Campus & Community

Desmond Tutu to Speak at Penn Commencement

PHILADELPHIA -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate and one of the world's foremost Christian leaders to oppose apartheid in South Africa, will deliver the address at the 247th Commencement ceremony of the University of Pennsylvania May 19.

Jacquie Posey ・

TV Journalist Jim Lehrer to Speak at Penn Commencement

PHILADELPHIA -- Jim Lehrer, one of the most respected television journalists in the United States and the host of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," will deliver the Commencement address at the 246th Commencement ceremony of the University of Pennsylvania Monday, May 13.

Ron Ozio ・

Office Hours party edition transcript

Duane: I have a fig tree that is called the mighty Georgian Pine and now the only reason that I have this tree is because my daughters were born in California and one of them seemed to have developed a allergy to a Christmas tree one year. So we went and got this ancient, this antique, tree called the mighty Georgian pine, as I said, and it takes hours to assemble.

Penn Today Staff

Calling all artists

The Burrison Gallery is calling for artwork submittals to be considered for its fifth annual University Club Members Exhibit.



In the News


Philadelphia Inquirer

Finally, the Class of 2020 gets its in-person commencement ceremonies at Penn, Haverford, and Penn State 

On Sunday, 3,500 members of the University of Pennsylvania’s undergraduate class of 2020 as well as 2021 master’s and doctoral graduates marched onto Franklin Field to whooping cheers from family and friends in the crowd of 12,000.

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Foreign Policy

The tragedy of Robert McFarlane

Perry World House Fellow John Gans writes, “During his two years as then-President Ronald Reagan’s third national security advisor, [Robert] McFarlane aspired to wield power on the level of his most famous predecessor, Henry Kissinger. But McFarlane proved both too ambitious and too ineffective to wield it in accordance with the law, and instead he became embroiled in the Iran-Contra scandal.”

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Inside Higher Ed

Record applications, record rejections

Admissions Dean Whitney Soule comments on students engaged in academic research during their time in high school, many earning national and international accolades for research.

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Forbes

Princeton, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania withhold Class of 2026 acceptance rates

Princeton University, Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania have also decided to refrain from releasing detailed admissions statistics. The remaining five Ivy League universities—Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown and Dartmouth—have made their traditional admissions announcements. 

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The Wall Street Journal

Some Ivy League colleges to play down how selective they are

Admissions Dean Whitney Soule said drawing attention to the acceptance rate of Ivy League schools like Penn does more harm than good, distressing applicants and their parents. “We’re focusing not on how hard we are to get into but on who these young people are that we chose,” she said.

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