If the Penn women's swimming team fulfills its expectations this year, it will shatter the Quakers' record books. After achieving the best Ivy finish in Penn history last year, this year's team returns 10 school record holders. Also, the loss of only one senior to graduation coupled with the team's highly touted freshman class means that the sky's the limit.

Head up Locust Walk toward Qdoba, and you'll eventually find an affront to the community. That's what Robert Christian, writing for the University City Review, calls Plateau. The perforated steel sculpture debuted on the field at 40th and Locust streets last year amid protest from guardians of good taste all over Penn.

Philadelphia is undertaking a citywide initiative to get greener - and officials are looking for college students' input. Fourteen city agencies have come together to form Green Plan Philadelphia, which aims to ensure that residents have access to open space in their neighborhoods.

After falling out of Ivy contention, the field hockey team has quietly won six in a row.

Last Saturday, all sprint football kicker Pete Stine could do was watch from the stands as his former varsity teammates squandered opportunities, leading to an overtime loss to Brown that was ultimately decided in a kicking contest. But head football coach Al Bagnoli still has some tricks up his sleeve.

After surgery and a long recovery, Lauren Pears is back for her senior season and ready to help lead Penn women's basketball back to respectability after a dismal 5-22, 3-11 Ivy record last year. Pears, leading the Quakers in nearly every statistical category through the first eight games of last season, tore her ACL against American in December.

Stringent security To the Editor: Rene Alvarez's opinion article, ("Students' Fears of Crime are Largely Unfounded," Daily Pennsylvanian, 10/3/06) made some very interesting and valuable points on crime in West Philadelphia and its effects on Penn students.

Politicians, take note: Incumbents need not apply. PA Clean Sweep boldly proclaims this message on its Web site, and means it. No exceptions.

While GET-UP argues professors aren't teaching many classes, it's lecturers - not grad students - who are teaching most of the rest.

Splurging on a $26.50 cab ride to catch a plane for Thanksgiving is now a thing of the past. At least, that's the Undergraduate Assembly's plan. On the heels of its successful shuttle bus program last year - pioneered by Wharton senior Brett Thalmann, now the UA chairman - the UA is rolling out a revamped program for the holiday breaks.

Wharton's No. 1 again. But the publication that named it as such isn't too happy with Penn's business school. Last week, national magazine Business Week ranked Wharton as the top business school for undergraduates. Getting enough information to rank Wharton, however, was a bit of a struggle for the magazine.

The disappearance of a painting of Robert McNeil, who helped fund the creation of the center, is a tragedy.

Josh Owens, a senior at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, moved one step closer to playing his college basketball for the Quakers this weekend. But Owens' status is still very much up in the air until he gives a commitment to one of his suitors. With that decision, Glen Miller will find out whether or not he has landed a player who could be the gem of the Ivy League Class of 2011.

As a high-school senior in Texas, Justin Allen knew he wanted to study art in college, but family finances left him without a lot of options. Expensive art schools were out of the question, and remaining in-state seemed very likely. But then Allen found one school that was affordable for anyone - The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City.

Student leaders have spoken: Green is good. In a unanimous decision, the Undergraduate Assembly voted Sunday night to support environmentally sound practices at Penn. The UA proposal calls for a University-wide policy supporting environmentally sound practices, such as campus-wide recycling, energy conservation and buying from vendors who are committed to the environment.

As the Penn men's soccer team learned last Saturday, destiny is a fickle thing.

Homicides for the year in Philadelphia are now projected to surpass 400 after a brief downturn in crime in September, according to city police.