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The CU Parents Association at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ at Boulder will host a series of orientation barbecues for parents of incoming students in June and July at the University Club. The barbecues coincide with orientation sessions for new freshmen and transfer students and provide opportunities for new CU-Boulder parents to become acquainted with the associationÂ’s board members, the office of parent relations and staff from student affairs programs and services. The sessions also provide a time to meet and greet parents from around the world.

ItÂ’s a good idea that just got better. The College of Engineering and Applied Science at CU-Boulder is expanding its popular High School Honors Institute to reach middle school students interested in careers in math and science. The college is collaborating with the St. Vrain Valley School District on a pilot program that will bring 24 seventh and eighth grade students to the campus for a two-day residential program, June 15-16. Organizers hope to be able to open the program to other school districts for participation in future years.

Ever wonder what it would feel like to be sucked into a black hole? Selected children will have the chance to fall into an artificial black hole, build a man that stretches to many times his normal size and participate in other activities at the Saturday, June 17, CU Wizards show on "Black Holes." Associate Professor Andrew Hamilton of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department will demonstrate the concepts of black holes in CU-Boulder's Fiske Planetarium at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Succeeding as a performer in the music industry takes more than technical skills sharpened and finely tuned at traditional music schools like the College of Music at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ at Boulder. It takes entrepreneurship.

The popularity of Ecstasy (MDMA) with our nationÂ’s youth has health officials on the alert. It is becoming the staple of the ever-popular rave scene -- parties where teens and young adults "rave all night" because of the stimulating effects of the drug. "Ecstasy is a stimulant. It gives people a lot of energy so they can dance all night," said Judy Taub, a counselor in CU-BoulderÂ’s Substance Abuse Program at Wardenburg Health Center.

Future orbiting X-ray telescopes should confirm whether gigantic black holes in the universe, some of which are thought to weigh as much as several billion stars, are spinning like flywheels, according to a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ at Boulder astrophysicist.

A group of astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, in concert with other telescopes, have directly detected for the first time a new type of stellar flare occurring in a narrow temperature range of gas on a star other than the sun. Rachel Osten, a graduate student at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ at Boulder, said the flares were detected on a star, known as binary system HR 1099, in a very narrow temperature range of gas recorded in the ultraviolet portion of the light spectrum, but not in the higher energy X-ray region.

Five members of CU-Boulder's Natural Resources Law Center will read from their latest works on June 6 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in the Fleming Law Building on campus. The reading, titled "A Celebration of Natural Resources Authors," will kick off the NRLCÂ’s "Water and Growth in the West Conference," to be held June 7-9. Jim Corbridge, former CU-law professor and NRLC adviser, and Teresa Rice, former associate director of the center, will speak about the development of their new book, "Colorado Water Law."

Seventeen undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ at Boulder have received the prestigious Jacob Van Ek Award for outstanding academic achievement and contributions to the university and Boulder communities. The award includes a $200 prize. The recipients were honored May 11 along with faculty members they named as mentors. The award was established in 1973 to honor Jacob Van Ek, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at CU-Boulder from 1929 to 1959. Van Ek died in 1994 at the age of 97.

CU-Boulder School of Law Professor Dale Oesterle was presented with the Clifford Calhoun Public Service Award in recognition of his contributions to the law school and the legal community. More than 30 faculty and staff members attended the May 13 luncheon at which the law school award was presented, including emeritus law Professor Clifford Calhoun, for whom the award is named.