|
|
|
Summer Update
|
Summer
Update - June 28, 2001
CAMPUS BUZZ BY SANDY SMITH Reader's best: Time correspondent Lissa August recently caught up with First Lady Laura Bush and asked if she'd read any good books lately. Turns out that her current favorite is English Professor and Deputy Provost Peter Conn's "Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography." "I read 'The Good Earth,' like everybody else did probably in high school, but there are a lot of things about her that I didn't know," she told the reporter. Her complete reading list appears in the "Sampler" section of the Time.com Web site. More architectural decorations: Not only have they been honored by the French government (Current, Feb. 1), but in-your-face architects Robert Venturi (Hon'80) and Denise Scott Brown (GCP'60,GAr'65,Hon'94) have now become part of the architectural Establishment, whether or not they wanted to. The seal of approval is a major retrospective of their work, "Out of the Ordinary," at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Aug. 5. As if to lament their fate, Venturi noted at a press luncheon for the show that these days, their services are much in demand by universities, including Penn — their Perelman Quadrangle and Furness Library projects are part of the exhibit. (Venturi, Scott Brown architect Nancy Trainer told your Buzz correspondent that the firm would love to design a Wal-Mart if given the chance.) But that's not the only way in which this show had Penn written all over it. The co-curators for the retrospective are Professor of History of Art David Brownlee and Professor of Architecture in Historic Preservation David DeLong. Watts up? On second thought, make that "watts down." That voluntary 30-minute lights-out drill June 18 reduced Penn's electricity usage by 1.4 megawatts (mw). Given that at peak times, the University can use as much as 67 mw of electricity, that 1.4 mw savings may seem small. But it has a huge bottom-line effect: because of the way institutional customers are billed for electricity, a 1 mw reduction in peak usage could translate into a $1 million drop in Penn's electric bill, according to Associate Vice President for Facilities Operations Barry Hilts, who pronounced the voluntary experiment in energy conservation a success. Another first for Judy: Seven years ago, Judith Rodin made headlines when she was named president of Penn, the first woman ever to head an Ivy League university. On July 16, she will become the first recipient ever of an honorary degree from Arcadia University. On that date, the 2700-student school in Glenside will officially change its name from Beaver College, the name it had since its founding in 1853. The royal treatment: Seems college presidents aren't the only executives on the fundraising trail these days. His Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the 16th Asantehene (king) of the Asante kingdom of Ghana, paid a call on Penn June 4 in part to kick off a fund-raising campaign for a new sickle cell disease research center to be built in Kumasi, the Asante capital. The American end of the fundraising drive will be led by Kwaku Ohene-Frempong, professor of pediatrics and director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Ohene-Frempong joined Provost Robert Barchi, African Studies Center Director Lee Cassanelli and a dozen Asante chiefs dressed in traditional kente robes in welcoming the king to campus. For his part, the king himself wore a Western business suit. Tutu was so moved by the welcome he received that he addressed the audience of 200 people himself — a rarity, according to a Ghanaian official accompanying the king on his U.S. tour.
What's the buzz? Tell us what's happening! Call us at 215-898-1426, send e-mail to current@ pobox.upenn.edu or drop a line to the Current at 200 Sansom East/6106.
|
