The doorbell was set to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner. As it rang through the whole house, the fraternity brothers stopped for a moment, grinning. "Listen to that!" Engineering sophomore Alex Numann said. "We're hearing America," College junior Matt Fiedler exclaimed.

It's wrong to accuse Harvard of picking its president based only on gender.

College is the time for students to find their voices, not to have them silenced in the name of political correctness.

Before this last week, the standings appeared as if they might result in a legitimate Ivy race for the first time in several years. But Yale played itself out of that race in Ithaca when it was struck by free-throw karma. One week after Penn beat itself in New Haven, Conn.

Now that the Penn College Republicans have a candidate to support, you can be sure they'll be throwing their weight behind him. Only they say they don't know much about him yet - a problem that Republican candidate Al Taubenberger will have to deal with in the coming months running in a city dominated primarily by Democrats.

While intermarried Jews may be losing the faith, increased tolerance in the Jewish community can reverse this trend.

It was a University of Pennsylvania woman who made the first major stride for women presidents in academia, and now another Penn woman is making the next one. Former Penn President Judith Rodin made history as the first female president of an Ivy League school, and, with the appointment of Drew Faust as Harvard's first female president last Sunday, professors, administrators and professionals are heralding her appointment as the next big step for women.

71Percent of Americans opposed to getting rid of the penny, according to a November poll of 1,000 adults. Source: The Associated Press

The Quakers had heard it all. Throw out the records. A trap game against a 1-5 team. A speed bump on the road to an Ivy League title. No bump here. Just full speed ahead. Penn got over a brief lapse in the second half with a 12-0 run to put Princeton away in a 48-35 win at the Palestra.

Last night Penn and Princeton played their 215th basketball game against each other. The game on the court may have diminished in quality from previous years, but the state of the programs is still strong. And what makes Penn and Princeton special is not just their seemingly endless string of Ivy League Championships or the crowds that come to watch them play, it is the tradition of the programs.

Theft Feb. 6 - A student reported that his parked car at Garage 40 on 40th Street was broken into when he returned to the vehicle at about 5:30 p.m. after several days away. Feb. 6 - A student reported that an unknown person took his wallet, of unknown value, which was left unsecured on a desk in Van Pelt Library at about noon.

All throughout the Big 5 season, Penn has played a smooth, up-tempo, non-traditional game. Last night, the Quakers finally learned how to play ugly. Against a Princeton offense that is the slowest in Division I (53.1 possessions per game), Penn accepted that it couldn't run up and down the court.

"People of the world, it's time to get paid." So reads the motto for the International Coalition for British Reparations, founded by Philadelphia advertising executive Steven Grasse. Claiming that Britain is responsible for all the world's troubles, the ICBR wants the British government to pay reparations equaling a total of $58 trillion to be distributed equally to every man, woman and child on earth - except, of course, the British.

When it comes to global warming, Earth sciences professor Robert Giegengack gets heated up about people playing politics. So, while Al Gore's film on the subject, An Inconvenient Truth, has garnered the former vice president praise and a recent nomination for the Nobel Prize, Giegengack isn't so enthused.

Joseph Cho, the second-year Law student who allegedly tried to kill his downstairs neighbors, had enrolled at the New York University School of Law for several weeks in 2000 but left for reasons that the school would not disclose. Penn Law officials knew about the previous enrollment prior to Cho's acceptance at Penn, but they remain unaware of his cause for leave, Penn Law School Dean for Student Affairs Gary Clinton said yesterday.

Alicia Puglionesi is an College junior from Haverton, Pa. Her e-mail address is puglionesi@dailypennsylvanian.com.

After three rounds of debate, the Penn Democrats' choice for the next mayor of Philadelphia was clear: Michael Nutter is their man. Last night, the Penn Democrats chose to endorse the former city Councilman by a two-thirds majority. A Wharton alumnus, Nutter is one of five candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, which will be decided May 16.