March 12, 2024 Volume 70 Issue 25

Provost John L. Jackson, Jr. has appointed a new Provost’s Advisory Committee on Community Engaged Scholarship. The committee’s members are:

• Matthew Hartley, Deputy Dean, Professor, and Board of Advisors Chair of Education, Graduate School of Education (Chair)
• Herman Beavers, Julie Beren Platt and Marc E. Platt President’s Distinguished Professor of English and Africana Studies
• Lisa M. Bellini, Senior Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine
• Dennis DeTurck, Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor and Professor of Mathematics, School of Arts & Sciences
• Loretta Flanagan-Cato, Associate Professor of Psychology and Co-Director of the Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, School of Arts & Sciences
• Dalmacio Dennis Flores, Assistant Professor of Nursing, School of Nursing
• Andy Tan, Associate Professor of Communication and Director, Health Communication & Equity Lab, Annenberg School for Communication
• Melissa J. Wilde, Professor and Chair of Sociology, School of Arts & Sciences

The committee’s charge is to advise the Provost’s Office on how to further advance community-engaged scholarship at Penn. This will include encouraging further discussions at the school or departmental levels, as well as developing a plan for the ongoing mentoring of faculty and doctoral students interested in or engaged in this work. The committee will work closely with the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, which will provide assistance connecting faculty to community organizations, communities of faith, and local schools. The Netter Center will also support the committee by providing staff support, as well as serving as a repository for information and documents on community engaged scholarship. The committee’s work builds on the 2022 report of the ad hoc Faculty Committee on Community Engaged Scholarship, which aimed to offer an initial definition of community-engaged scholarship at and for Penn.

February 28, 2024

To the Penn community,

During these first weeks of the spring semester, I have been sitting down with students, faculty, and staff who are deeply engaged in fostering a vibrant and inclusive environment on our campus. I have talked with the chairs of the Antisemitism Task Force and the Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community. I have also met with members of the Student Advisory Group on the Jewish student experience and the Student Advisory Group on Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian student experiences, as well as numerous other student, faculty, and staff groups. I am grateful to all who have shared your experiences and perspectives with me.

I have heard in these conversations a troubling and increasing concern about doxing and other forms of online harassment. These types of harassment can feel relentless, terrifying, and personally damaging to those who experience them. Any effort to target or intimidate members of the Penn community is unacceptable. Behavior of this kind is contrary to Penn’s commitment to cultivating an inclusive campus environment that upholds our fundamental values of open expression and the productive exchange of perspectives and ideas. The University remains steadfast in our resolve to hold accountable, through our policies and processes, any person or group affiliated with Penn found to be harassing any other member of our community.

If you are experiencing online harassment or threatening behavior of any kind, please report it to the Division of Public Safety by calling (215) 573-3333 for an immediate response or filling out the Online Harassment Report Form for a response within 48 hours. You may also reach out to Special Services at (215) 898-4481 or specialservices@publicsafety.upenn.edu. Additional information can be found on this resource page.

As we approach spring break and look forward to taking some time to rest and recharge, let’s reaffirm our shared commitment to one another—and to robust and civil dialogue that shows respect and moves us forward together.

Warm regards,
John L. Jackson, Jr., Provost

March 5, 2024

To the Penn Community,

We write to share updates on information-gathering streams offered by the University Task Force on Antisemitism.

1. Small group listening sessions: Additional seats are now available in the small group listening sessions for Penn students, faculty, staff, and postdocs. We invite you to sign up to participate. Capacity remains limited, so please sign up soon if you are interested.
2. Questionnaire: If you are unable to attend a listening session, but want to provide input – Penn students, faculty, staff, and postdocs are invited to share their input through a questionnaire. Questions are similar to those that will be asked during the small group listening sessions. The questionnaire will close on March 14.

We appreciate your willingness to share your perspectives, experiences, and ideas with us.

—Penn Task Force on Antisemitism

Frank Schorfheide has been named the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Economics in the School of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Schorfheide is a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and has been a visiting scholar at several central banks. He also has served as a co-editor on the editorial boards of the International Economic Review from 2005-2009 and Quantitative Economics from 2011-2018. He was chair of Penn’s department of economics from 2018 to 2021 and currently is an associate editor of the Journal of Econometrics.

Dr. Schorfheide conducts research in econometrics and macroeconomics. Much of his work can be classified as macroeconometrics and is related to the Bayesian analysis of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models and vector autoregressions (VARs). His research provides a set of tools that are useful for empirical work with modern macroeconomic models, including forecasting and policy analysis. He has applied these methods to analyze the sources of business cycle fluctuations and to study the effects of monetary policy. In recent years, Dr. Schorfheide also worked on forecasting with dynamic panel data models and, more generally, on the estimation of models with unobserved heterogeneity. His research has been published in top general-interest economics journals, including the American Economic Review, Econometrica, and the Review of Economic Studies. He also co-wrote with Edward P. Herbst the book Bayesian Estimation of DSGE Models.

The late Christopher H. Browne, C’69, served as the chair of the Board of Advisors at Penn Arts & Sciences and as a Trustee of the University. The Browne Distinguished Professorships recognize faculty members who have achieved an extraordinary reputation for scholarly contributions, demonstrated great distinction in teaching, and demonstrated intellectual integrity and unquestioned commitment to free and open discussion of ideas.

Holger Sieg has been named the Baird Term Professor of Economics in the School of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Sieg, who has also been a National Bureau of Economic Research research affiliate in public economics and political economy since 2000, focuses his research on public and urban economics, as well as the political economy of state and local governments.

Dr. Sieg has provided rigorous foundations for structural estimation and has fundamentally shaped understanding of decentralized governments and fiscal federalism. In particular, he has made integral theoretical and empirical contributions to the study of equilibrium models of local jurisdictions. These models are used to characterize collective choices of public goods via majority rule and residential sorting of households in a system of communities or neighborhoods. Dr. Sieg is the author of the innovative textbook Urban Economics and Fiscal Policy.

Dr. Sieg’s research has also provided new insights into access to and affordability of higher education, as well as the impact of affirmative action and financial aid policies. Most recently, his research has focused on the role of adverse selection and moral hazard in mayoral and gubernatorial elections. He has also developed new methods for estimating dynamic games of political competition with imperfect monitoring. This research has led to the development of new measures of policy responsiveness and characterized the impact of term limits on electoral competition and voters’ welfare.

The Baird Endowed Term Chair was established by anonymous donors in 2005.

Murray Gerstenhaber, an emeritus professor of mathematics in the School of Arts and Sciences, died on February 21. He was 96.

Born in New York to Jewish immigrants, Dr. Gerstenhaber was recognized for his intellect from an early age. At 10 years old, Dr. Gerstenhaber had an IQ of 199+ and was recognized as a child prodigy. He attended the Speyer School and the Bronx High School of Science. After graduating high school as valedictorian (and as a recipient of the prestigious George Westinghouse Award), Dr. Gerstenhaber served in the U.S. Army in Berlin from 1945 to 1957, where he also taught higher mathematics courses at a university the U.S. had established there. Dr. Gerstenhaber attended Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School in an accelerated program and obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics in 1948. He later earned his PhD in mathematics at the University of Chicago in 1951. Dr. Gerstenhaber engaged in postdoctoral studies at Harvard from 1951-1952, then at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1952-1953.

Dr. Gerstenhaber joined the faculty of Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences in the department of mathematics in 1953. Struggling with limited funds for the mathematics department, Dr. Gerstenhaber entered a local radio quiz show, winning $25 per show, which he contributed to the department. In 1954, Dr. Gerstenhaber secured Penn’s first National Science Foundation (NSF) grant in mathematics. He served as the chair of the department of mathematics, and, from 1982-1983, as chair of Penn’s Faculty Senate. Dr. Gerstenhaber earned a JD in 1973 from Penn’s Law School, then became a member of the Pennsylvania bar. Later, he lectured at the law school, constructing a pioneering course there on the defensive application of statistical evidence in criminal trials. Dr. Gerstenhaber retired from Penn in 2011 and took emeritus status. When he retired, he was the longest-serving tenured faculty member in Penn’s history.

As a researcher, Dr. Gerstenhaber made significant contributions to theoretical physics and discovered the Gerstenhaber algebra, a novel algebraic structure, while at Penn. He dedicated his research to algebraic deformation theory, structure of algebras, and quantum groups. Dr. Gerstenhaber’s work was renowned by his peers. His papers “On the Deformation of Rings and Algebras” and “The Cohomology Structure of an Associative Ring” were cited when he won the 2021 Leroy P. Steele Prize from the American Mathematical Society.

Outside of Penn, Dr. Gerstenhaber founded the Association of Members of the Institute for Advanced Study (AMIAS,) served as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and as an inaugural fellow of the American Mathematical Society, and was the managing editor of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. He was also fervent in his commitment to social justice and maintained a longstanding membership with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Dr. Gerstenhaber is survived by his son, David; his daughter, Rachel; his son-in-law, Alex; his granddaughters, Amanda, Arielle, Elana, and Mikaela; and his grandsons, Alexander, Joshua, and Dylan. Private funeral services were held on March 3.

R. Bruce Heppenstall, a professor emeritus of orthopedic surgery in the Perelman School of Medicine and former chief of orthopedic surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, died on January 4. He was 82.

Dr. Heppenstall was born in Manitoba and earned an engineering degree from the University of Manitoba in 1962, then a medical degree from the same university in 1966. He later pursued postdoctoral studies at the Health Science Centre in Winnipeg. In 1969, he relocated to the United States.

Dr. Heppenstall first attended Penn’s School of Medicine as an orthopedic resident in 1969. He conducted research at Penn under Carl Brighton, focusing on investigations into oxygen tension and the electrical effects of the growth plate. In 1974, he was promoted to assistant professor in the department of orthopedic surgery, and he became a full professor in 1980. The same year, he published his textbook, Fracture Treatment and Healing, which is still cited today and which contained information distilled from his research on wound healing and the treatment of fractures. Dr. Heppenstall continued to hold dual appointments as the chief of the fracture service at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and as chief of orthopedic surgery at the Philadelphia Veterans Affair Medical Center.

Dr. Heppenstall is widely recognized for his contributions to fracture biology, conducting innovative studies of the metabolic effects of tissue ischemia. This research used nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to describe the derangements of intracellular energy metabolism caused by ischemia in the context of compartment syndrome or tourniquet use. This approach enabled the simultaneous monitoring of blood pressure and compartment pressure, contributing to the introduction of the term “Delta pressure.” This term was widely adopted in contemporary diagnosis of compartment syndrome. In 1986, Dr. Heppenstall received the prestigious Kappa Delta Award of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery for this work, the most esteemed accolade in orthopedic research.

Aside from his primary role at Penn in the department of orthopedic surgery, Dr. Heppenstall also held an appointment as a lecturer in occupational therapy in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. In 2016, Dr. Heppenstall retired from Penn and took emeritus status. The department of orthopedic surgery created the annual Bruce Heppenstall Trauma Lectureship after his retirement to recognize his many contributions to the field.

Dr. Heppenstall was a beloved father, doctor, educator, friend, and colleague. Outside of his work, he enjoyed traveling, music, and sailing.

He is survived by his son, Mark David; his daughter, Darcy; former wives, Carol Heppenstall and Betty Jane Bruck; and his stepchildren, Christropher and Matthew Bruck. A funeral service was held on January 26.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to advance orthopedic research through the R. Bruce Heppenstall, MD Lecture and Research Fund at Penn Medicine. Donations can be made online by visiting www.pennmedicine.org/heppenstallfund.

Ruth Smith Wells, Penn’s director of victim support and special services from 1976 to 1992 and a trailblazing female police officer in the City of Philadelphia, died on February 17. She was 94.

Born in North Philadelphia, Ms. Wells graduated from LaSalle University and the Pennsylvania Congress of Christian Education and also completed studies at Temple University. During the U.S. Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, Ms. Wells was one of 19 women who joined the City of Philadelphia Police Department in 1955 after suing the police department to allow women to join. Later, she also sued the police department to obtain maternity leave. Along with fellow activist, the late C. Delores Tucker, Ms. Wells was a strong supporter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and frequently attended his rallies, meetings, and marches.

Ms. Wells’s activism continued for her entire life; in 2009, she witnessed the U.S. Senate vote to formally apologize for failing to pass anti-lynching legislation first proposed more than a century earlier. She was recognized in 2016 by the Equal Justice Initiative on the 100th anniversary of the death of Anthony P. Crawford, a successful cotton farmer and Ms. Wells’s grandfather, who was lynched by a White mob. “She was a civic leader, a passionate advocate for women’s rights and the disenfranchised, a trailblazer, a devout woman of God,” her niece Andrea Muhammad said in an online tribute.

In 1976, Ms. Wells left the Philadelphia Police Department and came to Penn’s Department of Public Safety, which had commissioned her to develop and oversee its public safety education and training program. While at Penn, Ms. Wells developed a campus-wide safety education program and created Penn’s victim support programs, which, unusually for the era, operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. She developed the program to include medical referrals and to function in liaison with numerous on- and off-campus agencies to provide the best possible service. She also helped recruit women and minority officers to Penn’s Department of Public Safety, instituted new standards and procedures for officer training, and worked to develop walk-back services, blue-light emergency phones, restroom alarms, and other public safety mainstays that Penn still employs today.

When Ms. Wells retired from Penn in 1992 (Almanac November 10, 1992), Elena DiLapi, then director of the Penn Women’s Center, said that Ms. Wells’ liaison work with the city police has made a “significant difference in the way police respond not only to Penn women but to women throughout the city.” Penn’s former police commissioner John Kuprevich said he was “extremely sorry to lose Ruth Wells. What I have seen her do for the organization and for the University has been a real achievement. She has truly made a difference through prevention and support services. Ruth cares deeply about the people of the community around Penn as well as for the people of Penn. That’s not easy to find.”

Ms. Wells was a member of the Philadelphia Ethics Board, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (which has a scholarship in her name), and the Guardian Civic League. She was also a founding member of the Mayor’s Commission for Women, a former board chair of Women Organized Against Abuse, and the founder of the Women of Color Fellowship at Penn. As a longtime member of Christian Hope Baptist Church, Ms. Wells served as a deaconess, church secretary, and president of the Board of Christian Education, the senior choir, and the senior missionaries. She was active in the Baptist church at a national level, serving as president of the Women’s Division of the Pennsylvania State Baptist Convention and as director of the National Baptist Convention’s Young People’s Department and the New England Baptist Youth Ministry. Ms. Wells was featured in Ebony magazine, Jet, The Collegiate, Women in Policy, and other publications.

She is survived by her husband, Joseph; her children, Cheri, Joseph, Angela, Aimee, Kathres, Vikki, Andre, Abijah and Bernard; her grandchildren, Jason, Jennifer, Jazzmin, Stephanie, Alana, Khamar, Marletia, Sarah, Kira, Andre Jr., Jalen, Alexandra, Kai and Abijah Jr.; her seven great-grandchildren; and other family members and friends. A service was held on March 2.

The following agenda is published in accordance with the Faculty Senate Rules. Any member of the standing faculty may attend SEC meetings and observe by contacting Patrick Walsh, executive assistant to the Senate, either by telephone at (215) 898-6943 or by email at senate@pobox.upenn.edu.

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda

Wednesday, November 1, 2023
3-4:15 p.m. EDT

1. Finalize SEC meeting minutes of February 14, 2024
2. Tri-chairs’ report
3. Update from the Office of the Senior Executive Vice President
   Discussion with SEVP Craig Carnaroli
4. New business
5. Adjourn to Faculty Senate Roundtable, open to the whole Penn community

Like most institutions of higher education, the University of Pennsylvania “affirms, supports and cherishes the concepts of freedom of thought, inquiry, speech, and lawful assembly” and “encourages freedom of inquiry, discourse, teaching, research, and publication.”

Yet, there is sharp disagreement about the meaning and practice of open expression and academic freedom at Penn and at other universities. What exactly do those concepts mean? What rights do they confer? What are their limits? To what extent are they threatened in the current political and social climate? How can the central function of a university—educating students and producing new knowledge—survive in the face of such threats?

Join two upcoming Faculty Senate Roundtables, when we will host a group of the nation’s leading scholars for a timely discussion followed by questions from the audience. Register at https://upenn.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_56VD5ffjrgrusZw.

Free Speech on Campus: Questions for Challenging Times
Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 4:30-6 p.m.
Fitts Auditorium, Penn Carey Law School

Are Academic Freedom and Open Expression Under Siege? Campus Unrest and the Future of the University
Thursday, April 18, 2024, 4-5:30 p.m.
Location TBA

The Board of Trustees’ Winter Stated Meeting was held on March 1, 2024, at the Woodlands Ballroom of the Inn at Penn.

Trustees chair Ramanan Raghavendran began the meeting and introduced University Chaplain and Vice President for Social Equity & Community Rev. Charles Howard, who gave the invocation.

Interim President J. Larry Jameson began his report but was interrupted by shouting from student protesters. After requesting three times that the meeting be allowed to continue, Mr. Raghavendran called for a vote on resolutions approved at the Trustees’ committee meetings on February 29. These resolutions were:

• A resolution to appoint David A. Asch as senior vice president for strategic initiatives
• A resolution to appoint Jonathan A. Epstein as Interim Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and as interim dean of the Perelman School of Medicine
• A resolution on faculty appointments and promotions
• Resolutions to repatriate a Passamaquoddy Wampum Belt and other Native American cultural objects from the Penn Museum
• Resolutions on the engagement of an independent accountant for FY2024 and to pre-approve recurring non-audit fees paid to the independent accountant for FY2025
• A resolution to authorize tuition ($60,920), fees ($7,766), room and board ($12,640), and meal plan charges ($6,534) for academic year 2024-2025, and to establish a financial aid budget of $311 million
• A resolution to authorize construction of a comprehensive cancer center, ambulatory imaging center, and parking garage at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center in FY2025, in the amount of $401,000,000
• A resolution to authorize Sheraton Hotel renovations and mechanical, electrical and plumbing upgrades, in the amount of $60,200,000
• A resolution to authorize Vance Hall and Huntsman Hall renovations, for an additional $9,770,000 (with a total revised budget of $19,700,000)
• A resolution to authorize Sheerr Pool renovations at Pottruck Fitness Center, in the amount of $14,377,000
• Resolutions to re-appoint:
  • Michael B. Lowenstein to the Board of Advisors of the School of Arts & Sciences
  • Osagie O. Imasogie as chair of the Board of Advisors of the Carey Law School
• Resolutions to appoint:
  • Robert J. Fallon and Tara Lipton to the Penn Athletics Board of Advisors
  • Egidio Farone and Myechia Minter-Jordan to the Board of Advisors of the School of Dental Medicine
  • Webster B. Chua to the Board of Advisors of the Graduate School of Education
  • Sascha S. Bauer to the Board of Advisors of the Institute of Contemporary Art
  • Sonia Kapadia to the Board of Advisors of the School of Nursing
• A resolution to confirm the 2024 Slate of the Wistar Institute Board of Trustees

These resolutions were approved, and Mr. Raghavendran adjourned the meeting. The next Trustees meetings will be held on May 16, 2024.

José A. Bauermeister, the Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations in Penn Nursing and chair of the department of family & community health, director of the Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Initiative, and a senior fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, has been appointed to the National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NACMHD). This council is part of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Members of the council are drawn from the scientific, medical, and lay communities in order to offer diverse perspectives on minority health and health disparities. The NIMHD Council, which meets three times a year, advises the secretary of Health and Human Services and the directors of NIH and NIMHD on matters related to NIMHD’s mission. The council also conducts the second level of review for grant applications and cooperative agreements related to research and training, recommending approval for projects that demonstrate the potential to make valuable contributions to human knowledge.

Two Penn Nursing doctoral students have been named the first Carol E. Ware PhD Fellows. This program provides two years of financial support to PhD students who are committed to improving care for people living with Alzheimer’s disease, related dementias, and/or other mental health issues.

The Carol Ware Fellows are:

Hannah Cho, a third-year PhD student. Her research interests include studying digital literacy and social support of caregivers for persons living with dementia in a community

Ellen Munsterman, a third-year PhD student. She is pursuing a dual degree in the Masters in Bioethics program. Her research interests include the experiences of hospitalized older adults with dementia and their family caregivers and dementia-friendly hospital care.

Designed to give scholars proficiency in gerontological research, concepts, and theoretical frameworks essential to dementia studies, the Ware Fellowship program will help develop a core understanding of the needs of persons with dementia, their family, and their careers across multiple environments. The program addresses health inequalities and the public health impacts associated with persons living with dementia. It also offers students the ability to learn current and emerging research design methods necessary to evaluate dementia care interventions. It aims to advance the scholarship of Penn Nursing faculty and clinical curriculum, focusing on person-centered care for individuals and families affected by dementia.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has announced the names of the 126 early-career researchers who have been selected to receive a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2024. Awarded annually since 1955, the fellowships honor exceptional U.S. and Canadian researchers whose creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders.

“Sloan Research Fellowships are extraordinarily competitive awards involving the nominations of the most inventive and impactful early-career scientists across the U.S. and Canada,” said Adam F. Falk, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “We look forward to seeing how Fellows take leading roles shaping the research agenda within their respective fields.”

The 2024 class of fellows includes Penn faculty members Jiaoyang Huang, an assistant professor of statistics and data science in the Wharton School, and Martin Claassen, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy in the School of Arts & Sciences. Candidates must be nominated by their fellow scientists and winners are selected by independent panels of senior scholars based on a candidate’s research accomplishments, creativity, and potential to become a leader in their field. More than 1,000 researchers are nominated each year. Winners receive a two-year, $75,000 fellowship which can be used flexibly to advance the fellow’s research.

A Sloan Research Fellowship is one of the most prestigious awards available to young researchers, in part because so many past fellows have gone on to become distinguished figures in science.

Brian Capell, an assistant professor of dermatology, received a $100,000 grant from the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The award will build on Dr. Capell’s previous research, which shows that modulating the types of fatty acids in the diet may prevent the formation of skin and oral squamous cell carcinomas. Squamous cell carcinoma, which can occur in various places throughout the body, is the most common form of cancer worldwide.

Virginia Man-Yee Lee, the John H. Ware 3rd Professor in Alzheimer’s Research in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine, has been awarded the 2024 Outstanding Innovation in Neurodegenerative Disease Research Prize from the Rainwater Charitable Foundation, one of the largest independent funders of neurodegenerative research, in honor of her multiple decades of discoveries that have helped shape awareness and understanding of tau, a protein whose dysregulation is involved in multiple neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and progressive supranuclear palsy. The $400,000 prize will be presented during the Tau2024 Global Conference in March.

Aaron Richterman, an assistant professor of infectious diseases, and Harsha Thirumurthy, a professor of medical ethics and health policy, have been recognized by the Clinical Research (CR) Forum with one of the Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards for 2024. These awards honor groundbreaking achievements in clinical research from across the nation. The pair were honored for their work studying the effects of cash transfer programs on HIV-related outcomes in 42 countries from 1996 to 2019, which was published in Nature Human Behavior. The award recipients are selected by a CR Forum panel from clinical research studies published in peer-reviewed journals in 2023. They are based on the degree of innovation and novelty involved in the advancement of science; contribution to the understanding of human disease and/or physiology; and potential impact upon the diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of disease.

Marco Ruella, an assistant professor of hematology-oncology, has been awarded a Lupus Mechanisms and Targets Award of $600,000 from the Lupus Research Alliance for research to investigate molecular pathways or targets that will lead to new or improved therapies for individuals with systemic lupus erythematosus. His project will focus on using CAR-T cells to precisely target disease-causing B cells.

Andrea L. Schneider, an assistant professor of neurology and epidemiology, has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with the Early Stage Investigator Lecture. The lecture recognizes early career prevention scientists who have already made outstanding research contributions to their respective fields and are poised to become future leaders in prevention research. Dr. Schneider’s research investigates the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI), conditions associated with it, and how to prevent the long-term aftereffects of TBI, like mortality, neurodegeneration, and dementia.

About a quarter of Americans get their news on YouTube. With its billions of users and hours upon hours of content, YouTube is one of the largest online media platforms in the world.

In recent years, there has been a popular narrative in the media that videos from highly partisan, conspiracy theory-driven YouTube channels radicalize young Americans and that YouTube’s recommendation algorithm leads users down a path of increasingly radical content.

However, a new study from the Computational Social Science Lab (CSSLab) at the University of Pennsylvania finds that users’ own political interests and preferences play the primary role in what they choose to watch. In fact, if the recommendation features have any impact on users’ media diets, it is a moderating one.

“On average, relying exclusively on the recommender results in less partisan consumption,” said lead author Homa Hosseinmardi, associate research scientist at the CSSLab.

To determine the true effect of YouTube’s recommendation algorithm on what users watch, the researchers created bots that either followed the recommendation engines or completely ignored them. To do this, the researchers created bots trained on the YouTube watch history from a set of 87,988 real-life users collected from October 2021 to December 2022.

Dr. Hosseinmardi and co-authors Amir Ghasemian, Miguel Rivera-Lanas, Manoel Horta Ribeiro, Robert West, and Duncan J. Watts aimed to untangle the complex relationship between user preferences and the recommendation algorithm, a relationship that evolves with each video watched. These bots were assigned individualized YouTube accounts so that their viewing history could be tracked, and the partisanship of what they watched was estimated using the metadata associated with each video.

During two experiments, the bots, each with its own YouTube account, went through a “learning phase” — they watched the same sequence of videos to ensure that they all presented the same preferences to YouTube’s algorithm. Next, bots were placed into groups. Some bots continued to follow the watching history of the real life user it was trained on; others were assigned to be experimental “counterfactual bots” — bots following specific rules designed to separate user behavior from algorithmic influence.

In experiment one, after the learning phases, the control bot continued to watch videos from user’s history while counterfactual bots deviated from users’ real-life behavior and only selected videos from the list of recommended videos, without taking the user preferences into account. Some counterfactual bots always selected the first (“up next”) video from the sidebar recommendations; others randomly selected one of the top 30 videos listed in the sidebar recommendations; and others randomly selected a video from the top 15 videos in the homepage recommendations.

The researchers found that the counterfactual bots, on average, consumed less partisan content than the corresponding real user — a result that is stronger for heavier consumers of partisan content.

“This gap corresponds to an intrinsic preference of users for such content relative to what the algorithm recommends,” Dr. Hosseinmardi said. “The study exhibits similar moderating effects on bots consuming far-left content, or when bots are subscribed to channels on the extreme side of the political partisan spectrum.”

In experiment two, researchers aimed to estimate the “forgetting time” of the YouTube recommender. “Recommendation algorithms have been criticized for continuing to recommend problematic content to previously interested users long after they have lost interest in it themselves,” Dr. Hosseinmardi said. During this experiment, researchers calculated the recommender’s forgetting time for a user with a long (120 video) history of far-right video consumption who changes their diet to moderate news for the next 60 videos.

While the control bots continued watching a far-right diet for the whole experiment, counterfactual bots simulated a user “switching” from one set of preferences (watching far-right videos) to another (watching moderate videos). As the counterfactual bots changed their media preferences, the researchers tracked the average partisanship of recommended videos in the sidebar and homepage.

“On average, the recommended videos on the sidebar shifted toward moderate content after about 30 videos,” Dr. Hosseinmardi said, “while homepage recommendations tended to adjust less rapidly, showing homepage recommendations cater more to one’s preferences and sidebar recommendations are more related to the nature of the video currently being watched.”

Moving forward, the researchers hope that others can adopt their method for studying AI-mediated platforms where user preferences and algorithms interact in order to better understand the role that algorithmic content recommendation engines play in our daily lives.

Adapted from an Annenberg School for Communication news release by Hailey Reissman and Delphine Gardiner, February 19, 2024.

Salt contamination of water supplies in tidal rivers is a growing problem around the world, threatening the safe drinking water of billions of people. A multi-institution research group of scientists and engineers led by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) has been awarded a $650,000 Phase 1 grant by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Convergence Accelerator to develop and prototype tools to help monitor and manage decision-making around this emerging issue.

“More and more communities are looking for information on rising salt in their freshwater sources,” said assistant professor of city and regional planning Allison Lassiter, one of the co-principal investigators. “But we don’t just want to provide data; we want to share that data in a way that makes it really useful. Working alongside water users and co-developing the interface of the salinity prediction tool is essential to move from data into action.”

As the project lead for stakeholder engagement, Dr. Lassiter will talk with water users, state regulators, and environmental agencies to develop new tools to help communities anticipate and plan for increasing salt in their drinking water.

About 70% of the U.S. drinking water supply comes from surface waters, including tidal rivers, which are the tidal fresh region of estuaries. Drought and sea level rise, which lead to saltwater intrusion from the ocean, and changes in land-use, which lead to freshwater salinization, are putting water resources at risk. The risk extends to water uses for thermoelectric power, irrigation, and industrial production. This topic made headline news in recent years, including the Mississippi River in 2023, the Rhine River in 2022, and the San Francisco Bay-Delta in 2021.

The NSF-supported work is led by oceanographer and UMCES professor Ming Li. “Both developed and developing countries are struggling with salt contamination of tidal river waters and many rely on numerical models to manage salinity,” said Dr. Li. “These new tools will be applicable to numerous systems around the globe.”

Many water suppliers, for example, do not have the necessary planning and technical capacity to prepare for these changes. To that end, this project team will develop and prototype decision support and monitoring tools for salinity management by working with water resource managers, under-resourced rural communities, and water suppliers. The goal is to create a better decision support system for salinity management and coastal communities to bolster the resilience of water infrastructure and protect public health.

Indeed, tidal rivers like the Susquehanna and Potomac are already encountering high chloride levels in water supplies that are impacting drinking water quality for public consumption. Rural communities such as Havre de Grace and Perryville, Maryland, withdraw drinking water from the Susquehanna River; their drinking water intakes have been threatened by high chloride levels during periods of extended drought. Farmers who withdraw water for irrigation have also competed for the scarce freshwater resources. In the Potomac River, use of road deicers during winter storms and human-accelerated weathering have led to freshwater salinization near densely populated areas, adding to the increasing problem of oceanic salt intrusion. Better modeling and monitoring tools are needed to manage this contamination.

Dr. Li’s team will develop a new coupled watershed–estuary model that simulates the transport and fate of major salt ions by leveraging recent advances in hydrological and estuarine modeling, using the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal rivers as a pilot-study site. The model will then be used in combination with artificial intelligence algorithms, in a planning tool to identify management strategies and quantify the tradeoffs between competing needs for freshwater resources. This approach will also be used to search for long-term planning strategies in the form of adaptation pathways.

Adapted from a Weitzman School of Design news release, February 27, 2024.

Conferences

14        Ink in One's Veins: Mapping the World of Texts in Early and Medieval China; features talks by Maddalena Poli, Pomona College; Zhengjie Wang, Tsinghua University; Peter Tsung Kei Wong, Princeton University; Sarah Brooker, Oscar Qiu Jun Zheng, Xiaoyang Ma, and Adam Smith, east Asian languages & civilizations; 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; room 543, Williams Hall (East Asian Languages & Civilizations).

Fitness & Learning

14        PWC and Wellness Narcan Training; learn how to administer narcan and potentially safe a life; 3 p.m.; Penn Women’s Center; register: https://tinyurl.com/pwc-narcan-mar-14 (Penn Women’s Center, Wellness At Penn).

Graduate School of Education

Info: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news/events-calendar?date=2024-03.

15        Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s Degree Program Information Session; 12:30 p.m.; Gutmann College House.

Special Events

14        Divine Comedy; insights (and jokes) about the role of humor in religion, mourning, and the quest for ultimate meaning; 5:15 p.m.; room 237, Cohen Hall; RSVP: wsteve@upenn.edu (Religious Studies, Office of the Chaplain).

18        2023 Weitzman School Awards: KoningEizenberg Architecture; award presentation to Julie Eizenberg, winner of the 2023 Kanter Tritsch Medal in Architecture; 6 p.m.; Kleinman Energy Forum, Fisher Fine Arts Library; register: https://tinyurl.com/weitzman-awards-2023-mar-18 (Architecture).

Talks

12        Lymphocyte Mechano-Regulation for Immunotherapies; Enrico Klotzsch, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin; 10 a.m.; Wu & Chen Auditorium, Levine Hall (Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics).

            Robert Garnier's Theater of Stoic Poetics; Hassan Melehy, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; noon; room 543, Williams Hall (French & Francophone Studies, English).

13        Four Long Years: A Look Back Over the Accomplishments of the 4CE COVID Consortium; John Holmes, PSOM; 9 a.m.; room 701, Blockley Hall, and Zoom webinar; join: https://pennmedicine.zoom.us/j/96442998641 (Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics).

            Design and the Energy Transition; Dorit Aviv, Thermal Architecture Lab; Matthijs Bouw, architecture; William Braham, architecture; Nicholas Pevzner, landscape architecture; Hélène Pilorgé, Clean Energy Lab; noon; Upper Gallery, Meyerson Hall (Architecture).

            The Evolution of Quality Improvement Research Ethics; Jennifer Myers, clinical medicine; Shivan Mehta, gastroenterology; noon; room B102AB, Richards Building, and Zoom webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/myers-talk-mar-13 (Medical Ethics & Health Policy).

            Leaving the Movie Theater, Again; Jean Ma, University of Hong Kong; noon; room 330, Fisher-Bennett Hall (Cinema & Media Studies).

            Fels Public Policy in Practice Speaker Series; Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Transportation; noon; online webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/buttigieg-talk-mar-13 (Fels Institute of Government).

            RNA Enzymology in Translation Regulation; Kathy Liu, biochemistry & biophysics; noon; Carolyn Hoff Lynch Lecture Hall, Chemistry Complex (Chemistry).

            Energy Week Lightning Talks; engaging Ted Talk-style presentations from Penn students across a variety of different fields; 2:30 p.m.; Glandt Forum, Singh Center for Nanotechnology, and YouTube livestream; watch: https://www.youtube.com/live/mkFf-a85mOk?feature=shared (Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, VIPER).

            Global Structural Changes Regarding the War in Ukraine and Implications for East Asian Security; Tomohisa Takei, Sampa Kyogo K.K.; 3:30 p.m.; room 286-287, McNeil Building (Center for East Asian Studies).

            AI and Robots: As Science Fiction Turns Real, What Do We Need to Know? Peter Singer, author and futurist; 5 p.m.; room 261, Stiteler Hall (Christopher Browne Center).

14        What I Did with Musicology and What It Gave Me Back; Guthrie Ramsey, music; noon; Zoom webinar; info: pasef@pobox.upenn.edu (Penn Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty).

            Design Sensitivity and Its Implications for Weighted Observational Studies; Sam Pimentel, University of California, Berkeley; 1 p.m.; room 701, Blockley Hall, and Zoom webinar; join: https://tinyurl.com/pimental-talk-mar-14 (Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics).

            Of Materialisms Old and New; Bruno Bosteels, Columbia University; 4 p.m.; room 329A, Max Kade Center (Spanish & Portuguese).

15        Poetry's Essential Place in Anti-Colonial Philosophy; Jason Allen-Paisant, University of Manchester; 3 p.m.; room 402, Cohen Hall, register: https://tinyurl.com/allen-paisant-mar-15 (Wolf Humanities Center).

19        Designing Heart Valves from First Principles: Model Generation, Congenital Disease and Surgical Treatment; Alexander D. Kaiser, Stanford University; 10 a.m.; Wu & Chen Auditorium, Levine Hall (Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics).

Mathematics

In-person events. Info: https://www.math.upenn.edu/events.

12        Vertex Algebras and Teichmüller Modular Forms; Giulio Codogni, Università di Roma Tor Vergata; 3:30 p.m.; room 3C6, DRL.

14        Level-Set Forced Mean Curvature Flows and Applications; Hung Tran, University of Wisconsin-Madison; 3:30 p.m.; room 4E19, DRL.

This is an update to the March AT PENN calendar, which is online now. Submit events for future AT PENN calendars or weekly updates at almanac@upenn.edu.

Division of Public Safety

University of Pennsylvania Police Department Crime Report

About the Crime Report: Below are the Crimes Against Persons and/or Crimes Against Property from the campus report for February 26–March 3, 2024. The Crime Reports are available at: https://almanac.upenn.edu/sections/crimes. Prior weeks’ reports are also online. –Eds.

This summary is prepared by the Division of Public Safety (DPS) and contains all criminal incidents reported and made known to the Penn Police, including those reported to the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) that occurred within our patrol zone, for the dates of February 26–March 3, 2024. The Penn Police actively patrol from Market Street to Baltimore Avenue and from 30^th Street to 43^rd Street 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 DPS at (215) 898-7297. You may view the daily crime log on the DPS website.

Penn Police Patrol Zone

Market Street to Baltimore Avenue and from 30^th Street to 43^rd Street

Philadelphia Police 18th District

Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 5 incidents with 0 arrests were reported for February 26–March 3, 2024 by the 18^th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue.

The Division of Public Safety offers resources and support to the Penn community. DPS developed a few helpful risk reduction strategies outlined below. Know that it is never the fault of the person impacted (victim/survivor) by crime.

• See something concerning? Connect with Penn Public Safety 24/7 at (215) 573-3333.
• Worried about a friend’s or colleague’s mental or physical health? Get 24/7 connection to appropriate resources at (215) 898-HELP (4357).
• Seeking support after experiencing a crime? Call Special Services - Support and Advocacy resources at (215) 898-4481 or email an advocate at specialservices@publicsafety.upenn.edu
• Use the Walking Escort and Riding services available to you free of charge.
• Take a moment to update your cellphone information for the UPennAlert Emergency Notification System
• Download the Penn Guardian App which can help Police better find your location when you call in an emergency.
• Access free self-empowerment and defense courses through Penn DPS.
• Stay alert and reduce distractions; using cellphones, ear buds, etc. may limit your awareness.
• Orient yourself to your surroundings. (Identify your location, nearby exits, etc.)
• Keep your valuables out of sight and only carry necessary documents.

Dear Penn Community,

Thank you for your continued generosity. It is especially notable during the holiday season, but evident at all times. There are no words to adequately describe your generosity. Many continue to benefit from your willingness to give. Thank you for participating in the following holiday events:

Toy Donation Drive

Thanks to the President’s Office for sponsoring the toy donation drive held during the holiday party. These toys, along with many others, were donated to local agencies and families in the surrounding community.

Departmental Family Adoptions

Thank you to the following departments; they brought joy to families during the holidays by “adopting” them:

• African American Resource Center, coordinated by Valerie Allen
• Career Services, coordinated by Jamie Grant
• Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Innovation, coordinated by Jessica E. Morris
• Connor Family, coordinated by Chris Connor
• Consortium for Policy Research in Education, coordinated by Katarina Suwak
• DAR Marketing and Communications, coordinated by Taylor Mengee
• Department of Psychiatry, coordinated by Megan Himes
• Division of Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics, Women of DRIA Group, coordinated by Emily Christiansen
• Penn’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Symposium on Social Change Executive Committee, coordinated by Colleen Winn
• Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services, coordinated by Cheryl Smith, Chloe Cerwinka, and Alice Cheng
• Fels Institute of Government, coordinated by Ambika Singh
• Office of General Counsel, coordinated by Krystyna Dereszowska and Denene Wambach
• Office of Institutional Research and Analysis, coordinated by Wally Ramos
• Mark Sellmyer Family, coordinated by Mark Sellmyer
• Netter Center for Community Partnerships, coordinated by Ciara Robinson
• Office of Animal Welfare, coordinated by Jennifer Davis
• Office of the Comptroller, coordinated by Celestine Silverman
• Office of Gift Planning, coordinated by Lorleen Finor-Maxwell and Christina Reichert
• Office of Institutional Research, coordinated by Wally Ramos
• Division of Recreatoin & Intercollegiate Athletics Champions Club, coordinated by Abby Bergman
• University Communications, coordinated by Lauren Summers
• Penn Fund, coordinated by Joshua Nay
• Division of Human Resources Employee Solution Center, coordinated by Amma Napier
• Perelman School of Medicine, coordinated by Rachel McGarrigle
• Perelman School of Medicine, coordinated by Francia Portacio
• Research Services, coordinated by Tina Nemetz and Evelyn Ford
• Residential and Hospitality Services, coordinated by Linda Kromer
• School of Arts & Sciences Office of Advancement, coordinated by Rhonda Moyer
• Training and Development HR, coordinated by Holly Marrone
• Veterinary School Library, coordinated by Margy Lindem
• Wharton MBA Career Management, coordinated by Rebecca Alig
• Wharton Executive Education, coordinated by Grace Tak
• Wharton Fund, coordinated by Beth Truta Morris
• Wharton Global Youth Program, coordinated by Kara Dunn
• Wharton Communication Program, coordinated by Sara Mangat
• Wharton School Undergraduate Division, coordinated by Sara M. Hoover and Bernadette Butler

Special thanks to Carisma Therapeutics, coordinated by Kara Collins, who generously participated in the program.

Special thanks to Interius BioTherapeutics, Inc., coordinated by Kari Smitherman and the operations team, for their generosity and participation in the holiday program.

Special thanks to Amazon AMZL Station, coordinated by Gerald Price.

Several departments adopted multiple families.

Drop Site Committee Volunteers

A special thank you to the following drop site committee volunteers, without whose dedication holiday donations would not be possible:

The efforts of this special group collected all the toys/gifts. They made it possible for us to respond to request for donations from our neighbors listed below:

• People’s Emergency Center
• Parents Against Drugs
• Baring House Crisis Nursery
• Salvation Army
• Mill Creek Coalition
• Potter’s House Mission
• Recovery Kings Sanctuary
• Penn VIPS WorkPlace Mentoring Program
• and local families

Thank you to Franklin Building Group, Human Resources, Penn Engineering, and more for the generous sneaker donations and gift cards to benefit the unhoused.

Special thanks to Mary Kinney for the beautiful hand-made scarves, sweaters, hats, and gloves for deserving community members.

Thank you to the entire Penn community for donating over 550 gifts and toys.

University Food Drive

Penn’s’s Annual Food Drive was successful, made possible with the support of several groups from across campus.

Thanks to the Wharton Undergraduate Community Values task force for their help with the food drive.

Thank you to all the special people, both named and unnamed, for their remarkable generosity.

The following benefitted from Penn’s Annual Food Drive:

• Mastery Charter Harrity School Campus Food Drive
• Potter’s House Mission
• West Philadelphia High School
• People’s Emergency Center
• Provisions for the Poor Pantry
• MLK Association for Nonviolence Food Pantry
• Baring House Crisis Nursery
• and families needing emergency food supplies

Please forgive any oversights, and send corrections to Isabel Sampson-Mapp at (215) 898-2020 or sammapp@upenn.edu

Upcoming March Events

March 11–April 1 Change Drive

The Change Drive is a non-tuition scholarship that benefits a graduating high school student who has been accepted at an accredited college or university.

For over 20 years, the Change Drive has made a difference in \students’ lives; the program name was changed to the Marie K. Bogle Scholarship in 2017. Students have used the funds to buy books and the many other items needed to make a home away from home.

Please feel free to contact the most convenient drop site location from the list above to make your donation.

Contact Isabel Sampson-Mapp at sammapp@upenn.edu for additional info.

Share Your Expertise with West Philadelphia student Athletes

Want to share something with West Philadelphia student-athletes in grades 4-8? Young Quakers want to hear from you.

A variety of topics are welcome, including sports medicine, sports-related careers, athlete mental health and self-care. Contact Young Quakers Community Athletics director Sara Kelly at sdkelly@sas.upenn.edu, or contact Isabel Sampson-Mapp at (215) 898-2020 or sammapp@upenn.edu for additional information and/or to volunteer for this program.

Join Penn VIPS Drop Site Committee

Penn volunteers provide a drop-off location to collect the many donated items we receive during our annual drives.

A variety of drives are conducted during the course of the year to partner with and help support local schools, families, and agencies. Drop site volunteers are located throughout campus. Volunteers post the events, set up collection sites and help select the recipients for the donations. They also participate in an annual thank-you luncheon.

The following drives are held:

• School Supplies Drive (August)
• Food Drive (November)
• Gift/Toy Drive (December)
• Change Drive (March)

Contact Isabel Sampson-Mapp at (215) 898-2020 or sammapp@upenn.edu for additional info.

Reorganizing?

Do you have furniture that is no longer needed by your department?  Local nonprofits need your items.

Do you have any furniture to donate? Do you have any unused electronics or left-over bags, tee-shirts, and tchotchkes?  Do you need to empty out your storage space?

Please donate them to Penn VIPS. We will put them to great use by donating them to community members and many of the students we work with, and we will also use them to say thank you to our many volunteers.

Contact Isabel Sampson-Mapp at (215) 898-2020 or sammapp@upenn.edu to donate your items.

University Assisted Community Schools (UACS) Nights

Teach adult learners about your area of expertise. Teach resume writing, interviewing skills, computers, employment prep, dance, cooking, and or a subject you are passionate about. 

Teach once a week for a one- or two-hour sessions for four to six weeks or more.

We also welcome classes that can be taught in one session.

Classes are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 p.m.–8 p.m. at West Philadelphia High School.

Contact Isabel Sampson-Mapp at (215) 898-2020 or sammapp@upenn.edu for additional info.

Create Your Own Volunteer Activity for Your Department!

Would you and your colleagues or friends like to participate in a volunteer activity?  Penn VIPS is happy to connect you to an activity or help you develop one of your own.

Contact Isabel Sampson-Mapp at (215) 898-2020 or sammapp@upenn.edu for additional information and/or to make a donation.

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

Tax season has arrived in the United States and, unfortunately, so have scams targeting tax filers.

Scammers target tax filers with emails that seem to come from financial applications such as Mint or QuickBooks but are attempts to steal personal financial information like Social Security numbers or bank information. Always confirm any emails requesting financial information from the company website and not by clicking any links in emails.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not initiate contact with taxpayers by phone, email, or text. If the IRS needs to contact a taxpayer, it usually begins by sending a letter by postal mail. If you get a call, email, or text claiming to be from the IRS, do not click on any links in the communication or provide any personal information. Instead, hang up and contact the IRS by using contact information found on the main IRS webpage at irs.gov. If you are confused by an IRS notice sent to you, we recommend navigating to the IRS page, which has a section on understanding IRS notices and letters.

The IRS also does not request payment via email, text, or phone calls. It will not ask for pre-paid debit cards, gift cards, or checks made payable to parties other than the IRS. The IRS does not take Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies as payment. It will not leave threatening messages or tell you that law enforcement is coming to arrest you. If payment is due and you cannot afford to pay, you can make payment arrangements with the IRS directly.

Do not let your concern about filing taxes cause you to be scammed!

Internal Revenue Service website: irs.gov

Information on IRS Notices and Letters: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/understanding-your-irs-notice-or-letter

Report phishing to the IRS: https://www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/report-phishing

Information on tax scams and consumer alerts: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-scamsconsumer-alerts

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

Penn is in the process of reaccreditation with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). The evaluation process consists of two interrelated phases: a self-study, conducted by the institution and a peer review, conducted by an Evaluation Team. The evaluation team will visit Penn on March 24-27, 2024 and conduct a series of open sessions for the Penn community:

• Monday, March 25: 5-5:45 p.m.: Open forum for Penn students with the Evaluation Team at Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall.
• Tuesday, March 26: 3-3:45 p.m.: Open forum for Penn faculty with the Evaluation Team at Hall of Flags, Houston Hall.
• Tuesday, March 26: 4-4:45 p.m.: Open forum for Penn staff with the Evaluation Team at Hall of Flags, Houston Hall.

Please email pennmsche2024@pobox.upenn.edu if you have any questions.