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Cheer, sigh, boo, hiss. It’s a pantomime.
Alas, Gary Smith’s children, now off to college, had never been to a British pantomime, panto for short. Smith, who is chief of the Section of Epidemiology and Public Health at the School of Veterinary Medicine, is from Birmingham, England, and had grown up on pantomime, a play based on a fairy or folk tale, usually performed at Christmas. “Every English child goes to pantomimes,” he said.
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More information, more security
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Literacy to grow at Tech.21
With technology looming large at work, it’s little wonder that Penn’s National Center for Adult Literacy is using a recently awarded $2.4 million federal grant to push the link between technology and literacy. NCAL Director Dan Wagner said the U.S. Department of Education grant will help fund Tech.21, a resource for those—educators and learners—looking for what to buy in adult education and literacy technologies.
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Campus transformer
At Penn, old grads marvel and current students revel in the campus’ park-like atmosphere, a dramatic change from the urban hustle and bustle of the 1950s and 1960s. They can thank Laurie Olin and his fellow landscape architecture faculty in the mid-1970s for that transformation. On the other hand, visitors avoid and critics dump on Independence Mall, another attempt to turn urban hustle and bustle into magnificent parkland—one that failed.
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News briefs
Penn’s Way to heaven With so much charitable giving directed toward the Sept. 11 tragedies, your donation to Penn’s Way and the charities it supports is needed more than ever. Just $4 buys a one-day canoe field trip for a school child. And $50 provides a set of literacy brochures to help 50 people learn how to read. Your donation qualifies you to enter a drawing for some terrific raffle prizes as well as for the grand-prize drawing for an iBook laptop computer. And in our book, your donation also qualifies you as an angel.
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Clang, clang, clang...
…goes the Historic Holiday Trolley through the streets of University City. A vintage 1947 trolley is now running through Dec. 24 in a loop using 40th, Spruce, 42nd, Chester, 49th, Woodland, 42nd, Spruce, 38th and Filbert streets. Rides on the trolley, which operates from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, are free thanks to support from the University City District, SEPTA, Penn, the freshgrocer, Philadelphia on the West Side and the University of the Sciences.
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Campus Buzz
Be someone’s Santa: In addition to the Penn VIPS toy drive (see page 3), there are two other holiday gift drives currently under way that deserve your support. One is the annual “Operation Santa Claus” party for local senior citizens and neglected children. The organizers are looking for toys, games, clothing and other items to be distributed by Santa at a holiday party Dec. 19 at the Sheraton University City. For information about Operation Santa Claus, contact Yvonne Oronzio at 215-898-7234 or 215-898-4210.
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Ramos named chief of staff
Philadelphia native and Penn alumnus Pedro Ramos (C’87), 36, has been appointed vice president and chief of staff of the University. Ramos will start his position on the senior leadership team in January. Reporting directly to University President Judith Rodin, Ramos, who has served two terms as president of the Philadelphia Board of Education, will play an active role in senior-level decision making, serving as a senior policy advisor on short-term and long-range issues.
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Facts no cure for teen HIV
Associate Professor of Nursing Loretta Sweet Jemmott delivered a Provost’s Lecture Series talk Dec. 4 about reducing HIV risk among African American adolescents in urban communities. The following excerpt taken from her lecture discusses her approach to research and HIV prevention and the strategies needed to help individuals change their sexual behaviors.
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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.