Finals end tomorrow and the fall graduation ceremony is Friday at the Coors Events Center. (I refuse to call it the 'Coors Events and Conference Center'. No matter how the university wants to rebrand it, the building is still 27 years old.)

With a grain of salt and a little bit of a foggy memory, let's take a look back on the semester that was.

The big news at the outset of the year was the new look football team, headed up by Coach Dan Hawkins. While the season didn't end up how most people thought it might, there was some progress made. A 2-10 season doesn't really shine on the record books, but Dan Hawkins one heck of a recruiter and will have this program back in its winning ways very soon.

FCQ's, or Faculty Course Questionnaires, were revamped during this semester. Gone is the A-F grading scale, replaced by a 1-6 point scale instead, with 1 being the lowest and 6 the highest.

Also, the questions on the bottom of the form which used to read, "What was your favorite aspect of this course?" and the like are now replaced with "Please offer constructive comments to your instructor regarding your experience in this course (emphasis added)."

I guess that's the university's way of saying, "Hey, kids. You're too dumb to know when you shouldn't rail anonymously on your incompetent instructor who doesn't even have a Ph.D. Just play nice and no one gets hurt."

Except you and your parent's pocketbooks.

Another new year brought another tuition increase, this time a 5.1 percent increase over 2005-06 for residents. If you are a nonresident, your tuition went up only 3.1 percent. That's awful nice of them.

Since 2002-03, tuition has sky rocketed 58.2 percent for residents. For nonresidents, tuition has gone up 24.4 percent.

Will there be another increase next year? All signs point to yes, despite taxpayers passing Referendum C last fall. I guess we have to pay off Gary Barnett somehow.

There was also the study released in November that gave CU-Boulder a D for diversity. In the rankings, CU received grades of F in low-income access, F in minority access and a B in minority graduation.

But at least we got the exact same grades as the University of Texas-Austin.

Yes, bad news seems to follow CU in droves. If it's not Ward Churchill, it's another faculty member. If it's not poor football performance, it's an increase in tuition.

But it's not all bad.

CU professors keep proving time and time again that they are the brightest in the country.

Carl Wieman, a Nobel Laureate in Physics and professor, won the Oersted Medal, the highest honor given by the American Association of Physics Teachers, in November. Patrick Mason, a professor in the music department, was nominated for a Grammy earlier this month. And CU researchers made national news earlier in the semester when they announced that they had developed a flu chip that was designed to help stop the spread of bird flu.

Yeah, no matter what happens around the state and the world, CU keeps on plugging along.

I guess that's why they call it living in the " Boulder Bubble".

For you lucky (or unlucky) few who will be staying in Boulder during the holidays, here are a few things you can do this weekend for fun. That is, if the snow ever stops.

-Fiske Planetarium will host a bevy of events on Friday Dec. 22. First, at 10 a.m. they will host "Great Space Chase." During this show, you will fly through the universe with an intergalactic traveler and learn about space travel. Then at 1 p.m. they will show "Moon and Lasers," choreographed to some popular movie soundtracks. Finally, at 7:30 p.m., they will show "Astronomical Star of Bethlehem." Hosted by an amateur astronomer, this show will outline the night sky on that fateful night 2,000 years ago. Tickets are $5 for all laser shows and $5 for students and $6 for adults during the live talks.

-On Saturday, Dec. 23, the men's basketball team will finally take to the floor again against UC-Davis. Tip-off is at 1 p.m. Tickets are available at www.cubuffs.com.

-Finally, there will be a Colcannon Christmas show at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 23 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, 5001 Pennsylvania Ave. This show will provide traditional and original Celtic music, performed with all-acoustic instrumentation, and presented with what they say is warmth, virtuosity and wit. Tickets are $16 for adults and $12 for students and seniors. For more information, visit http://uucboulder.org.

Not a lot going on in the news department. But here are a couple of things you should know.

-The Colorado Daily has more information about the murder that happened in Boulder a few nights ago as well as a look back at the immigration rallies that happened earlier this year.

-CUBuffs.com has the conference schedules for the football team through 2015. You can really plan ahead and check them out here.

Have a nice holiday break. Take your parents out to dinner and tell them all about the wonderful things you are learning at CU.