Penn in the News

A tenured professor and a legal institute are suing Marquette University, claiming a breach of contract for the suspension imposed after he publicly criticized an instructor for stifling debate in class. The conflict began in 2014: After a student complained after a philosophy class that he was disappointed that he and others who question gay marriage had not been allowed to express their views during the classroom discussion, the graduate-student instructor told him that opposition to gay marriage was homophobic and offensive and would not be tolerated in her theory of ethics class.

The hands-on tours at the Ancient Egypt exhibit at the Penn Museum are mentioned.

Professors at the University of Wisconsin at Madison have voted no confidence in the university system’s president, Raymond W. Cross, and its Board of Regents, the Faculty Senate announced on Monday. The symbolic vote is the latest volley in a long-running dispute over the state of tenure and shared governance in the system. Under an overhaul signed by Gov. Scott Walker last summer, the Wisconsin Legislature stripped tenure and shared-governance protections from state law, leaving it to the regents to set new policies for the system on both fronts.

After a protest over posters on campus that linked Muslim students to terrorism, San Diego State University President Elliot Hirshman on Monday agreed that school policies should be reviewed to ensure a balance between free speech and safety. But some students who met with Hirshman said they were disappointed that he has not strongly condemned the fliers. "It was better than expected, but not as good as we hoped," said Osama Alkhawaja, president of Students for Justice in Palestine at SDSU.

Laura Huang of the Wharton School says, “Entrepreneurs may or may not actually make good directors — and that is still an empirical question — but this research importantly shows that, regardless, the mere appointment of an entrepreneur is associated with performance and real outcomes.”

Research about college affordability led by the Institute for Research on Higher Education in the Graduate School of Education is cited.

In death, the late Antonin G. Scalia has sparked the sort of controversy that annoyed him while he was alive, a campus backlash against the perceived influence of conservatives on a public university. By agreeing to rename its law school after the U.S. Supreme Court justice at the behest of an anonymous donor of $20 million, George Mason University has inadvertently provided a flash point uniting several groups on campus with varying agendas.

Pennsylvania State University is rethinking how it trains future faculty members after doctoral students flocked to a crash course in online teaching. The university had hoped its free, noncredit certificate program, which launched in September, would attract about 30 students interested in developing their online teaching skills. Instead, the program beat that target by a factor of ten. The university is now planning to change its existing professional development program to fit the new course’s mold, emphasizing skills-based education over seat time. Laurence B.

Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences is featured for her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.

Barbara Kahn of the Wharton School says, “Cards that don’t make sense for someone’s life won’t be bought in today’s world, so looking for an underserved segment is a terrific growth opportunity.”