THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF PENNSYLVANIA
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014
VALENTINE’S LOVE NOTES >> PAGE 9-15 It is estimated that there are
1.3 million square feet of walkways
that FRES is responsible for clearing after each snow or ice storm
Animating Disney’s ‘Frozen’
LET IT SNOW (AGAIN) How much snow swept through campus since the beginning of the year?
Based on the square footage of walkways and an average snow density of 6.3 pounds per cubic foot,
Several Penn alumni helped imagine and produce the film
36 million pounds of snow equates to covering Franklin Field
FRES removed about
BY BOOKYUNG JO Staff Writer
(including end zones)
36
It’s easy to get lost in a crowd — even if you’re the star of the second most expensive film of all time. Rapunzel and Flynn Rider,
99.88 ft
million pounds of snow
deep in snow
characters from the 2010 Disney movie “Tangled” which cost an estimated 260 million dollars to make, are two of the the “hidden mickies” that Nadim Sinno and Tony Chai, Penn alumni and technical directors at Disney Animation Studios, hid in the new movie “Frozen.” Technical directors supervise the workflow among deSEE FROZEN PAGE 2
since January 2014
10 inches fell
4.4 ft
Wednesday night
There are more
than 40 FRES employees
who are responsible for handling all outside areas of campus
Total snowfall this season
Source: Penn Facilities and Real Estate Services Snowfall numbers from 6ABC and MyFoxPhilly
*Calculations are based on information as of January 21
© The Walt Disney Company Photo by Yolanda Chen and Graphic by Vivian Lee
As technical directors for “Frozen,” Penn alumni Nadim Sinno and Tony Chai coordinated inter-department workflows and were privy to hidden characters.
Hack an app (and a future) at PennApps
Successful past competitors have pursued programming careers after the hackathon BY GEORGE ROSA Contributing Writer
Hackers at PennApps this weekend will take home much more than $30,000 in prize money. For past winners, the hackathon’s 48 hours have gone a long way in defining their current careers. They claim that PennApps is more about the process than the result. For 2011 Wharton graduate Matt Newberg, PennApps was the “single best entrepreneurial opportunity” he had in college. He and his team
produced MeepMe, which won the Student Choice Award that year. The app enabled Penn students to text anonymously for the playful pursuit of friendships or romance. Newberg was able to “use the momentum” from that experience to found his app-based startup, which he now operates in New York. For 2012 Engineering graduate Kevin Conley, the hackathon is “more about having fun.” Conley’s team won the 2010 Student Choice Award for µWave, a microwave enabled with Youtube-playing, phonetexting and Twitter-posting capacity. Hackers “get sucked into the energy of the event,” Conley said. Varun Sampath, a 2012 Engineering graduate and Conley’s team
BY VICTORIA MOFFITT Staff Writer When he walked into Home Depot, he was hoping to get arrested. He had been incarcerated twice before, but only for about three months each time. “It wasn’t enough time for me,” he said. On Oct. 27, 2012, Jose took items off the shelves at Home Depot and put them in a bag, knowing that he would be apprehended. Retail theft was the minimum crime he could commit in order to go back to jail. “I had no choice but to put myself [in prison],” said Jose, whose last name is not included in this article to protect his privacy. Jose had struggled with opiate dependence for the past 15 years.
programmers, the gender ratio for previous competitions has been 7030 in favor of men, Mittal estimated. That disparity is a function of a gender gap in enrollment for relevant courses. Regardless, the hackers agreed that their craft has become more mainstream than ever in 2014. Sampath attributed the trend to the commercial success of technologies such as smartphones and tablets. “Many phones come bundled with development tools now,” Conley said. And many experienced members of the hacking community dedicate their hacking hours to making tools that facilitate entry for newcomers, he SEE FUTURE PAGE 8
Houses offer CAPS liaisons, encourage open door policies to support residents BY LAURA ANTHONY Deputy News Editor
Although he had stopped using heroin eight years ago, he was still addicted to methadone, a longerlasting, legal substance used as a substitute for heroin. But he worried that the emotional struggle of a complete detox would lead him back to heroin, so he decided that he needed to return to jail to get clean. “I told [the public defender], ‘I need some type of support system that can help me get back into society. I need someone to work with me and help me,’” Jose said. “Because I couldn’t do it alone.” He found that support system in the Goldring Re-entry Initiative, a program at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice. Since the 20112012 academic year, the GRI has paired students pursuing their master’s degree in social work with men and women who are incarcerated in
College graduate and CEO Rich Ross talked about how he was able to transition to and succed in the business world after majoring in English and International Relations at Penn.
In recent weeks, Penn has engaged in an active discussion about addressing mental health concerns on campus. College Houses are taking their own steps to make sure that residents feel supported at home. “We devote significant time in our weekly meetings to discussing not only how the residents in each House — including the RA and GA staffs — are coping with the recent tragedies but also how we as a department might contribute to the campus dialogue and any ideas to improve services and communications,” Associate Director of Communications for the College Houses Sue Smith said in an email. College houses have adopted a number of strategies, some independent and some collective, to make sure their students feel comfortable coming to house staff with concerns about themselves or friends. To engage students with R As and GAs, senior house staff and other residents, Ware, Riepe and several other houses have encouraged staff to keep their doors open so residents can feel free to reach out. Riepe College House Dean Marilynne Diggs-Thompson said that
SEE REENTRY PAGE 16
SEE ROSS PAGE 8
SEE HOUSES PAGE 7
SP2 works toward reentry instead of recidivism Goldring Reentry Initiative helps transition people released from Philadelphia prisons
member, noted that the final destination for his team’s winning app — like most apps — “was the trash.” Nonetheless, the rush of sheer joy and practical experience acquired in those 48 hours makes it worthwhile, the hackers said. PennApps participants are “really smart people driven to build things,” said Newberg. “In that dynamic, anything can happen.” Pulak Mittal, a two-year director of the contest and 2013 Engineering and Wharton graduate, agreed fully. PennApps attracts students from a wealth of backgrounds, he said, from those who study computer science to those who dabble in programming on the side. Despite outreach efforts for female
Houses support mental health
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An English major’s rise to CEO
Yolanda Chen/News Photo Editor
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