News Archives

In the market for fun

The world’s only arts market devoted exclusively to young people’s programming is coming to campus next week, and you and your family are invited to take a peek at what’s for sale. The 24th International Showcase of Performing Arts for Young People will take place at the Annenberg Center Jan. 30 through Feb. 2. Eighteen performing arts groups will present 45-minute performances offering Showcase participants and the general public a chance to sample their offerings. Showcase highlights include:

“Crossing the Green Line: Border Struggles in the Palestinian-Israeli West Bank”

The Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority have negotiated borders, and now both sides have built permanent military checkpoints. “Crossing the Green Line” is about passing through these checkpoints—specifically those that mark the Green Line, the geopolitical border separating the West Bank from Israel proper—and how their existence affects the daily life of West Bank Palestinians.

Science, media and ethics contend

While the nation’s political leaders legislate and debate the future of stem cell research, Penn’s School of Medicine held its own heated inquiry on the topic titled, “What Price Cure? The Controversy Over Stem Cell Research.” Moderated by Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics, the Dec. 12 event featured a diverse panel, with voices ranging from the scientific to the journalistic and the legal.

Staff Q&A: Ron Washington

On the walls of the main staircase in Leidy Laboratories hang pictures of the turn-of-the-century scientists that made Penn a hotbed of research on the natural world. All but one of these pictures are old drawings or photographs of historical paintings. The exception is a color acrylic painting of Edward Drinker Cope, the famous 19th-century Penn paleobiologist. The painting, which replaces an engraved portrait of Cope that disappeared in March 2000, is the work of Biology Department Housekeeper Ron Washington.

Human nature takes a walk

Book Talk: This 20-year-old club speaks volumes

Universities take on the role of redevelopers

Across America, urban university administrators are waking up to the realization that as among the biggest players in their cities’ economies, they have a responsibility to the city around them. Penn administrators woke up early and other schools have since followed suit. “Penn and Yale are pursuing similar strategic initiatives, and I think both of us are ahead of the curve in a growing trend of the university being a good institutional citizen.” said Stephen Morand, associate vice president for New Haven and state affairs at Yale University.

Penn Library Lends Laptop Computers

PHILADELPHIA -- University of Pennsylvania students can now check out a laptop computer to do research, write papers and check e-mail.

Penn's Kelly Writers House Hosts Three Pulitzer Winners

PHILADELPHIA -- Three Pulitzer Prize winners have been named Kelly Writers House Fellows for the spring semester at the University of Pennsylvania.They are Michael Cunningham, a novelist and short story writer, poet John Ashbery, and playwright Charles Fuller.Cunningham will be on the Penn campus Feb. 11-12, followed by Ashbery on March 25-26 and Fuller on April 15-16.The purpose of the Fellows program is to offer undergraduate students the opportunity to interact with noted authors in an intimate setting.

Penn Marks Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday with Two Weeks of Events

PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday long past the federal holiday. "Remembering the Dream, Living the Vision" is the theme of Penn's 2002 Commemorative Symposium on Social Change which will begin Jan. 16 and continue through Feb. 1. Most of the events are free and open to the public. University offices will be closed and no classes scheduled on Jan. 21, the official national holiday, to give the Penn community an opportunity to participate in the King day of service.