After almost 20 debates each for the Democrats and Republicans this election season, one would think that both candidates and voters would grow weary of the discussion. But according to analysts and Penn students, these debates have played - and will likely continue to play - an important role in shaping this year's primaries.

In New York City, a group of sophomores got a glimpse of life after Wharton. As a part of the Sophomore Cohort Career Exploration Series, around 30 sophomores headed to the city for an optional trip to expose themselves to various possibilities for their futures.

Penn prides itself on hosting the "largest community of color in the Ivy League," according to interim Admissions Dean Eric Kaplan. But that figure can be deceiving as Penn simultaneously ranks low when it comes to Latino students. College junior Angel Jacome, chairman of admissions and recruitment for the Latino Coalition - the umbrella organization for Latino student groups - hopes to reconcile Penn's small Latino population with its reputation for diversity with a series of recruitment initiatives targeted at Latino students.

New York Mayor and Bloomberg LP founder Michael Bloomberg will speak at this year's Commencement ceremony, according to a University press release. Penn's 252nd Commencement will be held on May 19 at Franklin Field. Bloomberg is now serving his second term as mayor and is credited with reducing crime and creating jobs in New York.

An amendment to the Higher Education Act, which was recently passed by the House of Representatives, aims to reduce illegal file-sharing on college networks. Universities are now required to make their policies on illegal downloading publicly available, develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal file-sharing and explore technology that would prevent illegal downloading.

As the last day to drop classes approaches, students may ditch because they're uninterested or overloaded - or maybe because they don't see an A in the forecast. Over the last few decades, students have developed an increasing focus on grades over educational value, which puts pressure on professors to hand out top marks, educators say.

It has been more than two weeks since the revelation that Wharton MBA admissions officer Judith Hodara also held jobs in the admissions consulting industry, but it remains unclear how her outside positions have impacted the University's conflict-of-interest policy.

While some Quakers were playing basketball on the courts of the Palestra last Friday, another kind of game was going on in the stands. Last Friday night marked the second annual Clash of the Classes, a University-wide event during which the four classes competed for fame and prizes during the Penn vs.

Former Penn Neurosurgery professor Tracy McIntosh plans to appeal his sentence for the sexual assault of his college roommate's niece, a move some legal experts say could have a decent chance of success. McIntosh was sentenced last Wednesday to 3 1/2 to seven years in prison for his September 2002 sexual assault of the then-23-year-old first-year Penn veterinary student.

A sentencing date has been set for former Economics professor Rafael Robb, who pleaded guilty in November to killing his wife. Robb will be sentenced, on June 5 in the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. Robb's wife, Ellen, was found bludgeoned to death inside the couple's Upper Merion home on Dec.

Universities often draw on their famous alumni to bring well-known speakers to campus. But this political season, there have been no guarantees that the presidential candidates will favor their alma maters. At some college campuses, famed alumni have been noticeably absent, drawing criticism from some students.

Neither the change of venue nor long lines could deter the approximately 600 spectators who gathered to hear the famed Angela Davis at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at College Hall. The culminating event for the fifth annual Women's Week at Penn, Davis' address, "Social Change in the 21st Century," attracted people from both the Penn community and the greater Philadelphia area.

For the class of 2012, the University received the largest number of applications in the school's history, the Admissions office announced this week. But the less-than-1-percent rise in the number of total applicants to Penn is significantly less than increases reported by peer institutions.

Next time you watch Meet the Parents, the lie detector test used on Ben Stiller will be out of date - some companies are now replacing the old polygraphs with new imaging techniques. Yesterday Paul Wolpe, chief bioethicist for NASA, senior fellow of the Penn Center for Bioethics and Sociology professor, spoke to students about emerging brain imaging technology and the underlying ethical and legal implications of these innovations.

Future residents of the Radian who plan on escaping all aspects of College House life might be disappointed. In at least one way, the Radian - a 14-story apartment building under construction at 39th and Walnut streets - shares a major resemblance to on-campus living.

The first time Bryan Wolf went out to lunch with his newest lab research assistant, then-College freshman Joshua Cook, he was struck by Cook's discourse about the plant on their table at the White Dog Cafe. "The first impression you got was that he is very driven and very excited about science," said Wolf, Medical School professor and Pathologist-in-Chief at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will speak in Irvine Auditorium on Feb. 28 at 11 a.m., the University announced in a press release yesterday. His address will open the "Kerner Plus 40" Symposium, an event sponsored by the Penn Africana Studies Department, Annenberg School for Communication and the Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies at North Carolina A&T; State University.