Ex-Wharton professor Scott Ward pled not guilty yesterday to charges of producing, importing and possessing child pornography.

Few students would want to go back to eating lunch at their elementary-school cafeterias. But that is exactly what Jan Poppendieck does. A professor of sociology at Hunter College, a part of the City University of New York, Poppendieck studies poverty, hunger and food assistance in the United States.

An estimated 10 million Americans under the age of 30 cast their votes in Tuesday's mid-term elections, 2 million more than in 2002. High voting rates on Penn's campus reflected this trend. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which studies voting among the young and reported these preliminary data, youth voting increased by 4 percentage points from the previous mid-term election.

The fish may have been fresh, but that doesn't mean students were biting. Faced with the task of pleasing the often-sophisticated palate of the average Penn student, Dining Services put its faith last month in the small island nation of Iceland to get students excited about eating on campus.

The new College of Arts and Sciences curriculum just premiered a few months ago, but some students are pushing for more changes. Last night, about 50 students came to Rodin College House's Rooftop Lounge to discuss a proposed requirement that would mandate that College students study minority culture in the United States.

An anonymous donor has posed a challenge to a scholarship program for local high-school students: Raise $2 million, and receive $1 million more. Officials from the program are rising to the occasion. As the grant was announced at the Philadelphia Education Fund's second annual awards night last month, "there was a great deal of excitement . but a belief that we would raise the funds to reach the challenge," Philadelphia Scholars Director Carole Boughter said.

Sometimes, apologizing just doesn't seem to be enough. A vocal group of alumni and academics continues to voice outrage at Penn President Amy Gutmann for posing in a picture with a student dressed as a suicide bomber.

Lack of cash will no longer be a problem for students looking to hail a cab.

Tenure-track professorships are among the most coveted jobs in academia, but that's not stopping a growing number of women from turning them down. At Harvard University, the percentage of women who accepted tenure-track positions during the 2005-06 academic year dropped drastically, according to a recently released Harvard report.

A documentary alleging that the American media is biased in favor of Israel sparked debate in Logan Hall last night. A discussion panel on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was held before an audience of about 10 by the Muslim Students Association. Moderator Arsalan Iftikhar, the legal director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has appeared on talk shows on numerous news channels, including CNN, the BBC and Fox News.

Ex-Wharton professor Scott Ward was formally indicted on child-pornography charges in an Alexandria, Va., federal court yesterday. The indictment alleged that Ward "produced, imported and possessed visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct

During New Student Orientation, Kunal Kandimalla wanted to party. But he said he didn't know his way around the frat scene, and nobody bothered advertising their parties in his dorm, Kings Couty/English House. So Kandimalla made friends in the Quadrangle, and made them fast.

PITTSBURGH - Before a sparse crowd in a half-empty ballroom, Lynn Swann conceded the Pennsylvania governor's race to incumbent Ed Rendell last night. Swann took the stage at about 11:20 p.m. after being introduced by his running mate, Jim Matthews. He spoke to his crowd of supporters, admitting that "we lost the battle," and that he is "not accustomed to losing.

PITTSBURGH - Incumbent Republican Sen. Rick Santorum was gracious in conceding to Pennsylvania Treasurer Bob Casey Jr. last night, despite their bitterly fought contest. "I wish him the very best," Santorum said in his concession speech. "His is a fine man.

Income would seem to have a lot to do with poverty, but according to Penn professor Andrew Lamas, the key is actually wealth - and it makes a difference. In a workshop hosted by Civic House yesterday, Lamas discussed the causes of national wealth inequality and proposed solutions before a crowd of about 30 students.

Engineering senior Saad Saadi may have offended a lot of people with his suicide-bomber costume last week- but that's his prerogative, free speech experts say. Saadi, a Daily Pennsylvanian photographer, wore the costume to Penn President Amy Gutmann's annual Halloween party last Tuesday.

Penn's got big ambitions. It's already got $1 billion in the bag - but that's merely to jumpstart what officials say will be the biggest University-wide fundraising campaign in Penn history. And they think they have some pretty compelling reasons why donors would want to give.