When it comes to making plans on how to improve Philadelphia, architects and city planners from Penn say civic engagement is critical. Penn Praxis, the consulting branch of Penn's School of Design, is working in conjunction with the Penn Project for Civic Engagement to generate a series of plans to renovate the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, located on South Broad Street.

Former Marketing professor Scott Ward was indicted last Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on one count of making false statements to the State Department and two counts of transporting and shipping child pornography.

The thing that Gary Gregory will always remember about his sister's death is how close she was to leaving her husband when he killed her. Gregory was down from Massachusetts to bring his sister, Ellen Robb, and her daughter Olivia up to Boston with him for Christmas.

Thus far, the men's lacrosse team has seen its share of ups and downs, and its spring break road trips proved to be no exception. At the two-day Pioneer Faceoff Classic, hosted by Denver, the Quakers dispatched Air Force 13-10 on March 8 before failing to upset the host school, losing 12-11 in overtime.

Flames burst from the attic of the Mask and Wig Clubhouse, located at 310 S. Quince Street, early Saturday morning - but the 2 a.m. fire was not part of the group's annual spring show. The fire, which is still being investigated by the Philadelphia Fire Marshal, was reported by an unidentified person who saw the flames and informed officials, according to Mask and Wig board members.

East Asian and Middle Eastern history may be more similar than you think. Yesterday afternoon at Logan Hall, Cemil Aydin, Princeton University post-doctoral fellow and assistant professor of History at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, gave a lecture entitled, "East Asia and the Middle East: What Can We Learn from Comparative Approaches to Global History?" His talk was based on his most recent book, "The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought," in which he challenges prevalent notions of anti-Westernism as a reaction to Western values or response to Western imperialism.

The Penn men's tennis team battled Saturday against No. 8 Michigan, but when the final point had been decided, they were left with an all-too-familiar feeling. The Wolverines dispatched the Quakers 7-0 at Lott Courts for the team's fourth loss over spring break, and sixth straight overall.

For the first seven days of spring break, the women's tennis team kept coming up just short in California. The Quakers lost to No. 72 San Diego State, No. 47 UC Irvine, No. 27 Pepperdine and No. 32 Long Beach State all by the score of 4-3. That was the first time coach Mike Dowd has ever lost four straight games by a 4-3 score in his 12-year career at Penn.

In its previous 22 games, the Penn women's lacrosse team was undefeated against teams not named Northwestern. But after a spring break trip to California, that's not the case anymore. The No. 6 Quakers were upset by then-unranked Stanford, 10-8 on March 9.

Better late than never. To cap off a trying season, the Penn women's basketball team finally found some measure of consistency over spring break. The Red and Blue traveled to the Empire State on March 7. There, they lost to eventual Ivy champion Cornell, 73-58 on Friday night and beat Columbia 74-71 on Saturday.

Meet Jason Rae. He's 21, a junior at Marquette University, loves Netflix and college basketball. And along with President Clinton and Governor Rendell, he'll be casting his vote as a superdelegate at the Democratic National Convention this August. Yes, you read that correctly - he's a 21-year-old superdelegate, the youngest of them all, and his vote will be equal in value to that of some 15,000 average-Joe voters like you and me.

LANCASTER, Pa., March 9 - Penn last won the team portion of the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association's conference tournament in 1999. And despite three weightclass champions at this year's tournament, the Quakers' drought continued, but only by the smallest margin possible.

Entering the conference tournaments, the Big 5 was in danger of being shut out of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1977. One week later, it sent three schools for the first time since 1999. The Big 5 ensured its 30-year streak would continue when Temple beat Saint Joseph's for the Atlantic 10 title, and a day later the Hawks and Villanova took two of the final at-large spots in the tournament.

Just when you thought it was safe to relax, a whole slew of standardized tests is lurking around the corner. For the grad school crowd, the Educational Testing Service comes back to infect you with a nasty bout of SAT redux: MCAT, LSAT and GMAT. And don't forget the queen them all, the Graduate Record Exam.

While Native Americans are a minority on Penn's campus, yesterday at Houston Hall they had a big voice. Six Directions, Penn's Native American interest organization, and Amnesty International co-presented a talk highlighting a movement to end violence against Native American women.

The University's review of hiring practices came closer to an end last week with the Faculty Senate's decision to not include a statement disclosing criminal background as a prerequisite for faculty employment. For now, it's unclear what direction the hiring-practices review will take following the Faculty Senate's decision.

The candidates are back for another round - on April 16, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will face off in Philadelphia during the 21st Democratic debate. The debate - hosted by ABC - will be held at the National Constitution Center in downtown Philadelphia.