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Angela Duckworth: Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professorship

Penn President Amy Gutmann, Wharton Dean Geoffrey Garrett and Penn Arts & Sciences Dean Steven J. Fluharty recently announced the establishment of the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professorship at the University of Pennsylvania, generously funded by Nancy Yang (W’92) in honor of her parents. Angela Duckworth will be the inaugural recipient, effective July 2020. The endowed Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professorship supports a dual appointment at the Wharton School and Penn Arts & Sciences’ department of psychology.

caption: Nancy YangA renowned expert on grit and self-control, Dr. Duckworth is a SAS professor of psychology, faculty co-director of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative, and faculty co-director of Wharton People Analytics. Dr. Duckworth joined the Penn faculty in 2006. Dr. Duckworth is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow and Founder and CEO of Character Lab, a non-profit that uses psychological science to help children thrive. Her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance is a #1 New York Times best seller, and her TED talk on the topic has reached nearly 20 million views. She earned a PhD in psychology from Penn, a master’s in neuroscience from Oxford University, and a bachelor’s in neurobiology from Harvard University.

“Angela Duckworth’s scholarship combines innovative thinking and methodologies to examine how people confront challenges and make good decisions,” said President Gutmann. “Nancy Yang’s thoughtful and generous support creating the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professorship will encourage ambitious, interdisciplinary research. Advancing knowledge for the good of the world is a wonderful tribute to Nancy’s parents. We are honored by her generosity and her heartfelt support of this important work at Penn.”

“Professor Angela Duckworth is fundamentally changing the way we think about the science and practice of behavior change, empowering people to grow through evidence-based decision-making,” said Dean Garrett. “I am deeply grateful for Nancy Yang’s commitment to establish this professorship. Her critical support will amplify the power of Professor Duckworth’s work to transform the lives of so many around the world.”

Dean Fluharty, who is also the Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Professor of Psychology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, said, “Angela’s ability to connect public audiences with rigorously researched knowledge is unparalleled. Nancy Yang’s generous gift in support of interdisciplinary work will have an impact on all of us who stand to benefit from Angela’s groundbreaking research.”

caption: Angela DuckworthThis professorship supports faculty who have demonstrated exceptional achievements across disciplines. Ms. Yang’s generous funding will support travel, research and other academic activities by the faculty recipient.

“I am delighted to support Penn’s distinguished faculty. Professor Duckworth is innovating the collaborative scholarship needed to solve pressing challenges, and I look forward to seeing the impact she continues to make at the intersection of business and psychology,” said Ms. Yang.

Ms. Yang is the founder of Asian Charity Services, a Hong Kong NGO dedicated to providing NGO leaders with pro bono consulting and training to grow their organizations. She is an undergraduate alumna of the Wharton School and earned her MBA in marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Among her additional leadership and contributions to the Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania, Ms. Yang is a member of the Wharton Executive Board for Asia and a supporter of the Penn Wharton China Center. She recently responded to the COVID-19 health crisis by donating medical supplies to the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Brigitte Weinsteiger: Associate Vice Provost for Collections and Scholarly Communications at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries

caption: Brigitte WeinsteigerThe University of Pennsylvania Libraries proudly announces the appointment of Brigitte Weinsteiger as associate vice provost for collections and scholarly communications. In this role, Ms. Weinsteiger directs the strategy, advancement and growth of the Penn Libraries’ preeminent collections while promoting academic engagement both on campus and with the Greater Philadelphia community. Ms. Weinsteiger also collaborates both nationally and internationally in the fields of collections and scholarly publishing.

“We are extremely delighted that Brigitte has accepted the inaugural position of the associate vice provost for collections and scholarly communications,” said Constantia Constantinou, H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and Director of Libraries. “Collections are a pillar of our strategic plan, and under Brigitte’s leadership, we will make great strides in our goals to advance information equity and ensure access to the scholarly and cultural record in all forms. Her extensive knowledge of scholarly publishing, coupled with her presence on national committees, brings invaluable experience and expertise.”

In her new role Ms. Weinsteiger oversees the Libraries’ $23 million budget for collections, its 8.5 million print and electronic volumes, and a rich array of digital resources. She leads the Collections and Scholarly Communications division of the Penn Libraries and supervises the collections-related functions of over 30 librarians across the system. Departments under her purview include Collection Strategy; Preservation; Acquisitions, Access, and Licensing; Scholarly Communications; Academic Engagement; and Community Outreach. She is responsible for ensuring that the selection, acquisition, management, and preservation of the Libraries’ collections meet the diverse needs of the Penn community; and for overseeing outreach to faculty and students at Penn, in Philadelphia, and beyond.

“I am tremendously honored to take on this expanded role within the Penn Libraries,” said Ms. Weinsteiger. “The skills and expertise of librarians are more important than ever as we address immediate information needs in response to the COVID-19 crisis. At the same time, we continue to build and provide long-term access to collections that contribute to global scholarship and that fuel Penn’s academic and research enterprise.”

Ms. Weinsteiger has been instrumental in shaping the Penn Libraries’ response to COVID-19. When the University announced in March that classes would go online for the remainder of the semester, the Libraries swiftly invested in additional digital resources and shifted major services online. Between March 12 and April 2, Ms. Weinsteiger led teams of librarians working nearly around the clock to provide virtual support to students and faculty returning from spring break, including licensing 36,000 additional e-books, doubling the number of streaming films offered, and fielding more than twice as many virtual reference contacts as the same period last year.

Ms. Weinsteiger’s prior leadership roles at the Penn Libraries include associate University librarian for collections and assistant University librarian for collections and liaison services. She began her career in libraries, working in archival processing at the Eberly Family Special Collections Library at The Pennsylvania State University. Ms. Weinsteiger then joined the staff of Penn’s Biddle Law Library. Before moving into Penn Libraries’ administration in 2016, she served as a collections analyst and a subject specialist for medieval studies and Germanic languages and literatures. Ms. Weinsteiger holds a master’s degree in liberal arts, focusing in medieval studies, from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in library and information science from Drexel University, and two bachelor’s degrees from The Pennsylvania State University, where she concentrated in medieval studies, the history of art and German literature.

Ms. Weinsteiger continues to contribute as a leader to the scholarly community. She is outgoing Chair of the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation Collections group, a group charged with the development of collaborative collections and web archiving programs. She is on the executive committee of the Northeast Research Libraries (NERL) Consortium Program Council and the collections advisory council of the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI). Ms. Weinsteiger also serves on the advisory boards for a number of prominent publishing and distribution vendors, including most recently her appointment to the advisory boards of Project MUSE and JSTOR.

Ms. Weinsteiger’s collaborations with colleagues at Penn and beyond, and her leadership in collections, are motivated by a commitment to enabling innovative research and scholarly communications, and building, preserving and sharing distinctive cultural heritage collections. “Libraries are central to, even inseparable from, academic research and pedagogy and continue to serve a critical mission to preserve and steward extraordinary research collections,” Ms. Weinsteiger said. “At the same time, they also have an opportunity to advance societal efforts to support diversity, equity and social justice causes through collections and engagement with the community, contributing to our local, national and global good.”

School of Arts & Sciences 2020 Teaching Awards

The School of Arts and Sciences announces the following recipients of SAS 2020 teaching awards:

Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching

Created in 1983, the Ira H. Abrams Award recognizes teaching that is intellectually challenging and exceptionally coherent and honors faculty who embody high standards of integrity and fairness, have a strong commitment to learning, and are open to new ideas. This year’s recipients of SAS’s highest teaching honor are:

caption: Paul GoldinPaul Goldin, professor of East Asian languages and civilizations, is known for his contributions in shaping his department’s undergraduate curriculum and for his skillful and creative approach to engaging students in Introduction to Chinese Civilization. According a faculty colleague, “since his arrival at Penn, the undergraduate education in East Asian Languages and Civilizations has been transformed by his vision and his stellar ability to deliver the gateway course.” Dr. Goldin’s department chair agrees: “I can testify from personal experience how difficult it is to teach 3,000 years and more of Chinese culture in a way that is not ridiculously superficial or forbiddingly dense. That he has done it so successfully for so many years shows how much thought and effort he puts into teaching.”

 

caption: Mark GoulianThe Charles and William L. Day Distinguished Professor in the Natural Sciences in the department of biology, Mark Goulian’s teaching engages students in the complex interdisciplinary areas of his research, which, astonishingly, range from theoretical physics to experimental molecular biology and microbiology. His students admire his energy and enthusiasm, his ability to engage them and explain difficult concepts, and his welcoming manner and approachability. His department chair reflects, “it takes true teaching talent and depth of knowledge to bring it all together and have the students come to an appreciation of the common thread of biological processes rather than seeing biology as a complex collection of a million facts. Clearly, Professor Goulian succeeds at this.”

 

Dennis M. DeTurck Award for Innovation in Teaching

caption: Philip GressmanThis award, which is named after Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor and former College dean Dennis DeTurck, recognizes exceptional creativity and innovation in instruction. The 2020 recipient is Philip Gressman, professor of mathematics. Students and faculty colleagues alike applaud Dr. Gressman for bringing a distinctive and innovative combination of active learning pedagogy (largely of his own design) and inclusive teaching methodologies to the teaching of calculus at Penn. A student in Math 104 called his active learning approach “the springboard for my success in the class.”

 

Dean’s Award for Mentorship of Undergraduate Research

caption: Megan KassabaumThis award, which recognizes faculty members who have excelled in nurturing undergraduate students’ desires and abilities to conduct meaningful research, goes to Megan Kassabaum, assistant professor of anthropology, for “her commitment to carving out a place for mentorship at a big research school like Penn.” One colleague explained: “In the field, she shows the students how to communicate with the professional community and with the interested public, funds their participation in conferences and meetings, and models respectful and ethical behavior to the descendent communities, local professionals and each other.”

 

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by an Assistant Professor

caption: Jennifer Ponce de LeónThis award recognizes a member of the junior faculty who demonstrates unusual promise as an educator. The 2020 recipient is Jennifer Ponce de León, assistant professor of English, who has established Latinx studies on a secure basis in her department, covering the field of Latinx studies across the spectrum of literary and visual culture. Despite—or because of—the high expectations Dr. Ponce de León sets, Penn students find her classes riveting, innovative, and life-altering. An undergraduate writes: “I personally think that everyone who finished the course came out a changed student and thinker.”

 

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Affiliated Faculty

caption: Deborah BurnhamDeborah Burnham, lecturer and associate undergraduate chair of English, and Andi Johnson, senior lecturer of history and sociology of science, are the recipients of this award, which recognizes the contributions to undergraduate education made by the School’s non-standing faculty.

Dr. Burnham’s students and faculty colleagues laud her gifts as an advisor, her “genius” course design, and her use of the classroom as “a vital space of learning and discovery, with a core sense of the wonder of literary expression.” According to the department chair, “[Dr. Burnham’s] courses form the backbone of our offerings in English, and the sheer number of ways in which she has served our undergraduate program is incalculable.”

caption: Andi JohnsonDr. Johnson’s students and faculty colleagues praise her courses for their intellectual rigor, exceptional lucidity and highly interactive nature. A faculty member declares, “she has strong and creative instincts about how undergraduates learn best. She is very pragmatic about engaging students in class discussions, tailoring and grading assignments, and shaping syllabi so that they are interesting and challenging...quite simply, Dr. Johnson is a master teacher.”

 

College of Liberal and Professional Studies Award for Distinguished Teaching in Undergraduate and Post-Baccalaureate Programs

caption: Philip GehrmanPhilip Gehrman, lecturer in psychology in LPS and associate professor of clinical psychology in the Perelman School of Medicine, is the recipient of this award, which recognizes outstanding teaching in LPS’s undergraduate and post-baccalaureate programs. In their letters and course evaluations, Dr. Gehrman’s students show a deep appreciation for the clarity and goals of his classroom instruction. They recognize his genuine concern for student progress, frequently commenting on how “caring, understanding and engaging” he is an instructor, and on his high level of engagement: “He really makes a three-hour long class fly by with his anecdotes...and makes science approachable even for people like me who generally do not do well in science classes.”

College of Liberal and Professional Studies Award for Distinguished Teaching in Professional Graduate Programs

caption: Dana KaminsteinThe recipient of this award, which recognizes teaching excellence in LPS graduate programs, is Dana Kaminstein, lecturer in organizational dynamics. As a stalwart faculty member of the Organizational Dynamics Program since 1997, Dr. Kaminstein has a reputation for being   challenging, yet always encouraging and supportive as an instructor. One student described the impact of his approach: “He offered firm guidance while expecting the very best work. He also valued and required that I consider what I learned about myself in the process.”

 

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Graduate Students

This award recognizes graduate students for teaching that is intellectually rigorous and has a considerable impact on undergraduate students. This year’s awardees are:

  • Todd Baker, Philosophy
  • Micah Del Rosario, English
  • Taylor Dysart, History & Sociology of Science
  • Stephen Hackler, Physics & Astronomy
  • Theodora Naqvi, Classical Studies
  • Gino Pauselli, Political Science
  • Makiki Reuvers, History
  • Mario Sassi, Romance Languages
  • Ellen Urheim, Mathematics
  • Zachary Zimmerman, Chemistry

Anish Kumar: Pennovation Works Managing Director

caption: Anish KumarPennovation Works now has a managing director, Anish Kumar, in a new role designed to manage overall direction and oversight of the 23-acre innovation community adjacent to Penn’s West Philadelphia academic campus. The creation of this position represents the University’s dedication to Pennovation Works, open to entrepreneurs in all disciplines across the Greater Philadelphia area.

Mr. Kumar is charged with implementation of the long-range strategic master plan. Mr. Kumar leads business development of the site, including marketing, communications and leasing. He manages the strategic direction of the Pennovation Center (the community’s business, technology and laboratory incubator) in collaboration with the operating partner, 1776. Mr. Kumar will also work collaboratively with Penn Center for Innovation (PCI), PCIVentures, and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research on company curation and programming. In addition, Mr. Kumar monitors development, design, construction and operations of the property as well as the operation of the JPod @ Philadelphia (Almanac November 6, 2018).

One of Mr. Kumar’s immediate responsibilities is the completion and leasing of the Pennovation Lab Building, a 65,000-square-foot, scientifically advanced, multi-tenant laboratory and office building. As the latest addition to the Pennovation Works community, tenants of the Pennovation Lab will benefit from the amenities and programming already available on the site.  Leasing is ongoing at the Lab, which is anticipated to open in the third quarter of 2020.

“In adding this managing director role to our team at Pennovation, and in particular with bringing on Anish Kumar in this position, Penn can fulfill the promise of this exceptional innovation space that draws talent from the entire greater Philadelphia region, with the full weight of Penn behind it,” explained Ed Datz, executive director of real estate at Penn.

Mr. Kumar has built his career around improving urban life, enabling people to live and work together in the most inclusive and environmentally sustainable ways. Now, as managing director, he will focus on advancing Penn’s growing community of researchers and entrepreneurs at Pennovation Works.

A Penn graduate and long-time Philadelphia resident, Mr. Kumar has multi-faceted expertise in real estate business management, planning and architecture. Prior to joining Penn, Mr. Kumar most recently served as senior director for real estate development at Amtrak. In that role, he led an 18-person team and oversaw all real estate activities in support of Amtrak’s operations nationwide, including planning and portfolio strategy, acquisition disposition and lease transactions, administration of property agreements, development and fit-out of facilities, space management, budgeting and real estate financial operations. Before Amtrak, Mr. Kumar held leadership positions at major planning and architectural firms, including tvsdesign, Hillier and WRT. He has also served as an adjunct professor in Drexel University’s architecture program.

“Pennovation Works adds tremendous value to the two communities that are a significant part of my life, the University of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia, and I am excited for the opportunity to collaborate with members of the Pennovation community to expand the City’s innovation ecosystem and increase Penn’s impact,” said Mr. Kumar.

Penn Vet Launches COVID-19 Canine Scent Detection Study

A pilot training program using scent detection dogs to discriminate between samples from COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative patients is the focus of a new research initiative at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet).

With up to 300 million smell receptors—compared to six million in humans—dogs are uniquely positioned to aid in disease detection. This pioneering study—which will explore the sensitivity and specificity of scent—sets the stage for dogs to be a force multiplier in the mission to detect COVID-19, particularly among asymptomatic patients, or hospital or business environments where testing is most challenging. Preliminary screening of live humans by trained dogs could begin as early as July.

The study is backed in part by the new Penn Vet COVID-19 Research Innovation Fund. The fund, provided with critical start-up support through a generous gift from Vernon and Shirley Hill, will bolster Penn Vet’s rapidly expanding research and response program to fight the novel coronavirus.

Penn Vet will initially begin the study with eight dogs to perform this precise detection work. Over the course of three weeks through a process called odor imprinting, the dogs will be exposed to COVID-19 positive saliva and urine samples in a laboratory setting. Once the dogs learn the odor, the investigators will document that the dogs can discriminate between COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative samples in a laboratory setting, establishing the platform for testing to determine if the dogs can identify COVID-19 infected people. The US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center will be lending their expertise during the study as well.

“Scent detection dogs can accurately detect low concentrations of volatile organic compounds, otherwise known as VOCs, associated with various diseases such as ovarian cancer, bacterial infections and nasal tumors. These VOCs are present in human blood, saliva, urine or breath,” said Cynthia Otto, professor of Working Dog Sciences and Sports Medicine and director of Penn Vet’s Working Dog Center. “The potential impact of these dogs and their capacity to detect COVID-19 could be substantial. This study will harness the dog’s extraordinary ability to support the nation’s COVID-19 surveillance systems, with the goal of reducing community spread.”

Dr. Otto will lead a group of multi-disciplinary researchers from across the University of Pennsylvania. Susan Weiss (Almanac April 7, 2020)  and Ian Frank, both from the Penn Center for Research on Coronavirus and Other Emerging Pathogens and the Perelman School of Medicine, will lead the protocols to collect samples from adult patients being screened at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Audrey Odom John from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia will collect samples from children screened at that facility. Richard Berk from Penn Arts & Sciences, will assist in research study design and analysis of canine performance data.

“Dogs and humans, perfect together as man’s best friend, through Penn Vet in partnership with the Perelman School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, provide a new solution to COVID-19,” said Vernon Hill. “Shirley and I, and Sir Duffield, our beloved Yorkshire Terrier, are again proud to support Penn Vet.”

“This pilot study could not be more emblematic of Penn Vet’s unparalleled contributions to public health,” said Andrew M. Hoffman, Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine. “What we do, and how we do it is relevant now more than ever before. The collaboration between Penn Vet, the School of Medicine, the School of Arts & Sciences, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, are critical to success. I’m grateful for Vernon and Shirley Hill’s longstanding generosity that will allow us to swiftly accelerate our diagnostic, detection and surveillance capabilities to fight COVID-19.”

Penn Vet’s COVID-19 Research Innovation Fund is raising funds to support Penn Vet’s research laboratories that are already tackling problems associated with COVID. Ronald Harty, professor of pathobiology and microbiology, is using his lifetime expertise investigating Ebola, Marburg and Lassa Fever to understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus leaves cells and spreads to other cells. Andrew Vaughan, assistant professor of biomedical sciences, is leveraging his work examining virally-induced lung injury to understand how the SARS-CoV-2 promotes disease, and in collaboration with Montserrat Anguera, associate professor of biomedical sciences, is investigating the factors that contribute to sex bias in the development of more severe COVID disease. Importantly, Penn Vet’s COVID-19 Research Innovation Fund will not only help these projects but will also promote an expansion of the number of Penn Vet scientists focusing on new ways to conquer SARS-CoV2. 

“Penn Vet is a key part of the biomedical community here at the University of Pennsylvania. We are leveraging our unique and collective expertise in pathogen-related research, infectious disease and translational medicine to fight this pandemic,” said Phillip Scott, vice dean for Research and Academic Resources. “Penn Vet’s COVID-19 Research Innovation Fund is affording us the agility to make immediate and significant strides toward solving this public health emergency.”

Deaths

Howard Lesnick, Law

caption: Howard LesnickHoward Lesnick, Jefferson B. Fordham Professor of Law Emeritus who built the foundation for the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s nationally recognized public service program and was part of Penn Law for 50 years, died April 19 after a brief illness. He was 88.

Mr. Lesnick was born in New York City and raised in the Bronx and Bangor, Pennsylvania. He graduated from New York University with a BA in history in 1952. He went on to earn a master’s in American history in 1953 and a law degree in 1958 from Columbia University. He also served in the US Army, 1953-1955.

After law school, he practiced law and clerked for US Supreme Court Justice J.M. Harlan before joining the Penn Law faculty in 1960 as an assistant professor. He became a full professor in 1965. Mr. Lesnick helped establish Penn Law’s original Center on Professionalism, which became a national model for similar programs all over the country, and he served as a participating faculty member 1982-1996. During that time, 1982-1988, he left his full-time position at Penn to become a distinguished professor of law and the founding academic dean at City University of New York Law School. At CUNY, he created new a model of legal education predicated on the service of human needs through law. During this time he also held positions as a member, on the staff, and on the board of directors for the Center for Law and Human Values. 

Mr. Lesnick returned to Penn full time in 1988 to become the Jefferson B. Fordham Professor of Law. He remained in this position until his retirement in 2016, earning emeritus status at that time. As supervising director of Penn Law’s clinic, he expanded its work to encompass the emerging field of prisoners’ rights. 

Mr. Lesnick was a rigorous scholar, publishing on labor law and other subjects. He published five books on moral education, professional responsibility and religious consciousness in the law. But it was his intense advocacy of public service, and the subsequent creation of a mandatory pro bono program (aka the Public Service Program) at Penn Law, for which he is most remembered. He insisted that pro bono work was central to the practice of law. Because of his efforts, law schools now commonly require students to perform pro bono work before graduation. Penn Law established the annual Howard Lesnick Pro Bono Award, presented to an alumnus who has demonstrated a sustained commitment to pro bono or public service work throughout a career in the private sector.

Mr. Lesnick also served as the founding director of the Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship program, which trained the first generation of American legal services attorneys. In 1972, he helped found the Society of American Law Teachers. In 1975, he designed a curriculum for the Bryn Mawr School of Social Work training social service professionals to work with legal systems. Beginning in 1978, he served as an Impartial Umpire under the AFL-CIO Internal Disputes Plan. He also served as a member of the board of directors of the Center for Law and Human Values and Philadelphia Community Legal Services, on the advisory board for the Journal of Law and Religion, and as visiting fellow at the Center for Law and Social Policy. Among other awards, Mr. Lesnick received a Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowship, the Society of American Law Teachers Distinguished Service Award, the Community Legal Services Equal Justice Award, the American Association of Law Schools Deborah Rhode Award for contributions to public service, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School Beacon Award.

“Howard never forgot the true meaning of legal practice,” said Ted Ruger, Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law. “He intuitively understood that lawyers had a professional responsibility to help the less fortunate gain access to justice and made a point of instilling those values into the culture of the Law School.”

Dean Ruger continued, “He had an immeasurable impact on Penn Law. Hundreds and hundreds of students are working in the public interest due to his influence. He brought glory to our institution and everyone who knew him was better for it.”

Mr. Lesnick is survived by his wife, Carolyn Schodt; his children, Alice (Robert Goldberg), Caleb Schodt (Carolyn Ingram) and Abigail (Jonathan Marvinny); brothers, Irving (Sheila) and Alan (Molly); and grandchildren, Lillian Goldberg, Lowell Nottage, June Goldberg and Dylan Schodt.

Penn Law will remember and memorialize Mr. Lesnick in a variety of ways, including with an in-person memorial service in the future; information to come.

Emma Weigley, Nursing

Emma Weigley, adjunct associate professor emerita of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, died April 18 at the Saint Monica Center for Rehabilitation & Healthcare in South Philadelphia from complications due to COVID-19.  She was 87. 

Dr. Weigley was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. She earned a PhD in nutrition from New York University. For decades, she taught nutrition at Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania. She worked at Penn from 1980 until 1986 as a lecturer, with stints as an adjunct associate and adjunct professor. She was part of the ad hoc committee that developed a joint Nursing-SAS minor in nutrition (Almanac November 7, 1995). During her academic career, Dr. Weigley published numerous articles in scholarly journals, and she also authored a well-regarded book-length biography of Sarah Tyson Rorer, who is often considered to be America’s first dietician.

Dr. Weigley is survived by her daughter, Catherine; and son, Jared. A memorial service will be held at a date to be determined.  

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To Report A Death

Almanac appreciates being informed of the deaths of current and former faculty and staff members, students and other members of the University community. Call (215) 898-5274 or email almanac@upenn.edu

However, notices of alumni deaths should be directed to the Alumni Records Office at Suite 300, 2929 Walnut St., (215) 898-8136 or email record@ben.dev.upenn.edu

Governance

Open Meetings of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania: Thursday, May 14, 2020

There will be virtual meetings of the Budget & Finance Committee and the Executive Committee of the Trustees.

Go to https://secretary.upenn.edu/trustees-governance/open-trustee-meeting

Please contact the  Office of the University Secretary at (215) 898-7005 with questions regarding Trustee meetings or your attendance plans.

PPSA Election Meeting May 20 and Nominations Deadline May 13

Nominations are open for positions on the Penn Professional Staff Assembly (PPSA) Executive Board and University Council Committees. All monthly-paid, full-time University staff members are eligible to participate and are encouraged to self-nominate or nominate colleagues for consideration by no later than Wednesday, May 13. For more information and for nomination forms, visit https://ppsa.upenn.edu/2020-call-for-board-and-committee-nominations/

The 2020-2021 election for officers will occur following PPSA’s annual meeting on Wednesday, May 20, at noon. The meeting will be held online. PPSA will be joined by Penn Museum’s Williams Director Julian Siggers and Deputy Director Steve Tinney. To register, visit https://ppsa.upenn.edu/events/ppsa-annual-election-meeting/

Honors

2020 Sachs Program Grants

The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation is awarding upwards of $270,000 in funding to 34 successful applicants this year.

  • Echando Ganas: Aaron Levy, SAS
  • 30 Americans: Aaron Levy, SAS
  • Using Novel Materials for Adaptable Acoustics: Abhinav Ramkumar and William Deo, SAS, SEAS, VIPER
  • Performing Environmental Feminisms: Alice Paul Center for Research on Gender, Sexuality, and Women; Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Program; NAIS; Department of Music, SAS
  • Annenberg Center Remounts Toni Morrison’s Dreaming Emmett with Artist-in-Residence DNAWORKS: Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, SAS
  • The Asian American Experience and the Craft of Writing with Jenny Zhang: Asian American Studies, SAS
  • First-Gen Stories: A Web Series: Bethany Monea, GSE
  • Arts and Well-being: Carol Muller, SAS
  • langa dan ruop: David Chavannes, SAS
  • Politics of Reproduction: Dawn Teele, SAS
  • Philadelphia Student Composers Project: Department of Music, SAS
  • Audible Metropolis: Elizabeth Bynum, SAS
  • Stages of Learning: Emilio Martínez Poppe and Emmanuela Soria Ruiz, Weitzman
  • Gendered Exile: A Narrative of Chinese (Trans)national Adoption: Erin O’Malley, SAS
  • Groundwater: Flannery Cunningham, SAS
  • Robotics Art Residency: GRASP Laboratory and Fine Arts and Design, GRASP at PERCH, SEAS, Weitzman
  • Annual MFA Satellite Show: Graduate Fine Arts, Weitzman
  • Cool Kid Rules (working title): Harold Milton-Gorive, Shalom Obiago and Evan Thomas, SAS, Wharton
  • Incubation Series 2020-2021: Incubation Series, SAS, Weitzman
  • Back and Forth: The Distance In Between (working title): Ivanco Talevski, Weitzman
  • ComicsLab: Jean-Christophe Cloutier, SAS
  • Why College?: Jonathan Zimmerman, SAS
  • The ” Rights of Nature” in Times of Conflict and Transition: Kristina Lyons, SAS
  • dreaming of a beyond: Philadelphia: Levester Williams, Penn Arts and Sciences Online Learning, SAS
  • Living Room: Living Room, SP2, Weitzman
  • #VoteThatJawn: Lorene Cary, Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, SAS
  • Race, Class & Punishment: Marie Gottschalk, SAS
  • Futures II: Mike Crane, Weitzman
  • Taste of the Sanctioned: Ministry of Culture in Exile, SAS, Weitzman
  • Building Ghosts: Molly Lester, PennPraxis, Weitzman
  • Music in Urban Spaces: Molly McGlone, SAS
  • On remembering, ceasing to be: Nathan Courtright, SAS
  • Currents (working title): Office of the Curator, Arthur Ross Gallery
  • Of Horses, Bows, & Fermented Milk: The Turkish Empires In 15 Objects: Oscar Aguirre Mandujano, SAS
  • A Contemporary Queen in the Penn Museum: Penn Museum
  • 2020 Ben Art Bucks Grants: Penn Undergraduate and Graduate Students
  • Q-INE: Q-INE, SAS
  • Machine Readable: Roopa Vasudevan, Annenberg School
  • Iliad and Its Afterlife: Sheila Murnaghan, SAS
  • GENET (working title): Sosena Solomon, Weitzman
  • A Space to Appear, A Space to Tarry: Tamir Williams, SAS
  • European Pantomime and the Films of Charlie Chaplin: Toni Bowers, SAS
  • Bet / Salt Room: Viola Bordon, Weitzman
  • Wolf Humanities Center Year of Choice Presents PHILADANCO: Participatory Workshop, Wolf Humanities Center

Danielle Bassett: AIMBE Fellow

caption: Danielle BassettDanielle Bassett, J. Peter Skirkanich Professor of Bioengineering, has been named an American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) Fellow.

Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering and medicine research, practice or education” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education.”

Dr. Bassett was nominated, reviewed and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows for “significant contributions to the application of neural network theory for understanding both physio and patho-physiological brain function.”

As a result of health concerns, AIMBE’s annual meeting and induction ceremony scheduled for March 29-30, 2020, was cancelled. Under special procedures, Dr. Bassett was remotely inducted along with 156 colleagues who make up the AIMBE College of Fellows Class of 2020.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Carl June: National Academy of Sciences Members

The newest class of US National Academy of Sciences members includes two from the University of Pennsylvania: Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Walter and Leonore Annenberg Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) and Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, and Carl June, Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapy in the Abramson Cancer Center at the Perelman School of Medicine. 

They join 120 members and 26 international members elected by their peers to NAS, recognized for “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.” To date, there are 2,403 US members of NAS and 501 international members.

caption: Kathleen Hall JamiesonIn addition to her roles listed above, Dr. Jamieson is also the program director of the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands. A scholar of political and science communication, she founded APPC in 1993 to educate the public and policymakers about the role of communication in advancing public understanding of political, health, and science issues at the state, local and federal levels. She has authored or co-authored 16 books, including Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President, which won the 2019 R.R. Hawkins Award from the Association of American Publishers. Her paper “Implications of the Demise of ‘Fact’ in Political Discourse” received the American Philosophical Society’s 2016 Henry Allen Moe Prize. The NAS recently awarded Dr. Jamieson its most prestigious award, the Public Welfare Medal (Almanac February 4, 2020). She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Political and Social Science, and International Communication Association and a past president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 

In addition to his roles listed above, Dr. June is also the  director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Penn. He is a pioneer in developing CAR T therapy, which became the nation’s first FDA-approved personalized cellular therapy for cancer in August 2017, and it was approved for additional indications in 2018. Clinical trials of CAR T therapy began at Penn in 2010, and two of the first three patients to receive the therapy, for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, remain in remission. Dr. June also led the first US trial involving CRISPR gene-edited immune cells to treat human cancer patients. 

caption: Carl JuneDr. June has published more than 450 manuscripts and has received numerous prizes and honors, including being named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world and by election to the Institute of Medicine. He has been honored with the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, William B. Coley Award, Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award, Richard V. Smalley Memorial Award from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, Philadelphia Award, the Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence, Novartis Immunology Award for Cancer Cell Therapy Development and Albany Prize. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014. In 2017, he was named a fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy and received the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Features

20 Fun Facts About Penn’s Previous Commencements

As Penn prepares for its first-ever virtual commencement, Almanac takes a look at 20 fun facts and stats from nearly three centuries of Penn commencements.

1. A November 1767 article in the Pennsylvania Chronicle documents one of Penn’s earliest commencements, held before a “numerous and splendid assembly of the inhabitants” of Philadelphia. Eleven men received degrees and early Philadelphia luminary (and honorary degree recipient) David Rittenhouse addressed the graduates.

2. By 1789, Penn’s commencement had moved indoors, to the German Reformed Church on Race Street. A joyful two-day celebration, it included several musical interludes and speeches from local civic leaders.

3. A surviving 1852 program shows that when Penn moved from its original Old City location to its second site, on Ninth Street, the size of the school expanded. That year, 76 men received bachelor of arts, master of arts, doctor of medicine, bachelor of laws, and master of laws degrees. Prominent Philadelphia doctor William Lehman Wells delivered the graduation speech.

4. In 1856, Penn’s junior class satirized the triviality of a classical education in a mock commencement handbill. Among the “festivities”: “Turtle shell band and infant drummer”; “heads of the public institutions on poles”; and speaker C.E. Shackly philosophizing “on the eggs-pea-diency of having no intellect at all!”

5. In 1874, Penn moved to West Philadelphia. Emboldened by its greater presence in the city, Penn began a yearly tradition of holding its commencement at the Academy of Music in Center City Philadelphia, complete with a grand parade down Broad Street and popular athletic competitions, including rowing in the Schuylkill River.

A Penn commencement parade processes down Broad Street in 1901, en route to the ceremony at the Academy of Music. (Photo Courtesy University Archives)

6. In 1881, President James Garfield spoke at a February commencement ceremony and received an honorary doctorate.

7. US President Theodore Roosevelt received an honorary degree  in 1905 and gave the commencement address, the first of four sitting presidents to speak at Penn commencements.

8. In 1902, William Howard Taft, then governor of the Philippines, spoke at Penn and received an honorary degree. In 1909, as president, he returned to speak at that year’s commencement.

9. In September 1939, Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed Penn’s graduates, saying, “the survival and the growth of the University through these two centuries are particularly symbolic of the eternal strength that is inherent in the American concept of the freedom of human thought and action. Here is living proof of the validity and force of single-minded service to the cause of truth.”

10. The most recent sitting US president to deliver a commencement speech was Gerald Ford in May 1975.

Several sitting presidents have delivered commencement speeches at Penn, most recently Gerald Ford in 1975. (Photo Courtesy University Archives)

11. During World War I, Penn began holding its Commencement on campus. At first, the administration chose the Quadrangle courtyard, and in the 1920s, a couple ceremonies were held in Weightman Gymnasium. After the Palestra opened in 1927, commencement moved there. However, in 1932, the ceremony moved again, this time to the larger Philadelphia Convention Hall, located adjacent to campus. Aside from the odd ceremonies at Irvine Auditorium (1944-1945) and the Quad (1948, 1953), commencement occurred at Convention Hall every year until 1986, when it moved to Franklin Field, its current home.

Though Penn's commencement took place at Philadelphia's Convention Hall for much of the 20th century, in 1948 it was held on campus, in the Lower Quadrangle. (Photo Courtesy University Archives)

Though Penn's commencement took place at Philadelphia's Convention Hall for much of the 20th century, in 1948 it was held on campus, in the Lower Quadrangle. (Photo Courtesy University Archives)

The 1959 Penn commencement ceremony in Convention Hall, its location (with a few exceptions) from 1932 to 1985. In 2006-2007, Convention Hall was demolished. (Photo Courtesy University Archives)

12. In June of 1947, famous anthropologist Margaret Mead delivered the commencement address. Later, she took on a significant cultural role as one of the leading proponents of women’s rights.

13. Before 1954, separate commencements were held for students graduating after summer, fall and spring terms. That year, these separate events were first condensed into a single ceremony.

14. Among the well-known politicians who have spoken at Penn commencements over the years are UN representative Henry Cabot Lodge (1956), Pennsylvania governors William Scranton (1964) and Raymond Schafer (1967), senator Hubert Humphrey (1977), former president Jimmy Carter (1998) (Almanac May 19/26 1998), senator John McCain (2001) (Almanac May 29, 2001), NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg (2008) (Almanac May 27, 2008) and vice-president Joe Biden (2013) (Almanac May 21, 2013).

15. Penn had two consecutive First Ladies as commencement speakers, three years apart: Barbara Bush in 1990 (Almanac April 24, 1990) and Hillary Clinton in 1993 (Almanac July 12, 2016).

16. Four Nobel laureates have spoken at Penn commencements over the years: Michael Brown (1986; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1985); Seamus Heaney (2000; Nobel Prize in Literature, 1995) (Almanac May 30, 2000); Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2003; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984) (Almanac May 27, 2003); and Kofi Annan (2005; Nobel Peace Prize, 2001) (Almanac May 24, 2005).

17. Before the 1970s, the Penn administration favored political and bureaucratic speakers. However, since then, many notable names in the arts have spoken at Penn commencements. These include Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau (1979), Philadelphia orchestra conductor Riccardo Muti (1987) (Almanac April 21, 1987), U2 singer Bono (2004) (Almanac Between Issues May 19, 2004), actor Denzel Washington (2011) (Almanac May 24, 2011), singer and 1999 Penn graduate John Legend (2014) (Almanac May 19, 2014) Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda (2016) (Almanac May 24, 2016), and singer Jon Bon Jovi (2019) (Almanac May 28, 2019).

U2 singer Bono speaks at Penn's 2004 commencement. (Photo Courtesy University Archives)

18. Penn has awarded one honorary degree in absentia. In 1984, Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov could not attend Penn’s commencement due to a state-enforced exile for participating in anti-Soviet protests. At Penn’s ceremony, his absence was symbolized by an empty chair.

19. Penn has rescinded four honorary degrees: German Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm and German US ambassador Heinrich von Bernstoff, both in 1918, and entertainer Bill Cosby and former trustee Steve Wynn. The revocation of the latter two degrees was a response to student activism.

20. Penn’s 2003 commencement was the first to be simultaneously live-streamed, courtesy of the Penn Video Network (PVN) service. Though technology has advanced since, live broadcast technology will be used this year to stream Penn’s first-ever all-virtual commencement ceremony.

Events

Penn’s 2020 Virtual Commencement: May 18

Plan to join Penn on Monday, May 18 at 11 a.m. for the University-wide celebration. 

This special tribute to the graduating class will include remarks from the President, Provost and other special guests, student performances, and the conferral of degrees. For more information, visit Penn’s commencement site: commencement.upenn.edu,  and links (below) to individual School ceremony information. 

School Online Ceremonies

Annenberg School

Undergraduate

     Sunday, May 17, 11 a.m.

     www.asc.upenn.edu/undergraduate-graduation-ceremony

     Speaker: Filmmaker Katie Koeblitz (C’09)

School of Arts & Sciences

College of Arts & Sciences

     Sunday, May 17, 7 p.m.

     www.college.upenn.edu/graduation-ceremony

     Speakers: Emily Wilson, classical studies, and Lucy Hu (C’20), political science

College of Liberal & Professional Studies

     Sunday, May 17, 4 p.m.

     www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/students/current/graduation

     Speaker: Al Filreis, English

Graduate Division, School of Arts & Sciences

     Monday, May 18, 1 p.m.

     www.sas.upenn.edu/graduate-division/graduation/2020-graduation

     Speaker: Bhuvnesh Jain, natural sciences

School of Dental Medicine

     Monday, May 18, 2 p.m.

     www.dental.upenn.edu/about-us/commencement/

     Speaker: Steven Perlman, Boston University

Stuart Weitzman School of Design

     Saturday, May 16, 6:30 p.m.

     www.design.upenn.edu/events-exhibitions-0/events/weitzman-commencement-webcast

     Speakers: James Corner (MLA ’86) and Kellie Jones, Columbia University

Graduate School of Education

     Monday, May 18, 9 a.m.

     https://onepenn.gse.upenn.edu/student-services/commencement

School of Engineering & Applied Science

Doctoral

     Thursday, May 14, 10 a.m.

     https://events.seas.upenn.edu/commencement/

Undergraduate & Master’s

     Friday, May 15, 10 a.m.

     https://events.seas.upenn.edu/commencement/

Penn Law School

     Monday, May 18, 3 p.m.

     www.law.upenn.edu/newsevents/calendar.php#!event_id/61542/view/event

Perelman School of Medicine

MD Program

     Sunday, May 17, 9 a.m.

     www.med.upenn.edu/student/graduation-details.html

     Speaker: Katrina Armstrong, Harvard

Masters Programs

     Contact individual programs for details

Biomedical Graduate Studies

     Monday, May 18, 1:30 p.m.

     www.med.upenn.edu/bgs/bgs-virtual-graduation-2020.html

School of Nursing

     Monday, May 18, 3 p.m.

     www.nursing.upenn.edu/virtualcommencement

     Speaker: Suzanne Miyamoto, American Academy of Nursing

Social Policy & Practice

     Saturday, May 16, 6:30 p.m.

www.sp2.upenn.edu/student-life/services-support/commencement/

School of Veterinary Medicine

     Monday, May 18, 2:30 p.m.

     www.vet.upenn.edu/about/penn-vet-events-calendar/commencement-2020

     Speaker: Elizabeth B. Strand, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Wharton School 

Undergraduate, MBA, WEMBA and Doctoral

     Sunday, May 17, 1 p.m.

     https://graduation.wharton.upenn.edu/

Update: May AT PENN

Meetings

20   WXPN Policy Board Meeting; noon; open session; for more information, please contact tess@xpn.org (WXPN).

Talks

13   Response to the COVID-19 Crisis; panel discussion with Penn leadership; 1 p.m.; virtual event; register: https://tinyurl.com/COVID19CrisisPenn (PennAlumni).

--

AT PENN Deadlines 

Today is the deadline for the Summer AT PENN and the deadline to submit your virtual events to be featured in the next May AT Penn Update.

Crimes

Weekly Crime Reports

University of Pennsylvania Police Department Crime Report

Below are the Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Society and Crimes Against Property from the campus report for April 27-May 3, 2020. 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 for the dates of April 27-May 3, 2020. The University Police actively patrol from Market St to Baltimore and from the Schuylkill River to 43rd St 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.

04/28/20

12:17 PM

4055 Spruce St

Package not received

04/28/20

11:12 PM

4000 Walnut St

Vehicle stolen and found before theft reported

04/29/20

5:00 PM

3615 Civic Center Blvd

Secured bike taken from bike rack

04/29/20

5:14 PM

3409 Walnut St

Merchandise taken without payment

04/29/20

5:47 PM

4001 Walnut St

Blanket taken from vehicle

04/29/20

7:09 PM

3620 Hamilton Walk

Secured bike taken

04/29/20

7:19 PM

3910 Irving St

Secured bike taken

04/30/20

1:45 PM

3925 Walnut St

Male wanted for probation violation/Arrest

04/30/20

3:36 PM

699 Hollenback Dr

Catalytic converter taken from vehicle

04/30/20

8:03 PM

231 S 34th St

Secured bike taken

05/01/20

7:47 AM

231 S 34th St

Secured bike taken

05/01/20

4:57 PM

4037 Pine St

Unknown offender inside residence fled upon confrontation

05/01/20

6:45 PM

211 S 42nd St

Unsecured computer taken from room

05/02/20

6:37 PM

51 N 39th St

Bike stolen from rack

05/03/20

4:32 AM

4018 Market St

Strong-arm robbery of cell phone inside residence

05/03/20

9:26 PM

4000 Spruce St

Complainant assaulted by unknown offender

 

18th District

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 3 incidents (1 assault, 1 aggravated assault and 1 robbery) were reported for April 27-May 3, 2020 by the 18th District covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue.

05/02/20

9:06 PM

4403 Sansom St

Assault

05/03/20

4:22 AM

4018 Market St

Robbery

05/03/20

9:52 PM

4000 Spruce St

Aggravated Assault

Bulletins

Benefits Open Enrollment: Ending on Friday, May 15

Penn Benefits Open Enrollment will end this Friday. Don’t miss your opportunity to make changes to your medical, dental, vision, prescription and life insurance benefits for the 2020-2021 plan year.

For full details about this year’s Open Enrollment and benefits changes, visit www.hr.upenn.edu/openenrollment There, you can access the Benefits 2020-2021 Open Enrollment Guide, 2020-2021 rates and plan summaries. You can also watch the What’s Changing video (Text PENN864 to 61759 to view on your smartphone) for more information.

We urge you to review your benefit choices each year. If you are satisfied with your selections, you don’t need to make a change, and you will receive the same coverage you had last year. After May 15 you will only be able to make a change if you experience a qualifying life event.

You can enroll or update your current elections in Workday. Visit www.workday.upenn.edu and log in using your PennKey and password. You can access step-by-step instructions for enrolling in Workday using the Self Service: Open Enrollment Elections tip sheet and the Self Service: Open Enrollment video.

If you prefer to enroll by phone, call the Benefits Solution Center at 1-866-799-2329, Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Changes made during Open Enrollment will be effective as of July 1, 2020. For more information, call the Benefits Solution Center or contact Human Resources at benefits@hr.upenn.edu

—Division of Human Resources

Correction

caption: Vincent PriceIn last week’s issue, the list of new members of the Academy of Arts & Sciences was missing one Penn person. In addition to the four faculty members listed in the May 5 issue, Vincent Price should have been among them, as he too was recently elected. He is the president of Duke University and and Walter Hines Page Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, Professor Emeritus of Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication, and Provost Emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania (Almanac December 6, 2016). Dr. Price served as Penn’s provost from 2009 to 2017.

One Step Ahead: Use Zoom More Securely

Another tip in a series provided by the Offices of Information Systems & Computing and Audit, Compliance & Privacy

During the COVID-19 crisis, the Zoom video conferencing platform became the application of choice for meetings and teaching for several University Schools and Centers due to its ease of use and availability on multiple platforms. However, the sudden growth in Zoom traffic exposed security and privacy vulnerabilities which have the potential to be exploited. One problem is “Zoombombing,” when uninvited attendees can join and disrupt meetings.Though Zoom has been actively working to mitigate and fix these vulnerabilities with updates to the application and usage recommendations, you should also take steps to protect the privacy and security of your meetings:

  • Use randomly generated meeting IDs,* rather than the personal meeting ID uniquely associated with your individual Zoom account, for public meetings. This helps to ensure only invited attendees will know the meeting ID.
  • Require a password to join.* Enabling the option “Require a password when scheduling new meetings” and “Require a password for instant meetings” allows only attendees with the meeting password to join the meeting. Avoid sharing the meeting password in a public forum.
  • Manage participants.
    1. Use waiting rooms.* The host can screen everyone entering the meeting in the waiting rooms to restrict only those invited to enter the meeting.
    2. Disable “Allow Removed Participants to Rejoin”* so that removed individuals can’t rejoin.
    3. Lock your meeting. After attendees join the meeting, lock your meeting from the security menu to prevent unwanted attendees from joining.
  • Set screen sharing to “Host only” and disable “File Transfer”.  File transfer is disabled by default. Unless you need the feature, leave it disabled to avoid participants passing viruses or other malicious content to others.
  • Keep the Zoom application and your computing device up-to-date with the latest security patches.

*This is the current default setting in Zoom for newly scheduled meetings.

For additional security and how-to tips, visit https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/news/zoombombing or https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/privacy-using-zoom

For additional tips, see the One Step Ahead link on the Information Security website: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/news-alerts#One-Step-Ahead

Please Share Almanac

This edition of Almanac, like the last several weeks’ issues, is digital-only. Please distribute to your colleagues and encourage them to subscribe to receive the E-Almanac. No issues were printed to distribute across campus because of COVID-19. Almanac is distributed electronically each Tuesday.

Sign Up for Express Almanac

Express Almanac (E-Almanac) is a weekly email that notifies you when there is a new issue of Almanac. The email will include links to the newly posted material.

Subscribe now to the Express Almanac mailing list; visit https://almanac.upenn.edu/express-almanac

Almanac Publication Schedule

In response to COVID-19, Almanac has extended Volume 66 in order to provide the Penn community with the latest University information. There will now be an issue published next week, on Tuesday, May 19, as well as issues throughout the month of June.

For the revised publication schedule and corresponding deadlines, visit https://almanac.upenn.edu/publication-schedule-deadlines

PA voter registration deadline is May 18th

On Tuesday, June 2nd, Pennsylvania is scheduled to hold its primary election. The voter registration deadline for the primary election in Pennsylvania is May 18th. To learn more about voter registration and confirming your registration in Pennsylvania, visit https://www.votespa.com/Register-to-Vote/Pages/How-to-Register-to-Vote.aspx

There are many important down-ballot races, in addition to the national campaigns, that directly impact the entire Penn community and the broader Philadelphia community. Make sure you are informed and prepared before Election Day by visiting VotesPA, the PA Department of State’s voter-resource website. If you plan to vote in another state or territory, you should visit your local election website. 

Once you are registered, make sure the Philadelphia County Board of Elections receives your mail-in ballot application before 5pm EST on May 26th, 2020. Your completed mail-in ballot must be received by Philadelphia before polls close at 8pm EST on Election Day, Tuesday, June 2nd. To learn more about voting by mail in Pennsylvania, visit https://www.votespa.com/Voting-in-PA/Pages/Mail-and-Absentee-Ballot.aspx

In addition, the student-led Penn Leads The Vote (PLTV) has developed numerous tools and resources on voting guidance for PA voters, in coordination with guidelines from the PA Department of State, and for voters across the country. Click here to access PLTV’s voting resource folder, and visit pennvotes.org to learn more about registrationvoter educationmail-in votingin-person voting, and how COVID-19 is impacting elections across the country. For additional help, you are welcome to email pennvotes@upenn.edu

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