PREMIERE
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Action!
and drama, comedy, horror, science fiction, romance, Hollywood
blockbusters, and quirky independent features alikeall playing
at The Bridge: Cinema De Lux at 40th and Walnut Streets. The long-awaited
theater, whose
completion was delayed by the financial problems of Penns original
partner, is set to open November 8, seven months after a new deal
was announced between the University and Cinebridge Ventures,
a division of National Amusements, Inc.
Besides all-stadium seating, six screens showing a mix of Hollywood
and independent films, and standard concession fare, the Bridge
will offer special food service (with indoor and outdoor seating),
free parkingand, for those seeking the real flavor of a Hollywood
premiere, optional valet service.
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EXPERIMENTAL
RESEARCH
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Lawsuit
by Prison Inmates Dismissed
A
lawsuit accusing the University of injuring and mistreating several
hundred prison inmates during research studies of skin treatments
in the 1960s and early 1970s has been dismissed by a federal appeals
court. The suit had sought unspecified damages for the pain and
suffering of the former inmates who participated in the research
experiments.
Filed in Philadelphias Court of Common Pleas in October 2000,
the suit accused Penn and Dr. Albert M. Kligman Gr42 M47 Int51,
emeritus professor of dermatologyas well as the City of Philadelphia,
Dow Chemical Company, the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical
firm, and Kligmans Ivy Research Laboratoriesof negligence,
carelessness, and recklessness in allowing infectious diseases,
radioactive isotopes, dioxin, and psychotropic drugs to be tested
on the former prisoners without their knowledge. Some of the
research, which took place at Philadelphias Holmesburg Prison,
led to the development of Retin-A, an anti-wrinkle cream.
The panel ruled that the plaintiffs had been aware of the facts
of the case for many years, and could have filed the suit before
the time limit expired.
Although the use of willing, compensated prisoners for biomedical
research was a commonly accepted practice by this nations scientists
in the 1950s and 1960s, the University has stated, it is now
understood and agreed throughout the global scientific community
that prisonersregardless of their consent to participate and/or
receipt of monies for samecannot be considered appropriate candidates
for any biomedical studies.
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Previous
issue's Gazetteer
| Nov/Dec Contents | Gazette
home

AROUND
CAMPUS Remembering
9/11
There
was no need to ask for whom
the local church-bells tolledat 8:45 a.m., at 9:03, at 9:43, and again,
finally, at 10:10. Though the days activities were many and multifarious,
the scores of maroon t-shirts worn by student volunteers said it all:
Continued...
AROUND
CAMPUS Freshmen
Get the Message: There is No Sure Thing
They
processed in flip-flops and
strappy sandals, sneakers and loafers. Students from 65 countries and
52 states and territories took their places on College Green one early
September night in the first official gathering of the Class of 2006.
Some arrived in garrulous clusters of newfound friends; others appeared
to be quietly taking everything in. Continued...
GIFTS
Annenbergs
Final Extraordinary Gift
Less
than two weeks before the
Hon. Walter H. Annenberg W31 Hon66 passed away at age 94, the Annenberg
Foundation announced that it was giving Penns Annenberg School for Communication
$100 million. Continued...
AWARDS
Solar
Neutrinos Shine on a New Nobel Laureate
As
the Gazette was going to press last month,
we learned that Dr. Raymond Davis Jr. Hon90, research professor of physics
and astronomy at Penn and a research collaborator in chemistry at the
Brookhaven Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., has been awarded the 2002 Nobel
Prize in physics for his pioneering research in the field of solar neutrinos.
Continued...
APPOINTMENTS
From
Quantico to Walnut Street
Its
common for organizations
to talk about casting a wide net and seeking out non-traditional candidates
to fill senior administrative posts. More often than not its just thattalk.
Continued...
STUDENT
LIFE Carriage
House Dedicated as LGBT Center
The
skies were stormy, but the
rainbow ribbon stretched across the front of the Carriage House provided
a bright spot of color as it awaited cutting on September 26. Continued...
MUSIC
After
the Prelude: Chopin Reconstructed
The
year was 1839a tumultuous
one for FrÈdÈric Chopin, then 29 and in fragile health. The Polish composer
had fled to the Spanish island of Mallorca with his paramour, the novelist
George Sand, and there, in an abandoned monastery, composed a trove of
preludes and other pieces. Continued...
PENN
AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY Kick-Starting
the Internet in Ghana
While
Google, Netscape, and Telnet
are part of Penn students everyday reality, that Internet technology
is still a dream in countries like Ghana, points out Joseph Sun, director
of academic affairs at the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
To help turn that digital dream into reality, Sun spearheaded Penns involvement
with the Hewlett-Packard Digital Villages project in that West African
nation last summer. Continued...
ANNIVERSARIES
150
Years of Caressing the Divine Details of Engineering
Half
a Century of Animals and Optimism at New Bolton Center Continued...
RESEARCH
Of
Mice and Kids (and Piglets)
It
sounds like something
out
of Greek mythology, or maybe Kafka:
One male animal (in this case, a mouse) produces the sperm of
a pig.
Or a goat. Or another mouse.
Continued...
ACADEMIC
CENTERS New
Home, Name, and Faculty
for Afro-American Studies
Thirty
years after the Afro-American
Studies program was born at Penn, in ferment and discontent, it is wonderful
to see us at this point, said President Judith Rodin at the late-September
opening of the Center for Africana Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences,
formed from the merger of Afro-American Studies and the Center for the
Study of Black Literature and Culture. Continued...
Previous
issue's Gazetteer
| Nov/Dec Contents | Gazette
home
Copyright 2002 The
Pennsylvania Gazette Last modified 11/04/02
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DEATHS
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Walter
Annenberg
Dies
On
October
1, the Hon. Walter H. Annenberg W31 Hon66, emeritus trustee
of the University, founder of the Annenberg School for Communication,
and the most generous donor in Penns history, died at his home
in Wynnewood, Pa. Please turn to the obituary
on page 86.
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RANKINGS
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Going
Fourth
Though
it continues to take all rankings with a large grain of salt,
the University cant help but be pleased by its continued ascent
in U.S. News & World Reports annual best colleges
issue, published September 23. Penn tied for fourth placeits
highest everin the Best National Universities Doctoral category,
whose candidates offer a wide range of undergraduate majors
as well as masters and Ph.D. degrees. (Also sharing the fourth-place
spot were California Institute of Technology, Duke, MIT, and
Stanford. Princeton was ranked first, with Harvard and Yale
tying for second.) Last year Penn tied for fifth.
The rankings take into account a variety of factors, including
faculty resources (in which Penn was the top-rated school),
peer assessment, selectivity, acceptance rate, the percentage
of full-time faculty, the size of classes, SAT/ACT scores, the
percentage of freshmen in the top 10 percentile of their high-school
class, financial resources, and alumni giving.
While she did not endorse the magazines methodology, Penn President
Judith Rodin acknowledged that the rankings have a real effect
on students trying to decide which schools to apply to.
I
think going up into that top cohort, whether it was six or five
or four, is really whats important, she told The Daily
Pennsylvanian. Being in that top group, which Penn deservedly
is, I think matters to our applicants. (So, in some circles,
does Penns selection as one of Seventeen magazines
top 10sixth, actuallycoolest colleges.)
When the U.S. News rankings were released, Dr. Richard
Beeman, the history professor who serves as dean of the College,
wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times in which
he argued that the rankings are flawed in their conception
and pernicious in their effect on prospective students and their
parents.
It
may be the case that the U.S. News rankings are as conscientiously
and fairly constructed as anything that has yet come along,
he wrote. But rankings in general underestimate the amount
of work it takes to get a college education and overestimate
the importance of a universitys prestige in that process. In
that way, they may do considerable harm to the educational enterprise
itself.
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