Penn in the News

David Sarwer of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on couples with a “joint-effort attitude” to weight loss.

Officials at one health professions campus think it's just common sense to encourage students and employees to make healthy decisions about what they drink. So the University of California at San Francisco, where all programs are in the health professions, is becoming the first college nationally to stop the sale of sugary beverages on campus. That means no Coke or Pepsi, or plenty of other products.

My recent article on student debt prompted many questions from readers who were hungry for more detail. I had provided statistics on all undergraduates, but many readers wanted to see debt for those who graduated with a bachelor’s degree. When you break out the borrowing data by educational attainment, students who get bachelor’s degrees are more likely to borrow than the typical college student. This makes sense: When you stay in school longer, you have more years of tuition to pay and more opportunities to borrow. Fifteen percent of those with a B.A.

Cornell Tech, the applied sciences graduate school of Cornell University, is expected to announce a $100 million gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies on Tuesday to construct the first academic building on the school’s Roosevelt Island campus. That building will be called the Bloomberg Center, solidifying Cornell’s ties to former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Cornell Tech won a $400 million competition three and a half years ago to build an applied sciences campus on the island, in New York City, an initiative created by the Bloomberg administration.

There’s not much Elizabeth Warren and Chris Christie agree on. But last week they struck a similar chord in speeches that knocked increasingly common and luxurious college amenities like climbing walls and lazy rivers. Such features, Warren said in a June 10 speech, contribute to rising tuition. A day later, Christie criticized colleges that are “drunk on cash and embarking on crazy spending binges,” including the building of amenities like climbing walls.

Andy Porter of the Graduate School of Education is quoted on how the College Board and the Educational Testing Service are seeking ways to improve the SAT.

Marybeth Gasman of the Graduate School of Education is quoted about Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who posed as a black woman.

When she met her dad, Jeff, for breakfast early on a Tuesday morning, Elly couldn’t bring herself to tell him about the nightmarish experience she had been through just hours before in her dorm room. He figured she looked disheveled because she was tired and about to go to tennis practice. He snapped a photo of her before heading home from his visit last October at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. That Friday, he got a call from Elly’s mother.

Several students from the Community College of Philadelphia are highlighted for their journeys to becoming Penn transfer students.

Nikkita Patel of the School of Veterinary Medicine is cited for studying animal trafficking.