5/18
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Mayor Street asks grads to stick around
John Street wore two hats when he spoke to the graduating class of the Graduate School of Fine Arts May 21—that of mayor of Philadelphia and that of proud Penn parent. The mayor, his wife, Naomi Post, and his son Sharif were all in attendance as his daughter Rashida Zakia Ng (a married name) received her master’s degree in architecture from the GSFA. Before Ng and her 167 fellow May graduates received their diplomas, though, Street had a few words for them.
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Fine Arts gets a state-of-the-art home
Fine Arts Undergraduate Chair Julie Schneider looked like a kid in a candy store as she led me through the new Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall a few weeks back. “I’m so pleased to be here,” she said, “and could not have imagined how well it all turned out.” It turned out that the fire that destroyed what was to have been Charles Addams Hall was a blessing in disguise, for the fine arts department wound up getting a larger building — the former Faculty Club — as a consolation prize.
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“Anything done to this picture could become a disaster.”
Leo Steinberg, professor of history of art emeritus, on a planned restoration of Leonardo da Vinci’s unfinished painting “The Adoration of the Magi” (The New York Times, May 23)
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“I guess I just love the festivities, the whole atmosphere.”
To hear Phyllis Pompa talk about Penn, you’d think she was an alumna herself. But she’s not. She’s merely a loyal and devoted staffer who sees her job as “spreading the gospel of Benjamin.” Benjamin Franklin and his university, that is. And each spring, she’s there to meet the faithful as they make their annual pilgrimage back to campus. Pompa is one of roughly 175 staff and faculty volunteers who, along with 60 undergraduate students, make the Penn grads who return for Alumni Weekend feel at home.
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John McCain
John S. McCain, the senator from Arizona whose independent spirit enlivened his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, delivered the 245th Commencement address. Here are excerpts from his talk:
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Show biz and the law
“Judge Judy” may not mean the end of our civilization. That was the judgement of a panel of pop-culture-savvy lawyers at the Law School during Alumni Weekend who, believe it or not, agreed more than they disagreed about the depiction of law in popular culture. “Law and Popular Culture,” one of 12 Classes Without Quizzes that weekend, attracted about 65 alums, most of them lawyers and judges.
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Eldercare, childcare, your cares, Penn cares
Margaret Ann Morris’ mother, now 75 years old, was ill and was living by herself in a big house up in Binghamton, N.Y. Morris is the associate editor of Almanac, the weekly publication of the Faculty Senate. Efforts to get her mother to face the issues and make some decisions were frustrating. “There were days we were tearing our hair out,” Morris said. “We couldn’t get my mother to move on anything.”
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Principal Selected For New University Of Pennsylvania-Assisted Public School In West Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA Sheila Sydnor, a veteran School District of Philadelphia teacher and administrator, was selected from a national pool of 60 candidates to be the new principal of the University-Assisted PreK-8 Public School in West Philadelphia. A site selection committee consisting of parents from the community, University of Pennsylvania and School District representatives chose Sydnor for her demonstrated abilities as a school leader, her commitment to building learning communities and her experience in creating conditions for high student achievement.
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Mad mortarboards
A tip of the hat to our graduating students, all of whom deserve praise for their achievement. But we found a few who managed to express their gratitude — or their creativity — on their caps.
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Gates scholarship opens doors to study abroad for two new grads
A pair of recent Penn grads have just snagged two brand-new study-abroad fellowships. This fall, Bart Szewczyk (W’01), of Guttenberg, N.J., and Amanda Codd (C’01), of Morrisville, Pa., will join the inaugural class of Gates Scholars — 40 to 50 Americans in all, plus several hundred from around the world — studying at the University of Cambridge in England with a full scholarship from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.