Penn in the News

Its first appearance at the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in more than 50 years wasn’t a good moment for Yale University’s team to be without its captain. But he wasn’t there. Jack Montague was expelled last month after being accused of sexual assault. His expulsion highlights questions about how colleges handle such allegations against athletes and whether the process is impartial. Yale hasn’t disclosed exactly what the former captain was accused of or found responsible for.

Howard Kunreuther of the Wharton School shares his insights on understanding insurance policies.

Undergraduate Lauren McCann is featured for developing her project “Dear Penn Freshmen.”

A controversy about presidential politics, free speech, and creating an inclusive campus environment erupted at Emory University this week, with a group of students protesting after messages supporting Donald Trump appeared on campus. Student protesters told the president of the private university in Atlanta that they felt threatened and intimidated by the pro-Trump messages — first reported by the student newspaper, the Emory Wheel. A national debate ensued. Amelia Sims, a senior from Memphis, Tenn.

Last fall, a few days after activists at the University of Missouri at Columbia and at Yale University demanded that steps be taken to improve their campuses' racial climates, students at Emory University staged protests and issued demands of their own. Ajay Nair, senior vice president and dean of campus life at Emory, says his initial reaction to those demands was "defensiveness." But after speaking with the activists, Mr. Nair oversaw his institution's unusually detailed response to the protests.

Tobias Barrington Wolff of the Law School writes about supporters of “bathroom bills” and the transgender community.

Cynthia Otto of the School of Veterinary Medicine says, “More developing countries are incorporating detection dog teams into their national security plan.”

Thirteen female students accused a UC Berkeley sociology professor of unwanted sexual advances, including hugs and attempted kisses. One of them said he offered a higher grade if she would sleep with him; another said he wrote a negative letter of recommendation when she rebuffed his advances. University officials found Abdelbaki Hermassi responsible for sexual misconduct, suspended him without pay for one quarter and placed the findings in his personnel file. Outraged students found those sanctions inexcusably lenient and mobilized campuswide sit-ins and protests. The year was 1980.

A former student of the University of Mississippi pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal civil-rights crime, acknowledging that he and another man had tied a noose and a Confederate flag around the neck of a statue honoring the black man who integrated the state’s flagship university. Austin Reed Edenfield of Kennesaw, Ga., waived indictment and pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of using a threat of force to intimidate African American students and employees because of their race or color, according to a U.S. Department of Justice release.

The growing federal emphasis on combating sexual harassment on campus, along with universities’ broadening definitions of inappropriate sexual behavior, has had a chilling effect on academic freedom and speech, especially on female professors in areas like gender studies, a report released Thursday by the American Association of University Professors said.