This is Only a Test

Rather than wrangle over a hypothetical new curriculum, the College of Arts and Sciences has opted for an experimental approach—with help from some pioneering freshmen.

Putting on a Show

More than half a century after Hal Prince left Penn to become Broadway's brightest off-stage star, he is still passionately committed to getting new musicals on stage.

Coming Home

Adrift in the great sea of university life, the author found an academic anchor—and much more—studying the history and sociology of science.

The Big Picture

David Koerner, a Penn astronomer and accomplished pianist, probes the universe for clues about how prevalent planetary systems, and life itself, may be.

“Tweaked, Not Trendy”

That's how architect Wendy Evans Joseph describes her work—which has ranged from a dramatic pedestrian bridge across a busy street a the edge of New York's East River to the conversion of a one-time opera house/cattle auction yard in Dallas into a Women's Museum.

The Education of Pedro Ramos

As a college activist, Pedro Ramos C’87 learned the importance of tenacity. Now he's using it in his drive as Philadelphia's school board president to improve education opportunities for 213,000 children.

Resistance Fighter

Medical School alumnus and bacteria researcher Dr. Stuart Levy warns against the overuse of antibiotics, a potential public health nightmare for the 21st century.

Class Acts

With volunteerism on the rise nationally, Penn's alumni programming has expanded beyond highball toasts and traveling lectures to include cleaning up parks and driving nails, creating new ways to engage with the old alma mater.

Wideman on Campus

The writer John Edgar Wideman—a star athlete and Rhodes Scholar at Penn in the early sixties—was back on campus last spring. In a wide-ranging interview at Kelly Writers House, he talked about the construction of reality, the joys of basketball, the writer’s search for a subject and the mysterious power of faith.

Monty in Full

Bruce Montgomery is laying down his baton after half a century at Penn. In a spirited interview, he talks about his musical triumphs, tribulations and travels.

Haunted by an Heiress

Ever since first reading her as an unhappy child at camp, Nina Auerbach has returned to the novels and stories of Daphne du Maurier. Now, in a new book from the University Pennsylvania Press, the Victorian scholar and Penn professor ponders her lifelong obsession with the writer best remembered—unjustly—for Rebecca.

Saving the Animal Planet

The Veterinary School’s Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society is attempting to find common ground in the animal-welfare debate. Getting the Lion and the Lamb together was nothing in comparison.

TeleStudies

Kids spend more than 20 hours a week in front of the TV. Are yours watching what they should? Would you know? Researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center have some answers.

Silk Across the Sands

A rare exhibition of artifacts from Uzbekistan at the Arthur Ross Gallery offers a tantalizing glimpse of the cultures along the Silk Road. So did a symposium at the University Museum.

The World According to Gieg

Earth and Environmental Science Professor Bob Giegengack has fulfilled a boyhood dream of visiting exotic locales from the Sahara to the Antarctic and has earned the admiration and affection of a generation of students. He cautions today's young academics not to follow in his footsteps.

Admission Denied

Naomi Nakano had already experienced discrimination at Penn when she was restricted to the basement of Houston Hall because she was a woman—then she found herself at the center of a storm of protest over the University’s wartime policy of excluding Japanese Americans from admission.