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Campus Buzz

Commencement roundup: The weather couldn’t have been better and the spirit was celebratory at Penn’s 247th Commencement May 19. The tenor of the times, however, was manifested in the more subdued form that celebration took.

Room to play

Penn’s student performing arts organizations are coming closer to a new home in Stouffer College House. Work is now under way on a new performing arts hub in the former Stouffer basement dining hall. When it opens in August 2004, the facility will offer much-needed rehearsal and meeting space for the Performing Arts Council’s 43 member groups. “The biggest thing the new hub offers is appropriate facilities for many of the groups that are now practicing in inappropriate spaces,” said Performing Arts Coordinator Ty Furman.

Jim Branagh

Penn Researchers: Hikes in Unemployment, Rents -- Not Welfare Reform -- Push Families into Homeless Shelters

PHILADELPHIA -- Families are more likely to be driven into homeless shelters by increased unemployment and by hikes in rental-housing costs than by welfare reform or by the occurrence of substance abuse or disabilities in heads of households.

Penn's Library Receives Rare Work of Early English Fiction

PHILADELPHIA  The University of Pennsylvanias library has added to its collection of more than 5 million books a unique and rare copy of the Urania, a major work of early English fiction.  The Urania was written in 1621 by Lady Mary Wroth, one of the most prominent women writers from the time of Shakespeare.  Women writers of this era and their works were only rediscovered in the past 25 years.  Their works have changed perceptions about writers and readers of early English literature.  

Maniaci Wins Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation

PHILADELPHIA  Vince Maniaci, who recently received a doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, is the 2003 recipient of the John Grenzebach Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Philanthropy for Education.Maniaci's dissertation was titled "The Relationship of Annual Giving and Endowment Payout to Future Tuition Dependency at Private Master's Universities."

Penn Study: Religion Missing in Lives of "Privileged" Adolescents Who Fail to Live Up to Expectations

PHILADELPHIA -- Recent research has pointed to the beneficial effects of religion among at-risk populations, and now a study from the University of Pennsylvania shows that religion has equally positive effects on "advantaged" youth not typically viewed as being at-risk.

National Study of U.S. High School Seniors Finds Religion Good for Their Health

PHILADELPHIA New research from the University of Pennsylvania shows that religious American high school seniors are less likely to engage in high-risk, negative behaviors, and more likely to engage in health promoting, positive behaviors, than their non-religious counterparts.

Penn Study: Religion Alters the Delinquent Behavior of High-Risk Adolescents

PHILADELPHIA  Religious convictions shield male teenagers in poor, inner-city neighborhoods from the lure of drugs and crime, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.The study is detailed in The Great Escape: How Religion Alters the Delinquent Behavior of High-Risk Adolescents by Byron Johnson and Marc Siegel of Penns Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society.

New Technology Shows Promise in Pinpointing and Untangling Traffic Jams in Computer Networks

PHILADELPHIA -- New software developed by Ipsum Networks, a start-up co-founded by a University of Pennsylvania engineering professor, has shown promise in detecting hard-to-spot bottlenecks in computer networks, winning $6 million in new venture funding.The first version of this software, known as Route Dynamics, is now available to companies and other users that transmit data via decentralized Internet Protocol networks.