In a heated debate last night, experts disagreed about whether affirmative active is the solution to the problem of racial inequality, or the problem itself. The Hall of Flags in Houston Hall was packed with people eager to listen to two authors who have both written extensively on the effects of affirmative action.

College senior Bryce LeFort and Wharton senior Stephen Lande face preliminary hearings this morning on charges of aggravated assault. LeFort and Lande are being charged for their alleged involvement in an incident that left College senior Andrew Scharf missing a chunk of an ear on the night of Oct.

Jonathan Saidel's surprise withdrawal from the mayoral race may be one potential candidate's gain. Saidel's decision not to run means that U.S. Rep. Bob Brady and union head John Dougherty are now left as the only two major white candidates in the May Democratic ballot race.

Early applications to Penn dropped slightly this year, admissions officials announced yesterday.

The School of Arts and Sciences Webmail server broke down last night at about 11:45 p.m. It had also crashed earlier yesterday morning. Penn officials had said they would replace the service by November but have failed to decide which of the two companies in the running- Microsoft or Google - will be used.

College junior Kathryn Lee left 30th Street Station just before dawn during Thanksgiving break. With the road only lit by street lamps, Lee said she and another female friend remained anxious during the walk back to school. "We were scared to walk back from the train station, so we debated about getting a cab," Lee said.

Nicknamed "Willing and Able" in his senior-class yearbook for the Penn School of Design, Julian Abele - pronounced "able" - was an overachiever. When he graduated from the School in 1902, Abele was president of the Penn Architectural Society, the recipient of numerous architectural awards and was poised to join one of Philadelphia's top architectural firms.

Marissa Rhodes spends her days surrounded by books. But, unlike the students who will retreat to Van Pelt Library during the next few weeks of studying before finals, it's Rhodes' job to think about what everyone else is reading. As the Penn Bookstore's trade floor manager, Rhodes oversees all the non-textbook titles in stock - a collection that runs the gamut from the classic works of Jane Austen to celebrity chef Rachael Ray's popular series of recipe books.

For college students, beer, pizza and bowling are a winning combination. At least that's what College Pizza owner George Ballouz is banking on. The pizzeria will move from its current location - which it was forced to leave due to a planned construction project on the 3900 block of Walnut Street - into the mezzanine of Strikes Bowling Lounge over winter break.

As a criminal-malpractice lawyer, Penn alumna Joan Saltzman has seen everything that might go wrong in an operation. Presenting her book, Mr. Right and My Left Kidney, at the Penn Bookstore last night, Saltzman described overcoming her doubts about donating a kidney to her husband.

According to Christopher Graveline, former Cpl. Charles Graner is a "truly an evil man." Graveline - a former military lawyer - presented a photo of Graner "grinning over a dead corpse," illustrating the Abu Ghraib prison atrocities to a crowd of over 50 people yesterday afternoon in the Nursing Education Building.

College junior Laura Paine and College sophomore Promise Sullivan will head the Civic House Associations Coalition, Civic House leaders announced last night. CHAC is responsible for providing educational workshops and funding for community service projects within the Philadelphia community.

Since 2003, Arab militants, known as the Janjaweed, have murdered over 400,000 African Muslims in the Darfur region of western Sudan - and some say the Sudanese government has paved the way. Aaron Dorfman, director of Jewish education at the American Jewish World Service, described these atrocities before a group of about 50 people at the Kelly Writers House last evening.

Course-management industry giant Blackboard faces what will likely be a critical legal challenge after a group of open-source advocates filed a formal request to have the company's 44 patents revoked. The open-source groups are alleging that the patents - which were awarded to Blackboard in January - would give the company a virtual monopoly on online learning technology by allowing Blackboard to use the patents to sue its competitors.

Electrical and Systems Engineering professor Nader Engheta was named one of Scientific American's top-fifty leaders in science and technology in the magazine's December issue. Engheta - who earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Tehran and his Ph.

Perceptions about body weight don't stop at the scales anymore. "Fat studies" is a growing interdisciplinary area of study at universities across the country, devoted to examining discrimination and stereotypes against the fat body and studying the collective experience of fat people in society.

Desperate students trying to cram in an extra hour of studying this week will now be able to do it in Van Pelt Library. At the request of the Undergraduate Assembly, Carton Rogers - who runs Penn's libraries - decided to keep Van Pelt open until 2 a.m. from yesterday through the end of exams.