The Irwin Academic Services Center at the University of Illinois is outfitted with computer labs and classrooms; staffed with tutors, counselors and learning specialists; furnished with oversized leather chairs and Oriental rugs – and off-limits to 99 percent of the student body. To get help with course work in this Tudor-style former fraternity house, which cost $6 million to adapt as a tutoring facility, a student must run track, shoot basketballs, battle the Fighting Illini’s gridiron opponents or participate in another sport. Universities across the nation are offering even more spectacular tutoring centers for student athletes, which have become a recruiting device for coaches. Louisiana State’s facility cost $15 million; at Texas A&M University, $27 million.

The second annual Garbage on the Green event brought out 71 volunteers Nov. 19 to revive cleanliness on campus. Volunteers worked from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. picking up 115.3 pounds of trash off campus grounds before beginning the collection and auditing process. The trash collected was used to get an inside look at pollution on campus. April Moore, programming manager for the Environmental Center, said the reason behind the event was to quantify what’s in UNF’s waste stream in order to identify what’s causing such an abundance of litter. One of the most commonly collected trash items was Starbucks cups.

FPL to open new solar plant, puts state No. 2 in nation,

Among college administrators it’s known as The Boy Problem. But it’s a problem that starts in grade schools, high schools and homes. Boys lag behind girls in being prepared to apply for college. While American colleges were roughly balanced between male and female students a generation ago, now most schools have more women than men. Some have a lot more. Nationally, 57 percent of undergraduates are women. And as the applicant pool continues to trend toward women, more schools are reaching the tipping point of having more than 60 percent women.

Every week, the Spinnaker compiles the most recent arrests, investigation updates and often humorous findings from UPD police reports. Here’s a look back at some of the most outrageous police beat moments of the Fall 2008 semester: Incidents of burned chicken nuggets, crashed golf carts and strangers terrorizing campus are all included.

J acksonville citizens, including several UNF students, participated in the “End the Fed” rally Nov. 22 downtown at the Jacksonville Federal Reserve Building. Approximately 150 people gathered to protest the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department’s bailout of Wall Street and the planned bailout of the automakers. The rally was part of a 39-city protest. Some cities had thousands of supporters listening and chanting to Republican and emocrat elected officials who opposed thebailout. Police officers (right) were called in to videotape the protest.

The case for the auto industry bailout has been presented on several occasions as a way to help the economy from collapsing since too many people depend on the health of that industry. The problem with this argument is that bailing out the auto industry does not guarantee its success in the future at all. Regardless of how costly it would be to let the companies fail now, it’s preferable to what their failing business model could cost at a later time. Unfortunately, the reason government is usually not desired in running businesses is that profit maximization and public policy require different actions.

Millions of NFL fans across the world watch and wait for it each year. Fans of losing teams the season prior regain hope with expectations their favorite team will select a player who will bring a franchise to winning ways. The NFL commissioner gets on the stage, announces the first overall pick and one young athlete, just months removed from college, becomes a multi-millionaire.

Jacksonville's 'End the Fed' rally Nov. 22, where approx. 150 like-minded people gathered to protest the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department's bailout of Wall Street, and the planned bailout of the automakers.

After UPD discovered a body inside a parked car on the fourth floor of Garage 44 around 2:15 a.m. Nov. 12, investigators declared it a case of suicide. “From the scene, it was pretty obvious [it was a suicide],” UPD Chief Mark Foxworth said. But the family of 22-year-old psychology major D’Angelo Hurd, who was found with a gunshot wound to the head and a 9mm Glock pistol in his lap, are not willing to accept his death as a suicide. “We would rather just call it a death because ultimately, you never know,” said Hurd’s mother, Hazzel Sutton. For her and the rest of Hurd’s family, the death was a shock. Although Hurd’s demeanor never seemed to change in the months prior, Sutton feels her son might have been overwhelmed by his full-time class load, particularly a statistics class he was struggling with, she said.

UNF’s global environmental struggles class is hosting the first Environmental Awareness Day on the Green Nov. 25. Five groups of students from the class will be doing demonstrations and talking with other students to raise awareness for environmental issues. The creator and instructor of the class, Dr. Suzanne Simon, never planned the event into her syllabus. “There was this growing sensibility within the class that rather than simply write one more paper… many of the students basically said they would rather do something,” Simon said. The students chose topics such as battery recycling and disposal, preservation of animal habitats, and water and electricity conservation. They connected these broad issues to real problems at UNF and in the Jacksonville area.

The second annual Garbage on the Green is scheduled to take place Nov. 18, and the UNF Environmental Center is abuzz with activity in preparation. The event will kick off with a campus clean up from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and will continue from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. with the trash audit and expo. The trash for the expo will be taken from four buildings on campus, an administration building, an academic building, the food court area and a housing building.