Junior finance major Lela Dunlap carves a pumpkin off Lincoln Street in College Station Thursday afternoon. Post Oak Mall will host an animal costume contest Saturday and mall-wide trick-or-treating on Sunday.

As a child, Nikki Van Hightower was aware of differences in the treatment of men and women. When the women's movement took off in the 1970s, she understood what it was about. It wasn't until she was working on her doctorate at New York University that she realized she cared greatly about gender issues and decided to get involved in the movement.

Joe Feagin, professor of sociology at Texas A&M, who grew up in a predominantly white Houston neighborhood during the civil rights movement, said in a seminar Thursday that racism in the United States has changed from being an extroverted problem to an introverted one.

George Bush School of Government and Public Service employees were alerted in an e-mail Wednesday after an anonymous caller reported overhearing five men discuss plans to pose a threat to the Bush School. The men discussed their plans at a convenience store in Normangee, about 30 miles north of College Station, said Texas A&M Vice President Charles Sippial.

The College of Architecture at Texas A&M is hosting its sixth annual faculty research symposium Friday at the Langford Architecture Center, setting the stage for faculty members in the college to show what they accomplished last year in research. The "Research on the Built and Virtual Environments: Global Symposium Presentations 2004" will last one day with 40 presentations selected from 300 papers written in the past year presented by faculty members of the college in 34 nations, including Italy, Denmark, Germany, China and Mexico.

When 11 Aggies stepped off of a plane in Qatar, all they could hear was "Howdy." Welcoming them were students from Texas A&M in Qatar, who have implemented spread the Aggie Spirit overseas. Senior petroleum engineering major Cecil Shipman, who went on the trip, said the students at the Qatar campus are enthusiastic about Aggie traditions.

Causes of the Oct. 21 explosion that occurred in the Physical Plant's $5.8 million on-campus boiler are still under investigation, said assistant director for utilities, Lee McQueen. The explosion occurred between Asbury and Spence streets at 10:40 a.m. but did not affect the boiler's ability to provide steam for air conditioning to half the main campus.

Harris M. Berger, associate professor of music at Texas A&M University, has been elected president of the U.S. branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), an organization that promotes inquiry, scholarship and analysis in the area of popular music.

The Association of Former Students will conclude its yearlong 125th Anniversary Celebration with a concert, "An Evening with Lyle Lovett '79," at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, in Rudder Auditorium. MSC Town Hall is co-sponsoring this event. Tickets are on sale now through the MSC Box Office, (979) 845-1234, or online at http://tickets.