News Archives

At the PennMOVES sale, gently used items get collected, sorted, and sold

At the end of every school year, Penn students clean house, getting rid of everything from books and clothing to appliances, housewares, and rugs. But, as the saying goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. With the annual PennMOVES event, items that would end up in dumpsters are now sold or distributed to individuals and organizations in the greater Philadelphia area.

Virtual Penn

Penn is partnering with Princeton University, Stanford University, and the University of Michigan as part of a new online education platform called Coursera, designed to make web-based courses available for free and improve teaching on campuses. Coursera is the first education platform to host content from multiple world-renowned universities at one destination. The courses include video lectures with quizzes, interactive assignments, and collaborative online forums.

PIK professor

Dorothy Roberts, an acclaimed scholar of race, gender, and the law, has been named the 14th Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor, effective July 1. Roberts will be the George A.

Staff Q&A with Marcia MartÍnez-Helfman

The Office of the Ombudsman, housed in an annex to the Arthur Ross Gallery at 113 Duhring Wing, offers members of the Penn community a place to discuss, manage, and resolve conflicts and disagreements.

Take sustainability home with greening program

Bolstering the University’s commitment to sustainability, Penn has launched the Greening Penn at Home program, an initiative designed to educate faculty and staff about best practices for energy efficiency at home and to make it easier for the University community to implement energy efficient home improvements.

Penn Astrophysicists Zero In on Gravity Theory

Most people take gravity for granted. But for University of Pennsylvania astrophysicist Bhuvnesh Jain, the nature of gravity is the question of a lifetime. As scientists have been able to see farther and deeper into the universe, the laws that govern its expansion have been revealed to be under the influence of an unexplained force. 

Jump start

Out & About: Chez Yasmine

Q&A with Amy Gutmann

In mid-summer of 2011, the rhetoric between Democrats and Republicans over raising the federal debt ceiling—which Congress had done without fanfare 70 times before—was heating up. Newsweek and Daily Beast senior columnist John Avlon described it this way: “A cataclysmic game of chicken. Negotiating with a gun to your head. A ‘Thelma & Louise’-style full throttle off a cliff.”

Honored scholar

On May 16, Columbia University will present Penn President Amy Gutmann with an honorary laws degree during its 258th commencement exercises in New York City. In announcing Gutmann as a 2012 honorary degree recipient, Columbia lauded her as “a national leader in facilitating greater access to higher education.”