The Philadelphia basketball conference, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last season, isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Penn, La Salle, Temple, Saint Joseph's and Villanova have all agreed to continue participating in the round-robin format for men and women's basketball through the 2009-10 season.

After a long night of filling out job applications, Engineering senior Jonathan Lehr sat down at 1 a.m. yesterday morning to play some good, old-fashioned video games with his three roommates. "Who's player one? 'Cause I just [expletive] you up," Lehr yelled at his roommates as all of them played the first-person-shooter game Perfect Dark.

Featuring anacondas, leeches, screams of both pain and euphoria and a great deal of vomit, the movie Jackass: Number Two lived up to the raucous reputation of the series - and then some. The Social Planning and Events Committee Film Society held a sneak preview of the second installment of Jackass: The Movie yesterday at Annenberg's Zellerbach Theatre.

In a few months, all that will remain of the old Hillel building, a dilapidated brick structure in the center of campus, are photographs, a plaque on the wall of Steinhardt Hall and the memories of alumni and former staff - bad and good.

Several weeks ago, it looked as if Penn's season-opening football contest against Lafayette could face a slight problem - the lack of a suitable stadium. Lafayette had undertaken an extensive, two-part renovation of Fisher Field - with a $23 million price tag - that would make even the highest-profile coaches smile.

Although the Penn volleyball team lost all three games at the Comfort Suites Invitational last weekend, it didn't come away empty-handed. After returning from Charlotte, N.C., the Quakers now have a better idea of what they need to do to succeed.

Insurance and design woes continue to dominate news of Ground Zero and the fate of a permanent memorial.

College sophomore Irmina Gawlas was vice president of her class last year. But she didn't even bother running for the sophomore class board because she was so disenchanted with the election process at Penn. "Many students were disenfranchised over something so silly," she said, referring to a flurry of freshman candidates being disqualified last year for campaigning early on Facebook.

Harvard University made yet another splash in the world of higher education yesterday by announcing it will no longer accept any early applications for admission.

Phones have been ringing non-stop at Student Health Services. And that's because if students don't submit their health insurance waivers by tomorrow, they will be paying about an additional $2,000 for the Penn Student Insurance Plan.

A routine arrest turned into high drama outside Fresh Grocer last night.

College sophomore Lauren Eskreis-Winkler doesn't expect students to rely on Penn Course Review or word of mouth to decide which classes to take. Instead, she has developed a Web site called Course Previews that posts video footage of and syllabi from a variety of classes throughout the University, from Africana Studies to Health and Societies to Urban Studies classes.

The Penn women's basketball team has revealed its schedule for its upcoming season, and the slate features faces both old and new. Loyola (Md.) and Xavier both make their first-ever appearances on the schedule, although neither will make the trip to the Palestra.

When Engineering junior Jeff Weinstein and his roommates host parties, they invite their guests to hang out on their rooftop deck, entirely lined with rope lights and overlooking Center City. The vision for the deck, and for the rest of their apartment, is what Weinstein calls "the lazy man's creativity.

The Penn field hockey team knows exactly how Lafayette feels. Entering their fourth game of the season, the Leopards find themselves in the same position as the Quakers (1-3, 1-0 Ivy) were less than a week ago - with an 0-3 record. But just as Penn notched its first win of the season in its fourth game, coach Val Cloud isn't taking anything for granted tonight when the two teams face off in Easton, Pa.

The University has literally taken a safety recommendation to heart.

Once again, politics is coming before the health of Philadelphia citizens. After City Council finally came together - despite years of infighting - to ban smoking in restaurants, Mayor John Street is threatening to once again ruin everything.