Penn in the News

Rutgers University and its largest faculty union have reached a tentative four-year agreement that, if approved by members, would include across-the-board raises and require the university to declare a fiscal emergency before freezing salaries. The agreement with the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers, announced Thursday in messages sent to faculty, would cover nearly 4,700 of its members.

President Amy Gutmann discusses how Penn is becoming more accessible for lower-income students.

Penn is mentioned as a partner for the “Monument Lab: Creative Speculations for Philadelphia” project.

Andy Minn, Robert Vonderheide and Lynn Schuchter of the Perelman School of Medicine discuss a clinical trial for a cancer treatment.

Two students were expelled from the University of Oklahoma this week after a video of them leading a racist chant went viral. The response from David Boren, the president of the university, was swift and decisive — the video went public Sunday night, and by midday Tuesday the university had announced the expulsion.

After apologies from two University of Oklahoma students for a racist chant that went viral online, Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s national chapter objected to their statements that they had been “taught” the song and said they are investigating reports from other campuses that the chant has been heard elsewhere.

President Amy Gutmann is highlighted for receiving the Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award from the American Council on Education.

Graduate student workers at New York University called off a planned strike early Tuesday after they reached a last-minute union contract agreement with administrators. Members of the Graduate Student Organizing Committee said the deal includes significant wins for the United Auto Workers-affiliated union, including a 4 percent raise this year for fully funded teaching assistants and a “landmark” family health care benefit.

Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism is reducing its class size and cutting staff positions as demand for journalism schools across the country dwindles. The school plans to decrease enrollment over the next several years and will eliminate about six staff positions before the next school year, according to an email sent Wednesday to staff members and full-time faculty from Steve Coll, the dean of the school.

Postdoctoral fellow Alexander Stewart of the School of Arts & Sciences writes about a new approach to game theory he studied with Joshua Plotkin of the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science.