Penn in the News

Schools across the country are bracing for a surge in personnel costs as they prepare for the Obama administration’s overhaul to overtime-pay rules. The Labor Department proposal, due to be released in final form as soon as this summer, would make about 5 million U.S. workers newly eligible for overtime pay by more than doubling the salary threshold that generally determines who can and can’t get it. While the rule will apply to employers of all kinds, higher-education institutions say their missions and circumstances mean they’ll be hit in ways that other types of employers aren’t.

The visitors walking up her family's driveway mystified Maya Wolf. Four wore blue jackets. One was in a lion mascot costume. Then, as it clicked, she reached to her mouth in surprise. "Congratulations on your acceptance," said one of the men, who introduced himself as Grant Gosselin, the admissions dean for Wheaton College. He handed Wolf an oversize white envelope. "We've heard great things about you." Instead of mailing an acceptance letter, Wheaton College had sent its president, admissions chief, the school mascot and others to surprise the 17-year-old Wolf on Tuesday.

Marybeth Gasman of the Graduate School of Education compares the campaign rhetoric of President Barack Obama in 2008 to that of Donald Trump.

Mauro Guillén of the Wharton School comments on the advantages for consumers of free trade.

The Temple physics professor whose life was turned upside down when the U.S. government filed and later withdrew espionage charges against him has been notified that the government will not refile the charges. "The U.S. Attorney's Office has notified Professor [Xiaoxing] Xi's defense team that there will be no new charges and that the government will return his seized property," said Michael A. Schwartz, one of Xi's lawyers.

Philip Sirinides and Abigail Gray of the Graduate School of Education comment on researching the impact of the Reading Recovery program on elementary students.

Student Deren Temel of the Graduate School of Education writes about African higher education.

Two events at Brown University last week have unsettled Jewish students. First, a lecture having nothing to do with Israel was called off after students petitioned the lecturer to refuse to participate in any event co-sponsored by Hillel, as the lecture was to have been. Then anti-Semitic and homophobic graffiti appeared in a residence hall that includes a Jewish fraternity and a coed fraternity that is home to gay and lesbian students. The events haven't been linked, but both have frustrated many Jewish students, and both resulted in emails to the campus by President Christina Paxson.

Jonathan Moreno of the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Arts & Sciences is quoted about a bullfight experiment conducted by José Manuel Rodríguez Delgado.

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