Penn in the News

Vanderbilt University announced Monday that it will delete the word “Confederate” from the stone pediment at the entrance to a student dormitory known as Memorial Hall, becoming the latest in a wave of schools to alter how their campuses display words and images associated with the southern cause in the Civil War. To make the change, the private university in Nashville was required under the terms of a 2005 court ruling to pay $1.2 million to the Tennessee division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Research about homelessness and housing resources by Dennis Culhane of the School of Social Policy & Practice is cited.

When he was three months old, Jeremy Shuler’s parents were surprised to find he seemed to pay close attention to things for so long. Instead of the seconds they expected from an infant, he would watch closely for half an hour. And it seemed the things that fascinated him most were letters and numbers — they joked that he sat through a whole video to get to the credits. When he was 15 months old, Jeremy knew the alphabet and found letters and numbers everywhere — in his pasta, in clouds, in stars, in the patterns of marble tiles.

U.S. News & World Report, that heavyweight of the college rankings game, recently hosted a conference focused partially on diversity in higher education. I did an interview for the publication prior to the forum and spoke on a panel at the event. I was happy to do it. As dean of one of the country’s most diverse engineering schools, I am particularly invested in these issues. My panel focused on how to help women and underrepresented minority students succeed in STEM fields, and I’m grateful to U.S. News for leading the discussion.

Here is the newest in a podcast series called “Have You Heard,” this one about why it is a myth that college is the “great equalizer” between poor and more affluent students. The series is the work of Jennifer Berkshire and Aaron French. Berkshire is a freelance journalist and public education advocate who writes the lively EduShyster blog, where she discusses the serious consequences of corporate school reform. French is the creator of “Education on Tap,” a podcast produced by Teach For America.

A black student at Pitzer College and two other minority students at the Claremont Colleges, of which Pitzer is a part, were looking for a fourth to share housing for the summer. One line in the posting -- "POC only" (for people of color) -- turned the roommate search into the subject of a national debate. Was it legitimate for black students to seek only nonwhite roommates? Was the posting evidence of self-segregation by minority college students? The students have received an onslaught of criticism.

Vukan Vuchic of the School of Engineering and Applied Science comments on SEPTA’s regional rail system.

Michael Povelones of the School of Veterinary Medicine is quoted about studying the mosquito and the Zika virus.

Academics, it’s often said, don’t play well with others. But that cliché doesn’t apply to all of us. Humanists may derive their practices from the myth of the solitary genius laboring in the garret, but the laboratory sciences are justly known for their culture of collaboration. Bench scientists, as they’re also called, are socialized into lab-based groups.

Emily Rubin of the Perelman School of Medicine talks about studying what comprises good treatment and care for critically ill patients and what they fear the most.