05/15/09 5:00am
The Black Students League is trying to help some students avoid skyrocketing textbook prices next semester.
The group organized a textbook drive May 6-13 to help give books to Penn students struggling with financial aid.
"Our goal is to help out classmates who have to go through hardships to get textbooks," said College sophomore and BSL community outreach chairwoman Jolecia Flournory.
04/17/09 5:00am
"Big Bellies" aren't easily filled - at least when it comes to trash.
Facilities and Real Estate Services has installed Big Bellies - energy efficient, solar-powered trash and recycling compactors - outside the Penn Bookstore and the Wawa at 38th and Spruce streets, and within the next week, five more machines will be installed along Spruce and Walnut streets.
04/14/09 5:00am
Last month, Penn completed its second year in the RecycleMania competition. While the national competition will release results on Friday, by Business Services' calculations, the school did not reach event organizers' goals.
Spanning a 10-week period, the competition works to increase recycling and reduce waste across college campuses nationwide.
03/31/09 5:00am
Art is the latest subject of an ongoing trend to become more environmentally friendly at Penn.
For the next three weeks, world renowned sculptor Patrick Dougherty will work on an all-natural sculpture approximately 22-feet tall at the Morris Arboretum, Penn's historic public garden and educational center.
03/30/09 5:00am
At this year's Spring Fling concert - which will take place at Franklin Field on April 17 - alternative rock group Guster will share the stage with hip-hop artist Akon.
Each year, Fling's musical guests are selected through the Social Planning and Events Committee's student-body survey.
03/20/09 5:00am
In September 2008, Classical Studies professor Campbell Grey went on paternity leave to welcome a new child into his family.
The move was not unusual for a Penn professor, as the University has moved towards policies that acknowledge the ability of both mothers and fathers to take charge of early parenting.
03/18/09 5:00am
At a demonstration Monday at The Susquehanna International Group Center for Graphics, a student volunteer attached sensory markers to her legs, and a crowd watched as her cartwheels were imitated on a screen by an animated pair of legs.
The demonstration held for graduate students showed off the center's new motion-capture studio, the largest academic motion-capture studio in the region, and part of renovations to the building completed in January.
02/25/09 5:00am
Penn is taking its initiative to help the environment beyond the dining halls to the food trucks on campus.
The Undergraduate Assembly is working with the Penn Environmental Group to encourage food trucks to use environmentally friendly containers rather than Styrofoam.
02/19/09 5:00am
Not many women would turn down an offer of $10,000.
But some women might if it means selling their eggs.
Ivy League women are being targeted by various agencies to sell their eggs for anywhere from $5,000 to $30,000.
"College students are in the right age group to become donors, tend to have more flexible schedules than older, working women and are reasonably intelligent and motivated," said Dawn Hunt, president of Fertility Alternatives, an agency that has intermittently advertised in The Daily Pennsylvanian for about seven-to-eight years.
02/17/09 5:00am
The upcoming renovations to DuBois College House mark yet another step in Penn's college house makeover.
In the past 10 years, about $325 million have been devoted to improving on-campus residences.
Throughout the renovations, all college houses have received new security, sprinklers and fire alarms and laundry-facility upgrades, among other things, according to Business Services Executive Director Douglas Berger.
02/09/09 5:00am
Usually, inherited traits refer to eye color and blood type. However, new studies show that genetics can influence popularity as well.
In a recent study, Harvard University sociology professor Nicholas Christakis found that a person's position in a social network is a result partially of his or her genetic background.
02/05/09 5:00am
If President Barack Obama's stimulus plan passes the Senate this week, large research-based institutions like Penn will receive funding toward scientific research, in addition to financial aid and study abroad initiatives.
The increased research funding will impact the entire University, said School of Nursing Dean Afaf Meleis, but the focal point will be the sciences.
01/27/09 5:00am
Somewhere between The Canterbury Tales and The Merchant of Venice in Van Pelt Library, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are making an appearance in comic book form.
Mickey and Donald were featured in some of 1975 alumnus Steve Rothman's favorite comics when he was growing up and make up some of the 22,000 comic books and graphic novels he donated to Van Pelt's Special Collections Library.
01/22/09 5:00am
Move over James Bond-- Penn Engineers are the new heroes.
On Jan. 4, a four-member team consisting of a professor, a hydro-geologist and two undergraduate engineers chosen by Penn's Engineers Without Borders program travelled to Cameroon, a country in West Central Africa, to bring sanitary water to the village of Gundom.
01/20/09 5:00am
Happy birthday, Ben Franklin.
The Founder's Day Symposium commemorated Ben Franklin's 303rd birthday on Friday, capturing Franklin's values of "distinguished scholarship and global citizenship," said University President Amy Gutmann.
The event consisted of a panel - moderated by Gutmann - of five academic specialists who spoke about environmental sustainability.
01/14/09 5:00am
Goodbye, plastic bottles. Hello, water.
In response to Penn's commitment toward increasing environmental sustainability, Dining Services collaborated with the Penn Environmental Group to replace bottled water in McClelland in Ware College House and Hill Express in Hill College House with "Quench machines": environmentally friendly water coolers.
12/09/08 5:00am
Goodbye, plastic bottles. Hello, water.
In response to Penn's commitment toward increasing environmental sustainability, Dining Services collaborated with the Penn Environmental Group to replace bottled water in McClelland in Ware College House and Hill Express in Hill College House with "Quench machines": environmentally friendly water coolers.
