4 5 6 8 12 13 14 16-19 10 Five easy classes to take next semester
Penn launches five new master’s degree programs
College of Arts and Sciences to pilot new curriculum for first-year students
Penn Abroad terminates Penn English Program in London amid budget constraints
Top rated courses and professors
Penn Abroad revises study abroad process for 2026 application schedule following student feedback
Wharton launches Master of Science degree in quantitative finance funded by historic donation
Five first-year seminars coming up this spring
Opinion Section
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GSWS
3680:
GENDER, SEXUALITY, and WOMEN’S STUDIES Spring 2026 Courses
Surrealism in the Americas
Ricardo Bracho, R 3:30-6:30 p.m. [Also listed as ENGL 3680, LALS 3680, THAR 3680]
Surrealism in the Americas is a workshop focused around the reading, writing and production of surrealist manifestos, plays, performances, poems and fiction. Taking the stance that surrealist literary production is at its base a left aesthetic engagement with form and politics, the course will survey North American, South American, and Caribbean engagements with what is largely misunderstood as a European aesthetic and movement. The works of Aime Cesaire, Adrienne Kennedy, Leonora Carrington, Martin Ramirez, and Grupo Etcetera, among many others, will be studied and used as models for students' own writing and performance. Work will be both individually and collectively generated and the opportunity to work on public performances of surrealist plays will be part of the workshop.
GSWS 1800: The Sexuality of Modern Art
Jonathan Katz, MW 12:00-1:30 p.m.
[Also listed as ARTH 1800]
It's no exaggeration to note that queers have long been at the forefront of innovation in the arts, and that the arts, generally, have been a comfortable home for queers, even at moments when society at large was distinctly hostile. In fact the concepts of modern art and homosexuality that we use today are twins, for they were both founded in the third quarter of the 19th century and grew up together. Introduction to Queer Art thus begins with the coining of the word "homosexual" in 1869, and surveys how a range of mediums including painting, sculpture, poetry, music, and film shifted in response to new definitions of sexuality. Along the way, we will work towards answering two related questions: 1) Why were queer creators largely responsible for the introduction of modernity in the arts, and 2) why do we find so often that queer social and political dissent found form in, and as, aesthetic dissent as well? In creating new forms for art that often seem far removed from any traditional definition of sexuality, including non-objective and abstract art, queer artists pushed the boundaries of normativity, leading to new ways of seeing, hearing, feeling and thinking that often dared to encode queer meanings as part of their formal innovation. We will look into the politics of queer art, and how and why in the US, even amidst often dangerous homophobia, it was queer artists who represented America to itself. Thus, we will cover such key cultural figures such as Walt Whitman, Gertrude Stein, Georgia O'Keeffe, Frank O'Hara, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Agnes Martin. Throughout, new methods informed by queer, gender, and critical race theory will be utilized.
Five easy classes to take next semester
According to Penn Course Review, each class listed has under a 1.5 out of 4 average difficulty rating and under a 2 out of 4 average workload rating.
As Advanced Registration approaches, The Daily Pennsylvanian compiled a list of five easy courses to take this coming spring. According to Penn Course Review, each class listed has under a 1.5 out of 4 average difficulty rating and under a 2 out of 4 average workload rating.
1. “History of Disney Animation” — ENGL 0593, CIMS 3203, ARTH 3873
0.9 Average Difficulty, 1.3
Average Workload
ENGL 0593, taught by Cinema & Media Studies professor Linda Simensky, will examine Walt Disney’s philosophy, the impact of Disney on modern animation, and the purchase of Pixar Animation Studios as part of understanding the company as a whole.
The course is capped at 36 students and will be held on Mondays from 3:30-6:30 p.m. It fulfills various requirements across art history, English, and cinema studies — and even an engineering or nursing elective.
2. From the Uncanny to Horror: Film and Psychoanalysis” — ENGL/CIMS/COML 0021
1.22 Average Difficulty, 1.7
Average Workload
Students in ENGL 0021 — taught by English professor Jean-Michel Rabaté — will examine a specific theme central to a set of cinematic texts. The class will explore how the theme interacts with historical context and contemporary culture as an introduction to literary study.
Capped at 68 students,
LUKE PETERSEN Contributing Reporter
the class fulfills the College “Cross Cultural Analysis” foundation requirement, the College and Nursing “Arts & Letters” sectors, and can be used as a School of Engineering and Applied Science humanities elective.
3. “Science, Labor and Capital” — HIST 0878, STSC 3088
1.1 Average Difficulty, 1.4
Average Workload
Beginning from the 15th century, students will analyze labor-efficient and revenue-maximizing innovations and work their way through the years to the present. Students will also discuss educational institutes, intellectual work, colonialism, and political economy and their effects
on science and technology. HIST 0878, taught by History and Sociology of Science professor Harun Küçük, is capped at 16 students and will be held on Wednesdays from 12-3 p.m. It can be used for history, health and societies, and science, technology, and society credits.
4. “Contemporary Immigration in the U.S.” — SOCI 2680/5680, EDUC 5432, LALS 2680/5680
1.2 Average Difficulty, 1.4 Average Workload
Looking at the impacts of United States immigration policy, SOCI 2680/5680 will analyze immigration issues, incorporation methods, and laws. Students will
then examine how these larger issues impact the lives of undocumented immigrants, ranging from the effects of exclusionist social contexts and ethnic identity to employment and family dynamics.
The course, taught by Richard Perry University Professor of Sociology and Education Robert Gonzales, is capped at 50 students and will be held on Tuesdays from 12-3 p.m. It fulfills nursing sectors, an engineering elective, The Wharton School’s “CCP Non-US” requirement, and a variety of College majorspecific requirements.
5. “Global Growth of Emerging Firms” — MGMT 1170
1.4 Average Difficulty, 1.8 Average Workload
Focusing on innovations from regional powerhouses across the globe, MGMT 1170 — taught by Wharton professor Natalie Carlson — will facilitate discussions on challenges, solutions, and institutional elements that startups face. Students will gain insights from firm founders across the world and analyze the context surrounding entrepreneurial ventures from region to region.
The course is capped at 77 students and will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:15-11:45 a.m. It fulfills Wharton and international relations electives.
PHOTO BY CHENYAO LIU
Penn launches five new master’s degree programs
JASMINE NI News editor
Penn announced five new master’s degree offerings during the University Board of Trustees Spring Full Board Meeting in June.
The meetings took place on June 12 and 13 at the Inn at Penn. During a presentation to the Budget and Finance Committee meeting on June 12, Vice President for Budget Planning and Analysis Trevor Lewis outlined a number of “proactive financial measures” being taken at the school and center levels, including the introduction of new degree programs to expand academic offerings.
At the Academic Policy Committee meeting later that day, trustees passed resolutions approving the creation of five new gradu-
ate programs.
Annenberg School for Communication Dean
Sarah Banet-Weiser presented a one-year master’s program in Communication and Media Industries, marking the first nondoctoral degree offered by the school. Banet-Weiser said at the meeting that the school aims to enroll a cohort of 15 students in its inaugural semester in fall 2026.
“Our goal with the MCMI program is to cultivate leaders who are not only prepared to navigate today’s dynamic media industries, but who also think expansively, ethically, and globally about their future,” Banet-Weiser said in a statement announcing
the program. “By bridging theoretical inquiry with professional practice, we are shaping the future of media leadership.”
Professors Ram Cnaan and Chao Guo from the School of Social Policy and Practice proposed a Doctorate in Nonprofit Administration program to train “interdisciplinary” industry leaders with the specific needs of mission-driven nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.
Wharton School Senior Vice Dean for Teaching and Learning and Accounting professor Brian Bushee introduced a “4+1” Master of Science in Quantitative Finance program that enables undergraduate students to earn a postgraduate degree
by completing coursework during their senior year and one additional year at Wharton. The program will aim to prepare students for careers in quantitative finance, including data analysis and coding.
The degree — supported by a record $60 million gift from Bruce Jacobs, a 1979 School of Arts and Sciences graduate, 1986 Wharton Ph.D. graduate, and former Wharton faculty member — was officially announced on Sept. 15. Its inaugural cohort will enroll in fall 2026.
“Wharton is the world’s top business school because it consistently leads at the forefront of fields like quantitative finance,” Penn President Larry Jameson said in
a press release announcing the gift. “Dr. Jacobs has long been a champion for Wharton’s preeminence in this essential area, and we are deeply grateful for his historic gift.”
The Perelman School of Medicine also proposed two new master’s degrees, splitting the existing Master of Biomedical Informatics into two programs: one for practice-based training and one for research-based training. The Clinical Informatics program aims to train clinical practitioners in health care engineering, while the Biomedical Informatics program aims to train scientists and researchers for academic and research roles.
PHOTO BY MATTHEW QUITORIANO
College of Arts and Sciences to pilot new curriculum for first-year students
The pilot program seeks to prepare College students for "any field that requires independent thinking, advanced analytical skills, and the ability to manage complex problems and learn from different viewpoints."
The College of Arts and Sciences will pilot a new curriculum for first-year students in the 2025-26 academic year.
The pilot program — called College Foundations — seeks to introduce a cohort of 120 incoming students to a “broad liberal arts education” that prepares them for “any field that requires independent thinking, advanced analytical skills, and the ability to manage complex problems and learn from different viewpoints.” Stephen A. Levin Family Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Peter Struck — who assumed his role in August 2024 — discussed the new curriculum in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian.
The curriculum consists of four courses that “focus on close reading, careful observation and analysis, and intensive discussion on core questions of purpose and meaning,” Struck said. Students in the pilot cohort will take a pair of new “Kite” and “Key” courses, along with a writing seminar and a first-year seminar of their choice, for which they will receive priority registration.
“There are two courses, one focused on qualitative thinking and one on quantitative thinking,” Struck added. “On the qualitative side, the ‘Kite’ course is going to be seminar-based. And the ‘Key’ course is going to be a mix between larger lectures — 60-person lectures — plus lab seminar kind of meetings.”
The new program will allow students to fulfill six College requirements in their first year.
The current system includes sector and foundational approach requirements. Struck emphasized that “the Foundations curriculum is going to take care of the Foundational Approaches piece.”
According to Struck, the “Kite” requirement can fulfill the Cross-Cultural Analysis or Cultural Diversity in the U.S. Foundational Approaches and the Humanities and Social Sciences sector. The “Key” requirement can fulfill the Formal Reasoning and Analysis or Quantitative Data Analysis Foundational Approaches, along with the Natural Science Across Disciplines sector.
Struck highlighted the importance of having students receive a “broad introduction to what the arts and sciences curriculum is all about” toward the beginning of their time at Penn so that they can consider all “possibilities for their major.”
“One of the things that I have as a concern about the current General Education requirements is that you can put them off till junior or senior year,” he said. “We hear from students all the time [that] they study a literature class or art history or whatever in their senior year, and they think to themselves, ‘Well, if I’d known this as a freshman, I might have had a different major.’”
AYANA CHARI AND JACK GUERIN Senior Reporters
“We’re hoping that it appeals very broadly,” Struck said of the curriculum. “Be prepared to have a strong view of your own and hear from people [who] have different views from yours.”
The curriculum also seeks to prepare students for future career paths. The cohort’s students will work closely with Penn’s Career Services, receiving “special sessions” including a “oneon-one appointment” to explore their future path.
Struck said College students are “prepared for their careers in a very positive, a very productive way” — a condition he said had been “under-articulated … in the past.”
“We’re considering building a component of this [program] that we’re calling the ‘in practice’ requirement," because students will put their learning “into
practice,” Struck added.
According to Struck, this pilot program is the beginning of a three-year process. 2024 — the first year — was dedicated to planning and designing courses, while 2025 will serve as “a year of vetting.” Struck described this year as an opportunity to take initial ideas to “student groups, faculty, staff, and just talk to everybody and try to make the plan better.”
In the spring of 2026, SAS faculty will vote before a period of “implementation to roll out a broader curriculum in Fall ’27.”
“I’d like to see these Foundations courses become the foundation of a new General Education requirement at Penn,” Struck said. He added that “adjustments” would be made as administrators “learn from our students
and our classroom.” Standing faculty last revised the College curriculum in 2005, creating the current framework of sectors and Foundational Approaches.
“Over the course of the last 12 months, we had 50 faculty, probably 15 to 20 students, [and] staff, involved in a kind of largescale rethinking of what we’re doing,” Struck said. “And the key result from that to get us going on the changes is this Foundations curriculum.”
“I just want to work every day, all day, trying to make this place better,” Struck concluded.
DP FILE PHOTO
Course Registration Timeline
October 27
Advance Registration opens for Spring 2026 term
January 27
Course selection period ends
November 10
Advance Registration end for Spring 2026 term
February 23
Drop period ends
March 23
Grade type change deadline
March 30
Last day to withdraw from a course
Penn Abroad terminates Penn English Program in London amid budget constraints
According to English faculty members, the decision to end the nearly 40-year-old program was made abruptly by Penn Abroad at the start of the fall 2025 semester.
PHOEBE ANAGNOS Staff Reporter
Penn Abroad has discontinued funding for the Penn English Program in London, bringing an end to the English department’s study abroad program.
According to English faculty members, the decision to end the nearly 40-yearold program housed by King’s College London was made abruptly by Penn Abroad at the start of the fall 2025 semester. Though students majoring and minoring in English will still be able to study at King’s College under a typical exchange format, students
and alumni who spoke to The Daily Pennsylvanian expressed disappointment towards the termination of the program.
In an interview with the DP, English Department Chair Zachary Lesser said faculty were not consulted before the decision was finalized. He added that he had been in conversation with Penn Abroad over the summer about possible cost-saving measures, but that “the final word came down unexpectedly.” Although the department hopes the program could
return someday, it will not be active for the foreseeable future, Lesser said.
PEPL combined full immersion at King’s College with a weekly, Penn-taught course that exclusively brought PEPL students together to study live theater productions in the city’s West End. The program also included faculty-led excursions to cultural sites across England.
Students took three courses at King’s College, lived alongside King’s College students in residence halls, and met weekly with
a Penn faculty member for the “Theater in London” course. The program typically included a graduate student as well, who would pursue their own academic work while also serving as a resource for the cohort.
In a written statement to the DP, Penn Abroad stated that the English Department’s London program has been folded into a new exchange program with King’s College. Under this format, English majors and minors can continue to study at King’s College during the fall or spring semester, en-
BY
rolling directly in up to four English courses.
Lesser explained that while most study abroad programs follow one of two models — either full immersion in a foreign university or taking home-institution courses abroad with faculty from one’s own college — PEPL combined “the best of both worlds.”
“Many students told us that it was the peak experience of their career at Penn,” he added.
Lesser said that while the new exchange program with King’s College will still
PHOTO
CHENYAO LIU
be a “great experience” for students, it won’t be “everything.”
The DP spoke with three students and alumni who are currently participating in or have previously participated in PEPL. All three individuals spoke positively of PEPL and expressed disappointment with its discontinuation, arguing that the restructured King’s College exchange does not offer the same sense of community or depth of engagement that defined the original program.
College junior and English major Julian Williams — one of seven students currently studying in the final PEPL cohort — said the group learned about the program’s discontinuation while together at a play last week. The news prompted a long discussion among students about the program’s value and the importance of keeping it alive.
Williams described the program’s small cohort and close faculty involvement as central to its impact, noting that it created a sense of community often lacking in other study abroad experiences.
“There’s a lot of study abroad things where you’re kind of thrown in by yourself,” he said. “The fact that there’s a professor, a TA, and then a cohort of other students with me — it helps create a community that I probably wouldn’t have [in another program].”
He said the weekly theater course introduced him to the art form for the first time and broadened his interests in ways he had not anticipated. Williams said that future English majors will miss out on “the cultural capital that this program offers.”
Jennifer Jahner, who served as PEPL’s graduate assistant during the 2009-10 academic year and who received a Ph.D. from Penn’s English Department in the School of Arts and Sciences in 2012, described the program as a crucial aspect of both her academic career and personal development.
“One of the reasons why I chose to come to Penn was the hope that I would have that year available to me,” Jahner, now a professor of English and dean of undergraduate students at
the California Institute of Technology, said.
The opportunity to conduct archival research at the British Library and other London institutions was “completely transformative” for her research, Jahner said.
“It would have been a totally different dissertation, and my career track would have gone in a different way had I not had that time,” she said.
Beyond academics, Jahner highlighted the importance of faculty leadership and the graduate student’s role within the program. She said the graduate student often served as both a peer and a mentor, helping students navigate life in London while pursuing their own research.
“We were all, in different ways, students together,” Jahner said.
She added that the faculty member served as “your first port of call if anything is happening for you, positively or otherwise,” creating “a Penn family.”
Speaking from her own administrative experience, Jahner said that she is “deeply, deeply cognizant”
of the “budget challenges” faced by institutions. However, she urged Penn to reconsider the decision’s finality.
“I would hope, genuinely hope, that if this is the budget answer of the moment, that it is not the final answer for Penn in London,” she said.
2024 College graduate Noah Lewine, who majored in English, participated in PEPL during his senior fall. Lewine described the value in the theater component of the program, emphasizing the rarity of having a renowned theater professor curate months of playgoing, which was “not really a thing that you could recreate in any other way.”
He highlighted the breadth of the experience — from seeing a moving, one-woman show titled “Elephant” that exceeded his expectations to enduring what he described as “maybe the single worst performance I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” Lewine said both experiences were “equally important and valuable,” allowing students to engage with different forms of theater and devel-
op their own preferences.
Lewine added that the program fundamentally changed his relationship with theater. He explained that he rarely attended theater showings before the program — but due to the program, he now regularly attends plays.
He would be “hardpressed to find a lot of people who can say that an abroad program had a more positive impact on their general life.”
Lewine expressed disappointment with Penn’s decision, describing it as an effort to “continue to devalue and dilute the experience that actual undergraduates on their campus have on a daily basis.”
As a double major in English and ancient history — fields he acknowledged the University may not see as lucrative — he found the faculty and classes “unparalleled.”
“Watching the administration continue to undervalue [the humanities] and cut away at them is really disappointing and honestly heartbreaking,” Lewine said.
Top Rated Courses
Here are some of the highest rated courses being offered during the spring 2026 semester, according to Penn Course Review, with no prerequisite requirements
This course is the foundation for many upper-level courses across media production. It will introduce students to the basic skills of camerawork, video editing, sound recording, sound design, and color correction. Students will have the opportunity to work in narrative, experimental, and multimodal (academic) modes of media creation. Assignments will include making short narrative, documentary and other media. After this course, students will be prepared for upper-level courses in cinematography, editing, motion picture production, experimental media and digital humanities.
As the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approaches in 2026, the question of how we commemorate it seems a whole lot more complex than it did in 1976, when the nation celebrated its 200th birthday. Partly, this complexity lies in the very different views of the American Revolution held by academic historians and the wider public. While most scholars have spent the last forty years researching the Revolution through the eyes of ordinary people, the public’s appetite is often for stories about America’s great heroes and Founding Fathers. This research seminar will introduce you to these competing viewpoints, giving you the opportunity to conduct original research into Revolutionary-era Philadelphians, whose lives are documented in the rich collections of manuscripts held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. At the end of semester you will have written an original research paper, grounded in primary sources you have unearthed at the Historical Society. In doing so you will confront some of the most important questions preoccupying Revolutionary historians today: What can these individual stories tell us about the American Revolution? How can we reconcile their very different narratives? And how can we interpret them for those Americans who haven’t had the opportunity to read them first-hand?
some of the key themes that will be explored through a close reading of poems in this course.The course suits undergraduate canon of Persian
The course offers an introduction to several forms of printmaking including: intaglio, screen printing, relief, and monoprinting. Through in-class demonstrations students are introduced to various approaches to making and printing in each medium. The course enhances a student's capacity for developing images through two-dimensional design and conceptual processes. Technical and conceptual skills are developed through discussions and critiques.
course enhances a student's capacity for developing images through two-dimensional design and conceptual processes. Technical
seems a historians about you of the Americans trace
Europeans and European descendants, and explore how this concept interacted with the formation of the concept of race in order to established forms of social control and domination. The first as a case also The this section land interact with social relationships and specifically with the formation of the of social of inequalities along racial lines. Students will apply the concepts learned throughout the course to their own independent research
This course will interweave issues of land dispossession and land rights, both in Africa and in the Americas, with endogenous concepts and practices of space and place. Specifically, this course will trace the the concept of property, as developed among Europeans and European descendants, and explore how this concept interacted with the formation of the concept of race in order to established forms of social control and domination. The first part of this course will focus on Africa generally using Kenya as a case study. The material will cover the impact of colonialism and its legacy on land rights after independence. This first part will also explore contemporary forms of land dispossession happening through international land investments, often termed land grabs. The second part of the course will turn to the experiences of African descendants in the Americas. Using a few case studies, this section will examine different countries, histories, and rural and urban areas to unravel how different types of control over land interact with social relationships and specifically with the formation of race and racism. In both sections, we will also look at forms of resistance and resilience as local populations demand not only access to and control over land, but also impose their own ideologies of what it means to occupy space. By the end of this course, students should be able to more fully articulate the significance of control over land as it impacts and effects social relationships and specifically how it relates to the formation and continuation of inequalities along racial lines. Students will apply the concepts learned throughout the course to their own independent research done on an area in Philadelphia or Pennsylvania.
This course introduces some of the major genres and themes of the millennium-old Persian poetic tradition from ancient to modern Iran. Epic and romance, love and mysticism, wine and drunkenness, wisdom and madness, body and mind, sin and temptation are some of the key themes that will be explored through a close reading of poems in this course.The course suits undergraduate students of all disciplines, as it requires no prior knowledge of or familiarity with the Persian language or the canon of Persian literature. All teaching materials are available in English translation. Students are expected to attend seminars and take part in discussions
Top Rated Instructors
Here are some of the highest rated instructors, according to Penn Course Review, teaching courses during the spring 2026 semester
Course Review, of to in narrative, wil humanities. modern are
Dialogue Director
Penn Abroad revises study abroad process for 2026 application schedule following student feedback
In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Greta Kazenski, Penn Abroad’s associate director, described the changes as a step toward “equal access” within each study abroad program.
TANISHA AGRAWAL Staff Reporter
Penn Abroad has announced several changes to the study abroad application process in a move it says will make the system more equitable and aligned with student needs.
The changes were announced last month and come after significant updates to the process were implemented last spring. In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Greta Kazenski, Penn Abroad’s associate director, described the changes as a step toward “equal access” within each program.
“The biggest change is that we have a holding period now in between when students attend their advising session and when they are allowed to open their application for the first time
and submit that request form,” Kazenski said.
Previously, students could open their applications as soon as they completed a group advising session, creating what Kazenski described as “competition between students to get an earlier advising session.”
She said that the new holding period will ensure that all students have the same opportunity to open applications, regardless of when they schedule an advising session.
“Now we have about a month where students can come to the group advising sessions at our office, but they can’t actually start working on the application or request that their application is open,” Kazenski added. “Everyone can at-
tend advising, and it doesn’t matter if you attended yesterday [or] the very first day.”
The new timeline was announced in response to last year’s cycle, in which sessions filled quickly — and students reported high levels of stress — according to Kazenski.
She said that Penn Abroad received “a lot of student emails … and visits to our office,” adding that advisors across the School of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School were given similar negative feedback last year.
In addition to the new holding period, group advising sessions will now be offered at varying times each week rather than at fixed slots.
“This month, we are trying to vary the times,” Kazenski said. “It is not meant to be confusing. It is meant to accommodate student class schedules. So if you have class every Wednesday at 3 p.m., now you have many … different choices and days and times to attend a session.”
The application request form to study abroad for Fall 2026 or 2026-27 academic year opens on Nov. 17. Once a request to open an application has been granted, there are three corresponding deadlines — Jan. 20, Feb. 15, and March 1 — depending on the program’s competitiveness.
According to Kazenski, the earliest deadline applies to programs at University of Oxford and King’s College London.
According to a DP analysis, London-based programs were also the most popular abroad destination among Penn students in spring 2025.
Students must also request to open their application at least 10 days before the deadline, a policy Kazenski said is intended to ensure students have time to meet with their academic advisors before submitting.
In March 2025, Penn Abroad similarly rolled out a series of changes to the application process, including a cap on the number of applications that can be opened per advising cycle.
PHOTO BY CHENYAO LIU
Wharton launches Master of Science degree in quantitative finance funded by historic donation
Jacobs’s gift — the largest single contribution in school history — will support the new Dr. Bruce I. Jacobs Master of Science in Quantitative Finance program.
The Wharton School launched its first new degree in 50 years after receiving a $60 million gift from Bruce Jacobs, a 1979 School of Arts and Sciences graduate, 1986 Wharton Ph.D. graduate, and former Wharton faculty member.
Jacobs’ gift — the largest single contribution in school history — will support the new Dr. Bruce I. Jacobs Master of Science in Quantitative Finance program. The program is open to Penn undergraduates, and its inaugural cohort will begin their studies in fall 2026.
“Wharton is the world’s top business school because it consistently leads at the forefront of fields like quantitative finance,” Penn President Larry Jameson said in a press release announcing the gift. “Dr. Jacobs has long been a champion for Wharton’s preeminence in this essential area, and we are deeply grateful for his historic gift.”
In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Jacobs stated that he was motivated to create the program to support “the next generation of leaders in the asset management industry.” He emphasized that the program would offer students a strong foundation in financial economics while also providing technical skills in areas like machine learning and artificial intelligence.
The donation follows a 2023 email from Jacobs to the DP discussing his concerns with “antisemitic incidences” at Penn. In the email, Jacobs wrote that
JACK GUERIN Senior Reporter
his future donations to the University “would be dependent upon the administration ensuring a safe, inclusive, and respectful academic environment for its students.”
The donation brings Jacobs’ total contribution to Wharton to over $80 million.
He previously donated $12 million to create the Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center and another $8 million to support a quantitative finance MBA major at Wharton. The 2025 donation surpasses 1984 Wharton graduate Marc Rowan’s $50 million gift in 2018, which was previously the largest gift Wharton had ever received.
In an interview with the DP, Wharton Dean Erika James emphasized that the
new program was “a perfect representation of [Wharton’s] innovation in both what and how we teach.”
“We’re very interested in trying to keep our pulse on where the needs are in the economic landscape,”
James said. “And right now, quantitative finance and quantitative asset management are growing fields, and we want to be the supplier of choice for those going into that domain.”
James added that the program will also allow students across Penn to access Wharton’s resources.
“One of the things that I’ve recognized during my time is there’s great desire by Penn students to have access and exposure to some Wharton content,” James said. “And the way we’ve structured this
degree, at least initially, will allow Penn students who are not undergraduates within Wharton to be exposed to and get a degree from the school.”
The program will initially be open to Penn students in all four undergraduate schools who have completed the necessary prerequisite courses. Students would then stay for an additional fifth year at Penn to complete the program, engaging in a curriculum that includes a range of foundational quantitative finance courses, required core courses, and electives.
“The Jacobs MSQF is designed for quantitatively minded students who want to apply their skills in finance,” Wharton professor and MSQF faculty director David Musto wrote in a
statement to the DP. “We’re looking for students who are majoring in quantitatively demanding fields and enjoy that kind of work, and who are intrigued by the challenges encountered in the financial industry.”
Musto added that MSQF would include several student support resources, including a class manager, internship programs, and work placement programs. According to him, the program would be supported by an advisory board representing a wide range of practitioners and perspectives.
“When I was at the Wharton School, quantitative finance was in its infancy,” Jacobs wrote to the DP. “Now, it is an essential discipline in this data-driven world.”
PHOTO BY CHENYAO LIU
Five first-year seminars coming up this spring
The Daily Pennsylvanian compiled five first-year seminars coming up this spring.
LUKE PETERSEN Contrubuting Reporter
First years across the University have the opportunity to take small courses designed to immerse them into higher education and various topics of interest, duly named “First-Year Seminars.”
The Daily Pennsylvanian compiled five first-year seminars coming up this spring.
"Penn’s First Moving Pictures" — CIMS 0101
In the late nineteenth century, Eadweard Muybridge — deemed the “Father of the Motion Picture” — photographed Penn students and faculty for his Animal Locomotion project. Working with the project’s original photographic plates and equipment housed in the Penn Archives, students in CIMS 0101 will learn about Muybridge’s practices and inventions throughout the course.
Students will then dig into the heritage of Muybridge — an acquitted murderer — and his lingering effects on film technology and pop culture, including everything from "Rick and Morty" to Thomas Edison.
"Penn’s First Moving Pictures" will be taught by professor Ian Fleishman, who also chairs the Cinema and Media Studies department. It can can count toward the “Arts & Letters” College sector and The Wharton School’s humanities credit.
"Anxious Times: Social Change and Fear" — SOCI 0006
In recent years, there has been a rise in physicians diagnosing and treating anxiety, with the disorder becoming one of the most common in the United
States. In SOCI 0006, students will examine its societal and scientific perception over time.
Using a sociological lens, social factors, public beliefs, and cultural significance will be analyzed to understand how anxiety has become a more common psychiatric disorder.
"Anxious Times" will be taught by sociology professor Hashim Bin Rashid, who also co-founded the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative South Asia Collective, a program designed to encourage dialogue between social movements and academic scholars. The class can count toward the “Society” College sector, “Cultural Diversity in the US” College foundation, Engineering’s social science credit, and/or Wharton’s social science credit.
"Distracted Listening: Theories of Music, Listening, and Capitalism"
In MUSC 0161, students will investigate the crossroads between music, capitalism, and history.
The class will discuss how society’s love for music coincides with transforming capitalist systems, privatization of healthcare, and increasing demand for productivity.
"Distracting Listening" will be taught by music professor Laurie Lee, who also works in the James Joo-Jin Kim Center for Korean Studies, and can count toward the “Arts & Letters” College sector.
"The Fantastic Voyage from Homer to Science Fiction" — COML/FREN 0090
Delving into the societal similarities between authors and their fictional tales, COML/FREN 0090 aims to show students the world of speculative fiction. Students will examine the
real-world commentary offered by the novels — and even some films — ranging from classics to modern marvels.
In addition, students have the opportunity to examine literary works from the Mark B. Adams Science Fiction Collection at Penn’s Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts.
"The Fantastic Voyage from Homer to Science Fiction" will be taught by professor Scott Francis — the undergraduate chair of the Department of Francophone, Italian, and Germanic Studies — and can count toward the “Arts & Letters” College sector, “Cross Cultural Analysis” College foundation, Engineering’s humanities credit, or Wharton’s humanities and/or “CCP Non-US” credit.
"Anthropology of Health and Healing" —
ANTH 0150
ANTH 0150 dives into the societal meanings of health and the idea of “returning to normal” after an illness. Expanding on the anthropologic ideas of social, political, and cultural context, the course aims to cover the outcomes and functions of mental health, disabilities, addiction, and more.
Students will learn about the intricacies of what it means to recover and how to view illness as a collective — rather than individual — issue.
"Anthropology of Health and Healing" will be taught by 2016 College graduate and current MD/Ph.D. student Ross Perfetti, who also is a Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics associate fellow, and can count toward the “Humanities & Social Science” College sector.
— MUSC 0161
PHOTO BCONNIE ZHAO
Opinion | Penn courses fail to engage students’ inner work
Senior columnist Piper Slinka-Petka argues that Penn should dedicate a required seminar to self work.
Penn’s culture has been called “toxic,” “performative,” “homogenizing,” and even “elitist.” The cause?
We’ve blamed preprofessionalism, wealth disparities, and even just elite higher education itself. So, how do we make it better? It’s not like students, professors, and administrators aren’t actively devoting efforts toward making Penn’s culture better, but the solution might be easier than we think. Penn’s culture will not change until it asks its students to stop looking outside and start looking within.
In classes like WH 1010, students are taught that leadership is built on connections and external achievement. The inner work of asking who you are, what you stand for, and who you want to serve is an optional — and largely unnecessary — part of being the people that Penn creates.
Following my first year at Penn, I spent time reflecting on myself: What do I believe in? What are my values? Am I living in a way that is authentic to myself? How am I showing up for others? These aren’t questions my world-renowned Penn education asked me to answer, they’re ones I had to ask and answer for myself.
That was until I became a student in what may be Penn’s first experiment towards a course dedicated to self-work. Penn Global Seminar ASAM 2920, titled “Compassionate Leadership: Power Love, Service and Inner-Work Experiencing the Life of Gandhi,” asks students to look at world
leaders and “examine and practice the principles of nonviolence, service, the transformative power of love, and the ‘inner-work’ required to have deeper impact in the world.”
Led by Nimo Patel, a hip hop musician, humanitarian, and ambassador of love and peace, as well as University Chaplain and Vice President for Social Equity and Community Charles Howard, and assisted by Tia Gaines and Mercedes Lee, the course will end by taking its 16 students on a service trip to the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, India.
Though we’re only a few classes in, I am confident that this course will change my life. A typical class begins with moments of grounding, followed by supportive discussion. We’re guided through the lives of visionaries like Grace Lee Boggs and Mahatma Gandhi. Homework assignments consist of letters of self reflection, hours of volunteer service, and kindness challenges. We spent one class entirely on spreading random acts of kindness around Penn’s campus and reflecting on their value.
A view shared by me and other members of the class is how necessary this class is for self-development. Never before has a Penn course required me to evaluate my values and beliefs while learning the value in compassion, selflessness, and introspection.
Naturally, this calls into question the entire purpose of a college education. Is Penn’s only responsibility to educate us for our future
careers, rather than our future lives? Maybe. However, I think those are insufficient goals for a University with unimaginable prowess and privilege. Penn has the capacity to grow our careers (of course) but also to grow us as individuals and contributors to the world.
Most Penn students don’t arrive on campus with values of greed, elitism, and hypercompetition, but we assimilate quickly. In actuality, if we took a quick look at our applications, I’m sure the words “passion” and “make change” are somewhere in there. These words mean difference; they mean being changemakers and revolutionaries.
Yet, once we arrive, we immediately participate in Penn culture, whether by joining the “right” (finance) clubs, changing our closets, or funneling ourselves into the same fields. The culture we inherit typically becomes the one we help perpetuate. And of course
we do. Humans (especially over-achieving ones) need connection and belonging; naturally we will adapt to our new environment as a form of survival.
But instead of waiting for students to do the reflection by themselves, or until a rare course like “Compassionate Leadership” comes along, we could require every first-year student to pause at the beginning, taking a class centered on introspection, grounding, service, mindfulness, and discussions that ask, “Who am I? What do I want to give to the world? Who do I want to be?” Of course, this is no magic bullet. Penn is, after all, a microcosm of the real world, and most of our students come from the very environments that built that culture.
However, catching students early is what matters. First years are raw and impassioned. Behind the practiced nonchalance of our generation is a real desire to
do good. If we were asked, in our first semester, to pair our passion with reflection, I think most students would rise to it. Although change only happens if students truly want to look inward, Penn can at least set the conditions. Especially when Penn has the bandwidth to hire revolutionaries that could inspire even the most skeptical students.
If we design a course that shows us that leadership is not just about strategy or networking, but about courage, compassion, and authenticity, it would plant a seed. When so much of our culture pushes us to look toward jobs, titles, and prestige, planting a seed of introspection could change the trajectory of an entire generation of Penn students.
PIPER SLINKA-PETKA is a College sophomore from West Virginia studying health and societies. Her email address is pipersp@sas.upenn.edu.
DP FILE PHOTO
Opinion | Wharton really isn’t evil
Columnist Charlotte Pulica argues that Wharton's reputation isn't an accurate representation of all it has to offer.
For the first few months of fall, Locust Walk gets overtaken by booths: cultural clubs, volunteering organizations, theater groups, and, of course, finance and consulting teams. It would take nearly your entire four years at Penn to hear everyone’s opinion on all 800 clubs on campus. But it only takes five minutes to hear about an overwhelming feeling seemingly taking over the student population: disdain for the Wharton School and preprofessionalism.
The critiques range from Wharton being too exclusive and competitive to the curriculum being unrepresentative of Penn’s diverse educational opportunities.
As a student in the College of Arts and Sciences, I noticed this divide immediately upon arriving at Penn. The disapproval surprised me because one of the aspects of Penn that I was most excited about is having access to the No. 1 business school in the country. Even though I’m in a different school, most Wharton opportunities are still open to all Penn students. No matter the major, business education is crucial for the current hyper-competitive job market we are preparing to enter.
While it’s undoubtedly important to follow your passions, it’s equally important to understand your personal finances and the reality of the economy around you. Understanding the business behind your passion is what makes it more attainable. However, with the stigma around Wharton, students are hesitant to take advantage of all
that it has to offer. Besides just the classes, there are so many essential sessions and organizations that most of the student population never seeks out.
In all fairness, it’s no secret that Wharton is extremely competitive and exclusive. And while it’s easy to build up resentment — especially after getting a few “Thank you for your interest; however, we had an overwhelming number of applicants … ” emails — it can be hard to remember that Penn is a school known for its focus on preparing students for the job market. This preprofessionalism is exactly what we signed up for. Wharton’s competitiveness is just a glimpse into how intense the real labor market is. The culture at Penn is a rude awakening, but it’s nothing we shouldn’t expect in the
future.
The truth is, Penn is a preprofessional school that is widely known for Wharton. While it gets a lot of hate, its success rate is undeniable proof of its effectiveness. As of 2024, the median income for a Penn graduate just one year out of college was $100,000, with 94.2% of students finding employment, higher education, or volunteering within six months of graduation. Wharton is the best business school in the nation for a reason, and that comes at the cost of being competitive and focused. This is the same way a chemistry degree comes at the cost of being stressed or a political science degree comes at the cost of having to be confrontational. These are the prices we pay for good results.
While that may be dif-
ficult and frustrating, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. You can follow your passions and get a great education at almost any college, but what sets Penn apart is its extraordinary access to career-advancing resources. You didn’t spend your entire life earning awards, keeping a perfect GPA, and taking infinite AP classes just because Penn has a pretty campus. You applied because you want a successful future. But in order to do that, you have to step outside of your comfort zone. Part of that is recognizing that competition and stress aren’t always the enemy.
Maybe the problem is that we’ve separated humanities and business, making them mutually exclusive. When in reality, they’re both dependent on each other. In fact, Wharton needs the College
just as much as the College needs Wharton. Business without passion is useless to society, and that passion doesn’t just come from Wharton students. All in all, Wharton is competitive. It’s exclusive, overwhelming, and corporate. It’s also successful, motivating, and educational for all Penn students. If we keep labeling the nation’s best business school as a tool to “sell out” or as a “funnel for consulting and finance,” then we’re only stopping our own opportunities. Wharton really isn’t evil — it’s actually one of the best things about Penn.
CHARLOTTE PULICA is a College first year from Enoch, Utah studying criminology and economics. Her email is cpulica1@sas.upenn.edu.
PHOTO BY ISABELLE CHEN
Opinion | The College’s new curriculum trades curiosity for conformity.
Columnist Harman Chahal argues that the new College Foundations program stifles academic exploration.
In the Wharton School, first years are baptized not by water but by WH 1010, a course so universal that its complaints echo louder than its 200-person lectures. Think of it as Wharton’s hazing ritual but with PowerPoints, not eating goldfish. Now, make no mistake — I am not a Wharton student here to complain about WH 1010. I’m a student in the College of Arts and Sciences — here to complain about the new College Foundations firstyear program.
For decades, the College has been defined by its intellectual openness. The College has separated itself from the more specialized schools — Wharton, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the School of Nursing — which have far stricter requirements and standardized curricula. The College offers something far different and deeply valuable: freedom. The freedom to equip yourself with basic principles of economics while simultaneously exploring the literature of saints and sex demons. This freedom even extends to the current College requirements: You have the freedom to choose from a range of courses to fulfill each sector and foundation — a range that should arguably be expanded, not consolidated.
This openness is the College’s identity — that is what distinguishes it from Penn’s other schools and from Ivy League counterparts where rigid “core” curricula are the norm.
The new College Foundations initiative — a package of required first-year cours-
es meant to standardize the undergraduate experience — risks losing that identity. By forcing students into a uniform mold, the College is choosing uniformity over exploration, efficiency over curiosity. In other words: The College is turning into Wharton.
Now, it is true that Wharton students may bond through WH 1010, and engineers share the same math and science sequences. Why shouldn’t the College have its own shared academic anchor?
But this argument misses the point. The College should build community not by funneling students into the same few courses, but by allowing them to build unique paths that intersect in surprising ways.
A real first-year community is forged through shared dorm life, dining halls, student groups, and, most importantly, choice. Choices like when a friend tells you about the quirky seminar they stumbled into and you also sign up before the course selection period is over. That is the College at its best — an amalgamation of academic adventures that shape a vibrant intellectual community.
If Penn truly wants to shape a distinctive College first-year academic experience, it has the tool of firstyear seminars. These small, discussion-driven courses embody what the College should stand for — exploration, experimentation, and a tight-knit community.
I know this firsthand. When I was a first year, I enrolled in a seminar that not only opened my eyes to a new field, but also con-
nected me to a professor who has become a valuable mentor. That relationship has continued throughout my time at Penn — in fact, I now serve as a learning assistant for the very same seminar. Being in a firstyear seminar has shaped my academic trajectory far more than any standardized course or large lecture ever could.
These seminars should be mandatory, giving each student the chance to form transformative relationships with peers and work closely with faculty. The seminars also allow students to dip into a subject they otherwise never would have, since many first-year seminars tend to be highly attractive as they fulfill multiple College requirements — often double-counting for a sector and a foundation.
This is not just a Penn issue. The federal government continues and escalates its attacks on higher education, from
threatening students who freely speak with deportation to budget cuts targeting liberal arts programs. At such a moment, the College should stand as a beacon for academic freedom and intellectual diversity and not cave to the pressure of becoming more standardized and “efficient.”
While this may be useful in the realm of business or finance, it’s not what College students signed up for. And Penn should remember: The institutions that produce “the greats” — the thinkers, writers, and change-makers whose names outlast their diplomas — are not the ones that prize efficiency, but the ones that prize imagination.
This model silently signals to students that they should be part of a cookie-cutter model, which we already see enough of on Penn’s campus. From the parade of people attending Morgan Stanley coffee chats to the endless Longchamp purses
carried on Locust Walk, too much of Penn produces uniformity. The College is, and should continue to be, a refuge from that. My pre-major advisor always reminded me that the first year of college should be about exploration — not rushing to efficiency or checking off boxes, but stumbling into unexpected passions. That advice is exactly what the College should protect, not abandon. If the College wants to reform the first-year experience, it should listen to its own advisors and students — make more space for freedom of exploration, not restrictive uniformity.
CHAHALis a College sophomore from Modesto, Calif. His email is harmanc@sas.upenn.edu.edu.
