In light of last year's 15-percent rise in general theft on and near campus, the Division of Public Safety is focusing its efforts on the problem, a move that could lead to decreases in total crime. An increase in general theft, from 468 incidences in 2006 to 540 incidences last year, was primarily responsible for the 10-percent increase in overall crime seen in the Penn patrol zone in 2007.

International students who are eligible for financial aid will receive the same benefits of Penn's new loan-free program, according to the University. But the new financial aid plan will not affect the number of international students that Penn can admit and offer aid to, and will not change the eligiblity requirements for an aid package.

It's usually around 2 a.m. when the editors at The Daily Pennsylvanian pick up the phone to call the printers. For the three or four editors still at the office, the 15 minutes waiting for the confirmation call are spent uploading Internet content and cleaning the office. When the call finally comes, the office clears out and the DP turns off its lights. For the printers, however, the night has only just begun.

The crime cycle often begins with an unfinished education and chronic unemployment and ends with a prison sentence. Then the cycle begins again, as getting hired with a criminal record is nearly impossible. But increasingly, governments, schools and businesses are providing opportunities for ex-offenders to break this cycle with education and employment.

Last Friday, over 800 people gathered at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia Hotel to discuss current trends in private equity. The 14th annual Wharton Private Equity Conference, the largest student-run conference of its kind, brought students and industry leaders together to network and learn.

The Wharton School announced on Jan. 8 that Kenneth Manotti will be named the associate dean for external affairs, effective Feb. 29. Manotti orginally served at Penn from 1978 to 1992. He began his work as coordinator of the Middle East Center before taking on several administrative positions at Wharton, including the assistant director of the Wharton Applied Research Center, the operations manager for on-campus recruiting, the director of development operations for Wharton External Affairs and the associate director of alumni giving, director of 25th reunion programs and director of development and corporate relations for the Joseph H.

The recruitment process took a turn this past weekend for Penn's potential new sorority sisters as they moved from conversations to crafts. Current sorority members and potential recruits got to know each other at increasingly more intimate events over the Martin Luther King holiday.

Patients almost always assume that their doctors are prescribing medicine proven to treat their ailments. However, that's not always the case. Almost half of doctors surveyed in a study admitted to having used placebos in their clinical practice, according to a recent study by Penn alum and University of Chicago medical student Rachel Sherman and John Hickner, a professor at Chicago.

When Roberts Proton Therapy Center opens in fall 2009, it will bring to Penn a type of facility that has attracted attention for both its effectiveness and high price. And while critics have spoken out against its costliness, researchers see proton therapy as an important and effective treatment option for some patients, and Penn expects the center to be in demand.

After counseling teenagers in Belize and promoting HIV/AIDS awareness in Malawi, Peace Corps volunteers are getting a little help themselves. Returning Peace Corps volunteers are recruited by universities and colleges participating in the Peace Corps Fellows/USA partner schools program, a national consortium of over 40 universities which offers returnees the opportunity to study in their programs at reduced tuition.

A pen is no longer the mightiest way to capture the public's attention. Over the past year, the number of Internet users who have visited a video-sharing Web site increased by 45 percent, according to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Internet Project.

Earlier this week College sophomores Melissa Gunderson and Kristen Lange stood in the Penn Bookstore with a bad case of sticker shock. The price tag of their new Chemistry 101 book: nearly $300. "It's highway robbery," Lange said. And though alternative electronic textbooks - high-tech substitutes to pricey print versions - have been available for more than a decade, they have not yet taken root at Penn.

From White Castle mini burgers to Pat's cheesesteaks, this year's fraternity rush open houses have it all. In fact, the frats have so much free food this week that many students have decided there's no need to spend their own money on dinner. Why pay for a meal when every fraternity on campus is filled with tables loaded with the very finest fast food Philly has to offer, free of charge? That seems to be the question for many boys this January.

At small liberal arts schools vying for the attention of top students, announcements of sweeping financial aid reform at Harvard, Penn and other schools mean trouble. Like most colleges and universities, academically-renowned liberal arts schools do not have billion-dollar budgets.

The University announced yesterday that Eric Furda, the vice president for alumni relations at Columbia University, will take over as the new dean of admissions at Penn on July 1.

The girlfriend of Felix Qu, the Wharton junior who was arrested for simple assault over winter break, has contacted police expressing interest in retracting some parts of her statement.

New spring activities fair this Sunday The Social Planning and Events Committee will hold the first-ever spring activities fair this Sunday. The event, which will feature 240 different student clubs from around Penn, will be from 1 to 5 p.m. in Houston Hall.