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¸£ÀûÑÇÖÞ¹ú²ú¾«Æ· senior Jana Murdock collected more than $10,000 this spring for Kopper Top Life Learning Center in Liberty, N.C., through a fundraising project that will provide revenue to the Triad nonprofit for years to come.

As you clean out your dorm room or apartment this month, instead of tossing furniture and clothing that you couldn't sell on E-net into the nearest trash bin, consider a donation to area charities that are working in coordination with the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life and the Office of Sustainability to help others in the community while minimizing the amount of waste dumped into local landfills.

For the second consecutive year, ¸£ÀûÑÇÖÞ¹ú²ú¾«Æ· students who took part in the annual springtime ELONTHON dance marathon raised more than $100,000 to benefit young patients and their families with the nonprofit Children’s Miracle Network and Duke Children’s Hospital.

Three of North Carolina’s most influential voices in higher education gathered Wednesday, Feb. 9, for a panel discussion at a civic engagement conference on ¸£ÀûÑÇÖÞ¹ú²ú¾«Æ·’s campus. Their message was simple: state and federal lawmakers should preserve financial aid for students in the ongoing recession, and to stay competitive in a global economy, schools must widen access for those who want to pursue college degrees.

Enjoy one of the final cultural events of the spring semester this weekend when the Department of Performing Arts presents On That Note... An Evening of Dance and Music, which opens Thursday night in McCrary Theatre.

Mary Gowan, who has been dean of ¸£ÀûÑÇÖÞ¹ú²ú¾«Æ·’s Martha and Spencer Love School of Business since 2007, will step down as dean at the conclusion of the 2010-11 academic year. She will remain as a faculty member in the Love School of Business, teaching courses as a professor of management.

Tyronna Hooker G'09, an exceptional children’s teacher at Graham Middle School in Graham, N.C., and a 2009 graduate of ¸£ÀûÑÇÖÞ¹ú²ú¾«Æ·'s Master of Education program, has been named the 2011-12 North Carolina Teacher of the Year.

¸£ÀûÑÇÖÞ¹ú²ú¾«Æ· junior Amber Mathis has received a Newman Civic Fellows Award from Campus Compact, a national organization that aims to improve community life and to educate college students on civic and social responsibility. She is one of 135 students from 30 states to receive the award.

The Haw River has been key to the region’s growth and development over the centuries, and as associate professor emerita Anne Cassebaum writes in her new book, Down Along the Haw: The History of a North Carolina River, its importance can’t be ignored as efforts continue to preserve one of the region’s vital waterways.

Historically, North Carolina has voted Republican in presidential elections, but many political observers were surprised two years ago when President Barack Obama won the Tar Heel State. ¸£ÀûÑÇÖÞ¹ú²ú¾«Æ· senior McKenzie Young investigated the factors behind the state’s recent voting behavior, and her work is the latest to be featured in a series of E-net profiles on Lumen Scholars in the Class of 2011.