Penn in the News

For 20 years, some employees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill knowingly steered about 1,500 athletes toward no-show courses that never met and were not taught by any faculty members, and in which the only work required was a single research paper that received a high grade no matter the content. After years of investigations, the scope of the scandal was finally detailed in a report by Kenneth Wainstein, a former official with the U.S.

Clark Erickson of the Museum is quoted about curating the reviewed exhibit “Beneath the Surface: Life, Death and Gold in Ancient Panama.”

A fraternity that disbanded its University of Oklahoma chapter after members were caught on video engaging in a racist chant is taking steps to become more inclusive, including requiring all of its members, nationwide, to go through diversity training, a fraternity executive said Wednesday. Blaine Ayers, the executive director of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, said at a news conference in Chicago that he was personally disgusted and embarrassed by the video that surfaced last week.

Carl June of the Perelman School of Medicine is highlighted for leading research therapy that transforms the body’s immune system, using a deactivated HIV virus, to identify and kill leukemia cells.

A black University of Virginia student sustained injuries to his face and head after being detained by a white police officer during an altercation outside of a popular Irish pub in Charlottesville on Tuesday night. The injuries, captured in cell-phone videos and photographs from a crowd of students nearby, left the student with bloody streaks down his face. In one of the videos, the student calls the police offer “racists” as they try to handcuff his hands behind his back.

And now the professors have weighed in: They don’t want Sweet Briar to close, either.

Edward Rock of the Law School is quoted.

Penn State intends to hold accountable the fraternity members who used a private, invitation-only Facebook page to post "appalling, offensive" photos of nude and partly nude women, some apparently asleep or passed out, a university official said.

Marybeth Gasman of the Graduate School of Education praises a California community college system’s program to help support students to transfer to historically black colleges and universities.

President Amy Gutmann is quoted about the opening of the Penn Wharton China Center.