On Wednesday, September 11, at the first Council meeting of the academic year, President Amy Gutmann preceded the usual agenda items with comments about the recent loss of Gregory Eells, the CAPS executive director. President Gutmann expressed her commitment to ensuring that support and mental health resources are available for students, faculty and staff. She then requested a moment of silence in Dr. Eells’s memory.

President Gutmann appointed this year’s moderator, professor of English Emily Steiner. President Gutmann also announced that Lauren Steinfeld, chief privacy officer for Penn Medicine and senior advisory for privacy for the University, will once again be the parliamentarian.

Steering Chair Steven Kimbrough announced that the Focus Issues selected by Steering for this year will be: Penn Climate Action Plan 3.0 (December 4); How Penn Supports Student Research at Undergraduate and Graduate Levels (January 29); Update on Campus Security and Emergency Preparedness (February 19); The Power of Penn campaign (March 25).

Open Forums will be held at the Council meetings on December 4 and February 19.

Provost Wendell Pritchett introduced the presentation about this year’s theme year programming on the Year of Data and turned it over to Vice Provost for Education Beth Winkelstein. She thanked all those who have participated in some way or made suggestions for programming. David Fox, director of New Student Orientation and Academic Initiatives, noted that this year’s theme is the 12th theme year and that the Penn Reading Project (PRP), now in its 29th year, is embedded into the theme. There was a near-record number of discussion leader volunteer for the PRP discussions held during New Student Orientation. The book read by the new students was Weapons of Math Destruction. Mr. Fox said that grants are available for those who want to propose programming related to the theme. He then divulged next year’s theme: the Year of Jazz and the 30th PRP will focus on August Wilson’s play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

The next meeting of University Council will be on October 23.