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Penn in the News
A round-up of Penn mentions in local, national, and international media.
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Penn In the News
Senate Democrats Launch Campaign to Reduce Student Debt
With the staggering cost of college a key issue on the presidential campaign trail, Senate Democrats are seizing the opportunity to promote a legislative package designed to address affordability. On Thursday, lawmakers unveiled the Reducing Educational Debt (RED) Act, comprised of three bills that party members have championed over the last year or two. The package includes legislation introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in 2014 to let borrowers refinance their federal and private student loans at a lower interest rate.
Penn In the News
Wanted: High-character Students
Each year colleges invite applicants to sing their own praises, by listing achievements and proclaiming passions. Now some admissions offices are emphasizing students’ concern for others and the world beyond their test-prep manuals. For the last few months, some admissions leaders have quietly discussed strategies for encouraging good citizenship, not just résumé-polishing, among high-school students.
Penn In the News
The Strange Life of Q-tips, the Most Bizarre Thing People Buy
Barbara Kahn of the Wharton School comments on the difficulty in changing how consumers perceive Q-tips due to their history brand.
Penn In the News
Should College Be Free?
Politicians on the right and left are talking about college affordability. Democratic presidential candidates are divided over how much should be done to ease the cost of higher education. Tennessee is offering free community college tuition to all its high school graduates and a slate of candidates for the Board of Overseers at Harvard University wants to end undergraduate tuition there. To level the playing field, should tuition at public colleges be ended?
Penn In the News
First-generation College Students Are Not Succeeding In College, and Money Isn’t the Problem
Christopher Feaster lived in a homeless shelter in D.C. for most of high school. Laundry was a once-a-month luxury. “I would have to re-wear socks,” he says. “They were white socks, but they were so dirty that they were brown and sometimes they were starting to go black. I had to re-wear underwear because I didn’t have clean underwear.” Homeless students face terrible odds of graduating high school, but Christopher excelled at school.
Penn In the News
Pell Grant Expansion A Goal of Obama Administration
The Obama administration wants to expand the federal Pell grant program to help more students graduate from college — by providing them with money to attend classes year-round and reward them for taking more credits. Two new proposals, announced Tuesday by the Education Department, would expand the $29 billion program by $2 billion in the new fiscal year. They’ll be part of President Barack Obama’s budget proposal next month.
Penn In the News
Distribution Plus
When colleges discuss general education reforms or announce curricular revamps, it's common to hear professors talk of the need to replace "cafeteria-style" approaches. Distribution requirements, critics say, may assure that all students take a course or two in such broad fields as the humanities, the social sciences and the physical and biological sciences. But the requirements don't necessarily encourage thoughtful integration of different fields of study -- and many students simply look for the easiest options to check the requirements off.
Penn In the News
Burning Question: Does Pot Make You Stupid?
Adrian Raine of the School of Arts & Sciences and the Perelman School of Medicine comments on the push to legalize marijuana and research studying pot’s impact on verbal ability.
Penn In the News
Cattle Farmers Battle Fluctuating Winter Temperatures
Meggan Hain of the School of Veterinary Medicine is quoted about the impact of fluctuating winter temperatures on animals.
Penn In the News
Ken Lum on Canada vs. the USA
Ken Lum of the School of Design is featured for his experience living in America, specifically Philadelphia, compared to Canada.