Revolutionary Ideas

At Penn, the goal is not simply to excel — it is to challenge assumptions and discover fresh and better ways of thinking about and doing things. From innovative initiatives to brave new programs, Penn is pushing the boundaries of expectation and opening new opportunities for progress in our classrooms, our neighborhoods, and our world. The revolutionary ideas we celebrate and live by every day are:

• Reimagining the Campus and the City > campus development
• Reinventing How We Create and Use Knowledge > faculty and program innovations
• Redefining the Way Students Live and Learn > academic and residential life

Reimagining the Campus and the City

Imagine. A vibrant campus core, with sophisticated new buildings for research, teaching, and residential life … generous open space, dedicated playing fields, and an enhanced athletic facility, all linked together and beautifully landscaped … inviting new walkways, ramps, and promenades that seamlessly connect the University and the city. Penn’s expansion eastward provides the University an unprecedented opportunity to transform its campus. The master plan, Penn Connects: A Vision for the Future, will take three decades to be realized, but it will be set in motion through Making History. The campaign will fund key priorities in Penn Connects and establish the plan’s conceptual framework: strengthening the academic core, creating open space and playing fields, and connecting the campus to the city.

Reinventing How We Create and Use Knowledge

Today, all universities talk about the importance of working across disciplines to solve our world’s increasingly complex problems. At Penn, where 12 schools are located on one urban campus, and collaboration is a well-established tradition, the University does much more than just talk. Penn’s proven track record in pioneering and expanding multidisciplinary initiatives means that today it is exceptionally prepared to take interdisciplinarity to a new level. Making History will support pathbreaking programs and initiatives that will empower Penn to build on its success in bridging academic boundaries.

Redefining the Way Students Live and Learn

Penn’s approximately 24,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, education takes place outside the classroom as much as it does inside. Living and learning are inextricably linked, and discovery doesn’t stop when the academic day ends. Penn works tirelessly to enrich campus life and to create imaginative new opportunities for learning in the broadest sense, from College Houses that offer dynamic 24/7 learning communities to groundbreaking hubs that bring students from all schools and majors together to explore common interests. Making History will provide Penn with the resources it needs to ensure an ever more robust student life.

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