Although Penn Park will not open for two more years, the decision to hire Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, as the designer has set the wheels in motion. Anne Papageorge, vice president for the Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services praised the firm's expertise and vision.

College junior Sarah Kaminetsky resigned from the Undergraduate Assembly Monday night. "Due to other school-related and extracurricular commitments, I don't feel like I can devote 110 percent to the UA, and . there are other people who may be able to devote more time to the UA," said Kaminetsky, who is also a member of the Junior Class Board.

The new substance-free residential program at Fisher Hassenfeld College House has entered its second semester with no reported violations. The program stipulates that residents will not use or be under the influence of drugs or alcohol while in the hall. Although only about half of the residents on floors where the program is in effect signed up for the program, students and supervisors report that the program has created a sense of community and mutual respect in those two halls.

Anti-casino activists are hoping to score a royal flush with their latest campaign launched this week. On Wednesday, Casino-Free Philadelphia kicked off its campaign against construction of casinos in the city - called Operation Hidden Costs - with a visit to the Governor's office at Walnut and Broad streets.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation recently awarded a $750,000 grant to be given over the next six years to the School of Arts and Science's initiative to encourage Cross-Cultural Contact scholarship, the study of what happens when different cultures collide and coalesce.

Five years after the United States invaded Iraq, America's justice system often finds itself struggling to cope with returning soldiers. Incidents such as the case of Joseph Cho, a former Penn Law student who is also a military veteran facing charges of attempted murder, have cast questions on the role of post-traumatic stress disorder in the legal process.

Former President Bill Clinton, introduced by Penn President Amy Gutmann as an "extraordinary leader devoted to healing inequalities," gave the opening address for the Kerner Plus 40 Symposium to a packed Irvine Auditorium yesterday morning. Engineering freshman Aditya Kaji, like many others, waited in line for hours to get a pass for the speech, but he thought it was well worth the wait.

Although the University recently increased graduate students' stipends, other sources of funding they rely on may be shrinking. The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Research Student Travel Grant helps defray the costs - including travel, hotel and participation fees - of students presenting their work at academic conferences.

After years of behind-the-scenes measures, noticeable transportation-security efforts at Amtrak stations will now be implemented. Last week, Amtrak announced that new security procedures, including random bag checks, will be deployed at stations across the country to "minimize the risk of terrorist threats," according to a press release.

Clothing and toys are not the only imports coming from China these days: one in four doctors in the United States is Chinese. As China increasingly becomes a powerful force in the economy, it is also becoming a major force in health care, with India rapidly catching up, according to Dr.

It was a sweet night for sophomores yesterday, as they celebrated their biggest event of the year, Sophomore Skimmer. A total of 600 to 800 students showed up for a Candyland-themed evening of food, music and mingling, Wharton sophomore and class president Arthur Gardner Smith said.

Penn and Drexel University will be waiting when University City High School closes its doors in 2010 for two years of renovations. The universities want to divide the school - one of the 70 lowest-performing schools in the city- and replace it with two co-existing themed high schools.

If you don't have time to tune into CNN, depending on your Blackberries for the latest election headlines might be better than you think. According to CBS correspondent and 1995 Penn alumna Nancy Cordes, the role of often-overlooked online reporters has never been more important.

A program that began in 2000 to rehabilitate area homes has stopped expanding, but 400 properties near campus have been restored as a result of its efforts . The Neighborhood Preservation and Development Fund was created by the University and its partners to buy dilapidated homes in University City and rent them at cheaper rates to graduate students and West Philadelphia residents.

President Bush's budget for the 2009 fiscal year shows an increased push from the government to encourage foreign-language study for national-security purposes. But it seems unlikely that the increased funding will persuade students learning those languages to pursue careers in the government.

On Sunday, the Undergraduate Assembly urged the University to examine whether the presence of on-campus blood collectors who are bound by an FDA policy banning certain blood donors violates Penn's non-discrimination policy. Despite a national blood shortage, millions are prohibited from donating by the Federal Drug Administration's lifetime ban on men who have had sex with men (MSM) since 1977.

In August 2005, the winds and waters of Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, and Penn students have been helping to rebuild the area ever since. Yesterday, the Fox Leadership Program hosted a "celebration and call to Service," congratulating student groups from Penn for previous and upcoming community service trips to the area in the past two and a half years.