Penn in the News

Faculty members opposed to Texas's new campus concealed carry law have argued that it will chill academic freedom and free speech. A set of recommendations from the University of Houston’s Faculty Senate on how to teach under campus carry is the new exhibit A in the case against the law for those concerned about its effects on academic freedom. Its advocates, meanwhile, say faculty fears are overblown. The debate is being renewed the same week Georgia's House of Representatives passed similar legislation.

Sarah Tishkoff of the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Arts & Sciences is highlighted for her research on evolutionary genetics.

David Goldberg of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on a study revealing the acceptance rate for liver donations.

The title “house master” as used by generations of Ivy League students to describe their residential administrators is fast becoming an anachronism. Harvard University announced Wednesday that, in a spirit of diversity and “an inclusive community,” the term was being replaced with “faculty dean.” The title of “master” had come under fire by some students and others at Harvard and other universities, including Yale and Princeton, for conjuring connotations of slavery, although its roots are from centuries-old European terms for a teacher, chief servant or head of household.

Dean Vijay Kumar of the School of Engineering and Applied Science is included in a video about how human-like robots can change the future.

The president of California State University Los Angeles canceled a speech by controversial conservative writer and commentator Ben Shapiro after students and faculty objected to Shapiro's views. The president said Shapiro could appear later, but only alongside others with opposing views -- a requirement many advocates for academic freedom and free speech view as antithetical to those values.

Eve Higginbotham of the Perelman School of Medicine is quoted about racial disparities in some types of cancers and other diseases.

Jack Guttentag of the Wharton School answers questions about mortgage repayment.

Perelman School of Medicine researchers are cited for a collaborative study about benzodiazepine overdoses.

Lawmakers in the state of Washington want to give college dropouts a chance to finish their degree for free, a novel proposal that could have far-reaching implications for boosting national completion rates. Washington’s Free to Finish College bill, which is wending its way through the legislature with bipartisan support, calls for the state to cover tuition for residents who are 15 credits short of an associates or bachelor’s degree.