SAS Journal

Chinese Friendship

Alan MacDiarmid knows a thing or two about energy. In fact, he seems to have an unlimited supply. Over five decades at Penn, the Blanchard Professor of Chemistry has conducted groundbreaking research, won the Nobel Prize, established institutes on two continents and seen his laboratory named a historic site by the American Chemical Society.

In September, MacDiarmid’s efforts to produce renewable energy earned him the Friendship Award, China’s highest decoration for foreign experts. His research involves using organic plastics – a field he pioneered – as the basis for new energy sources. Other aspects include creating power from residual biological materials and developing hydrogen-based fuels.

MacDiarmid conducted the experiments at Jilin University in China, where he is a member of the chemistry faculty and chairman of the Alan G. MacDiarmid Institute. He is the first foreigner to have a Chinese institute named for him. The other MacDiarmid Institute is in his native New Zealand.

Alumni Writers

Lovers of the written word experienced a special treat on Homecoming Weekend last fall. For the second year, a cross section of Penn novelists, poets, screenwriters and journalists came together for Penn in Print. The daylong series of events celebrated the diversity of Penn authors across generations and disciplines.

Five SAS alumni contributed their talents to a Celebration of Alumni Writers at the Kelly Writers House. Poet Deborah Burnham, G’76, Gr’89, read from her book Anna and the Steel Mill. Fiction writer Kerry Sherin Wright, C’87, gave the audience a taste of her novel-in-progress. Nonfiction writer Stefan Fatsis, C’85, shared some passages from Word Freak, his acclaimed 2001 account of the world of professional Scrabble. Courtney Zoffness, C’00, read a short story.

“The Penn campus always – between the lines – encouraged writing and the writerly life,” said Robert Shepard, C’83, G’83, a literary agent who emceed the event. The idea behind a Celebration of Alumni Writers and other Penn in Print events is to shift what was once between the lines to the top line.

- Blake Martin

Curriculum Advances
Four years after the pilot curriculum began offering students a new way to craft their Penn educations, the Committee on Undergraduate Education is investigating how the pilot can inform a new general education curriculum. The committee con-ducted three forums during the fall semester, two for faculty and one for students, asking them to weigh in on possible facets of a new general requirement.

“There’s been a tremendous consideration of the process by both faculty and students,” says College of Arts and Sciences dean Dennis DeTurck, G’78, Gr’80. DeTurck chaired the committee before accepting the deanship in December. “The discussions have been very productive and civilized. People are really pulling together to make the very best curriculum for the new century.”

The committee’s next step is to continue the ongoing discussions and then create a single proposal for a new general education curriculum. “The faculty has heard a lot of points on which we all can agree and some points that will require us to compromise on some deeply held positions,” DeTurck says. When complete, the plan will be voted on at a regular SAS faculty meeting. For more information, go to http://www.sas.upenn.edu/faculty/Curriculum_Review/.

Pass the Buck

Peter Peterson has spent most of his life pursuing monetary balance. As an international economic advisor for President Nixon, he negotiated a comprehensive trade agreement with the Soviet Union. Now chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and a grandfather of nine, Peterson says the economic minds in Washington are creating insurmountable debt for future generations. He shared his views with the Penn community in November at the 2004 Granoff Forum.

Peterson says three trends are threatening to bankrupt America: the escalating cost of the war on terrorism, our increasing reliance on foreign capital to prop up the national economy and rapid aging throughout the Western world. He called on Washington leaders to face the financial ramifications of the nation’s skyrocketing debt.

“The question is not, Are we better off than we were four years ago? The real question is, Are our children going to be better off because of what we do today?” he told the audience. “We are quietly slipping our own children the check for our free lunch.”

A Voice for Voters

Students from the Fels Institute of Government spent Election Day listening for squeaks in the wheels of democracy. Huddled around scores of computers at the National Constitution Center, earphones wrapped snugly over their heads, they listened to phone messages left by people who had trouble casting votes. By the end of the day, more than 100,000 people had called 1-866-MYVOTE1 to report problems.

The students were a vital link in the MyVote1 Project, co-sponsored by Fels. It was the first nationwide attempt to track and analyze election-day glitches. Callers gave their location and described the obstacles they experienced. More than 150 students working in shifts from 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. culled data that was then parsed by analysts and broadcast over MSNBC.

“The goal here is really valiant – giving people a voice,” said College senior Christopher Copeland after listening to a Pittsburgh man explain how he was denied a provisional ballot. “People shouldn’t have anything stopping them from voting.”

Preliminary analysis revealed that Election Day was marred in many areas by voter harassment, unreachable officials and poll obstruction. Next, Fels scholars will use the data from MyVote1 to summarize the state of voting in America. “We really believe we can change the whole electoral process in the country with this system,” says Fels executive director Chris Patusky, Gr’01.