The State of New York announced plans yesterday to address the conflicts of interest in the student-loan industry, according to an online MSNBC report. Lenders would be prohibited from offering financial benefits such as referral fees, gifts or trips to university employees.

An alleged carjacker was shot twice and killed during a struggle with Penn Police at about 11:00 a.m. yesterday near 40th and Spruce streets.

Ever had a police officer bring you chicken soup when you were sick? If Penn Police Chief Mark Dorsey and Vice President of the Division of Public Safety Maureen Rush had their way, you just might. Dorsey and Rush, who worked together for the City of Philadelphia before Dorsey became chief in November 2004, call themselves neighborhood people - and they want to do their part to bridge the gap between the Penn and West Philadelphia communities.

The University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice will host a symposium next week to address ways for charitable donors to assess whether they are, in fact, affecting their designated causes. Former Penn President Judith Rodin will deliver the keynote speech of the "Benjamin Franklin Leadership Symposium.

It will take innovative financial planning and regional cooperation to make SEPTA an asset, not an embarrassment.

The College of Arts and Sciences is about to get a bit trendier. At least, its Web site is. A redesigned College Web site will launch in early July, right in time for incoming College freshman to begin exploring their options at Penn. New changes include quick links and information presented in formats that are more easily digestible than long bodies of text.

In the wake of yesterday's tragedy at Virginia Tech, the entire Penn community joins the rest of the nation in mourning.

Former assistant district attorney Susan Herron will become the next director of Penn's Office of Student Conduct, Provost Ronald Daniels announced last week. She will assume the post on July 1. The OSC is in charge of confidentially investigating and resolving student violations of Penn's conduct code, including issues of academic integrity and substance abuse.

In an effort to learn more about human sacrificies in ancient Mesopotamia, Anthropology graduate student Aubrey Baadsgaard and other Penn scholars drove female human remains from the Penn Museum of Archaelogy and Anthopology to HUP yesterday to perform CAT scans, according to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

As my editors requested, I had my column for this week written 24 hours in advance. It was, of course, about sports. And it was, as my columns often are, a joke both in substance and tone. But this morning is not a time for joking. This morning isn't even a time for sports.

If the Penn women's lacrosse team wants to win its first outright Ivy League title since 1982, it has to follow a simple plan: win the next two games. Doing so would clinch the league's automatic bid to the team's first NCAA tournament since 1984. Otherwise, it gets a little dicey.

The Wharton School of Business will now offer a doctoral fellowship in business ethics, Wharton officials announced Friday. The fellowship, officially titled the Lewis Platt Doctoral Fellowship in Business Ethics, is intended to fund students in Wharton's Ph.

Penn senior Ibrahim Jaaber has been named Big 5 Player of the Year, a source with knowledge of the proceedings said yesterday.

Villanova senior Curtis Sumpter couldn't be happier to be done with his college career. And after five years of ups and downs with the Wildcats, the big man is finally ready to take the next step in his career - hopefully on the NBA hardwood.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that a drug used to treat multiple sclerosis patients may also help vision loss in those with the relapsing form of the disease, according to a press release. Natalizumab is a drug that slows the disability and reduces relapse rates of multiple sclerosis patients.

The best way for Penn to help SEPTA is to teach students that the city's public transportation is safe, cheap and easy to use.

When the MPAA talks, the University listens - well, for the most part. Last month, the Motion Picture Association of America published its list of top-25 colleges for illegal downloading and asked universities to enact four measures to stop the problem, including punishing student offenders and establishing a filter on the college network.