As fears mount over a looming recession, the House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday to help the federal student loan program stay afloat.

The bill would allow the secretary of education to purchase excess loans, providing lenders with additional security and giving them an incentive to provide more student loans.

If the stars align properly, Georgetown’s lightly used Heyden Observatory may be getting a makeover.

Completed in 1843, the observatory is the third-oldest university observatory in the country and was designated a national historic landmark in 1973. However, the building is only currently used to house a few biology department offices and several telescopes.

One week after University Information Services implemented more stringent spam filters, several students reported that there has been a noticeable drop in the amount of spam they have received in their Georgetown e-mail accounts.

Georgetown hopes to have its share of the federal pork barrel this year, but increased efforts to cut down on earmarks may leave the university empty-handed.

Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) may not be the GOP presidential front-runner, but students came out in full force to hear him articulate his libertarian message in Gaston Hall on Wednesday.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, legislation aimed at improving financial aid programs and removing obstacles that deter qualified students, like predatory lending practices and complicated financial aid applications.

Georgetown students aren’t the only ones on campus getting fired up about the upcoming presidential election.

Candidates are raking in unprecedented amounts of money this election season from backers, political action committees — and university employees.

Jose Canto (COL '08) and Katherine Boyle (COL '08) do not have too much in common.

Canto hails from urban Baltimore, Md., and has specialized his studies in anti-poverty policies and solutions. Boyle comes from marshy Gainesville, Fla., and has focused her studies on intellectual property rights and their role in the pharmaceutical industry.

From her familiar station swiping students into O’Donovan Hall, Houy Team Tang, known to colleagues and students as Leslie Yang, keeps watch over the peaceful scene of the university’s main dining hall.

Henry Delouvrier (MSB '09) and Rahil Gupta (MSB '09) woke up one August morning and were instantly struck by reality.

Sitting in a crater on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro 19,341 feet above sea level, they were wearing as many layers of clothing as possible, and they found themselves next to two other students in a not-so-cozy two-person tent.

Attempts to keep themselves warm were made harder by ice covering their sleeping bags and lining the inside of the tent.

Nights were brutal atop the mountain, consisting mainly of vomiting and the constant urge to urinate from drinking about six to eight liters of water every day.