A small crowd gathered at the Paul Peck Alumni Center at Drexel University yesterday to hear Melissa Thomas, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, speak about the effectiveness of international debt-relief programs in improving the quality of life in third-world countries.

The women's lacrosse team continues its history-making season, even after losing in the NCAA championship game. Yesterday, five members of the team were named to the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association All-American teams. That is the most ever for the program, and only the third time in history that more than one Quaker has been honored.

University commencement speakers range from public officials to TV celebrities this year, with many colleges seeming intent on procuring big-name speakers to address their graduating classes. But students noticed that their graduation speakers and ceremonies focused on political issues - sometimes excessively - because the country is in the midst of a highly contested election.

TOWSON, Md. When I joined the Daily Pennsylvanian sports section two years ago, never did I think I would cover an NCAA national championship game. And looking at Penn Athletics history, there's no reason I should have thought so. In the long history of Penn sports, never had a Penn team played in an NCAA-sanctioned championship game of a team sport.

The Penn women's tennis No. 1 doubles team knew they could beat their first-round opponents in the NCAA doubles championship. In fact, they had already topped them in the fall. When advancement in the NCAA tournament was on the line, however, the 29th-ranked team from Arkansas bested the Quakers' Ekaterina Kosminskaya and Julia Koulbitskaya, 6-4, 6-2 May 22 in Tulsa, Okla.

For Penn's graduating seniors, stepping out into the real world may be tougher than expected. According to a survey by Vault.com - a leading media company that focuses on inside career information - only 50 percent of graduating seniors have received job offers this year.

TOWSON, Md, May 25 - Over the past two years, Northwestern has been the one roadblock for the women's lacrosse team. Going into Sunday's NCAA final, Northwestern had given Penn two of the team's three losses since the start of the 2007 campaign. And after defeating the Quakers 10-6, Northwestern remains Penn's fly in the ointment.

If graduating senior Max Mauro thought that Penn's season-ending victory over Army would be his last collegiate lacrosse game ever, he received a welcome surprise when he was selected to the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association North/South All-Star game for seniors.

From business founders to marathon runners, the Class of 2012 will bring a host of talented students to Penn. And now incoming Nursing freshman Jaclyn Gage can add another skill to the class roster - bird calling. Gage recently won second place in Piedmont High School's 43rd-annual Bird-Calling Contest, a well-known competition in which groups of students imitate birds of their choosing.

Standing before a sea of excited students in black robes in the middle of a sunny Franklin Field, University President Amy Gutmann began the 252nd Commencement Ceremony by warning the graduates that, before receiving their diplomas, "you must prove yourselves worthy of your Penn degrees by performing one last task: Endure our speeches.

Heavyweight rowing continues losing ways In its final head-to-head competition of the season, the men's heavyweight rowing team continued its disappointing season, losing the Madeira Cup to Cornell. Penn fell first in the freshmen 8 race by 6.8 seconds. Cornell clinched the Cup in the varsity 8 race, clocking in at 6:11.

Drexel University announced last week that it will begin a graduate studies program in Sacramento, Calif. This program is just the first in what Drexel hopes will be a network of graduate campuses across the country. Other target cities for similar programs - pending the success of the Sacramento program - include Phoenix, Miami, Los Angeles and Dallas or Houston.

In 2004, a federal ban on assault weapons expired. Now, four years later, Mayor Michael Nutter and Governor Ed Rendell want to reduce violent crime nationally by convincing Congress to re-enact the ban. The ten-year federal ban forbids the possession, manufacture, use and import of assault weapons.

This Saturday, the Department of Dermatology and the University's Abramson Cancer Center will conduct free skin screenings to determine the chance of developing skin cancer. From 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., dermatology specialists will see patients by appointment only at the Department of Dermatology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

This weekend marks the beginning of the final stretch for many of Penn's best senior track and field athletes. They will be competing in the NCAA East Regionals in Tallahassee, Fla. on Friday and Saturday. Of the seven athletes wearing the Red and Blue, five will be running with the knowledge that a loss will bring an end to their collegiate careers.

With temperatures on the rise, the public has begun to swarm local movie theaters - but for some, the onset of the summer movie season means the hard work has just started as filming crews get to work on next summer's blockbusters. This June, Penn is slated to become one of the filming locations for the highly anticipated DreamWorks feature film, "Transformers 2.

"Imagine a world where you could manage your entire life from Facebook - it's not that far off!" While you were home recuperating from the intellectual hazing that was Finals Week, an academic juggernaut other than Penn was "Making History". Blackboard, a premier course management website, announced the release of the Blackboard Sync - its first ever Facebook application.