February 9, 2017

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2017

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College Republicans divided over Trump ban Within days of each other, group released two conflicting statements

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HARI KUMAR Staff Reporter

Members of Penn College Republicans have had differing reactions towards President Trump’s recent executive order concerning immigration.

The executive order, which Trump signed on Jan. 27, temporarily bars immigration and travel to the United States for citizens of seven nations, all of which have Muslim-majority populations.

In a Facebook post on Jan. 30, the College Republicans called for modifications to the order, urging “the [Trump] administration to further rectify the order by taking steps to allow admittance for those holding travel visas, student visas, H1B and other work visas, and much more.”

Some Penn students keep emotional support animals in on-campus housing JINAH KIM Senior Reporter

SEE REPUBLICANS PAGE 7

MAYOR URGES STUDENT INVOLVEMENT

JULIA MCGURK | DESIGN ASSOCIATE

PAGE 2

If this was only my first semester in college… how could I ever endure three more years of this?”

For most students, going to college means saying goodbye to the family pet.

But some students, even in University housing, come home to purring cats — like Toast, a feline resident of Harrison College House.

For College junior Sarah Holland, Toast isn’t just a pet. Toast is registered as an emotional support animal, meaning that, like guide dogs, she is expected to assist her owner in some way.

When Holland dealt with depression last fall, she decided to get a pet, hoping that it would help her mental health.

The connection between animals and improving mental health has seen a rise in interest, especially on college campuses.

Some students like Holland have received permission to keep pets as emotional support animals in university housing, where pets are not generally allowed.

*** The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines an “assistance animal” as an animal that “works, provides assistance, or performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, or provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified symptoms or effects of a person’s disability.”

The federal government defines a person with a disability as having “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.”

This includes conditions that many people may not think of as disabilities, like bipolar disorder and autism spectrum disorders — or depression, like in Holland’s case.

The popularity of such assistance animals has risen in the past several years, in part due to a memo issued by HUD in 2013 that specifies that housing providers

— including universities — must make “reasonable accommodations” for emotional support animals. Before the memo was released, it was unclear whether emotional support animals qualified as assistance animals, as the Department of Justice had excluded them from the broader heading of “service animals.”

The process to apply for an emotional support animal at Penn is through Student Disabilities Services, which provides forms on its website to request accommodations for disabilities. SDS requires documentation of the student’s disability.

Holland said that the process of requesting an emotional support animal at a Penn dorm was somewhat vague.

While staff at SDS were able to walk her through the necessary forms, the point at SEE ANIMALS PAGE 7

- James Fisher

PAGE 4

PENN TO HOST FENCING IVY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Student admission files reveal little Students can use public information requests to view them BRIAN ZHONG Staff Reporter

BACKPAGE

WEIWEI MENG | ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

Despite the ability for students to request access to their admission files, most files do not have written notes, and only have numbers on them.

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An email from Penn’s Office of Admissions — containing a link to a secure portal — appeared in College freshman Srinivas Mandyam’s inbox.

He had requested his admission file.

Mandyam wanted to know how admissions officers evaluated him when he applied to Penn.

“I was really curious about what went through the minds of the admissions people when they decided to let me in here,” Mandyam said. “Maybe this could shed some light.”

A Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act provision grants enrolled students access to their educational records within 45 days of matriculating.

The FERPA mandate gained publicity after a student-run Stanford University newsletter published an article two years ago outlining the steps students should take to view their admissions files.

Mandyam requested his admissions file by email in mid-October and received it through a secure link in mid-November. While he expected to come across comments by admissions officers, he only saw his application — without any written notes — and four numbers.

“The problem was the numbers had no context, so I didn’t know what they were out of,” Mandyam said. “It could be out of 10 or out of different numerical scales, for all I know.”

Since each admissions office can interpret the phrase “educational records” SEE ADMISSIONS PAGE 6

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Mayor Kenney urges students to get involved in community Phila. mayor spoke at Big Brothers Big Sisters event SKYLER PALATNICK Contributing Reporter

On Wednesday night at Claudia Cohen Hall, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney implored students to work to foster change in the city of Philadelphia.

Penn Big Brothers Big Sisters hosted Kenney, who spoke on a variety of issues, answered students’ questions and offered advice on how to get involved in the community.

“You are never truly happy unless you are in service to others,” said Kenney, who praised the efforts of Penn’s BBBS program throughout his speech.

Kenney emphasized the

importance of BBBS to the lives of the children involved. He made clear his view that BBBS mentors can have a major influence on the life paths of the children they guide, using the example of a teenager without a good role model who told Kenney that the best school he had ever gone to was one he attended in jail.

Kenney went on to talk about poverty and the educational system in Philadelphia.

He described the people in the lower-income sections of the city as victims of circumstance.

“In those neighborhoods are really good people,” Kenney said. “They are just trapped.”

At the end of the event, he answered student inquiries and expressed his opinions on a range of relevant issues, including the

recent immigration ban and President Donald Trump’s comments on crime in the city of Philadelphia. Kenney criticized Trump for exaggerating the danger of Philadelphia streets, citing the city’s historically low homicide rate as evidence that the city is safer than Trump suggests.

College senior Shane Murphy praised Kenney’s proactive approach to education and mentorship.

“It’s important both substantively, because of the nature of the office he holds and the power that he has, and also symbolically,” he said.

Penn BBBS President and College senior Dominique McKnight described Kenney as “one of us,” referring to the mayor’s hands-on efforts to better the city.

“We ma inly focus on

New PAGE board to emphasize intersectionality Board raises concerns about Trump presidency SAMANTHA FRISKEY Contributing Reporter

Penn Association for Gender Equity transitioned to a new board this semester, welcoming seven new board members and affirming the club’s commitment to intersectionality amid concern about discrimination under President Donald Trump.

The organization’s new board intends to stress its dedication to inclusivity. College sophomore Jamie Ye, one of two returning board members, said that the board’s plans preceded the Women’s March movement.

“We had a general board direction we wanted to take before the Women’s March happened,” Ye said. “We knew that Trump was going to be inaugurated. We knew we wanted to make our space more inclusive and intersectional. So I think that it wasn’t that the Women’s March galvanized us — we were already galvanized.”

Freshmen now comprise a majority on the PAGE board, which Ye said adds a new energy to the group. “They bring a lot of new ideas that we never even talked about when I joined the board,”

she said.

Notably, the club hopes to partner with several cultural groups as well as the Civic House to best promote inclusivity, solidarity, diversity and social, economic and racial justice within PAGE and in the Penn community.

“We have, in the past few years, been trying to redirect the focus on women of color, LGBTQ, cis/ transgender, all those elements of feminism that is left behind in most conversations,” board member and College freshman Tanya Jain said.

“We have, this year, a board that is very dedicated to that, and also, represents those aspects a lot more, which is really, really exciting,” PAGE Chair and College junior Meghana Nallajerla-Yellapragada added.

After the Women’s March, PAGE held an event to deconstruct the protest and generate discussion on the successes and shortcomings of the marches, which have been criticized for lacking inclusivity and focusing on the experiences of white cisgender women.

“We had different perspectives on how the march was perhaps centered on one type of feminism,” Nallajerla-Yellapragada said. “Our goal, I think, this year especially

more than ever, is to focus on intersectionality, and move away from some of the white feminist, cisgender feminist aspects that PCUW… used to have.” PAGE was previously called the Penn Consortium for Undergraduate Women.

Board member and Engineering freshman Curie Shim said one cannot justly distinguish one issue as the most pressing threat to women from the Trump administration. “They’re attacking everyone,” she said. “And to focus on one issue would be really diminutive of the struggles that everyone is going through right now.”

“Pretty much every group is being targeted under this administration, and we can’t reduce that to one overarching thing that’s supposed to encompass all women, because all women aren’t the same,” Shim said.

PAGE leaders emphasized the importance of respecting the diversity of womanhood and said they hope to provide a space for marginalized voices.

“We are super committed, all nine of us, to centering people whose narratives typically haven’t been heard and making sure to serve those groups before others,” Shim said.

mentorship, urban education and giving back to the community, and that’s just what the mayor will be talking about,” she said before the event.

Before Kenney spoke to the audience, he was introduced by Marcus Allen, the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region, who also shared a few remarks of his own. Allen warmed up the crowd by recounting his unlikely rise out of poverty — noting how his mother was homeless when he was born — and then told the audience members that they could positively affect the lives of children in Philadelphia’s impoverished neighborhoods the same way Allen’s mentors affected him when he was growing up.

“Every one of you can have an impact on these kids,” Allen said.

COURTESY OF MATT ROURKE | CREATIVE COMMONS

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney spoke at the Penn Big Brothers Big Sisters event, emphasizing the importance of mentorship and community involvement for students and young people.

Sociology major starts Penn chapter of honors society

New honor society will hold mentoring program MANLU LIU Contributing Reporter

When College junior and sociology major Tiffany Yau realized that she didn’t know many other people in her major, she decided to fix the problem herself. Stumbling across International Honor Society of Sociology, Alpha Kappa Delta, while looking for scholarships online, Yau thought it was the perfect solution to bridge the disconnect she found between Penn’s sociology majors.

“I realized the Sociology Department doesn’t have an honor society, so I thought: why not start one up?” Yau said.

She reached out to College senior and sociology major Tiffany Rodriguez , a classmate in one of her sociology courses, about starting a chapter at Penn. Together they contacted Sociology Department Undergraduate Chair Melissa Wilde, who has helped them with administrative tasks in setting up this organization.

While the main activity of Penn’s Alpha Kappa Delta will be a mentoring program

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College senior Tiffany Rodriguez and College junior Tiffany Yau have started Penn’s chapter of an international sociology honor society.

between upperclassman sociology majors a nd new sociology majors, Yau and Rodriguez said they have explored many possibilities of where the club’s plans could lead, including putting on conferences with speakers from Penn’s Sociology Department or from other universities, movie nights and study sessions. The club plans to hold its first general body meeting on Feb. 15, at 7 p.m. in Williams Hall G4.

“We could answer questions, give [underclassmen sociology majors] course tips, advice. We have a lot of people on very similar paths, [such as] med school or law school,” Rodriguez said. “It’s really helpful … to have a centralized place where we could actually talk about this.”

Yau added that since Alpha Kappa Delta is an international organization, members of Penn’s chapter will have a c c e ss t o i nt e r n a t ion a l

conferences in sociological topics. According to the organization’s website, there are more than 660 chapters of Alpha Kappa Delta.

Yau also said that sociology used to be one of the more popular majors at Penn. However, it eventually branched out into health and societies, urban studies and criminology. Now there are about 50 sociology majors and minors at Penn, Rodriguez estimated.

While citing the size of the major as a reason for why people within the sociology major know very few others in the major, Rodriguez is optimistic that sociology majors could become more of a community through Alpha Kappa Delta. “[The sociology major is] not so small that we should be having this struggle where nobody knows who’s also a sociology major,” she said. “So that’s why we really want to get this club started.”

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Penn, Princeton to merge Students deliver letter health care systems to Sen. Pat Toomey Merger will increase Penn’s impact in N.J. KOLBY KALLER Staff Reporter

The University of Pennsylvania Health System will expand to serve more of New Jersey thanks to a merge with Princeton HealthCare System.

The Executive Committee of Penn’s Board of Trustees approved the partnership with PHCS — an organization which currently provides inpatient and outpatient care to more than 1.3 million people — in mid-December, in an agreement that satisfies both school’s medical centers.

“Aligning with PHCS will offer new opportunities for Penn Medicine to expand our services in New

Jersey,” University of Pennsylvania Health System CEO Ralph Muller told Penn Medicine News.

Muller believes the merge will “enable a mutually beneficial relationship for patients by uniting options for close-to-home care with coordinated access to Penn Medicine’s world-class advanced medicine.”

PHCS President and CEO Barry Rabner also spoke positively of the partnership in a statement to PHCS news in July.

“Penn Medicine’s strong financial position and comprehensive scope of services will add to PCHS’ financial security and ability to enhance clinical programs and develop facilities to improve access to care and superior patient quality for the community we serve,” Rabner told PHCS news.

The Princeton HealthCare System, located 40 miles northeast of Philadelphia, is in a growing region of Central New Jersey. It includes a 429-bed hospital system that has won regional and national awards.

After considering other potential partnerships, PHCS decided to merge with Penn’s health system in part because of the organization’s abilities that have earned such accolades as recognition as an Honor Roll hospital in the U.S. News & World Report ranking for close to 20 years.

The two university health care systems signed a letter of intent last July to pursue a relationship.

Both Muller and Dean of Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine J. Larry Jameson declined to comment.

Phila. shooting listed by White House as possible terror attack Shooter’s trial scheduled for later this year BRIAN ZHONG Staff Reporter

A Philadelphia shooting is making headlines not because it occurred recently, but because the White House listed the incident as one of the 78 terrorist attacks it claims the media underreported.

The White House released the list to complement comments President Donald Trump made to military officials in Florida about media coverage of domestic terrorist attacks.

“It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported,” Trump said. “And in many cases the very,

very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that.”

The Philadelphia shooting included on the White House list occurred in January of last year, when Philadelphia Police Officer Jesse Harnett was shot by a man who reportedly pledged his allegiance to ISIS after the police caught him.

President of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 John McNesby disputed the Trump administration’s assertion that the media didn’t sufficiently report the shooting.

“Yeah, I absolutely think he has enough coverage,” McNesby said to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The attack generated press from radio stations, local TV and

magazines, including nearly 40 articles in the Inquirer and about 30 in the Daily News, according to the Inquirer. McNesby said that the national media reported the shooting “fairly.”

The trial for the man suspected of shooting Hartnett is scheduled for later this year.

In a press conference on Air Force One, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said it wasn’t that these events weren’t being reported at all, but rather that they didn’t get enough coverage.

“Protests will get blown out of the water, and yet an attack or a foiled attack doesn’t necessarily get the same coverage,” he said, according to the Washington Post.

Wednesday, February 15 5:00-6:30 p.m.

Houston Hall, Bodek Lounge A PANEL DISCUSSION FEATURING: MICHAEL JONES-CORREA Professor of Political Science The Breakdown of the Immigration Consensus

EMILIO PARRADO

TUKUFU ZUBERI

Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor and Chair of Sociology

Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, Sociology, and Africana Studies

Mexican Migration to the U.S.: History and New Realities

The Final Demographic Racial Transition

Wharton MBA students organized the march GENEVIEVE GLATSKY News Editor

A group of roughly 150 students across different undergraduate and graduate schools marched from Locust Walk at 12 p.m. on Wednesday to the district office of Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to hand-deliver a letter signed by upwards of 3,000 members of the Penn community.

The letter calls on elected officials to condemn President Donald Trump‘s recent executive order banning immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Several students in the Wharton MBA program organized the march after hearing about the struggles of colleagues and faculty members, one who is unable to visit his wife in Canada out of fear he won’t be let back into the country, Wharton graduate student Mitch Gainer said. They then collaborated with undergraduates and graduate students across Penn Law School and the Perelman School of Medicine.

Toomey expressed support for Trump’s executive order in late January.

“I support the administration’s decision to increase vetting and temporarily suspend the admission of certain individuals from states that sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists, or are too weak to prosecute terrorists within their borders,” Toomey said in a statement reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Terrorists have successfully infiltrated refugee populations entering Europe and gone on to commit

JOY LEE | NEWS PHOTO EDITOR

Nearly 150 Penn undergraduate and graduate students marched from Locust Walk to Senator Pat Toomey’s office to deliver a letter.

heinous acts of barbarity.”

The group marched north on 34th Street and then east on Market Street to reach Toomey’s office at 1628 JFK Boulevard. At 1 p.m. the group stood waiting outside for Toomey’s staff to come down while different speakers took turn sharing stories “on behalf of all the people who couldn’t be here out of fear of what this could mean for their current citizenship status,” Gainer said.

“We’re here to represent them and make sure Senator Toomey hears their voices.”

After approximately 10 minutes several staffers came down and by around 1:30 p.m. a group of seven was allowed upstairs for a meeting with the office staff, said Ritika Chaturvedi, who received a doctorate from the School of Engineering and Applied Science in 2014, and is the partner of one of the organizers, Wharton and Perelman School of Medicine graduate student Clifford Marks.

The meeting lasted roughly 10 minutes, said Chaturvedi, during which the group of graduate students voiced their concerns.

“They sort of gave us stock

answers. because they can only say so much,” Chaturvedi said.

“There was nothing that came out of the meeting that was I would say productive other than they heard our concerns.”

Although Chaturvedi said the group did mention their colleagues without citizenship or permanent resident status who were afraid to come to the march, and the staffers said the office could assist those affected by the ban on a “caseby-case basis.”

“Organizationally and the message, it all came across very well,” said Wharton freshman Dylan Milligan, political director of Penn Democrats.

Milligan said he was one of five or six undergraduates who attended the march.

The trek to Toomey’s office is the latest in a series of student-led marches in protest of Trump’s executive order on immigration.

The letter also calls on representatives to block and overturn the order and to vote against the appointment of judges and officers “who would support similar policies that discriminate on the basis of race, religion, and national origin.”

4

OPINION

From the bottom of the barrel to Penn: Already at a disadvantage SPILLING THE REAL TEA | Navigating Penn as a first-generation, low-income student

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 9, 2017 VOL. CXXXIII, NO. 17 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

The minute I stepped out of my uncle’s car and arrived at Harrison College House, I should have known that my life would change forever.

I should have known that I would encounter several experiences that would make me question why I chose Penn. But instead, I naively checked myself into my new dorm, anticipating that my freshman year would be the best year of my life. If I could, I probably would smack my older self with my back hand and tell myself “You tried it! Try again.”

If only someone told me that adjusting to college would be difficult. That I would have lonely nights in my room because unlike countless other students at Penn, I could not afford to eat out with my friends in Center City. But the truth is, nobody told me anything — I had to figure a lot of this stuff out on my own.

Coming from this narrative, I think that we as a Penn community should be

mindful of the experiences of other low-income students that have been often ignored. My story is not very different from the stories of other first-generation lowincome students at Penn. But to provide a narrative, here’s my experience.

Living in a shelter home for most of my adolescence, neither my family nor I was equipped with basic financial literacy to know how to budget or save our money.

So guess who had to learn it on his own — me.

Before I discovered how to get a bank account, I had to rely on my boss from my work-study job to cash my checks for me. After getting tired of meeting her every week to cash it, I decided to find out how to get a bank account.

I went to various banks, and they all told me the same thing: You need some form of ID to create a basic checking account. My mother did not have a state ID or passport, and neither did I. And

every time I mentioned that to the bank representatives, they looked at me like I was crazy. So, getting this annoying ID was going to be the first obstacle.

I did not realize that in order to get a state ID, I needed other forms of iden-

New York trying to retrieve enough documents to prove my identity.

This situation resulted in a lot of stress and anxiety. I had several instances where I cried in my room, defeated.

And I thought to myself: If this was only my first se-

My story is not very different from the stories of other first-generation lowincome students at Penn.” tification. This was a difficult and confusing situation.

First, I needed identification in order to get identification.

Then, I needed the identification to get a bank account so I could finally be able to cash my work study checks.

I spent months going back and forth to both the DMV in Philly and the DMV in

mester in college and I was already going through situations like this, how could I ever endure three more years of this? Eventually I got the state ID and was even able to get a bank account, but the fact that I had to go through a lot of obstacles to attain it really showed me that the worst was yet to come for

the rest of my freshman year.

This is just one of the examples of the ways in which I was at a disadvantage my first year at Penn. There were several other social, emotional, physical and mental challenges I faced in addition to the financial struggles. But as a first-generation, low-income student, I was not blessed like the majority of students at Penn.

I did not have parents that went to college, nor did I have parents that could provide me with the resources I needed to succeed in college.

But looking back on it, I realize that I had all of the tools that I needed. I had a hardworking mother that dedicated her life to ensure that her children had a better life than her. I also had a motivation that pushed me to use all of the resources available to me to make sure that I had a chance to go to a prestigious school like Penn. A combination of these things, along with my

JAMES FISHER hard work and determination, not only helped me get into Penn, they also kept me motivated enough to stay.

I am now at a better place because I understand that although my experiences in life may have been hard, they also made me the strong-minded, smart, intelligent and beautiful person I am today. And it only goes up from here.

JAMES FISHER is a College sophomore from the Bronx, N.Y., studying communications. His email address is jafish@sas. upenn.edu. “Spilling the Real Tea” usually appears every other Thursday.

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BEN CLAAR is a College sophomore from Scarsdale, N.Y. His email is bclaar@sas.upenn.edu.

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This is not a column about Trump

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IT KEEPS HAPPENING | Oversaturation and information fatigue

SANJANA ADURTY Copy Associate WEIWEI MENG Photo Associate ANGEL FAN Photo Associate SAM HOLLAND Photo Associate CARSON KAHOE Photo Associate ERICKA LU Design Associate ROSHAN BENEFO Design Associate JULIA MCGURK Design Associate CHRISTINE LAM Design Associate

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.

It’s only my third column of the semester, and I am already wracking my brains to think of something to write about. If I want to write about current events, my options are Trump’s newly certified education secretary, Trump’s deluge of executive orders or Trump’s daily feuds playing out on Twitter.

If I want to write about events on campus, the most relevant happenings are related to the immigration ban and national events. If I want to write about personal events in my life, it all feels trivial in contrast to happenings in the larger world. An orange specter looms large, washing out all beneath it.

Sitting in front of my computer, I started wondering to myself: When was the last time I went a day without thinking about Donald Trump?

Maybe my addiction to news media is to blame. The man makes for good television, like the villain on a Saturday morning cartoon or a pop culture parody. But I

suspect that many are in the same boat as I am. The sheer amount of noise coming out of the White House makes it difficult to distinguish meaningful sound from bluster.

I have suspicions that Trump and his administration are throwing inflammatory statement after inflammatory statement, executive orders and twitter feuds, so that we, the populace, become numb to the deluge.

I’d argue that even if it isn’t a calculated move on Trump’s and his administration’s part, it does create an atmosphere that suggests sustained resistance and backlash are futile.

It also forces the public to constantly fact-check. Trump insists that The New York Times, CNN and other reputable news outlets are “fake news,” and that “Any negative polls are fake news.”

Which brings me to my second point. Has the news, the fact-checking and the White House propaganda actually swayed anyone’s opinion left or right? Are the majority of Trump supporters

changing their mind, when faced with data?

We in the 21st century, with our information just a click or swipe away, suffer from a particularly novel problem. Perhaps we also are a culture that exemplifies how decisions are emotional, not

ularly relevant in regard to the politcal climate today. When faced with more data than can be processed, a person does not make better decisions, and in fact quite probably will make worse decisions.

Too much information without explanation of how

Too much information without explanation of how the information works, or without trustworthy sources, is as useless as too little information.” rational, and how when minds are made up, they are not so quickly changed. Access to information does not mean a person will make more informed decisions.

Information overload and information fatigue are partic-

the information works, or without trustworthy sources, is as useless as too little information.

This is the responsibility of the news media: to parse the data into manageable narratives that the recipient trusts

and can use to formulate an opinion. I would argue that the news media — as a whole, although there are exceptions — has failed in delivering meaningful information in a format that actually succeeds in changing people’s minds.

This isn’t news, but I believe it to be a statement worth saying in light of the coverage surrounding the current administration. It is excessive to a perhaps unnecessary degree.

Yet I cannot really fault or chastise news organizations for their coverage. They find themselves between a rock and a hard place: If everything is outrageous, it must all be reported, but if everything is outrageous, nothing is.

As unsatisfactory as it might be, I have no solid conclusions to draw here, none that would not be a gross oversimplification unless I was to take an extra thousand words or so to explain them.

Likewise, I suspect that the current political landscape and the media surrounding it will, like so many other his-

ISABEL KIM torical events, seem clearer in hindsight.

More than anything else, I think Donald Trump’s Twitter and his saturation in the media was the logical conclusions of two trends: the dispersal of news into infotainment and its polarization into niche groups that serve as information bubbles. And neither of these trends bode well for the next four years.

ISABEL KIM is a College junior from Warren, N.J., studying English and fine arts. Her email address is isakim@sas.upenn. edu. “It Keeps Happening” usually appears every other Thursday.

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Penn Law School to host three immigration clinics this semester Clinics aim to inform students after Trump’s order OLIVIA SYLVESTER Staff Reporter

Penn Law School will host three immigration information and referral clinics over the course of the spring semester.

In the clinics, attorneys and students will address the concerns of members of the Penn community regarding immigration and travel.

They will not only provide information and advice but also give referrals to other attorneys when individuals’ situations require more

intensive representation. Representatives from Penn International Student and Scholar Services will also be present at the clinics.

The first clinic takes place on Friday, Feb. 10 from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. in Perry World House. The other two are slated for March 24 and April 8. On the registration form, students, faculty and staff members can indicate whether they need an interpreter for the clinic.

They are also asked to indicate the types of questions and concerns they would like addressed.

After President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, Penn President Amy Gutmann

condemned the action as “inimical to our values” in a statement emailed to the Penn community thatshe later read aloud at a protest on College Green.

Other administrators and faculty members have also reached out to indicate their solidarity with students, particularly those affected by the order. The Department of Philosophy released a statement calling the immigration action “antithetical to our values as philosophers, scholars and human beings.”

An open letter criticizing the ban, addressed to public officials from “students, faculty, scientists,

ADMISSIONS >> PAGE 1

administrators, and alumni” of Penn, has accumulated 3,000 signatures since Jan. 31. The letter states that Trump’s policies will “displace our classmates and separate us from our teachers and friends.”

Students and faculty affected by the executive order have expressed concern and uneasiness about their future at Penn and in the United States in general. Students voiced their concerns at the University Council meeting on Feb. 1 but acknowledged their appreciation of Penn’s faculty and administration speaking out against the immigration ban.

differently, they have some discretion over what to include in the files provided to students. Brown, Columbia and Yale have removed most or all internal admissions documents from the files students can review.

1986 Wharton graduate Laurie Kopp Weingarten, co-founder and director of One-Stop College Counseling, knows several students who — like Mandyam — did not know how to interpret the numbers in their educational files.

“Some of the colleges are now destroying the records, and the ones that aren’t, that are still showing, they’re coded in a way that don’t help you. They have numbers but you don’t know the scale was,” Weingarten said.

Weingarten urges student to not view their application records.

“I really just can’t imagine a scenario where I recommend a student read their file,” Weingarten said. “I know a bunch of kids who’ve read

their files, and almost none of them had been thrilled with what they read.”

One student from Yale who pulled her admissions file before Yale destroyed them found that an admissions officer called her essay “cheesy” and another one even confused her with someone else, referencing a summer job she didn’t have.

For Mandyam, the four numbers in his admissions record confirmed the preconceptions he initially held about the admissions process.

“I went into the college application process with the mindset of, as much as you try, there’s still a huge element of randomness in the outcome of your college decision,” Mandyam said. “I wanted to believe that there was some major thing that differentiated college decisions from randomness.”

“The fact that this is how they choose to distill their judgment of an applicant, I’m not sure if this is what I would do if I’m in the position of the admissions office,” he said.

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The Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business The Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business

presents: The Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business presents:

presents: The Reinsberg Lecture Series

The Reinsberg Lecture Series

The Reinsberg Lecture Series

Jon M. Huntsman, Jr.

JonM.M.Huntsman, Huntsman, Jon Jr. Jr. Chairman of the Atlantic Council, Co-Chairman of No Labels,

Former U.S. Ambassador to China, and Former Governor of Utah

Chairman of the Council, Co-Chairman of No Labels, Chairman ofAtlantic the Atlantic Council, Co-Chairman of No Labels, Former U.S.U.S. Ambassador to China, and Former The and China: Where We Governor of Utah

Former U.S. Ambassador to China, and Former Governor of Utah From TheGo U.S. andHere China:

Where We Go From We Here The U.S. and China: Where Wednesday, February 15, 2017 The U.S. and China: Where We 4:30—5:30 PM Go From Here Wednesday, February 15, 2017 Ambani Auditorium G06 Go From Here 4:30 - 5:30 PM Wednesday, February 15, 2017 Jon M Huntsman Hall Ambani Auditorium G06 4:30—5:30 PM Wednesday, February 15, 2017 Jon M. Moderators: Huntsman Hall Ambani Auditorium G06

Avery Goldstein, David M. Knott 4:30—5:30 PM Professor of Global Jon M Huntsman Hall Politics and International Relations; Moderators: G06 Ambani Auditorium William Burke-White, Director, Perry World House, Avery Goldstein, David M. Knott Deputy Dean and Professor of Law Moderators: Jon M Huntsman Hall and Professor of Global Politics

Avery Goldstein, David M. Knott Professor of Global International Relations; Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. began his career in public service as a staff assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He has Burke-White, Director, Politics and William International Relations; Moderators: served four U.S. Presidents since then in critical roles around the world, including as Ambassador to Singapore, Perry World House, Deputy Dean William Burke-White, Director, Perry World House, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Asia, U.S. Ambassador, and most recently, U.S. Ambassador Avery Goldstein, David M. Knott Professor ofTrade Global and Professor of Law Deputy Dean and Professor Law to China.

Twice elected Governor of of Utah, Huntsman brought about strong economic reforms, tripled the state’s

Politics and Relations; rainy day fund, andInternational helped bring unemployment rates to historic lows.

William Burke-White, Director, Perry World House, HeJr. currently on the of Ford Motor Company, Caterpillar Corporation, Chevron Corporation, Jon M. Huntsman, began serves his career in boards public service as a staff assistant to President Ronald Reagan.

He has Hilton Worldwide, the U.S.then Naval Foundation, and University of Pennsylvania.

In addition, he serves as a served four U.S.Deputy PresidentsDean since in Academy critical roles around the the world, including as Ambassador to Singapore, and Professor of Law Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. began his career in public service as a staff assistant to

fellow at the Brookings a trustee of the Reagan Presidential Foundation, and Chairman of Deputy Assistantdistinguised Secretary of Commerce for Asia,Institute, U.S. Trade Ambassador, and most recently, U.S. Ambassador President Ronald Reagan. served four U.S. Presidents since then critical the Huntsman Cancer Foundation.

He He is ahas graduate of the University of Pennyslvania and hasinnine honorary to China. Twice elected Governor of Utah, Huntsman brought about strong economic reforms, tripled the state’s doctoral degrees. roles around the world, including as Ambassador to Singapore, Deputy Assistant Jonday M.fund, Huntsman, Jr. bring began his career in public service as a staff assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He rainy and helped unemployment rates to historic lows.

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THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

ANIMALS

Isom said that the positive feedback from participants has created strong support for a repeat of the event.

Last semester’s study break was far from the first on Penn’s campus. Penn has reached out to animal groups on several occasions to bring cats and dogs to school to help students decompress.

Other schools have gone even

>> PAGE 1

which her cat was actually approved was unclear.

After receiving approval from SDS and talking to the dean of Harrison College House, Holland and her roommates began searching for a cat — but then received another email detailing things they would first have to do to ensure that the cat would not bother anyone else in the building.

Holland and her roommates adopted Toast from a nearby shelter.

“For a bit she was really anxious, but I just kept her in my room for a while — she slept under my bed for like a week — and then we let her - Sarah Holland out and she started exploring ... she’s crazy comfortable now,” Holland said.

She added that because Toast further — Washington Univerquickly becomes comfortable sity in St. Louis experienced a with new people, her friends will brief rabies scare when a bear often ask to come and spend time cub bit several students after with Toast when they’re feeling being brought to campus as part stressed. of a stress-relief petting zoo.

“If you’re upset, she knows However, James Serpell, a proit, and she’ll come over and let fessor at the School of Veterinary you cuddle her,” Holland said. “I Medicine, said that although don’t know where she learned it people love the idea of animals …but she’s so intuitive.” improving stress, there is not a Holland is not the only one to strong body of evidence to supemotionally benefit from ani- port this claim. mals. Groups at Penn often bring *** cats and dogs on campus during Emotional support animals, finals as part of an attempt to re- unlike service animals, do not lieve stress. need training or certification Penn Benjamins, a peer coun- — just a doctor’s recommendaseling organization, partnered tion. In general, Serpell said, the with Class Board 2018 and popularity of emotional support Penn’s branch of Active Minds animals has outstripped the scito organize an animal-themed entific backing for them. What study break last semester — little research there is on the complete with cats and dogs from topic has mostly been funded by Le Cat Cafe and the Delaware the pet food industry, which has County branch of the American an incentive for promoting pet Society for the Prevention of ownership, he added.

Cruelty to Animals.

News outlets frequently report “We had people who were on studies suggesting that animal coming in and talking about ownership improves human missing their pets from home, health, but many of these studies and they were just feeling a look at the effect on short-term little bit down ... your pet is your stress levels or long-term cardiofamily,” Penn Benjamins board vascular health. member and Wharton junior Serpell is not the only one Phillip Isom said. “So we said, pushing for more research into why don’t we get a bunch of cats human-animal interactions: At and dogs ... to come and just be a National Institutes of Health here so that people can take some workshop in 1987, Penn psychiatime to hang out with them?” try professor emeritus Aaron

NEWS 7

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2017 Beck — sometimes called the “father of cognitive therapy,” a common treatment for depression — argued that “no future study of human health should be considered comprehensive if the animals with which they share their lives are not included.”

But 30 years later, much research into the area remains to be done.

Serpell said that the lack of evidence into emotional support animals in particular doesn’t necessarily mean that they do not provide concrete, measurable benefit — only that researchers can’t state confidently that they do.

Despite the lack of scientific data supporting the effectiveness of emotional support animals, many people say they derive significant emotional benefits from them. But humans aren’t the only ones that get stressed — and too much stimulation through an emotional support program can also hurt animals’ mental health. *** For some animals, a college campus can feel too crowded and dangerous.

And Penn’s campus is full of pets. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Dennis DeTurck and Ralph and Ellen Rosen have cats in Riepe College House, while Harrison’s House Dean Frank Pellicone’s dog Elvis is a common fixture around the building.

Pets also live in fraternity houses and nearby off-campus residences.

Sometimes pets do find Penn’s campus to be stressful, with its tens of thousands of students and high foot traffic. This is particularly true of animals who live in dorms or apartment buildings.

Serpell said that dogs tend to be more resilient, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be overstressed through too much social interaction. Most animal organizations recommend that emotional support animals get no more than 30 minutes to an hour of exposure at a time.

Philosophy professor Lisa Miracchi adopted Owen, a black and white dog that looks a collie mix, as a puppy. It quickly became clear that Owen was struggling

If you’re upset, she knows it, and she’ll come over and let you cuddle her... she’s so intuitive.”

with his mental health. Mirac- she realized that she needed to chi said that because he had not give him up. been socialized much prior to his “I just felt like I wasn’t doing adoption, he developed an un- the right thing by him, every time healthy attachment to her.

I have to travel,” she said.

“It was just me and him in this Even though she had pets small apartment, so I was his growing up, Miracchi said Owen entire universe,” she said. “That’s was unique — he was the first actually not super healthy for pet that she had such a close permany dogs — it’s better for them sonal connection with. He even to have attachments to multiple affected her research. Miracchi people and to get used to not works in the philosophy of mind, being in the same room as their and seeing Owen’s “rich mental owners all the time.” life” has helped shape her views When Miracchi left home to on animal minds. attend conferences or even to Owen is now being fostered by teach class, Owen would become the president of the rescue from destructive and bark repeatedly, which he was first adopted. Midisturbing neighbors. Some- racchi believes the move was for times, he even refused to eat. the better. His new home has a Miracchi became a faculty large yard, with other people and fellow at Stouffer College House dogs to interact with, instead of last year, and the move presented the cramped quarters of a college even greater problems for Owen. campus.

Although Owen was friendly and While overstimulation can rarely aggressive, living in a col- be stressful for pets, so can lege dorm proved to be difficult loneliness. Dogs with severe atfor him. tachment problems like Owen “When unexpected things are rare, but most dogs and cats happen, when people come into exhibit behavior problems or his space — that’s what was other signs of stress when not really stressful [for Owen],” Mi- played with or cared for. For racchi said. pets, the benefit — as well as Miracchi took Owen to see drawback — of college life is animal behaviorists, and he re- that there’s always someone who ceived an evaluation at Penn’s wants to pet you.

Vet School. Miracchi called the *** veterinarians’ advice “validatThis is especially true of pets ing.” who live in fraternity houses — “It’s easy to feel like it’s your like Bruno, a dog who lives with failure if the dog is having these problems, or if you’re not able to correct certain kinds of behavior,” she said. “I got the response from them that I was doing a good job with him and a lot of this was genetic or due to his early life before I got him.”

Yet despite the strategies - Lisa Miracchi that the behaviorists gave her and even medication, Owen’s anxiety failed to improve. In fact, it seemed to get the brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon worse over time. fraternity.

Last Christmas, unable to Taking care of a dog can be find anyone to come take care of substantial work, particularly at Owen at her apartment, Mirac- a frat house. When the house has chi drove him to a kennel. She loud gatherings, like large paropened the trunk to find that he ties, one of the members keeps had chewed through the cloth Bruno upstairs in a separate carrier he was in — the cloth was room to keep him from becommarked with blood where Owen ing overstimulated. Fraternity had cut his face. members delegate everyday tasks That, Miracchi said, was when through a roster, and brothers

It was just me and him in this small apartment, so I was his entire universe.”

volunteer to take him to the vet’s office or take him home with them during breaks.

“I think I got really close with [Bruno] over the summer,” fraternity member and College and Wharton sophomore Ryan Leone said, who took care of Bruno last summer. “Now, whenever I walk into the house, he recognizes me and gets up and gets ready to go for a walk.”

Leone said that Bruno has become a fixture at the house, referring to him as a member of the fraternity. And though Bruno is just a pet, Leone said that he sometimes also acts in the capacity of an emotional support animal.

“I don’t know if I can speak for everybody,” Leone said, “but I know at least for me ... if I’m having a bad day, I’ll kind of just pop in for a little bit. For me, at least, he’s there as a comfort.”

“I think [Bruno] also recognizes when people aren’t feeling too good, so he’ll be there and he’ll snuggle up next to you,” he added.

In the past, fraternity members who take care of Bruno over breaks have sometimes run into problems with landlords who refuse to allow pets. Public universities have only been required for the last few years to provide accommodations for emotional support animals, and some may find it difficult or inconvenient to deal with an influx of students who want to keep a pet on campus — especially when the process of obtaining an emotional support animal is so lax and research into their effectiveness is so scarce.

But the people who live with them say that the benefit of emotional support animals is real, even if it can’t be quantified or measured. And for students who live on campus, this usually means receiving permission from the school to keep their pet there.

“My parents and my friends can definitely said that I’m a completely different person now,” Holland said. “Before I got medication, [Toast] was already helping me feel better day by day.”

What three Penn freshmen did during their gap years Two attended culinary school together in Paris REBECCA LIEBERMAN Staff Reporter

For most Penn students, freshman year of college begins in the fall immediately following high school graduation. But some students choose to explore the world before exploring campus.

Many students take a gap year, during which they may go abroad to work, study, volunteer or explore.

For College freshman Rachel Prokupek, taking a gap year was a somewhat spontaneous decision.

“I wasn’t planning on taking a gap year at first,” Prokupek said. “But one day, I was sitting with my dad at dinner. He’s a big foodie, I’m a big foodie, and I was like, ‘Dad, one day I want to go to culinary school.’” To her surprise, her father suggested that she do so before college.

Prokupek studied at Le Cordon

REPUBLICANS >> PAGE 1

However, College and Wharton freshman Michael Moroz , the organization’s representative to the University Council, presented a different opinion towards the executive order at the council’s meeting on Feb. 1.

“We hope President Trump ensures this order is applied correctly and supplements it with a clear plan to implement changes to the immigration standards for the countries of particular concern,” Moroz said.

Moroz started off his statement at the meeting by saying that he was “grateful to represent the College Republicans.”

However, College senior and College Republicans Chairman Matt Shapiro said Moroz’s statement was incongruous with the beliefs of Penn College Republicans. He and College and Wharton sophomore Julianne Goodman, the vice president of Penn College

Bleu, a culinary school in Paris, for nine months. While there, she attended class six days a week and learned how to cook French dishes and pastries.

Coming to college after a year abroad has presented some academic challenges for Prokupek.

“I haven’t done calculus in a year and a half,” she said, “so my math class is really hard.”

Nevertheless, Prokupek would recommend taking a gap year without hesitation.

“I think it was the best decision I ever made,” she said. “It was just a year of heaven. I was doing what I loved every single day.”

College freshman Olivia Weis, Prokupek’s roommate this year, also studied at Le Cordon Bleu.

Weis and Prokupek instantly bonded and decided to room together at Penn.

For Weis, however, Paris was only the beginning of her travels.

“My oldest brother took a gap year, so I knew that I wanted to take one for eight years,” she said.

After spending four years at a competitive boarding school, Weis wanted a break from structured educational systems. She spent three months in Paris before heading to Mexico’s Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, where she did marine conservation work.

“I lived in a hut there and went on three dives a day to gather data on coral,” Weis said.

She then left Mexico for Malawi, where she worked at an orphanage for just over a month.

Next was Florence, where Weis took an acting class, followed by the Bahamas, where she lived in an ashram, took a yoga course and became a certified yoga instructor.

Weis chose each new destination about two weeks before traveling there.

“I wanted to keep my options open and go with whatever I was feeling,” she said.

Her parents generally supported her decision to spend a year abroad, but they did have

Republicans, said the statement that the organization published on their Facebook page is what the group will stand behind.

The statement on Penn College Republicans’ Facebook page concluded with a call to all Americans.

“We must not shirk our deeply held American values,” the post read. “ [We must continue] to be that shining city on a hill that has offered endless promise and bountiful opportunities to generations of Americans.”

Shapiro and Goodman said that action is currently being taken towards addressing the issue of reconciling these competing statements.

Wharton junior and Penn College Republicans president Sean Egan added that the organization hasn’t released anything publicly about the two differing to avoid unnecessary controversy.

“Students have come and approached me to talk about the two statements,” Shapiro said.

“However, we fully stand behind the statement we posted on our Facebook page.”

Goodman and Shapiro said that the rest of Moroz’s statement was shared by other members College Republicans, who are concerned with the way that the University responded to the ban.

“The University can defend its mission without going into these political issues. It eradicates any sort of substantive debate and marginalizes parts of the community,” Shapiro said, echoing Moroz’s sentiment at the University Council meeting, where he said the University’s stance on a political issue “threatens to alienate students with different beliefs.”

On the complete other side of the debate, Penn Democrats organized the Penn March for Immigrants last Thursday. The group had immigrant students speak to a crowd on College Green about how Trump’s travel ban affects them, their families and their home countries.

some reservations.

“They were just really concerned with me traveling alone as a woman,” Weis said. “It was something my brother didn’t have to deal with at all.”

College freshman Emma Wagner, who spent her gap year in Australia and India, was also wary of traveling alone as a woman.

“Being a woman in India by myself was not comfortable,” she said. “People would say things to me a lot, or come up and actually touch me, and that’s hard to deal with when you’re alone.”

Wagner spent her time in India volunteering at an orphanage.

“The girls in the orphanage had been through some of the most horrific things I’ve ever heard of,” she recalled.

Wagner’s time in Australia, however, was much more upbeat.

“I was basically a glorified bartender at weddings,” she said.

“And I also worked at a gelato shop and learned how to make ice

COURTESY OF RACHEL PROKUPEK

College freshman Rachel Prokupek took advantage of her gap year by studying at Le Cordon Bleu, a culinary school in Paris.

cream.”

Wagner’s time abroad gave her insight into potential career paths.

“I was even more undecided coming into college in terms of what I wanted to do than I am now,” Wagner said, adding that the experience “helped me figure out more basic things, like that I wanted to work with people, or

that I wanted to have a more collaborative or interactive job.”

Prokupek, Weis and Wagner all strongly recommended that their fellow students take a gap year abroad.

“It’s helped me have a greater concept of life outside of school,” Wagner said. “It was interesting to see that no culture is perfect.”

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8 SPORTS

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2017

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Grapplers hits the road for brutal triple-header WRESTLING | Penn to face season, familiar faces, espe-

three teams in two days

WILL AGATHIS Associate Sports Editor

With dual season nearing its close, Penn wrestling is looking to kick into high gear.

For one more weekend, the Quakers (4-6, 2-5 EIWA) will have a loaded slate with little rest in between. After six straight weeks of having a tournament or multiple duals, the Red and Blue will head into one final grueling weekend – starting on Friday with Cornell and continuing into Saturday with trips to Binghamton and Columbia – before dual season comes to a close the following weekend against Drexel.

With all three matches this weekend being against conference opponents, the team has little margin for error. Penn has fared well in its last few matches in the EIWA, winning two and narrowly losing to Brown. The Quakers will look to keep their winning ways alive against two strong programs in Binghamton and Columbia and one of the nation’s wrestling behemoths in Cornell.

Over the course of the dual

FENCING

>> BACKPAGE

Tigers’ women’s squad will be their strongest contenders, with an undefeated record through the month of January.

Nevertheless, Ma and his fencers seem more than ready for the task. “We will particularly be looking at those teams, and looking at their individual videos,� the defending Ivy League Men’s Fencing Coach of the Year said. “We’ll be trying to set up some strategy, just like we did last year, focusing on the one-on-one bouts.�

While the setting and the opponents are oh-so-familiar, the Ivy League Fencing Round

and could be the Red and Blue’s best shot at earning All-American honors in 2017.

Those accomplishments are certainly impressive, but all six wrestlers will need to be at their best this weekend against Cornell. The Big Red (10-2, 3-0) are the tenth-ranked program in the nation at the moment and have steamrolled through their opponents, with their only losses against No. 2 Oklahoma State and No. 7 Missouri.

The Red and Blue are determined to give the Bears trouble on Friday, though. Mattiace, No. 17 at 197, will wrestle Cornell’s No. 19 Owen Scott. The two wrestled at the Southern Scuffle last month, when Mattiace picked up a narrow 4-3 decision. The Montville, N.J. native is looking to focus on his own wrestling heading into the weekend. “It’s important to just have the right mindset the week of practice,� Mattiace said. “Keep your goals in mind and what you are focusing on.�

At 174, No. 3 Kent will wrestle Cornell’s No. 3 Brian Realbuto.

Both grapplers scored a victory against the other last season and have wrestled close against one another. This encounter is

cially those in the middle weight classes, continue to deliver points for the Quakers. Unsurprisingly, the three uninjured captains have played a consistent and important role in that development.

Junior captain Joe Oliva has wrestled to a 6-4 dual record at 149 pounds. Junior captain May Bethea is having another dominant season at 157 pounds, holding a 9-2 record against EIWA opponents, and looks primed for another run at the conference tournament in March.

Finally, senior captain Brooks Martino has split a starting role with junior Joe Velliquette lately, but has won his last three. He’s looking for another shot at nationals after qualifying in 2015.

There are also big point-scorers in the higher weight classes.

2016 All-American and senior Casey Kent is having another banner year at 174, going 5-2 in conference. Junior 184-pounder Joe Heyob had been tearing through opponents in his sixmatch winning streak before coming up short against Brown.

His success is all the more surprising given that he dropped from 197 to 184 last month. At 197, senior Frank Mattiace has outscored his opponents 76-24

Robins brings a modification from the usual competition day for the Red and Blue. This weekend’s competition requires Penn to fence six teams in two days, as opposed to the usual one, bringing about its own challenges. “It’s hard to have two good [fencing] days in a row, but it’s also very easy to have two bad days,� sophomore epee Justin Yoo said. “There are a lot more variables to take into account, meaning we have to stay focused, because the second day is just as important as the first day.�

For Ma, an extra day of competition does nothing to taper his expectations. “Of course, mentally it will be different, only fencing three teams a day,� the eighth-year

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SARA YOUNG Sports Reporter

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knows how to do their skills and the main focus is going to be executing under pressure at every meet,� said sophomore captain Caroline Moore. “The team mentality for this weekend is to focus on being consistent in all 24 routines. We’re just trying to build off of our past couple of meets.�

So far this season, the Quakers (3-5, 2-1 Ivy) have seen ups and downs in both quad meets and dual competitions under the leadership of head coach John Ceralde and assistants Kirsten Strausbaugh and Brittney Williams, but have struggled to capture top positions in recent weeks, falling to four straight opponents. “As a team, we want to focus on eliminating small mistakes in our routines like a step on a landing or bent legs. We can make our routines now, so we’re targeting the little things,� Levi said.

The Quakers’ confidence in themselves and each other keeps them poised to make the weekend’s

Tuesday–Saturday 9:30am–6pm

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inter-conference showdown a success for the squad and a victory for their vision. Levi anticipates with conviction a solid performance by her team both as a collective and as individuals. “The Rutgers meet is a perfect chance for us to get into a competitive mindset and build confidence in an exciting environment,� she said. “We’ve been looking forward to this meet for a while!� “I have complete confidence in every single one of the girls on the team, and I know that everyone is capable of showing their best routine,� Moore added. “We all trust each other.�

As these fearless athletes fling, bend, flex and flip themselves in ways that most of us can’t even begin to understand, this trust will be instrumental in ensuring the triumph of the Red and Blue in this weekend’s contest. And if the Quakers resemble their season-opening performances at all, they’ll be back on top as the Ivy League’s team to beat.

The Saturn Club

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ZACH SHELDON | SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR

Junior captain Kyra Levi thinks Penn gymnastics can make large strides by fixing small mistakes against Rutgers, Maryland and Yale.

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With only days left to polish its routines, Penn gymnastics edges closer to yet another intense weekend of high-stakes competition.

The Red and Blue will take to the Piscataway, N.J. to show they judges how they balance out against Rutgers, Maryland and Ivy League rival Yale. The event will mark the team’s third quad meet of the season and will be a chance to prove to itself and its opponents that its fundamentals are sound as a beam and its ability to execute is not up for debate.

The Red and Blue gymnasts, like any other accomplished group of athletes here at Penn, recognize that the joint pursuit of excellence involves patience and consistent dedication. “We’re on the way to where we want to be by our championship season,� junior captain Kyra Levi said. “We’re climbing the ladder that every team has to climb. It’s just a matter of continuing strong practices and before we know it, we’ll be peaking at the right point in season.� “One competition at a time� is always an effective method of performance focus, but this distinctly driven troupe of tumblers never loses sight of the new heights they’ve been leaping for all season and, for some, the past several years. “Looking ahead, we just need to focus on being mentally strong. At this point in the season, everyone

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“In terms of the amount of wrestling, it’s no different than being in a tournament,� Mattiace said. “In terms of being focused, it’s important that you focus on the match at hand, and once that’s over with, you can start focusing on the next one.�

All told, this weekend is another crucial one for the Quakers and one of the last impressions that the team’s NCAA hopefuls can make heading into the conference tournament.

| Team hoping to snap skid

Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9.

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Tirapelle said. “They do know where it’s at on the schedule so they get amped up and hyped up.

Now’s the time we can cut them loose a little bit and get them excited for the match.�

Cornell is a daunting challenge and just the first leg of a threematch weekend. On Saturday, the Quakers will continue onwards against Binghamton (8-4, 8-2) and then Columbia (3-9, 1-4).

The key to the weekend is thinking one match at a time.

GYMNASTICS

Skill Level:

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ZACH SHELDON | SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR

Junior Joe Oliva will have his hands full this weekend, as will the entire Penn wrestling team. The Quakers face three foes, all on the road.

Quakers look to regain their balance in quad meet

coach stated. “But every team is still strong, every bout, every touch will still be crucial. All collegiate matches are crucial, it depends on the day.�

For the Red and Blue, there have been a lot of good days, with both squads only dropping one of the past 12 dual matches.

The key now is to have those good days in succession.

They’ve had more than enough dress rehearsals; now it’s showtime, literally and figuratively. But, if they perform to the level that they have shown in those rehearsals, their competitors better be very weary.

Who knows? The end of this screenplay may just read ‘Exeunt Penn fencing, men’s and women’s Ivy champions.’

SUDOKUPUZZLE

expected to be no different.

After that, Cornell will unleash its nationally revered 184-pounder, Gabe Dean. The senior has been a wrecking ball in his time in Ithaca. His rivalry with Penn’s Lorenzo Thomas (C’16), also an All-American, was always a marquee matchup between the two schools. This year, Dean will likely take on Heyob. Dean is 24-0 on the year and has pinned 18 of his opponents. In his time at Cornell, he’s 141-6 and a two-time NCAA Champion. Surely, Heyob will need to utilize his entire arsenal.

The Big Red lineup is stacked from top to bottom, but the Quakers are excited to play spoiler to their rival’s impressive season. Bethea is well aware of Cornell’s success and that has only helped to motivate him. He stresses how excited his teammates are given the exciting rivalry the two schools have. “[With it] being Cornell, we’re motivated . . . we’re huge rivals,�

Bethea said. “We’ve been excited this whole week to wrestle them.�

Coach Alex Tirapelle echoed Bethea’s words, mentioning that the team has been geared up for Cornell for weeks. “It’s one they look forward to,�

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SPORTS 9

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2017

Quakers seek breakthrough against Columbia, Cornell M. HOOPS | The Quakers

are winless in Ivy play JACOB SNYDER Associate Sports Editor FRIDAY

Columbia (10-9, 4-2 Ivy) 7 p.m.

The Palestra

SUNDAY

Cornell (6-15, 2-4 Ivy) 1 p.m.

The Palestra

Coach Steve Donahue of Penn men’s basketball is not keen on the phrase “must-win.”

In fact, in a past interview, he has described the phrase as “for the media” (guilty as charged) and “not what we focus on.”

However, with the Red and Blue (7-12, 0-6 Ivy) hosting two immensely important games against Columbia and Cornell this weekend, he had seemingly no choice but to use the vaunted expression.

W.HOOPS

>> BACKPAGE

Quakers’ dominant play. A four-plus hour drive from Columbia to Cornell after Friday night’s game will see the team arrive in Ithaca well past midnight.

“Getting into the hotel at 2:00 AM will be new to some people, but there are no excuses, we just have to be able to be good at dealing with it,” McLaughlin said.

“We’ve had a tough history with Cornell,” Ross added. “It’s kind of a revenge game, but it’s also just us playing the way we have been playing. Right now, we’re focusing on us, and later this week we’ll focus on

“In terms of making the tournament, I think both of the games this weekend are must-win,” Donahue admitted. “When you play at home against teams in front of you in the standings, you just can’t keep losing.”

It’s hard to argue with Donahue’s logic. With the Quakers looking up at both Columbia (10-9, 4-2) and Cornell (6-15, 2-4) in the Ivy League standings, there is increasingly little margin for error. Especially in the case of Columbia, who currently occupies the prized fourth-place position, a win is a must.

If the Quakers are going to grab two wins this weekend, there are a couple notable keys to success.

The first is something that has plagued Penn all season – consistency.

“You’d like to know what you’re getting from every guy at this point in the season,” Donahue said. “But I don’t think that’s the case. We’re up and down individually. Even within games we don’t have the dependability that we want.”

The statistics back up Donahue’s words. The Red and Blue have had 16 double-digit scoring

them.”

It’s been a long season for the Quakers so far, and with a month still left before the league tournament, it’s important that the team can find a way to keep its momentum without falling into predictable patterns.

“I think what’s out there now is a lot of film on each team,” McLaughlin said.

“Both teams obviously will see what we do, we know what they do, so there is some tweaking that goes on at this point.”

But for now it seems safe to say that the more film Columbia and Cornell watch, the worse they will be feeling when the Quakers come to town.

performances in the six conference games so far, which would not be half bad except that it is split among six different players. That means that the average double-digit scorer is only doing so every two or three games. Not great.

The second key to success this weekend will be free throw shooting.

None of the five Quakers who have attempted at least 20 free throws this season shoots above 70 percent from the line — the commonly accepted bare minimum to be considered solid from the charity stripe.

“We’re good enough to be shooting much better from the line,” junior guard Darnell Foreman said.

“Free throws are half-mental. We’ve been taking more reps in practice to give ourselves a confidence boost.”

In close losses like the ones at Dartmouth and at home against Yale, free points from the line often prove vital. This weekend, if a game is close down the stretch, free throws may be what sway the result for or against the Quakers.

On Friday against Columbia, Penn will have to be wary of star

forward Luke Petrasek, who leads the league in free throw percentage and is top-5 in scoring and rebounding. Petrasek, who excels as a 3-point shooter, is coming off an 18point performance against Brown on Sunday.

“Luke is a force, there’s do doubt about that,” Donahue said.

“Whether we’re in a man defense or a zone, we have to know where he’s at.”

Sunday’s clash against Cornell will feature another opposing star in the form of Ivy League scoring leader Matt Morgan. The senior has scored in double-figures in every single conference game this season.

For that reason, the goal is not so much to stop Morgan, but to slow him down a bit.

“Matt is really tough to defend because he’s great in transition,” Donahue said. “He can score and beat you in so many different ways. He has to be a focus of any team that wants to beat Cornell.”

When push comes to shove, the slow start to the conference season plants many seeds of doubt in the team’s ability to make a run at a conference tournament berth. However,

Donahue and his players are still finding reason to stay positive and optimistic.

“Our goal of making the tournament won’t change until we’re mathematically eliminated,”

Donahue said.

“We always just want to win the next game,” Foreman added.

“That hasn’t changed and won’t change. Our focus is on this weekend and getting a couple wins.”

Red and Blue looks to rebound after heartbreaking loss last weekend

M. TENNIS | Quakers

welcome Wisconsin, Rice COLE JACOBSON Sports Editor SATURDAY

Wisconsin (3-0) 11 a.m.

Hecht Tennis Center

SUNDAY

Rice (4-3) 11 a.m.

Hecht Tennis Center

There’s nothing that can replicate the hunger that comes from a brutally close loss.

Fortunately for Penn men’s tennis, the squad won’t have to wait too long to put that desire to the test.

Only days after suffering a heartbreaking 4-3 setback at the hands of undefeated Big Ten power Minnesota, the Red and Blue will get a pair of chances at redemption this weekend, hosting fellow Big Ten member Wisconsin on Saturday before welcoming Rice to Philadelphia the following afternoon.

Against the Golden Gophers last weekend, Penn (3-2) nearly pulled off the comeback of the century after trailing 3-0 early on, but the Quakers ultimately came up just short of handing Minnesota its first loss when Matt Nardella fell in a thirdset tiebreak in the No. 3 singles spot.

But while the Red and Blue did miss out on giving coach David Geatz’s former team its first defeat by the slimmest of possible margins, there were

SQUASH

>> BACKPAGE

including back-to-back 9-0 victories over Brown and Yale last weekend.

“Our goal is to head into the postseason with only one blemish on our record,” coach Jack Wyant said. “We want to keep the momentum going; we have been playing really well over the past month or so.”

No. 2 Penn (9-1, 4-1) will be favorites to win against both No. 8 Columbia (6-5, 2-3) and No. 7 Cornell (8-4, 3-2). Winning both Ivy League matchups would provide a huge boost of confidence for the team before the Ivy championships.

Key performances from the team’s top players, including undefeated superstars Reeham Salah and Melissa Alves, will be necessary to get the job done this weekend. "[Sa l a h] has been

absolutely vital this season, ranked No. 1 in intercollegiate squash, and has really dedicated herself to improving as much as possible,” Wyant said. “And Alves has balanced being captain with focusing on her own game, which is no easy task.”

Though Columbia and Cornell cannot be overlooked, the Quakers can’t help but start to think about the team championships somewhat.

“We have the opportunity, because we have one weekend off, to work a little bit more on our fitness before the tournament, where we will have to play consecutive matches,” Wyant explained.

After this weekend, both teams should have a clearer idea of where they stand heading into the team championships. And if all goes as planned, no foe will want to have any part of either squad in the Ivy postseason and beyond.

ALEX FISHER | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Off to a strong 4-1 start in singles play, junior Josh Pompan will need to keep the momentum rolling for Penn men’s tennis to pull off the upset on Saturday against another Big Ten opponent in Wisconsin.

still plenty of positives in the loss for the Quakers, ones that should make themselves even more prominent in this weekend’s doubleheader.

Both sophomore Kyle Mautner and junior Josh Pompan continued their dominance atop the singles ladder, respectively winning in straight sets to key the Red and Blue’s comeback effort — with Mautner’s effort being particularly impressive considering it came over ITA No. 42 Matic Spec. Both superstars are now 4-1 in singles play on the season, with each player’s lone loss coming to Vanderbilt, as Mautner has now risen to No. 61 nationally after last week’s upset.

Still, as phenomenally as the two have performed, they’ll have their hands full with the

Badgers (3-0), as another pair of strong efforts from the Quakers’ No. 1 and No. 2 singles players will be necessary for Penn to pull off the upset over its second straight undefeated Big Ten foe.

Though Wisconsin doesn’t feature any individuals ranked in the top-125 nationally, the Badgers’ depth has been dominant thus far, as the squad has only lost three individual matches all season.

Adding to the intrigue of the matchup is the fact that this will be the first ever matchup between the two schools, as Penn has continued to beef up its non-conference slate after facing eight nationally ranked teams outside the Ivy League in 2016.

Regardless of Saturday’s result, the Quakers must be

careful to avoid a letdown against Rice (4-3) in the weekend’s finale. Though the Owls’ record isn’t as imposing as Wisconsin’s, Rice did take then-No. 16 Texas A&M to a competitive 4-3 decision back in January, and the Owls feature the No. 9 doubles team in the nation in Tommy Bennett and David Warren, meaning they can’t be slept on by any means.

Overall, it’ll be a tough weekend no matter what happens for Geatz’s squad, with two more high-profile opponents coming to town as the Penn seeks to prepare for its Ivy slate.

But if the sting of defeat remains fresh in the Quakers’ minds throughout, the Red and Blue could do more than just compete with the nation’s best this time around.

STILL SEARCHING

VAULTING BACK

Darnell Foreman and the rest of Penn men’s basketball are still looking for their first Ivy win

Penn gymnastics will hope to reverse recent trends at this weekend’s quad meet

>> SEE PAGE 9

>> SEE PAGE 8

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2017

FENCING | Quakers to host Ivy

League Championships MOSES NSEREKO Associate Sports Editor

“Alright, we’ve had our fun over the last couple of days, but may the real Ivy League championship contenders step forward...”

Entering from stage right is coach Andy Ma and Penn fencing, poised this weekend to take another shot at collecting the coveted Ivy League Fencing Championship titles.

The setting: The Red and Blue’s own Coach Dave Micahnik Center. The Quakers will bring with them not just home-field advantage, but an extra energy that comes from the knowledge that their third home meet carries great significance.

Of course, if you ask them, this weekend’s competition is business as usual.

“No change; we’ll just keep [our] momentum,” Ma chuckled. “We’ll still work on our individual fencers, as always.”

Still, for an impressive freshmen contingent, Ivies represent another excitable unknown.

“I hear all the upperclassmen talk about how well we did last year and how important it is that we keep it up,” freshman foil Danielle Ferdon

said. “Hopefully, the women can do what the guys did last year.”

Which is win. The women look poised to improve from a fourth-place finish last year and hopefully claim their 10th Ivy title. Their 19 dual match wins have been in much in part to the new names on the roster. Freshmen like Ferdon, foil Nicole Vaiani and sabre Victoria Zhang have done well to adjust and maintain the Quakers’ status as contenders.

For the No. 6 men’s squad, its task is to defend the crown. Last year saw the men’s team secure its 17th Ivy League Men’s Fencing Championship, sharing the 2016 title with Columbia and Princeton. The men’s squad matches the women with 19 match wins, but claim only four losses on the season, compared to the women’s five. Similarly, freshmen like foil Willie Upbin and sabers Adam Green and Connor Mills have done well to keep the defending champions more than relevant.

The challengers to the hosts? That would come in the form of the lion and the tiger. No. 1 Columbia boasts not only the men’s and women’s Ivy titles from last year, but also the NCAA title for good measure. Princeton was also able to secure both team Ivy titles in the 2016 season. The SEE FENCING PAGE 8

CARSON KAHOE | ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

Red-hot Quakers looking to stay in first place on road doubleheader

Quakers aim for strong end to regular season

6-0 in conference play

to face Columbia, Cornell

W. HOOPS | The team is ANDREW ZHENG

JOSH STONBERG

Associate Sports Editor

Sports Reporter

FRIDAY

Columbia (12-7, 2-4 Ivy) 7 p.m.

New York, NY

SATURDAY

Cornell (12-7, 3-3 Ivy) 5 p.m.

Ithaca, NY

Time to hit the road.

Having just finished a sevengame stretch at home which saw the Quakers win five and lose two to Big 5 teams Villanova and Temple, Penn women’s basketball will leave the comfort of the Palestra for its first away competition in a month.

It was a very productive home stay for the Red and Blue (12-6, 5-0 Ivy), who had yet to record a win at the Palestra until they topped Yale on January 13.

The defending Ivy champions will now head to New York this weekend to take on the Ancient Eight duo of Columbia and Cornell.

“This is our first back-to-back challenge on the road,” coach Mike McLaughlin said. “I’m anxious to see because you have to be really strong mentally on the road. I’m excited because I think this team is mature enough to understand.”

With a team as in form as Penn, it’s hard to imagine the upcoming matchups going any differently from any of the team’s previous Ivy contests. After five league games played, the undefeated Quakers sit comfortably atop the Ancient Eight with Harvard and Brown tied for

SQUASH | Penn

DAVIDE ZHOU | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

After another strong weekend featuring 23 points, junior forward Michelle Nwokedi was rewarded with her fifth career Ivy League Player of the Week.

second at 4-2.

Columbia (12-7, 2-4) and Cornell (12-7, 3-3) remain the only two Ivy teams the Red and Blue have yet to face, marking the league’s halfway point in the countdown towards the inaugural Ivy League Tournament.

After last weekend’s 20-point victory over Harvard and 30-point drubbing of Dartmouth, Penn will be confident as the team travels to face the Lions on Friday before visiting the Big Red on Saturday.

Juniors Michelle Nwokedi and Anna Ross have been unstoppable in recent games. Nwokedi recently earned the fifth Ivy Player of the Week honor of her career and second of the season, while Ross

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was named the Penn Athletics Weekend MVP (by us) for her part in ending the Crimson’s 16-game win streak.

“It’s just another weekend with two very tough teams,” Nwokedi added. “We just have to come out like we’ve been playing.”

“I’m looking forward to just staying aggressive,” Ross added. “[I’m] looking to attack and create for everyone for Michelle down low and our three-point shooters Beth [Brzozowski] and Kasey [Chambers].”

Being on the road might bring the biggest shake-up to the SEE W.HOOPS PAGE 9 ONLINE AT THEDP.COM

For a Penn squash program anticipating a major postseason, it’s the last chance to tune up.

This weekend, both the men’s and women’s teams will take on the final two matches of their regular seasons, facing Columbia and Cornell to wrap up Ivy League play.

For the men (7-5, 3-2 Ivy), the conference doubleheader will give the team an opportunity to rebound from last week’s 7-2 loss to Yale.

“Playing on the road in the Ivy League is tough,” coach Gilly Lane said about the Yale match. “Especially playing against the defending national champion.

Overall we just weren’t able to match them at the big points.”

On Friday, Penn will visit Columbia, while on Sunday, Penn will host Cornell. Both matches will be crucial as the team prepares for the upcoming Ivy championships held at Harvard starting on February 17.

No. 6 Penn comes into the match against No. 3 Columbia (9-2, 4-1) as underdogs, having already to lost to all of the other four top-five teams this season.

Friday’s matchup could show whether Penn has improved since these earlier losses.

ALEX FISHER | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

With the final Ivy weekend of the season on deck, Penn could use another stellar showing from top-ranked Reeham Salah.

No. 11 Cornell (6-8, 1-4) will be Penn’s last test before the team championships. Yet finishing the Ivy League season strong is not the only motivation the team has heading into the weekend.

“Last year Cornell beat us 5-4,” explained coach Lane. “So I think a bunch of the guys are excited to get revenge.”

While the team did lose in its last outing in New Haven, there were some bright spots.

“Hayes Murphy continued the great season that he’s had, winning 3-0,”

noted coach Lane. “Jonathan Zeitels also came through with a pretty big 3-1 win.”

Penn will need Murphy to keep playing at the top of his game this weekend.

Murphy is a team best 10-2 on the season, and was one of only two Quakers to win against Yale last week.

Meanwhile, Penn’s women’s squash comes into this weekend’s matches undefeated since facing No. 1 Harvard on January 14.

Since then, the team has won seven straight contests, SEE SQUASH PAGE 9 CONTACT US: 215-422-4640