After 100 years, Cobb Gate takes a refresher course.

Déjà views:
Setting straight the gate

Painter Mark McMahon roamed the quads in early fall, watching the campus once again get ready for the year--and years--ahead.

Maroon merchandising
The University of Chicago Bookstore offers 1,000 items bearing the Chicago logo or name-from a pencil (98 cents) to a clock with the school seal emblazoned on its face ($198). Of the 30-some styles of sweatshirts for sale, the best-selling one is also the classic (gray with "University of Chicago" and the seal in maroon). The most common complaint from alumni customers? The Maroon emblems should be bigger.

Inaugeration invitation
Calligraphers addressing envelopes by hand have been replaced by laser printers, but preparing invitations to the November 2 inauguration of Chicago President Don Michael Randel still requires the human touch. White-gloved workers prepare some of the 1,800 invitations to the Rockefeller ceremony. Next on their list: 18,000 cards encouraging students and staff to attend the post-inaugural party at Ida Noyes Hall.

Field of dreams, cranes
Against the brick and precast-concrete backdrop of a 1,000-car parking structure, to open on 55th Street between Greenwood and Ellis Avenues this January, the women's soccer team runs through a pre-season practice, coach Amy Reifert would miss three of the team's first five games (4-1) but after giving birth on September 10 to Shay Margaret, she was back on the bench for the September 23 game against Carnegie Mellon.

In the bond business
Core 2000 introduces first-year M.B.A. students to the Graduate School of Business and to their classmates. In"Breaking Boundaries," an introduction to teamwork and communication, the class's 12 cohorts (Phoenix, Gargoyles, Nobels, Rockefeller, etc.) must complete four initiatives: Channels, Toxic Waste, Leadership Web, and Mindfields (at left). Then it's on to the egg drop.

Uncrating the greats
At the University of Chicago Bookstore, Seth Hardwick shelves classic texts. For Fall Quarter, the store stocks texts for about 350 courses. The most expensive text is sold in the spring-at a list price of $180. The good news is that because its author is Law School lecturer Jack S. Levin, his students get to buy Structuring Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Entrepreneurial Transactions at the author's discount price of $90.

Raise high the roof
Workers lower concrete slabs that formed the base of the Oriental Institute's 68-year-old, three-layer roof. A two-year, two-phase project will replace the bowed concrete with a new metal panel. To reach the old base, workers first remove the clay tiles (about 600 square feet each day) and an intermediate liner. Although there's some water damage in the reading room, the deflecting roof poses no threat to the collection.