Penn in the News

Days after a rampage in San Bernardino, Calif., left 14 people dead, the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump seized on the religion of the shooters, calling for "a total and complete shutdown" of Muslims entering the country. "Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses," he said in an announcement, "our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad."

Margaret Casal of the School of Veterinary Medicine comments on the difficulty in performing in vitro fertilization in dogs.

The US Supreme Court is considering, for the second time, a white Texan's case against affirmative action in college admissions decisions. The plaintiff, Abigail Fisher, contends she was rejected by the University of Texas' flagship campus in Austin because Hispanic and black students were admitted, instead of her, on the basis of race rather than grades. The majority-conservative high court is believed to be considering whether to cut back, or end entirely, the basis of race in higher education admissions decisions at public institutions.

Jill Fisch of the Law School says, “Current sales practices create powerful incentives for brokers to act in ways that are not in their customers’ best interest.”

In Tennessee this holiday season, people are fighting about how to celebrate. It started when the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s office of diversity and inclusion posted a message advising employees to avoid “an emphasis on religion or culture” at holiday parties. No Secret Santa gift swaps, it advised. No dreidels.

Carl June of the Perelman School of Medicine is featured for leading immunotherapy trials.

Sandra González-Bailón of the Annenberg School for Communication says, “Of course social media doesn’t push you to risk your life and take to the streets, but it helps the actions of those who take the risk to gain international visibility.”

If a predominantly white university with a stepped-up diversity agenda comes trolling for talent, Walter M. Kimbrough knows he may have trouble competing with the money it can offer. But as president of Dillard University, a historically black institution in New Orleans, he says he can make a convincing case for his faculty members to stick around.

Students at a small Pennsylvania college are demanding that administrators rename a building called "Lynch Memorial Hall" because of the racial overtones of the word "lynch." The building is named after Clyde A. Lynch, who was president of Lebanon Valley College from 1932 until his death in 1950. Students want school officials to either rename the building entirely or add Lynch's first name and middle initial, saying the word recalls the public executions of black men by white mobs in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Orkan Telhan of the School of Design and Karen Hogan of the School of Arts & Sciences are highlighted for collaborating on a desktop machine that automates genetic engineering.