With plans to adjust the information it collects for its annual ranking of colleges, the U.S. News and World Report might be seeking to make its annual rankings more rounded. The magazine announced plans last week to make its rankings more qualitative by collecting information from high-school guidance counselors for the first time.

Anyone who has ever played baseball will tell you that playing on a warm, sunny day is one of the best feelings there is. Heck, it's enough to make even the four-game Ivy weekends palatable. But for the woebegone Penn baseball team - who dropped an 8-2 contest to lowly La Salle on Wednesday after three losses to Cornell over the weekend - the playable conditions may be, first and foremost, a source of frustration.

Avery Lawrence is a College senior from Charlottesville, Va. His e-mail address is lawrence@dailypennsylvanian.com. Unsigned editorials appearing on the Opinion Page represent the opinion of The Daily Pennsylvanian as determined by the majority of the Opinion Board.

Corey Fisher, a vital cog in Villanova's Sweet Sixteen run? Lavoy Allen, the frontcourt monster who helped muscle Temple into the NCAAs? Nope - neither are the Big 5 Rookie of the Year. Instead, it's Tyler Bernardini, the streaky but smooth scoring guard who ended his freshman campaign as the highest-scoring rookie in Penn history.

Despite the shaky numbers from the U.S. Department of Commerce, area retailers say the ailing economy has not uniformly impacted business in University City. The data released Monday by the Department shows a tiny rise of 0.2 percent in consumer spending caused mostly by high fuel and food prices, a small jump after a 0.

Men's tennis co-captain Brandon O'Gara still has painful memories of last year's heartbreaking losses to Columbia that kept Penn out of the NCAA tournament. "It was awful. It was a tough way to go out," he said. And while the Quakers (12-9, 3-2 Ivy) may be effectively out of the Ivy League championship race this year, those losses are plenty of motivation when they finish the season at home against the Lions on Sunday.

Podcasts might be the next step toward making Penn greener. Last week, Penn's Green Campus Partnership - an umbrella organization for all efforts to improve environmental awareness on campus - launched a Web site that links to all student- and administration-led initiatives to improve environmental sustainability on campus.

There is too much at stake for the women's tennis team to get sentimental now. Today's clash against Cornell will be the seniors' last home match. Going into the final weekend of play, the second-place Quakers (9-7, 4-1 Ivy) still have a mathematical shot at repeating as Ivy League champs.

All spring long, the men's golf team has worked to prepare for this final weekend. The Quakers have had an up and down season, but they have kept their eyes set on the tournament that truly matters: the Ivy League Championships. The two-day event will take place this weekend at the par-72, 6,900-yard Galloway National Golf Club in Absecon, N.

Among college students, Sen. Hillary Clinton could use the "Colbert bump" right about now. According to a recent Daily Pennsylvanian/CBS News poll, Clinton (D-N.Y.) lags far behind Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) among Penn voters on campus. Among Penn students, 73 percent of registered Democrats favor Obama for the nomination, compared to just 26 percent for Clinton - who appeared in Colbert's show, filmed on campus, last night in an appeal to young voters before Tuesday's primary.

This weekend, a large proportion of Penn's student body will be celebrating a holiday that has become an essential part of the culture and lifestyle of many Americans. While I do wish a happy Passover to my Jewish peers, the festivity that I speak of has nothing to do with Moses.

In a few months, Penn researchers may simultaneously transform HIV treatment and the entire technology of gene therapy. Researchers are submitting a proposal to the Federal Drug Administration for approval to test in humans, for the first time, a new protein specially engineered to create HIV-resistant immune cells.

'You don't want to get me in trouble, do you?" Obama Girl coyly whispers into the phone with a laugh and maybe a wink. If I didn't know any better, I'd think she's trying to flirt with me. I had asked her if I could possibly get a hint about the new video she is working on, and the response was perhaps her most genuine of the entire interview.

Whether it be the Atlantic 10, Big 5, Sonny Hill League or Portsmouth Invitational, Mark Tyndale and Pat Calathes have always been in the same league. This upcoming year, they're hoping to make it to just one more together. Tyndale and Calathes, seniors at Temple and Saint Joeseph's, respectively, are starting their bids to play on the ultimate level in October.

Hillary Clinton has the experience necessary to achieve her vision Pennsylvania Democrats are confronted with a tragedy of riches: two incredibly appealing candidates for their Party's nomination. We want to believe that Sen. Barack Obama can accomplish all he promises.

Is the meaning of life simply to reproduce? Daniel Dennett says no. Dennett, a Tufts University philosophy professor, spoke to a packed Meyerson auditorium yesterday evening as this year's lecture at the Philomathian Society's Annual Oration. The event, sponsored by the Provost's office and various academic departments, was entitled "From Animal to Person: The Role of Cultural Evolution.

Jennifer Lesser is a College sophomore from Minneapolis, MN. Her e-mail address is lesser@dailypennsylvanian.com.