When student cultural groups want to practice for performances, they face a shortage of space in high demand and often resort to cramped classrooms and high-rise lounges at odd hours. But thanks to summer updates to the ARCH building - the home base for many campus cultural organizations and minority coalitions - students will soon have a basement equipped with floor-to-ceiling mirrors and a springy dance floor.

"The major candidates are not worth supporting," said Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader yesterday as part of a keynote speech, "Social Justice in the Post-Bush Era," for the Centennial Convocation of the Penn School of Social Policy and Practice.

Campaign volunteers are usually limited to stuffing envelopes and making phone calls, but the McCain-Palin campaign is giving volunteers a chance to get behind the wheel. The College Republicans sent an e-mail to its members on Wednesday asking for volunteers to drive in Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's motorcade this weekend - "if you are 21 years old or over, you can drive beside the next VP of the United Sates," the e-mail said.

Motorcycle and scooter users on campus will have to find a new place to park this semester. This fall, the Division of Public Safety has banned scooter and motorcycle parking on campus due to a recent influx of scooters in the area. The rule stems from a city ordinance stating that motor vehicles cannot be parked on sidewalks or on private property without consent.

Members of the university and local community gathered in Irvine Auditorium to celebrate Iftaar and discuss the situation in Darfur- after sunset yesterday, which signaled the end of another day of fasting for Muslims observing Ramadan. Engineering sophomore Eyas Mahmoud explained the link between Ramadan and the situation in Darfur.

You've seen the flyers and the Sigma Kappa girls in their event t-shirts, but are you going to tonight's charity event Rock Steady? Well according to the sorority, you should be. The event is a Battle of the Bands, and the proceeds will benefit Alzheimer's research.

Sex is shaking up campus - again. The literary erotica magazine Quake, which disappeared from Penn after a two-year existence from 2005-2007, is being reincarnated this semester. "Sexuality is very interesting," said College sophomore Trisha Low, Quake editor-in-chief.

A Penn Masala YouTube video warns students against a "Facebook stalker." But, according to a recent study, the person carefully studying your facebook page may be none other than a college admissions officer. According to the Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions' fifth-annual survey of college admissions officers, "one in 10 college admissions officers visited students' social-networking pages as part of the evaluation process.

Michelle Obama stood before a crowd of about 2,000 in southwest Philadelphia yesterday, and asked them to engage in something her husband knows all about: community organizing. "Everybody in this crowd knows 10 or 20 people who are not paying attention" to the election, said Obama, the wife of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

To explain why one person supports tougher immigration polices and another staunchly opposes the Iraq War, blame biology. University of Nebraska at Lincoln researchers recently compared physiological responses with participants' political views, representing one of the most recent ways scholars are relating biology and politics.

Along with new classes and a greater workload, many students came back to school facing something else unwanted - a new layout for their Facebook accounts. The popular social-networking site gave users the choice to switch to the "New Facebook" over the summer, before permanently replacing the layout earlier this month.

Penn and the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia co-sponsored the program "Anti-Semitism in the Freud Case Histories" last night at Steinhardt Hall. The program, part of the Freud, Franklin and Beyond series of lectures on psychology, culture and society, was co-sponsored in conjunction with Hillel and the Jewish Studies Program.

Though the economy has recently forced many students to tighten their belts, Penn is still encouraging seniors to give some of their extra cash back to the University. Yesterday marked the launch of the 2009 Senior Class Gift Drive, "Unite ONine" in which proceeds go towards the Penn Fund, an endowment for undergraduate education.

Director of Sustainability for Philadelphia Mark Alan Hughes presented a lecture on the city government's new plan for environmentally responsible change yesterday at the Chemistry Building. Hughes elaborated the steps needed to become more sustainable through internal bureaucracy changes and current action items.

The Rethinking Student Aid panel, an independent group of the country's top financial-aid and higher-education experts, has released a proposal to simplify the federal financial-aid system. Proponents hope the plan - which was in the works for two years - will make college more accessible for low- and moderate-income students.

Meg Ryan closed her eyes, tilted her head back and moaned, "Oh god, oh god." She appeared to be experiencing an orgasm - but unknown to most men, she was faking it. Sex educators Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller presented this clip from When Harry Met Sally to introduce issues regarding female sexuality in their program "I