It’s a big weekend in Athens on both the academic and athletics sides.

Academics first – two people at the top of the political food chain stop into town:

• Former President and Mrs. George H.W. Bush, Gov. and Mrs. Sonny Perdue, and a host of other dignitaries converge on campus today to pay tribute to the late Sen. Paul Coverdell at the dedication of UGA’s new $40 million Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences.
• 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards will deliver the keynote address at the UGA Law School’s Working in the Public Interest conference.

The Coverdell Center is an important addition to campus. We’ve seen this structure go up in the Coliseum parking lot for the past couple of year, but I don’t think many of us know about the hi-tech science that is going to be going on in there.

On to athletics. Three major events from which to choose:

• G-Day of course will draw the most people to campus on Saturday afternoon.
• The NCAA Gymnastics Southeast Regional will also be held on campus Saturday night
• Georgia’s track teams will also host the Spec Towns Track & Field Invitational

All that’s missing is some tennis and a baseball series. It’s spring, and Athens is in bloom.