Penn in the News

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.”

Thirteen female students accused a UC Berkeley sociology professor of unwanted sexual advances, including hugs and attempted kisses. One of them said he offered a higher grade if she would sleep with him; another said he wrote a negative letter of recommendation when she rebuffed his advances. University officials found Abdelbaki Hermassi responsible for sexual misconduct, suspended him without pay for one quarter and placed the findings in his personnel file. Outraged students found those sanctions inexcusably lenient and mobilized campuswide sit-ins and protests. The year was 1980.

Graduate student Luke Messac of the School of Arts & Sciences writes about patients in poor countries who do not have access to opioid pain medication.

Glen Gaulton of the Perelman School of Medicine is quoted about directing Penn’s Center for Global Health.

It’s long been a rite of passage at major research universities: To have a chance at tenure, scientists first need to win at least one full-size federal grant. Now that’s changing. Though they’re reluctant to discuss details, several large research universities admit that they’ve begun granting tenure to faculty members who haven’t yet crossed that threshold, a concession to several years of flat federal support for science. Faculty members still are expected to demonstrate independent research activity, says Gary K. Ostrander, vice president for research at Florida State University.

Andy Porter of the Graduate School of Education co-authors an article explaining The Common Core Standards.

The government-led push against sexual assault on college campuses has unintentionally produced a new batch of victims: male students accused of rape, yet never found guilty in criminal court. These college men say they can face suspension, expulsion, and hiring challenges for years to come. Overall, sexual assault is believed to remain vastly underreported, despite a strong push from the US Department of Education in 2011. Some 23 percent of undergraduate women reported being threatened or forced into nonconsensual contact in one 2015 survey of more than two dozen colleges.

The University of California Board of Regents will vote today on whether to endorse a statement on intolerance that condemns anti-Semitism, including some "forms of anti-Zionism." That condemnation departs significantly from a draft released last week that equated anti-Zionism generally with anti-Semitism and drew sharp criticism from some faculty members and others. The proposed Principles Against Intolerance, and their accompanying contextual information, are themselves a revised version of an statement proposed last year that attracted criticism from several directions.