Despite three significant cancellations during No Place Like Penn weekend, students put aside watching 24-hour newscasts, opting for the annual events.
And throughout campus, students were seen having a good night out after a trying week.
Comedian Dave Chapelle postponed his No Place Like Penn performance, saying he wanted to be with his family in New York, and the University canceled Friday's 36th Street block party.
But the event's organizers decided not to postpone the Activities Fair, the Grill `n' Chill, the DJ party and hypnotist Tom Deluca, but rather hold them as vehicles of campus solidarity during trying times.
At the Grill `n' Chill on Saturday afternoon in Wynn Commons, the sun shone, the band played and students ate, drank and danced. The only indication of Tuesday's attack was the Change for Change donation booth.
Penn students packed into Wynn Commons, relieved to find an afternoon diversion that did not involve watching the latest report on CNN.
"It's good to get away from your apartment and your TV," College junior Rebecca Sheng said.
"The nature of these events is respectful," College senior Marya Grzesiak said. "It's good to get out. It's not the same as going out and getting drunk."
Grzesiak said that recently, she hasn't been going out at night.
"I felt like it would be disrespectful," she said.
College senior Nina Bonaventura felt similarly, explaining that the week's calamity has put a damper on her spirits.
"I'm not in the mindset to have fun," Bonaventura said. "I can't even watch a sitcom."
While Bonaventura attended the barbeque to be with her friends, she felt that it would have been best to postpone No Place Like Penn until a later date.
"I feel it should've been pushed back," Bonaventura said. "Everything else in the country was, like all the professional sports games."
College sophomore Jason Levy, on the other hand, has chosen not to abandon his social routine.
"It's always in the back of your mind, but I can't let this change my daily activities," Levy said. "The question everyone is asking right now is, `Is everything OK?'... But after that's asked, everyone still wants to go out and have fun."
Most students have not let the international chaos prevent them from evening revelry -- in fact, many found partying the only way to escape the chaos and the depression.
The streets swarmed with party-hoppers on Friday and Saturday nights.
"I need to get out and I need to get drunk," a College sophomore admitted. "It's the only way I can get my mind off everything, at least for a few hours."
And the event drew praise even from those outside of Penn.
"It's good that they're combining a social event with awareness," said Jamie Goldberg, a sophomore from the School of Textiles and Materials at Philadelphia University.
Goldberg and her friends came out to Wynn Commons to hear the band.
"Music is a good distraction from what's going on," Goldberg said. "There are only so many times you can watch the footage of the plane flying into the building without your stomach turning."
"I think people are more mellow now," sophomore Jason Myerson added.
