Get serious. Today is the last day of shopping period. Seniors, you have to turn in your schedules. Everyone, you have to start buying your books, or at least sign up for Amazon Prime.

Judas! Stefani “Lady Gaga” Germanotta and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, announced on Thursday that their “Born This Way Foundation” will hold a launch event at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater on Feb. 29. Named after Gaga’s 2011 smash hit about being yourself, the Born This Way Foundation promotes nurturing, supportive environments for little monsters across the globe.

Nickel and diming. Connecticut’s Board of Regents for Higher Education on Thursday voted to hike tuition and fees at public universities and community colleges by 3 percent next year. For in-state residents studying at public universities, that translates into a $676 increase in tuition and fees, the Hartford Courant reported.

No go. Joshua Komisarjevsky, who was found guilty last October of the infamous 2007 Cheshire murders, had his request for retrial denied, the AP reported. He is up for sentencing next week.

Saving the Internet. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro on Thursday expressed her opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act in an interview with the New Haven Independent posted to YouTube. “We need to scrap the current legislation,” DeLauro, a Democrat, said in the video. “We need to start from the beginning.”

What is beauty? In a Thursday night email, Rumpus Magazine solicited submissions from students for its annual ranking of Yale’s 50 Most Beautiful People. Photos submitted will be posted to the tabloid’s Facebook page, and whoever racks up the most votes (“likes”) will be featured in this year’s edition.

Superstar. A North Haven teenager advanced to the Hollywood round of “American Idol” on Wednesday night. Sixteen-year-old Gabi Carruba earned her own three minute segment on the show before charming Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson with her rendition of Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning.” “I love the choices that you make,” Lopez said to Carruba. Tyler, meanwhile, said it may be her “magic moment.”

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

1980 Professors in the Math Department decide not to file “effort reports” with the federal government explaining the government-sponsored research they have been conducting. The professors call the reports “meaningless.”