A new University of Calgary initiative is hoping to get student and staff feedback to push the school up a notch.

Project Next will develop a strategy and major direction for the university that Haskayne professor Jim Dewald called "totally an effective way to get people engaged in their organization."

The project is an attempt by the U of C to create a vision and goals for the future, specifically for the school's upcoming 50th anniversary in 2016.

According to a University of California in Los Angeles study, spirituality is "essential" to students' academic careers. Due to the findings, researchers are advocating for professors in higher education to play a part in student spiritual development.

The Tsuu T'ina Gunaha Institute, in cooperation with the University of Calgary, announced plans to work together to preserve the Tsuu T'ina language Jan. 7. The aboriginal language is on the verge of going extinct. With 2,000 band members at the reserve, only about 50 people are able to speak the language fluently-- most of them elders.

It's a quintessential problem for bands that evolve around their energetic live performances. How do you translate that energy into a finished album? It's not as simple as just recording a live performance at a festival, or going into a studio and recording a jam session. There's a myriad of issues to contend with -- tracking, mastering, mixing and arranging the album all require careful thought and attention.

Until 10 years ago, Pakistan was doomed to be largely ignored by the West, that is, until Sept. 11. And then, as it had before, Pakistan became an indispensable ally to the United States in the war in the Middle East during operations in neighbouring Afghanistan and in the larger arena of Middle-Eastern geopolitics. Though things have changed slightly, knowledge about Pakistan's troubles and sources of instability have not become common knowledge in these Western countries.

Think about what it means to be a stereotypical Canadian: humble, peaceful, polite and deferential. We are renowned internationally not for our ability to wage war, but our prowess as global peace keepers.

Billy Bishop Goes to War is a slice of real-life comedy based on the life of a man who embodies the opposite of these qualities.

After years of tossing around ideas for a television show, Aaron Kerr and Scott Lutley, both 23 and recent University of Calgary graduates, finally put their ideas into production last summer. Using mainly their own money, equipment and circle of friends, the webseries 2219 was born.

Three minutes into a Sunday Olive Garden family dinner, third-year U of C English major Jeffrey Willis subversively turned the event on its head by posting topical and well-placed barbs on the popular social media site Twitter.

Willis, under the pseudonym @bigJ_Will, began offering his dry wit on a range of topics including the decorum of patrons around him, the quality of his meal and his parents' social skills to the bemusement of his 254 followers, as well as all users following the hashtag #suburbanirony.