Penn in the News

David Yaden of the School of Arts & Sciences says, “There have been studies comparing walking in nature with walking in an urban environment and testing people on their mood, different aspects of depression and in some cases, brain scans.”

Marybeth Gasman of the Graduate School of Education is quoted about a new report titled “Investing in Student Success: The Return on Investment (ROI) of Minority Serving Institutions.”

Jonathan Moreno of the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Arts & Sciences co-authors an article about the need for unbiased medical exams for presidential candidates.

Katherine Kuchenbecker of the School of Engineering and Applied Science is highlighted for overseeing the haptics group at the GRASP lab and playing an integral role in the science of replicating touch.

The higher education White Paper has been published: so how has Jo Johnson dealt with five of the big concerns raised about his policy plans in recent months? Concern: That the metrics powering the teaching excellence framework (TEF) are fundamentally flawed, and they do not, in fact, measure teaching quality. Has it been resolved? The three core metrics are to remain the same: student satisfaction scores (National Student Survey), graduate outcome data (Destination of Leavers from Higher Education), and continuation rates.

To reach the Ivy League after growing up poor seems like hitting the jackpot. Students get a world-class education from schools that promise to meet full financial needs without making them take out loans. But the reality of a full ride isn’t always what they had dreamed it would be. Here at Columbia University, money pressures lead many to cut corners on textbook purchases and skip city excursions routine for affluent classmates. Some borrow thousands of dollars a year to pay bills. Some feel obliged to send money home occasionally to help their families.

The average freshman at a private college paid nearly half the sticker price this year as schools increased their tuition discounts, a strategy that some higher education experts fear is putting small institutions in financial jeopardy. Tuition discount rates — the percentage of tuition revenue schools hand students in the form of grants — reached an estimated 49 percent for full-time freshmen in the 2015-2016 academic year, up from 47 percent a year earlier and the highest level on record, the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) said Monday.

The average freshman student at a private college got about half off tuition and fees last year, according to annual study released today. Almost 90% of full-time freshmen received a discount on tuition, covering an estimated 55% of it in 2015-16. That’s up slightly, from 54% the previous year. The National Association of College and University Business Officers’ annual survey of tuition discount rates found that, overall, colleges gave out close to 49 cents in grants to freshmen for every dollar of their tuition sticker price.

United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch is highlighted as the graduation speaker for the Law School’s Class of 2016.

A sit-in at Seattle University took an unusual turn last week when a student made an allegation to explain why the protest movement was insisting on the firing of a dean: a black student charged that the dean had used the slur "nigger" several times during a discussion they had last year.