Year in review 1998 /MARCH

Penn's role as host of the annual high school championship games was marred by tragedy on March 1 as post-game gunfire killed one man -- Anthony Davis, 22, of North Philadelphia -- and injured three others, including a Penn student whose leg was struck by a stray bullet that went through the wall of the Blauhaus fine arts structure. Police searched for suspects in the shootings throughout the month. One suspect, Kyle McLemore, 21, turned himself in, while later in the month, officials said more than one gunman was involved in the murder. A second gunman, Nate Ortiz, also 21, was arrested in May. Police also arrested a suspect in another crime -- the stabbing of a University maintenance worker outside Wawa at 38th and Spruce streets on February 27 -- only to let the suspect go later in the week when the victim said the police had caught the wrong man. But crimes weren't the only noteworthy events in March. The month ended with the University announcing two incentive programs intended to induce employees to live in University City. One program pays an employee who is buying a house $3,000 per year for seven years or $15,000 up front, and the other funds up to $7,500 for exterior repairs on homes employees already inhabit. Students may be doing some more creative funding of their own, as the University Trustees approved a 4.5 percent tuition hike for the second year in a row. But the University announced its most ambitious financial aid incentive program in recent years in unveiling the Trustees Scholars program, which offers full grant support to a select number of needy students. Unlike new aid plans at other top schools, though, Penn's effort does not address the aid packages of all underprivileged students. Meanwhile, the Political Science Department, already lacking the size and depth of departments at peer institutions, lost two of its most popular professors. Not having received tenure after his seventh year at Penn, Daniel Deudney was forced to leave the University and accepted a job offer from the Johns Hopkins University. Shortly thereafter, another junior professor, Marissa Golden, left for Bryn Mawr College. And the men's basketball team proved Princeton wasn't the only Ivy League team to be reckoned with, taking the Tigers -- at the time, a top-10 team -- to overtime before losing a heartbreaker in front of a sold-out Palestra crowd. -- Jeremy Reiss