If Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has her way, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will be a shadow of its former self. Under Spellings's recently proposed plan, FAFSA would cut the number of questions it asks from over 100 to roughly 27.

Sophomore midfielder Sarah Friedman came into Saturday's match with Cornell knowing she could shatter Penn's single-season assist record. "Kristin [Kaiser] and Kaitlin [Campbell] and I were researching Cornell, and one of the Web sites had written something about it," she said.

As his campaign wraps up a vigorous voter registration drive in Pennsylvania, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama spoke on Friday in Montgomery County - a region closely divided between registered Republicans and Democrats. Yet nearly one-third of Obama's 6,000 audience members on Friday will not vote in November.

After sharing his tales of war-time reporting and primary-debate moderating, CNN host Anderson Cooper left Irvine Auditorium full of captivated students eager to learn more. With the same mission in mind, The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with Cooper for a few minutes to discuss reporting, politics and his lack of culinary skills.

In May, I was dumped by e-mail. I received an notice from Student Financial Services telling me I would need to select a new lender for my Federal Stafford Loan. My original lender - along with 136 other institutions - had stopped offering the loans. A couple months later, a friend at another school updated her Facebook status to say she "thinks student loan companies can suck it.

While visiting Pottruck seven days a week will burn calories, people often forget that a large part of staying healthy has to do with consuming nutritious food - not just eliminating carbs or candy. Finding fresh produce might at first seem difficult in West Philadelphia, but in fact it's possible at Clark Park, located on 43rd and Baltimore streets.

Alex Jacobson is a College junior from Los Angeles. His e-mail address is jacobson@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Penn graduates make a hefty salary - but not as much as their counterparts at Harvard and Princeton universities, according to a recent study. The online global compensation firm PayScale conducted a study earlier this summer that compared the incomes of graduates from the Ivy League schools.

Penn women's volleyball junior Elizabeth Semmens has never tasted victory against Princeton. In fact, last season, she had to swallow two bitter losses to the Tigers that were ultimately the difference between first and second place in the Ivy League. "They are big rivals," Semmens said.

For most of this season, Penn field hockey coach Val Cloud spoke about the learning curve associated with her young team. Seven losses and an upset win over Harvard later, she's singing a different tune. "They're not young anymore," she said. "It's halfway through our season.

Thinking wings or pizza for dinner? How about wasabi-crusted filet mignon from Pod or El Vez's signature guacamole? A newly struck partnership between campusfood.com and diningin.com - two Web sites that let students order food from a variety of restaurants - will give students more options for food delivery.

Some environmentalists are at a fork in the road concerning whether urban or rural areas are tops at producing harmful pollutants in the atmosphere. A recent report from the Energy Information Administration - which provides governmental energy statistics - shows that, since 1980, industrialized areas in some states have significantly reduced their carbon footprints, and in many cases, produced fewer carbon emissions than their residential neighbors.

Though the government is likely to simplify the federal financial-aid program, next year's political turnover makes it hard to predict the possible changes. As of now, shortening the Free Application for Federal Student Aid appears to be the change most likely to occur.

We get it. Our economy is collapsing around us. The bailout plan doesn't bail us out. Seniors are having a hard time getting jobs. While we shouldn't ignore the urgency and ripple effects of this economic crisis, we also can't allow it to overshadow preexisting global concerns that threaten our existence, especially ones that we can actually control.

Spring Break 2008 saw 175 Penn students make the pilgrimage that care forgot. Their work was hardly a big easy: Students cleared wreckage, rebuilt houses and even helped out at an animal shelter. But the sad truth is that despite these students' best efforts, New Orleans will still succumb to the next major storm.

For the Divine Nine, it's till death do us part. Membership within the Greek world is for life: once a member, always a member. But membership within the nine historically African American sororities and fraternities, known collectively as The Divine Nine, is for life - and then some.

It's been 12 years since the Penn women's soccer team last lost to Cornell. And it's been 30 days since the Big Red (1-6-1) last walked away with a victory of any kind. Yet the Quakers (5-3-1) are still expecting a physical battle in Ithaca, N.Y., on Saturday - although, coach Darren Ambrose was quick to point out, not quite a war.