It starts with an innocent e-mail at the end of junior year, encouraging us to consider the importance of fundraising. And before we know it, we've graduated to become the recipients of nightly phone calls from chipper-voiced undergraduates soliciting us for hundreds of dollars' worth of donations.

Though it is impossible to replicate the comfort of a living room in a large auditorium, last night's interview with Chinua Achebe came close. With a 500-person audience filling the room to capacity, the setting created by the Free Library of Philadelphia managed to transform Achebe's dialogue into something more like an insightful fireside chat.

Last week's announcement that Logan Hall will be renamed Claudia Cohen Hall has raised a few eyebrows. Penn faculty and students expressed surprise that historic buildings such as Logan Hall could be renamed after donors. Logan Hall, named after one of Penn's founding trustees, will be renamed this summer after Claudia Cohen, an entertainment journalist and a 1972 College of Women graduate who passed away last summer.

Jennifer Lesser is a College sophomore from Minneapolis, MN. Her e-mail address is lesser@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Wharton is joining forces with investment bank Goldman Sachs for a unique philanthropic mission. Goldman Sachs' global initiative, '10,000 Women,' will provide short-term business education programs over the next five years to provide approximately 10,000 women in developing countries with the skills to become successful entrepreneurs.

While the cost of attending Penn will rise next year, the jump is relatively small when compared to other institutions. Penn's overall tuition increase of 4.4 percent for the 2008-2009 school year is slightly below the average increase at several peer institutions and well below last year's national average at four-year private schools.

Pennsylvanians - and Penn students - aren't waiting until the fall to voice their views on who should be the country's next president. While final numbers are not yet available from the Pennsylvania State Department, it appears that voter registration has increased dramatically this year leading up to the state's April 22 primary.

It's been a good few days to be a Penn hitter. The Quakers are batting .344 in their last five games and .295 overall, nearly 50 points higher than their opponents. The outlier has been Adrian Lorenzo. The freshman outfielder entered Friday's doubleheader against Mount Saint Mary's as Penn's leading hitter but departed from the Quakers' loss to Lafayette under less auspicious circumstances.

Upcoming development projects associated with Penn, including the $500 million Cira Center South towers, will be changing the face of University City for years to come. But Penn isn't the only institution changing the landscape west of the Schuylkill. This month, Drexel University announced that it will commit more than $400 million to the construction of 11 projects that will be completed by 2013.

Stress and college may seem like an obvious matrimony. But the rates at which college students nationwide regularly experience stress are higher than one might expect. A recent study conducted by The Associated Press and mtvU found that 80 percent of 2000 university students polled reported experiencing stress on a daily basis.

If you only have a vague idea of the location and politics of Sierra Leone outside of what was presented in the movie Blood Diamond, you're not alone. But there's a lot more to this small West African country than Hollywood drama depicts. Last night, the International Relations program hosted Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone and author of the highly acclaimed book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.

While Spring Fling 2008 is still almost two weeks away, Quad residents are already frustrated with the inconvenience of bag checks. Last Thursday, security guards began checking the bags of each student entering the Quad. Some residents complain that the alcohol checks make them uncomfortable.

"Come on! Right here!" Jason Pinsky yelled to himself when a break point presented itself in the second set. The senior captain, playing at No. 1, was up 6-3, 3-3, before winning that point to take the lead. "I knew eventually I was going to convert it, but I just had to be patient," he said.

It took Corey Winkoff less than eight minutes to prove that he belonged in the men's lacrosse starting lineup. The freshman attacker scored in the first 7:41 of his career and 27 minutes later, he ripped the net again in the Feb. 23 game against Drexel. Now, six games into the season, Winkoff is second on the team in points, behind only captain Craig Andrzejewski.

One student is fighting for civil rights via economic justice. Another wants to change the face of foreign policy. And now both have the support of the prestigious Truman Scholarship - awarded to juniors who show leadership potential and are committed to careers in public service - to help them realize their aspirations.

Doctors do it for love, while lawyers do it for money - at least according to a recent survey of almost 1,000 pre-law and pre-medical students. Kaplan, the test-prep company, conducted a survey asking 914 students what role earning power played in their choice to pursue a career in either law or medicine.

When it comes to the perception of crime, Penn students need to get their priorities straight. It never ceases to amaze me how comfortable Penn students are leaving their possessions in the company of strangers. The same students who'll practice walking in circles to throw imaginary muggers off their scent will leave their $2,000 laptops unattended to wait in line for an ice-mocha-latte-frappuccino.