Sports As a Way of Life Program Begins
“Sports as a Way of Life” program launched on October 7 with an evening rally. The aim of the program is to encourage Bilkenters to participate in any kind of sports in their spare time. Because of bad weather conditions, the opening ceremony was moved to the Main Campus Sport Center instead of the Main Campus Football Field as planned before.
The ceremony began with speeches by Rector Abdullah Atalar and Prof. Hasan Erten, coordinator of the program. They both spoke about the importance of sports in everyone's life. They encouraged Bilkenters to keep active. After the speeches, trainers demonstrated two different sport activities to the audience: a skills course and tug-of-war. Volunteers from the audience tried the activities. Even Rector Atalar tried the skills course and completed successfully.
The Bilkent Frisbee team "Bilkent Goats" also participated in the ceremony by introducing the team and rules of the game.
They held an exhibition match between the team players and volunteers from the audience.
Yusuf Alper Gürlek, a third year undergraduate student in the Industrial Engineering department, has attended the G20 Summit held in Toronto, Canada. G20, also known as the Group of 20, consists of the 19 countries having the top 19 biggest economies in the world plus the European Union (as the 20th member). "The application process was tough," says Alper Gürlek, "however I deeply wanted to be a part of the Turkish Delegation. Even the vision of representing my country and my school in the G20 summit was enough to have sleepless nights for me. As a chairman of United Nations Association of Turkey, Youth Section (UNATR), I was involved in various youth exchanges about the issues concerning both Europe and whole world, but the G20 was the ultimate point for me. After three stages of the election process, I was elected as one of the six young Turkish leaders to attend the G20 Summit. I was so flattered and happy."
The Mehmet Akif Ersoy University of Burdur awarded Talat Halman, dean of the Faculty of Humanities Letters and chair of the Department of Turkish Literature, a Ph.D. honoris causa. In 2009, The Mehmet Akif Ersoy University also presented an honorary doctorate to the founder of Bilkent's history department, Prof. Halil İnalcık. This year's honorary degree was conferred on Prof. Halman at a ceremony held on October 7, 2010. 
The Art Gallery will open its new season on Wednesday, October 13 with an exhibition of new works by outstanding Turkish painter Prof. Sema Ilgaz Temel. The opening ceremony will be at 6 p.m. The exhibition will include original prints and new paintings on canvas.