The Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee (SHIAC) has started its annual assessment of the Penn Student Insurance Plan (PSIP). This is my second year as part of SHIAC and I'm excited, because we have a couple of long-term projects in development and we have another good group of people this year to help us move these projects forward.

Inform yourself. This was the overarching sentiment yesterday evening when Penn Democrats, Penn Forum and Fox Leadership Program sponsored "A Democratic Presidential Primary Forum" in Huntsman Hall. Yesterday's forum gave students a chance to explore the policy views of the three leading Democratic nominees for the 2008 presidential election: John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

By now, students have probably heard of the infamous Jena Six case that triggered national outrage. While the gross injustice in this display of modern-day Jim Crow certainly should be redressed, I'd like to shift the attention to the less-obvious ethnic tensions that silently permeate our campus.

With the volleyball team's second-place finish in the Ivy League already secured, the Quakers fell, 3-1, to champions Princeton last night. For the Tigers, it was the final win in an undefeated Ivy League season. The Quakers' four seniors will graduate without an Ivy League title, but even they never expected to ever come this close to the trophy.

Joanne Tong is a Wharton senior from Manila, Philippines. Her e-mail address is tong@dailypennsylvanian.com.

One year removed from a No. 5 final ranking, the Quakers enter this season looking for similar achievements. "It adds a little more pressure," coach Craig Thorpe-Clark said. "Excellence is no longer hoped for; it is expected." Still, there are many questions entering the season.

The Graduate and Professional Students Assembly has been working with the University over the past two years to create more on-campus housing for graduate students, but there may not be a point. With a nominal stipend and a more established group of friends, many graduate students say living on campus is simply not worth the convenience of being closer to classes.

It's what every 21st-century woman doesn't want to hear. "The Rules - they actually work," a friend of mine told me over coffee last week, referring to the infamous dating book that teaches women to play games, be passive and above all, wait for him to call.

On Monday, a horrible crime shook our campus. Our hearts go out to the victim, the female Penn student who was sexually assaulted in her home at 40th and Spruce streets. Sadly, the tragedy only added to the litany of recent crimes in the area surrounding Penn's campus, including the shooting at Koko Bongo just a few weeks ago.

Amy Gutmann hit newsstands this Tuesday. With the three other female Ivy League presidents, she strikes a jaunty pose for Glamour's Women of the Year issue. Hands on hips, she gazes upward, envisioning great things for the future of Penn. Gutmann is gaining national attention.

Dreams for another Ivy title for the men's basketball team took a hit yesterday when results came back on guard Darren Smith's knee injury. The sophomore, who took a knock on the kneecap early in the first half Friday against Drexel, will miss the remainder of this season with a fractured right patella.

One Penn professor is working to fill in longtime holes in Southeast Asian history. Archeology professor Joyce White hopes to find the once-inaccessible keys to opening up the region's history through a research project in the southeast Asian state of Laos, where she will return to in March.

The jury's unprecedented 11-day deliberations in the murder trial of Irina Malinovskaya ended with the majority angry that they could not reach a unanimous guilty verdict, one juror said in an interview this week.

I hate to beat a dead horse, but I just can't let this one go. What I saw Friday at the beginning of Penn's season opener was just embarrassing. And I'm not talking about what we all (or, some of us) saw on the court, where the Quakers stumbled their way to 24 points in the first half - shooting 31 percent from the field, 25 percent from distance and 42.

Elected last night, College junior Matt Dwyer will take the helm of the InterFraternity Council for the group's next term. Dwyer, who ran unopposed and is currently the president of Alpha Tau Omega, will officially assume the post after spring rush in February.

Before a packed crowd of about 1,000 people at the Convention Center, University and city officials laid out a new vision for developing one of Philadelphia's most underutilized assets: its waterfront. PennPraxis executive director Harris Steinberg, Mayor John Street and City Councilman Frank DiCicco promised to bring sanity back to developing the Delaware River.

Two males unaffiliated with the University were robbed last week, Division of Public Safety officials said. Two male suspects approached the victims at about 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 9 on the 3900 block of Spruce Street and demanded money. The offenders then took the phones of both complainants and fled in an unknown direction.