Penn in the News

A Syracuse University senior who left her sorority made a video about her experiences there that has sparked a national debate about Greek life and how women treat one another. After playing basketball all through high school in Bethesda, Alex Purdy said she rushed as a freshman because she thought a sorority might provide the same sort of belonging and friendship she had enjoyed on a team. But the experience seemed a little … empty.

Young voters, in some ways, performed as many expected in the Iowa caucuses Monday. They overwhelmingly supported Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton, for example. But what young Republican voters would end up doing was a little more of a mystery. Ted Cruz, whose outreach to younger voters has been limited, won with more support from voters between the ages of 18 and 29 than any of the other GOP candidates, according to entrance polling analysis by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).

Garrett FitzGerald of the Perelman School of Medicine is quoted about studying the role of the internal clock in human disease.

Shaun Harper of the Graduate School of Education is quoted about studying the effects of stereotypes on black students, specifically black males.

The University is mentioned for collaborating with Leigh University and the Free Library of Philadelphia to lead a project called Bibliotheca Philadelphienis that will digitalize “the largest regional collection of medieval and early modern manuscripts in the country.”

Temple University's board of trustees will hold a special meeting Monday to consider plans to move forward on a campus football stadium. President Neil D. Theobald told student government leaders at a packed meeting Monday that he would recommend that the project proceed. His announcement came as protesters demonstrated against the proposed 35,000-seat stadium, slated for the northwest corner of campus. The objections and chants became so loud and raucous that the university shut down the meeting 15 minutes early.

David Hsu of the Wharton School is quoted about competition within the technology industry.

The University of Missouri remains deeply divided over racial issues that came to the fore three months ago, and the system’s new leader says that his efforts to move forward are complicated by anger and distrust that persist across the state. Michael A. Middleton, a veteran civil-rights lawyer and retired deputy chancellor at Missouri’s Columbia campus, the flagship, was tapped in November to serve as the system’s interim president after Missouri’s two top officials resigned amid student protests.

Another comedian has called out college campuses for being humorless. John Cleese, the actor and writer who elevated silliness to an art form with “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and “Fawlty Towers” along with movies and books and all sorts of things, said recently that he’s been warned not to perform on university campuses. The students are too apt to take offense instead of giggling. Jerry Seinfeld avoids colleges. Chris Rock said students are too worried about offending people.

In 1903, W. E. B. Du Bois, the leading scholar of the first half of the 20th century, defined the urgency of black social responsibility in his famous essay “The Talented Tenth” — 10 being the percentage of the African-American demographic needed to lead the race into an integrated, equal America.