February 23, 2016 by The Daily Pennsylvanian

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2016

Penn professor testifies to Congress

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Michael Horowitz discussed advantages of military drone usage NISHANT UPENDER Staff Reporter

The insight of one Penn professor is helping inform the military decisions of the United States. Earlier this month, Michael Horowitz, Penn associate professor of political science and associate director of the Perry World House, delivered a testimony to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces. The congressional hearing, which plays into the determination of the federal budget, dealt with the role of the aircraft carrier in ensuring the superiority of the U.S. military’s naval power. Horowitz, who recently co-authored a paper about the consequences of drone proliferation, advocated for investment into the research and development of uninhabited aircraft and SEE DRONES PAGE 2

PENN ALUMS IN THE ACADEMY AWARDS PAGE 5

Conservatives struggle to find community on campus PATRICK ZANCOLLI Deputy News Editor

For conservative-identifying students at Penn, being in the minority is something they are familiar with. American universities, especially the Ivies, have a history of being generally more left-leaning political environments. For students who lean more to the right at Penn, this liberal political environment has various implications on their lives as college

students, especially for those who are heavily involved in the conservative dialogue on campus. “Penn as a whole I feel is very liberal, at least at the undergrad level ... but I also think that’s across all Ivy Leagues,” Wharton sophomore and former treasurer of the College Republicans Samantha Shea said. Shea, who is looking to join the Statesman, which is “the only conservative or right-leaning publication at the University of Pennsylvania,” according to its website, believes that the conservative community at Penn is a very small group that needs to be

mobilized. Searching for a place in the classroom For such a small population on campus, mobilization is an even bigger problem for conservatives who feel that their views are not fairly or accurately represented in the classroom. With a faculty reflective of the liberal majority at Penn, some conservative students feel that their political views have been challenged in classroom settings by students and faculty alike. After sitting in a class for the

SEE CONSERVATIVE PAGE 3

CHOP deemed one of safest hospitals in Phila. for baby heart surgeries

Penn was shocked to find a trans person who didn’t embrace the leftof-center identity politics popular with … LGBTQ activists.” - Alec Ward

An Inquirer study found high survival rates

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semester, although she cannot say for certain whether a professor is a Democrat or a Republican, Shea believes that students can oftentimes infer which way a professor leans. “It happened to me last year in my writing seminar class. I was one of three Republicans in the class, and you could definitely tell when the professor would argue your arguments a little more ... just because you were conservative.” While Shea emphasized that her grades were not affected by this gap, she said she was

COURTESY OF JEFFREY M. VINOCUR | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia stands among its peers in Philadelphia as the safest hospital for a baby to undergo risky heart surgery.

Located a stone’s throw away from Penn’s campus, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is one of the safest places for a baby to undergo risky heart surgery — far safer, it seems, than St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in North Philadelphia.

Both St. Christopher’s and CHOP perform difficult heart surgery on newborn babies. However a Philadelphia Inquirer report found that at St. Christopher’s, one in four babies who underwent this surgery died, which is three times the rate seen at CHOP. From 2009 to 2014, 29 out of 121 newborn babies — 24 percent — who underwent heart surgery at St. Christopher’s died. In that same time frame at SEE CHOP PAGE 5

SEPTA measures impact of suicide prevention program Program has placed signs in stations to prevent suicides CHARLOTTE LARACY Staff Reporter

There have been 66 deaths along SEPTA’s train, trolley and subway lines since 2011. Forty of these deaths have been ruled as suicides.

In 2014, SEPTA — whose stations near Penn provide easy transportation for students going home or traveling into the city — partnered with Montgomery County Emergency Service to install suicide prevention signs within its stations. It started as a pilot program at the Norristown Transportation Center. Currently, there are about 1,000 bold red, blue and black signs displaying a

suicide prevention lifeline number and website. At the bottom of the sign it says, “With help comes hope.” The last five years have seen a constant pattern of deaths and suicides on SEPTA’s transportation system, averaging 12.8 deaths and 7.6 suicides a year. Data from 2015 has fallen in line with this trend: There were 13 total deaths in 2015, and seven of them were ruled

suicides. Scott Sauer, SEPTA’s assistant general manager of system safety, says that it is very difficult to analyze these trends and to conduct a study on the data. “For one thing, they don’t happen that often,” Sauer said. “They are scattered over all different locations, SEE SEPTA PAGE 2

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Alum invests in Skedaddle app co-founded by rower John Chatzky only invests in athlete-run businesses BOWMAN COOPER Staff Reporter

When John Chatzky, a 1978 College graduate and angel investor, chooses which young entrepreneur to support, their college athletic prowess occasionally plays a large role. “I only invest in companies where rowers are the founders,” he said. “I have [a] greater degree of respect and faith and trust that rowers will succeed in business above the ordinary Joe.” His latest project is an app called Skedaddle — “the first crowdsourced transportation network” — according to its website. And one of its co-founders, of course, is a rower. “I’m looking for people who had a certain amount of drive and passion and excellence in the rowing world,” Chatzky said. “I want people that are going to

DRONES >> PAGE 1

next-generation munitions as ways to safeguard the supremacy of the Navy’s aircraft carriers. “The aircraft carrier is one of the most important, if not the most important, aspects of American power projection abroad,” Horowitz said. “That the United States has more and higher quality aircraft carriers than any other navy in the world has guaranteed American naval superiority since WWII.” Horowitz argues that challenges to the American aircraft carriers are arising from global adversaries like China and Russia, countries that are developing new ways to disable the ships, including anti-aircraft missiles and increasingly powerful submarines. One of the ways the U.S. military can reduce its vulnerability given these new trends is to create a “new generation of uninhabited aircraft,” or drones, so that these carriers can operate farther from dangerous waters.

transfer that energy and that drive into a business.” Through the app, users can either reserve seats on pre-set “public” routes to specific events or locations, or groups can order buses for “private” routes to a location of their choosing. Currently, Skedaddle operates out of New York City, Boston, D.C. and Philadelphia. The app was born out of necessity, CEO Adam Nestler said, who found that living in Boston without a car made it difficult to plan excursions outside of the city. Nestler’s co-founder, Brad Werntz, rowed as an undergraduate at Princeton. “Not having a car in the city meant moving around within the city was pretty easy,” he said. “But getting to locations that we wanted to travel to was really a big pain. We’d have to rent a car which is expensive, or we’d have to get a ride from a friend or piece together public transport, and what we really wanted was a solution where

“One of the advantages of drones is that your people aren’t at risk, which means you can fly them in theory in missions that are more dangerous,” Horowitz said. “One of the ways that the Navy could continue to project power is if it developed a nextgeneration drone that could launch from an aircraft carrier and be able to make it into what experts call ‘contested airspace,’ airspace where people are firing at you.” Drones have been the subject of much debate in recent years, with many prominent Americans like Heems, of the band Das Racist, voicing concerns about the ethical implications of these unmanned strikes, which have killed hundreds of civilians in the tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Popular television shows like “Homeland” dramatize these incidents, allowing Americans to visualize to some extent what the carnage might look like. Horowitz finds that a focus on the “evil” of drones obfuscates the reality of warfare, where collateral damage is an unfortunate

we could ... aggregate people that were traveling to the same places at the same times.” When Skedaddle started in summer 2015, it exclusively featured public routes to specific events and destinations, but it soon expanded to allow for private, customizable routes. “Now we have routes going everywhere,” Nestler said. The app is especially conducive for student groups and other organizations that might take trips to events or locations away from campus. “If you’re in a club or a social organization, a fraternity or a sorority, and you and twenty or thirty or a hundred people want to travel somewhere or go to a formal or something,” Nestler said, “you can now with a few taps on your phone get the price immediately, split the payment with everybody else in the organization and the bus will just show up and you’ll be done.” Since its founding, Skedaddle

guarantee. Horowitz says that these drones strikes actually have the potential to greatly decrease civilian casualties, as the level of reconnaissance they provide ensures a more informed strike than the average ground team mission. “I think it’s important to separate the policy of targeted killing from the means that a country uses to do targeted killing,” he said. “The drone actually gives you a better ability to reduce civilian casualties than any other weapon. The reason is that if you can do surveillance over a target for a week, then in theory you can learn about the patterns of a given village. Drones actually let you target more precisely, in some ways, than other systems.” Ultimately, Horowitz was pleased to be able to translate his academic research at Penn into a national security purpose. “It was a great honor to testify in front of Congress,” he said. “I hope that my testimony provided useful information to help Congress work with the Navy to ensure the U.S. military remains a global power.”

has grown an extraordinary amount — transporting over 45,000 people from Boston and New York City alone. Chatzky has been thrilled by the app’s spurt in popularity. “It’s staggering,” he said. “It’s beyond my wildest expectations.” As a student at Penn, Chatzky walked on to the rowing team as a coxswain, which turned out to be what he considers the best thing he has ever done. His dedication to rowing did not end in college, however. “Now that I’m an old fart — I’m 59 — and I’m in a position to give back,” Chatzky said, “among my priorities for giving back are Penn Rowing and U.S. Rowing.” Chatzky has also worked in real estate, but that field of work did not excite him like angel investing does. “When I sit with a young man or a young woman ... with a dream, willing to work 80 hours a week to make that dream come true,” he said, “it’s unbelievably fulfilling.”

SEPTA

>> PAGE 1

different times a year and different demographics, so it’s very difficult to show if we are reducing suicides because it happens so infrequently.” New Jersey Transit was one of the first regional rail lines to post suicide hotline signs at all of its railway stations. Jeff Kessler, executive chair of SEPTA Youth Advisory Council and Wharton and Engineering senior, says it was wise for SEPTA to follow New Jersey Transit in putting up suicide prevention signs. “I think having signs that are prominent and featuring phone numbers and information on where you can get help are useful,” Kessler said. “To have the signs anywhere possible shows SEPTA’s commitment to suicide prevention.”

KATIE ZHAO | ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

College alum John Chatzky invested in the Skeddadle app, which is “the first crowdsourced transportation network,” according to its website.

SEPTA’s transit police officers are trained in identification and mitigation when people are identified as intending to commit suicide. The officers are taught how to properly intervene in those situations. In the future, transportation supervisors will also hopefully be trained on how to identify potential suicides so they can report them to authorities. Some experts believe that the best plan to prevent intentional deaths by locomotive would be to build fences to keep people off the tracks. Newer train stations in London and Tokyo have built walls dividing platforms from trains, and glass doors that slide open when the train has stopped, similar to U.S. airport rail lines. However, Sauer is skeptical that this would work for SEPTA’s regional and local rail lines. “When you look at the MarketFrankford Line and the Broad

Street Line, which are completely segregated from the public, you still see suicides and attempted suicides on those lines,” Sauer said. Train-related suicides are a national problem. According to the Federal Railway Association, from January through November 2015, there were 220 suicides by locomotive. As of now, SEPTA will continue to take an education and outreach approach to try to deal with this problem. “From the operation standpoint, it is difficult to predict when these events will occur so the approach that we have tried to take is to educate anyone and everyone on the dangers of being on the train tracks,” Sauer said. “More specifically for those who intend to harm themselves, through the campaign with the prevention signs, we have tried to enlighten folks that there is help and give them someone to talk to.”

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Penn students start college-ranking organization Wonk Tank evaluates economic returns of colleges GAJAAN SITTAMBALAM Contributing Reporter

Penn is the third best school in the Ivy Plus group — at least based on one new ranking system. Wonk Tank, the first student-led research organization through the Penn Wharton Public Policy Initiative, gave Penn its third-place ranking based on post-graduation economic returns. In addition to publishing several blog posts each week that revolve around economics and public policy, the group devotes each semester to an extensive research project that is published through Penn Wharton PPI. Last semester, College junior Shane Murphy, College and Wharton

CONSERVATIVE >> PAGE 1

for variables such as SAT score, gender, age, ethnicity, major choice and state. After accounting for additional loan repayment and unemployment rates, the team was able to estimate the median incomes of college graduates from various schools. They found the difference between the median income predicted by the model and the actual incomes of graduates and used this number to represent the monetary value a particular college added to a graduate’s salary. “I like these projects because it’s a really good way for students to get involved in very legitimate research as undergraduates and in research that is student-led,” Murphy said. Nimgaonkar said that though ranking a college usually involves many variables, the purpose of focusing on economic

benefits of colleges was to give a better sense of where students can benefit most from outside funding. A downside to looking at colleges through an economic lens is the lack of standardization, because some careers have a limited earning capacity and certain schools specialize in trades that happen to be profitable right now, he said. Managing Director for Penn Wharton PPI Andrew Coopersmith said the project tied together Penn Wharton PPI’s goals and student extracurricular opportunities. “Is there a way to develop a student organization that contributes to the research mission of PPI while giving students a different type of club?” he asked. Apart from its major research projects, Wonk Tank also maintains a blog about current pubic policy issues.

have mixed reviews of certain classes, for political science professor Marc Meredith, facilitating good discussion in his Introduction to American Politics class is very important in making sure that students of all political affiliations feel welcome. “We have a discussion on the first day of class to respect others’ views,” Meredith said. Meredith acknowledged that at Penn, conservative students are in the minority, and as a result are less likely to speak their views in class. Because of this, he instructs his TAs in recitation sections to encourage students to acknowledge opposing viewpoints and argue the merits of these arguments. “One of my goals is to do the best that I can to acknowledge my own biases to the class, but I also try to present things as neutral as possible,” Meredith said.

at 56.8 percent. Four hundred forty-three students likely to vote answered this question.” “Wharton, they are more conservative than the College in my opinion ... to me, I would just rationalize it by its business, and a lot of people who are Republican, at least why I am Republican, is for the business stance,” Shea said. However, while students believe that as a whole Wharton is stereotypically more conservative than the College, they notice a spectrum of different political beliefs in the more liberal College, potentially correlated with a student’s course of study. “I think the programs of study reveal a lot about the orientation of the students or the person who is involved. Obviously, Wharton being the business school has more affinity to conservative ideas that revolve around the free market,” Menon said. “I think you can also look at what people study in the College as well ... You can look at the major and tell what the orientation of the individual may be based off of what they study,” he added. Menon cited majors such as sociology as having quite a liberal basis, meanwhile he, with his experience as a history major, believes that those who study history are more receptive to ideas of conservatism.

Liberal students in Wharton are faced with another interesting dynamic. “A lot of the conservatives I have spoken to on campus are intelligent conservatives,” Wharton senior Matthew Caulfield, who identifies as a “die-hard liberal,” said, discussing the interactions he deals with each day as part of his Wharton education as a liberal. “I think its so cool to be liberal but be confronted with conservative ideas that are different than the mainstream media as part of my Wharton education,” Caulfield said. Although Caulfield agrees that Wharton is more conservative than the College as a group, he feels that his school is also apolitical in a sense, noting that not many “Whartonites are involved with political groups on campus.”

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Young America’s Foundation. Also known as YAF, the foundation is “the principle outreach organization of the Conservative movement,” according to its website. However, her work with YAF prompted Shea to ask the question, “Why don’t we have these things at this campus?” Unlike other college campuses, where YAF and other strong conservative organizations are more present, Shea was frustrated by the lengths she had to go to in order to find funding and support for conservatism at Penn. “I feel that we do not have these things at this university because there are not enough students to take part, and when there is, no one wants to do anything,” Shea said, expressing dissatisfaction with the lack of unity in the conservative movement at Penn. “There’s not enough things to do on this campus. There’s not enough spark in the conservatives here. You need a spark. You need something. This campus needs a spark to make the conservatives be a part of it,” Shea said.

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Government and Politics Association because he felt that “the political environment at Penn was not active enough in terms of promoting civic and political action, but also because we didn’t believe it was balanced enough and didn’t allow people to represent all of the views of people on campus.” Menon now feels optimistic about how the political environment at Penn has changed since he founded the GPA and how it might change in the future. “I think that people seem to forget that a university is a place where the change of ideas is at the very heart of what we do,” Menon said, “I’m very optimistic about the direction we are headed in at this university.” But other conservatives feel that while these changes have facilitated greater dialogue, the conservative community on campus remains disorganized and divided. During her involvement with the College Republicans, Shea secured $20,000 for the College Republicans through the

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Last semester, three Penn students launched a research-based organization called Wonk Tank in conjunction with the Penn Wharton PPI.

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Lacking a spark Discussions of inclusion on campus for conservatives extend well beyond the classroom. In 2012, Menon created the

Spectrums across schools Although within the entire underg raduate com mun ity conservative students are the minority, the disparity is not the same within the various undergraduate schools. According to a 2012 Daily Pennsylvanian poll, “of the four undergraduate schools, Wharton had the highest portion of likely Republican voters at 30.1 percent. The College had the highest percent of likely Democratic voters

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instead forced to “think deeper.” “You could definitely tell the professor was more left-leaning than right-leaning,” Shea said. College senior and former president of the College Republicans Will Cassidy feels that as a mathematical economics major, his classes generally “have not a general political overtone,” but that he has had negative experiences with several classes outside of his major. “I had this anthropology class last semester with a TA who I liked personally, but he was just so far to the left that it was kind of funny,” Cassidy said. “If they are so overtly political, where you just feel like on the first day that they’re trying to shove a political viewpoint down your throat, I typically just drop the class.” While Cassidy ultimately decided to remain in the class for the rest of the semester, he noted that the TA’s commentary in class was often biased to the point of making Cassidy uncomfortable. As a history major, College senior Varun Menon believes that although there are members of the department who identify strongly either left or right, he has had “really good experience with professors facilitating good dialogue,” Menon said. Though conservative students

senior Vivek Nimgaonkar and College freshman Kailash Sundaram — who is an associate copy editor at The Daily Pennsylvanian — started Wonk Tank. “The premise behind the Wonk Tank idea is to give students a platform to do public policy research and to be like a student think tank,” Nimgaonkar said. The idea for Wonk Tank’s first project was sparked by the students’ interest in creating a statistical evaluation of the economic returns of various colleges. In this project, they explored the economic returns of over 1,100 colleges and universities across the United States. They then ranked them based on the median amount of disposable income that alumni had at the age of 28, approximately 10 years after entering college. The team’s model controlled

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OPINION A cliche culture growing pains | And the cliche of writing about it, too

Tuesday, FEBRUARY 23, 2016 VOL. CXXXII, NO. 21 132nd Year of Publication COLIN HENDERSON President LAUREN FEINER Editor-in-Chief ANDREW FISCHER Director of Online Projects BRIELLA MEGLIO Director of Internal Consulting ISABEL KIM Opinion Editor JESSICA MCDOWELL Enterprise Editor DAN SPINELLI City News Editor CAROLINE SIMON Campus News Editor ELLIE SCHROEDER Assignments Editor LUCIEN WANG Copy Editor SUNNY CHEN Copy Editor NICK BUCHTA Senior Sports Editor TOM NOWLAN Sports Editor LAINE HIGGINS Sports Editor TOMMY ROTHMAN Sports Editor JOYCE VARMA Creative Director

Every week in my creative writing class, the most common critique of people’s writing has been that it is too cliche. When I wrote my first short story assignment, I was careful to not include any cliches in any aspect of the story, whether in regard to the phrasing, the plot or the characters. I turned it in with bated breath, hoping that the other students in the class would find my writing fresh and novel. Yet when the time came for criticism, the comments I got the most often went something like this: “That simile is cliche.” “It’s so cliche that that character would say that.” I looked back at the sections they’d pointed out and realized that they were right. What I had thought was new and exciting was actually a comparison that had been made a million times before, or a line of dialogue that had been printed in every story ever written about a slightly angsty teenage protagonist. And it struck me then just

how hard it is to not be cliche — how hard it is to find new and original ways of expression. We have arrived at a time where expression is a commodity. Expression — the different ways in which we represent ourselves on different platforms — is produced and consumed on mass scales and it is constantly being replaced. There are always “new stories” to scroll through on Facebook. There are always new snap stories to watch on Snapchat. There are always new breaking news stories on CNN. There are always new topics that are trending. There is always another person to swipe past on Tinder. You can always refresh whatever internet page you’re on, and something new will come up. With all of this influx of information, faces, words, pictures, stories, videos, articles, how does anything stand out as novel? How is anything not cliche? Is it even possible to say something in a way that it

hasn’t been said before? As it gets harder to find meaningful and original ways of expression, and as we compete for the attention of an audience that is increasingly dismissive and distracted due to the sheer amount of constantly circulating information, we have to resort to more and more drastic means in order to get noticed. And thus we get magazine

VMAs. We get endless songs about shaking booties and putting one’s drinks up with provocative videos and catchy beats attempting to mask meaningless, repetitive lyrics. There is a certain irony in that as the number of channels for expression increases, the quality and meaningfulness of that expression seems to decrease. This is due to the fact that

This is the danger of a viral culture: It wipes itself out. ”

covers like the one of Kim Kardashian that “broke the Internet.” We get political scandals like that of Anthony Weiner. We get performances like that of Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus at the 2013

our culture of expression has become simultaneously more banal and more sensationalist — we are communicating more often even though we have less to say. Since when did it become interesting

to send a Snapchat to your friends of the Chipotle burrito you ate for lunch with the caption “Guess what I ate for lunch?” Is it really even necessary to communicate that? In choosing to document everything, everything becomes cliche. Even things considered to be sensational or scandalous — the things that almost have to be sensational in order to break through the ceaseless tides of cat videos and photos of food and status updates — are only sensational momentarily, before they are replaced, effaced, supplanted by something even more outrageous. This is the danger of a viral culture: It wipes itself out. Of course, the irony of all of this is that it has become rather cliche to write about how our culture of expression is cliche. After all, it’s all been said before. Ad nauseum. This is just another article about the consequences of mass media, of sensationalism, of the banality of compulsively scrolling

EMILY HOEVEN through various social media accounts, yet this article will probably be something you come across while scrolling through one of your various social media accounts. In fact, I’m probably going to post it on my own social media account. It’s cliche, and contradictory, but it’s also pragmatic: How else does anyone share their perspectives anymore? EMILY HOEVEN is a College sophomore from Fremont, Calif., studying English. Her email address is ehoeven@ sas.upenn.edu. “Growing Pains” appears every other Tuesday.

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THIS ISSUE CANDY ALFARO Social Media Staff JEFFREY CARYEVA Social Media Staff

CLAUDIA LI is a College sophomore from Santa Clara, Calif. Her email is claudli@sas.upenn.edu.

KENEALLY PHELAN Social Media Staff NELSON DONG Social Media Staff

Heretic in heels

IRINA BIT-BABIK Associate Photo Editor PAT GOODRIDGE Associate Photo Editor JIANING WANG Associate Copy Editor

FAIR ENOUGH | Caitlyn Jenner’s conservatism shouldn’t make her a pariah to activists

HARRY TRUSTMAN Associate Copy Editor AMANDA GEISER Associate Copy Editor JEN KOPP Associate Copy Editor STEVE SHIN Associate Copy Editor ANNA GARSON Associate Copy Editor STEVE SHIN Associate Copy Editor MATT FINE Associate Sports Editor JACOB ADLER Associate Sports Editor COLE JACOBSON Associate Sports Editor GRACE ARNOLD Associate Design Editor CAROLINE LU Associate Design Editor

letters Have your own opinion? Send your letter to the editor or guest column to letters@thedp.com. Unsigned editorials appearing on this page represent the opinion of The Daily Pennsylvanian as determined by the majority of the Editorial Board. All other columns, letters and artwork represent the opinion of their authors and are not necessarily representative of the DP’s position.

At Caitlyn Jenner’s speech last Wednesday evening, once the question and answer session began, I didn’t have to wait long for the question I’d come to Irvine expecting to hear. The first pre-screened audience inquisitor let it fly, asking whether Jenner, who has in the past been an outspoken Republican, finds herself more sympathetic to the Democratic Party in light of her experience of coming out publicly as transgender. “Oh man,” said Jenner, “Here we go.” She began by acknowledging that the Democratic Party was “better” on LGBTQ issues than the Republican Party. But, she made clear, her economic politics meant her party affiliation was unchanged, before launching into what could have passed for a Ronald Reagan elevator pitch, stumping for lower corporate taxes, entitlement reform and a balanced budget, among other things. The effect these pronouncements had on the audience was nothing short of electric. The ambient noise level in the room rose

sharply as students throughout the auditorium turned to their neighbors and began to mutter disapprovingly. Jenner wasn’t being booed, but the message was equally clear. The audience did not approve. The whole disruption lasted perhaps 20 seconds, but it spoke volumes. Despite her protestations that she is only “a spokesman for [her] own story,” Penn was shocked to find a trans person who didn’t embrace the left-of-center identity politics popular with selfdescribed “intersectional” campus LGBTQ activists. Her unapologetic rebuttal of these politics seemed to arouse a special sort of anger among students who do sympathize with that strand of activism. “Many poor trans women of color rely on welfare because of employment discrimination, discrimination that is enacted and supported by bigoted conservatives,” one student said in a Facebook post in which he pronounced himself “very disappointed” with Jenner’s speech. “I feel like if [the

Republican party is] not going to support who she is, I don’t see why she should support them,” Wharton freshman Chrissy Walker told The Daily Pennsylvanian news team. “At this point, it’s not really up to her [whether she’s a spokesperson], what is up to her is how she wants to use that platform and how she wants to use that to the betterment

regardless of her other beliefs, to share their politics. To them, that she does not is only explicable by ignorance — “she has a responsibility to educate herself,” patronized College sophomore Jacob Gardenswartz — or by some other blindness to the truth of what is really best for transgender people. That she could fully understand her own identity

Penn was shocked to find a trans person who didn’t embrace the left-of-center identity politics popular with self-described “intersectional” campus LGBTQ activists.” of the entire community.” The implication here is pretty clear. As a trans person with a public platform, those on campus who fancy themselves on the side of transgender equality seem to believe Jenner is obliged,

and the concerns of those who share it while still holding conservative values, it seems, is not a possibility that those on campus who claim to speak for trans equality can accept. This is a serious flaw in

an ideological framework that claims to champion the rights of those oppressed for their nonconformity. In any identity-based community, whether a sexual, racial or any other ascriptive minority, there is bound to be a diversity of views regarding what political outcomes best serve the interests of that group. To hear Jenner tell it, a thriving economy unburdened by national debt is a trans issue in itself. “I want every trans person to have a job,” she told 1976 College graduate Buzz Bissinger. While that might not align with what the most vocal members of the trans community believe, an activist movement that claims to stand for the inclusion of trans people above all cannot simply dismiss trans people who hold such views as ignorant while keeping its credibility as being committed to real inclusion. Placing a political litmus test on “good standing” in any community that has real gains to make toward achieving social acceptance and equality is flatly counterproductive.

Alec Ward Any marginalized group stands to gain from bipartisan support, and any social movement stands to benefit from ideological diversity within its ranks. Internal disagreement and debate make such movements stronger, not weaker. If they want to stand for the rights and equality of identity groups, social justice progressivism needs a better name for dissenting voices within those communities than “heretic.” ALEC WARD is a College junior from Washington, D.C., studying history. His email address is alecward@sas. upenn.edu. Follow him on Twitter @TalkBackWard. “Fair Enough,” formerly “Talking Backward,” usually appears every Wednesday.

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

NEWS 5

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2016

Penn hosts first-ever college health symposium Symposium featured around 100 health clubs KATHLEEN HARWOOD Staff Reporter

For the first time, the Penn Undergraduate Health Coalition brought together Philadelphia universities for a day of panels and workshops that focused on health issues at colleges. PUHC, the umbrella organization for undergraduate student health groups, has been working on bringing the event, called the Philadelphia Undergraduate Health Symposium, to fruition for several months. The event aimed to allow representatives from local schools — including Temple, Drexel, Haverford, Villanova, La Salle and University of the Sciences — to come together to learn about how to improve health

education and discuss common concerns. The event included two separate keynote panels, as well as two breakout sessions during which students came together to share their ideas. The morning panel featured Ryan Coffman, a program manager for the Tobacco Policy and Control Program in the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and Dr. Frank Leone, a pulmonologist and director of smoking treatment programs at Penn. The pair discussed how to lessen smoking on college campuses. In the following breakout session, student participants examined how they might address the problem. The afternoon panel included Dr. Giang Nguyen, Executive Director of Penn Student Health Service, and Dr. Michal Saraf,

Deputy Director of Counseling and Psychological Services, who discussed what SHS and CAPS services offer to Penn students. In the following breakout session, student participants shared how their specific health clubs spread awareness and raise funds. Around 100 health clubs attended the event, with around 40 percent from Penn. Through their conversations they uncovered many similarities, although certain organizations place more focus on varying aspects of wellness — for instance, mental health versus sleep and diet. Stephen Cho, College and Wharton sophomore, serves as the vice chair of external relations for PUHC and was the curator and executive director of the symposium. “I think this Symposium can function as a springboard for facilitating more cooperation

Penn presence at Oscars

Two Penn alumni worked on nominated films JOSH OGUNYELE Contributing Reporter

Amid a myriad of cinematic superstars, respected directors and critically acclaimed films, two Penn alumni look to add a few Oscars to their trophy cases at this year’s 88th annual Academy Awards. 1979 College graduate Marc Platt and 1982 College graduate Stacey Snider both worked on films nominated for Oscars. Platt, a Penn Glee Club alum, is a co-producer of ”Bridge of Spies,” the 2015 blockbuster historical thriller directed by Steven Spielberg. As co-chair of 20th Century Fox, Snider did not directly work on the production of ”The Revenant” or ”The Martian,” but she will nonetheless add these to her list of successful films. “Bridge of Spies” is up for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. The film has grossed $164.1 million worldwide and garnered immense praise. Starring Tom Hanks as James Donovan and set in Cold War era Berlin, the film follows the story of a New York lawyer recruited by the CIA to negotiate

the liberation of an American spy plane pilot intercepted by Soviet forces. Both ”The Martian” and ”The Revenant” are competing for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and their leading men are vying for the title of Best Actor. In ”The Revenant,” Leonardo DiCaprio looks to end his Oscar drought with his gritty depiction of an American frontiersman and fur trapper. In ”The Martian,” Matt Damon stars as a NASA scientist stranded on Mars. “Leo expressed human emotion in a way that I had never seen in a movie before,” College freshman Evan Zou , who has seen the movie, said. Platt and Snider both been active in the Penn community. Cinema studies professor Timothy Corrigan said the two have been terrific supporters of Penn’s Cinema Studies Program and have done admirable work in the film industry. Platt and his wife — whom he met at Penn — funded the construction of the Platt Student Performing Arts House. Opened for students in 2006, Platt is used as a rehearsal space for students seeking to hone their artistic talents. Marc donated the funding for the building because he felt it was necessary to have a space for

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the performing arts on campus. Snider comes to campus to talk to Penn students about the business of movie making and has been a part of numerous conferences that educate students who aspire to work in Hollywood. She most recently came to campus in October to engage in a sold-out question and answer session that followed an advanced screening of ”The Martian.” Corrigan said the most remarkable aspect of Platt and Snider’s characters is their absolute willingness to give back to the Penn community and engage with students.

between schools for sure,” he said. “It makes so much sense for us to develop a space where we can discuss common campus health priorities as a ubiquitous part of higher education.” Vice Chair of Internal Relations Eileen Wang, a College senior, agreed that the conference was extremely productive, bridging the gap between various schools. “Gauging from the discussions I sat in on and participated in, people were really, really into it,” she said. “In particular, talking to people from other campuses was very beneficial — there was a lot of comparing and contrasting of our different environments.” In the future, PUHC hopes to expand the Symposium to include other Ivy League schools, as well as more schools in the Philadelphia region in an annual tradition of collaboration.

CHOP

>> PAGE 1

CHOP, 67 out of 784 newborns — 8.5 percent — who underwent the surgery died. Though CHOP is formally unaffiliated with Penn, its main building is located on the southeastern part of campus and some of its physicians serve as members of the pediatrics department at the Perelman School of Medicine. A follow-up Inquirer report found that St. Christopher’s completed only 50-60 open heart surgeries a year that use the heartbypass machine. On the other hand, CHOP completes nearly 10 times as many surgeries each year. The Inquirer’s study was prompted by St. Christopher’s failure to participate in a statewide evaluation of its heart surgery

BRIANNA RAPOSO | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Penn Undergraduate Health Coalition hosted a symposium that involved local Philadelphia schools as well as healthcare professionals.

program. St. Christopher’s was the only hospital, out of six participating hospitals in Pennsylvania and Delaware, to decline. When asked about the issue, CHOP said in a statement, “From before birth through adulthood, the Cardiac Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia provides top-rated cardiac care. Our team is one of the largest and most accomplished in the world, and each member is specially trained to care for children with congenital and acquired heart conditions.” The statement went on to praise CHOP’s surgical equipment and its esteemed cardiac surgeons who “perform more than 1,000 cardiac and thoracic operations per year, with outcomes among the best.”

In response to the Inquirer’s report, St. Christopher’s issued the following statement: “While we are making progress growing our volumes and improving our performance, we are undertaking a comprehensive review of our cardiovascular surgery program.” When responding to the study, St Christopher’s mentioned a decrease in its mortality rate over the past four years but did not provide data for newborns alone. In 2012, a former employee at St. Christopher’s filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the hospital. The lawsuit claimed that ten of the hospital’s heart-surgery patients died or suffered complications from April 2007 to April 2009. The suit is still pending.

Penn undergraduates can now sub-matriculate into the Masters of Science in Nonprofit Leadership (NPL) at Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice. The NPL program seeks talented students passionate about transforming and leading in the nonprofit and social impact sectors. This new submatriculation option allows students to earn a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in 4.5 years.

For more information, come to an info session in Caster D27 on February 24 at 4pm. Questions? Contact Adam Roth-Saks at adamsaks@sp2.upenn.edu.

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Nominations are open for current ITAs and ITA managers who go “above and beyond the call of duty” in providing timely, friendly and successful support for all the residents of the House they serve. See the website below for more information about the Outstanding ITA of the Year award, how to nominate your lifesaver, and about opportunities in 2016 to join Penn’s very own league of superheroes.

www.collegehouses.upenn.edu/ITA Penn’s ITA staff is trained to help College House residents resolve technology challenges, whether they hit while you’re working in your House lab or while your laptop is frustrating you in your room. Your College House has a team of experienced computer troubleshooters who are ready to come to the rescue.

SAVING YOUR LIFE

6 SPORTS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2016

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Tan a finalist for distinguished individual honor W. SQUASH | Senior is a

meeting to vote on the eventual winner of the Richey Award. Both players and coaches will vote. If the words of her fellow players and coaches are any indication, Tan is a favorite for the award. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Off court, Xinny maintains friendships with both teammates and opponents, always greeting them with a smile,â&#x20AC;? head coach Jack Wyant said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;On court, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a ferocious competitor who always demonstrates complete respect for the rules.â&#x20AC;? There will be some stiff competition in New Haven to bring home the individual award. Fellow finalists Kanzy El-Defrawy of Trinity and Anna Gabriela Porras of George Washington have also been indispensable parts of their teamsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; respective successes. Associate head coach Gilly Lane has experience being in a similar situation, capturing the Skillman Award as a senior in 2006. While both Lane and Tan were nominated for the top awards in college squash for their respective genders, Lane said the similarities stop there. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s definitely been more decorated,â&#x20AC;? Lane added. â&#x20AC;&#x153;[Tan]â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the poster child for what it means to be a successful squash player here at Penn.â&#x20AC;? With an Ivy League Rookie of the Year award, an Ivy championship, three All-American selections, a nomination as (at least) a finalist for the Richey

Richey Award finalist COREY HENRY

award, and the chance to bring home a national championship, Tan has compiled one of the most successful careers in Penn squash history. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Most people dream of only getting one in four years,â&#x20AC;? Lane said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a testament to how hard sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worked and who she is as a person.â&#x20AC;? During her four-year stint in Philadelphia, the Malaysian nativeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team has beaten every school it has faced at least once, while only dropping 11 total matches since the 2012-13 season. Key to the Red and Blueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success these past four years has been the seniorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s consistent performance at the top of the ladder. Tan has undergone her own transformation during her four years as a Quaker. From her rise from freshman to senior co-captain, the old adage about putting the team over oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s self became prevalent in her approach to the game. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As the years progressed, I cared less about my individual performance,â&#x20AC;? Tan said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That has changed from when I was a freshman.â&#x20AC;? In the midst of one of the best eras in Penn womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s squash history, just three wins separate the team from the elusive Howe Cup trophy. The road to the championship will be littered with national powerhouses, but with Yan Xin Tan leading the way, the path looks a little less daunting.

Only 3 locations left for June 1, 2016

Sports Reporter

Runa Reta. Katie Patrick. Lissa Hunsicker. Come Sunday, senior squash co-captain Yan Xin Tan hopes to add her name to the list above as just the fourth Richey Award winner in Pennâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history. The award, given out by the College Squash Association, â&#x20AC;&#x153;is given annually to the womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s college squash player who best exemplifies the ideals of squash in her love of and devotion to the game, her strong sense of fairness, and her excellence of play and leadership.â&#x20AC;? The award was created in 1984 and has been given to some of the most talented women to ever compete on the collegiate level. Last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s winner, Amanda Sobhy of Harvard, now occupies the No. 8 slot in the latest world squash rankings. And now, one of Pennâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very own is a finalist for the honor. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I always thought it was cool to be nominated so it was exciting news,â&#x20AC;? Tan said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a huge confidence boost going into nationals.â&#x20AC;? As both the top menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s squash programs begin the chase for a national championship, the teams will also be

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It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a clean sweep, but it was pretty close. In its first action since a busy weekend where the team went 1-2 against three ranked Ivy squads at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, Penn menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tennis rebounded swiftly with a 6-1 defeat of New Mexico. â&#x20AC;&#x153;[It was] one of our best overall performances of the year, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re healthy, and coming on. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to be good, barring injuries,â&#x20AC;? Penn coach David Geatz, who played and coached for New Mexico, said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good team, too. Their record doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t reflect it, but they beat us easily last year and were one of the top 40 teams in the country.â&#x20AC;? In doubles action, the Quakers (4-6) fell one win short of the doubles point and a sweep of all seven points. While senior Austin Kaplan and sophomore Nicholai Westergaard posted a victory from the top doubles seed over Hayden Sabatka and Bart Van Leijsen on a tiebreaker, the Lobos topped juniors Matt Nardella and Thomas Spratt, 6-4, and freshmen Kyle Mautner and Dmitry Shatalin fell in the tiebreaker. For the first time since Jan. 16 against Navy, however, Penn swept all six singles matches. Only Mautner required a third set to knock off his Lobo counterpart at the top of the ladder. Regarding Mautner, his star

ALEX FISHER | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Coaching against his alma mater and the team he used to coach, Penn menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tennisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; David Geatz was victorious on Saturday, 6-1.

rookie, Geatz had nothing but praise for the Greenwich, Conn., native who took down reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Dovydas Sakinis on Feb. 12. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mautner is a freshman and maybe heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the best guy in the Ivy League, or at least comes up in the discussion,â&#x20AC;? he said. Geatz noted that while Mautner has been stellar at the one, the return of senior captain Vim De Alwis has made the team even more stacked at the top. On Saturday, De Alwis won his fourth consecutive singles match, 6-4, 6-2, over Van Leijsen. â&#x20AC;&#x153;De Alwis is playing unbelievable tennis. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chewing people and doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t lose more than six games a match,â&#x20AC;? Geatz said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He might be the hottest player in the Ivy League right now.â&#x20AC;? Penn State visits the Hecht Tennis Center to face the Red and Blue next Sunday, which will be Pennâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s last live action on

campus before its spring break trips to Colorado and California. Geatz said the team is taking things one step at a time, though. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The guys always look forward to spring break. They have a good time, they train hard, they face some very good competition,â&#x20AC;? Geatz said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But I think the guys are looking at the opportunity to play Penn State. This is their best team since that coach has been there, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going to be a really good match.â&#x20AC;? With the team now healthy and some solid wins under its belt, Geatz prediction may yet be borne out. Perhaps most importantly, the Quakers remain undefeated at home, so the confines of the Hecht Tennis Center will be invaluable in the coming weekend. Regardless, with composure like that seen on Saturday, Geatz could be able to rest easily when the Nittany Lions come to town.

attributes, the freshman still has work to do in order to become elite. His dream, after all, is to compete professionally after college. The Greenwich, Conn., native and Rafael Nadal enthusiast has a large frame built for a star tennis player, but has yet to fill it. As De Alwis explained, he may be a tough, smart player, but he is not yet a star athlete. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s working hard to become a better athlete by going to the gym and working on his speed,â&#x20AC;? De Alwis said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a big lefty. Having that left-handed spin is a huge advantage, and he uses that really well. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really tough on the court and a smart player. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think mentally, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s there,â&#x20AC;? De Alwis continued. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Maybe the one thing thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s holding him back is his physical attributes. But he knows that, and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s working really hard

on that. If he can improve that part of his game, he can be a tremendous player.â&#x20AC;? As the season progresses and as he seeks a trip to the NCAA national championship, Mautner is certainly going to work on growing into his frame and becoming a great athlete, but balancing fitness and keeping up performance levels mid-season can be difficult, so any great progress in physicality will likely be made in the offseason leading up to his sophomore year. Then, however, the sky is the limit. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gonna be great,â&#x20AC;? Geatz said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He already is great! Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be hard for me to say who the best player in the Ivy League is, but Kyle is right up there, and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only a freshman. The kid is committed. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s getting better. He could be one of the best players whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ever played at Penn.â&#x20AC;?

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Penn wins again at home dominate New Mexico

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job done. I really focus on trying to play aggressive, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s working out really well.â&#x20AC;? Tenacity like Mautnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is hard to find, as Geatz explained. Tam captain Vim De Alwis shared similar praise. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He comes to practice and works hard every day,â&#x20AC;? De Alwis said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ultra-competitive â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I mean, he never wants to lose. I think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so successful as a freshman playing in the No. 1 spot. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Opponents know that they have to go to war to beat this guy,â&#x20AC;? the captain continued, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s awesome to know that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a guy like that on our side. It helps the whole team work harder in practice.â&#x20AC;? While Mautnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s coach and teammates alike have hailed his next-level

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

SPORTS 7

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2016

One final bout at home in rescheduled Philly Invite

FENCING | Men’s squad

undefeated, women 6-3

CASS DINH Sports Reporter

It was a bittersweet few days for the Red and Blue. This past weekend, Penn fencing dominated the arenas of Philadelphia during the Temple Invitational and the Quakers’ very own Philadelphia Invitational. Although the squad faced off against a litany of competitive schools, the women’s team came out of the weekend with a total record of 6-3, while the men’s team went undefeated with a perfect 9-0 mark. The Temple Invitational marked one of the high points in season that has already included a share of an Ivy title for the men’s team as it secured a victory over longtime rival Princeton. The Red and Blue also dominated other top schools including No. 4 Penn State and No. 6 St. John’s. For the women’s squad, the

battles on Saturday proved to be much tougher, as the Quakers were dealt losses to Princeton and Penn State. Coach Andy Ma remained optimistic about the women’s squad, pointing to its victories the following day on its home turf. “Our team is really a home team,” Ma said. “We compete so much better here because we have all of our fans — friends and family — cheering us on. That presence is just so good for the team, spiritually.” Additionally, the women’s sabre squad — this season’s underdog team –– came through with remarkable success. Any doubt about the team at the beginning of the year was utterly demolished this past weekend, as freshman Kathryn Khaw and sophomore Arabella Uhry each contributed five wins to the sabre record. “The men’s and women’s teams train together, and it’s really nice to see everyone improve and grow throughout the season,” senior R.J. Shipp said. “We have been very consistent

thus far in our competition,” Ma added. “And I really think that’s what is so important.” Sunday’s meet, the Philadelphia Invitational, marked the last home meet for the team’s seniors. Crowned as Red and Blue’s Senior Day, the one-day invitational featured a special ceremony for the senior fencers. And it was only right that the successes of Sunday were marked by nostalgia and sadness for some. “I’ve seen this day coming for a long time,” Shipp said. “I know I’m going to be continuing on with fencing after graduation, but today was still very sad for me.” Like his athletes, Ma shares in the feeling of finality that this last home meet brings. “We are going to be losing a lot of great fencers. Not only that, our team is fairly new and so there will be a loss of experience,” he said. However, he believes that in the coming years, the underclassmen will rise to the occasion and maintain the program’s status as

RIMMER >> PAGE 8

to assist the Red and Blue in any way possible. “I love basketball, I’m obsessed with it and I could talk about that for hours,” said Rahmin, who played basketball for Horace Mann High School (N.Y.) before suffering a serious back injury during his senior year. “It’s my dream to be a basketball coach, and, for me, no longer being an athlete, I view analytics as a way to still help the team, because that’s what I’m passionate about.” Still, professionalism does ultimately come first. While all group members would consider themselves to be Penn fanatics, they’ve come to understand the necessity of separation between work and play. “It’s really important to keep objectivity first,” said Brian Freilich, a first-year graduate student at

THOMAS MUNSON | ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR

Math professor and Penn alum Nakia Rimmer first became a diehard Quakers basketball fan as an undergrad student in the 1990s.

Wharton. “We all began as fans before we started doing this analytics work, but when we have that hat

on, it’s important to be bias-free and objective so that we produce results that drive real change.”

ARABELLA UHRY | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Penn men’s fencing’s R.J. Shipp competed for the final time at home this weekend, taking part in the Philadelphia Invitation at the Dave Micahnik Fencing Center just a day after the Temple Invitational.

a national powerhouse. “We got so many good freshmen this year,” Ma said, “That it will not be difficult to exceed the expectations that will be established.” “The beginning of the season was definitely an adjustment

Ultimately, the group has already made an impact, but there’s more work to be done. With University funding and a larger coalition of students expected for 2016-17, the future is bright for Rimmer and his students to help Penn basketball back to the top. “Some primary goals going forward are to do more advanced analytics like regression modeling, broadening our scope by moving into other sports as well or helping the athletic department on the business side, and simply increasing our membership base,” Freilich said. “We’re expecting some funding next year, so we can travel to more road games and perhaps purchase more technology to let us do more sophisticated work. “It’s going to get more and more legit and it’s pretty legit already, so we’re really excited for what the future holds.”

period for some of our newer fencers, but I really think they know what they’re doing now,” Shipp added. With the season almost at an end, the Quakers are gearing up for the final important meets of the season, namely the NCAA

Championships. “The entire team is actually going to be staying at Penn all of spring break to train,” Shipp said. “We want to take all the qualifying spots we can for both men’s and women’s. “It’s now or never.”

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2016

AWARD SEASON

SAFE AT HOME

Penn squash’s Yan Xin Tan is in the running for the Richey Award, one of the CSA’s most prestigious.

As Penn men’s tennis coach David Geatz hosted his alma mater, his current squad emerged victorious.

>> SEE PAGE 6

IVY HOOPS

Numbers never lie

M. HOOPS | Math teacher organizes

analytics group to aid coaching staff COLE JACOBSON Associate Sports Editor

With a first-year head coach, a new director of basketball operations and three true freshmen playing double-digit minutes per game in Ivy League play, it’s no secret that 2015-16 has been a year of change for Penn men’s basketball. But a casual fan might not fully comprehend the gravity of the Red and Blue’s overhaul, as there’s more to the program’s attempt to return to relevance than just the figures seen on the Palestra floor. Led by former Penn undergrad student and current math professor Nakia Rimmer, the Penn Basketball Analytics Group is in its first year of operation, working to give the Quakers’ coaching staff an extra edge by dissecting advanced statistics from practices and games. “Just to see the numbers come alive and know that the information we’re giving them works, that’s what keeps me going,” Rimmer, the group’s faculty advisor, said. “I spend hours and hours making spreadsheets, then I let go, come watch the games, and it’s awesome to see the numbers turn into wins.” With coach Steve Donahue placing such a philosophical emphasis on analytics, it was only a matter of time before he reached out to find an external source of number-crunching assistance. With Rimmer — whose time as an undergrad overlapped with both Donahue’s tenure as an assistant at Penn and the playing careers of current assistants Ira Bowman and Nat Graham in the late 1990s — Donahue and his staff didn’t have to look very far, as Rimmer’s passion for both statistics and basketball existed far before Donahue returned to 33rd Street. “I’ve always been a fan. A couple years back I was at a game at Penn State, and I noticed that the lead statistician for Penn, Stu Suss, was getting really agitated and I couldn’t figure out why,” Rimmer said, referring to a 58-47 Penn loss in Dec. 2012 in which the Nittany Lions secured 11 offensive rebounds on 27 missed field goal attempts. “Stu knew that just based on the offensive rebounding percentage, things weren’t going the way they should, and that’s when I first got interested. “Once Coach Donahue took over, Coach Graham approached me and asked me to see if I could get together a group of students that might be interested, and it didn’t take much from there.” Consequently, for one of the school’s most die-hard basketball fans — even being known to cancel Friday lectures in order to arrive to Ivy League road doubleheaders on time — the opportunity to contribute to the team in an official manner was a dream come true. “I saw those great Penn-Princeton matchups back when they were the class of the league, and those were some of the highlights of my time in college,” Rimmer said. “Even when I go to the games now, it’s still more watching for pure enjoyment. “We know that we’re all part of the team now,” he added. “Although we don’t suit up, we’re part of the whole process, and that’s exciting.” Considering the group’s infancy, there are some obstacles to its productivity, with the small staff and the lack of University funding for the first 12 months being the most glaring. Still, the members have found ways to help the coaching staff, with Rimmer focusing on opposing team’s tendencies while his proteges work to help the Quakers improve their own game. “Our aim is to give the team a competitive advantage,” College freshman Austin Rahmin said. “We’re looking at things that don’t show up in the traditional box score — things like ball reversals, paint touches, offensive rebound outcomes — and we try to present this data to the coaches in a simplified manner so they can use it however they want. “The whole coaching staff seems really excited about this project and really appreciative of what we’re doing.” While the project’s benefits to the team are obvious, the group also provides thrills for its own members, as Rimmer and his students are offered proximity to the sport that would otherwise be inaccessible to them. None of the group’s members are paid, but pure love of the game keeps them motivated

POWER RANKINGS 1

YALE

(18-6, 9-1 Ivy)

Led by defending Ivy Player of the Year Justin Sears, the Bulldogs are the favorites to avenge their playoff loss from a year ago despite falling to Princeton on Friday.

PRINCETON (18-5, 8-1 Ivy)

COLUMBIA (19-8, 8-2 Ivy)

PENN (10-13, 4-5 Ivy)

HARVARD (11-15, 3-7 Ivy)

DARTMOUTH (9-15, 3-7 Ivy)

It’s shaping up to be a three-way title race between Princeton, Columbia and Yale, but the Tigers’ wins have been, apart from Friday, less than convincing.

Columbia picked up two wins this weekend against a pair of teams in the bottom half of the table as it has continued moving fairly easily through Ivy play.

The Quakers have been, on the whole, perfectly average. They’ve beaten the teams they should beat and struggled against superior opponents.

Without Siyani Chambers, the reigning champs have slumped, falling in seven of their last nine but they did manage to pick up a win over Cornell last Saturday.

The Big Green, led by freshman forward Evan Boudreaux, are better than their record implies - they’ve hung with the Ivy League’s best but haven’t been able to pull out wins.

CORNELL (9-15, 2-8 Ivy)

BROWN (7-17, 2-8 Ivy)

Cornell has some of the most potent offensive weapons in the Ivy League but they give up points just as easily as they score. The Big Red have lost six straight and it isn’t getting better.

Coach Mike Martin’s squad has lost ﬁve in a row and has to host Harvard and Dartmouth squads that swept them the ﬁrst time around. The Bears have potential, but it hasn’t come together yet.

SEE RIMMER PAGE 7

ILANA WURMAN | DESIGN EDITOR

Big dreams for Penn rookie M. TENNIS | Freshman Kyle

Mautner is top singles player WILL SNOW Associate Sports Editor

ALEX FISHER | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Thus far in the spring season, freshman Kyle Mautner is 6-4 in the No. 1 singles position, including wins in Penn’s matches against then-No. 45 Princeton and then-No. 34 Dartmouth. SEND STORY IDEAS TO DPSPORTS@THEDP.COM

Penn men’s tennis may not be best known for cranking out young superstars, but after this year, it just might. Freshman Kyle Mautner has barely played half a season for the men’s tennis team, but he is already taking on the top players in the Ivy League, having risen to the No. 1 spot for the Red and Blue. And with a potential bid for the NCAA singles tournament already in the cards this year, some are wondering how he ended up at Penn instead of a national powerhouse. “I chose Penn mostly for the incredible balance between athletics and academics, and also because of how good of a coach [men’s tennis coach ONLINE AT THEDP.COM

David] Geatz is,” Mautner said. “I’ve known him since I was 12 years old. I was also really leaning towards Wharton in high school. It’s such an incredible opportunity to go to such a prestigious school.” The ambitious freshman has sprinted out of the blocks, having worked hard over the winter season. Mautner wasted no time in preparing for the season, practicing from the moment he arrived on campus. The Penn standout has some lofty goals to chase this spring. “I have a personal goal of being the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and making the NCAA singles tournament,” Mautner said. “That’s what I’m working for, and I’m looking forward to hopefully getting there.” For a Division I freshman new to college athletics, some would say that such goals are a little overambitious. Geatz, on the other hand, would disagree. “He wants to be an All-American,”

Geatz said. “He wants to make it to the NCAA Tournament this year. He could do both this year. He needs to pick up a couple wins and make it through a couple rounds of the NCAAs, but he could be Penn’s first All-American in a long, long time.” So there is a lot of hype built up around the big left-handed player. But what exactly are his strengths? “He’s tough,” Geatz said. “He’s a real competitor. He has a great left-handed serve, and he’s just got bite. He’s just a tough guy to play — he never goes away.” Mautner agreed with Geatz’s analysis, citing his competitive spirit. When asked about his biggest strength, the freshman responded, “My competitiveness. Buckling down on the big points, and finding a way to expose my opponent’s weakness and just get the SEE MAUTNER PAGE 6 CONTACT US: 215-422-4640