When the Republican National Committee called Ashley Gunn out of the blue two weeks ago to speak at its convention, the Wharton junior said she was stunned. With young people getting more involved than ever in politics this election year, the Repu

Penn will increase its presence in West Philadelphia this fall with the introduction of two more after-school tutoring programs. The Community School Student Partnerships, a student-run group that provides after-school activities at several nearby West Philadelphia schools, is expanding its work to two more elementary schools this fall.

The psychiatric records of former Economics professor Rafael Robb and his murdered wife, Ellen, were released to both prosecutors and Robb's defense at

Those who knew Engineering sophomore Michael Sheahan, who died in an automobile accident last Monday, say they will remember him as both an ambitious student and a caring friend and son. "What really made him special was that even though he was so brilliant, you wouldn't know it because … he was such a down-to-earth person," said College sophomore Liz Grant, one of Sheahan's friends.

After almost eight years and seemingly endless delays, SEPTA's $710 million Market Street Elevated Reconstruction Project is nearly finished. The project replaces 11,000 feet of El support structure from 44th Street to Millbourne Street, renovates six stations and includes the construction of two new train control buildingsProxy-Connection: keep-alive

Although winning a slew of scholarships in high school sounds like a great way to fund a college education, a combination of federal regulations and institutional policies often prevent students from seeing where their money goes. If the total amount of scholarship money exceeds $300, that money must go toward reducing need-based financial aid awarded by the school, according to Mark Kantrowitz, director of advanced projects for the scholarship-searching Web site FastWeb.

Over the past four decades, not only has Penn's campus changed, but so have its students. Click through this slideshow to see a few examples of what has changed and what hasn't.

A number of violent crimes plagued the area around Penn's campus in the weeks before students returned for the fall semester. Police are still looking for the man who robbed Cosi, located at 140 S. 36th St., at gunpoint on Aug. 9. Two Cosi employees reported that a black man robbed the re

The Blackstone Group and AlliedBarton Security Services announced on July 25 that the private equity fund managed by Blackstone will acquire AlliedBarton, the University's security partner since 1997. The details of the pending deal are not yet announced.

The School of Arts and Sciences has seen a "drastic drop" in the number of student e-mail accounts compromised by a wave of spam messages that targeted Penn students' inboxes this summer, university officials said this week. In late July and early August a round of spam e-mail attacks - known as phishing scams - that mimicked official University messages were sent out to students.

Penn has fallen from the top five in this year's U.S. News & World Report national university rankings. Now ranked as the sixth best national research university, Penn ties with with the California Institute of Technology and places right behind Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Filming of the movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen took place on campus June 10-15, drawing large crowds of passersby struck by the Hollywood scene and hoping to catch a glimpse of the film's director Michael Bay and star actor Shia LeBeouf. The Transformers 2 production crew was "overwhelmed" by their reception at Penn, University spokeswoman Phyllis Holtzman said.

By PAMELA ELLERMANN Staff Writer pelle@dailypennsylvanian.com A recent study has found that annual HIV infection rates are higher than originally anticipated. A report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention revealed HIV incidence - the number of new infections that occur per year - to be 40 percent higher than first estimated for the year 2006.

In just under two years, the pieces have finally fallen into place. On Aug. 31, residents of the Radian - a 14-story apartment building located at 39th and Walnut streets - will move into the new building. Though construction crews are still working on the building this week, students who will live in the Radian say they are excited about their new home.

View Larger Map Burglary: Aug. 20 - A male student, 21, reported that an unknown suspect entered his secured apartment on the 4000 block of Baltimore Avenue through a rear door and removed his laptop at 9:56 a.m. Aug. 22 - A male student, 25, reported that someone attempted to enter his residence on the 200 block of 42nd Street through an open window at 12:09 p.

With the largest gift to the "Making History" fund-raising campaign, Anne and Jerome Fisher announced a $50 million donation to the University on June 30 for the establishment of the Anne and Jerome Fisher Translational Research Center. Scheduled to open in 2010, the new center will be designed with the intent to facilitate collaboration between disciplines.

Faced with a world increasingly geared toward the Internet, the College of General Studies is stepping up to the plate by adding more advanced online courses to its curriculum. Penn Advance, Penn's online learning program, was introduced by CGS in 1998. The program allows advanced high school students, CGS students and, more recently, full-time Penn students to take classes entirely online.