Penn Arts & Sciences: Then and Now

Among the many major events at Penn in 2013, the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology opened; then-Vice President Joe Biden spoke at the University Commencement; the total enrollment in Penn’s Coursera programs surpassed 1 million; and Steven J. Fluharty, C’79, GR’81, PAR’07, Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Professor of Psychology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience, became Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences.

In one of his first initiatives as the new Dean, Fluharty kicked off a comprehensive planning process involving students, alums, advisors, University administrators, and one-third of the School’s faculty. In 2015, the results of this process were captured in a document that has been guiding the School ever since: Our Foundations and Frontiers: A Strategic Plan for Penn Arts & Sciences.

Foundations and Frontiers prioritized strengthening faculty and education programs—the foundations for excellence in all of the School’s endeavors. In addition, it targeted a series of eight interdisciplinary themes in critically important areas that presented the School’s most promising opportunities to maximize its impact.

The plan has evolved over time but has remained the roadmap guiding the transformation of the School’s people, programs, departments, centers, and buildings in nearly 12 years under Fluharty’s leadership.

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People

In 2013, the School was home to 486 standing faculty; today, that number is 516. The faculty roster includes 230 members recruited since 2013, representing almost 45 percent of the standing faculty. Beyond the faculty revitalization in terms of sheer numbers, the School’s recruitment and retention efforts have strategically used each hiring opportunity to complement critical priorities and fuel cross-disciplinary pursuits, significantly impacting teaching and research.

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Supporting Faculty Success

The School has invested in initiatives to support the success of its faculty once recruited. One such effort, called The First Two Years, launched in 2018 as a resource for junior faculty. This group mentoring program provides a cohort experience that helps orient faculty to the School and to Penn and helps them connect to other junior faculty.

Alternate Faculty Tracks

The School’s plan recognized that judicious use of non-standing faculty tracks offers an opportunity to enhance academic programs by bringing in perspectives from the professional community. Since 2017, the Professors of Practice initiative has brought accomplished leaders from business, government, and the arts into Penn Arts & Sciences classrooms to complement the expertise of the School’s standing faculty. Since 2013, the School has also expanded the integration of artists-in- residence into a range of departments and centers.

Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

In late 2021, the School launched an Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, with Brighid Dwyer, the inaugural Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, at its helm. In the nearly three years since, the office has added a Director of Science Outreach and an Associate Vice Dean, continuing its pursuit of creating inclusive and equitable practices across the School.

Supporting Our Graduate Students

The School of Arts & Sciences has led the way in growing support for our graduate students during their time at Penn, transforming their aid packages through increased stipends and 12-month fellowships that provide enhanced health benefits and cover their cost of attendance.

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Enhancing Resources

Under Fluharty’s leadership, the School of Arts & Sciences received record-breaking levels of support from alums and friends, allowing the School to pursue its ambitious agenda and positioning it for continued strength in the years to come.

Between 2013 and 2024, the School’s endowment more than doubled, from $707 million to $1.47 billion, and endowment dedicated to undergraduate financial aid for students in the College more than tripled, from $103 million to $323 million. Fundraising during Fluharty’s tenure exceeded $800 million, including the successful Power of Penn Arts & Sciences campaign, which raised $565.6 million in support of the School’s highest priorities. Just this past January, the School received $83.9 million, the single largest gift in its history, from P. Roy Vagelos, C’50, PAR’90, HON’99, and Diana Vagelos, PAR’90, in support of science initiatives across the School, adding to a record $130 million in gifts last year.

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Campus Transformation

In the past 12 years, Penn Arts & Sciences has undertaken an ambitious program of facilities construction and renovation, supporting the ability of faculty and students to teach and learn and better positioning the School to advance key priorities.

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Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology › VLEST will open in December 2024, providing a state-of-the-art laboratory home for the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology and the undergraduate Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research.

Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics › A signature project for the social sciences, PCPSE opened in 2018 and is home to the Political Science and Economics departments, as well as many centers. It provides spaces for teaching along with a range of academic programming and public events.

Stephen A. Levin Building › Opened in 2016, this building provides state-of-the-art teaching spaces and houses the Department of Psychology, as well as several undergraduate programs.

MindCORE Neuroimaging Facility › In April 2024, MindCORE put in place a next-generation fMRI machine at Pennovation Works, giving researchers across campus a novel tool to study the mind-brain connection.

Humanities and Interdisciplinary Centers › In 2017, the Wolf Humanities Center relocated to a newly renovated wing in Williams Hall, one that now also houses the Price Lab for Digital Humanities. In 2019, the Marks Family Writing Center moved into the renovated McNeil Building, and in 2022, the James Joo-Jin Kim Center for Korean Studies was moved into a new space at 3600 Market Street.

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Academic Infrastructure

Academic departments reflect the continuity of the disciplines that make up Penn Arts & Sciences; however, disciplines evolve, and since 2013, several changes were made that reflect this process.

In the languages, two new departments—Spanish and Portuguese, and Francophone, Italian, & Germanic Studies (known as FIGS)—were formed from the previously existing Romance Languages and Germanic Studies departments. This reconfiguration supports recent developments in scholarship, with the new departments taking a more global approach.

Cinema and Media Studies (CIMS) became a department after two decades as a program. As a department, CIMS is the official academic home for faculty previously spread across several departments. The department can now recruit faculty, develop new courses and research directions, and support its new PhD program.

The Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures is the new name for the department known since 2005 as Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. The renaming is intended to better reflect the department’s teaching and research, which encompass the region from North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula through the eastern Mediterranean to Iran and Arabia, as well as social and cultural development from ancient to modern times. (See more here.)

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Innovation in Teaching

Across all areas, from undergraduate education to graduate study to programs of lifelong learning, Penn Arts & Sciences’ offerings are constantly progressing as faculty design new programs and approaches rooted in the traditional strengths of the liberal arts and adapted to address today’s challenges.

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Expanded Options for Undergraduates

The College has launched 15 new minors, including Digital Humanities and Data Science and Analytics. These programs grew directly out of the priorities defined in Foundations and Frontiers, reflecting the strength and inspiration that came with new faculty and other critical investments.

Other important initiatives to strengthen undergraduate education have included enhancements to advising, expansion of several programs that provide funding for paid internships, and an ongoing review of the General Education requirement.

Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences

In fall 2019, the College of Liberal & Professional Studies began offering a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences, a fully accredited, online degree program for working adults and other non-traditional students. It was a first for the Ivy League.

Training PhD Students to Teach

The Graduate Division is creating programs for inclusive teaching practices. These new programs provide tools that will enable Penn doctoral students—the next generation of faculty—to become effective educators for students from all backgrounds.

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Connecting Research to Communities

Beginning in 2017, the School introduced new grant programs with the goal of inspiring faculty to apply their expertise in innovative ways. These programs, which include Making a Difference in Global Communities Grants and the Klein Family Social Justice Grants, have involved researchers from fields as wide-ranging as public health and policy, community education, environmental studies, and film and media studies, in projects that span the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences and include collaborators from across Penn.

Loraine Terell is Executive Director of Communications for Penn Arts & Sciences, where Michele W. Berger is Director of News and Publications and Omnia editor.