The announcement late last week raising the minimum Ph.D. student stipend by 6.7 percent has generally received positive feedback among the Penn graduate population, though students are urging the University to do even more. The increase, which will take effect in September, raised the minimum stipend for students completing 9-month programs from $18,000 to $19,200.

On paper, the process might not have seemed so foreign. Play over the summer to stay sharp. Arrive in August to meet with the team. Start practice on the first day of September. But former Penn women's basketball standout Joey Rhoads was a long way from the Palestra.

Yesterday at Skirkanich Hall, a crowded computer-science class struggled with questions about programming code until Engineering sophomore Isaiah Greene explained the answers. For Greene, this wasn't a chance to impress his teacher. It was a chance to teach the class, which in this case was comprised of 12 high-school sophomores from Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy.

Spending a little extra on a can of soda might actually be worth more than you think. Many of the College House convenience stores - which sell everything from childhood relics like Dunkaroos to urgently-needed late-night coffee - mark up their prices in order to attempt to break even.

Every Tuesday last semester, I rushed to class in order to arrive early. Not because there was an interesting lecture that day or because I wanted brownie points. The reason I hurried was simple - because if I didn't, I wouldn't get a seat. For a number of classes I've taken, there simply aren't enough desks, meaning students are forced to play musical chairs.

Last week's shooting at Northern Illinois University - when a gunman fired into a lecture hall, killing five people before turning the gun on himself - has brought the issue of campus security into the spotlight. But as major tragedies, such as the NIU shooting and last April's massacre at Virginia Tech, are difficult to predict, universities' efforts must focus on response preparation, Penn officials and outside experts say.

The opponents may be better at Cornell and Columbia, but pure inconvenience makes Harvard-Dartmouth the toughest Ivy League road trip. Like every team, Penn will be doing its best to keep bodies fresh and spirits high for the long stretches of travel. Senior captain Brian Grandieri, who has been on seven roadtrips in his three years of playing, said that each roadtrip presents its own challenges.

Sometimes it's better to be the math Olympiad winner than to be crowned homecoming queen. The Benjamin Franklin Scholars program, which offers students access to Benjamin Franklin seminars, undergraduate research opportunities and a four-year advisor, will invite newly admitted high-school students to become scholars this spring, based primarily on students' academic standing.

It used to be you'd find Penn students glued to Facebook, YouTube and bad Chinese soap operas on their computers. Now procrastinators have one more thing to add to their Ivy League idleness. JuicyCampus.com, an online gossip Web site, guarantees its users complete anonymity to spread any rumor about any student on any campus.

A biker was struck by a car door at about 8:45 p.m. yesterday in front of Savory, located near 37th and Spruce streets. According to witnesses, a driver's side car door opened and the biker collided with it. The biker then flipped over the door and landed on the pavement.

As Penn wrestling coach Zeke Jones likes to say, "Once a Penn wrestler, always a Penn wrestler." Though most athletic programs would probably claim the same, the Penn wrestling team has a special alumni club that specifically fulfills this goal: the Grapplers' Club.

Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted unanimously last week to post their finished academic papers online for free, and a Penn Faculty Senate committee is now discussing the merits of such proposals. The Penn Senate Committee on Students and Educational Policy is scheduled to discuss the possibility of adopting a similar plan, said Faculty Senate Chairman Larry Gladney.

There's far more to Harvard forward Cem Dinc than the 18 straight games he sat out to the start the season, or his one-minute debut against Penn on Feb. 1. For the 6-foot-11 Dinc, it's not about the destination; it's about the journey. Harvard is the third college he has attended.

Though former Penn Neurosurgery professor Tracy McIntosh has already served his original sentence for the 2002 sexual assault of his college roommate's niece, this likely won't have any effect on the harsher sentence that was handed down Feb. 13, legal experts say.

There's a fine line between sportsmanship and oversensitivity. It's called common sense. Unfortunately, the Athletic department crossed that line when it decided to stop The Penn Band from playing the popular "Hey Song." Officially titled "Rock and Roll Part 2," the song is a mainstay at Penn men's basketball games.

Penn may accept a greater number of applicants regular decision and from the waiting list this year, largely in response to Harvard and Princeton Universities' decisions to eliminate their early-acceptance programs, interim Dean of Admissions Eric Kaplan said.

Shortly after the 2004 presidential election, Republican political strategist Karl Rove found himself on the list of Barbara Walters' Top 10 Most Fascinating People. It has been a few years, but at Irvine Auditorium last night, Rove proved people are still fascinated by what he has to say.