February 2, 2017

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017

Graduate students appeal for centralized diversity office GAPSA affinity group leaders discuss lack of cohesiveness NATALIE KAHN Staff Reporter

Penn’s graduate schools span a breadth of disciplines. With that comes challenges of social cohesion.

There is now a new leader in the crusade to craft a community more receptive to the needs of minorities. The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly elected linguistics Ph.D. student Betsy Sneller last Wednesday as its interim equity and access chair after the incumbent resigned due to job conflicts.

In her new position, Sneller becomes the co-chair of GAPSA’s IDEAL Committee, the umbrella organization for all 10 of GAPSA’s affinity groups that represent students of racial and gender minorities.

Sneller plans to advocate for a Universitywide, centralized diversity office at Penn, which she said students have been requesting SEE MINORITIES PAGE 2

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Standing in solidarity College Green interfaith gathering protests Trump’s executive orders Haley Suh | Staff Reporter At the LOVE statue near College Green at noon today, Penn students, faculty and staff came together in solidarity with those who have been affected by President and 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump’s recent executive orders targeting immigrants and undocumented students.

The interfaith gathering was organized by the Vice Provost of University Life, the Spiritual & Religious Life Center and PRISM — a student interfaith organization on campus.

Holding white flowers handed out during the gathering, participants stood silently while speakers stepped up to the microphone one by one to share their messages of support. Among the speakers were representatives from VPUL, SPARC, PRISM and chaplains of various

“… it is absolutely crucial for students of every faith and from every background to come together to show support for each other…”

Alexa Mund

Co-chair of PRISM

religious groups.

A common thread in every speech was the message of solidarity and showing love and support to those affected.

“As the joining force for people of all religions, we know now more than ever that it is absolutely crucial for students of every faith and from every background to come together to show support for each other and stand against religious inequities,” College junior Alexa Mund, co-chair of PRISM, said.

School of Social Policy & Practice graduate student Nayab Khan, also a co-chair of PRISM, urged students to reach out to their SEE PROTEST PAGE 2

OCR AFFECTS STUDY ABROAD PLANS PAGE 2

… it’s not worth the embarrassment and defacing of American values that comes when … citizens of other countries are turned away” - Reid Jackson

Penn maintains sexual assault stance in face of potential Trump admin. changes Penn to maintain its handling of sexual misconduct

PAGE 4

CAROLINE SIMON Senior Reporter

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President Obama had previously changed the laws surrounding sexual assault; the new administration’s stance is unclear.

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For college students across the United States, the sexual misconduct policies introduced by President Obama are now in jeopardy.

But at Penn, where sexual assault has long been the focus of both student activism and administrative attention, potential rollback of federal guidelines on sexual misconduct is unlikely to have any serious impact.

Obama dramatically changed the conversation surrounding sexual assault with the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter, which outlined stricter guidelines on investigating and adjudicating sexual misconduct cases.

According to the letter, Title IX — which prohibits discrimination based on gender in any federally funded educational institution — requires

schools “to take immediate and effective steps to end sexual harassment and sexual violence.”

Penn adopted the necessary changes according to the Title IX guidelines and introduced several new policies, including the creation of a sexual violence investigative office on campus.

One aspect of the new Title IX guidelines — the adjudication of cases using a “preponderance of evidence,” which only stipulates that the crime probably occurred and is used in civil cases, not criminal cases — was not without controversy. Sixteen Penn Law School professors wrote an open letter denouncing that change as not adequately protective of the rights of the accused.

President Trump, who faced criticism after the leak of an Access Hollywood tape in which he bragged about sexual assault, has not revealed SEE POLICIES PAGE 3

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017

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Fall OCR affects students’ study abroad plans Penn Abroad applications shift due to OCR change SARAH FORTINSKY Staff Reporter

The recent shift of on-campus recruiting for summer internships from the spring to the fall semester has caused significant changes in which students participate in the study abroad program and when they choose to do so.

While the overall number of students deciding to go abroad hasn’t changed dramatically, many more students are opting to go in the spring.

During the 2015-2016 academic year, 553 total students studied abroad for a semester, 448 students in the fall and 105 students in the spring. This 2016-2017 academic year, 482 total students are studying abroad, 240 students in the fall and 242 students in the spring, according to Director of Penn Abroad Nigel Cossar.

MINORITIES >> PAGE 1

for at least two years. The office would provide resources to students who feel marginalized.

Penn’s 12 graduate schools each have their own diversity offices, which do not all work to the same high standard, Sneller said. She explained that a centralized institution would ensure quality resources to students across all schools.

R a ch el St o n e c ip h e r , Annenberg School for Communication Ph.D. student and vice chair of Lambda Grads — GAPSA’s affinity group for LGBTQ students — agreed.

“Penn’s diversity system is so decentralized that nobody’s really watching,” she said.

Not only is this decentralization a barrier to fighting prejudice, Stonecipher said, but it also hinders IDEAL’s ability to represent all of Penn’s graduate students. She described

Cossar said there is also a trend among sophomores who have started to go abroad during their spring semester, in anticipation of fall OCR. In the spring of 2016, 22 sophomores studied abroad for the semester, and in the spring of 2017, 49 sophomores studied abroad.

“Fall numbers have certainly declined in the past year, very much as a direct result of the changes of OCR,” Cossar said. “We talk to students about this as part of their advising program, and many have cited OCR as a major reason for them choosing spring now.”

Career Services officially moved OCR to the fall once it became clear that the majority of outside employers preferred fall recruitment and would not continue to comply with Penn’s OCR schedule otherwise.

“Within the last few years it really got to a point where we were beginning to feel that our students were missing out,” Senior Associate Director of Career Services Barbara Hewitt said. “A lot of employers

the difficulty Lambda Grads has in finding the 12 schools’ stances on different issues, which she found contradictory given that IDEAL was created to serve the entire graduate student community.

Sneller added that Penn lacks a convenient way for students to report racial bias.

While most Ivy League schools have online reporting forms for these issues, Penn does not — instead, individuals must pick up a paper form and bring it to the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs.

She suggested that this hinders the University’s ability to find out about marginalization, because students won’t go through the effort to report small instances of bias.

Stonecipher mentioned that even she, the vice chair of an IDEAL subgroup, finds Penn’s process for reporting bias to be unclear.

Div ya Ka r una n it h i , a n

DP FILE PHOTO

The numbers show that Penn students are shifting their study abroad plans in response to OCR taking place during the fall semester.

were just doing it off campus because we didn’t allow it on campus.

Whether we wanted to move it or not, employers were going to be

Engineering graduate student and Sneller’s co-chair of IDEAL, described other pressures that deter students from reporting prejudice.

“You can’t really go and talk about what your professor or peer did,” she said. For students, “talking about these things could mean that they are sabotaging their career.”

So individuals look to their respective affinity groups within IDEAL for advice, Karunanithi said. According to Stonecipher, however, the affinity groups lack the power to act in any definitive way. When people report marginalization to her and Lambda Grads, all she can do is direct them to resources on campus like the LGBT Center and Counseling and Psychological Services.

“IDEAL has been sitting with all these stories that have been f looding into people’s inboxes, and we don’t know where to turn to do something about them on a structural

doing it in the fall anyway, so it really didn’t make sense to be working against them.”

Hewitt added that she and

level,” Stonecipher said.

Sneller noted that the University cannot formulate an institutional response if administrators are unaware of issues, as is the case now. Even Karunanithi was shocked to learn about the depth of the prejudice in her community when she attended a studentled discussion on the subject at Penn Law School last year.

Sneller has hope that once the administration better understands the issues at hand, they will act. She found their recent statements regarding this week’s executive orders to be encouraging and possible indicators of future actions.

IDEAL is still working on the specifics of its desired institutional response to marginalization. Stonecipher said she wants the University to acknowledge that racism and bias are extant problems at Penn, but she also anticipates that the diversity office would provide counseling and “outreach

administrators in the undergraduate schools were hesitant to move OCR to the fall for several years. She feels it causes more stress for students who may not be prepared to apply for or choose internships.

Career Services and Penn Abroad are both working to ensure students have the opportunity to study abroad as well as participate in OCR. During this past semester, Career Services worked to facilitate interviews through video conferences between employers on campus and Penn students abroad.

Forty students participated in more than 100 interviews while they were abroad.

Still, many who wish to participate in OCR anticipate that it will be too difficult to do so abroad and often choose to forgo studying abroad in order to focus on OCR. “When OCR moved to the fall, I got nervous because I used a lot of resources at Penn, like I went to Career Services pretty often to do resume and cover letter reviews,

programs to teach new strategies for anti-racist solidarity.”

She clarified that it would not be a service to navigate students through the legal system.

Sneller described that most of the racial bias that graduate students see at Penn comes in the form of microaggressions.

Of course, she said, there exist “macro-aggressions” like the racist GroupMe incident in November, but microaggressions send similar negative messages. She described that repeated m icroaggressions hinting to students that they are are unwelcome can place “psychological burdens” on people.

Those in the majority have trouble seeing these microaggressions, Sneller said, which makes the issue harder to resolve. But she is still motivated to make change.

“I know that inequality is real,” she said. “I think it would be inhumane of me not to respond to that.”

and that’s something that’s a lot easier to do in person than virtually or through an email,” Engineering junior Sabrina Aberman said. A few weeks after Aberman was accepted into her study abroad program in Australia, she decided to decline.

Penn Abroad is launching a new initiative that focuses more on why students want to go abroad instead of simply asking where. In doing so, Cossar hopes to make the prospect of studying abroad more tangible for those who feel they cannot spend an entire semester abroad.

Already, Cossar said there has been an increase in applications for the International Internship Program, which runs over the summer, and for the new Penn Global Seminars courses.

“We’re really trying to broaden our reach and our scope to ensure that any Penn undergraduate student can have an international experience, on campus or abroad, as part of their degree,” Cossar said. “And that’s what our ultimate aim is.”

PROTEST >> PAGE 1

peers of different religious groups and talk to one another.

“Form relationships and friendships that make our campus as strong and unique as it is,” Khan said. “We feel so privileged to represent such a religiously diverse campus and we look forward to continue to spread interfaith dialogue and love.”

Rabbi Joshua Bolton, director of the Jewish Renaissance Project at Hillel, said that the Penn community must not stay silent when those of other groups are suffering.

“We iterate our solidarity with the homeless, the stateless … for those seeking asylum and those seeking refuge,” Bolton said. “We re-state our commitment to the bodies and hearts and souls of those who suffered because of systems of social and political indifference.”

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With the recent observation of gravitational waves, the work of particle physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and astronomical measurements of galaxies, a suite of ongoing experiments might provide our first glimpse into the physics of dark matter, dark energy, extra dimensions, string theory, or other new theories which attempt to solve outstanding puzzles in physics.

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NEWS 3

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017

Penn discusses prospects Nurse anesthetists for Affordable Care Act hold selfie contest Students groups like Penn Democrats take action

The contest aims to engage students throughout PA

HARI KUMAR Staff Reporter

OLIVIA SYLVESTER Staff Reporter

The fate of Obamacare still remains a mystery after Donald Trump’s first 12 days as president.

Conventional wisdom says that with the support of a Republican majority in Congress, Trump will be able to repeal the majority of provisions set forth by the Affordable Care Act, a central campaign promise.

Trump believes that Obamacare has been implemented poorly and has caused employers to lay off workers due to the supposed increasing costs of insurance.

A number of Penn students and professors, however, are wary of the effects of an Obamacare repeal.

“The impacts of fading Obamacare are especially dangerous for both women and young people,” College freshman Lucy Ma said.

Ma believes that Obamacare has allowed for increased access to contraceptives and mammograms and has addressed other issues of women’s health.

However, a Wharton freshman who preferred to remain anonymous because she didn’t want to publicly share her political views said that she believes that the “Affordable Care Act did not accomplish what it was intended to.”

“Obamacare act ua l ly increased the cost of health insurance for families like mine, but it didn’t even improve the quality of health care that we got,” she noted. Although she is unsure exactly what Trump’s health care solution will be, she

The Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists made the obvious choice when trying to decide how to increase public awareness for certified registered nurse anesthetists: a selfie contest.

Logan MacLean, a student in Penn’s Nurse Anesthesia Program, said public awareness about the job is important so that people can make better health care decisions and be aware of the fact that a nurse or an anesthesiologist might be administering anesthesia. This information can reduce stress before surgery, he added.

PANA will put up posters in five transit stations corresponding to local universities with nurse anesthetist programs. The initiative encourages students to take a selfie with the poster and share their story with the hashtag #CRNAinPA. The University of Pennsylvania Nurse Anesthesia Program is one of five featured schools along with Crozer Chester Medical Center and Villanova University Nurse Anesthesia Program, Drexel

FIRST LAST | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Professor Dawn Teele says students “need to stay motivated and organized” in fighting against the repeal of the ACA.

is excited for a change to the status quo.

Organizations like Penn Democrats are already launching initiatives to attempt to keep Obamacare in place. Members of the organization recently went to the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., and participated in a fundraiser for the Philadelphia branch of Planned Parenthood, an organization with deep ties to the future of Obamacare and health insurance.

But it is not only students at Penn who have had a strong reaction towards Trump’s proposed repeal of Obamacare.

Professors also acknowledged that the potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act may affect some Penn students’ abilities to pay for various health needs.

Assistant professor of political science Dawn Teele noted that although many students at Penn come from relatively

well-off, middle class families, there are quite a few students from low-income households as well. Teele said that if Obamacare is repealed, it might be hard for families to balance their payment for health insurance with Penn’s cost of attendance.

Professor of political science Marc Meredith argued that the repeal of the Affordable Care Act — largely considered to be former President Barack Obama’s major achievement — would be detrimental to the future of the health care system.

But Teele had a strong message for how students can stay involved to fight against the repeal of the law.

“Penn students need to stay motivated and organized,” Teele said. “They need to be calling their local [officials] and representatives to convince them to keep [policies like] Obamacare in place.”

University Nurse Anesthesia Program, Thomas Jefferson University Nurse Anesthesia Program and University of Pittsburgh Nurse Anesthesia Program.

The organization unveiled the poster at SEPTA’s University City Station on Convention Avenue today, but the posters will stay on display for the remainder of February.

PANA President Aaron Ostrowski said the marketing effort is also designed to engage students throughout the state. He is traveling to every school that has a nurse anesthetists training program in Pennsylvania, and will be at Penn on Feb. 6.

He said he hopes through this initiative, students will be encouraged to get involved within their professional field, through events like the statewide fall and spring symposiums.

“I would like our students to be more aware of their place in professional life,” Ostrowski said.

“I would like them to be more connected to our professional resources.”

MacLean acknowledged how it is important to stay connected, attend regional conferences and stay educated on developments in the field once out of school.

“In school you’re taught the latest knowledge of what’s going on, but when you are out of school you have to keep up-to-date,” MacLean said.

LoriAnn Winner, associate director of Penn’s Nurse Anesthesia program, emphasized the importance of these initiatives in building camaraderie between students and schools. Recently, nurse anesthetist programs in the Philadelphia area collaborated on a food drive and group social in Center City.

Winner also commented on how many students remain as CRNAs at hospitals in the Philadelphia area post-grad. She thinks initiatives like this are important for connecting students who may likely become coworkers.

“We bring people into Philadelphia, and then they love it so much that they just transition to CRNA practices in this area,” Winner said.

Jayme Leigh Decker, a senior in Penn’s Nurse Anesthesia program, discussed the importance of “advertising” CRNAs. She and MacLean agree that the profession itself is under-recognized.

“I think it’s great to involve the students,” Decker said. “Everyone knows what a nurse is, but I think [being a CRNA] is unadvertised as a role.”

FIRST LAST | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

POLICIES >> PAGE 1

any plans to change or create policy surrounding sexual assault on college campuses.

When asked whether she could commit to upholding Obama’s guidelines, Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, said, “It would be premature for me to do that today.”

But the 2016 GOP platform called for sexual assault cases to be handled by law enforcement officers, not university officials, and it’s possible that with Republicans in control of the White House and Congress, federal attitudes towards the adjudication of sexual misconduct will change.

Ross Aikins, a professor at Penn’s Graduate School of Education, doesn’t anticipate that Penn will alter its policies even if the Obama-era guidelines are rolled back and schools are allowed to individually determine how they handle the issue.

“There’s very little incentive for universities and colleges to do things that result in a less safe campus,” he said. “And I think that in terms of pledging resources towards protecting

students and engendering student health, once you make a commitment and pledge these resources ... it’s very hard to take that away.”

Ron Ozio, a Penn spokesperson, said Penn Title IX coordinator Sam Starks was unavailable for an interview and wrote in an email that Penn “could not comment on something that hasn’t even happened.”

But Deb Harley, Penn’s sexual violence investigative officer, maintained that Penn will continue to take its responsibility to handle sexual misconduct seriously.

“Penn created this department and its office because of its longstanding commitment to diversity and respecting everyone’s rights,” she said. “The commitment on Penn’s behalf is ongoing.”

Faculty Senate Chair Laura Perna echoed that sentiment.

She said the administration would be “watching to see how the regulations change and trying to understand the implications of that for our community,” but also said she is “very certain that there will be continued commitment among the admin and

among the faculty to ensuring that we have appropriate attention to issues of sexual assault.”

For student activists who fight against sexual violence on campus, it’s been a busy year.

The release of lewd emails targeting freshman girls from the off-campus organization OZ in September shone a spotlight on issues surrounding rape culture, and President Trump’s victory prompted additional attention towards safety for women.

College senior and Finance Chair of Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention Gabriella Ficerai-Garland said she has faith that Penn will continue to address sexual misconduct as seriously as it always has, regardless of what happens on the federal level.

But if the Trump administration does not pay the same kind of attention to sexual violence as the Obama administration did, her job will be even more important.

“I’m not hopeful that the federal government will be looking into issues of sexual assault really at all over the next four years,” she said. “The biggest thing we can do is hold our schools individually accountable.”

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PANA President Aaron Ostrowski is traveling to every school that has a nurse anesthetists training program in Pennsylvania to engage more students, and will be at Penn on Feb. 6.

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OPINION

When executive orders get personal at Penn COMMON SENSE | The new immigration policy is hurting close to home

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 2, 2017 VOL. CXXXIII, NO. 13 133rd Year of Publication CARTER COUDRIET President DAN SPINELLI Executive Editor LUCIEN WANG Print Director ALEX GRAVES Digital Director ALESSANDRO VAN DEN BRINK Opinion Editor SYDNEY SCHAEDEL Senior News Editor WILL SNOW Senior Sports Editor CHRIS MURACCA Design Editor CAMILLE RAPAY Design Editor JULIA SCHORR Design Editor RONG XIANG Design Editor VIBHA KANNAN Enterprise Editor GENEVIEVE GLATSKY News Editor TOM NOWLAN News Editor

You could smell the urgency in the air on Sunday as scores of Penn students suspended their studies and sped to Philadelphia International Airport.

None of these students would be boarding flights; they were going to register their protest to President Donald Trump’s executive order, penned to prohibit entry to the United States by citizens of seven Muslimmajority nations: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

The order was decidedly un-American.

Prohibiting the entry of hundreds of millions of people around the world, based solely on their national origin, betrays our history as a nation of immigrants. Turning our backs on the tempesttossed, huddled masses who are the innocent victims of a global refugee crisis casts a dark cloud over the proud, powerful poem inscribed in the Statue of Liberty.

But for all the philosophical chatter about the inescapable fact that America’s greatest strength is its diver-

sity, that our history as a nation of immigrants is directly responsible for the fact that we are the wealthiest and most successful nation on earth, the biggest argument against the order is that it will not actually work.

Seeing the effects of the order firsthand was a powerful demonstration of its pitfalls. College sophomore Alex, who preferred not to be identified, is the son of Iranian immigrants to the United States, and said that the order “shook me to my core.” After taking part in the protests at the airport, he noted that the level of vetting required for citizens of these countries to get a U.S. visa is already so stringent, and the new measures are “farcical.”

He’s right. A quick look at the statistics reveal that even if this ban had been in place for the last two decades, it would not have stopped a single death on American soil, nor would it have had any influence on attacks in Europe, where almost all attackers have had European citizenships.

The total absence of citi-

zens from these countries and Syrian refugees from the list of recent terror perpetrators shows the total redundancy of the order.

For all the great romance of America being built by immigrants, the real coun-

countries are turned away at our doorstep. As Alex notes, “my parents, who arrived with a visa or Green Card, would not be able to pass passport control under this policy.”

It’s also a disappointing

Prohibiting the entry of hundreds of millions of people around the world, based solely on their national origin, betrays our history as a nation of immigrants.” terargument to the president is that this policy will not be effective, and is not worth the horrifying humanitarian disaster he’s causing by contributing to the build-up of Syrian refugees around the world. More, it’s not worth the embarrassment and defacing of American values that comes when good, lawabiding citizens of other

start from a president who many libertarian conservatives viewed with a glimmer of hope; maybe, just maybe, he could get something done in our dysfunctional capital.

For the great mass of Penn students and the people around the country who mobilized last weekend, as well as their many sympathizers who view this as an erosion

of core American values, a lot is at stake. Over the next 90 days, as this ban remains in place, groups across all encampments on the political spectrum, from left to right, must pressure the president for a fair immigration and refugee policy that is reflective of our values.

Reports from across the country this weekend point to one man as the lead architect of the president’s immigration order: Steve Bannon, the chief strategist in the White House. The former head of Breitbart, a conservative news website, has carved out a major role for himself in the Trump administration, but Mr. Trump should beware of affording him too much influence — and remember how far from mainstream his views are.

There are early indications that the president is already aware of this; reports surfaced yesterday morning that the president was unhappy with the roll out of his immigration order, and the fallout that followed.

But no matter how he responds, one thing is clear: the

REID JACKSON urgency has not diminished.

Over the coming months, these Penn students plan on organizing and supporting groups like the ACLU. Although Alex himself says that he does not want to be involved himself “because the political climate is too mafia-like,” he and many others acknowledge that there is limited time, and that the permanent policy must be open, effective and principled.

REID JACKSON is a College junior from New York, N.Y., and London, U.K., studying Political Science. His email address is reja@sas.upenn.edu. “Common Sense” usually appears every other Thursday.

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The conversation of empathy

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CHANCES ARE | Why empathy is more than a feeling Contrary to what most people told me before leaving, my first experience studying abroad in England was not a pleasant one. It was, however, the first time that I learned the necessity of putting empathy into practice.

Upon entering the U.K. and going through the immigration line, I stressed to myself that I needed to obtain a special study visa.

The coordinator of the Cambridge program to which I had been accepted highlighted repeatedly in our emails — bolded, underlined, in all caps — that we needed to obtain this study visa instead of a regular visitor one, or we would not be allowed to stay at Cambridge. Since study abroad was what I had been looking forward to my entire junior fall as the cure to my depression, I determined that I could not fail in this area.

I marched to the man sitting behind the glass door, looked him straight in the eyes, did not even bother to breathe or say hello and

blurted out “I need to get a special study visa.”

The man looked at me for a second, blank-eyed and silent, before saying, “OK, do you go up to a mechanic and tell him what is wrong with your car?”

I was confused by how quickly the tone of the encounter had turned. Unsure of what I had done wrong or where the conversation was going, I stuttered “nn-no.”

He then proceeded to ask me a similar series of questions involving a doctor and his patient and a teacher and his student, all of which ended in the answer “no.”

He concluded, “Then why would you walk up to me and tell me how to do my job? It’s disrespectful.”

He shrugged and grimaced, and I began to cry.

After profuse apologies and explanations about my anxiety, I walked away with his curt “Just advice for the next time” and “Good luck.”

I spent the rest of the day upset and thinking that if

every British person were like him, I would hate my time here in the U.K. Luckily for me, my experiences were only positive afterwards. Even more luckily, I eventually stopped blaming the officer for his irritation.

hand, what was his indignation at not being allowed to do his job seemed to me to be bullying.

Because each of us was concerned with our own past experiences and our own insecurities, we couldn’t see the other’s true intentions.

Empathy is more than just some abstract understanding of how someone else is feeling — it is a form of communication.”

There were many layers to the misunderstanding between us. What was only my apprehension about not losing my opportunity seemed to him to be rudeness and a mistrust of his ability. My brusqueness, my desire to cut straight to the point was construed as pure American arrogance. On the other

This was something I was learning, not just about this man, but about people in general.

We are all too caught up in ourselves to ever consider that others have similar issues, feelings and traumas that influence their behaviors in ways that are not always beneficial to us. When

someone does something slightly impolite or traumas that influence their behaviors in ways that are not always beneficial to us.

We never consider that perhaps they were a little tired that day and we came at the wrong time, and that in fact their negativity had nothing to do with us at all and everything to do with their own pressures.

Empathy is a word that is flying around the United States and, I daresay, the world right now, yet we aren’t even certain of what it means. Empathy is more than just some abstract understanding of how someone else is feeling — it is a form of communication. Most people would not stand there and talk at someone if they were not responding. Yet we are willing to project our feelings onto the whole world without even considering other people’s responding emotions. Maybe that is why we constantly feel disconnected and lonely.

When we empathize, we

AMY CHAN learn to hold a conversation where both our feelings and others’ have equal weight.

The officer and I could not properly communicate because our personal emotions took up the conversation space and we couldn’t hear what the other’s emotions were saying. To empathize is to communicate, and, if there is to be true connection between two people, one cannot exist without the other.

AMY CHAN is a College junior from Augusta, Ga, studying Classics and English. Her email address is chanamy@ sas.upenn.edu. “Chances Are” usually appears every other Thursday.

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Penn paleobiologist is a 2017 TED fellow

Students critque impact of Women’s March

HALEY SUH Staff Reporter

GIANNA FERRARIN Staff Reporter

Lauren Sallan will speak about fossil evolution

As a young girl growing up next to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Lauren Sallan was fascinated by fish and hoped to one day become a marine biologist. Several decades later, her passion eventually landed her a talk on the TED stage.

This April, Penn paleobiologist Lauren Sallan, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, will be delivering a TED talk in Vancouver, B.C., as a 2017 TED fellow. Sallan joins a class of 15 other young innovators from around the world who will be sharing the stage.

Sallan’s primary research interest lies in macroevolution, which she refers to as the “cutting edge of paleontology.” Instead of merely studying individual fossils, Sallan uses big databases of fossil records to see how evolution plays out over long timeframes. Unlike most peer researchers in the field,

Sallan has always been interested in studying fish fossils rather than shells, which are more abundant and easier to access.

“Everyone was concentrating on [shells], and no was really looking at what fishes could tell us,” Sallan said. “But fishes have really awesome fossils, and there were all these questions like ‘how did they react to past mass extinctions, how many fishes were alive at one time,’ that no one knew the answer to.”

As a graduate student at the University of Chicago, Sallan discovered a hidden mass extinction — the biggest mass extinction of fish of all time. Even as her fellow researchers were focusing on shells, Sallan instead noticed hints of environmental changes and gaps in the vertebrate fossil record, which led her to search for extinctions of fish.

In her TED talk, Sallan plans on explaining how scientists can use fossil records to unlock secrets about the biological world that existed in the past. In particular, she will examine how fish have reacted to mass extinctions and climate change, as well as how

scientists can make better predictions about the future using this data.

“Fishes don’t exist in a vacuum,” Sallan said. “They are an essential part of our marine ecosystems, so to really understand how whole ecosystems respond to challenges, we need to be able to see how they [have] responded in the past.”

Through her talk, Sallan hopes to convey that paleontology is “cutting edge science” that helps us predict future events.

“The fossil record itself is the ultimate database of evolution,” Sallan said. “It’s not a dead field, much like the specimens.”

Around the classroom, Sallan’s passion for her work is easily recognizable. “[Sallan] seems to genuinely care about her research,” College freshman Sabine Nix, who assists Sallan in her research, said. “She takes time to explain the background of the projects I help her on and how they are relevant in today’s world. She also has a lot of fish around her office.”

Sallan joined the Penn faculty in the summer of 2014.

PAGE’s forum created an open dialogue

On Jan. 21, millions of people protested in Women’s Marches across the world. Ten days later, students gathered in Civic House to discuss the impact of the movement.

Penn Association for Gender Equity and Civic House cosponsored the open forum titled “Deconstructing the March” Tuesday night. The hour-long event sought to generate discussion on the successes and shortcomings of the Women’s Marches, which have been criticized for lacking inclusivity and focusing on the experiences of white cisgender women.

The forum called on its attendees to discuss these criticisms and develop strategies for activism moving forward.

Shortly after the event began, students split into small groups to discuss their views on the Women’s March movement.

One group discussed the presence of police at the Washington march. Some thought the absence of violence and the amicable interactions between police and protesters were significant as a symbol of unity, while others said this atmosphere resulted from the movement’s focus on white women.

PAGE Programming CoChair Divya Rao said that she thought it was important to provide a forum for people with different reactions to the movement to discuss their perspectives.

“I think it’s very important that we keep this conversation going of how to stay involved and how to stay active and include people as much as possible,” she said.

College sophomore Megan Paik said she thought the event was valuable but worried some people in the discussions might hold back questions if they feared sounding uninformed.

“In a way it was enlightening because I heard perspectives from people I normally didn’t

interact with, but in another sense I feel like … people come to these discussions and not fully say what they’re actually thinking,” she said.

Other students at the discussion commented on the pink “pussyhats” worn by protesters at the Women’s March. Some were concerned that the hats were not inclusive of transgender women, while others cited the importance of the hats as a symbol of unified opposition to President Donald Trump.

At the end of the event, students talked about the importance of political participation and activism on campus.

College sophomore La ra Jung said she appreciated her group’s discussion of ways to reach out to peers who are less politically active.

“My group specifically talked about making sure that we were talking to people who were ‘apolitical,’” she said.

“And, how do you approach people who don’t necessarily see eye to eye with you when you believe so strongly in something.”

PHOTO FEATURE

PENN SOLIDARITY ON CAMPUS Campus groups of all faiths and backgrounds congregated today in front of the LOVE statue, standing in solidarity of those affected by President Trump’s recent executive orders on immigration.

COURTESY OF TEDX OAKLAND UNIVERSITY | FLICKR

Penn paleobiologist Lauren Sallan is set to deliver at TED talk in Vancouver on macroevolution, the process of using large databases to see how evolution works over huge time periods.

ANGEL FAN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

ANGEL FAN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

JOY LEE | NEWS PHOTO EDITOR

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Quakers set for tough competition at Notre Dame

FENCING | Ivy Champs

to come next week JONATHAN POLLACK Sports Editor SATURDAY & SUNDAY

Northwestern Invitational ALL DAY

South Bend, Ind.

Eyes on the prize.

With the all-important Ivy League Championship just a week away, Penn fencing travels to Notre Dame this weekend to compete in the Northwestern Duals. The two-day event will feature tough opponents on both the men’s and women’s sides, as several ranked teams will be among the list of entrants.

Even with the strong competition this weekend, the Quakers will have their sights set on the Ivy Championship, using their bouts this weekend to gauge where they are

at and ensure that they are ready for the biggest competition of the year. “Next week is definitely way more important, so we’re all super focused on that,� junior foil John Vaiani said. “But it’ll good to get out there and fence Notre Dame and Ohio State, two of our biggest competitors. It’ll be a good test to see where we’re at with the other teams.�

This weekend’s event represents a slight change of pace for the Red and Blue, but one that comes at an opportune time. Up until now, many of the team’s prior events and invitationals have been one-day affairs, but the Ivy Championships is a twoday event. That means the Quakers will have to diligent and attentive during and in between their bouts for twice as long, something that they might not be used to.

Fortunately for them, this weekend provides the opportunity to practice. “I think we just need to stay focused, and we just need to remember that,� Vaiani said. “Ivies

are going to be a two-day event so we’re going to have to stay focused over two days, so this will be a good way just to try and keep our focus on each team and go into each team really respecting everybody.�

Both men’s and women’s squads have been performing well as of late, as they are both coming off 6-0 records at the Philadelphia Invitational two weekends ago. In the lastest coaches’ poll, both teams ranked sixth in the nation.

On the men’s side, the foils, led by Vaiani and freshman Willie Upbin, have been the standout squad in recent weeks, although both epee and saber teams have performed strongly as well. Sophomore epee Justin Yoo has been one of the team’s most consistent performers, and has continued his incredible campaign with a combined record of 21-7 over the past two events.

For the women, the same story applies, with the foils, most notably freshman Nicole Vaiani and senior Cassidy Seidl, leading the pack, with the other teams finding

success. However, the most impressive fencer for the women has been senior epee Alejandra Trumble, who has been on an absolute tear lately. In the past two events, the Cambridge, Mass. native has gone a combined 22-3, including 16 consecutive wins at the Philadelphia Invitational.

Trumble sees a variety of reasons for the team’s recent triumphs, but highlights one cause in particular: team camaraderie. “It’s an individual sport, and it’s even more so before college, so you have to come in to the team setting, which can be a challenge for freshmen,� she said. “But our freshmen this year have been working really well with that, as have our upperclassmen, so I think there’s been a lot more of a team vibe this year, and I think it’s showing in our results, which is really great.�

If they can keep those good feelings going, and keep the momentum going, then the Red and Blue will have a real shot at winning the Ivy title on both sides.

ZACH SHELDON | SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR

Despite a tough weekend schedule, junior foil John Vaiani and the rest of Penn fencing have their sights set on next week’s Ivy Championship.

Red and Blue’s tumultuous start continues, prep to host Pink Meet

GYMNASTICS | Four teams

set to converge at Penn

COLE JACOBSON Sports Editor

Will the real Penn gymnastics please stand up?

After opening the season with two meets that represented the team’s two highest scores since February 2015, the Quakers followed that historic stretch up with a stunning upset at the hands of Division II West Chester, one that represented Penn’s lowest team score in 35 months.

Fortunately, the country won’t have to wait long to see which team the Red and Blue really are.

This Sunday, Penn will return to the Palestra for its second home competition of the year, hosting North Carolina State, Bridgeport and Cornell in the team’s annual “Pink Meet� to raise breast cancer

awareness. “We’re all ready to prove to everyone that the team that we were last weekend is not who we are; we are the 193 and 194 [point] team, and everyone is just so excited to show that,� sophomore Nicole Swirbalus said. “We’ve also been working so hard in practice this week, so I think everyone’s ready.�

Beyond the understandable motivation springing from last week’s season-low 189.3-point effort, another advantage for the Red and Blue (3-2, 2-0 Ivy) will be the Palestra itself. In Penn’s first home meet, the Quakers shocked Yale in a wild comeback win en route to putting up 193.575 points — still the highest all year by any Ivy League team — providing optimism that the historic venue could help boost the Quakers once again. “It’s always fun to be home,� senior captain Rachel Graham said. “Especially since its a quad meet, it’s going to be super, super

DP FILE PHOTO

Despite the Quakers’ loss in their last time out, sophomore Nicole Swirbalus scored impressive numbers on the floor and the beam.

loud, with more fans, more teams in there — just more energy.�

Still, these benefits will be countered by a strong field that the Red and Blue will welcome on Sunday.

Based on national rankings, No. 28 NC State (2-5, 0-0 East Atlantic Gymnastics League) will be

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the favorite coming in. With NC State’s worst score of the year sitting 0.325 above Penn’s season high, the Wolf Pack will provide one of the Red and Blue’s stiffest tests all year.

Meanwhile, No. 48 Bridgeport (7-2, 1-0 ECAC D-II) may be a Division II school, but as the Quakers

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League, and with point guard Syani Chambers back after missing last season with an injury, they are firing on all cylinders again. “They’re really good, they’re fast, they get the team involved, they can also score, so it’s gonna be challenging,� Foreman said of Harvard’s backcourt. “Basically just staying down on defense, staying focused and knowing what they wanna do before they do it.�

Their talent level is similar to many teams Penn has already faced this season, so their skill set should not catch the Quakers off guard. “They’re different in some ways in our league, because they’re probably the longest and most athletic team in our league,� coach Steve Donahue explained. “So playing St. Joe’s and playing La Salle back to back with very similar athletes, that helps you.�

found out the hard way last week at West Chester, that status doesn’t mean it won’t be competitive. In fact, the Purple Knights are the one of just two teams nationwide (joining George Washington) with a better record against Ivy League teams than No. 56 Penn itself, as Bridgeport has already topped Brown twice and Yale once in the young season.

And though No. 58 Cornell (2-5, 0-1 Ivy) already fell to Penn once at the Lindsey Ferris Invitational, the Big Red can’t be slept on. Cornell won both the Ivy Classic and the ECAC Championships a year ago, and its score of 193.525 last weekend represented the Ivy League’s second-best score this season. “I don’t think the teams that we compete against ever really affect our mentality going in, because we know that we just have to go out there and do the routines that we’ve practiced,� Swirbalus said. “[Coach] John [Ceralde] always

tells us to only focus on Penn when we’re at the meets.�

If that focus leads to greater consistency across the board, the Red and Blue should be in good shape.

Last week at West Chester, the Quakers saw six of their 24 routines result in scores of 9.000 or less — after none of the team’s 24 scored as such against Yale — forcing Penn to seek out a solution quickly. “We’re all just trying to hit; that’s our main goal, to hit 24for-24 routines,� Swirbalus said. “And that’s really what we’ve been trying to do in practice this week, a lot of team events.�

Ultimately, with both conference championship meets still weeks in advance, this Sunday won’t necessarily define the Red and Blue’s season.

But if the Quakers can prove their mental toughness by shoving last week behind them, we could finally see their “Jekyll and Hyde� conundrum end once and for all.

After dropping close contests to St. Joe’s, Yale and Princeton in recent weeks, the tight victory could serve as a springboard as the Quakers enter the thick of the Ivy League schedule. “We’re hungry, we really know and understand the position we’re in. That being said, we’re also trying to figure out how to win still and I think we’re really close,� Donahue added. “The energy’s good, the focus has been good, now the execution has to be good for 40 minutes. It’s good for 20, 25, 30. And as much as you wanna think, ‘oh we’ve gotta get a win,’ we’ve gotta play well for 40 minutes and try to simulate what we do in practice into a game and get better.�

Being able to finish a tight game against a strong opponent was an especially valuable experience for the core of young players that have seen their minutes increase.

In particular, freshmen Ryan Betley and Devon Goodman, as well as sophomore Tyler

Hamilton, have caught Donahue’s attention. “Those three in particular have really given us a lift,� Donahue said.

They’ll be key factors in this weekend’s trip to Cambridge and then Hanover the following night for a matchup with Dartmouth.

Should the Red and Blue fall short against the Crimson, they should have little trouble getting their first league win against the Big Green on Saturday (3-14, 0-4). But a weekend sweep could be just what they need to catapult them into next week’s clash with conference-leading Princeton. “This is conference [play] — this is our season right now, this is the time to really put all that ahead of us,� Foreman said. “Outworking the opponent, executing on both offense and defense, just having that extra edge about us that we definitely need.�

The game should be close on Friday night. Hopefully for the Quakers, they’ll have the experience to pull away.

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

Wrestling to get little rest as Penn faces two foes

WRESTLING | Conference starting for the Red and Blue.

test comes to the Palestra

WILL AGATHIS Associate Sports Editor SATURDAY

Harvard (2-5, 1-1 Ivy) 1 p.m.

The Palestra

SATURDAY

Brown (4-6, 0-2 Ivy) 6 p.m.

Rockwell Gymnasium

Some Penn Athletics programs are given seven days between competition, but the Red and Blue wrestling squad will take on two opponents this weekend with only a four-hour break in between. Making things even more difficult, the Quakers will welcome a pair of stellar teams in Harvard and Brown, two conference rivals that have given the team problems in the past.

The Qua kers (3-5, 1- 4 EIWA) do enter the weekend’s busy slate with momentum: they nearly took down Bucknell on Friday and bested American on Sunday in impressive fashion. The victory over the Eagles was the team’s first EIWA win of the season, bringing confidence to a team in need of a jolt.

“Getting our first conference win is a good step in the right direction. We’ve had a bunch of good duals, lost a couple close ones, but I think we’re improving each time out,” junior Joe Oliva said.

“Getting one of those EIWA wins under our belt is good heading into the rest of the conference slate.”

Oliva has had a quietly successful season at the 149pound weight class. He is 10-9 on the season and 5-3 in dual meets in his first full season

SPORTS 9

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017

A few highlight wins to round out the dual season could put Oliva on a fast track to an appearance at the NCAA Championships in St. Louis, MO. Now in his third year, Oliva is used to competing multiple times in a day with little intermission. For that reason, he believes in the importance of focusing on each opponent, one at a time.

“Right now we’ll be focused on Harvard and then quickly we’ll turn around, refocus, refuel and get ready for Brown for a few hours after that,” Oliva said. “Nothing changes.

We’re used to competing multiple times in a day.”

The Crimson (2-5, 2-2) are the more imposing challenge of the two teams. The team features a few highly qualified grapplers, including AJ Jaffe at 141-pounds and Josef Johnson at 174-pounds.

Jaffe will in all likelihood wrestle Penn sophomore AJ Vindici. The Randolph, N.J. native was inactive for one of last weekend’s two duals but should be in the starting lineup this weekend, according to coach Alex Tirapelle.

Johnson, Harvard’s junior captain, will renew his rivalry with Penn’s star at 174, Casey Kent. The Norristown, PA native has picked up right where he left off in 2016 when he earned All-America status.

The two grapplers have wrestled a handful of matches in the last two years, with each side picking up close points.

Johnson is unranked at the moment, but Kent recognizes that he’ll still pose a challenge.

That said, the preparation is unchanged.

“Same as always. I know he’s pretty tough,” Kent said. “[Still,] same mindset as any other match.”

Like Harvard, the Bears (4-6, 1-4) do not have any ranked starters, but have still

given the Quakers trouble at times. With such a short turnaround time between matches, it’s important for the Red and Blue to avoid a trap.

That is why the key to the weekend, according to Tirapelle, is consistency.

“We’re competing pretty well. Guys have made some strides, taken steps forward.

We just need to make sure no backwards steps,” Tirapelle said. “If everyone does their job and takes care of business, we should be in control of our own destiny this weekend.”

Kent points out the importance of a quick start: “As a team, if we start out strong, that’s when we seem to be doing the best. I think it’ll be a pretty good indicator.”

Perhaps the most interesting storyline heading into the weekend is at the 165-pound weight class. Senior Brooks Martino returned to the lineup in January and had started all of the team’s dual meets until last Sunday when junior Joe Velliquette stole a start and picked up a major decision victory.

Tirapelle believes that a friendly competition is a good problem to have from a coaching standpoint and that there is little rush to name a starter.

“I think we’ll probably see one of each. They’re doing an outstanding job,” Tirapelle said. “It’s a good problem to have when you have two athletes that are performing well.”

A two-win weekend would do wonders for Penn as it looks to continue building up momentum. The victory over American last week was a step in the right direction, but the goal now will be to build up a streak.

“We’re improving and have hit a little bit of a stride,” Oliva said. “Everyone’s working hard, getting better, and looking forward to continue building until the conference tournament.”

Which team is under the most pressure?

The editors analyze each team’s weekend THE EDITORS

Around Penn Athletics, there will be no shortage of high-octane matchups across the board this weekend. All in all, seven Penn teams will be in regular season action over the next three days, with the majority of them getting deep into the crucial stretch of conference play. With such an action-packed weekend ahead, our sports editors head to the roundtable to debate: which Penn team is under the most pressure to perform this weekend?

Jonathan Pollack, Sports Editor: It’s now or never for Penn men’s basketball in conference play, and the pressure could not be higher.

The Red and Blue have gotten off to a rocky start in conference play, losing their first three Ivy tilts. Two of them were against Princeton and Yale, two of the presumptive top three teams in the league, so while it would have been nice to steal one of those games, the losses were expected. However, the Quakers’ last Ivy loss, an 82-70 clunker against Brown, was one that really hurt. Penn was expected to win that game, and the loss put them in the 0-3 spot that they currently sit in.

It’s not like the Quakers have nothing going for them though.

They are coming off a Big 5 win against La Salle in which they played one of their best games in the past few weeks.

But more importantly, AJ Brodeur finally regained his early season form, one that was noticeably missing from Penn’s three Ancient Eight matchups.

The Quakers need Brodeur to play well if they want a shot at climbing back into postseason contention.

Time is running out on Penn’s Ivy tournament hopes, and this weekend they must win at least one game, if not both, if they want to have a shot. Without at least one victory this weekend, the Quakers will see their title dreams disappear, and if that’s not the definition of pressure, I don’t know what is.

Tommy Rothman, Sports Editor: Penn women’s basketball faces the most pressure to perform this weekend. The Quakers are the defending Ivy League champions and just wrapped up non-conference play, meaning it’s all Ivy action from here on out. And while the Ancient Eight games have gone smoothly in recent years for Penn, the Red and Blue had some issues with their nonconference foes this season, especially in the Big 5.

A massacre of Division III Stevens Tech let Penn end that part of its season on a high note, but an 0-4 performance against their fellow members of the Philly quintet, including losses to Villanova and Temple the past two weeks, has the Quakers in need of a legitimate win against a legitimate opponent.

And a legitimate opponent is certainly on the docket this weekend, as Harvard will come to the Palestra having won 16 straight games. The Crimson appear to be the main threat to Penn’s Ivy title, although Princeton, of course, will always be in the midst of the championship race.

While Penn has to be the favorite in the Ivy League despite Harvard’s streak, and it has been seven seasons since a

team other than the Tigers or Quakers won the title, Harvard (and Dartmouth the next night) will be looking to throw a twist in the Ivy League narrative.

Brevin Fleischer, Associate Sports Editor: While I’ll concede that both basketball teams are heading into a crucial weekend, these two squads have lost in the past and can most likely lose again without totally jeopardizing everything they’ve built. However, there remains one team that hasn’t dealt with many losses at all this year and can ill-afford to start now.

Women’s squash storms into the weekend sporting a 7-1 record and the number two ranking in the entire country. On Saturday, they take on No. 10 Brown, a team that has won five matches in a row.

The Quakers, riding a winning streak of equal length, have more on the line than their opponents. A loss this weekend would open the door for any of the three teams ranked immediately below them in the national polls, as Trinity, Princeton and Yale have each only lost once in their own right. When one reaches the mountaintop, as women’s squash has, any misstep could be devastating.

Adding to the intrigue of the weekend is the remarkable fact that sophomore Reeham Salah has still yet to drop a game this season. That’s right. Not only has she won each of her eight matches on the year, but she has yet to lose a single game within those matches. That type of dominance is unparalleled. But again, with that type of success comes the inordinate and unrelenting pressure to sustain her level, a pressure Salah and the rest of women’s squash must face each time they play.

Three Penn Athletics teams will be relying on their star performers this weekend, and the editors hope that Sydney Stipanovich (left), Reeham Salah (middle) and AJ Brodeur (right) all step up to the plate.

PRANAY VEMULAMADA | ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

Penn will need senior Casey Kent to step up against Harvard’s Josef Johnson this weekend if the Quakers are to have any shot at taking down the Crimson. While Johnson may not be ranked, the test will still be there.

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FINAL TUNE-UP

UNDER PRESSURE?

With Ivy Championships just a week away, Penn fencing heads to Notre Dame

As teams enter a crucial stretch of their seasons, we debate which one needs a win the most

>> SEE PAGE 8

>> SEE PAGE 9

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017

NOW

OR

M. HOOPS | Quakers seek 1st Ivy

win against Harvard, Dartmouth

THOMAS MUNSON Senior Sports Reporter

T

he Quakers were in jeopardy of finishing Big 5 play at 0-4 when they traveled across town to play La Salle last Wednesday. But behind freshman forward AJ Brodeur’s 35 points, the Red and Blue grinded out a 77-74 win over the Explorers to finish 1-3 in the Philadelphia mini-conference instead.

In Cambridge on Friday, they will face a similar challenge. Penn (7-9, 0-3 Ivy) will enter Harvard’s gym hoping to

NEVER

avoid falling to 0-4 in Ivy play. Again on the road, again without a win and again against a tough opponent. The difference is this time they will be able to look back on how they closed their Big 5 slate as they prepare.

“A Big 5 win is always great. It’s a rivalry,” junior guard Darnell Foreman said.

“La Salle is a really good team, so hopefully we can take what we did there, how we executed, and just push us towards the weekend knowing that they were a good opponent.”

Harvard (11-6, 3-1) has perennially been one of the toughest outs in the Ivy SEE BASKETBALL PAGE 8

ILANA WURMAN | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Quakers resume Ivy play against Harvard, winners of 16 straight W. HOOPS | Crimson,

Dartmouth to test Penn

TOMMY ROTHMAN Sports Editor

FRIDAY

Harvard (16-1, 4-0 Ivy) 7 p.m.

The Palestra

SATURDAY

Dartmouth (6-11, 1-3 Ivy) 7 p.m.

The Palestra

The calendar has turned to February, and it’s conference play the rest of the way for Penn women’s basketball. But that might not go quite as smoothly as the defending champs would hope, unless they bring their A-game.

The Quakers (10-6, 3-0 Ivy) will get a rude reintroduction to Ivy League competition this weekend when they host Harvard and Dartmouth.

Harvard (16-1, 4-0) enters the game as the hottest team in the Ivy League and one of the hottest in the nation, having won 16 straight since a season-opening loss to Minnesota.

While Friday’s contest will be a tough one for the hosts, the Big Green (6-11, 1-3) should prove

to be a softer opponent on Saturday, although Dartmouth’s poor Ivy record would be a much more sightly 2-2 had the team come out on the right side of a quadruple-overtime thriller against Columbia.

Harvard poses a new threat in the Ivy League, as Penn and archrival Princeton have won each of the past seven conference championships between them.

The last time a team other than the Quakers or Tigers won was in 2009, when Dartmouth pulled off the feat. But McLaughlin is aware that could change in a wide-open conference: “I don’t think, when Harvard comes in here winning 16 in a row, [our players] are ignoring anyone. I think the league is

really open, I think everybody knows that at this point. You’ve gotta give Harvard credit, they’ve won 16 in a row, they’ve won some close games, they can score the ball, but we’ll be ready for Friday night.”

The Quakers have a point to prove after dropping both of their past two games against Division I competition. While Penn rebounded from a pair of losses to Villanova and Temple (and an 0-4 Big 5 campaign overall) by beating up on Division III Stevens Tech in Sunday’s 89-43 romp, the Red and Blue don’t exactly have as much momentum as they might like heading into the weekend despite a perfect Ivy record.

The way Harvard is playing,

Friday’s clash could have large implications for the Ivy title race. Usually, the big game for Penn comes against Princeton, whom the Quakers always play during a one-game weekend.

Preparing for Harvard while also having to gear up to face the Big Green the next day could pose a bit of a challenge, but the Quakers are not concerned with that aspect of what they see as just another traditional Ivy League doubleheader.

“I think what coach really does a good job of is each game we prepare the same way, one game is no bigger than the next,” senior captain Sydney Stipanovich said. “We’re going to prepare and get ready for Friday night, and then we’re going to take it

one game at the time.”

And don’t make the mistake of thinking the Red and Blue will take Dartmouth lightly, even if they manage to shatter Harvard’s massive winning streak the night before.

McLaughlin is taking the Big Green, and the rest of the Ancient Eight, quite seriously.

“I think they’re all a threat to be honest,” the coach said. “I don’t wanna give you the company line, but reality is, these teams are good, and when you see them come in here you’ll agree with me. On any given night you’ll see that anybody is going to [be able to] knock off somebody else.

“I just hope we’re not a part of that,” McLaughlin laughed.

Penn to keep pushing on in Ivy League play after Princeton wins SQUASH | Brown, Yale

await men and women LAINE HIGGINS Associate Sports Editor

Imagine a sport where every single team in the conference was nationally ranked and half of them were within striking distance of winning a collegiate national title every season. No, this isn’t SEC Football, it’s Ivy League squash.

For the remainder of the 2016-17 season, the lowest ranked foe Penn men’s and women’s squash will face is the No. 19 Brown men and the No. 10 Brown women. With the conference so tightly clustered at the top of the College Squash

Association’s Dunlop Rankings, a loss to an Ivy League team can spell a major shake up in the national standings and impact the Quakers’ seed for the conference championship tournament at the end of the month.

“There’s definitely more pressure put on us,” said sophomore Reeham Salah, who currently boasts an 8-0 record at the top of the ladder for the No. 2 ranked Penn women. “But at the end of the day if we just come in with a very relaxed attitude and that same mindset will be on court and we play better.”

Director of Squash and head women’s coach Jack Wyant agreed that worrying about where his teams will fall in the

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national rankings at the end of February does little when it comes to winning games.

“At this stage we really aren’t focused on seedings. We are just focused on playing as well as we can in every match.”

The Red and Blue squash teams are now sitting at the midpoint of their Ancient Eight slate for the 2016-17 season with four Ivy matches remaining. So far, the results have been to be expected.

The men started their conference schedule with a loss to No. 4 Harvard, and rallied to a 2-1 record with wins over Dartmouth and Princeton to secure the sixth spot in the national rankings. It is a similar story for the women, as they defeated Dartmouth and Princeton but

fell to Harvard, the top-ranked defending Howe Cup champions.

“We lost a heartbreaker to Harvard 7-2, but then we ran off with a series of matches,” recalled coach Wyant about the month of January for the women. Indeed, both of the Penn teams are on three-game winning streaks or better since their January 14 bouts with the Crimson.

Within that streak the most recent win came on Wednesday against Princeton. The women started the night with an 8-1 trouncing of the Tigers.

“I think today was the most connected our team has been,” Salah said. “We weren’t as uptight as we were before our Harvard match, and I think that

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is what made much of the difference. We were all there for each other for every match.”

According to Wyant, the dom inant result from the women was a testament to the progress his team has made under his seven-year tenure in University City.

“I think we lost 9-0 to Princeton my first year. To have a night like tonight is a great feeling,” he said. “That’s what happens when you’re surrounded by talented athletes that work really hard.”

On the men’s side, the Quakers won for the first at Princeton in 1973. After six games played at Penn’s rivals left the score at 4-2, junior Hayes Murphy sealed the deal for the Red and Blue in a five-game decision.

There will be no rest for the weary, as the Quakers are back in action over the weekend with road matches against Brown on Saturday and Yale on Sunday.

For both teams the toughest test will come on Sunday against the Bulldogs, who are ranked fifth for the women and eighth for the men.

“We’re going to practice tomorrow and get on a bus early on Friday and head all the way up to Rhode Island and try to get a good night sleep and prepare as well as possible,” said Wyant of his teams’ game plans for the weekend double.

“We’ve got two really talented squads, so I think if they play at or near their potential they can beat just about anybody out there.”

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