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
Do Your Students Have Criminal Records? Is It Even Fair to Ask?
Nearly three out of four colleges ask applicants a variation of the question most dreaded by those who have been on the wrong side of the law: Have you ever been convicted of a crime? Some colleges are only concerned with violent felonies, others with misdemeanors or even high-school suspensions. And what they do with that information, ostensibly gathered only to keep their campuses safe, varies widely.
Penn In the News
In Football, Stigma of Concussion Creates Incentives to Hide It
Medical professionals in many big-time college football programs are using deliberately vague language about head injuries or avoiding mention of concussions on injury reports as public scrutiny of the problem has increased.
Penn In the News
Senate’s Revamped Sexual-assault Bill Puts More Pressure on Colleges
A bipartisan group of 12 U.S. senators introduced legislation on Thursday that is aimed at curbing sexual violence on campuses in ways that protect both victims and accused students. The changes reflect heightened attention over the past six months to the due-process rights of accused students.
Penn In the News
The Ever-Growing World of College Rankings
Another day, another college ranking. Or so it seems. Last year at least three new rankings emerged from national publications or major companies, joining a long line of magazines that have entered the rankings game since U.S. News & World Report started publishing its list annually, in 1985.
Penn In the News
For Better or Worse, Universities Make Greater Use of Smaller Lab Animals
First they helped save some chimpanzees and cats. Now they’re coming for the mice and the rats. Researchers with the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, in an article published on Wednesday in the Journal of Medical Ethics, said moves by lab scientists away from using large animals is obscuring the growing use of rodents and other small animals.
Penn In the News
A Distinction Washington U. Wants to Lose: Least Economically Diverse
Over the past several decades, Washington University in St. Louis has evolved from a locally oriented institution to one of national prominence. It has built dozens of gleaming new buildings and established academic programs that are now ranked among the country’s best. More than nine in 10 of its students graduate in four years. And, with an endowment of $6.7-billion, it is now one of the wealthiest colleges in the nation.
Penn In the News
A Climate Crusader Melts, Exposing a Profitable Link to Harvard’s Name
Years of using a Harvard nameplate to flog his insistence that polar bears are doing fine, and that sunspots might
Penn In the News
As High-tech Teaching Catches On, Students With Disabilities Can Be Left Behind
Educational innovations like the flipped classroom, clickers, and online discussions can present difficulties for students with disabilities.
Penn In the News
The Financial-aid Fine Print
Admissions counselors from any of the country’s wealthiest colleges would probably describe their financial aid in similar terms. Something like: “Yes, our price tag is really high, but we meet the full demonstrated need of all our students. If you get in here, we’ll make it affordable for you.” That’s basically true. And the wealthiest colleges do have roughly the same financial-aid policies.
Penn In the News
An Online Kingdom Come
Maybe Jerry Falwell was right. The late evangelist always figured that most people would dismiss anything that started in this little city, where he founded Liberty University. "They think of my hometown as a rather primitive Blue Ridge Mountain village, a backwater on the James River," he wrote in his autobiography, Strength for the Journey.