BLACKSBURG, Va. - Much of Tuesday night's emotional candlelight vigil focused on healing and moving forward as a community. But as Virginia Polytechnic Institute students dispersed from the service, they faced a more immediate, practical question: With classes canceled through the end of the week, what to do with all their time?

Ladies and gentlemen, they're out of the red. For the first time in 23 years, the Penn softball team has guaranteed itself an overall winning record. Such an occasion should warrant a stylish win, and the Quakers did not disappoint. Penn swept Cornell in a doubleheader yesterday at Warren Field, beating the Big Red 7-1 and 5-4 with equally solid pitching and batting performances.

It took Penn 78 days past their intended deadline to announce an e-mail provider.

Report: Hoyas asst. offered Princeton job Princeton has offered its head basketball coaching position to Georgetown assistant coach Sydney Johnson, Princeton's student newspaper reported yesterday. According to an online report by The Daily Princetonian, Johnson, a 1997 Tigers alumnus who has coached professionally for only three years, has been offered the job but has yet to officially accept it.

As colleges across the country review communication methods in the wake of Monday's massacre at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Division of Public Safety officials say they have been exploring new mass notification technology for over a year. DPS spokeswoman Karima Zedan said officials are examining comprehensive emergency notification systems that would allow them to send notices via a variety of methods - through cell phones, e-mail, PDAs and home phones and to both the Penn community and students' emergency contacts.

A day after an extra-inning thriller, Penn made things a little easier yesterday in Lawrenceville, N.J. The Quakers scored four runs in the first inning and never looked back, thrashing Rider 13-5. Junior Kyle Armeny led the offensive charge for Penn (17-14), with his team-leading seventh home run, a solo shot in the third, as well as an RBI groundout in the first.

A new U.S. Cultural Diversity requirement for the College of Arts and Sciences's Class of 2012 was unanimously approved at the faculty meeting on Tuesday. The requirement "aims to develop [student] knowledge of the history, dynamic cultural system and heterogeneous populations" of the United States, according to its proposal.

A relaxed atmosphere, class evaluations, maybe some donuts: These are the traits that characterize the last days of class at Penn. But the bar may have been raised yesterday, when Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, and rising musical star Kenna appeared on campus to lecture at Sociology professor David Grazian's "Sociology of Media and Pop Culture" class.

It took him eight years to complete, but New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden's new book is starting to make some noise. With a title like Forty Million Dollar Slaves, the buzz would have been impossible to avoid. But at yesterday's "Race and Sports" lecture, sponsored by Penn's Center for Africana Studies, Rhoden proved his book is more than a catchy title.

The controversial application for a new liquor store at 4237 Walnut St. has been denied by the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment, site owner Daniel DeRitis said yesterday. DeRitis said he will immediately appeal the decision. "We're not going to give up on it," he said.

It's Microsoft. The School of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School chose Microsoft over the other finalist, Google, to replace the crash-prone Webmail system, with a new service to be called "Penn Live," SAS officials will announce today. The choice comes after a long negotiation process that lasted well past the final Jan.

This year's Spring Fling can't have been that much fun - there were fewer parties busted than ever. But the event has been heralded by University officials as being safer and more sober than previous Flings, meaning thoughts of moving it out of the Quadrangle are likely to be shelved for the time being.

With 25 days to go until graduation, it's time for you to do that one thing that you've always wanted to do, yet have never gotten the chance. For some of you, maybe it's having sex under the button, or it's a five-course meal at Le Bec-Fin. For me, it's writing a column in poetry.

From Vietnamese hoagies - "the new Philly cheesesteak," as one student called them - to buckets of hummus and Chinese egg tarts, tables of food reflected the diversity of Penn's campus. Eighteen minority student groups gathered yesterday afternoon in Bodek Lounge, where the Houston Hall room was abuzz with music and conversation.

Joanne Tong is a Wharton junior from Manila, Philippines. Her e-mail address is tong@dailypennsylvanian.com.

How Penn landed a heralded tennis recruit against all odds - and how one man's questionable dealings helped do it

Three days later, Penn professors, graduate associates and residential advisors are asking themselves what they would have done in a similar situation.