Penn in the News

Recent high school graduate Arianna Alexander is featured for being awarded millions in scholarship money and choosing Penn as her first choice to attend college.

Camille Charles of the School of Arts & Sciences and Marybeth Gasman of the Graduate School of Education share their opinions on Rachel Dolezal, a white woman posing as an African-American.

Stephen Gluckman of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on an increase in Lyme disease cases in Pennsylvania.

A program designed to help female college freshmen resist sexual assault is creating a lot of buzz among victims’ advocates and college educators. Most were encouraged to learn that incidents of rape had been cut in half among participants in a Canadian study of the program, which involved four three-hour sessions in which the women learned to recognize the danger of coercive situations and to fight back, verbally and physically. Still, some questioned whether the approach puts too much responsibility on women to resist rape, and not enough on men to treat women with respect.

Federal spending has surpassed state spending as the main source of public funding in higher education, and the primary reason is a surge in Pell Grants in the last decade. Federal and state funds have different missions. The majority of state funding is used to fund specific public institutions, whereas federal funding is generally awarded through student aid and research grants. State funding goes primarily to public institutions, while federal funding goes to student at public, private and for-profit colleges, and to researchers at public and private universities.

The good news for the National Institutes of Health and its university researchers is that after some 14 years of flat budgets, Congress may be about to loosen the purse strings. The bad news is that the scientists might not like the terms. Evidence of a possible break in the budgetary logjam is headed by legislation, expected to reach a floor vote this month in the House of Representatives, that would give the NIH an extra $2 billion a year in each of the next five years.

Even if the state Legislature provides money for additional enrollment, the University of California system probably will be able to add only a few hundred extra students this fall, UC President Janet Napolitano said Friday. "We'd like to add 10,000 more" to the systemwide enrollment of 180,000, Napolitano said in an interview with reporters and editors in The Times' Washington bureau. Legislative leaders are debating how much money to add to the state budget to expand UC enrollment, but are unlikely to go that far, she added, saying: "They may go halfway."

Debt-free college, a concept that seemed wildly improbable just months ago, is quickly becoming a centerpiece of the 2016 presidential campaign. Already, two Democratic candidates have endorsed some version of the idea. Hillary Clinton, who will officially open her campaign this weekend, has hinted that she may embrace it, too. The concept has obvious political appeal: It resonates with Millennials, a key voting bloc for Democrats. And it appeals to middle-class parents, who are increasingly anxious about the cost of college.

Michael Grandner of the Perelman School of Medicine says, “Risks associated with sleeping pills have been known for some time, though this study shows some compelling real-world consequences.”

In the ongoing debate that followed news that Sweet Briar would close, forever, this summer, people have argued about what led to the private college’s downfall and whether it could have been avoided. The question matters, as other women’s colleges and liberal arts schools consider their own futures, wondering if there are common threads and warning signs, and as advocates seek to save Sweet Briar with fundraisers and lawsuits.