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Rebecca Smith, a sophomore journalism major and features editor of The Pendulum student newspaper, was one of nine students nationwide to be selected for a Scripps Howard Foundation 10-day journalism study trip to Japan in its annual Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition.

More than 60 ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ students have traded their textbooks and laptops for hammers and paintbrushes over Spring Break this week as they take part in service trips to Argentina, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, as well as locales closer to home such as the Gulf Coast and Charleston, S.C.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ trustees approved the 2010-11 fiscal year budget in a meeting held March 2. The board’s action places a priority on funding objectives of The ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ Commitment strategic plan, while maintaining ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ's affordable cost in setting next year’s tuition, room and board rates.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ has been recognized for the fourth year in a row as a national leader in service-learning and civic engagement. The Corporation for National & Community Service named the university this week to the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll With Distinction for exemplary service efforts to America's communities.

On Feb. 23, ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ President Leo M. Lambert and Scott Saylor, president of the North Carolina Railroad Company, toured the construction site of a new pedestrian tunnel under the railroad tracks on campus. The underpass is expected to open in late April.

At the deepest point of the 2009 financial woes, a class of ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ philosophy students turned to 19th century American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson to help understand America's response to the economic meltdown. What they found is published in new book titled "The Only Sin is Limitation: Essays on R.W. Emerson's multi-faceted influence on America."

The Periclean Scholars Class of 2012, led by sophomores Katie Kenney and Aisha Mitchell, raised more than $1,000 this month during a dance fundraiser to benefit the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti.

Three ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ alumni have been named recipients of Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships to help fund graduate studies overseas. Their recent selection brings to six the number of ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ students or alumni chosen for the prestigious award since 2006.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ senior John McGreevy flew to Haiti over Winter Term as part of a research project. Within days he found himself helping the wounded, the widowed and the children made orphans following the impoverished nation’s largest natural disaster in generations. The environmental studies and biology double major from the Philadelphia region recently spoke with E-net about his experience.