It's a major problem for us, and it's been a major problem for us since Day 1 of the storm. A lot of our fellow research universities have made some of our best people some very lucrative offers.

The intent is to take everybody back to New Orleans.

That is not a university lawsuit. The people who want to exercise the option want to make it available to the university.

This is a day for kids. This is a day that brings out the children in all of us. You can imagine when you were 8 years old or 10 years old how, with such reverence, you viewed the phrase 'pitchers and catchers report.' And the van leaving is that trigger of emotion that tells you it's just five days until pitchers and catchers report. And on a day when New England is blanketed with snow, the reminder that pitchers and catchers report in a few days by virtue of the van leaving, those are good words. Those are soothing to any New Englander's soul.

O God, we praise Thee for keeping us till this day, and for the full assurance that Thou wilt never let us go.

The quicker we get rid of the lobby system the better for all of us. I don't think in this day and age it is tenable to have these nods and winks, and on-the-record and off-the-record briefings.