Penn is Making History -- every day

Penn Begins Academic Year With Fundraising Milestone

Making History: The Campaign for Penn just got closer to its $3.5 billion goal, reaching a new milestone for the new academic year with a total of $2.5 billion raised.

Penn's campaign is also last month's frontrunner, bringing in the largest gain among the 32 American universities seeking to raise $1 billion or more.

      details here >

more >

» more like this in Higher Education | Today's Economy

Penn's Center for Neuroscience and Society: The Brains Behind Brain Science

» more like this in Knowledge | Medicine

Penn Athletics: 33 Sports, 1000 Athletes, and a New 51,200 Square Foot Pavilion

It was a summer barbeque to mark a very important occasion: the June 18 groundbreaking for the George A. Weiss Pavilion, a weight training and fitness center that will be built inside the northern arcade of Franklin Field stadium.

Why the buzz?

As Steve Bilsky, Director of Athletics (W'71) puts it: "It's the opening to a whole new part of campus which, fortunately, athletics is going to play a major role in."

It's also a key first step for Penn Connects, Penn's long-term campus development plan. By design, Weiss Pavilion will -- physically, programmatically, and symbolically -- connect Penn's revered stadium westward to the core of campus and eastward to Penn Park.

      > watch video

more >

» more like this in Athletics | Events | Going Green

Penn Faring Well in Recession

From WHYY radio here in Philadelphia:

"The recession has taken a toll on businesses and individuals -- but the University of Pennsylvania says the school has fared better than expected. Penn officials say the return on the school's endowment dropped almost 16% in the past fiscal year. The University had budgeted for a larger drop."

> listen [50 sec]

Penn’s Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli says the school’s endowment performed relatively well.

Carnaroli: Many of the illiquid asset classes -- private equity, real estate, natural resources -- really slumped this year, and our allocations to them is less than our peers. We did well this year because of our asset allocation, because we maintained a sizeable portion of the portfolio in treasuries -- 15% -- and because we have a lower allocation to the illiquid asset classes.

With the economy still slumping, Penn is still preparing.

Carnaroli says the university has already saved $44 million dollars by canceling capital projects, reducing internal promotions and overtime, and using video conferencing to limit travel expenses. The goal is to save $58 million this fiscal year.

more >

» more like this in Today's Economy

Penn Making History with ARRA

First, the good news:

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) (www.recovery.gov) has just awarded Penn more than $30 million to fund over 100 scientific research projects in robotics, gene therapy, public education, and more -- as part of the largest increase in basic funding in the history of federally funded scientific research.

And now, the really good news:

Assistant professor Katherine Kuchenbecker, one of Penn's youngest and most celebrated rising stars, is slated to receive $500,000 of ARRA money to continue her research.

Why is that really good news? It was an endowed assistant professorship which convinced Katherine to come to Penn in the first place.  [read the full story]

Katherine's story is a terrific illustration of the power and example of investing -- in Penn, its faculty, and, most important, in its unique community of scholars.

more >

» more like this in Faculty | Today's Economy