College sophomore Francis Udler calls his plans for this weekend "ridiculous." "I'm going to have to study during fall break," Udler said.

With former Penn wrestling coach Zeke Jones on his way to Colorado Springs, attention now turns to the Quakers' future. Athletic director Steve Bilsky is now left with two options: Make Rob Eiter, Jones' former assistant and current interim coach, the full-time coach, or hire from outside Penn.

A few weeks ago, a man named David Foster Wallace took his own life at the age of 46, ending a protracted battle with depression. This fall will surely be remembered as when the financial sector began its collapse - or, assuming the rosiest scenario, survived a convulsive restructuring.

The new freshmen faces in student government have increased the overall diversity of those groups, many student government and minority coalition leaders say. There has been a specific focus by those groups this year to increase minority involvement in student government, including an information session in September hosted by the six branches of student government and six minority and cultural coalitions.

When it comes to media spotlight, Penn is near - but not quite at - the top. Penn is number 11 in a new ranking by the Global Language Monitor that rated 4,000 American colleges and universities according to their popularity in the media. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia universities all cracked the top 10.

Commercial. Catalogue. Couture. College Hall? Clad in a Michael Kors bolero and Christian Louboutin shoes, English professor Wendy Steiner appeared last month in a photo spread for the college issue of The New York Times Magazine. Steiner - a self-proclaimed "lifelong subscriber to Vogue magazine" - has always believed in a close connection between the worlds of fashion and the arts.

Got the late-night munchies? Too bad. Stores underneath 1920 Commons - including Subway, Starbucks, and the C3 convenience store - are now closing at 9:30 p.m. instead of midnight. That leaves very few options for students hungry after 9:30 p.m., which in college-time, isn't very late at all.

Political campaigns have made unprecedented efforts to register new voters this year - but attempts have already been made to scare some of them away from the polls on Nov. 4. A flyer has been distributed around Philadelphia universities and in low-income neighborhoods over the last month, incorrectly stating that voters with outstanding arrest warrants or unpaid traffic tickets might be arrested if they show up to cast a ballot.

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The City of Philadelphia will face a budget deficit of at least $650 to 850 million over the next five years, Mayor Michael Nutter said yesterday. Nutter had warned in mid-September that Philadelphia would face a deficit of at least $450 million due to fall off in business-privilege taxes and increases in pension costs.

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

I never thought I'd see the day when a top Republican publicly decried "greed and corruption" on Wall Street. In last week's debate, Sarah Palin let loose a stream of words you'd normally associate with the left: "Never will we be exploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing our money.

The Daily Pennsylvanian incorrectly reported Tuesday that the Social Planning and Events Committee had incurred a $50,000 debt at the end of the 2007-08 school year. "SPEC as an organization is not in debt," said SPEC president and College senior Michelle Jacobson.

The veterans of the women's soccer team may be feeling a little lopsided these days. Their current record of 6-3-1 is nearly identical to last year's mark at this point in the schedule. But unlike 2007 - the Ivy Championship season - when Penn began 3-1-1, the Quakers stumbled out of the gates in 2008, losing three of their first five, but now they're finding a winning rhythm.

Men's basketball coach Glen Miller can sleep a little bit easier these days. Carson Sullivan, a 6-foot-2, 170-pound left-handed combination guard who plays for Charlotte Christian School in Charlotte, N.C., gave his verbal commitment to Penn last week, according to multiple college basketball recruiting sources.

Plastic is on its way out. Recently, White Dog Cafe on 34th and Sansom streets decided to stop selling bottled water because of environmental concerns. While it's not a widespread movement, crusaders against Aquafina have a point - bottled water does carry high transportation and disposal costs.

Just because the voter-registration deadline has passed, don't expect the Locust Walk tables that were previously covered with registration forms to disappear. Now that they have done their best to make sure students have registered, political and civic-engagement groups on campus want to make sure those students vote on election day.