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
Battling Student Hunger
A door in the basement of George Washington University’s newest residence hall, still smelling of paint, is unremarkable. It has no sign. Inside, it’s packed with food. Shelves are stocked with instant oatmeal, boxes of polenta, plastic bags of pasta, salt and pepper. Dairy and produce fill three refrigerators. A cardboard cutout of a hippo, the unofficial mascot of GW, greets visitors near the door: “Welcome to The Store!” it says in a thought bubble.
Penn In the News
Yale, Citing Rankings in Part, Plans Science Push
Peter Salovey, president of Yale University, on Monday released a letter to the campus on the institution's priorities going forward -- and pledged a big push in science. In explaining the push, Salovey wrote, "Science can change -- and improve -- the world. The discoveries and new knowledge that emerge from our faculty members’ research will help solve some of the most pressing issues of our time. The physical sciences can help us learn to live sustainably. Advances in life science save lives.
Penn In the News
Being Watched
A new website is asking students and others to “expose and document” professors who “discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” The site, called Professor Watchlist, is not without precedent -- predecessors include the now-defunct NoIndoctrination.org, which logged accounts of alleged bias in the classroom. There's also David Horowitz's 2006 book, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America.
Penn In the News
Post-Election, More Interest in Canada’s Universities
Canadian universities are seeing a surge of interest from Americans since the election, The Globe and Mail reported. The University of Toronto's admissions website typically receives 1,000 visits a day from computers based in the United States. The day after the election, the site received 10,000 American visits. McGill University is reporting a surge of applications from Americans. The number of Google searches for "college Canada" and "university Canada" was twice as high the day after the election than any day in the last five years.
Penn In the News
Taking Stands
Prominent figures in academe and higher education groups continue to issue statements about the election of Donald J. Trump, the numerous incidents of intolerance since the election and the challenges facing academe.
Penn In the News
Professor’s Incendiary Rhetoric in the Age of Donald Trump
Kevin Allred, an adjunct in women's and gender studies at Rutgers University, has been placed on leave and barred from teaching amid a controversy over his comments on Twitter -- comments some say are threats of violence and others say are clearly rhetoric used to criticize President-elect Donald Trump. Rutgers informed the New York City Police Department of concerns about Allred last week (he lives in New York City), and police officers took him for a psychological evaluation and then released him.
Penn In the News
In Defense of DACA
More than 90 college and university presidents have signed a statement calling for the continuation and expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, under which more than 700,000 young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children have registered with the federal government in exchange for temporary relief from the possibility of deportation and a two-year renewable work permit. President-elect Donald J. Trump has said he would end the DACA program, which was authorized by President Obama by executive action.
Penn In the News
Presidents’ Message to President-Elect
One hundred and ten college and university presidents have issued a joint letter to President-elect Donald Trump urging him to forcefully “condemn and work to prevent the harassment, hate and acts of violence that are being perpetrated across our nation, sometimes in your name, which is now synonymous with our nation’s highest office.” This action is needed, the presidents write, because of the incidents taking place nationwide, including many on college campuses.
Penn In the News
Whom Does Secrecy Protect?
Criminal proceedings can take a long time to work their way through the system. But if someone has been indicted or convicted, that's public information -- and members of public can decide whether and how to interact with someone accused or found guilty. Contrast that to disciplinary proceedings for faculty members on college and university campuses, which usually happen in secrecy and the outcomes of which often remain private.
Penn In the News
Fighting Campus Carry
Public universities in Texas are a few months into the experience of campus carry, a state law that allows students with licenses to bring guns to colleges. One fear of critics has been realized there: an accidental misfiring at Tarleton State University in September. Yet in Georgia, where I teach, all of our campuses thankfully remain gun-free. While Texas legislators passed and its governor happily signed a law allowing concealed weapons on campus, my governor, Nathan Deal, vetoed a bill that would have done the same here in the Peach State.