The Ivy League has always has somewhat of a masochistic side. Between disallowing athletic scholarships and prohibiting teams from participating in the football playoffs, the Ancient Eight has spent the better part of a century doing what it can to sabotage its athletic prowess.

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

It should be a mighty fine Memorial Day or July 4 in the Jones house this year. All big brother James needed to have a shot at an Ivy League playoff for the second time in his eight seasons as Yale coach was a win over younger brother Joe's Columbia team. James was 6-1 all time against Joe, had never lost to him at home and had won five straight overall.

Seven assaults occurred on or near campus in the last week, including attacks on two students and a University staff member, as well as an assault on a police officer by a student.

The good that profit from potential casinos in the city will bring may likely outweigh any negatives.

For most Penn students, four straight hours spent at night in a classroom would be the equivalent of a nightmare. But for Alberto Rosa, it's nothing less than a dream come true. Rosa, who recently returned from tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, is now packing his bags once again to head off to University Park after being accepted to Penn State this year, all with the help of Penn's Veterans Upward Bound program.

"I have a car at school." "Well, I have a Mercedes at school." "But I got an A on that last midterm." "Really? I got an A+." Obnoxiously trying to one-up a friend typically results in a never-ending conversation. But for one actor, it served as inspiration for a Web site: OneUpMe.

In his final collegiate match, Gilly Lane walked away from the College Squash Association National Team Championships with three wins and the Skillman Sportsmanship Award. But he didn't walk away on a good note. He may have succeeded Princeton star Yasser El-Halaby as the Skillman Award winner, but despite Lane's best efforts, the Quakers finished fifth in the three-day tournament after losing their first round match against Yale.

For Dennis Culhane, a student in India should be able to see every nook and cranny of Locust Walk, down to the very last uneven brick. A professor in the Urban Studies Department, Culhane is in the midst of developing a three-dimensional computer model of campus that will show see every detail on and around Penn's campus - both present and future.

A male graduate student was the victim of an attempted robbery Thursday night on the 4000 block of Pine Street. Two males have been arrested in connection with the incident.

BOSTON, Feb. 23 - Coming into its game against Penn, Harvard was on a four-game losing streak, including losses to Princeton and Brown. So for Penn coach Glen Miller, a comfortable 83-67 win on the road wasn't enough.

Both the men and women's track teams placed third in their respective meets at the Ivy Heptagonals in New York City this weekend. The men rode a strong performance in the heptathalon, as Kyle Calvo won the event with 5,427 points and Max Westman came in third with 5,239 points.

The women's basketball seniors could not have scripted a better home finale. Two weeks after losing to Dartmouth by 27, the Quakers got their revenge, hanging on to upset the second-place Big Green, 56-53. "It's great for the seniors," coach Pat Knapp said.

VILLANOVA, Pa., Feb. 23 - Penn's 10-6 win over Villanova Friday looked more like a pick-up lacrosse game than a collegiate one. For the preseason-No. 12 Quakers, that was just fine. In a game decided more by battles for ground balls than by offense, Penn was happy to grind out the physical war and return from snow-covered Villanova Stadium with a well-earned win in its season opener.

Once again, the Rotunda is pursuing its stated goal of being a "catalyst for social change" by promoting arts and culture. Acoustic Philly - a group of Philadelphia-based professional musicians - performed this past Saturday night in front of a welcoming and intimate crowd, comprised mostly of friends and family members It was the second year the group had performed at the 4014 Walnut St.

Who knew that the Penn men's and women's fencing teams would throw in a late entry to this year's Oscars? The Cambridge, Mass. blockbuster that was the Ivy League Round Robin No. 2 had it all: tension, drama and a nailbiting finish. The setup to this weekend's match could not have been more exciting.

Philadelphia's Independence Mall is getting a face lift, with a bit of a Jewish flair. Serving as the region's central museum for Jewish history since its opening in 1976, the National Museum of American Jewish History is preparing to move into a brand-new, $100 million facility at 5th and Market streets by 2010.