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A new ranking by The Princeton Review, in partnership with USA Today, names �鶹��Ƶ one of the nation’s top values in higher education for 2009. The report, released Jan. 8, is based on 30 factors in three areas: academics, costs and financial aid. Schools chosen “provide high-quality academics at a reasonable price – either by keeping sticker prices in line, or by offsetting high costs with great financial aid packages.”

�鶹��Ƶ music majors Jacob Danieley and Kaitlyn Fay have been named finalists in the 12th Annual John Lennon Scholarship Songwriting Program, a national contest established in 1997 by Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, and the BMI Foundation.

A recent New York Times story on the economy cites undergraduate research conducted by an �鶹��Ƶ student while she studied at the university earlier this decade.

Political science & public administration major Kristine Elizabeth Silvestri has been named a finalist for a 2009 Truman Scholarship, a prestigious national fellowship for graduate study awarded annually “to persons who demonstrate outstanding potential for and who plan to pursue a career in public service.”

An $84,000 grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center is helping �鶹��Ƶ purchase state-of-the-art equipment for processing DNA samples, a move that will accelerate and expand faculty and undergraduate science research that, until now, has relied on outside companies for processing.

Larissa Ferretti, a senior Honors Fellow and psychology major, will share her research this spring with lawmakers in Washington about the effects of parental involvement in teaching math and number skills to young children. The May presentation is part of a highly selective program that features leading undergraduate research from around the nation.

The "2009 Fiske Guide to Colleges" lists �鶹��Ƶ as one of the nation's "best buy" universities and a "rapidly rising star among liberal arts colleges in the Southeast and an emerging name nationwide."

The POWERless Energy Competition returned to �鶹��Ƶ this semester for a seven-week contest to see which residence halls can best reduce their electricity usage. The competition began Feb. 17 with a kick-off event at College Coffee.

�鶹��Ƶ has been recognized for the third year in a row as a national leader in service-learning and civic engagement. The Corporation for National & Community Service named the university this week to the 2008 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll With Distinction for exemplary service efforts to America's communities.

Twenty-nine students who spent Winter Term in South Africa collected money this fall to purchase gym uniforms, supplies and books for more than 155 children at a primary school that has worked with �鶹��Ƶ since last year through the Global Links Library and Literacy Campaign.