5/18
Penn in the News
A round-up of Penn mentions in local, national, and international media.
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Penn In the News
Campus Sexual Assault Under Investigation
The pressure on colleges to step up prevention and handle sexual-assault cases more effectively has intensified since April 2011. That’s when the federal government signaled stricter enforcement of the gender-equity law Title IX, which compels colleges to resolve students’ reports of rape, whether or not the police are involved. Students began filing federal complaints against their institutions, alleging missteps at nearly every juncture. This project tracks federal investigations of colleges for possible violations of Title IX involving reported sexual violence.
Penn In the News
Audio: Hypocrisy: Why Do People Often Say One Thing and Do Another?
Robert Kurzban of the School of Arts & Sciences joins a conversation about hypocrisy.
Penn In the News
Trump’s Views Are Illiberal. But Are They Unamerican?
Rogers Smith of the School of Arts & Sciences is mentioned for advancing what he called the “multiple tradition thesis” of American political culture.
Penn In the News
Foundation Urges Admissions Offices to Create a ‘Poverty Preference’
To increase the socioeconomic diversity of their campuses, selective colleges should create a "poverty preference" for high-achieving low-income applicants, a new report says. The report, released on Monday by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, urges institutions to make the admissions process more equitable. The authors describe the current system as "a classic case of interest-group politics gone awry," in which poor students lack champions and face long odds of being admitted.
Penn In the News
Mapping a MOOC Reveals Global Patterns in Student Engagement
Teaching an online course that 49,000 students have signed up for presents an unprecedented challenge when it comes to an important aspect of instruction: knowing your audience. I could see from my course "dashboard" in Coursera that the students hailed from 190 countries, with 6 percent from India, 31 percent from the United States, and so on, but these numbers only took me so far. I wondered which places had lots of students earning a passing grade? Which places had students who were really engaged with the course? Since I’m a cartographer, it made sense to make some maps.
Penn In the News
Teacher Vacancies Lead to Overstuffed Classrooms, Burnout
Jonathan Supovitz of the Graduate School of Education comments on the importance of classroom size.
Penn In the News
Will Justices Be Consistent in Their Convictions?
The U.S. Supreme Court heard argument last month in the latest constitutional challenge to race-based preferences in university admissions. The court's decision in Fisher v. University of Texas may determine affirmative action's future. It may also reveal the extent of the conservative justices' avowed commitments to judicial restraint. To understand why Fisher has this significance, recall the court's holding in June that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. In that case, Obergefell v. Hodges, the four most conservative justices dissented.
Penn In the News
Mapping a MOOC Reveals Global Patterns in Student Engagement
Teaching an online course that 49,000 students have signed up for presents an unprecedented challenge when it comes to an important aspect of instruction: knowing your audience. I could see from my course "dashboard" in Coursera that the students hailed from 190 countries, with 6 percent from India, 31 percent from the United States, and so on, but these numbers only took me so far. I wondered which places had lots of students earning a passing grade? Which places had students who were really engaged with the course? Since I’m a cartographer, it made sense to make some maps.
Penn In the News
Jackie’s Rape Story Was False. So Why Hasn’t The Media Named Her By Now?
In the 14 months since her story shocked the world, Jackie has been at the heart of a national debate about sexual assaults on college campuses, has become embroiled in a media scandal, and is the central figure in a series of defamation lawsuits. Yet there’s one important fact missing about Jackie, the young woman who concocted a harrowing story about a gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity: her full name. News organizations have declined to reveal Jackie’s full identity since her now-discredited story appeared in Rolling Stone magazine in November 2014.
Penn In the News
Will Justices Be Consistent in Their Convictions?
Mitchell Berman of the Law School and the School of Arts & Sciences pens an op-ed about consistency in the Supreme Court’s decisions regarding constitutional challenges to race-based preferences in university admissions.