With the start of the new semester comes two familiar sights: girls in dresses and nametags waiting in alphabetical order on the sidewalk, and boys flocking across the street for free cheesesteaks, ice cream and barbeques. The first two weeks of spring semester are the primary time for fraternities and sororities to recruit new members through processes that differ dramatically from each other and from the Multicultural Greek Council groups.

After being named Ivy League Rookie of the Year as a freshman and first team All-Ivy as a sophomore, Jonathan Boym entered his junior season on the men's tennis team with high expectations. But after being sidelined for most of the year with a shoulder injury, he was forced to shift his focus to his upcoming senior campaign.

When I was in elementary school, my Sunday school teacher would always close with a heartfelt prayer for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Although I was too young to understand the complicated origins of their peoples' conflict, I knew enough to hope that their leaders could come to an agreement that might end the litany of suicide bomb attacks and retaliatory strikes that haunted the evening news.

The Office of Study Abroad may have closed the door on studying abroad in Israel this semester, but the window of opportunity might not be closed for good. College sophomore Elliott Thomasson, a modern Middle Eastern studies major who plans to study in Israel next year, is confident that the current situation in Israel will not inhibit his study abroad plans.

Like many Penn seniors, Alex Grendi spent his winter break looking for a job. But instead of on-campus interviews, he did his networking on the soccer field. The Columbus Crew selected Grendi 45th overall in last Thursday's Major League Soccer SuperDraft.

Parents' office buildings may not be an ideal place to spend the night, but for some students attending the inauguration, they were the way to go. Although hotels in Washington, D.C. and the city's surrounding suburbs were completely booked for yesterday's inauguration, students who traveled to the inauguration managed to find other, less-costly places to stay.

For the second year in a row, the heat is on to lower the global temperature - or at least, to lower the amount of trash Penn produces. RecycleMania is a national competition between colleges and universities to produce the greatest reduction in the waste.

Across the board, from robberies to sexual assault, Penn experienced a significant drop in most categories of crime last year. For this, we must recognize the role played by the Division of Public Safety for bringing about these declines. Throughout the past several years but specifically in 2008, DPS's work has turned the campus from a security theater to a safe environment for students and the faculty and staff living in the University City neighborhood.

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

Talented but inconsistent guard Remy Cofield has left the basketball team permanently and will transfer at year's end to a college closer to his home in Newton, Mass., according to a two-paragraph athletic department statement released yesterday. "Remy has been dealing with some ongoing family situations and has reached a point where he feels it is in his best interests to spend more of his time focusing on them," coach Glen Miller said in the release.

At the end of a long journey - both figuratively, through a long campaign season and literally, from Philadelphia's 30th Street Station this weekend - Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States yesterday in Washington, D.C. Obama's inauguration was a historic moment for the U.

It was home sweet home for the men's squash team on Saturday. Playing at Ringe Courts for the first time in six weeks, Penn downed Amherst, 9-0, in the morning and handled Williams, 6-3, just hours later. The No. 7 Quakers (5-2, 1-2 Ivy) had an auspicious start to the semester and to their stretch of four non-conference contests.

President-elect Barack Obama, his wife Michelle and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, began their inaugural journey at 30th Street Station on Saturday morning. But unlike his other stops along the way, Obama did not hold a public event in the city. In his prepared remarks, Obama addressed the small gathering of ticketed supporters in a private room within the station, telling them it was fitting to begin his journey in Philadelphia because "it was here, in this city, that the American journey began.

Comedians may be more effective than politicians in addressing the tensions surrounding the current conflict in the Middle East. Noel Elgrably, Elham Jazab and Mike Batayeh, a group of Middle Eastern comedians who call themselves the Sultans of Satire, held a panel discussion Friday on the role of comedy in alleviating Islamophobia. The events were cosponsored by the Penn Middle East Center and the Levantine Cultural Center.