By now, many of the facts are widely known: three students hospitalized for confirmed meningococcal infection in a period of days; numerous other students evaluated in the Student Health Service and the Emergency Room, some admitted to the hospital for observation and empiric treatment pending test results; upwards of 3,000 students dispensed preventative treatment; measles; ongoing communications and updates to students and the broader university community; one very tired Health Service director.

University City now offers one more cheap alternative for lunch. Aroma Cafe, located in International House at 3701 Chestnut St., has just opened for business and is already crowded around lunchtime, restaurant manager Victor Spillman said. He and owner Gennady Goldberg opened the restaurant two weeks ago, after Goldberg's other cafe in International House was relocated within the building.

By RICKY KATZ Staff Writer katz@dailypennsylvanian.com Todd Roth has experienced a great deal of success as Penn's top pitcher. As a freshman, the ace was Big 5 Pitcher of the Year, first team All-Ivy and a freshman All-American. Still, all that success does not stop the junior captain from feeling nervous for tomorrow's season opener against Georgetown at La Salle's Hank DeVincent Field.

The Penn women's tennis team has had five different lineups in as many matches this season. On a team that has been plagued by sickness and injury, the Quakers are hoping for a common stroke and consistency that has been sorely lacking in the young season.

If the current economic crisis reinforces one lesson, it is that what comes up must go down. But don't tell that to the players on the Penn softball team. The program, which in recent years has maintained a steady upward trend in wins, has emerged as one of the most formidable threats in the Ivy League - and it hopes to stick around for awhile.

"Nothing is a sure bet anymore," 2008 College alumnus Yoni Levinson said of his future. The biochemistry major had planned on pursuing a career in renewable energy or sustainable technologies after graduation. Now, he is applying to medical school. Like many recent and soon-to-be college graduates facing a tumultuous economy and tight job market, Levinson is turning to graduate school instead of entering the workforce right away.

Between studying biochemistry and economics and researching tuberculosis and enzymes in a lab on campus, College junior Tariro Mupombwa managed to find a way to give back to her home country of Zimbabwe. Mupombwa is in the process of starting a nonprofit to collect sewing machines in the United States and send them to the Salvation Army-affiliated Bumhudzo Old People's Home in Zimbabwe.

Coming off the likes of Paul Krugman, Nicholas Kristof and Maya Angelou, it's easy to become blase about the caliber of speakers that Penn attracts. And while all the highly publicized speakers visiting this semester have been engaging and interesting successes, the speakers gracing campus this week are particularly commendable.

Handing out money might be a way to encourage people to quit smoking. After more than four years of research, director of Penn's Center for Health Incentives Kevin Volpp and his team found that providing financial incentives for quitting smoking might decrease smoking rates in the long run.

Given time to rest during the doubles matches, men's tennis captain Jonathan Boym enjoyed himself yesterday. "I thought it worked out pretty well," the senior No. 2 said. "I got to watch my teammates play - that was fun - and just warmed up before the singles and went out ready to go.

After rumors and speculations about who would grace Franklin Field this April, the headliner for the 2009 Spring Fling Concert has finally been "locked up." Akon, hip-hop singer-songwriter, record producer and Billboard favorite, will perform April 17 at Franklin Field.

Hoping to make a successful jump into the increasingly popular world of online video, both Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. are in the process of beginning to offer cable shows online to subscribers. The two companies have been in discussions with several of the largest cable-network providers, including Viacom and NBC Universal, in order to secure the rights to distribute popular shows from stations like MTV, USA and TNT online.

President Barack Obama's administration will have to decide what role morality will play in U.S. domestic and foreign policy. And yesterday, the Penn Democrats brought professors and students together over lunch to consider the issue. Penn Democrats sponsored and organized a BYOL - "Bring Your Own Lunch" - panel discussion in the Ben Franklin Room of Houston Hall with Political Science professors Rogers Smith, Michael Horowitz, Nancy Hirschmann and Alex Weisiger.

If there's one fact about Ivy League basketball that everyone knows, it's that the "Killer's Ps" of Penn and Princeton dominate. In the first 52 years of the league (1956 to 2007), Penn and Princeton won at least a share of the title 25 times each. On the other hand, both teams have finished in the bottom half of the conference only three times in their histories.

Feb. 26, 6:35 p.m. The University's endowment dropped 19.1 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year, according to an e-mail University President Amy Gutmann sent to the Penn community. The e-mail also announced that tuition is increasing 3.75 percent for the 2009-2010 academic year, which is the lowest increase in more than 40 years.

Last week, as I waited on the corner of N. 8th and Lehigh for the No. 47 SEPTA bus that would take me back to Center City, I was struck by the depressing, sporadic gaps of land every few houses. The entire street was pockmarked with vacant lots on which scrubby brown grass competed for space with broken glass, crushed beer cans and discarded candy wrappers.

Vice President Joe Biden, several major members of President Barack Obama's cabinet and city and state officials will gather in Irvine Auditorium tomorrow for the first official meeting of the Middle Class Task Force. The meeting, which begins at 12:30 p.