Penn in the News

Justice Antonin Scalia could be caustic in his dissents, but he was also known for a sharp wit that often drew laughter from Supreme Court audiences. So perhaps even he would have found humor in the commotion over the new name, announced last week, of George Mason University’s law school — the Antonin Scalia School of Law — which, as snickering observers on social media quickly pointed out, makes for a rather unflattering acronym. Hashtags poking fun at the abbreviation and variations on it took off on Twitter and Facebook almost as soon as the news was made public.

Jason Karlawish of the Perelman School of Medicine is quoted about the symptoms of patients who have reached advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Richard Shaw sees nothing to brag about in Stanford University’s microscopic admission rate. Dean of admission and financial aid at Stanford since September 2005, Shaw said he understands the public fascination with a measure of selectivity that now stands at 4.7 percent, lowest in the nation among prominent colleges and universities. That means the private university in Northern California turns down slightly more than 19 out of every 20 applicants. But Shaw didn’t advertise that fact on March 25 when he announced the entering fall class.

More than a few people probably chuckled a little, back in January, when the University of Maryland at College Park came under fire for a press release about research that linked drinking a brand of chocolate milk to recovery from concussions. Many said at the time that the press release seemed like unpaid advertising, given that the findings were never subject to peer review.

A top official at Duke University issued a public apology Monday afternoon, as protesters refused to leave a building until three administrators have been terminated and other demands met. Tallman Trask III, Duke’s executive vice president, was accused by a contract employee of hitting her with his car while she was trying to enforce parking restrictions before a football game in 2014, and calling her a racial slur.

Most college students embrace the ideal of an open learning environment on campus that exposes them to all types of speech and viewpoints, but a large majority also believes that schools should be allowed to restrict slurs and other intentionally offensive language, according to a new national survey. The survey — released Monday and sponsored by the Knight Foundation and Newseum Institute in partnership with Gallup — sheds light on the complexities of student viewpoints on free speech and other First Amendment issues in a year of significant tumult on campuses nationwide.

Graduate student Samantha Waxman of the School of Social Policy & Practice writes about the impact of the Pennsylvania budget crisis on children. Debra Schilling Wolfe of the School of Social Policy & Practice is quoted.

After rioters scarred Baltimore last year, Johns Hopkins University leaders discussed efforts that the university was making to build, hire and buy locally. One trustee asked why other businesses in Baltimore weren’t doing the same. “I’m in,” said Mike Hankin, president and chief executive officer of Brown Advisory. As Johns Hopkins President Ronald Daniels recalled Monday, Hankin challenged other trustees to commit the businesses they lead, as well.

You know the drill. A racial incident on campus is followed by a statement from a campus leader denouncing what has happened, talking about how there may be a "teachable moment," maybe organizing an open forum. And relatively few people read the statement or remember it a few days later. At the University of Wisconsin at Madison last week, Patrick Sims didn't follow the normal pattern. Sims, vice provost for diversity and climate at Madison, made a video that was unusually frank in describing what had happened and showing how frustrated he was.

Kevin Platt of the School of Arts & Sciences writes about Russian poetry and politics.