Students made the lives of underprivileged Philadelphia residents a little bit warmer this past Sunday night at the Hillel Soup Kitchen. Over 80 guests showed up at Hillel's Warm Winter Evening this weekend to take part in a charity dinner and raffle put on by the Hillel Soup Kitchen and the University City Hospitality Coalition.

Engineering sophomore Ryan Smith passed away early Thursday morning following injuries suffered in a fall from the Quadrangle on Saturday. Matt Waller, spokesman for the office of the Vice Provost for University Life, said Smith passed away about 3 a.m. at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Penn's latest effort to reach out to high-achieving students in need of economic assistance is already showing signs of success. This year, 26 students will receive full, four-year scholarships to Penn because of the University's new partnership with QuestBridge - a program that links low-income students with grants at top colleges.

Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Paul Tressler denied former Economics professor Rafael Robb's appeal of his five- to 10-year prison sentence for killing his wife, Ellen, according to The Times Herald of Norristown. Frank DeSimone, Robb's attorney, filed a motion for reconsideration of Robb's sentence on Dec. 1.

Free use of laundry machines in College Houses lets students save money when they wash their clothes. And with new online alerts that track the status of washers and dryers, students will be able to conserve their time as well. The new service, called Laundry Alert, lets residents check the status of laundry machines in their building.

The financial fraud of New York financier Bernie Madoff did not affect Penn's endowment, University spokeswoman Lori Doyle said - but that doesn't mean the University wasn't affected in other ways. Last month, the Picower Foundation of Florida - which funded two Penn research projects - announced that it would cease all grantmaking because the foundation had lost its entire endowment with Madoff.

Penn students this weekend harnessed a new power in the fight against AIDS in Africa: soccer. This past Saturday, 24 teams of three players gathered in Hutchinson Gymnasium for the first-annual "Lose the Shoes 3v3" soccer tournament. The event was organized by Penn AIDS Awareness to raise funding for the non-profit organization Grassroot Soccer, which trains professional soccer players to educate African youths and motivate them to fight HIV/AIDS.

Janice Dow is a College sophomore from Los Angeles. Her e-mail address is dow@dailypennsylvanian.com.

SAS will implement a school-wide freeze on hiring, staff position reclassifications and salary adjustments, as well as various budget reductions, Dean Rebecca Bushnell announced in an e-mail to School of Arts and Sciences faculty and staff yesterday. Bushnell's office also plans to work closely with departments and programs to identify the most effective cost-cutting measures and to allocate remaining finances only to matters of the highest priority for the 2010 fiscal year.

The United Minorities Council, the umbrella for 20 minority groups on campus, elected Wharton and College junior Ezegozie Eze as its chair Wednesday night. Eze, who transferred from Princeton University this semester, won the three-way race for the helm of the organization, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

The Student Activities Council announced yesterday that it plans to give annual budgets to political groups for non-partisan and non-candidate-related purposes starting in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The move will give regular SAC funding to political groups for the first time, explained College junior and SAC chairwoman Natalie Vernon.

The Spring Fling subcommittee of the Social Planning and Events Committee decided on the theme "Some Flings Never Get Old" for Fling 2009. Fling committee member and College freshman Garrett Albanesius came up with the theme, but he could not be reached for comment.

As of this week, a cab ride to Center City will cost a little bit less. The 50-cent gas surcharge taxis began charging in June was recently nixed in response to dropping gas prices. The Philadelphia Parking Authority's board voted to drop the extra charge - which raised the base fare from $2.

Family and friends of Ryan Smith, the Engineering sophomore who fell from the Quadrangle Saturday morning, have told University officials they do not believe the fall was a suicide attempt. University spokeswoman Lori Doyle confirmed the identity of Smith, a Digital Media Design major, Monday afternoon.

November saw a continuation of crime trends from earlier this year - violent crime and overall crime are both down significantly from 2007, but some types of property crime have risen. Violent crimes, like robberies and assaults, are down 39 percent for the year, according to the Division of Public Safety.

The South Street Bridge will close at 9:30 a.m. on Monday so Driscoll Construction Company can begin its projected two-year reconstruction of the bridge. Since the entire structure will be demolished, no traffic - cars, bicycles or pedestrians - will be able to use the bridge after Monday morning.

Breyten Breytenbach grasped the edges of the podium with a stack of his books before him. "We poets are lucky, we don't carry too much luggage. We can carry our tortuous lives in 500 pages." Breytenbach delivered a reading of his printed "luggage" at the Kelly Writers House Arts Café last night as part of KWH's new "Writers without Borders" series.