News Archives

Economist looks at fast-track parents

In the last 100 years, most women chose between raising a family and pursuing a career. These days, a greater percentage of women want both. That’s according to Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard and keynote speaker in the “Mommies and Daddies on the Fast Track: Success of Parents in Demanding Professions” conference, presented by the Women’s Studies Program and the Alice Paul Center for the Study of Women.

HR offers ways to resolve workplace conflicts

Are a co-worker’s habits bugging you, and you can’t seem to get him to do something about them? Do you feel your supervisor has unrealistic expectations about your job? Need a referee to sort out office conflicts? The Workplace Issue Resolution Program can help. The program, administered by the Division of Human Resources, offers options for staff members to resolve workplace problems before they get too big to handle. The three avenues available for conflict resolution are:

The things we fall for

The recent heat wave notwithstanding, fall is in the air. That brings with it some characteristic activities, like football, watching the leaves turn—then raking them—and getting the fireplace ready for the winter season.

The making of tomorrow’s voters

There were only 11 days left in Philadelphia’s contentious mayoral race. The entire Philadelphia media scrum had descended on a small classroom at Olney High School. Bright-eyed students in the Advanced Placement History class filled the desks. There were cameramen from all the network stations, there were radio reporters from WHYY and KYW. There was a reporter and a photographer from the Inquirer. Even The Daily Pennsylvanian was there.

STAFF Q&A/Dawn Maglicco

In today’s highly partisan political atmosphere, there are still ways to get involved in the electoral process that everyone, regardless of political affiliation, can support. Dawn Maglicco has found one of them. Every election, she is out on the streets of Philadelphia, roving from polling station to polling station as a troubleshooter for the Committee of Seventy. She is one of a small but dedicated band of volunteers the century-old electoral watchdog group relies on to keep Philadelphia elections honest and fair.

Baboons Identify Each Other by Status and Family; Such Abilities May Have Influenced Human Evolution

PHILADELPHIA -- We may take it for granted that humans can classify each other according to familial or social status, but how did those abilities evolve?  In the Nov. 14 issue of the journal Science, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania report that, much like humans, baboons identify each other based on complex rules that determine relationships between families and status or "rank" within their particular family.

The ancients walk among us

Juan Torres

The Trane stops here

Saxophonist John Coltrane is considered one of the giants of modern jazz. His playing style influenced an entire generation of musicians, and his untimely death in 1967 at age 40 cut short a career that produced such landmark albums as “Giant Steps” and “A Love Supreme.”

Research post filled

Perry Molinoff, a renowned neuroscientist and the former chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at Penn, has been named Vice Provost for Research, effective immediately. Molinoff was the A.N. Richards Professor of Pharmacology and chairman from 1981 to 1995. An expert on the structure and function of cell membrane receptors involved in signal transduction, Molinoff’s research has led to a greater understanding and treatment of diseases ranging from heart failure to schizophrenia.