Penn in the News

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.

Kenneth Margulies of the Perelman School of Medicine suggests that Philadelphia’s smoking rates will continue to decline with shifting attitudes, policy changes and penalties.

Andrea Spaeth of the Perelman School of Medicine offers ways to improve daily functionality for people who are lacking sleep.

The Supreme Court’s decision to reconsider a challenge to affirmative action at the University of Texas at Austin has universities around the country fearing that they will be forced to abandon what remains of race-based admission preferences and resort to more difficult and expensive methods if they want to achieve student diversity.

At many colleges, victories have been slow to accumulate for campus activists who have pressured their institutions to ban certain investments from their endowments. There are hundreds of active campaigns that seek divestment from fossil-fuel companies, yet a much smaller number of colleges have actually pledged to follow through on those demands. But student activists say they scored an important victory last week, when Columbia University decided to divest from for-profit prison companies.

International applications to U.S. graduate schools rose 2% this year, driven by double-digit growth from Indian candidates and interest in science and engineering programs but tempered by declining demand from Chinese prospects. This marks the 10th straight year of gains in applications from foreign candidates, according to a preliminary tally by the Council of Graduate Schools, based on reports from 377 schools that educate the bulk of international graduate students. U.S.

Tobias Barrington Wolff of the Law School discusses the opinions in the Supreme Court’s rulings on same-sex marriage and lethal injections.

The state’s highest court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling allowing New York University to move forward with its expansion plan, most likely ending a long battle with neighbors, elected officials, preservationists and faculty members. The contentious plan would add about 1.9 million square feet of space across four buildings, including classrooms, dormitories and offices, to the largely low-slung neighborhood of Greenwich Village. About 900,000 square feet of that would be underground, according to the university.

Adam Finkel of the Law School is quoted about standards from the Occupational Safety & Health Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.