As my editors requested, I had my column for this week written 24 hours in advance. It was, of course, about sports. And it was, as my columns often are, a joke both in substance and tone. But this morning is not a time for joking. This morning isn't even a time for sports.

If the Penn women's lacrosse team wants to win its first outright Ivy League title since 1982, it has to follow a simple plan: win the next two games. Doing so would clinch the league's automatic bid to the team's first NCAA tournament since 1984. Otherwise, it gets a little dicey.

The Wharton School of Business will now offer a doctoral fellowship in business ethics, Wharton officials announced Friday. The fellowship, officially titled the Lewis Platt Doctoral Fellowship in Business Ethics, is intended to fund students in Wharton's Ph.

Penn senior Ibrahim Jaaber has been named Big 5 Player of the Year, a source with knowledge of the proceedings said yesterday.

Villanova senior Curtis Sumpter couldn't be happier to be done with his college career. And after five years of ups and downs with the Wildcats, the big man is finally ready to take the next step in his career - hopefully on the NBA hardwood.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that a drug used to treat multiple sclerosis patients may also help vision loss in those with the relapsing form of the disease, according to a press release. Natalizumab is a drug that slows the disability and reduces relapse rates of multiple sclerosis patients.

The best way for Penn to help SEPTA is to teach students that the city's public transportation is safe, cheap and easy to use.

When the MPAA talks, the University listens - well, for the most part. Last month, the Motion Picture Association of America published its list of top-25 colleges for illegal downloading and asked universities to enact four measures to stop the problem, including punishing student offenders and establishing a filter on the college network.

Today is the deadline for the second-annual GAPSA-Provost's Award for Interdisciplinary Innovation. The two-year-old award, a summer fellowship jointly sponsored by the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly and the Office of the University Provost, consists of a $2,000 monthly summer stipend for graduate and professional students who are pursuing interdisciplinary research.

When Penn last beat Dartmouth, junior attacker Rachel Manson was four years old and "had a lacrosse stick around but I wasn't really playing," she said.

Joseph Fischer spent 27 years working for the Philadelphia Police, mostly investigating homicides. By 1998, he had qualified for retirement and a pension and was ready to move on. "You handle 1,200 homicides, I guess you figure you've seen them all," he said.

Down but not out. That was the message that the seniors on the men's lacrosse team were preaching heading into the game against Brown on Saturday. "There was a lot of motivation to finish 3-3 and not 2-4 in the Ivy League," senior David Cornbrooks said. "It's pretty easy to get up for a game like this.

After 19 years of work, Penn has installed the final piece in an 18,700-foot jigsaw puzzle. This past weekend, officials completed the last leg of a system of underground pipes that will change the way Penn provides air conditioning. The $125 million project, started in 1988, will connect all University buildings to a single network of pipes - 40 to 60 inches, and lying as low as 20 feet underground - that carries chilled water.

Abdi Farah is a College sophomore from Owings Mills, Md. His e-mail address is abdm@sas.upenn.edu.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a preliminary injunction Friday that forbids a controversial casino referendum question from being placed on the May 15 ballot. The court also asked both sides - the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and Philadelphia City Council - to file briefs by April 27 and will likely issue a filing ruling before the May primary.

Despite cold temperatures, long waits between sets and a parking ticket issued to Third Eye Blind, the Social Planning and Events Committee labeled the sold-out Friday concert a big success.

When it comes to studying until the wee hours of the morning at Van Pelt, many students have found that more really is merrier.