Grilled chicken as an alternative to fried chicken and vegetables not cooked in butter or oil are just a couple of changes students can expect this semester in the dining commons.

At many downtown State College businesses, customers arrive at the counter and are gripped by unexpected panic. Staring them in the face is the ever-feared tip jar.

The bad luck streak in West Lafayette, Ind., continues.

Joe Battista falls into a chair and smiles wearily. It's been a long week, and the travel schedule won't do the coach any favors any time soon.

Clear the air: Emissions testing should be enforced statewide

My Opinion: Adam Fabian

• Stopping 8 a.m. classes may limit group space
• Closed medical center caused inconveniences
• Urinal splashguards send offensive message
• Inconsistent gym users should just stop now
• Don't criticize Johnson for avoiding the media
• New computer policy may hurt PSU's funding
• Penn State should try to spend money wisely
• Eating alone doesn't make you a loser

Frigid temperatures and incessant snowfall are beginning to affect Penn State students, even as meteorologists question this winter's place in the record books.

The joys of working in fast food at one time or another is an experience familiar to many. But for most, the time put in flipping burgers and working the drive thru was a brief summer job and nothing more.

Charlie Kaufman, award-winning screenwriter of Being John Malkovich, was in a rut. He had the thankless task of writing a screenplay version of Susan Orlean's novel, The Orchid Thief. And although he immersed himself in Orlean's pretty but plotless prose, Kaufman couldn't conceive of a way to faithfully adapt the book.

Nowadays, all we need is Jay-Z with Lenny Kravitz sampling a Cake song to prove that the noises some rap artists are trying to squeeze into the confines of a disc have become out of control.

Existentialism -- n. A philosophy emphasizing the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe.

Three words can sum up Sum 41's latest, Does This Look Infected?: dumb, fast and loud.

Sandra Cisneros' Caramelo is the history of a Mexican-American family, told through the eyes of the young Lala Reyes.