Council Meeting Coverage	Print Issue
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Last Wednesday, October 3, University Council met for the first time this semester and President Amy Gutmann appointed Dr. Reed Pyeritz as moderator, with the consent of Council members. Dr. Gutmann also announced that Marjorie Hassen would once again be the parliamentarian this year.

Provost Vincent Price discussed the recently hacked databases from the VPUL that contained information such as names, emails, phone numbers, PennCard numbers but not “sensitive information that could result in identity theft.” He said that Penn’s Privacy Office and ISC are investigating this incident which also targeted 26 other universities.

In last week’s absence of Senate Chair Susan Margulies, the Chair-Elect Dwight Jaggard presented the focus issues for the year: October will be the State of the University; November will include a discussion on new media and an Open Forum; January will focus on Penn Medicine and UPHS; February will highlight PIK professors and another Open Forum; April will have two meetings, with the first focusing on wellness initiatives and reports on the University budgets and plans and the second one will be presentations of committees’ final reports.

University Secretary Leslie Laird Kruhly emphasized that the deadlines will be published for both Open Forums and that it is important to preregister to have an opportunity to be on the agenda.

Provost Price introduced the discussion of the Academic Theme Year, noting that the Penn Reading Project has been a New Student Orientation (NSO) tradition since the early 1990s ,and that the Theme Year has been incorporated for the last few years. Vice Provost for Education Andy Binns described this year’s theme, The Year of Proof, as very timely with the presidential debates. He said that there has been great support from the centers and the faculty, who have been using the theme as “an intellectual lightning rod.” David Fox, director of NSO and academic initiatives, said there are many more events scheduled throughout the year that will pertain to how evidence is gathered. He recommended their website, www.yearofproof.org, for information about upcoming events as well as the grants that are available. There is a November 1 deadline and another one in the spring.

Next year’s Theme Year will be the Year of Sound which is a “broad initiative” representing a range of interests including music, linguistics and other fields.