From the Art Museum to the poker table, photos from around New Student Orientation

The last time high-rise apartments looked this good, Penn students grooved to disco music and Richard Nixon was still president. For the first time since Harnwell College House was built in the early 1970s, it's gotten a renovation. New appliances and surfaces, tiled floors and efficient storage space will greet students moving in this fall to the top 10 floors.

The prospect of never having to take the SAT is no longer confined to high school students' wildest dreams. Schools across the country are re-examining their admissions policies, and several have announced they will no longer require standardized-test scores from applicants.

A clinical gene vaccine to combat a severe respiratory disease has been developed in a cooperation between Penn and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. The vaccine, the first gene vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome, is expected to be launched pending additional testing.

City Council passed this summer a bill that bans smoking in all public places in the city - most notably in restaurants and bars. Former Councilman Michael Nutter, who resigned his seat to join the 2007 mayoral race, was the main sponsor of the ban, a project he has been pushing for years.

Seeing Dave Matthews live has never been so charitable. The king of jam-band ethos will take the stage alongside Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson on Sept. 30 for the annual Farm Aid concert, to be held at the Tweeter Center at the Waterfront in Camden, N.

Students at Penn can exhale - it does not look like standardized testing is going to make it to the University's agenda. Even though a report released by the Department of Education in August has generated renewed conversation about the prospect of collegiate standardized testing, University administrators say that there is no need for such testing at Penn.

Potential fraternity brothers could have one more option this year - Zeta Beta Tau is looking to come back to campus. The fraternity will try to re-establish its presence after having been expelled from Penn two years ago. The expulsion occurred after participants at an unofficial pledge event in 2004 were sent to the emergency room at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where they were treated for alcohol poisoning and bodily injuries.

Despite several shootings on campus this year, officials at Security on Campus think Penn hasn't dropped the ball on safety. In fact, SOC, a national non-profit organization dedicated to preventing violence on college campuses, selected the University to host its kick-off to the second annual National Campus Safety Awareness Month, held yesterday.

All charges have been dropped against College senior Bryan Warner, who was charged with attempted murder earlier this year. The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office dropped the case after the complainant failed to report to court on three separate occasions.

Irina Malinovskaya, a Wharton undergraduate charged with first-degree murder, will face her second trial Sept. 12. A hung jury voted 11-1 in favor of Malinovskaya's acquittal in February, and prosecutors have decided to hold a retrial. Malinovskaya is accused of murdering Temple University student Irina Zlotnikov.

Get ready to cut the cords. Penn has rolled out wireless access for all 11 college houses and Sansom Place in time for the school year, allowing students to finally break away from their ethernet cables. The project cost $700,000 and was completed in mid-July, said Marilyn Spicer, associate director of computing.

Alcor, a polar bear who underwent major surgery at Penn's George D. Widener Veterinary Hospital, died August 21 on his way back to Ohio. He was brought to Penn because of severe fractures to his right front leg that are believed to have been sustained while he was playing with his brother Mizar.

It could be your worst nightmare. After a night of unprotected sex, women can find themselves scared, confused and at risk for an unplanned pregnancy. These women have had the option of taking emergency contraception - or "the morning-after pill" - since it became available via prescription in 1998.

Former Penn professor Tracy McIntosh remains on probation as he awaits a superior court decision on whether he will face harsher penalties for his sexual assault conviction. McIntosh was sentenced in March 2005 to 11 to 23 months of house arrest after being charged with sexually assaulting the 23-year-old niece of a close friend when she visited him on campus.

Philadelphia resident John Waynes cools off by wading in a fountain in Love Park while listening to music. Philadelphia was struck by a heat-wave over the summer that sent temperatures well into the 90s. Police threatened to issue $25 tickets to anyone who went into the city's fountains.