Penn in the News

Clay Shirky stares into the camera in front of him as he reaches the core of his argument. “The social network is the human connection,” the associate professor of journalism at New York University and writer of all things internet says, turning to highlight an illustration on a digital blackboard of large and small clusters of connected users on social media.

Richard Berk of the School of Arts & Sciences is highlighted for leading the effort to develop an algorithm for pretrial decisions.

Jill Fisch of the Law School comments on and investigation is opened by the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Guobin Yang of the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Arts & Sciences is quoted about the evolution of the online environment in China.

In April 2016, following the widely publicized pepper-spraying of protesters by campus police, the Chancellor of University of California Davis, Linda Katehi, was criticized for spending $175,000 on outside consultants for Internet search optimization in order to diminish online references to the incident so the public would see a more favorable image of UC-Davis. Later that month, Chancellor Katehi was placed on paid administrative leave amid allegations of nepotism, inappropriate involvement on corporate boards, and gross financial excess.

The touch tours offered for visually-impaired visitors at the Penn Museum are highlighted. Gene Magee of the Museum speaks about things he has learned from guiding the tours.

Mary Naylor of the School of Nursing is quoted about gaps in care and communication for patients transitioning from hospitals to their homes.

President Obama became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison last year as he sought to build support for criminal justice reform. While it seemed to have bipartisan support in Congress this year, it now appears to be stalled amid the intensifying election campaign. But one state is moving ahead with a controversial plan to expand a rehabilitation program for some of its prison inmates.

Steven Berkowitz of the Perelman School of Medicine offers suggestions on how teachers and parents should speak to children about violence.

State and local government spending on prisons and jails increased by 89 percent between 1990 and 2013, while state and local appropriations for higher education remained flat, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Education. During that same time period, 46 states reduced higher education spending per full-time-equivalent student, the department found. On average, the report said state and local higher education funding per student fell by 28 percent while per capita spending on corrections increased by 44 percent.