Penn Medical Professor Helen Davies has received an award for her work in medical education. The Association of American Medical Colleges is honoring the microbiology professor with the Alpha Omega Alpha award. Davies has been teaching for 40 years, and she was the first female member of Penn Medicine's Microbiology Department.

If Benjamin Franklin were still alive, Skirkanich Hall would be his favorite building on campus, Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt predicted. Nicknamed Penn's "miracle on 33rd Street" by University President Amy Gutmann, Skirkanich officially opened yesterday.

In front of the players who created it, Al Bagnoli is hoping for some repeated history tomorrow. This Homecoming, Penn (4-2. 2-1 Ivy) is facing Brown (2-4, 1-2) on Oct. 28, just as it did in 2000. The previous weekend that year, the Quakers had lost by three at Yale, just like what occurred this past weekend.

Week 7 is officially trap week in the Ivy League. Yale and Princeton, both coming off huge wins, put their perfect records on the line with a pair of winless teams. No. 18 Princeton (-10.5) at Cornell On paper, it doesn't look like much of a test for one of the two unbeatens left in Division I-AA.

Globalization may be an international phenomenon, but it is wrenching control from local governments and shaping political participation in democracies, three professors said yesterday. Political Science professor Jack Nagel, Anthropology professor Brian Spooner and Management professor Gerald McDermott discussed the impact of international economics on democracy before a small group of students and community members.

This weekend, the Penn volleyball team will hope that home-court advantage, as well as aggressive hitting and solid defense, can help it win two games after last weekend's two road losses. Both Harvard (9-10, 3-5 Ivy) and Dartmouth (10-8, 4-4) come to town as the Quakers try to improve on their seventh-place standing in the Ivy League.

There are 12 multicultural fraternities and sororities on campus, most of them small. Recruitment can be difficult, members say. One sorority last year only had one member, who has since graduated and left the organization empty at Penn. But another multicultural sorority has popped up this year, and this one thinks it can survive.

Politicians try to appeal to every voter's pet issue, but they end up contradicting themselves in the process.

Historic Philadelphia isn't just about documents and cracked bells - the city's past is full of spooks, thrills and ghosts, too. In celebration of Halloween, some of the city's oldest institutions are offering a variety of events showcasing Philadelphia's frightening past.

The Penn football team lost in overtime for the second straight week, falling 30-27 to Brown. Until Brown tied the game late in the fourth quarter, it appeared as if the highlight of the contest would be Chris Wynn's 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the third quarter.

Student Health Services Director Evelyn Weiner pleaded with the University trustees at their meeting yesterday for drastic improvements to Student Health facilities. "I sound like a broken record, but ... there is no way we can improve the efficiency ... and maintain the quality of care we have with the facilities we have," she said.

Theft Oct. 19 - A laptop was reported stolen from a Towne Building laboratory. There have been no arrests. Oct. 19 - At about 8 p.m., a gray 1987 Toyota Camry was taken from a metered spot on the 3100 block of Walnut Street. No arrests have been made.

Zygi Wilf may be a billionaire businessman, but in a talk at the Law School, he said that he doesn't expect to make any money off one of his most recent investments. Wilf, who led a group that bought the Minnesota Vikings football team last year, spoke on behalf of the Jewish Heritage Project last night.

Over the past three years, the Psychiatry department received nearly $217 million to study disorders from substance abuse to schizophrenia. Ironically, many of the employees doing the legwork have limited access to quality mental-health care themselves. To better serve the mental health demands of the student population, the University recently increased staffing at its Counseling and Psychological Services office by 25 percent.

Real violations To the Editor: I was walking to campus and I happened to see one of those sticky mouse traps that a Penn kid had let lay by his trashcan. I wouldn't have thought twice about it, but the mouse was moving. It had its face ripped off and was in extreme pain, and some Penn student had left it there to die a very slow death (it takes them days to starve, and they're known to chew through their feet to try to escape).

Homecoming games are usually scheduled to set the home team up for an easy win. The matchup is picked months in advance to ensure that the larger-than-average crowd leaves the game satisfied. But the men's soccer team will not be facing any pushovers tomorrow.

Residents of a new building just off-campus waited weeks to get in - and now some say the rooms still aren't ready for them. Certain floors in the retail and residential building at 40th and Chestnut Streets were scheduled to open for residents two months ago, but construction was delayed due to shipping problems with materials.