Radical illustrator talks race
(03/05/02 10:00am)
Aaron McGruden, author and illustrator of "The Boondocks" comic strip, is not a leader.
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Aliya Sternstein: A question of fairness
(02/19/02 10:00am)
I wouldn't call myself a fan of the Winter Olympics, since very few events grab my attention, but I do watch figure skating commentary -- or I did. Now, like many people, I change the channel when I hear any correspondent mention "pairs", "French judge" or even "Kwan" for that matter.
Penn student's Web site aids new writers
(12/05/01 10:00am)
Before last year, a banana harvester from Hawaii might never have believed that theater groups across the country would be producing the play he wrote.
Penn student gives online forum to aspiring writers
(12/03/01 10:00am)
With the help of his brother, College senior Jon Rand has created a website that has opened the door for ambitious playwrights to showcase their work on a larger scale than they could have ever imagined.
Lauren Bialystok: From your neighbour to the north
(11/27/01 10:00am)
First of all, it's "Tronno," not "Tuh-RONT-oh."
Accolades keep piling up at Nursing School
(10/23/01 9:00am)
Yet another award has been added to the already impressive list of honors held by the faculty of the Nursing School.
Rebecca Davidson: A threat to our health
(10/04/01 9:00am)
Planned Parenthood: This is the largest, most powerful, most
Attacks cast international students as observers
(09/19/01 9:00am)
Most Penn students understand why the Stars and Stripes are hanging nearly everywhere these days -- alongside the road, on construction sites and even pinned to clothing. After all, America is their homeland.
The investigation intensifies
(09/14/01 9:00am)
WASHINGTON -- U.S. investigators pressed yesterday to identify terrorist collaborators who may still be in a position to strike more Americans, and agents located critical "black boxes" from two of Tuesday's hijacked planes.
Some faculty stranded by air travel shutdown
(09/13/01 9:00am)
Dozens of Penn faculty members -- primarily doctors in the University's Health System -- have had to put their plans on hold due to travel disruptions in the wake of Tuesday's terrorist attacks.
W. Squash finds new head coach
(08/30/01 9:00am)
James Martel, Penn's new women's squash coach, was recruited by the Quakers 28 years ago.
Philly sports heat up in summer
(08/30/01 9:00am)
So you spent your summer in a cramped office, filing papers, answering inane phone calls, adding cream to your boss' coffee, making zero dollars an hour.
Philly sports heat up in summer
(08/30/01 4:00am)
So you spent your summer in a cramped office, filing papers, answering inane phone calls, adding cream to your boss' coffee, making zero dollars an hour.
Dancing away on Broad Street
(08/10/01 9:00am)
Mid-morning on a steamy August day, a time when most classrooms are only scenes of drying paint and settling dust, the dance studios of the Rock School, the official academy of the Pennsylvania Ballet, are anything but.
Dancing away on Broad Street
(08/10/01 4:00am)
Mid-morning on a steamy August day, a time when most classrooms are only scenes of drying paint and settling dust, the dance studios of the Rock School, the official academy of the Pennsylvania Ballet, are anything but.
Underage drinking - magic number is not 21
(08/02/01 9:00am)
At this very moment, I can register to defend our nation in far-flung corners of the world. I can help elect a President, get married or even buy a handgun. I can kill myself with cigarettes or Snickers bars or Tylenol. I can jump out of a bridge with only a rubber band to save me.
Masses canoe and kayak to PCC Regatta
(07/12/01 9:00am)
The Schuylkill is more than just a large tributary of the Delaware River.
NASA selects Penn bioethicist to guide human subject use
(06/07/01 9:00am)
In planning the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's three-year mission to Mars, ethical issues are certain to be raised, such as what to do if an astronaut gets injured during the trip.
Students protest free trade agreement here and abroad
(04/24/01 9:00am)
Trying to add their voices to the worldwide chorus against the Free Trade Area of the Americas, student protesters took to the streets of such major cities as Philadelphia, Baltimore and Quebec City this weekend. With a working document approved by leaders from 34 countries on Sunday, the FTAA will create the world's largest trade zone -- with an annual output of over $11 trillion -- encompassing all of North and South America by the time it takes effect at the end of 2005. However, protesters said they felt that the document was crafted in secrecy and favored large, multi-national corporations over the needs of working people. "It's not an agreement that the people in America are going to have a lot to do with in terms of how it gets shaped," said Penn Political Science Ph.D. student Michael Janson as he led a protest in front of Philadelphia City Hall on Saturday. "It's really being designed by a set of individuals that over history have proven themselves not able to act without checks and balances." The most violent protests took place in Quebec City, where the international leaders had gathered. Over 400 people were arrested while police warded off nearly 60,000 protesters with water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas. "I've never witnessed that before -- to be walking around and seeing people wearing bandannas around their nose and mouth," said University of Vermont sophomore Heidi Keller, who marched in Quebec City on Saturday. "It was great because they had thrown so much tear gas that it actually wound up in the hotel where the delegates were," she added. "They had to turn off the air conditioning and they couldn't eat the food -- it kind of backfired." This weekend's "Summit of the Americas" was the culmination of earlier FTAA discussions which began in 1994 after the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which opened up trade between the United States, Mexico and Canada. "One of the things that the media will tell you about us is that we're protectionists," said Michael Morrill, executive director of the Pennsylvania Consumer Action Network, an independent consumer and environmental rights organization, as he marched with about 100 people in front of Philadelphia City Hall. "Well, there's a sense in which we are protectionists -- we want to protect democracy, we want to protect the environment, we want to protect human rights," he said. Despite all of the criticism, Wharton Professor of Public Policy and Management Howard Pack believes that the FTAA is beneficial. "It's a super thing," Pack said. "It will lead to lower prices for all American consumers -- and a handful of workers will lose their jobs." With the FTAA, some compared the power of business conglomerates to that of such countries as England, Portugal and Denmark in colonial times -- when many countries were exploited for the benefit for a few. "It's any of the Fortune 500 companies... where you have the research and development in America but where you have your labor in peripheral countries where the safety, environmental and occupational safety standards are lax," Temple University junior Maggie Serota said at the Philadelphia rally. "Corporations take advantage of that to increase profit." But Pack contends that most of those protesting are ill-informed about the trade topic. "Nobody elected those people who are protesting -- in my view most of them don't know much about these issues," he said. The protesters did believe that they had an impact on the negotiations. The pact now includes a clause that requires countries participating in the FTAA to uphold democratic principles, and the leaders also promised to release the text of the trade agreement to public scrutiny for the first time. "Since there was this huge protest it made a lot of press -- now people are asking what went on in Quebec," said College junior Matt Grove, who traveled down to protest the FTAA in Baltimore. As for the many people who have never heard of the FTAA, Groves replied, "Most people never heard of the World Trade Organization either until there were like 60,000 people on the streets of Seattle." With the approval of the FTAA on Sunday, talks among trade officials will hammer out the details until 2004, when the country's leaders will gather again in Argentina. But the protesters did not feel that their efforts were in vain. "We knew that we weren't going to stop them from signing it," Keller said. "As long as we get people to mobilize and get a strong enough movement, eventually by [2005] we can do a lot to save the world from globalization."
Penn set to study electoral fairness
(04/09/01 9:00am)
Despite the 50-odd commissions that have originated to tackle election reform, the Fels Center of Government -- by proposing a national voting fairness index -- hopes to finally find success in number 51. And an internationally recognized leader on election fairness demonstrated how much the United States still has to learn about elections by looking abroad. On Friday, Fels Director Lawrence Sherman announced the formation of the Fels Voting Index, which will track errors in vote tallying across the country. The project will present the results in a yearly report to the nation. "This is a chance for the Fels Center to provide the key performance measurement for our democracy," Sherman said. Scholars and political officials from both parties met on Friday to help advise Fels students and faculty on the index's development. Researchers will begin combing through election results this summer. "We live in an era of close elections in which what happened in Florida last fall has become a frequent occurrence in state and local elections," Sherman said. "As long as elections are close, our governments need to ensure that votes are counted with even more accuracy than found in banks counting money." The index will begin by grading states on criteria including the number of under- and over-counts and the uniformity of voter registration systems. Sherman hopes that the funding, which is still being sought, will allow for scrutiny on the county level as well. Many of the other commissions are focusing on specific improvements, like improved voting machine technology. The Fels effort hopes to be the impetus. "Once these rankings get published, the states and counties at the bottom of the list will make the media and voters in these communities demand improvements," said Annenberg School for Communication Fellow David Eisenhower, who is collaborating on the project. "The U.S. News [and World Report] practice of ranking colleges and universities has made big changes in the quality of higher education," Eisenhower said. "The Fels Voting Index could do the same for the quality of democracy." Emory University Political Science Professor Robert Pastor, who has worked to advance the cause of worldwide free and fair elections with former President Jimmy Carter for the past 15 years, came to Penn on Friday to put the Fels proposal in perspective. Pastor addressed about 20 students after meeting to discuss the voting index. "There are many people who believe that democracy should be more than free and fair elections, but it can't be any less," Pastor said during his speech. In countries where democracy was once deemed to be impossible, such as Nicaragua and Mexico, Pastor intervened as part of an international team to help increase democratic practices. With the number of democratic countries having increased by a third in the last 30 years, the United States has much to learn from these other countries, he said. "The most implausible of all scenarios occurred in the year 2000, when a free and fair election judged credible by all of the parties in Mexico occurred at the same time that our own election was questioned by the political parties," Pastor said. Past elections gone awry in Panama and Jamaica have resulted in many deaths, Pastor said. However, he added that has not been the case in the U.S. yet. "When you have a margin of technical error that exceeds the margin of difference between the victor, you have a recipe for a very serious problem," he said. "In the U.S. we have a different technique for dealing with this problem. We send in the only species in Florida more dangerous than sharks -- they're called lawyers." Pastor explained that problems with the American political process extended beyond Election Day and included a "rotten" campaign finance procedure. "Is Canada any less democratic than us for conducting its election in 36 days at a cost of $50 million, as opposed to our presidential election which goes on for four years and costs $3 billion?" Pastor said, noting the American elections are essentially continuous. The United States also lags behind other countries in terms of voter turnout -- especially among young people. Only about 55 percent of Americans vote, compared to up to 65 percent in other industrialized democracies, Pastor said. "I think the big thing is just awareness that problems exist," said Master of Government Administration student David Reed. "This past election really made people step back and realize the types of problems out there -- and that they don't just happen in town council or school board elections."
