Penn in the News

President Barack Obama dearly wanted to get the government in the business of rating colleges and universities based on value and affordability, promising a new system by 2015. Now that goal is shriveling under the weight of a concerted opposition from universities, lawmakers and bureaucrats in Obama’s own administration. Nearly two years after the president, standing before a crowd of 7,000 at the University at Buffalo, unveiled the bold proposal as a way to curb soaring college costs, his administration has quietly but drastically scaled back the initiative.

Paul H. Robinson of the Law School is the writes about outdated penal codes. 

New leaders took over Sweet Briar College Thursday evening, ending a four-month battle to stop the private women’s college from closing.

With the number of UC applicants at a new high, California residents faced tougher odds of gaining acceptance into next fall's freshman classes. 

Roman de la Campa of the School of Arts & Sciences provides his thoughts on the plan to open a U.S. embassy in Cuba.

Nearly three-quarters of academics in the Republic of Ireland say that working conditions have deteriorated in the wake of mass job cuts and rising student numbers, a study has found. Higher education funding shrank by 29 percent between 2007 and 2014, but student numbers have risen by 16 percent over the same period, according to the report, Creating a Supportive Working Environment for Academics in Higher Education. Since 2007, staffing levels have been reduced by 17 percent, or 3,500 posts.

Washington State lawmakers reached a bipartisan agreement this week to pull skyrocketing tuition rates back to earth.

When Katherine J. Walsh was choosing a college, she wasn’t as focused on which college did best in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings or tied to living in a particular part of the country. One thing she did care about was finding an institution prepared to support the attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder she’d struggled with for most of her life. She’s not alone. The number of students with learning disabilities has jumped in the past decade, said Lindsay E. Jones, director of public policy and advocacy at the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

Doctoral candidate Jonathan Madara of the School of Veterinary Medicine is cited.

Tom Baker of the Law School says, “In the insurance world, eliminating all risk is the equivalent of cold fusion or the perpetual motion machine.”