March 28, 2023 Volume 69 Issue 28

March 24, 2023

Effective July 1, 2023, the University of Pennsylvania will cease awarding Dean’s List to undergraduate students. This decision is the culmination of extensive consultations over several years across the Penn community, including with undergraduate student leaders, in response to the shared belief that a Dean’s List designation does not reflect the breadth and evolution of students’ academic achievements over the course of their education at Penn. Latin Honors and school and departmental awards will continue to be awarded to recognize the many forms of academic excellence demonstrated by students. The PennBook will be updated in July 2023 to reflect this new policy, and a notation will be added to the transcript to document this change.

—Beth A. Winkelstein, Interim Provost
—Karen Detlefsen, Vice Provost for Education

The honorees of Penn Nursing’s faculty awards will be recognized at the Student, Alumni, and Faculty Awards event on Friday, May 13, 2023, 4-5:30 p.m. in the Ann L. Roy Auditorium.

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching–Undergraduate Level

Dalmacio Dennis Flores is an assistant professor of nursing in the department of family and community health. In the five years that Dr. Flores has been on the faculty, he has had a pronounced positive impact on undergraduate students and their understanding of nursing research, mentoring students in classes like LGBT Health and Psychological and Social Diversity in Health. He prioritizes creating an inclusive, engaging classroom environment, placing great value in a dynamic, student-centered approach to learning. As the principal investigator for research initiatives pertaining to parent-child sex communication, Dr. Flores has demonstrated exceptional leadership in mentoring students who possess a distinct interest in pursuing the same field. Particularly, he exceeds students’ expectations of acquiring an understanding of research skills by making certain that everyone has the opportunity to undertake various endeavors in this discipline. His ability to build a mutually rewarding relationship with his students, both inside and outside of the classroom, speaks to Dr. Flores’ embodiment of an ideal mentor and teacher.

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching–Graduate/Doctoral Level

Amy Sawyer is the DNP program director and associate professor of sleep & health behavior in the department of biobehavioral health sciences. Dr. Sawyer engages her students by employing cutting-edge teaching methodologies, including case-based learning, and fostering interactive and self-paced learning. She encourages her doctoral students to think independently and pursue research that is significant to their individual interests, devoting innumerable hours to learning areas of science unfamiliar to her in order to support the work of her students. Deeply committed to creating a space of inclusion and community, she creates an opportunity for her students, mentees, and colleagues to come together by holding a Nursing Sleep Science group, where students, mentees, and colleagues connect, share research, and get exposure to field-leading experts. She demonstrates unwavering dedication to her students’ growth and instills confidence in their ability to reach their goals. Her outstanding and sustained contributions to teaching and mentorship produce exceptional nurse leaders.

Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence Among Lecturers and Practice Faculty–Graduate/Doctoral Level

June Treston is the director of the family nurse practitioner program track in the department of family and community health. With over 25 years of teaching experience in both academic and clinical settings, she is successful in guiding students and mentees in their growth as nurse professionals. As an advocate for health equity, she developed the Civic Engagement Project, in which students seek solutions that reduce health disparities for underserved populations. Dr. Treston is passionate about teaching the next generation of nurse practitioners and has an exceptional ability to engage and challenge students to think critically, producing graduates with the essential knowledge, skills, and ethical values for a successful nursing professional. She has revolutionized the family nurse practitioner program, which is one of the only student-focused boutique programs in the world. Dr. Treston’s exceptional leadership has been instrumental in advancing the School of Nursing’s mission and preparing the next generation of nurse practitioners.

Dean’s Award for MS-MSN-DNP Scholarly Mentorship

Susan Renz is the primary care program director and a practice professor in the family and community health department. With a great passion for teaching, Dr. Renz exhibits extraordinary mentorship in both scholarly and clinical nursing, inspiring her students and mentees to become devoted nurses, researchers, educators, and leaders. Dr. Renz is recognized by her colleagues for her natural ability to build strong relationships with her students, demonstrating profound respect for their unique backgrounds, experiences, and relative expertise. She deeply values her students’ insights, as she and her co-directors for the course Advanced Concepts in Primary Care involve students in re-designing course content and assignments. As a champion for student development, Dr. Renz finds and vets sites for clinical placements for students in the adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner program, taking a great amount of pressure off students and ensuring that they have valuable clinical experiences.

Barbara J. Lowery Faculty Award, Doctoral Student Organization

Lauren Massimo is an assistant professor of nursing in the biobehavioral health sciences department. With extensive experience teaching in undergraduate and graduate courses at Penn Nursing, she successfully mentors and supervises research assistants, undergraduate students, and doctoral students on projects related to neurodegenerative disease. Her program of research uses state-of-the-art methods to understand the cognitive and neural mechanisms that contribute to symptoms in neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Massimo is an active investigator in the University of Pennsylvania Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, where she works closely with neurologists, neuropathologists, neuroscientists, geneticists, genetic counselors, neuropsychologists and social workers. She is strongly dedicated to the mission of training the next generation of scientists to engage in research to improve the lives of individuals living with neurodegenerative disease and their families. Dr. Massimo’s impressive clinical and research background in cognitive neurology and geriatric nursing contributes immensely to developing successful nursing professionals.

Undergraduate Award for Teaching, Student Nurses at Penn

Holly Harner is the Afaf I. Meleis director of the Center for Global Women’s Health, Director of the women’s health gender-related nurse practitioner track, and a practice professor of women’s health in the family and community health department. Her scholarship addresses gender-related health disparities with a specific emphasis on women’s mental health and violence. Dr. Harner applies a multitude of teaching techniques to cater to her students’ different learning styles, mentoring students in classes like Nursing of Women and Infants and Comparing Health Care Systems in an Intercultural Context, a study abroad course. She actively engages in the subject matter she teaches, demonstrating an expert-level knowledge of global women’s health concepts. She has a national reputation as a leading clinician, educator, and champion of women’s health, with a long-standing commitment to improving the health status of vulnerable women. She is a champion for women’s health and serves as inspiration to her students and mentees.

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing has announced the Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellowship Program (JJNIF), powered by Penn Nursing and the Wharton School–a groundbreaking, one-year, team-based nursing fellowship for chief nursing officers (CNO), nurse executives, and senior nurse leaders. The fellowship is unique in that two nurse leaders – one chief nursing officer or nurse executive and one other senior nurse leader from the same organization – participate and work together to address a real-world challenge their health system is facing.

The fellowship will immerse participants in the innovation process by focusing on human-centered design and design thinking methodologies and will teach fellows how to apply it to their specific challenge area. The innovation curriculum provided by Penn Nursing will be paired with business acumen, change management and strategic leadership skills development through Wharton Executive Education. At the conclusion of the fellowship, fellows will pitch their innovative solutions with the goal of bringing that solution back to their healthcare system to implement. The sponsorship of the fellowship covers all attendance and travel costs for participants.

“Healthcare systems are complex organizations where patients and families are cared for during vulnerable times in their lives,” said Penn Nursing’s Therese Richmond, associate dean for research and innovation. “Nurses are on the frontlines of care across the entire system and identify problems that impede humanistic, patient-centered, and equitable care. Who better than nurses to tackle these problems and transform care to achieve optimal outcomes?”

During the fellowship, participants will work on a healthcare problem specific to their health system. While two-person teams from each health system are required to attend all in-person and virtual sessions, fellows may invite extended team members from their health system who can help them identify the problem and develop their solutions to attend virtual sessions as needed. The program will conclude with a final in-person pitch session where fellows will describe the problem they are addressing and their recommended solution. Teams from ten different U.S. health systems will be selected to participate in the upcoming fellowship cohort. “This is a tremendous opportunity for CNOs and senior nurse leaders to learn how to use innovation, paired with business acumen, to transform healthcare,” said Marion Leary, director of innovation at Penn Nursing.

The JJNIF program is a combination of in-person and virtual sessions, and teams are expected to attend all sessions. The program begins with a virtual half-day kick-off meeting in early June 2023, followed by an in-person 5-day Summer Innovation Institute at Penn from June 26-30, 2023. Following the Summer Innovation Institute, there are three 2-day virtual synchronous sessions (one each quarter) throughout the year and a two-day in-person closing event at Johnson & Johnson’s headquarters in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on May 22-23, 2024.

Penn’s Benefits Open Enrollment is fast approaching. This year’s Open Enrollment will be Monday, April 24 through Friday, May 5.

Open Enrollment is your annual opportunity to make changes to your health plans, life insurance, and flexible spending accounts. While Open Enrollment is still a few weeks away, we want to give staff and faculty plenty of time to learn about the upcoming 2023-2024 plan changes, on-campus Open Enrollment Benefits Fair, virtual and on-campus benefits presentations, and other available resources. Be sure to carefully review your Benefits Enrollment Guide for details about the plan changes mentioned below.

Plan Changes as of July 1, 2023

Keystone HMO Plan Gets New Behavioral Health Network: The behavioral health network for the Keystone HMO plan is changing. IBX Behavioral Health will replace the Magellan Network. Staff and faculty who have Keystone as their medical plan will keep the same card. Participants can continue to call 1-800-688-1911 to find a network provider, facility, or for authorization. To find the behavioral health network for your Penn plan, log into Workday@Penn at www.workday.upenn.edu, select Benefits, then Benefits Elections.

Reduced Copays for Behavioral Health and Therapy Services: Penn remains committed to providing behavioral health services and support to staff and faculty. Copays for PennCare/Personal Choice PPO, Aetna Choice POS II, and Keystone/AmeriHealth HMO will be reduced in the upcoming plan year. Check the Behavioral Health Coverage page in the Benefits Enrollment Guide for details.

Copays for occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy will also be lowered for PennCare/Personal Choice PPO, Aetna Choice POS II, and Keystone/AmeriHealth HMO.  Check the medical plan charts in the Benefits Enrollment Guide for exact amounts.

New Provider for Fertility Benefits: Penn’s medical plans will have a new fertility provider. Carrot Fertility will replace the current medical coverage for all fertility-related services, effective July 1. The new provider will work with Penn Fertility Clinic and fertility clinics nationwide to support staff in different locations, and the benefit will now offer a concierge level of service. The benefit remains at a flat $30,000 lifetime maximum that can be used for a variety of fertility treatments.

Medical Plan and Dental Rates: Medical rates for PennCare/Personal Choice PPO, Aetna Choice POS II, and Keystone/AmeriHealth HMO will increase in the upcoming plan year. Dental rates for the Penn Family Plan will also increase slightly. Vision plan rates will remain the same. For a complete list of new rates, check the Medical, Dental, and Vision Rates for 2023-2024 chart in the Benefits Enrollment Guide or visit www.hr.upenn.edu/openenrollment.

Health Care Flexible Spending Account Rollover Amount Raised: If you have a Health Care Flexible Spending Account (HCFSA), you will be able to roll over up to $610 to the following plan year. You will forfeit any remaining balance over $610. The maximum amount you can contribute to the Health Care FSA is increasing from $2,850 to $3,050. You have until June 30 (end of the plan year) to incur expenses, but you have until September 30 to submit eligible claims for services you received before June 30.

All changes are effective July 1, 2023.

Open Enrollment Benefits Fair and Benefits Presentations

The Open Enrollment Benefits fair will be held on campus on Tuesday, April 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Gimbel Gym, Pottruck Health and Fitness Center. Penn HR staff, representatives from Penn’s healthcare providers, and wellness partners will be there to answer your questions.

Virtual and on-campus Open Enrollment presentations will also be held on the dates listed in the chart below.

Visit www.hr.upenn.edu/openenrollment for log in links for the virtual sessions and other information session details.

Workday@Penn

During Open Enrollment, you can make changes to your benefits coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week via Workday@Penn at http://www.myworkday.com/upenn/login.html. Please remember to print a confirmation statement for your records.

Read the Self-Service: Manage, View and Change Your Benefits Workday tip sheet for instructions.

Update Your Beneficiary

While you’re logged in to Workday@Penn, please review and update your life insurance beneficiary information. To update your retirement plan beneficiaries, log in to your retirement planning account through Penn’s TIAA.org SSO link.

Additional Resources

To find out more about Benefits Open Enrollment:

• Review the 2023-2024 Benefits Enrollment Guide, coming soon to your home address.
• Visit www.hr.upenn.edu/openenrollment for details and useful tools.
• Contact Health Advocate at answers@HealthAdvocate.com or call (866) 799-2329, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

—Division of Human Resources

Health Care Rates for 2023-2024

Medical, Dental and Vision Rates for Part-time and ACA Eligible Employees 2023-2024

Penn Live Arts, in partnership with KultureCity, has announced that the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is officially certified as a sensory inclusive venue. This new initiative, which benefits all programs and events held within the Annenberg Center, will promote an accommodating and positive experience for all guests to the venue. The Annenberg Center, Penn Live Arts’ headquarters, is the first exclusively arts venue in Philadelphia to be designated sensory inclusive.

The sensory inclusive certification process ensures that Penn Live Arts staff are trained annually by leading medical professionals on how to recognize and respond to guests with sensory needs as well as how to handle a sensory overload situation. KultureCity sensory bags, equipped with noise-canceling headphones, fidget tools, verbal cue cards, and weighted lap pads will be available to all guests at the Annenberg Center who may feel overwhelmed by the environment.

KultureCity is the nation’s leading non-profit addressing sensory accessibility and acceptance for persons with autism, dementia, PTSD, and other similar invisible disabilities. One of the major barriers for these individuals is sensitivity to overstimulation and noise, which can be a major part of the environment at a location like the Annenberg Center. With its new certification, the venue is now better prepared to assist guests with sensory sensitivities and ensure the most comfortable and accommodating experience possible.

Before attending an event at the Annenberg Center, guests can visit the Penn Live Arts website or download the free KultureCity app for detailed information about what sensory features are available and where they can be accessed. Also on the app, visitors can view the venue’s social media story, which provides a preview of what to expect during a visit to the Annenberg Center.

“We are committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment to everyone who visits the Annenberg Center,” said Penn Live Arts executive and artistic director Christopher A. Gruits. “Our partnership with KultureCity improves our ability to assist and accommodate guests with many different sensory needs, and enables us to offer more people the chance to engage with transformative artistic experiences.”

“Our communities shape our lives and to know that Penn Live Arts is willing to go the extra mile to ensure that everyone, no matter their ability, is included in community experiences is amazing,” said KultureCity executive director Uma Srivastava. “We’re honored to partner with them to provide a truly inclusive experience for all guests at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts!”

All sensory inclusive features are already available at the Annenberg Center and guests may ask any usher or staff member for detailed information. In May, as part of its 2023 Philadelphia Children’s Festival, Penn Live Arts will present its first designated sensory inclusive performance on Saturday, May 20 at 3 p.m. by BKBX Kids! in Destination: Everywhere. The performance, specifically designed to create a welcoming and comfortable arts experience for individuals with sensory sensitivities, is open to everyone.

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

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Actions

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Taking a Stand for Local Engagement: Faculty Senate Roundtable Discussions and Next Steps. The first of two planned roundtable discussions, “Public Education, Public Schools, and the Role of Universities in Supporting Them,” was held on February 28, with featured guests Tony Watlington, superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, and Pam Grossman, dean of the Penn Graduate School of Education. A recording of the session is available at https://provost.upenn.edu/senate/roundtable, and a summary document will be produced.

A second roundtable discussion, “Enhancing the Quality of Life for Children and Families in Urban Communities: A Systems-Focused Discussion,” is planned for April 2023.  SEC members proposed discussion questions for use by the roundtable’s moderator. 

Discussion with Scott L. Bok, Chair of the Penn Board of Trustees. Scott L. Bok, chair of the Penn Board of Trustees, discussed the role of the Trustees in governance and management, their relationship to the University President, and their fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of the institution and its research and educational missions. He then responded to questions posed by SEC members on the topics of Penn’s relationship to local public schools and to the City of Philadelphia, on the Trustees’ support for the Principles of Open Expression and of Academic Freedom and Responsibility at Penn, and on the affordability of a Penn education for international students. Mr. Bok then asked SEC members to comment on how student learning practices have evolved over the past several decades.

New Business. SEC member Benjamin Pierce shared information about CrowdStrike, a software required for use on all Penn-owned computer workstations and laptops since June 2022. CrowdStrike, a replacement for Symantec antivirus software on those machines, was deployed to enhance Penn’s defenses against hacking, ransomware, and other cybersecurity threats. Professor Pierce noted some concerns about the potential for privacy violations related to how personal information gathered by the software could be used by IT staff at each Penn school and accepted feedback on the matter from SEC members.

Wednesday March 29, 2023, 4 p.m.

1. Hall of Flags, Houston Hall
2. Welcome.
3. Approval of the Minutes of February 22, 2023.
4. Follow-up Questions on Status Reports.
5. Responses to Open Forum and New Business Topics from February 22, 2023.
6. Focus Issue Presentation: Penn’s Impact on the Community.
7. President’s Report: FY23 University Operating Budget.
8. Interim Provost’s Report: Update on Faculty Diversity.
9. New Business.
10. Adjournment.

The April 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 March AT PENN 2023 calendar can still be viewed at https://almanac.upenn.edu/at-penn-calendar/march-at-penn-2023. 

After a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, Penn’s annual Take Our Children to Work Day event will return to campus on April 27. This event is geared towards children ages 9-15, with age-appropriate academic learning activities, although children of any age are welcome to attend. Take Our Children to Work Day provides youth with an opportunity to explore different career paths while having fun. All faculty and staff are invited to sponsor a young guest to participate.

Take Our Children to Work Day is more than just a chance for children to tag along with you on the job. It gives youth enriching hands-on experiences in Penn’s innovative, diverse work environments.

Penn celebrates this event by providing an array of activities and programs that inspire youth, while introducing them to the workplace and higher education.

Participants can sample a variety of fields from athletics to robotics. Plus, each child can get a souvenir PennCard with their photo!

Schools, departments, and groups across Penn are collaborating to offer dozens of developmental activities this year, including:

• Passport to the World: Join International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) for a morning of learning, exploring, and creating art with the ISSS staff. Students will have the opportunity to visit several activity stations and “explore the world” and work of ISSS.  Activities such as coloring; introduction to information, inquiries, and data; and interactive stations covering a variety of cultures and languages are just some of the offerings.
• Robots, Mazes & Innovative Work: Come down to the Pennovation Works campus to learn about the innovative work done by the GRASP Lab at Penn and build your own robot.  Learn to build a minimalist robot and try to race them through a maze.
• A Day in the Bio-Lab Life: Come and see all the cool toys, uh, important equipment, that our bioengineering students get to use in our Bio-Maker Space. Watch a robotic arm controlled by muscle contractions, see cool projects using our laser cutter, and watch our 3D printer bring cartoon characters to life.
• Hands-On Fun with Simulated Patients: This interactive session explores the use of mannequins as a teaching method in preparing nursing students to care for real patients. Participants will listen to heart and lung sounds, feel for pulses, and team up to “treat” the mannequin for various illnesses.
• Penn Vet Working Dog Center Demo: See first-hand what it takes to train the nation’s leading detection dogs to serve in explosive detection, search and rescue, medical and environmental detection, and more. Enjoy a demo of the dogs in action.  
• Try Your First Case: Order in the court!  Have you watched movies and TV shows that feature attorneys arguing on behalf of their clients? Have you ever thought, “I could do that?” Now you can.  Come to Penn Law and be a lawyer for the day. Your client is involved in a high-stakes trial and your job is to argue the case. Working with your fellow attorneys, you will represent your client in a real courtroom in front of a judge and jury.

During this entertaining day, participants can also enjoy the Penn Relays, explore the Penn Museum, go backstage at Penn Live Arts, play mini-golf at the library, skate at Penn’s Ice Rink, enjoy expanded offerings from Penn Engineering such as learning about chemical and biomolecular engineering through Boba Tea Making, and much more.

You can see all of this year’s activities on the division of Human Resources Take Our Children to Work Day website.

Registration opens on Monday, April 3 at 9 a.m. Sessions include activities in three different categories. Get to Know Penn’s Campus and Wellness Activities are both primarily open registration, unless otherwise indicated, and you and the children may attend as many as you like. Youth and their sponsors may only attend one special topic activity. Mark your calendar to register on April 3 because space is limited for certain events.

Supervisor approval is required for staff to participate. Participating staff must accompany children to all activities, so be sure to work with your supervisor to ensure coverage for operational needs.

—Division of Human Resources

This symposium will take place Friday, March 31, from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. It is part of broader efforts at FQT/GSWS to help departments imagine what transgender-inclusive pedagogies can look like in their respective fields while positioning gender-affirming pedagogies as co-constituted with anti-racist methodologies, accessible course design, and other intersectional approaches in the classroom.

Click here to register to attend. For more information, including the tentative symposium schedule, visit https://gsws.sas.upenn.edu/events/2023/03/31/trans-affirming-pedagogies-symposium.

Children’s Events

31        At-Home Anthro Live: The Ziggurat at Ur: Design Your Own City; students will learn about the lives of people in the ancient Sumerian city of Ur, then get the chance to play city planner and design their own cities; 1:45 p.m.; online webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/anthro-live-mar-31 (Penn Museum).

Conferences

31        Locality in Theory, Processing and Acquisition Workshop; brings together experts to study locality phenomena, which can be found in different domains of syntax (e.g., filler-gap dependencies, agreement, and binding) and have played a prominent role in linguistics and in cognitive science more generally; 8:45 a.m.-5 p.m.; SAIL classroom 111, Levin Building; register: https://web.sas.upenn.edu/workshop-locality/ (Syntax Lab). Also April 1.

            The Arc of Chinese Economy; will examine China’s wildly successful economy, focusing on macroeconomic issues; micro issues at the industry, firm and household levels; and forward-looking factors; 8:45 a.m.-4 p.m.; 2^nd floor forum, PCPSE, and Zoom webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/cscc-conf-mar-31 (Center for the Study of Contemporary China). Also April 1, 8:45 a.m.-noon.

            Transgender-Affirming Pedagogies Symposium; will help departments imagine what transgender-inclusive pedagogies can look like in their respective fields while positioning gender-affirming pedagogies as co-constituted with anti-racist methodologies, accessible course design, and other intersectional approaches in the classroom; 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; room 108, ARCH; register: https://tinyurl.com/gsws-conf-mar-31 (Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies).

Exhibits

30        Unsovereign Elements: Geological Poetics in Contemporary Art from the Caribbean and its Diaspora; examines the ambiguous role of geological elements in the (re)production of the archipelago — certainly exhausted by modernity as discursive instruments, yet always retaining a poetic potential that far exceeds their materiality; Brodsky Gallery, Kelly Writers House. Opening reception: March 30, 6 p.m.

Penn Museum

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

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

Fitness & Learning

28        Student-Run Journal Information Session & Happy Hour; information session for 1L students interested in being part of a student-run journal next year; noon; Zoom webinar; join: https://tinyurl.com/law-journal-info-mar-28; 5:30 p.m.; Goat/Haga Lounge (Penn Carey Law).

30        Compassionate Conversations: Building Skills for Dialogue Around Abortion; attendees will learn best practices for engaging in conversation about abortion with peers and loved ones; all political leanings welcome; 6:30 p.m.; forum, PCPSE; register: https://tinyurl.com/paideia-workshop-mar-30 (Paideia Program).

Graduate School of Education

Info: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news/events-calendar.

30        Failing Forward: Overcoming the Fear of Failure; noon; room B10, Stiteler Hall.

LGBT Center

Info: https://lgbtcenter.universitylife.upenn.edu/.

28        QPenn: Wear Your Pride; noon-3 p.m.; reading room, Houston Hall. Also March 30, 3-5 p.m.

            QPenn: LGBTQIA Pre-Professional Panel; 7 p.m.; LGBT Center.

29        Graduate Writers Rooms; 4-7 p.m.; LGBT Center.

            QPenn: Kink Workshop; 7:30 p.m.; LGBT Center.

30        QPenn: Game Night; 6:30-8:30 p.m.; LGBT Center.

31        Queer Sex, Sexuality, & Relationships Workshop Series: Exploring Queer and Transgender Pleasure; 3 p.m.; Goodhand Room, LGBT Center.

            QPenn: Shabbat Bread Making; 3 p.m.; kitchen, Gutmann College House.

On Stage

Penn Live Arts

In-person events. Info and tickets: https://pennlivearts.org/events/.

29        Wharton Dance Studio: Dance Dance Revolution; spring showcase of a co-ed, fun, relaxed dance performance group; 8 p.m.; Zellerbach Theater, Annenberg Center.

Talks

28        Agile Robot Autonomy; Antonio Loquercio, University of California, Berkeley; 12:30 p.m.; room 225, Towne Building (Electrical & Systems Engineering).

29        ‘As a Rond of Flesche Yschore’: The King of Tars, Race, and Transgender Childhood; Nat Rivkin, GSWS; In Excess of Empire: Black Feminist Mothering and Transgender Temporalities in Intergalactic Travels: Poems from a Fugitive Alien by Alan Pelaez Lopez; Liz Rose, GSWS; noon; room 345, Fisher-Bennett Hall (Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies).

            Global Impact: Africa & the Americas; Katherine Renée Buhikire and Alison Ercole, Penn Global Nursing Fellowship Program; noon; online webinar; register: https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/details/forms.php?id=188 (Penn Nursing).

            Can’t Touch This: Real-Time, Provably Safe Motion Planning and Control for High Dimensional Autonomous Systems; Ram Vasudevan, University of Michigan; 3 p.m.; room 307, Levine Hall, and Zoom webinar; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98723817934 (GRASP Lab).

            From the Humanities to the Media Business; Richard Lorber, Kino-Lorber; Jesse Jacobs, Chernin Group; 3:30 p.m.; room 110, Annenberg School (Cinema & Media Studies).

30        Natural Structural Materials: Lessons on Toughening Mechanisms, Weight Reduction, and Multifunctionality; Ling Li, Virginia Tech; 10:30 a.m.; room 101, Levine Hall (Materials Science & Engineering).

            Heritage, Precarity, and Livelihoods; Amy Gadsden, Global Initiatives; Justin McDaniel, religious studies; Lynn Meskell, PIK professor; noon; Kleinman Forum, Fisher Fine Arts Library; register: https://tinyurl.com/preservation-talk-mar-30 (Historic Preservation).

            Immigrant Place Entrepreneurs: Ethnicity and Growth Politics in Koreatown, Los Angeles; Angie Chung, University at Albany; noon; room 623, Williams Hall (Korean Studies).

            Enabling Self-Sufficient Robot Learning; Rika Antonova, Stanford University; 12:30 p.m.; room 225, Towne Building (Electrical & Systems Engineering, Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics).

            Racism, Midwifery, and Healthcare; Lucinda Canty, University of Massachusetts Amherst; 3 p.m.; online webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/canty-talk-mar-30 (Penn Nursing).

            Engineering Therapeutic Immunity Using (Nano)Biomaterials; Natalie Artzi, Harvard Medical School; 3:30 p.m.; Glandt Forum, Singh Center for Nanotechnology (Bioengineering).

            A Conversation on the 1619 Project; Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine; 4 p.m.; Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall; register: https://tinyurl.com/hannah-jones-mar-30 (Penn Carey Law, Annenberg School; School of Social Policy & Practice).

            The Evolutionary Origins of Cortical Cell Types; Maria Antonietta Tosches, Columbia University; 4 p.m.; Tedori Family Auditorium, Levin Building (Biology).

31        Fun with Robots and Machine Learning; Pulkit Agrawal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 10:30 a.m.; Wu & Chen Auditorium, Levine Hall, and Zoom webinar; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/92908473406 (GRASP Lab).

            In Practice; Gretchen Hilyard Boyce, Groundwork Planning & Preservation; noon; room 3N, Meyerson Hall; register: https://tinyurl.com/boyce-talk-mar-31 (Historic Preservation).

            Autonomous Mobility in Mars Exploration: Recent Achievements and Future Prospects; Larry Matthies, California Institute of Technology; 1:30 p.m.; Berger Auditorium, Skirkanich Hall, and Zoom webinar; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/92898101817 (GRASP Lab).

Economics

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

28        Uncovering the Separate (Latent) Contributions of Family, School, and Neighborhood Heterogeneity to Variations in Academic Performance; Lucienne (Lucy) Disch, economics; noon; room 101, PCPSE.

29        Fertility in Places with Location-Specific Housing Prices and Educational Resources; David Mao, economics; noon; room 100, PCPSE.

            Elasticity and Curvature of Discrete Choice Demand Models; Katja Seim, Yale University; 3:30 p.m.; room 100, PCPSE.

31        Idiosyncratic Consumption Risk and Wealth Dynamics; Luigi Maria Briglia, CEMFI; noon; room 101, PCPSE.

This is an update to the March AT PENN calendar, which is online now. To submit an event for a future AT PENN calendar or update, submit the salient details to almanac@upenn.edu.

University of Pennsylvania Police Department Crime Report

Below are the Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Society and Crimes Against Property from the campus report for March 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 March 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: 7 incidents (4 aggravated assaults, 1 assault, 1 domestic assault, and 1 robbery) with 2 arrests were reported for March 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

With so much of our data being stored online and in the cloud, you might think data backups are a thing of the past—they aren’t. Data stored online can be corrupted or deleted by accident, so you should also keep local copies, just in case. 

To back up University computers and devices, please check with your local computing support about the available options and resources. 

Backing up your personal computer:

• Apple hosts Time Machine, an application that allows you to back up your computer (both operating system and data) to an external hard drive. To store your data, you will need a compatible dedicated external hard drive with twice the storage capacity of your Macintosh’s hard drive. Time Machine can back up automatically, and you can also create manual backups. Time Machine also allows you to restore your entire computer or recover individual files. Directions and more information can be found on Apple’s website. 
• For Windows computers, the options are more complicated, but you can also create a complete backup of your operating system and data. You can also back up your files only. As with Time Machine, you will need an external hard drive to store the backup.
• Windows users would use Windows Backup & Restore and File History to back up your computer and files. Directions and more information can be found on Microsoft’s website. 

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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.

Dear Members of the Penn Community,

As you may know, the City of Philadelphia has reported a spill of a latex product occurred in the Delaware River and may have the potential to affect the water supply in some parts of Philadelphia. The city has reported that all water remains safe to drink at this time. There is no need to buy water at this time. Residents can fill bottles or pitchers with tap water with no risk at this time.

Additionally, they have reported that the University’s campus (19104 Zip Code) does not fall within the potentially impacted area. The Philadelphia Water Department provided a map to show the areas which may be impacted by the spill, found here: https://phillyh2o.info/spill-map

The Philadelphia Water Department continues to monitor and test potentially affected water sources. They will be providing an update this afternoon.

Details about the spill are available on the City of Philadelphia Water Department homepage: https://water.phila.gov/

You may also follow the City of Philadelphia’s Water Department, Mayor’s Office, and Office of Emergency Management or DPS on Twitter for updates: @PhillyH2O, @PhiladelphiaGov, @PhilaOEM, @PennDPS, as well as the DPS website http://www.publicsafety.upenn.edu

—Division of Public Safety

Toni Bowers

“I was able to immerse myself into silent film and understand how gesture [can] convey a range of meanings whereas speech in effect limits our understanding…. Through gesture, our mind is encouraged to do more critical thinking and searching.”
“By learning the various ways pantomime made my peers feel, I was able to garner… perspectives that often were vastly different than mine.”
“I really enjoyed this course.”

These are the words of Penn undergraduates who, in a course on the silent films of Charlie Chaplin, ENGL/CIMS 596, take steps toward mastering a communication form they have usually not studied before: pantomime. As these comments indicate, the course is great fun; but that is not to say it’s easy. Chaplin’s movies are hilarious, but their undertow is dangerous: it silently pulls students into methods of imagining and communicating entirely unknown to those who are used to relying on language. 

When a journalist asked Chaplin what his latest film meant, he answered in terms her question could not encompass: “What do you want a meaning for?” the filmmaker demanded; “Life is a desire, not a meaning.” “Where words leave off,” Chaplin declared at another point, “gesture begins.” This course tests that proposition and tests students’ abilities to think in profoundly different ways.

To succeed in this class, students must move out of hard-won comfort zones (facility with language) and question some of their own most reassuring assumptions (that words are reliable and adequate) and practices (the search for “meaning”). “There was definitely a learning curve…,” one student noted in a course evaluation. “But we [were] all eager to rise to the challenge.” The remark makes clear how much this course demands, how much students risk by trusting bodies and things, reactions and feelings, instead of words. 

The student’s remark also raises a question that is especially pertinent to teaching and learning at Penn. Where does that eagerness come from? How might faculty motivate students to take on challenges not only to what they know, but to how they know? Given Penn’s demanding undergraduate curriculum and our students’ well-developed grade-consciousness, how might we encourage them to take genuine intellectual risks in our courses?

One answer lies in the work we do to design our courses in the first place. No single course can undo the pressures that drive students to default to safety rather than experiment, but we can structure our courses so as to make clear to students that risk-taking is, in itself, a valued aspect of success in a course. 

Students at Penn are often reluctant to take risks in course selection because of the pervasive grade anxiety that hovers over undergraduate learning like an unhealthy miasma. In response, I aim to dethrone structures that make for competition among students. For three decades I have begun classes by telling students that everyone present is starting out with an A in the course. Their job over the semester is to preserve that grade—and I am as transparent as possible about how to do that: fulfill the course requirements (detailed in the syllabus and read aloud on the first day), and recognize that their abilities will improve as they take risks.

My job is to define the course goals, explain them clearly, and guarantee that if students take risks in good faith, that risk-taking will be rewarded per se. In 596, I let them know that the point isn’t to perform a professional-quality pantomime on the final day of class, but to work steadily in collaboration, imagine ambitiously, and push themselves to do more than they thought they could do. Students know that while the measurable qualities of their work matter, other qualities matter more—their willingness to try, their growth, their generosity, their commitment to mastering course concepts and putting them into practice, their perseverance. When students aim for these behaviors rather than for grades, they are surprised at how much they learn—and how much fun it is. They relax and they excel.

To help Penn students relax, I find that I have to be specific about precisely how risk-taking matters, and about what they will gain from the course that’s valuable enough to make it worth the risks. The best way to do this, I think, is to tell students that they will not be penalized for trying. What counts against a student, I make clear, is not taking risks. Even if their results are objectively good, they will not have excelled in the course if they don’t face and deal with its risks, because no assignment in the class is primarily about its result. 

I explain why the learning in the class is valuable enough to justify risk-taking. This is especially important because no course I teach is designed primarily to fulfill a requirement; even though most of my courses do fulfill requirements, that is not what they’re for, or their major pay-off. Instead, the pay-off happens as students learn to see in new ways. (In 596, just seeing silent films can be difficult at the beginning). I ask students to follow their curiosity, try new things, and in the process expand their ability to learn. Students benefit most when they investigate bravely. Taking risks lets them expand and grow as learners.  

I also let students know that I am committed to perceiving and rewarding their growth over time, not just their abilities to perform at pre-ordained moments of reckoning. This means that I commit myself to continuously responding to student writing and to meeting students individually and in groups. I offer an individual midterm meeting. Students develop a sense of professionalism and accountability as they set up this meeting and bring an agenda, including goals to be achieved together. The midterm grade includes the meeting and the student’s short written report on the process of preparing for it and what we accomplished during it.

I indicate that I highly value student investment in how the group is learning. I want students to re-imagine the class not as a collection of competing individuals, but as a collaborative, living organism. I teach students to think of familiar kinds of assignments—reading, posting on-line, participating in class, submitting projects by their due dates—as ways of participating in something college offers that is rare: a dedicated learning community. When they learn this, they see why it’s not possible to “make up” Canvas postings, since these are not about the post itself but about the process of trying out ideas in real time with other students; it’s not possible to make up missed classes, since a student’s presence in the group is the point, and signifies even when they are silent. I expect students to participate in other students’ learning by seriously entering into another’s point-of-view in class discussions, by suggesting specific strategies in workshops. That kind of participation in another’s intellectual life is just as important as performing well on a set task. I’ve found it possible to take the kinds of course requirements students are already used to and shift the aperture toward collaboration—not entirely, but far enough to change student expectations and behaviors in a given class.  

Most students are happy to start looking differently at their own learning—though that, too, involves risk. They see that when they post on time and stay engaged, other students have adequate time to reply to them with care and deliberation—and do so. They see that when they meet submission deadlines, I have time to give their work my best attention and to do so in the context of the group’s submissions; that when they do the reading carefully, taking notes, they can participate fully in class discussion. They begin to develop what for some is a new habit: understanding their own learning alongside the learning of others. And they see that thinking this way matters not because it will help them get ahead of other students, but because it is an enjoyable, efficient, and productive way to learn. 

Re-placing the emphasis from competitive individual achievement to learning in community need not change the assignments faculty require in a given course (though it might). What it does demand is that we be ready to widen the “why” for our students. I’ve found that doing so reliably produces improved student work. To build more “why” into a course means being explicit about the course’s purposes, methods, and expectations in the early places whose pedagogical value faculty can easily overlook – the initial course plan, the several published descriptions, and the syllabus, which is most useful when it details how things will work and why, and what grades mean in this class. I find it invaluable to ask students to read the syllabus aloud and discuss it during the first class meeting. This kind of extended preparatory process can help students to believe it’s worth taking risks in the service of genuine intellectual exploration. In ENGL/CIMS 596, Penn undergraduates dare to try things out and even (oh, brave new world) fail occasionally, confident that they have the power to preserve an A that depends on perseverance and creativity in new and sometimes difficult collaborative adventures.

Toni Bowers is a professor in the department of English. She received the Ira Abrams Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2022.

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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.