At 11:50 yesterday morning, Communication professor Joseph Turow's Mass Media and Society class broke into applause. Such claps - in this case, marking the last Mass Media and Society class of the semester - are often a way for students to show appreciation to their professors.

School of Arts and Sciences Webmail crashed again yesterday at about 6:30 p.m. The server was down for 18 hours on Wednesday and has had several related problems throughout the semester. SAS is currently in the midst of finding a replacement server - either Microsoft or Google - but officials have yet to announce which they will choose.

Week in photos for week of December 4, 2006

As students begin planning for Christmas trees and menorahs, the Penn community praised a different winter holiday celebration yesterday. "Thank you for the future," Rev. Charles Howard, of Penn's Office of the Chaplain, said. "Thank you for Kwanzaa." Makuu, Penn's Black Cultural Center, hosted its 14th annual Kwanzaa ceremony in the Bodek Lounge, attended by more than 75 students, staff and community members.

When 1996 Penn alumnus Peter Kuperman decided to throw financial support at Penn, he knew exactly how to gauge support for his philanthropic impulse. Facebook.com.

Expect a more sober Quadrangle next year. Fisher Hassenfeld College House will institute a Substance Free housing program that will go into effect next year, the Undergraduate Assembly announced earlier this week. It will be part of the existing Healthy Living program, which focuses on helping students maintain and improve their well-being.

School of Arts and Sciences Webmail crashed for the entire work day yesterday, hindering students and faculty during the last week of classes.

All fifteen Taco Bell restaurants in Philadelphia - including the Penn Food Court location - shut down yesterday afternoon, according to The Associated Press. The eateries closed after E. coli was believed to have been found in New Jersey, New York and Montgomery County Taco Bell locations.

A Penn student will face reduced charges of simple assault after allegedly severing part of another student's ear with a beer bottle two months ago.

Christina Antiporda, an Architecture student, makes a 21st-century blueprint in a 19th-century Fine Arts Library. Taken from the fifth floor. F 4.0 1/25 sec 12/5/06 5:16 p.m.

Early-application rates may have dropped, but have no fear, admissions officials say - regular decision is right around the corner. The next round of applications should get a boost from the introduction of the Common Application, they say, and that could make up for the smaller early-decision pool.

Clean laundry is just an e-mail away. Housing and Conference Services will be implementing a new laundry-alert program in Sansom Place next semester. The program will send electronic notifications to students when their laundry is complete, Housing Services spokeswoman Dana Matkevich said.

The Latino Coalition elected its new board last night, and increasing University Latino recruitment and matriculation rates are already high on its agenda. "I have a lot of friends who say, 'Oh, Penn isn't Latino enough,'" newly elected Admissions Chairman and College junior Ricardo Parrondo said.

There's nothing like pizza, beer and neighborhood revitalization to mobilize a community. Following a local letter-writing campaign, the Dock Street Brewing Co. pizzeria is set to inhabit the former firehouse at 50th Street and Baltimore Avenue. The building, located across the street from Cedar Park, housed the Firehouse Farmers Market until last year.

Step aside, New York City: One writer says Sante Fe could become Philadelphia's true metropolitan competition. In a presentation yesterday afternoon before several dozen people in College Hall, author and Washington Post contributing writer Joel Garreau argued that the rise of the computer will change America's cities just as much as the invention of the railroad or the automobile.

It's hard to miss the blow-up Santa Claus hanging from a window of the Sigma Chi fraternity house on Locust Walk. Surrounding houses boast multicolored lights, red-and-green flowers, seasonal ornaments and even presents underneath the tree. These customs, Penn fraternity brothers say, have been going on for years and are still going strong.

The message of last night's Relay for Life kickoff was simple: "Cancer doesn't wait, so why should you?" This year's annual Relay for Life information session occurred last night in Huntsman Hall. The organization, which raises cancer awareness, is managed by Colleges Against Cancer and is endorsed by the American Cancer Society.