April 2005

April 25, 2005
Did you know...that Ronald Daniels has been named the 28th Provost of the University of Pennsylvania by President Gutmann? Dr. Daniels is Dean of the Faculty of Law and the James M. Tory Professor of Law at the University of Toronto. He is just the second non-U.S. citizen to be Penn's provost. The first was William Smith of Scotland, the University's first provost, appointed by Benjamin Franklin in 1754.

For the complete press release click here

For the article in the Daily Pennsylvanian click here

For the history of Penn’s provosts see:
http://www.upenn.edu/provost/history.html

April 12, 2005
Did you know...that today the Daily Pennsylvanian published its annual joke issue?

For more fun articles in the DP, see:
http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/

April 1, 2005
Did You Know... that Penn will bestow honorary degrees upon Grammy-award-winning musician and producer Quincy Jones, philosopher Saul A. Kripke, Comcast-founder Ralph J. Roberts, W’41, journalist Judy Woodruff, and the dean of the University of Washington School of Nursing, Nancy Fugate Woods, during Commencement ceremonies on May 16th?

For more information on this year's honorary recipients, please visit:
http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=773

Additional Commencement information is available by visiting:
www.upenn.edu/commencement.

April 22, 2005
Adam Fawer, a 1992 Wharton and College alumnus, shared the story of his first book, Improbable, last night at the bookstore. Fawer published his mystery-thriller novel after quitting his business career. [more]

April 20, 2005
A new book by Aaron Karo (Wharton, '01) called Ruminations on Twentysomething Life will be released on May 3. Karo is expecting success similar to that of his first best-seller, Ruminations on College Life, which started from an e-mail he used to send to 20 of his best friends starting during his freshman year in the Quadrangle. [more]

April 13, 2005
Penn wrestling coach Ryan Tobin and Penn alumnus Brandon Slay (who won gold for freestyle wrestling at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney) will be competing in the Real Pro Wrestling league against some of the nation's best wrestlers on national television. The new league, created by two former college wrestlers, showcases a new version of the sport in an effort to promote wrestling to a wider audience. [more]

April 6, 2005
Penn alumnus Charles Ornstein was part of a team that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on the effects of medical errors. [more]

April 5, 2005
Robert DeRubeis, a Penn psychologist, found in a recent study that cognitive therapy was as effective as antidepressants in the initial treatment of moderate to severe depression.This study challenges the American Psychiatric Association’s guidelines that antidepressant medications are the only effective treatment for moderately to severely depressed patients. [more]

April 4, 2005
To Kathleen Hall Jamieson, longtime dean of Penn's Annenberg School of Communications, John Paul II's skills and impact were immense, but his legacy uncertain. His skill as a communicator, icon and a manipulator of symbols was incomparable, said Jamieson, who wrote her thesis, before John Paul II's era, on papal communication. "This is a very charismatic pope, very appealing at reaching out to the young...His world travels have almost become legendary. The Popemobile has become a cultural icon," she said. But "his rhetoric has tightly constrained his successors. Did he so constrain the church as to make it irrelevant to the modern world or to make it survivable?" [more]