Happ-e Holidays

The holiday season is ripe with card-sending occasions, including Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa, not to mention birthdays, weddings or anniversaries that may fall in between.

Purchasing and filling out holiday cards, buying stamps and mailing the greetings to family and friends can be a monotonous and time-consuming process. Penn’s free eCard site, courtesy of the Business Services Division, is making sending holiday or greeting cards quicker and easier.

At the site, www.upenn.edu/ecard, visitors can select from a variety of cards perfect for almost every occasion, including holidays, thank-yous, get wells, birthdays, graduations, Hey Day and years of service. Senders can decorate their cards with beautiful images of University buildings and walkways, iconic statues, historical photos, cute and cuddly pets or serene campus scenery. They can also include their own personalized message, up to 500 characters. The cards are sent via email and can be addressed to 100 recipients at a time. For more information about Penn eCards and evites, visit www.upenn.edu/ecard.

$15 million gift for Wharton

The Wharton School has received a $15 million gift from Patty and Jay H. Baker to permanently endow the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center. Jay Baker, W’56, is a member of the Wharton Board of Overseers and retired president and director of Kohl’s Corporation, a Milwaukee-based department store chain. Building on the successful foundation of the School’s Baker Retailing Initiative, the expanded Center will offer innovative programs for graduate and undergraduate students; support and disseminate cutting-edge research with both academic and industry applications; enhance student activity support and curriculum development; and offer a broad array of outreach initiatives to focus attention on the retail sector.

“Jay and Patty Baker are treasured members of the Penn community,” says Penn President Amy Gutmann. “Their generous commitment allows the Baker Center to continue to draw on expertise from across the University to generate leading-edge knowledge with important practical applications for retail.” Longtime supporters of the Wharton School and Penn, the Bakers have previously endowed the Patty and Jay H. Baker Professorship, the Patty and Jay H. Baker Ph.D. Fellowship, the Jay H. Baker 50th Reunion Scholarship, and the Baker Leadership Endowed Scholarship, as well as the Patty and Jay H. Baker Forum in Jon M. Huntsman Hall, Wharton’s flagship building. 

Calling all artists

Is your artwork gallery-worthy? The Burrison Gallery, located inside the University Club at Penn, is calling for submittals for its first-ever University Club Members Exhibit. Any member of the University Club may submit their work for consideration.

The juried, group show will open with a reception in the early summer and will be on display in the Gallery from June 24 through Sept. 14, 2011. The show seeks to highlight the creativity of University Club members and to provide them with a venue to share their work with the Penn community. The deadline for submissions is Friday, Dec. 22. To qualify for consideration, you must be a member of the University Club when your submittal package is received. For more information about membership and to find an application to submit artwork, visit the Burrison Gallery website at www.business-services.upenn.edu/universityclub/ burrison.shtml.

Decade of diamonds

For the tenth year in a row, The Hilton Inn at Penn has received a Four Diamond rating from the American Automobile Association (AAA). According to AAA, hotels attaining the Four Diamond rating display “an extensive array of amenities combined with a high degree of hospitality, service and attention to detail.”

The Hilton Inn at Penn, located at 3600 Sansom St., is one of six Philadelphia hotels to receive the Four Diamond rating. “This rating signifies an exceptionally high level of quality and refinement in all guest contact areas of our facility,” says Greg Stafford, general manager of the Inn at Penn. “Only about 3.5 percent of all hotels in the United States are rated at the Four-Diamond level.” The highest AAA rating available is Five Diamonds, given to only a handful of hotels in the world.

Work and life

Penn has been awarded the 2010 Terri Lynne Lokoff Child Care Foundation Corporate Leadership Award, recognizing Penn’s dedication to supporting work-life balance and high-quality childcare for Penn families and the surrounding community. The award noted many of University’s familyfriendly programs, including the expansion of Penn’s Children Center; the University’s adoption benefit that allows eligible faculty and staff to be reimbursed for up to $5,000 of qualified adoption expenses; a recent increase in Penn’s family earning threshold for fee assistance at the Children’s Center; a newly established partnership with two West Philadelphia childcare providers to support their expansion efforts; and Penn’s new backup care program. Details about Penn’s family-friendly initiatives can be found at www.hr.upenn.edu/quality/worklife.