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<img src="http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/images/features/commonassets_300x212.jpg" height="212" width="300" />Gary Flomenhoft knew he faced a tall order in trying to convince the Vermont House Committee on Ways and Means that the state should collect economic rent on its natural resources. After all, how do you charge rent for air?

<img src="http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/images/features/mobilehome_300x212.jpg" height="212" width="300" />Senior Shaun Gilpin was admittedly nervous when he entered the Brookside Mobile Home Park in Starksboro in the fall of 2008 to ask residents about life in the park as part of his Community Development and Applied Economics service-learning course.

<img src="http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/images/features/gracecameron_430x300.jpg" height="300" width="430" />Last Thursday's second annual Student Research Conference attracted plenty of faculty, in addition to the student participants, so it wasn't surprising to see chemistry professor Willem Leenstra chatting amiably with a budding scientist stationed in front of her poster.

<img src="http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/images/features/loka_300x212.jpg" height="212" width="300" />"You won't believe it," says Amaka Azuike, novelist, poet and senior lecturer of literature in English at the University of Jos in Nigeria. "There are people who actually go to the extent of selling things &#8212; cars, property &#8212; just to make it here." She's referring to the African Literature Association conference, whose 35th annual meeting convened at ¶¶Òõ̽̽ last week.