The Paper Trail

Natural gas commercials have flooded the airwaves in recent years. And after recent disasters in the coal and oil industries, natural gas is starting to look pretty good to some. Plus, proponents say, it's an energy source that's safer for the environment, and it's cheaper.

With some new regulations on coal plants on the way from the Environmental Protection Agency, Penn State is considering a switch to natural gas as the school's energy source, the Daily Collegian reports. The EPA regulations will "monitor the amount of air pollutants released by coal plants" and force the cost of burning coal to rise, the report says. Penn State has already started increasing the use of natural gas on one end of campus, and school officials say they are planning to switch to natural gas for the whole campus within five years.

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This weekend was Yeardley Love's. The 22-year-old University of Virginia student-athlete was found dead in her apartment last week, allegedly murdered. The story of her tragic death has gripped the Maryland-Virginia-Washington area, and the ensuing investigation has consumed headlines. But this weekend, all the headlines and news about investigations and evidence took a backseat. It was time to remember Love for who she was: by all accounts, a fun-loving, smart, and talented young woman. 

The University of Virginia held an emotional candlelight vigil for Love, a lacrosse player who was planning on graduating this spring and competing for a lacrosse national title with the Cavaliers. And in Baltimore, near Love's hometown of Cockeysville, Md., nearly 2,000 mourners remembered Love at her funeral, the Washington Post reports. At her funeral, Love's coach at U-Va., Julie Myers, fondly recalled Love's engaging presence. 

"It came easy for her to be great, to be kindhearted, welcoming, encouraging, and engaging to all who knew her. She was legitimately awesome," Myers said at the funeral. 

At the candlelight vigil on U-Va.'s campus, university administrators struck a tone of both sorrow and seriousness, reminding students to be vigilant when it comes to violence against women, the Cavalier Daily reports. 

Speaking to students at the vigil, University of Virginia President John Casteen said, "My hope for Yeardley, and for you, is that her death inspires an anger, a sense of outrage that engenders determination here and wherever Yeardley's name is recognized that no woman, no person in this place, this community, this state, our nation need either fear for her safety or experience violence for any reason." 

In addition to the vigil for Love, the university also plans to award a posthumous bachelor's degree to Love. 

This weekend wasn't the end of the story, but it was certainly a chance to celebrate a young woman whose life was cut far too short. 

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Have you ever seen that movie The Rookie starring Dennis Quaid? It's a 2002 film based on the story of Jim Morris, who became famous in 1999 for making his Major League Baseball debut as a 35-year-old, years after he originally tried his hand at professional ball.

Now, imagine someone 23 years older than Morris stepping on the pitcher's mound at a college baseball game. Sounds unbelievable, but Larry Hasenfus made it a reality. The 58-year-old Massachusetts native, rocking a handlebar mustache, took the mound four times this spring for Springfield College, the Boston Globe reports. By pitching for Springfield's JV team, Hasenfus realized his long-held dream of playing college baseball. Severe dyslexia forced him to drop out of college, but years later, Hasenfus, who recently lost his job, figured he had nothing to lose by going back to school.

"Not being able to play in college killed me," Hasenfus tells the Globe. "I never played one inning, because I just couldn't do the work [in school]. That always stuck with me."

There are a few writeups about the great story of Hasenfus. Paper Trail suggests you read them. Certainly sounds like a made-for-Hollywood story, doesn't it?

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If you attend Northern Arizona University, life's about to get a lot more interesting. Well, for those students who don't regularly go to class, anyway. 

That's because the school is instituting sensors to take attendance in large lecture halls starting this fall, multiple reports say. A system will detect student identification cards as the students enter the lecture hall. In turn, professors and lecturers can see attendance numbers. 

The university has already received some criticism for the system, which skeptics say is a little too Big Brother-esque for a college classroom. 

"I feel as though having students make it their own decision to go to class is part of the process of becoming mature adults," one NAU student tells the Badger Herald, the University of Wisconsin's student newspaper. 

But the school and its administration maintain that attendance is a huge part of academic success, and putting in sensors will keep students on their toes—and in the lecture halls for class. 

"We want every one of our students that enrolls in a class to realize their potential and be successful in the completion of that course," NAU Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Karen Pugliesi tells the Chronicle of Higher Education. "It's not in the student's interest for them to drop out of a course or to fail a course." 

This much is clear: Morning classes at NAU may lose some serious numbers in the fall. 

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