News Archives

New ideas shape campus health club expansion

Grunting and sweating promise to be much more enjoyable activities by 2003. By then the David S. Pottruck Health and Fitness Center, a state-of-the-art recreational space totaling 65,000 square feet, will have made its debut. The addition will more than double the size of Gimbel Gym’s existing indoor recreational space, from 50,000 to 115,000 square feet, and provide more room for informal recreation, sport clubs, fitness and wellness classes, and intramural sport.

Salute to a Penn Relays trailblazer of Olympic stature

The Penn Relays participants who have won Olympic gold medals—there are 206 of them—include some of track and field’s household names: Carl Lewis. Jesse Owens. Jim Thorpe. Edwin Moses. Gail Devers. Were it not for a life cut short in its prime, the name of John Baxter Taylor (V’08) would be equally well known.

Spring cleaning tips from the pros

It’s that time of the year when carpets need to be beaten and dust bunnies need to be chased away. And who knows how to do spring cleaning better than Penn’s facilities and housekeeping staff? You could learn a thing or two from these pros. At the Current we want only the meanest disinfectant and the best scrubbing techniques, but we don’t want to kill ourselves in the process, so we’re paying heed to those tips on handling chemicals. Hey, it’s is a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it.

“Measuring Up: How Advertising Affects Self-Image”

The mute gestures of advertising images are frozen for posterity by photographers and illustrators, gestures that, for better or worse, perpetuate a certain aesthetic and eventually become emblematic of a period. Today’s images display the values of a society that has more interest in the body than the mind. They represent unattainable appearances that leave women and men feeling horrified, estranged and restricted by unrealistic, silent mandates.

Future lawyers brief Supreme Court early

Thirty first-year law students got closer to the Supreme Court than most lawyers ever do when their Constitutional Law class researched a brief filed in a case argued before the high court March 27. “I thought it would be a great introduction to constitutional law and give [the students] the training in constitutional argument—and for that matter give them a brief they can show their parents,” said their teacher, Assistant Professor of Law Nathaniel A. Persily, who is an expert in congressional redistricting.

Staff Q&A: Isabel Mapp

For Isabel Mapp, volunteering is not just her sideline. It’s her job. As Penn’s associate director for faculty, staff and alumni volunteer services, Mapp gets the campus community to reach out to its neighbors through mentoring programs for local middle- and high-school students and more. And as director of Penn Volunteers in Public Service, she organizes toy drives, penny drives, and other campus charity efforts. It’s become a labor of love for Mapp who began voluteering as a mentor before she became a volunteer professional.

Safer bikes through research

Current staff picks recreation favorites

Articles in this special report:

Outdoor adventures

Fresh air and healthy hearts partner up at Outdoor Adventure events, sponsored by the Department of Recreation. Approximately two trips are planned each month, March through October, and guided by organizations throughout the Delaware Valley, including Penn’s Outing Club. Past activities have included hiking, kayaking and horseback riding. Trips are open to all Penn students, faculty, staff and Department of Recreation members. Pre-registration is required at the Membership and Services Office in Hutchinson Gym.

Editor's Pick: Docufest comes of age

For its 10th anniversary, the Margaret Mead Traveling Film and Video Festival pays tribute to its namesake. The festival’s opening program, “Coming of Age,” on Friday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m., features works that offer a glimpse of Mead herself (Jean Rouch’s “Margaret Mead: A Portrait by a Friend”) and contemporary perspectives on two of the worlds she inhabited, Samoa and Greenwich Village (Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s “Islands” and Remy Weber’s “Why Pay Two Rents,” respectively).