Touching on both poetry and the threat of terrorism, University President Amy Gutmann welcomed the Class of 2010 to the Penn community with a message to stay passionate. Convocation for incoming freshmen and transfer students - at which they are formally recognized as Penn students - took place on a muddy College Green last night and was followed by a dessert reception at Wynn Commons.

Thanks to a newly reformatted SAT exam, the national class of 2010 saw the sharpest drop in scores in 31 years. Students entering college this fall have an average SAT score that is seven points lower than that of the previous class. The decrease consisted of a five-point drop on the critical reading section and a two-point drop on the math section.

Maybe Temple's basketball program is not so different from Penn's after all. Just about a month after Quakers starting guard David Whitehurst was dismissed from Penn for academic reasons, new Owls coach Fran Dunphy will have to deal with the ineligibility of two returning starters - senior center Wayne Marshall and junior guard Mark Tyndale.

Hordes of students are coming back to party during New Student Orientation, and Allegro Pizza's new owner wants his restaurant ready for them. "I want it set up like my other store!" owner Dimitrios Dimopoulos yelled into his cell phone Monday, negotiating with the phone company.

Wharton junior Jack Hotz will be returning to school a lot richer this year - thanks to a gigantic fish. Hotz caught an 82-lb. white marlin in the White Marlin Open in early August, winning the top prize of $1.5 million. Hotz was fishing in the Ocean City, Md.

The recent murder of Penn Law School alumnus Robert Wone has elicited sorrowful memories of him from Law School faculty while puzzling those investigating the killing. Three friends found Wone - who graduated from the Law School with honors in 1999 - in their Washington, D.

Penn graduate Sam Burley ran the third leg of an American record-setting 4x800m relay in Brussels, Belgium on Aug. 25. Burley represented the United States at the Memorial Van Damme meet and broke the world record of 7:03.89 and the U.S. record of 7:06.5. But he and his team never officially held the world record - the Kenyan team ran a time of 7:02.

College freshman Zuolu Liu and her father, who is a Drexel employee, transport her belongings into Liu's dorm room in the Quadrangle on Monday afternoon. Most freshmen moved in earlier this week to arrive in time for New Student Orientation, which begins today.

Authorities are still investigating the shooting of a bicycle-theft suspect by a Penn Police officer earlier this summer. The officer shot and wounded Brahim Johnson, 25, during an attempted bike theft at about 4:45 p.m. July 4. Officials at Penn's Division of Public Safety said the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office is still investigating the incident but could not comment further, citing the ongoing inquiry.

This summer, Philadelphia lost its chance to host the summer Olympics. On July 26, the United States Olympic Committee eliminated the City of Brotherly Love, along with Houston, from its list of potential U.S. cities for the 2016 Summer Games, leaving just Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco in the running for America's nomination.

College senior E. Martyn Griffen has taken further measures against two Penn individuals who he says beat and branded him in an alleged hazing incident last fall. Griffen filed a private complaint that now has the two facing criminal charges from the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.

Along with the usual parade of dorm furniture and school supplies, the Class of 2010 will also bring a stronger international flavor than any of its predecessors when they officially begin moving onto campus today. The newest 2,386 members of the Penn family bring with them 280 students hailing from abroad -- in addition to 11 students from Puerto Rico and one from the Virgin Islands.

A Penn organization that checks accuracy in political advertising has been singled out as one of the 25 most indispensable Web sites by Time.com. Factcheck.org -made famous when Dick Cheney referenced it during the 2004 vice-presidential debate - is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Rudy Fuller no longer has a freshman-heavy team, but he knows that success will not just fall into a team's lap - even an experienced one. Last year, Fuller's men's soccer team played with 11 freshmen. Despite some promising output, especially from leading scorers Mike Klein and Alex Grendi, the season ended on a bitter note.

Al Bagnoli is about to begin his 15th season as Penn's head football coach. In his first 14 years, the Quakers have gone no more than three seasons in a row without winning an Ivy League title. And Penn's last championship came in 2003, so another year without a title would match his longest drought.

After ten months in Beirut, Lebanon, College senior Sara Barclay saw her study-abroad experience come to a sudden and surreal end aboard an evacuation helicopter on July 23. "It was really a strange, bizarre thing to see Lebanon in this state," Barclay said.

Most new freshmen know it's a bad idea to use their new roommates' stuff without asking. But this year, the Class of 2010 is reading a whole book about property laws. As part of New Student Orientation, freshmen will discuss Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity, this year's Penn Reading Project book, as author and Penn alumnus Lawrence Lessig debates intellectual property issues with a Penn Law professor.