Sandy Smith

According to George Stephanopoulos, the next election will be a lot like the last one, only closer. And the Keystone State, which is a primary-season afterthought, will be a key battleground come fall.

Irish poet Seamus Heaney, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, will deliver the main address at Penn’s 244th Commencement ceremony on May 22. His Nobel Prize citation praised his “works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.”

  Two oceans, a continent and 7,800 miles separate Philadelphia and Bombay. Yet in some ways, the two cities might as well be as close as Philadelphia and New York.

At last, the guys have a Terry McMillan of their own.

Imagine Marcus Welby, M.D., walking a picket line, singing “Solidarity Forever.” Most doctors still can’t, which may be why they were outnumbered by doctors-to-be at this year’s Thomas Langfitt Jr. Memorial Symposium at the Medical School Feb. 29. Those who came got an earful of the clash of values that make physician unionization such a hot issue.

  In three short years of existence, Other Voices has proved Marshall McLuhan wrong: The medium is not the message.

This is a story about a discussion group founded by women for women, and how two guys ended up running it. But it’s not a story about how the patriarchy co-opted women’s issues. That’s because the two guys in question took the reins to keep the group alive.

Richard Kahlenberg has a plan to mend, not end, affirmative action. Not everyone at the Feb. 25 forum “Rethinking the Remedy: The Future of Affirmative Action in Higher Education and the Workplace” agreed with him that it needs mending, but his respondents and the audience of students, faculty and administrators gave him a respectful hearing.

  Bruce Warren has heard the future of rock ’n’ roll on the South Dakota prairie. And because he has, listeners to Penn’s public radio station, WXPN (88.5 FM), will hear it too.

William Kelley, M.D., has stepped aside as chief executive officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and dean of the School of Medicine. President Judith Rodin announced on Feb. 17 that Peter G. Traber, M.D., chair of the department of medicine, will serve as interim Health System CEO and Medical School dean until a permanent successor is found.