Penn in the News

Vice President Maureen Rush of Public Safety is highlighted for the announcement of the Philadelphia Police Foundation’s Children of Police Scholarship Fund.

Lawyers representing a University of Virginia associate dean in a defamation suit against Rolling Stone magazine say a sensational account of a fraternity gang rape at the school was based on a series of lies told by the story’s main subject, according to new court documents. The Alexandria-based law firm representing U-Va. administrator Nicole Eramo has filed motions seeking communications between Rolling Stone and “Jackie,” a U-Va.

In January 2013, President Obama issued a memorandum directing federal agencies to conduct or sponsor research into the causes of gun violence and ways to prevent it. Three years later, the flow of federal dollars to such research is still relatively small. A 2013 call for proposals from the National Institutes of Health, for example, for projects "with a particular focus on firearm violence" resulted in nine grants, so far, totaling nearly $3.7 million, and only two of those studies deal directly with guns.

Those driving or even flying here this week for the American Historical Association’s annual meeting might have glimpsed Stone Mountain out their car or airplane window. The massive, Mount Rushmore-style tribute to Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson is hard to miss and -- for many -- hard to stomach. But what can and should be done about the thousands upon thousands of Confederate memorials and other symbols throughout the American South, many of which are on college and university campuses?

Olivia Mitchell of the Wharton School provides advice on what to do with the money from lottery winnings.

Boston College junior Isra Hussain never wears her favorite sweatshirt in public anymore. With her last name printed in big red letters on the back, she says, it felt less like a proud declaration of identity than an unwelcome, if not dangerous, advertisement of her Muslim faith. “I was wearing it one day in October, and I remember [Donald] Trump say something [negative] about Syrian refugees. And I thought, ‘I don’t really feel comfortable wearing this anymore,’ ” says Ms. Hussain, who grew up near Providence, R.I., the daughter of Pakistani immigrants.

Minyuan Zhao of the Wharton School comments on the connection between the American and Chinese economies.

Richard Ingersoll of the Graduate School of Education and the School of Arts & Sciences is quoted about the significance of including teachers in reform efforts.

Ph.D. programs are one of the few parts of higher education where admissions decisions are made without admissions professionals. Small groups of faculty members meet, department by department, to decide whom to admit. And their decisions effectively determine the future makeup of the faculty in higher education. Politicians, judges, journalists, parents and prospective students subject the admissions policies of undergraduate colleges and professional schools to considerable scrutiny, with much public debate over appropriate criteria. But the question of who gets into Ph.D.