The University announced current plans for the spring semester, describing in a message how essential insights from the fall will inform how some students will be brought back to on-campus housing. Classes will largely remain remote, and Penn Medicine has developed a testing strategy that will require undergraduate students on campus to be tested twice per week. “While we are confident in our ability to bring students back to campus in the spring, we are also mindful that the status of the pandemic can change, and we will continue to monitor all governmental and public health recommendations, lest there be a surge in transmission that requires a change in our planning and operations.”
Penn President Amy Gutmann, Provost Wendell Pritchett, and Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli issued a statement on the loss of Walter Wallace, citing it as “a stark reminder of the life and death struggles faced by so many Black Philadelphians.” They added: “It is at times like this that we need to be particularly mindful of taking care of each other, and remembering our common bond as a community here in West Philadelphia.”
Penn President Amy Gutmann and her husband, Michael Doyle, made a $2 million gift to the School of Nursing’s Innovating for Life and Living Campaign. The gift will create the Gutmann Leadership Scholars Program, funding 10 scholars annually across undergraduate and graduate degree levels. The program will launch in January 2021.
The University announced the President’s Ph.D. Initiative, committing $30 million across six years to support doctoral education. This academic year, it will provide a Supplementary Stipend to support Ph.D. students shouldering additional expenses incurred by the pandemic.
Penn President Amy Gutmann hosted the virtual 2020 David and Lyn Silfen Forum, moderated by Michael Delli Carpini of the Paideia Program at Penn, and with special guests Ashley Parker, Julián Castro, Donna Brazile, Peggy Noonan, and Jeb Bush. This year’s theme was “Civil Discourse in Uncivil Times.” When discussing civil discourse, Brazile said “the best way to preach civility is to practice it.”
At the October University Council meeting, Provost Wendell Pritchett, Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli, and Chief Wellness Officer Benoit Dubé provided an update on Penn’s recovery planning group and the pandemic’s impact on the University. They reported and update on the reopening process, that there are no known outbreaks on campus, and offered details on developing plans for testing during the spring semester,
To mitigate the spread of COVID-19 at Penn, Campus Health, the Center for Public Health Initiatives (CPHI), and Environmental Health and Radiation Safety have been working together to conduct contact tracing for students, faculty, and staff. “Penn faculty and staff have been very forthcoming and transparent with our team regarding their close contacts,” says Rachel Feuerstein-Simon, a research program manager at CPHI and an operations lead for faculty/staff contact tracing.
“Perspectives on Fair Housing,” a new Penn Press book co-edited by Provost Wendell Pritchett, Vincent Reina, and Susan Wachter, addresses the ongoing importance of the Fair Housing Act, signed into law in 1968. More than 10,000 discrimination complaints are still filled annually through the Department of Housing and Urban Development or the Fair Housing Assistance Program.
Penn celebrated its first year as the host of the McGraw Prize in Education. Estela Mara Bensimon, Michelene (Micki) Chi, and Joseph S. Krajcik were honored at a virtual gala for achievements in higher education, learning science research, and pre-K-12 education, respectively. “We applaud teachers everywhere who share the common bond of inspiring others to learn and to grow,” Penn President Amy Gutmann said in her remarks.
The Arthur Ross Gallery debuted a new exhibition featuring sculptures and mixed-media work by four artists. The theme of the exhibit is recycled materials. “All of this is connected by the idea of one material becoming another and the cyclical nature of material culture as connected to the lifespan of civilizations,” says Heather Moqtaderi, gallery assistant director and curator. The exhibit is on public display through Dec. 20.
The newly renovated ACME at 40th and Walnut streets opened on Friday, Oct. 23. A new addition to the Shop Penn retail district, it features a full-service meat and seafood department, a bakery, beer and wine to-go, and a variety of natural, organic, and gluten-free products—plus, an in-store Starbucks.
Bruxism, or excessive teeth grinding or clenching, has seen an uptick since the pandemic began. Thomas Sollecito, chair of oral medicine at the School of Dental Medicine, says this is not surprising given the extra stress people are experiencing. “People may also notice more discomfort with normal activity,” he adds. “They might feel pain even if with routine chewing, because their muscles have undergone more ‘exercise’ by clenching and grinding.”
Penn criminologist Aurélie Ouss, an assistant professor in the School of Arts & Sciences, co-led a study in conjunction with the New York Police Department and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice that examined the effectiveness of nudging to improve rates of court appearances. The study showed that providing text message reminders and redesigning the summons form led to 30,000 fewer arrest warrants over a three-year period.
Assistant Professor of Oral Medicine Temitope Omolehinwa of the School of Dental Medicine is embarking on a new study that examines how to deliver better oral care for those who are HIV-positive. The investigation is funded with $3.75 million from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Dental and Carniofacial Research.
Peter Petratis of the School of Arts & Sciences and Steve Dudgeon of California State University, Northridge, co-led a two-decade study examining the slow and steady dwindling of mussels, barnacles, and snails on Swan’s Island in Maine. The changes, detailed in the journal Communications Biology, are partly attributed to climate change.
To help Penn faculty adjust to remote learning, Penn’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) offered workshops attended by hundreds of faculty. “Faculty, and Penn as a whole, have thought hard about how to improve online teaching. And doing this kind of thinking and evaluation helps improve teaching, period,” says Bruce Lenthall, executive director of the CTL.
Penn Today’s “By the Numbers” look at the University of Pennsylvania Class of 1923 Ice Rink celebrates 50 years since the space opened. The rink underwent an $8.2 million renovation in 2019.
In KYW Newsradio, Cindy Connolly of the School of Nursing described the response to a tuberculosis outbreak in the 1900s, which often involved children having classes outside—including at two Philadelphia schools that still exist today. “The science in that era was basically that people would put people in an open air school and then document how much weight they gained, how much energy they had, and then consider that, not with a control group,” she says.
