News Archives

Mommy’s Light helps a grieving family create their own ritual

A year after his wife, Carolyn, died of cancer, Leroy Nunery and his two children, daughter Jackie and son Leroy III, are continuing Carolyn’s cookie-baking tradition. Nunery, vice president of Business Services, said keeping alive Carolyn’s love of baking has helped the family through the grieving process. Talking also helped. Nunery said that while speaking about the subject is painful, he continues to do so because of the potential good that could come out of it.

A k’atun passes

- The 20th Annual Maya Weekend at the University of Pennsylvania Museum marks the passage of a k’atun, a 20-year period marked with ritual celebration. This year’s weekend conference features special events, including a textile fair (Friday, April 5, 6:30 p.m.) and a public talk on “Time Among the Maya” (see Friday, April 5), to mark the occasion. The conference runs from April 5 to 7 at the Museum; the talk and textile fair are free and open to the public. Admission to the rest of the conference is $150, Museum members/seniors over 62 $120, students with ID $60.

“Romain Gary The Man Who Sold His Shadow”

In “Romain Gary: The Man Who Sold His Shadow,” Ralph Schoolcraft explores the career of the French author, film director and diplomat—a romantic and tragic figure whose fictions extended well beyond his books. Born Roman Kacew, he overcame an impoverished boyhood to become a French Resistance hero and win the coveted Goncourt Prize under the pseudonym—and largely invented persona—Romain Gary.

Campus Buzz

A higher calling: Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing, Professor of Classical Studies, Hill College House Faculty Master Jim O’Donnell will be leaving Penn June 30 to become the provost of Georgetown University. Your Buzz correspondent predicts that his scholarly interest in St. Augustine will mesh nicely with Georgetown’s Jesuit heritage and wishes O’Donnell all the best in his new position.

First chief privacy officer named

To safeguard private information held by Penn that could be accessed by computer, the University has appointed its first chief privacy officer, Lauren Steinfeld (C’89). She is also the first chief privacy officer to be appointed in the Ivy League. Although the position of chief privacy officer appears all over the corporate world, Steinfeld said, in universities the position is a rarity, outside of their health systems. An informal survey of several nearby colleges and universities turned up no other CPOs.

Staff Q&A: Debra Goldader

Blame it on Carl Sagan. His landmark PBS documentary series “Cosmos” got fourth-grader Debra Goldader hooked on the heavens, and she’s kept her gaze focused skyward ever since. “I think the people in my grade school thought it was sort of cute—there was a little girl running around saying, ‘I wanna be an astrophythithithist!’” said the woman who now runs Penn’s two observatories, the Flower and Cook Observatory in Malvern and the campus observatory on the roof of David Rittenhouse Laboratory.

Take a bow

Out and About: Arboretum's flower show springs to life

We found ourselves yearning for a touch of budding nature, thanks to the unseasonably warm weather and the hype for the Philadelphia Flower Show. So we headed far away from the hustling crowds to see the other flower show—at the Morris Arboretum, Penn’s botanical museum at the northwest corner of the city, in Chestnut Hill.

Penn's Dental School Offers Parents Interactive Guide On Intelihealth Website

PHILADELPHIA Parents now have a new on-line resource for getting the answers they need to help promote their child oral health. "A Parent Guide to Tooth Eruption" is an interactive tool developed by the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine for InteliHealth Dental, a comprehensive oral-health information site accessible at www.dental.intelihealth.com. Penn dental faculty review and approve all content on this site.

TV Journalist Jim Lehrer to Speak at Penn Commencement

PHILADELPHIA -- Jim Lehrer, one of the most respected television journalists in the United States and the host of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," will deliver the Commencement address at the 246th Commencement ceremony of the University of Pennsylvania Monday, May 13. The procession will enter Franklin Field at 9:30 a.m. at 33rd and South streets. Approximately 6,000 degrees will be conferred.