Two-thirds of the sophomores have a new English teacher as the spring semester begins. Matt Mitchell, husband of English department head Elizabeth Majerus, is taking the third quarter off to care for the couple's infant daughter, Ruby Majerus Mitchell. Rosemary Laughlin, who taught full time at Uni from 1986 to 2003, takes over for Mitchell, making this the fourth time she's come out of retirement to help the department.

"After three years of driving me to and from school and taking me to various sports practices and extracurricular events, my parents were tired of being my chauffeur," writes Elaine Gu. "Driving me to places interfered with their schedules, so they bought me a car and a campus parking permit. Initially, I was ecstatic to be able to drive myself to school every day. However, I soon realized that having a parking permit wasn’t so great."

If filmmaker and political activist Michael Moore wants to sway people to his point of view, then why does he risk alienating them with his sarcasm and often belittling humor? Sindha Agha pondered that question after watching several of his documentaries. What Moore does, she concludes, is fully within the best tradition of American dissent.