News Archives

Our spin on the Web

For every one treasure you find on the Internet, there are a million discards. The Current set out on a virtual stroll through the Penn community to help you avoid junkyard blues. Here are some of the little gems that shone out.

A moviegoer's feast

Our town’s annual celluloid celebration, which begins today, has a new name—the Philadelphia Film Festival—and a bigger-than-ever schedule of cinematic treats from around the world, with a healthy serving of partying on the side. The largest film festival on the East Coast will feature nearly 300 feature, animated, documentary and short films from 38 countries over the next two weeks. And with the addition of The Bridge as a festival venue, University City joins Old City as a festival hot spot.

Campus Buzz

Thanks for caring! Judging from the response to this year’s Penn’s Way charitable campaign, you’d never guess that these are tough times. Campaign co-chairs Maureen Rush and Lance Donaldson-Evans announced that the 2003 Penn’s Way campaign raised $452,630, $17,000 over its $435,000 goal and up 7.5 percent from 2002’s total. The campaign’s 152 coordinators and volunteers also increased participation by 42 percent over last year’s rate. If you gave this year, thank you. Your contribution goes a long way towards meeting urgent needs.

“There is also the possibility that you humanize the soldiers and some of them come home in a body bag.”

—Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, on whether or not granting access to the media helps the military sell the war (Chicago Tribune, March 21)

Dear graduates...

In its 247-year history, Penn has ushered many notables down its Ivy League red carpet. International scholars, businessmen, senators, First Ladies, and even Presidents have been invited to give Penn seniors departing words. (This year’s commencement speaker will be Archbishop Desmond Tutu.) We at the Current were wondering who you’d like to see at the podium, so we asked around… MIKE LIGHT Administrative Assistant, School of Arts and Sciences, Graduate Division “Maybe Ari Fleischer... Norah Jones. She’d be good.”

Kill a watt, save a buck

Americans filled with spirit, survey finds

In these times of crisis—political, economic, and emotional—Americans have shown a remarkable commitment to faith and spirituality, according to a new study from researchers at Penn, the Gallup Organization and the George H. Gallup International Institute.

Penn and Knight Foundation to Develop Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence

PHILADELPHIA -- The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has approved a $2.4 million grant to the University of Pennsylvania to launch the Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence. To help close the gap between supply and demand for practitioners with the skills needed to reverse neighborhood decline, CURExPenn will train at least 430 of the best potential urban-development managers and accelerate their growth into effective practitioners.

Ray Bonikowski

Return to Tikal

The 21st Annual Maya Weekend at the University of Pennsylvania Museum focuses on the Museum’s excavations at Tikal, one of the largest and most important of all Maya cities. The weekend conference features the first public presentation of the Tikal Digital Access Project, which, when completed, will make an archive of more than half a million archaeological records accessible to scholars and Maya enthusiasts around the world.