Four games, four shutouts. That's the feat the men's soccer team has accomplished so far this season. Its defensive success is the primary reason that Penn has gotten off to a 3-0-1 start and brought home trophies from tournaments at Marquette and Princeton.

Recently, I had a conversation with a current high-school senior about chances and strategies for applying to Penn. She was from my alma mater - a rural public school of 1,600 - and if admitted, would be only the second graduate to break into the Ivy League in more than 10 years.

The cost of energy is spiraling beyond the reach of many Pennsylvanians. Forty-three percent of residents and 59 percent of businesses are having trouble keeping up with recent energy-cost increases, according to the statewide environmental advocacy group PennFuture.

Penn's six branches of undergraduate student government and six minority and cultural coalitions recently began a collaboration to diversify student government. The effort was prompted by a decline in minority participation that leaders of different organizations have noticed.

Two weeks ago, The Daily Californian, the independent student newspaper at UC Berkeley, announced that it would suspend its Wednesday print edition. The Daily Orange, the paper at Syracuse, announced days later it would do the same for its Friday edition. Many in college journalism - myself included - hoped that student papers would remain largely unaffected by the turmoil in news media.

With new crime-mapping Web sites, students and Philadelphia residents can keep track of area crimes, all without leaving their computers. One such site - ucrime.com - was launched about a month and a half ago. Ucrime.com provides crime maps, data and alert for more than 100 colleges across the country.

While some Hillary Clinton enthusiasts are still deciding whom to vote for in November's general election, Penn for Hillary has thrown its support behind Barack Obama. "We decided over the summer that we would try to fold into Penn Dems and Penn for Obama," said Penn for Hillary co-chairwoman and College senior Julie Siegel, who is the former Spin editor for The Daily Pennsylvanian.

It's tough to pinpoint how exactly Penn's 2007 campaign was derailed. Sure, starting quarterback Robert Irvin suffered a torn labrum in Week 2, and fifth-year rusher Joe Sandberg was always banged up. An intentional safety in the season opener - which badly backfired - and an ineligible receiver in the third overtime against Yale didn't help.

When College junior Cameron Clark looks back on this fall semester, he will fondly remember fine dinners paired with appropriate wines in the company of friends. But these memories aren't from Philadelphia, where the minimum legal drinking age is 21. Instead, they are souvenirs he is accumulating during his semester abroad at the Universite Lumiere Lyon in France.

Awk-waaard. For 14 years, Scott Allen headed the golf program at George Washington. But this past weekend, Allen got a look at the Colonials from the other side of the tee box - as Penn's head coach. He even helped GW with some administrative duties at yesterday's Rehoboth Beach Tournament.

One of the hottest debate topics for the upcoming presidential election has been the choice between universal or free-market health care insurance. However, health care is just damage control, according to contributing doctors of the TV series "Unnatural Causes" on PBS.

Biden, a last name that may have meant very little to most college students just a month ago, is now a surname on the tip of everyone's tongues. Joseph "Beau" Biden, a 1991 College alumnus, Attorney General of Delaware and son of Vice Presidential nominee and Delaware Sen.

The second Undergraduate Assembly meeting of the year was spent mostly on member suggestions for improving student life and internal business. With freshmen elections around the corner, many students who are running for a seat on the UA attended the meeting to learn more about its work.

Amira Fawcett is an Engineering senior from Houston, Texas. Her e-mail address is fawcett@dailypennsylvanian.com.

The annual ritual of freshmen elections began yesterday as students gathered at the Office of Student Life to formally declare their candidacy. Freshmen from all four undergraduate schools are represented with 23 students from the College, 20 from Wharton, eight from Engineering and one from Nursing.

When students apply to Penn this fall, the admissions office will not print out their essays, grades or test scores. Instead, their applications will form the basis of a digital file that will stay with them throughout their years at the University. Admissions officers will manage student applications on Penn's new digital media imaging system - Oasis.

Like most people, I don't think I'm a racist. And until recently, I believed that the racism our country struggles with came from somewhere else - where, I didn't know, but certainly not from my own actions. I was wrong. Just under a year ago, I wrote a column about DuBois College House and what I then termed its false diversity: a column that was written essentially from the perspective of the dumb white Penn student, a perspective that too many of us white kids share.