Penn in the News

It was nearly 40 years ago when a fractured U.S. Supreme Court was searching for an acceptable and lawful way to take race and ethnicity into account in college admissions. The court majority viewed as unconstitutional a system that would set aside a specific number of seats for one racial group or another. But justices also wanted to enable colleges to take steps they might deem necessary to attain a racially diverse student body. How to do that? Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. turned to the nation’s oldest college for answers.

Aaron Roth of the School of Engineering and Applied Science is cited for researching “differential privacy” to gather data without compromising privacy.

Nearly 130,000 people have now signed a petition demanding that the National Collegiate Athletic Association ban violent athletes from playing intercollegiate sports. The petition comes weeks after Baylor University’s Board of Regents forced the university’s president to resign and fired its head football coach over allegations that they mishandled sexual assaults committed by its football players, including by a player who was accused of violent behavior at his previous college.

Mark Bradbury has brought along plenty of apprehension to a summer workshop here on how to teach an online course. Mr. Bradbury, who directs a master’s program in public administration at Appalachian State University, prides himself on drawing out students in his face-to-face courses and feeding off their questions and interests. He worries that he won’t be able to replicate that spirit if he’s making lecture videos and posting on discussion boards. "My strength as an instructor is being spontaneous," he says.

Researchers, including Carl June of the Perelman School of Medicine, are mentioned for getting approval for the first human use of the gene-editing technology CRISPR to help target three types of cancer.

Win or lose in November, Donald Trump has already left an enduring imprint on American life. His unexpected political rise has shaken many long-held assumptions about politics and society. In this special issue, we asked scholars from a range of disciplines — history, political science, sociology, and philosophy, among others — to explore several questions: How did Trump happen? What ideas has he upended? And what does his candidacy mean for the future of democracy?

Ron Litman of the Perelman School of Medicine writes about the effects of anesthesia on children.

Peter Eckel of the Graduate School of Education is quoted about changes in leadership and governance at the University of Louisville.

Robert Town of the Wharton School comments on insurance company mergers.

“The institution of school," according to the anthropologist Susan Blum, "has outlived its usefulness." She makes that forceful claim in her new book, "I Love Learning; I Hate School": An Anthropology of College, which offers a comprehensive indictment of the American higher-education model today. Many of us who do research and write about teaching and learning in higher education (present company included) believe fundamentally in the enterprise but see room for improvement. But Blum sees a fatally flawed system and thinks incremental changes won’t cut it.