing to even listen to the other side. One of the librarians at Briggs Library told me yesterday (and I confirmed it in an article in Time) that during her time as governor of Wasilla, she tried to ban several books from the public library. That is one thing I will never agree with; just because one person has a problem with something that’s been written does not mean that you have the right to tell other people, “It’s bad for you. You can’t read it.”

While this may not have been as in depth as I would have liked it to be, hopefully you can see my dilemma in choosing a side. Maybe I think too much, and maybe my vote doesn’t mean as much as many would like to think an individual vote counts, but it matters to me.

A man whose personality and teaching style made his face easily recognizable to SDSU students for nearly three decades passed away this summer.

Howard “Rocky” Gilbert, age 73, died June 19 at the Brookings Hospital. Originally from Spokane, Wash., he taught at Oregon State University while working on his doctorate before becoming a professor at SDSU. During his nearly 35 years here, Gilbert taught microeconomics and business management, affecting thousands of students’ lives.

Debra DeBates, associate professor in the human development, consumer and family studies department, said she was in his 7:30 a.m. microeconomics class in Rotunda D while working on her undergraduate degree.

“It was referred to as ‘rockonomics,’” she said. “Rocky’s style of dress and teaching were pretty unconventional even for the 1970s. Often he wore a bandana and leather pants since he usually rode his motorcycle for transportation. Everyone on campus knew who he was even if they hadn’t taken a class from him.”

President David Chicoine agreed that even those who had not been in his class recognized him. Gilbert taught Chicoine intermediate microeconomics theory one of the first years he started teaching at SDSU.

“He was a great teacher,” Chicoine said. “He taught a lot of people the basics of economics, and ? he did it dynamically. How many classes do you take in your college career, and how many teachers do you remember? Not very many. They all sort of blur together. [Gilbert] made an impact.”

Both DeBates and Chicoine remember him using creative examples to get his students to remember different economics laws, such as using food – like Nick’s Hamburgers and ice cream sundaes – to demonstrate the law of diminishing marginal utility.

Chicoine also knew Gilbert as the first faculty adviser of Lambda Chi Alpha, which Gilbert helped start.

“He was a dedicated faculty adviser,” and a good person, Chicoine said. “You got the sense that he really cared and wanted you to be successful.”

Gilbert, besides being a teacher and faculty adviser to a fraternity, was very involved with the Dance for Dystrophy, a charity cause that lasted for nearly two decades. He served as master of ceremonies every year but one.

Gilbert was an inspiration and mentor to many people and was someone who made life interesting, according to many former students. They liked Gilbert even though he was a very tough teacher. Many considered getting a “C” in his economics classes an accomplishment.

“He had a quiz every single Wednesday,” Barb Teal, chief of staff at the SDSU Foundation, said. “The story was he was the only professor who could empty the bars on Tuesday and fill them on Wednesday.”

After surviving microeconomics with Gilbert, Teal bought a t-shirt commemorating the fact from the Economics Club.

“If you got a seat in that class, you were doing well, and I think that’s why they started selling those t-shirts,” she said. “They thought that if you made it through the class, you deserved something.”

Gilbert retired from teaching Dec. 31, 2001. At the time, according to a 2002 interview in The Collegian, he was writing a book about gay men involved in straight relationships.

Teal said hearing about his death took a lot of people by surprise.

“Even a year ago, when he would be walking up the streets or driving his motorcycle, it was just somebody you knew,” she said. “He would always say hi. He was a very friendly person.”

#1.882484:2496376281.jpg:Rocky.1.CMYK.BW.NOCUT.jpg:Barb Teal poses with a t-shirt she purchased after taking an economics class with the late Rocky Gilbert.:

The annual cost of attending a four-year public university – with tuition, fees and room and board factored in – was $13,589 in 2007-2008, according to the not-for-profit College Board Association. Even after adjusting for inflation, this is 78 percent higher than it was two decades earlier.

This is why the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 – the long-awaited renewal of the Higher Education Act, originally authorized in 1965 – has been hailed as a large success and has enjoyed widespread support from groups nationwide. The law intends to address the soaring price of college and make college more accessible for more Americans.

“College costs are difficult for many families to bear, and this legislation is designed to take some of the pressure off students who want to continue into higher education,” Sen. John Thune said in a press release in August, after the bill passed the House of Representatives. “This legislation provides more transparency in tuition costs for families, and it streamlines the paperwork necessary for students to apply for federal loans. It expands the Pell Grant program for low-income students and provides special tuition incentives to Armed Forces personnel as well as their dependents.”

President George W. Bush signed the act into law on Aug. 14. It includes consumer protections on everything from textbook sales to private student loans.

“? There was some concern, not so much in [S.D.] but in other states, about student loan practices,” Janelle Toman, the Director of Information and Institutional Research for the Board of Regents, said. “[The law] requires institutions and lenders to adopt strict codes of conduct … and provide students more information about options for borrowing under student loan programs.”

It also includes provisions to simplify the FAFSA, expand college tuition-reporting requirements, extend Pell Grant eligibility and recognize that colleges in rural areas like South Dakota have some unique challenges.

While the BOR is happy that this bill has been enacted, Toman said, the legislation is “extremely broad and all-encompassing,” as the act adopted by Congress was 1,500 pages long.

“There has to be a lot of rules and regulations enacted to carry out the terms of the bill,” she said. “I think we’re only beginning to see some of the initial information getting out about it.

Eric Hanson, vice president of the Students’ Association, said he is glad the act has finally been reauthorized.

“Every time the Higher Education Act authorization comes up, it gets delayed,” he said. “Then it’s kind of in limbo until it gets reauthorized. We never know what’s going to be in it when it’s finished.”

From a student’s perspective, Hanson said that while there are good things included in the reauthorization, it could have been better.

“Ultimately, it’s great that we’re moving forward,” he said. “At the same time, it could have been better, but something’s always better than nothing.”

The Senate passed H.R. 4137 by a vote of 83-8. The House passed the act by a vote of 354-58.

So you are studying for your second final during Finals Week. You look at the clock, which reads 10:15. You’re a little tired, but you know you have to at least get through this information and hopefully study for your third test as well tonight. What do you do?

Some people might reach for a pop, others an energy drink and still others will either make some coffee or head to Food Services to get a mug full.

Which is the best to reach for? Personally, I don’t touch coffee – I’ve never liked the taste, though I love the smell. I have never tasted an energy drink that I could take more than two sips of. Once in a while, if I really need a boost, I will drink Coke or Pepsi – whatever’s available – but I try to stay away from them.

I’ve talked to a number of people who are completely unlike me. I know people who drink coffee just to survive during the day. Both of my parents go through at least a pot every morning. I also know people who can’t survive without drinking a couple sodas every day. Other people can’t get through the day without their energy drinks.

These three types of drinks all have one thing in common: caffeine, a naturally occurring substance found in coffee, tea, cola drinks, many foods – including chocolate – and in many over-the-counter and prescription medications.

The main effect of caffeine is that it’s a mild stimulant of the central nervous system, reducing feelings of drowsiness and fatigue. Though caffeine is not technically addictive, many people are habitual caffeine users of one form or another, including those people who can’t get through the day without their coffee/energy drink/pop.

The issue as to which of these is the best for a person – both health wise and at keeping people awake – is not related to caffeine. It relates to what else is in the drink.

Pop

Pop – or soda or cola, whatever you like to call it – usually contains caffeine, carbonated water, phosphoric acid, sugar or high fructose corn syrup, aspartame and sucralose.

I read at www.unhinderedliving.com that for every can of carbonated soda ingested, the amount of oxygen in the blood is decreased by 25 percent for up to three hours. Doesn’t the human body require oxygen to keep on going?

How about the sugar or high fructose corn syrup? Too much sugar lowers immune function of the body by reducing the ability of white blood cells to ingest and destroy bacteria. It also contributes to the increased numbers of diabetics in the country, including childhood diabetes. Sucralose – otherwise known as Splenda – breaks down into a chemical similar to chlorinated pesticides. There hasn’t been a lot of testing on this, but I don’t think pesticides are good for the human body.

The last note for pop: it has a pH of about 1.5; normal blood pH is between 7.2 and 7.4. According to unhinderedliving.com, it takes 32 glasses of alkaline water at a pH of 9 to neutralize the acid in one can of soda. Since most people don’t drink near that much water in a day, the body uses the calcium from your bones to counteract that acid, depleting your bones at a rate of about 20 mg per can of soda.

Energy Drinks

I’m not talking about sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade. I’m talking about Red Bull, Impulse, Hype, etc. Not all energy drinks are equal, of course, but most contain caffeine, taurine, guarana, B vitamins, ginseng, ginkgo biloba, l-carnitine, sugars and antioxidants.

Sure, B vitamins, ginseng, ginkgo biloba, antioxidants andamino acids like taurine and l-carnitine are good for your body. Guarana, though, is denser in caffeine than coffee beans, meaning you’re technically getting more bang for your buck. However, that just means you’re getting more caffeine, which could be either good or bad.

Energy drinks also contain a whole bunch of sugar and mounds of calories, which cause the same problems I stated already.

Coffee

For the most part, coffee is made up of water and the roasted seeds of the coffee plant. That means none of the sugar problems pop and energy drinks bring to the table, nor the acidic effects. (Coffee is acidic, usually rating a pH of about 4.7, but nowhere near as acidic as pop.)

Also, I read at www.cosic.org that coffee “has a much higher total in-vitro antioxidant activity than other commonly consumed beverages.” Many believe that antioxidants protect against the development of chronic diseases, like heart disease and cancer, though no such effects have been determined by any scientific studies.

No one really knows which keeps people up better. Some say the more caffeine, the more awake you will be. It has its side effects, though. It really depends on the person as to which one works better.

As for the health concerns, it just seems to me that if you have to have your caffeine, coffee is the best choice. You can buy creamers if you don’t like the taste; my brother prefers to mix coffee and chocolate creamer at least half and half, if not more so on the chocolate side. This adds calories, though.

After learning a lot of these things about the three drinks, I’m still going to stay away from all of these. For those who like them, though, just remember one word: moderation.

#1.882491:392349715.jpg:caffeineillustration_JN.jpg::

Despite the spring snowstorm, spring fever is in the air at SDSU. Students are out in lighter clothes, enjoying the warmer temperatures as they look forward to summer.

To celebrate the end of the school year and the beginning of summer, the University Program Council and the Residence Hall Association are co-sponsoring the second annual Spring Fever Fest on May 1 in the Performing Arts Center in order to “help end the semester with a bang!,” according to its Facebook event description.

“This year we wanted to step up everything: the entertainment, the attendance and also the students’ roles in coordinating,” UPC showcase coordinator Brady Mallory said.

The Fest will begin with a barbecue meal served at 5 p.m. with the country group The Well Hungarians providing entertainment. The Well Hungarians were called the 2006 Country Band of the Year by New Music Weekly Magazine Awards, according to the band’s Web site – www.wellhungarians.net – and the River Front Times of St. Louis, Mo., voted them Best Traditional Country Band of 2007. The meal costs $6; meal plans and Hobo Dough will be accepted. The rest of the events are free.

At 6 p.m., illusionist Craig Karges will perform. He was described as, “Not only a magician and illusionist, Karges is an all-around entertainer and even comedic at times,” in Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Horizons on April 16, 2007. He has appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno and on “Larry King Live;” CNN “Headline News” said, “Craig Karges is the king of college campus entertainment.” The nation’s largest collegiate organization for student activities, the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA), named Karges Campus Entertainer of the Year six times, and Karges also won NACA’s Variety Performer of the Year award for a record-shattering twelve consecutive years, according to his Web site, www.craigkarges.com.

At 7 p.m., comedian Hal Sparks will entertain the crowd. Sparks was on the TV show “Queer as Folk,” VH1′s “I Love the 70s/80s/90s” and has also played Zoltan from Dude, Where’s My Car. According to his Web site, halsparks.com, a lot of his show focuses on his “obsession with the intersection of pop culture and how we speak in this county and the blood soaked wreckage that ensues.”

To wrap up the event, the movie Step Up 2: The Streets will be shown at 8:30 p.m.

The Spring Fever Fest was originally supposed to be at Sylvan Green, but due to the ten inches of snow on April 25 and the possibility of rain on Thursday, the event has been moved to the PAC. The move means that there will no longer be any inflatable games, but the rest of the entertainment is to go on as scheduled.

“The event ? promises to be an amazing way to end the school year,” Mallory said. “Students should come to this event because it is a chance to interact with their peers one last time before the summer break, and it is a great time to blow off any stress that is caused by classes. The entertainment is very strong this year, and I think students owe it to themselves to take a break and enjoy a free event.”