January 2005

01/31/05 Did You Know... that you can download poetry sound files from PennSound, a Web-based archive for noncommercial distribution of the largest collection of poetry sound files on the Internet? PennSound offers a large variety of digital recordings of poems -- currently 1,500 and fast growing -- mostly as song-length singles.

Visit the PennSound website at:
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound

Read the full press release about this project at:
http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=731

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01/24/05 Did You Know... that the Early Decision Admission Class of 2009 is the largest and strongest in the history of Penn? Among the 3,420 students who applied early to Penn in 2004, 1,170 were admitted  in early December. Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Stetson, GED'71, cited the overall strength of the applicant pool as the reason that  slightly more students were accepted early. Consequently, Stetson noted that the group of accepted applicants is "geographically more diverse" than in years past, coming to Penn from forty-six of the fifty states as well as dozens of countries.

For more information, view the link below:
http://tinyurl.com/7y6k3

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01/17/05 Did You Know... that Penn professors have served as advisors for Oprah's Book Club?  Peter Conn, Interim Provost and Andrea Mitchell Term Professor of English, and Rita Barnard, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, were both recruited to answer questions via the Internet about works chosen by the talk-show host.  Professor Conn served as the expert for the book, The Good Earth, by Pearl Buck and Professor Barnard as the expert on Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton.

For more information on this story, visit
http://www.upenn.edu/pip/?pip=bookclub

*Please note the University is closed on Monday, January 17, to observe Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.

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01/10/05 Did You Know... that this year marks the tenth year that Penn has presented the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Symposium on Social Change? The theme for this year's Symposium, which will begin on January 17, 2005 and run through January 28, 2005, will be Penn's Commitment to the Legacy: Meeting the Challenges of a Diverse Democracy. The Symposium provides a wonderful opportunity for us to acknowledge the "Penn Compact," accept President Gutmann's challenge to build a diverse democracy, and commemorate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

For more information, please consult:
www.upenn.edu/aarc/calendarbody.html

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01/03/05 Did You Know... that nominations for three alumni trustee positions (Southern, Western and Metropolitan New York) are due January 14, 2005? In addition, the deadline for nominations for the Alumni Award of Merit and the Young Alumni Award of Merit is February 4, 2005. The Nominations Committee and the Awards and Resolutions Committee for Penn Alumni (which will select the alumni trustee positions and award of merit recipients respectively) welcome nominations from all Penn Alumni. Please nominate your fellow alumni!

For complete details on the alumni trustee positions and the award of merit and to complete nomination forms, please see the Penn Alumni website.

January 27
An exhibition of archaeological artifacts connected with King Tut will begin a two-year American tour in Los Angeles this summer. The Franklin Institute will present the show in Philadelphia, the fourth and final stop, between February and September 2007. David Silverman, head of the Egyptology section at the Penn Museum, is helping to create the traveling exhibition's narrative and scholarly content as curator in charge. [more]

January 21
Former Quakers football and baseball star Mark DeRosa signed a minor-league contract Wednesday with the Texas Rangers and was invited to spring training with the Major League club. [more]

January 20
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication and an authority on presidential speechmaking, was quoted in the Washington Post about the presidential inauguration. "Good inaugurals," Dr. Jamieson said, "are a way of making sense of who we are as a people. The president is the only one who can speak for the body politic.... It's a cliche-ridden form, but think about it from the perspective of the person delivering the speech: You're dealing with the abstractions of democracy. How can you deal with them freshly when you have 50-some others before you, and all had basically the same task?"

January 19
Architects Robert Venturi (Hon'80) and Denise Scott Brown (GCP'60,GAr'65, Hon'94) celebrate the publication of their latest book, Architecture as Signs and Systems for a Mannerist Time, with a reception and booksigning at The Kroiz Gallery, University of Pennsylvania.

January 11
When Penn alumna Lauren Karp moved to Thailand after her graduation in 2004, she had no idea she would narrowly escape the largest natural disaster the world had seen in decades. Karp and Corey Brooks -- a 2003 Penn graduate -- were on a boat traveling to the Similan Islands off Thailand's southern coast when a tsunami struck on Dec. 26. Over 150,000 people were killed by the wave, which hit after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred on the floor of the Indian Ocean. "We are so lucky," Karp said in an e-mail interview. "It's hard to comprehend how devastating this disaster was for so many." [more]

January 11
The last time Rob Milanese suited up for a football game in Philadelphia was Nov. 16, 2002, as he pulled in nine catches for 139 yards in an Ivy League title-clinching victory over Harvard. The next time Penn's all-time leader in career receptions and receiving yards puts on pads in the City of Brotherly Love, he will be playing indooors. Milanese, who signed with the Arena Football League's Philadelphia Soul in October, is currently with the squad for training camp in San Jose, Calif. [more]