Penn in the News

Kent Smetters of the Wharton School analyzes and talks about the 401(k) plan offered to employees of a small company named MITGI.

Sigal Barsade of the Wharton School is quoted about company-wide congeniality.

Daniel Weintraub of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on the demand for psychiatrists to treat older patients.

Because of rising concerns about college campus safety nationwide, Villanova University announced Monday that it will add armed police officers to its campus, beginning in Fall 2016. The Catholic university currently has a 75-member public safety department, responsible for patrol, investigations, parking enforcement, residence hall and building security, crime prevention and special-event security. But the department’s security officers can’t use lights or sirens when responding to an emergency on the 260-acre, Main Line campus, said Villanova spokesman Jonathan Gust.

In the college tuition game, the sticker prices are usually fake, but the money students and families pay is real. It's also often borrowed, leading to debts that make it difficult for graduates to start a family, buy a home, or take a risk on a business or career. Because there are too many losers in this game, it's encouraging that one local college has stopped playing.

Tracy Bale of the School of Veterinary Medicine and the Perelman School of Medicine is cited for researching how an increase in microRNAs in sperm from stressed mice can lead to stress response in adult offspring.

Daniel Preotiuc-Pietro of the School of Arts & Sciences is featured for studying how Twitter behavior can predict users’ income level.

Dennis Culhane of the School of Social Policy & Practice and John Fantuzzo of the Graduate School of Education are noted as founders of AISP, Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy.

A lot has been written recently about the problem of cheating among Chinese students studying here in America. Recently, The New York Times reported a complex scheme in which 15 Chinese nationals were indicted for hiring other Chinese to take the SAT and the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) in their place. While the cheating is clearly a source of concern, let me suggest that we should be asking other, more pertinent questions, namely, what are these students doing here in the first place, and are they getting the education they have come here to receive?

Ezekiel Emanuel of the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School comments on physician-assisted death for terminally ill patients and the costs associated for insurers.