News in Brief



Naming the Writers House

Penn's first House has been named the Kelly Writers House in honor of Rita P. Kelly and the late Thomas J. Kelly, Jr., the parents of an alumnus whose gift of $1.1 million will be used for renovation of the Gothic Revival house at 3805 Locust walk that was for many years the Chaplain's House (at right).

Students, faculty and staff gathered Friday for a ceremony at the house with donor Paul Kelly, who is president and CEO of the investment firm of Knox & Co. and an Overseer of SAS and co-chair of the Agenda for Excellence Council (a group of volunteers formed to support strategic initiatives in the Agenda). Mr. Kelly (C'62, WG'64) is also a visiting lecturer in finance for the Wharton MBA program, a member of the board of directors of the International Studies and Business program, and treasurer of the Penn Club of New York.

"The Writers House is a huge success because of the vision and energy of the students and faculty who have developed its programming," said Provost Stanley Chodorow. Under a student-developed mission the House is to be a space for individual writers hence the extensive renovations scheduled to rewire and computerize the House this summer with workshops conducted by Penn writers and visiting editors in the design of electronic texts and Internet publishing.

It is already the scene of readings and seminars, and its first-floor Arts Cafe is open six nights a week for conversation and light fare. And, on Saturday, February 15, it will broadcast "Live from Writers House" in a WXPN pilot for a weekly series.

Directed by Dr. Alan Filreis, professor of English and Master of Van Pelt College House, the Writers House is the first of the "collegiate communities" called for in the strategic plan to aid the "seamless integration of academic and social life" as Penn approaches the 21st Century.


Correction: In last week's Agenda for Excellence: The Strategic Plans of the Schools, Figure 2 in the School of Nursing report contained an error: Instead of Urban History, the words in the final oval of the graphic should be Urban Health. We regret the typo, made by Almanac in recasting the School's graphics for print form.Ed.


Almanac

Volume 43 Number 19
January 28, 1997


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