TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
College senior to bring Wall of Rejection to various locations around campus after leaving tribute at Annenberg NATALIE KAHN Staff Reporter
O
n a campus where success is celebrated constantly, visitors to the Annenberg School for Communication on Monday may have been bemused to find a tribute to failure. The Wall of Rejection, founded by College senior Rebecca Brown, is a whiteboard covered with neon index cards, each containing a handwritten story of rejection. The wall was placed in Annenberg around 1 p.m. today and now sits in the lobby. The purpose of the wall, Brown said, is to demonstrate to Penn students that rejection is inherent in everyday life. Brown said she has amassed at least 250
submissions for the wall so far and is collecting more. Although not all 250 are on the board in Annenberg, they will be displayed on another permanent wall in the office of Counseling and Psychological Services that she is still working to create. The wall, which is sponsored by Penn Wellness, will stay in Annenberg for a few weeks before relocating to another building on campus. Penn Hillel and the Engineering Quadrangle have already agreed to host the wall, and Brown said she is hoping to bring it to Huntsman Hall and 1920 Commons as well. Brown decided to create the Wall of Rejection
UA members meet with administrators to fight tuition hike
Panelist at Penn Med forum sued for discrimination
UA President Kat McKay and others met with Penn President
Defendant Lori Alf will speak with Biden at panel
OLIVIA SYLVESTER Staff Reporter
MADELEINE LAMON Senior Reporter
Before Penn’s Board of Trustees announced that tuition will increase another 3.9 percent for the upcoming year, members of student government met with members of the administration and a trustee to advocate against the hike. Kat McKay, College senior and president of the Undergraduate Assembly, and Eric Tepper, College senior and member of the UA, attended these meetings prior to the Budget and Finance Committee meeting on Feb. 16, where the Board of Trustees announced the increase. McKay and Tepper met with Penn President Amy Gutmann, Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli, Vice President and University Secretary Leslie Kruhly and Vice President for Budget and Management Analysis Bonnie Gibson. They even met with Robert Levy, a member of the Board of Trustees and the chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, which was “unusual and one of a kind,” Kruhly said in an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian. McKay and Tepper said they met with Levy to discuss the yearly tuition increase and the
DP FILE PHOTO
The Feb. 28 forum in Irvine Auditorium, titled “A Formidable Foe: Cancer in the 21st Century,” will feature former Vice President Joe Biden.
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An upcoming Penn forum about cancer treatment that features former Vice President Joe Biden includes another panelist who is embroiled in a discrimination lawsuit. Loretta “Lori” Alf, the defendant and former Penn Medicine patient and ambassador, will speak alongside Biden and Penn President Amy Gutmann at the Feb. 28 forum in Irvine Auditorium, “A Formidable
Foe: Cancer in the 21st Century,” which is part of the David and Lyn Silfen University Forum series. On Feb. 9, Gutmann sent an email to all University undergraduates inviting them to the forum. Alf, who owns an ice rink in Florida, had allegedly made a series of racist remarks against a young IraqiAmerican skater, Hyaat Aldahwi, that culminated in her banning the athlete in January 2013, according to court documents. The complaint was filed two years later by Aldahwi’s
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017
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Students react to North Korean missile launch LiNK discusses implications of military agression STEPHEN IMBURGIA Staff Reporter
Last Sunday, North Korea said it successfully launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile. Though seemingly distant, for some on Penn’s campus the missile test strikes close to home. “My parents are concerned, but this isn’t new for South Koreans,” College sophomore Mina Yoo, a Seoul resident, said. “We’ve had to deal with North Koreans doing these kinds of tests since the 1980s.” “It’s something we’re aware of,” Yoo added, “but not something that necessarily affects our everyday life.” Citing the difficulty of getting South Koreans to care about the North Korean humanitarian issues, Yoo noted a stark generational gap between people like her grandparents — who “have a huge heart for North Korea” and “want unification soon” — and people of her generation, for whom “North
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“The [North Koreans] did start using a solid fuel, which means that a missile takes a couple minutes to launch, in comparison with hours using liquid fuel,” explained Nursing sophomore Grace Cho, research chair of LiNK.
Korea is a joke.” However, the apathy at Penn toward these types of events is on a level Mina calls “surprising.” “Talking to my friends here at Penn, they’re actually really indifferent,” Yoo said. “They don’t
care.” Yoo is the president of Liberty in North Korea, a student group that helps alleviate the humanitarian crisis in North Korea by raising awareness and providing monetary aid to North Korean
refugees. Often abbreviated LiNK, members of the group say they struggle during instances of North Korean military aggression, because the effort to humanize North Koreans is hampered by fear.
“When this kind of news comes out, all the focus shifts to Kim Jong-un and his military tactics, while we want to focus on the actual victims of what’s happening in North Korea, the human rights violations that occur there,” Yoo said. “But we don’t want to be ignorant. We don’t want to just ignore what’s happening.” Nursing sophomore Grace Cho is the current research chair of LiNK, charged with keeping its constituency updated on shifts in the North Korean situation. “The [North Koreans] did start using a solid fuel, which means that a missile takes a couple minutes to launch, in comparison with hours using liquid fuel,” Cho explained. “The fact that it was successful, and the fact that we have [American] political turn over — meaning all relationships are at stake — is scary.” The LiNK board says it will use the military news as a catalyst to change its strategy. “We have to be flexible,” Cho said. “Missile testing won’t change our core mission, but it’ll really change how we approach things.”
“All I wanted to do was just push away this issue, so that people could focus on the humanitarian issue,” Yoo said. “But I realize this is something we really have to use in order to accomplish our goal.” Political science professor Avery Goldstein has another perspective on the event. “It’s very unlikely that North Korea would have an unprovoked launch against one of its neighbors or the United States, because it knows the consequence of doing that,” Goldstein said. “The retaliation they’d face would wipe out the North Korean regime.” But Goldstein, the director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, also said, “My biggest nightmare, out of all of those things in play, is the concern that the regime hasn’t been good at securing its military capabilities in ways that make sure they don’t get passed along to international crime organizations or terrorists.” “It’s one thing when it’s normal weapons,” he said, “but when it’s some of these capabilities, it’s pretty frightening.”
College house traditions keep students close to Penn community Each house features its own unique traditions CATHERINE DE LUNA Staff Reporter
Penn has been around for hundreds of years and has acquired traditions along the way. College houses continue to use these special events to connect residents and create a community. One of the most well-known traditions takes place in Riepe Faculty Master Dennis DeTurck’s apartment. At 10 p.m. every Wednesday, freshmen line up in front of Magee 206 to grab his famous cookies. Despite being on sabbatical this semester, DeTurck continues to make hundreds of cookies each week to satisfy the sweet tooth of Riepe College House residents. College freshman Claire Huffman is a regular attendee of cookie nights and says that the night usually ends with the singing of show
TUITION >> PAGE 1
possibility of considering a “student voice” in the future. Kruhly, who helped facilitate this meeting, emphasized that meetings between students and trustees are uncommon. “Student input on all issues is something that the administration welcomes and values,” Kruhly told the DP. “Student input directly to trustees is unusual and not the norm.” She said Levy met with the students because McKay has
tunes around DeTurck’s piano. “It’s really fun, I have met some people that I would not have known otherwise,” she said. Gregory College House Dean Chris Donovan said a key part of the college house traditions is creating these shared social environments. One of his favorite Gregory traditions is called “I Love TV.” Professor Lance Wahlert started the event when he became a faculty fellow in Gregory. Every few weeks, Wahlert cooks in the house kitchen for students, while a marathon of a TV series plays in the film lounge. “[Student-run traditions are] one of my favorite things about the house,” said Donovan. “When new traditions start, it is usually because a student had a really good idea and it worked and then we can make it a sustainable thing.” Many college house traditions revolve around food, but this feature has a somewhat hidden
historical significance. Donovan mentioned that the college house system was inspired by the models of Oxford and Cambridge. However, unlike these institutions, not every college house at Penn has a dining hall. “We try to replicate that experience through regular social gatherings,” said Donovan. “It sort of creates that family dinner atmosphere.” Harnwell College House also offers “family dinner” traditions like the Probasco Dinners in the house’s rooftop lounge. “It gives us a chance to get together and break up the routine of school,” Harnwell College House Dean Courtney Dombroski said. “It bridges the academic and the living into one low-key event.” These dinners are named in honor of Harnwell College House’s namesake, Gaylord Probasco Harnwell, and have been a tradition for over a decade. Harnwell served as
indicated from the beginning of her tenure in the UA that there is widespread concern among undergraduate students about tuition increases. According to McKay and Tepper, what they told Levy was similar to the statement Tepper gave a day later at the Budget and Finance Committee meeting. In the statement, Tepper was critical of the increases and noted that if tuition continues to steadily rise at approximately 4 percent annually, it will reach over $100,000 in 11 years. “How can we, students,
administrators and Trustees, work together to continue to increase affordability at Penn?” Tepper asked in his statement. Before meeting with Levy, McKay and Tepper met with Gibson to ask questions about the budget, tuition and financial aid. In addition to meeting with Gibson, they attended other Budget and Finance Committee meetings as well, and did research on the topics of financing and financial aid. “It’s hard as a full-time student to learn enough to make a compelling case,” McKay said.
MORGAN REES | ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR
College house deans, such as Dean Dennis DeTurck of Riepe, use cookies and television marathons to foster a sense of community within college houses.
the president of the University from 1953 until 1970. Dombroski has even had some students who open their homes up
to her, furthering connections and college house camaraderie. “We are engaging with our traditions and regular programming [in
Gibson said she has met with curious undergraduate and graduate students before to discuss similar topics. She acknowledged, however, that she “only very occasionally” is approached by representatives of student government. She also agreed with Kruhly that McKay and Tepper’s meeting with Levy was “unusual.” Gibson highlighted that the University is open with its budget information, even posting updated budgets online for members of the Penn community to see. She said she would not have met with McKay and Tepper if she did not believe that knowing about the budget was important. “Students always benefit from understanding how the University works,” Gibson said.
Before Penn announced that tuition will increase another 3.9 percent, UA members met with admistrators and a trustee to argue against the hike.
a way] that makes them feel connected to us, “ Dombroski said. “I think that really is a success of the College House system.”
JOY LEE | NEWS PHOTO EDITOR
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017
NEWS 3
Penn students sell startup to help visually impaired ThirdEye Technologies was conceived at PennApps KELLY HEINZERLING Staff Reporter
While most Penn students are worrying about midterms and essays, a group of Penn students recently sold their startup for an undisclosed amount to an ecommerce company. ThirdEye Technologies created a mobile app that assists blind and visually impaired users by reading aloud descriptions of objects and converting pictures of text to speech. The idea was born in September 2014, when the four then-freshmen participated in the PennApps hackathon. After only a month at Penn, these students were able to place in the top 10 of the hackathon with ThirdEye, a concept that originally was intended to be an add-on to Google Glass. “College is one of the best places to startup,” CEO and Wharton and Engineering junior Rajat Bhageria said. “There’s no risk, there’s no opportunity
PENN MED >> PAGE 1
mother Angela on her daughter’s behalf. The lawsuit, where Alf has been accused of inflicting emotional distress and discriminating against Aldahwi due to “ancestry/ national origin/ethnicity discrimination,” was first reported by The Palm Beach Post. Along with her husband Christopher, Alf is the owner of Palm Beach Ice Works, the ice rink in Florida where the younger Aldahwi had trained for nearly half a year before getting banned. In late December 2012, Alf discovered Aldahwi was IraqiAmerican and that she wanted to eventually skate for an Iraqi national ice skating team, including, perhaps, in the Winter Olympics, according to court records. The Aldahwis claim that Alf declared that no Iraqi would be allowed to skate at her rink. At a later incident in early January, Alf allegedly said “there won’t ever be an Iraqi skater at the Olympics — over my dead body,” according to the Aldahwis’ suit. The suit also asserts that Alf referred to the family as “towel heads” and “Iraqi f**king c**ts” and that Aldahwi suffered from
cost … there’s just a lot of resources.” From that first hackathon, the company has become more successful and developed a brand presence. “In the visually impaired community, ThirdEye is a strong brand,” Bhageria said. The company is being purchased by TheBlindGuide LLC, a company that develops technologies for the visually impaired. “We’re selling all the assets, we’re selling the users, the partnerships we’ve developed,” Bhageria said. “It’s really hard to market to the visually impaired community.” The students involved with ThirdEye said that Penn was an important resource for the company. “Penn helped in a lot of ways. Penn has a lot of great resources for entrepreneurs,” team member and Engineering junior Benjamin Sandler said. Sandler does not actively work in the company anymore, but has an equity stake. “The fact that we could say we were Penn students
made people take us more seriously.” Sandler cited Penn Law’s Legal Clinic, the Wharton’s Venture Initiation Program, and the Wharton Business Plan Competition as resources that played a part in the development of the app. Even so, the members said that creating a startup while still attending university had its own challenges. “We were not going to drop out of college to start a company full time,” Sandler said. Bhageria echoed these statements and said it was odd to be working with organizations such as the National Federation of the Blind and Google while still attending university. Bhageria added that creating, being the CEO and then selling a startup has shown him that “if you do interesting things, you become interesting.” “ThirdEye has kind of defined my Penn experience.” Bhageria said. “For me, it’s insanely crazy to work on a product that can significantly make the lives of a group of people better.”
emotional disturbance due to the abuse. Alf and her lawyers dispute these claims. According to court documents, Alf’s attorneys said Aldahwi cannot claim national origin discrimination as she “has failed to allege that she is of a particular race or national origin” and that the supposed allegations do not meet the necessary level of “outrageous conduct” to warrant intentional emotional distress in the eyes of the law. According to the suit, Alf worried about a conflict of interest that could arise by having an Iraqi dual citizen skating in her rink as she also serves as a board member for National Air Cargo Holdings, Inc., a defense contractor which frequently does business in Iraq. Her husband is also the founder and president of National Air Cargo. Alf’s current attorney, Paul Ranis, told The Palm Beach Post that “we deny we ever said those things — we believe when the truth comes out, we will prevail on all the claims.” Ranis did not respond to The Daily Pennsylvanian’s request for comment. “Ms. Alf is a patient at Penn Medicine who has benefited from an innovative cancer therapy developed here at Penn,” said Susan
Phillips, a spokesperson for Penn Medicine. “Our only focus is maintaining her health.” Alf first became associated with Penn Medicine in 2014. After six years of battling multiple myeloma, Alf’s blood cancer was characterized as refractory, meaning she was no longer responding to treatment. Unwilling to accept this diagnosis, she entered a clinical trial with the Perelman School of Medicine in 2014. Directed by a team of researchers under medical professor Carl June, who is also speaking at the cancer forum, the clinical trial sought to defend her body from myeloma using immunotherapy. The treatment consisted of transforming T cells in the blood with a specific protein, essentially transforming some of Alf’s own white blood cells to track and eliminate the cancerous cells in her body. Within a few months Alf was cancer free. Since her recovery, she has become a spokesperson for immunotherapy treatment. Alf will speak alongside other featured panelists including Otis Brawley, the chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society. The forum is currently sold out but will feature a live stream.
CINDY CHEN | ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR
ThirdEye was created by Wharton and Engineering junior Rajat Bhageria (center), Engineering junior Ben Sandler (right), Wharton and Engineering sophomore Daniel Hanover and Nandeet Mehta (not pictured), who is pursing a specialization certificate at the Wharton School.
4
OPINION
Protecting the press from tyranny TOE THE LINE
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2017 VOL. CXXXIII, NO. 23 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 ALLY JOHNSON Assignments Editor
The state of the press is alarming. And many of the critiques of the media, echoing endlessly in the ears of the American people, are legitimate and necessary. The media is divided. Everyone exists in their own bubbles, opting to consume and share only news that confirms their ideological predispositions. Nearly all of election coverage was oriented towards the horserace framework as opposed to actual analysis of the issues and candidates. Fake news — rooted in little to no fact and aimed at mass deceit — runs rampant. Extremist sites are gaining popularity over legitimate news sources. The list goes on. Each of these issues is complex, worth analyzing and worth fighting against. However, more alarming than even the most disturbing failures of the free press are the current administration’s attempts to undermine its very existence. Throughout his 2016 presidential campaign and transition into office, President Trump has systematically painted the press as his
primary enemy. The Trump administration attacked the “mainstream” media — a misnomer in its own right — with significantly more fervor than it did congressional Democrats and even historically hostile foreign adversaries. And the Trump administration’s first press conference, in which Press Secretary Sean Spicer incomprehensibly raved and rambled against the media for the sake of his boss’s ego, proved that this trend would continue post-inauguration. President Trump ran against the press throughout 2016 and, as he refuses to shift away from campaign frameworks and rally towards actual governance, he continues to benefit from distrust of and distaste for the media. This past week, Trump sent out a survey to his supporters that is far from science, and aims only to reinforce hatred of the media. It also prompts the responder to donate to the “movement,” so technically it also had a fundraising goal. Entitled the “Mainstream Media Accountability Survey,” it poses the
question: “Do you believe that the mainstream media has reported unfairly on our movement?” It is us versus them. They — the media — are stopping the movement. Only Trump is to be trusted. His anti-free press actions reach beyond the smearing of the press,
murdered. The president now applies this term to any news he finds unflattering, setting a precedent that his entire administration and much of the Republican Party has begun to follow. Trump claims CNN is fake news, as are NBC, The New York Times and The
Throughout his 2016 presidential campaign and transition into office, President Trump has systematically painted the press as his primary enemy.” which promotes general distrust. Trump has also systematically blurred lines and definitions, creating his own doublespeak. He has co-opted the term “fake news,” a label once applied to objectively fabricated viral stories claiming, for instance, that the Pope endorsed Donald Trump or that the FBI agent investigating Hillary’s emails was
Washington Post. He has begun to label any news organization that does not have a pro-Trump tilt as fake news, blurring the American electorate’s understanding of a genuinely problematic phenomenon and utilizing it as a political tool. The next step is for President Trump to label Reuters and the Associated Press fake news too, if he
has not already by time of this piece’s publication. The media is not without its flaws. The most prominent of these may be the stark division of the media, in which partisan groups may be receiving completely separate and often contradictory sets of information. Hand wringing about this bifurcation of the media is not illegitimate. However, blind panic may be ahistorical and lacks perspective. Additionally, excessive grieving about the state of the press may distract from future attempts to restrict it. State and local papers throughout much of the 19th and early 20th centuries were initially associated with political parties, but a nonpartisan press eventually emerged, and it will again if the demand is present. Most vital of all is to remember that the media’s flaws in no way justify President Trump’s purposeful moves to undermine their primary role as the safeguards of democracy. Do not buy into his narrative — there is good, earnest reporting going on
PENN DEMOCRATS across the world and nation, and it should be consumed, shared and discussed. Moreover, every authoritarian throughout history has expanded their control over the people by undermining and restricting free press, from Castro to Qaddafi to Putin. Giving in to the distrust of the press only benefits the tyrannical. TOE THE LINE examines issues from two different sides. Both Penn Democrats and College Republicans argue why their collective positions on major political issues is best for the country. ARI GOLDFINE is a College sophomore and the vice president of Penn Dems.
COLE JACOBSON Sports Editor JONATHAN POLLACK Sports Editor TOMMY ROTHMAN Sports Editor AMANDA GEISER Copy Editor HARRY TRUSTMAN Copy Editor ANDREW FISCHER Director of Web Development DYLAN REIM Social Media Editor DAKSH CHHOKRA Analytics Editor ANANYA CHANDRA Photo Manager JOY LEE News Photo Editor ZACH SHELDON Sports Photo Editor LUCAS WEINER Video Producer JOYCE VARMA Podcast Editor BRANDON JOHNSON Business Manager MADDY OVERMOYER Advertising Manager SONIA KUMAR Business Analytics Manager MARK PARASKEVAS Circulation Manager HANNAH SHAKNOVICH Marketing Manager TANVI KAPUR Development Project Lead MEGHA AGARWAL Development Project Lead
THIS ISSUE
Holding both the press and President Trump accountable TOE THE LINE The College Republicans urge both President Trump and the news media to grow up. Regardless of who dealt the first blow or who started it, the president and the media are caught in a meanspirited, childish conflict. To end the bickering, President Trump and his administration must abandon the attempt to invent their own facts and accept that the truth is not something they can create. This requires the administration to move beyond their pride, thicken their skin and accept a degree of criticism without providing “alternative facts” to hide from any remotely negative comments. More concretely, the College Republicans condemn the use of unnecessarily aggressive language that labels the press as the “enemy of the American people.” Quite to the contrary, they are the American people; their function is crucial to supporting
the freedom of our democracy. The hard questions are precisely the ones that must be answered, and the president should not be shirking them for the “nice questions” about the First Lady. In the words of Senator John McCain, to preserve democracy as we know it, we must have a free and often adversarial press. While President Trump has by no means begun to limit the free press, we merely ask that he appreciate its function. On the other hand, much of the mainstream media has enacted a biased, unprofessional attack on the president. Although the term has become almost comical, fake news has become a serious problem. When social media can spread rumors like wildfire, the media has an increased obligation to ensure the validity of its sources. They have not done so. Major publishers have
run blatantly false or deliberately misleading stories about the president planning to invade Mexico or easing sanctions on Russia. At one point, President Trump was even attacked for renaming Black History Month to
president as a dictator or a traitor. We encourage all of the media to reclaim their integrity and professionalism and to report on stories accurately and objectively with as little bias as pos-
The entire scene reeks of immaturity and childish bickering, each side trying to get back at the other for the last ‘mean thing’ they said.” African American History Month. CNN’s homepage is filled with deliberately biased headlines attempting to portray the president as a dictator or a traitor. CNN’s homepage is filled with deliberately biased headlines attempting to portray the
sible. While we acknowledge that a liberal bias will never completely leave the liberal media, the more that CNN and others launch ubiquitous and unfounded attacks on the president, the less credible they seem when they offer real complaints. In other
words, they run the risk of becoming the media outlet that cried wolf. In short, the College Republicans accept and appreciate that there must be a degree of conflict between the press and the government, and that it is precisely said conflict that keeps both parties honest. Presently, however, the relationship between press and government has dissolved into little more than a schoolyard insult competition. We urge President Trump to accept that the media will not always be on his side — and more often than not will frequently criticize him. We urge him to get over it and to do his job despite it. On the other hand, the press must stop compromising their integrity and credibility just to insult the administration and must stop misleading and distorting the truth just to paint President Trump in a negative light. The entire scene reeks of im-
WILL AGATHIS Sports Associate BREVIN FLEISCHER Sports Associate
CARTOON
ALEX RABIN Copy Associate ZOE BRACCIA Copy Associate NADIA GOLDMAN Copy Associate ALISA BHAKTA Copy Associate SANJANA ADURTY Copy Associate LIZZY MACHIELSE Photo Associate AVALON MORELL Photo Associate MEGAN JONES Photo Associate CINDY CHEN Photo Associate RYAN TU Design Associate ROSHAN BENEFO Design Associate LUCY FERRY Design Associate ASHLING SUI 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.
BRYN FRIEDENBERG is a College junior from Kirtland, Ohio. Her email is tobryn@sas.upenn.edu.
COLLEGE REPUBLICANS maturity and childish bickering, each side trying to get back at the other for the last “mean thing” they said. Both parties are adults, and they ought to act like it. TOE THE LINE examines issues from two different sides. Both Penn Democrats and College Republicans argue why their collective positions on major political issues is best for the country. MICHAEL BOGDANOS is a College freshman and a cochair of the College Republicans Editorial Board.
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NEWS 5
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017
Anti-Trump protests continue in Philadelphia
Most were in response to Trump’s immigration ban SKYLER PALATNICK Staff Reporter
Over President’s Day weekend, protesters took to the streets of Philadelphia to rally against President Donald Trump and his month-old administration’s policies and actions. Marching on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Feb. 19, hundreds of people gathered to condemn the Trump Administration’s policies on climate change.
REJECTION >> PAGE 1
while abroad last year after her friend, College senior Morgan Pearlman, told her how her high school had a wall of college rejection letters. Pearlman ended up helping
On the unusually warm February day, the protesters congregated in support of the Paris Climate Agreement, an accord focused on combating the negative effects of global warming that Trump is reportedly planning to pull out of. Another march in Philadelphia took place on Monday. Roughly 100 people gathered at Thomas Paine Plaza, and after a series of speeches, protesters marched through the city toward Independence Mall. The gathering at Thomas Paine Plaza, dubbed the “Counter the Executive Orders” rally, featured
speakers such as Sen. Art Haywood (D-Pa.) and Penn professor Nicholas Pevzner. The protests in Philadelphia were relatively small compared to much larger marches that took place throughout the country in other major cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Monday’s protests were the latest in a series of nationwide demonstrations against Trump that have taken place since his inauguration on Jan. 20. Penn students have participated in a number of marches and protests in the last month both on campus
and in the city, most of them in reaction to Trump’s immigration ban. Penn’s College Republicans were critical of the ban, writing in an editorial for The Daily Pennsylvanian that “while the College Republicans support this administration’s efforts to ensure the safety of its citizens, we cannot support the implementation of these goals.” Penn students also attended what one of the first protests against Trump, the Women’s March on Washington, on the day following Trump’s inauguration.
Brown with the project, alongside many of Brown’s other friends. Brown emphasized that her project would not have come to fruition without their help “spamming” listservs in order to submit content and encourage others to do the same. They created a wall last year that was housed in Van Pelt Library.
This year, the two have changed their project to create a mobile wall that can reach more of campus. Meredith Sheehan, a Nursing senior and a friend of Brown’s who helped her with the wall, said some cards provided advice for how to deal with rejection and some people “wrote their
hearts out” on the cards. “Everyone felt like they could contribute,” she said. “When I was 17 I got rejected by SEAS, but now I get to travel across OCEANS,” one card reads. “When life gives you two options, try and make a third :),” reads another.
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Monday’s protests in Philadelphia were the latest in a series of nationwide demonstrations against Trump since his inauguration.
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Chas Freeman, Career US Diplomat; Richard Bush, Senior Fellow, Brooking Institution; Shelley Rigger, Professor of Political Science, Davidson College; Jacques deLisle, Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania
Wednesday, February 22, 2017, 4:30-6:00PM Chas Freeman, Career US Diplomat; Richard Bush, Senior Fellow, Brooking Institution; Perry World House, 3803 Locust Walk of Department
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Shelley Rigger, Professor of Political Science, Davidson College; Jacques deLisle, Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania
Africana Studies Department of Wednesday, February 22, 2017 Africana Studies Chas Freeman, Career US Diplomat; 4:30-6:00PM
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Wednesday, February 22, 2017 Studies Africana presentpresentpresent 4:30-6:00PM Department of Africana by Perry World House, 3803 Locust WalkStudies
A BOOK TALK by by ERICA ARMSTRONG DUNBAR by by A BOOK TALK ERICA ARMSTRONG B G D P B DUNBAR A S H by TALK A BOOK ERICA ARMSTRONG DUNBAR ERICAERICA ARMSTRONG U D DUNBAR ARMSTRONG DUNBAR present
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6 SPORTS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017
Betley wins Ivy CoRookie of the Week M. HOOPS | Freshman
also takes Big 5 honors BREVIN FLEISCHER Associate Sports Editor
Freshman Ryan Betley is currently playing the best basketball of his young career, and by no coincidence at all, Penn is enjoying its best stretch of the season. The Quakers have risen from the ashes in the Ivy League postseason picture, climbing from the conference’s cellar to a tie for fourth place with Columbia. They have won
their past four games, including two last weekend against Brown and Yale. Keying the Red and Blue in those victories was Betley, who recorded a career-high 28 points while knocking down six three-pointers in the win at Brown. To follow that breakout performance, Betley contributed 12 points to go along with three assists and two steals in a huge upset of third-place Yale. As a reward for the sharpshooting guard’s efforts, he was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the first time. However, the accolades don’t stop there. Betley’s play has
THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM
SWIMMING >> BACKPAGE
registered outside the conference, garnering him Big 5 Player of the Week as well. In order for the Quakers to continue their improbable run towards the postseason, they’ll need Betley to keep playing at his best. That playoff run continues this weekend when Penn hits the road again, heading to Cornell and Columbia. At this point in the season, every game is a must-win, so the Red and Blue will need their star guard to replicate his efforts of the past weekend. In other words, they’ll need their freshman to continue playing like a senior.
the girls never gave up. They just kept battling every event,� he said. The highlight of the weekend was the performance of junior Virginia Burns. The Brockton, Mass. native took home two Ivy titles in the 500-yd and 200-yd freestyles, setting new pool records in each while qualifying for the NCAA ‘B’ Cut. Her time in the 200-yd freestyle, 1:45.51, was also good enough to set a program record. Additionally, Burns joined elite company, as she became the fifth-ever three-time Ivy champion in the 500-yd freestyle. “Burns never ceases to amaze me. She figures out her race strategy in advance
EXPLAINE
>> BACKPAGE
measure of worth. When you step up on the blocks, hunched over and waiting for the official to say, “Take your mark,� you can only control what you do in the water. You can’t control whether your top-seeded opponent gets a cramp, or if the girl in the lane next to you twitches before diving in and gets disqualified, or if the girl in the outside lane has a breakthrough swim and drops five seconds out of nowhere. Plus, it is still possible to become a better athlete without placing first. When you finally dive in, you can swim a personal best time only to be out-touched in the final
and always does what we talk about,� Schnur said. But Burns wasn’t the only one who wrote her name in the record books. Senior Ellie Grimes broke not one, not two, but three separate program records, all of which she had set earlier in her career. In her final Ivy League Championship, Grimes set new bests in the 400-yd (4:16.14) and 200-yd (2:01.83) individual medleys as well as the 200-yd breaststroke (2:15.35). “For someone like Ellie, it’s every coach’s dream to have a senior to finish with her greatest meet ever, and that’s just an amazing thing,� Schnur said. With the Ancient Eight championships out of the way, the Quakers have just have ECAC Championships on March 3-5 before their season is complete.
As for the men’s swimming and diving team (8-3, 4-3 Ivy), they return to competition with the Ivy League Championship this weekend after nearly a month out of the pool. While the Red and Blue had performed well in their last few meets and that momentum could have carried that, the team has had their eyes on the prize this entire season. “Our entire season was about what we do this week. Nothing else matters,� Schnur said. The Quakers are certainly set to compete this weekend. With a deep roster headed by seniors Kevin Su and Michael Wen, Penn will look to at least repeat, if not beat last year’s third-place Ivy finish. They’ve been preparing for it all year, and in just a few days they’ll be able to dive in headfirst.
two yards of the race just hundredths of a second behind the winner. That second place finish doesn’t invalidate an entire season’s worth of effort. I’m not trying to argue that winning should never be the goal. Being the best is an admirable pursuit, but it should be secondary to being your best. I’ve only set one goal for my final meet. It doesn’t revolve around results. Yes, I would love to find myself in the championship final of a race or two, and yes, I want to swim best times. But the failure to accomplish either of those ends won’t make or break my experience at ECACs. The only way I’ll be disappointed with how my collegiate swimming career ends is if I fail to
get better. I should be clear that I’m defining “better� in pretty loose terms – it could be through finishing a race with a little more mental toughness, executing technical details with more finesse or being a more supportive teammate. Athletic success is not drawn from accolades alone and coming in second does not make someone a loser. To be fair, Ricky Bobby’s father was high when he told his son that mantra about racing. So maybe second place isn’t so bad after all. LAINE HIGGINS is a College senior from Wayzata, Minnesota, and is an associate sports editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. She can be reached at dpsports@thedp.com.
ILANA WURMAN | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
For his 40 points and numerous other contributions in Penn men’s basketball’s wins over Brown and Yale, freshman Ryan Betley was awarded Ivy League Co-Rookie of the Week as well as Big 5 Player of the Week.
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of the season, the Ivy Classic and ECAC Championship are coming quickly. At this point in the season, it is crucial for the squad to start focusing in on what will make them a winning team and most successful in these highly competitive meets. “Our focus for this week will be consistency and cleaning up little details. We’ve been honing in on the small things, and now is when we’ll really start to touch our routines up in little ways,� Levi said. “We’re trying to continue what we trained so hard for and we want to let everyone see the hard work we’ve been putting in since preseason,� Moore added. After a successful weekend in College Park, the team is on a high and is ready to conquer the most important part of the season that is fast approaching. Now, they must clearly define their goals and
ZACH SHELDON | SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR
Sophomore captain Caroline Moore scored a 9.800 on vault this past weekend, good enough for fourth-best in program history.
be ready to attack when the time is right. “I’m proud to say that this team’s goals have not changed since preseason. We’ve known our potential for a while, and now we’re setting our sights on the Ivy Classic and ECAC Championship. As we approach those big weekends, we’re staying focused on what
we’ve done in the gym every day since August, because at the end of the day, that’s what will get us to the top,� Levi continued. With clea r m inds, full hearts, and the willingness and determination to preserve, the Red and Blue will finish with success in their 20162017 season.
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THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017
SPORTS 7
Roundtable: Assessing Penn’s Ivy Tournament chances
HOOPS | Men could make
it; women could win it
THE EDITORS With just a few weeks left before t he inaug u ra l Iv y League Tournament for both men’s and women’s basketball, both of Penn’s squads will have meaningful games to come. While the women’s side is essentially a lock for tournament, the men’s team will have to fight its way in over the next two weeks. Men’s Jonathan Pollack, Spor ts Editor: Two weeks ago I pronounced Penn men’s basketball’s season over, and boy did they make me eat my words. The Quakers have caught fire, roaring back from their 0-6 Ivy start to tie Columbia for fourth with only four games remaining. Penn’s path to the tournament is clear: take down Columbia this coming weekend and win one of their three other games. At 6-8 and with the tiebreaker over Columbia, Penn would be the presumptive fourth seed, unless the Lions run the table in their other games. But given the fact that Columbia is mired in a four game losing streak and still has to play Princeton and Yale, Penn should feel confident in their tourney chances. Tommy Rothman, Spor ts Editor: Zombies! ZOMBIES! Boy, does Pollack sure look stupid. I thought Penn men’s basketball was dead as well, but at least I didn’t write a column. Anyway, the tables have indeed turned, and the Quakers now have a very good chance to sneak into the Ivy League Tournament, and possibly the NCAA Tournament. Do I expect them to? Who knows. Probably not. It’s a lot closer to 50-50 than a few of my colleagues have spun it, and
we’ve seen this team screw up many times. They have it in them to screw up against Columbia and the other teams. But we’ve also seen now that they have it in them to win. The team has figured it out, if “it” is the concept that outscoring the other team usually nets good results. I’d say we’re in a pretty good place. Don’t be surprised either way, though. And yes, this is a 150-word hedge. Women’s Jonathan Pollack, Spor ts Editor: To me, Penn women’s basketball has already proven they have what it takes to win the Ivy tournament. They romped their way through the first half of conference play, beating all the teams currently slated to make the tournament. The only major concern that could diminish the Quakers’ chances is the health of senior center Sydney Stipanovich. The cocaptain hurt her ankle two weekends ago and has been less effective than usual in recent games. Given how much Penn’s offense runs through her, the Red and Blue need her to be at her best for them to win. However, there is still plenty of time for her to heal and rest up, and with one of the top spots essentially locked down, Penn is sitting pretty. Tommy Rothman, Spor ts Editor: While the men are hoping to sneak into the tournament, for the women the tournament is a massive inconvenience. The Quakers should win the regular season title outright, and if they do, the tournament just gives Princeton, Harvard and the other teams another chance to spoil the party. That being said, Penn is the best team, and the tournament is at the Palestra. It would be a surprise, and a huge disappointment for Penn Athletics, if the women’s hoops squad doesn’t secure that automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
ANANYA CHANDRA | PHOTO MANAGER (WBB) AND ZACH SHELDON | SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR (MBB)
Sitting at the top of the Ivy League, the conversation around Penn women’s basketball is currently how far they can go — while the men’s team, back from the dead, is currently odds-on favorite to slide into the fourth place spot to make the Ivy Tournament on March 12.
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ROOKIE ROCKIN’
IVY TOURNY
After last weekend’s performances, Penn basketball’s Ryan Betley won Ivy honors
With two Ivy weekends left, our editors debate men’s and women’s basketball’s Ivy chances
the
>> SEE PAGE 6
>> SEE PAGE 7
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017
Quakers peak at the right time GYMNASTICS | Team earns year’s
2nd highest score before Ivy Classic REINA KERN Sports Reporter
Despite facing a lot of adversity these last couple of weeks, Penn gymnastics has proven to be a powerful squad that is able to succeed against ranked opponents across the country. This past weekend the Quakers competed in a quad-meet against No. 9 University of Kentucky, the University of Maryland and William and Mary in College Park, Maryland. The Quakers finished third, ended the meet with their second best score of the year at 193.425, and showed some of their best performances so far this season. They came away with a victory against ECAC rival William and Mary, but Kentucky took home first place. Sophomore captain Caroline Moore proved to again be the driving force of the team, scoring a 9.800 on vault, good enough to tie for fourth-best in Penn gymnastics history. “I felt like we made great improvements this weekend and went in with the right mindset to perform at our best. We did what we know how to do and what we’ve been training all preseason for, and I think we can build upon our performances from this weekend as well,” Moore said. Similarly, junior captain Kyra Levi thought the team performed to their level of expectation against three tough opponents. “I think I can speak for the team when saying we are proud of what we did this weekend. We put in a lot of hard work over the past few weeks, and it showed. We have more to give, as there always will be more to give, but we are very happy that our work is coming through” Levi added. In a quad-meet like this, it is important to have a strong focus on the task at hand, as it is easy to get distracted by other teams’ performances. However, the Red and Blue (4-10, 2-2 Ivy) made this day about accomplishing their goals and performing for each other. “We went into this meet, going against two top-ranked teams, with a strong mindset. We made the day about us, and that’s ultimately why we had a good showing” Levi continued. According to Moore, the Quakers performed up to the level of Kentucky and Maryland, two top ranked teams, and did not let down despite what the end result may look like. “We had been exposed to Maryland before in a weekend pass but I’d say we were definitely competing at the level they were and throwing around the same skills that they were. They were really good competition for us in a way that motivated us to perform at our highest level,” she said. As they team heads into the final weeks
Closing the
GAP
W. SWIM & DIVE | Virginia Burns lights
up the pool as Quakers place 4th at Ivys JONATHAN POLLACK Sports Editor
So close. Penn women’s swimming and diving was just inches away from getting its best finish ever at the Ivy League Championships last weekend, but ultimately finished fourth with 962 points. The Quakers fell to Yale (1681 points), Harvard (1590.5 points) and Princeton (1024) while placing in front of four other schools. The final score does not truly tell the tale of the weekend for the Red and Blue (8-3, 4-3 Ivy). In the second event of the entire four-day championship, the Quakers 800-yard freestyle relay team was
disqualified, leaving them in dead last after the first day. Over the next two days, Penn put together quite a showing, storming back to just seven points behind Princeton for third place heading into the final day. The Quakers overtook Princeton on Saturday, and with just four events remaining they held a 33-point lead over the Tigers. But Princeton’s diving gave them enough points to come back and retake third place. Despite this, coach Mike Schnur was very impressed with his team’s showing. “I was really proud of the women. I mean we came off the first night where we disqualified a relay, for the first time ever, and walk in the door the next morning in dead last place. It can be a little unnerving to look at the score and see you’re in last after the first day, and SEE SWIMMING PAGE 6
SEE GYMNASTICS PAGE 6
Let me expLaine
Shaking and Baking at the end of a collegiate career LAINE HIGGINS
In the infamous words of Ricky Bobby, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” The first time I saw Talladega Nights I interpreted the jokes literally and was so offended that my family took me to the movie theater with them that I almost cried. Granted, I was also 11. At the time I thought I would never see that movie again, but that was before my dad bought a “Ricky Bobby Pit Crew” t-shirt and before I realized I would never really escape that movie. I’ve since seen it about 12 times. For all that movie’s stupidity, it illuminates an inescapable
truth about sports: no one aspires to get second place. It’s the first place to lose, or so say the pessimists. It gets none of the glory. It’s easily forgotten. In racing sports like track, swim m ing a nd NASCA R, the second-place finisher can break just as many records as the winner, but they get no credit for their unprecedented speed. There’s no asterisk in the record books that indicates the second-place finisher also beat the old standard for being the best. Second place is the least coveted place in sports. Gold medalists, MVP’s and Super Bowl Champions get parades and commemorative trips to the White House. The Atlanta Falcons get the memory of being the best team in the NFL for 45 minutes. As I write this, I have 13
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days left of my collegiate swim career. The highest I have ever placed in an individual event at Penn is second. I have three races left to swim where that fact could change, but I don’t foresee myself becoming an Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference champion in my last race for the Quakers. Winning, however, was never the goal. The goal was to get better. By Ricky Bobby’s standards my collegiate career is probably a complete failure, but I believe that tying success in sports to placement is an exercise in disappointment. It is much more constructive to set goals based on controllable outcomes because there are far too many factors beyond an individual’s control that determine placement for it to be a valid SEE EXPLAINE PAGE 6
COURTESY OF EDDIE MALONEY | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
As associate sports editor Laine Higgins explains (from experience), no athlete wants to finish second — bringing Ricky Bobby’s mantra from Talladega Nights to light that “if you ain’t first, you’re last.”
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