In the past few weeks, media around the world have interviewed Penn faculty and staff for numerous stories on a broad range of topics--from fats to academic standards. Some samples:
Marvin E. Wolfgang, professor of criminology and of law, was quoted recently in China Daily, the major English newspaper circulating throughout China, about the "incredibly low" record of juvenile delinquency in central China's Hubei Province. With one-fifth of the world's population, China is facing major social changes, which makes it a critical place to study delinquency, Dr. Wolfgang believes. He began his study in 1990 and expects to finish it in 1997.
The sudden death of Olympic gold-medal skater Sergei Grinkov drew media attention to new ways of detecting early heart trouble. Dr. Daniel Rader, director of Penn's Lipid Clinic, was quoted in The New York Times on Sunday, Nov. 26, about predictive tests--genetic and biochemical tests used with ultrafast CT scans--that are still primarily research tools but can identify people in their 20s who are at risk of early death from heart disease.
The Philadelphia Inquirer's higher-education writer, Howard Goodman, has been writing a series about college admissions. In a feature story on Nov. 27, he took readers along on a recruiting "blitz" and reported that 16 Penn recruiters visited 1,200 high schools and met with nearly 13,000 students and parents "in seven weeks of hard hoofing this fall" from Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila, Jakarta, Dubai, Istanbul, Athens, Rome, Vienna, Geneva, Frankfurt, Paris, London, Brussels, Mexico City, Bogota to Quito. And, of course, all 50 states from Portland, Ore., to Wichita, Kan., to Gainesville, Fla.
Wistar Institute's David Kritchevsky was quoted in Knight Ridder newspapers across the country recently on the merits and demerits of fats in the diet. In an article about the roles of wine, fats and life-style among the French, Dr. Kritchevsky said that, while the French indeed consume buttery pastries, cheeses and rich cream sauces, they do so in smaller portions than most Americans. "If you eat a small amount of fat, you'll stop earlier. Fat makes you feel full," he said, but "one of our problems is that we have these unbelievably huge meals....Today, we still eat like horses, but we don't work like horses."
Annenberg professor Joseph Turow was surprised to learn that the Dec. 3 Calgary Herald noted his views about the language and sexual situations on prime-time television--because he had never been interviewed by a Calgary reporter. But the story was written by a Knight Ridder television writer in Philadelphia who had called Dr. Turow, and the story was picked up by the Herald.
Last week, Newsweek quoted at length George Gerbner, Annenberg dean emeritus, about the connections between violence portrayed on television and real-life violence. The story cited findings of Dr. Gerbner's 10-year study of the multiple effects of television violence.
Since the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, political science professor Ian Lustick has been quoted widely about extremist groups in Israel, most recently by the Xinhua News Agency.
The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 13 on how technology continues to change the nature of instruction on campuses cross the country. The story noted Penn's leading role in the information age with the development of ENIAC here a half-century ago. Dan Updegrove, associate vice provost of information systems, was interviewed and noted that spending on technology is crucial to being competitive in today's college market. Just as the best students are attracted by the best faculty, libraries and course offerings, he said, so too are they attracted by the best computing facilities.
The story also reported that Penn is spending $35,000 to $40,000 in each of 58 classrooms to create a system that will project a computer screen's image on a larger screen via an overhead projector. The system will enable teachers to create World Wide Web pages based on lecture presentations that can then be used as class notes.
In the Inquirer's Dec. 3 Sunday magazine Style column, Thomas Wadden, the psychologist who heads the medical school's weight and eating disorders program, was quoted about body image and fat. Dr. Wadden reported that more than one-third of Americans are obese (at least 20 percent over recommended body weight). As real people are getting fatter, and those they see in the media are increasingly thinner, the growing gap between how fat we are and how thin we think we should be "produces a lot of dissatisfaction,...incredible suffering for the national psyche," Dr. Wadden said.
The Food column in the same issue focused on the Museum Catering Co., the in-house caterer at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The story reported the company's four-fold growth, "now serving in rentable venues all over town," since it began in the late 1980s and pictured its executive chef, Locke Johnston, with a tray of tasty hors d'oeuvres.
Teacher-education programs may not be adequately preparing prospective teachers to educate students of diverse cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds, wrote Marilyn Cochran-Smith, associate professor of education, in the winter issue of the Harvard Educational Review. In its Dec. 6 edition, The Chronicle of Higher Education noted her article, "Uncertain Allies: Understanding the Boundaries of Race and Teaching."
Wharton professors Bruce Kogut and J. Scott Armstrong were interviewed for a story in The Wall Street Journal Dec. 5 about M.B.A. students' job-hunting, academic standards, admissions standards, and pass/fail grading systems.