Rodin to receive two honorary degrees
Former University President Judith Rodin is slated to receive two honorary degrees over the next few weeks: One at Dartmouth College and one at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.
In addition to taking home an honorary degree from USP, she will address the school's 186th graduating class on May 23 at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts.
At Penn, Rodin is best remembered for guiding the University through a period of unprecedented growth and development that transformed Penn's academic core and helped spearhead projects that revitalized the West Philadelphia community.
Specifically, Rodin doubled Penn's research funding and tripled both its annual fund-raising and the size of its endowment. She additionally created Penn Medicine, a magazine about health-related issues that is published three times a year for the alumni and friends of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.
After serving as the provost of Yale University from 1992-1994 and Penn's president for the next 10 years, Rodin is currently the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, which provides grants for projects that use scientifically based knowledge to tackle the fundamental causes of poverty.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Rodin is a Penn graduate who earned a Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1970.
The commencement ceremony at Dartmouth, which will be topped off by a keynote address from former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, will take place on June 10.
Honorary degrees are typically given to individuals who embody a school's values and who have either donated money or are likely to donate money to that institution in the future.
Come May 15, Penn will award honorary degrees to singer Aretha Franklin and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, among others.
- Tali Yahalom
Nutter takes big lead in latest mayoral poll
Former City Councilman Michael Nutter has vaulted to the front of the five-man Democratic field, largely due to a recent media blitz and several prominent endorsements over the last month.
In the latest Philadelphia Daily News/Keystone poll, Nutter leads with 31 percent. He is followed by businessman Tom Knox with 21 percent, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah with 13 percent, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady with 11 percent and state Rep. Dwight Evans with 3 percent.
Nutter's surge has been aided by endorsements from nearly all of the area's media outlets, including the Daily News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Weekly and Philadelphia City Paper.
The DP also endorsed Nutter in an April 25 editorial.
The election is Tuesday.
- Jared Miller
Penn students receive grant for study abroad
Four Penn students will get the chance to study abroad for the 2007-2008 academic year, thanks to graduate study and research scholarships awarded by the German Academic Exchange Service, according to a press release.
Scholarships from Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdient (DAAD), an organization promoting higher education in Germany, provide qualified individuals with an opportunity to do independent study or to complete a master's degree at a German university.
The scholarships are highly competitive, with an independent committee choosing recipients on the basis of academic records and project proposals.
College senior Birgit Doak, History graduate student John Roper, German graduate student Curtis Swope and Art History graduate student Julia Walker are four of 50,000 individuals whom DAAD will provide financial support to in the coming year.
More information about DAAD can be found at www.daad.org.
- Anne Dobson
