**Humans vs. Zombies invitational brings out-of-state students to on-campus war**

OHIO UNIVERSITY – During the weekend, hundreds of students flooded Ohio University’s campus to participate in the Humans vs. Zombies “Athens Invitational.”

Human vs. Zombies, also referred to as HvZ, is a citywide version of Nerf tag. In this game, students run around campus shooting each other with nerf darts and sock balls in order to fight off the zombies.

A typical game of HvZ on campus lasts for a week and is played exclusively by OU students.  This weekend, however, players came from as far away as North Carolina to play a 26-hour version of the game.  That was OU’s first invitational.

Megan Moore, a HvZ moderator and OU sophomore, said the storyline for this weekend was “A Wizard Did It!”

“It was an amazing, eventful weekend,” Moore said. “Special thanks are in order to all our players, local or not, Dean Lombardi, OUPD and Athens Police. Without all of you, our game would not be possible. The next infection is not far away. The week before Halloween will be our fall game, so I invite everyone on campus or not to come out and play.”

_By Betty Laudermilt, The Post_

**JMU Dining Services’ initiatives conserve valuable resources**

JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY – Following the green trend, JMU Dining Services is slimming down its waste by donating leftovers to the local Salvation Army, using biodegradable to-go containers and composting waste.

Dining Services uses the Environmental Protection Agency’s food waste recovery hierarchy chart as a guide, according to Angela Ritchie, the marketing director for Dining Services. The chart depicts the most sustainable and preferable ways to reduce food waste, including using landfills and feeding the hungry.

The chart “helps us prioritize our efforts,” Ritchie said. “It emphasizes practices that provide the greatest ecological, economic and social benefits, with disposal as the last option.”

One of the newest initiatives is the Harvest Program, which donates leftover food from dining halls to the local Salvation Army. From March to June, Dining Services donated about 3,000 pounds of food, according to Ritchie.

JMU removed trays from dining in 2008, a practice also done by the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.

JMU saves approximately 3,000 gallons of water each day, according to Ritchie, which is the equivalent of 120 people taking a 10-minute shower.

_By Rachel Matt, The Breeze_

**Talks tackle Texas troubles**

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON – UH President Renu Khator defended the value of public universities in the current economic situation at the Texas Tribune Festival that took place Saturday and Sunday at the University of Texas.

The event, which was organized by The Texas Tribune and South By Southwest, included speakers such as the Ambassador to Brazil, Thomas Shannon Jr. and former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.

Khator’s panel was asked whether public universities can “make the grade.”

Khator said she believed public universities should make a “really high grade” considering their increased enrollment and graduation rates amidst a difficult financial situation.

Several state legislators took part in the “how to pay for public education” panel, such as Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, who is vice chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Patrick engaged F. Scott McCown, a former judge who presided over all of Texas’ public school finance cases from 1990-2002, throughout the discussion, which covered topics ranging from low-income minorities to tax rates and policies.

“On one side you’ve got all these kids with high needs and folks who see they are our economic future, and on the other side you have an aging Anglo population that is unwilling to share in the economy,” McCown said in regards to the growing poor and Hispanic population.

Patrick suggested raising sales tax and lowering property taxes to keep people from moving to Florida for lower property taxes, which McCown believed would harm the poor, going on to add that Texas’ poorest 20 percent have the fifth-highest taxes in the country.

_By Brian Jensen, The Daily Cougar_