FILE PHOTO UAPD spokesman Sgt. Eugene Mejia and abuse specialist Tina Tarin gave safety tips and advice to 7 percent of incoming freshman this year. Last year at least 93 percent of students attended the safety meetings, which are no longer mandatory this year after a grant for the program was not renewed.

In an effort to make the new student orientation process more focused on academic matters, and following the loss of a grant, a new orientation task force comprised of various UA faculty and administrators decided to make the campus safety and sexual assault presentation shorter and optional at all orientation sessions this year.

In previous years, the safety seminar was a mandatory part of the orientation process. [Read article]

Sorry, no sports this week. [Read article]

"So, what's your major?"

Next to "What's your name?" and "Where do you come from?" that previous question is one of the things that you'll hear fairly often in college as one of your basic getting-to-know-you pleasantries.

Yet, as simple as the answer to this question may be, deciding on a major is a potentially irksome and harrowing decision that you will have to make on your own.

Undoubtedly, you've got friends and family telling you what you should study in college. An aunt notices you've got a knack with fixing things and pushes you to get a degree in engineering, or your mother is goading you to take pre-law since she thinks that your propensity for arguing with her about everything under the sun makes you especially apt for a career in the judicial system. [Read article]