Penn in the News

Benjamin Abella of the Perelman School of Medicine talks about CPR training becoming a high school requirement.

It’s graduation season at high schools and colleges around the country, the time of year when students are honored for their accomplishments from the classrooms to the athletic fields. Teachers and counselors have long encouraged students to be “well-rounded.” But the problem with well-rounded students is that they usually don’t focus on any one thing for a prolonged period of time. Too often they seem to participate in activities just to check off a series of boxes, instead of showing the deep and sustained involvement, passion, and dedication that employers seek.

Sixty percent of prospective international students say they would be less likely to study at an American college if Donald J. Trump was elected president. By comparison, only about 4 percent of the potential students indicate they would steer clear of the United States if Hillary Clinton became the 45th president, while 5 percent said the same of her Democratic rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

David Shalowitz of the Perelman School of Medicine is quoted about research that reveals that nearly 20 percent of women with ovarian cancer do not undergo surgery.

Kenneth W. Starr announced Wednesday that he would resign as chancellor of Baylor University, effective immediately, saying it was a “matter of conscience.” Mr. Starr’s decision came less than a week after he was stripped of the more operationally powerful position of president of the university in the wake of a scandal in which Baylor acknowledged that it had mishandled accusations of sexual assault against several football players. “I have to, and I willingly do, accept responsibility,” Mr. Starr told “Outside the Lines,” the ESPN program in which he announced his decision.

College is designed to be more rigorous than high school, but first semester grades can still be a rude awakening fo freshmen at competitive colleges -- many of whom are accustomed to high marks. And some faculty members and administrators argue that worrying about grades can prevent these students from taking the kinds of intellectual risks they’re supposed to in college — or at least from focusing on real understanding over rote learning.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center says, “Trump has crafted his own image before his opponents have been able to do it.”

Dennis Culhane of the School Social Policy & Practice says, “There is a sense out there that some communities are seeing a new visible homeless problem that they have not seen in many years.”

Alamo Colleges Chancellor Bruce Leslie got people talking — not in a good way — last week when he spent a reported 40 minutes scrolling on his smartphone onstage during graduation. And while Leslie’s history leading the San Antonio-area college system makes him red meat for faculty criticism in particular, he’s not the only person in academe guilty of faux pas on or off a phone — even if his is the most egregious in recent memory.  First, a little bit of background on Leslie.

Michael Mullen of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on the limited amount of expertise in strokes.