Mayor Michael Nutter's first 100 days in office have been anything but uneventful. He has the sizable task of managing a city that has seen its share of crises in recent years. He became Philadelphia's mayor amid some criticism, but if the reception he got after arriving on campus yesterday was any indication, many members of the Penn community stand firmly behind Nutter.

In light of shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University by mentally unstable students, universities are trying to figure out how to prevent similar situations from happening again. One such way may be through increased scrutiny of students' pasts during the admissions process.

Rick Heaslip clears between $500 and $1,000 an hour on a good day. Heaslip, a College junior, plays poker professionally when he's not studying Asian-American war literature or working toward his English major. Heaslip is a member of a community of Penn students who play professional or semi-professional poker in person and online.

The Penn Interfraternity Council is urging the Greek community to write letters telling their congressmen to support the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act, a bill which permits tax-deductible donations to Greek chapter housing corporations. The proposal will make it easier for many chapters to increase alumni donations for these important upgrades.

Senior societies are all about big names - big-name leaders on campus and their own big names scrawled all over Locust Walk. With three of the oldest senior societies at Penn - the Sphinx Senior Society, the Friar Senior Society and the Mortar Board Senior Honor Society - admitting their new classes this past week, each claims to have snatched up the best and brightest campus leaders around.

Which Greek god sprang from the head of Zeus? Who makes more money, MBAs or geologists? These are not the typical questions asked of Penn students, but during yesterday's College Palooza on the Green, visitors were quizzed with such trivia. If you're curious - the answers are Athena and geologists, respectively.

The Undergraduate Assembly adjourned for the year last Sunday night after wrapping up several pieces of legislation from this past year. Members voted to pass the Blood Donor Policy Proposal, which will replace the controversial, recently-passed Blood Donor Discrimination Proposal as the position of the UA.

From Ludacris to Gym Class Hereos, the musical acts on campus this past week have been anything but "ordinary." But yesterday's campus visit from five-time Grammy winner and 1999 College graduate John Legend had a political touch to it. Coming just before next Tuesday's Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, Legend was on campus to help rally for Senator Barack Obama Looking to strike the right chord with newly registered voters, Legend performed seven songs, including his signature hit "Ordinary People," at the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

There's no denying that Penn students are a diverse bunch. About 13 percent of current freshmen are international students. Additionally, many students who are U.S. residents immigrated here from another country. Bridges For Integration is a new organization devoted to helping immigrant students assimilate into American culture.

Wharton may be facing stiffer competition from its European counterparts for quality MBA candidates. European business schools - offering a shorter and cheaper MBA program - are becoming an increasingly popular option for students seeking a higher business degree.

The Colbert Nation has become the Colbert Campus, as Stephen Colbert, the Emmy award-winning comedy host, has descended upon Penn's Zellerbach Theatre for the week. Colbert arrived at Penn last weekend to begin a special filming of his show, The Colbert Report, in anticipation of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary.

The University chose Patkau Architects of Canada as the designer of Penn's newest College House to be built on Hill Square. The first residential hall to be constructed in over 30 years, Hill Square College House will be designed as a low-rise building enclosing a Quad-like square.

Last night, Penn's entire girl's varsity soccer team volunteered at the Hillel Soup Kitchen's first-ever going-away party. The soup kitchen is part of the University City Hospitality Coalition program which runs soup kitchens five nights of the week in University City.

As engineering becomes an increasingly global profession, officials at the Engineering school say their students are going abroad more than ever before - but still not as much as they would like them to. Getting more students to go overseas is a tricky issue, they argue - and one that will require changing student perceptions about the feasibility of such opportunities.

Photos by Carmela Aquino, Will van Eaton, Matt Cianfrani, Priscilla des Gachons, Mustafa Al-ammar, Alvin Loke

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is trying to win the Democratic presidential nomination, focused on crime as she campaigned in West Philadelphia last week. At the YMCA located at 51st and Chestnut streets on Friday, Clinton announced a $4-billion-a-year anticrime initiative that she said is aimed at halving the murder rate in large cities.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton looked somber following her speech at the AFL-CIO convention last week. "We need to do something so that our party and our people can make the right decision," she said. The reporters in the room looked around eagerly and uncomfortably, wondering where this speech was leading.