Penn graduate students will soon be seeing more financial aid and less pressure to finish their degrees in time. Yesterday the School of Arts and Sciences received a $6 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support graduate education in the humanities.

Despite its title, "An Intimate Conversation with Mira Nair: Between Two Worlds," last night's event hardly resembled an intimate conversation. Instead, the South Asian director Mira Nair, responsible for hits such as Mississippi Masala, The Namesake and Monsoon Wedding, drew a movie premier-worthy audience to Penn's International House.

Cold, rainy weather getting you down? Then imagine this: the salty air of the Mediterranean Sea, with the smooth sounds of a classical guitar and a robust voice in the background. Add in some of the world's most renowned works of art, and opa! You have the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Friday affair.

Just before first-year Med student David Fajgenbaum's mother died of brain cancer in October 2004, he promised to do something in her memory. Three months later, he founded Ailing Mothers and Fathers, a support group for students "coping with the illness or death of a loved one," at Georgetown University, where he was an undergraduate at the time, Fajgenbaum said.

If you have ever visited the McDonald's at 40th and Walnut streets late on a Saturday night, you may have encountered a scene of drunken chaos. But while some students complain that the store's management is "ridiculously absurd" and its customer service "a joke," members of the store's overnight staff say that students play a part in the mayhem as well.

More youth turned out to vote on Tuesday than in any other recent election, but the number still underwhelmed some experts. Only half of all eligible voters under age 30 voted Tuesday, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

For 32 Penn students, arguing is more than just something you do with your roommate or in philosophy recitation - it's a structured competition. For those students, their affinity for arguing paid off last month at the Coast Guard Academy Mock Trial Tournament in New London, Conn.

Political Science professor Rogers Smith noted that Tuesday's "election marks a historic juncture," at a panel yesterday in Houston Hall. And while it is still too early to analyze the triumphs and problems that will accompany this election, Smith and his colleagues tried to demystify the results.

According to Mickey Rapkin, "there are a lot of untold stories, a lot of gossip you don't know about, behind college a capella." Rapkin, a senior editor at GQ Magazine and author of Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Capella Glory," spoke to a crowd of about a dozen people at the Penn Bookstore last night.

Gov. Ed Rendell was jubilant, and Republican Sen. Arlen Specter more muted, as they discussed the outcome of Tuesday's presidential election. Before an audience of about 500 civic and business leaders, Rendell and Specter - Pennsylvania's most prominent politicians - made the differences in their views clear at a breakfast hosted by Philadelphia-based political watchdog group Committee of Seventy.

Discussing sexually transmitted diseases can be awkward, uncomfortable and wholly unpleasant. But one Web site is trying to make it a little easier through an eCard service. Inspot.org, a Web site developed by the Internet Sexuality Information Services, Inc.

Joseph Cho, a former Penn Law student accused of trying to kill his neighbors, will go to trial on attempted murder charges. Cho was held for court on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and other related offenses at a preliminary hearing in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas yesterday, according to court records.

The price of a college education increases every year, but luckily, so do most schools' commitments to provide financial aid. At four-year public and private colleges, average tuition prices and financial-aid packages both increased for the current academic year, according to a report published by the College Board last week.

Former Marketing professor Scott Ward will plead guilty this month to child pornography charges. Ward, who is already serving a prison sentence for producing and importing child pornography, was charged in August with two counts of inducing a minor to engage in sex to create photos or videos.

Alex Ball/DP, Ted Koutsoubas/DP, Alex Remnick/DP, Shrestha Singh/DP

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Penn led the vote yesterday, with almost 4,000 people voting on campus. At on-campus polling locations - David Rittenhouse Lab, Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, Harrison College House, Harnwell College House, Houston Hall and the Penn Care and Rehabilitation Center - 3,833 people voted, according to Penn Leads the Vote.