Last-minute pleas from students on Thursday afternoon did not dissuade the Texas A&M System Board of Regents Friday morning from unanimously approving a 21 percent tuition increase for the fall semester. Erle Nye, vice chairman of the board, said there was a tension between the two main factors contributing to the board's decision.

Jelena Djuric, a College Station resident and recipient of The Big Event Saturday, said this was the second year she has had Texas A&M students volunteer their time and assistance in repairing her estate. This year, she welcomed students from Kappa Alpha Theta and Phi Delta Theta as they raked leaves, cut shrubbery, planted trees and painted her trim.

Texas A&M's administrative structure will undergo several changes by the end of the 2004 fiscal year to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of administrative functions, said A&M President Robert M. Gates. Gates said the administration's structure went through some uncommon changes.

Jim Carlson, chair of the Texas A&M Student Services Fee Advisory Board (SSFAB), encouraged students to vote in favor of the student services fee increase in an open forum Friday in the Memorial Student Center Flag Room. The proposed increase of 65 cents would raise the fee from $11.86 per credit hour to $12.51, increasing the fee above the cap of $150 and setting a new cap of $250. Because the fee would exceed the $150 cap, a student referendum is mandated by the state.

The four-week USA Today Collegiate Readership Program was an overall success, and the program will return to campus next year for a trial run beginning in the fall, said Chris Diem, a junior political science major and vice president of student services.

DENVER - An Air Force Academy cadet who had been accused of rape and threatened to crash a glider into a dining hall was allowed to remain at the school for several more months, during which he was arrested for sodomizing a woman in a wheelchair and accused of raping another cadet, according to files obtained by The Associated Press.

HOUSTON (AP) - The same problems that shut down the Houston Police crime lab's DNA section more than a year ago have been found at Texas Department of Public Safety crime labs across the state, a newspaper reported Sunday. In a review of the 2003 DPS internal audits done at labs in Houston, Austin, El Paso, Garland, Lubbock, Corpus Christi, McAllen and Waco, the newspaper said it found procedural flaws, security lapses and poor documentation at some of the labs.