For many Penn students, the perks of being a Resident Advisor are pretty obvious: free room and board, a meal plan with endless Dining Dollars, freedom from the tyranny of Campus Apartments and absolute authority over dozens of feeble freshmen. But as much as anyone would appreciate having rent-free housing, some students certainly need it more than others.

In softball, a game dominated by statistics, numbers can often be the most daunting aspect of an opponent. Cornell (25-7, 7-1 Ivy League) has won eight straight en route to its Ancient Eight-best overall record. Penn coach Leslie King is unfazed by the Big Red, whom her team will play in back-to-back doubleheaders this weekend.

Everywhere Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) goes, students seem to follow. In all but three states this year, Obama has won the youth vote and dramatically increased young-voter registration and turn out at the polls. But with the Democratic race unlikely to end soon, many are wondering what will happen with young voters in the fall, particularly if Sen.

Last year, the Penn women's lacrosse team beat Dartmouth for the first time in exactly 16 years. This year, as the No. 6 Quakers (9-1, 4-0 Ivy) try to win in Hanover, N.H. tomorrow for the first time since April 9, 1988, the stakes aren't quite as high as last year when the teams were first and third in the standings.

The Quakers are three and a half games back of Gehrig Division-leading Columbia, with 12 conference games to go. They have as good a chance as they could ask for to shoot up the standings when Cornell visits Meiklejohn Stadium this weekend for four of those contests.

Mike Blodgett may be a junior, but thanks to the Princeton Invitational, he has never had a chance to attend Penn's signature party. "This tournament always falls on Spring Fling," he said. "I've never experienced what it's all about, but I don't regret it.

Despite the heavy chance of rain over Spring Fling weekend, the show will go on, according to SPEC. "It's going to go on rain or shine," said College sophomore and Fling co-chairwoman Dasha Barannik who is running the operations for the weekend festivities.

I, like many of my peers who better be doing the same thing right now, am flinging. You could ask me why, and I'd tell you, but I hope it's fairly obvious. We get only two official days a year when all our collegiate responsibilities are forgotten - just as long as we don't forget which freshman we employed to hide that bottle of booze before bag checks started.

A misleading comment To the Editor: Christina Domenico's interesting column on cognitive enhancement generally reflected my views accurately, but one part of it may have misled readers. After a paragraph that reported some ways in which I think cognitive enhancement could be "a bad thing," Domenico wrote, "But if an academic decides to give himself a boost by taking Adderall and consequently produces better research - well, that's a good thing.

By the time Ludacris takes the Franklin Field stage tonight, the Penn men's tennis team hopes to have taken the Number One Spot in the Ivy League. The Quakers can do so today by going into Boston and defeating Harvard, which is perched atop the Ivy League (10-6, 2-0 Ivy).

It's finally that time of year again - time to celebrate the largest college party on the East Coast. Since 1973, Spring Fling has been the ultimate student event at Penn. The weekend festivities began as a final stress-reliever before students headed to exams.

Twelve graduate students were chosen to represent more than 11,000 of their peers Wednesday night when the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly elected its 2008-2009 Executive Board. The Board will be led by School of Medicine student Andrew Rennekamp.

I hope the Tibetan monks don't plan to write to The Daily Pennsylvanian anytime soon to protest Chinese rule because apparently some of our readers aren't too sympathetic to diplomatic, non-militant forms of activism. The Penn chapter of the NAACP has been idiotically criticized this week for its push for long-overdue renovations to DuBois College House.

Next week, Penn will have the opportunity to witness the "Colbert bump, " as the popular Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report, will film at the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts next Monday through Thursday nights. In a telephone interview with the show's host, Stephen Colbert, the Daily Pennsylvanian had the chance to ask Colbert about his views on filming at Penn, his job and the Pennsylvania primary.

Collegiate men's lacrosse games last 60 minutes. Too bad for the Quakers, who may be lobbying for a rule change after yet another second-half collapse. Tuesday night at Princeton, Penn went into halftime within shooting distance of the Tigers, down a respectable 6-4.

Classical Studies professor Ralph Rosen has been appointed the new Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences. Rosen, who has been at Penn for the past 25 years, will be responsible for overseeing the School's doctoral programs, which enroll approximately 2,000 students.

Steven Pinker has a way with words. Named one of Time's 100 most influential people in 2004, the best-selling Harvard psychology professor spoke in Irvine Auditorium yesterday on his new book, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature. His presentation was part of the 2008 Levin Family Dean's Forum, an annual celebration of the arts and sciences featuring leading intellectual figures.