Mayor Michael Nutter announced "Philadelphia's Education Promise" - his plan to improve the city's education system - last night before a crowded auditorium at South Philadelphia High School. The speech outlined Nutter's plans to involve the entire Philadelphia community in working toward goals that include decreasing the drop out rate and increasing college enrollment.

Athletes weren't the only members of Penn's community participating in the Olympics last month in Beijing. Three of Penn's chefs and food coordinators worked with 250 other employees of Aramark, Penn Dining's official partner, to serve 3.5 million meals during the Olympics and Paralympics this August.

Students whose expensive cultural tastes are stifled by less-than-extravagant budgets are now in luck. On Sept. 25 the Philadelphia Orchestra will host a free concert to kick off its new student-membership program, eZseatU. eZseatU is a subscription to a series of Philadelphia Orchestra concerts offered exclusively to college students.

Safiya Shabazz, a family-care physician at the Penn-Presbyterian Medical Center, expects this fall's work on the South Street Bridge to be a "huge inconvenience." Nursing graduate student Alexis Udalovas groans that, "It's going to be terrible." The two are concerned about the Philadelphia Streets Department's plan to reconstruct the bridge starting this fall - a major engineering feat that will close the bridge to all traffic for about two years.

Compared to the freshmen of a century ago, this year's Class of 2012 has it relatively easy. Unlike their forbearers, they face no threat of violence or hazing if they forget to wear "freshman beanies," walk on "sacred spaces," or are seen with a member of the opposite sex - just three of the many regulations listed on the broadsheets on display at Van Pelt Library's exhibit, "Oh Fresh! Sophomore Proclamations of Freshman Rules, 1866-WWII.

It's all about location, location, location. Foxwoods Casino and state and local officials announced at a press conference yesterday that the casino would consider building its planned multi-million dollar venue at the Gallery shopping center near 10th and Market streets.

While attending college in Philadelphia, Nick Miccarelli's experience was twice interrupted to serve in the military overseas. The 2007 Penn alumnus and Iraq War veteran has long been preparing for a life of service - he completed basic training with the Pennsylvania National Guard before finishing high school - and is now running for a position in Pennsylvania's General Assembly.

When College sophomore Pamela Putnam was deciding which classes to take this fall, she knew she wanted to take a Political Science course along with her pre-med ones. Putnam said November's presidential election motivated her to learn more about American government.

Penn Law and Wharton announced yesterday that the two schools would partner to form a three-year graduate program in which students would pursue both a JD and MBA. The accelerated program would be one of just a handful of its kind in the country. "As the world becomes more complex, leaders must be able to integrate financial, legal, political and cultural issues like never before," Law School Dean Michael Fitts said in a press release.

Legal experts are divided over whether universities are common targets in discrimination lawsuits. In July, two former University employees - one of the Medical Center, the other of the Dental Care Network - filed lawsuits against Penn, citing discrimination and retaliation.

When it comes to picking a PIK professor, the requirements are stiff, and the stakes are high. PIK, or Penn Integrates Knowledge, professors hold joint appointments in two departments in two schools in the University.

This year, Penn's freshman cohort of international students had one more way to ease their transition to life at Penn. The International Mentoring Program, which was organized by the International Student Council at the end of last semester, paired new international students with current Penn upperclassmen from their home countries this fall.

Student leaders across the University are helping Penn lead the vote. Penn Leads the Vote - a nonpartisan group that aims to increase voter participation - wants student leaders to "take on voter registration and civic engagement as their own task," PLTV President and College senior Stephanie Simon said.

A curfew is something that most Penn students haven't had to deal with in a long time - but for anyone still under 18, it's something to be aware of. Local businesses like Fresh Grocer and Izzy and Zoe's have recently posted signs with information about Philadelphia's curfew, prompting surprised reactions from students who didn't know the city had a curfew.

An Iranian human rights scholar scheduled to teach at Penn Law as a visiting professor is reportedly being detained by the Iranian government without charges or explanation. The scholar, Medhi Zakerian, was arrested in mid-August as he waited for U.S. visa clearance, said Penn Law professor and international law expert William Burke-White.

One Penn professor is in Switzerland today to test drive the largest particle accelerator ever built. Physics professor Hugh "Brig" Williams traveled across the Atlantic to fine-tune Penn's contribution to the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC is located at the European Organization for Nuclear Research laboratory near Geneva and is the world's highest-energy particle accelerator.

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