Pat Knapp officially has a successor. Former Holy Family women's basketball coach Mike McLaughlin will take over the program at Penn, a source close to the situation confirmed. With a a record of 381-55 at the Division II school located in Northeast Philadelphia, McLaughlin's .

Of the 32 U.S. universities in the middle of capital campaigns of at least $1 billion, Penn gained the most in February with $26.1 million in new gifts and pledges. Though this is not the most Penn has received in a single month - that record belongs to June 2007, when the school took in $129 million just before the Making History capital campaign entered its public fundraising phase - the number is strong given the current economy.

There's a familiar site at the top of the men's Ivy League lacrosse standings: Cornell and Princeton sit in a tie for first place, both undefeated and both nationally ranked in the top 10. At least a share of the Ivy title has gone to the Tigers or the Big Red every year since 1995.

Two seasons ago, Todd Roth burst onto the Ivy League baseball scene and instantly became a standout pitcher. He was a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American, the Ivy League and Big Five Rookie of the Year and a member of the All-Ivy and All-Big Five teams.

The sign still says "Open 24 hours," but Philly Diner is closed during many of its previously nocturnal hours. At 3 a.m. a few weeks ago, the intersection would have been bustling. People would trickle in throughout the night to order burgers and fries. Now, the restaurant sits empty and dark on the corner of 39th and Walnut streets.

Over the past couple weeks, the Penn baseball team has had, to borrow from the immortal axiom of last year's Spring Fling headliner, woes in different area codes. Since last playing at Meiklejohn Stadium over two weeks back, the Quakers have dropped a doubleheader to Brown in the "401" of Providence, R.

Glenn Cummings, a student in the Graduate School of Education's Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management program, was chosen as deputy assistant secretary of education in the Obama administration. Cummings, a former speaker of the house in the Maine House of Representatives, will work in the Office of Vocational and Adult Education on issues related to adult education and literacy, career and technical information and community colleges.

Many Penn-Princeton matchups of late have been mere grudge matches with empty words about intensity and ancient rivalries. But tonight on Franklin Field at 7 p.m., the women's lacrosse team will restore some meaning to the inter-state rivalry and finally give fans what they've been waiting for: a bout against Princeton with legitimate title implications for both sides.

Despite the struggling global economy, SEPTA is not likely to increase its fares for the next fiscal year. SEPTA submitted its budget proposal for fiscal year 2010, with no service cuts and no planned fare increases. This measure will apply to all SEPTA lines, including buses, subways and regional rail.

The best landlords are those east of the Schuylkill River, according to the Graduate and Professional Students Assembly's Landlord Survey. That was one of the principal findings in GAPSA's survey that rates landlords in the area based on 1,200 responses collected November through February.

I am a fan of the show Myth Busters on the Discovery Channel. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, each episode takes a myth, dissects it, tests it and proves it either factually true or not. Let's see what Adam and Jamie might discover when this approach is applied to Colin Kavanaugh's recent column where he called for Wharton to "Open the gates to the ivory tower.

Many students may not have had time to notice the appearance of ceramic squirrels along Locust Walk over the past few days since several of them have been disappearing. The project, called "Squirrels on Locust," is coordinated by the Penn Art Club and is the first large-scale student-initiated art installation on campus.

When I came to Penn freshman year, I brought my Confederate flag with me. Growing up in the Georgia heartland, the Confederate flag had been a constant presence, gracing T-shirts and garnishing license plates. It embellished Dixie-themed trinkets and toys, and often flapped proudly alongside the Stars and Stripes.

Self-proclaimed visual artist and art activist Zoe Cohen believes that art is in the eye of the beholder. Last night, Cohen offered a room of students a look at some of her avant-garde works, expressing her mantra that you don't need the artistic prowess of Michelangelo to create art.

As the economy worsens, many schools committed to disregarding candidates' financial conditions when considering their applications are using creative methods to admit more students who can afford tuition while still adhering to their need-blind policies. Some colleges are accepting more international, transfer or waitlisted students, whose applications are not evaluated on a need-blind basis at some otherwise-need-blind institutions.

Three Penn professors and a senior critic in the School of Design were awarded fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation last week. Recipients of this year's fellowship - grant money given to artists, scientists and scholars for their research efforts - include English professor David Wallace, Sociology professor Susan Watkins, Music professor Anna Weesner and design critic Alexi Worth.

Recently-elected Penn College Republicans chairman, Wharton junior Peter Devine, spoke to the Daily Pennsylvanian about his plans for the future of the minority political group on campus. Daily Pennsylvanian: How is the hand-over going? PD: I've been passed the baton pretty quickly - I took over on day one.