Amy Gutmann

New Paths

Welcome back! 

Whether you journeyed far or stayed near at hand this summer, the start of the academic year is a wonderful opportunity to set off on new paths of exploration and discovery. One simple way to do so is right here. In our busy lives we all fall prey to our routines and can too easily lose sight of the splendors that surround us. We often talk about how the Penn campus is a fine jewel in an urban setting, but this past spring its unique qualities were formally recognized when The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program certified Penn’s West Philadelphia campus as an accredited Level I arboretum. On these nearly 300 acres there are 10 specialty gardens, five parks, and a thriving urban forest of more than 6,500 trees with over 240 species of trees and shrubs—all superbly maintained to the highest professional standards. 

Our beautiful setting is truly one of the joys of being at Penn—a place where straying from routine pathways can lead you to the majesty of the Penn Treaty elm, the quiet of woodland oasis of the Biopond or the ancient splendors of ferns, redwoods and maidenhair trees that frame rock specimens spanning 500 million years in the Geology Garden. At the beginning of this new academic year, I salute the hard-working members of Penn’s Facilities and Real Estate Services who spearheaded the arboretum certification effort, and the astonishingly rich and inviting landscape they maintain throughout the year to the benefit of us all.

Amidst all this natural beauty the built environment is no less impressive or important here at Penn, and this fall we celebrate in particular the much-awaited return of Hill College House, which had been closed for major renovations since June of last year. The only Philadelphia work of famed modernist architect and designer Eero Saarinen, the building’s design in 1958 in many ways looked forward to the needs and study habits of students today, focusing on a breathtaking central atrium and a wide variety of communal spaces which have been renovated to include study rooms, lounges, music practice rooms, and even a project innovation room. Generations of Penn students have forged lifetime bonds from learning and living together at Hill College House, and we are especially pleased to see it reopen to complement the adjacent New College House that opened last year. Together, they foster a vibrant and inclusive community at the northeast gateway to our campus. 

Another restoration of a more solemn nature also occurred this past spring just four miles east of campus at the Christ Church Burial Ground on North 5th Street. For more than 225 years the final resting place of our founder Ben Franklin, the simple marble grave marker—a plain ledger tablet with the names Benjamin and Deborah Franklin and the year 1790—had cracked and warped over the years and was in danger of splitting in half. A GoFundMe campaign that garnered donations from Penn, the Philadelphia Eagles, rock star Jon Bon Jovi and many others supported a 45-day restoration effort led by PennDesign graduates that combined artistry with engineering know-how to repair, restore, and protect one of Philadelphia’s most important historic sites for future generations. 

It is these ties to Ben Franklin and our nation’s scientific and intellectual roots coupled with the serene beauty of our parklike setting that make the Penn campus feel like a sanctified space. For us, the scenes of grotesque violence on and near another great American university campus in Charlottesville this past month resonated all the more deeply. As I said at the time, the racism, anti-Semitism, and other bigotry expressed by the neo-Nazi, KKK and other white supremacist groups that demonstrated in Charlottesville are deeply abhorrent and call for universal condemnation. The hatred espoused is inimical to any decent society and anathema to the most fundamental ideals of our University. At the beginning of this new academic year we celebrate a campus that is indeed beautiful and reaffirm our commitment to fostering a culture on it that is open, intellectually vibrant, inclusive and extends a warm welcome to all.