Penn in the News

John Hollway of the Law School writes about prosecutorial misconduct.

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has released a report titled ”Certificate and Associate Degree Pathways” in which the Center breaks down the various kinds of degrees that students received in the 2009-2010 academic year. The report finds that of all the associate degrees award that academic year, 536,351 were earned by students with no previous degrees or certificates. Within the next six academic years, over 64% of these students enrolled at a four-year institution, and 41% of such students successfully earned a bachelor’s degree.

The purpose of diversity efforts on college campuses is to enhance the population ― but in drawing so much attention to people’s differences, are we actually deepening divides? That’s the exact argument made by Jonathan Haidt and Lee Jussim in a recent Wall Street Journal piece titled “Hard Truths About Race on Campus” that references recent pushes by universities to meet student diversity demands with initiatives such as adding chief diversity officers.

Kyle Kampman of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on the lack of treatment for cocaine dependence.

Marybeth Gasman of the Graduate School of Education is interviewed for authoring Educating a Diverse Nation: Lessons From Minority-Serving Institutions.

Amid a haze of grief after her son’s unsolved murder last year, Marcia DeOliveira-Longinetti faced an endless list of tasks — helping the police gain access to Kevin’s phone and email; canceling his subscriptions, credit cards and bank accounts; and arranging his burial in New Jersey. And then there were the college loans. When Ms. DeOliveira-Longinetti called about his federal loans, an administrator offered condolences and assured her the balance would be written off. But she got a far different response from a New Jersey state agency that had also lent her son money.

Barbie Zelizer of the Annenberg School for Communication writes an op-ed about American journalism’s uneven reporting for international news, particularly of distant violence.

David Metz of the Perelman School of Medicine is quoted about normal stomach sizes stretching over time as professional speed eaters compete.

Emily Falk of the Annenberg School for Communication is quoted about studying communication neuroscience via teenage drivers.

Most students will make an earnest attempt to answer homework questions without peeking at the answer, even if cheating is just a click away, a new study found.