News Archives

Fantasy getaways

The dream spring break vacation of an area travel agent probably includes a land free of spring break travelers trying to arrange their dream spring break. Fantasy vacations may differ in locale, but our writer on Locust Walk noted a few similarities. Warm weather is a common one, as are foreign lands and, well, foreign bodies. Meg Thompson, Wharton, Class of '00 "Ideally for spring break I'd like to be stranded on a desert island with nothing except that cute actor David Borneaz and a bottle of tanning oil."

Beck is back

What does a world-rock sensation do for an encore? "World Cafe" listeners can find out March 12, when Beck talks with host David Dye about his latest album. There's plenty of good stuff before and after that, though: Thursday, Feb 25 V2 recording artists Mercury Rev perform work from their latest album, "Deserter's Songs" Friday, Feb 26 Liz Phair joins David for a performance and interview featuring music from her latest album, "Whitechocolatespaceegg"

Class soaks up alcohol information

While alcohol use on campuses overall is on the decline, there's still a hangover: a larger percentage of the students who do drink, drink heavily. A group of Penn students are enrolled in a General Honors seminar aimed at identifying alcohol-related problems at Penn and devising student-led approaches to reducing them. The 12 students in the new seminar include drinkers and teetotalers, students acting out of altruism and out of enlightened self-interest. John Buchanan (C'01) falls into that last category.

Five win Sloan Fellowships

Five Penn faculty were named recipients of the coveted Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Fellowships, awarded annually to promising young faculty. Each of the five will receive a two-year grant of $35,000 for their research. The recipients are:

CONFERENCE CALL

New spaces for living and learning

Two major building projects announced last week will alter the landscape of University City. The Wharton School will break ground in April on a $120 million, state-of-the-art academic center that will house its undergraduate and graduate programs as well as faculty offices. And the University has entered into an agreement with a private firm to renovate the former General Electric building at 31st and Chestnut streets into a 285-unit luxury apartment house.

Love signals

Try flashing some flowers at your valentine if the movies in "Readers' Best" (page 7) don't seem like the ticket. Here Danielle Weiss (C'02), way before Valentine's Day, purchases some fresh-cut flowers at Roses Florist at the Sansom Common Shops at Penn. No they weren't for her boyfriend. Perhaps she was just practicing. Photo by Kim Weimer

German films showed war by other means

Weimar Germany was not a place where an animated Bambi could have frolicked. "Weimar films replayed the horrors and fears of the war: mass death, psychosis, apocalyse," Anton Kaes, director of the film studies program at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a lecture last week.

These students see the big picture

For those of you who maintain that nothing good came out of those '60s movements, consider this: Adults across the country are rediscovering the joys of academe and transforming their lives thanks to a quirky idea from the 1960s. And at Penn, the program inspired by that idea - the Master of Liberal Arts program in the College of General Studies - celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

Poetry in motion

"Omnipotent One" was one of two poems that Sista Sabrina (above) recited at the open mike night for poets at the Kelly Writers House, Jan. 30. For more open mike nights at the Writers House and other poetry events, check "What's On," pages 6 and 7. Photo by Mark Garvin