Penn in the News

A longtime Lincoln University professor drew ire from Pennsylvania officials in 2010 when he called for the destruction of Israel and questioned whether the Holocaust ever happened. But Kaukab Siddique, a 72-year-old associate professor of English, kept his job. Now he's mouthing off again. "Don't be scared of these dirty Jewish Zionist White Supremacist thugs," he wrote in a Facebook post in May. Earlier this month he wondered why it took Bill Cosby's accusers so long to come forward. Is it because "many women are sluts"?

For decades, comedian Bill Cosby was the very public face of Temple University, an alumnus promoting the school and its mission. He wore his Temple t-shirt on his popular TV show, routinely spoke at the school’s commencement ceremonies and hosted a convocation class for freshmen: “Cosby 101.” This winter, after numerous women accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting them, Cosby resigned from Temple’s Board of Trustees. Cosby has never admitted sexually assaulting a woman, nor has he been criminally charged.

Does a continuing crackdown on foreign influences in Russia threaten to interrupt the internationalization agendas of the country’s top universities? The recent removal of an American as vice rector of Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod after the host of a state television show questioned why a Russian university would have an American in such a senior position has been widely viewed as chilling, as has a remark by Russian President Vladimir V.

A robot named THORwin, designed by Penn students is featured for winning the “adult-size humanoid” category in the RoboCup soccer final competition.

Research examining the family goals of Wharton graduates from Stewart Friedman of the Wharton School is cited.

Richard Ingersoll of the Graduate School of Education and the School of Arts & Sciences joins a discussion on the teacher job market and retention.

The University of California system will raise the minimum wage for its employees and contract workers to $15 an hour, university officials announced on Wednesday, the latest in a string of recent victories for labor leaders here who have fought to increase workers’ pay. The move comes after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to raise the minimum wage in unincorporated areas of the county to $15 an hour; the City of Los Angeles approved the same increase in May.

Doctoral candidate Steve McGill of the School of Engineering and Applied Science is highlighted about RoboCup 2015.

Nearly a year ago, Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed a law requiring the state’s colleges and universities to adopt an "affirmative consent" standard defining that "only yes means yes" — that students engaging in sexual activity must signal they are willingly doing so. Now other states are making — or at least weighing — similar moves. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York signed a law this month requiring affirmative consent on college campuses, and advocates of the practice say it is likely to spread elsewhere.

Martin Seligman of the School of Arts & Sciences is mentioned for studying how people view failures.