A downtown performing arts venue is getting a public image boost from members of the Penn community. Students and professors are teaming up with the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts this semester in an attempt to create a more vibrant and welcoming public space downtown.

Though 22 states will vote in Democratic primaries and caucuses today, at the end of the night, the Democratic nomination could still be anyone's game. After former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards withdrew his candidacy last week, the Democratic field narrowed to New York Sen.

Last week, Judith Hodara, the Senior Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Wharton, and her outside consulting stints raised a few eyebrows - within the Penn administration and the wider admissions community. Last Wednesday, Inside Higher Ed published an article that linked Hodara - along with two other senior admissions officials from Columbia University and the University of North Carolina - to the advisory board of AGOS Japan, a Tokyo-based consulting company that helps locals get into top United States MBA programs.

College Dean Dennis DeTurck often challenges math department colleagues to tell him when exactly he would need to know that 5/7 plus 3/5 equals 46/35. "The answer is never, except in a specifically mathematical context," DeTurck said. That's why he wants Americans to rethink how and when they teach fractions.

It was Friday, and it was time to feel good. Last week, outfitted with cushions and clementines, the Penn Women's Center kicked off Feel Good Fridays, a weekly program featuring free public workshops, with a seminar on nutrition led by local health counselor Jillian Bird.

As the number of general thefts in the Penn patrol zone continues to rise, the number of violent crimes has decreased in comparison to this time last year. Crime totals in the area this January remained steady compared to the same month last year, with 60 crimes reported in both 2007 and 2008.

The nation as a whole is getting older, but the process doesn't have to be painful. Penn researchers are investigating cures for a variety of neurodegenerative diseases to improve the quality of life for both patients and their caretakers. "Penn has traditionally had strengths in neuroscience and the strengths are not just in one department," said John Trojanowski, co-director of Penn's Institute on Aging and guest editor of a Neurosignals issue featuring Penn research on diseases like dementia, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

During junior year, everyone wants to know where you're studying abroad. But for around 75 percent of Penn's junior class each year, the answer is "nowhere." Whether for obligations on campus or to stay on-track with coursework, a majority of students have legitimate reasons for remaining in Philadelphia all four years.

The Grand Old Party might be able to celebrate a new nominee by tonight. Twenty-one states will vote today for the Republican presidential nomination and pressure could not be greater with over half of all delegates at stake. The Republican race has whittled down to four remaining candidates: John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.

He was featured in a documentary at the international Sundance Film Festival last month in Utah. Soon, his peers at Penn may be seeing him in theaters nationwide, even at next year's Academy Awards. College freshman Yoni Gruskin might be a rising movie star - but not for his acting skills.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new supermodel wife have received a great deal of media attention in the past few months. However, yesterday in Huntsman Hall, it was Pierre Vimont, French ambassador to the U.S., who found himself in the spotlight.

Engineering junior Joan Jose Martinez, a native of the Dominican Republic, can't vote in a presidential primary this spring. But that doesn't mean he's not paying attention to the election campaigns. "Of course I'm concerned with the outcome," he said. "Who becomes the president of the United States affects everyone in the world, whether they care for politics or not.

In the Nursing school, summer employment opportunities extend well beyond the halls of the local ER. Nursing students engage in a wide variety of summer jobs, from study abroad programs to community service. The most common course of action is the eventual enrollment in an externship program at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania or a hometown hospital.

The University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia may soon be at the center of a revolutionary international endeavor to control the global spread of infectious diseases. Penn's Institute for Strategic Threat Analysis and Response and Harvey Rubin, the institute's director, have developed an international plan to fight infectious diseases.

As the rain fell outside, a thoughtful crowd of 200 gathered in the transformed multipurpose room of the W.E.B. DuBois College House last Friday evening. Dimly lit and decorated in the red, black and green of the African American flag, the space invited guests to groove to notes of mellow jazz.

With ambitious initiatives on his agenda for 2008, Wharton Dean Thomas Robertson has a busy year ahead. Last Friday at the Wharton Undergraduate Leadership Forum, Robertson laid out his core strategies for the upcoming years, which include a Wharton campus expansion plan, the fundraising campaign and faculty recruitment.

If the price to pay for a semester abroad in Japan is eight weeks of couch-surfing, Wharton and College sophomore Baylee Feore is more than happy to live out of her suitcase. While waiting for the academic year to begin in April at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Feore has been living with a different friend each week while she bides her time.