Penn in the News

Rogers Smith of the School of Arts & Sciences talks about the history of presidential candidates on the campaign trail.

In the 1960s, the sugar industry funded research that downplayed the risks of sugar and highlighted the hazards of fat, according to a newly published article in JAMA Internal Medicine. The article draws on internal documents to show that an industry group called the Sugar Research Foundation wanted to "refute" concerns about sugar's possible role in heart disease. The SRF then sponsored research by Harvard scientists that did just that. The result was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1967, with no disclosure of the sugar industry funding.

The Middle East Studies Association on Monday jumped into the debate over professors’ right to privacy vis-à-vis freedom of information laws, asking the State University of New York at Plattsburgh to affirm the academic freedom of professor it says has been targeted for backing the academic boycott of Israel.

FactCheck.org of the Annenberg Public Policy Center is mentioned.

Being an economist and college president, trends related to the affordability of higher education were never far from top of mind. As I depart my presidency and a new group of freshmen begins to arrive on America’s campuses, an affordability trend remains concerning: the growing, understandable anxiety of the middle class. Those in the middle haven’t been imagining their pain.

Jonah Berger of the Wharton School comments on Instagram’s “keyword moderation tool” as a new way for the social media platform to police its users.

When Reed College students obtain an illicit drug, a campus group will lend them a chemical testing kit designed to detect dangerous adulterants in whatever they are about to consume. The private college, while strictly banning illegal drug use, nonetheless tolerates student-to-student distribution of the kits as a way to reduce the likelihood of students inadvertently poisoning themselves. "Anything students are going to do to help keep themselves safer, and reduce harm, is a good thing," says Kevin T. Myers, a Reed spokesman.

David Greenberg and Peter Reese of the Perelman School of Medicine are highlighted for conducting a pilot study of patients receiving a new Hepatitis C drug.

On Tuesday, US News and World Report released its 2017 Best Colleges Rankings. The report – now in its 32nd year – sorts more than 1,800 US schools into categories, then rates them on academic quality. Over the years, the rankings have come under fire from many directions. Some colleges have refused to share data with US News. The White House also expressed concern about the rankings: In 2013, President Obama announced that the government would release its own ratings. (The plan was abandoned in 2015, amid heavy criticism by college and university presidents.

The new Pennovation Center is featured.