Over two weeks after student government elections came and went, the transition process is not yet over. On Wednesday night, the Undergraduate Assembly will hold its annual internal elections to select members from the 2009-2010 UA body to fill the group's five executive offices.

Going off to grad school can seem like entering a foreign country - especially to those coming from one. The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly International Council is creating two programs to help international graduate students make this transition by connecting them with peer and alumni mentors.

The year: 1973. The scene: the National Fencing Championships in Tuscon, Ariz. Dave Micahnik had advanced to the semifinals in his quest to earn a fourth trip to the Olympics. A year earlier Micahnik had narrowly missed a finals berth at Nationals. After his elimination in the semifinals he stood in the middle of the floor, took his epee in both hands and tried to break it - but it wouldn't break.

Wharton sophomore Eduardo Mayoral starts each morning by reading not The Daily Pennsylvanian or The New York Times, but El Tiempo, a Colombian newspaper, online. Mayoral, like many international students at Penn, concerns himself daily with the political happenings in his native country as well as those in the United States.

You are reading an eight-page newspaper today. On this day last year, you were reading a 14-page paper. And, though it's a rarity for The Daily Pennsylvanian to drop to such a low size, it is not the first eight-page paper of the semester. Unfortunately, every newspaper in the country is slimming down its print edition.

One professor makes assigning his book for class altruistic. For the past three years, Political Science department chairman Avery Goldstein has required students to buy a book he authored, but in exchange he has given students the choice to receive $1 back or donate $1 to a charity.

Penn's reputation as "the social Ivy" is well-known among the Ancient Eight, and apparently among the prospective class of 2013 as well. "I'm really impressed by the Greek life at Penn," Monica Lindrooth, a high-school senior from New York City, said during Penn Previews last week.

Violent crime has dropped significantly since Drexel University unveiled its new police department, according to Drexel's Senior Associate Vice President for Public Safety Domenic Ceccanecchio. After being officially recognized as a law enforcement agency by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office in June 2008, the department has been operational since March 15.

The day seemed eerily familiar for the Penn softball squad. After winning its first two games of a four-game home stand Saturday against Princeton - by scores of 2-0 and 5-1, respectively - the streaky Quakers suffered a four-run loss in a lackluster performance in yesterday's first game against the Tigers.

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A 30-year-old man affiliated with the University was hit by a car near 38th and Walnut streets on Friday night, according to Division of Public Safety spokeswoman Stef Cella. Cella was unable to confirm the man's condition, since the investigation is being handled by the Philadelphia Police.

Friday afternoon on Senior Day, Lauren Sadaka's name resounded through the crowd. The senior co-captain was in the middle of her final stellar home performance during Penn's 7-0 win over Columbia. But the weekend was just beginning for Sadaka, as yesterday she won the clinching match in Penn's 4-3 win over Cornell in Ithaca, N.

Despite significant increases in the numbers of applicants to Penn's Ph.D. programs, the number of acceptances at most schools will remain relatively similar to past years.=Only 10 of Penn's 12 graduate schools offer Ph.D. programs - the School of Law and the School of Dental Medicine do not.

By MICHAEL ROBERTS Staff Writer roberts@dailypennsylvanian.com Jonathan Boym's tennis career has drawn to a close. And while he finished his career with a bang, earning one of three singles wins for Penn yesterday against Cornell, his team's results will leave something of a bitter taste.

College senior Kojo Minta is struggling to figure out whether to enter academia or the nonprofit sector after graduation. A history major studying 17th-century Puritanism, he finds it hard to reconcile historical interests with concerns about current issues, like poverty and political turmoil.

Although they missed Spring Fling on Friday and Saturday, the Penn women's lacrosse team still had a weekend to remember in Providence, R.I. With their 14-4 win over Brown Saturday, the Quakers are officially the Ivy League Champions. Saturday's win clinched the title outright for the undefeated Red and Blue (13-0, 7-0 Ivy).

In what has been a season of close losses, disheartening Ivy weekends and unfulfilled expectations, Penn baseball had one last chance to salvage a shot at the Gehrig Division with two doubleheaders against Princeton this weekend. But by the time the Quakers notched a win in the last of their four-game set, it was too late.