Penn in the News

Shaun Harper of the Graduate School of Education writes about a new era of “political correctness.”

Ken Winneg of the Annenberg Public Policy Center talks about the role social media plays in politics.

The former president of Mount St. Mary’s University said at an advisory board meeting that, in effect, liberal arts didn’t sell. The term just didn’t poll well with students, he said. The discipline needed a new name or a different approach to attract more students. To some, it was a moment that encapsulated Simon Newman’s divisive tenure at the country’s second-oldest Catholic university: The private-equity chief executive and entrepreneur, an outsider, was bringing in business and marketing ideas and suggesting a new approach to an age-old enterprise.

A sexual-assault-prevention task force at Harvard University this week presented a damning portrayal of the institution’s prestigious "final clubs," saying the mostly male-only social organizations foster "a strong sense of sexual entitlement" and "deeply misogynistic attitudes." The task force’s report has stirred debate about the role of the clubs — which are akin to similarly exclusive groups at other elite colleges — in a university community that strives to be welcoming to all.

Penn has been chosen to participate in a concussion and head trauma study.

Rinad Beidas of the Perelman School of Medicine is featured for leading a study that reveals unintended consequences of a workforce shift designed to save costs in public clinics.

Ethan Mollick of the Wharton School says, “Whether it’s ‘friends and family’ versus venture capital funding or versus a payday loan, going to your own community is a better bet.”

One recurring feature of the student protests that have recently swept across college campuses is lists of demands -- for new faculty slots, new presidents, "safe spaces" and more inclusive campuses, just to name a few. As the lists have grown longer and more ambitious, responses from administrations have varied. Add to the list Western Washington University, a public university with about 15,000 students. Late last year, Western made the news after the president called off classes in light of anonymous threats sent via the social media app Yik Yak.

President Amy Gutmann is listed as being among those who have been guests at President Obama’s state dinners.

For the second time in the last five months, the University of California at Berkeley is facing charges that it failed to adequately punish an academic, in this case, a law dean, whom it found responsible for sexual harassment. The university announced on Wednesday that the dean — Sujit Choudhry — would leave the post but would retain his faculty position at the law school. Last summer the university found Mr. Choudhry responsible for sexually harassing his executive assistant.