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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
Poor Kids, Limited Horizons
Darrius Sloan, 17, talks about his dreams — about himself — in the past tense. He hoped to go to the University of Arizona. "I wanted to be a civil engineer," he says. "I really loved math, I really did. I really do, I mean." Raised on Navajo land in Tuba City, Ariz., in a trailer with 13 other family members, Mr. Sloan got good grades and earned a spot in a boardinghouse for Native Americans to attend high school in Flagstaff, about 80 miles from the broken schools of home.
Penn In the News
Science-diversity Efforts Connect Grad Students With Mentors
Most efforts to increase the number of black and other underrepresented minority doctoral recipients in science and engineering have fallen flat. For example, the share of engineering doctorates earned by black students remained unchanged, at 4 percent, from 2004 to 2014, according to the most recent Survey of Earned Doctorates. The problem has many causes — including that most minority-group members enroll in graduate programs at lower rates than white students do — but many observers say a lack of good mentoring is a key factor.
Penn In the News
Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate
Adam Grant of the Wharton School contributes an op-ed about procrastination.
Penn In the News
There May Be a Way to Allow Mass Surveillance and Preserve Our Privacy at the Same Time
Michael Kearns of the School of Engineering and Applied Science is quoted about mass surveillance and citizens’ right to privacy.
Penn In the News
Biden Sees Politics of Cancer World
The Abramson Cancer Center was mentioned as a site of Vice President Biden’s visit to kick off his initiative to find a cure for cancer.
Penn In the News
Higher Status Jobs But Lower Pay for African-Americans Graduating From HBCUs
Marybeth Gasman of the Graduate School of Education says, “Understanding the complex and unique return on investment for MSIs is essential as these institutions serve the new majority in higher education.”
Penn In the News
Audio: Why It’s Hard to Raid a University Endowment
There is a small but growing move afoot to require universities with multi-billion dollar endowments to stop charging tuition. In fact, some proponents of the idea are trying to get a seat on the board that oversees Harvard, and a New York congressman is sponsoring legislation to require rich universities to spend more of their endowments on tuition assistance. Sounds like they're making a simple argument, right? But University endowments aren’t big, liquid pools of money, like what parents with a kid in college wish for.
Penn In the News
What Cosby Scandal Teaches Us
Revocation of an honorary degree has risen to the forefront again, occasioned by the recent arrest of Bill Cosby for sexual assault in Pennsylvania in a case for which the statute of limitations has not yet expired. In his lifetime, Cosby has received somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 honorary degrees, and three dozen higher education institutions have not, as of now, rescinded them. It is high time these colleges and universities did so. If ever an easy case for degree revocation existed, this is it.
Penn In the News
Is Obesity More Deadly Than Science Suggests?
Samuel Preston of the School of Arts & Sciences is cited for co-authoring a study about obesity and morality.
Penn In the News
Mental Health of College Athletes
Concussions may currently be the most-talked-about safety issue in college sports, but it’s the mental health of athletes that really keeps the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s chief medical officer awake at night, he said here Wednesday. Speaking to a small crowd at the NCAA’s annual meeting, Brian Hainline, the association’s medical chief, said mental health remains a top concern for the association and its members.