Penn in the News

Only a small minority of private colleges -- generally among the most elite and most wealthy -- pledge to admit students without regard to financial need and to meet the full financial need of accepted applicants. That group is now smaller, with Haverford College's decision to drop its commitment to need-blind admissions. The college says changes will be modest. The college will evaluate all applicants as it has in the past (at least for those from the U.S.), without regard to financial need. The college will also determine the size of its financial aid budget for the year.

Dean Theodore Ruger of the Law School discusses the recent Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action and abortion laws.

Virginia Man-Yee Lee of the Perelman School of Medicine is quoted about ways to help cure Alzheimer’s disease.

Brendan O’Leary of the School of Arts & Sciences proposes a multi-national constitutional compromise to address the U.K.’s exit from the European Union.

Raymond E. Crossman remembers exactly where he was last June when he heard that the U.S. Supreme Court had issued a ruling that effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. He was standing at a podium addressing the LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Education conference at Adler University, in Chicago, where he is president. The news of a critical victory for lesbian and gay rights set off a celebration among the more than 100 attendees at the conference, the first annual meeting dedicated to openly LGBT leaders and administrators in academe. "I was dancing on the stage," Mr.

Michael Perlis of the Perelman School of Medicine is quoted about causes of and solutions for chronic sleep problems.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court surprised a lot of observers when it upheld, 4-3, the race-based affirmative action plan employed by the University of Texas in its undergraduate admissions. Just three years ago, the court had avoided ruling definitively in the same case, Fisher vs. University of Texas, sending it back to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for reconsideration using reasoning and language that seemed skeptical of the Texas plan.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center compares the rhetoric of New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker to that of Barack Obama when he was on his presidential campaign.

Peter Reese of the Perelman School of Medicine says, “It is powerful to think that someone at the end of life, who has suffered a lot of illness, would want to do something to help someone else by being a living donor.”

Charles O’Brien, Daniel Langleben and George Woody of the Perelman School of Medicine are quoted about addiction science.