News Archives

Dear Mr. Mayor...

A lot is riding on the outcome of the Nov. 4 mayoral election, and we’re not just talking about Mayor John Street’s job security. Will wage tax cuts continue? Can the streets be made safer? Will Center City’s recent success spread to the neighborhoods? For supporters of both Street and opponent Sam Katz, the answers depend on the person chosen as mayor. What should the next mayor—whoever he is—do to keep the city moving forward? We put that question to people in the Engineering School, where problem-solving is something they do in their sleep.

Penn Professor to Work on Math Education Strategies for Inner City Students as Part of New $10 Million Center

PHILADELPHIA- The Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania will be among three participants in a five-year, $10 million National Science Foundation grant to create a center for improving mathematics education in city schools.  The center will focus on discovering how urban children learn math, equipping teachers with effective instructional strategies and developing a research-based model for successful math education in America's cities.

Penn Dental Pediatric Clinic Mural to Be Dedicated Oct. 16

PHILADELPHIA -- Children waiting to see a dentist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine Pediatric Clinic can now enter an undersea world of imaginary adventures through a new hand-painted mural.

Richard Estes Visits Sweden to Discuss Social Development

WHO:  Richard Estes, professor of social work at the University of Pennsylvania and president of the International Society of Quality of Life Studies WHAT: Lecture and news conferenceWHEN:  Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2003, 10 a.m. WHERE:Statistics Sweden in Stockholm Richard Estes will deliver a major address at the annual Conference on Swedish Quality of Life sponsored by Statistics Sweden in Stockholm.

A new way to control your credit card

Carl Gunter, professor of computer and information science, has designs on your credit cards. He wants to turn them into smart cards. He’s already got one—a Barclays Bankcard with a tiny gold square on the front, no bigger than a thumbtack, which is a programmable computer chip.

ICA displays tunesmith’s pictorial prowess

Patti Smith has never been one to compartmentalize artistic expression. Since her arrival onto New York City’s downtown scene in the late 1960s, she’s deftly moved between visual art and poetry, spoken word and music. Granted, it’s Smith’s music and poetry that have garnered the most critical praise. But she’s also been drawing—during her long-time friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, after her landmark 1975 album, “Horses,” and through to the present day.

Search for Sabloff successor under way

Jeremy A. Sabloff C’64, Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, has announced that he will be stepping down from the directorship on June 30, 2004. Sabloff will have completed 10 years of service as head of one of the world’s great archaeology and anthropology museums. Deputy Provost and Andrea Mitchell Professor of English Peter Conn chairs the search committee. Sabloff, who discovered archaeology as an undergraduate at Penn and has a Ph.D. from Harvard, is an internationally recognized expert on the ancient Maya.

Veteran journalist to run Annenberg voter survey

The Annenberg Public Policy Center is poised to begin their second National Annenberg Election Survey (NAES), a rolling-cross sectional survey of the American electorate, on November 1. In the groundbreaking 2000 NAES, the most comprehensive academic survey to date on American political attitudes and behavior, researchers conducted more than 100,000 interviews, asking Americans about their political knowledge, media use and opinions about the candidates and issues.

Nominations now being accepted

Since the search committee evaluating candidates to succeed Judith Rodin as President is taking suggestions, we thought we would help them out by asking people who they thought should be Penn’s next president. We were surprised, to put it mildly, at how reluctant people were to recommend anyone. It’s not like the job is all that difficult—you just have to manage an institution with a $3.5-billion-a-year budget. Those of you who did go so far as to offer an actual candidate, though, had some serious suggestions.

Michael Carman