Despite a 3.9-percent drop in Penn's endowment over the last year, the University is sticking to its current investment plan. Given the state of the financial market, outsiders and University officials agree that Penn's commitment to its long-term strategic financial goals is the best way to keep the endowment strong in the long run.

By JESSICA BELL Staff Writer jbells@dailypennsylvanian.com Government officials are bracing for a large increase in the number of students needing financial aid, but Penn and its peer institutions are anticipating a smaller jump. Pell Grant - the country's most important student financial-aid program - may need an additional $6 billion in taxpayer dollars for the 2009-2010 school year, Bush administration officials warned Congress last week.

The hundreds of cars, bicycles and pedestrians that cross the South Street Bridge every day are going to have to find new routes across the Schuylkill River when the bridge closes for reconstruction this fall. Which alternate routes will they choose? The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is funding a study to answer that question.

Attention female sophomores: you may be eligible for a $1,000 scholarship care of the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority, no strings attached. The scholarship, which is open to all "sophomore female leaders" regardless of Greek affiliation, hopes to reward one sophomore who has made a significant "contribution to the campus or local community," according to a letter accompanying the application.

Penn hopefuls in high school have yet another college guide at their fingertips - literally. A new college-reviewing Web site called Unigo launched last Wednesday with more than 30,000 reviews of 250 colleges and universities across the country. The site, which is free and completely student-written, garnered 150,000 registered viewers and 1.

When student cultural groups want to practice for performances, they face a shortage of space in high demand and often resort to cramped classrooms and high-rise lounges at odd hours. But thanks to summer updates to the ARCH building - the home base for many campus cultural organizations and minority coalitions - students will soon have a basement equipped with floor-to-ceiling mirrors and a springy dance floor.

"The major candidates are not worth supporting," said Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader yesterday as part of a keynote speech, "Social Justice in the Post-Bush Era," for the Centennial Convocation of the Penn School of Social Policy and Practice.

Campaign volunteers are usually limited to stuffing envelopes and making phone calls, but the McCain-Palin campaign is giving volunteers a chance to get behind the wheel. The College Republicans sent an e-mail to its members on Wednesday asking for volunteers to drive in Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's motorcade this weekend - "if you are 21 years old or over, you can drive beside the next VP of the United Sates," the e-mail said.

Motorcycle and scooter users on campus will have to find a new place to park this semester. This fall, the Division of Public Safety has banned scooter and motorcycle parking on campus due to a recent influx of scooters in the area. The rule stems from a city ordinance stating that motor vehicles cannot be parked on sidewalks or on private property without consent.

Members of the university and local community gathered in Irvine Auditorium to celebrate Iftaar and discuss the situation in Darfur- after sunset yesterday, which signaled the end of another day of fasting for Muslims observing Ramadan. Engineering sophomore Eyas Mahmoud explained the link between Ramadan and the situation in Darfur.

You've seen the flyers and the Sigma Kappa girls in their event t-shirts, but are you going to tonight's charity event Rock Steady? Well according to the sorority, you should be. The event is a Battle of the Bands, and the proceeds will benefit Alzheimer's research.

Sex is shaking up campus - again. The literary erotica magazine Quake, which disappeared from Penn after a two-year existence from 2005-2007, is being reincarnated this semester. "Sexuality is very interesting," said College sophomore Trisha Low, Quake editor-in-chief.

A Penn Masala YouTube video warns students against a "Facebook stalker." But, according to a recent study, the person carefully studying your facebook page may be none other than a college admissions officer. According to the Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions' fifth-annual survey of college admissions officers, "one in 10 college admissions officers visited students' social-networking pages as part of the evaluation process.

Michelle Obama stood before a crowd of about 2,000 in southwest Philadelphia yesterday, and asked them to engage in something her husband knows all about: community organizing. "Everybody in this crowd knows 10 or 20 people who are not paying attention" to the election, said Obama, the wife of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

To explain why one person supports tougher immigration polices and another staunchly opposes the Iraq War, blame biology. University of Nebraska at Lincoln researchers recently compared physiological responses with participants' political views, representing one of the most recent ways scholars are relating biology and politics.