The Graduate School of Education's recent drop in U.S. News and World Report rankings will require Penn to increase its focus on research, which could potentially jeopardize partnerships with local schools. In the past year, GSE has fallen from seventh to 11th in the U.

$542: The maximum monthly food stamp allotment for a family of four. $121.93: The monthly deficit this family would face if it shopped for nutritious goods at the average Philadelphia super market. This was just one of the many stark facts Mariana Chilton of the Drexel University School of Public Health presented in her seminar "Hunger in Philadelphia? Evidence of Food Insecurity in the Midst of an Obesity Epidemic" yesterday at Houston Hall.

As Penn's admissions officers review applications for the class of 2012, they are finding a handful of essays that seem too polished and mature to have been written by high-school seniors, interim Dean of Admissions Eric Kaplan said. "There are definitely occasions where the writing seems too good to be true," he said.

Security has been increased around the Law School over the past several days in response to a student who has exhibited signs of unstable behavior.

After the online newspaper Inside HigherEd reported in January that Wharton MBA Admissions officer Judith Hodara was consulting for a Japanese admissions firm and also owned a consulting business catering to high-school students, observers and members of the higher-education community quickly labeled the activities as a conflict of interest.

Yale University is home to the oldest college art gallery in the United States, with over 185,000 pieces from all over the world, ancient and modern alike. But until recently, it didn't receive much foot traffic. As the Deputy Director for Programs and External Affairs and Curator of Artist Initiatives and Special Projects at the Yale Art Gallery, Anna Hammond is largely responsible for increasing the collection's visibility among students.

With spring break fast approaching, students are already starting to think about their courses for next fall. At least a dozen institutions across the country are mandating that one of those courses be an internship at some point in the college career. While some departments at Penn build work experience into curriculum requirements - such as the work component of the Urban Studies major and clinical rotations for nursing students - Dean of the College Dennis DeTurck said the College has no plans to impose a general mandate.

Fall course selection is coming soon, and that means it's time to sign back on to Penn InTouch. But don't complain just yet - a new course-search and schedule-planning tool will be launched on PennPortal and Penn InTouch on March 17. The tool - which will allow students to search for courses and plan mock schedules - will be available for use in preparation for the fall 2008 class term, which students can begin registering for on March 24.

A woman was robbed on the 4000 block of Locust Street at about 9:40 p.m. on Thursday, according to Lt. John Walker of the Philadelphia Police.

Hospital patients who experience cardiac arrests are more likely to die during nights and weekends compared with the daytime, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This report raises questions about the differences between the care received in emergency rooms during regular working hours and the graveyard shifts.

Four thousand dollars per minute, or a total of $1.72 million over the course of seven hours- that's how much money the Undergraduate Assembly allocated to various student-government groups at its annual budget meeting this past Sunday evening. An increase of 6 percent from last year's budget, the $1.

Today's primaries in Ohio and Texas could very well determine the fate of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign - and the importance of Pennsylvania's April 22 primary.

It is often said that college students tend to be overwhelmingly liberal - and it seems this is true of college professors as well. A recent study conducted by Penn State University professor Matthew Woessner and Elizabethtown College professor April Kelly-Woessner found that people who identify themselves as conservatives are simply less likely to pursue a doctorate.

The common perception of Asian American students as the "silent minority" is being broken down by student responses to some questionable comments made by students at a conference held two weeks ago. After attending this year's East Coast Asian-American Student Union conference at Cornell University, students at Penn have started an e-mail campaign to raise awareness about remarks made about the Asian-American community by senior administrators at Cornell.

In preparation for next month's Pennsylvania primary, Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both set up Philadelphia campaign headquarters this weekend. Obama, an Illinois senator, opened his headquarters at 15th and Sansom streets on Saturday.

Attorneys for Irina Malinovskaya, the Wharton undergraduate accused of killing her ex-lover's girlfriend in 2004, have filed motions to have the case dismissed. Malinovskaya has faced three trials in the case, all of which have ended in hung juries. Delaware state prosecutors have not said if they will seek a fourth trial.

Even though Los Angeles is a long way from Philadelphia, Penn has a small claim to Hollywood fame in actor Kalpen Modi, who teaches as an adjunct professor in the Asian American Studies Department this semester. Last night, the Asian American Studies Department, the South Asia Center and the South Asia Society co-hosted a question and answer session with Modi called "A Conversation with Kal Penn" in Houston Hall.