A lighter note from Fairfield is that the band Guster has accepted the student government's bid for a fall concert (link). The concert is scheduled for Nov. 10 at 8 p.m., and tickets will go on sale later this month. While off-campus ticket information was not announced yet, in previous years the tickets were made available through Ticketmaster.

The Quinnipiac Chronicle took a look at alternative travel options, since gas prices are showing no signs of coming back down (link). Among the options explored, bikes, sharing taxis, and the ever-popular QU shuttles. And speaking of the shuttles, good news in that arena for college-goers there: the shuttle system has just been expanded (link).

At Southern, one of the more interesting items this week was the school's continued aggressive expansion into online courses (link). They now have over 60 online courses, and over 1000 enrolled - quite cool. Also in the news at Southern, about a dozen students returned from Louisiana and Mississippi (link). The National Guard members were there helping those affected by Katrina for about two weeks.

Finally, Yale Daily News reported on Tuesday that despite the fact that the state's civil unions law kicked in Saturday, few same-sex couples have taken advantage of it thus far (link). As I said last Friday, this is an issue that will be on the minds of many for awhile, no doubt aided by the Oct. 10 issue of Time Magazine, with a cover story about how most high school students actually find it uncool to be anti-gay, a turnover from attitudes of even a decade ago. The article, however, also looks at the growing number of ex-gays, those who have left behind the homosexual lifestyle(link to extract - paid subscribers can read the whole story). It's a really interesting read for those following the issue, and the author answers reader mail on the subject on Time's site as well (link).

That's it for the college papers. Tomorrow, I take an initial wade into the online music phenomenon, and hopefully can bring to your attention some of the cool new things going on in that space. College students and their music are like bread and butter, and there's a lot of great stuff out there that make the experience that much better.

What's the buzz on your campus? E-mail me at thebuzz@ctpost.com