Penn in the News

Katherina Rosqueta of the School of Social Policy & Practice’s Center for High Impact Philanthropy says, “Philanthropic funds have always been a drop in the ocean compared to the resources that government and the private sector have.”

Gene Bishop of the Perelman School of Medicine writes about the benefits to the city’s health regarding the proposed soda tax.

David Mandell of the Perelman School of Medicine evaluates insurance mandates for autistic children.

After Harvard University announced plans on Friday to bar members of single-gender social clubs from leadership positions and scholarship endorsements from the college, many of Harvard’s women fought back. The policy is an attempt to crack down on Harvard’s historic "final clubs," which are not officially affiliated with the university. The new rule, however, does not single out those groups, taking in the campus’s unaffiliated five fraternities and four sororities as well.

Kathleen Brown of the Law School is highlighted for helping a prisoner serving a life sentence win commutation. The Penn Inmate Project, a collaboration with the Department of Corrections is mentioned.

Caught between opposing federal and state directives, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors held a special meeting Tuesday afternoon to get legal advice and try to resolve a standoff on the issue of transgender rights that puts hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. On Tuesday evening, they had no resolution to offer, only expressions of concern about the importance of federal funding on university operations and the difficulty of juggling two competing mandates.

Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences is mentioned for studying “grit” as a key to success for many people.

Research about the impact of DNA-folding errors in laboratory-made stem cells conducted by Jennifer Phillips-Cremins and graduate student Jonathan Beagan of the School of Engineering and Applied Science is featured.

Starting this fall, California State University at Los Angeles students must take two courses in civic learning as part of their general education requirements. A combination of workshops, service learning and problem-solving assignments, the courses are designed, the university said, to encourage students to use what they’ve learned at Cal State to create solutions to real-world issues by working with local nonprofit organizations. Faculty will develop assignments and projects using an online module created by the Association of College and University Educators.

Joan DeJean of the School of Arts & Sciences shares her thoughts on Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, French King Louis XV’s chief mistress.