What could be better than free snacks, hot chocolate, a second snow day and a little Amy G.? Honestly, we’re stumped.
Join our fine president (and her giiirl Leah, duh) for all of the above in Commons from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. today.
Happy N-S-Snow!
Today Amy Gutmann sent out a year-end economic update email to all of Penn’s undergrads. As per usual, it’s a bit lengthy, so here are the highlights:
There is also mention of all the cool stuff Penn is building (Penn Park, the new nanotech building) and the cool stuff Penn profs are doing (did you know that researchers have been awarded $163.4 million for 303 projects… and counting?). Plus, Marshall Scholar Josh Bennett and Rhodes Scholar Sarah-Jane Littleford get shoutouts.
See the email in full after the jump.
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It’s pretty apparent that we at UTB have a thing for Amy Gutmann. We just do. And one of our favorite things about Amy is her ability to throw sicknasty parties, with her holiday party (you know, the one that’s held at her house!) being the most epic. Take a journey with us as we show you the highlights from this year’s affair.
Um, OMG. This tree is beautiful, and look at all the presents! We wonder if any of those are for Michael or Leah.
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Couldn’t wait to schmooze at President Gutmann’s house tonight? Neither could she! El Presidente stopped by Hillel’s “Hanukkasino” event to pregame her own holiday party and light the menorah. After a rousing cry of “Chag Sameach!” (which we’re assuming is Hebrew for “you’re the most talented and diverse mix of dreidel-spinners we’ve ever seen”), she gracefully departed to her totally decked-out pad.
It looks like Obama is continuing on his Penn kick with the appointment of Amy Gutmann to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. And oh yeah, she’s going to the commission’s chairwoman. Best birthday present EVER.
Today is Amy Gutmann’s birthday, and we here at UTB want to wish her a very happy day of birth. We apologize for taco snafus of weeks past, and look forward to another year of Photoshop and holiday parties.
Leave your own birthday wishes for Amy in the comments!
You guys are the best. You’re tipping and you’re commenting and you’re making this button the best place to be under. But here’s something that one of you did that was not great! Somebody said their name was Amy Gutmann and commented on our Coup de Taco review:
I had the sweet thai coconut chicken and it was delicious. Peanut sauce had a nice zing. However, I thought they were a little skimpy on the chicken.
Well, whoever wrote that was not Amy, and according to one tipster, here’s what happened next:
“The Coup de Taco guys brought tacos to Amy Gutmann’s office with a note saying something to the effect of ‘sorry the taco was skimpy, hope this one is better.’ Amy Gutmann’s office was quite confused why they had tons of Coup de Taco food.”
Whaaat? She’s so lucky! We’re wondering why the Coup guys would send chicken over based strictly on a UTB comment rather than, say, what they saw with their own eyes. She’s a total celeb! They must know her face, right?
But still, you guys need to stop impersonating people! We can’t approve those comments anymore and we want to be approving comments all the time. Just stick to “anonymous,” fictional characters, and maybe even your own names and we can all hold cyber-hands and internet-dance and have a great, great time all the time. Exception: comments that could get free tacos delivered to UTB headquarters. That would be fine and tasty.
In a move similar to the nerd-land conquests, Penn laid claim to 24 acres of land between Walnut and Spruce Street. Once serving as some US Postal Service thing, it then became some place east of campus that no one ever really thought about. Until now. Because we’re getting a park!
Set for A-Gut to break ground November 6th (how do you break ground on a park?), the lofty vision for Penn Park includes such things as sprint football turf, a softball stadium, new tennis courts, and “multi-purpose artificial fields (one enclosed by a seasonal air structure).” Tree-lined raised walkways and plenty of scenic Schuylkill River photo ops will almost make visitors forget they’re cozying up to the Amtrak and SEPTA lines that run through the area.
If you can’t wait until the projected 2011 completion to pack your picnic basket, fear not! There’s a really cool website where you can e-frolick to your hearts’ content, as well as look at the other projects in Penn’s pipeline (i.e. a new College House!?). Everything there seems legit, except one suspicious image. What is this, a park for ants!?
We have this running feature in Street called Overheard At Penn. If you’re a regular reader, you know that like 4 out of 5 are about what’s wrong with the education system and how we can fix it.
The Wall Street Journal must be reading all the time, because they noticed it’s a big deal at Penn. We guess it’s kind of our “thing.” So they asked our girl Amy to speak about that subject with Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, and Christopher Edley Jr., dean of the law school at the University of California at Berkeley.
Check here for a video of the panel and an edited transcript of the discussion. Lots of interesting stuff – there’s even a mention of Sputnik!
While her take on Legally Blonde really got us talking, MJ wasn’t the only freshman who made a campaign video this year. In fact, they’re all over the place. The approach makes a lot of sense, considering that we would never vote for someone until we had a good feel for his or her ability to rewrite and perform (or recruit friends to perform) a popular song from two plus years ago. Can you even fathom the repercussions of electing someone who does not possess a mastery of the name-rhyme-centric chorus? We shudder to think.
So vote responsibly, students, by checking out four campaign videos, scored using our very own meaningless point system, after the jump.
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Penn thinks pink. Amy thinks, "Oh god, what do I do with my hands?"
We’ll be the first to admit that we’re sometimes a little hard on Wharton. And we’ll probably be around the…oh 23rd or 24th to admit that some of the claims we have made or supported are not 100% deserved, 100% of the time. The suggestion that business students are severely lacking in the “soul” department, for example, has us feeling a little bad today. But that’s just because Wharton Women (in conjunction with a ton of Penn student groups) is bringing together these three things:
1. Cupcakes
2. The Color Pink
3. A Good Cause
It’s like a recipe for a smile! The initiative, called Penn Thinks Pink, is an effort to raise awareness of breast cancer along with $5,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. To help achieve these goals, the illustrious cupcake truck will be returning to campus from 12-2 in support of the event. Get there before they sell out (That means exactly at noon. YESTERDAY). Later, at 6:30 in Huntsman, Komen Foundation President and CEO Hala Moddelmog will deliver a keynote address. Tickets are available for $5 on the walk or at the door.
We will most definitely revert back to our Whartonizing ways soon. But definitely not until after we’ve eaten a cupcake for a good cause.
For more details about the event, check out the press release after the jump.
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Before noon, the crunchier among us (not to mention the hungrier and the broker-and-seeking-free-food) convened for the greenest thing Penn’s seen since that girl spilled her Gia salad all over the sidewalk on Spruce. Today marked the launch of the Climate Action Plan, Penn’s latest and greatest effort in sustainability, and we were there to witness it! Sadly, Mother Nature did not quite return the favor to Penn. Due to inclement misting, the launch festival was relocated from College Green (clever!) to Bodek Lounge (not so clever).
Displays included a transportation booth, a sustainable farming booth, a free apples…er, Bon Appetit company booth, and one of those show stealing mini models of a park. As we were ogling the tiny plastic trees, a crowd started forming toward the front… A-Gut was about to give a speech about the planet!
Introduced as the “spirit behind the Climate Action Plan,” Amy G filled us in on details of the initiative, repeatedly invoking the phrase “Less is More.” She concluded by saying that while Penn will continue to “bleed red and blue,” it will from this point forward “dream a green dream” as well. Aw.
Photos from the event, after the jump.
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With NSO well under way, we bring you our favorite video of the week. Philly’s ABC affiliate produced this little piece about move-in, and it is a gem. We have no clue why they filmed it in Hill (seriously, the Quad is so photogenic), but we’re glad Amy makes an appearance. And the kid at the end is too cute.
Let's see if we can fit that $440 million in this gold-plated Penn money clip.
Ever since the economy went all wack, Prez A-Gut has been sending out periodic campus-wide emails reassuring students that Penn is doing a-okay. Last week we learned that we’re rolling in the dough, and today A-Gut provided us with some more facts and figures. The takeaways:
Also, a lot of big stuff is going down this year. In the fall, the Annenberg Public Policy Center and the Roberts Proton Therapy Center are opening. Additionally, ground will be broken on Penn Park, “the 24-acre signature project of our Penn Connects campus master plan. Penn Park, which extends from Franklin Field and the Palestra to the Schuylkill River, will increase campus green space by 20 percent, further our sustainability goals, and provide new athletic and recreational space — plus beautiful vistas — for our entire community to enjoy.” The renovated and expanded Music Building and the new Weiss Pavilion (a fitness center and weight room at Franklin Field) will be opening in the spring.
See the full email after the jump.
A few months ago, some bitter chick at UCLA started a Facebook group to prevent underachieving Z-lister James Franco from being the school’s commencement speaker. We don’t want to seem ungrateful; we had a great time hearing John Legend the night after we got drunk with him at Blarney, and we were entertained enough by Amy’s pomp and circumstance remarks to blog about her. However, neither our favorite Ordinary Person nor our esteemed prez quoted R.L. Stine or flew around with a jet pack, and that’s exactly what we would have enjoyed had we been treated to Franco’s words. Lucky for us, he posted highlights from his rejected speech on FunnyorDie.com! (And, lucky for you, we’ve posted the video below.)
