Penn in the News

The U.S. Department of Education this week asked colleges and universities not to move up their deadlines for applying for financial aid. In theory, colleges could do so this year because of the adoption by the government of "prior prior year," a policy in which students may apply for financial aid based on family income from a year earlier than has been possible in the past. A letter sent to colleges by Ted Mitchell, the under secretary of education, asked colleges to publicize this change, and to use the change to provide students with earlier information on their aid eligibility.

Salimah Meghani of the School of Nursing is quoted about researching racial disparities in pain treatment.

Post-doctoral student Eric VanEpps of the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School says, “In the case of food, we care about what’s happening right now – like how tasty it is – but discount the long-term costs of an unhealthy meal.”

Even if Yale University doesn’t rename its Calhoun College, it may have set itself up to head off further protests over racist names. After months of debates over the college and its long-deceased honoree, John C. Calhoun, Yale isn’t saying yes or no to changing the controversial name. Instead, the president, Peter Salovey, formed the Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming, to set guidelines for when the university should change the names of its buildings and how it should be done.

Facebook is out to upend the traditional student-teacher relationship. On Tuesday, Facebook and Summit Public Schools, a nonprofit charter school network with headquarters in Silicon Valley, announced that nearly 120 schools planned this fall to introduce a free student-directed learning system developed jointly by the social network and the charter schools.

Orkan Telhan of the School of Design, Karen Hogan of the School of Nursing and alum Mike Hogan of the School of Engineering and Applied Science are featured for developing a countertop genetic engineering machine and for the Microbial Design Studio.

Jeffrey Vagle of the Law School is quoted about how racial and structural inequities are evident in technology.

Three campus leaders in the University of North Carolina system have been charged by lawmakers with carrying out a college-affordability experiment that has drawn both praise and criticism for its ambition: $500 tuition per semester for in-state students. At a time when the average published cost of in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges nationwide is nearing $10,000 annually, many see the measure, dubbed "NC Promise," as a bold move.

I’m beginning to wonder if my edtech community is making a fundamental error when it comes to our work at the intersection of learning and technology. This error is to believe that technology will make education more productive. The idea that technology can lower the cost of education while improving quality - or improve quality while keeping costs steady, or lower costs while keeping quality steady - is anchored in basic misconception about how technology behaves. This misconception is that new technologies substitute for existing actions, or for existing technologies.

Alum Katlyn Grasso, a 2015 President’s Engagement Prize winner, is highlighted for creating “Discovery Days” to connect girls with successful female role models in the corporate world.