One of the University of Utah's most distinguished alumnae plans to come home to Salt Lake City. Ann Weaver Hart, Temple's president for the last five years, announced that she will leave at the end of the academic year. "I will return to Utah to be with my family and continue to be active in higher education, as I have been all of my professional life," she said. Her alma mater named her a distinguished alumna in 2008 and she won the Michael P.

The conduct in Washington and Philadelphia these days has been prone to explosions and breakdowns, irritating many citizens to the point of alienation. But what if "politics" isn't inherently lousy, but rather a good and necessary activity in a democracy? "I think politics has gotten a bum rap," says Temple political science professor Barbara Ferman. "The last 10 years or so at the national level, with all the polarization going on, politics is seen as the thing that stops us from making any progress."

In a column in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, journalist Patrick Kerkstra calls Temple's progress "the most remarkable and encouraging local higher education story of the last 15 years." Temple now boasts a bustling, residential campus, an improved academic reputation and some of the country's top faculty and researchers. President Ann Weaver Hart, who plans to retire at the end of this academic year, has left her mark by helping the institution get a handle on its growth.

Temple University Hospital is home to a new center that specializes in saving legs. Under the direction of Temple's chief of vascular surgery, Eric Choi, the Limb Salvage Center assists diabetic and peripheral artery disease patients facing amputation. "We have a center now where patients can come in and we can converge on them instead of them going to see one specialist and another specialist. We are all on call to see the patients as needed. So it becomes a multidisciplinary type of approach and is much more patient-centered," said Choi.