University architects may be planning to replace black parking lots with green grass, but administrators are working to keep Penn's budget out of the red.

Before coming to Penn this semester, Nicolas Luna was worried about the "hard American life," as he calls it - working hard, studying hard, partying hard. But Luna, an exchange student from Argentina, had one thing to ease his transition - a Penn student to show him the ropes of Philadelphia.

Penn has a lot going for it. It boasts an all-star faculty, majestic buildings with the requisite ivy and its famous founder. But for many of its students, Penn also means family. College freshman Joseph Dubroff's first memory of Penn is of playing on the button as a three year old while visiting his oldest brother.

The expression goes: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it still make a sound? A similar question might need to be asked by Penn student political groups this spring; Philadelphians will likely be choosing the next mayor of the city on May 15 - the day after Commencement.

Hammers, work boots, overalls and canned foods. As the countdown to spring break begins, students are compiling lists of what they will need - but, for some, those lists might be a bit different than what you would expect. Come spring break, beginning on March 5, over 100 students will visit a panoply of locales, where they will participate in a wide range of community-service activities, including rebuilding houses and cleaning up landscapes.

Students who attended last night's Career Lab at Huntsman Hall made some important contacts at elite business firms - all with a dash of feminine spirit. About 50 female students gathered in a Huntsman Hall classroom yesterday evening for the Forte Foundation's first Career Lab at Penn.

After a shooting last month raised questions about student safety, the University and a group of dedicated students will continue their efforts to assist one West Philadelphia high school. In the aftermath of the Jan. 18 shooting at Sayre High School, Penn officials faced questions about ensuring the security of Penn students who volunteer there on a regular basis.

Signs welcoming girls who are "too hot to handle" are popping up on dorm-room doors. But these signs, accompanied by streamers and balloons, are showing up a little late, posted for women who did not join a sorority during formal recruitment, which officially ended with Bid Night on Jan.

Ace classes, get diploma, leave for New York City - four challenging years at the University of Pennsylvania can be pretty simple for some students. However, in the not-so-distant future, the last of these steps just might change: Instead of a one-way ticket to New York, Penn students may soon be buying Septa tickets across the Schuylkill to stay in Philadelphia.

College senior Bryce LeFort has been suspended by the University for the spring and fall 2007 semesters for violating the University's Code of Student Conduct, according to a suspension agreement shown to The Daily Pennsylvanian. The person who gave the DP access to the document has requested anonymity due to the agreement's confidential nature.

Former Penn professor Tracy McIntosh and the University of Pennsylvania have both reached settlements in a civil suit filed by the graduate student McIntosh sexually assaulted in 2002, according to case records filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

The second-year Penn Law student who allegedly fired nearly 15 shots into his neighbors' apartment door last Wednesday was arraigned and held without bail Friday.

You might know that the United States makes up less than 10 percent of the world's population. You might not know that, as a nation, the United States consumes more than 25 percent of the world's energy, however. That was only one of the harsh realities presented to the 120 students who gathered this weekend at Columbia University for the Ivy Leadership Summit on the future of energy.

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. - Convicted sex felon and former Penn student Kurt Mitman had his academic-release privileges terminated Friday and will not be able to return to campus until at least September. University officials discovered last month that Mitman - a first-year Economics graduate student who is serving a jail sentence on child-molestation charges - was commuting to class from a Bucks County prison for up to 12 hours a day as part of an academic-release program. In a hearing Friday, Bucks County Court Judge Theodore Fritsch suspended Mitman's academic release after ordering the Men's Community Corrections Center, at a hearing Jan. 17, to develop a proposal that would include more rigorous restrictions.

The "Mooninite" plot to take over the world has been thwarted again - this time, by the Boston bomb squad. Last Wednesday morning, Massachusetts state police were summoned to shut down the city temporarily after hearing about alleged bombs planted throughout the city.

"Angry White Man" may not be as angry as you think he is. History professor Sarah Igo presented her book The Averaged American - in part about how statistics create incomplete stereotypes of American individuals - at the Penn Bookstore last Thursday night to a cozy audience of just over thirty members.

Once again, a decision on upgrading Webmail has not yet been reached, and officials say there is no timetable for the switch. "We are working as quickly and as carefully as we can," School of Arts and Sciences Vice Dean of Administration and Finance Ramin Sedehi wrote yesterday in an e-mail.