Sundance Rises in the West
It was a nice shot of Hollywood magic for a neighborhood that has long needed a little magic of any sort. There was film legend Robert Redford, tanned and bespectacled in a jet-black blazer, sitting beside Dr. Judith Rodin, CW'66, president of the University, and talking thoughtfully about why he had decided to build a Sundance Cinema Center -- a six-to-eight-screen, 40,000-51,000-square-foot theater complex dedicated to independent films -- at 40th and Walnut Streets. Continued...

New Director of
Alumni Relations Named
Just before the Gazette went to press last month, a new director of alumni relations was announced. He is Martin Rapisarda, who has been serving as director of the Executive Master's Programs at Purdue University's Krannert Graduate School of Management since 1993. Rapisarda, who will officially move into his office in the Sweeten Alumni House on November 30, said in a brief telephone conversation with the Gazette that he was "delighted and eager" to begin his new post. Continued.. 

Deans and Director to Resign
On the same day in October, the deans of the Wharton School and the Law School both announced their intentions to step down from their posts at the end of the fiscal year. Dr. Thomas P. Gerrity, the Reliance Professor of Management and Private Enterprise who has served as dean of the Wharton School since 1990, and Colin Diver, dean of the Law School and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law since 1989, will stay at the helm until the end of June. Both men said that, having led their schools for close to a decade apiece, they felt they had accomplished their goals and were ready to let someone new take over; both intend to stay on at their schools as professors. Continued..  

Freshman Convocation: The Continuity of Change
"Penn has never been reluctant to change," said Dr. Judith Rodin, CW'66, president of the University, as she addressed the incoming Class of 2002 for the first time. Which may explain why this year's freshman convocation was held not inside Irvine Auditorium (closed for renovations) or the Palestra (last year's substitute venue) but outdoors, on College Green. Behind her, beneath a darkening sky, the pale-green limestone of recently renovated College Hall, bathed in soft floodlights, formed a dramatic backdrop. Continued..  

Moving Up
The University has climbed another notch -- to sixth place -- in the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings of the best national universities.  Continued.. 

Make thatTen Lives
Leo, an aging Persian, and Tiger, a rough-and-tumble tabby, may not appear to have much in common. But they owe each other -- and a new procedure at the Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- their lives. Continued.. 

Genetic Mutation Linked to Prostate Cancer
Most prostate cancer, says Dr. Timothy Rebbeck, assistant professor of epidemiology, "just sort of appears out of nowhere, without any family history." It is, he adds, an "extremely complex disease," and no single gene or environmental exposure is going to explain all of it. Continued..

Employers Go to Schools to Keep Young
A national survey developed by Penn's Institute for Research on Higher Education has found that companies that are involved with local high schools have significantly higher retention rates among young workers than employers who don't. Continued..  

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