A student says it was just a joke, but his Halloween costume has resulted in serious criticism for University President Amy Gutmann.

The Penn swimming teams will have no chance to ease into the water as they each open their seasons tomorrow against Ivy League swimming powerhouse Harvard. Unlike last year, when both teams opened their seasons with two home meets against non-conference opponents before diving into the Ivy League schedules, they will face an immediate tough test on the road against highly talented Crimson teams.

Homicide is exploding across the city, and it's high time something was done.

The American city has a new owner: the business class, anthropology professor David Harvey says. Harvey, who works at the City University of New York, described the role of neoliberalism - which he defined as a strong belief in private property, free markets and free trade - in transforming the modern city into a playground for the rich on campus yesterday.

With LSATs and job interviews, students shouldn't forget that they can make a difference in erasing educational inequality.

Penn has to beat the 3-1 Tigers to keep its title hopes alive.

With three weeks remaining in the Ivy League season, it's time to start talking title scenarios.

Life-sized silver bananas will likely soon be a high priority for a group of five Wharton MBA students. In January, the students will travel to La Oroya, Peru, to help its local silver artisans better sell their products. "The project is designed to impact the overall community," said Lisa Linn De Barona, an administrator from the Global Consulting Practicum, a Wharton-run initiative that pairs business students with "social impact" programs and is sponsoring the trip.

Brown University's revelation that the school was once tied to slavery has roiled the university community, but Penn history buffs say the University has no such skeletons in its closet. Among findings of a Brown committee on the issue, whose report was released last month, is that the Brown family -- for whom the university is named - were slave owners, and that slave labor was used in constructing a university building.

For the Penn men's soccer team this weekend at Princeton, it's do and/or die. The Quakers (8-4-2, 4-1-1 Ivy) head into their final game of the regular season in need of a win and a Harvard loss or draw in order to win the Ivy League for the first time since 2002, when they shared the title with Dartmouth.

The Quakers set a new NCAA record for consecutive overtime games on Saturday when an unlikely fourth-quarter rally resulted in a game-tying touchdown.

Dave Anderson is a College senior from Denver. His e-mail address is anderson@dailypennsylvanian.com.

As the controversy over a student's suicide-bomber Halloween costume continues to turn heads around the world, both the student and University officials are rushing to do damage control.

Actor Kal Penn is best known for playing a pot-smoking medical genius, but he showed a serious side when he came to Penn last night. Penn, who played Kumar in the movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, took the podium before an enthusiastic sell-out crowd in Bodek Lounge.

So many great classes are listed in the course register but are never actually offered in the timetable.

As the weather has gotten colder, the field hockey team has only gotten hotter. Penn (9-7, 4-2 Ivy) will carry its six-game winning streak into New Jersey tonight for its season finale against arch rival Princeton (10-6, 6-0). The Quakers have not lost in over a month, when a 2-1 defeat to Dartmouth effectively ended their Ivy League title hopes.

For four years, senior Mike Loguidice has quarterbacked the Quakers. At 7 p.m. tonight, he will walk onto Franklin Field for the last time in Penn's sprint football match against Princeton (0-5). "As long as we win, that's the only way you want to go out," Loguidice said.