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NATURAL RESOURCES |
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The
answer, my friend, is buying up the wind, as
the University has agreed to make the nation’s largest retail
purchase of wind-produced electric energy. Penn will purchase
20 million kilowatt-hours a year from Community Energy, Inc.,
which represents the output of five wind turbines at Exelon-Community
Energy Wind Farms in western Pennsylvania. That amounts to 30
percent of the farms’ total energy output, and will satisfy five
percent of the University’s annual energy needs. |
Previous issue's Gazetteer | Jan/Feb Contents | Gazette home
MILESTONES
Penn
Celebrates 125 Years of Women
“Do
we have a lot to celebrate? You bet we do,” declared Penn President Judith
Rodin CW’66, to the enthusiastic applause and cheers of the audience gathered
under a gigantic tent that spanned Wynn Commons. Continued...
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Illustration
by Michael Miller
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AROUND
CAMPUS Criminology
Center to Emphasize Research
“I
believe in research like almost
nobody believes in research,” Jerry Lee was saying this past October,
as he stood at the podium of the Annenberg Center’s Zellerbach Theatre.
“It’s hard to overestimate the role of research in making a better world.”
Continued...
HEARD
ON CAMPUS Camille
Paglia Gets in Tony Soprano’s Face
Early in November,
the Kelly Writers House and the National Italian-American Foundation joined
with Penn’s Center for Italian Studies to present the annual Gay Talese
Lecture Series. The topic was “Tony Soprano, the Media and Popular Culture.”
Moderated by Dr. A. Kenneth Ciongoli C’64 GrM’74, whose books include
Beyond the Godfather, the lecture panelists were Dr. Camille Paglia,
professor of humanities at the University of the Arts and author of Sexual
Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, and
USA Today columnist Richard Benedetto.
Continued...
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Illustration
by Josef Gast
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RESEARCH
For
Good Measure …
“Growth
is really the single most
important indication of a child’s health,” says Dr. Terri Lipman, associate
professor of family and community health and a nurse practitioner in pediatric
endocrinology. But while measuring that growth is non-invasive and “easily
understood by children and parents,” it’s not always accurate. In fact,
fewer than a third of U.S. children may be getting measured accurately,
according to a three-year study conducted by Lipman and a team of researchers.
Continued...
HEALTH
ECONOMICS Take
Penn Medicine, and Hold Off on the 501(c)(3)
As
the financial picture has stabilized
for the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS), Penn has decided
to create a new, unified governing board for it instead of spinning it
off into a separate 501(c)(3) not-for-profit entity, as announced last
February [“Gazetteer,” March/ April 2001; “From College Hall,” May/June
2001]. That new board, to be comprised of 30-40 people, will be called
Penn Medicine. Continued...
APPOINTMENTS
This
Time the Door is Held for Ramos
As
a Penn student,
Pedro Ramos
C’87 once plotted—successfully—to take over College Hall in a protest.
This month, as he began a new job as the University’s vice president and
chief of staff to President Judith Rodin, the once-besieged building became
his workplace. Continued...
RESEARCH
Preparing
for Smallpox … Again
For most
Americans, concerns
about
smallpox and other forms of bio-terrorism came only in the aftermath of
September 11. Researchers at Penn and other universities, not to mention
the Centers for Disease Control, have been thinking about ways to combat
it for a good deal longer than that.
Continued...
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ARBORETUM |
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The Peace of Trees One hundred years ago, John and Lydia Morris planted this splendid katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) as part of the Japanese garden in their Compton estate in Chestnut Hill. Today the estate is better known as the Morris Arboretum, and it became a favorite source of solace in the wake of the September terrorist attacks. “We started receiving messages from people saying that this was the place they came to after September 11,” says Marsha Ray, the arboretum’s associate director of development. “I checked our visitation statistics, and I found that in 2000, the week after September 11, there were just over 1,300 visitors. This year, we had 2,800 —the numbers had more than doubled. I have to believe that a lot of that was people searching for someplace to go that was quiet, where they could reflect, where they could find peace, tranquility, and safety for their kids. Many gardens throughout the country experienced the same thing.” |
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Previous issue's Gazetteer | Jan/Feb Contents | Gazette home
Copyright 2002 The Pennsylvania Gazette Last modified 1/2/02
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AROUND CAMPUS |
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Jury
Says Penn A federal jury found the University guilty of sexual discrimination when it passed over a qualified male applicant for the head coaching position of the women’s crew team in 1997. It ordered Penn to pay $71,996 in lost wages, $18,130 in compensatory damages, and $25,120 in punitive damages to Andrew Medcalf, whose 15 years of coaching experience included seven years at Penn as assistant coach of the men’s crew team [“Gazetteer,” September/October 1999]. Medcalf is also entitled to petition the court for an award of attorneys’ fees. The University’s lawyer, Neil Hamburg of Hamburg & Golden in Philadelphia, said he was “extremely distressed” by the verdict in U.S. District Court because he believed the evidence showed that Penn had “clearly hired the most qualified candidate for the position.” The woman hired was Barb Kirch CGS’84, who had been head women’s rowing coach at Dartmouth College for nine years as well as a two-time Olympian while a student at Penn. But Medcalf claimed he was not even given an interview since the Department of Athletics was set on hiring a woman. “The jury understood that Mr. Medcalf was plainly the most qualified candidate for the position,” said Lawrence Woehrle, Medcalf’s attorney. “By awarding punitive damages, they concurred that it was outrageous for Penn to engineer the hiring process so that only women were interviewed.” In his closing argument, Hamburg told the jury that Medcalf’s case turned civil-rights laws on their head because Medcalf was insisting that a less qualified, white, male candidate be chosen over a woman. “We’ve made a motion to have the judge reverse the jury verdict on the grounds that it’s completely inappropriate and an aberration and contrary to law,” said Hamburg. That motion was still pending before Judge Herbert J. Hutton as the Gazette went to press last month. “We are disappointed with the verdict,” added Penn spokeswoman Phyllis Holtzman. “We believe we hired the most qualified person for the position—that being Barb Kirch—and we stand by that decision. We will appeal.” |