Penn in the News

University Architect David Hollenberg and Maja Bucan of the Perelman School of Medicine are quoted about the improvements to the Richards Medical Research Laboratory.

Days after two shooters killed 14 people and injured 22 others in San Bernardino, Calif., Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, stood in front of 10,000 students, faculty and staff and urged them to bring guns onto campus. In his back pocket, the president said onstage, he carried a small pistol. “Let’s teach them a lesson if they ever show up here,” Falwell said of recent acts of terrorism, before turning his attention to campus shootings.

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.

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.

Neil Fishman of the Perelman School of Medicine says, “We are preparing to stop asking the questions about West Africa, but we are debating how to maintain our preparedness.”

Agnes Scott College is making a big bet on its future as a liberal-arts institution for women. It’s a wager that trustees have backed with a $20-million investment from the $260-million endowment, and that faculty members have enthusiastically supported by refocusing the curriculum. And this past August it brought the 127-year-old college its largest first-year class ever, raising total enrollment to 915 students. Administrators say it’s too early to be sure the bet will pay off, but there’s no hiding how happy everyone is with the initial results.

Shaun Harper of the Graduate School of Education is cited for his article “Black Male College Achievers and Resistant Responses to Racist Stereotypes at Predominately White Colleges and Universities.”

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.

Two major public universities, one from Virginia and the other from Texas, operate branches at a complex in Qatar, called Education City, with support from an organization created by that country’s royal family. Virginia Commonwealth University’s contract with the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development has been disclosed as a matter of public record. But Texas A&M’s deal with the foundation remains shrouded in secrecy, and the Qataris are petitioning Texas authorities to keep it that way.