What is it like to navigate being a Black person on an overwhelmingly White campus? In this BYU Magazine cover story, students, alumni, faculty, and staff share stories of hope, struggle, and paths forward. You can read it now before magazines hit mailboxes.

Rise and shout with this new performance video of the BYU Cougar Song, reimagined and digitized by BYU Vocal Point. Then add your classic Hike the Y, Cosmo, or football game photo to the BYU Alumni Homecoming Memories gallery on Facebook.

Earlier this week, on a canyon trail just a few miles away from BYU, a trail runner had a six-minute encounter with a Cougar defending her cubs. While tips like maintaining eye contact, backing away slowly, and making yourself look big can help, a safer way to interact with a real cougar is with special effects. Or just invite Cosmo into your kitchen to make BYU mint brownies like Curtis Isaak did (above).

While COVID-19 kept the Cougar Marching Band off the field for the Homecoming game, the Power of the Wasatch worked out a safe way to share their musical prowess. Witness the web-exclusive performances of “The Pretender” and “The Mandalorian” online. (Be sure to use the video’s countdown timer to add in the audio.)

BYUradio’s Top of Mind host Julie Rose shares how—in a time of division and “fake news”—she gathers trustworthy information from experts.

Catastrophic fires in the West are burning hotter than ever, leaving paths of destruction through human development and native plant ecosystems. Professor Matt Madsen and his plant and wildlife sciences students are using seed-coating technology to restore native plants to scorched landscapes. See how their work can help decrease the growth of fast-burning cheatgrass and break the fire cycle.

BYU researchers—including civil and environmental engineering professor Jim Nelson (above)—have created water modeling software that can predict the rise and fall of every river on Earth. The satellite-based monitoring, imaging, and mapping systems are a key tool in SERVIR, a joint venture between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development, to help people worldwide quickly assess threats and respond rapidly to natural disasters.

Here is encouraging news: BYU’s active COVID-19 case counts have decreased. As for winter semester, classes are slated to start January 11 and end April 14, 2021. Like fall, instruction will be in-person, remote, and hybrid. Again, all plans are subject to change depending on trends in disease prevalence and guidance from state and local governments.

A new BYU study in the journal Vaccines reports that significant public messaging should happen in the U.S. before any COVID-19 vaccines are made available. And with vaccines potentially being approved by the end of the year or early next year, the clock is ticking. Read what work needs to be done.

Wearing masks and physically distanced in the Madsen Recital Hall, the BYU Singers perform “Alleluia” by Elaine Hagenberg, with Andrew Crane conducting. Text is by Saint Augustine (354–430).