Next Friday, Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes will kick off a series featuring four conservative political speakers scheduled to appear at the College this spring.

Keyes will speak at 5 p.m. in the University Center's Commonwealth Auditorium. Guests will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis.

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Last weekend, Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling monastery came to Williamsburg to build a mandala in the Bruton Parish House. A mandala is a symbolic Buddhist representation of the universe. The sand painting includes three levels of meaning: inner, outer and secret. The outer level represents the divine universe, the inner level provides a map toward enlightenment and the secret level represents the ideal balance between body and mind.

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Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes will make a visit to the College next Friday as part of his campaign tour through Virginia.

With the Republican candidates quickly dropping out of the race, we would like to applaud Keyes for sticking with it even though he probably does not have a chance to receive the Republican nomination.

After one major primary in New Hampshire, the number of Republican presidential candidates has been whittled down to three.

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In most scenarios, combining the Beast, Darth Vader and Indiana Jones in a room would result in serious entertainment. The William and Mary Concert Band isn't quite doing that, but they will do the next best thing: combining their themes in a concert.

The Concert Band will host a pops concert in Trinkle Hall showcasing a number of hits from popular movies Saturday at 2 p.m. This family-oriented event is the first of its kind that the Concert Band has performed.

"Pops concerts attract not only those who like classical music, but those who donąt, as well," Laura Rexroth, conductor of the Concert Band, said.

Band members agree.

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It's a well-known recipe: acoustic guitars, voices and angst. UCAB's Lodge One Unplugged offered an ample helping of these elements to varying degrees of success on Saturday night. While beginning with a rocky start, the evening managed to build to a crescendo in terms of set quality.

First off, anyone who ventured up on stage last Saturday night at Lodge One Unplugged deserves credit for being brave. With a bare-bones setting designed to give a down-home feeling, there was no room to screw up without everyone seeing it ‹ on the stage was just the performer, the microphone, the lights and the stares of the crowd. Unplugged, the brainchild of UCAB's Coffeehouse Committee, was billed as a display of campus talent, and by the end of the night, a sizable crowd had attended at least a portion of the show.

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After more than a quarter of a century at the helm of the men's gymnastics team, Cliff Gauthier is about to reach an almost incomprehensible coaching milestone: 500 wins. He racked up his 499th victory Sunday in a win over Springfield College and expects to even off the number next Tuesday against James Madison.

"It will be a special meet [against JMU] in that it'll be nice to reflect on all the years and all the hard work," Gauthier said. "It takes so long to get that many wins. I mean, I'm older than dirt. I've been coaching since before most of the players on the team were born."

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