News Archives

Ask Benny: A reader challenges Benny's facts

Dear Benny,

“If they buy the team, I know that Mark DeRosa (W’97) and I will be guaranteed jobs.”

—Phillies outfielder Doug Glanville (EAS’93) on the Penn students who organized a buy-the-Montreal-Expos campaign (National Post [Toronto], April 20)

Out and About: How I got on top of old smoking

Staring at my 36th birthday, I realized I had been a smoker for more than half of my life. On my own, I “tried everything” to quit—many times. I needed help. Then in November, I discovered an advertisement for the Penn Tobacco Use Resource Center, so I called, answered some questions, and learned I was eligible to participate in the ongoing Quit for Health program, a study that examines smokers’ responses to different forms of stop-smoking treatments.

Chief of Penn's finest

Let’s start out by disposing of the question everyone asks the chief of the Penn Police: Do you get kidded about your name? “What I get is just that question,” Thomas Rambo said. “That’s about it. ‘I guess you get kidded about your name.’ Then they go, ‘Well, what do they say?’” They probably don’t say much, for Rambo is about as far from Sylvester Stallone’s hungry-for-revenge Vietnam vet as it is possible to get. The affable 38-year-old is eager to show off the department he runs and takes pride in the way it has gone about making the campus and the area near it safer.

Two gold medals for Summer Sessions team

- The University Continuing Educational Association awarded two gold medals to Penn Summer Sessions for excellence in marketing and publications. The Penn Summer Sessions team—Valerie C. Ross, Bryan Lathrop, Emma Foley, Mandy Danti and Elizabeth Sachs—beat out 400 entries this year to win honors in the publications and campaign categories.

Anderson examines code of the suites

Thanks to the civil rights movement and affirmative action, blacks now occupy positions in numbers and at levels that were unimaginable as recently as the 1960s. But that success has created a new set of problems, and at a May 1 talk sponsored by the African-American Resource Center, sociologist Elijah Anderson examined some of them.

Student Spotlight: Audio books level the academic playing field

Instead of opening a book, try pressing play, rewind, pause and fast-forward. You’ve now entered the world of Sean Cronin (C’05), who learns with the aid of recorded textbooks. Having attention deficit disorder and dyslexia hasn’t stopped the Penn freshman from achieving academic excellence, a feat that recently earned him a trip to the White House and personal congratulations from First Lady Laura Bush. Cronin is one of six 2001 National Achievement Award winners—a recognition bestowed by the nonprofit organization Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D).

A busman's holiday

For complete details about Commencement, visit www.upenn.edu/commencement. Saturday, May 11 DEGREE CEREMONIES - FELS CENTER OF GOVERNMENT: Speaker: U.S. Representative Chaka Fattah, D-Pa. Ceremony and reception: 5 p.m. at the Fels Center, 3814 Walnut St.

Political science gets political

There’s real politics. And then, there’s real political science. Rogers Smith, the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, stirred up some disagreement amongst his peers when he wrote an essay defining what real political science research ought to be in the April 5 Chronicle of Higher Education. Department Chair Jack Nagel, himself somewhat stirred up, recognized a teaching moment, grabbed it, and called for a forum to air the issues. Graduate students turned out in force.

At Work With...James Trumbo