News Archives

Commencement honoraries

Along with the latest crop of graduating Penn seniors, this year’s 247th Commencement will honor some of the world’s most noted scholars. Commencement speaker and 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu will receive an honorary degree along with five other recipients.

AARC director to head AA/EO office

Jeanne Arnold, current Director of the African-American Resource Center, will replace Valerie Hayes as Executive Director for the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs on June 9. A graduate of Penn’s School of Social Work, Arnold has a wealth of experience in issues relating to cultural diversity. Before joining Penn, Arnold served as both Director of Human Resources and Community Relations and Director of Center Services for the Crime Prevention Association.

BOOKQUICK/New from the University Press

“Supreme Justice” assembles the public presentations, occasional writings, speeches, and interviews of the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall over a period of seven decades, from the 1930s to the 1990s. These texts, compiled by J.

EXHIBIT/Students learn the art—and business—of curating

When “s(how)” debuts at the Institute of Contemporary Art, you’ll be treated to more than just the works of some of today’s hottest living artists. You’ll also get a peek into the minds of tomorrow’s art movers and shakers. The exhibit, which is spearheaded by 10 Penn undergraduates, marks the culmination of a yearlong seminar on contemporary art and curating sponsored by the University’s Art History Department and the ICA.

Steppin’ South Asian style

NSF grant to help West Philly kids do science

Math and science programs in West Philadelphia schools will get a $1.5 million boost thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant, which is approximately $500,000 a year for three years, will fund Access Science, an academically-based community service project involving faculty, undergraduate and graduate students. Access Science both tutors students and helps teachers design hands-on learning activities.

The tax man giveth

What Uncle Sam takes away, he sometimes gives back. And boy there’s not a single one among you who don’t already have plans for your income tax return. Catching up on past due bills is the general trend although some have more lavish plans, like a trip to Mexico, for that shiny penny. Sharon Mulholland Program Coordinator, Office of the Vice Dean, Wharton Undergraduate Division “We don’t plan on spending the money. My husband has just retired, so he’s consolidating and regrouping.”

Detective Zuberi goes investigating history

Tukufu Zuberi already wears two hats at Penn: Professor of sociology and director of the Center for Africana Studies. Now he’s added a third hat—the detective’s fedora. Zuberi isn’t just any old detective, though. Starting in July, he and three comrades—Columbia Professor of Architecture Gwendolyn Wright and appraisers Wesley Cowan and Elyse Luray-Marx—will go sleuthing for the historical significance of artifacts, buildings and legends all across America in a new PBS series, “History Detectives.”

Andy McKeague

Staff Q&A: Elena DiLapi

30 years ago, 200 Penn women—faculty, staff and students—took over College Hall Room 200 and refused to budge. They had gathered in response to a series of sexual assaults on and around campus. Out of that four-day protest was born the Penn Women’s Center, one of the oldest university women’s centers in the nation. The Current sat down with Center Director Elena DiLapi (SW’77) to wish the organization happy anniversary and to reflect on how her concern for the individual has helped further women’s causes on a broader, more institutional level.