Penn in the News

“The single most important factor preventing change in higher education is tenure.” Wow. That was the sentiment expressed in 2010 by Mark C. Taylor, then chair of Columbia University’s department of religion, and every critic of higher education in the United States seemed to agree with him. Tenure, they charged, was the place where deadbeat faculty could go for a rest cure, protected from critical standards, working as little as they could — and generally sending a once world-renowned system to the backwater, behind the rising tide of Asia and Europe. Not quite.

Some of the most selective and well-known public universities could do a better job of enrolling and graduating low-income students. A new report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy examined those selective colleges that have low Pell Grant recipient enrollments to find the best methods for solving this controversial "undermatching" phenomenon. Addressing and studying the undermatching issue has been a priority of the Obama administration.

President Amy Gutmann is cited for co-authoring The Spirit of Compromise.

Paulo Arratia of the School of Engineering and Applied Science is quoted about how 3-D printers are the “democratization of the making process.”

For nearly six decades, the Federal Perkins Loan Program provided needy students with financial aid that helped make going to college more accessible and affordable. On Sept. 30, that loan program expired. It expired primarily because Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee who chairs the Senate education committee, objected to extending the program, preferring instead to focus on reforming the student financial aid system as a whole. I am not writing to critique the rules of the U.S.

Andy Porter of the Graduate School of Education writes about the importance of asking teachers what they need in order to succeed in the classroom.

Yasmin Kafai of the Graduate School of Education advocates for the Maker Jawn program.

Dean Denis Kinane of the School of Dental Medicine is mentioned about leading the celebration of the art left to the School by Thomas W. Evans.

Jonathan Moreno of the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Arts & Sciences pens an op-ed about Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson.

An international student from China who was dismissed from a doctoral program in psychology after clinical supervisors judged his English-language communication skills as inadequate for engaging in patient care has sued his university. Jun Yu, who was dismissed from the clinical psychology Ph.D. program at Idaho State University in May 2013, is alleging discrimination based on national origin and denial of due process. In addition to compensatory damages and legal fees, Yu is seeking readmission to the Ph.D.