January 23, 2020

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020 VOL. CXXXVI NO. 3

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

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ISABEL LIANG

The Coalition Against Fraternity Sexual Assault disclosed identities of four members at its first public event after operating in complete anonymity since its creation last year.

The town hall featured CAFSA board members who discussed their mission and took questions from students on Tuesday night at Harnwell College House’s Rooftop Lounge. CAFSA board member and College freshman Gabriela Alvarado said that CAFSA’s board decided they could not address its demands or take action while remaining anonymous as it had been in the past.

Founded in spring 2019, CAFSA’s mission includes expelling fraternities from their houses on Locust Walk and replacing them with cultural centers and wellness spaces, including Penn Violence Prevention, which was moved off campus in September. CAFSA’s board envisioned the town hall as a way to generate public support for their mission and solicit ideas from students about how best to pressure administrators.

“The people in the audience are just as much a part of this as we are,” Alvarado said. “We want to hear what they think.”

Alvarado added, however, not all CAFSA

Wharton grad co-writes song for BTS’s new album Clyde Kelly described opportunity as life-changing ASHLEY AHN Senior Reporter

2018 Wharton MBA graduate Clyde Kelly told his team at McKinsey & Company that he needed to take some time off – he had been asked to co-write a song for global pop sensation BTS’s newest album.

Kelly said a representative from Big Hit Entertainment, the mastermind behind South Korean boyband BTS, cold emailed him in September 2019 asking if he would like to work on a song titled “Black Swan” for the label. Kelly soon learned the song would be on BTS’s upcoming album, “Map of the Soul: 7,” expected to be released on Feb. 21.

Kelly said he still does not know how BTS’s label company found him but described the email as “lifechanging.”

“I have no idea why it happened to me,” he said.

Kelly started releasing music the summer before his first year at Wharton in 2016 and has continued to work on his music while working as a full-time associate at McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles.

Kelly added that he had never heard of Big Hit before but knew of BTS and respected their success.

He said he was pleasantly surprised to find that BTS not only releases hits but incorporates positive messages about self-love and individuality into their songs.

“They do it in a way that is not corny somehow and that is part of the whole ethos of the label,” Kelly said. “Their slogan is ‘Music and artist for healing’ and they are really serious about that.

According to Kelly, Big Hit sent him the song’s instrumentation in September, which he then used to help create the song’s melody.

“It was fun and easy to do this without having to worry about lyrics, because the lyrics don’t have to make sense,” Kelly said. “Some of my lyrics were gibberish, so I really just took it from free styling and just recorded myself and came up with whatever came to mind.”

He sent his first song to Bit Hit within a week of receiving the initial email and sent two more songs with new melody ideas at the label’s request, Kelly added. Kelly said that Big Hit took parts of the melody he wrote in the latter two songs and SEE BTS PAGE 7

board members were willing to be present at the event and disclose their identities. Students fear potential consequences from administration for future sit-ins, such as issued citations, permanent notes on transcript stating misdemeanors, Alvarado said.

CAFSA affiliate and College senior Tanya Jain said that Penn administration members were not allowed at the town hall, because CAFSA, rather than working with administration, focuses on rallying student support and facilitating direct action such as sit-ins and protests. Jain said that CAFSA and the 6B, which consists of Penn’s

main minority coalitions, work closely together and that the 6B facilitates these conversations with administrators.

At a University Council Open Forum in December, a representative of CAFSA, College senior Brennan Burns, demanded that Penn remove fraternities from their on-campus locations. She also read anonymous testimonials submitted by Penn students about sexual harassment experiences with fraternity brothers in fraternities both on and off Locust Walk. These testimonies are SEE CAFSA PAGE 6

Pa. to upgrade voting machines for 2020 elections

New tech will increase voting accuracy TORI SOUSA Staff Reporter

After approval from all 67 counties, Pennsylvania is on track to upgrade all its old voting machines in time for the 2020 election. Although new machines are meant to increase accuracy, some political science experts at Penn worry the sudden change will cause lower voter turnout.

The new machines will leave a paper trail instead of only recording votes electronically. Reliance on electronic systems alone does not always protect from poten-

tial hacks or system crashes.

However, the sudden change in ballot technology may lead to confusion and longer lines at the polls, therefore decreasing the overall number of votes cast.

In February 2018, Governor Tom Wolf issued a directive telling all Pennsylvania counties to install new ballot machinery with paper trail technology. In the statement, Wolf justified the change as an “important step” towards greater accuracy for the state’s voting system and the trustworthiness of election results in Pennsylvania. On Jan. 1, Dauphin County became

SEE VOTING PAGE 6

SOPHIA SWIDNEY

New machines will increase accuracy with paper and electronic voting records. However, counties worry about footing the bill.

UA works to fix excess meal swipe problem UA looks to find more options to use swipes EASON ZHAO Staff Reporter

Students claim the current meal plan system causes an excess of meal swipes each

OPINION | Meals swipes don’t work

“Current plans fail to meet student needs because they provide too many swipes and not enough locations to use them.” - DP Editorial Board PAGE 4

SPORTS | Team issue: Penn gymnastics Seeking its first dual meet win this Sunday, Penn gymnastics will take to the beam, bars, floor, and vault against Rutgers.

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semester. The Undergraduate Assembly is currently working with Penn Dining Advisory Board to find more options for students to use swipes, but administrators do not see much reason for significant change.

Wharton first-year and UA

representative Carson Sheumaker said he is currently working with the Penn Dining Advisory Board, of which he is also a member, and a student focus group to provide a report for Penn Dining administrators outlining student perception of the cur-

NEWS NCHW celebrates “topping off” milestone

NEWS Transfer Student Rep. to increase inclusion

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rent meal plan system. Penn Dining administrators said, however, Penn has offered sufficient ways for students to use the swipes and that they have a responsibility to actively seek out these alterSEE MEAL SWIPES PAGE 3

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Unsafe living conditions may prompt grad students out of Fairfax Apartments Fairfax is located at 43rd and Locust Streets ANYA TULLMAN Staff Reporter

Residents at the Fairfax Apartments located at 43rd and Locust Street, many of whom are Penn graduate students, said unsafe living conditions and potential increase in rent may prompt them to move out of the building.

Rushmore Management bought the Fairfax in October and is currently renovating the apartment complex to upgrade the units and courtyard, according to residents. Residents have become increasingly concerned by dust entering the hallways from the construction, which may contain lead paint from the original structure built in 1920, and construction materials blocking fire escapes.

Rushmore Management, a developing company based in New Jersey, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Jeremy Gallion, fourth-year English Ph.D. student and resident at the Fairfax, said the dust has caused smoke detec-

SUKHMANI KAUR

Rushmore Management bought the Fairfax in October and is currently renovating the apartment complex to upgrade some units and the courtyard, according to current residents. Residents have become increasingly concerned by dust entering the hallways from construction, which may contain lead paint from the original strucutre built in 1920.

tors to sound, adding that the fire department has come to the Fairfax six times in the last two months. Gallion also described the construction itself as hazardous, and said Rushmore construction workers have put tape over the smoke detectors.

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Mariah Min, a part-time English instructor for the College of Liberal and Professional Studies who has lived in the Fairfax for five years, said she noticed that construction materials block hallways and the fire escape, which poses a

challenge to residents who use wheelchairs.

After residents filed a report to the Department of Licenses and Inspections for the City of Philadelphia, the department issued the property three violations on Jan. 7 for engaging in

All returning students welcome!

CIRCLING INSIDE OUT

STRENGTHENING CONNECTEDNESS

If you’ve taken time away from school, find a community of other students who may have had similar experiences and learn about key resources that can support your transition back to Penn!

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construction without a permit.

Jennifer Sweda is a 25-year resident of the Fairfax and worked as a cataloguing and metadata librarian at Penn for 24 years before retiring in 2018. She said the vast majority of the people she has met in the Fairfax since she moved in have been members of the Penn community, including graduate students, employees, or alumni.

“We’re here because Penn is here,” Sweda said. “Those of us who’ve lived here a long time, we’ve seen a tremendous number of changes in the neighborhood.”

Residents at the Fairfax also voiced concerns over potential rent increases in the coming months due to the renovations.

Gallion said he may not be able to afford to stay in the apartment, especially because English Ph.D. students who receive the Benjamin Franklin Fellowship do not receive funding in July and August.

Min, Gallion, and Sweda added that the events taking place at the Fairfax are an example of gentrification, the renovation of deteriorated urban neighborhoods by the influx of more affluent residents.

A 2018 study by RENTCafe, a real estate website, ranked two of Philadelphia’s zip codes among the most gentrified in the country.

“A number of us from a bunch of different departments who live at the Fairfax are trying to figure out what to do,” Gallion said. “How do we either slow this process of gentrification so that we can at least live here long enough to complete our degrees, and help protect the long standing people who have been living in this neighborhood who now can’t afford to live?”

Penn has long been criticized for its role in the gentrification of West Philadelphia and their refusal to pay PILOTs, voluntary payments in lieu of property taxes, to the city. Min said that Penn’s actions have consequences for local residents.

“Penn’s plans for expansion have negative repercussions for how the housing market operates in University City and West Philadelphia,” Min said.

“I definitely see the way that Penn handles its relations with the community being a large part of what’s going on with gentrification.”

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MEAL SWIPES >> FRONT PAGE

nate solutions.

“Even before coming to Penn, I heard about the problems with there being too many meal swipes left over, and not enough to do with it at the end of the semester,” Sheumaker said.

According to the Penn Dining Website, first-year students are required to purchase one of three dining plans which feature different numbers of meal swipes and dining dollars at a standing price of $5,590 for two semesters. The plan with the most swipes for freshmen includes 240 swipes per semester, equivalent to 16 visits to dining halls each week. Upperclassmen are given more flexibility and can select from nine meal plans at different price points.

“I have found that it would

be close to impossible to use that many swipes,” Sheumaker said. “This is one of the issues that the dining staff is trying to fix: more options to use the swipes.”

Wharton first-year Aaron Ramsey agreed that leftover meal swipes continues to be a problem for many students.

“I do think we get too many swipes, even with the plan with the least swipes,” Ramsey said.

“I think they should let you convert more [to dining dollars].”

Ted Morrin, the Meal Plan Manager, said students can use their meal swipes beyond simply eating at dining halls through meal exchange at Gourmet Grocer, where students can use swipes to purchase items at the store, and the Green2Go program, where students can use a swipe to take a meal on-the-go in a reusable container.

NEWS 3

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020 Pam Lampitt, the director of business services and hospitality services, added that a new initiative at Gourmet Grocer will allow students to exchange one meal swipe for a whole cake per semester.

“I think one of the challenges is just making sure that [students] are aware of all the opportunities they have [to use meal swipes],” Morrin said.

Lampitt expressed frustration that students do not capitalize on all the options that Penn Dining offers.

“We are doing what the students want, which is expanding hours, locations, opportunities.

What happens is we fall prey to hearsay or history: ‘dining is bad,’” Lampitt said. “Once you provide people [with] the correct information, they go ‘oh,’ but they are so quick to judge us. They are so quick to say that we don’t do something or we don’t have something.”

Penn’s chapter of Swipe Out Hunger, which was started in 2014 by two Penn students, allows students to donate their unused meal swipes to food banks and students in need. A major recurring event is the Swipe Out Hunger Donation Day, which has taken place every semester since spring 2015.

For a given day each semester, Penn students can donate up to five swipes, and Penn’s dining service, Bon Appetit, would donate the corresponding monetary value to food banks such as Philabundance, the largest food bank in Delaware Valley, and SHARE, another local food program.

Other peer institutions such as New York University, Barnard College, and Columbia University let students donate their excess meal swipes to the problem of food insecurity for low-income students. Originally created by and for NYU

ANNIE LUO

Wharton first-year and UA representative Carson Sheumaker is working with Penn Dining Advisory Board to address the issue.

students, Share Meals is an app that allows students to claim

free dining hall swipes from other students.

NCHW celebrates ‘topping off’ milestone after placing the final steel beam NCHW will open for student housing in fall 2021 ISA SKIBELI Staff Reporter

Members of the INTECH construction crew, Penn Facilities and Real Estate Services, and representatives from Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Architects celebrated the “topping off” milestone of New College House West last week with the placement of the last steel beam.

Members of the architectural project and construction teams signed the beam to mark the midway point of the construction project which began in spring 2018. David Dunn, project manager of design and construction at Facilities and Real Estate Services, said that NCHW is expected to be completed by May 1, 2021 and will open for student housing in August 2021.

At the 2017 announcement of the construction project, Penn

KYLIE COOPER

Members of the construction teams signed the final beam to mark the midway point of construction which began in spring 2018. The residential building will house sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

President Amy Gutmann told Penn Today that the completion of this new residence will allow more students to participate

in on-campus housing. In Sept.

2018, Penn announced that all sophomores will be required to live on campus beginning with

the class of 2024.

Gutmann added that the additional college house will give the University flexibility to con-

tinue to renovate existing student housing.

The 250,000-square-foot, $169.5 million residential building will house 450 sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Dunn said that the layout will be similar to that of Lauder College House, with a combination of two, three, four, and five bedroom apartments.

Last semester, students complained about construction noise from the building site.

“The noise complaints that started at the beginning of the academic year were found to really be due to the early morning trash pick-ups,” Mike Dausch, executive director of design and construction at FRES, said.

Dausch said the trash belonged to the University and was not affiliated with the construction project. Roadwork on Walnut St. that has since been finished also contributed to noise that bothered students, Dausch added. Dausch said that the issue has since been amended by

moving the pick-ups to a later time.

Dunn, Dausch, and Buchmann confirmed that the construction site has had strict requirements on when they do loud work and have tried to limit noise in the early mornings and late evening as much as possible.

Dunn said on weekdays, construction begins at 7 a.m. and loud work is minimized until 8 a.m. He added that construction usually ends at 4:30 p.m., but extra shifts have been added the past several months to add exterior panels to the building. Dunn said that construction only takes place on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. if there is rain during the week and makeup work needs to be done.

Mariette Buchman, director of design and construction at FRES, said that during reading days and exams, construction will start at 8:00 a.m. to prevent construction from interrupting students’ rest.

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4

OPINION EDITORIAL

THURSDAY JANUARY 23, 2020 VOL. CXXXVI, NO. 3 136th Year of Publication ISABELLA SIMONETTI President BENJAMIN ZHAO Executive Editor MAX COHEN DP Editor-in-Chief SUKHMANI KAUR Photo Editor AVA CRUZ Design Editor JULIE COLEMAN News Editor ASHLEY AHN News Editor CONOR MURRAY Assignments Editor GRANT BIANCO Opinion Editor WILL DIGRANDE Sports Editor MICHAEL LANDAU Sports Editor ZOEY WEISMAN Copy Editor NAJMA DAYIB Audience Engagement Editor SAGE LEVINE Video Editor

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any Penn students on dining plans, particularly first-year and transfer students who are required to join a plan, find they have leftover meal swipes at the end of each semester. Students can end up losing a significant amount of money in end-ofsemester swipe conversions – a period during which students may exchange a limited number of swipes for dining dollars at a rate well below their value – in an attempt to remedy their situation. This is why many students choose not to sign up for dining plans after their first year.

Penn Dining should make meal swipes more useful to students by accepting them in more locations and letting them roll over from semester to semester. Current plans fail to meet student needs because they provide too many swipes and not enough locations to use them, have limited options for swipe conversion, and do not provide the same flexibility as compared to other universities.

Many dining plan holders continually cite an excess of meal swipes compared to dining dollars. This applies even

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to first-years who have the Best Food Fit plan, the option available to them with the least amount of swipes. Part of the issue stems from the fact that there are limited locations that accept meal swipes on campus.

Meal swipes are accepted at Penn’s five dining halls, as well as through the Meal Exchange program, which lets students purchase a bundle of to-go items from Gourmet Grocer or Lauder College House retail.

However, many popular cam-

pus eateries, including Houston Market and Micro Market, do not accept meal swipes. If meal swipes were accepted in these locations, students would have greater opportunity to use them and would not be left with so many at the end of the semester.

Unlike Dining Dollars, extra meal swipes do not roll over from one semester to the next, further limiting flexibility.

While Penn Dining offers an option for students to convert swipes to Dining Dollars each

“

You’re used to being the cream of the crop and then you come here.” I heard these words slip out of another student’s mouth one day just before my class began. I have heard similar comments while on campus. Many of us have moments of failure that collide to create the feeling that we are coming up short or not shining quite as much as we can or should be. Those moments can easily become trapped in our minds. We should be supporting each other by deconstructing these notions and seizing opportunities to connect and influence each other.

Just about all of us would lend an ear to someone who wanted to talk about a personal failure they’ve encountered. I’d even go so far as to say that most of us would also reassure

WANNA BE A BALLER | It’s okay not to be the crème de la crème

just about anyone that failure does not equate to the end of their world as they know it. It’s so easy to interpret the bigger picture in situations that do not directly impact us. We can clearly distinguish a minor bump in the road from a giant sinkhole when we are not journeying that road. Yet, on the occasion that we are personally faced with even the faintest stench of failure, our internal alarms go off with the potential to trigger a sense of devastation.

A commonality threaded between Penn students is the reality of being extremely busy. In a world where being busy reigns supreme, what happens when we fail at something we deem important? Tricky question, I know, but my goal here is to reflect on how failures can and should be

embraced and viewed through the lens of growth.

As hard as failure can be, we need to breathe it in, exhale and let it go.

The differences between the level of despair involved in failing a midterm and the despair involved in having a client you’ve been diligently fighting to get off of death row be executed cannot be quantified. But in all instances, the magnitude of failure should be sifted with compassion.

Once we give our all, we have to recognize the outcome as reality and move on to something else of meaning. As humans, we do not possess the means to adorn every denouement in which we participate. We should all cultivate and prioritize being gentle with ourselves. With the beginning of this semester marking a

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Have your own opinion? Send your letter to the editor or guest column to letters@thedp.com.

Editorials represent the majority view of members of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. Editorial Board, which meets regularly to discuss issues relevant to Penn’s campus. Participants in these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on related topics.

fresh start and a brand new decade, let’s embrace failure as an element of proficiency.

It is easy to feel like you need to step your game up a notch. Most of us are doing as much as we possibly can because it gets us closer to what we idolize and perceive as success.

Our perception of winning is so important to us. Don’t get me wrong, the importance is relevant but we also have to notice the significance of the various types of development we have the opportunities to embark on throughout our lives. Not many of us on campus are willing to openly talk about the personal struggles that are inherent to our time at Penn, but we should. Let’s encourage others to welcome their failures while clutching our own.

A friend of mine recently had a really hard time during the interviewing process for a summer internship. They didn’t get the internship and that reality made them question themselves and their worthiness to be at Penn. I challenged all of their perceptions. I could see the whole situation as not being a huge deal in reference to the broader scope of their trajectory. Like most of us, they are a dedicated student and I am sure they will snuggly fit where they are supposed to when the time is right.

However, I fully related to how they questioned their ability when met with a challenging obstacle that was ultimately out of their hands. We all find ourselves in situations like this.

JESSICA GOODING I won’t say you shouldn’t feel bad about something not turning out the way you anticipated, but I will say that failure leads to growth and growth is priceless.

All of us have frustrations. Things can’t be perfect all the time and if they happen to be, I’d presume something were missing from the foundation of that perfection. Being torn up about happenings you lack the ability to control or alter the outcome towards is provocative and pacing. The semester just began but all of our calendars are surely filling up quickly.

As deadlines begin to loom in the distance, it is important to acknowledge that once we give something our best shot, that’s all we’ve got.

Don’t let what-if’s hold you back and welcome any and all conditions that challenge you to blossom.

JESSICA GOODING is a College junior from Philadelphia, PA. studying History and English. Her email address is jgooding@sas. upenn.edu.

Penn students, attend and participate in cultural shows

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LETTERS

MONA LEE

semester, this conversion program faces its own issues. Last spring, students received only 4.87 Dining Dollars per meal swipe through conversion, but each swipe costs $15-17 when the full cost of a dining plan is factored in. Additionally, students last spring were able to convert only 30 swipes and that was only if they signed up for a dining plan for the following year. The requirement for future dining plan registration places a further barrier to students who

wish to use up their remaining swipes, particularly because Student Registration and Financial Services estimate eating off campus can save students over $800.

Penn Dining has made recent efforts to expand options for using swipes through its Green2Go and Meal Exchange initiatives, as well as a new program where students can use one swipe for a whole cake. While these initiatives are a step in the right direction, they are not enough to meet students’ needs.

A whole cake is a nice treat once in a while, but it is not a sustainable use of swipes for students throughout the semester, and it is no replacement for a meal.

Other schools have found alternative ways to offer flexibility in their student dining plans.

Drexel offers Dragon Dollars, a form of university currency accepted by many places off campus – including many Penn student favorites such as Sabrina’s Cafe and Shake Shack. If Penn Dining wants upperclassmen to opt into dining plans, it must make further strides in offering dining plans that make sense for students to use.

Penn students, don’t fear failure. Embrace it.

PETER CHEN Web Editor

DANE GREISIGER Business Manager

Penn’s meal swipe system is failing its students

n the Chinese Students’ Association’s Cultural Show last semester, I was granted the privilege of being the child version of an East Asian guy. I’m Indian though. As absurd as it sounded in principle, fortunately, I was able to have a great time and also learn about Chinese culture. There were more than a few heckles from the audience, but it was fun. Noticeably, the audience was predominantly East Asian.

In order to embrace diversity, one should engage more in events organized by cultural groups and try to absorb different values as much as possible.

From the CSA to La-Casa Latina, there is an incredible amount of representation of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds at Penn.

However, what we lack is cross-engagement between cultures. Many students do not show interest in attending cultural shows or celebrations which are not their own. For example, a movie screening organized by the Penn India Association last semester had a low turnout, and I would definitely consider the disin-

TEJU KEEPS TALKING | Penn students lack exposure to different cultures

TEJASWI BHAVARAJU

terest of people from other cultures as one of the reasons.

Part of the reason why there is a lack of cultural curiosity is the comfort that our own background gives us. But this results in a lack of adaptability which is highly damaging to relationships in our domestic and global multicultural worlds.

And even knowing people from different cultures, but ignoring their background does not provide for enriching insights into what else there

is in the world. Even though ignoring our preconceived stereotypes to accept different people is a good value, what I’m suggesting is that cultural curiosity can help us grow as a person, by making us receptive to change.

This can go beyond cultural shows. Popular documentary filmmaker Michael Moore visited several European countries to examine how differently they view work, education, health, equality, and

KAREN WONG

more for his film “Where To Invade Next”. From cafeteria food to sexual education, Moore looks at the benefits of schooling in France, Finland, and Slovenia. In Italy, he marvels at how workers enjoy reasonable hours and generous vacation time. In Portugal, Moore notes the effects of the decriminalization of drugs. And that represents the principle that can help Penn students take advantage of the diversity in the student population: look beyond their own.

So, participate in events or shows organized by cultural groups. See something different, something new.

You could even be in a performing group that focuses on representing a culture to others if you prefer action over being in an audience. If cultural groups in our college benefit their own members alone, the individual communities grow within their limited scope, but the Penn community doesn’t.

TEJASWI BHAVARAJU is a College first-year from India, studying Mathematical Economics and Cinema Studies. His email address is tejaswib@sas.upenn.edu.

5

What you should know about getting in Early Decision

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BRIDGET BELIEVES | Letter to future baby Quakers, from a current one

ear Future Baby Quakers, First and foremost, congratulations on your acceptance to Penn! College may or may not be the best four years of your life, but either way, the next few years will be an interesting ride and you will learn more about yourself than ever before.

There are many things I wish I had known upon getting accepted early decision to Penn. Here are a few of the most prominent: Getting accepted ED does not mean Penn will be your dream school forever. In fact, I applied ED to Penn because I was positive that it was my “dream school,” but not too long after, I applied to transfer out of Penn my first year (I eventually chose between Penn and Brown, but decided to stay at Penn for personal reasons).

This may sound like I don’t know what I want, but in fact it’s quite the opposite. I took some “soulsearching” time to find out what I wanted from my college experience. For example, I recognized that Brown University (my top transfer choice at the time) had a student atmosphere that is more focused on exploration and on the learning process itself rather than being too career-oriented or “pre-professional.” However, I ultimately, I wanted what was best for me in terms of my academic and social environment. It’s not that I don’t think I can thrive at Penn (I am tremendously grateful for my experience here so far), but that perhaps I can thrive better elsewhere. In short, your “dream school” will likely change throughout your undergraduate years, as you too will change, as will your goals and aspirations.

It’s OK to change your major; your career path does not need to be set in stone. While I personally had a fairly solid idea of what I wanted to pursue for my career,

SUKHMANI KAUR

I can assure you that it is more than OK to be unsure, or even to have no clue what you want to do with the rest of your life. Such a big decision takes years. On a similar note, it’s OK to be undecided, and I highly recommend taking classes in different fields to see what you’re interested in.

Many students come into Penn undecided or unsure of what they might want to pursue, more than you might think. I personally have many friends who changed from pre-med to pre-law, or who came in undecided and ended up majoring in PPE, or transferring to Wharton. Remember, there’s

no reward for picking your major first, so take as much time as you need and explore all your options.

Getting accepted ED by no means indicates that you will have a smoother college career, so do not assume that you have your college experience figured out already. Your college career is far from set, and while this seems obvious now, before I matriculated into Penn I did not have that mindset. I genuinely believed that because I had applied ED, I had done my research and knew what I wanted for my undergraduate career: the clubs I wanted to join, the kinds of roommates

and friends I wanted to have, the classes I wanted to take, etc. But like I mentioned earlier, who you are as a person will change, as will your needs and aspirations.

Therefore, more likely or not, you will still experience bumps along the road during your undergraduate experience; getting accepted ED does not mean you will have a smoother-sailing undergraduate process than a regular decision applicant. Either way, just remember that there is no way you can predict the next four years of your life, so expect the unexpected.

Make the most out of your se-

OPEN LATE & LATE NITE DELIVERY

nior year once you get accepted ED to Penn, or any college for that matter. It’s quite common for high school seniors to start slacking off once they get accepted into college. Four years of hard work finally paid off, right? In fact, there’s a name for it: senioritis. While you may already know where you’re headed for the next four years, chances are your fellow peers are still figuring that out. College is remarkably different than high school, and you will likely miss at least some parts of it, so enjoy it while you can.

All the best, Bridget Yu

BRIDGET YU is a College sophomore from Los Angeles, Calif. studying psychology. She plans to attend medical school and specialize in psychiatry. Her email address is bridgtyu@sas.upenn.edu.

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6 NEWS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

UA’s first New Transfer Student Rep. looks to increase transfer inclusion UA looks to create transfer floor in Rodin ELIZABETH MEISENZAHL Staff Reporter

In September, College sophomore Thomas Kaupas was elected as the Undergraduate Assembly’s first New Transfer Student Representative. Since assuming office, Kaupas has remained focused on projects affecting the social and academic experience at Penn for his fellow transfer students.

Kaupas completed a project in the fall ensuring that pre-orientation programs will be marketed to new transfer students as well as incoming first-years. He said his focus for the spring semester will be working with the administration to create a transfer student floor in the high rise residence halls.

Prior to Kaupas’s election, new transfer students had to compete with first-years for one of nine

VOTING

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the last one to comply with the directive.

While praising the accuracy of the new machines, Penn political science professor Marc Meredith acknowledges they could impact the number of people who actually cast their votes in the coming presidential election.

“We certainly do know from

New Student Representative UA seats. College junior and Transfer Student Organization Executive Vice President Dan O’Sullivan said no transfer students had ever defeated a first-year for the position. In Sept. 2019, the Nominations and Elections Committee announced that one of the nine New Student Representative seats would be reserved for a transfer student for the first time. Kaupas was elected as the UA’s first New Transfer Student Representative later that month.

In the fall, Kaupas said he worked with the Office of Student Affairs to ensure all preorientation programs are open and advertised to the next class of transfer students. Kaupas said previously, only PennQuest was open to transfer students, and he and most of his fellow transfers did not know about the program because of insufficient marketing.

Kaupas, who also sits on the UA’s Academic Initiatives

Committee, said he is working to develop a program called Study-Match that would connect students in large lecture classes interested in forming a study group. While the program would be available for all undergraduate students, Kaupas said he believes it would help transfer students in particular.

“In my first semester, being in a large lecture class, it was really hard to meet people and form those close study groups,” Kaupas added, “and this gives an avenue to do that.”

College junior and President of the Transfer Student Organization Suchait Kahlon said although Residential Services does not want to create a transfer floor community in Rodin College House, Kahlon and Kaupas hope to keep pushing for the program to be created.

Kahlon said Residential Services does not want to change the existing room allotment and program community layout.

Currently, a formal transfer community exists only in Gregory College House. Kahlon added that while many transfer students may live in the same college house, they do not necessarily live on the same floor or near other transfer students.

Kaupas said he hopes a transfer floor will give students more housing options and create a stronger sense of community among transfer students living on the same floor.

“Many transfers come from experiences in which they struggled socially at their previous university, and they decided to transfer to Penn in hopes of having a better social experience,” Kahlon said.

Kaupas said transfer students have expressed frustration about the timeliness of transferring credits from their former schools to Penn. Penn uses XCAT, the External Course Approval Tool, a system that determines whether courses taken at a previous

political science research that, if the lengths of [polling] lines do increase, at some point it causes people to start getting out of line without casting a ballot, which I think, in this case, is a possibility,” he said.

Besides practical concerns on Election Day, many Pennsylvania counties are struggling to afford the machines, which are estimated to cost over $120 million, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. There is only

around $14 million available in state funding, so counties may have to pursue external sources of financing.

While many counties already planned to install machinery, the actual purchase of the machines was scheduled to take place over several years rather than over a few months, the Inquirer reported.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only 13 states do not cur-

rently require ballot machines to leave a paper trail. Out of those 13 states, nine still use machines with a paper trail.

Despite financial worries and potential logistic problems, College sophomore and current political director of Penn Democrats Michael Nevett believes new machines must be in use for the 2020 election, especially given the concerns about Russian hacking and interference in the 2016 presidential election.

ALEC DRUGGAN

College sophomore Thomas Kaupas worked with Office of Student Affairs last fall to ensure all pre-orientation programs were open to transfers.

university are eligible for credit at Penn. According Kaupus, students have complained that they do not receive a decision on credit transfers until late September, but Penn does not offer an alternative to XCAT. “The transfers are not a huge

population of Penn, but it’s a significant population,” College junior and transfer student Melissa Ogle said. “We have unique concerns as transfers and we have unique needs, so it’s important for us to have that representation.”

“Considering these recent threats to our democratic process, there’s really nothing that’s more important than making sure we have an accurate count,” he said.

College sophomore and Penn Dems’ legislative director Francois Barrilleaux got to test out the new machines during an event organized by Philadelphia city commissioners at the University of the Sciences in November. Although he sees

the new ballot technology as a step in the right direction, he remains wary of election interference.

“We need to ensure that these paper trails are going to be used, because really, the paper trails are a bunch of barcodes,” Barrilleaux said. “There’s all these other points in the electoral process where results can be tampered with that don’t just have to do with the voting machines.”

COLLEGIUM INSTITUTE PRESENTS

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CAFSA held a town hall on Jan. 21 at Harnwell College House’s Rooftop Lounge. At the event, the organization revealed the identities of four members, reversing its earlier decision to stay anonymous.

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CAFSA

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published on the CAFSA website.

Alvarado added that administrators have failed to diversify Locust Walk after identifying the issue nearly 30 years ago, citing a 1991 report which read, “The current arrangement of the campus, with white male fraternities lining its central artery … is more appropriate to Penn of the 1950s than to what Penn hopes to be in the 1990s.”

The CAFSA board cited past fraternity campus expulsions as precedent for their demands, such as when Psi Upsilon was evicted from the Castle building in 1990.

CAFSA’s demands also include that Penn adopt the online platform Callisto, a sexual assault reporting system, to better detect perpetrators of sexual assault by matching

survivors who report the same perpetrator. Universities who use Callisto include Stanford University, Pomona College, and University of Southern California. CAFSA added that faculty, first-years, and fraternities should have mandatory harassment and diversity training.

Jain said she hopes fraternities will be open to collaborating with CAFSA to decrease sexual assault incidents on campus.

“Greek life can be our ally and I would love for it to be that,” Jain said.

A survey by the Association of American Universities published in October found that 25.9% of undergraduate women reported having experienced unwanted sexual contact during their time at Penn, a decline from 27.2% in 2015. Additionally, 7.3% of men reported that they had experienced unwanted sexual

contact since entering college, an increase from 5.5% in 2015.

Students criticized the administration for the stagnant survey numbers at a University Council meeting and an open forum in October.

College sophomore Samantha Pancoe said that she felt the town hall had helped CAFSA clarify its purpose and goals after remaining anonymous for the past year.

“It was nice to see they have concrete demands that they’re asking for and to be able to ask them questions directly,” Pancoe said.

As CAFSA looks to begin more direct action at prominent places on Penn’s campus, College junior Sabrina Ochoa said that she was optimistic sit-ins and protests would accelerate change.

“It’s just a matter of mobilizing a large enough group to command attention,” Ochoa said.

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NEWS 7

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

Annenberg study finds no correlation between ‘13 Reasons Why’ and teen suicide The study contrasts previous findings JONAH CHARLTON Staff Reporter

Annenberg Public Policy Center Research Director Dan Romer published a study that found no correlation between the release of the Netflix show “13 Reasons Why� and an increase in suicide rates among adolescent boys, contrasting data from another study that went viral last April.

Romer published the paper, “Reanalysis of the Bridge et al. study of suicide following release of “13 Reasons Why,� in an online journal Jan. 16. The heavily-publicized 2019 study was conducted by Jeff Bridge, a prominent suicide researcher at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Bridge’s study suggested that suicide rates in adolescent boys increased in the three months after the show’s release. In

his analysis of Bridge’s study, however, Romer found that the increase was fully accounted for by the nationwide uptick in adolescent suicide since the mid-2000s, and so the association with “13 Reasons Why� was a misattribution of the trend. “There was no strong evidence, apart from the fact that there is an increase in [adolescent] suicide, that the show either increased or decreased [suicides],� Romer said.

Season one of “13 Reasons Why� depicts a high school girl who dies by suicide and leaves behind taped records of 13 reasons she chose to end her life. In the season’s final episode, the character’s suicide is shown on screen in graphic detail, which received backlash from suicide prevention advocates and viewers alike.

Netflix has retroactively edited the lead character’s suicide scene from the episode, as well as added trigger warnings to the beginning of the series.

In a July 15 statement Netflix said, “We’ve heard from many young people that ‘13 Reasons Why’ encouraged them to start conversations about difficult issues like depression and suicide and get help – often for the first time.�

According to Romer, there is “basically no evidence� of this for the first season. In a different 2019 study Romer conducted on the second season, however, he found that some adolescents were encouraged to seek mental health treatment by the show’s message, while others’ mental health was negatively impacted. “Some people got more suicidal by watching the second season and some people got better,� Romer said. “It was mainly people who were already vulnerable to suicidal messages and were going through things like depression which made them already vulnerable to contagion.�

Suicide contagion describes the

phenomenon of exposure to suicide or suicidal behaviors, potentially through media, resulting in an increase in suicide or suicidal thoughts, Romer said. “It’s really important to remember that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary situation,â€? Chief Wellness Officer Benoit DubĂŠ said. “The goal is always to remind those struggling of the temporary nature of their struggles and it is very, very hard to do this when there are these external reinforcements of this permanent solution.â€?

DubĂŠ noted it is possible to use media to fight stigma around mental illness, but people may view this media differently depending on their state of mind. “Different ears will hear different things,â€? DubĂŠ said. “If we shield the more vulnerable ears from hearing and seeing these things in the media, are we reinforcing stigma?â€?

The executive director of Penn Benjamins and College junior Ra-

Romer’s study took into account a general uptick in adolescent suicide throughout the nation since the mid-2000s.

chel Pak echoed DubĂŠ. She added “13 Reasons Whyâ€? only shows one version of an experience with mental health and is not always “nuanced.â€? “A show like ‘13 Reasons’ can also make people feel very separated from what is depression and what is anxiety because the depictions weren’t very accurate,â€? Pak said. “Depression and anxiety are so much more prevalent and so much less dramatic – [mental illness] is not always that obvious and can be much more subtly subversive, and

you don’t see that in the show.�

Romer’s next step will be to look at the number of adolescent suicides from the weeks directly before and after the first season’s release, instead of just comparing the months like in previous studies, in order to increase the accuracy of his findings. “It’s not that we don’t believe in [suicide] contagion – we do – but if we’re going to try to understand how it works with these types of shows, we need to be careful before we jump to the conclusion that there is an effect,� Romer said.

Pulitzer Prize finalist discusses difficulties in writing plays about climate change Kelly Writers House hosted Madeleine George

ductions, using her own play, “All the Dead Frogs,� as an example.

She said she wanted a seven-foot cardboard iceberg in the background of her production, but questioned whether the message of sustainability in her play outweighed the costs of leaving a large cardboard prop in the landfill after the production was over.

George said she too considers the environmental implications of her stage productions, citing her own experience with the Superhero Clubhouse in New York, an ecological theatre group who attended her play. George said the theatre group suggested various practices playwrights can use to keep their productions sustainable that she had not previously known.

Despite difficulties, Friskey said centering her own play around climate change eased her personal fears about the environment. She added that she hopes her work encourages people to think critically about their own impact on the environment.

CELIA KRETH Contributing Reporter

Kelly Writers House hosted a conversation on Wednesday evening featuring playwright and Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama Madeleine George, who discussed the difficulties on writing plays about climate change and the importance of theatrical productions sustainability.

The event was moderated by College senior Samantha Friskey, MELANIE HILMAN who wrote a play about sustainability for her senior thesis. George George, a 2014 Pulitzer Prize finalist, is a resident playwright at the New Dramatists organization in New York and a professor at Bard College. cited verb tense issues, material She said that verb tense issues and material waste created by theatrical productions create difficulties in writing plays about climate change. waste created by theatrical productions, and the human-centric nature ligence.� She also won a MacDow- character gives a monologue in makes writing in the accurate verb “human scale part of the problem, of plays as several reasons climate ell Fellowship and a 2016 Whiting which she claims the “glaciers are tense difficult. like questions of guilt, questions change is difficult to write about.

Award in Drama for her work. going to melt,� using the future “Theater is so slow,� George of complacency, or questions of George, a resident playwright at George said she began working tense. George said the language said. “It takes years if you’re very, betrayal.� Plays are also not a sufthe New Dramatists organization in on her play, “Hurricane Diane� in became inaccurate, because rising very lucky to have your play pro- ficient media for crafting systemic New York and a professor at Bard 2010, but during the play’s theat- temperatures are already causing duced. So it’s not a rapid response solutions to societal problems, College, was nominated for a Pulit- rical production in 2019, the lan- glaciers to melt. media.�

George added. zer Prize in 2014 for writing “The guage concerning climate change George said the “exponential inGeorge added that theatrical Friskey raised concerns about (curious case of the) Watson Intel- was already outdated. The main crease in speed� of climate change productions tend to focus on the the sustainability of theatrical pro-

SUDOKUPUZZLE

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5 2 6 9 Kelly started releasing music the summer before his first year at Wharton in 2016 and now works full-time at McKinsey & Company.

“I definitely hope that [my music] evolves into me writing more for other people like this, because this is truly on a global scale which obviously my music has not reached the scale of BTS so it’s really exciting to work on something that’s like a huge team effort that goes so far,� Kelly said.

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pursuing an MBA degree allowed him to pursue his passion for music.

While he will continue his own career in rapping, Kelly hopes to write more music for global artists.

Kelly said he is currently working on music for Big Hit’s other boy band, TXT.

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rewrote them into Korean lyrics, which now make up the second verse of “Black Swan.�

While writing music and working at a consulting firm may not have a clear connection, Kelly said working full time as an analyst in turn creates more of a need for a creative outlet. “Honestly, I think there is a really good yin and yang between the two,� Kelly said. “The more time I spend at work, the more I need a creative outlet, and if I didn’t have a job that was very numbers oriented, very left brain kind of thinking, then I don’t think I would have much drive to go do creative things in my free time.�

Kelly pointed to his time at Wharton as a key contributor to his success in the music industry.

He said his Wharton degree has opened doors through classmate connections. He added that the free time during his two years

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8 SPORTS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Men’s basketball finishes Big 5 season against Temple at the Palestra The Quakers have lost all three of their games in 2019 JACOB WESSELS Sports Associate

Desperation isn’t always a bad thing.

As Penn men’s basketball prepares to close out Big 5 play in a matchup with Temple this Saturday, the energy feels different around the Palestra. Having dropped three consecutive games, including two against Princeton, there is a renewed sense of urgency for the Quakers (7-7, 1-2 Big 5) as they prepare to take the court for the final time before Ivy season hits full swing.

“Every week has been ramping up more and more with the amount of desperation that we have,” senior forward AJ Brodeur said. “Desperation seems like a negative word, but it’s really a level of passion [that] shows how much we care.

Ramping up the intensity at practice has been a focus for us.”

After dropping back-to-back games to Princeton to end break, the Quakers once again fell in a down-to-the-wire defeat last

weekend to a now 4-15 Saint Joseph’s team. While the Red and Blue were able to break out of their offensive slump, scoring 81 points in the loss, the results stayed the same, showing that there was not one individual issue contributing to the team’s struggles.

“I think there’s been a bunch of little things,” coach Steve Donahue said. “Settling for shots that we didn’t earlier … guarding the ball better so we don’t need to help as much overall, just feeling more confident and competitive. All those little things add up to why we haven’t won.”

If you were to pinpoint to an area where the team has come up short, the three-point line would be a good place to start.

Poor three-point shooting has been especially prevalent in the recent losing streak, where the team has shot just 15-of-78 from beyond the arc, good for a percentage of 19.2%.

“The eight games in between [the first three and the last three], our three-point shooting was best in the country. Those eight games we shot 12.4 [threes per game] at 40%,” Donahue said.

“We are 12th in the country in

SON NGUYEN

Senior guard Ray Jerome (left) played 34 minutes in the Quakers’ loss to St. Joe’s last weekend and put up four points and three rebounds. The Red and Blue will play their final Big 5 game this Saturday.

two-point percentage. That has a lot to do with your threat of shooting it, so it is important.”

Another area where the team has struggled is on the glass. In each of the three games in the losing streak, Penn has been outrebounded, and the Red and Blue will be challenged once again on the glass by the Owls (10-7, 2-0), who rank inside the top 50 in the nation in rebounds

per game.

“They have great length basically at every position,” Donahue said. “They are polished scorers and confident basketball players.”

Despite the disappointing loss to St. Joe’s, the Quakers did find a bright spot in the play of senior guard Ray Jerome, who shattered his career high with 34 minutes and contributed a solid

effort on both ends of the floor.

“We have a unique team where we have three seniors and a lot of inexperienced guys,” Donahue said. “I think [Jerome] has been consistent in practice over the last month and a half.

He understands what we are trying to do on offense and defense.”

If Jerome indeed gets a start in the backcourt, he will be tasked

with slowing down Temple’s formidable duo of guards in Quinton Rose and Nate PierreLouis. Rose is especially dangerous; standing at 6-foot-8, the guard leads the Owls with 14.4 points per game.

“Temple brings a lot of athleticism and a pedigree of excellence,” Brodeur said.

Despite having nearly an entire Ivy season left to play, this contest marks the beginning of the end for the senior class, as the matchup against Temple will be the final Big 5 game for a group that was largely responsible for the team’s Big 5 title last season. “[The Big 5] has meant a lot to me. Those are always our most attended games at the Palestra every year,” Brodeur said.

“Earlier this year we played Arizona and Alabama, we play teams like that all the time, but the games in the Palestra against Big 5 teams are an atmosphere that I’ve never experienced before.”

While Penn men’s basketball may be desperate, they will take the court against Temple on Saturday in an attempt to prove that they have used their renewed energy to get back on track.

What is whānau? The meaning behind the Quakers’ Māori motto M. HOOPS | The motto is inspired by a rugby team JOEY PIATT Sports Associate

What do New Zealand’s national rugby team – the All Blacks – and Penn men’s basketball have in common? The answer comes in the form of a simple Māori word: whānau, which loosely translates to “extended family” in English.

The word was introduced to Penn by coach Steve Donahue, who, after spending four years as the coach for Boston College, decided to re-evaluate the way he approached building a basketball program.

“After I was let go by BC, I just took a real personal evaluation of what went right and what didn’t, and I was not pleased with the culture I created at BC,” Donahue said.

During this re-evaluation, Donahue stumbled upon a book that would simultaneously change the

FRESHMEN >> BACKPAGE

to get the best results,” Carly Kulevich said.

And the effect of this encouragement was clearly visible during the Quakers’ first ever competitive meet last week at the Palestra.

Lashley was able to secure a fifth-place finish in the beam event, and scored a 9.775 on the floor. While the team suffered a loss to Towson, the freshmen by no means see it as a defeat. If anything, their first foray into the world of collegiate gymnastics only reaffirmed the women’s passion.

“I remember last weekend

KRAEZ

>> BACKPAGE

“Here you get to come together as a team every weekend and just show off the hard work that you’ve been putting in, and that’s what I love most,” Kraez said.

As a freshman, Kraez competed in all 12 meets and made the transition from club to college look easy, quickly etching her name into the record books. In only her second collegiate meet against Yale, Kraez’s score of 9.825 on the vault became the third-best in program history. Her 9.875 in the floor exercise against Lindenwood is the fourth-best in program history.

For Kraez, her sophomore season will be about building on her first-year performances while also adding more to her repertoire. Last season, she

CHASE SUTTON

Penn men’s basketball coach Steve Donahue bases his coaching philosophy on whānau, which comes from New Zealand’s rugby team.

way he approached coaching a basketball team and inspire the foundation upon which he would build his program at Penn.

“I ended up reading a book called ‘Legacy’ about the All Blacks, the New Zealand rugby team, one of

at the first meet I did my first vault in college and I ran down there and was thinking ‘This is so much more fun than club,’” Lashley said.

“I’m actually happy competing rather than nervous. It instills a sort of confidence I never had in club.”

“I’ve never experienced anything like it before, it was honestly amazing just finishing your routine and doing your college salute for the first time and then have everyone run up to you and give you high fives. The adrenaline and excitement make all of it worth it,” Marr said.

The Red and Blue also competed against Cornell, Kent State, and George Washington in the Lindsey

competed in all the events except the uneven bars. But in the first two meets this season, Kraez has competed in all four events, becoming an allaround competitor.

“This year, I came in with a little bit of a different mindset, and I was able to get my bar routine together,” Kraez said.

The addition of one more routine was definitely an adjustment for Kraez. It also meant that there was added pressure because the extra routine does not only reflect on her ability, but is also another performance that counts towards the team’s overall score.

Not only has she taken on that role, but she has excelled in it. In the first meet of the season against Towson, Kraez won the all-around title with a 38.725. On Sunday, she placed fourth in the all-around.

“This year, I think I’m way

the most dominant professional teams in any sport,” Donahue said.

“It just clicked with me, all the things I was looking for.”

‘Legacy’ is the story of the All Blacks, the current Rugby World Cup Champions and the most suc-

Ferris Invitational this past weekend, where they placed third overall. There, Lashley placed sixth with a score of 9.750 on the floor.

Armed with their support system and mountains of enthusiasm for the sport, the freshman gymnasts are eager to fulfill some hefty goals over the next three years.

“As a team we’re very talented and there’s a lot that everyone has to offer,” said Ali Karpousis. “I think that we have a very good chance of winning Ivies and maybe ECACs.” The Quakers’ next meet will be this Sunday at the Palestra. Facing Rutgers, they will hope to pull off their first win of the season.

more w on all the events anyway,” Kraez said. “Having freshman year as an experience and being able to learn from my mistakes [helps me].”

Kraez’s success goes far beyond simple physical skills.

The way in which she approaches the meets mentally translates to her success. It was that ability that allowed her to adjust her mindset at the start of this year and to reflect on her last season which has led to early success this season. “[Kraez] is a hard worker and is really a good motivator in the gym,” coach John Ceralde said.

Only one year in, Kraez has already made a profound impact on Penn gymnastics. As a sophomore, she is bound to have an even better season, especially as an all-around gymnast.

cessful rugby squad at the international level. It was written by author James Kerr, who wrote the book to find out not only what made the All Blacks different from other teams, but also what enabled the team’s success.

One major factor in the All Blacks’ success cited by the book was whānau, the word that Donahue would eventually build his program upon. “[For our program], whānau means not only do we have each other, but we have everybody else that needs to be involved spiritually, emotionally, physically,” Donahue said. “We all have to be a part of this, and eventually, it’s we not me.

That’s how we drive everything that we do.”

Whānau has become the pillar of the culture of the Penn men’s basketball program It is something players are exposed to as soon as they enter the program. However, rather than providing a dictionary definition of whānau and what it is

supposed to mean, Donahue prefers to teach the concept by example.

“It was introduced to all of us not as a concept that has [a dictionary] definition, but [as something] that comes from the guys who show it and exemplify it,” senior forward AJ Brodeur said. “You kind of learn what it is just by everyone acting it.

It is definitely a big culture thing that is easier to be lived than it is to be taught.”

Whānau has allowed everyone involved with the program to have a role in the team’s success, even if their role does not directly involve making big plays at the Palestra with the game on the line.

“Whether that’s guys like our sports information department, whether its administration, or whether it’s janitors, [everyone has] that feeling that you have in your gut that this means a lot to all of us, and ‘I’m going to do whatever I can to make this happen,’” Donahue said.

The culture has also allowed the

team’s role players, who do not get the traditional playing time that stars like Brodeur have, to play an important role in the team’s success.

“Especially in our championship season two years ago, [there were guys] who didn’t play as much during the year who were pivotal to our success because of what they brought every day,” Brodeur said.

“They left their ego at the door, and they came to the gym every day to help this team be a championship team.”

In the Ivy League, culture can play a large part in a team’s success.

The nature of the League’s season, which involves tough weekend road trips across the northeast, demands that teams have a strong culture to fall back upon.

Thanks to Donahue’s emphasis on building a strong culture at Penn, whānau has established the all-forone and one-for-all attitude that will help the Quakers to succeed both on and off the court.

Women’s basketball faces Temple with a share of this season’s Big 5 title on the line The Quakers have not won since returning from Hawaii CHARLIE DOLGENOS Sports Reporter

After two consecutive losses, Penn women’s basketball has a chance to regain momentum with a Big 5 title.

On Thursday, the Quakers will take on Temple at the Liacouras Center. Since starting 10-1, the Red and Blue (10-3, 2-1 Big 5) have dropped two in a row, including a 20-point home loss against Princeton. This weekend is their opportunity to right the ship before Ivy play starts up again.

Though they’ve hit some roadblocks, coach Mike McLaughlin’s approach remains the same.

“I think we’ve got to be careful judging how you play by wins and losses. We’ve played two very good teams. With that said, we’re looking at the big picture of how we can win tomorrow, how we can take those two games, along with the 11 others,” McLaughlin said.

Senior guard Phoebe Sterba echoed McLaughlin’s sentiment, stressing that the Quakers just need to focus on the next opponent ahead. In this case, that would be the Owls (11-7, 2-1).

“As a team, we try not to look back in the box score,” Sterba said. “We have to move forward.”

If the Red and Blue win the game, they will secure a share of the Big 5 title, but Temple is in the same situation. Since taking over as head coach, McLaughlin

GARY LIN

Junior center Eleah Parker added 10 points in the Quakers’ loss to Villanova last week, but the team hopes to bounce back on Thursday.

has had immense success in the Big 5, winning two titles during his career.

Though they have dropped their last two games, there have been some bright spots for the Quakers. Freshman guard Kayla Padilla scored 50 combined points on 58% shooting from the field in those two games.

In order for the Quakers to right the ship, their offense needs to shoot the ball more effectively.

They have scored fewer than 60 points two games in a row after scoring more than 60 in six of their last seven.

For the Red and Blue to launch an offensive turnaround, they will likely need a spark from junior center Eleah Parker. After averaging almost 16 points per game last year, she is averaging just 9.4 points per game this season. Her field goal percentage is down, and her free throw percentage has

fallen to just 28.6%.

“We’ve been working on more ball screens, running sets to make sure she’s getting looks deep in the post,” senior guard Kendall Grasela said. “Something I can do is tell her how much I believe in her, how confident I am in her.

She’s such an amazing player.”

On the other end of the floor, however, Parker and the Quakers are excelling. She is averaging 2.4 blocks per game and anchoring a top-10 scoring defense in the nation. Penn is giving up just 51.7 points per game, and Parker has been a big part of the team’s success. She patrols the paint and defends without fouling; she has 31 blocks on the year and just 21 fouls.

With a win tomorrow, the Quakers will have their 11th nonconference win of the year, tying a program record and clinching a title along the way.

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SPORTS 9

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

Penn Athletics weekend preview: tennis and track and field in action Penn women’s tennis will compete down in Nashville DUSTIN GHANNADI Sports Reporter

After returning from winter break, Penn Athletics teams are now back in full swing for the winter season. Heading into a busy weekend of competition, here is what to look for from Penn tennis and track and field.

Tennis Opening this year’s competition against Richmond at home, Penn women’s tennis fought

hard for a 4-3 win. Although they dropped the only possible point in the doubles, the Quakers capitalized off of strong singles play. Led by sophomore Yulia Bryzgalova – the No. 12 ranked singles player in the United States – the Red and Blue won four of six singles matches to clinch the one-point victory.

Heading into this weekend, the Quakers are traveling to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Kick-Off Weekend.

In addition to a match against Vanderbilt, Penn will also play

ALEXA COTLER

Sophomore Yulia Bryzgalova was an NCAA Singles Championship qualifier last season as a freshman, and is nationally ranked this year.

RUTGERS

>> BACKPAGE

said. “For every event, we want to work on confidence. When we’re going up, trusting that you’re go-

ing to make your routine and have trust in each of our teammates.”

“What we’re trying to embrace this year is finding your role, and giving everything you have in that role. Everyone has something that

either Northwestern or Arizona State, depending on the outcome of their match.

Men’s tennis did not fare as well last weekend. Although the 7-0 loss against No. 18 ranked Tennessee may seem like a complete domination, the scoreline is not entirely indicative of what actually happened.

In the first doubles match of the day, the sophomore team of Jason Hildebrandt and Edoardo Graziani had an early lead, but they were ultimately overcome by the Volunteers. In the singles matches, Graziani gave his opponent a lot of trouble; losing the first set 7-6, he took the second by storm, 6-3. He ultimately could not take the final set though, dropping it by a score of 6-3. In the other matches, the Quakers lost close matches.

“Our guys put in a great effort, and it’s one of the hardest working group of guys I’ve ever had. Our freshman class is very good and very competitive.

They’ll put in all the time to be good,” coach David Geatz said.

As the Red and Blue head into this weekend, they stay at home to take on Navy, which is coming off a 6-1 loss to Dartmouth followed by a 5-2 win versus St. Bonaventure. After losing last year’s matchup against Penn, 7-0, Navy will look to avenge their defeat. Graziani, sophomore Kevin Zhu, and senior Dmitry Shatalin were all successful against the Navy last year and are players to watch going into the weekend.

“The keys are to sustain the same work ethic we’ve had all fall, and I think that will go a long way,” Geatz said.

Junior Marvin Morgan (center) took home first place in the 60-meter dash at last weekend’s Penn 8-Team Select meet with a time of 6.92 seconds, and will be back on the track this weekend in New York.

Track and field Both men’s and women’s track and field teams head to New York this weekend to compete in the Dr. Sander/Columbia Challenge. After garnering great success in a record-setting meet at the Penn 8-Team Select last week, the Red and Blue will look to sustain this success.

During their successful start to the season in both short and long distance events, the Quakers have been able to garner numerous victories. In the 60-meter hurdles last week, the Red and Blue were able to take the top four positions, led by freshman Lauryn Harris, who recorded a time of 8.61 seconds Going into this weekend, the two athletes to watch in that

event are Harris and Penn 60m hurdle record-holder senior Breanne Bygrave. They could compete for the top spot in the Penn record books bring home another victory for the Red and Blue in the event.

In addition to track success, sophomore Mayyi Mahama’s phenomenal 19.89m weight throw allowed her to improve her personal record and maintain her No. 2 spot on Penn’s all-time leaderboard. This weekend, she will look to break her personal record again and reach the No. 1 all-time spot.

The men’s side also shared in the team’s success. Dominating in the shorter events, junior Marvin Morgan won the 60m dash with a time of 6.92 seconds. Fol-

lowing him in sixth place was freshman Josh Bridges, who tallied a final time of 6.99. Freshman Emerson Douds continued Penn’s success in sprints, coming in second in the 200m.

The Red and Blue also conquered the longer events, winning the 3K and mile runs. In the field, senior Sean Clarke was able to take a win with a 5.22m clearance in the pole vault, with senior Nathan Fisher and freshman Caleb Johnson following in third and fourth, respectively.

Although Penn has been successful all across the board, their major success has been anchored by solid young talent in the sprints as well as veteran skill in the field, especially from Clarke, Fisher, and Mahama.

we’re trying to take care of and it’s all working towards the same goal of having a good year.” Nelson agreed.

Going up against a strong team like Rutgers is expected to be a

challenge. In the Scarlet Knights’ two meets so far this season, they have averaged a team score of 194.400. However, the Red and Blue can only control how well they perform and are motivated to

improve.

“Rutgers is obviously a good school, but we’re more focused on what we can do as a team to keep growing in the next few weeks,” Flavin said.

The team has high hopes for their meet at Rutgers. Win or lose, the team’s deep trust and tenacity has kept their morale strong and is a strong sign of things to come this season.

CHASE SUTTON

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THE GYMNASTICS ISSUE THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020 VOL. CXXXVI

NO. 3

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Beam, bars, floor, vault: the bread and butter of gymnastics Penn gymnasts break down lengthy routine. Gymnasts run up from a distance of 25 meters onto the events they compete in a springboard before propelling VINNY VEERAMACHANENI Sports Reporter

Gymnastics routines seem to go viral every year, leaving people blown away by the acrobatics and jaw-dropping skills pulled off by gymnasts at all levels of competition. Despite being amazed by the routines on display, casual viewers may be a little confused by the sport. Here is a breakdown of gymnastics’ different events, and who to watch on the Quakers in each for the 2020 season.

The sport consists of four events: vault, beam, bars, and floor. During collegiate competitions, each school sends six athletes out to compete in each of the four events, with each athlete doing two routines. Scores for each athlete are averaged between the two routines, and the top five scores are accumulated into a team score.

While each gymnast has her own specialty, many participate in multiple events. Only one athlete, deemed the all-rounder, participates in all four events during the meet.

Vault is one of the more high stakes events in gymnastics because it does not consist of a

themselves off of the vault. They try to complete as many flips, twists, or somersaults in the air as they can before landing on their feet within the legal area.

The event, being so quick in nature, requires a lot of speed and power, and gymnasts have to be able to perfect everything from their landing angle to stride pattern. Sophomores Ava Caravela and Sydney Kraez are the Quakers’ best at vault and will look to build on their success from last season in this year’s meets.

While all of the events in gymnastics are daunting, beam has a reputation of being especially nerve-racking. The beam is five meters long and only 10 centimeters (four inches) wide, while also being over four feet above the ground. Routines on the beam include leaps, flips, splits, poses, handstands, and walkovers.

The event ends with the gymnast dismounting from the beam using a combination of skills while trying to land straight. Athletes participating in beam must be able to do their routine with incredible precision, as even one misstep could end their routine prematurely.

Although she has been competing through injury, sophomore

WILL DIGRANDE

The balance beam is just one of four events that college gymnasts compete in during their meets. At last week’s Lindsey Ferris Invitational, sophomore Edie Noor Graber also competed on the vault and floor.

Natalie Yang has been among the team’s top scorers in beam so far this year, and she understands its particular importance during a meet.

“I think there is a lot of potential to score really high in that event, and being consistent and showing off your skills is really important for the team,” Yang said.

Bars involves the placement of two bars, one 250 centimeters high

and the other 170 centimeters high.

Routines for this event last around 40 seconds and consist of hanging, twisting, or flipping either on one bar or between the two bars.

The entire routine must be fluid, so there should be no pauses or extra swings. Judges look for difficult transitions between the bars and a clean and acrobatic dismount.

Juniors Jordyn Mannino and Rose Hoffman have led a very

tight-knit group for Penn bars over the past three years, and are they hoping to capitalize off of each other to have a successful season this year.

“The group that does bars gets very close, and we depend on each other a lot,” Mannino said, “Personally, I think it’s a mentally demanding event, so you know that you can lean on each other and really motivate each other, and it re-

ally shows in practice and meets.”

“Even though [bars is] not the same kind of performance as [floor exercise], there’s still a performance aspect like hitting all of your handstands and sticking the landing,” Hoffman said. “There’s no better feeling than when you stick the dismount and it’s contributing to the team in a positive way.”

The floor exercise is largely seen as the most artistic and expressive event in gymnastics.

Gymnasts spend up to 90 seconds on the 144 square meter mat, using no apparatus or props during the course of their routine. Floor routines consist of acrobatic stunts such as cartwheels or flips, but also include aspects of dance as well. The floor exercise is one of the more consistently high scoring events for the Quakers, led by junior Darcy Matsuda.

“Something that I really love [about floor] is getting to show off a little bit. It is more of a performance than something like vault, so that’s fun,” Matsuda said, “You can even interact with teammates a little bit during it, so I think that’s really, really fun and something I really love.”

The Quakers will host Rutgers on Sunday at the Palestra, and they will try to use their camaraderie and depth in all four events to lead to their first win of the season.

Starting their college careers, the gymnastics freshmen make waves Rebekah Lashley scored a 9.775 in floor versus Towson EMMA RONZETTI Sports Reporter

It seems the freshmen gymnasts have quickly found a comfortable fit here at Penn.

The eight athletes — onethird of the entire team — already experienced their first two meets as college competitors, and much is expected of them in the years ahead. Six of the freshmen were national Junior Olympic National qualifiers, and all boast impressive regional records.

WILL DIGRANDE

The Quakers have competed against Towson and at the Lindsey Ferris Invitational, and Rebekah Lashley placed on the floor at both meets.

But like most Quakers, the transition from high school to college was tenuous, especially for athletes with such ambition.

Moving from club to team gymnastics forced the women to reassess and change both their physical health and mental approach to the competitions.

“I think it’s a really big difference, especially for gymnastics, from club to college, because it’s a really different atmosphere and environment in the gym,” Sarah PenuelaWermers said. “[I]t has been more focused on team and your effort toward the team and how you can help, while in club it is more indi-

vidualized and focusing more on your own scores,” Ariyana Agarwala added.

“I think it’s more focused on keeping you healthy and trying to make sure you’re at your best all of the time, especially during the season,” McCaleigh Marr said. “And so [we] tend to take so much better [care] of our bodies now than in club because you usually tried to push through [back then].”

The women are in high spirits and look forward to the work ahead, especially with the support of their upperclassmen teammates and the greater Penn community.

“Being [at Penn] over winter

season, the two-week period that we are here in January, really made us feel not like freshmen anymore,” Rebekah Lashley said. “In my experience, I felt like I was just part of the team. No one was upperclassmen and no one was freshmen, we were all just on the same level.”

“Just being here, I think that we’ve all been opened up to how many people outside of our team want us to succeed just as much as we do, so it’s been super nice to have so many different people all buying into one team and working SEE FRESHMEN PAGE 8

Sophomore Sydney Kraez is the newest all-around powerhouse for the Quakers

Seeking first dual meet win, Red and Blue host Rutgers this Sunday

Kraez won the individual all-around against Towson

The teams last faced off at a quad meet two years ago

TYIRA BUNCHE Senior Sports Associate

Breaking onto the scene with a dominant season may be hard to follow up, but that is exactly what sophomore Sydney Kraez plans to do for Penn gymnas-

tics.

Like most gymnasts, Kraez started gymnastics at a very young age, but it was actually her younger sister who started before her. Kraez watched her sister compete at a local club, thought it was exciting, and then got involved in the club at seven years old.

Few sports allow the freedom and creativity that gymnastics

allows, and that is what sparked Kraez’s passion for the sport.

“I just love the feeling of being able to flip my body around in ways that isn’t very normal for many people,” Kraez said.

That passion only grew when she came to Penn and enjoyed the team aspect that wasn’t present at the club level.

SEE KRAEZ PAGE 8

WILL DIGRANDE

Kraez vaulted herself to third-best in program history in only her second collegiate meet last year.

As a sophomore, she already has an all-around title to her name from the meet against Towson.

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HELEN LY Sports Reporter

A challenging opponent can be the best motivation.

Penn gymnastics faces a tough test this Sunday when Big Ten foe Rutgers travels to Philadelphia. After starting the 2020 season with a tight loss in their first dual meet against Towson, the Red and Blue are hoping to secure a win this time around.

The girls have the advantage of competing at home in the Palestra, which might provide the edge needed to reach the win. While the Quakers finished third out of four teams at last week’s Lindsey Ferris Invitational in Washington, D.C., their team score improved by over a full point from the Towson defeat — 191.425 to 192.850.

Looking back at their last two meets, junior Darby Nelson is optimistic about the upcoming matchup and how the team can learn from its mistakes in the last two meets.

WILL DIGRANDE

The Quakers have averaged a score of 192.138 in their first two meets, while Big Ten foe Rutgers has averaged 194.400 so far.

“Building off with what we started, we had a few mistakes, and last weekend we fixed a few of those things and had a consistent meet,” she said. “Just focusing on the little details and working towards building our routines and consistency and confidence.”

The sport is all about teamwork and cohesion, so the Quakers are looking to focus on pulling a strong performance together from all four events against the Scarlet Knights.

“We’ve had a really strong energy as a team so far this year, which is a really exciting thing

for us and something we can just keep working to build off,” senior Kellie Flavin said. “We’re excited about how things started off and looking to keep growing from here.”

In terms of expectations for the season, each gymnast on the roster is a playmaker, no matter how many events they compete in.

“Every event has areas we want to focus on. We set goals after each meet of what we want to work on in the gym going forward to the next meet,” Nelson SEE RUTGERS PAGE 9

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