Penn in the News

Researchers are calling on the federal government to begin collecting information about LGBT students’ experiences at the nation’s schools, arguing that such data collection is necessary to protect against disproportionate rates of suspension and expulsion. “When we fail to ask questions about youths’ sexual orientation and gender identity, we fail to understand, support, and protect all students from discrimination in schools,” wrote a group of researchers in a brief paper published Sunday by Indiana University’s Equity Project.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center comments on the marketing strategies of the National Rifle Association.

When the idea of starting an honors college at Western Carolina University first came up, in the mid-1990s, it seemed like a big leap to many people on the regional public campus. Maybe too big a leap, given the university’s role in the state of expanding average citizens’ access to higher education. But to John W. Bardo, the chancellor at the time, the idea held too much promise to pass up.

A federal judge ruled that law-school graduates who file for bankruptcy protection can cancel the debt they racked up while studying for the bar exam, finding such loans are different from traditional federal student loans that are rarely canceled by bankruptcy. In an opinion filed Thursday, Judge Carla Craig of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., said bar-exam loan debt is “a product of an arm’s-length agreement on commercial terms” and doesn’t fall into the category of a student loan that sticks with a borrower who files for bankruptcy.

Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences shares her opinion on how “grit” should not be tested and graded in schools.

David Casarett of the Perelman School of Medicine writes about why families shy away from photographing their dying relatives.

A controversy about presidential politics, free speech, and creating an inclusive campus environment erupted at Emory University this week, with a group of students protesting after messages supporting Donald Trump appeared on campus. Student protesters told the president of the private university in Atlanta that they felt threatened and intimidated by the pro-Trump messages — first reported by the student newspaper, the Emory Wheel. A national debate ensued. Amelia Sims, a senior from Memphis, Tenn.

Last fall, a few days after activists at the University of Missouri at Columbia and at Yale University demanded that steps be taken to improve their campuses' racial climates, students at Emory University staged protests and issued demands of their own. Ajay Nair, senior vice president and dean of campus life at Emory, says his initial reaction to those demands was "defensiveness." But after speaking with the activists, Mr. Nair oversaw his institution's unusually detailed response to the protests.

Tobias Barrington Wolff of the Law School writes about supporters of “bathroom bills” and the transgender community.

Cynthia Otto of the School of Veterinary Medicine says, “More developing countries are incorporating detection dog teams into their national security plan.”