AU junior James K. (Kyle) Parker, 21, died in his sleep on Nov. 18, friends say.

Parker, a psychology major in the College of Arts and Sciences, was found unconscious in his apartment and transferred to a medical examiner before he died. He died of unknown causes, according to University Chaplain Joe Eldridge.

Vsevolod Horodyskyj, a senior at AU, met the cast of “The West Wing” in Los Angeles in November after winning the Fourth Annual D.C. Screenwriting Competition in September.

In three days, Horodyskyj met Martin Sheen and worked as a background actor in three “The West Wing” episodes, one which aired last night, called “A Change is Going to Come,” and two that will air by February.

Finals at AU will last Dec. 16-22 this year - nearly a week later than last year’s finals schedule. With classes starting Jan. 10, the winter break will be shorter than usual this year.

The schedule was designed this way based on Labor Day, Mother’s Day and the 70 school days required for each semester, said Nathan Price, special assistant to Provost Neil Kerwin.

AU held several education events for World AIDS Day yesterday, aimed at showing the human side behind the statistics.

Spring Valley residents are questioning the link between the chronic diseases they have and the chemical weapons that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tested and buried at AU during and after World War I, the local newspaper The Northwest Current reported last week.

Military objects were discovered in Spring Valley, a 66-acre area in Northwest D.C. that includes AU land, in 1993, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. Arsenic was discovered at AU’s main campus in 2001 after student athletes who played on the intramural fields noticed that blisters appeared on their bodies when it rained, The Eagle previously reported. The Army Corps had tested chemical agents and munitions at AU during the World War I era.

Safety and security events since Friday, November 26.

Campus briefs from this week: comedians’ take on the conflict in the Middle East, and an apartment robbery in Park Bethesda.

Joseph John Sisco, president of American University from 1976 to 1980, died at the age of 85 of complications from diabetes on Nov. 23 at his home in Chevy Chase.

Sisco became university president because he wanted to acknowledge all that education had done for him after coming from an impoverished background, The Washington Post reported.

After operating without a constitution this semester, the Residence Hall Association plans to approve a new one during its next two meetings. The new document would keep much of the government’s structure the same as it is now.

“There are no major changes with the new constitution.  What it’s doing is ironing out some ... vague areas in the current constitution,” said RHA President Scott Goldstein. “We need the document to clear up some of the technical things.”

A group of 15 young people, mostly students of Howard and George Washington universities, honored the memory of Matthew Shepard with a candlelight vigil Monday night in front of the ABC News studio in D.C.