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The University of Pennsylvania (Penn is the moniker used by the university itself In addition to Penn, U of P and Pennsylvania, UPenn has come into fairly common usage due to university officials establishing the domain name of the university as "upenn.edu." Penn has been used by sportswriters for at least a century, e.g. , p. 85 Official emphasis on Penn began c. 1990 and intensified in 2002 with President Rodin's "One University" initiative.*," target="_blank" >*" target="_blank" >specify Penn and the "Penn-University of Pennsylvania" logo but do not explicitly deprecate UPenn or other abbreviations. The recent popularity of UPenn is probably influenced by campus email addresses which use the domain name "upenn.edu," and possibly by parallels with UMass and UConn (which, unlike UPenn, have official status and are trademarked). Daily Pennsylvanian columnist Jeff Shafer traces the origin of the "upenn" domain name to pre-Internet days, citing DP head Ira Winston as saying that in the early days of email the University chose upenn.csnet, which "mimicked the University of Delaware's udel.csnet." Thus the choice of "upenn" was made when computer network names had little public visibility, and before the university decided to emphasize Penn as part of a conscious branding strategy. Shafer says the university studied the feasibility of full conversion to "penn.edu" in 2002 but decided that the costs were too high.*." target="_blank" >The abbreviation "U. Penn" appears in novels*," target="_blank" >(although the National Library of Medicine uses the abbreviation Univ PA).**" target="_blank" >and U-Pennprivate, nonsectarian research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the university, it is the fourth oldestPenn is the fourth oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution. Penn, Princeton, and Columbia originated within a few years of each other. In 1899 Penn officially changed its "founding" date from 1749 to 1740, affecting its rank. See Building Penn's Brand for the reasons why Penn did this. Princeton University implicitly challenges this*," target="_blank" >also claiming to be fourth. Penn was chartered in 1755, making it sixth oldest chartered, behind Princeton (1746) and Columbia (1754). A Presbyterian minister operated a "Log College" in Bucks County, Pennsylvania from 1726 until 1746; some have suggested a connection between it and the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) which would justify pushing Princeton's founding date back to 1726, earlier than Penn's 1740. But Princeton never has done so and a Princeton historian says that "the facts do not warrant" such an interpretation. [http://etcweb1.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/log_college.html. institution of higher education in the U.S. and "America's first university." Penn is one of the Colonial Colleges and a member of the Ivy League.

Nine signers of the Declaration of Independence and eleven signers of the Constitution are associated with the University. Benjamin Franklin, Penn's founder, advocated an educational program that focused as much on practical education for commerce and public service as on the classics and theology. Penn was one of the first academic institutions to follow a multidisciplinary model developed by several European universities, concentrating several "faculties" under one institution.

Penn has been recognized as a leader in the arts and humanities, the social sciences, architecture, engineering and education. It is particularly noted for its professional programs including Penn's schools of business, law and medicine. A faculty of about 4,500 professors serves nearly 10,000 full time undergraduate and 10,000 graduate and professional students. Penn is incorporated as The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.

The University of Pennsylvania is an important center of academic and biomedical research. The research community includes 1,000 faculty, 1,000 postdoctoral fellows, 3,000 graduate students, and 5,000 support staff. Penn has one of the largest research programs in the nation, undertaking over $700 million in sponsored research annually (a large part of which is provided by the National Institutes of Health).

Penn has the largest budget within the Ivy League, with a projected budget in FY2006 of $4.41 billion (including a payroll of $2.183 billion). According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Penn is one of the country's largest fundraisers; the school ranked third among all US universities in 2005, raising approximately $440 million.

Penn is one of fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities.

History

In the fall of 1749, eager to create a college to educate future generations, Benjamin Franklin wrote and circulated a pamphlet titled "Proposals for the Education of Youth in Pensilvania." Unlike the other three American Colonial colleges that existed at the time — Harvard, William and Mary, and Yale — Franklin's new school would not focus on education for the clergy. He advocated an innovative concept of higher education, one which would teach both the ornamental knowledge of the arts and the practical skills necessary for making a living and doing public service. The proposed program of study became the nation's first modern liberal arts curriculum.

Franklin assembled a board of trustees from among the leading citizens of the city, the first such non-sectarian board in America. At the first meeting of the 24 members of the Board of Trustees (November 13, 1749) the issue of where to locate the school was a prime concern. Although a lot across Sixth Street from Independence Hall was offered without cost by James Logan, its owner, the Trustees realized that the building erected in 1740, which was still vacant, would be an even better site. On February 1, 1750 the new board took over the building and trusts of the old board. In 1751 the Academy, using the great hall at 4th and Arch Streets, took in its first students. A charity school also was opened in accordance with the intentions of the original "New Building" donors, although it lasted only a few years.

For its date of founding, the University uses 1740, the date of "the creation of the earliest of the many educational trusts the University has taken upon itself " Cheyney, Edward Potts. History of the University of Pennsylvania 1740-1940 University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. 1940. pp 46-48. (the charity school mentioned above) during its existence.

The institution was known as the College of Philadelphia from 1755 to 1779. In 1779, not trusting then-provost William Smith's loyalist tendencies, the revolutionary State Legislature created a University of the State of Pennsylvania as a new institution with a new board of trustees. The result was a schism, with Smith continuing to operate an attenuated version of the College of Philadelphia. In 1791 the legislature issued a new charter, merging the two institutions into the University of Pennsylvania with twelve men from each institution on the new board of trustees.

Penn has two claims to being the First university in the United States, according to university archive director Mark Frazier Lloyd: founding the first medical school in America in 1765, makes it the first university de facto, while, by virtue of the 1779 charter, "no other American institution of higher learning was named University before Penn."

After being located in downtown Philadelphia for more than a century, the campus was moved across the Schuylkill River to West Philadelphia in 1872, where it has since remained in an area now known as University City.

Penn's educational innovations include: the nation's first medical school in 1765; the first university teaching hospital in 1874; the Wharton School, the world's first collegiate school of business, in 1881; the first American student union building, Houston Hall, in 1896; the country's second school of veterinary medicine; and the home of ENIAC, the world's first electronic, large-scale, general-purpose digital computer in 1946. Penn is also home to the oldest Psychology department in North America and where the American Medical Association was founded.

Penn is one of the nation's few private universities to be named for the place in which it is located (others include the University of Southern California, Boston College, Boston University, Georgetown University, Syracuse University, New York University, Princeton University, University of Dayton, and the University of Chicago). Because of this, it is sometimes confused with the Pennsylvania State University (also known as "Penn State"), a public research university whose main campus is located in the geographic center of Pennsylvania in State College.

Motto

Penn's motto is based on a line from Horace’s Third Ode, quid leges sine moribus vanae proficiunt? ("of what avail empty laws without mores?") From 1756 to 1898, the motto read Sine Moribus Vanae. When a wag pointed out that the motto could be translated as "Loose women without morals," the university quickly changed the motto to literae sine moribus vanae ("Letters without morals are useless"). In 1932, all elements of the seal were revised, and as part of the redesign it was decided that the new motto "mutilated" Horace, and it was changed to its present wording, Leges Sine Moribus Vanae ("Laws without morals [are useless"). .

Academics

Undergraduate programs

The University of Pennsylvania has four undergraduate schools:

Penn has a strong focus on interdisciplinary learning and research. It emphasizes joint degree programs (see below), unique majors (e.g., the Biological Basis of Behavior; History and Sociology of Science; Philosophy, Political Science and Economics; Logic, Information and Computation; the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology, Biology and Business (Roy Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management)) and academic flexibility. Penn's One University policy allows undergraduates access to courses at all of Penn's undergraduate and graduate schools.

Undergraduate students at Penn may also take courses at area colleges participating in the Quaker consortium, including Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr.

Graduate and professional programs

The following schools offer graduate programs:

Rankings

As of 2006, Penn is ranked fourth in U.S. News & World Report's list of top undergraduate schools nationally. The undergraduate business program at Penn's Wharton School was rated No. 1.

In 2005, The Washington Monthly published a unique ranking that focused on universities' contributions to national service (Research: total research spending, Ph.D.s granted in science and engineering, Community Service: the number of students in ROTC, Peace Corps, etc.; and Social Mobility: percentage of, and support for, Pell grant recipients); Penn ranked ninth overall, and fourth among private institutions.*

At the undergraduate level, Penn's business and nursing schools have maintained their #1, 2 or 3 rankings since U.S. News began reviewing such programs. The departments of African American literature, anthropology, art history, bioengineering, biology, communications, computer science, English, economics, French, history, political science, psychology, and Spanish are also extremely well regarded.

Penn's graduate schools are among the most distinguished schools in their respective fields. The schools of business (Wharton School), architecture (School of Design), communications (Annenberg School for Communication), medicine (School of Medicine), nursing and veterinary medicine rank in the top five nationally (see U.S. News, DesignIntelligence magazines). Penn's law (Law School), social policy and education schools are ranked in the top ten (U.S. News).

Academic Medical Center and Biomedical Research Complex

Penn's health-related programs - including the Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, Nursing and Veterinary Medicine, and programs in bioengineering (School of Engineering) and health management (the Wharton School) - are among the university's strongest academic components. The combination of intellectual breadth, research funding (each of the health sciences schools ranks in the top 5 in annual NIH funding), clinical resources and overall scale ranks Penn with only a small handful of peer universities in the US.

The size of Penn's biomedical research organization, however, adds a very capital intensive component to the university's operations, and introduces revenue instability due to changing government regulations, reduced Federal funding for research, and Medicaid/Medicare program changes. This is a primary reason highlighted in bond rating agencies' views on Penn's overall financial rating, which ranks one notch below its academic peers. Penn has worked to address these issues by pooling its schools (as well as several hospitals and clinical practices) into the University of Pennsylvania Health System, thereby pooling resources for greater efficiencies and research impact.

Admissions selectivity

Penn is among the most selective universities in the United States. The university received 20,479 applications for the Class of 2010 entering in the fall of 2006; Penn admitted 17.7 percent of those applicants, representing its most selective admissions year in history. For comparison, in recent years, Penn has received 18,000 - 20,000 applications for each freshman class, has admitted 20-25% of applications and yielded 60-65% of its extended offers. This is one of the highest yield rates amongst all Ivy League schools.

In 2002, The Atlantic Monthly ranked it as the eighth most selective college in the United States (factoring in average grades, SAT scores, students' high school rankings, and offer yields).

At the graduate level, Penn's admissions rates - like most universities - vary considerably based on school and program. Based on admission statistics from US News, Penn's most selective programs include its law school, the health care schools (medicine, dental medicine, nursing) and its business school.

Joint-degree and interdisciplinary programs

Penn offers specialized joint-degree programs, which award candidates degrees from multiple schools at the University upon completion of graduation criteria of both schools:

Dual Degree programs are also available, although they sometimes lack the flexibility of the Joint-Degree Programs. Specialized Dual Degree programs include Liberal Studies and Technology as well as a Computer and Cognitive Science Program. Both programs award a degree from the College of Arts and Science and a degree from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

In addition to cross-disciplinary majors and joint-degree programs, Penn is home to interdisciplinary institutions such as the Institute for Medicine and Engineering, the Joseph H. Lauder Institute for Management and International Studies, the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, the Executive Master's in Technology Management Program, the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, the Roy Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management, and the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology. The Vagelos Program in Molecular Life Sciences, although not interdicipinary due to its focus on biochemistry and scientific research is also worthy of mention.

Libraries

Penn's library began in 1750 with a donation of books from cartographer Louis Evans. Twelve years later, then-provost William Smith sailed to England to raise additional funds to increase the collection size. More than 250 years later, it has grown into a system of 15 libraries (13 are on the contiguous campus) with 400 FTE employees and a total operating budget of more than $48 million. The library system holds 5.7 million book and serial volumes. It subscribes to 44,000 print serials and e-journals. Penn's Libraries, with associated school or subject area:
  • Annenberg (School of Communications)
  • Biddle (Law)
  • Biomedical
  • Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
  • Chemistry
  • Dental
  • Engineering
  • Fine Arts
  • Lippincott (Wharton School of Business)
  • Math/Physics/Astronomy
  • Museum (Anthropology)
  • Rare Books and Manuscripts
  • Van Pelt (Humanities and Social Sciences)
  • Veterinary
  • High Density Storage

Community and environment

Penn has a large and diverse undergraduate student population. About 39.2 percent of those accepted for admission to the Class of 2009 are Asian, Hispanic, African, or Native American. Women comprise 51.3 percent of all students currently enrolled. A total of 2,440 international students applied for admission to Penn's undergraduate schools for the Class of 2008, and 489 (20%) were accepted. More than 13% of the first year class are international students. Of the international students accepted to the Class of 2008, 15.8% were from Africa and the Middle East, 48.1% from Asia, 0.4% from Australia and the Pacific, 11.7% from Canada and Mexico, 10% from Central/South America and the Caribbean, and 14.1% from Europe. Penn had 4,192 international students enrolled at all levels in Fall 2004.

Performing arts groups include The University of Pennsylvania Band, one of the oldest scramble bands in the country. Singing groups include the a cappella jazz (Counterparts, the all-male Chord on Blues); the traditional PennSix; Pennchants; Off the Beat; Penn Masala—a Hindi group which has received global acclaim; and The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club and its small group, the Penn Pipers, founded in 1862, one of the oldest continually-performing collegiate performance group in the United States. Penn Singers is one of the premier collegiate Gilbert and Sullivan societies in the world, and remains under the direction of Bruce Montgomery, a leading figure in the Philadelphia performing community. The Philomathean Society, Penn's student literary society, was founded in 1813 and is the oldest continuously-existing collegiate literary society in the United States. Mask and Wig, founded in 1889, is the nation's oldest all-male collegiate musical comedy troupe in the nation.

The Daily Pennsylvanian has been published since 1885, and is among the top college papers in the country, regularly winning Pacemaker and CSPA Gold Circle awards. The Pennsylvania Punch Bowl is one of the nation's oldest humor magazines. The University's Political Science Department is known for publishing a semesterly scholarly journal of undergraduate research called "Sound Politicks." The journal is student-run and is widely noted for the originality and quality of the articles it publishes. It accepts submissions from Penn students year round. There are many such journals across the university.

Penn is also noted for its Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. A direct beneficiary of the many expeditions led by the University's famed anthropology department, the Museum's collection includes a very large number of antiqities from ancient Egypt and the Middle East. The Museum also has a strong collection of Chinese artifacts including one of the largest crystal spheres ever designed, (originally owned by an Empress of China).

The Institute of Contemporary Art is based on Penn's campus and showcases various exhibitions of art throughout the year.

Much of Penn's architecture was designed by Cope & Stewardson. The two architects combined the Gothic architecture of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge - retaining some of their classical elements - with the local landscape to establish the Collegiate Gothic style. The present core campus covers over 269 acres (~1 km²) in a contiguous area of western Philadelphia's University City district. All of Penn's schools and most of its research institutes are located on this campus. Recent improvements to the surrounding neighborhood includes the opening of several restaurants, a large upscale grocery store, and an art-house movie theater on the western edge of campus.

Penn recently acquired approximately 35 acres of land located between the campus and the Schuylkill River (the former site of the Philadelphia Civic Center and a nearby 24-acre site owned by the US Postal Service), which will be redeveloped for expanded educational, research, biomedical, and mixed-use facilities over the next ten years.

The postal site extends from Market Street on the north to Penn’s Bower Field on the south. It encompasses the main U.S. Postal Building at 30th and Market Streets (the retail post office at the east end of the bulding will remain open), the Postal Annex between Chestnut Street and Walnut Street, the Vehicle Maintenance Facility Garage along Chestnut Street and the 14 acres of surface parking south of Walnut Street. Aquisition of the Postal Lands, which will become official in 2007, will allow Penn to create new connections between the campus and the city, including a pedestrian bridge, and provide additional space for research, teaching, housing and retail.

In addition to its properties in West Philadelphia, the University owns the 92 acre Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill in northwestern Philadelphia, the official arboretum of the state of Pennsylvania. Penn also owns the 687 acre New Bolton Center, the research and large-animal health care center of its Veterinary School. New Bolton Center received nationwide media attention when Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro underwent surgery at its Widener Hospital for multiple fractures to his right hind leg, suffered while running in the Preakness Stakes on May 20, 2006. It is located near Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

Penn borders Drexel University and is near the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (USP). Also nearby is the University City High School.

Athletics

The first athletic team at Penn was a cricket team. Kieran, John (1932), "Sports of the Times," The New York Times, Oct. 8, 1932, p. 22.

In the sport of football, "Penn first fielded a team against Princeton at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia on November 11, 1876." Rottenberg, Dan (1985) "Fight On, Pennsylvania" Trustees of University of Pennsylvania pg. 25.

Penn's sports teams are called the Quakers. They participate in the Ivy League and Division I (Division I-AA for football) in the NCAA. In recent decades they often have been league champions in football (12 times from 1982 to 2003) and basketball (22 times from 1970 to 2006). Penn football made many contributions to the sport in its early days. During the 1890s Penn's famed coach George Woodruff introduced the quarternick kick, a forerunner of the forward pass, as well as the place-kick from scrimmage and the delayed pass. In 1894, 1895, 1897 and 1904 Penn was generally regarded the national champion of collegiate football.Rottenberg, Dan (1985) "Fight On, Pennsylvania" Trustees of University of Pennsylvania pg. 28, 33-34. The achievements of two of Penn's outstanding players from that era -- John Heisman and John Outland -- are remembered each year with the presentation of the Heisman Trophy to the outstanding college football player of the year and the Outland Trophy to the outstanding college football interior linebacker of the year.

In basketball, Penn made its (and the Ivy League's) only Final Four appearance in 1979, where the Quakers lost to the Magic Johnson-led Michigan State Spartans in Salt Lake City. Penn is also is one of the teams in the famous Big Five traditional basketball rivalry, along with La Salle, Saint Joseph's, Temple and Villanova.

Penn's home court, the Palestra, is an arena used for Big Five contests as well as high-school sporting events. The Palestra has hosted more NCAA Tournament basketball games than any other facility. Franklin Field, where the Quakers play football, hosts the annual collegiate track and field event "the Penn Relays," and once was the home field of the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles. It was also the site of the early Army-Navy football games. Franklin Field, the oldest stadium still operating for football games, was also the home to the first commercially-televised football game, and was also the first stadium to sport two tiers. In 2004, Penn Men's Rugby won the EPRU championship. In 2006, the Quakers lost in the first round of the Men's Basketball NCAA Tournament to the Texas Longhorns.

Traditions

Toast throwing

As a sign of school pride, crowds of Quaker fans perform a unique ritual. After the third quarter of football games, spirited onlookers unite in the singing of "Drink a Highball." In years long past, students would literally make a toast to the success of Penn's athletic teams. During Prohibition, stubborn students insisted on keeping their tradition - since they could not use alcohol, they had no choice but to literally "toast" Penn. As the last line, "Here's a toast to dear old Penn," is sung, the fans send toast hurling through the air onto the sidelines. In another version of the origins of toast throwing, in 1977, current band leader and then drum major, Greer Cheeseman threw the first slice of toast after being inspired while attending a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show where members of the audience throw toast at the screen. In more recent years, some students have become more creative in their choice of projectiles, and it is not rare to see a hail of bagels or donuts, or even a loaf of French bread come flying down from the stands.For The Record: Toast-Throwing Tradition

The athletics department has purchased several industrial street sweepers built by Tenant Inc. The latest is a 6400 Rider Sweeper used for cleaning the concourses and track area of the stadium. The sweeper is often called the "toast Zamboni".

Econ Scream

At midnight on the eve of the first Microeconomics 001 midterm exam, hundreds of students (predominantly freshmen) try to de-stress by participating in a shout on the Junior Balcony of the Lower Quadrangle.Wharton lingo; Wharton traditions Each year there are a number of students that streak throughout the quad.

Goal post tossing

In past years, the Penn Quakers have won the Ivy League championship, sending the jubilant fans into a frenzy. In celebration, the fans ripped down the goal posts and tossed them into the Schuylkill River.* This tradition has most likely ended, as the last attempt to tear down the goalposts failed in 2003 as a result of a concrete footing that made efforts to topple them futile.

Class Day and Hey Day

In April, several class traditions are celebrated. Class Day, which began in 1865 to supplement the final graduation exercises, celebrates the progression of all classes and the departure of the seniors. In 1916, this day merged with Straw Hat Day and became the "day of two events." In 1931, Hey Day arose from these two celebrations. On this day, the juniors gather on Hill Field for a picnic, don straw "skimmers" and canes, and march triumphantly through campus. The procession tradition began in 1949. More recently, the straw skimmers have changed to styrofoam hats, and classmates take bites out of one another's hats until they fall apart. Within the last five years, it has become a tradition for the current senior class to "haze" the juniors while they march, pelting with a variety of food and condiments, including maple syrup, eggs, and flour. When the procession reaches College Hall, the students make an arch with their canes to greet the President of the University. The outgoing and incoming senior class presidents then give speeches, and the juniors are "officially" declared seniors. The university has aimed to downplay the hazing for Hey Day but has been haplessly unsuccessful and has recently discussed cancelling the tradition outright.

The Compass

Showcasing their superstitious side, Penn students avoid stepping over the tiled compass on the scenic Locust Walk. Supposedly, the compass serves to guide freshmen through their first year; stepping on it will put a student in danger of failing midterms or finals. According to popular myth, the only way for a freshman to reverse the "curse" is to have sex under the sculpture of a button in front of the Van Pelt library (a tradition in and of itself).

The Button

It is an oft-proclaimed goal of Penn undergraduates to have sex underneath the Claes Oldenberg sculpture of a large split-button in front of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library sometime before they graduate. The button is said to have popped off the vest which Ben Franklin wears in his statue directly across from the sculpture.

According to the Penn Tradition cards published by Penn, "Oldenberg once told the Philadelphia Inquirer that 'the Split represents the Schuylkill. It divides the button into four parts--for William Penn's original Philadelphia squares.'"

Ivy Day

One plants ivy by a building, and an "Ivy Stone" is placed on the building to commemorate the occasion. In 1981, the day was officially moved to the Saturday before Commencement. Also on this day, the prestigious Spoon, Bowl, Cane, and Spade awards are given, honoring four senior men; and the Hottel, Harnwell, Goddard, and Brownlee awards are presented to honor four senior women. During the celebration, a noted individual who is chosen by the class gives an address. Recent Ivy Day addresses have been presented by Penn Parent Joan Rivers, former Philadelphia Mayor and current Governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell, and basketball player Julius Erving.

The building receiving the Ivy Stone is very often a building of some significance to the graduating class. For example, in 1983, a stone was placed near the field in Franklin Field celebrating Penn's first Ivy League championship in football the previous fall--at the yard line from which the game-winning field goal against Harvard was kicked, clinching at least a share of the championship.

"The Red and Blue"

Penn students have a school anthem (not to be confused with alma mater), "The Red and Blue (lyrics)." As an unofficial Penn tradition, the song is sung especially loudly when competing against Ivy school rival, Princeton University, and with different lyrics when competing against Brown University. The official alma mater of the university is "Hail Pennsylvania" (also in the link).

Notable people

Some noted University of Pennsylvania alumni include the ninth President of the United States, William Henry Harrison,William Henry Harrison, Ohio HIstory Central Online Encyclopedia"At his father’s insistence, [he studied medicine from 1790 to 1791 at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Upon his father’s death in 1791, Harrison immediately joined the United States Army." real estate mogul Donald Trump, Cisco Systems co-founder Len Bosack, linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, American industralist Jon Huntsman, philanthropist Walter Annenberg, E. Digby Baltzell who is credited with the serendipitous invention of the acronym WASP, CEO and investor Warren Buffett, U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan and numerous other past and present U.S. Ambassadors, members of congress, governors, cabinet members, and corporate leaders.

Controversy

The university has come under fire several times for free speech issues. In spite of this, Penn is one of only two Ivy League universities (the other being Dartmouth College) to receive the highest possible free speech rating from the campus watchdog Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Water Buffalo Incident

Perhaps most infamous is the so-called Water buffalo incident. In 1993, a Penn student was charged with violating Penn's racial harassment policy after shouting "Shut up you water buffalo" out his window to a crowd of mostly black sorority sisters creating a ruckus right outside his dorm. Although the student claimed that "water buffalo" derived from the slang word "Behema," to refer to a loud, rowdy person, the university continued proceedings operating on their belief that "water buffalo" was being used as a racial epithet.

The university administrators told the student that uttered it that the term was racist because "the water buffalo is a dark primitive animal that lives in Africa." The questionable semantics, dubious zoology, and incorrect geography (the water buffalo is an Asian animal) did not prevent the university from pressing charges against the student.

The event reached national and even international print media and television, and even had a Doonesbury comic strip devoted to it, and the university received much criticism for its decision to punish the student.

The affair ended when at a press conference the 15 women agreed to drop charges, claiming that the media coverage made it unlikely they would get a fair hearing. The University stated there were no charges pending.

Window Love

In the Fall semester of 2005 two students were photographed having sex against the large floor-to-ceiling windows of High Rise South, othwerise known as Harrison House. The pictures were posted on the web, the story was picked up by the media, and students had to deal with helicopters circling the building at odd hours. The identity of the girl was also made public, and a picture published in the Daily Pennsylvanian.

Notes

Gallery

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See also

External links

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Selected campus organizations

Wikipedians by alma mater: University of Pennsylvania | University of Pennsylvania | Ivy League | Association of American Universities | Universities and colleges in Philadelphia | Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools | Colonial colleges | 1740 establishments | Educational institutions established in the 1740s | Registered Historic Places in Pennsylvania | Gothic Revival architecture

University of Pennsylvania | University of Pennsylvania | Universidad de Pensilvania | Université de la Pennsylvanie | 펜실베이니아 대학교 | Universitas Pennsylvania | University of Pennsylvania | პენსილვანიის უნივერსიტეტი | Universiteit van Pennsylvania | ペンシルバニア大学 | Uniwersytet Pensylwanii | Universidade da Pensilvânia | Пенсильванский университет | Pennsylvanian yliopisto | University of Pennsylvania | มหาวิทยาลัยเพนซิลเวเนีย | Đại học Tổng hợp Pennsylvania | 宾夕法尼亚大学

 

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