Penn in the News

President Obama visits the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse on Thursday to detail a labor initiative that’s cheering workers at retail stores and restaurants while alarming their owners. By the time the president’s proposed change in federal rules on overtime pay could take effect next year, however, it might also generate similar divisions among college administrators and their workers.

Raquel Gur of the Perelman School of Medicine is cited as being the star witness to discuss psychotic disorders.

Starting next fall, students applying to any of the University of California’s 10 campuses will have the option of signaling their sexual orientation and any of a number of gender identities before they even arrive on campus. The option, part of a host of other accommodations in an effort to make the campuses as inclusive as possible, comes at a time of rapid change for gender identity politics, with high-profile symbols such as Caitlyn Jenner driving the conversation forward, elating some and distressing others.

Colleges and universities are teaming up with technology entrepreneurs in an effort to keep students safe — on and off campus — by using their smartphones. Mobile apps geared toward campus safety are booming: with a few clicks, text messages will contact friends or social media, employ GPS to pinpoint a location and automatically connect to 911. Many will connect to campus security offices and national emergency hotlines. Others use countdown timers that will automatically send messages and GPS information if a user is past due at a destination.

Lance Becker of the Perelman School of Medicine is mentioned for serving on panel that focused on cardiac arrest.

Jesús Fernández-Villaverde of the School of Arts & Sciences is quoted about the value of the euro.

A growing group of Columbia University undergraduates are calling for an overhaul to the school’s required reading list and asking whether classics with sexually violent content should bear cautionary notes.

After a racially motivated shooting in Charleston earlier this month left nine black people dead, a nationwide conversation about the Confederate flag began. Politicians jumped on the bandwagon, major corporations removed merchandise displaying the flag from their shelves and the topic pervaded social media and news coverage. At the University of Texas at Austin, students are lobbying to remove a statue of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president.

Drexel University has laid off "several dozen" administrative employees as a result of a new admissions policy that brought in fewer freshmen for the fall. University officials declined to specify the number of layoffs or how many vacant positions were eliminated, but said the move - along with other cost-cutting - will save $18 million. No faculty members were cut. The employees were to be dismissed by Wednesday.

Michael Kahana of the Perelman School of Medicine talks about how quickly memories can be formed.