On Saturday and Sunday, while most Uni students were finishing their homework and getting ready the three-day fall break, freshmen George Ruan and Max Sigalov were locked in fierce competition. They were in Oak Brook, a suburb of Chicago, playing in the 2009 National Youth Action Chess Tournament. How did they fare? Check inside to find out.

On Monday during lunch, get ready for a Thanksgiving feast laid out in the kitchen. For $5, students will receive a plate that they can load up with their favorite Thanksgiving yummies. Food Pantry Club members have high hopes that the sale will bring in a lot of money to support their cause, the Wesley Evening Food Pantry.

When students lined up in the kitchen Tuesday morning to receive H1N1 flu shots, the scene was a reminder of what Uni went through in late October, when scores were absent due to sickness. Though the rampant absences finally subsided by the beginning of this month, the effects are still being felt as students and faculty alike play catch-up.

In the past, student misbehavior has caused Uni Assistant Director Sue Kovacs to close the elevator for weeks at a time, but today she was finally driven off the edge and closed the elevator to students for the rest of the school year. Check inside for more about the decision that had the school buzzing this afternoon.

The graffiti was found near the door that leads to the North Attic. This morning, Assistant Director Sue Kovacs sent a schoolwide e-mail addressing the incident. She advised whoever was responsible that there will be consequences and that a disciplinary hearing would be held if they are caught. Check inside to learn more.

Looking for something to do this Friday night? Student Council's got you covered with an all-school movie night in Uni gym. Admission is free to the 7:30 p.m. showing of the Disney-Pixar animated film "Up," recently released on DVD. Check inside for details and a summary of the film by "Up" enthusiast Nikita Dutta.

You may have noticed the small green bins showing up around the school. They're part of the Green Club's new Uni compost system. Students can discard their biodegradable items in the bins and, eventually, the waste can be used as compost. It's the club's latest effort to make Uni a greener place.

Thanks to the generosity of one of Uni's most enthusiastic graduates, the school raised almost $24,000 this fall to support faculty development. Last month, Uni held an art auction made possible by the donation of 23 pieces of art to the school by 1950 alumna Ellie Stoddard Seibold. Ellie donated the art upon her death in 2002.

Works by four Uni students have been selected for display in Millikin University's third annual high school invitational art show, which begins Saturday and lasts until Dec. 4. The show begins with a reception and awards presentation. The students whose works have been chosen are Eddie Diazmunoz, Lisa Sproat, Andrea Bajcsy, and Rohit Palekar.

Thanks to a $200,000 donation from two Uni alums, the school was able to make a substantial investment in new equipment over the summer, allowing students to learn electronically in the classroom. Using about $60,000 of that gift, Uni purchased 40 MacBook laptops and 40 iPod Touches. Luke Karmazin has more about the mobile labs inside.

After one day of auditions and nearly two hours of arguing over massively talented fellow students, the cast list for this year's Student Productions has been assembled and rehearsals have started. StudProd '09 is set to be performed 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4 and 5 in the North Attic Playhouse. Check inside to see who will perform in the five one-act plays, all of them written and directed by Uni students.

This Friday, Uni's new Habitat for Humanity club will host a dodgeball tournament from 7 to 9 p.m. in Kenney Gym. Tickets are $4 in advance and $5 at the door. All proceeds will benefit the Habitat for Humanity chapter in Clarksdale, Miss., where Uni students have been volunteering every Agora Days since 1997.

Led by subfreshman Shawn Lu's perfect record against eighth-grade competition and junior John Vaughen's winning performance against 11th-graders, six Uni players took home trophies Saturday from the Illinois State Scholastic All Grade Championships, an official U.S. Chess Federation event. Uni won team titles in the eighth-grade and combined high school levels.

The student group United for Uganda will host a movie day Friday in order to kick off the organization’s personal sacrifice campaign. The documentary "Uganda Rising" will be shown in Room 109 at 2:15, after school’s 2 p.m. early dismissal. Some refreshments will be provided. Check inside to learn more about UFU and its personal sacrifice campaign.

Slightly more than 27 percent of all Uni students took advantage of the opportunity to receive an H1N1 vaccination Monday at Uni Gym. Staff members from the McKinley Health Center were on hand to administer the live intranasal version of the H1N1 vaccine, which was the only form available. Students needed signed permission slips from their parents to get the vaccine.