While some plan to spend their spring break enjoying rest and relaxation, other Penn students will dedicate the next week to helping the less fortunate. Here are the stories of four students who will take the road less traveled as they participate in alternative spring break programs: Wharton Sophomore Danesty Len will be heading to New Orleans on the Fox Leadership Program-sponsored Alternative Spring Break trip.

March 16, 3 p.m. Tap House is expected to open in the Radian Apartments Aug. 1, according to Brian Harrington, founder of Public House Investments, which owns the restaurant. He said he hopes for it to be up and running before the bulk of the University community returns for the fall semester.

Although the value of Penn's endowment fell 19.4 percent in the second half of 2008, the impact on individual students is harder to discern. The way University finances are structured means the school will be able to survive the economic downturn with modest budget cuts.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching studied 40 U.S. engineering schools last month and found that most schools heavily emphasize textbook learning rather than hands-on experience, leaving students unprepared for the real world. But while some School of Engineering and Applied Sciences students say this is the case, others say they are happy with their courses' practicability.

Two students were swept up in Penn's effort last month to halt the spread of meningococcal infection that sent shock waves through campus. Between Feb. 12 and 13, three students were hospitalized with meningococcal infection, a bacterial infection within the bloodstream.

Penn students challenged by the task of completing a demanding curriculum within four years often choose not to study abroad - but within the next 10 years, they may have more opportunities to do so. U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Wicker (R- Miss.

Anyone who's seen a Spike Lee film will tell you that the Emmy award-winning director is not afraid to express his opinions. Lee's appearance as the Social Planning and Events Film Committee's first keynote speaker last night at Irvine Auditorium further demonstrated his outspoken demeanor.

For some of Penn's Greek houses, Earth Day is coming a little early this year. Six fraternities and one sorority have joined the eight-week Greek House Recycling pilot program in an effort to reduce waste and promote environmental awareness in Penn's Greek houses.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching studied 40 U.S. engineering schools last month and found that most schools place heavy emphasis on textbook learning and not enough on hands-on experience, leaving students unprepared for the real world.

In three years of participating in on-campus recruiting, College and Wharton senior Ravi Naresh is three for three - summer internships after his sophomore and junior years and a full-time job for after graduation. But Naresh is just one of approximately 1,800 students that go through the on-campus recruiting process each year, and the picture isn't quite as rosy for everyone else.

"The time has come to think about sex," Gayle Rubin wrote 25 years ago as the opening of her paper Thinking Sex. Now that time has come again. Rethinking Sex: Gender and Sexuality Studies State of the Field Conference opened last night at the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Did you spend more time in piano lessons or watching TV when you were growing up? The answer may depend largely on your social class. Sociologist Annette Lareau addressed the idea of class differences in child-rearing practices during an event held by the Penn Education Society last night in Houston Hall.

In economic and business classes across campus, students learn about labor as an abstraction, as a commodity, as something to be traded on the market. But for Peter Ho and three other hotel workers who spoke last week with a group of students, faculty and staff, labor is deeply personal.

View Larger Map Theft Feb. 20 - Eugene Chakejian, 39, unaffiliated with the University and of the 900 block of Meadow Creek, Chester Springs, Pa., was arrested at about 12:15 a.m. for allegedly attempting to leave Wawa, located at 3744 Spruce St., without paying for merchandise valued at about $40.

The Social Planning and Events Film Committee will leave its mark today by bringing Spike Lee to campus as the first-ever SPEC Film keynote speaker. The Emmy award-winning filmmaker will speak at Irvine Auditorium tonight at 7:30 p.m. at an event entitled "The World Through My Lens: A Conversation on Film Making with Spike Lee.

In his budget proposal last week, President Barack Obama announced that he wants the United States to have the "highest proportion of college graduates in the world" by 2020. His $3.55-trillion budget presents this kind of "real and dramatic change," including a significant amount of education budget reform, Obama explained.

In response to the global economic downfall, World Bank President Robert Zoellick advocates a "multidisciplinary approach" to solving the current problems. Last night, in a moderated discussion held by the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, Zoellick outlined specific ways in which the World Bank aims to help developing countries during the crisis.