Penn in the News

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.

Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School talks about résumé optimization.

Annan Chatterjee of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on the rise and ethics of “smart drugs.”

Just over a week before Britain's referendum on European Union membership, Paul Whiteley, a professor in the University of Essex’s department of government, was scheduled to take part in a BBC Norwich debate alongside three other academics to fact-check statements made by politicians from both campaigns, to remain in the union and to leave. But one of the politicians set to appear, Douglas Carswell, the U.K. Independence Party representative for Clacton, refused to appear alongside them.

Changchun Liu, Haim Bau, Jinzhao Song and Michael Mauk of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Sara Cherry and Brent Hackett of the Perelman School of Medicine are featured for developing a $2 portable Zika virus test.

After years of puzzling over how its grant-review process might be shortchanging younger scientists, the National Institutes of Health appears to have figured out a more fundamental truth: There just aren’t enough of them applying. A report published on Thursday by several federal-grant experts breaks down NIH award rates by age groups, finding that older scientists aren’t necessarily any more successful than are their younger counterparts.

Kevin Volpp of the Wharton School and the Perelman School of Medicine and Katherine Milkman also of Wharton are quoted.

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday released a draft funding bill that would block implementation of federal gainful employment rules and would not back the U.S. Senate's attempt to restore year-round Pell Grant eligibility. The bill also includes $33.3 billion for the National Institutes of Health, which is $1.25 billion above this fiscal year's funding level. The Obama administration's attempt to regulate vocational programs at colleges based on their graduates' labor-market standards went into effect last year.

Jonah Berger of the Wharton School is cited about his new book, Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior.

Over three generations, the Michael family forged a deep bond with the University of California, dating back nearly 50 years to when Jay Dee Michael Sr. was the university system’s vice president and chief lobbyist. Family members proudly displayed degrees from the campuses in Los Angeles, Davis, Berkeley and Santa Barbara. And when Mr. Michael died last year, his family asked that memorial donations go to a U.C. Davis institute. Recently, though, the relationship has soured, a victim of the economic forces buffeting public universities. Jay Dee Michael Jr.