Alcor, a polar bear who underwent major surgery at Penn's George D. Widener Veterinary Hospital, died August 21 on his way back to Ohio. He was brought to Penn because of severe fractures to his right front leg that are believed to have been sustained while he was playing with his brother Mizar.

It could be your worst nightmare. After a night of unprotected sex, women can find themselves scared, confused and at risk for an unplanned pregnancy. These women have had the option of taking emergency contraception - or "the morning-after pill" - since it became available via prescription in 1998.

Philadelphia's political atmosphere may achieve a combustible level by the November 7 elections, but political analysts and campaign representatives say the city is just warming up. Two critical races - one for a U.S. Senate seat and one for governor - have little more than two months to go, and the campaigns are well under way.

Former Penn professor Tracy McIntosh remains on probation as he awaits a superior court decision on whether he will face harsher penalties for his sexual assault conviction. McIntosh was sentenced in March 2005 to 11 to 23 months of house arrest after being charged with sexually assaulting the 23-year-old niece of a close friend when she visited him on campus.

Philadelphia resident John Waynes cools off by wading in a fountain in Love Park while listening to music. Philadelphia was struck by a heat-wave over the summer that sent temperatures well into the 90s. Police threatened to issue $25 tickets to anyone who went into the city's fountains.

Glen Miller has yet to coach a game for the Red and Blue. But after a hectic summer for the newly minted chief of the University's most popular athletic program, it's hard to imagine that he was hired only a few short months ago.

Three weeks ago, a media poll anointed Harvard the favorite for the upcoming Ivy League football season, but recent personnel losses could vault Penn right back to the top. In June, the Crimson lost captain Matthew Thomas, an all-league linebacker the previous season, after he was suspended for all of 2006.

These students have spent hours waiting in line. They have endured stress and frustration. And they haven't even started class yet. Terror threats targeting planes from London's Heathrow Airport earlier this month have put air travel on high alert and prompted changes in security procedures at U.

A space devoted to Penn's performing arts groups is finally open for business. Construction is finished on the Platt Student Performing Arts House - located beneath Stouffer College House - and the space is ready for the singers, actors and dancers who plan to rehearse there this fall.

Author John McPhee is among the 2007 participants in one of Kelly Writers House's most well-loved programs. The winner of a 1999 Pulitzer Prize, McPhee joins Jamaica Kincaid and Donald Hall as next spring's Writers House fellows. McPhee is the author, most recently, of Uncommon Carriers.

Back in the stone age, when I was a freshman, one of the first things that Penn sent me was a copy of Practical Penn - a handy guide to life on campus. It reminded me of that time when my parents handed me a book on sex. It had lots of great pictures, but it didn't tell me any of the good stuff.

Students at Penn can exhale - it does not look like standardized testing is going to make it to the University's agenda. Even though a report released by the Department of Education in August has generated renewed conversation about the prospect of collegiate standardized testing, University administrators say that there is no need for such testing at Penn.

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro feasts on fresh handpicked grass everyday while he recovers at Penn's large animal hospital, but whether the recuperation time will lead to a full recovery remains unclear. Barbaro - a colt who fractured his leg severely during the Preakness in May - has been kept under close watch by animal surgeon Dean Richardson, who performed the surgery immediately after Barbaro's injury.

The next generation of Penn students will walk straight from Locust Walk to Center City, play frisbee near the Schuylkill River and live in a new college house. Penn's getting bigger. The University's ambitious eastward expansion and campus redevelopment - complete with a decades-long timetable and billion-dollar budget - has officials preparing for years of demolition, extensive fundraising and community cooperation.

Welcome (or welcome back) to Philadelphia. Chances are, you're not from around here. In fact, most of the incoming class hails from outside of the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, and 12 percent crossed the Unites States border to study here.

Members of the Class of 2010 will be scattered throughout all of Penn's college houses this year. That may not be the case for next year's freshmen, however. Starting in September of 2007, freshmen are expected to be grouped in "clusters" even in college houses where they do not make up the majority of occupants.

Proposed guidelines from the Department of Education will allow the University to report the number of multi-racial students for the first time. Existing regulations force multi-racial and multi-ethnic students to select only one racial or ethnic category on registration forms that Penn uses to compile its full enrollment data.