Penn in the News

Only a handful of gun-rights advocates and those supporting Texas’ new, less restrictive campus-carry law showed up near the University of Texas campus here on Saturday for a highly publicized but divisive demonstration and mock shooting in favor of ending gun-free zones. A few demonstrators carried legal AK-47 and AR-15 rifles before the first stage of the gathering, a walk that began at a parking garage just west of the 51,000-student campus. They were outnumbered by throngs of reporters, photographers and television cameras, and later by counter-demonstrators.

Arthur van Benthem of the Wharton School co-writes an article about the EU’s carbon-trading system.

Yasmin Kafai of the Graduate School of Education wrote an op-ed on the importance for students of learning to code.

With the advent of Google Scholar and other metrics for faculty productivity, advancing one’s career as a professor is much more of a numbers game than it used to be. 

The president of George Washington University has personally apologized to a student who campus police had written up for violating school policy by flying a flag outside of his dorm window.

Shaun Harper of the Graduate School of Education writes about institutions that choose to ignore racism on campus.

Michael Mandel of the Wharton School authored an op-ed arguing that the biggest driver of rising health-care spending is the cost of labor, not drugs.

Northeastern University is arming some members of its police force with semiautomatic rifles, despite the apprehensions of the nearby Boston Police Department and critics who worry about an increasing militarization of campus law enforcement. The decision -- motivated by a string of recent shootings on campuses and elsewhere -- has proven to be controversial, and drawn sharp condemnation from Boston’s police commissioner.

More than two dozen religiously affiliated colleges and universities across the United States have received exemptions from the federal civil rights protections provided under Title IX since 2014, documents show, waivers that activists said allow them to discriminate against students and employees on the basis of categories like sexual orientation and gender identity.

After photos circulated of cadets at The Citadel wearing white pillowcases over their heads — outraging some alumni and others who felt the costumes evoked those of the Ku Klux Klan — the president of the elite public military college moved quickly to suspend and investigate those involved.