GREENVILLE, N.C. (U-WIRE) – Recently, the UNC system has been pushed to reduce its fuel… GREENVILLE, N.C. (U-WIRE) – Recently, the UNC system has been pushed to reduce its fuel consumption and Eastern Carolina University’s contribution will be to bring hybrid buses to the campus Transit Services.

In addition to lowering the use of diesel fuel, emissions across the board will be drastically lower as compared with buses already in place.

“Approximately 97 percent lower carbon monoxide emission, 50 percent lower nitrogen oxide emission and 33 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions,” Wood Davidson, interim director of ECU Student Transit Authority, said. Hybrid buses also run quieter, cutting noise pollution by 50 percent as compared with average diesel buses.

Hybrid buses change from electric motors to their strictly mechanically driven power as the speed of the bus increases. As a bus pulls away from its stop, the bus relies primarily on stored energy, and as the bus continues and its speed increases, the bus blends its system of electric power and mechanical power, according to Davidson.

Through the current use ECU’s hybrid vehicles, ECUSTA is “evaluating the efficiencies” of the hybrid bus and will use its findings for future investments for more clean technology purchases.

While the current date is unknown, three more buses are looking to hit the streets of Greenville in the coming months of this year. – Yazid Finn, East Carolinian (East Carolina U.)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (U-WIRE) – Ron Hunter wants to do something that has never been done before.

So on Jan. 24, Hunter, head coach at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, will coach against Oakland (Mich.) in his bare feet.

No socks, no shoes, just his bare feet.

Hunter wants to collect 40,000 pairs of shoes, the number in honor of the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr., to bring to Africa to give to people who are not fortunate enough to have shoes. And for one game he will coach without shoes on himself.

Working with an organization called Samaritan’s Feet, Hunter, who is in his 14th season with the Jaguars, wants to raise awareness of the people around the world without shoes. In essence, the message Hunter is trying to get across by coaching in his bare feet is that there are more important things in life than sports.

“It’s important, not only for coaches or players,” Hunter said, “but I think that you have to give something back.”

Samaritan’s Feet was founded four years ago by Emmanuel “Manny” Ohonme. Ohonme grew up exceedingly poor in Nigeria and never had a pair of shoes until he was 9 years old when a stranger gave him his first pair. That moment in his life, according to him, inspired him to try to make a difference in other people’s lives.

Ohonme, who will be walking barefoot from Charlotte to Atlanta in October to continue to raise awareness for the cause, said the best way to get involved and to donate is to go online at www.samaritansfeet.org. For $29.99, you can either get a pair of shoes and donate a pair of shoes or donate two pairs of shoes. — Kevin Ware, Daily Orange (Syracuse)

AUSTIN, Texas (U-WIRE) – Arabic Lecturer Uri Horesh began a hunger strike Monday in response to his denied complaint against the University of Texas’s non-discrimination policy, which does not include health benefits for same-sex couples.

As of Jan. 1, the University of Michigan started offering some health benefits to employees and other qualified adults who have shared a residence for six months. This policy circumvents Michigan laws regarding same-sex marriage, which fueled Horesh’s complaints against UT.

Horesh said he sent an e-mail to the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement in December and one on Monday about the strike but has not received a response. Horesh said he will quietly abstain from eating until the policy is changed.

Division spokeswoman Deborah Duval said the office could not comment on Horesh’s latest measure.

Linda Millstone, associate vice president for institutional equity and workforce diversity, said the failure to provide health care benefits to people who are not legally married in Texas not only affects people who are homosexual, but also people who are straight and live in committed partnerships.

The University is looking into further options regarding the issue, she said.

“The thing is this: If UT wants to really compete with high caliber institutions, it has to make a change and it has to make it quickly,” Horesh said. Millstone said she disagreed, saying the UT Gender and Sexuality Center supports diverse sexual orientations among students.

“I do agree that the provision of benefits is a recruitment and retention issue for all of higher education, including this institution,” she said. “But in terms of providing you today the University’s procedures for moving forward, I am not going to do so.” – Larry Dechant ‘ Maya Srikrishnan, Daily Texan (U. Texas)

WASHINGTON (U-WIRE) – Georgetown students returning to the Hilltop after Saturday’s men’s basketball victory stepped onto the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Red Line at Gallery Place/Chinatown and faced an unexpected sight: a car filled with pants-less passengers.

The group of approximately 100, including a fellow in the Georgetown SFS graduate school and a doctor in his first year residency at the Georgetown University Hospital, met at Dupont Circle at 4 p.m. then separated into two groups based on participants’ birthdays. Half entered the Metro station at the north entrance and half at the south.

They acted as though they were normal riders, when, with a signal from a group organizer, everyone dropped their pants. Dressed below the waist in only underwear and shoes.

Although the event was the first that the D.C. Metro has ever experienced, it was old news in New York City, which, on the same day, held its “Seventh Annual ‘No Pants!’ Subway Ride.” This year for the first time, nine other cities joined New York, including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Toronto and Adelaide, Australia, according to the website of Improv Everywhere, the organizing group.

Improv Everywhere is a New York-based group of actors, comedians and others who organize large-scale anonymous pranks. The group’s slogan is, quite simply, “We cause scenes,” according to its website. – Kathleen Nahil, The Hoya (Georgetown)