SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Penn's comfortable win over St. Francis (NY) wasn't hard, but it was definitely needed. After a start marked by lukewarm performances against Syracuse and UTEP, the Quakers blew the game open early and tightened the noose on the Terriers in the second half for a 86-58 triumph.

Last time the men's cross country team visited Lock Haven, Pa., it placed five runners in the top 10 and earned first overall. The Quakers will be looking for similar success when they return there tomorrow - only this time, the stakes will be much higher.

Universities go too far in shielding themselves from liability; policies should focus on what's best for students.

In November 1989, Douglas Wilder became the first black governor in the United States, the Germans tore down the Berlin Wall, and Fran Dunphy coached his first game for Penn.

Ex-Wharton professor Scott Ward pled not guilty yesterday to charges of producing, importing and possessing child pornography.

Coach Glen Miller is like a kid in a candy shop. And with the wealth of talent at his fingertips, nobody should be surprised.

It may be a long shot to turn an idea into a marketable product, but that should not be a deterrent to student innovators, a panel concluded yesterday. In front of an audience of about 40 in Skirkanich Hall's Berger Auditorium, panelists discussed how innovators can improve their odds of success as they take their ideas to the marketplace.

At least it doesn't seem to be as bad as that "water buffalo" incident.

Syracuse, N.Y. - Ibrahim Jaaber was back on the court tonight against the Orange, but that didn't seem to matter. Neither did his 18 points, four assists, or four steals. The Quakers lost, 78-60, to a No. 20 Syracuse team playing at the top of its game in front of an enthusiastic home crowd.

The Penn men's basketball team certainly won't be afforded the opportunity to ease itself into the season. The Quakers' first set of non-conference games will come as part of the three-day, three-game Black Coach's Association Invitational held at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.

Every November, thousands of experienced and amateur writers across the country attempt a 50,000-word novel.

The Halloween snapshot that's been plaguing Penn President Amy Gutmann is even the talk of the White House. Well, some reporters are trying to make it that way. White House spokesman Tony Snow deflected questions about the now-infamous photograph at a press conference yesterday, a White House transcript shows.

The men's basketball team tips off its season in upstate N.Y. in 3-game tournament.

Wrongly associated To the Editor: I've followed with increasing distress your coverage of the Halloween party photographs with your president, Amy Gutmann ("Critics demand Gutmann atone," DP, 11/9/06). My distress has nothing to do with the photographs, offensive though they are, but rather with the continuing suggestion and innuendo that President Gutmann is sympathetic to terrorism or to Muslim extremism.

All-Ivy first team ? Ibrahim Jaaber, guard, PENN 2005-06: 18.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 3.3 spg ? Keenan Jeppesen, guard, Brown 2005-06: 11.1 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.89 spg ? Mark Zoller, forward, PENN 2005-06: 12.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg, .488 FG pct. ? Noah Savage, forward, Princeton 2004-2005-06: 10.

It might have seemed like early admissions was toast after the University of Virginia, a public school, followed Harvard and Princeton in abolishing the practice this fall.

When Penn alumnus Marco Lentini first thought of developing a health-conscious cafe near campus, he says people thought he was crazy. "Philadelphia had just been ranked the fattest city in the world," Lentini said. "But it takes leadership to transcend boundaries and come up with new ideas.