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Penn’s 2023 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipients

Award-winning singer, actress, and songwriter Idina Menzel will be the speaker at the 2023 University of Pennsylvania Commencement on Monday, May 15, 2023. She and five other individuals will each receive an honorary degree from Penn.

Medha Narvekar, Penn’s Vice President and University Secretary, has announced the 2023 honorary degree recipients and the commencement speaker for the University of Pennsylvania. The Office of the University Secretary manages the honorary degree selection process and University Commencement.

The 267th Commencement begins at 10:15 a.m. on Monday, May 15, and will be preceded by student and academic processions through campus. The ceremony will feature the conferral of degrees, the awarding of honorary degrees, greetings by University officials, and remarks by the commencement speaker. It will be streamed live on the Penn website. For University of Pennsylvania Commencement information, including historical information about the ceremony, academic regalia, prior speakers and honorary degree recipients, see www.upenn.edu/commencement.

Idina Menzel

caption: Idina MenzelIdina Menzel is a Tony-Award winning actress, singer/songwriter, producer, and author whose Broadway career began when she originated the role of Maureen in the popular musical Rent.  She subsequently became widely known for playing the original Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the hit musical Wicked, for which she won a Tony Award in 2004.

Ms. Menzel was the voice of Elsa in Disney’s Oscar-winning Frozen, the second highest grossing animated film of all time. She sang the film’s song “Let It Go,” which became an instant international phenomenon and won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2014. The track reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, making Menzel the first artist to achieve both a Billboard Top 10 hit and a Tony Award for acting.

Among Ms. Menzel’s numerous other stage and screen acting credits include her role as Adam Sandler’s wife in the critically acclaimed film Uncut Gems; the reprisal of her leading role as Elsa in Frozen 2; Disney’s Enchanted and its sequel, Disenchanted, and theater performances in Skintight, If/Then, Hair, Aida, and many more. In late 2022, Ms. Menzel released the documentary, Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage? which follows her on a national tour as she juggles being a working mom with a grueling tour schedule and concludes with her lifelong dream of headlining Madison Square Garden.

A skillful songwriter, Ms. Menzel’s prolific recording career includes multiple cast albums and solo albums.  As a live performer, she has been accompanied by symphony orchestras around the world. In March 2012, Ms. Menzel released a CD and DVD, Idina Menzel Live: Barefoot at the Symphony, a concert with an orchestra led by the late legendary composer/conductor Marvin Hamlisch, filmed at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall in Toronto, Canada.

In 2010, Ms. Menzel co-founded A BroaderWay Foundation, which offers girls from underserved communities an outlet for self-expression and creativity through arts-centered programs. The emphasis is on building self-esteem, developing leadership qualities, and striving for personal and social achievement.  In 2014, Ms. Menzel was recognized as one of Variety’s Power of Women honorees for her work with the organization.

Ms. Menzel will be receiving an honorary Doctor of Arts.

 

Abhijit Banerjee

caption: Abhijit BanerjeeAbhijit Vinayak Banerjee is the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  In 2003, he co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) with Esther Duflo and Sendhil Mullainathan.  He remains a co-director of J-PAL, a global research center that works to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence.

Dr. Banerjee is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Econometric Society. He is a winner of the Infosys Prize and a co-recipient of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics (with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer) for groundbreaking work in development economics research.

The author of numerous articles, Dr. Banerjee has also written five books, including Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, which won the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, and Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems, both co-authored with Esther Duflo. He is the editor of three additional books and has directed two documentary films.

Dr. Banerjee has served on the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. He is a Trustee of Save the Children USA and the chair of the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel and the Global Advisory Board for Covid-19 Response of the government of West Bengal.

Dr. Banerjee received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Calcutta and Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, respectively, and his doctoral degree from Harvard University.

Dr. Banerjee will be receiving an honorary Doctor of Laws.

 

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

caption: Jocelyn Bell BurnellJocelyn Bell Burnell is a visiting professor of astrophysics and a professorial fellow at Mansfield College at the University of Oxford and the Chancellor of the University of Dundee, Scotland.  As a graduate student in radio astronomy at the University of Cambridge in the late 1960s, Dr. Bell Burnell discovered pulsars, a pulsating radio star.  It is considered one of the most important astronomical advances of the 20th century, which introduced a new branch of astrophysics and earned her supervisor a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974.

Since her discovery, Dr. Bell Burnell, a Northern Ireland native, has held roles in many areas of astronomy.  She was the first woman to serve as president of the Institute of Physics for the UK and Ireland (2008) and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2014). She also served as president of the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society.

Dr. Bell Burnell has received numerous honors, including the Institute of Physics President’s Medal in 2017 and the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 2021.  Queen Elizabeth II appointed her Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Astronomy in 1999 and promoted her to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2007.

Dr. Bell Burnell has been a role model and champion for young students, particularly women, in science. In 2018, she received the $3 million Breakthrough Prize, which she donated to the Institute of Physics to establish scholarships for underrepresented groups in physics.  She was also part of a group of women scientists who created Athena SWAN (Scientific Women’s Academic Network) to promote diversity at institutions of higher learning.

She is co-editor of an anthology of poetry with an astronomical theme: Dark Matter: Poems of Space.

Dr. Bell Burnell will be receiving an honorary Doctor of Sciences.

 

Jean Bennett

caption: Jean BennettJean Bennett, MD, PhD, is the F.M. Kirby Professor Emeritus of Ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. She was recruited in 1992 to Penn’s Scheie Eye Institute, where she has spent the past three decades developing gene-based strategies for treating inherited retinal degenerations. Dr. Bennett has run a true bench-to-bedside translational research program and, in the process, has trained hundreds of physician-scientists, many of whom are now leaders in translational research around the globe.

Dr. Bennett was the scientific leader of a team that translated reversal of blindness in animal models to demonstration of efficacy and safety of gene therapy in children and adults. She was the scientific director of clinical studies at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia that led to the first FDA-approved gene therapy product for a genetic disease (LuxturnaTM). She helped develop the primary outcome measure for that trial.

Dr. Bennett continues to develop gene-based therapies for retinal degenerative diseases and to tackle some of the limitations of current gene therapy technologies. She recently co-founded Opus Genetics to help those patients and families that suffer from conditions that are so rare that they have been neglected by the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Bennett graduated from Yale College with a BS in Honors Biology, received her PhD (zoology, cell and developmental biology) from University of California, Berkeley, and her MD from Harvard Medical School. She then received post-graduate training at Yale University and Johns Hopkins University in human genetics and developmental genetics.

An internationally recognized expert in gene therapy, Dr. Bennett has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed papers. Among her numerous awards are the Retina Research Foundation Pyron Award, the Smithsonian Ingenuity Award, the John Scott Award, and the Albert C. Muse Prize in Medicine.

Dr. Bennett will be receiving an honorary Doctor of Sciences.

 

Esther Duflo

caption: Esther DufloEsther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the department of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).   In 2003, Dr. Duflo co-founded (with Abhijit Banerjee and Sendhil Mullainathan) the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), whose mission is to ease global poverty.  She is a co-director of J-PAL, which conducts research, policy outreach, and training in 95 countries.

Dr. Duflo’s research is focused on understanding the economic lives of the poor, with the aim of helping design and evaluate social policies. She has worked on many issues, including health, education, financial inclusion, governance, and the environment.

Dr. Duflo has received numerous academic honors and prizes, including the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics with fellow recipients Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.” She also received the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences (2015), the A.SK Social Science Award (2015), the Infosys Prize (2014), the David N. Kershaw Award (2011), a John Bates Clark Medal (2010), and a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship (2009).

With Abhijit Banerjee, she wrote Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, which won the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2011 and has been translated into more than 17 languages. They also co-authored Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems, published in 2019.

Dr. Duflo is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a corresponding fellow of the British Academy.

A native of France, Dr. Duflo earned degrees in history and economics from École Normale Supérieure, Paris, and a PhD in economics from MIT in 1999.

Dr. Duflo will be receiving an honorary Doctor of Laws.

 

Brent Staples

caption: Brent StaplesSince 1990, Brent Staples has been a member of the editorial board of The New York Times, where he writes about politics and culture. In 2019, he received the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing for a collection of essays that explores racial injustice in America. The Pulitzer Prize Board cited Dr. Staples’ “editorials written with extraordinary moral clarity that charted the racial fault lines in the United States at a polarizing moment in the nation’s history.”

Before joining the editorial board, Dr. Staples served as an editor of The New York Times Book Review and an assistant editor for metropolitan news. He began his career as a writer in Chicago with two free weekly newspapers, The Chicago Journal and The Chicago Reader, before becoming a staff reporter for The Chicago Sun-Times.

In 2020, Dr. Staples was elected a fellow of the Society of American Historians. His 1994 memoir, Parallel Time: Growing up in Black and White, received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for The Los Angeles Times Book Award.

Dr. Staples has lectured widely at colleges, universities, and other venues across the country, and his essays are published in college readers throughout the English-speaking world. He has been a visiting fellow at the University of Chicago, the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, and Yale University.

Dr. Staples was born and raised in Chester, Pennsylvania. He received a bachelor’s degree in behavioral science from Widener University and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Staples will be receiving an honorary Doctor of Letters.

Expanded Financial Aid for Undergraduate Students and 2023-2024 Tuition Increase 

At the March 2 meeting of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, President Liz Magill announced a new expansion of the University’s undergraduate financial aid program and the Penn First Plus Initiative for the 2023-2024 academic year. Students whose families make $75,000 or less, with typical assets, will now receive financial aid packages that fully cover tuition, fees, housing, and dining with grants and work-study funds.

Before this announcement, the income limit for this type of financial aid package was $65,500. This new policy will make these benefits available to more than 1,200 eligible students. In addition, students who meet the new income threshold will also have their summer savings expectation waived for all four years and will have a maximum parent contribution of no more than $2,000, both of which result in additional grant funding in each student’s financial aid package.

These students will also have access to all supplemental financial benefits made available by Penn First Plus and Student Financial Aid, including:

  • Summer internship and research opportunity funding
  • Grant funding to cover the cost of Penn’s health insurance plan
  • A free laptop computer for incoming first-year students
  • Stipends to cover the cost of food during Thanksgiving and winter breaks while dining halls are closed
  • Free academic regalia as seniors
  • Grant funding to cover tuition for summer courses

“This expansion of Penn’s undergraduate financial aid program will make the path to Penn possible for hundreds of additional students each year,” said President Magill. “As student and family need increases, so do our efforts to not only meet that need, but to deliver resources and opportunities that amplify the Penn experience.”

For undergraduate students who do pay tuition, the Trustees approved an increase of 4% in total billed charges for the 2023-2024 academic year, including $58,620 for tuition, $7,484 for fees, $12,166 for housing, and $6,330 for dining. This increase helps to offset the impact of high levels of inflation, especially for compensation, and is accompanied by an approved undergraduate financial aid budget of $286 million, a 12% increase from 2022-2023 projected financial aid spending. For students who receive financial aid, the increase to the financial aid budget covers these increased costs as long as their financial situations remain the same.

“Penn provides grant aid to more undergraduate students than any other college or university in the country with a grant-based financial aid policy,” said vice president for finance and treasurer Mark Dingfield. “Given the large number of students who benefit from the program, these enhancements to Penn’s financial aid program represent a significant budgetary commitment. This would not be possible without the generosity of alumni and a shared commitment by Penn’s leadership to make this is an ongoing priority.”

Penn’s undergraduate financial aid program meets 100% of demonstrated need with grant funds and work-study, supporting its philosophy that a Penn education should be attainable for talented students from all financial backgrounds. It is the largest grant-based financial aid program in the country, with 44.4% of Penn’s undergraduate students receiving grant-based financial aid packages at an average of $61,961 in funding—more than the cost of tuition. The average package covers 73% of a student’s total cost of attendance, which includes billed expenses like tuition, fees, housing, and dining, and unbilled expenses like books and supplies, transportation, and personal expenses. In 2008, when Penn’s grant-based aid program was first launched, the average package covered 57% of the total cost of attendance.

Penn also continues its commitment to provide meaningful financial aid to middle-income families with its policy to cover at least the cost of tuition for students from families who make $140,000 or less with typical assets. These students are also eligible to receive funds for summer internships and research opportunities through partnerships between Student Financial Aid, Career Services, the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, Penn Global, and more.

A combination of measured annual cost increases, meaningful philanthropy from alumni and friends of the University, and generous financial aid continues to make it possible for students to graduate from Penn with no educational debt. Only 19% of need-based financial aid recipients took out loans in 2022-2023, compared to 76% in 2007-2008.

The University’s student resources extend well beyond financial aid. Financial Wellness @ Penn, a financial literacy program, aims to enhance students’ financial well-being by providing personal finance education, tools, and resources. The program’s mission is to help students feel empowered to set financial goals, make informed financial decisions, and improve their financial behaviors.

ALOK: First Scholar in Residence at Penn’s LGBT Center

caption: ALOKThe University of Pennsylvania has announced a $2 million commitment to create the first residency at any university in the United States dedicated to championing LGBTQ+ communities and scholarship.

The LGBTQ+ scholar in residence provides new resources to bring prominent leaders to Penn’s campus. The residency will launch this April with inaugural scholar ALOK, an internationally acclaimed author, poet, comedian, and public speaker, whose work explores themes of trauma, belonging, and the human condition. ALOK is the author of Femme in Public (2017), Beyond the Gender Binary (2020), and Your Wound/My Garden (2021), and has performed in more than 40 countries over the past decade.

“University Life is deeply appreciative for this impactful gift,” said Tamara Greenfield King, Interim Vice Provost for University Life and Senior Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs. “The scholar in residence program complements the incredible work of our Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center to make visible the experiences of Penn’s LGBTQ+ community. We are honored to lead the inaugural program, and we are committed to demonstrating, on a national level, how this program can bolster the LGBT Center’s efforts to create inclusive cocurricular experiences for our students.”

The residency offers flexibility to meet the needs and interests of Penn’s LGBTQ+ affinity groups while also highlighting the visitors’ expertise. ALOK and future invited scholars are selected by a student-driven advisory board that is supported by Penn faculty and staff. The residency may vary from a prominent activist visiting for a short period to a renowned queer theory scholar teaching a semester-long class and conducting research. During their time at Penn, ALOK will guest teach in graduate and undergraduate classrooms, as well as leading workshops, performing, and sharing meals with the student community.

ALOK said, “It’s a profound honor to be the inaugural LGBTQ+ scholar in residence at the University of Pennsylvania. In the face of escalating malalignment, we see a widening chasm between the reality of LGBTQ+ lives and the misrepresentation of our communities in media and society. As LGBTQ+ scholars and artists, we must continue to debunk anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation while also harnessing the power of LGBTQ+ storytelling to create a more inclusive and magnificent world. I’m looking forward to connecting with Penn students, faculty, and staff to celebrate the living poetry of our existence in these turbulent times.”

Penn has been named a top school/premier campus for LGBTQ+ students by Campus Pride (Almanac September 6, 2022). The LGBT Center, established in 1982, upholds the experiences of Penn’s LGBTQ+ students, staff, faculty, and alumni through education, support, and advocacy. The center is the second oldest campus center devoted to LGBTQ+ students in the United States. It established the first fund on any U.S. campus supporting students making a gender transition.

“It is important to recognize that the residency will amplify student voices as well,” said center director Erin Cross. “According to Penn data, LBGTQ+ students comprise one of the largest minoritized campus populations. Now with this wonderful gift, scholars in residence will bring LGBTQ+ experiences into the spotlight. The scholars will not only be role models, but they will also highlight Penn’s commitment to diversity while promoting greater understanding on campus and in the wider community. ALOK has already been an inspiration to our students from afar, and their impact will be even greater working with young people here on campus.”

Mark Trodden: SAS Associate Dean for Natural Sciences

caption: Mark Trodden

Steven J. Fluharty, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and the Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Professor of Psychology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience, has announced the appointment of Mark Trodden as associate dean for the natural sciences, effective July 1, 2023. Dr. Trodden, the Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor of Physics, has been a member of the Penn faculty since 2009. In his new role, he will oversee the school’s natural sciences departments (biology, chemistry, Earth and environmental science, linguistics, mathematics, physics and astronomy, and psychology) and research centers.

“Mark’s outstanding record as a scholar and an academic leader make him well-suited to this important role,” said Dean Fluharty. “He is a distinguished theoretical cosmologist and particle physicist whose work explores the border between those subfields, focusing particularly on the early universe, dark energy, and tests of gravity. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and the U.K.’s Institute of Physics.”

Dr. Trodden served as chair of the department of physics and astronomy from 2014 to 2022 and has served as co-director of the Center for Particle Cosmology since 2009. He is a former chair of the School of Arts and Sciences’ Personnel Committee, has been a member of the school’s Planning and Priorities Committee, and in 2016 chaired the school-wide Task Force on Standing Faculty Assessment. He has also served as a member of the U.S. High Energy Physics Advisory Panel and as a member of the Committee on Science and the Arts of the Franklin Institute.

Dr. Trodden will succeed David Brainard, the RRL Professor of Psychology, who will complete his four and a half years as associate dean and return to full-time research and teaching. “David has been a superb advocate for the school’s science programs, not simply within the school but across the University,” said Dean Fluharty.

Kim TallBear: Provost’s Distinguished Visiting Faculty Fellow

caption: Kim TallBearInterim Provost Beth A. Winkelstein and Vice Provost for Faculty Laura Perna have announced the appointment of Kim TallBear as the Provost’s Distinguished Visiting Faculty Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year.

Dr. TallBear, author of Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science (2013), is a professor in the Faculty of Native Studies and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Society at the University of Alberta. A citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate in present-day South Dakota, she studies the historical and ongoing roles of science and technology in the colonization of Indigenous peoples and others, especially the increasing role of technoscience in Indigenous governance, asking questions like: How do U.S. tribes and other Indigenous peoples resist, regulate, collaborate in, and initiate research and technology development in ways that support Indigenous governance? What challenges do science and technology pose to Indigenous peoples, and what types of innovative work and thinking occur at the interface of technoscience and Indigenous governance?

The Provost’s Distinguished Visiting Faculty Fellowship is awarded annually to a senior scholar of national or international prominence whose work promotes civic engagement, scholarly innovation, and inclusive communities, with the aim of enriching the intellectual and cultural life of the Penn community. Fellows can be from any academic discipline, with preference for those whose work is interdisciplinary in nature, promotes the growth of academic fields, and involves innovative research, methods, or scholarly themes. Fellows mentor Penn students, participate in panels and public discussions, collaborate on research projects, and provide at least one public presentation to the Penn community.

This year, Dr. TallBear will deliver the annual Provost’s Lecture on Diversity on March 15, 2023. Her talk is titled Beyond Inclusion and Reconciliation to Decolonization in Science Technology.

Online Learning Initiative: Launch of Spark Grant Program

Penn’s Online Learning Initiative (OLI) has announced the Spark Grant Program. This grant program is designed to support the creation of new or innovative projects and experiments in online learning. Spark Grants fund projects like the creation of a new online non-credit course or program, new educational technology tool discovery and pilot costs, and/or short-term freelance instructional design for an approved for-credit online course or program. The field of online education is growing at a rapid pace and OLI wants to help put innovators at Penn in the best position to bring their ideas to life in the online space.

Spark Grants are open to all Penn faculty members or online teams working in collaboration with a Penn faculty member, with amounts ranging from $5,000 to $25,000. In addition to financial support, OLI will provide support at each stage of the process, including planning and design tools, consultation services throughout the project, and connections to resources to help faculty members and teams create online learning experiences in the for-credit and non-credit spaces.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Email onlinelearning@upenn.edu for more information about the Spark Grant Program and access to the application.

Deaths

Robert Geddes, Graduate School of Fine Arts

Robert Geddes, a noted Philadelphia-architect and a faculty member at Penn’s Graduate School of Fine Arts from 1951 to 1965, died at home outside Princeton on February 13. He was 99.

Born Robert Leon Goldberg in Philadelphia, Mr. Geddes grew up in Atlantic City. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1942 to 1945. When he returned, he studied at the University of California, Berkley; Yale University; and the Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. After working for architect Vincent Kling in Philadelphia, he cofounded Geddes Brecher Qualls Cunningham in 1953. The firm would design Penn’s 3401 Walnut Street complex in 1986.

Mr. Geddes was recruited to Penn’s Graduate School of Fine Arts (the precursor to today’s Weitzman School) in 1951 by eminent GSFA dean G. Holmes Perkins (Almanac September 7, 2004). Mr. Geddes began as an assistant professor of architecture and was later promoted to associate professor before departing Penn in 1965. In 1964, he designed the Roundhouse at 7th and Race Streets in Philadelphia’s present-day Chinatown neighborhood, which drew inspiration from the Philadelphia School of Architects (which included Penn affiliates Louis Kahn, Robert Venturi, and Denise Scott Brown). The Roundhouse still exists today, and Mr. Geddes was consulted about its continued use after the Philadelphia Police Department, its original tenants, vacated the building in 2020. “He believed in collaboration, not in the architect as hero,” said John Lobell, a former student of Mr. Geddes, who also served as his thesis adviser at Penn. “And he was interested in the social role of architecture.” During his time at Penn, Mr. Geddes brought psychiatrists to speak in front of his classes, emphasizing the role of architecture in shaping the human psyche.

After leaving Penn, Mr. Geddes and his firm continued to design distinctive buildings around Philadelphia and the region, such as the Northeast Regional Library on Cottman Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia and an expansion of the Franklin Institute in Logan Square. In 1965, he was hired by Princeton University as dean of the School of Architecture. He worked at Princeton for 17 years, designing, among others, dining commons and the social science academic wing of the Institute for Advanced Study for the university. Mr. Geddes was later appointed the Henry Luce Professor of Architecture, Urbanism, and History at New York University, and during the 1980s, he prepared a master plan for the City of Philadelphia that proposed to preserve the vibrant streetscapes and short blocks that exemplify the city. He was awarded honorary degrees by the New Jersey School of Architecture at NJIT and the City College of New York, and was elected a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities and the National Academy of Design.

He is survived by his son, David; his daughter, Ann; seven grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren. His wife of 73 years, Evelyn, died in 2020. Services will be private.

Charles H. Kahn, Philosophy

caption: Charles KahnCharles H. Kahn, a landmark scholar on ancient Greek philosophy and a professor emeritus of philosophy in the School of Arts and Sciences, died on March 5. He was 94.

Born in Louisiana, Dr. Kahn enrolled in the University of Chicago at age sixteen, where he completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He then went on to study at the Sorbonne in Paris, then completed his doctorate in classical studies at Columbia University in 1958. After graduating, he joined Columbia’s faculty, serving as an assistant and then associate professor of classics until 1965, when he was recruited to join Penn. That year, he was appointed an associate professor of philosophy in the School of Arts and Sciences. In 1968, he was promoted a full professor, a position he retained until his retirement in 2012 (an occasion that was marked by a conference in his honor). At Penn, Dr. Kahn was an active presence in governance, serving on the Faculty Senate and several of its committees. In addition to chairing Penn’s philosophy department, he held visiting appointments at other major universities, including Harvard, Cambridge, and Oxford.

Dr. Kahn was a leading scholar in ancient Greek philosophy, particularly on Presocratics (in the early decades of his career) and on Plato (in later decades). His doctoral dissertation, which was published as a book, Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology (Columbia University Press 1960), was a groundbreaking contribution to the study of pre-Socratic philosophy and remains the definitive work on the subject. His other books on the Presocratics include The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: An Edition of the Fragments with Translation and Commentary (Cambridge University Press 1979), now considered the standard interpretation of that work, and Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans. A Brief History (Hackett, 2001), which was intended for the non-scholarly public.

In 1973, Dr. Kahn published The Verb “Be” in Ancient Greek (Reidel, Dordrecht), in which he delved into usage of the verb “to be” in ancient Greek, discovering uses and subtle nuances that had escaped the attention of scholars. The book provoked numerous debates and responses over the years, and in 2009, Oxford University Press published a collection of Dr. Kahn’s articles in reply to those responses, Essays on Being. Dr. Kahn’s later books Plato and the Socratic Dialogue (Cambridge University Press 1996) and Plato and the Post-Socratic Dialogue: Return to the Philosophy of Nature (Cambridge University Press 2013) had significant impact on Platonic studies and sparked significant academic debate, marking him as one of the most important contemporary Platonists.

Due to his eminence in philosophy and classical studies, Dr. Kahn served as editor or on the editorial board of several philosophical journals, as president of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy (1976-8), as vice president of the American Philosophical Association (1997), and as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2000). He received major research grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Guggenheim Foundation, as well as several University Research Foundation (URF) grants from Penn.

Dr. Kahn is survived by his wife; a sister; four daughters; a son; and ten grandchildren. 

Governance

From the Senate Chair: Senate Nominating Committee 2023

TO:                 Members of the Faculty Senate
FROM:            Vivian L. Gadsden, Chair
SUBJECT:      Senate Nominating Committee 2023

1.  In accordance with the requirements of the Faculty Senate Rules, notice is given to the Senate membership of the Senate Executive Committee’s nine-member slate of nominees for the 2023 Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee’s function is to nominate candidates for appointments to all committees and positions for which the Faculty Senate has responsibility in appointing. The Nominating Committee consists of nine members: the Chair, Chair-Elect, and Past Chair, three incumbent members of the Senate Executive Committee, and three members of the Faculty Senate selected by the constituency representatives of the Senate Executive Committee.  The nominees, all of whom have agreed to serve, are:

  • William Braham (Professor of Architecture; Faculty Senate Past Chair)
  • Warren Breckman (Sheldon and Lucy Hackney Professor of History; Senate Executive Committee Member)
  • Tulia Falleti (Class of 1965 Endowed Term Professor of Political Science; Faculty Senate Chair-Elect)
  • Vivian Gadsden (William T. Carter Professor of Child Development and Education; Faculty Senate Chair)
  • Maria Geffen (Associate Professor of Otorhinolaryngology, Neuroscience and Neurology)
  • Vera Krymskaya (Professor of Medicine; Senate Executive Committee Member)
  • Claire Mitchell (Professor of Dental Medicine; Senate Executive Committee Member)
  • Emily Steinlight (Associate Professor of English)
  • Shu Yang (Joseph Bordogna Professor of Materials Science and Engineering)

2.  Pursuant to the rules, additional nominations may be submitted by petition containing at least 25 signed names and the signed approval of the candidate. All such petitions must be received by Tuesday, March 28, 2023.  If no additional nominations are received, the slate nominated by the Executive Committee will be declared elected. If additional nominations are received, an email ballot will be distributed to the Faculty Senate membership. Please forward any nominations-by-petition via email to the Faculty Senate office, senate@pobox.upenn.edu.  Questions may be directed to Patrick Walsh by email to the address above or by telephone at (215) 898-6943.

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda

Wednesday, March 22, 2023
3– 5 p.m. EDT
Via Zoom

  1. Finalize the minutes of February 15, 2022
  2. Report from the Tri-Chairs
  3. Taking a Stand for Local Engagement: Faculty Senate Roundtable Discussions and Next Steps (see: https://provost.upenn.edu/senate/roundtable)
  4. Discussion with Scott Bok, Chair of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
  5. New business

Trustees Winter Meeting Coverage

At the University of Pennsylvania Trustees’ winter stated meeting on Friday, March 3, 2023, Chair Scott L. Bok presented a memorial resolution for M. Claire Lomax, a Charter Trustee who passed away last year. Charles Howard, vice president for social equity and community, and her sister, Sara Lomax-Reese, described Ms. Lomax’s impact and legacy (Almanac July 19, 2022).

Mr. Bok presented a resolution to amend the statutes of the Trustees to designate the University President as a voting member of the Trustees. The statues would be amended to read, “Trustees Ex Officio: During their respective terms, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, without vote; and the President of the University, with vote.” The resolution was approved.

During the President’s report, President Liz Magill presented a resolution to appoint John L. Jackson, Jr., as provost, effective June 1, 2023 (Almanac January 31, 2023). He currently serves as the Walter H. Annenberg Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication and Richard Perry University Professor at Penn. The resolution was approved.

President Magill thanked the members of the consultative committee for the selection of the provost. She also expressed gratitude for the dedication of Interim Provost Beth A. Winkelstein. President Magill reported on the work of the Red and Blue Advisory Committee, chaired by Dean Jackson, for a University-wide vision for Tomorrow, Together. Members have held meetings with stakeholders and will make recommendations about future strategic priorities.

Interim Provost Beth A. Winkelstein discussed the appointment of Hikaru “Karu” Kozuma as vice provost for university life, beginning May 1, 2023 (Almanac February 28, 2023), and the appointment of Russell J. Composto as faculty co-director of Penn First Plus (P1P), beginning July 1, 2023 (Almanac February 28, 2023). She presented a resolution on faculty appointments and promotions, which was approved.

Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli presented the financial report for the six months ending on December 31, 2022. For the consolidated University, total net assets were $29.3 billion, an increase of $1 billion, or 3.6%, over the previous year. For the academic component, the change in net assets from operations for the University reflected a $599 million increase versus a $747 million increase last year. Total revenue of $2.6 billion was $68 million, or 2.7%, above last year. Expenses of $2 billion were $216 million, or 12.1%, above last year.

For the health system, the change in net assets from operations reflected an increase of $104 million through December 31, 2022. Adjusted admissions of 154,497 through six months were 2.9% above last year.

J. Larry Jameson, executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine, gave the Penn Medicine report. He discussed how Penn Medicine is thriving and continues to lead in healthcare.

During the committee reports, the following resolutions were approved:

  • Establish a master of science in oral and population health in the School of Dental Medicine.
  • Establish a master of professional nursing in the School of Nursing.
  • Engage an independent accountant (PricewaterhouseCoopers) for fiscal year 2023 to audit Penn financial statements.
  • Pre-approve recurring non-audit fees paid to the independent accountant for FY 2024.
  • Authorize tuition, fees, and other student charges for academic year 2023-2024. For undergraduates, tuition, fees, room and board will total $84,600, a 4% increase from the current school year. The administration projects that the undergraduate financial aid budget for academic year 2023-2024 will total $287 million.
  • Authorize Silverman Hall ground and first floor fan coil units replacement and faculty offices renovation in the amount of $10.2 million.
  • Authorize Silverman Hall second floor renovations for $8.9 million.
  • Authorize Hollenback Center HVAC replacement for $9.335 million.

During the Penn Alumni report, Trustee Michael Barrett, ENG’89, was recognized as the new president of Penn Alumni. A resolution to elect Mr. Barrett to the executive committee was approved.

Several resolutions of appointments to Penn Medicine and other boards were approved.

The next meeting of the Trustees is scheduled for May 2023.

Honors

Recognizing Outstanding Penn Staff Members with the 2023 Models of Excellence Awards

For nearly a quarter century, Penn’s Models of Excellence program has recognized outstanding staff contributions to the University’s mission as a global leader in education, research, and public service. This year, four teams and 11 individuals were chosen from a pool of over 200 nominees from schools and centers across the University to receive 2023 Models of Excellence honors. These 85 staff members represent the best of Penn.

On April 26, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., the University will celebrate the Models of Excellence honorees at a live event open to the Penn community for the first time since 2019. At this celebration, President Liz Magill will join Senior Vice President of Human Resources Jack Heuer, Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli, and Interim Provost Beth A. Winkelstein to present Models of Excellence Awards on the Irvine Auditorium stage. This program will be immediately followed by a reception in the Irvine lobby at 5 p.m.

Honors are presented in three award categories: Models of Excellence, Pillars of Excellence, and Model Supervisor. 

Each Models of Excellence, Pillars of Excellence, and Model Supervisor award-winning staff member will receive $500 and a symbolic award. Staff members who have earned honorable mentions will receive $250 and a symbolic award. 

The 2023 honorees are listed below. To learn about their work, you can also download a complete list of honorees.

—Division of Human Resources

2023 Models of Excellence Honorees

Models of Excellence

The Models of Excellence Award recognizes staff member accomplishments that reflect initiative, leadership, increased efficiency, and a deep commitment to service. 

2023 Models of Excellence Awards will go to:

The Admissions Visitor Center team

Brian Bayes, Perelman School of Medicine

Krista L. Cortes, Student Services

Division of Finance Racial Justice and Inclusivity working group

Hoag Levins, Wharton School

Safiya Shabazz-Evans, Perelman School of Medicine

The Accommodated Testing Center team and the Eating Concerns team have earned Models of Excellence honorable mentions. 

Learn more about their team and individual efforts at the Models of Excellence page.

Pillars of Excellence

The Pillars of Excellence Award recognizes the important support Penn’s weekly-paid staff members provide to promote the University’s mission. 

2023 Pillars of Excellence Awards will go to:

Samantha Fromm, School of Veterinary Medicine

Rebecca Tamayo, Student Services

Pillars of Excellence honorable mentions go to Lauren Swain, Student Services, and Shennell Tyana Tyndell, Residential and Hospitality Services.

Learn more about these honorees’ work at the Pillars of Excellence page.

Model Supervisors

The Model Supervisor Award honors supervisors who are effective and productive leaders for the University.

This year, Model Supervisor Awards will be presented to three staff members:

Sheila Pierson, Perelman School of Medicine

Charles Rejonis, Wharton School

Sage Rush-Goebel, Perelman School of Medicine

Learn more about these leaders at the Model Supervisor page.

Register for the April 26 Ceremony

Register for the 2023 awards celebration and the reception that follows. More event details will be available at the Models of Excellence website.

Events

Two New Institute of Contemporary Art Exhibitions

The Institute of Contemporary Art was closed for installation, but recently reopened on March 10 to celebrate the spring 2023 season featuring two exhibitions. For more information, visit https://icaphila.org/.

caption: Carolyn Lazard, Leans, Reverses (still), 2022. Courtesy of the artist.

Carolyn Lazard: Long Take

Carolyn Lazard, MFA ’19, works across mediums to consider the aesthetic and material dimensions of dependency, care, and access. Mx. Lazard’s work considers care as a collective, rather than individual, concern, shifting our assumptions of accessibility or how we come together.

Long Take, Mx. Lazard’s debut solo exhibition in Philadelphia, attends to the legacy of “dance for camera,” a form of choreography for film and video that emerged in the 1960s. This experimental artistic tradition questioned not only where a performance occurs but also how an audience might experience it. Critically, Long Take affirms access and accessibility as indivisible from dance for camera’s concern for experience. In replacing the camera with microphones, Long Take creates a sensorial blur of sound, vibration, breath, touch, and memory that questions sight as a primary means of aesthetic experience.

Mx. Lazard’s exhibition is anchored by an artwork titled Leans, Reverses (2022), made with dancer and writer Jerron Herman and poet and artist Joselia Rebekah Hughes. Leans, Reverses begins with a dance score, or series of choreographic notations, to which Mx. Lazard, Mr. Herman, and Ms. Hughes elaborate and improvise movement, captions, and audio description. Audio description is a form of narration that describes the visual elements of an event, a performance, or a movie for blind and low-vision audiences.

More broadly, Long Take continues Mx. Lazard’s ongoing experimentation with methodologies of access––methodologies which their artistic practice affirms are foundational not only to art but, most importantly, to social life. Mx. Lazard encourages us to think about the often-unseen networks of care, labor, and friendship that make collaborative endeavors possible, whether it be the making of an artwork, an exhibition, or dinner. A stage, a studio, a recessed chamber, a place to sit, a darkened room–Long Take’s spatial offering is collective.

A text-based description of the gallery experience will be available online in both text and digital braille formats.

caption: Terence Nance, Swimming in Your Skin Again (still), 2015. Courtesy of the artist.

Terence Nance: Swarm

Terence Nance: Swarm is the first solo museum presentation dedicated to Mr. Nance’s genre-defying and innovative practice. The exhibition highlights the artist’s experimentation in film, video, television, sound and performance during the ten-year period spanning 2012 to 2022. The title of the exhibition, Swarm, is a tribute to the community of friends and family Mr. Nance built around him in Brooklyn in the early to mid-2000s. Each piece reflects their influence: from collaborations with his mother, Vickie Washington, and his brother, Nelson Mandela Nance, to the partnerships he’s created with friends and chosen kin.

The five immersive environments in Swarm allow for an intimate connection to the stories, relationships and histories at hand. Visitors encounter Can’t Tell These Kids Nothing, a newly commissioned two-channel installation featuring a video of poet Fred Moten and Mr. Nance’s mother Vickie Washington in the context of a familial living room space which includes family photos and an ancestral altar; Univitellin—a star-crossed romantic tragedy—is represented here as a two-channel projection anchored by a spinning platform, physically reflecting the twin perspectives in the video. The presentation of each work thereby extends Mr. Nance’s interest in deepening collective intuition and worldmaking through ritual and collaborative artistic expression.

Swarm brings together pieces that represent Mr. Nance’s interdisciplinary approach to his practice, offering unexpected and alternative paths for creating work that layers video, sound, printed matter, and live performance in contemporary environments. He discards conventions of cinema, opting instead for modes that experiment with temporality, spirituality, and lineage.

Born and raised in Dallas, a resident of Brooklyn for almost two decades, and now rooted in Baltimore, Mr. Nance was largely influenced by the communities within which he has made work—that is, the people, places and relationships descended from the Black Arts movement that have sustained and amplified Black cultural production over the last four decades.

Kim TallBear: Provost’s Lecture on Diversity on March 15

On Wednesday, March 15 at 12:30 p.m., Kim TallBear, professor of Native studies at the University of Alberta and this year’s Provost’s Distinguished Visiting Faculty Fellow, will deliver the Provost’s Lecture on Diversity: Beyond Inclusion and Reconciliation to Decolonization in Science Technology.

While Indigenous peoples are usually at the receiving end of the scientific gaze, this talk highlights Indigenous resistance to colonial research, specifically through a lens of decolonization—the restitution of “land and life”—that goes beyond the dominant “diversity and inclusion” approaches of the academy in the U.S. and Canada. It also discusses efforts to transform scientific research, technology use, and training in order to increase the benefit of science and technology for Indigenous peoples, as scientific research, technology development, and related policy interventions aimed at Indigenous populations have historically been structured by colonial world views that scientists and other researchers are often unaware they possess.

The lecture will be held at the Zellerbach Theatre in the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and is sponsored by the Office of the Provost.

Please register at https://upenn.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2mCkHTpII727nAq.

Energy Week at Penn: March 20-24

energy week

Energy Week at Penn, five days of energy-focused events at the University of Pennsylvania, will take place from March 20-24, 2023.

This year’s events will explore local, national, and international issues, including how universities like Penn are decarbonizing, how the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is influencing Americans’ household energy decisions, how the war in Ukraine is affecting energy markets and energy security, and how the U.S. can provide reliable energy in the Global South.

Energy week is hosted by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology.

For the full 2023 event schedule, visit https://energyweek.upenn.edu/.

Grad Fair at Penn Bookstore: March 22-24

2023 graduates: It’s time to get your cap and gown. Visit the Penn Bookstore to obtain your regalia. 

The 2023 Grad Fair at the Penn Bookstore will be held March 22-24. All degree candidates who plan to participate in Commencement can acquire their caps and gowns, as well as purchase other items like diploma frames, class rings, and gifts to celebrate this momentous occasion.  Graduates will be able to purchase and pick up their Commencement regalia on the second level of the Penn Bookstore near the textbook department during the store’s normal operating hours. Use this opportunity to try on your gown, ask staff members questions, and get excited for the big event.

In addition to picking up their regalia, 2023 graduates are encouraged to visit Grad Express, where they can find everything they need to celebrate and begin their lives after Penn. On Grad Express, graduates can explore a variety of resources and benefits that are useful before graduation and in post-grad life. Learn about setting up an alumni email account, how to receive a refund or donate remaining PennCash balance, last-chance educational discounts on computers, and much more. While there, graduates can also order rings, diploma frames, and announcements to commemorate their achievement. 

WXPN Policy Board Meeting: March 29

The next meeting of the WXPN Policy Board will take place Wednesday, March 29, 2023 at noon at WXPN, located at 3025 Walnut Street.

For more information, email abbyn@xpn.org.

Update: March AT PENN

Conferences

7          Navigating Change: How Can Companies Maintain their Commitments to Racial Equity in a Changing Legal Environment?; panel will examine the implications of litigation involving challenges to diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies, including the pending Students for Fair Admissions cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment action before the Fifth Circuit, and California cases challenging state board diversity statutes; 2 p.m.; online webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/ile-conf-mar-7 (Institute for Law & Economics).

 

Exhibits

Penn Museum

In-person tours. Info: https://www.penn.museum/calendar.

10        Global Guide Tour: Asia Galleries; 2:30 p.m.

12        Highlights of the Penn Museum Tour; 11 a.m.

 

Readings & Signings

13        The Global Indies: British Imperial Culture and the Reshaping of the World, 1756–1815; Ashley Cohen, University of Southern California; 5:30 p.m.; Faculty Lounge, Fisher-Bennett Hall (English).

 

Talks

8          Oral Health Care of Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias; Ronald Ettinger, University of Iowa; 5:30 p.m.; online webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/ettinger-talk-mar-8 (Penn Dental).

9          The Philadelphia Negro 125 Years Later; Tukufu Zuberi, sociology and Africana studies; noon; online webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/zuberi-talk-mar-9 (Global Discovery Series, Penn Press).

            Local Immune Response to Radiation Therapy and Combined Myeloid Cell Targeted Therapy in a Dog Model of Sinonasal Carcinoma; Thomas Lee, Colorado State University; 4 p.m.; room 131, Hill Pavilion (Penn Vet Mari Lowe Seminar Series).

13        Roots of Wisdom; Janet Clarkson, University of Dundee; 5:30 p.m.; online webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/clarkson-interview-mar-13 (Penn Dental).

14        Bioinspired Microrobotic Systems for Interfacing with Cells and Tissues; Yunus Alapan, Georgia Institute of Technology; 10 a.m.; Wu & Chen Auditorium, Levine Hall (Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics).

 

Economics

In-person events. Info: https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/events.

13        RELU-Based Maximum Score Estimator; Wayne Gao, economics; noon; room 202, PCPSE.

Crimes

Weekly Crime Reports

University of Pennsylvania Police Department Crime Report

Below are the Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Society and Crimes Against Property from the campus report for February 27-March 5, 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 27-March 5, 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.

02/27/23

7:33 AM

3910 Filbert St

Company ATV damaged

02/27/23

11:16 AM

3700 Spruce St

Confidential sex offense

02/27/23

1:18 PM

200 S 40th St

Offender struck complainant in the face with handgun/Arrest

02/27/23

2:17 PM

3737 Chestnut St

Standpipe fire apparatus taken

02/27/23

7:32 PM

215 S 33rd St

Ambulance rear driver side window broken

02/28/23

5:45 AM

4201 Walnut St

Robbery simulated weapon

02/28/23

6:50 AM

3400 Spruce St

Unsecured electric bike taken

02/28/23

10:31 AM

4100 Ludlow St

Stolen vehicle from highway recovered

02/28/23

4:22 PM

3400 Spruce St

Offender made threats via text message

02/28/23

7:42 PM

3620 Locust Walk

Motorized scooter taken from bike rack

02/28/23

8:55 PM

200 S 40th St

Passenger vehicle left running and taken

03/01/23

4:53 AM

4112 Baltimore Ave

Burglary-bike taken

03/01/23

2:30 PM

215 S 39th St

Backpack containing items taken

03/01/23

3:48 PM

3700 Spruce St

Theft of a class ring from dorm taken by PPD

03/01/23

4:23 PM

210 S 34th St

Secured scooter taken from bike rack

03/01/23

7:55 PM

231 S 34th St

Secured scooter taken from bike rack

03/02/23

8:25 AM

3925 Walnut St

Merchandise taken without payment

03/02/23

9:57 AM

425 University Ave

Secured scooter taken

03/02/23

10:56 AM

4000 Irving St

Items taken from vehicle

03/02/23

2:02 PM

219 S 33rd St

iPad taken from office

03/02/23

2:58 PM

3450 Hamilton Walk

Go pro camera taken

03/02/23

7:39 PM

4000 Ludlow St

Wallet taken from vehicle/credit card used

03/03/23

12:50 AM

4111 Pine St

Passenger side rear window broken

03/03/23

1:56 AM

4101 Spruce St

Trespassing/Arrest

03/03/23

9:29 AM

3720 Chestnut St

Fire connection pipe and fittings stolen

03/04/23

3:19 PM

51 N 39th St

Domestic assault in hospital room, no injuries

03/04/23

3:29 PM

3925 Walnut St

FTA Warrant for offender/Arrest

 

18th District

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 5 incidents (1 aggravated assault, 1 assault, 1 indecent assault, and 2 robberies) with 1 arrest were reported for February 27-March 5, 2023 by the 18th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th St & Market St to Woodland Avenue.

02/27/23

11:16 AM

3700 Blk Spruce St

Indecent Assault

02/27/23

1:22 PM

200 S 40th St

Aggravated Assault/Arrest

02/28/23

5:34 AM

4201 Walnut St

Robbery

03/01/23

9:10 AM

S 42nd St & Woodland Ave

Assault

03/05/23

9:16 PM

419 S 46th St

Robbery

Bulletins

Nominations Open for the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising

The Trustees Council of Penn Women (TCPW) Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising is now accepting nominations through April 7, 2023. The award recognizes undergraduate faculty advisors who have distinguished themselves in providing assistance and advice to their advisee students and who have made a significant impact on their students’ academic experience. Nominations may be submitted by any member of the Penn community. Only members of the standing faculty are eligible. The four undergraduate deans and the Vice Provost for Education will review nominations to select the recipients of the award.

View more information and the complete the nomination form at https://provost.upenn.edu/education/teaching-at-penn/tcpw-award.

ABCS Course Development Grants: April 17

The Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships has announced course development grants to promote Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) courses that integrate research, teaching, learning and service. ABCS courses are a form of community-engaged scholarship. Over 200 courses from a wide range of disciplines and schools have linked Penn undergraduate and graduate students to work in the community. The grants support University faculty in developing new courses or adapting existing courses that combine research and teaching with school and community projects.

To learn more about ABCS courses, visit https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/what-we-do/courses.

Grants will be for no more than $10,000 over two years per project. These funds can be used to provide graduate and undergraduate support, course support and/or summer salary (amount is inclusive of employee benefits if taken as summer salary).

Funded by the Netter Center, course development grants are designed to assist faculty with developing new and substantially restructured undergraduate and graduate level courses that engage students in real-world problem-solving projects in partnership with schools and community organizations located in West Philadelphia.

The Netter Center will support the course beyond the duration of the grant by providing undergraduate work-study teaching assistants, transportation, and ongoing facilitation of community partnerships.

The following criteria will be used to evaluate proposals:

  1. Academic excellence
  2. Integration of research, teaching and service
  3. Partnership with schools, community groups, service agencies, etc.
  4. Focus on Philadelphia, especially West Philadelphia
  5. Evidence that shows how the course activity will involve participation of or interaction with the community and contribute to improving the community
  6. Evidence that shows how the course activity will engage undergraduate and/or graduate students in real-world problem-solving research opportunities
  7. Potential for sustainability

Please format proposals as follows:

  • Cover page
    • Name, title, department, school, mailing address
    • Title of the proposal
    • Total amount of proposed funding
    • 100-word abstract of the proposal (including a description of how the course will involve interaction with the community and benefit the community)
  • A one-page biographical sketch of applicant
  • A two-to-four-page mini-proposal
  • Budget detailing how you intend to use the requested funding

The Netter Center would be pleased to provide feedback on draft proposals before final submission. Proposals for fall 2023 and spring 2024 courses should be submitted to the Netter Center for Community Partnerships by April 17, 2023.

Please contact the ABCS Coordinator, abcscoordinator@sas.upenn.edu, for more information or to submit proposals.


—Dennis DeTurck, Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor
Professor of Mathematics, School of Arts & Sciences
Provost’s Senior Faculty Fellow at the Netter Center
Faculty Advisory Board Co-Chair, Netter Center for Community Partnerships

—John Jackson, Jr., Provost-Designate
Richard Perry University Professor
Walter H. Annenberg Dean, Annenberg School for Communication
Faculty Advisory Board Co-Chair, Netter Center for Community Partnerships

—Terri H. Lipman, Professor Emerita
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Researcher, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Faculty Advisory Board Co-Chair, Netter Center for Community Partnerships
—Loretta Flanagan-Cato, Co-Director, Undergraduate Neuroscience Program and Associate Professor of Psychology,
School of Arts & Sciences

—Ira Harkavy, Associate Vice President
Founding Director, Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships

Update of Penn’s IT Strategic Plan Underway

Penn has launched an effort to update its Information Technology Strategic Plan. An updated plan will help prioritize IT activities for the next three to five years. A number of factors have made this an opportune time to do this work. These include the growing capacity for technology to enable the University’s goals, Penn’s recent strategic investment announcements, the changing nature of work since COVID, and accelerating shifts in the IT landscape.

Led by Information Systems & Computing, the initiative will include broad representation across Penn’s schools and centers. An advisory council (see below for a list of members) has been created to help shape the effort’s approach, review results from its various phases, ensure that it stays aligned with University priorities, and help guide the recommendations toward realistic topics and outcomes.

The project spans four phases: discovery, theme definition, analysis & recommendations, and report (see illustration). It is scheduled to conclude in nine months.

The discovery phase has been designed to capture Penn’s academic and administrative priorities for the next five years and how they may affect technology. Through a broad and inclusive process, four questions will be asked in both individual and group interviews, as well as in an online survey open to all Penn affiliates to ensure that the perspectives of all Penn constituents are represented. Similar initiatives at peer institutions will be reviewed for benchmarking.

The advisory council has begun meeting, the team is currently scheduling interviews, and the survey has been posted and is open for responses. Further updates will appear as the initiative progresses and can also be followed on its website.

—Joshua Beeman, Associate Vice President, Information Technology and Associate Chief Information Officer

The team wants to hear from you: Take the IT Strategic Plan survey.

Penn IT Strategic Plan Advisory Council Members

Mike Borda (Associate Vice Provost for Research)
Karen Detlefsen (Vice Provost for Education)
Mark Dingfield (Vice President for Finance and Treasurer)
L. Michael Golden (GSE Executive Director, Catalyst @ Penn GSE)
Andrea Liu (Hepburn Professor of Physics)
Mike Matthews (Vice Dean for Finance and Administration, SEAS)
Tom Murphy (Senior Vice President of Information Systems and Computing, University CIO)
Jason A. Presley (Vice Dean of Finance and Administration and Senior Fellow, GSE)
Akwelle (Q) Quaye (Student Representative)
Rebecca Stein (Executive Director, Online Learning Initiative)
Tanvi Venkatesh (Student Representative)

Penn IT Strategic Plan Process and Timeline

IT flowchartt

One Step Ahead: Protecting Personal Health Information

One Step Ahead logo

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

Personal health information is private and confidential. You can help prevent unauthorized access to health data by taking a few critical security steps whenever you access health records online.

  • Use a strong password or passphrase that you can remember. A strong password is long (eight characters or more). It should include both alphanumeric characters and special characters. The application you are using should give you the requirements for your passwords.
  • Avoid writing down your password or saving it in plaintext on your computer. A password manager might be useful for storing your passwords and creating strong passwords.
  • Always log off before you close your web browser whenever you finish checking health information.
  • Keep your browser (plus its extensions or plugins) up to date with the latest security updates. 
  • Shred printed documents with health information before discarding them and don’t leave health information in plain sight.
  • Securely erase health-sensitive data from your electronic files when you can discard it. Follow guidelines from the Penn Office of Audit, Compliance and Privacy when protecting Penn data, including shredding paper records and disposing of computers.
  • Understand Penn Data Risk Classification when handling Penn health information, and know how to properly and securely handle the health data of students, staff, and patients.

If you need help determining the type of information you are handling or where to store it, check with your IT support staff.

Resources:

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.

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