A weekly roundup of news from around the Ivy League and the higher-education community

Two lawsuits that accused Craig Thompson — the president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center — of taking research he conducted at Penn to start his own biotechnology company have been settled.

Van Roten, a 2012 graduate, recently signed a deal with the Green Bay Packers’ practice squad after participating in the team’s training camp.

Quarterback Billy Ragone, though good at times, faltered in last season’s most crucial moments. If Penn is to reclaim the Ivy crown, the success lies with the quarterback.

Looking to expand their games as much as possible, junior Miles Cartwright, his fellow classmate Fran Dougherty and sophomore Renee Busch took their talents, not to South Beach, but across the Atlantic.

After spending eight years guiding the archrival Princeton Tigers men’s cross-country team, Steve Dolan has taken over as the newly minted director of Cross Country and Track and Field for both the Penn men and women.

I don’t want to know how much Romney’s horse cost. I don’t care to read Obama’s Occidental transcripts. I don’t have a particular interest in Michelle Obama’s shoe size.

The amount of almost-waving, half- smiling and awkward eye-contacting I see around campus every day is absurd.

Former Pennsylvania senator and Law School adjunct professor Arlen Specter, 82, is battling cancer, but is still planning to teach this semester.

Cyclists on Walnut Street must now shift their gears to ride on the left side of the road.

Since the University announced its partnership with Coursera last spring, it has launched five courses on the online learning system. It is planning to launch two additional courses — “Modern and Contemporary American Poetry” along with “Networked Life” — on Sept. 10.

This October, a group of about 15 students will travel to San Francisco to visit technology companies, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs as part Tech Trek, a trip organized by four members of Students for Technology and Entrepreneurship at Penn and the Dining Philosophers.

For this admissions cycle, the Office of Admissions has added a second required essay to its Common Application supplement.

Both academics and pundits have speculated for decades that there is race-based discrimination in the criminal justice system. Now, Law School professor David Abrams has finally confirmed this popular notion.

The Bridge Café, which replaced Au Bon Pain over the summer and is located on the ground floor of Huntsman Hall, opened officially to the Penn community Wednesday.

The Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology announced a landmark agreement on Tuesday with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism through which it will indefinitely loan a collection of 24 gold jewelry pieces to Turkey.

In this feature, The Daily Pennsylvanian takes a look at some of the specific ways in which Penn’s four undergraduate schools are aiming to recruit and retain a diverse faculty.