While teaching Marketing 101 last fall, Wharton professors Keith Niedermeier and Peter Fader made a bet: They challenged each other to create Facebook profiles and see who would have more friends by the end of the semester. But there was one rule: neither professor could make any friend requests.

NewCourtland Elder Services, a Philadelphia-based company that addresses the needs of the city's elderly population, recently donated $5 million to endow and name the Nursing School's NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health.

The University's handling of the departure of former Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson may be doing Penn more harm than good, crisis-management experts say.

Imagine what would happen if all the rules of the library - no speaking, shouting or running - were broken, and the books began reading themselves aloud. Just that happened last night in the Kelly Writers House's Art Cafe during "Suddenly Everyone Began Reading Aloud," a project by College senior Matthew Abess.

Economics professor and accused murderer Rafael Robb plans to use surveillance-camera footage at several locations that he visited the morning his wife was killed in order to provide an alibi defense at his November trial, according to court papers filed Friday.

To describe the inner workings of the underground economy that exist in many urban communities, Columbia professor Sudhir Venkatesh told a story at the 23rd annual public lecture hosted by the Urban Studies Department. Venkatesh, an ethnographer of life in urban neighborhoods, conducted his research on the intricacies of the underground economy in Brownsville, Chicago, an extremely poor and predominantly African American community.

Former Neurosurgery professor Tracy McIntosh will proceed with his court-mandated resentencing for a 2002 sexual assault. McIntosh and his lawyer, Joel Trigiani, announced the decision Friday morning in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. McIntosh's other option was to try to withdraw his original no-contest plea and go to trial.

College sophomore Brandon Moyse never thought Buckcherry would get him into trouble. But when Moyse - who is also a DP sportswriter - opened his inbox last Friday, the rock band was the cause for a distressing e-mail: A message from the Recording Industry Association of America demanding that he remove one of the band's hit songs from his computer.

As sophomores and freshmen leave today for a four-day break, they should count their blessings: Come fall 2009, fall break will be one day shorter. The Council of Undergraduate Deans made the decision last May to shorten the break in 2009 to one day in order to squeeze a full 13 weeks of classes into the fall semester.

From the man who brought you Monty Python and the Holy Grail, get ready for . Richard II? That's right: Last night, former Monty Python member Terry Jones addressed a packed room in Rodin College House's Rooftop Lounge on the historical legacy of one of England's most notorious monarchs.

Entrepreneur Magazine and The Princeton Review released its fifth annual ranking of the top 50 graduate and undergraduate entrepreneurship programs in the nation with one school conspicuously missing from both: Wharton. Babson College ranked number one among the undergraduate programs and the University of Southern California was lauded as the number one graduate program.

The panelists were unanimous: The field of earth science offers a variety of career opportunities, but it could interfere with a woman's plans to have a family. Catherine Forster, Susan Gill, Amishi Joshi and Lisa Rodrigues were the guest speakers at Saturday's Women in Earth Science panel discussion held at Carolyn Hoff Lynch Auditorium.

Students tend to think of themselves as a catalyzing force in society, bastions of freedom and righteousness in an unjust world. But they're not treated that way, says Thor Halvorssen, whose experiences as a student at Penn led him to devote his career to defending human and free-speech rights, particularly on college campuses.

From the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences to the dean of the Law School, job security is virtually guaranteed. The same could be said for any of the deans of Penn's 12 schools, as well as the four undergraduate deans. Former Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson didn't have that same luxury.

Though attorney Thomas Kline is investigating whether the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania could have prevented the death of College sophomore Anne Ryan, legal experts say it is unlikely the case - if there is one- will go to court.

Having worked as comedic actress, singer or manicurist, Sandra Bernhard has no regret. Except, perhaps, turning down the role of Miranda on Sex and the City. "I don't think I would have lasted," Bernhard said yesterday at a public interview with University of the Arts professor Camilla Paglia on the University of the Arts campus.

Food, music, feminist literature - the Penn Women's Center was the place to be on Friday during its annual open house. Copies of the most recent edition of The F-word, the Women's Center-sponsored feminist magazine, were distributed, and Penn's all-female a capella group, the Quaker Notes, performed a spirited rendition of "Hotel Song" and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.