Penn in the News

The White House is weighing steps to make it easier for Americans to expunge certain student loans through bankruptcy, opening the door for student debt made by private lenders to be treated on par with credit-card debt and mortgages. Federal law prohibits student loans, from private lenders and from the U.S. government, from being wiped out in bankruptcy, except in rare circumstances.

The University of Oklahoma chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity became the focus of outrage on Monday as a result of the online posting of a video that shows its members celebrating the chapter’s exclusion of African-American men in a song containing a racial slur and lynching reference.

Daniel H. Weiss, president of Haverford College, is leaving after only two years to head the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, officials announced Tuesday. His presidential tenure is the shortest in Haverford's 181-year history, though the previous leader, Stephen G. Emerson, wasn't there much longer - four years.

A video of racist chant by men alleged to be fraternity brothers at the University of Oklahoma has brought widespread condemnation and the fraternity’s suspension. The 10-second video features men said to be members of the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE).

Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences is cited for her Ted Talk on “grit.”

Most parents worry when they send their kids off to college, but not (yet) about things as deeply weird as this: A mom in Arizona was so upset about the radical change in her son’s behavior after a couple of years at the University of Arizona that she asked the Arizona Daily Star for help extricating him from a cult’s clutches, according to an investigation by the paper.

For research institutions seeking assurances that they too can grow fast, Northeastern University may be a case of cold comfort. The institution owes its steady rise—from 163rd to 136th nationally in research spending over the past decade—to some deliberate strategies that should have wide application. But the underlying conditions were decades in the making.

Aaron Wunsch of the School of Design talks about his involvement with helping save Philadelphia’s 19^th Street Baptist Church, which was designed by Frank Furness and constructed in 1874.

Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw of the School of Arts & Sciences is mentioned for helping curate the “Represent: 200 Years of African Art” exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Neil Fishman of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on pneumonia.