The quality of advisors can really make or break a student's college experience, according to a recent study. A group of professors from Seton Hall University identified a mentoring gap between male and female chemistry students. Overall, male students were more likely than the female students to recall academic counseling and advice from their advisors as undergraduate and graduate students Closing the mentor gap, according to the researchers and academic experts, could help encourage and retain more women in traditionally male dominated fields, such as engineering and the physical sciences.

While presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton will grace Penn's campus today, over the weekend a former President was strolling Locust Walk. Former Indian President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was a keynote speaker at the 12th annual Wharton India Economic Forum which was held on Saturday morning at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia.

Registration is now open for the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly's second-annual GradFest, a festival of events to strengthen graduate students' sense of connection to the University and celebrate their achievements. It will take place Saturday, May 3.

Penn students discovered yesterday that sometimes all it takes to successfully market oneself is maintaining direct eye contact, giving a good, firm handshake and flashing a confident smile. These were among the more commonly-known business etiquette tips shared at part one of the Life After Penn series, entitled "Building a Solid Professional Foundation.

By kathy wang Staff Writer wkathy@dailypennsylvanian.com Print journalism may be on the decline, but it's here to stay at Penn - at least for another semester. In a much-debated vote, the Undergraduate Assembly recently decided to continue funding for its UA Readership Program, which brings 657 free copies of The New York Times to campus every weekday, approximately 95 percent of which are picked up.

Inflatable walls and indoor gardens may not be a part of the average student residence, but students in Design professor Bill Braham's design studio for second-year architecture graduate students are testing out their potential. The 11 students in the studio - divided into five teams of two or three - are working to design student housing that produces net-zero carbon emissions using two vacant lots in West Philadelphia as the models.

This year's Philadelphia Flower Show was held at the Convention Center from March 2nd to March 9th. The theme for 2008 was "Jazz It Up". The event was organized by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

The Kelly Writers House just got a bit brainier. Last night, the Writers House celebrated a piece by Alicia Puglionesi, a The Daily Pennsylvanian opinion artist and this year's recipient of the Eisenberg Literary Journalism Fellowship. Puglionesi wrote a piece of long-form journalism under the direction of Lee Eisenberg, a former editor of Esquire and Time Magazine and a 1968 College graduate and 1970 Annenberg School for Communication graduate.

When Lois Green closes the doors of University Jewelers on March 31, Penn and University City will lose a store that has been a fixture in the area for more than 70 years. Green is retiring after having owned the store, currently sandwiched in a tiny storefront between the GAP and Modern Eye near 34th and Walnut streets, since 1985.

Schools across the country might be under fire due to unethical agreements with credit-card companies, but it looks like Penn is in the clear.

There are 28 new sheriffs in town. Drexel University has recently begun the process of building a campus police department, which will be similar to Penn Police. This decision comes at a time when the university is growing and the needs of the community are changing, officials said.

Yesterday a judge ordered the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to provide crucial evidence to lawyers for the estate of Tony Grier, the man who died after receiving a pair of cancerous lungs at HUP two years ago. Pennsylvania Eastern District Court judge Barclay Surrick told HUP's defense attorneys to send the plaintiff films of X-rays.

"Humor," said bell hooks to the crowd of 500 gathered in Houston Hall last night, "is very important when dealing with difference." hooks, a distinguished professor in residence at Berea College and the author of more than 40 books, encouraged students to scrutinize the boundaries of intellect through honest examinations of their own voices.

Next year, along with calculus and psychology, some Yale University students will have the opportunity to learn about globalization from former British prime minister Tony Blair. Blair, appointed to the school's Howland Distinguished Fellowship, will lead a seminar on faith and globalization.

Three of Penn's chefs will be moving from the dining halls to the kitchens of Beijing, where they will be cooking for athletes and media at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Despite the hype surrounding this week's announcement of hip-hop fling performers Ludacris and Gym Class Heroes, some Philadelphia community members are still loyal to the classical greats. This weekend marks the middle of Bach Festival Week 2008, which was organized by a University of Pennsylvania alumnus to honor classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

Tracy McIntosh, the former Penn neurology professor who was resentenced last month for a 2002 sexual assault, is now challenging his new sentence. Joel Trigiani, McIntosh's lawyer, had stated an intent to appeal the new sentence of 3 « to seven years in prison and he followed through with that appeal on March 20.