Two years after the implementation of Operation Safe - Penn's $5-million safety initiative spurred after a student was shot on campus in 2006 - officials and students say safety is improving and measures to improve security are continuing. Started after then-Engineering sophomore Mari Oishi was hit in the thigh by a stray bullet near 38th and Walnut streets in January 2006, the security plan has added lighting and cameras, as well as increased the number and visibility of Penn Police and security guards.

Colleges across the country are rolling out new financial-aid initiatives and, at the same time, ramping up efforts to reach out to the students these policies will benefit. Mailings advertising bigger and better aid packages, admissions representatives traveling the country and private college-matching services are quickly gaining favor with selective institutions around the country.

Most students at Penn and other highly selective institutions are smart - at least book smart. Throughout high school, they received good grades and earned top test scores. Four years at an elite college or university is then supposed to accelerate their academic growth.

Some join them out of legitimate interest or for a heightened sense of community. Others just use them to get into the Quad. But whatever their ultimate purpose, several residential programs are changing at Penn. Residential programs "give a place like Fisher Hassenfeld, which is a house of about 500 students" a place "to feel more connected and a little more at home," said College Houses and Academic Services director Leslie Delauter.

Over the past couple of days, a rumor quickly spread that the University had selected Emeril Lagasse, celebrity chef, as commencement speaker. For a while, seniors probably wondered if their graduation speech would focus more on Cajun cooking than inspirational advice.

The Division of Public Safety is launching an anti-theft campaign today with the goal of raising awareness and bringing opportunity theft down, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said. DPS decided to launch the campaign because 80 percent of all crime reported in the Penn patrol zone during the fall semester was theft.

Columbia is the most veteran Ivy League team. It returned a roster that had 27 percent more Division-I minutes under its belt than the next-closest Ivy. But January is annual reality-check time for the Lions, who always seems to generate more buzz than they can back up.

With two courses in management under their belts, some Wharton sophomores are invited to put their skills to the test - by managing their own classrooms. Management 100 team advisors, unlike traditional teaching assistants, are educators, facilitators, mentors, fans, even friends, all at once.

College can be hazardous. Coughs spread germs through lecture halls, stress- induced migraines can leave you incapacitated and drunken weekends can leave you bumped, bruised or worse. Fortunately, if you're unfortunate enough to make a trip to the emergency room, you will be in good hands with Dr.

To say Nik DeVore is driven is an understatement. The first-year men's tennis coach left his job at Loyola Marymount in the sunny confines of Southern California and drove 45 hours to blustery Philadelphia. He interviewed to be the Quakers coach seven years ago, and now he's back, despite the distance.

Now that second semester has rolled around, this senior is getting ready to bid farewell to a lot of things. Somewhere high up on that list, situated just under $3.75 food cart lunches and in a dead heat with the shortcut near the Rotunda, are Penn sports.

Over the past few weeks, a developmental eyesore has been replaced by the sleek exoskeleton of a new building. Construction on the Radian, located at 39th and Walnut streets, is progressing on schedule, according to developer Inland American Communities Group.

The weak U.S. economy and the low value of the dollar abroad mean increased tourism - and foreign money - for the City of Brotherly Love. Philadelphia experienced a dramatic increase in international tourism from 2000 to 2005 said Fritz Smith, director of international and domestic tourism at the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The Division of Public Safety, which has been involved in the University's eastward expansion since the plan's inception, has begun implementing plans to secure the new part of campus. DPS is currently working on getting lighting, emergency phones and CCTV cameras on and around the new athletic fields, in order to have safety measures in place on that part of campus.

For 13 Penn students, the opportunity to help a developing nation improve its water supply was the opportunity of a lifetime, one so attractive they even gave up their winter vacations to do it. The students, members of a campus student organization called Engineers Without Borders, have worked since the start of the year to help the residents in the town of Kobe, Cameroon to design and build a sustainable water distribution system.

A recent uptick in Pennsylvania's abortion rate defies a nationwide trend of fewer abortions, drawing a range of explanations from local organizations and on-campus groups. The number of abortions performed in the United States in 2005 - the latest year for which data is available - was the lowest since 1976 at 1.

I was almost beginning to think that Penn doesn't deserve its inferiority complex. My fellow seniors and I have spent three and a half long years convincing ourselves that our Penn education actually is as good as our friends' at Harvard, Princeton and Yale.