March 29, 2016 Volume 62 Issue 28

Seniors Vaishak Kumar, Melanie Mariano and Kriya Patel have been named recipients of the 2016 President’s Engagement Prize at the University of Pennsylvania. The announcement was made last Wednesday by Penn President Amy Gutmann.

“Vaishak, Melanie and Kriya embody the very best qualities of Penn undergraduates: their eagerness and ability to translate knowledge into real-world impact and to apply their Penn education toward the betterment of humankind,” President Gutmann said. “These projects represent a most remarkable range of Penn-educated talent, determination and public-spirited enterprise among our students. They will no doubt be outstanding ambassadors of public service, and I look forward to seeing the results of their projects.”

Each President’s Engagement Prize recipient will receive as much as $100,000 for project implementation expenses and $50,000 for living expenses. The Prizes, first awarded last year (Almanac March 31, 2015), are competitively awarded to Penn seniors annually to design and undertake local, national or global engagement projects during the first year after they graduate.

The three recipients of the 2016 President’s Engagement Prizes and their projects are:

Vaishak Kumar, NESARA Agriculture Extension: Mr. Kumar, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, will utilize cost-efficient technology and novel research to help farmers in India boost their productivity. The project will employ mobile technology to improve farmer education in India, where the plight of farmers continues to be of great concern.  He will also set up a low-cost mobile laboratory to provide farmers with timely, personalized information. Mr. Kumar is being mentored by Devesh Kapur, director of Penn’s Center for the Advanced Study of India.

Melanie Mariano, Living HEALthy: Health Expansion Across Libraries: Ms. Mariano, a Nursing senior, will partner with the Free Library of Philadelphia to assist library patrons in obtaining health information, medical counseling and preventive health services. Her project will employ a “one-stop-shopping” approach that will actively disseminate health information, provide care and allocate resources in an efficient way. Ms. Mariano will pioneer an inter-professional health-care model with social workers, nurses and librarians. She is being mentored by Monica Harmon, senior lecturer in Nursing.

Kriya Patel, Coming Home to Continued Care: Ms. Patel, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, will help women about to be released from the all-female Riverside Correctional Facility in Philadelphia apply for and secure health insurance and identification prior to release. The health insurance will allow the women to stay on their much-needed medication, which will aid in the re-entry process. Ms. Patel will keep track of the women for at least three years to monitor the effects of continued care on recidivism rates. She is being mentored by Kathleen Brown, practice associate professor of Nursing.

“We are proud,” Provost Vincent Price said, “of our students’ commitment to meaningful work that extends beyond the classroom and the campus. We are indebted to the outstanding faculty members who helped develop these projects—and to the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, which gives our students the tools to discover their passions and then put them into practice.”

The President’s Engagement Prizes are intended to strengthen Penn’s commitment under the Penn Compact 2020 to impactful local, national and global student engagement. 

The Prizes have been endowed by Trustee Judith Bollinger and William G. Bollinger, Trustee Lee Spelman Doty and George E. Doty, Jr., and Emeritus Trustee James S. Riepe and Gail Petty Riepe.

The Selection Committee was chaired by Vice Provost for Education Beth Winkelstein, representing Provost Price. The members were Marc McMorris, chair of the Trustee Committee on Local, National and Global Engagement; Katlyn Grasso, a 2015 Engagement Prize winner; and a faculty member from each undergraduate school: Andrew Jackson of Engineering, Terri Lipman of Nursing, Emilio Parrado of Arts & Sciences and Keith Weigelt of Wharton. 

Carnegie Mellon University announced the winners of its first-ever Allegheny Region Cleantech University Prize, as one of eight regional contests that spur innovation at the collegiate level. With the support of the US Department of Energy, the Cleantech University Prize is hosted by top academic research institutions around the country to connect startups with premier access to the advanced resources and training capabilities available on America’s university campuses.

DR-Advisor (Demand Response Made Easy)—a first-time champion from the University of Pennsylvania—competed against 15 teams to take home the $50,000 Energy Department prize at this year’s inaugural event earlier this month. “This data-driven demand response recommendation system is like the Netflix of demand management,” said team member Madhur Behl, a postdoctoral research fellow at Penn’s Real-Time and Embedded Systems Lab (mLab) and the PRECISE Center. See http://energy.gov/oe/technology-development/smart-grid/demand-response

By marshalling historical meter and weather data as well as set-point and schedule information, DR-Advisor supplies an affordable approach for predicting a building’s power consumption and facilitating a plan for demand-side modeling, all without having to learn the complexities of the building. Real-time electricity pricing and demand response has become a clean, reliable and cost-effective way of mitigating peak demand on the electricity grid. The team considers the problem of end-user demand response (DR) for large commercial buildings, which involves predicting the demand response baseline, evaluating fixed DR strategies and synthesizing DR control actions for load curtailment in return for a financial reward. Using historical data from the building, they build a family of regression trees and learn data-driven models for predicting the power consumption of the building in real-time. They present a method called DR-Advisor, which acts as a recommender system for the building’s facilities manager and provides suitable control actions to meet the desired load curtailment while maintaining operations and maximizing the economic reward. They evaluate the performance of DR-Advisor for demand response using data from a real office building and a virtual test-bed. See http://mlab.seas.upenn.edu/dr-advisor/

The Cleantech University Prize, formerly known as the National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition, has attracted more than 1,000 teams, resulting in more than 70 ventures, 120 jobs and $60 million in follow-up funding. Since its inception in 2011, entries have come full circle to achieve working prototypes at commercial scale.

In April, Cleantech University Prize competitions will include Rice University, the Clean Energy Trust Challenge in Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Rutgers University. The contest culminates with the National Prize in June. See more at the Department of Energy website: http://energy.gov/eere/articles/carnegie-mellon-launches-allegheny-region-cleantech-university-prize

Charles R. Perry, associate professor emeritus of management at the Wharton School, died at home in Chelsea, Michigan, on March 15. He was 77 years old.

Dr. Perry completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan, then earned his MBA and PhD from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Perry joined the Penn faculty in 1966 as an assistant professor of industry. In 1972, he was promoted to associate professor of management with tenure. He received a secondary appointment in the Public Management Unit in 1979.

While at Penn, he served on the University Council’s Committee on Undergraduate Admissions & Financial Aid. He also served as a representative of Penn’s I Can Quit smoking cessation program (Almanac November 19, 1985).

In the 1970s, he took a leave from the Wharton School to act as executive assistant to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President of the United States.

Throughout his career, he researched labor relations, with a particular focus on women and minorities, especially in urban areas. His publications include The Negro in the Department Store Industry (1971, Penn Press) and The Labor Relations Climate and Management Rights in Urban School Systems: The Case of Philadelphia (1974, Penn Press).

He also co-authored The Impact of Negotiations in Public Education: The Evidence From the Schools (with Wesley A. Wildman, 1970, Charles A. Jones Publishing Co.); Negro Employment in Retail Trade: A Study of Racial Policies in the Department Store, Drugstore and Supermarket Industries (with Gordon F. Bloom and F. Marion Fletcher, 1972, Penn Press); The Impact of Government Manpower Programs in General and on Minorities and Women (with Richard L. Rowan, Bernard E. Anderson, Herbert R. Northrup and others, 1975, Penn Press); and Disintegration and Change: Labor Relations in the Meat Packing Industry (with Delwyn H. Kegley, 1989, Penn Press).

Dr. Perry retired from Penn and took emeritus status in 1999.

He is survived by his wife, Karen; two daughters, Diane Perry and Linda Mazzoni; one stepson, Brian Tyler; one stepdaughter, Erika Tyler; one granddaughter, Kaiya Firor; and four step-grandchildren, Jeremy, Andrew, Jamie and Gwendolyn Tyler.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to the University of Michigan Medical Center Research Fund, University of Michigan Health System, Office of Medical Development, 1000 Oakwood Drive, Suite 100, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-6815, RE: Charles Perry, Donation; or online at http://victor.us/charlesperry

Philip Littman, a former associate professor of radiation therapy at Penn, died at home on March 16 from complications related to ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He was 75 years old.

Dr. Littman was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended high school at Baltimore City College, then graduated from Stanford University in 1962. He was in one of the first classes of Peace Corps volunteers, serving as a science and English teacher from 1962-1964 in Ethiopia/Eritrea. Upon returning to the US, he attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Medicine, and graduated in 1968. He also served in the US Public Health Service from 1968-1971.

Dr. Littman did his postgraduate radiation oncology training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) and Massachusetts General Hospital. He was a diplomate of the American Board of Radiology in therapeutic radiology.

In 1978, he became an assistant professor of radiation therapy at HUP. In 1980, he was promoted to associate professor of radiation therapy.

After leaving Penn in 1984, Dr. Littman served on the faculty at Brown University’s School of Medicine as a professor of radiation therapy. In 1987, he opened the Southern Wisconsin Radiotherapy Center in Madison, where he served as the primary physician.

He retired in 2003 and moved to Stuart, Florida, then he worked as a locum tenens radiation oncology physician in various states. He and his wife, Trish, spent several years sailing around the Bahamas and Caribbean. Dr. Littman also sailed across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

At the age of 70, he re-trained himself to be a general practitioner so he could volunteer as a physician at the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic in Stuart, Florida, where he worked regularly until ALS-related symptoms forced him physically to retire. He remained engaged in medical literature until his final days.

Dr. Littman is survived by his wife, Trish; his daughter, Rachel (Doug Davis); his son, Josh (Natalia); and four grandchildren, Adam Littman Davis, Amanda Littman Davis, Levi Orion Littman and Savannah Arial Littman.

Donations may be made to the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic (http://vimclinic.net/), MJHS Hospice Foundation (https://mjhsfoundation.org/donate/hospice-and-palliative-care-fund/) or the ALS Association, Greater New York Chapter (http://www.als-ny.org/).

William (“Bill”) Victor Chalupa, professor emeritus of nutrition at Penn Vet, died at Paoli Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania on January 25. He was 78 years old.

Dr. Chalupa was born in New York City and graduated from Frenchtown High School in New Jersey. He earned his BS, MS and PhD in ruminant nutrition from the College of Agriculture at Rutgers University.

His first faculty position was in the dairy science department at Clemson University in South Carolina. He took a sabbatical leave to perform research at the USDA Ruminant Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, then joined Smith-Kline Pharmaceutical as manager of rumen metabolic research at the Applebrook facility in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He also taught briefly at the University of Maryland.

In 1976, Dr. Chalupa came to the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine as an adjunct associate professor in the Section of Nutrition, where he researched animal health and production and delivery of current nutritional concepts to nutritionists and producers through development of ration formulation software. He conducted research at New Bolton Center and taught in Philadelphia.

In 1981, he was promoted to professor of nutrition. He retired from Penn in 2005 after 30 years of service.

Dr. Chalupa made important contributions in ruminant nutrition in the areas of nitrogen metabolism, the influence of ionophores on rumen fermentation, use of by-pass fats in ruminant diets, and production responses to bovine somatotropin. He was an early proponent of the application of more dynamic ration formulation programs to account for rumen fermentation of feedstuffs. He was instrumental in taking concepts in the Cornell Net Carbohydrate Protein System and developing a usable ration formulation program for use in the field, CPMDairy. With his collaborators, he moved ration formulation programs from static models to more dynamic models.

He devoted time and energy to training nutritionists worldwide in these concepts. One of his major contributions is the growth of dynamic ration models that are used today in the field.

In May 2003, he received the George Hammell Cook Distinguished Alumni Award of Rutgers University. In July 2007, he was recognized by the Dairy Nutritionists of Mexico for his outstanding contribution to dairy nutrition. He was a founding board member of the Nature Center of Charlestown, Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Chalupa is survived by his wife, Barbara Fritsche Chalupa; his brother, James (Sheri Bowlby Chalupa); his daughter, Judy Chalupa Rossetti (Michael Rossetti); his son, Chip (Sondra Swisher Chalupa); and five grandchildren, Angela Rossetti, Christopher Rossetti, Samantha, Kirstin and Matthew Chalupa.

In accordance with the University Council Bylaws, the March Council meeting included “extended reports by the President, the Provost and other administrators covering budgets and plans for the next academic year.” The remarks on pages 5-7 were adapted from the presentations given.

Reports on the Budget and Plans for the Next Academic Year
University FY16 Operating Budget

Bonnie Gibson, Vice President, Budget & Management Analysis

I will be reviewing the FY16 current year budget. The FY17 budget is still being developed, and will be presented to the Trustees for approval in June. I will discuss our total charges for FY17.

For FY16 we have budgeted $3.37 billion dollars in revenue. This chart (below left) shows the multiple components of revenue, but the easy way to think about our revenue sources is in thirds. The first, slightly over weighted third is tuition and fees, representing over $1.2 billion or 35% of our operating revenue. This category includes undergraduate, graduate and professional and other tuition. The second, slightly underweighted third is sponsored programs, or research, representing $878 million or 26% of our revenue. The final third is everything else, representing $1.29 billion or 39% and including the income from our endowment, gifts, other income (mostly sales and services), transfers and support for the Vet School from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. So as you think of our revenue sources, remember thirds.

Our expenditures also total $3.37 billion, with 52% of that total in Compensation, including salaries and benefits ($1.73 billion). Current Expense makes up 25% of our expenditures, with Capital and Student Aid representing the final 23%. This chart (below right) shows what we spend our money on, while the next slide shows who is doing that spending.

School spending represents almost $2.3 billion, or 68% of our total expenditures. The next largest component, administrative centers, including Finance, HR, Public Safety, Information Systems and other administrative units, is $406 million or 12%. The cost of our space is $173 million. However, 74% of the space costs are actually for school space: if we move those costs to the school segment, school expenditures increase to 71% of the total.

Our total aid budget for FY16 is $454 million, a 3.5% increase over FY15. Graduate and professional aid, including stipends, is $248 million, while undergraduate aid is $206 million. These numbers represent direct financial aid to individual students, but in fact the cost of a Penn education is subsidized for all students. Our audited financial statements show that tuition and fees cover 70% of the cost of a Penn education, with gifts and endowment income covering the balance.

Total Undergraduate Charges for FY17

For FY17 the Trustees have approved a 3.9% increase to undergraduate total charges, with tuition, fees, room and board at $66,000 next year. Room and board are based on the average standard room and the freshman meal plan. Over the past 10 years Penn’s increase in total charges has been at the average for our peer group: never the highest, and never the lowest. This is the 8th consecutive year that we have held the rate of increase below 4%.

This increase in total charges generates net incremental revenue of $14.4 million after the application of $9 million to the financial aid pool, with $9 million of that in net tuition revenue. Net tuition after aid actually grows by just 2.8%. 

Financial Aid

I want to present our aid information as a series of important questions. The first is whether we are keeping a Penn education affordable and accessible. For the average aided freshman, the cost of attending Penn in constant 2005 dollars is actually $2,690, or 14%, lower than it was in FY05.

The second question is: How much aid are we actually providing to students? This graph shows the distribution of traditional undergraduate grants by size for both the freshman class and the overall aided population for the current year. Seventy-one percent of our aided students received grants of $35,000 or more, while over 43% received grants of $50,000 or more, and 20% received grants of $60,000 or more. Forty-seven percent of traditional undergraduate students receive aid, and the average freshman grant this year is $41,194. 

The third question is: What percentage of total charges does our aid program cover? This graph (not shown) looks at the median grant and the median grant as a percent of total charges. The median for all aided undergraduates is in blue, and for aided freshmen in green. Not only has the median grant increased significantly over the past five years, but as a percent of total charges it has grown from 67% and 69% to 74% and 76% respectively. This means that our aid is actually growing more than our total charges, covering a larger percentage of the costs.

Since President Gutmann took office in 2004, we have been steadily increasing our financial aid budget. It has grown 171% during that time, in part due to our generous all-grant policy, but also due to higher need as a result of the recession. Our aid budget has grown at almost twice the annual growth rate for tuition over this time period. 

Graduate and Professional Tuition and Aid

In 2015, the last completed fiscal year, we had 3,154 PhD students across nine different schools. Almost all of our PhD students are fully funded for at least three years, and most for five. Full funding includes tuition, fees, health insurance and a stipend. Some schools pay a higher stipend to cover the student’s purchase of health insurance. For an SAS Humanities PhD student entering in the fall of 2015, the standard five-year funding package is worth over $347,092 in constant FY17 dollars.

PhD tuition and the research master’s tuition will increase at 3.9%, the same rate as undergraduate tuition. Professional tuition is set by the schools based on their specific needs and markets. 

The distribution of PhD students and expense by school and category shows that Arts & Sciences has the largest number of PhD students, and the largest expenditures: over $69 million in FY15.

This concludes my presentation. I would be happy to answer any questions.

For more, see http://www.budget.upenn.edu/Operating_Budget/

An Update on Penn Global & Perry World House

Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives 

I am going to discuss our global initiatives, and Bill will talk about particular aspects of those initiatives relating to the opening of Perry World House in the coming months. The right place to begin is with Commencement 2015, a celebration of Penn’s global engagement with President Gutmann speaking powerfully on the topic. The Commencement speaker, Samantha Power, spoke on the topic as well, and I think in some ways challenged Penn students to engage globally. I want to remind everyone that about a year or two after I came to Penn in 2011, we developed a strategic plan for global engagement, which is based upon three pillars. Pillar 1 is to prepare Penn students for an increasingly globalized world. Pillar 2 is to make Penn more of a global agenda-setter in terms of big policy issues. Pillar 3 is to promote healthy and inspiring lives across various areas where we have particular strengths, including China and East Asia; India and South Asia; Africa; and Latin America. Those have been the guiding principles and pillars that we have focused upon. 

Pillar 1: To drill down a little bit, we have focused a lot on Penn students, both those that go abroad and those international students who come to Penn to study. About 29% of the Class of 2015 will actually get credit for doing academic work abroad. But there are many other ways that Penn students engage globally. Our office sponsors a summer internship program that is not for academic credit, but for learning through service in a variety of ways. We have had nearly 300 applicants and this year we will have about 100 internships. We provide and have launched a pilot program on global seminars where professors teach as part of a regular course on campus and take students overseas to learn. Wharton has had a number of global modular courses. We have more than a dozen majors that focus on global activities. So there are a number of ways and we continue to explore ways to provide opportunities for students both to study and to live abroad and to experience the world in an academic setting and also in many other ways. We bring a number of international students to Penn. In the College, 11-12% of the undergraduate body are citizens of other countries. We have focused a lot of attention on trying to integrate international students who come to Penn in a number of ways, and there is going to be a whole series of new changes especially to our new student orientation to try to integrate international students better. We have developed a forerunner program to educate students coming to Penn from China and India, which provide a very large portion of foreign students here. We are having a welcome dinner, having launched this last year. It was a formal welcome dinner right here on the plaza, and we are going to continue it this year with a number of undergraduate speakers and myself along with another member of the faculty. We have extended the move-in period for international students and we are going to provide a more integrated way for them to get oriented, get bank accounts, cell phones, etc. We have a number of ongoing activities already in place including advisory groups helping me and various members of the administrative structures here at Penn figure out what the needs are of students and how best to respond, as well as how our programs are actually helping. So we continue to work on this and I think that, as you will hear from Bill, we are pretty confident that Perry World House will provide a fulcrum for global activities on campus, especially for students. 

Pillar 2: Penn as a global agenda-setter. It is somewhat difficult to measure this, but one of the things we want to do is to make sure that the tremendous resources here of faculty as well as students actually have a serious and thoughtful input on issues that affect the global community, whether they be global warming, conflict, immigration or other issues. We have a number of centers that focus on this: the Penn Wharton China Center, the Center for the Contemporary Study of China, the Center for the Advanced Study of India, the Center for Global Communication Studies, the UPenn Botswana Program in Africa and the Institute for Urban Research, which does a lot of work on urbanization and issues surrounding that. So you can see we have a lot of faculty that actually do research or teach or lead programs in other countries. These global activities are not a matter of just going to visit, or giving a one-off lecture. They have to be sustained teaching or sustained research programs over time. You can see they really do stretch across the globe, and there are some particular areas where we have high concentrations—in East Asia, South and Central America, etc. One of the goals of Perry World House is to strengthen Penn as a global agenda-setter. President Gutmann mentioned the importance of providing suitable support for students and faculty who go overseas. One of our major initiatives has been to provide integrated and comprehensive risk assessment of travel, to provide support for students, faculty and staff going overseas, and making sure that if any crisis happens overseas (whether it’s a bombing, the Paris attacks or a tsunami in Japan) that we are able to identify our students and faculty there and we are able to assist them in evacuating if that is necessary. We could also provide any number of other services, health related or otherwise. It does require knowing if people are overseas, so we have this Global Activities Registry, which is mandatory for students and faculty. We have to know where you are. If you haven’t actually registered, it is hard for us to track you; it is hard for us to provide all the help we can. We also provide lots of other support in emergencies, but also just going over and getting regular information. As I said, this level of support has dramatically increased over the last four years. 

Finally, through a variety of mechanisms, we are trying to incentivize the engagement of Penn faculty and students in scholarship and service overseas in a variety of ways. We have a Global Engagement Fund and each year we provide grants for faculty to engage in research and to engage in other activities overseas. Usually these are seed money; I like to consider them venture funds. They provide early support, which can blossom into full grants or full-fledged projects by the faculty. We also have funds that support, in particular, our new initiatives in China so that faculty from all the schools—Wharton as well as the 11 other schools—can actually go there and have prolonged engagement with our center in China. These have been enormously successful in seeding new projects around the globe. 

Over the last four years we have been planning and literally constructing Perry World House, both physically constructing it, but more importantly identifying its first inaugural director and the set of programs that will launch the building. We are coming to the end of the physical construction process. Those of you who go over Generational Bridge will see the very new building on the right over 38th Street, and that is going to be what I like to call the fulcrum of all things global on campus. The inaugural director is to my right here: Bill Burke-White. He has devoted an enormous amount of energy over the last 18 months to getting faculty and students engaged into thinking about the kinds of programming involved. Now you will hear from him about the vision for the first few years of Perry World House. 

Bill Burke-White, Director, Perry World House

Thanks Zeke, it is a real pleasure to be here. Particularly, when I used to start talking about Perry World House I would say, “Imagine walking across the Generational Bridge and seeing this beautiful building.” And I can now say, “Walk across the Generational Bridge and you will see this beautiful building.” It is truly a spectacular new structure and we are so lucky to have it on our campus. I have been given the task, not of building the physical building, but making it sing and serve the entire Penn community. What I’m hoping to do today is to share with you our initial plans for how we will do that as we open the doors of the building with a preview late this spring and formally next fall. President Gutmann’s vision for Perry World House is a place that will catalyze, convene and connect—catalyze research and activity on campus, convene important conversation and connect Penn to global policy debates. As we think about the programming that will happen in it, those are really the fundamental goals. 

The first pillar of what Perry World House will be is a kind of international public forum—the space on campus where students and faculty from any of the 12 schools know they can come in order to host an event, to run a conference, and to bring Penn together around international topics. We have already been doing this. Earlier this fall you may remember the German President Joachim Gauck came to campus for a talk. We have had Pussy Riot here. We have had Jeffrey Sachs speaking on global environmental issues. We have had Bill Burns, the Deputy Secretary of State. These kinds of events will continue and accelerate once we have a space to do it. We will do this in partnership with all the student organizations around the table today and with all of Penn’s 12 schools. Some of the special series we will be launching include a “Views From Washington” series bringing Washington policy makers up to Penn. We had the Deputy Trade Representative yesterday, a State Department official next week. We will have “Rapid Response Seminars” where we take events that happen in the world and very quickly do a reaction bringing Penn faculty and using the video conferencing technology available at Perry World House to bring policymakers and others to the table. We are hoping to do many cultural events in conjunction with the cultural student organizations. 

A second pillar of our activities is really built around students. We have been thrilled to work with student groups over the last two years. A couple of the special things we will be doing in this space include the Student Fellows Program, and applications are due tomorrow. The World House Student Fellows Program will be a group of Penn undergraduates (we hope to expand to the graduate level later on), where you will be able to have special access to the activities at Perry World House, including being a research assistant to one of our visiting policymakers; come to the ‘after talk’ that President Gauck hosted after his event (Fellows will get access to that); they will also receive career advice for students who want to have careers in the international policy space. We hope to start with between 20-30 undergraduates across the sophomore-senior years and, over time, expand that program. For students who don’t want to make that big of a commitment, we will have lots of other activities. We will have cultural events and performances. We will work with Penn Global to support international students—whether it’s through a welcome reception, or a graduation event, or a “How do you survive Philadelphia winter? Hot chocolate on the first cold day of the year” event. We will also have events that are open to all students even if you are not one of the 40 who wants to do that program, so we want the building to be open. There is an amazing lounge space there, as well as a policy lab where groups can meet. We really want students to feel that this is a home for international students, internationally interested students and frankly any student walking down Locust Walk who wants to come in. 

The heart of the research side of Perry World House is the Global Innovations Institute. And this really builds on Zeke’s point of making Penn a global agenda-setter. We have chosen, in consultation with faculty and really looking at areas of both policy need and Penn’s strengths, two initial research themes: one of which is around the future of the international order, power, governance and technology. 

What I love about this theme is how deeply interdisciplinary this is—it draws on the drone lab and the computer science labs at our Engineering School. The folks in my school, the Law School, are working on governance issues. But also philosophers and political scientists as we think about, “How do we govern new technologies? How do we build institutions robust enough to confront the challenges we are seeing in Europe today? How do the US and China work together going forward?” All of those questions fall within this topic. 

A second theme is around urbanization, migration and refugee issues. This is enormously timely today, building on the work done in our School of Design around urbanization, the work demographers and sociologists at Penn are doing surrounding migration, also around what is happening in the School of Veterinary Medicine surrounding animal husbandry and urban settings. This is really deeply interdisciplinary, but also important policy challenges where we think that Penn can make a difference. What are we going to do around these themes? How can students and faculty come together? Take a theme like: how can urbanization drive positive political and social development? Around that theme we will bring together different schools from Penn like Design, Arts & Sciences, Wharton and others. 

We will have postdoctoral fellows who are working in an interdisciplinary environment to produce cutting-edge new research. We will have visiting faculty from universities around the world who might be on sabbatical who are able to come and spend some time with us. We will bring global leaders who are working on these issues to Penn to weigh in. We will engage policy stakeholders, whether it’s USAID or the UN. Ultimately we will produce keynote signature reports, white papers and blog posts that really try to engage Penn in the most important policy debates of our time. 

We are really excited looking forward to launching this more formally. The formal launch will start September 19-20 with the grand opening of Perry World House. On September 19, we will have a series of policy and academic panels that relate to each of the two themes I have mentioned but also to other nascent focal areas that may become themes at some point: one around religion and politics, and one around women and human rights. Those panels will be an exciting starting point that evening. We will have a great reception at Perry World House to open the doors. On September 20, we will have a high-level policy forum. We will announce some of the speakers for that in the coming months. I promise it will be very exciting and I am delighted that President Gutmann will help us cut the ribbon that day as we formally open Perry World House. 

That opening is just the beginning of what will be I hope a wonderful year for Penn’s international engagement more generally. We have launched our postdoctoral fellows program. We are excited that the first four people we have made offers to have accepted. They represent three different disciplines in three different countries of national origin. 

We have launched our distinguished visitors in residence program. Policy makers will come and spend time with us at Penn and I have made each of them commit to spending time with Penn faculty and with Penn students. They are very excited about that. I think that we will all find having them on campus invigorates conversations.  

We are continuing to cosponsor events with students and faculty. Once the space is available, I think the biggest co-sponsorship we can do is give you space to host events of an international nature at the heart of campus and help support the events that happen there. We will continue to have thematic workshops of various sorts. 

We had one several weeks ago on global urbanization issues. Those will be open both to Penn faculty and Penn students across a range of issues. We had one last week on How Language is Important in Understanding Sustainable Development. We had linguists from around Penn thinking about what sustainable development means in different linguistic concepts. My point is that these workshops and thematic conferences are supposed to be very inclusive for the Penn community. 

In April 2017, we will have our first big keynote conference. Going forward, we will have one in the fall and one in the spring. This coming fall will be the grand opening. But really Perry World House is supposed to be a place that doesn’t just sit there once the doors are open. We will be a vibrant home for Penn’s international engagement and one where I hope everyone at this table will find some reason to come in the door, to spend some time, grab a coffee, and also to allow us to help you advance your own interests and agendas in the international space. With that, I want to say thank you very much and I look forward to welcoming you at Perry World House in the fall.

For more on Penn Global, see https://global.upenn.edu/

and for more on Perry World House, see https://global.upenn.edu/perryworldhouse

Herman Beavers, associate professor of English and Africana studies and graduate & undergraduate chair of Africana studies, and the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (WPCA)/Paul Robeson House are this year’s recipients of the Netter Center Faculty-Community Partnership Award, a new annual award for outstanding Faculty-Community Partnership projects in West Philadelphia/Philadelphia (Almanac December 8, 2015). The $5,000 award is split evenly between the faculty member and the community partner to develop and advance an existing partnership. 

Dr. Beavers and the WPCA have had an academically based community service (ABCS) course partnership since 2013 through which Penn students and WPCA members discuss the groundbreaking playwright August Wilson’s 20th Century Cycle, a series of ten plays that form an iconic picture of African-American traumas, triumphs and traditions through the decades, told through the lens of Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood. Penn students and select WPCA members then conduct oral history interviews centered on topics related to the play with West Philadelphia residents. Students and WPCA members then use this material along with class readings to create original monologues, which are shared with interviewees and the larger community in a performance-and-discussion gathering. Participants give voice to personal experiences that help students of all generations gain a deeper understanding of Mr. Wilson’s writing and of the multi-faceted community surrounding Penn’s campus.

David F. Dinges, chief of the division of sleep & chronobiology and director of the Unit for Experimental Psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been awarded the 2016 Pioneer Award from the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI). He received the award last month at the 2016 NASA Human Research Program Investigators’ Workshop at Galveston Island, Texas.

Dr. Dinges has conducted studies through peer-review grant funding from NSBRI (via NASA NCC9-58) since NSBRI’s inception in 1997 and has conducted additional grant-funded research for NASA during this period. His recent research for NASA includes studies of sleep, alertness and neurobehavioral responses of astronauts on the International Space Station, people living in isolated, confined, extreme space-analog environments, and laboratory experiments on biomarkers of phenotypic vulnerability to the effects of chronic inadequate sleep. 

Perelman School of Medicine Professor Said Ibrahim has been named an ex officio member of the National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NACMHD) of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). The Advisory Council meets three times a year to review all NIH health equity grants that have received fundable scores and decide which ones to approve for funding.

Dr. Ibrahim, a Leonard Davis Institute (LDI) senior fellow and director of the Veterans Administration Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP), has long focused his research on health equity and disparities, particularly in the area of osteoarthritis care.

US News & World Report has ranked the Hilton Inn at Penn as one of the best Hilton Hotels, a portfolio that features more than 540 hotels and resorts around the world. The Inn at Penn earned the sixth spot on the Best of USA, Caribbean, Mexico and Canada list.

Saif Siddiquee, seventh grader, won the  Scripps Regional Spelling Bee Championship and will advance to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC in May.

Henry McDaniel, seventh grader, won the  school-level National Geographic Bee and will advance to the state competition.

Penn Alexander students won 33 awards at the 2016 George Washington Carver Science Fair. At the secondary fair, first-place winners were Maggie Lapp, seventh grader, for “Musical Mysteries;” and Charlotte Poehlmann, seventh grader, for “Milk Matters.” 

At the elementary fair, first-place winners from the Penn Alexander School were Brady DeGrands, fifth grader, for “Paper Airplane’s Flight Dynamics;” Siobhan Stachelek, sixth grader, for “Got Compost?;” Sarah Leonard, fifth grader, for “Red Wigglers: Are They Your Plant’s Best Friend?;” and Ayush Bennur, fourth grader, for “Saving Apple Slices from the Doom of Browning.”

Ms. Lapp, Ms. Poehlmann and Ms. Stachelek will advance to the Delaware Valley Science Fair, as will Sylvia Cho, eighth grader, and Kevin Giddings, seventh grader.

Sharon L. Kolasinski, professor of clinical medicine at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, was honored with the American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) Distinguished Clinician Scholar Award. The award, presented to one rheumatologist nationally on an annual basis, is a reflection of her outstanding contributions to the advancement of rheumatology over her career.

Dr. Kolasinski earned her undergraduate and Master of Regional Planning degrees at Penn and her MD at New York University School of Medicine. She helps to develop and implement innovations in education and clinical operations, with particular emphasis on multidisciplinary collaboration. She has been involved in regional and national activities to enhance the education of rheumatology trainees. She is the author of numerous articles, reviews and book chapters; a section editor for Current Rheumatology Reviews and a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Rheumatology Research Foundation.

Kiran Musunuru, an associate professor of cardiovascular medicine and genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been honored with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The award, the highest honor bestowed by the US government on outstanding early-career scientists and engineers, recognizes Dr. Musunuru’s outstanding achievements in research on the genetic factors behind heart attack, sudden cardiac death and other cardiovascular disorders. 

Dr. Musunuru, who came to Penn this month from Harvard University, received up to a five-year research grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to support his focus of analyzing the genetics behind cardiovascular and metabolic diseases by using human models—genetically modified human pluripotent stem cells and stem-cell-derived tissues—and “humanized” mouse models to study genetic variations. 

Penn Arts & Sciences has named 20 students from the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Liberal & Professional Studies and the Graduate Division as 2016 Dean’s Scholars. This honor is presented annually to students who exhibit exceptional academic performance and intellectual promise. The 2016 Dean’s Scholars will be formally recognized tomorrow as part of the Levin Family Dean’s Forum (Almanac March 22, 2016).

College of Arts & Sciences

Hannah Bucklin, biochemistry & biophysics

Lucia Calthorpe, health & societies 

Neil Cholli, mathematical economics and political science

Laura Christians, Russian

Jennifer Hebert, biological basis of behavior

Zachery Iton, chemistry & materials science

Nicholas McGreivy, physics

Kate Samuelson, political science

Xeno Washburne, English and gender, sexuality & women’s studies) 

College of Liberal & Professional Studies—Undergraduate Program

John Paul Hagan, psychology

Professional Master’s Programs

Anthony Kacmarsky, organizational dynamics

Graduate Division—Doctoral Programs

Megan Boomer, history of art

Kai-Young Chan, music

Betsie Garner, sociology

Andrea Gazzoni, Romance languages

Karen Kovaka, philosophy

Anusha Krishnan, mathematics

Elaine LaFay, history & sociology of science

Nathaniel Shils, political science

John Tellis, chemistry

Ghent University’s School of Veterinary Medicine in Belgium awarded an honorary doctorate to Virginia Reef, director of Large Animal Cardiology and Diagnostic Ultrasonography at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet), earlier this month.

Dr. Reef is the Mark Whittier and Lila Griswold Allam Professor of Medicine, as well as chief of the Section of Sports Medicine and Imaging at New Bolton Center, Penn Vet’s large-animal hospital in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. A pioneer in the diagnostic use of ultrasound technology, she has contributed significantly to the advancement of equine cardiology and the diagnosis of a wide variety of disorders, including early diagnosis of musculoskeletal injury in the horse, significantly reducing catastrophic athletic-use tendon and ligament injuries.

The University of Pennsylvania 2016 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Symposium on Social Change honored members of the community, Penn faculty, staff and students at the MLK, Jr. Interfaith Program in January. This year’s award recipients are:

Rodin Education Award: In honor of Penn President Emerita Judith Rodin, this award is given to a Penn faculty member, staff member, student or a community resident who demonstrates significant contributions in community service and/or social justice efforts through the advancement of education and educational opportunities in Philadelphia. This year’s recipient is Sheila A. Sydnor, the founding and retiring (at the end of the school year) principal of the Penn Alexander School. Ms. Sydnor’s sense of education and community has served to build collaborative relationships among teachers, administrators, students and parents.

Community: Alexa Grabelle, a high school freshman, is the founder and operator of Bags of Books. To date, she has collected more than 60,000 new and gently used children’s books to distribute to school-age students in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey.

                      Gregory Bucceroni is an advocate for some of the most underserved communities in Philadelphia. He aims to stop violence while working toward racial equality and harmony for children and the citizens of Philadelphia.

Staff: John McCoy works in the emergency department at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He is the leader of West Philadelphia Boy Scout Troop 152. Once his son reached the rank of Eagle Scout (the highest honor), he stayed on as a troop leader. In 2014, Troop 152 produced five Eagle Scouts and drew national attention, as no troop had ever awarded that many black Eagle Scouts at one time.

Student: Michelle Rungamirai Munyikwa is a fourth-year MD-PhD student at Penn. She helped organize “Cut Hypertension,” which offers screenings for hypertension and counseling about nutrition and wellness in a West Philadelphia barbershop on Sunday afternoons. In addition, she volunteers with the Penn Women’s Refugee Clinic to provide medical evaluations for those seeking asylum in the US.

Download the April AT PENN 2016 calendar as a PDF.

On Stage

31    Neverland; Penn Dance Company; 7 p.m.; Iron Gate Theater; $10/Locust Walk, $12/door. Also April 1 & 2, 9 p.m.  (Platt Student Performing Art House). 

Talks

30    Subaltern Speak: Gadadhar Singh’s China ‘Travelogue’ of 1900-1901; Anand Yang, University of Wisconsin; 4:30 p.m.; Class of 1955 Multimedia Conference Room, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library (South Asia Center). 

    Displacement in the Making and Unmaking of the Modern Middle East; Beshara Doumani, Brown; 5:30 p.m.; rm. B21, Stiteler Hall (Middle East Center). 

    Salvatori Lecture: MS Codex 319: Tracing the Footprints of Benedetto Martinozzi; Vanessa DiMaggio, Italian studies; 5:30 p.m.; rm. 627, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library (Center for Italian Studies).

Johnny Clegg—singer, songwriter, dancer, anthropologist, academic and activist. While each of these labels is fitting, none fully describes the passionate man who is one of South Africa’s greatest musical exports. Mr. Clegg’s infectious crossover music is a vibrant blend of Western pop and African Zulu rhythms. This Grammy® nominee and Billboard music award winner’s unforgettable performance will be preceded by a special opening act featuring Mr. Clegg’s son Jesse. For tickets to see The Johnny Clegg Band on April 3 at 7 p.m., visit http://www.annenbergcenter.org/

Pianist/composer Hiromi has a creative energy that expands the boundaries of jazz, classical and pop, electrifying audiences and critics across the globe. Hiromi captivates audiences with works from her latest albums. See Hiromi: The Trio Project on April 1 at 8 p.m.

Cherish the Ladies commemorates the centennial of the Easter Rising, the epic struggle for Irish freedom, through their signature blend of instrumental talent, beautiful vocals and spirited arrangements. They’ll be joined by special guests Dermot Henry, Danny Doyle, Gabriel Donohue, Rory Makem and Máirtín de Cógáin, for this energetic and entertaining performance. 

See Cherish the Ladies & Friends: The Easter Rising of 1916 on April 2 at 8 p.m.; tickets: http://www.annenbergcenter.org/ 

Nowruz is the Persian New Year, which marks the first day of spring and beginning of the year in the Persian calendar. Come celebrate at International House, on March 29 at 7 p.m., by enjoying Middle Eastern delicacies and tea, experiencing Persian music and dance and participating in interactive cultural activities. Learn about the symbolic haft-seen table display and be part of a celebration observed in over 15 countries around the world. 

This event is free but RSVP if you plan to attend: http://ihousephilly.org/ Nowrus Mobarak!

Thinking about purchasing a home?  Well, come to “First Time Homebuyers 101” to get answers to your questions about financing and other important factors individuals should consider when buying a home. This informative workshop is hosted by Penn Home Ownership Services (PHOS) and will be held on Wednesday, April 6 from noon-1 p.m. in the Reunion Auditorium in the John Morgan Building at 3620 Hamilton Walkway. In addition to representatives from PHOS, lending partner Santander will be present to address audience questions.

This session is open to employees from the University and its health system, and lunch will be provided to attendees. Due to the popularity of the event, please visit www.upenn.edu/homeoownership to register in advance. 

Professional and Personal Development

Improve your skills and get ahead in your career by taking advantage of the many development opportunities provided by Human Resources. You can register for programs by visiting knowledgelink.upenn.edu or contacting Learning and Education at (215) 898-3400. 

A.M.A’s Expanding Your Influence: Understanding the Psychology of Persuasion Planning; 4/5-4/6; 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; $75. How can one person get someone to do something with ease, while it’s an uphill battle for someone else? Bringing about the reaction you want from others and expanding your influence require insights that go beyond the actual process of influencing—and into the psychology of what truly prompts us to say yes or no. This course explores these psychological triggers, plus how this knowledge may be used not just for compliance but for mutually desirable outcomes. You’ll uncover persuasion techniques that most people don’t even know exist and learn how to build your influence by applying these principles to any number of business interactions, from managing, mentoring and negotiating to conversations, writing and presentations. In addition, you will learn how to choose the best principle for any given situation and avoid being manipulated by others.

Navigating Your Career by Identifying Your Vital Skills and Development Needs; 4/8; 12:30-1:30 p.m. This session will focus on helping you identify your skills, including those you use most and those you would like to develop further in your career at Penn. HR Learning & Education professional development services will also be discussed.

Cross Cultural Communication; 4/13; 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; $75. Communication goes far beyond the actual words that you say; it’s also how you say those words and the non-verbal messages that you send with them. The receipt and interpretation of that message depends on the other person’s view of the world and his or her beliefs and values. This workshop reaches beyond the surface to explore the similarities and differences among varying cultures. It helps to teach participants to monitor and adapt the more subtle aspects of effective cross-cultural communication.

TED Talk Tuesday: Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders; 4/19; 12:30-1:30 p.m. In this session we will view and discuss Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s TED Talk, “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders.” In her talk, Ms. Sandberg looks at why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions—and offers three powerful pieces of advice to women aiming for the C-suite.

Quality of Worklife Workshops

Dealing with the demands of work and your personal life can be challenging. These free workshops, sponsored by Human Resources and led by experts from Penn’s Employee Assistance Program and Quality of Worklife Department, offer information and support for your personal and professional life challenges. For complete details and to register, visit http://www.hr.upenn.edu/myhr/registration or contact Human Resources at (215) 573-2471 or qowl@hr.upenn.edu

Managing Relationships: Bridging the Generation Gap at Work; 4/5; noon-1 p.m. This seminar will provide strategies for bridging generation gaps. Participants will learn how to build on differences among varying generations, and how to turn the workplace into a more productive environment. Please feel free to bring your lunch.

Guided Meditation—Take a Breath and Relax; 4/12 & 4/29; 12:30-1:30 p.m. Practice mindful breathing that focuses your attention on the present moment with kindness, compassion and awareness. Self-massage and gentle mindful movements that promote relaxation and reduce stress may also be included in the workshop. No experience necessary.

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day; 4/28; various events. Penn understands the importance of providing children with positive, productive experiences in their formative years. That’s why we host the annual Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, a nationally recognized event that encourages and inspires youngsters “to dream without gender limitations and to think imaginatively about their family, work and community lives.”

Each year on the fourth Thursday in April, Penn provides an exciting array of activities on campus for children ages 9-15. For this year’s Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day on Thursday, April 28, registration for Penn’s events is scheduled to begin on April 14. 

Please note: all participants must have supervisory approval and must accompany their young guests to all activities.

Healthy Living Workshops

Get the tools you need to live well year-round. From expert nutrition and weight loss advice to exercise and disease prevention strategies, we can help you kick-start your body and embrace a healthy lifestyle. These free workshops are sponsored by Human Resources. For complete details and to register, visit http://www.hr.upenn.edu/myhr/registration or contact Human Resources at (215) 573-2471 or qowl@hr.upenn.edu

Be in the Know Biometric Screenings; 4/4; 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Start this year’s Be in the Know campaign and sign up for a free and confidential biometric screening, which measures your: 

• Blood pressure

• Blood sugar (glucose)

• Non-fasting cholesterol (total and high 

density lipoproteins)

Biometric screenings are conducted by AREUFIT Health Services, an experienced worksite health promotion company. These screenings should only take 20 minutes. On the spot, you’ll receive your results and learn what they mean from an AREUFIT health educator.

Visit our Be in the Know webpages at http://www.hr.upenn.edu/beintheknow to learn about the full campaign, including complete details regarding this year’s Core Activities (biometric screening and online health assessment) and Bonus Actions. Get started today and earn up to $180* and be entered into various drawings for exciting prizes!

*Note: All Be in the Know incentives are less applicable payroll taxes.

10K-A-Day Wellness Challenge; 4/4-5/15. The StayWell 10K-A-Day Wellness Challenge is part of Penn’s Be in the Know wellness campaign for benefits-eligible faculty and staff. Participants who walk a total of 300,000 steps between April 4 and May 15 will earn 30 Bonus Action points. To learn more about Be in the Know and how you can earn up to $180 in cash incentives, visit http://www.hr.upenn.edu/beintheknow

Chair Yoga; 4/6 & 4/20; noon-1 p.m. Interested in trying yoga but don’t know where to start? Join us for our chair yoga series! You get the same benefits of a regular yoga workout (like increased strength, flexibility and balance) but don’t have to master complex poses. Chair yoga can even better your breathing and teach you how to relax your mind and improve your wellbeing.

Gentle Yoga; 4/13 & 4/27; 11 a.m.-noon. Let your body reward itself with movement! Join us for this Gentle Yoga session and explore the natural movements of the spine with slow and fluid moving bends and soft twists. During this session, you will flow into modified sun salutations that loosen those tightened muscles and joints of the lower back, neck, shoulders and wrists. As an added bonus, you’ll get a workout in the process. Mats and props will be provided.

April Wellness Walk; 4/29; noon-1 p.m. It has been proven that spending more time outside reduces stress, increases energy levels and boosts immunity. Meet the Center for Public Health Initiatives staff at noon in front of College Hall by the Ben Franklin statue as we walk to the Schuylkill Boardwalk and back. The walk will be approximately 2 miles and we will inform you when we have reached the 1-mile mark in the event that you need to exit the walk early. We hope you will be able to join us. Bring your water bottle and don’t forget your sneakers!

We would like to help you achieve these goals by inviting you to join Penn’s 30x30 Challenge. The 30x30 Challenge, which is sponsored by Penn’s Green Campus Partnership, is a month-long event in which participants spend at least 30 minutes outdoors every day for 30 days. The Challenge is open to all Penn staff and faculty, and runs from April 1-30. You can sign up for the challenge at http://bit.ly/217fzoc  

In addition, StayWell’s 10K-A-Day Wellness Challenge launches in early April and this walk is another great way to get your daily steps in. 

—Division of Human Resources

Expanding the Audience for Art in the Nineteenth Century at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts will open to the public on Friday, April 8, at the Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania. The exhibition is the culmination of a synergistic collaboration between professor Michael Leja and students in a curatorial seminar in the department of the history of art, the museum and staff of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Arthur Ross Gallery. This groundbreaking exhibition will remain on view at the Arthur Ross Gallery through July 31, 2016.

Throughout the nineteenth century artists strived to increase the audience for art by incorporating new media, new venues and new voices. As the oldest museum and art school in the country, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) bore witness to such efforts. This exhibition includes nineteenth century prints, photographs, paintings, architectural drawings, institutional ephemera and gift books that reveal its remarkable influence. Works by seminal artists such as Benjamin West, Thomas Eakins, John Sartain, Cecilia Beaux, Maxfield Parrish, Alice Barber Stephens, Henry Ossawa Tanner and Yasuo Kuniyoshi will be included.

The 13 students in Dr. Leja’s seminar researched and selected works of art relevant to the exhibition theme, working collaboratively with Anna Marley, PAFA curator of historical American art, and Hoang Tran, archives coordinator. The exhibition catalogue reflects their scholarship on this important century that defined American art.

Dr. Leja and his curatorial seminar students have worked on all aspects of the exhibition in collaboration with the Arthur Ross Gallery. 

They are:

Haely Chang, MA candidate, history of art, 

    University of Pennsylvania

Anne Cross, PhD candidate, history of art,    University of Delaware

Lee Ann Custer, PhD candidate, history of art, University of Pennsylvania

Tara Giangrande, BA, Swarthmore College

Kirsten Gill, MA candidate, history of art, 

    University of Pennsylvania

Julia Griffith, MS, historic preservation, 

    University of Pennsylvania

Olivia Horn, BA, University of Pennsylvania

Jeffrey Katzin, PhD candidate, history of art, 

    University of Pennsylvania

Ramey Mize, LPS, University of Pennsylvania

Shahzeen Nasim, BA, Haverford College

Andres de los Rios, BA, University of 

    Pennsylvania

Serena Qiu, PhD candidate, history of art, 

    University of Pennsylvania

Jill Vaum, PhD candidate, history of art, 

    University of Pennsylvania

Additional support for the exhibition is provided by the Arthur Ross Exhibition Fund, Mrs. Arthur Ross, Mr. George Gillespie, the Hohns Family ESCAPE Program, the Patron’s Circle of the Arthur Ross Gallery, Campaign for Community at the University of Pennsylvania, Connelly Foundation, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Related Events and Programs

•     Thursday, April 7, 5-7:30 p.m., Arthur Ross Gallery; Opening Reception and Curatorial Discussions.

•     Thursday, April 14, 5:30 p.m., Arthur Ross Gallery, Lecture: Anna O. Marley, PAFA curator of Historical American Art.

•     Thursday, April 21, 5:30 p.m., Arthur Ross Gallery; A Conversation with Hoang Tran, PAFA archives coordinator. Join ARG for a public conversation between Hoang Tran and Haely Chang, Tara Giangrande and Annie Cross, curatorial seminar students. They will discuss their research and ways in which archival materials informed their curatorial decisions.

•    Monday, April 25, noon, Arthur Ross Gallery and Morgan Print Room Printmaking Demonstration. During the nineteenth century new media and imaging technologies emerged, including various forms of printmaking. Kayla Romberger, artist and printmaking instructor at Penn, will lead a printmaking demonstration, and guests will receive unique prints of admission tickets to the exhibition. (This event will require guests to RSVP to rmize@design.upenn.edu and will be capped at 15 people.)

•      Wednesday, May 4, noon, Arthur Ross Gallery, 12@12: Ramey Mize, LPS, and Jeff Katzin, PhD candidate, University of Pennsylvania.

•     Wednesday,  June 1, noon, Arthur Ross Gallery, 12@12: Lee Ann Custer, PhD candidate, University of Pennsylvania.

•     Wednesday, July 6, noon, Arthur Ross Gallery, 12@12: Arthur Ross Gallery staff.

About the Crime Report: Below are all Crimes Against Persons, Property and Crimes Against Society from the campus report for March 14-20, 2016. View prior weeks' reports. —Ed.

This summary is prepared by the Division of Public Safety and includes all criminal incidents reported and made known to the University Police Department between the dates of March 14-20, 2016. The University Police actively patrol from Market Street to Baltimore Avenue and from the Schuylkill River to 43rd Street in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police. In this effort to provide you with a thorough and accurate report on public safety concerns, we hope that your increased awareness will lessen the opportunity for crime. For any concerns or suggestions regarding this report, please call the Division of Public Safety at (215) 898-4482.

03/15/16 8:30 AM 4000 Market St Narcotic Illegal sales of narcotics/2 Arrests
03/15/16 2:51 PM 3400 Spruce St Theft iPhone taken
03/15/16 4:25 PM 3400 Spruce St Theft Unsecured wallet taken
03/15/16 4:35 PM 3400 Civic Center Blvd Assault Complainant assaulted by unknown male
03/15/16 5:20 PM 3600 Market St Theft Cell phone taken
03/15/16 9:24 PM 4001 Walnut St Theft Merchandise taken without payment/Arrest
03/16/16 12:13 PM 3730 Walnut St Theft Unsecured bike taken
03/16/16 1:41 PM 3441A Chestnut St Theft Merchandise taken without payment
03/17/16 8:39 AM 125-129 S 40th St Traffic Female wanted on warrant/Arrest
03/17/16 8:57 AM 125-129 S 40th St Other Offense Male received citation for loitering
03/17/16 12:08 PM 3800 Walnut St Traffic Male wanted on scofflaw/Arrest
03/18/16 8:26 AM 4201 Walnut St Other Offense Male wanted on probation violation/Arrest
03/18/16 11:22 AM 3401 Walnut St Theft Wallet and cell phone taken/Arrest
03/18/16 1:21 PM 3700 Spruce St Fraud Unauthorized charges made on debit card
03/19/16 3:33 AM 3935 Walnut St Vandalism Male damaged glass door/Arrest
03/19/16 1:57 PM 3621 Walnut St Theft Merchandise taken by unknown male
03/19/16 7:13 PM 4200 Walnut St Assault Complainant sprayed with pepper spray/Arrest

18th District Report

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 9 incidents with 2 arrests (4 robberies, 2 aggravated assaults, 2 assaults and 1 rape) were reported between March 14-20, 2016 by the 18th District covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue. 

03/14/16 8:50 PM 44th and Pine Sts Robbery
03/15/16 4:30 PM 4200 Market St Rape
03/15/16 4:36 PM 3400 Civic Center Blvd Aggravated Assault
03/16/16 1:47 AM 1019 S 47th St Robbery
03/16/16 4:11 PM 3000 Market St Assault
03/17/16 3:35 PM 40th and Baltimore Aves Assault
03/17/16 11:28 PM 4700 Upland Way Robbery/Arrest
03/19/16 7:13 PM 42nd and Walnut Sts Aggravated Assault/Arrest
03/20/16 8:10 PM 4619 Woodland Ave Robbery
 

Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus is now available to all full-time faculty and staff at participating Schools and Centers as part of the PennO365 service. Office 365 ProPlus features a full version of Microsoft Office, which includes: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook and more.

Through Office 365 ProPlus, you have access to the following applications and services:

Microsoft Office Online: Log into the Microsoft online portal and access the online version of Microsoft’s productivity suite to create, edit and share documents through your web browser from any location.

Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus for Personal Computers & Mobile Devices: Install the latest version of Office 365 ProPlus on up to 5 personal computers (Mac and PC) and/or mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Android Phone and Tablet, and Windows Phone). This includes Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote for both Mac and PC. For installing Office 365 ProPlus on University-managed and Penn-owned devices and machines, including laptops, please consult with your LSP. To locate your LSP, please see https://www.isc.upenn.edu/get-it-help

Microsoft OneDrive for Business: Receive 1 TB of data storage on OneDrive for Business, Microsoft’s cloud data storage and collaboration solution. You can access OneDrive through your web browser, use installed Office 365 ProPlus apps to save and retrieve files on personal computers and mobile devices, and sync OneDrive to your local file directories.
Faculty and staff can now join Penn students who have already started downloading and using this software on their personal computers and devices. Office 365 ProPlus was made available to all currently enrolled students at Penn last summer via Campus Express. The program benefits all undergraduate and graduate students, as it provides a substantial cost savings while allowing students to stay up-to-date with the latest versions of Microsoft’s productivity applications.

To learn how to get started with Office 365 ProPlus, visit the PennO365: Office 365 ProPlus website at https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/penno365-office-365-proplus