News Archives

Help! It’s raining on me at my desk

It’s 7 p.m. on a Friday. You’re in your office wrapping up an important project when suddenly water rains down from the ceiling above. If you’re smart, you pick up the phone and dial 215-898-7208 or else you hop on your computer, assuming it’s out of the line of fire, and send an e-mail to workreq@pobox.upenn.edu. An agent answers your call, puts in a work ticket and dispatches the request to the appropriate building operations manager.

Holiday home checks, escorts and more

’Tis the season for crime. So the Department of Public Safety has some suggestions to keep you safe. Home safety You’re going away for the holidays. But you can’t take your home in University City with you, and you’re worried it won’t be safe. Here’s the solution for you—police checks. Students, faculty and staff who live in the University City area may request special checks of their residences, to be conducted by the University of Pennsylvania Police Department.

Quad of the future

It’s never too early to let you know who the faculty masters of the soon-to-be-reconfigured Quad College Houses will be. Come Fall 2002, the Quad will have three College Houses, not four. The new Spruce House will sit in Baby Quad and Clock Court, the new Woodland House will be located in the Upper Quad and the new Ware House will dominate the Lower Quad. Each House will have its own courtyard, lobby, mailroom, exercise room, library, refurbished student rooms and computer lab. Individual color schemes and signage will distinguish one from the other.

Not your father’s chamber ensemble

They’ve only been around for five years, but the contemporary classical sextet eighth blackbird has already made a splash in the world of classical music. In 1998, only their second year of performing, they became the first contemporary ensemble to win first prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, where they also won the Rockport Chamber Music Festival Prize. They have since gone on to rack up more awards and win accolades from audiences and critics for both their virtuosity and the fun they have presenting works by contemporary composers.

“First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory”

The latest book in our Early American Studies series is a sweeping historical critique by one of the most distinguished historians writing today. Covering more than two centuries of social, economic and political change and offering a challenging, innovative approach to urban as well as national history, “First City” tells the Philadelphia story through the wealth of material culture its citizens have chosen to preserve.

Shop with ease

So you’re in the market for, say, office furniture or some lab chemicals. Up until now, buying these things meant flipping through several catalogs, hunting down prices, filling out forms and waiting while they made their way through the purchasing food chain. Come Jan. 2, all that will be a thing of the past, thanks to BEN Buys and the Penn Marketplace. BEN Buys is the part of Penn’s new Business Enterprise Network aimed at faculty and staff in general. BEN Buys is designed to take the hassle out of shopping for equipment and supplies at Penn.

Research: The play’s the thing on video, now

Try to write about the phenomenon that was Frank Sinatra without ever having seen him or heard him. Now apply the same issue to the musical theater of the past. That’s part of what David Fox has to do when researching old musicals. Fox, a lecturer in Theatre Arts, is probably most widely known on campus as associate director of College Houses and Academic Services. But musical theater is his first love. And a lot of the theater he talks about is theater he has neither seen nor heard.

Staff Q&A: Teresa Leo

Teresa Leo has enough material for 10 impressive resumes. There is no street on the Philadelphia literary map that she hasn’t covered, from columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer to editor of the Painted Bride Quarterly. And now, after 10 years as a technical writer for Penn’s Information Systems and Computing, she’s lending her creative energy to Penn’s literary arts hub, the Kelly Writers House, helping put together a jam-packed schedule of 150 programs per semester.

Just about all wrapped up

Remembering the dream, living the vision

Instead of starting the semester, Penn’s observance of the Martin Luther King Day holiday comes at the start of its third week, meaning that the entire campus will be able to participate in all of the events planned to commemorate King’s life and his vision. And for the second year, everyone will have the day off to make participating easier.