Goodbye Penn, hello Columbus: We knew the people at Ohio State University were impressed with what Penn has done to revitalize its home neighborhood (Current, Jan. 24). Apparently, folks in Ohio State’s hometown were impressed enough to hire away one of the architects of Penn’s strategy. Managing Director of Facilities and Real Estate Services Tom Lussenhop has signed on as president and CEO of the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation, effective this month. As head of this new group, whose board includes Ohio State’s president, he will lead an effort to stimulate residential development in the Ohio capital’s downtown, with special emphasis on its riverfront.

A staff recommendation: This department doesn’t do reviews, as a rule. But we do try to be responsive to our readers, so your Buzz correspondent thought he’d share with you a rave we received in the mail from Cerie O’Toole, executive secretary to the Vice Provost for University Life. She stayed at the Penn Club on a recent trip to New York and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. “What an excellent location,” she wrote, “and so affordable for staff and faculty of the University. This is truly one of [Penn’s] best kept secrets, but one I thought I should share.” For more information about the Penn Club of New York, visit www.pennclub.com on the Web.

Another chance to reflect: If you weren’t able to attend the campus symposium on Sept. 11 held on the one-year anniversary, you can see it at your leisure on the World Wide Web. The faculty panel is one of three Penn symposia available anytime on the Web site of the Research Channel, a new cable and satellite network backed by 37 universities, government and corporate research institutions, including Penn. (Penn’s campus cable system carries it on channel 22.) To view the panel or other Research Channel programs, go to www.researchchannel.org on the Web.

LUCY goes west: Just in time for the holidays, the Loop through University City bus service has gotten more convenient and more extensive. All-day service is back on the Green Loop, which has been extended west to 40th Street, and the Gold Loop now operates as far as 42nd and Walnut streets, looping up 42nd to return via Chestnut. Midday Express buses also run more often. As always, the service is free for anyone with a PennCard. For revised route maps and schedules, visit www.golucy.org on the Web or call SEPTA at 215-580-7800.

Penn in ink: Hershey’s sweet morsels may bring smiles to your mouth, but the chocolate company’s new TV ad has gotten health experts all worked up. “A girlfriend will leave you,” a man says in the commercial. “Chocolate never will.” Thomas Wadden, director of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at Penn, said in the Nov. 4 Newsweek that encouraging people to eat chocolate in order to feel emotionally sated can have disastrous consequences. “If you have commercials like this, which are inviting people to eat in order to feel happy, the likelihood is that the rates of obesity will just continue to increase,” he said.