TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2015
THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Students give back in MLK’s memory Students help reorganize local library through PENNCAP program, providing ‘rewarding’ experience DAVID CAHN Staff Reporter
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘what are you doing for others?’” On Monday, 14 students woke up early to give their time to a local Philadelphia middle school, Middle Years Alternative. The students participated through community outreach organization Upward Bound and Penn’s College Achievement program, PENNCAP, which helps students from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds succeed in college. It also provides opportunities for students to work as a positive force in the Philadelphia community. College freshman and event participant Elaina
RECLAIMING MLK
Joseph explained the motivation behind the event. “It was to help find the identity of the school and build morale for the students,” she said. The school building appears old and slightly outdated, so PENNCAP students tried to spruce it up with inspirational posters. The students helped reorganize the cluttered library and donated old books to charity. Last year, the group painted the lockers in the school. PENNCAP members worked side by side with middle school students and parents from Middle Years Alternative and college students from other Philadelphia schools. “It was really rewarding because it’s not easy getting up at 7 a.m. on a day off, getting on a bus and going to do a service project,” Joseph said, “but seeing everyone there and the community working together made up for all that.” Other PENNCAP students who attended the event shared a similar sentiment on social media. Many of the students agreed that their actions may have been small, but they still acted as a positive influence in the community.
7,000 protest in city during politically divisive time JESSICA WASHINGTON Staff Reporter
Roughly 7,000 people, including students from Penn, marched through Philadelphia yesterday as a part of #ReclaimMLK Day. The march, which went
from Philadelphia School District headquarters to Independence Mall, aimed to reclaim the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. as an activist in order to highlight core issues related to race in America. This year’s protests were especially politically charged due to national conversations around race relations and the police following the Eric Garner and Michael Brown decisions. “This was perfect tim-
ing after everything that has happened,” Reverend Mark Tyler, an organizer for the event said. The day was planned by a coalition of over 70 organizations including Power Philadelphians, Black Lives Matter and Students Organizing for Unity and Liberation, an organization at Penn dedicated to bringing awareness to issues related to race.
SEE RECLAIMING MLK PAGE 5
CREATIVE COMMONS/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Gutmann explains her actions during Dec. 9 ‘die-in’ Head of Penn police union still unsatisfied DAVID CAHN Staff Reporter
Penn President Amy Gutmann responded to her participation in a protest that sparked national headlines at a meeting with The Daily Pennsylvanian staff Thursday afternoon. At her annual holiday party in December, Gutmann participated in a die-in that was staged by various student groups. “No person, whether guilty or innocent, should be left unattended to for four and a half hours, which is why I laid down in solidarity with those who I have great empathy for,” she said. SEE GUTMANN PAGE 5
THE PENNAPPS ISSUE
NIMAY KULKARNI/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Thousands of people march through the streets of Center City to follow in hte footsteps of Martin Luther King and fight racial injustice. Their demands included a $15 minimum wage, locally controlled public schools and an end to “stop and frisk.”
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Racial inequality is racism, and racism is an idea, an idea which must be overcome in the grand narrative of humankind.
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- OSCAR A. RUDENSTAM
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