Convocation marked the start of Penn’s 285th academic year and welcomed about 2,500 new students. “Over time,” Interim President J. Larry Jameson told the assembly, “you will definitely share memories and laughs, triumphs, and maybe speedbumps, discovery, and purpose. You will share this University’s incredible history. … You will also share this University’s calling to create and spread knowledge to improve the world and create a better future.”
In a Q&A with Penn Today, Chair of Penn’s Board of Trustees Ramanan Raghavendran spoke about his experience so far as chair and made clear Penn’s position on “BDS.” “President Jameson has commented on this and made Penn’s position extremely clear. Penn does not support divesting from, boycotting, or sanctioning Israel,” Raghavendran said. “It is against the law in Pennsylvania. In my view, it is anathema to academic freedom. It degrades Penn’s educational and research missions. And it opposes the idea of an ‘overlapping consensus.’”
Nearly 6,000 students moved into 13 College Houses, 2,409 of them students from the Class of 2028. “The new dorm is beautiful. Everything is new,” first-year Julia Weiner said, who moved into the newly renovated Riepe College House. “It’s all a little overwhelming, because moving into college is overwhelming, but it’s exciting.”
Interim President J. Larry Jameson welcomed students, faculty, staff, and postdocs to the University in a message. “As the new year starts, I am reminded of those euphoric moments when new knowledge opens a different perspective. A new solution answers a long-standing problem. A new student discovers an unexpected calling,” he said. “These are the pivots that redirect lives. They are enabled by a community that respects open-minded debate and privileges facts—a community where we put respect and dignity first, and where all are free to make the most of campus life. I believe ours is and will remain that kind of community.”
Interim President J. Larry Jameson and Provost John L. Jackson Jr. set forth the charge for the Open Expression Task Force. Chaired by Senior Vice Dean Lisa Bellini of Penn Medicine and Faculty Director Sigal Ben-Porath of the SNF Paideia Program, the Task Force will oversee the process of reviewing the Open Expression guidelines and the Temporary Standards and Procedures for Campus Events.
The University received a $10 million gift from alumnus Alp Ercil to establish the Penn Climate Sustainability Initiative, which will support interdisciplinary programs and bring together all 12 schools. “We are tremendously grateful to Alp Ercil for his inspirational commitment, which will allow us to accelerate our efforts,” says Interim President J. Larry Jameson. “We will draw on our collective strengths in climate science and policy to advance our understanding of these challenges and discover solutions that will make a difference around the world.”
Interim President J. Larry Jameson and Provost John L. Jackson Jr. welcomed the Class of 2028, transfer students, and their families as they gathered around the Benjamin Franklin Statue at College Green. “Philadelphia, being one of the oldest cities in America, was once known as the Workshop of the World. It’s where Ben Franklin and people like Ben Franklin invented things, made things, improved things for the world,” Jameson said. “The University of Pennsylvania still serves as a Workshop for the World. It’s a workshop for ideas, it’s a workshop for communities, it’s a workshop for breakthroughs.” (Image: Eddy Marenco)
Deputy Provost Beth A. Winkelstein will oversee the implementation effort for the Task Force on Antisemitism and the Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community, which issued final reports with recommendations earlier this year. “I’m honored to be asked and trusted by Interim President Jameson to extend those efforts to help with this important initiative for our campus,” says Winkelstein. “I look forward to working with campus partners and beyond in order to help Penn be a leader in this space within higher education.”
Mark Wolff, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, has been reappointed dean through June 30, 2030, subject to approval of the Board of Trustees. The reappointment committee cited specific accomplishments during his first term that included launching new programs, doubling research funding, increasing the size and diversity of faculty, creating a new mission and vision statement, and expanding the scope of clinical education.
After serving in the Biden Administration as the inaugural deputy assistant secretary of defense for force development and emerging capabilities, Michael C. Horowitz returned to Penn as director of Perry World House and Richard Perry professor in the School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Political Science. Remarked Ezekiel Emanuel, vice provost for global initiatives: “Mike’s appointment to President Biden’s national security team recognized his expertise in defense and emerging technologies. His return to Penn will allow the community to benefit from his knowledge about defense and learn from his expertise in policy development and implementation at the highest levels of the federal government and with U.S. global partners.”
The University of Pennsylvania Health System and Doylestown Health signed an agreement for the Bucks County health system to become part of Penn Medicine. They aim to integrate clinical care and operations by early 2025, as well as work to develop new programs and enhanced services across four sites of care: hospitals, outpatient facilities, the home, and via telemedicine. (Image: Carol Berman)
The Conversations for Community and Dinners Across Differences programs launched last fall to foster spaces conducive for difficult conversations while recognizing shared humanity. Said Catherine Seavitt of the Weitzman School of her experience in the spring: “I think what was really nice is it didn’t feel like a seminar; it was more lively and open. We got to hear more about how great it was for our first-year grad students to meet third-years they’d never met even though their studios are all on the same floor in Meyerson Hall.” If building trust was the goal she adds, “we got there on many levels.” (Image: iStock/Rawpixel Ltd.)
Penn’s Move-In Coordinator Program, out of Residential & Hospitality Services, is staffed by 49 second-year, third-year, and fourth-year students who assist the 6,000 new and returning Quakers with getting their PennCards, checking into their College Houses, and answering questions. Says Zwe Tun, a third-year Move-In coordinator for his second consecutive year: “We’re kind of like the face of the University during Move-In time.”
Dawn Bonnell of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman of the Perelman School of Medicine were elected to the American Philosophical Society. The society was established by Benjamin Franklin in 1743 for “promoting useful knowledge.”
Construction crews worked on 404 active projects amounting to $1.6 billion in approved budgets this summer. Riepe College House went online this fall as the first of a three-phase Quad renovation finished, and Amy Gutmann Hall, the Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology, and the Jane and David Ott Center for Track and Field will follow suit later this academic year.
The South Asian a capella student group Penn Masala performed two shows at the India House in the Olympic Village, as part of the Olympic Games in Paris. “It was just unreal,” says fourth-year Ajay Kilambi, president of Penn Masala. “You put all your time into making a mix, and then you put it on Spotify, and you go to Paris. Then people know your mix, and they’re singing along to it, standing up and dancing. The energy was crazy. It was a very, very lively event.” (Courtesy of Penn Masala)
Rahul Mangharam, a professor in the Departments of Electrical and Systems Engineering and Computer and Information Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, has students design, assemble, and program autonomous cars that they then race. “I put the students into teams where different people work on different parts of the larger system, and then those teams compete to see who has the best performing car for their grade,” he says. “It’s a lot of fun—we say it’s 10 times the fun at a tenth the size—but it’s also such a nice way for these budding engineers to truly put their solutions to the test.”