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.