Hyatt Place unveiled for Campus Pointe
Hyatt Hotels, one of the world’s 10 biggest chains, announced plans last month to develop a 197-room Hyatt Place as part of the Campus Pointe retail, office and residential center planned on the Fresno State campus. Hyatt Place is a new brand that emphasizes a seamless transition between everyday life and being a guest in the hotel. The Hyatt Place Campus Pointe will have meeting space for conferences and social events and large rooms with such amenities as wireless Internet connections, oversized beds and 42-inch flat screen HDTVs. The hotel will add to the university’s ability to host conferences on campus that benefit students and also attract more people to Fresno State. The hotel also will provide real-time experience for students to learn about the hospitality industry and provide career opportunities worldwide for graduates. Hyatt plans to open the Fresno State hotel in winter 2008. Campus Pointe is a mixed-use development planned by Lance-Kashian & Company, which has 40 years of real estate development and management experience including creation of Fresno’s Riverpark. The project would be built on 45 acres at Chestnut and Shaw avenues across from the Save Mart Center. Click here for details. Related link at Fresnostatenews.com.

First honey a hit for the holidays
The first honey produced by Fresno State students went on sale in the Farm Market just before Thanksgiving, just days after it was bottled to culminate a beekeeping project with the Plant Science Department and members of the Bee Club. Proceeds from the sale of honey will benefit Fresno State agriculture programs. The honey proved so popular that the initial supply was sold out and the Farm Market was awaiting more honey today, Dec. 4. Click here for details.

Fresno State olive oil wins first award
The first olive oil produced for sale by Fresno State Orchards won a bronze medal in the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival, one of Southern California’s most prestigious competitions. The extra virgin oil, pressed from fruit harvested last fall at the campus farm’s 22-acre olive orchard, is available at the Fresno State Farm Market. Click here for details.

University offers great gift ideas
The campus may not offer the razzle-dazzle and wall-to-wall crowds of shopping malls, but it can hold its own when it comes to gift ideas for the winter holidays. Everything from tickets to cultural events and athletics to musical bottle openers and jars of jam are on available from the Bulldog Shop at Cedar and Barstow to the Save Mart Center at Chestnut and Shaw and several points on the campus in between. Books by Fresno State faculty and alumni are available, too, as is clothing galore for all ages and many items you just can’t find anywhere else. Click here for details.  

New spam filters ready for testing
Fresno State e-mail users can participate in the beta test of the university's new IronPort spam filters. Subscribers to the test will have older SpamAssassin filters replaced by the new filters and receive daily reports of what messages were quarantined as likely spam. Click here for details.