Powell Plaza was alive Tuesday as students, faculty, staff and families played corn hole and ate free food. The event was CityFest, sponsored by Eastern's department of Student Affairs and the Richmond City Commission. CityFest is a festival allowing local businesses, students, faculty, staff and the general public of Richmond to get acquainted.…

Steven Davis owns a gun, and he has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. But when he steps onto Eastern's campus, he has to leave his gun behind. Davis and about 30 other people at Eastern want to change that. Davis is a member of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, an anti-gun-control group at Eastern that advocates allowing people with concealed carry permits to bring their guns on campus with them.…

Poetry is an art, which derives myriad expressions from reader, writer, listener and performer. Students and faculty displayed those expressions last week. The atmosphere at the Richmond Arts Council last Wednesday was one of excitement as Eastern's Women's Studies program held the Feminist Poetry Slam and Art Salon.…

Even though many students take advantage of online booksellers, those beginning-of-thesemester lines at the on-campus bookstore still stretch out the door. Now Eastern plans to give the old bookstore a new image to the tune of $400,000. Students can look forward to avoiding the lines that coil around merchandise displays to the registers at the front of the store.…

It's all dried up. An extreme drought hit Kentucky this summer, and it still plagues most of the state, including Richmond. And Eastern plays a role in combating local drought problems. A drought is a shortage of rainfall, which leads to several weather-related problems, said Don Yow, climatologist and professor of geography and geology at Eastern.…

Two potential problems lie ahead for Kentucky's youth: illiteracy and drug addiction. Yet the children of central and southeastern Kentucky schools may not have to face these threats alone. A program made up of local residents work to help children in these areas, and it is getting some help of its own.…

For Eastern's ROTC program, summer offered no off-season. Instead of lounging on a beach, the cadets spent most of their summer in Washington competing with other schools. This was displayed when Eastern finished among the best schools in the country in the 2007 Leadership Development and Assessment Course, or LDAC, in Fort Lewis, Wash.…

The dog days of summer are over and the classroom has replaced whatever location you spent most of them. However, WEKU, Eastern's radio affiliate, chose to usher out the season on a high note as they hoste d "A Farewell to Summer Dinner and Wine Tasting" at Acres of Land Winery Friday evening.…