THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF PENNSYLVANIA
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2014
Helping a Hitchhiker through Hell The story behind one of Penn Compliments’ most popular posts and how a Penn student made a difference BY LAURA ANTHONY Deputy News Editor A text appeared on his phone from an unidentified number. “Someone’s famous on Penn Compliments.” Chris Chen , a junior in the College of Liberal and Professional Studies , remembers thinking, “I have no idea what this means.” When he saw
the post on Penn Compliments, an anonymously run Facebook page, in which he had been tagged, he understood who had texted him. Someone who identified himself as “The Hitchhiker” had submitted a long post, which got over 400 likes, to Penn Compliments describing Chen’s act of kindness. After surviving “a week of constant hitchhiking, homelessness, near-frostbite and utter confusion,” the complimenter wrote, Chen had offered him help. Chen realized the text must’ve been from a guy he met in Starbucks months earlier. In mid-March, he was sitting in Starbucks with a friend planning a mission trip to China with Grace
Covenant Church . A few tables away sat a distraught stranger. “He was getting off the phone, and it was very obvious that something happened, that something was wrong,” Chen said. “So I just turned around and asked if everything was alright.” This stranger was — and still is — very willing to describe the details of his experiences. He has told the story of a trip to Penn gone wrong to multiple friends, Penn Compliments, a counselor and a Penn student who commented on the post. Last week, he shared his story with The Daily
SEE HITCHHIKER PAGE 6
Photo Illustration by Yolanda Chen/News Photo Editor
Pres. commission issues report on voting practices The commission, co-chaired by a Penn alumnus, praised Pennsylvania for its training of election poll volunteers BY SAMUEL BYERS Staff Writer
Let it
The Presidential Commission on Election Administration, co-chaired by 1974 College graduate Benjamin Ginsberg, released a report on Wednesday about how to increase the efficiency of elections across the country. The commission was convened by President Barack Obama in March and tasked with finding ways of making the voting process easier, more streamlined and more accessible to Americans across the country. The report includes policy recommendations designed to help modernize the voter registration process, improve access to the polls on Election Day and standardize election practices in more than 8,000 jurisdictions across the country. It cites the large number of districts and high degree of local control in elections, oversight by partisan officials and the reliance of most polling places on volunteers with minimal formal training as key weaknesses of the American system of election management. In order to combat these deficiencies and address other weaknesses in the system, the report recommends that the federal government help finance the deployment of a new generation of voting machines. It also encourages states to both share voting registries to ensure that voters are not registered in more than one state and take steps to increase implementation of online voter registration. At the local level, the commission urges more and better training for Election Day volunteers, since they are the primary points of contact for most voters. Pennsylvania is part of a 29-state registry-sharing program and is cited in the report as an example of a state that does a good job training its volunteers. However, the Commonwealth is listed among states that rely heavily on in-person voter registration, contrary to the suggestions given by the report. The commission’s report also recommends increased access to early voting and voting by mail in order to decrease congestion at the polls on Election Day. Currently, Pennsylvania only allows residents to vote early if they will not be in the state on Election Day. The bipartisan commission, co-chaired by Ginsberg, a former Daily Pennsylvanian Editor-in-Chief who served as national counsel for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, and Robert Bauer, Obama’s former White House Counsel, included local and state election experts from across the country.
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SNOW While the snow fell and the University closed, students submitted their best Instagram photos to The Daily Pennsylvanian’s first snow day photo contest. Here are the best of the submissions and check underthebutton.com for the runners-up.
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