By SAYANI MUKHERJEE Staff Writer mukherjee@dailypennsylvanian.com A report published this month by the National Consumer Law Center aims to help students with private loans who would otherwise have difficulty making payments. Titled, "Too Small to Help - The plight of Financially Distressed Private Student Loan Borrowers," the report was developed by the NCLC's Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project.

This year's Hey Day saw the usual tossing of flour and condiments and shooting of milk-filled super-soakers - but in smaller doses than in past years. According to College Senior and Class of 2009 President Brett Perlmutter, this slight shift away from hazing - a custom that began in 2002 - is a result of a pledge nearly 1,600 seniors signed promising to go easy on their younger classmates.

Large crowds of a few hundred high-school aged West Philadelphia residents gathered at 40th and Walnut streets Saturday night before being dispersed by police. One person reportedly assaulted a police officer, according to a member of the Philadelphia Police Department, though this report was contradicted by other police officers.

In an effort to boost the transparency of the men's basketball program, Penn Athletics hosted its first annual "town hall" meeting with coach Glen Miller yesterday at the Inn at Penn. In his opening remarks, athletic director Steve Bilsky said that the meeting had been planned since last summer as part of an effort to open up the team to its most loyal supporters - season-ticket holders, former players, parents and alumni - and was not a result of the team's 10-18 performance this season.

The student hospitalized with a meningococcal infection at St. Joseph's University has been confirmed to have strain B of the infection, the same strain that infected four Penn students in February and March. But according to Penn spokeswoman Lori Doyle, the cases are not related.

'We live in an age in which we must please everyone. And by everyone, I mean 'minorities.'" On March 27, Ryan Benjamin used this quote to depict the negativity inherent in group recognition along the lines of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion and other social identities.

On Friday, juniors tapped their canes down Locust and happily bit corners off Styrofoam hats as they took part in one of Penn's few truly revered traditions. At the same time, seniors enjoyed drinks and entertainment as they were symbolically welcomed into Penn's alumni community in a new traditional exercise.

On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives unfortunately rejected a measure that would ban hand-held cell-phone use while driving in the state of Pennsylvania. While the measure was harsh - it made talking on a hands-held phone a primary offense, meaning violators could be fined steeply - it was heading in the right direction and would have made a strong impact.

College student Neil Gajare, arrested and charged with arson, posted $5,000 bail yesterday and is awaiting a preliminary hearing. The hearing is scheduled for April 29. The 22-year-old is being charged with arson and four related offenses in connection with a fire in Rodin College House early Wednesday morning.

Last weekend, the Penn women's golf team finished just two strokes shy of Yale and host Columbia at the ROAR-EE Invitational. The Quakers slipped from third place to fifth place in the second day of play, but this upcoming weekend they have one last opportunity to outperform its Ancient Eight rivals.

This is it. Two undefeated women's lacrosse powerhouses are about to face off, and one will have to walk away with a tarnished record. However, when No. 3 Penn (13-0) travels to No. 1 Northwestern (16-0) tomorrow at 8 p.m. there will be more at stake than just a perfect record.

Humans have been treating diseases with national products that come from plants and animals, but a Penn Museum of ArchaeoloProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 and Anthropology researcher recently found that ancient people also utilized alcoholic beverages for medicinal purposes. Led by Anthropology professor and Penn Museum senior research scientist Patrick McGovern, the study on ancient Egyptian herbal wines was published in Proceedings of the National Acad

EVANSTON, Ill.,-- It was cold, it was wet, it was windy and it was a second half that Penn would rather forget. Despite leading 6-5 at halftime, the women's lacrosse team fell to No. 1 Northwestern 11-9. It was the second straight time that the No. 3 Quakers (13-1) fell to the Wildcats.

There are only two things on the mind of the Penn Softball team going into the last two doubleheaders of the season against Columbia: its seniors, pitcher Emily Denstedt and outfielder Anna Puglisi. As the season comes to a close, the Quakers (12-27-1, 7-9 Ivy) will use this weekend's games to honor their graduating players.

When the Quakers host Columbia Sunday afternoon in their doubleheader season finale, they will have the assistance of a great Philadelphia sports ally: the Phillie Phanatic. Before enjoying the chimerical creature's welcomed support, however, they travel to the Big Apple Saturday where the Lions host a doubleheader of their own.

The Penn men's golf team has finished higher than every Ivy League school it faced over the last two weeks. Now the Quakers are out to prove they can do the same when the stakes are higher at Atlantic City Country Club this weekend. Today through Sunday the course in Northfield, N.

A student at St. Joseph's University has been hospitalized with a suspected case of bacterial meningitis, according to Harriet Goodheart, a spokeswoman for the university. The diagnosis has not yet been confirmed, she said. Until it is, health officials will not be able to determine whether the case is linked to the outbreak that hospitalized three Penn students with meningococcal infection earlier this semester.