February 28, 2017

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

STUDENTS STAND AGAINST

Mystery surrounds Biden’s actual role at Penn

ANTI-SEMITISM Students protest anti-Semitism after reports of vandalism in Jewish graveyards and bomb threats at community centers across the country. LEXI LIEBERMAN | Staff Reporter

It is unclear what his position will entail, given that Biden won’t be teaching HARI KUMAR Staff Reporter

Two weeks after the announcement that former Vice President Joe Biden will join Penn as a professor, administrators, professors and politically minded students alike are still confused about the nature of his role at the University. On Feb. 7, Penn President Amy Gutmann announced that Biden will lead the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C. as a Benjamin Franklin presidential practice professor, but nearly a month later the administration seems unclear about what this means. Many students thought Biden would be teaching courses at Penn, but Biden spokesperson Kate Bedingfield said he will not be teaching classes when she spoke to the DP at the beginning of the month. SEE BIDEN PAGE 6

PANHEL. REMOVES VAGMONS ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT

SAM HOLLAND | ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

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“We should not feel out of line for speaking up if we are unhappy...”

In response to anti-Semitic activity in different parts of the country, including vandalism at a Jewish graveyard in Philadelphia, Penn Hillel held a gathering last night at the LOVE statue to support and stand in solidarity with Jewish students. In a statement released prior to the event, Hillel condemned “these overt acts of hatred, which have no space on our campus or in our country.” Even though Jews make up only 2 percent of the United States population and 0.2 percent of the global population, Hillel International’s College Guide reports that 26 percent of Penn’s undergraduate and graduate population is Jewish. Consequently, the recent anti-Semitic acts are disturbing for many University affiliates. One such act occurred Sunday morning, Feb. 26. Police officers responded to a report of vandalism at the Mount Carmel

“Hate is a cowardly thing. Our story, the story of my father who escaped Nazi genocide, the story of your families, it’s not a story controlled by hatred.” - PRESIDENT AMY GUTMANN

Jewish Cemetery in Philadelphia to find that more than a hundred tombstones had been overturned or vandalized. This occurred shortly after a similar apparent hate crime at a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, Mo. Both crimes occurred in the same month that dozens of Jewish Community Centers around the nation were evacuated due to bomb threats. Yesterday, 19 Jewish Community Centers and day schools in at least 12 states received threats, including multiple schools in Pennsylvania. Engineering junior Maddie Gelfand, the student president of Penn Hillel, was the first speaker at the solidarity event. Before introducing the other speakers, she imparted some of her own thoughts. “This anti-Semitic and hateful rhetoric against the Jewish people is real, but it is incredibly comforting to know that such SEE ANTI-SEMITISM PAGE 2

- Emily Hoeven PAGE 4

#SUCCESS: A STIPANOVICH STORY

Centralized Diversity office one step closer to reality GAPSA resolution passes after grad student push

BACKPAGE

NATALIE KAHN Staff Reporter

BETSY SNELLER | GAPSA

GAPSA’s IDEAL committee co-chair Besty Sneller said that she has not heard negative feedback about the diversity office in the last two years.

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We d n e s d ay’s G r a d u a t e and Professional Student Assembly meeting erupted into applause after the General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution for a centralized, Un ive r sit y-w id e d ive r sit y office. The resolution is the product of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access and Leadership Committee. “GAPSA is an inclusive organization which derives strength from the diversity of its members,” the resolution reads. The document ends with an outline of its goal: “establish

a Central Diversity Office” to organize diversity officers, help “underrepresented students across campus,” foster an online system for reporting bias and conduct campus climate surveys. The resolution gained the support of the G12, the student governments of Penn’s 12 graduate schools, several weeks prior at its biannual meeting with GAPSA. Now that the document has the support of GAPSA and the G12, IDEAL co-chair and linguistics Ph.D. candidate Betsy Sneller said that the next step is to formulate a “concrete proposal about exactly what we envision and how it can fit into the university SEE GAPSA PAGE 2

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