A Darfur advocacy group is revolutionizing the way concerned citizens can protest issues that matter to them

Cynthia Clark had been crying for hours. Holding a sign that read "I really am 25, just ask for ID," the under-five-feet-tall New York native stood in the downtown Wachovia Center with one goal in mind: landing a spot on American Idol.

Students arriving at Penn this week may not recognize the campus, which has undergone plenty of groundbreakings and renovations over the past four months. Some noteworthy - and hard to miss - projects include: n Demolition and utility relocation is underway for a new building at 36th and Locust streets: The Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Tom Sollecito, associate dean for academic affairs at the Penn School of Dental Medicine, will act as dean of the school until current dean Marjorie Jeffcoat recovers from an illness. Jeffcoat was admitted to the emergency department at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in July.

It's back to the top five. After dropping to the seventh slot on the U.S. News & World Report's national university rankings last year, Penn has climbed back to tie the California Institute of Technology for No. 5.

Theft Aug. 24 - An employee of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania had money removed by an unknown suspect from an unsecured cabinet. Aug. 24 - A person unaffiliated with the University had a GPS system removed from his car at about 5:00 p.m.

When former men's golf coach Rob Powelson resigned earlier this summer, the decision about who would fill the vacancy was simple, according to Penn director of golf Francis Vaughn. Already the women's coach, Vaughn himself would take over the head coaching duties of the men's program as well.

A change in dean is often accompanied by further changes in a school's faculty and administrators. What follows is a list of who is leaving Wharton along with former dean Patrick Harker, who will assume the presidency at the University of Delaware: - Former Undergraduate Dean Barbara Kahn was appointed the Dean of the University of Miami Business School.

Philanthropist Leonore Annenberg was honored wiht the 2006 Philadelphia Award on June 18, recognizing her steadfast dedication to the arts and education. The Philadelphia Award was established in 1921 by Edward Bok, who was a longtime editor of The Ladies Home Journal.

The Penn School of Design's Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence received a $2.2 million grant in June from the Rockefeller Foundation to aid in the reconstruction of New Orleans. The projects will be centered primarily in areas of the region that were devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

One daily routine for many college women recently became much more expensive. Many drug companies are no longer offering universities discounts on birth control because of government legislation.

College freshman Nate Adler made 100 friends before New Student Orientation even began. Granted, they are Facebook friends. Wanting to meet his future dorm mates in Hill College House, Adler, joined the Hill House-Class of 2011 group on Facebook.com and subsequently friended many of its members over the summer.

Division I basketball saw an unusually large number of transfers this year, and the Ivy League in general seemed to be fertile ground for new players. Penn just didn't get in on the party. Brian Grimes, a rising sophomore at La Salle and a 6-foot-7 forward, elected to transfer early on in the summer and, Explorers coach John Giannini told the media, had winnowed his list down to Penn and Columbia.

The newest campus bagel shop - serving cream cheese, lox and the theory of relativity. Einstein Bros. Bagels, a chain based out of Colorado, will open in the basement of Houston Hall this fall. The store represents the first bagel store on campus since Univerity Bagels closed in 1998.

A number of American universities are lashing out against a British proposal to boycott Israeli academics. The British University and College Union, which represents over 120,000 British professors, issued its proposal in protest of perceived Israeli civil rights violations.

Following one of the worst betting scandals in recent memory, one economics expert is calling a foul on current sports betting regulations. Justin Wolfers, whose work is based in applied economics, similar to the type of research made popular by the best-selling book Freakonomics, made a name for himself last spring when he released a study indicating a racial bias among NBA referees.

Penn Health System officials announced plans in June for a 10-story research tower, with hopes that the new facility will raise the bar for regional biomedical research. Located next to the $232 million Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine on Civic Center Boulevard, the new $370 million biomedical research facility is scheduled for completion by the summer of 2010, Penn Medicine spokesman Marc Kaplan said.