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In its annual "Year in Photos" feature, the Office of University Relations has collected some of the best Â鶹ÊÓƵ pictures from 2009 in a retrospective slide show.

Think you know the officiating nuances of a football game? Not like this you don’t. Â鶹ÊÓƵ seniors Ryan Pauley and Jackie Sapio spent Saturdays this fall watching ACC football games from the conference’s headquarters in Greensboro, documenting every yellow flag and missed call as part of an internship developed through the Department of Leisure and Sport Management.

The Daily Beast, one of the leading new Web-based media outlets, has named Â鶹ÊÓƵ one of the decade's hottest colleges. The list of 15 colleges and universities ranks schools that make up a "whole new class of first-choice schools" that have "transformed the collegiate landscape" during the past 10 years.

With their Â鶹ÊÓƵ tutors in tow, 22 children made beelines Wednesday evening for such titles as “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Just Grace and the Snack Attack,” books at a local retailer that would, hopefully, foster a deeper love of the written word while rewarding their progress in a reading program organized by an upper level education course.

A Leisure and Sport Management class led by associate professor Hal Walker planned and hosted two events over the fall semester in which students raised $2,800 for philanthropic causes.

From participating in family talent shows to working at Flat Rock Playhouse in North Carolina, Â鶹ÊÓƵ senior Christopher Staskel has always bled theatre, whether acting, dancing or singing. The North Carolina native, the fourth student to be featured in a monthly series of E-net profiles on the inaugural class of the university's Lumen Scholars, is now at it again – this time as the mastermind behind an original stage production.

Listening to Â鶹ÊÓƵ head football coach Pete Lembo speak at the weekly "Inside the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Huddle" luncheon on Monday, you'd think that Saturday's matchup against the Richmond Spiders is just another game.

Luminarias bathed the Â鶹ÊÓƵ campus in a soft yellow glow Thursday evening as students, faculty, staff and community members filled Scott Plaza for the annual Holiday Celebration and lighting ceremony, which featured Christmas carols and a visit from – who else? – Mr. and Mrs. Kris Kringle.

Â鶹ÊÓƵ senior Avra Stackpole received a highly competitive White House internship for spring semester 2010. Her work in the Department of Scheduling and Advance Planning will begin next month.

When independent college adviser and Charlotte Observer columnist Lee Bierer received a reader email with a delicate question on the admissions process, she turned to Greg Zaiser, dean of admissions at Â鶹ÊÓƵ, who provided a lengthy answer quoted in full in a story posted Nov. 30 on the newspaper's web site.