College is an institution for higher education, but education is more than merely academics. A complete higher education includes becoming knowledgeable about life lessons, such as finances, communication and responsibility. Being an intellectual individual means that you are articulate, open to new ideas and willing to do something out of the norm to better yourself, a company, a community or society in general.

Networking can be done in so many different ways and can benefit a person personally and professionally. With technology being at the peak that it is and with over three separate generations experiencing the newly developed technology, it enables many people to meet, form relationships and most importantly network with many people from various parts of the world.

Credit card marketing and applications are prevalent on campuses across the nation. Credit card applications are passed out in courtyards and are thrown into bags at the bookstore. The plethora of applications can be considered to be convenient by those students who wish to build up their credit scores with credit cards from reputable companies, but on the other hand, accessible credit card applications can also prove to be disastrous for others on the same campus.

Throughout this semester, the students at Cal State Northridge have been educated on the matter of where their tuition money is headed, courtesy of the disagreements between the California Faculty Association and the CSU administration. Talk of a strike contributed to the interest by many students to learn about the situation and discover where the money was going.

California State University personnel have reported a record number of rejection letters have been sent out to high school seniors this past semester. Would be freshman are being rejected simply due to the fact that the Cal State system is overcrowded. These high school seniors have decent grades and good SAT scores, yet are being denied admission into the public university system.

In doctor's offices and hospitals across the nation there are visible flyers, posters and brochures asking women to talk to their daughters about the human papillomavirus, or HPV, and to make future appointments to be vaccinated against the virus. But why is the male population being ignored? Twenty million people in the United States carry this virus.

When a student calls home to discuss college with their parents or a childhood friend, each one is bound to mention a group that they are, or perhaps are not, a part of. They may deeply wish to be a part of this group but were never admitted, or in some cases did gain access and were later asked to leave.

Faith Jam '07, a featured event of the Let My People Sing Festival, will be taking place tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Little Tokyo. The event will bring together musical groups from around the world to perform as a benefit to stop genocide in Darfur.

Plans to widen the 405 between the 10 and 101 have come to fruition and construction has begun. The 405 project, or the Sepulveda pass project, as it is referred to, will create a northbound carpool lane, on I-405 between National Boulevard, which is south of Interstate 10, and Greenleaf Street, which is south of US 101.

In classrooms across campus, computers are being fired up. Not the computers in the labs, but our individual laptops, the electronic notebook that we hope will assist us in furthering our education. But are the expensive laptops that we received for our birthdays, high school graduation or purely out of our own bank accounts aiding our efforts to graduate in a timely manner? Surveys and professors across the nation are saying no.

CSUN faculty will be picketing on campus Feb. 7 to raise awareness of the deadlocked contract negotiations with the California State University administration. The California Faculty Association, the union representing CSUN professors, has been in negotiations with the CSU over a new collective bargaining agreement, but has not been successful in reaching an agreement concerning faculty salaries for almost two years.

The box office at the AMC Theater in Woodland Hills was flourishing with people of all ages looking to purchase tickets for a night at the opera. A man stood in front of the box office quietly holding a sign that simply read: "I need one ticket to the Magic Flute.