Elaine Wilner

The sins committed in the name of urban renewal in the 1950s and 1960s continue to haunt efforts to redevelop our great cities. Tearing things down was the easy part; deciding what to put in their place is the real challenge.

Where exactly was the biblical Garden of Eden? Some scholars think it was in the fertile wetlands where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet in southeastern Iraq. For thousands of years, the area was home to people known as the marsh Arabs, who made their living fishing, growing rice and tending water buffalo.

All the seats in Irvine Auditorium were empty, but the familiar haunting strains of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” filled the hall. On stage, a small circle of violinists, viola players and cellists leaned into their instruments. Rehearsal had begun.

When the Eagles’ scouts picked Syracuse’s Donovan McNabb in the 1999 NFL draft, did they prove that they were brilliant predictors of quarterback potential? “They might just as well have thrown a dart at a list of top college quarterbacks because statistics show that it is impossible to predict who will succeed as a professional,” said New Yorker staff writer Malcolm Gladwell.

In the days following Sept. 11, the mantra repeated everywhere was “nothing will ever be the same”—whether it referred to partisan wrangling or a kinder, gentler society. A year and a half later, the idea of irrevocable change seems overstated except if you are Joyce Randolph, head of Penn’s Office of International Programs (OIP).

The Center for Community Partnerships (CCP) is the heart and soul of Penn’s commitment to civic engagement. It is also the arms and legs.

The Annenberg Library of Rare Books and Manuscripts on the sixth floor of Van Pelt Library could be described as the un-Rosengarten. No undergraduates cramming for finals mar its perfect serenity. A large oriental rug worn to soft shades of beige and blue and burnished wood cases displaying green and red morocco-bound volumes greet the visitor.

When it comes to college admissions, the one thing everybody knows for sure is that fat envelopes bring good news and skinny envelopes are bad news. Even that no longer pertains. On April 2, beginning at 5 p.m., applicants to Penn who couldn’t wait for the mailman could get the news online.

“There is often an unstated bias in the workplace against care giving,” said Robert Drago, professor of labor studies and women’s studies at Penn State, the keynote speaker at the last week’s spring meeting of the College and University Work/Family Association (CUWFA). “There is bias in the culture as well.

How do writers find the stories they tell? “Sometimes the stories find them,” says Paul Hendrickson, who has been teaching non-fiction writing in the English Department’s creative writing program since 2001.