Penn in the News

Dominic Sisti of the Perelman School of Medicine co-authors commentary on the losing strategy of Sam Hinkie, former general manager and president of basketball operations of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Members of the oldest all-male club at Harvard have almost never spoken publicly about the organization since its founding in 1791. This week, that silence was broken when an official with the group, the Porcellian Club, said that admitting women could increase the chances of sexual misconduct. “Forcing single-gender organizations to accept members of the opposite sex could potentially increase, not decrease, the potential for sexual misconduct,” Charles M. Storey, the president of the club’s alumni group, wrote on Tuesday in a letter to The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper.

Eve Higginbotham of the Perelman School of Medicine is quoted about dealing with difficult situations regarding race and diversity.

Women leaders make a difference in terms of having more female faculty members, at least in the humanities, according to a new working paper from the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. Data “suggest that the gender of an institution’s president is both a large and statistically significant factor increasing the share of women in full-time, tenure-track positions” in the humanities, the paper says. “A single president who remains in office for 10 years could increase the share of full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty that is female by 36 percentage points.”

Diane Spatz of the School of Nursing says, “It is almost impossible to access Pasteurized Donor Human Milk, so mothers turn to informal milk sharing or wet-nursing.”

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy is quoted about how tabloids can influence voters.

Adam Finkel of the Law School comments on a soda tax proposal.

University of Massachusetts officials announced Tuesday that they would back a policy for the university system to divest from fossil fuel companies after students occupied a campus administrative building. Fifteen protesters were later arrested after refusing to vacate the scene. “Throughout my career, I have stood for environmental progress and reducing the carbon footprint,” UMass President Marty Meehan said in a statement.

Elinore Kaufman of the Perelman School of Medicine is quoted about co-authoring a study of the impact of requiring ignition interlocks in cars for DUI offenders.

Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences is cited for researching how “grit” impacts success.