May 25, 2021 Volume 67 Issue 39

One hundred and four years after Penn Dental Medicine alumnus Dr. Arthur E. Corby, D’1917, earned his dental degree, his legacy will have a transformative impact on the school’s future. At the end of 2020, the school received an estate gift from his daughter, Carol Corby-Waller, CW’58, honoring her father—the first $10 million of an anticipated $20 million gift. The balance of the gift is expected to arrive later this year.

“We are immensely grateful to Carol Corby-Waller for choosing to honor her father through this transformative gift from her estate,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann. “Her generosity and foresight will allow Penn Dental Medicine, a champion of innovation, to build on its distinguished past while inventing its vibrant future. We are touched by her desire to do good in the world while paying tribute to father.”

“One cannot overstate the tremendous impact of this historic gift,” said Penn Dental Medicine’s Morton Amsterdam Dean, Mark S. Wolff. “What makes it particularly unique and impactful for the school is that the gift is unrestricted, so these resources can help support a diversity of projects as needs arise.”

As an unrestricted gift, the funds will allow the school to seize opportunities that may need seed investment. It comes at a pivotal time in terms of new initiatives. Four new centers have recently been launched at Penn Dental Medicine: the Center for Clinical and Translational Research; the Center for Innovation and Precision Dentistry; the Care Center for Persons with Disabilities; and the Center for Integrative Global Oral Health. Funds from the Corby-Waller gift will help support the growth of these enterprises as needed, and more.

Honoring a Father’s Passion

Carol Ann Corby-Waller was the only child of Arthur Corby, Penn Dental Medicine class of 1917. She was a Penn graduate as well, having earned her undergraduate degree in 1958 from what was then known as the College for Women. While she had little contact with the University after graduation, it is clear she wanted to recognize her father’s passion for dentistry and the school where he earned his degree and remained significantly engaged during his lifetime. Entering the Army Dental Corps of World War I upon graduation from Penn Dental Medicine in 1917, Arthur Corby went on to build a successful and prominent dental practice in New York City until his passing in 1954 at the age of 65. He retained strong ties to Penn throughout his career, notably serving as an alumni trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, elected to a 10-year term in 1948. He was among the ranks of graduates awarded Penn’s Alumni Award of Merit for service to the University and its alumni. Among his achievements, Dr. Corby helped to reorganize Penn’s General Alumni Society and served on the University’s Reconversion Fund Committee and the Bicentennial Committee (1940). In addition, Dr. Corby led the Penn Dental Alumni Society as President (1948-1949), served as editor of Dental Alumni Quarterly, and held a term as President of Penn Club of New York.

Active in organized dentistry, Dr. Corby served as President of the New York Academy of Dentistry and the First District Dental Society of New York (1951), which represented Manhattan and the Bronx. He was a fellow of the American College of Dentists and the International College of Dentists and was a member of the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Restorative Dentistry, and the Delta Sigma Delta dental fraternity, serving as grand master of its Graduate Chapter in 1944. Dr. Corby also served as the chairman of the Greater New York Dental Meeting (1952). There, he organized a symposium on the relationship between smoking and lung cancer. That effort stimulated the formation of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee.

Dr. Corby’s class yearbook reveals a record of active engagement while a student at Penn Dental Medicine as well. He served as editor-in-chief of the Senior Class Record and was corresponding secretary of the Matthew H. Cryer Society of Oral Surgery. In addition, he was a member of Delta Sigma Delta fraternity, the Darby Dental Society, and the Penn Dental Journal Advisory Board.

A recently renovated auditorium within the school’s Levy Center building will be named for Dr. Corby, ensuring that a prominent space within Penn Dental Medicine will bear his name as a lasting tribute.

Penn announced an anonymous gift of $5 million in the form of Bitcoin—the largest cryptocurrency gift the University has ever received. Facilitated by NYDIG, an industry leader in providing Bitcoin technology and financial services, the landmark commitment will support the growth of programs within the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at the Wharton School.

“As the nature of philanthropy continues to evolve, Penn stands at the forefront of innovative ways to make a difference in the world,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann. “I am deeply grateful for this creative and groundbreaking gift to support the important work of the Stevens Center. At the Center, the intersection of finance and technology is being reinvented through research, exploratory projects, and engagement with industry leaders, to make the greatest global contributions.”

The Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance was established with the support and partnership of 1991 Wharton undergraduate alumnus Ross Stevens and remains a top entity for education and research in the field of fintech, a rising area of interest among Penn students. By engaging students with Wharton faculty and financial institution leaders, the students become immersed in learning about the digital currency ecosystem. Led by faculty director David Musto, the Ronald O. Perelman Professor in Finance, the Stevens Center connects curriculum, industry resources and data, events, and partnerships that advance opportunities in fintech.

“With finance at the heart, history, and future of the Wharton School, we are honored to receive this incredible gift,” said Wharton Dean Erika James. “This investment marks a new era and mode of giving to the University and lifts up opportunities for students to become tomorrow’s leaders in finance through exceptional coursework and transformative interactions with policymakers and industry experts. The blend of innovative philanthropy with the outcomes this promises for students makes this a truly exciting moment for the Wharton community.”

Cryptocurrency gifts to the University of Pennsylvania are processed through NYDIG, which delivers the comprehensive infrastructure to accept these donations as a novel avenue of giving to the University.

May 11, 2021

I am writing to share with you the news that our dear friend and colleague, Provost Wendell Pritchett, will be taking a medical leave of absence from his responsibilities here at Penn, beginning July 1, 2021 through the end of the fall 2021 semester. Wendell has been dealing with some health issues that, while not life-threatening, require greater attention over the coming months.

As everyone who has had the pleasure of working with him knows, Wendell continues to do an absolutely superb job as Provost. He is an exceptional leader who is universally recognized for his scholarship, teaching, compassion, and commitment to academic excellence and civic engagement. He is also a cherished friend to so many of us here at Penn. We all want Wendell to take the time necessary to tend to his health, and this leave of absence will allow him to do just that.

While Wendell is on leave, Deputy Provost Beth Winkelstein will assume the role of Interim Provost. Wendell appointed Beth as Deputy Provost in June of 2020 after she had served as Vice Provost for Education for five highly successful years. Beth earned her PhD in bioengineering from Duke University and BSE cum laude in bioengineering from Penn as a Benjamin Franklin Scholar. She has taught in the bioengineering department of Penn SEAS since 2002, becoming in that time one of the world’s leading innovators in research on new treatments for spine and other joint injuries. Appointed two years ago as the Eduard D. Glandt President’s Distinguished Professor, she leads a pioneering Spine Pain Research Lab, mentors students and postdocs, and is chair of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers Board of Editors. She served as co-editor of the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering from 2013-2020.

Wendell and I and everyone who has worked with Beth have great confidence in her ability to step in and lead the Provost’s Office while Wendell is on leave. Beth is an exceptional University citizen who is involved in all aspects of our academic, research and student-centered programming. We are very grateful that she is willing to take on this important responsibility.

Please join me in wishing Wendell a speedy return to full health.

—Amy Gutmann, President

May 19, 2021

With the academic year and Commencement now successfully concluded, and with continued positive progress being made within our community in controlling COVID-19, Penn will be easing restrictions during the summer relating to both on-campus activities and University travel. These are important steps as we continue to transition toward the fall semester, and our expectation of a more normal, on-campus experience for our students, faculty, staff, and researchers.

Travel

As of May 18, 2021, the University will lift its travel suspension and implement restricted travel guidelines for all domestic and international Penn-related travel. The new guidelines will require those travelling to be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, with exceptions provided only for medical or religious reasons. Faculty, staff, and students may travel domestically or to countries rated CDC Level 1 and Level 2 without a petition. Penn-affiliated group travel will be permitted starting July 1, 2021. Penn Travel Guidelines and Procedures apply to Penn-affiliated (outbound) travel only. Inbound travel is NOT considered Penn-affiliated, and will continue to be governed by city, state, and federal directives. All travelers are expected to follow local and state guidelines regarding quarantine, testing, masking, etc., and should be prepared for changes and modifications. As government restrictions and guidelines pertaining to domestic and international travel continue to evolve, we encourage anyone planning to travel to consult the Penn Global Travel Guidance website for the most up-to-date information.

Campus Activities

As we begin to repopulate the campus this summer, schools, centers, and departments can host scholars and visitors to campus for events, activities, and performances in accordance with social distancing and facility planning guidelines. Visitors must comply with all Penn health guidelines and policies and participate in PennOpen Pass. Centralized approval for use of general spaces, room occupancy, and outdoor activities will not be required, however schools and departments may elect to maintain and develop policies (e.g., noting mask requirements) to facilitate compliance with relevant Commonwealth and city health directives. For example, the City of Philadelphia has recently announced modifications to its COVID-19 restrictions pertaining to gatherings, permitting larger numbers in restaurants and public spaces and on June 11 plans to lift all restrictions on gatherings, although it is keeping its mask mandate in place. The City’s relaxation of indoor capacity restrictions on June 11 includes office spaces and applies to the Penn campus, including our museums and performance spaces. Departments should continue to make return to campus plans that assume no restrictions on density. Offcampus activities, such as a meal involving faculty recruitment, should be guided by CDC recommendations relating to social distancing and PPE use.

COVID-19 Screening Requirements for Students

Ongoing screening is being conducted throughout the summer, starting May 17, 2021. Enrolled students continuing to live on or off campus from the spring semester into summer should continue their testing protocol. Students who are new to campus must schedule their first screening test during their first week on campus. Undergraduates living on or off campus in Philadelphia are required to undergo twice-weekly screening tests. Graduate students who come to campus each week are required to receive screening tests once per week. Graduate students who live in College Houses or elsewhere on campus are required to undergo twice-weekly screening tests, separated by a minimum of two calendar days. Specific details for all undergraduate, graduate and professional students can be found at the Penn Coronavirus testing resource website. The Student Campus Compact will be updated with any changes in expectations for student conduct early in the fall. All students should remain familiar with the standards for behavior that it outlines. Students are reminded that for the fall, full vaccination prior to arrival on campus is required. For those students who were unable to access the vaccine in their home locations, it will be available through Student Health; however, Penn strongly recommends completing vaccination before arrival. The University will accept vaccines that have been granted an emergency use authorization through the FDA (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen) as well as those that have been “pre-qualified” or received “Emergency Use Listing” by WHO (currently AstraZeneca and Covishield).

COVID Screening for Faculty, Staff and Postdocs

Ongoing screening is being conducted throughout the summer, starting May 17, 2021. Individuals must enroll and schedule their first screening during the first week they are on campus. Faculty, postdocs, and staff who live on campus must be tested twice per week, separated by two calendar days. Faculty, postdocs, and staff who are on campus for four or more hours each week throughout Summer Session I must be tested once per week. Testing locations and hours of operation can be found here.

Vaccinations

In our communication to the community on April 22, 2021 (Almanac April 27, 2021), we announced that with the proven effectiveness of COVID vaccines and their widespread availability, and in order to protect the health of all community members, the University would require all students to be vaccinated for the fall semester. We are currently reviewing vaccine requirements for faculty, staff, and postdocs for the fall and will provide further information to the community later in the summer. Penn Medicine will be sending a separate communication today regarding vaccination requirements for employees working in the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Conclusion

We continue to be profoundly grateful for the cooperation that has been demonstrated by everyone in the Penn community in helping the University navigate through this public health crisis. Faculty, staff and students alike have shown enormous grace in dealing with the uncertainties and new protocols that allowed Penn to continue to operate while protecting the health and safety of our community. With vaccinations now easily available and the pandemic coming under control here in the United States, we are optimistic about the year ahead, and look forward to continuing on a path to a more traditional campus experience.

—Amy Gutmann, President
—Wendell Pritchett, Provost
—Craig Carnaroli, Executive Vice President

Black adults are more likely than other groups to develop Alzheimer’s disease or related disorders but are poorly represented in Alzheimer’s disease research, including recent clinical trials. This health disparity illustrates how Black individuals can benefit from increased access to advances in the field.

On April 28, the Pennsylvania Department of Health Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement (CURE) program announced it will award a $3.5 million grant to Penn Medicine researchers and community partners to address the underrepresentation of Black adults in Alzheimer’s Disease research. The grant supports the Aging Brain Cohort Dedicated to Diversity (ABCD2) study, a research and training initiative led by David Wolk, a professor of neurology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Wolk is also the co-associate director of PSOM’s Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center and co-director of the Penn Memory Center.

In the past, diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease could only definitively be made using an autopsy. Today, there are tools to visualize its pathological markers, the amyloid plaques and tau-based tangles. The goal of ABCD2 is to create one of the largest neuroimaging cohorts of Black individuals to date, in addition to training underrepresented minorities in the science and clinical care of Alzheimer’s disease.

This research will enhance understandings of the relationships between measures of disease and cognitive decline and the transition from normal aging to the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease, before disability. Determining these relationships and the role of additional risk factors, like vascular disease, genetics, and sociodemographic factors, will generate advances in risk prediction and prevention studies that will benefit Pennsylvanians.

“There has been an Alzheimer’s disease research revolution in the past few years. We can now detect pathology prior to the development of cognitive symptoms, and the field is moving towards targeting individuals with preclinical AD to slow or prevent the emergence of cognitive symptoms,” said Dr. Wolk. “Unfortunately, much of what we know about these markers of disease and risk come from studies that are almost entirely composed of white individuals. Thus, the degree to which findings generalize to Black individuals in the context of potential differing co-morbidities and other social determinants of health is unknown and critical for this population to benefit from these advances.”

As part of the neuroimaging effort, the researchers are looking to determine not only the relationship between molecular positron emission tomography (PET) measures of Alzheimer’s disease with measures of brain change and cognition, but also the degree to which these relationships are impacted by additional risk factors such as poverty and the quality of education, vascular disease, and genetics. By determining these relationships and the role of these modulating factors, the team aims to develop advances in risk prediction to be incorporated in prevention studies.

The researchers are also emphasizing training the next generation of investigators and clinicians. Building a diverse workforce will mitigate future disparities in care and research. A training program for underrepresented minorities aims to create a clinical and research workforce that is more representative of Pennsylvania. The ABCD2 study includes collaborations with investigators at Temple University and the University of the Sciences and community partners, including the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority’s Omega Omega chapter, the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, and the Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. Community partners will support the design, recruitment, training, and dissemination of the study.

“Our hope is that ABCD2 will create a foundation to improve diversity in Alzheimer’s disease research and clinical trials. This effort will be strengthened by the training of clinicians and researchers through the complementary training plan,” said Jason Karlawish, a professor of medicine, medical ethics & health policy, and neurology at Penn. Dr. Karlawish is also co-director of the Penn Memory Center and a co-leader of the ABCD2 training effort. “This is truly a collaborative effort across universities and community partners. This is an ambitious project, and our team and partners have the infrastructure in place and experience to meet this challenge.”

Six members of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School have received teaching awards for the 2020–2021 academic year.

“In this past year, our teaching faculty have demonstrated remarkable creativity and flexibility in delivering their courses effectively despite unusually challenging conditions, whether inperson or remote,” stated Dean Ted Ruger and Associate Deans Reed Shuldiner and Beth Simmons. “We are extremely grateful for this collective institutional work, and also are pleased to recognize some specific outstanding teaching successes in announcing the 2020-2021 teaching awards.”

Harvey Levin Memorial Teaching Award

Maggie Blackhawk was awarded the Harvey Levin Memorial teaching award, voted on by the JD class of 2021.

Dr. Blackhawk (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe) researches and teaches in the fields of constitutional law, federal Indian law, and legislation. Her recent projects examine the ways that American democracy can and should empower minorities, especially outside of traditional rights and courts-based frameworks.

Dr. Blackhawk’s students have commented:

“Professor Blackhawk stimulated interest and independent thought by posing hard questions and presenting in-depth analysis. She challenged us to think critically not only about the doctrine, but also bigger questions about legal analysis, rule of law, advocacy, institutions, federalism, etc. In Federal Indian Law, every class I came away learning to think about legal questions and legal systems and my place in it in a new way.”

“Professor Blackhawk has put together an incredible course which in content and structure forces students not only to learn a high volume of complex legal doctrine but also to critically analyze the development of the doctrine from both theoretical and historical perspectives. Because of Professor Blackhawk and her course, we will all be better lawyers, advocates, and human beings.”

“Professor Blackhawk did an excellent job stimulating my interest in the subject matter. I knew absolutely nothing about Federal Indian Law prior to this class, and very quickly became passionate about the topic. I found the course, especially with Professor Blackhawk’s teaching, deeply moving. She is brilliant and sharp, and I walked away from every class amazed by one factor or another.”

LLM Teaching Award

Elizabeth Pollman was awarded the LLM teaching award, voted on by the LLM class of 2021.

Dr. Pollman, professor of law and co-director of the Institute for Law and Economics, is an expert on corporate law, governance, and rights. She teaches and writes on a wide variety of topics in business law, with a particular focus on corporate governance, purpose, and personhood, as well as startups, entrepreneurship, and law and technology. This year, she taught Corporations, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Corporate Governance.

Dr. Pollman’s students have said:

“One of the best professors at Penn Law. Always made students feel like their contributions were valuable and made me super interested in M&A even if I don’t pursue it in the future. She is extremely clear when explaining even the most confusing of topics. Professor Pollman is truly inspiring—would recommend that everyone take one of her classes.”

“Fantastic. Professor Pollman has an incredible mastery of the subject matter and an infectious enthusiasm for the course. She inspires students to engage fully with the course material.”

“I thought that Professor Pollman’s Corporations class was brilliantly executed. The effort put in to go the extra mile to reach out through the virtual realm to engage with students was very much appreciated.”

A. Leo Levin Award for Excellence in an Introductory Course

R. Polk Wagner was awarded the A. Leo Levin Award for Excellence in an Introductory Course for his work teaching Contracts (in person) and Introduction to Intellectual
Property, among several other courses, this year.

Dr. Wagner is the Michael A. Fitts Professor of Law. He focuses his research and teaching on intellectual property law and policy, with a special interest in patent law. This year, he taught Contracts, Patent Law, Introduction to Intellectual Property, Patent Law—Appellate Advocacy, the Journal of Law and Innovation Seminar, and ML: Intro to Patent Law Online.

Dr. Wagner’s students have said:

“Professor Wagner has perfected his engagement model for modern / pandemic times.”

“Professor Wagner was fantastic in teaching us contracts. He actively encouraged us to grapple with the material and discuss our own opinions on the cases, as well as ‘think like lawyers’ in pretending we represented one of the parties.”

“Professor Wagner did a great job promoting different voices and perspectives in our classroom.” “Professor Wagner went above and beyond this semester. He established a dedicated Slack channel where he could be reached nearly 24/7. He was always available to chat with students and could be found providing practice sets or responding to student questions in the early hours of the morning. Professor Wagner sent out a few surveys throughout the semester to solicit feedback on his teaching and class format. When students noted that his office hours were at a particularly bad time, he changed them to a better time. When students asked for a break halfway through class, he didn’t hesitate to provide one. During finals week, he had daily office hours and provided a review session.”

Robert A. Gorman Award for Excellence in Teaching

Jill E. Fisch was awarded the Robert A. Gorman Award for Excellence in Teaching for her work teaching Corporations and Civil Procedure, both in person, this year.

Dr. Fisch, the Saul A. Fox Distinguished Professor of Law and co-director of the Institute for Law and Economics, is an internationally known scholar whose work focuses on the intersection of business and law, including the role of regulation and litigation in addressing limitations in the disciplinary power of the capital markets. She taught Corporations and Civil Procedure this year.

Dr. Fisch’s students have said:

“Professor Fisch is an outstanding professor—the best I’ve had so far at Penn. Her ability to make connections across course materials—at the drop of a hat—is unparalleled. Coupled with a thorough knowledge of recent trends and developments in the field, this makes her uniquely able to address student questions with eyes to the doctrine and to practice. I’m much more interested in shareholder and M&A litigation after taking Corporations with Professor Fisch.”

“Professor Fisch made an intentional and successful effort at the beginning to impress upon us the reasons why civil procedure is important, and why it should matter to us, especially regarding access to justice. Her lectures were always engaging, especially with the polls. Her ‘warm calls’ were inviting. She’s an extremely good pedagogue.”

“Professor Fisch did a wonderful job selecting course materials. I really appreciate her efforts to select interesting cases that addressed right to counsel, qualified immunity, racial profiling, police brutality, and discrimination. She always couched our discussions about minute procedure in the context of weighty and important issues.”

Adjunct Teaching Award

Xun Zeng, GL’03 L’07, was awarded the Adjunct Teaching Award for teaching a new Private Investment Funds course from Beijing.

In addition to teaching at Penn Carey Law, Dr. Zeng is a fund formation partner of Cooley LLP in Beijing. Her practice is focused on the formation, structuring, and operation of a wide variety of investment funds, including venture capital funds, growth capital funds, private equity funds, and co-investment funds.

Dr. Zeng’s students have said:

“Professor Zeng is 10/10. She was incredible, knowledgeable, approachable, and engaging.”

“Professor Zeng is clearly very passionate about the material. She explained the concepts well, but also took it one step further to show how it was applicable in real life.”

Experiential Teaching Award

Cynthia Dahl received the Experiential Teaching Award for her teaching and leadership of the Detkin IP and Technology Legal Clinic.

Dr. Dahl is a Practice Professor of Law and director of the Detkin Intellectual Property and Technology Legal Clinic. She specializes in business applications of intellectual property and technology and writes and speaks extensively throughout the country about teaching in this area.

Dr. Dahl’s students have said:

“Professor Dahl is incredible! She is a natural at keeping the class engaged and striking the right balance to keep things moving along. She is also understanding and supportive of all her students. She is a fantastic professor, and I feel fortunate to have learned from her when I did in my law school career.”

“Professor Dahl is incredible. She knows the IP space well and is always up to date on new and unfolding news. She asks the right questions to help her students grow.”

“Professor Dahl’s supervision is unparalleled. She was always accessible and supportive when I came to a difficult problem. She let me lead the way with my clients and decide what form I wanted my work to take. Her reviews were thorough and incredibly timely, even when we were up against a tough deadline. She helped me close gaps in my work and expand further upon topics that were not initially clear. I took her comments seriously and always tried to address them appropriately. Overall, the working relationship was incredible, and I am just so, so, so thankful.”

Richard Allen Davis, a neurosurgeon at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) and an emeritus associate professor of neurosurgery in the Perelman School of Medicine, died on May 7 of congestive heart failure at his home in Villanova. He was 95.

Dr. Davis grew up in Chicago, the son of pioneering neurosurgeon Loyal Davis. After graduating from the Latin School of Chicago, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II (and, later, during the Korean War). Dr. Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Princeton University in 1947, a medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School in 1951, and a master’s degree in anatomy, also from Northwestern, in 1956. He completed a six-year residency in neurosurgery at the Northwestern Medical Center under his father’s direction, during which he was appointed a Kanaval Fellow. During his training, he also became a junior assistant to the distinguished neurologist Edward Arnold Carmichael at London’s National Hospital. As a resident neurosurgeon, Dr. Davis learned the principles of patient evaluation, the critical importance of postoperative management, and the paramount significance of empathy in the surgeon-patient relationship.

In 1958, Isador Ravdin, the John Rhea Barton Professor of Surgery in Penn’s School of Medicine, appointed Dr. Davis as an associate in neurosurgery. Dr. Davis became an assistant professor in 1963 and an associate professor four years later. His students, colleagues, family, and friends remember that Dr. Davis viewed his career as a calling. During his teaching at Penn’s School of Medicine, he discouraged cold language like referring to patients as “cases” and urged compassion. Dr. Davis also served as a neurosurgeon at HUP. He retired from both positions in 1989.

In addition to his teaching, Dr. Davis also conducted influential research and published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers in medical and scientific journals. At Penn, he organized a research laboratory to investigate central nervous system control of gastric secretion and its relationship to peptic ulcer disease. Dr. Davis’s findings anticipated surgical innovations for neurologically-based ulcers; he also introduced then-revolutionary stereotactic techniques to Penn’s large brain tumor service and pain clinic. These procedures influenced treatment of Parkinson’s Disease, the biopsy of brain tumors and treatment of other neurological illnesses.

Dr. Davis was fluent in French and had a passionate interest in warfare. He visited Normandy for commemorations of D-Day and self-published Yours, D3 (1999), a novel about a young parachute officer who grapples with issues of honor and leadership during World War II. Dr. Davis’s sister, Nancy, married Ronald Reagan, with whom Dr. Davis was close.

Dr. Davis is survived by his son, Geoffrey; daughter, Anne (Jon); and three grandsons. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Latin School of Chicago at https://give.latinschool.org/campaigns/20824/donations/new.

Lee Claflin Ellis Horne, a former research associate at the Penn Museum and the former editor of the Museum’s magazine Expedition, died on April 10 at home in Philadelphia from complications of stage IV breast cancer. She was 85.

Dr. Horne was born in 1936 in Jersey City, New Jersey. She grew up in northern New Jersey and graduated from Summit High School in 1954. After graduating, she attended Bryn Mawr
College and graduated in 1958 with a degree in mathematics. The same year, she married Hamill Horne. While raising their son Joseph, Dr. Horne worked part-time at Bryn Mawr College and as a docent at the Penn Museum. In 1974, the marriage ended, and Dr. Horne decided to pursue a career in archaeology.

She enrolled as a graduate student in the anthropology department at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on research in south Asia. In 1988, she received a PhD from Penn and was hired by the Penn Museum as a research associate and the editor of Expedition, the museum’s magazine. She wrote several articles in the magazine detailing her work in south Asia and Mesopotamia. A sampling of her work in the magazine can be read at https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/author/?id=Lee+Horne. Dr. Horne also assembled a “Pyramid Explorer’s Kit” that was a popular children’s item in the museum’s gift shop.

Dr. Horne traveled extensively, conducting archeological and ethnographic field work in Iran, Syria, and India that resulted in numerous publications. In 1994, Dr. Horne published her first book, Village Spaces: Settlement and Society in Northeastern Iran, with Smithsonian Institution Press. Four years later, she co-authored Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur with Richard Zettler, published by Penn Press. She also published several peer-reviewed articles about cultural transmission and ethno-archaeology. Dr. Horne retired from the Penn Museum in 2003 to pursue her hobby of painting, though she was called back several times to give lectures and tours and as a guest consultant and editor of Expedition.

In 1993, Dr. Horne married Bruce Pearson. Dr. Horne is survived by Mr. Pearson; three adult children, Joseph Horne, Brian (Jane) Pearson, and Melody (Joel) Bish; four grandsons; and her brother, Paul (Freya Grand) Ellis. Dr. Horne donated her body to Humanity Gifts Registry, a non-profit agency, for medical education.

Heather Ann Peters, an anthropologist, global human-rights activist (particularly on behalf of Asian peoples), and an assistant curator at the Penn Museum, died on April 24 at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center from injuries sustained in a bicycle accident. She was 74.

Dr. Peters was raised in Roslyn, New York. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Asian studies from Barnard College, where she first studied Chinese; a master’s degree in Chinese art and archaeology from Princeton University; and a doctorate in anthropology with a specialization in China from Yale. In 1981, Dr. Peters came to Penn as a lecturer and research specialist in the School of Arts and Sciences’ department of anthropology. She also served as the assistant curator of the Asian section of the Penn Museum. In this position, she undertook many initiatives that fostered scholarly communication, like launching Buried Treasure, a radio series about the Penn Museum’s finds, and recruiting professors from universities in Asia to speak at Penn.

In addition to her Penn teaching, Dr. Peters also served as a visiting professor at the American University of Paris and was affiliated with Southwest Minzu University and Southwest Jiaotong University, both in Chengdu, China. After leaving Penn in 1993, she embarked on a career that included consulting and development projects with UNESCO and other agencies. She did work advocating for minorities, preventing human trafficking, increasing awareness of HIV/ AIDs, and other social issues. She did highly visible social justice work in Asia, standing up for ethnic minorities and advocating for their rights and culture. “She walked with me into Khmer Rouge camps, and she could go drinking with deminers,” who removed land mines from the earth, her husband, anthropologist David Feingold, said. “But she could also hold the hand of a woman in a refugee camp whose baby died.”

Dr. Peters is survived by her husband, Dr. Feingold, as well as a brother and other relatives. A visitation occurred on May 14. Donations in Dr. Peters’ memory can be made to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, 1500 Walnut St., #1107, Philadelphia, Pa. 19102.

The Faculty Senate has announced its new leadership for the upcoming year: Past Chair: Kathleen Hall Jamieson (Annenberg); Chair: William W. Braham (Weitzman); Chair Elect: Vivian Gadsden (GSE). The Annual Reports of the Faculty Senate will appear in Almanac’s July 13 issue.

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.

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Actions
Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Chair’s Report. Professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson informed SEC of initial findings regarding the extent to which academic departments have established formal bylaws that are accessible to its faculty members and codify expectations for voting eligibility and procedures and faculty recruitment procedures, among other matters. The results-in-progress show that GSE, Law, PSOM, and Weitzman Design all maintain their bylaws at the school level; some SAS departments reported maintaining bylaws, and others had not yet reported; one department in Veterinary Medicine indicated interest in developing bylaws using others’ as a model; and several Wharton departments reported that they did not have bylaws nor plans to establish them. The Faculty Senate will continue to collect this information and will report final results to SEC at a future meeting.

The Tri-Chairs shared the draft Academic Year 2020-2021 Faculty Senate Practices and Procedures manual, which codifies matters not addressed in the Faculty Senate Rules. The “living” document will be maintained by the Tri-Chairs and shared with SEC at least annually in accordance with Section 18 of the newly revised Faculty Senate Rules. SEC members agreed to continue using Zoom for their meetings during Academic Year 2021- 2022; semesterly in-person gatherings will be planned if public health guidelines permit.

Issues Requiring a Vote. SEC voted to elect a slate of four faculty representatives for the 2021-2022 University Council Steering Committee.

Proposed Revisions to the Patent and Tangible Research Property Policies and Procedures. Vice Provost for Research Dawn Bonnell summarized the proposed changes to these policies, which were also posted for public comment in Almanac’s May 11, 2021 issue. Upon motion and second made, SEC members unanimously endorsed the proposed changes.

Senate Committee Reports. SEC heard and briefly discussed reports given by chairs of the Senate’s committees. These reports will be published as a supplement of a future issue of Almanac.

Passing the Torch. Professor Jamieson recognized Professor Steven Kimbrough for his three years of service as a Tri-Chair to the Faculty Senate by presenting him with a certificate certifying that one hundred trees have been planted in his honor in a U.S. National Forest by way of a contribution to the charitable organization One Tree Planted. Professor Jamieson introduced Professor Vivian Gadsden as 2021-2022 Chair-Elect of the Senate. She also recognized the service of SEC members whose terms are ending. Professor Jamieson yielded the floor to Professor William Braham. SEC members welcomed Professor Braham as Chair of the Faculty Senate for the 2021-2022 year.

On Thursday and Friday, June 10-11, 2021, there will be meetings of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. The meetings will be held virtually via the BlueJeans Events platform. Anyone wishing to attend an open public committee meeting can find the attendee link on the Secretary’s website, https://secretary.upenn.edu/trustees-governance/open-trustee-meeting, on the day of the meeting.

Below is the schedule of open committee sessions. Please contact the Office of the University Secretary at (215) 898-7005 or ofcsec@pobox.upenn.edu with questions regarding Trustee meetings or your attendance plans.

Thursday, June 10, 2021

Times are ET.

• Local, National, & Global Engagement Committee, 10-11 a.m.
• Facilities & Campus Planning Committee Meeting, 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
• Joint Meeting of Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity and Student Life Committee, 1:45-2:45 p.m.
• Academic Policy Committee, 3:15-4:15 p.m.
• Budget & Finance Committee, 3:15-4:30 p.m.

Friday, June 11, 2021

Times are ET.

• Stated Meeting of the Trustees, 12:30-1:30 p.m.

The Budget and Finance Committee and the Executive Committee of the University of Pennsylvania Trustees met virtually on Thursday, May 13. There were presentations at the Budget and Finance Committee meeting on the financial results for the Academic Component, Health System, and the Consolidated University report for the nine months ended March 31, 2021. 

Vice President of Finance and Treasurer MaryFrances McCourt and Vice President of Budget and Management Analysis Trevor Lewis reported that Penn’s financial situation continues to improve. Penn has experienced extraordinary performance in the capital markets and a strong operating performance. Ms. McCourt noted that this showed that Penn can act with agility to manage through a crisis.

Performance through March was a decrease in net assets of $8 million, $108 million better than budgeted and nearly identical to the prior year’s performance. Revenues were $89 million ahead of budget. Expenditures were $20 million under budget.

Penn Medicine Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Keith Kasper gave the UPHS report in which he described a strong position. The continued focus is on sustained activity at 100% of pre-COVID-19 levels and modifying the cost structure as required to ensure a sustainable operating position. More information will be presented about the fiscal year 2022 budget at the June Trustees meeting.

Ms. McCourt also gave a presentation on the Student Financial Wellness Initiative, which is meant to enhance student well-being by providing students with financial information to assist them at Penn and beyond.  She also noted that there is increased focus on providing need-based grant aid to middle-income families. President Amy Gutmann added that approximately 75% of Penn students graduate debt-free and debt default among students is virtually non-existent.

Senior Vice Provost for Research Dawn Bonnell presented the Research Status Update. The pandemic hindered research progress in all disciplines, but twenty years of science at Penn enabled the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines based on a transformational approach using mRNA currently in testing for 30 pathogens.  Dr. Bonnell stated that research support continues on an upward trajectory with funding having increased 50% and the number of awards having doubled over the last 10 years.

Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli presented the resolution to authorize new construction documents and early construction packages for an additional $6,150,000 (total revised budget of $11,850,000) for the data science building.

At the Executive Committee meeting, Board Chair David Cohen reminded Trustees of the 2021 Commencement ceremony on May 17 and Virtual Alumni Weekend May 15-16. He then presented two resolutions: the first, to transfer ownership of the Crooked Nose Mask to the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut in perpetuity; and the second, to elect Lee Spelman Doty Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees.  Both resolutions were approved.

President Gutmann indicated that planning for the fall semester is underway and she is thrilled that students, faculty and staff will be returning to campus. She congratulated numerous student and faculty award winners, noting that it has been a banner year for Penn faculty. She then presented resolutions to extend the appointments of Pam Grossman, Dean of the Graduate School of Education, and Theodore Ruger, Dean of Penn’s Carey Law School, which were approved.

Provost Wendell Pritchett presented the academic report which included a resolution on faculty appointments and promotions, which was approved.

Mr. Carnaroli presented the financial report and Dr. Larry Jameson presented the Penn Medicine Report.

The resolution regarding the data science building presented during the Budget and Finance Committee was approved.

The Weekly Paid Professional Staff Assembly is seeking nominations for board positions:

• WPPSA Chair
• WPPSA Chair-Elect (must be a former board member)
• WPPSA Treasurer (2)
• WPPSA Secretary
• WPPSA Communications Manager (includes: outreach, Listserv management, and website management)

If you or a colleague you know of are interested in these positions or interested in sitting on University Committees, please email mgoldsmi@upenn.edu and submit a bio paragraph and which positions and/or committees you are applying for. Former leadership experience is optional except for the Chair-Elect position.

Applications are due by 5 p.m on June 15, 2021. Please direct questions to mgoldsmi@upenn.edu.

Read the 2021 Penn Baccalaureate and Commencement supplement.

Read the Rules of the Faculty Senate supplement.

The following faculty retired during the 2020-2021 academic year. The year each one joined the Penn faculty ranks is noted in parentheses.

J. Scott Armstrong, Professor Emeritus, Marketing, Wharton (’68)
Jill M. Baren, Professor Emeritus CE, Emergency Medicine, PSOM (’97)
Janice R. Bellace, Professor Emeritus, Legal Studies & Business Ethics, Wharton (’75)
Jeffrey Bergelson, Professor Emeritus, Pediatrics, PSOM (’97)
John J. Brooks, Professor Emeritus CE, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, PSOM (’02)
David B. Brownlee, Professor Emeritus, History of Art, SAS (’80)
Mark J. Brown, Professor Emeritus, Neurology, PSOM (’74)
Youhai H. Chen, Professor Emeritus, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, PSOM (’95)
Andrew Dancis, Associate Professor Emeritus, Hematology/Oncology, PSOM (’96)
Joseph DiRienzo, Professor Emeritus, Basic & Translational Sciences, Dental (’80)
Steven D. Douglas, Professor Emeritus, Pediatrics, PSOM (’80)
Sol Walter Englander, Professor Emeritus, Biochemistry & Biophysics, PSOM (’66)
Ronald M. Fairman, Professor Emeritus CE, Surgery Administration, PSOM (’78)
Aron B. Fisher, Professor Emeritus, Physiology, PSOM (’65)
Grant Frame, Professor Emeritus, Near Eastern Languages & Culture, SAS (’06)
Margaret E. Goertz, Professor Emeritus, Education, GSE (’95)
Michael Anthony Grippi, Associate Professor Emeritus CE, Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care, PSOM (’80)
Juan E. Grunwald, Professor Emeritus CE, Ophthalmology, PSOM (’79)
Mary C. Harris, Professor Emeritus CE, Neonatology, PSOM (’82)
James A. Hoxie, Professor Emeritus, Hematology/Oncology, PSOM (’79)
Mark Johnson, Professor Emeritus CE, Surgery Administration, PSOM (’98)
Stephen E. Kimmel, Professor Emeritus, Cardiovascular Medicine, PSOM (’91)
Steven C. Larson, Associate Professor Emeritus CE, Emergency Medicine, PSOM (’88)
Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, Professor Emeritus, Medical Ethics, PSOM (’17)
Jean H. Lemaire, Professor Emeritus, Statistics, Wharton (’87)
Susan E. Levy, Professor Emeritus CE, Pediatrics, PSOM (’84)
Stephen A. Liebhaber, Professor Emeritus, Genetics, PSOM (’82)
Paul A. Liebman, Professor Emeritus, Biochemistry & Biophysics, PSOM (’62)
Jon M. Lindstrom, Professor Emeritus, Neuroscience, PSOM (’90)
David R. Manning, Professor Emeritus, Pharmacology, PSOM (’84)
Irving Nachamkin, Professor Emeritus CE, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, PSOM (’82)
Bert W. O’Malley, Professor Emeritus, Otorhinolaryngology, PSOM (’03)
Yvonne J. Paterson, Professor Emeritus, Microbiology, PSOM (’88)
Stanley Michael Phillips, Professor Emeritus, Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care, PSOM (’75)
Peter C. Phillips, Professor Emeritus CE, Neurology, PSOM (’91)
Reed E. Pyeritz, Professor Emeritus, Experimental Therapeutics, PSOM (’01)
Parvati Ramchandani, Professor Emeritus CE, Radiology, PSOM (’90)
Virginia B. Reef, Associate Professor Emeritus, Clinical Studies—New Bolton Center, Vet (’75)
Milton D. Rossman, Professor Emeritus CE, Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care, PSOM (’75)
Susan Roth, Professor Emeritus CE, Radiology, PSOM (’91)
Ronald Craig Rubenstein, Professor Emeritus, Pediatrics, PSOM (’98)
Stephen E. Rubesin, Professor Emeritus CE, Radiology, PSOM (’86)
Thomas M. Safley, Professor Emeritus, History, SAS (’88)
Barbara Dianne Savage, Professor, Africana Studies, SAS (’95)
Kaja Silverman, Professor Emeritus, History of Art, SAS (’10)
Michael B. Simson, Associate Professor Emeritus CE, Radiology, Cardiovascular Medicine, PSOM (’71)
Steven Sondheimer, Professor Emeritus CE, Obstetrics & Gynecology, PSOM (’75)
Virginia A. Stallings, Professor Emeritus CE, Pediatrics, PSOM (’85)
Anne M. Teitelman, Professor Emeritus, Family & Community Health, Nursing (’05)
Gihan I. Tennekoon, Professor Emeritus, Neurology, PSOM (’95)
Daniel A. Wagner, Professor, Policy, Organizations, Leadership, and Systems Division, Graduate School of Education (’76)*
Alan G. Wasserstein, Associate Professor Emeritus CE, Renal-Electrolyte & Hypertension, PSOM (’74)
Ralph F. Wetmore, Professor Emeritus CE, Otorhinolaryngology, PSOM (’78)

On May 12, the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation announced its fourth annual round of grant awards, providing $177,000 to support 25 ambitious and creative projects in the arts and humanities at Penn. Since its launch in 2017, the Sachs Program has funded over 200 projects and distributed approximately $1.1 million in artistic and creative support. The Sachs Program’s grantmaking is part of its larger efforts to support and advance the arts across the University. The 2021 grants support a broad range of projects in the visual arts, opera, theater, film, writing, music, translation, and cultural planning.

“These ambitious projects are a testament to Keith and Kathy Sachs’ vision to support a groundswell of artistic creation at Penn,” said Provost Wendell Pritchett.

Funded projects include:

• The department of fine arts will host Jamal Batts as their first Curator-in-Residence, engaging the Penn community around his work exploring Blackness, queerness, visual culture and the intricacies of sexual risk and risk-taking.
• Faculty member Eugene Lew (music) will present Shuttle Service, a series of improvisatory performances by weavers, musicians, and sound artists.
• The history of art department’s Living Land Acknowledgment Group will host a series of Indigenous artists, curators, and cultural leaders, called Indigenous Arts in Focus.
• Kelly Writers House will host a group of millennial Black Muslim writers, with the women guided by Husnaa Haajarah Hashim, C’22, a former Youth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia.
• The School of Nursing will partner with Elevate Theater Company LLC to create a series of theater events telling stories from healthcare’s frontline workers.
• Sachs will support three independent writing projects, including The Serpent Will Eat Whatever is in the Belly of the Beast, a speculative novel by Marc Anthony Richardson; Zain Mian’s translation of the Urdu meta-fiction novel Bhed (The Secret); and Paul Hendrickson’s research on a literary-cum-journalistic nonfiction book about his father’s life in World War ll.
• A new class, Designing Motherhood, will bring previously taboo and under-researched material on design for human reproduction into the classroom, in conjunction with a new exhibition at the Mütter Museum.
• Peter Decherney will complete a book of photographs and text exploring the Jewish Community in Gondar, Ethiopia, Ethiopia’s Last Jews.
• Undergraduate Julian Hunter will selfproduce an album of songs exploring themes of race, class, inequality, reconciliation, and love.

A complete list of the 2021 Grant Awards can be found in the Grants section of the Sachs Program website. These 25 grants are in addition to 10 Student Grants and 4 First-Year Seminar Grants awarded in the fall, as well as the grants awarded through our Ben Art Bucks program.

Congratulations to all of the 2021 grantees!

—John McInerney, Executive Director
—Chloe Reison, Associate Director
—Tamara Suber, Administrative Assistant

Joseph Francisco, the President’s Distinguished Professor of Earth and Environmental Science in the School of Arts and Sciences, has been elected to the American Philosophical Society.

The APS is the oldest learned society in the United States. Founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743, it continues its mission of “promoting useful knowledge” through research, fellowships, and public outreach. Dr. Francisco has a secondary appointment in the department of chemistry.

Joan I. Gluch, chief of Penn Dental Medicine’s division of community oral health, has been honored by the Pennsylvania Dental Association (PDA) for her public service to the community as the 2021 recipient of the PDA Public Service Award. The award recognizes her commitment to underserved communities through her innovations to improve their oral health.

As a professor of clinical community oral health and division chief of community oral health at Penn Dental Medicine, Dr. Gluch has expanded community outreach programs and partnerships and established academically based service-learning courses at Penn Dental Medicine, through which the school serves approximately 20,000 individuals annually. In addition, Dr. Gluch has secured significant funding to support the programs, including a grant to allow all predoctoral students to have clinical experience with children under five years old. Penn Dental Medicine was one of 11 dental schools nationwide to receive this “first five” Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant.

Encouraging and building an interest in community service among students, Dr. Gluch also led the development of the school’s honors program in community oral health. The honors program allows motivated students to go beyond basic community service requirements to receive an intensive experience in developing and implementing community health programs from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Madeleine Joullié, a professor of chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences, has received an honorary degree from Temple University. The honorary degree was awarded at Temple’s in-person graduation ceremony for the class of 2020 on May 6.

Dr. Joullié was born in Paris, grew up in Rio de Janeiro, and came to the United States to earn a bachelor’s in chemistry from Simmons College in Boston. She went on to earn a PhD in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1953. Dr. Joullié then joined the faculty at Penn, where she was one of the first female professors to earn tenure in chemistry at an Ivy League school. Her research interests are in the areas of heterocyclic, medicinal and natural products chemistry. Her laboratory has focused on the chemistry of the cyclopeptide alkaloids and didemnin families of natural products, as well as the development of compounds for the visualization of latent fingerprints as a forensic tool in law enforcement.

View Dr. Joullié’s speech to graduates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYA7vJGwxLg.

Provost Wendell Pritchett and Vice Provost for Faculty Laura Perna are pleased to announce the inaugural cohort of Mellon Fellows.

The Mellon Fellows Program seeks to support mid-career faculty from core humanities and arts disciplines whose work is strongly based on cultural/historical analysis. The program is intended to introduce arts and humanities faculty to the fundamentals of leadership roles, encourage collaboration and community across departments and disciplines, and build the next generation of higher education leaders with humanistic culture and values.

Ericka Beckman, associate professor of Romance languages in the School of Arts and Sciences, researches the narratives of capitalist modernity and modernization in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin America.

Kimberly Bowes, professor of classical studies and director of integrated studies in the School of Arts and Sciences, studies archaeology and material culture of the Roman and later Roman worlds and historical economies, focusing on poverty and the lived experience of the poor.

Jean-Christophe Cloutier, associate professor of English in the School of Arts and Sciences, teaches 20th century and contemporary American literature involving popular culture, notably comics and cinema.

James Ker, associate professor of classical studies in the School of Arts and Sciences, researches the cultural history of the Roman world, both in antiquity and in its reception.

Sonal Khullar, W. Norman Brown Associate Professor of South Asian studies in the School of Arts and Sciences, studies the art of South Asia from the eighteenth century onward, with a particular interest in histories of cosmopolitanism, postcolonial art worlds, and critical historiographies of art.

David Kim, associate professor of history of art in the School of Arts and Sciences, studies Southern Renaissance art, focusing on the issues of art literature, transcultural exchange, and material culture.

Zachary Lesser, Edward W. Kane Professor of English in the School of Arts and Sciences, teaches Shakespeare and early modern drama; the history of material texts, bibliography and editing; early modern political and religious debate; and digital humanities.

Heather Sharkey, professor and chair of Near Eastern languages and civilizations in the School of Arts and Sciences, is a historian of the Middle East and Africa and of the modern Christian and Islamic worlds.

Daniel Singer, associate professor of philosophy in the School of Arts and Sciences, researches the theories of epistemic normativity and group deliberation, using agent-based computer models to better understand how groups of people reason together.

Ramya Sreenivasan, associate professor of history in the School of Arts and Sciences, studies society, politics, and culture in second-millennium South Asia, the period between the thirteenth century and the present in northern India.

Emily Steinlight, associate professor of English in the School of Arts and Sciences, studies nineteenth-century British literature with a focus on the relationship between political thought and literary form.

Amy Stornaiuolo, associate professor of literacy, culture, and international education in the Graduate School of Education, studies adolescents’ multimodal composing practices, teachers’ uses of digital technologies, and shifting relationships between authors and audiences in online, networked spaces.

Julia Wilker, associate professor of classical studies in the School of Arts and Sciences, researches the Near East in Hellenistic and Roman times, focusing on the history of Judaea from the Maccabean revolt to the second century CE.

Provost Wendell Pritchett and Vice Provost for Faculty Laura Perna are pleased to announce the appointment of the thirteenth cohort of Penn Fellows.

The Penn Fellows Program provides leadership development to select Penn faculty in midcareer. Begun in 2009, the program includes opportunities to build alliances across the University, meet distinguished academic leaders, think strategically about University governance, and consult with Penn’s senior administrators.

Danielle Bassett, professor of bioengineering in Penn Engineering and physics & astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences, studies the structure and function of networks, predominantly in physical and biological systems.

Nelson Flores, associate professor of educational linguistics in the Graduate School of Education, focuses on how language and race intersect in bilingual education policies and practices in ways that are harmful to bilingual students of color.

Maria Geffen, associate professor of otorhinolaryngology, neuroscience, and neurology in the Perelman School of Medicine, researches the way the brain encodes information about the world and how our perception is shaped by our emotional state and experience.

Nancy Hodgson, chair and professor of biobehavioral health science and Anthony Buividas Endowed Term Chair in Gerontology in the School of Nursing, focuses on the development, testing, and dissemination of person-centered and family-centered interventions for persons living with dementia.

Sara Jaffee, professor of psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences, researches at-risk families and children and studies how stressful environments exacerbate underlying genetic vulnerabilities to affect children’s development.

Mechthild Pohlschröder, professor of biology in the School of Arts and Sciences, focuses on microbiology, cell and developmental biology, genetics, and genomics.

Elizabeth Rhoades, professor of chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences, aims to elucidate the principles that link protein conformational change with structure-function relationships, focusing on understanding structural plasticity in intrinsically disordered proteins.

Wendy Roth, associate professor of sociology in the School of Arts and Sciences, studies how social processes challenge racial and ethnic boundaries and transform classification systems, as well as how these processes change conceptions of the nature of race.

Patrick Seale, associate professor of cell and development biology in the Perelman School of Medicine, focuses on obesity through the biology of adipose (fat) cells and tissue, a highly dynamic and plastic organ that regulates many aspects of whole-body physiology.

Russell Shinohara, associate professor of biostatistics in the Perelman School of Medicine, focuses on the assessment of structural and functional changes in the brain throughout development and in neurological, psychiatric, and developmental disorders.

Orkan Telhan, associate professor of fine arts in the Weitzman School of Design, works in a unique area called biological design, an emerging field at the intersection of manufacturing, environmental sciences, and computational design.

Tariq Thachil, associate professor of political science and director of the Center for Advanced Study of India, researches political parties and political behavior, identity politics, and urbanization, with a regional focus on India.

Harsha Thirumurthy, associate professor of medical ethics and health policy in the Perelman School of Medicine, specializes in the intersection of economics and public health, with a focus on HIV prevention and treatment as well as maternal and child health.

Kathryn Wellen, associate professor of cancer biology in the Perelman School of Medicine, researches the intersection of nutrient availability,epigenetic modification and cancer cell metabolism.

Dagmawi Woubshet, Ahuja Family Presidential Associate Professor of English in the School of Arts and Sciences, is a scholar of African American literature and visual culture who works at the intersections of African American, LGBTQ, and African studies.

Nancy Zhang, Ge Li and Ning Zhao Professor of Statistics and Vice Dean of Doctoral Programs in the Wharton School, studies the development of statistical and computational approaches for the analysis of genetic, genomic, and transcriptomic data.

The Netter Center for Community Partnerships has announced the newest cohort of Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellows.

The Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellowship at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships is an opportunity for PhD students across all schools and fields at the University of Pennsylvania. Fellows are outstanding students whose scholarship significantly involves academically based community service (ABCS)
and related activities, including locally based community problem-solving, engaged scholarship, service learning, and learning by teaching in public schools.

Joshua Davidson (Weitzman School of Design; Faculty Advisor: Megan Ryerson)

Joshua Davidson’s research investigates how commutes may change, and thereby improve, the socio-economic quality of life by isolating and expanding on three factors that generate “shocks” in the commuting environment: 1) the effect of adding new transit services to an existing network, 2) the effect of exogenous residential change, more commonly referred to as a forced move, or displacement, and 3) the effect of public health crises. In tandem with this research, Mr. Davidson will further develop the academically based community service course he offered last fall titled Transport Justice, to be offered again in fall 2021 in the department of city and regional planning.

Breanna Moore (School of Arts and Sciences; Faculty Advisor: Kathleen Brown)

Breanna Moore plans to create a Reparations Law Clinic/Research Seminar in which students partner with reparatory justice activists and community organizers to advocate for
the implementation of reparations for descendants of enslaved Africans in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Her passion is to disseminate diverse histories to the public,especially to marginalized groups, inside and outside of academic spaces through multimodal mediums such as film, digital media, fashion, and public history projects.

Claire Wan (Graduate School of Education; Faculty Advisor: Gerald Campano)

Claire Wan plans to lead a teaching- and research-based project on language, literacy, and power in schools, and particularly their relationship to Asian American identities and experiences. She intends to incorporate youth and family voices to explore community-based advocacy and activism and, in the process, co-construct scholarly understandings of these intersecting research interests. She previously taught kindergarten and first grade.

Celia Reina, William K. Gemmill Term Assistant Professor in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, recently received the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award for interdisciplinary research spanning mechanical engineering, statistical physics, and machine learning. The award will fund Dr. Reina’s research and multiple associated outreach initiatives designed to increase gender, racial, and socioeconomic diversity in STEM.

Dr. Reina’s research focuses on understanding the mechanical response of materials when subjected to external forces. These responses stem from the material’s underlying microstructure, or the specific arrangement of atoms or particles within it. With an understanding of this link, materials can be designed faster and made stronger, boosting their reliability for use in many engineering applications.

In our everyday lives, materials undergo different, complex deformation processes, whether it is toothpaste being squeezed out of its tube, a cookie crumbling as we chew, or sand being pulled through an hourglass. Understanding how certain materials react to a specific kind of deformation, such as the impact of a rock hitting a car windshield, is therefore critical in improving their design and expanding their range of applications. However, the complex particle rearrangements that occur during these large deformations make it inherently challenging to predict how the material will behave under stress.Dr. Reina’s work aims to advance our understanding and predictive capability of some of these behaviors.

“For example, when you bend a paper clip it stays in its new shape, which means there was particle rearrangement within the structure,” Dr. Reina said. “If we could use the microscopic particle structure and dynamics to better predict how the material will react to external forces on a large scale, we could design those materials faster, at lower costs, and with more reliability.”

Dr. Reina’s CAREER Award will involve the use of machine learning to better understand how the microstructure of a material affects its effective mechanical response.

University of Pennsylvania juniors Marina Dauer, Benjamin May, and Jonathan Szeto, all in the College of Arts and Sciences, have been named 2021 Udall Scholars by the Udall Foundation. They are among 55 sophomores and juniors selected from 416 candidates nominated by 187 colleges and universities nationwide.

Each will be awarded as much as $7,000 and is recognized for leadership, public service, and commitment to issues related to Native American nations or to the environment.

Marina Dauer, from Dallas, is pursuing a double major in environmental studies and political science, with a minor in survey research and data analytics.

Ms. Dauer serves on the executive board of the Student Sustainability Association at Penn (SSAP), as chair of the Penn Environmental Group, and as a co-chair for Penn’s Climate Week.

A University Scholar, she conducts research on extreme weather insurance and disaster aid policy at the Wharton Risk Center.

Benjamin May, from Philadelphia, is pursuing a major in international relations.

Mr. May formerly served as the committee director for Sustainability and Community Impact on the Undergraduate Assembly, a student liaison to the Board of Trustees, and a cochair of SSAP.

As a Perry World House fellow, he is conducting research on policy avenues to address the global climate crisis.

He is also the founder and president of the international activism-education nonprofit ThinkOcean.

Jonathan Szeto, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, is pursuing a double major in Earth science and political science with minors in chemistry, classical studies, and sustainability and environmental management.

Mr. Szeto has held internships at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of State.

He conducts research analyzing air pollution patterns in Philadelphia’s subway system and its effects on commuters.

Penn has had eight Udall scholars since Congress established the foundation in 1992. The Udall Foundation honors Morris and Stewart Udall and their impact on the nation’s environment, public lands, and natural resources and their support of the rights and self-governance of Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

Ms. Dauer, Mr. May, and Mr. Szeto applied to the Udall Scholarship with the support of Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

Penn’s Models of Excellence Awards program has recognized the outstanding accomplishments of the University’s staff members since 1999. This year, the University of Pennsylvania is proud to honor the professionals who exemplify the dedication, care, and innovation that helped our community persevere during the pandemic. Together, the staff members embody the best in Penn community accomplishment (Almanac March 30, 2021).

Watch the 2021 Models of Excellence Video here. Although the traditional Models of Excellence ceremony could not take place this spring, the University of Pennsylvania invites the entire Penn community to celebrate the 2021 honorees by viewing a commemorative video. The video features staff member interviews, as well as images of the 23 Models of Excellence, Pillars of Excellence, Model Supervisor, and Sustaining Penn Through COVID-19 honorees.

On a cold and windy April day, six Penn Nursing students stood in groups of two and three at the corner of 40th and Walnut Streets. Under a gray folding table, several backpacks perched against an open cardboard box. Tallulah, junior Lily McDowell’s dog and unofficial mascot of the day’s events, stood at the ready, her leash attached to Ms. McDowell’s backpack.

“Free mask kit,” said Lauren Fisher, an accelerated bachelor’s student graduating in December. “It’s a mask and hand sanitizer,” she explained, showing a passerby a clear plastic bag that also held educational materials. The person walked by without a glance, but Ms. Fisher was undeterred, quickly trying again with someone else. Nearby Tallulah worked her magic; as people came close to pet her, Ms. McDowell handed out kits. All told, the students gave away 400 mask kits to pedestrians, drivers stopped at the traffic light who beckoned through open windows, and a public transit bus full of people. They ran out of their stock in less than an hour.

That day’s mask distribution signified an endpoint to a semester-long project, one driven by the community-immersion facet of the students’ upper-level case study class—and a call from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “The University was contacted to participate in this nationwide university surveillance of mask usage. The School of Nursing was asked to take the lead,” said Terri Lipman, Penn Nursing’s assistant dean for community engagement.

It was a logical fit for the school, added Antonia M. Villarruel, the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing. “Nurses support individuals, families, and communities in engaging in health promoting behaviors. Having the opportunity to observe, document, and support mask-wearing is consistent with our practice.”

Since that January ask, Penn has participated in MASCUP! (the Mask Adherence Surveillance at Colleges and Universities Project). Weekly, at ten sites across campus, six students documented how many people were wearing masks, what type of mask, and whether they were worn correctly. At each outing, the students made 400 observations to share with the CDC. The agency then compiled the data to send back to the University, one of 53 engaged in the program.

Though Penn doesn’t yet have the summary statistics, the CDC recently shared averages across all MASCUP! participants for the first eight weeks. More than 83,000 observations showed overall mask usage hovering above 90%, with similar results for correct mask placement and use. “By looking at mask usage on college campuses, we can determine whether our messaging has been effective,” Dr. Lipman said. “We can also look forward. It is possible that masks will continue to be required in the coming months and perhaps the coming year. Where are those sites on our campus that need reinforcement and what can we do to improve?”

Answering the Call

When Dr. Lipman received the information about MASCUP!, she had just begun co-teaching a course, Social Determinants of Health: Community Engagement Immersion, with Dalmacio Dennis Flores, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing. It’s a flipped class, meaning the majority of time is spent outside an actual classroom and engaged in community initiatives.

“We had this class that was already running for the spring semester,” said Dr. Flores. “It became a perfect opportunity for some of our students to do this type of surveillance activity in our community. Six students indicated interest,” including Lauren Fisher.

Ms. Fisher isn’t a traditional undergraduate, having already completed a bachelor’s degree in 2016 at the University of San Diego. She also worked in research for several years before starting at Penn Nursing, so Dr. Flores thought MASCUP! could be a good fit given her background.

“I’ve been wanting to get more involved with the community, but during the pandemic, that wasn’t always the easiest,” Ms. Fisher said. The class, and more specifically, MASCUP!, gave her the chance.

Every Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. for ten weeks, she sat on the same bench in Hill Square, at the intersection of 34th and Walnut streets. Across the way, she would watch another bench, always the same one, for an hour or until she counted 40 people, whichever came first. “When someone would walk past the bench, I would note their mask-wearing,” said Ms. Fisher, who is from San Jose, California. “Depending on how heavily trafficked an area was, you either counted every third or tenth person. I counted every third.”

Students could immediately enter their observations into the CDC database or add them later. Ms. Fisher waited, so she could jot down comments for herself and to share with Dr. Lipman, Dr. Flores, and the rest of the cohort, which included Ms. McDowell, juniors Isabel Martinez and Madeline McAvoy, and seniors Farzana Talukdar and Anna Chin. Ms. Talukdar was part of a different undergraduate class, one focused on research. The team surveilled ten total campus spots, including Huntsman Hall, Houston Hall, an area on Locust Walk, and outside Pottruck Fitness Center.

“We can tell people to wear masks all we want, but until we watch and come up with constructive ways to try to promote mask-wearing, it’s not going to help anyone,” Ms. Fisher said. “If we’re not watching this, we’re never going to know what truly is happening, especially on college campuses.”

Looking Forward

A year-plus into the pandemic, the COVID-19 situation still changes frequently. With no clear end in sight, at least for certain aspects like masks, Dr. Flores and Dr. Lipman see the MASCUP! work as crucial to ensuring the safety of the Penn campus and the broader community. To that end, they included two neighborhood sites in the project, at the 40th Street Acme grocer and the Penn Bookstore.

“We have a commitment to our neighbors and the outlying community,” Dr. Lipman said. “We saw this as an opportunity to continue with that commitment, which is why we felt it was important to also survey mask usage in the neighborhood.”

And though it is not officially part of MASCUP!, Ms. Fisher and her peers also tracked qualitative information, noting the circumstances in which they saw people pulling down their masks, for example, or whether certain populations like, say, health care workers coming off a shift were more likely than others to go without a mask.

Those anecdotes helped guide what education and resources the team ended up creating. “We tried to pull out larger themes so we could determine what messaging was appropriate,” Dr. Flores said. “This helps with our focus on community health. Nurses aren’t just confined in acute care settings. We are also out in public and observe the many ways we can make a difference in community education.”

At the mask-distribution event, the team quickly saw the fruits of their labor: Someone who had taken a bag earlier returned, wearing the mask from the kit. “He’s our walking commercial,” Ms. Fisher laughed. A minute later, a LUCY Green Loop bus stopped at the red light. Ms. Talukdar got on, her arms full of bagged kits. When she stepped off again, her arms were empty, her face beaming. Nearby, Tallulah continued to attract fans, and in no time, the bags were gone.

“Through this project and this course, it was important for us to connect how watching other students wear masks is congruent with the objectives of community engagement,” Dr. Lipman said. “This may not have been the type of engagement the students initially had in mind, but now they’ve been able to see how, by collecting data and driving messaging, they’re taking part in a very important public-health initiative.”

These lessons will help them, whatever their ultimate path, Dean Villarruel said. “Our students are contributing in meaningful ways to curbing the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Adapted from a Penn Today story by Michele Berger, May 3, 2021.

Download the Summer AT PENN calendar as a PDF or visit the online version at https://almanac.upenn.edu/at-penn-calendar/summer-at-penn-2021

The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents its last livestream of the season, featuring the world premiere of re-entering by choreographer Matthew Neenan, Thursday, May 27 at 7 p.m. This live event will be streamed online for a remote audience.

Matthew Neenan began his dance training at the Boston Ballet School and with noted teachers Nan C. Keating and Jacqueline Cronsberg. He later attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and the School of American Ballet in New York. From 1994 to 2007, Mr. Neenan danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet, where he danced numerous principal roles in the classical, contemporary, and Balanchine repertoire. In October 2007, he was named choreographer in residence at the Pennsylvania Ballet, where he has created 19 ballets. Mr. Neenan is also the co-founder of BalletX.

Mr. Neenan has created a site-specific work, with re-entering taking place in spaces throughout the Annenberg Center, eventually culminating on the stage of the Harold Prince Theatre. Dancers are Telmo Moreira, Caili Quan, Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan, and Michael Trusnovec.

Mr. Neenan said about the program: “The work re-entering centers on the four dancers reexamining their being as we begin to encounter life as it once was. As artists, we have been put at a halt and have had to search for variant ways to keep existing in a world without live theater performance. We have been isolated, and now, we are re-exploring who we were before with a whole new set of eyes.”

The Annenberg Center’s 2021 spring digital season has encompassed livestreamed performances featuring world premieres and Philadelphia debuts by top dance companies and outstanding jazz artists, collaborative music performances, and screenings of independent films. Designed specifically for the digital stage, the live performances are broadcast using state-of-the-art digital technology from the Prince or Zellerbach Theatre, integrating live chat, and concluding with interactive discussions with the creators and performers. Livestreamed performances are available online for 48 hours after the start time for those who purchased access.

Visit AnnenbergCenter.org for more information.

Penn has a variety of activities available for young children and students of every age this summer.

Click here to visit our supplement, which lists all the camps, and programs as well as corresponding registration links, where you will find which camps still have space available.

Conferences

27      Spinoza After Marx; will explore the encounter between the schools of thought of Spinoza and Marx, posing the question of how to conceive the two bodies of thought as a joint project; 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; Facebook event; join: https://www.facebook.com/events/177597294129092/ (Germanic Languages and Literatures). Through May 29, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

Fitness & Learning

26      Open House: Endodontics; learn about Penn Dental’s advanced program in endodontics from faculty in the program; 6-8 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: https://www.dental.upenn.edu/news-events/events/ (Penn Dental). 

Graduate School of Education (GSE)
Online events. Info and to register: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news/events-calendar.

27      Breakroom with the Community-Building Committee; 12:30 p.m.

Penn Nursing
Online events. Info and to register: https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/calendar/.

25      Alumni Workshop: Building Your Career; 7 p.m.

School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2)
Online events. Info and to register: https://www.sp2.upenn.edu/sp2-events/.

25      Supporting Mental Health and Addiction in the Age of COVID: Guidance for Donors; 1 p.m. 

Talks

27      Studying the Complex and Reproducible Nature of Plant Development; Aman Husbands, Ohio State University; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98844553589 (Biology). 

28      Across the Margin: Finding a New Page from Jean Bourdichon’s Hours of Louis XII; Nicholas Herman, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies; 1 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://libcal.library.upenn.edu/event/7774537 (Penn Libraries). 

Penn Dental
Online events. Info and to register: https://www.dental.upenn.edu/news-events/events/.

25      Managing the Fear of the Bill: Strategies to Make Patients Feel More Comfortable; Todd Singer, Penn Dental; 5:30 p.m.

26      Data Acquisition—Laboratory scanning, Intraoral Scanning, Face Scanning and Dicom Files: The Foundation of the Digital Workflow; Michael Bergler, Penn Dental; 6 p.m. 

--
AT PENN Deadlines

To submit updates to the Summer AT PENN calendar, email almanac@upenn.edu.

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 May 10-16, 2021. View prior week’s 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 May 10-16, 2021. 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: 6 incidents (3 assaults, 1 aggravated assault, 1 indecent exposure and 1 robbery) were reported for May 10-16, 2021 by the 18^th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th St & Market St to Woodland Avenue.

The Office of Transportation and Parking has several announcements for the Penn Community.

Commuter and Information Resource Portal

As faculty and staff begin to plan their return to campus, a new integrated web resource has been made available at www.upenn.edu/commuting/updates. This site connects you to a robust information portal about commuting at Penn. There you will find important updates, information about discounted public transit and bike commuter options, how Penn Transit can serve commuters who reside near the University, campus parking options, and other valuable resources.

There have been a few important changes that faculty and staff should consider when exploring what commuting options are offered:

SEPTA Paper Passes Retired/A SEPTA Key Card is Required to Ride

Commuters are reminded that paper passes are no longer used by SEPTA. Passengers will now use a SEPTA Key Card to ride SEPTA’s buses, trolleys, subways, and regional rail. Discounted TrailPasses and TransPasses may be ordered from Health Equity/Wage Works. Visit www.septa.org for their latest route, services, health, and safety updates.

Important: All Health Equity/Wage Works commuter orders (e.g.—SEPTA COMPASS Key Card, PATCO, NJ Transit, Commuter Parking Card) must be placed by the 10th of the month prior to the commuting month you intend to use the pre-loaded funds or transportation fare products.

Parking Rates at Campus Lots and Garages

Parking Services has worked diligently to minimize permit rates to the extent possible and remains committed to investing resources to sustain Penn’s comprehensive parking and transportation infrastructure in support of the campus community. The new FY2022 parking rates are posted here and reflect a two percent permit rate increase from FY2020, which equates to an average increase of $4.00/month. The rates remain favorable to comparable parking facilities in University City.

As faculty and staff explore what parking options may best meet their work schedules, there are several factors to be considered:

Individuals Parking on Campus Three or More Days/Week

Anyone parking three or more days a week at University lots and garages will find that a discounted monthly permit ordered through payroll deduction at pre-tax savings is the most cost-effective, reliable, and recommended option. Permits represent the best value with an average cost of $10/day and individuals with permits are assigned to the same garage/lot each day.

Individuals Parking on Campus One or Two Days/Week

Penn Parking will continue its daily parking program in its visitor locations on a space-available basis. Effective July 1, all-day parking will be $17 and five-hour parking $13.

Now Available: Commuter Parking Card for As-Needed Parking

The Health Equity/Wage Works Commuter Parking Card is available to benefits-eligible, full-time faculty and staff who would like to allocate a pre-set dollar amount on the stored value debit card for as-needed parking. Similar to other programs administered by Health Equity/WageWorks, parkers can realize significant tax savings by deducting their occasional commuting parking fees via payroll, up to $270 a month on a pre-tax basis. Any amount over $270 each month is regarded as post-tax dollars.

This card can be used at Penn garages and lots that allow visitor parking. It is intended to cover parking costs associated with your commute to work, and not for parking costs incurred for work-related travel expenses and non-work-related events and activities. (Note – the card is not intended for permit parkers at Penn parking facilities.)

Current permit holders should note that if you suspended your parking permit during the pandemic, it is time to reactivate it, as was communicated by email last week. Suspended permit parkers are instructed to indicate your intention to resume your permit and its effective date. If you do not plan to keep your permit, please let us know so we can more dynamically allocate spaces. Anyone who has not responded by Monday, August 2 will have their permit and credentials canceled.

Also, as you might expect, there is currently a very high demand for parking on campus. Penn Transportation and Parking will do its best to process your application in a timely manner and fulfill your requested location; however, it may not be able to honor your request. You will have the choice to accept the garage or lot available and be on a waitlist for your preferred location.

Lastly, please also consider carpool options that include discounted parking incentives. As commuting information may be updated in the coming months, please monitor www.upenn.edu/commuting/updates for the latest information.

Customer Service Options

For questions regarding placing a new commuter order or updating an existing one, please call Health Equity/ WageWorks at 1-877-924-3967 and follow the prompts.

Inquires about the SEPTA Key Card and available transportation fare products may be directed to SEPTA Key Card Customer Service at 1-855-56-SEPTA (1-855-567-3782).

The Office of Transportation and Parking is your information resource for questions regarding campus parking sites, rates, and availability, or any issues with point-of-sale payment in our garages or lots. Please contact staff at parking@upenn.edu. If you have general comments or concerns you would like to provide about our commuting and parking options, please contact Business Services Division Feedback.

—Penn Transportation and Parking

As the University of Pennsylvania enters the summer term, Penn Libraries continues to develop innovative ways to meet the needs of faculty, staff, and students while complying with evolving public health guidelines.

This summer, the Libraries will continue to provide virtual support and access to physical and digital collections. From accounting to veterinary services, subject specialists are available to work with the Penn community through chat, email, phone, and web conferencing. In addition, new and expanded services will offer more options for in-person browsing, research, and individual study.

Read on for information about selected services that will be available this summer, and please reference the Libraries’ Phased Services FAQ for the most comprehensive and up-to-date details about library operations.

Pickup and Home Delivery

Pickup@Penn will continue this summer. This program makes it possible for Penn faculty, students, and staff to request books and other materials and pick them up in a designated area on the ground floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. Prefer not to pick up materials on campus? Books by Mail and Digital Delivery services are also still available.

On-Campus Access

Stacks Browsing Appointments

Stacks access is available to all active Penn faculty, students, and staff by appointment in Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. One- to two-hour browsing appointments may be scheduled between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. The tables in the Moelis Lounge and Moelis Electronic Research Center are open to patrons with stacks appointments to consult materials while onsite.

Special Collections Material and Consultations

The Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts offers on-site access to the Charles K. MacDonald Reading Room by appointment on weekdays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Researchers should email kislak@pobox.upenn.edu at least 24 hours in advance to set up appointments and provide information on the material needed. The Kislak Center will also continue to offer remote services for researchers, including free digitization of up to 500 pages of material or a one-hour remote curator consultation with a document camera.

Seat Reservations

Seat reservations will continue to be available for individual study in Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. Operating hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, and eligibility now includes all active Penn faculty, students, and staff.

Latest Service Updates

The safety of our staff and our users is our top priority. The Libraries will continue to adapt services to address changing needs and circumstances throughout the school year, with guidance from the University and local and state officials. Visit the Libraries’ Phased Services FAQ for the latest updates.

—Penn Libraries

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

Three years ago, the Penn Office of Information Security (OIS) surveyed the Penn community to determine which information security actions and practices are essential to help you in protecting yourself and sensitive Penn data. These six topics formed the basis of ISC’s Year of Basics.

Install and run antivirus software. Penn provides free software to all eligible affiliates, such as most faculty and staff. Be sure to update your antivirus software with the latest definitions and schedule a scan at least once a week. You can also schedule scans and updates to run automatically.

Use a password manager. A password manager is a software application designed to securely store and manage online credentials. LastPass allows you to use one password to access your protected list of saved passwords, can generate multiple complex passwords, and is compatible with the use of Two-Step Verification. Penn provides LastPass Premium to eligible affiliates at no charge.

Understand the sensitivity of your data by familiarizing yourself with Penn’s Data Risk Classification. Penn classifies its data into three categories based on the level of data sensitivity: High, Moderate and Low.

Enroll in Two-Step Verification for PennKey and other Penn services that support it. Penn recommends using Duo Mobile for the best Two-Step Verification experience.

Update your software. This is the single most powerful thing you can do to protect your computing assets and sensitive data. Patched, up-to-date software ensures you have the latest fixes and security patches available. Make sure you enable automatic updates and install them when offered.

Verify information before you act. Be wary of unsolicited emails, texts, or phone calls. Malicious individuals use techniques like phishing, phone scams, infected USB drives, and impersonation to gain your trust to lure you to share sensitive information.

For additional information visit: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/basics.

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.

As shown in the infographic, many groups face significant barriers to finding lifesaving matches for blood stem cell or marrow transplants.

If you are interested in becoming a donor, please visit https://join.bethematch.org/Penn or text “Penn” to the number 61474. You can also view a recent information session recording to learn more about the process (patient stories from 00:00-23:00, information on donation process from 23:00-46:00, and Q&A from 46:00-56:00). For questions, email hayp@upenn.edu.

Below are the hours for several buildings and services on campus during June, July and August of 2021. During COVID-19, hours may vary, so check for the most up-to-date hours at the links provided. 

Amazon@Penn: Sunday-Friday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m.-7 p.m.; info: https://www.amazon.com/ulp?zipcode=19104

Annenberg Center Box Office: Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; info: https://annenbergcenter.org/events/order.php

The ARCH: info: https://perelmanquad.vpul.upenn.edu/arch/

Class of 1923 Ice Rink: registration required; info: https://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/icerink/public-skating.html

English House Café: closed through August 15; info: https://university-of-pennsylvania.cafebonappetit.com/cafe/kings-court-english-house/

Fox Fitness: Monday-Friday, 6 a.m.-11:30 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m.-11 p.m.; info: https://recreation.upenn.edu/index.aspx

Gourmet Grocer: closed through June 6; Monday-Thursday/Sunday: 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; info: https://university-of-pennsylvania.cafebonappetit.com/cafe/1920-gourmet-grocer/

Hecht/Hamlin Tennis Center: reservations required; Monday-Friday,  8 a.m.-1 p.m., 4 p.m.-7:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.; info: https://recreationwebportal.dria.upenn.edu/

Hill House Café: closed though August 15; info: https://university-of-pennsylvania.cafebonappetit.com/cafe/hill-house/

Hillel: closed; info: https://www.pennhillel.org/events/building-hours

Houston Hall: info: https://perelmanquad.vpul.upenn.edu/houstonhall/

Houston Market: info: https://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/dining/hours-locations-a-menus/retail-dining/houston-market.html

Kelly Writers House: Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-11 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, noon-5 p.m.; Sunday; 6-11 p.m.; info: http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/

Lauder College House Café: closed through August 15; info: https://university-of-pennsylvania.cafebonappetit.com/cafe/lch-retail/

LUCY: weekdays, 6:15 a.m.-7:30 p.m.; schedule: http://www4.septa.org/schedules/bus/pdf/LUCY.pdf

Morris Arboretum: advance tickets required; Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; info: https://www.morrisarboretum.org/visit_hours.shtml

Newman Catholic Community: various daily mass times; info: https://newman.upenn.edu/contact

Penn Bookstore: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; info: https://upenn.bncollege.com/shop/upenn/home

PennCard Center: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; info: https://penncard.business-services.upenn.edu/the-penncard-center

Penn Children’s Center: daily, 7 a.m.-7 p.m.; info: https://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/childcare/parent-info.html

Penn Mail Services: daily, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.; info: https://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/mail/about/location-and-hours.html

Penn Museum: one-hour ticked required; Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; info: https://www.penn.museum/visit/plan-your-visit

Penn Transportation and Parking: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; info: https://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/transportation/about/parking-services-overview.html

Perry World House: closed; info: https://global.upenn.edu/perryworldhouse

Pottruck Health Center: reservations required; Monday-Friday, 6 a.m.-11:30 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m.-11 p.m.; info: https://recreation.upenn.edu/sports/2021/1/28/pottruck-reopening-policies.aspx

Platt House: closed; info: https://platthouse.vpul.upenn.edu/contact/

Pret-A-Manger: closed through August 15; info: https://university-of-pennsylvania.cafebonappetit.com/cafe/pret-a-manger-lower/

Residential Services: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; info: https://residential-services.business-services.upenn.edu/

Starbucks, 1920 Commons: closed through June 6; Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-11 p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; info: https://university-of-pennsylvania.cafebonappetit.com/cafe/1920-starbucks/

Student Health Services: telehealth and in-office hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Satuday, 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m.; info: https://shs.wellness.upenn.edu/

University Club: Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.; info: https://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/universityclub/about-the-club/facilities-and-services.html

Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center: library closed; Pickup@Penn: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; daily hours: https://www.library.upenn.edu/about/hours/vp

1920 Commons: closed through June 6; Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-10:30 a.m., 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; 5-8 p.m.; info: https://university-of-pennsylvania.cafebonappetit.com/cafe/1920-commons/