Boise State is poised to hand out more than 2,400 degrees and certificates to its largest graduating class to date Saturday.

Taco Bell Arena is expected to be packed with friends, family, and students (and unrelated but nevertheless enthusiastic Bronco Nation fans) set to cheer on a sea of caps and gowns at Boise State's 90th commencement ceremony.

Saturday's graduation will honor more than 2,200 students, including 237 cum laude, 132 magna cum laude, and 26 summa cum laude grads. George Fenton of Post Falls, who pulled down a 4.0 cumulative grade point average, will be this year's student speaker.

Boise State wears its nontraditional demographic on its sleeve, and this year's ceremony has a few good examples: Christie Traylor earned her Masters degree in Bilingual Education while raising three daughters and working multiple jobs. Sisters Linda Deneher and Susan Ferdon will each be awarded a Masters in Education Technology, which they completed through Boise State’s distance learning program. Dehener lives in Califronia and Ferdon lives in Illinois.

Saturday's ceremony gets under way at 10 a.m.

As the New York Times reported in January, cash-strapped American schools are considering partnerships with the private sector to build new housing. Public colleges have found that private ownership and construction of dorms alleviates housing needs more quickly, but raises concerns about the long-term effects of sourcing out projects.

Boise State University manages all the student housing on its campus, including the brand new Lincoln Street facilities, which house 360 beds.

The University of California, Irvine, Portland State and Montclair State in New Jersey have either considered deals or are considering such partnerships. At Montclair, the school opened a 2,000-bed complex—the largest in the state.

Boise State's James Maguire, the associate vice president for Planning and Facilities was quoted in the Times article after the college considered a private equity deal for a 900-bed dorm with American Campus Communities, a private housing offerer.

"Ultimately, the university decided to finance a smaller, 350-bed dorm on its own with municipal bonds," wrote Times reporter Ronda Kaysen.

However, instead of contracting with a private company, a new plan would cater to a student lifestyle without bearing the Boise State name. That private development project irked a potential neighbor back in April.

Some of the best and brightest of Boise State have spent a part of their weekend competing in the university's first-of-its-kind "app-athon."

“We wanted to provide students with an experience that helps them understand what it’s like to develop a programming application with a deadline,” explained Max Davis-Johnson, Boise State’s chief information officer.

Boise State challenged student programmers, designers, developers and entrepreneurs to create the ultimate mobile or web application. Sixteen teams are facing off at Boise State's Interactive Learning Center.

“We left it pretty open” said Davis-Johnson. “The only thing we ask is for students to develop a mobile or web application that is pertinent to Boise State education or social life. We are looking for that wow factor.”

Each member of the winning team will receive $500; second place gets $300 and $100 for third. All work must be done on-site.

Final products were scheduled to be turned in by noon today, with demonstrations and judging scheduled for 1 p.m.

• Greenspeed
• President Barack Obama is swarmed by attendees of the Washington Auto Show.

Last week, seven members of Boise State's Greenspeed Club—the students who set the land-speed record for a vegetable oil-fueled vehicle—traveled to Washington, D.C. to show off their revamped 1998 Chevrolet S-10 pickup at the Washington Auto Show.

"Surprisingly, there were a ton of electric cars," said Jen Kniss, crew chief and computer science expert of the Greenspeed team. "Sen. Jim Risch, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and even President Obama came down to visit."

Boise State confirmed the worst-kept secret in town this afternoon—the Broncos will be part of the Big East Conference (for football only) beginning in the fall season of 2013. Most of Boise State's other teams, including basketball, will be returning to the Western Athletic Conference, also in 2013. Boise State's wrestling team will continue to compete in the Pac-12 conference.

"We will be facing outstanding competition from around the country," said head football coach Chris Petersen. "The move is going to be great for our program."

The Big East also put out invitations today to San Diego State, the University of Houston, Southern Methodist University and the University of Central Florida. Some of the other Big East opponents that Boise State is expected to face in the future include Connecticut, Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers and South Florida.

Once the Big East football membership reaches 12 schools, the conference is expected to divide into two divisions, with division champions playing in a conference championship game. According to the conference, the Big East media markets have a potential television audience of nearly 28 million households.

• Courtesy: Greenspeed Team

A team of Boise State students set a new record Saturday, racing their vegetable-oil-powered vehicle in El Mirage, Calif., and they will be back on the track today to set their sights even higher.

BW readers have already met Dave Schenker and Seth Fuerborn, the men behind the record-breaking effort. Considering that a year ago, they didn't even have a vehicle makes the accomplishment from their club, Greenspeed, even more impressive.

"We are 99 percent sure that we will break the land-speed record for vegetable oil," Schenker told BW. "Our ultimate goal is to beat the petroleum-based-land-speed record."

The team is competing with a revamped 1998 Chevy S-10 truck.

"It's not really a conversion," said Schenker. "The vehicle has an extra tank. You have your diesel tank and you have your vegetable oil tank. You fire it up, get it to operating temperature, and it starts burning vegetable oil automatically."

Boise State President Bob Kustra was absent from today's Frank Church Conference at the university's Student Union Building, an event that he almost always attends. He had a good excuse. Kustra confirmed that he was meeting with officials from the Big East Conference, which is anxious to lure Boise State from the Mountain West Athletic Conference.

"We appreciate the outreach on the part of the Big East Conference and will continue our due diligence in this matter," wrote Kustra in a carefully written statement, which did not mention the Mountain West at all.

"We are an extremely valuable partner when it comes to conference affiliation," wrote Kustra.

As a wave of revolts continues to sweep the Middle East, the Arab Spring will be the quite-timely theme of this week's Frank Church Institute conference at Boise State.

With last week's spectacle of a bloodied Moammar Gaddafi, Arab Spring uprisings have now toppled three governments, and today, Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began in January, will be holding its first free, multiparty election in a half-century. Egyptians will hold parliamentary elections next month. Additionally, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain remain in full-fledged revolt.

One of the Frank Church Conference's main speakers on Thursday will be Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement.

"The bigger threat to women, to Muslim communities and to entire nations is violent extremism," Khan told BW. "Extremism which not only distorts our faith and tears apart our societies but has significant impact against women, children and elderly."

You can read our full interview with Khan in the current issue of BW.

Leave your bike chained to a tree or light pole on the Boise State campus and you may be surprised when you return. The Parking and Transportation Department has implemented a new policy that states bikes must be parked only in university-provided bike racks.

“We’re trying to get cyclists to use correct parking procedures: not parking against the accessible handicap rails, not parking against handrails, not parking against trees,” said J.C. Porter of Parking and Transportation.

• This bike is improperly parked at Boise State, according to a new rule.

For now, warnings are issued in the form of green slips zip-tied to offending bicycles, but if the warnings aren’t working overall, the school is considering moving to fines. It would not be a revenue source, said Porter.

In a Sept. 15 letter to the editor published in The Arbiter, senior A.J. Duthie chronicled his beef with the new system. While in the Albertsons Library on campus, his bike was removed from the rail of an accessible ramp.

“I ran outside to find campus maintenance had just finished cutting through [the lock],” wrote Duthie. “After asking, I was informed they would not pay to replace my lock.”

Porter confirms that if a bike is a safety hazard, the lock will be cut and the bike impounded.

“If it’s a fire, life or safety issue, then the bike is removed,” he said. “The bike locks will be cut and removed and we bring them to a storage facility. People just to have come into our office and they’ll get their bike back with no charge currently.”

The code is a part of Policy 9010, enacted in March of 2011, which also created the walking zone in the core of the university. The plan also created a bicycle priority route around the perimeter of the campus core.

But since the bike racks are located on the edge of the zone—essentially at the fringes of campus—some cyclists claim the plan falls short on helping cyclists, while the university touts it’s Bicycle Friendly University status.

Campus security at Boise State is investigating something a bit of the ordinary—a bobcat sighting. In fact there were two reported sightings, one on Sunday evening and another Monday morning near the Greenbelt on the west end of campus. In addition, a mountain lion was spotted off campus at Ninth and Myrtle streets in Boise.

A month ago, a juvenile mountain lion was spotted near Ten Mile and King roads in Kuna. Law enforcement tried tracking the lion but had not luck.