Penn in the News

Jessie Cain was on his way to pay his son's tuition bill at the Community College of Philadelphia yesterday morning when crime-scene tape went up around him on Spring Garden Street near 16th and police officers forced him back down the block. Reports of an armed man on campus had placed the school on lockdown and Cain, 67, who worked in school security for four decades before his retirement, stood helpless at the corner, wondering if his son, Khalif, who was inside one of the classrooms, would be all right.

Dean Vijay Kumar of the School of Engineering and Applied Science comments on how flying robots are programmed to figure things out.

In the rarefied world of multimillion dollar gift-giving, Paul Smith’s College, named for a 19th-century hotelier and tucked in the forests of northern New York State, carried little cachet. So when Joan Weill, the wife of the Wall Street billionaire Sanford I. Weill, proposed a $20 million gift that would lift the struggling college’s fortunes, its officials saw national prestige on the horizon. Mrs. Weill’s only condition — one that experts say is becoming more common among major donors — was that the institution become Joan Weill-Paul Smith’s College.

Considered an underrated powerhouse by some, Indiana University grabbed the attention of other research universities last month when it announced a $300 million initiative aimed at asking -- and answering -- some of the world’s biggest questions. In so doing, it joined a growing number of research institutions to launch similar programs centered on big ideas. Beside boosting a university’s public profile, advocates of such “grand challenge” research programs say they help cut down silos across campus and reorient the university mission back toward the public good.

Christopher Geczy of the Wharton School says, “The tension between profit and social purpose may not be as pronounced as people suggest.”

Nowhere in the country are the governing boards, presidents and executive pay structures of colleges and universities receiving more scrutiny and attention than in Illinois. The state has weathered scandal upon scandal in recent months. Central among the controversies is the question of what kind of pay presidents should receive on their way out the door, especially when their tenure has been tumultuous. And contention in Illinois, some say, is highlighting a broader question about the state of nonsalary compensation in public higher education.

Research on M&A deals conducted by Robert Holthausen of the Wharton School is cited.

Every spring for decades, a similar scene played out at colleges across the United States: Students picked up their degrees — and Bill Cosby stood alongside them. Schools wanted Mr. Cosby, the popular, education-embracing comedian, to give their commencement address and he routinely showed up, often in a school sweatshirt, offering high fives, hugs and homespun advice. In exchange, universities and colleges gave him honorary degrees in categories like education, public service and law. Few people in American history have been recognized by universities as often as Mr.

German President Joachim Gauck’s visit to Penn is featured.

James McGann of the School of Arts & Sciences shares his thoughts on the challenges facing think tanks.