Penn's endowment dropped 19.4 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year, falling from $6.2 billion to $5 billion from July to December 2008, according to Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli. This is a slightly lower decrease than the 22.5 percent decline that colleges and universities across the United States and Canada experienced in the first five months of FY 2009, according to a recent survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Commonfund Institute.

In response to Governor Ed Rendell's Tuition Relief Act, Republican state Senator Jeffrey Piccola proposed an alternative plan, which cuts state funds to Penn by $15.5 million. Unlike Rendell's plan, which advocates putting legal video poker machines in bars around the state, Piccola's Affordability, Accountability, and Choice in Higher Education Act would make money by reducing funding for several dozen museums and universities around the state.

The global economic crisis has left Philadelphia's City budget with a $1 billion deficit and President Barack Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will not step in to help. The stimulus plan will affect Philadelphia by cutting taxes, creating jobs and improving infrastructure, but according to city officials, direct fiscal assistance is not in the package.

The recent economic downturn has not only affected people trying to enter the sphere of higher education as students. Graduate students hoping to get jobs as professors are also experiencing difficulties because of the recession. Hiring freezes, funding shortages and a decrease in the number of retiring professors are among the reasons many graduate students are concerned about finding employment.

Graduate studios in the School of Design sometimes travel across the world to work on real-life, client-based projects. Past groups have worked on projects in the Netherlands, Venezuela and India. Students in Michael Larice's graduate Urban Design Studio, called The Public Realm, returned from a trip to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to create a plan to redesign the city's Central Business District.

College-age Philadelphians now have the chance to stop being polite and start getting real. This Saturday, The Real World will hold a casting call for its next season at the Raven Lounge on 1718 Sansom Street from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The location for the season has not yet been determined, and Real World producers are scouting different areas at the moment, casting director Megan Sleeper said.

An owner's instinctual response to a dog's aggressive behavior might be to act aggressively toward the dog, but a new study shows that this could actually exacerbate that behavior. Meghan Herron, lead author and resident at the behavior clinic at the School of Veterinary Medicine's Matthew J.

A DNA test by the Philadelphia Police Department linked Dominique Wilson, 23, to the armed home invasion and sexual assault that occurred on the 4400 block of Spruce Street in December. "We are convinced that this is the perpetrator," said Capt. John Darby of the PPD, according to an article from FOX.

Next time you feel the urge to just grab a Starbucks latte on your way to class, Chris Bosch wants you to rethink skipping breakfast. Last night in Harrison College House, a group of personal trainers including Bosch, an associate director of Penn Recreation, discussed the best workout programs for a variety of desired results and how students can develop exercise programs for their own lifestyle and goals.

Total employment in the legal industry may be down 1 percent since January 2008, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, but that hasn't dissuaded many students who aim to study law at Penn. While applications to law schools across the nation have declined slightly compared to this time last year, Penn Law reported a 6-percent increase in applications.

Vice President Joe Biden, several major members of President Barack Obama's cabinet and city and state officials will gather in Irvine Auditorium tomorrow for the first official meeting of the Middle Class Task Force. The meeting, which begins at 12:30 p.

Feb. 26, 6:35 p.m. The University's endowment dropped 19.1 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year, according to an e-mail University President Amy Gutmann sent to the Penn community. The e-mail also announced that tuition is increasing 3.75 percent for the 2009-2010 academic year, which is the lowest increase in more than 40 years.

University City now offers one more cheap alternative for lunch. Aroma Cafe, located in International House at 3701 Chestnut St., has just opened for business and is already crowded around lunchtime, restaurant manager Victor Spillman said. He and owner Gennady Goldberg opened the restaurant two weeks ago, after Goldberg's other cafe in International House was relocated within the building.

President Barack Obama's administration will have to decide what role morality will play in U.S. domestic and foreign policy. And yesterday, the Penn Democrats brought professors and students together over lunch to consider the issue. Penn Democrats sponsored and organized a BYOL - "Bring Your Own Lunch" - panel discussion in the Ben Franklin Room of Houston Hall with Political Science professors Rogers Smith, Michael Horowitz, Nancy Hirschmann and Alex Weisiger.

"Nothing is a sure bet anymore," 2008 College alumnus Yoni Levinson said of his future. The biochemistry major had planned on pursuing a career in renewable energy or sustainable technologies after graduation. Now, he is applying to medical school. Like many recent and soon-to-be college graduates facing a tumultuous economy and tight job market, Levinson is turning to graduate school instead of entering the workforce right away.

Between studying biochemistry and economics and researching tuberculosis and enzymes in a lab on campus, College junior Tariro Mupombwa managed to find a way to give back to her home country of Zimbabwe. Mupombwa is in the process of starting a nonprofit to collect sewing machines in the United States and send them to the Salvation Army-affiliated Bumhudzo Old People's Home in Zimbabwe.

Handing out money might be a way to encourage people to quit smoking. After more than four years of research, director of Penn's Center for Health Incentives Kevin Volpp and his team found that providing financial incentives for quitting smoking might decrease smoking rates in the long run.