Penn in the News

School’s out for summer, but some colleges are throwing their doors wide open.

Louis Rulli of the Law School is quoted on issues with federal forfeiture laws.

Sarah A. Tishkoff of the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Arts & Sciences comments on the current popularity of gluten-free diets.

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

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Paul H. Robinson of the Law School is the writes about outdated penal codes. 

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.”

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, suggested last week that she was in favor of “removing” the Clery Act, the law that requires colleges to provide and publicize information about campus crimes. In a statement late Wednesday night, though, she softened her language, saying through a spokeswoman that she had been referring only to the campus security law's reporting requirements.