Penn in the News

The vast majority of freshmen expect their colleges to provide a welcoming environment for people from diverse religious and nonreligious perspectives, according to findings from a new survey released this week. But those same students may not be so welcoming themselves. Researchers from New York University and North Carolina State University joined with Interfaith Youth Core to conduct the national study at 122 institutions last year.

Marybeth Gasman of the Graduate School of Education writes about diversity in higher education and using minority-serving institutions as models.

The lawyer whom embattled Temple University president Neil D. Theobald has hired as he tries to stave off his ouster by the university board has a long history of representing college presidents who need to negotiate exit deals once relationships have soured. Raymond D. Cotton, a Washington lawyer who works for the Boston-based Mintz Levin firm, is a nationally known expert on college presidential compensation.

This month, Hillary Clinton announced a plan to make public colleges free for the children of any family earning less than $125,000 a year. The move was widely seen as an appeal to supporters of her primary opponent Bernie Sanders, who made free college a pillar of his insurgent campaign. Binyamin Appelbaum of The New York Times wrote Saturday that the plan could have the perverse effect of driving tuition higher. As is often the case with campaign promises, the details are fuzzy. And probably for good reason. A look at how states finance higher education shows that the more Mrs.

David Eisenhower of the Annenberg School for Communication and Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center comment on political conventions.

Elizabeth Turk-Karan of the Perelman School of Medicine writes about people suffering from PTSD.

Three professors at the University of Texas at Austin are suing the institution over its response to the state’s new campus carry law, which explicitly permits licensed, concealed weapons on campus. The law is supposed to go into effect Aug. 1 on public university campuses in the state, and a year later at community colleges. Specifically, the professors seek the right to ban guns from their classrooms -- something the university has maintained would put it out of compliance with the new law.

Katherine Milkman of the Wharton School co-authors an article about the impact of preparing a backup plan.

What does Boston have that Philly lacks? Merck told workers last week it was moving more than 300 jobs out of Montgomery County and New Jersey, and "increasing our investment in areas where biomedical research is converging, specifically in Cambridge, Mass." Adderall maker Shire Plc moved more than 500 jobs from Chester County to Massachusetts last year because "Boston is a biotech center," a spokeswoman said.

Diane Spatz of the School of Nursing co-writes an article about donor breast milk.