October 20, 2020 Volume 67 Issue 15

At the 2020 Silfen Forum, hosted by President Amy Gutmann, students, faculty, staff, and alumni tuned in to hear from a group of distinguished experts—Ashley Parker, Julián Castro, Donna Brazile, Peggy Noonan, and Jeb Bush, with Michael Delli Carpini of the Paideia Program serving as the event’s moderator. This year’s Forum was co-sponsored by Penn’s SNF Paideia Program.

“Our politics is a mirror of our culture,” said former Florida Governor Jeb Bush last Tuesday, during Penn’s 11th David and Lyn Silfen University Forum, which had a theme this year of “Civil Discourse in Uncivil Times.”

Governor Bush, who has also served as a Presidential Practice Professor at Penn, was joined on Zoom by Donna Brazile, a political strategist, author, and Fox News contributor; Julián Castro, the 16th U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and former mayor of San Antonio, Texas; Peggy Noonan, an author, The Wall Street Journal columnist, NBC News and ABC News contributor, and a 2018 Penn honorary degree recipient (Almanac February 6, 2018); and Ashley Parker, a Pulitzer-prize winning White House reporter for The Washington Post, senior political analyst for MSNBC, and a Penn alumna (C’05).

“The best way to preach civility is to practice it,” said Ms. Brazile.

“Read conservative publications and liberal publications, watch Fox News and MSNBC. Then you can make your own decisions, but you’ll be best informed,” said Ms. Parker.

The hour-and-a-half long event, which brought together what President Gutmann called a “blue-ribbon panel” of experts, was originally slated for this past spring, but was moved to this semester and to a live, online format due to COVID-19. More than 1,000 people tuned into the event. It can be viewed at https://silfenforum.upenn.edu/webcast

In the midst of a historic presidential election, a worldwide pandemic, and the largest mass movement for racial justice in generations, the conversation, which encouraged listeners to reach across divides, came at a pivotal time.

“With 20 days to go before a presidential election, political scientists are documenting hyper-partisan divides, demonization of political opponents, and rampant misinformation gone viral over social media, even about basic matters of life and death,” said President Gutmann, as she opened the Forum. “But these phenomena are not new to 2020. It’s well documented that we tend to listen to like-minded media, we tend to shut out facts that challenge our own beliefs. … It takes hard work to counter these tendencies.”

President Gutmann, who closed out the Forum by summing up its key components, explained how the panelists had “laid out the stakes” and how “it’s up to us to take their advice to heart, to mind, and to action.

“This is an opportunity to keep the conversation going,” she said.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant, entitled Beyond the Pedestal: Tracing and Transforming America’s Monuments, will support the production of a definitive audit of the nation’s monuments; the opening of ten Monument Lab field research offices through $1 million of subgrants in 2021; and capacity for Monument Lab to hire its first full-time staff and develop significant art and justice initiatives.

The grant is the first from a new $250 million “Monuments Project” from the Mellon Foundation created “to transform the way our country’s histories are told in public spaces.”

“We are proud to launch our new Monuments Project with our first partner, Monument Lab, and to support their work to more deeply learn and vibrantly reimagine our public spaces to better reflect the rich multiplicity of American stories,” said Elizabeth Alexander, president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. “Through Beyond the Pedestal, Monument Lab will generate critical, comprehensive research to understand the commemorative landscape as it is, and to seed what it could become. We are energized about the transformative possibility of their work.”

“Over the last decade, we have worked around the country with artists, educators, and public institutions who have been transforming the monument landscape,” said Paul Farber, director of Monument Lab. “Thanks to this grant and meaningful relationship with the Mellon Foundation, we will expand our work making generational change in the ways art and history live in public.” Monument Lab was founded by Dr. Farber and Ken Lum.

The first project supported by the grant is the National Monument Audit, which will assess the current monument landscape across the United States. The National Monument Audit draws on existing data on monuments from national, state, municipal, and publicly created sources. The Audit will contextualize the monuments within specific geographies and communities and create a concurrent dataset of reported protest activities tied to monuments.

The National Monument Audit will lead into a larger 2021 initiative that will subgrant a total of $1 million to create ten new Monument Lab field offices that will re-imagine monuments in cities, regions, and communities across the country.

Related: New Penn Initiative to Preserve African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites

For the health and safety of the community, the University of Pennsylvania is committed to maintaining a drug-free workplace. Drug and alcohol abuse endangers individual users, as well as their family, friends, and coworkers. The use of any substance that impairs your workplace judgement or abilities puts you, your colleagues, and Penn students at risk—especially in a pandemic environment.

Please take the time to review the University’s drug and alcohol policies.

Penn’s Drug and Alcohol Policies

Penn prohibits the unlawful manufacture, distribution, dispensation, sale, possession or use of any drug by its employees in its workplace. Complete policy details are available online:

• Drug-Free Workplace Policy
• Penn’s Alcohol and Other Drug Policy

Understanding Addiction

Addiction is a serious disease, but many effective treatments are available. Visit Penn’s Health Advocate website at http://www.healthadvocate.com/upenn for facts about addiction, recovery, and support services for faculty and staff.

Help Is Here

If you or a family member has a substance abuse problem, we encourage you to seek help. Penn provides free, confidential counseling services for you and your immediate family members through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). The EAP will assist you with challenges that may interfere with your personal or professional life, including substance abuse.

For more information about the EAP’s counseling and referral services, visit the Employee Assistance Program web page at https://www.hr.upenn.edu/eap or contact the Employee Assistance Program 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at (866) 799-2329.

You can also refer to Penn’s addiction treatment publication for information about treatment benefits and resources at https://www.hr.upenn.edu/docs/default-source/benefits/opioid-brochure.pdf.

The past year brought many challenges to the Penn community and to the Office of the Ombuds. Engagement with the issues of racial and socioeconomic injustices has increased on campus, as well as throughout the country, raising difficult questions about priorities and actions. When the evolving public health crisis led the University in March to suspend most on-campus activities and to shift many of them online, faculty, students, and staff had to adapt quickly. The Office of the Ombuds experienced these same stressful events and similarly made several adjustments. Though we prefer to meet face to face with our visitors, we quickly transitioned to virtual meetings. That adaptation went smoothly, and the Office is well positioned to continue to operate remotely until it is safe to return to 113 Duhring Wing. 

In these stressful times, the Office of the Ombuds offers a safe, confidential space where all members of the Penn community can bring concerns and questions. The Office works with visitors to clarify problems and decide what additional steps, if any, to take. The Ombuds Office team does not take sides in disputes. Rather, we remain neutral. The Office of the Ombuds is structurally independent from all of Penn’s schools and administrative offices other than the President’s Center, which provides the office with its budget but otherwise is not involved with its work with visitors. Our aim is to deescalate tension and to resolve problems informally. Although we do not carry out investigations, we can make additional inquiries if needed. The Office cannot impose a particular resolution of a problem, but it can, and does, advocate for fairness and consistency. When patterns of problematic actions are observed, we bring these to the attention of appropriate University administrators.

During the academic year, 2019-2020, 187 individuals consulted the Ombuds Office. On a campus where nearly 47,000 people regularly study, teach, conduct research, and work, this is a small number. Nevertheless, it signals dissatisfactions that need to be faced and addressed. The number of visitors to the Ombuds Office during the past academic year represents an 8.7% increase from 2018-2019. University staff accounted for the largest proportion of visitors (45%), followed by faculty (24%), graduate and professional students (16%), undergraduate students (9%), post-doctorates (3%), and others (4%). See Table 1. Visitors to the Office come from all parts of the Penn community. These proportions have remained roughly stable for the last several years with only slight annual variations in their distribution. They reflect the relative sizes of these categories in the total population of the University, as well as the availability of alternative support services for particular groups and Penn community members.

Table 1: Visitors By Affiliation 2019-2020

The Office of the Ombuds records the nature of issues brought forward, using a few broad categories, which remain constant to facilitate comparisons over time. More recently, we have also utilized the classification system developed by the International Ombudsman Association, in order capture a more detailed picture of the issues raised. The largest number of visitors have concerns relating to their jobs at Penn (42%), while other visitors reported problems with an academic matter (19%) or made complaints about the behavior of others (28%). See Table 2. 

A few patterns stand out. Accoounts of what is perceived as inappropriate or abusive behavior continue to be reported. The behaviors cited include micro-aggressions, discrimination, sexual harassment and, more broadly, conduct seen as threatening or bullying. Many individuals report feeling disrespected or coerced by those with whom they work, particularly when there is a power disparity. These incidents are often exacerbated by cultural or language differences. Performance reviews and office reorganizations also trigger conflict. While differences of opinion are inevitable, their impact can be intensified by a lack of transparency and by poor communication skills.

Table 2: Visitors By Issues Raised 2019-2020

The absence of formal, well-publicized procedures outlining responsibilities sometimes hampers the ability of faculty, staff, and students to resolve disputes. Disagreements with academic advisors, progress toward a degree, or control of data intensify if expectations remain unwritten and open to dispute. Faculty and graduate students have raised questions about the ownership of intellectual property, many of which could have been resolved if departments, programs, and laboratories had written protocols in place. During this past year, we have continued to recommend the wide circulation of the pamphlet, “Advising and Mentoring Ph.D. Students,” published by the Office of the Vice Provost for Education. It can help departments and programs develop their own written procedures in line with University guidelines. 

It should not come as a surprise that the pandemic’s dramatic disruptions brought many visitors to the Office of the Ombuds. Soon after the transition to remote work for “non-essential” employees, concerns were raised regarding changed office procedures, the definition of “essential,” and fears about disease transmission on campus. Faculty worried about the impact of the virus on research agendas, their tenure clocks, and reappointment procedures. Students were troubled by their lack of access to housing and the difficulties posed by online learning. The national movement against racial injustice has also influenced the work of the Ombuds Office. In the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the energizing of the Black Lives Matter movement, we have found an increase in the number of visitors with concerns about racism and bias, both conscious and unconscious.

When members of the Penn community bring problems to the Office of the Ombuds, we work to understand their frustrations and the circumstances surrounding their complaints. These discussions are confidential.  We help visitors to define their priorities and, together, we explore options for resolution of the issues raised. No additional actions are taken without a visitor’s permission. Table 4 lists the services offered by the Office as well as the frequency with which that form of assistance was provided. The Ombuds Office supplies information about relevant University policies that may be pertinent to a visitor’s concerns and may collect additional information. Visitors are often directed to other resources and offices on or off campus. When it is useful, visitors are coached about how to present their concerns to a supervisor or advisor in a manner that is most likely to result in constructive discussion and the resolution of their concerns. The Ombuds Office can facilitate meetings among parties to a dispute and also provides mediation services. These services are available both to individuals and to groups who come to discuss a collective problem.

The Ombuds Office, located at 113 Duhring Wing, is currently closed.  We can be reached by phone at (215) 898-8261 or online at www.upenn.edu/ombuds/. Please consult the website for more information about the Office and its activities or to arrange a consultation. We respond to inquiries quickly, and we encourage anyone experiencing difficulties related to their work, academics, or any other aspect of life as a member of the Penn community to contact the Ombuds Office. Visitors may speak with us without providing names or identifying information if they so choose. 

On June 30, Lynn Hollen Lees, professor of history emerita, completed her term as Ombuds, and Jennifer Pinto-Martin, Viola MacInnes/Independence Professor of Nursing in the School of Nursing and professor of epidemiology in the Perelman School of Medicine, was appointed to that position. Fortunately, Marcia Martinez-Helfman continues in her role as Associate Ombuds, providing continuity, wise counsel, and professional expertise.

The Annual Selection Period for retirees and Long-Term Disability recipients will run from Monday, October 26 to Friday, November 20, 2020. This year, Penn has extended the selection period to four weeks. This annual event allows participants to review their current benefits and make changes for the upcoming calendar year. All changes will be effective as of January 1, 2021.

Personalized enrollment packets will be mailed to each participant’s home shortly. You’ll receive a 2021 Annual Selection Guide, which includes current enrollment information and costs, medical plan comparison charts, what’s new for 2021, and more. Visit the Human Resources website at www.hr.upenn.edu/retirees for complete details.
Pandemic health and safety precautions prevent Penn from holding on-campus information sessions and benefits fairs as we have done in prior years. We encourage you to visit www.hr.upenn.edu/retirees for addition Retiree Annual Selection information.

How to Enroll or Make Changes to Your Benefits

There are two ways to enroll or make changes to your benefits for the 2021 Annual Selection period. You can call the University of Pennsylvania Benefits Solution Center at Health Advocate at (866) 799-2329, or use the Workday@Penn enrollment system and complete the following steps online:

1. With your PennKey and password log in to Workday at www.myworkday.com/upenn/login.html.
2. From your home page, select the Inbox icon in the upper right corner or click “Go to Inbox.”
3. Select “Open Enrollment—Event” in your inbox.
4. Click “Elect” or “Waive” next to the corresponding benefit plan (your current coverage will be displayed for each benefits election).
5. When you have completed all of your elections, click “Submit.”

All elections or changes must be made by Friday, November 20, 2020 at 5 p.m. ET.

If you have questions about this year’s Annual Selection Period, please contact the University of Pennsylvania Benefits Solution Center at Health Advocate at (866) 799-2329, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m., ET.

—Division of Human Resources

Catherine (Kaki) Hurley Marshall, former assistant managing director of the Annenberg Center, founder of the International Children’s Festival, and Theatre Arts Program lecturer, died August 29 in Strathmere, New Jersey. She was 94.

Ms. Marshall was born in Media, Pennsylvania. She graduated in 1945 from Penn’s College for Women and earned her master’s degree from Columbia University. Ms. Marshall began teaching at Penn in 1975 when she was hired as the assistant managing director/artistic advisor of performing arts. She served as the assistant director of Penn Players, which encompassed all student theater except Mask and Wig. When she joined the staff at the Annenberg Center, she was primarily responsible for programming, as well as being the staff person who oversaw student performing arts at Penn. In 1982, she took on a secondary role as a lecturer in the Theatre Arts Program, then in the English department. She also lectured in the College of General Studies (CGS).

In 1985, she founded the Philadelphia International Theatre Festival for Children at the Annenberg Center, later renamed the International Children’s Festival, which was the first of its kind in the country, aimed at providing Philadelphia-area families with an easy and affordable way to experience the artistry of international performance and visual arts. To establish the first festival, Ms. Marshall secured partial funding from the late Walter Annenberg; he and his wife, Leonore, came to opening night. She also chaired the festival’s board. She left Annenberg Center in 1989 and continued to teach theater arts until 1995. Ms. Marshall won the Penn Creative Spirit Award for the festival and her career in theater arts (Almanac December 13, 2011).

Outside of Penn, she served as Founding Board Chair of InterAct Theatre Company. She also served on the boards of the Philadelphia Young Playwrights, Mum Puppet Theatre, People’s Light & Theater and Big Brothers/Big Sisters. She was honored by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia and with a Barrymore Lifetime Achievement Award. She received InterAct’s annual Arts & Community Award in 2000, which was subsequently named the Kaki Marshall Arts & Community Award.

According to Seth Rozin, founder and producing artistic director of InterAct, “Kaki was considered one of the country’s foremost experts on theatre for children, and advised almost every theatre in the Philadelphia region, including People’s Light, Arden Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Caravan, The Kimmel Center. She is also considered a primary mentor to numerous Penn alumni who have gone on to have successful careers in the professional theatre, including: Harold Wolpert (executive director, Signature Theatre, New York), Howard Sherman (former executive director, American Theatre Wing), Todd Haimes (producing director, Roundabout Theatre, New York), Vicki Reiss (executive director, Shubert Foundation, New York), and myself.”

She is survived by her children, Joseph “Chip” (Filomela), Catherine Hurley Bean (Richard), James Mark (Lisa Liacouras), Elizabeth Anne DiStefano, Matthew (Bonnie), and Stephen (Jill); sisters, Laine SantaMaria and Elena Brazer; grandchildren, Anne (Jeremy), Sandy (Patrick), Amy, John (Deanna), Peter, Pete, Dana (Dave), Sam, Jack, Hal, Alice, Leigh and Nick; and great-grandchildren, Charlie and Nathan.

Ione Apfelbaum Strauss (CW’54, PAR’82), former University of Pennsylvania trustee, died October 1 of heart failure at her home in Haverford. She was 87.

Mrs. Strauss graduated from Scott Senior High School in Coatesville and then attended Penn for college. As a journalism major, she wrote for the Daily Pennsylvanian and was a member of the Kite and Key Society, the Friars Honor Society, and Phi Beta Kappa. She was later made an honorary member of the Mortar Board Honor Society. After graduating, she spent two years traveling with her parents.

Mrs. Strauss received Penn’s Alumni Award of Merit in 1971. She became a University Trustee in 1972 and was named the first female president of Penn Alumni (then known as the General Alumni Society) and the first woman ever to head a major private university’s alumni society. Consequently, she became the first woman to represent the alumni on the University Board of Trustees. “Today we are proud of the rich diversity of backgrounds Penn’s Trustees bring to their work, and we are tremendously grateful to Ione for helping to pave the way,” noted the message from Board Chair David L. Cohen and Penn President Amy Gutmann at the time of Mrs. Strauss’ death.

Mrs. Strauss was one of the inaugural members of the Board of Overseers of the Penn School of Arts and Sciences, from 1982 to 1988. She was also a trustee of the Penn Press from 2002 to 2005, and she was an early member of the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women. She held countless other volunteer roles in Penn organizations such as the Association of Alumnae, the Commonwealth Relations Council, the former Women’s Advisory Board of the Provost’s Office, the Pennsylvania Gazette Advisory Board, and the Class of 1954 Reunion and Gift Committees.

With six decades of service, Mrs. Strauss was one of the longest-serving members of the Board of Overseers of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, and she served as chairman of its board under the Center director, Rabbi David Ruderman. She created and subsidized several fellowships at the Katz Center: the Louis Apfelbaum and Hortense Braunstein Apfelbaum Fellowship, in memory of her parents; and the Erika A. Strauss Teaching Fellowship, in memory of her late daughter. Her daughter Louise is currently a member of the Board of Overseers of the Katz Center.

Mrs. Strauss supported Harcum College, Brandywine Health Foundation, Coatesville Youth Initiative, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. After the 1981 death of her daughter Erika, Mrs. Strauss fulfilled a lifelong dream to write for a newspaper and covered the meetings of several civic associations for the Main Line Times.

She is survived by her daughter, Louise (C’82). Those considering a donation in Mrs. Strauss’ memory may do so by giving to the Katz Center or to the Rare Judaica Acquisitions Fund at Penn Libraries.

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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.

The following is published in accordance with the Faculty Senate Rules. Among other purposes, the publication of SEC actions is intended to stimulate discussion among the constituencies and their representatives. Please communicate your comments to Patrick Walsh, executive assistant to the Senate Office, either by telephone at (215) 898-6943 or by email at senate@pobox.upenn.edu

October 14, 2020

Chair’s Report. Faculty Senate Chair Kathleen Hall Jamieson reported on a number of matters:

• A “Resolution for Election Day” was circulated for a vote by SEC via email because of the time-sensitive nature of the Resolution. By an email vote of 33 in favor, 2 opposed, and 20 not voting, the resolution was adopted on October 1, 2020, and appeared in Almanac on October 6, 2020.
• On a question from a SEC member regarding faculty ownership of online instruction materials, Prof. Jamieson reminded the group that no use will be made of faculty members’ online materials without specific permission of the instructor: https://almanac.upenn.edu/articles/guidance-on-recording-classes.  
• Prof. Jamieson announced two forthcoming Faculty Senate Seminars, both on October 22, which are available on the following webpage: https://provost.upenn.edu/senate/faculty-senate-seminar-series.

2021 Senate Nominating Committee.  Pursuant to the Faculty Senate Rules, the members of SEC were requested to submit the name of a member of the Standing Faculty to appear on the Nominating Committee ballot.

Resolution on Engaged Scholarship. Following a motion and discussion, SEC members voted to adopt a “Resolution on Engaged Scholarship” by a vote of 41 in favor, none opposed, and 14 not voting. The Resolution appears in this issue of Almanac.

Update from the Office of the President. President Amy Gutmann expressed gratitude to the numerous faculty members who are keeping teaching and research activities thriving at Penn and the support and partnership provided by the Faculty Senate in navigating the challenge of the year.  President Gutmann summarized the 2020 Silfen Forum, held on October 13, which addressed timely topics related to the importance of civic engagement.  She then shared a presentation on her goals and priorities for the academic year. 

Update from the Center for Teaching and Learning. Executive Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Bruce Lenthall, shared a report on the resources available to faculty for online instruction.  CTL supports all aspects of teaching at Penn across the spectrum of those struggling with teaching to those seeking new and innovative enhancements.  Recent seminars have been delivered on topics such as “building community in your online course,” and “effective use of synchronous and asynchronous engagement,” “managing academic integrity,” and “using relevant technologies for your instruction.” Penn instructors are invited to register for a two-week course on “Course Design for Whatever the Spring Brings: Engagement, Community, Flexibility, Academic Rigor and Remote Teaching.” Dr. Lenthall highlighted an upcoming seminar on “Teaching While Exhausted,” which will highlight the unique challenges that instructors are facing currently and how they can address them. CTL is beginning to develop more programs addressing “burnout” and suggested that all instructors would benefit from acknowledging burnout and identifying accomplishable expectations for teaching and research during this challenging period. A full recording of the 32-minute presentation and discussion is available on the Faculty Senate website: https://provost.upenn.edu/senate/center-teaching-and-learning.

Whereas President Amy Gutmann has reminded us that “Engagement with communities here at home, across our country, and throughout our world—civic engagement, for short—is at the heart of the Penn Compact 2022;”

Whereas the value that the University’s leadership places on engaged scholarship is also evident in its Graduate Academic Engagement Fellowship, Paideia Program, and Year of Civic Engagement;

Whereas the National Science Foundation delineates the importance of engaged scholarship by requesting that grant applicants indicate the “broader impacts” of the proposed research;

Whereas President Gutmann and Provost Wendell Pritchett confirmed in their meetings with the Senate Executive Committee in January 2020 and February 2020, respectively, that determining whether engaged scholarship should serve as an additional or optional appointment, tenure, and promotion criterion is a decision to be made at the departmental or school level;

Whereas if engaged scholarship is to be considered in the appointment, tenure, and promotion process, its definition, scope and boundaries must be clear;

Therefore, be it resolved, that:

We, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee of the University of Pennsylvania, urge departments and schools:

to determine whether and, if so, how, to what extent, and what kinds of engaged scholarship, if any, will or will not be considered in the appointment, tenure and promotion process;

to include an “engaged scholarship” category in faculty members’ annual performance review forms to make it possible for those who have engaged in such activities to list them under that heading if they choose; and

to memorialize in writing and to disseminate their positions on whether and, if so, to what extent, engaged scholarship will or will not be considered in the appointment, tenure, and promotion process; and

We also urge the Provost to work with the Deans to ensure that the letters seeking evaluation of candidates for appointment, tenure, or promotion clearly indicate whether and, if so, how, to what extent, and what kinds of engaged scholarship will and will not factor in the decision process.

Initiated:  The Faculty Senate Tri-Chairs [September 30, 2020]
Endorsed:  Faculty Senate Tri-Chairs [October 7, 2020]
Endorsed:  Faculty Senate Executive Committee [October 14, 2020]

From the Office of the Secretary

University Council Meeting Agenda

Wednesday, October 21, 2020, 4 p.m.
BlueJeans Events

Meeting access information for the meeting will be posted to the website of the Office of the University Secretary.

I. Approval of the minutes of September 16, 2020. 1 minute
II. Follow-up comments or questions on Status Reports. 5 minutes
III. Presentations by the President, Provost, and other administrators on the State of the University. 90 minutes (presentations 65 minutes, discussion 25 minutes)
IV. New Business. 5 minutes
V. Adjournment

The built environment—our streets, public spaces, and monuments—has played a critical role in our country’s ability to confront and understand the history and issues relating to civil rights in the United States.

The University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design is launching a new initiative to advance the understanding and sustainable conservation of heritage sites relating to African American struggles for equality, from before the passage of the 14th Amendment to the present day.

“From the Selma bridge where John Lewis and his fellow freedom marchers confronted state troopers to the Minneapolis street where George Floyd was killed by police, the story of Black Americans’ struggles for equality is written into our buildings and landscapes,” says Fritz Steiner, dean and Paley Professor at the Weitzman School. “These sites are essential places of reflection for our democracy, and they’re at risk of being lost for future generations.”

The Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites (CPCRS), as the new initiative is called, will be led by Faculty Director Randall Mason, an associate professor in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at Penn who, from 2013 to 2017, directed PennPraxis, the Weitzman School’s sought-after consulting and community engagement arm. Dr. Mason continues to lead PennPraxis’ Urban Heritage Project.

“The history of African American civil rights has many chapters, and I sincerely hope we’re at the beginning of a new one,” says Dr. Mason. “It’s our goal to acknowledge these histories, help make visible the legacies of civil rights in the American cultural landscape, and engage a diversity of civil rights advocates, historians, preservationists, researchers, and organizations as an academic partner.”

Brent Leggs, whose work as executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation was the subject of a January feature in The New Yorker, joins CPCRS as a senior advisor and adjunct associate professor. Beginning this fall and continuing over the next three years, Mr. Leggs will lend his deep expertise to the strategies and outreach of CPCRS while teaching in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation.

“Civil rights sites that bring forward the Black American fight for racial and economic justice have served a crucial role in redefining our collective history,” says Mr. Leggs. “Thanks to a broad coalition of partners with an affirmative voice for historic preservation, our collective efforts will grow the preservation economy and the critical infrastructure necessary to protect these important places and to tell their remarkable story.”

The current advisory group of the CPCRS includes: Mr. Leggs; Monica Rhodes (MSHP’12), director of resource management, National Park Foundation; Kwesi Daniels, department head of architecture, The Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science at Tuskegee University; Amy Freitag (MSHP’94, MLA’94) executive director, J.M. Kaplan Fund; and Bill Adair, independent arts and culture consultant.

In his role with the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, Mr. Leggs helms the largest preservation campaign ever undertaken on behalf of African American history, which has sparked a movement dedicated to telling the truth about our past, and cultivating hope for the future. A Harvard University Loeb Fellow and 2018 recipient of the Robert G. Stanton National Preservation Award, Mr. Leggs has led efforts to create the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument in Alabama, which President Barack Obama designated in January 2017. Other campaign successes include the perpetual protection of cultural monuments like Villa Lewaro, the estate of Madam C. J. Walker in Irvington, New York; Joe Frazier’s Gym in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey; A. G. Gaston Motel in Birmingham, Alabama; Nina Simone’s birthplace in Tryon, North Carolina; John and Alice Coltrane’s home in Huntington, New York; and more. Mr. Leggs is the author of Preserving African American Historic Places and has taught at Columbia University, University of Maryland, Harvard University, and Boston Architectural College.

CPCRS’s work began in earnest in late 2019 through a new partnership with the Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science at Tuskegee University in Alabama with the mission of bringing more African Americans into the preservation field, producing original research, and conducting public outreach. In addition to building teaching capacity at Tuskegee, the partnership aims to document and activate culturally significant buildings, sites, towns, and landscapes, and explore successful preservation, planning, and development strategies for small towns in the region. The initiative is supported by the J.M. Kaplan Fund and Kevin Penn (W’83), a Penn alumnus who is chair of the Board of Overseers at the Weitzman School.

The visibility of Black heritage on a national scale, the often overlooked heritage of Alabama’s Black Belt, and recent innovations in preserving and sustaining highly significant civil rights heritage sites, will be the subject of an online panel discussion on Tuesday, October 27, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. For Understanding Civil Rights Heritage, Dr. Mason will be joined in conversation with Dr. Daniels; Ms. Freitag; and Mr. Leggs. The event is free and open to the public; advance registration is required.

CPCRS draws on the expertise of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at Penn, which has trained some of the world’s leading practitioners and educators in the fields of architectural conservation, preservation design, preservation planning, and public history of the built environment.

The Weitzman School is also home to two public-interest initiatives whose missions complement that of CPCRS. Led by Professor Frank Matero, chair of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, the Center for Architectural Conservation (CAC) has been enlisted to help protect heritage sites both in the U.S. and abroad by the National Park Service, The Getty Conservation Institute, World Monuments Fund, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, among other cultural heritage authorities. Earlier this year, the CAC was commissioned to produce conservation plans for Taliesin and Taliesin West, the iconic architecture school in Wisconsin and Arizona, and for Pennsylvania Hospital, which has been in continuous operation for more than 260 years. The Weitzman School is also home to the Center for Public Art and Space, a platform for artistic research and civic engagement led by Ken Lum, Marilyn Jordan Presidential Professor and chair of fine arts, and Senior Research Scholar Paul Farber. Drs. Lum and Farber are the co-founders of the national public art and history studio Monument Lab, which last week was awarded a $4 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to develop art and justice initiatives across the U.S.

Exhibits

23    Re-Assemble: Sound Performance by June Lopez; improvs and experiments from various sound sources; noon; register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/123255010053 (Arthur Ross Gallery). 

Fitness & Learning

23    Writing Teaching Statements For Academic Jobs Workshop; 9:30 a.m.; Zoom; info: https://arth.sas.upenn.edu/events/ (History of Art).

        Mindfulness at the Museum with Shesheena Bray; noon; virtual; register: https://tinyurl.com/mindfulness-ica-oct-23 (ICA).

24    CE Series—Tails from the Darkroom & Other Practical Magic; 9 a.m.-3 p.m.; Zoom; registration: $125; https://www.alumni.upenn.edu/practicalmagic2020 (Penn Vet).

26    Mondays with Milford: Heart Music; 6 p.m.; virtual; info: https://icaphila.org/posts/mondays-with-milford/ (ICA).

Penn Podcasts

        Future of the Business World; created and hosted by the Wharton Global Youth Program, this monthly podcast features high school entrepreneurs from around the world discussing their ventures and exploring themes related to innovation and business; https://kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu/category/podcasts/

Readings & Signings

21    PPSA Book Club; Loving Frank by Nancy Horan; info: https://ppsa.upenn.edu/initiatives/ppsa-book-club/ (PPSA).

22    Economic Dignity; Gene Sperling; 5:30 p.m.; Zoom; register: https://tinyurl.com/sperling-reading-oct-22 (Penn Law).

Special Events

21    Renfield Award in Global Women’s Health; awarded to Daron Ferris; 4 p.m.; BlueJeans meeting; register: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/ksfwjkqf (Nursing).

23    Met On Demand: Watch Party; noon; Zoom meeting; register: https://libcal.library.upenn.edu/event/7157866 (Music; Penn Libraries).

27    At-Home Anthro Live: Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead): A Complex and Colorful Celebration of Life; 1-2 p.m.; virtual event; register: https://www.penn.museum/calendar (Penn Museum).

Talks

20    Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World; Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, twenty-sixth National Security Advisor of the U.S.; noon; virtual; register: https://tinyurl.com/battlegroundstalk (Perry World House).

21    Enactive Screens. The Moving-Body and the Moving-Image; Adriano D’Aloia, Università degli Studi della Campania; noon; Zoom; join: https://tinyurl.com/d-aloia-talk-oct-21 (Cinema Studies). 

        Queer Art and Censorship in Russia; panel of speakers; noon; virtual; register: bit.ly/2RWtJes (Russian and East European Studies).

        Rethinking the Problem of Legitimacy in Policing; Justice Tankebe, Cambridge; noon; info: ciararob@sas.upenn.edu (Criminology).

        The Economics of Digital Services: A New Initiative to Promote Research on Digital Platforms; panel of speakers; noon; Zoom; info: https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/events/ (Economics).

        Farm of the Future—IV. Water Management; panel of speakers; 2 p.m.; virtual; register: https://tinyurl.com/farm-future-iv (Penn Vet).

        Homeland or Ocean: Ideological Dichotomies of Cuban Cultural Memory; Amalia Dache, GSE; 2 p.m.; virtual; info: mcmmeg@upenn.edu (GSE).

        Multi-Messenger Cosmology: A New Frontier; Suvodip Mukherjee, University of Amsterdam; 2 p.m.; Zoom; join: https://tinyurl.com/mukherjee-talk-oct-21 (Physics & Astronomy).

         Engineering Pathways Across Biological Barriers; Shikha Nangia, Syracuse; 3 p.m.; register: chebiom@seas.upenn.edu (CBE).

         Search Frictions and Efficiency in Decentralized Transport Markets; Myrto Kalouptsidi, Harvard; 3:30 p.m.; Zoom; info: https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/events/ (Economics).

22     Ending the HIV Epidemic in Washington, DC—Health Department, Academic and Community Perspectives; Alan Greenberg, GWU; 9 a.m.; BlueJeans; https://bluejeans.com/368827150 (CCEB).

         Recombinant Urbanization: Land Transformations Along Urban Corridors in India; Sai Balakrishnan, UC Berkeley; 10 a.m.; register: https://casi.sas.upenn.edu/events/saibalakrishnan (South Asia Center).

          Anti-Racist Pedagogies in Brazilian Literature and Culture Courses; Leonora Paula, Michigan State; 10:30 a.m.; Zoom; join: https://tinyurl.com/paula-talk-oct-22 (LALS).

         Guises of the 2nd Chern Class; Matt Ando, UIUC; 4:30 p.m.; Zoom; info: https://www.math.upenn.edu/events/ (Math).

25     Women Shaping a Better Tomorrow—Civic Engagement: Past, Present, and Future; panel of speakers; 2 p.m.; virtual; info: https://tinyurl.com/women-shaping-better-tomorrow (SP2).

26     Women Navigating Educational Leadership; Jana L. Carlisle, Education Support Consulting; 10 a.m.; Zoom; info: mcmmeg@upenn.edu (GSE).

         Public Assembly via Affective Technologies: Like Buttons, Sentiment Analysis, and the Transmission of Positive Energy; Angela Xiao Wu, NYU; noon; virtual; register: https://tinyurl.com/wu-talk-oct-26 (ASC).

         New Recommendations to the State of Pennsylvania K-12 Science Standards, and What This Means for Higher Education; Jane Dmochowski, earth & environmental studies; noon; Zoom; join: https://tinyurl.com/dmochowski-talk-oct-26 (EES).

         Won’t Get Fooled Again?: Explaining Donald Trump’s Improbable 2016 Victory and Whether it Will Happen Again; Michael Smerconish, radio and TV host; 4 p.m.; Zoom; register: https://tinyurl.com/smerconish-talk-oct-26 (Law).

27     One Product, Many Patents: Imperfect Intellectual Property Rights in the Pharmaceutical Industry; Charu Gupta, Wharton; noon; Zoom; info: https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/events/ (Economics).

         Predictable Bonding in Adhesive Dentistry. All Surfaces…No Problems!!; Rolando Nunez, BISCO Inc.; 5 p.m.; BlueJeans; register: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/cqwbjrwd (Dental).

         Understanding Civil Rights Heritage; panel of speakers; 5 p.m.; Zoom; register: https://tinyurl.com/civil-rights-weitzman (Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites).

University of Pennsylvania Police Department Crime Report

The Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Society and Crimes Against Property from the campus report for October 5-11, 2020 are unavailable. 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 October 5-11, 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.

18th District

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 10 crimes against persons (3 aggravated assaults, 2 assaults, 2 rapes, 1 domestic assault, 1 indecent assault, and 1 robbery) with 2 arrests were reported for October 5-11, 2020 by the 18th District covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue.

Each year, we see the outpouring of kindness and generosity from Penn’s faculty and staff in supporting the many worthy causes represented by the Penn’s Way campaign. Our partner organizations (The United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia Alliance for Change and Penn Medicine) work closely with us to ensure that the Penn community’s contributions are used to address needs across our region.

This year is a time of unprecedented hardship at every level: families, nonprofits, and local businesses are struggling to stay afloat. Community organizations and foundations are being called upon to help people who have lost their jobs, health care, homes, etc., and the charitable organizations that used to assist people are themselves struggling. The Penn community has demonstrated year after year that we can, and will, rise to meet the challenge. 

The theme for this year’s campaign is Caring for Our Community. We encourage the Penn community to bring home the message of caring, in this very challenging year, by contributing to organizations that support the three “Pillars of Need” identified by the Penn’s Way Campaign:

• Health Care Disparity
• Food Insecurity
• Social Justice

This week we are highlighting organizations that focus on Health Care Disparity:

• Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Alliance—https://www.pbwha.org/—Penn’s Way organization number: C1104
• Maternity Care Coalition—https://maternitycarecoalition.org/about-us/—Penn’s Way organization number: 06427
• Mazzoni Center—https://www.mazzonicenter.org/—Penn’s Way organization number: 02304
• Puentes de Salud—https://www.puentesdesalud.org/—Penn’s Way organization number:  48347

If you have an organization within the campaign that you would like to support, whatever their mission, you can be sure that they need your contribution this year more than ever. Login at www.pennsway.upenn.edu to care for your community.

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

Zoom has become vital to teaching, learning and working at the University of Pennsylvania during the pandemic.

To help make working with Zoom easier, the University has negotiated a license with Zoom so that eligible active faculty, staff, and students can use Zoom with  PennKey single sign-on. 

Using the licensed Penn Zoom allows you to locate other Penn Zoom users and has features not available with the free Zoom account offering.

As a host, you can help make meetings more secure:

• You may restrict participants to upenn.edu or *.upenn.edu domains. 
• You may also designate a “waiting room” to control access to your meeting session. 
• Use an optional passcode to control meeting access as well. 
• Control the links to your meetings and do not post them for general public access. 

Your local computing support is the first stop for Penn Zoom support. The University has resources to help you use Penn Zoom effectively.

Penn Zoom resources for users: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/zoom-resources-users

Penn Zoom resources for IT staff: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/zoom-resources-it-staff

Video Conferencing resources for users: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/video-conferencing-tools

Locate your IT support provider: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/get-it-help

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

Penn Recreation is offering free virtual group exercise on Zoom to all members of the Penn community during the fall semester. 

Visit https://recreation.upenn.edu/sports/ 2019/9/25/group-exercise.aspx to claim your free supplemental group exercise membership and view the virtual schedule that includes classes morning, afternoon and evening, through December 20. The sports-specific classes are taught by Penn sports performance staff.

The schedule is subject to change. Follow Penn Recreation on Instagram at @PennCampusRec for updates.

Almanac will publish weekly through the rest of the fall 2020 semester, with the exception of December 1, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving break. Submissions are due Mondays for the next Tuesday's issue. Email almanac@upenn.edu

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.