Having recently been inducted into the United States Fencing Hall of Fame, coach Dave Micahnik is entering his 35th year at the helm of Penn's program. But the team keeps getting younger. Heading into the season, the Penn women's fencing team consists of 12 freshmen and sophomores - two-thirds of the roster - to go with a mere six upperclassmen.

Penn received the names of more than 1,000 students this fall from a College Board pilot program that helps schools recruit students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Thirty-nine schools are participating in the program, which provides institutions with names of low-income students who have taken College Board exams and which marks a departure from the usual criteria to match students and schools.

Amira Fawcett is an Engineering senior from Houston, Texas. Her e-mail address is fawcett@dailypennsylvanian.com.

George Bush was inaugurated for the first time on my 11th birthday. I cried bitterly. A week ago tonight Barack Obama was elected president, to be inaugurated on my 19th birthday. I cried last week and I'm sure I'll cry again on Jan. 20, but this time with euphoria.

Amid economic troubles and uncertainty over gun laws after President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated in January, one thing is clear: Gun sales are going up. Gun sales in the months of January to September rose 9 percent in 2008 compared with last year, according to FBI statistics.

Over the past week, pundits have dubbed Obama's victory the result of a "digital election," one that utilized text messaging, e-mails and MySpace to get support from our generation. And while the strategy worked astoundingly, the information revolution leaves me a tad uncomfortable when it's applied to other areas.

Last Thursday was all about the power hour for the women's swim team. The Quakers were one of 88 teams to participate in the "Hour of Power," a 60-minute relay to benefit sarcoma research. The fundraiser's motto - "leave it all in the pool" - set the tone for the upcoming fall campaign.

Turmoil in financial markets is causing other top-tier schools to look for ways to cut costs as their endowments dip in value. Several schools - including Harvard, Columbia and Duke universities - are seeking to unload private-equity holdings in an effort to shore up cash, the Dow Jones and various financial blogs reported last week.

Driscoll Construction Company has been awarded a $67-million contract to reconstruct the South Street Bridge, Mayor Michael Nutter announced yesterday. Reconstruction of the bridge, which extends from 27th Street to Convention Avenue and connects University City to Center City, will begin with the demolition of the existing bridge in December and should be complete in two years.

Ladies and gentlemen, we now have a race. After beating Penn last week, Brown was the runaway favorite to take the Ivy League championship. No one, it seemed, could bring down the Bears. But Yale, which has been underwhelming this season, shook up the standings when it downed Brown, 13-3, on Saturday.

Provost Ron Daniels, who came to the University over three years ago, will leave Penn in March to become the president of Johns Hopkins University.

Yesterday students may have noticed a few things they thought they had disposed of sitting on Locust Walk. In an effort to improve student recycling habits, the Penn Environmental Group partnered with Facilities and Real Estate Services to create two mountains - one of recycling and one of trash - in front of Van Pelt Library.

PRINCETON, N.J., Nov. 7 - Friday marked the 100th game between Penn and Princeton, but at times the real matchup seemed to be Princeton vs. The Clock. The Quakers' 14-9 win was smashmouth football at its best, with Penn's offensive scheme predicated on running the ball and then running it some more, preventing the Tigers' offense from getting much time on the field.

This semester, College senior Rebecca Gerr could have been kicking back, enjoying her soon-to-be freedom from academic life. Instead, she chose to enroll in Portuguese 114 - Portuguese for Spanish speakers - where she spends one hour four days a week with her fellow estudiantes learning a new language.

The recent altercation at McDonald's between Penn students and West Philadelphia employees wasn't the first, and it won't be the last. The neighborhood has a long history of similar incidents. Considering the many differences between the two groups, it's not surprising.

Art, memories and a pair of gray-and-white striped pants took center stage at Hillel last night, as Holocaust survivor William Bernheim shared his experiences with the crowd. William, grandfather of College sophomore Taylor Bernheim, chronicled his journey from Poland, to the Lodz ghetto and ultimately to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.

Human beings across the globe rejoiced on Tuesday as the first black man was elected president of the United States. My friend Alba Martinez Muelas, a student at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, told me last week that for the first time in a while, Spaniards are beginning to trust and "love" America.