Overall crime in the Penn patrol zone increased by 10 percent over the past year, but the biggest jump was seen in thefts, rather than violent offenses.

On Jan. 5, millions of students logged on to their social lifeline: Facebook. But there was something different that day, as students found themselves looking at an advertisement for the ABC News/Facebook New Hampshire Debates airing that night. When every vote counts, campaigns are now turning to sites like Facebook and YouTube to get their messages to young voters.

The worst part of winter break is waiting for final grades. But with the advent of e-learning programs like Blackboard and webCafe, students and professors have the option of constant communication. Curriculum changes or complicated questions move from one party to another with the click of a button, reducing confusion and simplifying professor-student interactions.

In the first 71 years of the Baseball Hall of Fame's existence, zero Penn alumni were inducted into it. But now the Quakers are finally represented in Cooperstown. Walter O'Malley (C '26) was voted in by the Veterans Committee in early December for his work as owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1944 to his death in 1979.

Tuesday night's Big 5 contest involved two young teams that produced one ugly game. Both teams did a nice job of finding ways to get open looks, but neither could finish around the basket. Penn was fairly successful in getting the ball into the post, but the forwards couldn't hit, and slashing layups seldom connected.

Behold, the wonders of modern technology! I spent my winter break halfway around the world in China, and thanks to the live streaming video service provided by PennAthletics.com, the basketball teams' mid-vacation action made the trip with me. But as the feed stuttered and the audio came and went at its own whim, it became clear that a new limiting factor had replaced distance: technical kinks.

The University announced earlier today that Eric Furda, the vice president for alumni relations at Columbia University, will take over as the new dean of admissions at Penn on July 1, 2008. Furda served as the executive director of undergraduate admissions at Columbia from 1995 to 2004.

I've come to realize that one of the few things administrators and student leaders perennially agree upon is that we clearly don't have enough chances to bond outside the classroom. This desire to increase Wharton camaraderie must have been the motivation behind the creation of the undergraduate cohort system.

After Harvard and Princeton eliminated their early-application programs last year, many students scrambled to apply early to another institution. Penn's numbers of early-decision applicants and admitted students, however, remained steady and were seemingly not affected.

Penn freshman Barbara Wei picked up her first table tennis paddle when she was seven years old. She just wanted to try different things, and a table tennis club was conveniently located near her Maryland home. Three years later, she was a Junior Olympics champion.

Imagine paying top dollar, sacrificing your personal life and compounding years of stress into mere months, all in pursuit of a goal you later decide to give up. That's the situation many women face when applying to law school. After spending incredible amounts of time, money and effort to prepare for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), they receive scores they feel are too low to get into the schools they want.

Savor your club meetings now, because as a graduate student those days might be over. Graduate students simply aren't as involved on campus as most undergraduates, according to recent studies conducted by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research.

Harvard coach Tommy Amaker has seen it all in his coaching career. He was a member of Duke's assistant coaching staff for two NCAA championships, made the Sweet Sixteen as Seton Hall's head coach and won the NIT title with Michigan. And now he knows how it feels to lose to Dartmouth.

As Grey's Anatomy draws more prospective doctors every year, Law and Order fans seem to be turning to other fields. In a survey of 190 law schools conducted by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, half of the schools reported a decline in applications during the past two years, with a 17.

It's going to be a busy year for newly inaugurated Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, and with his recent staff appointments, the same will be true for several Penn faculty and graduates. Nutter, a Penn graduate himself, vowed this fall to include university minds in shaping his policy and tackling the major problems in Philadelphia.

As food prices increase nationwide, students and West Philadelpia residents are feeling the strain on their purse strings. The price of many food staples, including milk, eggs and bread, rose drastically in 2007, resulting in higher prices at grocery stores and restaurants.

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J., Jan. 15 - Just over a minute into the Quakers' contest at Seton Hall last night, Penn guard Sarah Bucar came up with a loose ball and flipped it to Anca Popovici, who looked up the court for an easy fast break. She saw Maggie Burgess and lobbed up a pass, hoping to hit her on the run.