After counseling teenagers in Belize and promoting HIV/AIDS awareness in Malawi, Peace Corps volunteers are getting a little help themselves. Returning Peace Corps volunteers are recruited by universities and colleges participating in the Peace Corps Fellows/USA partner schools program, a national consortium of over 40 universities which offers returnees the opportunity to study in their programs at reduced tuition.

Over the first nine games of the season, the Penn men's basketball team held its opponent under 70 points only once. In the six games since, the Quakers have accomplished that feat five times. Granted, those better defensive numbers have come against the likes of NJIT and Florida Gulf Coast - hardly top-flight or even mid-major-level competition - but there are signs of progress, especially in the interior.

Wharton junior Felix Qu was arrested in connection to a domestic assault over winter break, but remains a student at the University. The arrest occurred after Qu, 20, got violent during an argument with his girlfriend about what courses to take for spring semester, Lt.

For the 40 percent of Penn students currently receiving financial aid, recent improvements to the program may have cracked open a few more doors.

Think Wharton grads can only talk the stock market? Think again: at least 19 of them also know how to sing. They call themselves the "Whartones," the co-ed a capella group for MBA students and their partners. And when it comes to a capella, this singing group means business.

Amira Fawcett is an Engineering junior from Houston, TX. Her e-mail address is fawcett@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Even in the dead of winter, campus is getting greener. Beginning in February, highly sophisticated sensors installed in 12 Harnwell rooms will monitor occupants' energy usage as part of the Harnwell Energy Monitoring Project, designed to promote awareness of conservation around campus.

Overall crime in the Penn patrol zone increased by 10 percent over the past year, but the biggest jump was seen in thefts, rather than violent offenses.

On Jan. 5, millions of students logged on to their social lifeline: Facebook. But there was something different that day, as students found themselves looking at an advertisement for the ABC News/Facebook New Hampshire Debates airing that night. When every vote counts, campaigns are now turning to sites like Facebook and YouTube to get their messages to young voters.

The worst part of winter break is waiting for final grades. But with the advent of e-learning programs like Blackboard and webCafe, students and professors have the option of constant communication. Curriculum changes or complicated questions move from one party to another with the click of a button, reducing confusion and simplifying professor-student interactions.

In the first 71 years of the Baseball Hall of Fame's existence, zero Penn alumni were inducted into it. But now the Quakers are finally represented in Cooperstown. Walter O'Malley (C '26) was voted in by the Veterans Committee in early December for his work as owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1944 to his death in 1979.

Tuesday night's Big 5 contest involved two young teams that produced one ugly game. Both teams did a nice job of finding ways to get open looks, but neither could finish around the basket. Penn was fairly successful in getting the ball into the post, but the forwards couldn't hit, and slashing layups seldom connected.

Behold, the wonders of modern technology! I spent my winter break halfway around the world in China, and thanks to the live streaming video service provided by PennAthletics.com, the basketball teams' mid-vacation action made the trip with me. But as the feed stuttered and the audio came and went at its own whim, it became clear that a new limiting factor had replaced distance: technical kinks.

The University announced earlier today that Eric Furda, the vice president for alumni relations at Columbia University, will take over as the new dean of admissions at Penn on July 1, 2008. Furda served as the executive director of undergraduate admissions at Columbia from 1995 to 2004.

I've come to realize that one of the few things administrators and student leaders perennially agree upon is that we clearly don't have enough chances to bond outside the classroom. This desire to increase Wharton camaraderie must have been the motivation behind the creation of the undergraduate cohort system.

After Harvard and Princeton eliminated their early-application programs last year, many students scrambled to apply early to another institution. Penn's numbers of early-decision applicants and admitted students, however, remained steady and were seemingly not affected.

Penn freshman Barbara Wei picked up her first table tennis paddle when she was seven years old. She just wanted to try different things, and a table tennis club was conveniently located near her Maryland home. Three years later, she was a Junior Olympics champion.