�þ���

A record-breaking number of �þ��� students leaped into the frigid water of Lake Mary Nell on Thursday in the 8th annual Polar Bear Plunge. Just shy of 150 students registered for the community event, with organizers awarding more than two dozen gift cards to area merchants and participants walking away with free T-shirts.

Niki Turley, who has worked with thousands of students as director of Residence Life at �þ��� since 2004, has been appointed assistant dean of students effective this week.

�þ���’s fourth annual POWERless Energy Competition concluded this month with students in Danieley Center C receiving top honors for reducing their building’s power usage by almost a third of what it consumed during a baseline measurement period.

The mayor of a Kansas town that turned itself into a “green” community following a tornado in 2007 visits �þ��� this month to talk about the challenges and successes his town discovered throughout the recovery and rebuilding process.