To some observers, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that an Arizona school violated a 13-year-old student’s rights by strip-searching her represented a defeat for officials working to stem the flow of drugs into schools.

To others, the verdict upheld the idea that schools can sometimes act recklessly, even when fighting to keep illegal substances off school grounds.

In 1961, five Navajo students entered Arizona State University with little idea of what to expect. Today, the seeds planted by that group have sprouted into an American Indian student population of approximately 1,400 from 60-plus tribes, as well as several programs designed to recruit, retain and graduate those students.

Philosophy Professor Ted Humphrey plans to share his appreciation of the classics with 40 to 60 incoming students this fall, assigning them more than a dozen works – from Aeschylus to Virgil.

Academically, it’s a heavy load. But in the a strict Newtonian sense, all those hundreds of thousands of words will weigh little more than a loaf of bread. That’s because Humphrey’s students will not be reading between the covers of standard textbooks.