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U.S. News Rankings

In the newly released 2021 U.S. News & World Report ranking of United States universities, Penn was ranked #8. Penn was also ranked #17 in Best Value Schools and #25 (tied with four others) for Most Innovative Schools among national universities.

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has retained its #1 spot as the best undergraduate business program in the country, which it has held for many years. It is also ranked #1 in both finance and real estate;  #2 in management, marketing and production/operations management; #3 in quantitative analysis; #4 in accounting and business analytics; #5 in entrepreneurship, insurance and international business.

Jennifer Wilcox: Presidential Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Energy Policy

caption: Jennifer WilcoxJennifer Wilcox has been named the Presidential Distingished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Energy Policy. As a global society, the use of fossil fuels has resulted in an exponential rise in CO2 concentrations. The best approach would be to avoid such emissions by fully transitioning away from the combustion of hydrocarbons.

But that approach alone is no longer enough, said Dr. Wilcox. Her research focuses on innovative ways to avoid new CO2 emissions from entering the air as well as the removal of old emissions in order to mitigate the accumulating effects of fossil fuels on our planet.

“Although my work involves removing carbon dioxide from air, it doesn’t mean that it’s a silver bullet,” said Dr. Wilcox. “We need a portfolio of solutions. And we need to start treating CO2 as a waste and figure out solutions to deal with it. We also need to recognize that the portfolio is broad and includes both deep decarbonization and direct removal.”

Dr. Wilcox is the first faculty research appointment at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, based at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design at Penn. Her professorial appointment is in the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s department of chemical and biomolecular engineering, where she will advance her work on trace metal and carbon capture, while connecting these efforts to actionable energy policy.

Dr. Wilcox’s fall appointment follows an anonymous $30 million dollar gift to the Kleinman Center in 2019—which was matched by additional resources from the University to support building Penn’s energy policy faculty with hires like Dr. Wilcox.

“Mitigating climate change calls on designers and planners to work more closely with scientists and engineers, and Jennifer Wilcox will be instrumental in that work,” said Frederick Steiner, dean and Paley Professor at Weitzman.

“Jennifer’s arrival demonstrates the extraordinary commitment of the University to invest in energy research here at Penn,” said Mark Alan Hughes, faculty director of the Kleinman Center.

Dr. Wilcox spent a week at Penn last spring as a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center, where she presented a public lecture, recorded a podcast episode, and later published a policy digest on the topic of carbon dioxide removal from the air.

Dr. Wilcox’s lab will be housed in Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. Her focus on carbon management has implications for a variety of applied technologies, including directly removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; capturing it at the source (from power plants and the industrial sector); and sequestering that carbon dioxide to safely re-use it or permanently store it back in the ground. Dr. Wilcox’s current research is funded in part by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the private sector.

“Penn Engineering prides itself on creating innovative, technology-based solutions that are necessary to solve real-world societal problems,” said Vijay Kumar, Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. “Jennifer’s excellent work, both in technology and policy, is central to solving key global energy and environmental challenges.”

“I’m really excited to join the Penn faculty in a joint position that will enable the results of my research to be more broadly impactful through informed policy,” said Dr. Wilcox. “As a chemical engineer, our fundamental training leads us to have an inherent appreciation for complex energy and material balances. By both avoiding carbon and actively removing it from the atmosphere on the scale of gigatons will force us to appreciate and acknowledge these calculations that depend on Earth’s limited resources. In Chemical Engineering and at the Kleinman Center, my goal will be to help in creating the human capital required to meet this gigaton-scale challenge, which will ultimately be required for meeting our climate goals.”

Dr. Wilcox comes to Penn from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she was the James H. Manning Chaired Professor of Chemical Engineering. She has served on a number of committees at the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society. She is the author of the first textbook on carbon capture, published in March 2012.

Having grown up in rural Maine, Dr. Wilcox has a profound appreciation of nature, which permeates her work as she focuses on minimizing negative impacts of humankind on our natural environment.

$3.6 Million NIMH Grant for Firearm Safety Research for Penn Medicine

caption: Rinad BeidasA grant awarded to the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will help improve the implementation of an evidence-based firearm safety program and identify the best approach for deploying this program. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is funding the work with a $3.6 million grant over five years.

“We know that safe gun storage will result in saved lives of young people, and there’s an underused resource which can help provide information on firearm safety—pediatric primary care doctors,” said principal investigator Rinad S. Beidas, associate professor of psychiatry at Penn and director of the Penn Implementation Science Center at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. Dr. Beidas has a personal connection to firearm safety, having lost a family member to suicide by firearm in 2013. “After visiting the pediatrician that same year with my newborn son, I saw a huge opportunity for firearm safety promotion—our doctor asked us about home safety related to car seats and smoke detectors, but not safe firearm storage. Our previous research has shown that both clinicians and parents find firearm safety to be an appropriate topic to discuss in the primary care setting, yet these conversations do not happen routinely.”

This work builds on previously funded research from Dr. Beidas and the Mental Health Research Network—a consortium of 14 research centers affiliated with the nation’s largest integrated health systems—where the team gathered feedback from pediatric clinicians, health system leaders, and firearm-owning parents to understand how to best implement Safety Check, an evidence-based firearm safety program. The program involves brief counseling in the pediatric primary care setting and providing a free cable lock to all parents who would like to take one. This approach has been shown to double the odds of self-reported safe firearm storage among parents, but has not been implemented widely. As part of their previous work, the team adapted Safety Check, now called SAFE Firearm, to enhance implementation as a universal suicide prevention strategy.

The research team will study two different approaches for implementing the SAFE Firearm program in pediatric primary care and also evaluate the effectiveness of the program on parental safe firearm storage. The first approach will nudge clinicians to implement the program using the electronic health record (EHR). The second approach will include the nudge in the EHR plus one year of support for the clinics with implementation barriers—such as clinician comfort with discussing firearm safety and helping clinics integrate this program into their workflow. The team hopes to answer whether the EHR-based nudge is powerful enough to effectively implement the program or if facilitation is needed.

The study will include 151 clinicians in 32 clinics who serve 38,989 youth annually in two large health systems in Michigan and Colorado. Results aim to guide future efforts to promote firearm safety as a universal suicide prevention strategy nationally.

“It is an honor to build on thoughtful, partnered work that we have been driving in collaboration with a range of stakeholders over the past five years. Our work would not be possible without the voices of the various experts we have engaged with, including the firearm community,” Dr. Beidas said. “This funding provides us with an important opportunity to accelerate our research with the Mental Health Research Network in hopes of achieving our shared mission of keeping youth safe.”

Additional Penn co-investigators include Alison Buttenheim, Shari Jager-Hyman, Kristin Linn, Steven Marcus, Dylan Small, and Courtney Wolk.

Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell: $823,000 from State to Battle COVID-19

caption: Henry DaniellPenn Dental Medicine is among the 23 state-wide awardees from the administration of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf to advance coronavirus research. The award to the lab of Henry Daniell, W.D. Miller Professor in the department of basic and translational sciences, is part of $10 million in grant funding through the state’s COVID-19 Vaccines, Treatments and Therapies (CV-VTT) program to support the rapid advancement of vaccines, treatments, and therapies.

“We are thrilled to see this commitment from the state of Pennsylvania in our collective battle against COVID-19,” said Penn Dental Medicine’s Morton Amsterdam Dean Mark S. Wolff. “Dr. Daniell’s research through his unique plant-based platform holds the potential for transformative application.”

Dr. Daniell was awarded just over $823,000 to accelerate the progress of two novel strategies for combating COVID-19, both of which leverage decades of experience with the successful development of plant-based protein therapies to develop targeted oral therapeutics and vaccination strategies.

In the therapeutic realm, Dr. Daniell, who has an appointment in the biochemistry department at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine—in collaboration with Kenneth Margulies of PSOM—is pursuing first-in-human studies of an oral preparation that directly supplements two beneficial proteins—ACE2 and its protein product, angiotensin (1-7)—that are severely depleted in COVID-19 patients. It will assess whether a drug developed for a very different condition—pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)—could reduce lung and heart injuries in coronavirus patients.

Reduced ACE2 expression has been linked to acute respiratory distress, severe lung injury, multi-organ failure and death, especially in older patients. Dr. Daniell’s earlier preclinical studies in PAH animal models showed that orally delivered ACE2 made in plant cells accumulated ten times higher in the lungs than in the blood and safely treated PAH. His proposed clinical studies through this grant award would explore whether oral supplementation of ACE2 and angiotensin (1-7) can help mitigate complications of COVID-19 disease.

“Due to the rapid evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, most therapeutic strategies being explored to mitigate the severe respiratory and extrapulmonary pathology caused by COVID-19 infection involve the repurposing of antiviral therapies that have been developed for other viral infections,” explained Dr. Daniell. “Few are endeavoring to specifically target the pathophysiologic mechanisms invoked by COVID-19 infection, which is what we plan to do.”

In the vaccination realm, Dr. Daniell is developing a plant-based oral vaccination to induce durable mucosal immunity suitable for boosting waning immunity following an injected vaccine.

“Amidst an explosion of vaccine development efforts, virtually all COVID-19 vaccination strategies are employing injectable vaccines that will produce systemic immunity, but will not promote mucosal immunity,” said Dr. Daniell. “Mucosal immunity is required to protect at viral entry ports and to be more durable and effective in patients with compromised immune systems due to advanced age or comorbidities.” For evaluation of his vaccine in Rhesus Macaque monkeys, Dr. Daniell will collaborate with Jay Berzofsky, chief of the Vaccine Branch at the Center for Cancer Research, NIH.

For both the therapeutic and vaccination strategies, Dr. Daniell is pursuing strategic, short-term funding—like the CV-VTT grant—to enable augmented infrastructure and preliminary safety and efficacy data that will position both strategies for further funding from federal and/or commercial entities.

The CV-VTT program was made available to Pennsylvania-based entities that demonstrate both a financial need and a well-defined pathway to the accelerated commercialization of a new vaccine, treatment, or therapy in direct response to COVID-19. Dr. Daniell’s award was the larger of two awards within Penn. 

Funding for the program was appropriated from the Act 2A of 2020, known as the COVID-19 Emergency Supplement to the General Appropriation Act of 2019, to the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH), to be administered through a Notice of Subgrant by the Department of Community and Economic Development’s (DCED) Office of Technology and Innovation.

Climate Week at Penn—September 21-25: Something for Everyone

You’ve heard of climate change. . . but has its meaning really struck home? We are in a climate emergency. How do we know? Take any statement you’ve recently heard:

  • The hottest decade in a century
  • The highest temperature ever in the Arctic
  • The most hurricanes
  • The greatest ice sheet loss
  • The most rapid sea level rise
  • The worst wild fire season
  • The highest level of atmospheric CO2 in 25 million years

And redirect it towards the future:

  • Hot as it is, we are now experiencing the coolest decade of the next century
  • We will see higher temperatures in the Arctic
  • There will be more frequent and more extreme hurricanes
  • Ice sheet loss will accelerate
  • Sea level rise will increase rapidly and irreversibly over the next 300 years
  • This is the mildest wild fire season compared to what’s coming
  • This is the lowest level of CO2 in the foreseeable future

As climate journalist Mary Heglar says, “The climate crisis is not the Great Equalizer. It’s the Great Multiplier.” Everyone is affected, but it multiplies problems and threats unequally, compounding social inequities. In this time of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter, everyone is called on to increase their knowledge of the climate emergency and how to respond. Our actions determine our future, whether in West Philadelphia or the Global South.

No matter where you are in the Penn community, one or more of the 40 Climate Week events will speak to you. Here are just a few examples:

Climate Week at Penn is online and accessible to everyone September 21-25. Choose your events now: www.upenn.edu/climateweek.

—Simon Richter, Class of 1942 Endowed Term Professor
Chair of the Climate Week at Penn Planning Team

From the Provost and the Vice Provost for Faculty: New Initiatives to Support Faculty

We are enormously grateful for your work in sustaining our academic mission this year. As we enter the second week of the semester, we have already heard from many students about how excited and appreciative they are for the engagement of their professors and advisors.

We also know that this is a challenging time, in which we are all navigating uncharted waters. We are therefore advancing three new initiatives to support faculty members. First, we have prepared a Faculty Guide, with extensive guidance for teaching, mentoring, hiring, and promotion during the pandemic, as well as for furthering our shared goals of equity and inclusion. It also includes discussion of resources for managing child and family care and information about our new COVID-19 Childcare Grants and other potential sources of support.

Second, we have established a Research Recovery Program with funding opportunities to mitigate the financial impacts of the pandemic, provide bridge funding between external grants, and support biomedical research on topics related to disparities in health care or carried out by faculty members disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

Third, we are extending the probationary period by one year for all assistant professors and associate professors without tenure in the tenure, clinician-educator, and research tracks, provided your review has not already begun, you are not in your mandatory or terminal year, and you have not already received an extension related to COVID-19. This extension recognizes the multiple implications of this unprecedented year for faculty life, work/life balance, and research productivity. Among other challenges, faculty members may have lost access to labs and field research sites, faced slowdowns in journal and other publication processes, been unable to disseminate research at conferences, and experienced unprecedented family and caregiving responsibilities—all while working to revamp courses for online delivery and devoting considerable time to advising and supporting our students. Faculty may also be undergoing increased stress and anxiety and allocating increased effort and energy to advance social and racial justice in our communities.

The automatic extension is designed to offer maximum flexibility. It does not require you to opt in, yet it can also be waived. It can be used to delay a reappointment review or be applied to a second appointment term, does not count against the total number of permitted extensions or total time in the probationary period, and does not preclude future extensions for reasons outlined in the Faculty Handbook Section II.E.3. We want to reassure you that the extension will carry no negative consequences for your review. Internal and external reviewers will be informed of the University-wide extension policy and its context in the global public health emergency.

Eligible faculty members will receive individualized letters, after which you are advised to work with your chair and/or dean to discuss how best to apply the extension to your individual situation and timeline.

Thank you for all you are doing for our community. We look forward to working together this year, and we will continue to keep you updated as this semester moves forward.

—Wendell Pritchett, Provost
—Laura Perna, Vice Provost for Faculty

From the Provost and the Vice Provost for Research: Penn Research Recovery Program

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the research community valiantly implemented a rapid ramp down of on-campus research, continued much research remotely and, since June 8, has been resuming on-campus research safely and effectively. The resilience of the community has been inspiring. Nevertheless, these circumstances have had a profound impact on research. And it has become clear that the negative impact on research progress, and potentially on career trajectories, is not distributed equally across the community. In addition to highlighting the obvious, that bench research, human-subjects research, and field research are more impacted than is theoretical research, recent studies have quantified the disproportionate impact on some groups, including women, families with young children, underrepresented groups, and pre-tenure faculty. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0921-y) And recent events have emphasized that many in these groups also struggle against systemic racism.

In the face of these challenges, we have been responding to the pressures on our research enterprise. In the last few months, we have:

  • Temporarily suspended the five-year limit on postdoc terms to provide flexibility in the challenging employment environment
  • Opened the upcoming Provost’s Diversity Post Doc program to Penn graduates
  • Underwritten the budget deficit in animal care so that it will not impact research budgets
  • Provided PPE and disinfecting supplies from FRES and EHRS and from the schools
  • Submitted a FEMA application for funds to cover research related emergency expenses
  • Advocated for spending flexibility on federal grants and for federal allocations to fund supplements and COVID-19 related research

As we look forward, many challenges remain. The Research Recovery Program is designed to mitigate some impacts of the pandemic on research at Penn. It will be supported with a combination of funds redirected from current programs, augmented with funds from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. The goals of the Research Recovery Program are to:

  • Mitigate negative pandemic related impacts on research at Penn
  • Prioritize those disproportionately impacted by the pandemic

The Research Recovery Program establishes four new mechanisms to mitigate unexpected costs, exploit new research opportunities, and support bridge projects. This program will emphasize the challenges in populations disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
 

Research Disruption Mitigation Fund (opening September 20)

The Research Disruption Mitigation Fund will make grants up to $40,000 to mitigate the financial impact of research ramp down and resumption. The grants will be awarded for unexpected costs expended during the shut-down or required for ramp-up. Pre-tenure faculty and/or those disproportionately impacted by the pandemic are eligible.
 

Research Transition Fund (opening September 20)

The Research Transition Fund will make grants up to $15,000 to support COVID-19 induced gaps in research experienced in social science and humanities disciplines. Pre-tenure faculty and/or those disproportionately impacted by the pandemic are eligible.
 

Social Inequality in Health Status and Health Care (open now: submit ASAP but no later than September 23)

This program will curate research grant concepts that qualify for the Pennsylvania CURE program. Grants range from $200,000 to $800,000 over four years. Eligible fields are biomedical basic science research and health services research including behavioral research and healthcare delivery. The emphasis for this research opportunity is on:

  • Topics addressing various aspects of disparities in health status
  • General biomedical research carried out by faculty disproportionately impacted by COVID-19
  • Faculty in all disciplines are eligible with the exception of those fields/programs with substantial support already committed from this program

 
Bridge Grants (schedule determined in the schools)

Bridge grants are designed to provide gap funding between external grants when it is expected that the extra support would secure a new grant.  Given the extended disruption in research this spring, it is anticipated that this need will increase compared to previous years. Processes are in place within the schools to manage bridge grant requests. Information should be available from department chairs.

—Wendell Pritchett, Provost
—Dawn Bonnell, Vice Provost for Research

Initiatives to Support Your Academic and Scholarly Pursuits

A Message To Graduate and Professional Students, September 1, 2020

It is our pleasure to welcome you to the start of a new academic year at Penn. While this semester will be unlike any other fall, we look forward to providing you with the very best graduate and professional education and Penn experience. As the year begins, we want to update you on new and ongoing initiatives to support your academic and scholarly pursuits and to provide you with a secure and healthy environment.

The General Fee has been reduced by 10% for the Fall 2020 semester for all graduate and professional students, as you may already know, and PhD and research master’s tuition will remain at 2019-2020 levels for the Fall semester. Professional schools and programs set their own tuition, so we advise you to follow up directly with your program if you have any questions.

We are also giving all PhD and research master’s students an expanded option to take courses pass/fail during the Fall 2020 semester. Research students may take an unlimited number of classes pass/fail, and any courses taken on a pass/fail basis during Spring and Fall 2020 will not count against the total number of courses you may take pass/fail. You must opt in to this expanded pass/fail option by Friday, October 30, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, using  Penn InTouch. Professional students should check with their schools and programs to learn what grading options are being offered.

In addition, we are currently offering three grant programs; all have a September 18 deadline:

Penn is committed to the wellbeing of our students all over the world. Please see our Wellness at Penn resources for information about COVID testing, contact tracing, etc. We require all students to participate in PennOpen Pass, a daily symptom checker. We also expect all students to adhere to public health requirements and follow the Campus Compact. The Student Health Service and Counseling and Psychological Services remain available to students regardless of where you are located. PhD students who have advanced to candidacy may submit a petition to travel if absolutely necessary to support research and academic progress.

We’d also like to remind all students about the Graduate Group Feedback Form for Students. This form is open all the time and can be filled out by any graduate student, anonymously or not, to provide feedback on their graduate experience.

We work closely with the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA) to identify and implement solutions to the most important concerns of graduate and professional students. We appreciate GAPSA’s partnership over the years and would especially like to acknowledge GAPSA’s help in providing support for COVID-related grants to graduate and professional students in the spring and fall of this year. We encourage you to work with GAPSA to share your ideas and suggestions in the year ahead—and to interact with the University’s Graduate Student Center on Locust Walk, as well as the Family Resource Center, which provides resources and support for students with children.

We invite all of our new graduate and professional students to watch a special “Welcome to New Students from the President and Provost,” and we wish all of you a safe, healthy, and academically engaging semester!

—Wendell E. Pritchett, Provost
—Beth A. Winkelstein, Deputy Provost

Health and Safety of Penn Community: COVID-19 Testing

September 11, 2020

The health and safety of our community remain our highest priorities. As we complete the second week of the fall semester, we continue our strong commitment to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread within the Penn community.

This message provides an overview of the tools, including testing, that we have and will use during the fall semester. Our primary tools to minimize person-to-person transmission are:

  • wearing facial coverings
  • staying physically distanced
  • washing our hands
  • completing daily PennOpen Pass symptom checks

Testing also allows us to identify individuals who are positive for SARS-CoV-2 so that they can be isolated in order to prevent the spread.

Preparing the Campus for the Fall Semester

In order to prevent the introduction and spread of COVID-19 as students returned to the West Philadelphia area for the fall semester, the University provided gateway testing for undergraduates and graduate students involved in on-campus activities to screen asymptomatic individuals. This gateway testing began on August 1 and ends on September 12. We are very fortunate that more than 10,000 tests revealed a less than 1% positivity rate. Weekly updates on testing results can be found on our COVID-19 Dashboard.

Our Approach to Testing During the Fall Semester

As we transition from gateway testing, we have identified additional strategies and planned for the following priorities:    

1. Symptomatic Testing
Penn, along with our partners in Penn Medicine, established an ongoing comprehensive program for tracking COVID-19 symptoms among students, faculty, postdocs, and staff who participate in PennOpen Pass. This rapid identification tool, in tandem with the gateway testing, is an effective strategy for minimizing person- to-person spread of disease. Completing daily symptom checks in PennOpen Pass is critical to sustaining the health of our community.

2. Close Contact Testing
PennOpen Pass also allows for the rapid identification of those individuals with potential exposure to the virus and their referral to testing at Houston Hall, based on the timing of the exposure and assessment of the risk of infection.

3. Mitigating the Risk of Transmission Through Ongoing Testing
We know that up to 15%-25% of people with COVID-19 may not display symptoms but are still capable of transmitting the virus. Having reviewed data from outbreaks of COVID-19 on college campuses across the U.S., we will ask segments of the Penn community to be tested on a weekly basis, even in the absence of symptoms. This approach, called surveillance testing, will apply to students, faculty, postdocs, and staff who have a sustained presence on campus in congregate settings, defined as environments in which a number of people reside, meet, or gather in a common shared space, in environments without the use of personal protective equipment (which is used, for example, by health care practitioners in a clinical or laboratory setting). Using this data-driven approach for those with a heightened risk of transmission, we will send invitations to enroll in surveillance testing, beginning on September 14, to:

  • Students, faculty, postdocs, and staff who are present on campus for at least 8 hours every week and whose activities are done in a congregate setting that involves at least 10 people.
  • Students, faculty, postdocs, and staff who share a residential space with three or more individuals with whom they are not related, including those who live in College Houses.

Moving Forward

Technology and access to testing are advancing quickly. While we will continue to use nasal swab testing for the fall semester, we are continuing to explore the feasibility of novel testing options for the spring semester.

In partnership and in health,
Benoit Dubé, MD
Associate Provost and Chief Wellness Officer

Deaths

Charles Bosk, SAS and PSOM

caption: Charles BoskCharles L. (Chuck) Bosk, professor of sociology in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts & Sciences and professor of anesthesiology and critical care at the Perelman School of Medicine who worked at Penn for over 40 years, died August 30 from a sudden heart attack.

Dr. Bosk grew up in Baltimore, earned a BA from Wesleyan University in 1970, and an MA in sociology in 1974 and a PhD in sociology in 1976 from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Bosk’s work focused broadly on the culture of medicine. He published numerous books and articles on how healthcare professionals make sense of experiences in which time-pressured decisions are required in situations filled with un-resolvable uncertainty. He joined Penn in 1976 as an assistant professor in the department of sociology. He was promoted to associate professor in 1981 and became a full professor in 1991. He served as chair of the graduate group in sociology for several years. Dr. Bosk was also a professor in PSOM’s department of medical ethics from 2003 to 2012. In 2012, he became a professor of anesthesiology and critical care in PSOM. He also was a senior fellow at Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and served as a faculty associate for the Center for Bioethics. Dr. Bosk was among the core faculty for the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars’ Program and a steering committee member for the for the Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars Program.

Dr. Bosk received a Provost’s Award for Distinguished PhD Teaching and Mentoring (Almanac September 19, 2006). He served in various capacities for the Faculty Senate. In 2013, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (Almanac October 29, 2013) and he received the Leo G. Reeder Award from the American Sociological Association for distinguished contributions to the field of Medical Sociology (Almanac March 19, 2013). The award announcement recognized him “as one of the leading sociologists of his generation, [who] has produced original, persuasive and enduring theory and research that have changed the way we sociologists think about issues of professionalization, socialization, mistakes at work, and social problems.” He also received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research.

Dr. Bosk was the author of three books, including 1979’s Forgive and Remember: Managing Medical Failure, a classic in the field that he wrote after spending months embedded in the surgical wing of a hospital. In 2018, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for a book project entitled The Price of Perfection: The Cost of Error (Almanac April 17, 2018). At the time of his death he was working on a manuscript, What is a Medical Mistake? Forty Years Wondering, synthesizing his decades of research on the U.S. medical system.

He is survived by his brother, Harry (Dana); wife, Marjorie; children, Emily (Ethan) and Abigail; grandsons Milo and Finn Schoolman; and five nieces and nephews.

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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

From the Office of the Secretary: Agenda For Council Meeting

Agenda for University Council Meeting

Wednesday, September 16, 2020, 4 p.m.
BlueJeans Events

  1. Welcome. (1 minute)
  2. Appointment of a Moderator. (1 minute)
  3. Announcement of appointment of a Parliamentarian. (1 minute)
  4. Approval of the minutes from February 19, 2020. (1 minute)
  5. Follow-up comments or questions on Status Reports. (5 minutes)
  6. Presentation and scheduling of Focus Issues for the academic year. (5 minutes)
  7. Timing and format of Open Forum sessions. (5 minutes)
  8. Disposition of the Open Forum items from February 19, 2020. (10 minutes)
  9. Summary reports by University Council committee chairs. (50 minutes)
  10. Presentation of the Council committee charges for 2020-2021. (10 minutes)
  11. New business. (5 minutes)
  12. Adjournment.

WXPN Policy Board Meeting: September 23

The next meeting of the WXPN Policy Board will take place Wednesday, September 23, 2020. For more information, contact tess@xpn.org.

Policies

Guidance on Recording Classes

September 4, 2020

As we begin the fall semester online, this document provides guidance about some of the challenges raised by teaching in a virtual format and to students across the globe. 

—Ezekiel Emanuel, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives
—Laura Perna, Vice Provost for Faculty
—Beth Winkelstein, Deputy Provost

In order to best accommodate our students, to the greatest extent possible all online course sessions must be available via recording for students who cannot attend unless instructors have legitimate reasons for not recording a session, such as the sensitivities related to course material, in which case instructors must create other ways for students who cannot attend to engage with the course. Instructors must make sure that all students can engage with course materials, even if they cannot participate synchronously. Students who are located in different time zones may need different accommodations than students who have to miss a single session. The Center for Teaching and Learning provides guidance on engaging students asynchronously, as well as resources and guidance on video recording in classes.

This document provides guidance on several issues pertaining to teaching online:

  • Rights in materials created for courses
  • Prohibition on unauthorized copying and sharing of recordings
  • Risks related to accessing certain online content from outside the United States

Instructors who have other concerns about recording their class should contact their program director, department chair or Dean.

Rights in materials created for courses

The University recognizes that instructors have invested considerable time and effort into reworking their on-campus courses for remote delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instructors are understandably interested in knowing what uses the University and others may make of the prerecorded lectures and other materials they have created for online delivery of their courses. Under the University’s Copyright Policy, instructors “own the copyright to works resulting from their research, teaching, and writing,” with the noted exceptions. Consistent with that policy, and with the exception of course, program, and school arrangements that specify a different ownership model, the copyrights in course materials an instructor creates for online delivery without substantial use of University resources are owned by the instructor. Such materials may not be copied or redistributed by the University or by students without the written approval of the instructor who created them. Recordings of synchronous class sessions made in Zoom or other applications are owned by the University, but will not be reused or further distributed by the University without consent of the instructor.

Prohibition on unauthorized copying and sharing of recordings

Per the Faculty Handbook, “the unauthorized copying of copyrighted media by staff, faculty, or students” will not be tolerated. Students are not permitted to share, copy, or distribute recordings of live class sessions or any prerecorded class content without the permission of the University and the instructor. Students may also not make their own recording of class sessions. These actions are violations of the Code of Academic Integrity.

To make visible these expectations, in April 2020, leaders of the four undergraduate schools (College of Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Nursing, and Wharton), Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, Undergraduate Assembly, and the Provost’s Office endorsed a statement of Mutual Commitment to Academic Integrity, Equitable Instruction, Trust, and Respect. This commitment includes the following expectations for students:  

  • “I will respect principles of academic freedom for instructors and classmates and will maintain the privacy of the virtual classroom environment: I will not record, photograph, or share online interactions that involve classmates or any member of the teaching team. I will not enable anyone who is not enrolled in the course to participate in any activity that is associated with the course. Exceptions require the instructor’s written permission.”
  • “I will respect the intellectual property rights of the instructor by not making course materials accessible to anyone who is not enrolled in the course without the instructor’s written permission.”
  • “I will follow the rules set forth by the instructor that concern online, device-enabled, and in-person collaboration, discussion, and sharing.”

Notwithstanding this mutual commitment between instructors and students, instructors should recognize that unauthorized sharing of electronic communication can never be completely prevented.

While copyright notices are automatically inserted when instructors use Panopto to record videos, to ensure that all students are aware of expectations, instructors are advised to add language to their syllabus and/or at the beginning of live class sessions and prerecorded videos. Here is a sample notification:

To facilitate access for all class members, these sessions, including your participation, are being recorded and the recordings will be made available to the class, for the duration of this course. These recordings, as well as previously recorded lectures and other course materials, are made available solely for your personal, educational use and may not be shared, copied or redistributed without the permission of Penn and the instructor. You are also not allowed to record class sessions yourselves. Unauthorized sharing or recording is a violation of the Code of Academic Integrity.

Risks related to accessing certain online content from outside the United States

As we engage in online teaching for Fall 2020, the University hopes and expects that instructors will teach content consistent with what they would teach if the course were in person. Penn does not support censoring or altering course content in ways that are inconsistent with core values. Instructors are reminded of the University policy on academic freedom:

It is the policy of the University of Pennsylvania to maintain and encourage freedom of inquiry, discourse, teaching, research, and publication and to protect any member of the academic staff against influences, from within or without the University [emphasis added], which would restrict him or her in the exercise of these freedoms in his or her area of scholarly interest.

Some countries, regions, and jurisdictions monitor and regulate access to certain online content. Such content may include, but is not limited to, materials that criticize a ruling party or government; contravene policy stances or territorial claims made by a state or government; or are alleged to violate prevailing cultural or moral values, such as material related to LGBTQI+ issues. Countries and jurisdictions that are known to monitor, censor, and/or control access to certain online content include Eritrea, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Iran, China (including Hong Kong), Myanmar, and Cuba.

Students or instructors that access, view, or even assign content deemed to be sensitive from within jurisdictions that regulate such content may face invasive surveillance, political persecution, harassment, and/or the imposition of criminal penalties by jurisdictions where content is deemed to violate local norms, laws and regulations. Compounding this is the challenge of knowing with certainty which topics or content might cross the line in a particular jurisdiction or trigger action by authorities. 

Instructors can face risks if they assign content deemed to be sensitive, especially if they are living outside the United States. These could potentially include state monitoring and online harassment, even remotely while within the United States, and threats to family members living abroad.

While individual instructors must determine the best course of action for their individual courses and situations, instructors whose courses include content that may be deemed to be sensitive should consider warning their students of potential risks. Such advice may include issuing, along with the syllabus, a statement to prospective students to the following:

I attach the syllabus for my course. Because of the current pandemic, some of you may be taking courses while living outside the US. I encourage you to review the syllabus and decide if, in light of your own country’s laws and norms, you are willing and able to take this class and complete all of its requirements.

Instructors teaching material that could be deemed sensitive should also consider avoiding recording during discussions of these issues for the safety of students who may be participating from jurisdictions where such discussions may place them at risk. Instructors may also wish to consider assignments that might present challenges in this regard and should make students aware of plans to teach particular courses in person in future years as an alternative to taking the course remotely from abroad this semester.

Individuals must make their own determinations as to the risk they are willing to assume with respect to accessing sensitive content. No technology can fully protect users against the possibility of state monitoring or interference, nor is it legally advisable to attempt to avoid local laws pertaining to accessing sensitive online materials. However, certain methods of accessing course content, where permitted, can provide greater security against third-party monitoring and interference. These include Virtual Desktop and Virtual Private Network (VPN) tools to access potentially sensitive content. In some jurisdictions the use of VPNs may be illegal.

Laws, regulations, and norms related to online content vary widely across countries and jurisdictions, and in many cases are vague or unclear, making it impossible to issue definitive guidance. Some resources that may be helpful include:

Instructors interested in using privacy tools are encouraged to contact their local School or Center IT partner to learn whether the tools are available and how to utilize this technology. Using the Penn-provided versions of platforms like Zoom, BlueJeans, etc., and using Penn-provided email addresses to register for such platforms, can provide increased protection.

Instructors with other questions about how the content of their courses fits in with global considerations can contact Penn Global at global@upenn.edu. Instructors may also consult their school’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility. Students with questions should contact their academic advisor or degree program director.

Features

Voter Information 2020

As Americans, exercising our right to vote in free and fair elections is an important responsibility and an essential act of civic engagement. In the COVID-19 era, strengthening our democracy with full voter participation demands more effort and careful attention. It means minimizing health risks, coping with inconsistent and confusing voting procedures, and pushing through uncertainty and inconvenience.

The University of Pennsylvania Office of Government and Community Affairs offers the following guidance to our campus community to support and encourage successful participation in the General Election on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Email ogca@pobox.upenn.edu with any questions.

Get Smart: Voting is controlled by the states. Each state makes its own voting and election rules, including how and when to register. Check with your state’s Secretary of State or your local election office to get the most detailed and up-to-date information for where you live. Start here: https://vote.gov.

Be Alert To Changes: Dates, deadlines, forms, formats, locations, laws, methods and machines are all likely to have been recently modified.

Consider The Sources: Identify reliable sources for news and knowledge. Be ready to discern misinformation and disinformation, partisan influences and nonpartisan resources. https://wevote.seventy.org/choose-your-news-wisely

Make A Plan:

Register and Verify Your Registration. In Pennsylvania, go to votespa.com.
Research the best method for you to vote successfully—early voting, in person, by mail, or ballot drop-off .
Respond ahead of deadlines. Account for mail, volume, human error, long lines, and other delays. In Pennsylvania, the last day to register is October 19. The last day to request a mail-in ballot is October 27.

Sign Here: Your signature is an important element of registering and voting successfully. Use a legible and consistent signature on your forms. Remember to sign your mail-in ballot before returning it.

Get Specialty Support:

Military Voter Assistance and overseas citizens: https://www.fvap.gov

Voters with Disabilities: https://www.ndrn.org/voting/

Language Accessibility for voters: https://www.eac.gov/election-officials/language-access

Register to Vote

Register to vote and/or request a mail-in ballot so you can vote safely in the upcoming U.S. election. Visit http://vot-er.org/penn or text VOTE PENN to 34444. Don’t delay; the Pennsylvania voter registration deadline is October 19, 2020! You can also use the link and phone number to register and/or request a mail-in ballot for other states.

caption: Penn Leads the Vote pre-pandemic event, Stand Up and Vote, with students and stand-up comedians.

Connect To Penn Resources:

Penn Leads the Vote (PLTV) provides nonpartisan voter resources for Penn students powered by the Motivote platform at pennvotes.org and https://upenn.motivote.us.

To support PSOM’s healthy and safe voter initiative, go to vot-er.org/penn or text VOTE PENN to 34444.

Join PPSA’s National Constitution Day Voter Preparation Celebration via Zoom on September 17 at noon. Email ogca@pobox.upenn.edu to register.

Sign up for one of OGCA’s Virtual Voter Support Sessions:

  • Thursday, September 17, 4 p.m.
  • Friday, September 18, 10 a.m.
  • Monday, September 21, 1 p.m.
  • Tuesday, September 22, 6 p.m.

Email ogca@pobox.upenn.edu to register.

caption: Penn Leads the Vote is a student activist group that aims to connect members of the Penn community to voting resources, even remotely.

Events

Update: September AT PENN

Fitness and Learning

17    Covid X Climate Rapid Response Workshop: Pandemics, Urban Health and the Global Interior; 2 p.m.; register: https://bit.ly/2DSmz7l (PPEH, Weitzman).

Meetings

24    WPPSA Board Meeting; noon; Rebecca Block, HR, will discuss “Tips and Tools for Working at Home” and Rebecca Huxta, Campus Health, will discuss “What You Need to Know About This Year’s Flu Shot”; info and to RSVP, email Mariel Featherstone at fmariel@upenn.edu (WPPSA).

Readings and Signings

17    Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics; Arlene Dávila, The Latinx Project, and Elizabeth Ferrer, BRIC; noon; virtual meeting; info: https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/events/cargc-arlene-davila (Annenberg School).

Talks

16    Mapping Emotions: Discovering Structure in Mesoscale Electrical Brain Recordings; Kafui Dzirasa, Duke; 4 p.m.; BlueJeans meeting; join: https://bluejeans.com/9789833127 (MINS).
       Immigrant Youth and their Right to Peace and Security; panel discussion; 5 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/immigrantyouthtalk (Penn Alumni, SP2).
17    Explaining Racial and Ethnic Differences in U.S. High Schoolers’ Homework Time; Hyunjoon Park and Allison Dunatchik, sociology; 9 a.m.; Zoom meeting; info: https://tinyurl.com/HShomeworktime (Sociology).
       The Indirect Fiscal Benefits of Low-Skilled Immigration; Mark Colas, University of Oregon; 3:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/events/indirect-fiscal-benefits-low-skilled-immigration (Economics).
21    The Macroeconomy as a Random Forrest; Philippe Goulet Coulombe, economics; 3 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/events/macroeconomy-random-forrest-0 (Economics).
22    Robots and Mechatronic Systems Can Help Us Identify, Assess, and Treat Motor and Cognitive Impairment after Brain Injury; Michelle Johnson, PSOM; 10:30 a.m.; virtual event; info: https://tinyurl.com/robotstalk (MEAM).
       Excellence in Restorative Dentistry Lecture Series; Alessandro Pozzi, SENAC University Center, Sao Paulo; 5 p.m.; BlueJeans meeting; join: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/rwxrpwwr (Dental).
23    Energy Economics & Finance Seminar; Frank Diebold, economics; 4 p.m.; virtual meeting; info: kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/events (Kleinman Center).

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AT PENN Deadlines

The September AT PENN calendar is now online. The deadline for the October AT PENN is today, September 15.

Dena Haden exhibit

Using materials such as kombucha culture and alpaca fiber, artist Dena Haden creates moments in time to honor Mother Nature and the seeds of life that surround us in the exhibition With Whom We Walk This Earth, which opens September 17 at Esther Klein Gallery with a socially distanced 5 p.m. event. The exhibit runs through November 28. For more information, visit https://sciencecenter.org/discover/ekg#/tab/current-exhibit.

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 August 31-September 6, 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 August 31-September 6, 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.

09/01/20

2:38 PM

4105 Spruce St

Package taken from porch

09/02/20

8:03 PM

300 University Ave

Complainant struck by unknown male

09/03/20

8:48 AM

3820 Locust Walk

Fraudulent check received

09/03/20

8:49 AM

100 S 42nd St

Vehicle window broken

09/03/20

1:42 PM

4035 Chancellor St

Package taken from porch

09/03/20

6:10 PM

3702 Spruce St

Fraudulent call received with respect to immigration

09/04/20

11:46 AM

4200 Spruce St

Complainant receiving harassing text messages

09/04/20

4:46 PM

4200 Sansom St

Driver’s window broken

09/04/20

7:10 PM

4258 Chestnut St

Male took packages/Arrest

09/06/20

12:45 AM

4109 Walnut St

Rape by a known acquaintance

09/06/20

6:02 PM

4010 Ludlow St

Unsecured wallet taken

18th District

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 6 crimes against persons (1 aggravated assault, 1 assault, 1 domestic assault, 1 rape and 2 robberies) were reported for August 31-September 6, 2020 by the 18th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue.

09/02/20

10:04 PM

300 University Ave

Assault

09/03/20

5:48 PM

N 40th St & MFL

Domestic Assault

09/03/20

9:19 PM

S 41st St & Chester Ave

Robbery

09/04/20

1:08 AM

S 45th St & Osage St

Robbery

09/04/20

11:43 PM

S 47th St & Kingsessing Ave

Aggravated Assault

09/06/20

12:45 AM

4109 Walnut St

Rape

Bulletins

FactCheck.org Roundup

Leading up to Election Day on Tuesday, November 3, Almanac will run a bi-weekly FactCheck.org roundup. Here are some of the latest stories:

Mnuchin Spins Pre-COVID Path to Debt Reduction (September 10, 2020)  An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office contradicts Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s claim that before COVID-19 hit, the U.S. was experiencing “extraordinary” economic growth that “would pay down the debt over time.”

Trump’s Deceptive Comparison of the Coronavirus to the Flu (September 9, 2020)  Here’s what the president said in public remarks, interviews and tweets from January 22 through March, often likening the novel coronavirus to the flu as a way of downplaying the danger.

Q&A on Coronavirus Vaccines (September 4, 2020) An overview of the vaccine development efforts underway and answer some questions about the testing process, the likelihood and timing of a vaccine in the U.S., and what to expect from a COVID-19 vaccine.

Trump’s Bad Advice for Mail-In Voters (September 4, 2020) Elections officials and voting experts say President Donald Trump gave bad advice when he encouraged mail-in voters to show up at polling places on Election Day and cast an in-person ballot if poll workers can’t confirm that their mail-in ballot was received.

Biden Misleads on Preexisting Conditions (September 1, 2020) Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden claimed President Trump’s effort in court to nullify the Affordable Care Act would “take 100 million people with preexisting conditions and move them in a direction where they can’t get coverage.” They wouldn’t all lose coverage, as the claim suggests, barring highly unlikely circumstances.

CDC Did Not ‘Admit Only 6%’ of Recorded Deaths from COVID-19 (September 1, 2020) The CDC hasn’t drastically reduced the number of deaths attributable to COVID-19, but that bogus claim has been circulating widely—boosted by President Trump.

ReThink Your Footprint Campaign

This year, Penn Sustainability’s ReThink Your Footprint campaign will align with Climate Week and will broadly encourage members of the Penn community to consider their environmental footprints and take action to reduce them.

Engage Through Our Interactive Social Media Campaign. During ReThink, we encourage the Penn community to take action to reduce their environmental footprint and engage with local organizations. Each day of the week, Penn Sustainability will highlight a different footprint (travel, shopping, etc.). Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and look for the posts where we ask you to tag organizations in your area. We will be keeping track of who participates, and one lucky social media participant will win a Penn Sustainability swag basket.

Self-Report Recycling and Donations. Since we cannot hold recycling and donation collection events on campus due to COVID-19, we are asking for students, staff, and faculty to self-report any specialty items that they recycle or donate during the week that are not recyclable via single-stream recycling. Items include clothing, shoes, writing utensils, printer cartridges, electronic waste, light bulbs, batteries, books, and much more. Philadelphia residents can schedule doorstep pick-up of electronics and clothing through Retrievr.

Whatever you donate or recycle, report it using the Qualtrics survey. We will be keeping track of who participates, and one lucky participant will win a Penn Sustainability swag basket.

—Penn Sustainability

Please Share Almanac

This edition of Almanac is digital-only. Please distribute to your colleagues and encourage them to subscribe to receive the E-Almanac by visiting https://almanac.upenn.edu/express-almanac. The email will include links to the newly posted material. 

No issues were printed to distribute across campus because of COVID-19. Almanac is distributed electronically each Tuesday.

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