Legal experts are divided over whether universities are common targets in discrimination lawsuits. In July, two former University employees - one of the Medical Center, the other of the Dental Care Network - filed lawsuits against Penn, citing discrimination and retaliation.

Penn Law and Wharton announced yesterday that the two schools would partner to form a three-year graduate program in which students would pursue both a JD and MBA. The accelerated program would be one of just a handful of its kind in the country. "As the world becomes more complex, leaders must be able to integrate financial, legal, political and cultural issues like never before," Law School Dean Michael Fitts said in a press release.

Some students have been opposed to it for years, but general-admissions seating is coming to Penn basketball this fall, no doubt about it. The first 500 students who participate in The Line will still have access to the best seats, but none will be reserved, a policy that Athletic Department officials hope will encourage students to arrive before tipoff and centralize the section.

When College sophomore Pamela Putnam was deciding which classes to take this fall, she knew she wanted to take a Political Science course along with her pre-med ones. Putnam said November's presidential election motivated her to learn more about American government.

The verdict is in: Harvard, apparently, did not cheat. A statement released last week by the Ivy League batted back allegations of wrongdoing in a March New York Times article centering on the Crimson basketball team and coach Tommy Amaker. The Times article cited coaches past and present who alleged that Harvard's standards for admission had fallen under Amaker's reign.

While attending college in Philadelphia, Nick Miccarelli's experience was twice interrupted to serve in the military overseas. The 2007 Penn alumnus and Iraq War veteran has long been preparing for a life of service - he completed basic training with the Pennsylvania National Guard before finishing high school - and is now running for a position in Pennsylvania's General Assembly.

Jennifer Lesser is a College junior from Minneapolis, Minn. Her e-mail address is lesser@dailypennsylvanian.com.

It's all about location, location, location. Foxwoods Casino and state and local officials announced at a press conference yesterday that the casino would consider building its planned multi-million dollar venue at the Gallery shopping center near 10th and Market streets.

Compared to the freshmen of a century ago, this year's Class of 2012 has it relatively easy. Unlike their forbearers, they face no threat of violence or hazing if they forget to wear "freshman beanies," walk on "sacred spaces," or are seen with a member of the opposite sex - just three of the many regulations listed on the broadsheets on display at Van Pelt Library's exhibit, "Oh Fresh! Sophomore Proclamations of Freshman Rules, 1866-WWII.

Franklin Field, the oldest active football stadium in the United States, has undergone many historic changes over the years. It housed the nation's first scoreboard and in 1925, became both the largest football facility and the first with an upper deck. But thanks to a recent discovery as part of the University's expansion and renovation of the east end of campus, Penn is turning back the clock.

Safiya Shabazz, a family-care physician at the Penn-Presbyterian Medical Center, expects this fall's work on the South Street Bridge to be a "huge inconvenience." Nursing graduate student Alexis Udalovas groans that, "It's going to be terrible." The two are concerned about the Philadelphia Streets Department's plan to reconstruct the bridge starting this fall - a major engineering feat that will close the bridge to all traffic for about two years.

Students whose expensive cultural tastes are stifled by less-than-extravagant budgets are now in luck. On Sept. 25 the Philadelphia Orchestra will host a free concert to kick off its new student-membership program, eZseatU. eZseatU is a subscription to a series of Philadelphia Orchestra concerts offered exclusively to college students.

The doctor looked at me apologetically. "I'm sorry," he said. No, it wasn't a bad prognosis. I wasn't about to die. The doctor was apologizing for the inadequacy of the medical system in America generally and at Penn specifically. "It's just not a good system," he added.

Two Penn students walk into a bar. The DJ says to them, "Why are you talking to that girl?" Then, bouncers come and beat the two guys until one of them loses consciousness. If this joke doesn't seem very funny to you, that's because it wasn't a joke.

Janice Dow is a College sophomore from Rowland Heights, CA. Her e-mail address is dow@dailypennsylvanian.com.

One Penn professor is in Switzerland today to test drive the largest particle accelerator ever built. Physics professor Hugh "Brig" Williams traveled across the Atlantic to fine-tune Penn's contribution to the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC is located at the European Organization for Nuclear Research laboratory near Geneva and is the world's highest-energy particle accelerator.

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