Sandy Smith

There’s a wisecrack that circulates on many college campuses that goes something like this: The junior faculty are allowed to touch the robe of God. The senior faculty get to talk to God. The dean sits at the right hand of God. And the secretary is God. “Sounds good to me,” Afi Roberson (G’95) said of the joke.

A (relatively) quiet celebration: Although early-morning storms caused the cancellation of the academic procession down Locust Walk for the second year in a row, not a drop of rain dampened Commencement itself.

Thanks to the civil rights movement and affirmative action, blacks now occupy positions in numbers and at levels that were unimaginable as recently as the 1960s. But that success has created a new set of problems, and at a May 1 talk sponsored by the African-American Resource Center, sociologist Elijah Anderson examined some of them.

D.C. beckons: Penn’s fundraiser-in-chief, Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Virginia Clark, is off to Washington to fill the nation’s attic with cash. Clark will leave Penn at the end of the summer to become director of external affairs at the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum and research complex.

So why is it that more than one in every three adolescents currently smoke?

A new service will make it easier for faculty and staff to keep track of payroll, benefits and personal information.

Let’s start out by disposing of the question everyone asks the chief of the Penn Police: Do you get kidded about your name? “What I get is just that question,” Thomas Rambo said. “That’s about it. ‘I guess you get kidded about your name.’ Then they go, ‘Well, what do they say?’”

Brighten up: If you’re still in the dark about making your University City home brighter and more attractive, there’s help. UC Brite, the University City District program that assists homeowners who purchase exterior lighting for their properties, is now accepting applications for lighting projects this spring.

Give blood, Fido. Your life may depend on it some day. For more than a decade, the three Veterinary School nurses who comprise the Penn Animal Blood Bank staff have been spreading this message to dog owners. The Penn Animal Blood Bank is the oldest volunteer-based animal blood program in the country, and its bloodmobile is the only one of its kind anywhere.

The event was billed as a conversation on globalization with financier-philanthropist George Soros. But Soros managed to add American foreign policy to the agenda at the Granoff Forum on International Development and the Global Economy April 8.