February 28, 2023 Volume 69 Issue 25

We are pleased to announce the formation of an ad hoc consultative committee to advise on the selection of the next dean of the Annenberg School for Communication. The members of the consultative committee are listed below. The committee welcomes—and will keep in the strictest confidence—nominations and input from all members of the University community. For fullest consideration, communications should be received, preferably in electronic form, no later than April 15, 2023, and may be sent to: annenbergdeansearch@upenn.edu.

—M. Elizabeth Magill, President
—Beth A. Winkelstein, Interim Provost
—John L. Jackson, Jr., Provost-Designate

Consultative Committee Membership

Faculty

Vijay Kumar, Committee Chair; Professor and Nemirovsky Family Dean, School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS)
Sandra González-Bailón, Associate Professor of Communication (ASC)
Yphtach Lelkes, Associate Professor of Communication (ASC)
Raina M. Merchant, Professor of Emergency Medicine (PSOM)
Aswin Punathambekar, Professor of Communication (ASC)
Desmond Upton Patton, Brian and Randi Schwartz University Professor (ASC and SP2)
Victor Pickard, C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy (ASC)
Barbie Zelizer, Raymond Williams Professor of Communication (ASC)

Students

Sarika Rau, Undergraduate Student
Azsaneé Truss, Graduate Student

Alumni

Lourdes S. Martinez, Gr’11
Amy Jo Smith, C’88 

Ex Officio

Joann Mitchell, Senior Vice President for Institutional Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer

Staff to the Committee

Seth Zweifler, Office of the President

Consultants to the Committee

Jackie Gallagher Zavitz, partner, Heidrick & Struggles
J.J. Cutler, partner, Heidrick & Struggles
Meghan Ashbrock, engagement manager, Heidrick & Struggles

Interim Provost Beth A. Winkelstein has announced the appointment of Hikaru “Karu” Kozuma as Vice Provost for University Life, beginning May 1, 2023. Dr. Kozuma is currently executive director of College Houses and Academic Services and served previously at Penn as Associate Vice Provost for University Life and executive director of the Office of Student Affairs. 

“Karu Kozuma is a highly experienced national leader in university life who is well known across our Penn community for his empathy, wisdom, and collaborative skill,” said Interim Provost Winkelstei. “He is deeply committed to the engagement and well-being of our students, both graduate and undergraduate, as his own experience encompasses every size and aspect of student life, including his own experience as a graduate student at GSE. 

“I, along with incoming Provost John Jackson, am deeply grateful to the consultative committee and to the members of our community who participated in the search process for this vital position—as well as to Tamara Greenfield King for her invaluable ongoing service as Interim Vice Provost for University Life. We are confident that Karu will be an outstanding partner to all of us in leading our university life initiatives in the years ahead.” 

Dr. Kozuma—who received the highly distinguished Pillar of the Profession Award last year from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators—has served at Penn as executive director of College Houses and Academic Services since 2021 and as Associate Vice Provost for University Life and executive director of the Office of Student Affairs from 2010 to 2018. From 2018 to 2021, he was the chief student affairs officer at Amherst College, overseeing all aspects of student affairs, including residential life, student activities, and academic advising. Before coming to Penn in 2010, he was the director of residential programs at Columbia University and spent three years in residential life at Middlebury College. He received an EdD in higher education from the Penn Graduate School of Education in 2015, an MEd in higher education administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Administration in 2002, and a BA from Middlebury College in 1998. 

A national search for a new executive director of College Houses and Academic Services will begin immediately, with more details to be announced soon. 

Interim Provost Beth A. Winkelstein has announced the appointment of Russell J. Composto as faculty co-director of Penn First Plus (P1P), beginning July 1, 2023. Dr. Composto is currently a professor of materials science and engineering, the Howell Family Faculty Fellow, and associate dean for undergraduate education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. 

“Russ Composto has long been one of our campus leaders in advancing support and mentoring for our students,” said Interim Provost Winkelstein, “including new programs for student wellness, community service, and research and mentoring for first-generation and/or low-income students. He is one of the leaders of our exciting new initiative to increase inclusivity in STEM education at Penn, which just received a major six-year grant from the Inclusive Excellence initiative of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Within SEAS, he led the development of a new engineering curriculum and a new program of individualized student advising, both of which have been highly successful in enhancing the academic experiences of our undergraduates. 

“I am extremely grateful to Robert Ghrist for his longstanding dedication to Penn’s undergraduates and his leadership over the past five years as an inaugural faculty co-director of P1P—as well as to ongoing faculty co-director Camille Charles, executive director Marc Lo, and the outstanding P1P staff and extended team for their work in sustaining P1P’s invaluable mission on our campus.” 

Penn First Plus, founded in 2018, provides support, resources, and community-building for undergraduate students who identify as lower- to middle-income and/or are the first in their families to attend college. It includes the Shleifer Family Penn First Plus Center in College Hall and the Pre-First Year Program, an intensive four-week summer program for select incoming first-year students, preceding New Student Orientation, that offers comprehensive support services which continue throughout students’ undergraduate experiences at Penn. 

Dr. Composto has served as associate dean for undergraduate education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science since 2015. In his more than thirty years at Penn, he has also served as both undergraduate chair and graduate group chair of materials science and engineering and has been awarded the Provost’s Award for Distinguished PhD Teaching and Mentoring, the Geoffrey Marshall Mentoring Award of the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools, and the Ford Motor Company Award for Faculty Advising. 

Dr. Composto is a world-leading pioneer of polymer science who is a fellow and former chair of the division of polymer physics of the American Physical Society. He has received a Special Creativity Award from the National Science Foundation, and recently became co-director of a major NSF-funded initiative to bring together soft matter, data science, and science policy as part of the NSF Research Traineeship Program, which encourages transformative models for training of STEM graduate students, especially in new, high-priority interdisciplinary research areas. He received a PhD and MS from Cornell University and a BA in physics from Gettysburg College. 

A new learning assignment model will replace Penn Profiler to assist University departments and training content owners which are responsible for assigning, managing, maintaining, and reporting on training required by faculty, postdocs, students, staff and others who work on campus. These departments have collaborated to help develop processes available in Workday, the University’s human capital management (HCM) platform. On March 6, 2023 Workday Learning will replace Knowledge Link as the University’s administrative learning management (LMS) system. Workday will also replace Penn Profiler, the University’s annual web-based survey, which has served the University since 2008. The Penn Profiler survey compiled participants’ responses to help identify training required by federal and state laws and regulations, granting agencies, and University policy. 

The new learning assignment model takes advantage of both the data and capabilities of the University’s HCM platform and the evolving data and capabilities of integrated  systems across the University. 

The Workday processes are available to all University training providers. Currently, the processes are configured as follows: 

• Workday can trigger assignments based on the selection of learner groups by learners themselves (self-selection) or by their managers. Searching for and selecting learner groups is a concise experience. More information, demonstrations, and tip sheets for learners,  managers, and administrators will soon be available on the Workday Learning Guide.
• Workday can automatically trigger assignments for staff, postdocs, faculty, temps, and student workers on job roles and responsibilities based on the worker’s record in Workday HCM.
• Workday can also automatically trigger assignments for those individuals who are not workers but need access to training. These individuals are referred to as Extended Enterprise Learners. They include students who are not employed by the University as student workers, academic affiliates who are not paid by the University, service providers, and other non-Penn individuals.
• Workday Learning lead is a new Workday security role. Learning leads have extensive LMS administrative capabilities in Workday on behalf of the training content owners they represent. They can also make mass learning assignments in Workday.
• Some Workday learning leads and training content owners also have developed alternate ways to assign, manage, maintain, and report on training requirements.

More information is available on the Workday website.

—University of Pennsylvania Workday Operations and IT Learning Solutions-ISC Client Services 

Rein Abel, a former professor of accounting in the Wharton School, died on December 23, 2022, due to complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 96.

Dr. Abel was born in Tartu, Estonia, in 1926. His youth was disrupted by Soviet and German invasions of Estonia during World War II. In 1944, as a high school student at the French Lycée in Tallinn, Estonia, Dr. Abel joined the Fliegergruppe Estland, an Estonian air force squadron, to avoid conscription into the German army. Evacuated to Germany in September 1944 in advance of the Soviet occupation, Dr. Abel saw his homeland only after Estonia regained independence in 1991. He never saw active duty, but was captured twice by Soviet troops as the German front dissolved. His second escape ended with a night swim across the Elbe River into the American zone. He spent several years in displaced persons camps in Germany, lastly in Meerbeck, before emigrating to England.

In England, Dr. Abel worked in an iron foundry and earned a BSc in economics from London University (1952), followed by a certificate in business administration (1956) from the London School of Economics. At Columbia University, he then earned an MBA (1960) and a PhD (1967). From 1954 to 1972, Dr. Abel held various accounting positions, including at Arthur Young & Co., in Buffalo, New York. From 1966 to 1972 he taught at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1972 he accepted a position as an assistant director of the Cost Accounting Standards Board (CASB) in Washington, DC. The CASB promoted cost accounting standards governing the pricing of government contracts, including defense contracts. In 1980, the CASB was dissolved, and Dr. Abel took a position at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), as director of cost and regulatory accounting, joining the Senior Executive Service in 1984. He spent 1982 to 1984 in Vienna, Austria, on a temporary assignment as head of the accounting and finance section of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Dr. Abel rejoined the CASB in 1991 when it was reinstated, as director of research, and remained there until his retirement in 2005.

Dr. Abel is survived by his wife, Marju Rink-Abel; and their son, Olav. He will be buried next to his parents in Tartu, Estonia, later this year.

Leonard S. Charlap, a former associate professor of mathematics in the School of Arts and Sciences, died on February 5 at home in Princeton, New Jersey. He was 84.

Dr. Charlap was born in Wilmington, Delaware and grew up in Penns Grove, New Jersey. He studied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed his PhD at Columbia University. In 1964, he joined the faculty of Penn’s mathematics department as an assistant professor, and in 1968, he was promoted to associate professor. From 1969 to 1970, he spent a year at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, then became a full professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook upon his return. While at SUNY Stony Brook, Dr. Charlap received a National Science Foundation Award.

Dr. Charlap finished his career as a research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses’ Center for Communications Research (CCR) in Princeton, New Jersey. In Princeton, he was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study during the 1960s and again in the 1990s, and was a member of the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science at Rutgers University from 1990 to 1991. In 1986, Dr. Charlap published a renowned graduate textbook, Bieberbach Groups and Flat Manifolds. With his CCR colleague, David Robbins, he wrote a paper that has become the standard primer for those interested in beginning to study elliptic curves with an eye to algorithmic implementation. Dr. Charlap retired in 2000 and committed his life to his interest in classical music, visual art, the Philadelphia Eagles, his dogs, and current events. In his retirement, he frequently wrote letters to the editor of The New York Times, many of which were published.

He is survived by his two daughters, Jess and Emily Charlap; his brother, Richard Charlap; and his grandson, Rowan. No services will be held, as per Dr. Charlap’s wishes.

Paul Rice “Herky” Rubincam, W’60, a former director of athletics at Penn and a Penn Athletics Hall of Fame member, died on February 7 of heart failure at home in Palm City, Florida. He was 89.

Born in 1933 in Abington, Pennsylvania, Mr. Rubincam grew up in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, where he attended Coatesville High School. As a boy, he got the nickname Herky, short for Hercules, because he thought he was as strong as the mythical hero. He was an all-state basketball player at Coatesville and a star postgraduate player for two years at the Lawrenceville School; later in life, he would be inducted into both school’s halls of fame. He attended the Wharton School for an undergraduate degree, which he received in 1960 after serving in the U.S. Army for two years. In the Army, he was stationed in Texas and Germany and played on the basketball and baseball teams.

Mr. Rubincam was involved with sports at Penn from his time as an undergraduate. He was elected captain of the 1959-1960 men’s basketball team but was unable to play due to eligibility issues caused by his military duty. Instead, he served as an assistant coach with that team and returned to the coaching staff two years after graduating. While coaching, Mr. Rubincam also worked in Penn’s admissions office, where he later served as assistant dean until 1970. From 1970 to 1974, he took the newly formed position of director of conferences before moving to Wharton as its director of alumni affairs, a position he held for more than a decade.

As Penn’s director of athletics from 1985 to 1993, Mr. Rubincam made three of the most significant hires in the athletic department’s history: Fran Dunphy as head coach of men’s basketball, Al Bagnoli as head football coach, and Roger Reina as head wrestling coach (hiring Mr. Reina at the age of 24, by far the youngest wrestling coach in America at the time). Those three coaches won a total of 27 Ivy League championships and made the Quakers Ivy League and national powers during their respective tenures. From 1993 to 1996, Mr. Rubincam served as as director of special gifts development, during which he increased Penn’s annual fund-raising campaign for sports to nearly $3 million. He also directed the multimillion-dollar renovation of Penn’s athletic facilities, added varsity golf to its 30-team intercollegiate program, and elevated women’s soccer to varsity status. From 1996 until his retirement, Mr. Rubincam spent 11 years as executive director of the Big 5.

“I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Paul Rubincam,” said Alanna Shanahan, the T. Gibbs Kane, Jr. W’69 Director of Athletics and Recreation. “Herky’s impact on the University, Penn Athletics and the Big 5 was profound and his induction into the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019 was so well deserved. There are few Quakers who had five decades of service to our great University like Paul did. My thoughts and prayers are with the Rubincam family during this time.” When Mr. Rubincam received the invitation to his 2019 hall of fame induction, he initially believed the invitation was as a master of ceremonies rather than an inductee, a misunderstanding that his contemporaries fondly attribute to his unassuming nature.

“A lot of what he did was behind the scenes,” said Decker Uhlhorn, a senior advisor at Penn and Mr. Rubincam’s close friend. “And that’s how he wanted it. But his work was so important. I can’t even imagine how many student-athletes he impacted, in any number of ways. And nobody ever had anything bad to say about him. He just went about being who he was and getting things done. He didn’t care about getting his name in the lights. He just had a passion for the University. And that was enough. He was a factor in countless lives, through his relationships and his work. That’s his legacy.”

Mr. Rubincam was a lifelong golfer who also played tennis and squash at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. He liked to fish in Maine and listen to the music of John Denver, the Four Aces, and Elton John.

Mr. Rubincam is survived by his wife, Penny; his sons, Paul III and Peter; his daughter, Lindsay; six grandchildren; and other relatives. A celebration of his life will be held later. Donations in his name may be made to the Penn Champions Club, Office of the Treasurer, P.O. Box 71332, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19176, and the Lawrenceville School Alumni Fund, P.O. Box 6125, Lawrenceville, New Jersey 08648.

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To Report A Death

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

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

At the University Council open forum meet- ing on Wednesday, February 22, Associate Vice Provost for Global Initiatives Amy Gadsden made a presentation titled Penn Global in its 10th Year.

Penn Global consists of six areas of responsibility—Penn Abroad, International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS), Perry World House, Finance & Administration, Global Initiatives, and Global Support Services. As of 2022, there are almost 7,000 international students from more than 130 countries enrolled at Penn. Additionally, there are more than 1,500 international scholars and more than 60 centers and institutes at Penn with a global focus. Semester-long and short-term global programs are available to students, and Perry World House is a campus hub for global policy engagement and a catalyst for global policy solutions. Penn Global supports faculty research initiatives and ISSS guides international students, scholars, staff, and faculty as they integrate into University life. Penn’s three pillars of global engagement include ensuring every Penn student has a meaningful global experience; producing research for global impact; and advocating for global engagement, rebuilding, and strengthening global networks.

During the open forum portion of the meeting, speakers discussed the following topics:

• Given the high cost of graduate degrees, a speaker asked Penn to institute a tuition increase freeze and offer no-interest student loans.
• Opposition to vaccine mandates from the Penn Anti-Coercion Coalition.
• Concern about Penn’s student financial aid packages being offset by outside grants and scholarships.
• International postdoctoral training policies and the burden placed on international postdocs.
• Concern about compensation, including benefits, offered to postdocs.
• Penn’s Open Expression Policy and a petition to dismiss disciplinary cases against students who participated in Fossil-Free Penn, Students for the Preservation of Chinatown, and UC Townhome eviction protests.
• Reinstatement of DEI training for teaching assistants in Penn Engineering. Also, a call for a non-voting student member on faculty search committees.

During the new business portion of the meeting, members of council discussed:

• The need for intentional support and inclusion for students from minority backgrounds, including spaces for graduate and professional students.
• International students with disabilities often need to obtain a new diagnosis in the United States to receive accommodations from Penn. This speaker requested that Penn rely on the original documentation.
• International students are too often grouped with domestic students when their respective needs differ greatly.
• The need for free menstrual products on campus.
• A student-initiated web-based guide to interpersonal relationships at Penn will soon be launched. It seeks to help students understand a variety of policies and procedures.
• A call to add a new agenda item to the next University Council meeting was denied for lack of quorum (33 members were present, but 35 are needed). The new agenda item, which concerned addressing housing and food insecurity by providing additional access for students with a large financial burden, will need to be submitted to the steering committee for possible inclusion at an upcoming meeting.

The next meeting of the University Council is scheduled for Wednesday, March 29. 

The March AT PENN 2023 calendar is online. To view a web version of the calendar, click here. To download a printable PDF of the calendar, click here. 

The February AT PENN 2023 calendar can still be viewed at https://almanac.upenn.edu/at-penn-calendar/february-at-penn-2023. 

The Weingarten Learning Resources Center at University of Pennsylvania presents its 21st Annual Disability Symposium on Friday, March 10, 2023 in Houston Hall.

The 21st Annual Weingarten Center Disability Symposium focuses on the theme of leadership. Think about your role, whether as a university administrator, a K-12 educator, a parent, a student. How have you used your leadership skills to get a project accomplished, to destigmatize what it means to have a disability, to foster universal design, to be a change agent in your organization?

Each one of us has thoughts and expectations of a leader. Fair, honest, decisive, and strategic might be some of the characteristics that you expect from a leader. Leadership skills grow and strengthen through experience, feedback, and persistence. To accomplish our work as disability advisors, educators, and advocates, we problem-solve, research, and collaborate to find ways to eliminate barriers for people with disabilities. “It can be done” serves as the mantra for professionals in the disability field. 

For more program information, including how to register, visit https://weingartencenter.universitylife.upenn.edu/symposium/.

To register for these and other programs, visit https://www.hr.upenn.edu/PennHR/learn-grow/trainings-courses-and-webinars/onsite-programs.

Professional and Personal Development Programs

Virtual Resilience and Well-Being Workshop: Real-Time Resilience; 3/1; 12:30-2 p.m.; online; free. This workshop teaches four strategies to challenge counter-productive thinking in the moment. Participants practice each strategy to build greater focus and confidence. This session is part of a six-session resilience virtual workshop series presenting core resilience and well-being skills that you can use in your personal and professional lives. During each 90-minute workshop, you’ll learn how each skill contributes to resilience and well-being and participate in group exercises with colleagues to explore the content together. We hope that this series provides you with new tools to bolster your resilience and well-being and enhance your relationships at work and at home. This session’s attendance will be marked individually, and not as a part of the series.

Conflict Resolution; 3/6; 12:30-1:30 p.m.; online; free. During this online course, we will learn the different types of conflict, learn to use several tools to help us address conflict in healthy and productive ways, learn how to reap the benefits of conflict, and finally how to mitigate its risks. We’ll also practice using these tools together so that we can all become more confident in handling disagreements within our team and in our personal lives.

Virtual Resilience and Well-being Workshop: IDEAL; 3/15; 12:30–2 p.m.; online; free. This workshop teaches a model that guides productive conversations when there are difficult topics to discuss. The model increases the likelihood of positive resolution and builds trust and connection. This session is a part of a 6-session resilience virtual workshop series presenting core resilience and well-being skills that you can use in your personal and professional lives. During each 90-minute workshop, you’ll learn how each skill contributes to resilience and well-being and participate in group exercises with colleagues to explore the content together. We hope that this series provides you with new tools to bolster your resilience and well-being and enhance your relationships at work and at home. This session’s attendance will be marked individually, and not as a part of the series.

The Gift of Feedback; 3/16; 12:30-1:30 p.m.; online; free. Feedback can be an amazing gift that helps improve performance, but many managers feel challenged by giving and receiving feedback. In this virtual session managers will learn how to frame feedback as a gift that creates productive dialog and improved performance. Additionally, we will cover how managers can solicit feedback from staff in order to become a more effective leader.

Gratitude as a Mindful Practice; 3/23; noon-12:45 p.m.; online; free. How does focusing on the good, in the form of gratitude, increase your enjoyment of life? Attend this 45-minute virtual workshop and learn how to use gratitude as a mindfulness practice and re-train the dominant negativity bias we may have.

A Healthier You: How Mental Health Affects Physical Health; 3/28; 12:30-1:30 p.m.; online; free. More evidence continues to show the effect of fitness, nutrition and physical health on our mental health. Some examples include emotional under- or overeating, depression following a medical diagnosis, and exercising to improve mood. In this workshop, participants will learn how to focus on areas that impact both their minds and bodies. They will explore themselves from the inside out by considering the connection between their mental and physical health.

Women and Investing with MetLife; 3/29; noon–1 p.m.; online; free. No matter where you are in your life right now, there are some critical steps you can take toward improving your financial health. In this virtual workshop, you will learn about:

• The unique financial challenges women face and how to overcome them. 
• Financial planning basics from budgeting and tax diversification to estate planning and insurance protection. 
• Investment options and how to build a balanced portfolio.

Work-Life Workshops

The College Financial Aid Process-Tips from Penn’s Student Financial Aid (SFA) Office; 3/14; noon-1 p.m.; online; free. In this virtual session, join staff from Penn’s Student Financial Aid office to learn more about the college financial aid process. This session will also offer tips for reading and comparing financial aid package components, communications with the SFA, and provide additional resources.

Virtual Overview of New Childcare and Adult Care Benefit; 3/21, noon-1 p.m.; 3/29, 9-10 a.m.; online; free. The University of Pennsylvania prioritizes providing adult and childcare resources and support. Join this webinar to learn more about the expanded benefit delivered by Bright Horizons, including back-up care and senior care support services.

Penn Healthy You Workshops

Virtual 30-Minute Guided Meditation; 3/3, 3/10, 3/17, 3/24 and 3/31; noon-12:30 p.m.; online; free. Meditation, quite simply, is training your attention. In an age of distraction, this becomes a very important skill if we are to maintain focus and mental acuity and develop emotional intelligence and fitness. This meditation is guided to encourage spaciousness and stability in your life. It may be the most worthwhile 30 minutes of your day!

Virtual 30-Minute Chair Yoga Plus Core; 3/6, 3/13, 3/20 and 3/27; noon-12:30 p.m.; online; free. This program consists of moves you can do to tone your abdominals, lengthen your spine, and strengthen your entire torso region. Many activities depend on a strong core, from the simple act of bending to put on shoes to the most athletic endeavors. Chair yoga for the core helps you learn to engage your abdominals correctly. With the abdominals engaged, you’ll find a natural lift and length without having to force anything. In just 30 minutes, beginners and those who regularly exercise can learn what to do without leaving their desks.

Deskercize; 3/7; noon-12:30 p.m.; online; free. This class will take you through a variety of movements that you can do right at your desk. Be prepared to work through a 30-minute low impact strength and flexibility workout.

Virtual Chair Yoga; 3/8 and 3/22; noon-1 p.m.; online; free. Plenty of people turn to yoga for exercise, but striking a pose isn’t for everyone. If you’ve been tempted to try it but don’t know where to start, it’s time to try chair yoga. Chair yoga is a more moderate form of yoga that’s done while sitting in a chair or using a chair for support. You get the same benefits of a regular yoga workout (like increased strength, flexibility, and balance) but don’t have to master complex poses. Chair yoga can even better your breathing and teach you how to relax your mind and improve your well-being. Ready to give it a try? Join us for a free chair yoga workshop. And don’t worry about your experience or flexibility—chair yoga can be modified for all levels!

Virtual Guided Mindful Meditation; 3/16; noon-1 p.m.; online; free. This workshop is for participants to practice present-moment awareness with kindness and compassion. Our practice will include guided meditation focusing on the breath, body awareness, mindful movement, and other practices to cultivate wellbeing for self and others. The workshop is appropriate for people new to mindfulness practice as well as more experienced practitioners. No experience necessary. All are warmly welcomed.

Indoor Monthly Wellness Walk-St. Patrick’s Day; 3/16; 11 a.m.; the Palestra, 223 S. 33rd Street; free. Join us for an afternoon indoor wellness walk sponsored by Human Resources and led by the Center for Public Health Initiative (CPHI) team. For the months of January-March 2023, we will walk inside Penn’s historic Palestra. Meet the team at 11 a.m. at the Palestra.The Palestra’s front doors are locked, but look for HR staff who will open a door for walkers to enter. The CPHI will lead you on a two-mile walk to help you increase physical activity and steps, plus build community with participating Penn staff and faculty. Be sure to wear sneakers or comfortable shoes, bring water, and invite a colleague to join in. For our March walk, held the day before St. Patrick’s Day, we invite you to wear something green.

Spin Class; 3/21; noon; Pottruck Studio 306; free. (Free HR-sponsored spin class, in partnership with Campus Recreation.) Pedal your way to a fantastic workout indoors. With the use of stationary cycles, each class is led on a virtual outdoor road, complete with a variety of exercises. This class will give you an energizing, calorie-burning, fun workout, and it is great for all fitness levels because you will always ride at a self-directed pace.

Gentle Yoga; 3/30; noon; Pottruck Studio 409; free; (Free HR-sponsored yoga class, in partnership with Campus Recreation) Let your body reward itself with movement! Join us for this in-person gentle yoga session and explore the natural movements of the spine with slow and fluid-moving bends and soft twists. During this session, you will flow into modified sun salutations that loosen those tightened muscles and joints of the lower back, neck, shoulders, and wrists. And as a bonus, you’ll get a workout in the process. Participants are welcome to bring their mats; however, mats and props will be available if needed.

—Division of Human Resources

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 February 13-19, 2023. View prior weeks’ reports. —Ed.

This summary is prepared by the Division of Public Safety and includes all criminal incidents reported and made known to the University Police Department for the dates of February 13-19, 2023. 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: 9 incidents (5 assaults, 3 robberies, and 1 aggravated assault) with 3 arrests were reported for February 13-19, 2023 by the 18^th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th St & Market St to Woodland Avenue.

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

Income taxes are due in the United States on April 18, 2023. Many already find tax season a stressful time—don’t let it also be a time when you get scammed.

Since your income taxes are due at a specific time and involve money, it’s easy for scammers to exploit this sense of urgency and people’s confusion to take advantage of you.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) never contacts taxpayers via email, SMS/text, or social media to solicit personal or financial information or account numbers. In some rare cases, they may try by phone, but only after repeatedly failing to contact you via postal mail.

The IRS does not solicit tax payments via text or social media. They do not accept tax payments in the form of gift cards or cryptocurrency.

Several common scams invoke the name of the IRS to frighten and intimidate taxpayers:

• Scammers may make phone calls or send emails to pose as someone claiming to be from the IRS.
• Scammers might state that the IRS has issued a fine or judgment against you.
• Scammers may even issue a threat that you will be arrested, and that law enforcement is on the way.

The IRS does not operate this way; it does not arrest people for non-payment of taxes and does not send law enforcement to your home or workplace.

The Internal Revenue Service is always working to stop scams. Their website contains more information about how to recognize and report scam phone calls, emails, and SMS/text messages: https://www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/report-phishing.

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

Penn faculty and staff are invited to share their thoughts and opinions on commuting to Penn! Take this survey to help inform future University programs and policies for biking, driving, long distance travel and public transit. We encourage you to participate; it should take just 10 minutes.

This survey is conducted by Penn Praxis on behalf of the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee (ESAC) Transportation Subcommittee, with the support of Facilities and Real Estate Services, Business Services and Human Resources. The information in this study will be used only for research purposes and in ways that will not reveal who you are.

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Sincerely,
—Craig Carnaroli, Senior Executive Vice President
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—Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee (ESAC) Transportation Subcommittee

There will be no issue of Almanac on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, because of spring break. Issues will resume on Tuesday, March 14, 2023.

For more information, including the publication schedule for the remainder of the semester, visit https://almanac.upenn.edu/publication-schedule-deadlines.

Mona Merling

The Directed Reading Program Model

The Directed Reading Program (DRP), now running for an eighth semester in the Penn mathematics department, has a very simple model. The program pairs undergraduates with graduate students for one-on-one reading projects over the course of a semester. Penn advertises proudly their six-to-one student faculty ratio, and even better, there is an almost two-to-one graduate student to undergraduate student ratio across the University. However, undergraduates rarely get a more meaningful interaction with a graduate student in their field of interest than the usual TA sessions and office hours. The DRP offers undergraduate students an opportunity for sustained one-on-one interaction as they follow their own interests and it offers graduate student volunteers an opportunity to be a mentor. During the course of the semester they develop and carry out a reading project, usually covering a topic that is not part of a core class in the curriculum. The Directed Reading Program at Penn’s mathematics department has grown to about twenty-five to thirty pairs per semester with topics covering both applied and pure mathematics. The program website, which lists all current and previous projects, gives a great overview of the breadth of subjects being studied each semester. 

The mentor and mentee have weekly meetings for which the mentee independently prepares for a few hours each week. At the end of each semester, there is a presentation session in which the undergraduates give short talks on what they have learned. This is not viewed as an assessment but as a celebration of the work done over the course of the semester: we provide dinner, we invite the entire department, and presenters invite their friends. I have always attended these presentation sessions with great excitement and every time I have been blown away by the wide range of topics, as well as the delivery and the substance of the presentations. They demonstrate how engaged, dedicated, and high-achieving our undergraduates are, and of course, the excellent mentorship they have received from their graduate student mentors through their learning journey and with preparing the presentations.

The Directed Reading Program offers an experience that deviates from the usual classroom, instead more closely resembling that of graduate school research in mathematics. The undergraduates are building the fundamental skills of self-study, communicating effectively what they have studied during the weekly hour meeting with their mentor, and preparing the end of term presentation. They are also offered the freedom to pursue a topic that excites them while still getting guidance from a more experienced mathematician. Moreover, the interaction with their graduate student mentors offers a glimpse into graduate student life, and often the mentoring extends from math guidance to offering advice about graduate school or summer program applications. The DRP can constitute a ramp to research mathematics. More immediately, the mentors can help their mentees connect with a faculty member to pursue an honors degree. 

The Directed Reading Program was started at the University of Chicago, but similar programs now run in about twenty mathematics departments around the country. There is also a DRP network which hosts a website for sharing resources. After a successful pilot DRP that I co-organized at Penn together with a graduate student, Thomas Brazelton, and our then undergraduate chair Dennis DeTurck in fall 2019, the DRP has been solidly in the hands of our graduate students who mentor the students and organize the program. The program is thriving thanks to the graduate students’ dedication and to the enthusiasm of the undergraduates for pursuing extracurricular opportunities to learn mathematics. My first experience with the DRP was when I was a graduate student myself at the University of Chicago, where I served as an organizer and mentor for the program. I still recognize the influence of my own experience in the Directed Reading Program to this day. This was my first mentoring experience and it has certainly shaped my mentorship style. I am thrilled that our graduate students here also have the opportunity to engage in valuable mentoring experiences through the DRP.

Inclusivity and Belonging in the Mathematical Community

The DRP network page explains how Directed Reading Programs can broaden participation in mathematics, but how without careful leadership it can also reinforce stigmas. Our graduate student organizers have done a fantastic job making the DRP at Penn live up to its potential to be inclusive. This shows in the make-up of the program, in which about half of the participants are women and historically underrepresented minorities in mathematics, in stark contrast with most advanced math classes. I share the opinion expressed by the organizers of the DRP network that “DRPs can help mitigate mechanisms that promote long-standing stigmas—especially those surrounding underrepresented groups in mathematics—that are often triggered in traditional classroom settings.” 

In my experience, the DRP helps build a sense of belonging and offers self confidence for both the mentors and the mentees. The freedom that the DRP offers, the individualized and more personal experience, and the lack of assessment via traditional methods like tests, I think, are all conducive to the wonderful results that we witness during the final presentations because they allow each participant to grow as a mathematician during the course of the semester at their own pace and and let them take charge of the direction. 

I think that sometimes the stress of assignments, deadlines, and upcoming tests can hamper a deeper learning of the material and genuine intellectual engagement. Strict course formats can steer students away from pursuing material that interests them specifically. On the other hand, the DRP gives students the freedom to slow down and really immerse themselves in any little detail, or pursue some tangential question that piques their interest and see where it leads. This is a lot closer to how math research really is, and again, it is sometimes hard to discover the joy of this exploration in the classroom because of the constraints of usual class formats. I am happy that students have an opportunity to experience this side of math in their undergraduate studies at Penn and that the DRP is offering a welcoming environment for it.

I believe that the benefits of a Directed Reading Program are not exclusive to mathematics, and such a program could be a meaningful addition to many other departments. Students commonly associate a range of different fields with high stakes exams and assessments. A program like DRP can provide undergraduates with a much better sense of how we know what we know. By interacting so closely with graduate students, the mentees also get a much better idea of what graduate school and research is like. A Directed Reading Program can make a field more accessible to students who are historically underrepresented in that field, and at the same time offer a hands-on, meaningful mentoring experience for graduate students. At Penn, Wharton has already started a DRP modeled on the mathematics DRP. These programs can encourage a more meaningful learning experience for Penn students in addition to regular classes.

Mona Merling is an assistant professor in the department of mathematics.

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This essay continues the series that began in the fall of 1994 as the joint creation of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Lindback Society for Distinguished Teaching. 

See https://almanac.upenn.edu/talk-about-teaching-and-learning-archive for previous essays.