Last week, a group of 14 students traveled halfway across the world to address global water issues at the the fifth World Water Forum. Attendance at the event - which took place in Istanbul, Turkey - was required for the students, all taking Earth and Environmental Science professor Stanley Laskowski's course, "Global Water Issues," which specifically centers around the Forum for the semester.

Though work-study jobs at Penn are facing a potential budget decrease next year, funds from President Obama's stimulus package are expected to help keep the number of available jobs steady. There has been no significant change this academic year in the number of work-study jobs or students employed, according to Student Employment Office manager John Rudolph.

Phillies baseball fans crammed into Houston Hall yesterday to behold the trophy that, after 28 years, they could finally claim as their own. The Phillies brought the World Series Trophy to the Houston Hall Bistro yesterday at 3 p.m. The event, hosted by the Student Planning and Events Committee, was a part of the Phillies' World Series Trophy Tour, which has made stops at cities all over the country.

Former Penn student Diexia Wang pleaded guilty on Monday to five separate counts of defiant trespassing in the dormitories of female residents at Penn. Under a negotiated agreement, Common Pleas Judge Rayford Means sentenced Wang to five consecutive years of probation that includes mental-health counseling and restitution payment to the victims.

During spring break, a dozen graduate students in the School of Design went to China to preserve history. Currently in its second year, professor Randall Mason's HSPV 621 - Seminar in International Conservation - is a semester-long course in Penn's graduate program in historic preservation.

G. Edward DeSeve, senior lecturer at Penn's Fels School of Government, will manage the distribution of the $787 billion in federal stimulus funds in a new high-level advisory role. The White House announced his appointment yesterday as senior advisor to the Office of Management and Budget for Recovery Act Implementation, special advisor to President Barack Obama and assistant to Vice President Joe Biden.

The gloves came off between Penn and Temple University last night in a college stand-up comedy competition. A few minutes after 8 p.m., RooftopComedy - a company that records, produces and distributes live comedy performances - presented comedian David Scott to host their second annual college tour at Helium Comedy Club.

Penn is on the road to better bicycle safety. The Division of Public Safety hosted a kickoff event yesterday for its "Share-the-Road" campaign, designed to teach the public basic bike-safety practices and laws. "It's an educational campaign," Capt. Joseph Fischer of the Penn Police said.

This Hey Day, the Class of 2009 will greet the current juniors not with condiments but with a raised glass. The Senior- and Junior-Class Boards have established what they hope will become a new tradition with the "Final Toast," an event that aims to welcome the outgoing seniors into the alumni community while celebrating the incoming seniors at the same time.

Violent crime for the first two months of 2009 is slightly up compared to this time last year, but crimes against property and theft both show a significant decrease. The total number of crimes for the year to date is also down compared to January and February 2008, from 134 to 106.

Assault March 18 - Jermaine Brown, 21, unaffiliated with the University and of the 3200 block of Defense Terrace, was arrested at about 11 p.m. for allegedly assaulting a woman, 21, unaffiliated with the University, on the 3600 block of Spruce Street. Burglary Mar.

As part of the economic-stimulus bill passed last month, SEPTA will receive federal funding for up-to-date facilities. About $5.2 million of the total $191 million dollars in stimulus funds SEPTA received will be used to improve problems and delays on its subway-surface routes.

In the wake of Leonore Annenberg's death, concern has grown about the future of the Annenberg investments at Penn - but this worry has proven unnecessary. Administrators in the Annenberg School for Communication and the Annenberg Public Policy Center confirm that both will continue to be as strong as ever.

"Philly Fight Night," an amateur boxing competition in February pitting Wharton MBA students against other Penn graduate students, raised $55,000 for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia this year. Al Mollica, chief development officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs, said the clubs serve over 15,000 kids throughout the city, and "Philly Fight Night" is "one of the biggest sources of fundraising income that the organization has over the year" to support its programs - which include education and career development, health and life skills, athletics and recreation and arts and culture.

An innovative piece of BlackBerry technology developed by a group of engineering students at Yale University could add another dimension to campus safety. The free smartphone application called BScope Mobile was launched just over two weeks ago, and allows BlackBerrys to use raw GPS data to provide highly accurate information on the movements of the phone's owner.