Announcements

Walter Wallace’s death is particularly difficult for the entire Penn and West Philadelphia community. We mourn together, and can find help from Penn resources if we need it.

Long before this public health crisis, we have affirmed our strong commitment to advance our core missions of teaching and research. With the start of the pandemic, we have redoubled our efforts to provide the strongest counterweight we can to these extremely challenging circumstances. We believe that it is precisely during moments like these when institutions of higher education are called upon even more to help set the intellectual agenda of the future and to produce the next generation of the most creative, thoughtful, and engaged scholars.

Perhaps never before in our nation’s history has your vote been more important. This has been an unusually long and stressful campaign season. As it draws to an end, with Election Day just two weeks away, we write to encourage everyone in the Penn community to take the time to vote. Our democracy depends on all Americans making their voices heard.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a shortage of polling place workers. We have observed the nationwide effort to encourage citizens to serve as polling place workers on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2020. This is especially active in Philadelphia County, where the recruitment and training of nearly 4500 volunteers is in process. Service as a polling place worker generally requires active voter registration, advance preparation and training, and a commitment to 15 hours of work on Election Day.

We are enormously grateful to our students, faculty, and staff for the outstanding start to the fall semester. Our Penn community has risen to the challenge of these unusual circumstances, finding new ways of learning, working, and talking together in an online environment as we navigate through this worldwide pandemic.

Friday we lost one of the most respected, and most beloved, jurists of our time. A brilliant and barrier-breaking leader, Ruth Bader Ginsburg brought forth her fiery commitment to justice and equality with the truest grit possible. No one has ever worked more tirelessly and effectively to advance the equal status of women through the law. At the same time, Justice Ginsburg championed the ethical principles of equal liberty and human rights, advancing the cause of justice everywhere.

Over the past six months, Penn staff, faculty, and students have faced the formidable task of navigating life in a new and uncertain context. We thank every Penn faculty and staff member for your commitment and dedication to the work that is moving the University forward during one of the most challenging chapters in our history.

With an abundance of caution, Penn’s fall semester will be conducted online, and students will not be living on campus, save for those seeking on-campus housing exceptions.

Dear Graduate Nursing Students, Faculty, and Staff: We regret to inform you that a beloved member of the Penn Nursing Community, Andrea Leah Wiest-Weidman passed away July 30. Andrea, 38, lived in Lancaster, PA. She is survived by her husband, Tim; her parents; and three siblings. Before starting graduate school, Andrea worked as a breast care nurse coordinator, a transplant nurse coordinator, and a financial analyst. She earned undergraduate degrees in nursing and business from Penn State, and she served in the Air Force for six years.

Dear Students: With a heavy heart, we share the news of the passing of Jerry Sun, Wharton ’23, who was killed in a car accident in Colorado July 25. Jerry, 19, lived in College Point, N.Y.