Bowing to pressure from student critics, student-government leaders will halt work on a program intended to track voter demographics in student elections. The program would have gathered such information as gender, race, college house, international student status and major.

Truthfully, I was not too excited about this year's football season. I understand that the circumstances of last year, on and off the field, were unique and should not really be an indictment of the team and players, but it was more of a personnel issue that led me to my beliefs before this season.

Peter Fielding's roommate is spending the semester in Ireland, and he's keeping his pals back at Penn up-to-date on his escapades. He sends out periodic e-mails highlighting his adventures, addressed to a few of his closest friends. Except Fielding.

Jim McGreevey was a successful politician who became the governor of New Jersey, but he says he wouldn't want anyone else to follow his path. "I am the anti-model: Basically, I am what not to do," McGreevey said yesterday at the Penn Bookstore. At the event, McGreevey answered questions and spoke about his new book, The Confession.

The Cornell football team only dresses two captains on game day, but anyone associated with the team will tell you that it has three. The late Jaime McManamon would have been a senior for the Big Red, but he passed away after a car crash following his freshman season in May 2004.

For people who participate in on-campus recruiting, September and October stand out as one of the most stressful months of their undergraduate education. It's that time of year when dinner means stuffing your face with hors d'oeuvres at company presentations, when you can't go out on a Friday night because you're stuck in the library writing cover letters until midnight, when the only reading you have time for is Vault and interview prep guides.

Jannie Blackwell never thought she'd end up in city government. "I always wanted to be a schoolteacher," said Blackwell, who quit teaching in 1976 and has represented Penn's district on City Council for the past 15 years. "Had I not met my husband, I would never have gone into politics.

The number of rapes reported on or near campus went way up last year, and some officials are pleased about it.

This summer, while talking to some musician friends about their struggle to get noticed, Andrew Kortina thought he might have a way to help them. Kortina's online music company, PhilaFunk, has now been in business for two months. It has about 400 registered users from 37 states and 14 countries around the world.

Earlier this week, after Mayor John Street signed the long-awaited smoking ban, The Daily Pennsylvanian expressed worry because "the bill will have no teeth until the administration begins enforcing it." Well, worry no longer. The Philadelphia Daily News reported this weekend that the city will begin to enforce the ban immediately.

Unlike his counterpart in Philadelphia, Jack Siedlecki may not have had many tough decisions to make before his Yale squad kicked off the 2006 season. Matt Polhemus came in as the clear starter at quarterback, Mike McLeod returned as a proven threat at running back, and the entire offensive line emerged from graduation unscathed.

When former MarBar manager Bob Hanna packed his bags and took over 2 Goodfella's a block away, he got a lot of his former employees to follow him.

As we speak, American scientists are packing their bags and moving to Singapore.

If there were any doubts about the intensity of the cross-town rivalry developing between Penn and Villanova, last night's game should have silenced them.

China Okasi, a Penn Graduate School of Education alumna, was always the one friends and family turned to for help with an essay, whether by knocking on her dorm-room door or meeting for a tutoring session at the Weingarten Learning Resources Center in Stouffer Commons.

Alicia Puglionesi is a College sophomore from Havertown, Pa.

A little more than a year ago, America paused. People stopped, however briefly, and paid attention to the news.