Penn in the News

Jonathan Moreno of the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Arts & Sciences speculates on Donald Trump and narcissistic personality disorder.

The Turkish government’s post-coup demand for the resignations of 1,500 university deans appears to be a blanket measure that will allow for case-by-case examinations of political loyalty, Turkish experts on the country said on Wednesday. The government has dismissed four presidents, or rectors — the heads of Dicle, Gazi, Yalova, and Yildiz Technical universities, Turkish press reports said.

Ceasing need-blind admissions is a politically tenuous move for colleges and universities -- need-blind policies, associated with meritocracy and equal opportunity, cut to the heart of institutional values that many students, staff and faculty hold dear. But sometimes those values have run up against cold, hard finances. Admitting students without considering their need for financial aid can make it difficult to control budgets from year to year. That’s particularly true when the policy is paired with promises to meet the full demonstrated financial need of applicants.

When the filmmaker Ken Burns and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough asked David Levering Lewis to make a video criticizing Donald J. Trump, Mr. Levering Lewis thought it was "a jolly good idea." With a friend recording the video on his iPhone, Mr. Levering Lewis remarked that Mr. Trump’s staying power derives from "free association of reckless solutions to immigration, domestic terror, and whatever else comes to mind, along with verifiably absurd reiterations of disparaging untruth."

It’s hard to separate Lincoln University in Missouri from its history: after the Civil War, veterans of the 62nd and 65th U.S. Colored Infantries headed back to the Midwest from Texas and Louisiana, where they had served, to establish a school for African-Americans. The Lincoln Institute, named to honor the veterans' slain commander in chief, soon began offering college courses and became part of the black land-grant system. Decades later, in 1921, the Missouri Legislature passed a bill introduced by Walthall M.

A study led by Diana Mutz of the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Arts & Sciences about the opinions of Harry Potter readers on Donald Trump’s political views is highlighted.

Victor Pickard of the Annenberg School for Communication writes about net neutrality.

Turkey’s Higher Education Council reportedly demanded the resignation of 1,577 university deans on Tuesday as the widespread purges of state institutions begun after last week’s failed coup extended into the education sector. In addition, more than 15,000 education ministry officials were suspended and 21,000 schoolteachers had their licenses revoked.

Penn Medicine’s plans for a new building, housing the Center for Healthcare Technology, are profiled.

Doctoral candidate Kevin Gotkin of the Annenberg School for Communication writes and speaks about a Nashville comedy-thon.