Penn in the News

Urban planners love an organizing concept. Cities originally built their economies around financial districts, but over the years they have pinned their hopes on other specialized centers, like arts districts, enterprise zones, science centers, and festival marketplaces. Today, every ambitious city dreams of having an innovation district.

Thomas Sollecito of the School of Dental Medicine comments on changes in antibiotic use in dental practice.

Dan Polsky of the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School comments on Covered California’s attempts to improve quality and reduce costs for customers.

Last week, Harvard University released a report of recommendations on preventing and dealing with sexual assaults on campus. The report is similar to many other sexual assault reports released in recent years, with recommendations that include creating more detailed policies and providing more prevention education and training to students. Where the Harvard report differs is in its emphasis on the university’s final clubs -- wealthy, private, historically male-only organizations that often draw comparisons to fraternities.

Since the turn of the millennium, South Korean universities have been trying to improve their research capabilities by attracting scholars from across the world to shake up a sometimes insular system. But a study has found that in at least one of the country’s top institutions, foreign faculty members are feeling disempowered and usually leave a few years after being recruited, raising questions about how successfully Korean universities and other Asian institutions are integrating their increasing numbers of international academics.

Research by Jessica Martucci and Anne Barnhill of the Perelman School of Medicine about the implications of public-health campaigns on breastfeeding as the “natural” way to nourish infants is featured.

Chutian Shao moved from China to the Midwest college town of Champaign, Ill., a few years ago. Some days, he says, it feels as if he hasn’t traveled very far at all. On a recent Monday, the 22-year-old woke up in the apartment he shares with three Chinese friends. He walked to an engineering class at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he sat with Chinese students. Then, he hit the gym with a Chinese pal before studying in the library until late into the night. He recalls uttering two fragments in English all day.

The deaths of Americans studying overseas make headlines back home, but going abroad is no riskier than staying on campus. In fact, it might be less dangerous. A new comparison of health and safety data finds that death rates are lower for students on study-abroad programs than for those on American campuses. Students in the United States are an estimated 2.18 times as likely to die as their classmates overseas.

If you work at a Texas college and are worried by the prospect of having guns in your classroom, relax. The new campus-carry law changes your risk of gun violence very little. I can almost guarantee that if you have a few semesters of teaching under your belt, at some point there have been students with guns in your classroom.

L. Scott Levin of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on the technical and ethical issues involved with hand, face or penis transplants.