Campus area restaurants would really like to give you every excuse to eat out. 34th Street Food & Drink editors Jess Goodman and Josh Goldman bring you the low down on this fall’s savory specials.

• Every Monday night, 8 to 10 p.m., during Football Season, Distrito is offering endless tacos and enchiladas at $25 per person, as well as $2 Don Equis on tap. Along with the Chilango chopped salad and a side of rice and beans, which automatically accompany every ‘endless menu,’ you’ll choose from an array smaller, tapas-style versions of their most popular Cantina tacos and enchiladas (and some new additions) — our favorites are the chicken and yellowfish tacos. In all, this Monday Night Football special is well worth the money; come hungry! Try to be seated in the second floor lounge, though, where they project the game on a big screen — the awkwardly placed TVs in the cantina make it hard to focus on the football.

Special offers from Pod, Marathon and Copa after the jump.

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Today Amy Gutmann sent out a year-end economic update email to all of Penn’s undergrads. As per usual, it’s a bit lengthy, so here are the highlights:

• The university has saved $56.2 million this year, about $12 million of which has been saved since Gutmann’s last email in August.
• Penn’s endowment lost the least proportionally to its peers.
• Spending on need-based undergraduate grants increased by $20 million, or 19%.
• The tuition increase for 2009-10 was the lowest it has been in 41 years.

There is also mention of all the cool stuff Penn is building (Penn Park, the new nanotech building) and the cool stuff Penn profs are doing (did you know that researchers have been awarded $163.4 million for 303 projects… and counting?). Plus, Marshall Scholar Josh Bennett and Rhodes Scholar Sarah-Jane Littleford get shoutouts.

See the email in full after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Where have all the blue books gone?

Despite the fact that Penn keeps bragging about its lack of fiscal distress, this email leads us to believe otherwise:

From: Eve Troutt Powell
Date: October 19, 2009 4:28:21 PM EDT
To: HIST081-401-2009C
Subject: blue books for the midterm: HIST081-401-2009C

Hello Class,
Please bring blue books to the exam on Wednesday afternoon. They can be purchased all over the place, and I’m sure the Penn Book Store has many.

I will send out another reminder tomorrow.

Best wishes,
Dr. Powell

Since when do students need to provide their own blue books? And can they really be purchased at the bookstore? To think some other students are lamenting the loss of hot breakfasts…

UPDATE: Looks like Dr. Powell got confused. Penn is not going broke. All is right in the world.

From: Eve Troutt Powell
Date: October 19, 2009 4:59:43 PM EDT
To: HIST081-401-2009C
Subject: Correction – we will provide the bluebooks: HIST081-401-2009C

We will provide the blue books.

You provide the necessary information.

Dr. Powell

Forget last fall’s struggle to fill the tents at New York’s Bryant Park or L.A.’s inevitable second-row status, Philadelphia is the latest city to host its own fashion week. The three-day event debuts at the 23rd Street Armory in Center City on October 8th.

Don’t get too excited though: we’re doubtful that Anna or Karl (Wintour or Lagerfeld, that is) will be gracing Philly. Instead, the show appears to be recessionista-inspired, featuring “student, streetwear and contemporary couture designers based locally and around the globe.” Read the rest of this entry »

Let's see if we can fit that $440 million in this gold-plated Penn money clip.

Ever since the economy went all wack, Prez A-Gut has been sending out periodic campus-wide emails reassuring students that Penn is doing a-okay. Last week we learned that we’re rolling in the dough, and today A-Gut provided us with some more facts and figures. The takeaways:

• Donations to the university this year were the second highest in Penn’s history, totaling $440 million.
• The endowment is down 15.7%, outperforming the market by more than 10%.
• Penn has saved $44.6 million in the past six months ($11 million of which was a result of “a variety of human resource actions”).
• The financial aid budget is up 16.4%, adding to the 43% increase Penn has seen in the past five years.

Also, a lot of big stuff is going down this year. In the fall, the Annenberg Public Policy Center and the Roberts Proton Therapy Center are opening. Additionally, ground will be broken on Penn Park, “the 24-acre signature project of our Penn Connects campus master plan. Penn Park, which extends from Franklin Field and the Palestra to the Schuylkill River, will increase campus green space by 20 percent, further our sustainability goals, and provide new athletic and recreational space — plus beautiful vistas — for our entire community to enjoy.” The renovated and expanded Music Building and the new Weiss Pavilion (a fitness center and weight room at Franklin Field) will be opening in the spring.

See the full email after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Do you promise you'll get me a job?

It’s a tough job market these days, but some college grads are refusing to accept their fates. According to Huff Po via the AP, Trina Thompson is suing Monroe College because the school’s Office of Career Advancement “hasn’t provided her with the leads and career advice it promises.” She is suing for $70,000, the amount she paid in tuition because she’s been unable to find a job since she received her information technology degree at the Brooklyn school. Meanwhile, the Monroe insists her charges are without merit. We’re excited to see how this case plays out!

This is just here because we like puppies. Plus they're eating, which is pretty relevant.

We didn’t want to have to write about the recession again. We’re tired of hearing about graduates from our fine school entering the jobless world, looking at a forecast of unemployment with a chance of hiring freeze. All this exclamation-point-punctuated madness — Economic crash! Hundreds Laid Off! Aaahh Real Monsters! — reminds us to be very, very happy that we live in a collegiate bubble, insulated from the outside world by our vehement denial of its existence and protective beer goggles. This willful ignorance of the universe beyond University City, however, can no longer go on. The Inquirer reports that a sacred Penn institution is suffering from the big bad economic crisis: The Food Cart. Featured in the article is Rami’s, a Middle Eastern food cart at 40th and Locust where for less than $4 a person can enjoy delicious falafel goodness and Sami Dakko’s charming, thick accent. Read the full story here, but only if you are prepared to find out just how tough times are for Rami’s and that Sami actually says “Hello beautiful” to everyone, not just you.

Over at Philly.com, former DP ed Zoe Tillman tells us a depressing tale of blood, sweat, tears…and recessionomics.

Jobless and frustrated, ’09 grads Sean Christman and Andrew O’Malley passed out their resumes on the Ben Franklin Bridge yesterday.

Christman, who graduated in May with a degree in finance and management from La Salle University, estimated that he had sent out at least 250 job applications to companies, mostly up and down the East Coast, since December.

“I’m not going to stop until I find a job,” he said.

O’Malley also graduated in May, with a business management degree from Rutgers University. Both graduated cum laude and have several summers’ worth of experience at local investment and money management companies.

This makes us sad.

Dear Philly Airport, this is what you will look like if you continue to suck. Love, UTB.

Philly.com has just informed us of some very unwelcome news: that the Philadelphia International airport is considering making spending cuts and delaying maintenance projects as a result of decreased traffic. The horror! The Airport reported a 6.7% drop in passengers from January to May, which is likely going to result in “deferring some maintenance, using cash reserves, and leaving vacant jobs unfilled.” Road trips home, anyone?

It turns out we were a bit cavalier when we first presented you with our Summer Approval Matrix, letting you know just how cool you are, or aren’t, based on your June-August occupation of choice. According to the New York Times, the hottest thing to do this summer is… nothing. The powers-that-be at the Styles section inform us that our generation’s latest challenge, following years of over-involvement, is coping with underachievement.  We’re not judging these victims of the recession. (We’re familiar with them. We ARE them. This post is being written in Mom and Dad’s kitchen, located smack in the center of Jersey suburbia.) It’s more that, keeping in the theme of the past week or so, we want you UTB readers to know that you are not alone. Also, we especially like the staging of the photograph, which depicts the following slacker activities: slurping milk from a cereal bowl, sitting on your ass watching YouTube videos/Facebook stalking/reading TextsFromLastNight, and floor-sniffing (oh wait, that’s just the dog).