We’ve written about a large variety of issues from local to even interplanetary this school year. We thought it is time to provide a list of things around campus that deserve kudos and gripes.

Kudos: To Parking and Transportation Services, which after our complaint about recycling on the Washington Avenue pedestrian bridge, appears, for now, to be recycling. Thanks for the action.

Gripe: To Minnesota Student Association and University Dining Services, which both have not acted on the injustice of expensive and required meal plans in some residential halls. Talk about a rip-off and captive market.

Gripe: To University Police for not instituting bike stings to catch bike thieves. When will you care?

Gripe: To Housing and Residential Life, which soon might require that every student in certain buildings pay for Time Warner Cable services. What a rip-off.

Gripe: To MSA and the University for their inaction regarding expensive textbooks and to University Bookstores for giving students diddly for books sold back to them.

Gripe: To the University for pressuring Station 19 owners and threatening them with eminent domain.

Kudos: To University President Bob Bruininks for admitting the University must do a better job of communicating to students about what realignment is and how it affects them individually.

Gripe: To exploitive car-booting parking practices around campus.

Kudos: To Macalester College in St. Paul for raising questions about the ethical practices of Coca-Cola and whether it is worth supporting such a corporation.

Kudos: To efforts to help teaching assistants in communication efforts with students through English improvement courses and dialogue.

Gripe: To annoying and loud cell phone ringtones.