Stadiums don’t get much more historic than the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Host of two Olympic Games, two Super Bowls and the 1959 World Series, the Coliseum could make a strong claim to the title of America’s most storied sporting backdrop.

It’s also true, however, that stadiums don’t get much more rundown than the Coliseum.

It lacks many of the amenities that other top college football programs enjoy, namely luxury suites, adequate restrooms and comfortable seating.

The stadium hosted its first football game in 1923 and it looks every bit of its 88 years of age.

The Coliseum used to be a feared fortress for Trojan football, providing one of the sport’s biggest home field advantages.

In its current state of disrepair, it’s a blight on the university.

Let me be clear: I’m not advocating a move away from the Coliseum.

Tradition is rightfully king in college football and USC should do everything in its power to keep playing at the Coliseum for as long as possible.

The problem, however, is the university’s say in stadium improvements is limited by its current lease agreement.

The Coliseum is jointly owned by the state of California, the county of Los Angeles and the city of Los Angeles.

Representatives from each group form the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, which runs the stadium’s day-to-day operations, and its track record isn’t pretty.

A February investigation by the Los Angeles Times revealed the commission’s former events manager Todd DeStefano had funneled at least $1.7 million in Coliseum event deals to firms he owned.

The investigation also revealed Patrick Lynch, the commission’s former general manager, bought several cars for personal use with the Coliseum’s money.

In the midst of the scandal, finance director Ronald Lederkramer received a $25,000 raise that was later rescinded when the city controller questioned the pay increase.

Finally, this summer brought news that the Coliseum Commission’s cash reserves had fallen from $12 million to $1.6 million in three years’ time, leaving the group unable to pay for $60 million in stadium improvements promised to USC in the two parties’ lease agreement.

The hard truth is that the government can no longer afford to run the Coliseum.

Ignoring the lack of quality concessions and the crumbling seats, the Coliseum Commission instead chose to install a 6,000-square-foot video board this summer, saving roughly $9 million in the process.

So, while you might be stuck eating a lukewarm hot dog on a splintering wooden bench, you can now pass the time between quarters counting the number of dirty blond hairs sprouting out the top of the visor on Lane Kiffin’s massively magnified head.

If you didn’t know any better, the $6-million video board might actually sound like a pretty sizable investment. That’s at least until you hear that the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. is in the middle of a $152-million renovation that will add luxury suites and update antiquated restrooms and concession stands, among other improvements.

The NFL’s proposed move to Los Angeles has ratcheted up interest in the deal between USC and the Coliseum.

If a professional team were to relocate to Los Angeles, a new Downtown stadium wouldn’t be ready to host NFL games for at least a couple of seasons.

The Coliseum and the Rose Bowl would be the top candidates to temporarily house the team, and the city of Los Angeles wouldn’t want to miss out on potential ticket and parking revenue a NFL franchise could bring were it to play in Exposition Park.

Los Angeles city council officials have made it clear that maintaining public control over the stadium is the ideal situation.

There comes a point, however, when a USC takeover of the Coliseum makes financial sense for both parties.

The commission’s financial troubles and a potential NFL move to Los Angeles has given USC a golden opportunity to take over control of the Coliseum.

The university can veto any decision to allow an NFL team to play in the Trojans’ home stadium, which means even if the city can lure a professional team to the Coliseum for two seasons, USC still has the final say.

USC can also take over the master lease of the stadium if the commission is unable to pay for the agreed-upon improvements to the Coliseum.

With total control, the university could make the Coliseum profitable in the long term and implement the changes the aging stadium desperately needs.

Instead of a dreary monument to a glorious past, the Coliseum could once again be a modern, fitting home to one of the nation’s best football programs.

Hispanic enrollment in North American colleges and universities has increased by 24 percent from 2009 to 2010, according to a report from the Pew Hispanic Center released last week. This increase has made Hispanic students the largest minority group in colleges, surpassing their black counterparts.

The Hispanic population in the commonwealth has grown 91.7 percent since 2000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released in February.  Between 1998 and 2008, U. Virginia’s Hispanic undergraduate population rose 128 percent to 4.6 percent of the overall population. Hispanic representation among full-time faculty increased by 50 percent to make up 1.3 percent of those employees.

Richard Fry, senior research associate for the Pew Hispanic Center, composed the report by analyzing data from the census. He focused mainly on college students in the 18 to 24 age group and said, although Hispanic enrollment has increased for both community, two-year and four-year colleges, blacks are still the largest minority in two-year colleges.

Fry attributed the increase to both population growth and rising educational attainment.

“In some ways, it’s not surprising that the number of young Hispanics in college is going up,” Fry said. “After all, the Census Bureau and others tell us Hispanics are a growing population. And they are.”

The percent increase in the greater population of Hispanics, however, was only seven percent, far less than that in higher education. One reason for the discrepancy between population growth rates and enrollment rates is that more Hispanic students are graduating high school, Fry said.

“In 2009, about 70 percent of young Hispanics had finished high school,” he said. “In 2010, 73 percent had finished high school. One year, up three percentage points.”

In addition, Fry said more young people, regardless of racial background, find going to college important.

“More youth, whether they are white, African American or Hispanic, are going to college.” Fry said. “And one reason for that is because college is increasingly valuable. It used to be the case back in the ’70s that if you were a college graduate, you [earned] about 10 percent more than the high-school graduate. Now that earning is about 50 percent. The value of education has increased in the job market.”

Fry also noted the state of the economy, which encourages people to attend college to increase their job skills and become more employable when facing a competitive job market.

“Hopefully sooner or later the youth job market will begin to improve, and there might be a slight drop off in college enrollment,” he said. “Some students, called ‘marginal students,’ are not committed to college. They’d rather be working.”

Although Hispanic enrollment in colleges has increased, the Hispanic graduation rate for college students is significantly low. Fry said about 13 percent of Hispanics aged 25 to 29 who have attended college have bachelor’s degrees. One possible explanation is that many Hispanic students go to community colleges, where bachelor’s degrees are much harder to achieve, regardless of ethnic background.

Differences between various four-year colleges and universities may also affect the graduation rate, Fry added.

“Some are more academically selective than others and have higher graduation rates,” Fry said. “Whites tend to go to the more academically selective schools. So I’m pointing out a couple things: [Hispanic students] disproportionately go to community colleges and schools with lower degree rates.”

Fry also pointed to socioeconomic status as a factor in graduation rates, noting the importance of being able to afford staying in college for the time required to complete a degree.

Marcela Chavan-Matviuk, a board member of the Virginia Latino Higher Education Network, said the average Virginia private institution or state university has a 3 to 4 percent Latino enrollment. The Virginia school with the largest Hispanic enrollment is George Mason University with 5.2 percent in 2008.

“It is extremely important we increase the levels of Hispanic enrollment at our universities,” Chavan-Matviuk said. “Not only including them in systems, but keeping them in the system until they graduate. So it’s a double-edged sword that colleges and universities have to handle now.”

Alexa Proffitt, chair of the Latino Student Alliance at U. Virginia, said she has noticed a difference in the number of Hispanic students in the class of 2012 compared to the class of 2015.

“I think that specifically at U.Va.,” she said, “the fourth-year numbers for Hispanics is very low, under 200. For the first years, it’s 400.”

It was standing room only at Penn State U. Monday night, where presidential candidate Rick Santorum returned to campus to address students at his alma mater.

The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania told students why he wants their support in his run for the White House, come November 2012.

“This place has changed a bit since 1980, and it’s amazing to see the tremendous developments,” he said. “I’m excited to hold the Penn State winning tradition.”

Santorum addressed a crowd of about 60, made up mostly of students from the Penn State College of Republicans, the organization he founded in 1977. Students sat around a table, stood along walls and even lined up in the hallway just to hear what the presidential candidate had to say.

Soon after camera phones stopped flashing, Santorum commented on his fourth place finish in the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa, saying he “did much better than expected” and hopes to succeed in the presidential election — a race that’s still “wide open,” as he sees it.

After introducing himself and his platform, which advocates for a limited role for the government, Santorum spent about an hour answering questions from the audience.

Questions stemmed from the topic of nuclear power, which Santorum supports, to handling more natural disasters, which he said should be left to local governments.

One audience member, who sat in the hallway, asked Santorum about his plan for dealing with the war in Afghanistan.

Santorum responded by criticizing the timeline for the scheduled withdrawal of troops. He called the timing of the withdrawal “reprehensible” because of its proximity to election season.

“It’s given the enemy hope, the one thing you want to rob them of,” he said. “I would never as a president set a goal other than one goal—success. Not a timeline, but success. What the president did is sacrifice lives and the livelihood of Americans around a poll objective.”

He also took aim at “ObamaCare,” and, addressing the room, said Barack Obama is “using you fools.”

“I encourage all of you to really study how the federal government is sticking it to young people,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Santorum announced several plans for improving government and the economy by keeping deflation low and bringing back the manufacturing base in the country.

He announced a plan for cutting the manufacturing tax to zero in an effort to create more jobs in the country and bringing them back from overseas.

When talk about the economy ended, debate ensued from Santorum’s stance on same-sex marriage — he described marriage as a “privilege given out by government” instead of a “right” only to be shared between a male and female.

And after Santorum made a reference to second graders learning about sex between same-sex couples, Penn State student Ashley Kirby spoke up.

Kirby challenged Santorum on his stance and proceeded to ask him whether he was a doctor or psychologist — questioning whether he was qualified to determine if children of same-sex couples are adversely affected.

As both debate and discussion came to a close, Santorum thanked his audience for their participation.

Chris Riccio, a PSU junior, said Santorum came off “very polished” and definitely brought patriotism to the crowd.

And Samuel Settle, Chairman of the Penn State chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom, said he was impressed that Santorum took the time to answer so many questions.

“I was happy he took the time to speak in such length,” Settle said. “The fact that he took the less popular stance sometimes was also impressive.”

There was a time when teenagers didn’t get a cell phone until they reached high school and, even then, texting was 10 cents a message. There was a time where your parents couldn’t use a cell phone, much less send a text. Now many parents are fluent in “Textese.” Remember how cool you felt the first time you used the phrase “lmao” and the person you were texting had to ask you what it meant?

It all started with the instant message. When I was in middle school, the Internet was rushing into every day American life and creative screen names were all the rage. I still remember how clever I thought it was when I picked “Dotalkback” as my screen name. And, I still remember how incredibly insightful I thought I was when I wrote things like “hi wat up? doin hwk? sux 4 u lol.” Looking at that now makes me cringe.

As the world progressed from instant messaging to text messaging, I saw the light. My love and passion for the English language developed and, then, I noticed it. The English language was slowly being ruined by the world of texting. I, saddened by this revelation, contemplated why those who texted could not see the difference between the text world and proper English.

The answer seems so clear to me now. No, it was not those young adults my age who experienced texting in a limited capacity in their formative years. It was those who were raised on it, brought up in the already developed world of this Internet generation. Growing up, I learned English from books. Teenagers raised today read what was being said on Facebook and their poor impressionable minds soak up all the “idks”, “lols” and “btws.”

But, wait. Then, it is our fault, the group of people my age. We’re the ones who continue to promote such improper language long after we should have matured in our speech. Students of N.C. State, I ask you – No! – beg you to consider what abbreviations you use.

When I text, I use all the proper capitalization, punctuation and spelling. My texting grammar is supreme. However, it’s silly of me to think that everyone would be behind the idea of making everyone do the same. But, I don’t believe it’s so farfetched to ask for a few little things. Try saying “hey! lets get lunch. we can meet at the atrium.” instead of “lunch @ atrium.” Try saying “okay. see you soon.” instead of “k c u soon.” These two examples don’t have capitalization or even totally correct punctuation, but they at least offer some sense of what the language is supposed to look like.

If we, as students, can transfer back into proper English, maybe those teenagers who look up to us won’t be so quick to use “2nite” instead of “tonight.”