Rishav Kanoria

Inefficient elevators, clogged toilets and slow responses have been among the many things high rise residents have had to say about their housing experiences this semester. Although steps have been made since the High Rise Renovation Project began in 2004 to modernize the buildings, residents say they are still unhappy with the quality of facilities.

On Wednesday, the Asian Pacific Student coalition, an umbrella organization for 20 Asian-Pacific student organizations, elected Wharton junior Raymond Flores as its new chairman. Flores, who is originally from the Philippines, currently serves as the vice president of Cultural Programming for the Penn Philippine Association and is a member of the bid team to bring the East Coast Asian American Students Union Conference to Penn.

While the current economic crisis has left many people scrambling, one group of Penn students is finding a way to reap the benefits. The first Penn team to compete in the College Fed Challenge made it to the semifinals last weekend. If they advance, they will have the opportunity to win up to $15,000 in prize money for themselves and the Economics department.

At the end of September, 114 Penn students had received pre-litigation letters from the Recording Industry Association of America asking them to pay a fine of about $3,000 or face a potential lawsuit. But the University is trying to prevent more students from that fate with recent efforts aimed at curbing illegal downloading on campus.

On Sunday, the Undergraduate Assembly did not pass any new proposals but did discuss recent work on the redesign of the Penn InTouch system and updated the body about the University's new policy for dealing with copyright infringement by students. In its new policy, Penn will no longer act as a buffer between its students and the Recording Industry Association of America.

Next week, Penn will rock to the music of Led Zeppelin when Bustle in Your Hedgerow performs in the Social Planning and Events Committee Jazz & Grooves' annual Fall concert. The band is scheduled to perform on Oct. 21 at the Rotunda, located at 4012 Walnut St.

For a year now, student government leaders have been unsure of Penn's future role in Ivy Council, a consortium of student leaders from around the Ivy League. The disagreement resurfaced in a debate at last Sunday's Undergraduate Assembly meeting about whether to fund the Penn delegation's travel to the upcoming conference, which will be held tomorrow at Columbia University.

Last Sunday's weekly meeting of the Undergraduate Assembly continued a push to get an extra day of move-out for students, among other issues. In this week's Penn Student Government Spotlight showcase the Social Planning and Events Committee told UA members that the Concerts committee is $50,000 over its annual budget after spending $35,000 on the fall 2007 concerts and $400,000 on last year's annual Spring Fling concert, which featured Ludacris, Gym Class Heroes, and OK Go.

The Undergraduate Assembly met as a full body for the first time last Sunday night as the newly elected freshmen moved from the audience to the inner circle. "I'm really excited about this year's freshman class," wrote UA chairman and Wharton and College senior Wilson Tong in an e-mail.

Though presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain still have the last leg of campaigning and debates ahead of them, the Class of 2012 has reached the end of its election season, choosing Wharton freshman Jibran Khan and College freshman Shri Chauhan to be its president and vice president.