THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016
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Flint, MI: How Philly Stacks Up
Phila. residents exposed to lead through eroded pipes in homes CHARLOTTE LARACY Staff Reporter
The water crisis in Flint, Mich. has many in Philadelphia concerned about the safety of the city’s drinking water, but their problems are starkly different. During a public hearing with the Philadelphia City Council described in a March 22 Philadelphia Magazine article, Debra McCarty, the Philadelphia Water Department commissioner stated, “Philadelphia’s drinking water is lead-free, and there are clear differences between Flint and Philadelphia.” Flint’s water safety problem stems from the city’s emergency managers switching its water source to a local river whose water proved to be highly corrosive in 2014. In Philadelphia, potential water problems stem from buildings built before 1950 that can still have pipes with lead. Richard Pepino, lecturer in the Department of History & Sociology of Science, said that a crisis like Flint could happen in Philadelphia
because so much of the city’s problems are old, but now with all the attention on Flint, “I think all drinking water providers will take extra precaution.” Lead service lines were banned nationwide in 1986, but some still remain in older homes whose owners cannot afford to pay for improvements. Water that flows through lead pipes can pick up large amounts of toxic metal. It is estimated that there are 50,000 to 60,000 houses in Philadelphia that still have lead service lines. To prevent metal from filtering from pipes, the city adds an anticorrosive to the water supply. Data collected by the Division of Disease Control in 2012 showed Philadelphia children with the highest lead levels concentrated in Center City, Roxborough-Manayunk and West Philadelphia. Every three years the Philadelphia Water Department tests for lead in tap water for at least 50 representative taps of vulnerable homes in the city, according to the city government website. The Environmental SEE WATER PAGE 5
Course has taught students about lead exposure for years JINAH KIM Staff Reporter
Lead poisoning leapt into the national eye last year after residents in Flint, Mich. reported dangerously high levels of the metal in their water supply — but at Penn, one class has been teaching the dangers of lead poisoning for years. In Environmental Studies 404, “Speaking About Lead in West Philadelphia,” students learn about the history and dangers of lead poisoning and use their knowledge to perform educational outreach in West Philadelphia. An academically based community service course, it is meant to combine topics that students learn in the classroom to service-based applications in the outside world. Richard Pepino of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences has been teaching the course for the last nine years; he was initially reluctant to take over the class after its founder, professor Robert Giegengack, retired. “He would pester the life out me,”
Pepino said. “I would say ‘Aw, Gieg, it’s not really a science course, I won’t like it,’ and he would not let up on me. And finally, nine years ago, I took the course over — and believe me, it’s the most important course I teach at Penn.” This fall, the course, in conjunction with the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, will focus on measuring lead levels in drinking water. “I don’t think it’s a problem,” Pepino said, “but I don’t have an answer to how much of a problem it is. And certainly the Flint case has brought attention.” 2015 College graduate Bina Kassamali said that the course “opened [her] eyes to how something like lead poisoning could impact an entire community.” “[The course] changed my perspective on health and medicine and gave me a more holistic approach,” she said. “Because it was kind of a small class, we all worked very closely with the professor — he kind of instigated this will for the class members to all want to do something.” SEE LEAD COURSE PAGE 3
PAT GOODRIDGE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Penn professors weigh in on government and marriage
Oscar-winning Spotlight writer talks journalism
Professors draw from research in political science and psychology
Josh Singer gave a talk at Annenberg on Wednesday
LUIS FERRE SADURNI Staff Reporter
ARIA KOVALOVICH Contributing Reporter
Marriage is not often a topic considered for scholarly research by most Penn professors. But three of them have addressed the topic in light of their own academic interests. The percentage of adults who get married has decreased in the United States — in 1960, 72 percent of all adults were married, while in 2010 that share was only 51 percent in the United States. In 2014, 40 percent of births were to unmarried mothers, a sharp increase from when it stood at 5 percent of births in 1960 and 18 percent of births in 1980, according to a Pew Research Center report. In the last few decades, the United States government became more aggressive at enacting
Oscar-winning producer and cowriter of “Spotlight” Josh Singer squinted as he walked up to the podium of Annenberg’s Zellerbach Theater. “I am more used to being in a dark room staring at a screen than public speaking, but I guess this is a dark room,” he said. The Harvard Law graduateturned-screenwriter-and-producer returned to his native Philadelphia on Wednesday to speak at Penn’s Levin Family Dean’s Forum in a discussion entitled, “How Hollywood is Spotlighting Social Change.” Singer was joined by “Spotlight”
SEE MARRIAGE PAGE 2
IDIL DEMIRDAG | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Spotlight co-writer and Harvard Law graduate Josh Singer spoke in Zellerbach Theater on Wednesday evening.
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actor Neal Huff as well as a faculty panel comprised of church and state scholar of law Marci Hamilton, child traumatologist Steven Berkowitz and professor of English and cinema studies Peter Decherney, whose most recent book is a short history of Hollywood. “Spotlight” tells the story of the Boston Globe team that exposed the Roman Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexual abuse of children by priests. The movie won this year’s Academy Awards for best picture and best original screenplay. The three scholars on the panel outlined their field’s stake in the national discussion of clergy sexual abuse of children. Each applauded “Spotlight” for being a large impetus SEE SPOTLIGHT PAGE 3
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Penn startups make it to finals in competition The competition was hosted by Inc. Magazine NISHANT UPENDER Staff Reporter
Penn students are leading the way when it comes to innovative startup ideas. Penn undergraduates were finalists in Inc. Magazine’s Best College Startup of 2016 competition. These startups cover a diverse spectrum of business ventures from an investing platform to a bakery to a shoe company. Patos Shoes Patos is a shoe brand that sells shoes made by Latin American artisans. College sophomore Fernando Rojo came up with the idea on a yearly family trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina. His sister had been buying shoes from a specific vendor in an open air market for several years, and Fernando thought these shoes might have a
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policies that promote marriage, believing it is a tool to combat poverty and establish family values. While the implications of the changed marital scenario in the United States are complicated, certain Penn professors agree that policies the United States government has undertaken to promote marriage may not adequately target the problem. The risks of single parenthood Single parenthood in the United States has, on average, been more linked with the parenting of at-risk children, lower levels of income and education and higher levels of criminality and drug use. According to research by economics professor Raj Chetty of Stanford University, single parenthood may affect the way children are raised in a way that leads to
market in the United States. “She said they were super comfortable,” he said. “The designs are very colorful. People loved them. They would always ask her about them.” After speaking with Raphael, the vendor, and hearing about his passion for the product, Rojo decided to develop Patos Shoes so that he could connect these Argentine artisans with the American shoe market. Rojo saw not only the chance to bring a cool, new product to America, but to also bring economic opportunity to these artisans. “You know, there’s very little business opportunity there. People generally don’t have that much education or business acumen. I saw an opportunity to reconnect with my culture and bring an authentic product to the United States,” Rojo said. NOMsense Bakery NOMsense Bakery is a
catering and wholesale bakery that specializes in personalized cookie sandwiches. The startup was founded by Wharton senior Roopa Shankar and College senior Alina Wong, who first met as freshmen and bonded through their shared affinity for baking and entrepreneurship. After spending many weekends baking for friends who loved their cookies, Shankar and Wong realized they could translate their baking skills into a business. “We wanted to come in as a business that created novelty dessert products that did branding in a cool way. We’re sort of a community marketing slash catering business now. We sell to a number of bakery shops and cafes, and we’re also an official caterer for the University,” Shankar said. Shankar and Wong have found Penn’s campus to be extremely welcoming to the entrepreneurially inclined, and were mentored
by a fellow Quaker. “Our main mentor was a Wharton MBA student, Josh White,” Shankar said. “He started White + Wong which was a catering/ bakery business as well. He walked us through how to structure our business, how to move into the industrial kitchen space and how to do packaging. He was so down to help us, which speaks volumes about Penn people.” After graduation, Shankar and Wong plan to bequeath their business to a cohort of current Penn underclassmen who they’ve trained as interns this last year. Shankar and Wong hope to further develop and expand their entrepreneurial skills by learning from other industry leaders before coming back to running their own businesses. Slice Capital Slice Capital is a mobile and web platform that allows individuals to buy and sell shares in
startups. Slice Capital is taking advantage of new legislation that will come into effect in mid-May of this year, which will allow private businesses to raise money from regular individuals. Normally, businesses can only sell shares to traditional venture capitalists and accredited investors in exchange for equity. “Long term, I’m hoping for Slice Capital to grow to the state such that we’re another stock market, but for private companies,” Slice Capital founder and Engineering freshman Rohan Shah said. “I want people to be able to buy and sell shares in private companies, like Uber, the same way that people can buy and sell shares in Facebook or Apple right now on the Dow or Nasdaq.” Shah, along with the rest of his team, which includes Wharton freshman Nihar Sheth, prospective Penn student Krish
Dholakiya, and Rutgers University freshman Ryan D’souza, is planning to launch the platform in May. Shah is a well known figure in the Penn startup community. He competed in and won various prizes in hackathons throughout high school, including PennApps. Shah was also the first high school recipient of the PennApps Fellowship, a program he now helps run as President. Both Shah and Sheth say that the support network they’ve been able to tap into at Penn has been a major factor in their ability to develop a startup with so much buzz. “We’ve been really lucky. PennApps Accelerator and Weiss Labs have really given us a strong foundation that has allowed us to develop a vision for our company,” Sheth said. “Everyone here at Penn is super supportive of our entrepreneurial efforts.”
higher high school drop-out rates and higher likelihood of ending up in the criminal justice system. A substantial amount of research has also shown that, on average, children raised in two-parent families develop better cognitive and behavioral outcomes than children raised in single-parent households, said Sara Jaffee, director of graduate studies in Penn’s Psychology Department. According to Jaffee, one of the main problems is that single-parent households tend to have lower levels of income, which leads to a higher chance for a child to be raised in poverty. In 1964, 36 percent of poor families with children were headed by single parents, while the figure was 68 percent in 2014, according to a Heritage Foundation issue brief. A lack of income may also lead single parents to experience more stress and affect the way they treat their children, Jaffee said.
“Some of it has to do with the fact that ... single-parent families are experiencing higher levels of stress than parents in two-parent families, and that has effects on how they parent their kids,” Jaffee said. “Parents that are stressed out are less likely to shout at their kids — they’re more likely to use physical discipline with kids. That explains some of the behavioral and emotional outcomes that you see in kids in single-parent versus two-parent families.”
affected many men’s income level, thus affecting their desirability as husbands. “Now one of the problems is that it’s not necessarily a lack of desire to want to get married,” said Matthew Levendusky, associate professor in Penn’s Political Science Department. “It is a lack of finding someone who would be a suitable partner who would allow you to achieve a degree of financial stability.” Certain experts also believe that the United States’ welfare system has made it easier and more beneficial for single mothers to depend on public benefits rather than a husband. According to a Heritage Foundation report, often a lowincome single mother’s welfare benefits are substantially reduced if she marries an employed father. The report holds that a single mother with two children who earns $15,000 per year would generally receive around $5,200 per
year of food stamp benefits, but this would be cut to zero if she married a father with the same levels of earnings. “There can be disincentives for low-income women, particularly [those] receiving welfare benefits, to marry their partners,” Jaffee said. “That explains part of it as well.” Penn sociology professor Janice Madden, who studies labor markets as they relate to families, also pointed out that more flexible divorce laws across most states makes it easier for couples to dissolve their marriage. No-fault divorce laws, for example, do not require a showing of wrongdoing by either party. “For example, in Pennsylvania, if you’ve been separated for two years, you can get a divorce,” Madden said. “In the old days you couldn’t get divorced unless you had fault. So if the husband wanted to run off with some younger
woman, you couldn’t do that if he didn’t have grounds. The woman had some control over getting support. That is not true today.”
An increase in single-parent households It is difficult for researchers to pinpoint the source of the increase in single-parent households in the United States as there are many possible factors involved. One contributing factor is a changing economy that led to the decline of industry in the United States. Economic transformations over the last quarter-century
Government marriage policies In order to combat the detrimental effects of single-parenthood child rearing, the United States government has passed programs aimed at promoting marriage. In 2003, under George W. Bush’s administration, the Healthy Marriage Initiative was launched to provide relationship counseling to low-income married couples who had or were expecting children. An estimated $600 million have been spent on the program since 2001 — including government reserves — in an effort to keep married couples together and decrease the amount of single-parent households. “[Government] says that the main reason that children are in poverty in the United States is because there are so many single-parent families,” Jaffee said. “[They say] keeping couples together would improve the financial outlook for the family and therefore improve children’s well-being. That is sort of the stated rationale for these programs.” However, recent evaluations of the government initiative found that it has not led to more couples staying together, not changed the divorce rate and not reversed the declining marriage rate, according to a report by MDRC, a nonpartisan social policy research organization. “It is a little worrying to me that we have millions of dollars every year that are being directed at these programs that aren’t really working in the way that they should be working,” Jaffee said, pointing out that more research into these programs is needed and that a greater investment on job training could help marriages remain financially stable. The shortcomings of the Healthy Marriage Initiative have caused skeptics to question whether government should be encouraging marriage in the first place. For Madden, government should remain neutral when it comes to marriage, and a bigger effort should be made on creating higher wages to make men more attractive husbands. The professor also noted the benefits of educating women about contraception as a way to decrease unintentional child births. “That is a no-brainer,” Madden said. “Helping people to not have births that they do not want to have is in everybody’s interest. Indeed, the unintentional rate is much higher among unmarried women than among married women. I think there is evidence that contraception actually discourages unwanted birth.” In fact, a 2003 research paper by Jaffee found that incentivizing marriage might not always produce the best outcome for children if the father displays high levels of antisocial behavior such as drug abuse and physical violence. “I was interested to see whether you still get the benefits of living with two parents if one of those parents engages in high levels of antisocial behavior,” Jaffee said. “What we found is that it’s actually worse for kids. It is better to not have a father around if that is who your father is.” Jaffee noted, however, that most absent fathers aren’t characterized by such high levels of antisocial behavior, but that they represent an extreme set of cases.
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Professor honored for fight for women’s rights Prof. Roberts was honored by Harvard SHOBA BABU Staff Reporter
T h is Women’s H istor y Month, a Penn professor was honored for her work in fighting for women’s reproductive rights. Penn Integrates Knowledge professor Dorothy Roberts, who has appointments in Penn Law School and the School of Arts and Sciences, was recently honored as one of Harvard Law’s Women Inspiring Change for 2016. The award, which is in its third iteration, annually recognizes women who are making a lasting and notable impact in the fields of law and policy, and culminates in a portrait showcase of the women from Feb. 29 to March 11 and a recognition ceremony on International Women’s Day, March 8. Honorees are nominated by students and faculty at Harvard, and include other prominent figures such as United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “To me, as a graduate of Harvard Law School, it’s a special honor to be recognized by the Harvard Law community, and also the other women who were honored are so amazing — I’m just thrilled and humbled to be in their company,” Roberts said. Coincidentally, this International Women’s Day also marked Roberts’ 60th birthday. Roberts’ major contribution to women’s rights is her
DOROTHY ROBERTS
work for reproductive justice. She chronicled this work in her book “Killing the Black Body,” on how policy, culture and law in America have worked to restrict black women’s reproductive freedom. Roberts clarified the distinction between the reproductive justice movement and that of reproductive choice. She said that currently, laws concerning reproductive freedom and the woman’s right to choose are framed around the rhetoric of reproductive choice. This can put lower income women and women of color at a disadvantage. “[Focusing on reproductive choice] favors the most privileged women, because they’re the ones who have the resources to act on the choices they make, and it tends to ignore the struggles faced by women who lack the resources and other supports of society for their reproductive decisions,” Roberts said. For example, low income women may face more barriers such as lack of access to readily available clinics for abortion or funds to pay for birth control. Instead of solely focusing on the right to choose,
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reproductive justice also focuses on helping people obtain the resources necessary to act upon that right as well. She said reproductive justice also takes into account other issues that are not currently considered in policy, particularly how society devalues the right of women of color to bear children. This problem has lead to instances of coerced sterilization among women of color. In 2013, an article exposed illegal mass sterilization of female inmates of color without their knowledge in California prisons. “The term reproductive justice was coined in 1994 by a caucus of black feminists, and it includes not only the right not to have a child but also the right to have a child and to raise children in safe, healthy and supportive environments,” Roberts said. Her passion for her work shows. In addition to being honored by Harvard Law, Roberts also received a Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society of Family Planning in the same week, also for her work on reproductive justice. Roberts said she believed that the honorees of the Women Inspiring Change award highlight how powerful women around the world have dedicated their lives to helping advance equality and giving hope to others, but she praised the contributions of everyday women as well. “It’s also inspiring to know that ordinary women, who maybe have never been recognized, have historically struggled to improve conditions for themselves, their families and their communities … and that continues to be an inspiration of hope for the future.”
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Kassamali had taken various ABCS courses in the past but said that the seminar was different in the level of depth it took in community engagement. “We created a pathway for how to get from the school to the community, so it helped to put things together and go from the school’s students to the principals to the parent coordinators to the community members,” she said. “Instead of just educating the kids and having the information stop
SPOTLIGHT >> PAGE 1
for immediate and future positive change for the victims. Hamilton noted that more states are changing obstructing statues of limitations laws, which prevent individuals from being charged with crimes after a certain number of years. “This is the massive public education we needed,” she said of the movie. Many of the speakers spoke of the stigma surrounding the issue of child sexual abuse, citing a bystander culture, public ignorance and denial and a blind love of institution. “It needs to be talked about and it isn’t. And I think the Academy Awards are important because they represent Hollywood’s vision for itself,” Decherney said. “Hollywood likes to see itself as being political and engaged.” Singer spoke on the need to break the barriers preventing victims from speaking out. “Beyond their story being difficult to listen to, they might not express it in the same way that others that haven’t suffered might,” he said of the survivors he has spoken to. “The real message of the movie is we all need to look, we all need to listen when these people speak. It is a message of deference and
there, we were able to bridge the gap between the information and the rest of the community.” The class, which consists of 20 to 25 students, is full nearly every year, with some students being placed on a waiting list. College sophomore Geneva Gondak is hoping to take the class this fall. “I was actually struggling between choosing two classes that were at the exact same time — they were both environmental studies classes — and I chose to take this seminar because it had the ABCS component,” she said.
Gondak said that she values the pedagogical aspect of ABCS classes and the concrete effects they appear to have on the community. Along with outreach and education initiatives, the class emphasizes a practical, experience-based approach to environmental health. Elementary school students were told to gather soil from around their neighborhoods, which the class then measured for lead content. “They have to sense that it’s not a paper risk or a risk that they read about,” Pepino said. “It’s a risk that they can actually go out and identify.”
complicity.” Singer, having extensively researched investigative reporting, offered advice to the next generation of journalists. “It is important to understand that journalism is both persistent and judging. It’s not about getting it out there as fast as possible,” Singer said in an interview. He also discussed the financial difficulties many newspapers are facing in funding these types of long-term investigations.
“The next generation is gonna have to be creative about how we’re gonna fund this,” he said. The speakers noted that “Spotlight” is inspiring social awareness, potentially bringing films with political messages back into vogue. “I think this time maybe the truth is lucrative,” Huff said. “If survivors can feel a lift on the stigma, that might make some of these institutions wake up ... it is the only thing that makes some of these old boys wake up.”
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OPINION Losing my religion SMALL TALK | How being at college has facilitated my loss of faith
THURSDAY MARCH 31, 2016 VOL. CXXXII, NO. 38 132nd Year of Publication COLIN HENDERSON President LAUREN FEINER Editor-in-Chief ANDREW FISCHER Director of Online Projects BRIELLA MEGLIO Director of Internal Consulting ISABEL KIM Opinion Editor JESSICA MCDOWELL Enterprise Editor DAN SPINELLI City News Editor CAROLINE SIMON Campus News Editor ELLIE SCHROEDER Assignments Editor LUCIEN WANG Copy Editor SUNNY CHEN Copy Editor NICK BUCHTA Senior Sports Editor TOM NOWLAN Sports Editor LAINE HIGGINS Sports Editor TOMMY ROTHMAN Sports Editor JOYCE VARMA Creative Director ALEX GRAVES Design Editor
When I was younger, Easter was one of my favorite holidays. I loved the egg hunts, and the giant meal we would have for dinner was always delicious. For my family, celebrating Easter never really revolved around the religious aspects, but it became more about simply celebrating the holiday together. This past weekend though, as I studied for midterms and did homework, Easter didn’t feel like Easter anymore. I’ve never considered myself a very religious person, and the only things that kept me from breaking all ties I have with Christianity were my parents. Both of them were born into Catholic families that made religion a major priority, and so it became a part of their daily lives. Over time though, our family’s dedication to religion has certainly waned, as going to church became less frequent and discussions about Catholicism, the Bible or God seemed to fade away. Since coming to college,
I haven’t been dragged to church by my parents on Christmas and Easter, I haven’t had to say grace before dinner and I simply haven’t had a reason to include faith in my life anymore. I wouldn’t say that Penn as an institution has intentionally caused this change, as no course or teacher would tell a student to expunge their faith. Yet being in such a secular environment with very few daily reminders of religion makes it difficult to find space for it, unless one has a more than moderately strong commitment to one’s faith. That being said, there are numerous Penn groups and institutions that emphasize faith and provide spaces where one can practice his or her religion. From Hillel to the PRISM interfaith group, Penn does an incredible job at making sure that any spiritual or religious accommodations are there for its students. On top of that, students who have any concerns or questions about their faith can go to the Office of the Chaplain,
which has an incredibly caring and comfortable atmosphere. For me, however, without that push from my family to invest more time in my faith, I could not maintain any real religiosity that I may have experienced when I was younger. College has helped me learn
holidays like Easter and Christmas have lost their religious importance to me. I may simply be an example of a rising number of young people in this country who aren’t as religious as before. According to a Pew Research Center poll, approximately 25 percent of Americans born after
... I could not maintain any real religiosity that I may have experienced when I was younger.”
how easily I’ve come to accept the decreased presence of religion in my life. Therefore it’s not as if I’ve been undergoing an existential crisis, but sometimes it surprises me how I’ve gotten to a point where
1980 identify as either atheist or agnostic, or say that religion is not important in their lives. This is in contrast to the approximately 16 percent of Americans born between 1965 and 1980 who fell into those
three categories. UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute also found that 28 percent of college students in the Class of 2018 — my class — don’t identify with any religion, the highest amount for that poll since the poll’s inception in 1971. While the idea of a generation as a monolithic entity has always bothered me, it certainly seems to be the case that younger people are starting to move away from religion. This isn’t necessarily a good or bad shift, but it helps me understand why college is the time when I’ve really started to distance myself from faith. For many people, college is the first time in their lives that they live alone or away from their parents, meaning that it’s difficult to keep up traditions that were primarily enforced by them. This isn’t necessarily an act of rebellion; it’s more of a time when students choose which parts of their identity they wish to carry on for the rest of their lives and which they choose to leave in their past.
ALESSANDRO VAN DEN BRINK I will never think negatively about religion and the role it had on me when I was young, but I have simply come to terms with the fact that it is not as important to me as it once was. Being in college has helped me realize that, and while this process is not always so conscious, we should be mindful of how Penn has shaped us or at the very least, given us room to grow. ALESSANDRO VAN DEN BRINK is a College sophomore from New York, studying economics. His email address is alevan@ sas.upenn.edu. “Small Talk” usually appears every other Wednesday.
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Ray and Andrew for UA
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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.
Despite what some might say, the Undergraduate Assembly is a body of students that has the potential to have a large amount of influence at Penn. Members hold substantial influence with administrators, take on important projects throughout the year, and are generally tasked with bringing together the voices of different student groups across campus. Whether they’ve succeeded in having “responsible and effective participation in the organization and control of the affairs of the University,” as their constitution states, is another story, and has historically depended on the body’s leadership. Therefore, when evaluating the candidates running in the
upcoming UA election, we looked for those who have proven to be advocates for the Penn community and its many disparate voices, and those who seem like they will be able to bring effective, realistic change within the next year. With this in mind, The Daily Pennsylvanian Opinion Board endorses Ray Clark and Andrew Gegios for the UA Presidency and Vice Presidency. It wasn’t an easy decision. All three of the running pairs have strong platforms and valid reasons to be supported, and also provide cohesive, intelligent plans for the next year. Refreshingly, all three pairs have also run largely positive campaigns. However, we feel that
Ray and Andrew provide the best balance of institutional knowledge and forward-thinking represen-
bitious projects in the past and has consistently answered publicly for causes he has advocated for, both
... we looked for those who have proven to be advocates for the Penn community and its many disparate voices ...”
tation of their constituency. To put it simply, with Ray and Andrew, we know what we’re getting. Ray has held himself accountable for taking on am-
within and outside of the context of the UA. Coupled with Andrew’s role in restoring the UA’s Annual Report, this history lends credence to the duo’s
promises of advocacy and accountability. Given their experience — particularly Ray’s as the previous Vice President — Ray and Andrew are well positioned to take the reigns with a minimal institutional learning curve. Furthermore, the projects that they are suggesting — such as expanding mental health initiatives, advocating for the unlimited SEPTA deal and building a social justice center — are changes to the community that are both plausible and meaningful in scope. Their goals of empowering student voices and engaging existing communities are appealing, and Ray and Andrew’s commitment to 100 percent transpar-
ency is commendable. Effective UA leaders are able to balance advocating for their own personal ideas with engaging and uniting the disparate voices that make up their constituency, and Ray and Andrew have the public communications experience and connections necessary to strike this balance. Overall, we believe that Ray and Andrew are the right candidates at this moment in time to lead the UA, and are more than qualified to take office. We hope to see the student body as a whole hold them and other candidates accountable for their promises and platforms to promote meaningful change within the Penn community moving forward.
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Penn’s latest graduate school rankings fall
WATER
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Protection Agency’s Lead and Copper Rule requires these tests, which are used to determine if corrosion control treatment techniques are working, so that water has minimum potential for lead to leach from plumbing materials. In the 2014 water tests, Philadelphia met federal and state standards. To meet standards, more than 90 percent of the sampled homes must have lead levels under the action level of 15 parts per billion. In 2014, 134 homes were tested, and 127 homes had lead levels below the action level of 15ppb. Ninety percent of tested homes had less than 5ppb. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared nationwide that, “no safe blood level in children has been identified.” But, according to the CDC, a blood lead level of 5 micrograms per deciliter is the threshold that should trigger public health action. Previously, the federal standard was 10 micrograms. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, in 2014, 35,863 children under the age of 7 were tested for blood lead levels in Philadelphia. Of those children, 3,655, or 10.2 percent, had blood lead levels of five micrograms or greater. Comparing data to Flint, whose population is 15.5 times smaller than Philadelphia, the rate of lead exposure for five micrograms from 2014 to 2015 was 3.21 percent. Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect IQ, ability to pay at t ent ion a nd a ca dem ic achievement. High levels of lead pose a serious threat to infants, young children and pregnant women. And effects of lead exposure cannot be treated. Despite the national decrease in blood-lead levels, young children of urban minority families are found to be at the greatest risk of lead poisoning. Between 1999 and 2004, black children were 1.6 times more likely to test
NEWS 5
THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016
Rankings released by U.S. News and World Report SOPHIA LEPORTE Staff Reporter
BRIANNA RAPOSO | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Philadelphia residents are gravely concerned on the quality of the city’s water, in light of the incident in Flint, Michigan.
positive for lead in their blood than white children, according to the CDC. Among all children, 11.2 percent of black children are poisoned compared with 2.3 percent of white children. Pepino called this disparity an environmental injustice. “Childhood lead poisoning selects its victims. And it selects its victims from communities that already have a number of environmental stressors,” he said. The City Council Committees on Public Health and Human Services and Children and Youth held a public hearing on March 21 to identify best practices for the Philadelphia Water Department in order to continue and improve its prevention of lead exposure in the city’s outdated infrastructure. Several announcements were made at the hearing, including a commitment by the Water and Public Health Departments to expand testing and oversight of lead exposure in child care centers. In addition, a plan to expand zero-interest loans for homeowners to replace lead service lines will be rolled out this year. The School District also committed to a full inventory of its water fountains. The cost residents will have
to pay to replace their lead pipes will be between $1,500$2,000. Currently, there is no city or state funding to assist low-income residents with changing lead-service lines. In a press release, 1998 College of General Studies graduate and former Daily Pennsylvanian staffer Helen Gym, chair of the Philadelphia Council’s Committee on Children and Youth, said in the wake of the water crisis in Flint and the discovery of increased lead levels in 30 Newark, N.J., school district buildings, it is important for Philadelphia to give additional scrutiny to the risks of lead exposure for the city’s youth. “I am pleased to hear about the announcements made today, especially the District’s commitment to addressing access to safe, drinkable water in every single water fountain,” Gym said. Pepino suggested additional policies including increased screening for elevated blood lead levels for all children in Philadelphia, lowering the classification of blood lead poisoning from 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood to five, giving additional funding to the lead court system and having health care providers pay for screenings for mothers.
The graduate programs at the Wharton School and Penn Nursing both slipped in the 2017 U.S. News and World Report Graduate School rankings, but other graduate schools at Penn fared the same or better than in the previous year. Penn’s Wharton School is ranked number four on the business school list this year, down one spot from the 2016 rankings. The third spot went to University of Chicago’s Booth
School of Business instead. Penn’s graduate nursing program is ranked second this year, and Johns Hopkins University nabbed the first-place spot that Penn held in the 2016 rankings. The Perelman School of Medicine fared substantially better, coming out in a threeway tie for third place among medical research universities in this year’s rankings along with University of California at San Francisco and Johns Hopkins University. This is up two spots from its fifth place spot last year. Penn’s Graduate School of Education also experienced a jump and is ranked at No. 6 this
year, up one spot from last year. Penn Law School holds the same position as last year at No. 7 on the law school list. U.S. News and World Report determines the rankings based on both statistical indicators and expert opinions. Statistical indicators include the school’s acceptance rate, mean starting salary of the 2015 graduates and their employment rates. The rankings also take into account the mean GMAT and GRE scores and undergraduate GPAs of incoming students. The expert opinions include peer assessment scores from directors, deans of other graduate schools in each department and recruiter assessment scores.
The Alice Paul Center Presents:
Rethinking Leadership From The Bottom Up April 1, 2016
Stiteler Forum
10:00am-5:00pm
10:00 - 10:30 Coffee & Welcome 10:30 - 11:45 Bridging the Academy and Activist Leadership
Katie Clonan-Roy, Penn Graduate Student, Graduate School of Education Jonathan Katz, LGBT Activist and Scholar, SUNY-Buffalo Gina Duke, Penn undergrad, founder of SOUL (Students Organizing for Unity and Liberation) Sheri Davis-Faulkner, Member, Crunk Feminist Collective; Director, Westside Communities Alliance; Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Georgia Tech
12:00 - 1:45 Leading While Dreaming
Spoken word performance and workshop with Kavindu “Kavi” Ade, writer, activist, arts educator, and nationally recognized spoken word poet
2:00 - 3:15 Leading In One’s Own Community
Deja Alvarez, Trans* Leadership Counselor at GALAEI Beth Patel, Former Youth Media Organizer for the Philadelphia Student Union Amrita Basu, Political Science & Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies, Amherst College Michaela Pommells, co-founder of CoRaJus and Associate Director Penn Women’s Center
3:00 - 5:00 Mona Eltahawy
Award-winning columnist and international public speaker on Arab and Muslim issues and global feminism, with Sharrona Pearl, Assistant Professor of Communication and GSWS Core Faculty | Stitler Hall, Rook B21 Co-sponsors include: Robert A. Fox Leadership Program; School of Social Policy and Practice; Political Science; Law School; Center for Africana Studies/Department of Africana Studies; Perry World House; Sociology; History; Anthropology; English; Art History; Penn Women’s Center, LGBT Center
6 SPORTS
THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016
THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM
Penn men to open Ivies Reigning division champs set for Ancient Eight slate TENNIS | Quakers
ready for Yale, Brown JACOB ADLER
BASEBALL | Penn begins
Associate Sports Editor
Ivy play vs. Yale, Brown
FRIDAY
Yale (W) (6-8)
HOLDEN McGINNIS Senior Sports Reporter
1 p.m.
ALEX FISHER | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
New Haven, Conn.
With Penn men’s tennis entering Ivy League play, sophomore Josh Pompan must help steady the ship for a depleted Quakers squad.
SATURDAY
Brown (W) (12-6)
eased the transition to playing outdoors, a process that started over spring break. “It was really great for us. Basically, what happened was we started off the season really well, then a few of our guys got injured,� Pompan said. “We competed well, even on our spring break trip, then came back here, and I think three weeks is nice.� The story sounds similar to that of last year, when injuries derailed a team that had vaulted into the ITA top 40 thanks to a strong start. Over the team’s spring break trip this year, injuries struck again, and the Quakers’ top two singles players have still not fully recovered. “Kyle [Mautner’s] foot is bugging him, but he’s still going to play. Vim [De Alwis] practices one or two days a week and hopes to be able to play the match,� coach David Geatz said. “He’s just got to be able to manage the pain in his knee. I hope he’s going to play, but it’s hard to play if you don’t come out everyday and practice.� The women (7-6, 0-1 Ivy) fell, 5-2, to Princeton on Saturday, with sophomores Ria Vaidya and Lina Qostal picking up singles wins. In doubles play, junior Kana Daniel and senior Sonya Latycheva recorded the Red and Blue’s only
1 p.m.
Providence, R.I.
SATURDAY
Yale (M) (12-6) 1 p.m.
New Haven, Conn.
SUNDAY
Brown (M) (8-12) 1 p.m.
Providence, R.I.
As spring blooms and the plants begin to sprout, Penn tennis expects to see a lot of Ivy. From this point forward, all of its remaining scheduled matches are against conference foes. Both Penn tennis teams have their first Ivy League doubleheader weekend of the spring season against Yale and Brown, with the men opening conference play and the No. 69 women looking to rebound from last weekend’s loss to Princeton. Saturday’s match at Penn’s Hamlin Courts will be the men’s (5-11) first since closing out their spring break against San Diego State on March 11. Sophomore Josh Pompan says the team’s hiatus has been rejuvenating and
win as the team failed to collect the doubles point. Daniel and Latycheva have won four of five since they appeared on the ITA doubles rankings at No. 67. Qostal knows that with six matches remaining to determine the Ivy League title, Penn is still very much in the hunt. However, the team’s margin for error has been greatly reduced. “We can’t make a mistake, basically,� she said. “We’re not thinking about Princeton anymore.� But in years past, Yale (6-8) and Brown (12-6) have been troubling opponents for the Penn women. The women have lost eight in a row to the Elis (the men have lost seven in a row) and six of the last seven to the Bears. Add in the factor of being on the road and the Red and Blue have their work cut out for them. In preparation for two matches in as many days, Daniel says the team will need to think positively and with a short memory in order to grow from the Princeton loss and move forward. “An important aspect of tennis is not letting yourself play with emotions,� Daniel said. “Everyone loses and it’s tough, but you have to focus on the improvement aspect of it.�
SATURDAY
Brown (6-10) 12 & 3 p.m.
Meiklejohn Stadium
SUNDAY
Yale (4-15-1) 12 & 2:30 p.m.
Meiklejohn Stadium
Coming off of a late-inning loss to Villanova on Wednesday, Penn baseball will look to rebound in its first Ivy action of the year. Penn (7-11) will open up Ivy play by hosting Brown and Yale for a pair of weekend doubleheaders at Meiklejohn Stadium. Last season, the Quakers swept both teams en route to a 16-4 conference record. “These games mean a little bit more now once you get into conference play,� coach John Yurkow said. “Hopefully our focus is a little bit better and we play a well-rounded game this weekend, we’re going to need to.� The Quakers have had an upand-down season up to this point. The team started the season 2-7, but has since gone 5-4, and they had a similar start to the season in 2015 when they challenged for the Gehrig Division title. The Quakers will look to continue the dominant Ivy play that has been characteristic of Yurkow’s tenure as head coach. Penn is 31-9 in conference play in Yurkow’s two seasons at the helm.
TRACK
>> PAGE 8
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the best throwers in the country go to the Texas Relays, so we just figured, ‘You know what? We have enough coaches that are event-specific, that if we go eventspecific this weekend, we can try to find what we think is the best competition in the country.’ So that’s what we’ve done.� Indeed, the Texas Relays will have the best throwers in the country, including Ivy League record-holder javelin thrower and Penn senior Kelsey Hay, as well as the current No. 1 discus thrower in the world — Penn’s very own Sam Mattis. The defending national champion tossed for a mark of 67.45 meters, almost five meters farther than the throw that
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JASHLEY BIDO | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Junior catcher Tim Graul’s .350 batting average last week earned the East Greenwich, R.I., native an Ivy League Player of the Week honors.
won the now-senior the NCAA championship last year. “I’m not expecting to hit that every throw — that would be ludicrous, and I would probably just move out to the Olympic training center immediately,� Mattis joked. “Hopefully I can hit around there. Each meet that’s the goal, to kind of stick around that ‘A’ standard and not let my standards fall that far. When it counts, maybe I can get something out there that’s as far, if not further.� In action at Stanford will be Tommy Awad, who recently finished third in the mile at the NCAA Indoor National Championships. Meanwhile, the largest contingent of Quakers will be headed to Florida. About a dozen of Penn’s finest will seek to put up a
performance good enough to send them to NCAA prelims later this season. After a lack of competition so far this outdoor season, all three traveling units of the track team will meet their toughest opponents yet in what Dolan hopes will be a successful weekend in which the Quakers will take one big step towards the glory of NCAAs. “We’ve gotten off to a nice start at our home meets — I like what we’ve already done,� Dolan said. “You just hope that in these bigger fields with these more competitive situations that you get that extra adrenaline or that extra push you might need to get to the next level. “It’ll be fun to see what happens this weekend after the dust has settled at all three locations.�
“This year I came in telling myself that the only person I have to please is myself,� she said. Although the 2016 season is still young, Allen has a lot to be pleased with so far. In just 20 games, her hitting has returned to vintage form. The junior is hitting .333 and has already racked up 23 RBI and five home runs. That brings the Woodbine, Md., native just two homers away from becoming Penn’s alltime career leader in home runs — and she still has 68 regular season games left in the Red and Blue. The adjustments for Allen weren’t all mental. In a conference as small as the Ivy League, it’s hard to be such a powerful hitter and not have opposing pitchers notice. The kind of pitches thrown Allen’s way changed, thus so did the way she composed herself in the batter’s box. “People made some adjustments with how they pitched to her, and we talked about really working on hitting the outside pitch well, learning to take walks when they’re offered and being a little bit more selective at the plate,� King said. “Those are adjustments that I think she’s been doing a great job of this year.� Thanks to her return to offensive dominance, Allen has rightly earned a prominent place within the Quakers’ batting lineup, serving as the team’s cleanup hitter. “She’s in a role to hit in runs,� King said. “That’s what her job is, and she does it well.� Doubtlessly, with that
designation comes the pressure to deliver. But if her Ivy Leagueleading RBI total is any indication of how she handles that pressure, Allen appears to be coping with it just fine. “I put a lot of that pressure on myself,� she said. “But I don’t think it’s actually there because [softball] is a team sport and we all rely on each other.� That mutual reliance, though, is something that Allen has earned from her teammates through her work ethic, her quiet leadership and, of course, her prowess with bat in hand. “She’s a huge spark plug for our team,� Sargent said emphatically. “When we see her hit a bomb, it lights a fire under us, and we just know we’re ready to go and we got this.� This year Allen has found a way to make her presence felt on the field whether or not she hits a home run in a given game. Perhaps the most telling way in which she does this is by no longer being intimidated by whatever her next at-bat will bring. So just how has she managed to stare down pitchers with a confidence that would have been foreign to her in the 2015 season? “I don’t really think about softball until I get in the box,� she said. “I just kind of zone down and hit and go from there.� As long as Allen can manage to stay in the moment on offense for the rest of the season, it looks like her sophomore slump is nothing more than a memory.
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>> PAGE 8
ACROSS
“Yale and Brown both had a couple of decent arms, we’re going to have to pitch well and get some situational hits when we need them.� On Penn’s side, getting those situational hits may come down to the recent hot streak of Graul, who is the reigning Ivy League player of the week after knocking in 10 runs. After two seasons behind former Penn star Austin Bossart, Graul is finally getting the chance to shine in his junior year. “I’ve just felt good up there all year, honestly. I’ve just felt comfortable. I’ve been waiting for awhile now, backing up Bo for two years, so it’s kind of been my shot,� Graul said. “Coming up, I feel comfortable, I feel good at the plate. My swing feels right, so I’ve just been trying to carry that mentality through.� With the Ivy League season starting this weekend, there’s no better time to feel comfortable.
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“We’re a ways in now, and I think some of the younger bats are a little bit underdeveloped in terms of their approach, but it’s a new season starting Saturday,� junior catcher Tim Graul said. “So it really doesn’t matter starting at this point. We’re going to go into practice, wipe everything, and just go in with a fresh slate.� Brown (6-10) will be up first for the Quakers on Saturday and pose a tough pitching test. The Bears boast a pair of starting pitchers — Christian Taugner and Austin French — with sub-2.00 ERAs on the season. Meanwhile, Yale has another excellent pitcher of its own in Scott Politz, who ranks fourth in the league with 26 strikeouts. “Everybody’s going to be a little bit different as far as how their roster is comprised and the style of ball they play, but we’ve played these teams in years past, and we kind of know what to expect a little bit,� Yurkow added.
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the now-junior outfielder. “Sometimes people get that in their head, and they start thinking, ‘Well, I’m in a sophomore slump.’ It’s very common.� According to Allen, that slump mentality defined her sophomore year. “Last year it was a lot, coming back from my freshman year and feeling like I had to live up to it,� Allen said. “I would get really frustrated with myself.� Thanks to the support of classmate Alexis Sargent, who experienced a similar batting slump during the 2015 season, Allen knew that her performance sophomore year was a low point from which she was destined to rise. “It is really one of those things where you have to believe in yourself and remember how you were hitting beforehand,� Sargent explained of the pair of then-sophomores’ struggles in the batter’s box. “But Leah is really good at staying positive and believing in herself.� In the months that passed between the last game of the 2015 season — a 1-0 loss to Dartmouth in the Ivy League Championship Series that sealed the Quakers’ fate as second-best in the Ancient Eight for the second year in a row — and the team’s opening game of 2016 in Florida over spring break, Allen was determined to find a way to get back to where she was during her freshman year.
THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN
SPORTS 7
THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016
Penn’s Ivy streak threatened by nation’s top team M. LAX | Yale seeks to
deal Quakers first Ivy loss
SANJAY DURESETI Sports Reporter SATURDAY
No. 1 Yale (7-0, 2-0 Ivy) 12 p.m.
New Haven, Conn.
Although Penn men’s lacrosse is scheduled to face a familiar foe this weekend, the Quakers will be excused if they don’t recognize the other team on the field. On Saturday, the Red and Blue (5-3, 2-0 Ivy) will travel to New Haven, Conn., to take on Yale, a team that has asserted itself as a new power in Division I lacrosse. According to the most recent Inside Lacrosse ranking, the Bulldogs (7-0, 2-0) currently stand as the best team in the country, already with impressive wins against Maryland and St. John’s bolstering their resume. The owners of the highest RPI in the Ivy League, Yale’s No.
1 ranking is the first for an Ivy League school since Princeton in 2009 and is also the first such distinction in the Bulldog program’s 134-year history. Penn, meanwhile, will attempt to make a quick recovery from a 13-8 loss to No. 5 Maryland on Tuesday. The Quakers, after getting off to a fast 2-0 start with goals from freshman Simon Mathias and junior Austin Kreinz, lost their offensive momentum as the match wore on. Although the match was close at the halftime whistle, the Terrapins held Penn scoreless over a 24-minute stretch while simultaneously widening their lead to six. The Quakers cannot afford to exhibit such inconsistency this weekend, as Yale possesses one of the best defensive units in the nation. Helmed by preseason first team All-American and top-10 2016 MLL Draft selection Michael Quinn, the Bulldogs have allowed an average of just 6.86 goals per game, good for the third-lowest mark in the country. Penn coach Mike Murphy
YOSEF ROBELE | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRPAHER
With a personal best of six points and five goals, freshman attack Simon Mathias took home the Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors this week.
emphasized that there is still a learning curve for his offensive players — and that competition like Yale would give his young team a valuable test. “We’re young everywhere, but we’re young on offense in particular. I think when they saw the score [against Maryland] and they realized we hadn’t scored in a while, they started to press a
Big Ten test awaits Penn W. LAX | Red and Blue
host No. 8 Northwestern
WILL AGATHIS Associate Sports Editor SUNDAY
No. 8 Northwestern (4-4) 11 a.m.
Franklin Field
It’s time for another battle of top women’s lacrosse programs at Franklin Field. Penn women’s lacrosse will play host to Northwestern in the teams’ ninth head-to-head matchup in the past eight seasons. The Quakers (6-3, 1-1 Ivy) now play host after losing two straight games in the regular season for the first time in three years. The first defeat came at the hands of firstranked Maryland and the second, also on the road, was courtesy of an unranked Dartmouth team playing spoiler. “Hopefully it’s a wake-up call,” coach Karin Corbett said about the current skid. “We did not come to play with the heart and the fight that Dartmouth had and hopefully we learned a lesson.” Corbett later went on to note that Dartmouth had more urgency as a team that had already lost intraconference. “We needed to play that way — with [the mindset of having suffered] a loss — [but] without a loss.” On the flip side, the eighthranked Wildcats (4-4) have had a relatively pedestrian record, but their four losses have come against the nation’s second, fourth, 10th and 12th ranked teams. Thus far, the Quakers’ and Wildcats’ only common opponent was No. 12
SOFTBALL >> PAGE 8
games were preparation. We have to learn from the things that went well and the things that didn’t go well,” King said. “Friday’s a new season. It’s a clean slate, it’s what
Duke, with Northwestern downing them, 11-8, and Penn falling, 12-6. History is certainly present between the two programs: In 2009, the Wildcats took down the Quakers in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament. The prior year, Northwestern split the season series with Penn, losing in the regular season but winning on the grander stage — the national championship. Since that fateful match, the Red and Blue have lost their last seven matchups to the Wildcats. “There is a long history of a rivalry. It’s a game we always get up for and Northwestern gets up for it too,” Corbett said. “It has been a fun rivalry — we haven’t been on the winning side of that — but we enjoy playing them and enjoy the competition and how they fight for the game as much as we fight for the game.” This year’s matchup is not just about avenging past losses. It’s a chance to pick up the signature win that the team needs heading into the thick of Ivy League play. Senior captain and attacker Nina Corcoran believes that Saturday’s matchup is a statement game for the Red and Blue. “I think Northwestern is a huge game for us every year,” she said. “They’re obviously always a top team. It’s competitive and it can show who we are as a program so we’re excited to play them and get into Ivies.” Onto the current squads: Penn’s attack, headlined by Corcoran — who ranks second in the nation in assists per game — will face a tough challenge against Northwestern’s defense, which is strong both in transition and zone clearances. “I think it’s just going to be [about] being smart with the ball. We have to have quick ball
movement. We have to really work them,” Corcoran said. “They play very high pressure so it’s [about] being smart and driving with confidence to see those openings.” Villanova is equipped with a “potent attack,” according to Corbett, who added that the Wildcats is very strong in their fast breaks. Corbett believes that Penn will need to keep possession as much as possible. Fortunately for the team’s defense, the goalie situation has proven to be a strength so far. Last year, Lucy Ferguson, a three-time first team All-Ivy recipient, graduated from the program. To counteract that, Corbett was able to bring in Britt Brown, a former recruit of the school who began her career at Virginia before transferring in this year. Slightly past the halfway mark of the season, the junior sports a .508 save percentage that puts her in the top-15 in the nation. Corbett is thankful for the presence that her starting goalkeeper has had thus far. “We had hoped that she could come here and be the goalie that we always thought she would be as a recruit and I’m really proud of her,” the coach said. “She gives us chances to stay in a game. She gives us chances to win a game. She’s very confident back there.” Going into this game, the team will be looking for refinement in many areas before the start of Ivy League play. After two consecutive losses, Corcoran is excited to see how the team rebounds on Saturday. “It happened, we can’t change it,” she said of the two-game losing streak. “But it’s [about] the learning experience from it, getting better, not making mistakes, and still having confidence in how good we are and how we’re going to continue with our season.”
we’re all here for.” Both the Bulldogs (7-15) and Bears (11-8) are coming off rough 2015 seasons: They finished in the bottom two slots of the North Division with 4-16 and 2-18 records, respectively. With Sargent likely to continue
her dominant ways, the Quakers will certainly accept being part of low-scoring games — provided, of course, that they come out on top. However, you have to score at least some runs to win the game. And on Wednesday, the Red and Blue had trouble doing even that.
little bit,” Murphy said. “We just took a couple of shots we probably shouldn’t have taken in the third quarter, and if we can learn from that, I think we won’t have those lapses.” The Elis, however, are no pushovers on the other side of the field either: their offense has scored at least 10 goals in all but one of their games. Yale is led
by reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year Ben Reeves, owner of the fourth-highest points per game average — 5.14 — among all D-I players. In order to counter Yale’s depth, the Quakers must improve at winning possession of the ball, an area in which they have struggled mightily. Faceoff troubles have plagued Murphy’s team since the season’s onset, with multiple players trying and failing to make an impact at the X. Penn’s faceoff win rate currently sits at a dismal 36.4 percent, greatly stymying the Quakers’ ability to employ the fast-paced, transition offense that suits their personnel. And, in addition to contributing to their offensive woes, face-off losses put extra pressure on Penn’s defense and rookie goalkeeper Reed Junkin. “Face-offs have definitely not been our strongest point within the team. But we have a lot of guys capable of taking face-offs, so we’re going to mix it up,” senior captain Nick Doktor said. “We’re going to throw out different looks
in terms of different guys on the wings, different guys on the X. Yale’s another good faceoff team but I think we’ll be able to make some adjustments” Murphy and his staff have also prioritized face-offs in practice, allowing the Red and Blue to attempt to remedy their most glaring weakness. “In the past three weeks, since the Villanova game really, we’ve tried some different things. We’ve tried different personnel, we’ve got another one or two guys taking face-offs,” Murphy said. “We’ve modified our wing play and slightly modified the way we drill them. We’ve been focusing on different techniques in practice. “We’re looking at everything.” The Quakers will certainly examine all areas of their team ahead of the matchup with Yale, as Saturday’s match could be particularly crucial in determining the post-season fate of these teams. Both squads are both undefeated in the Ivy League, with the winner set to take the top spot in the conference standings.
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Saturday & Sunday, June 4 & 5 (10am-5pm) Saturday & Sunday, June 11 & 12 (10am-5pm) Saturday & Sunday, June 25 & 26 (10am-5pm) Instructor: Scott Sherman
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Courses are open to graduate and undergraduate students!
NPLD 595: Nonprofit Storytelling Summer Session 1 Tuesdays & Thursdays (5:30-7:30pm) Instructor: Mark Eyerly
Interested in submatriculation? Undergraduates can now submatriculate into the Master's of Nonprofit Leadership Program. This exciting option allows students to earn a Bachelor's and Master's degree in just 4 ½ years.
For more information, contact: Adam Roth-Saks Associate Director NPL Program adamsaks@sp2.upenn.edu 215.898.1857 www.sp2.upenn.edu/nonprofit
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ADVISORS The Office of College House Computing is currently seeking nominations for its annual award:
2016 Outstanding Information Technology Advisor of the Year.
Nominations are open for current ITAs and ITA managers who go “above and beyond the call of duty” in providing timely, friendly and successful support for all the residents of the House they serve. See the website below for more information about the Outstanding ITA of the Year award, how to nominate your lifesaver, and about opportunities in 2016 to join Penn’s very own league of superheroes.
www.collegehouses.upenn.edu/ITA Penn’s ITA staff is trained to help College House residents resolve technology challenges, whether they hit while you’re working in your House lab or while your laptop is frustrating you in your room. Your College House has a team of experienced computer troubleshooters who are ready to come to the rescue.
SAVING YOUR LIFE
THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016
ANCIENT ENEMIES
No. 1 AWAITS
Penn baseball has Brown and Yale on tap this weekend as Ivy League play finally begins
Top-ranked Yale offers a huge conference test for Penn men’s lacrosse on the road this weekend
>> SEE PAGE 6
>> SEE PAGE 7
ONWARDS & U P W A R D S
SOFTBALL | Leah Allen has hit her
sophomore slump out of the park LAINE HIGGINS Sports Editor
Not many players can look back at a season in which they hit .278 and tallied 31 RBI and call it an off-year. But for Penn softball’s Leah Allen, that’s exactly what 2015 was. Shortly after stepping onto the red dirt of Penn Park in 2014, Allen exploded onto the scene. Her first-ever collegiate at-bat was an RBI double, a hit that would foreshadow a season of excellence on offense for the then-freshman. All year long, pitchers couldn’t contain Allen, and her performance landed her Penn’s Offensive Player of the Year award and the first unanimous Ivy League Rookie of the Year honor since 2011. Those accolades only made sense — she batted an insane .458 in conference games. But then came sophomore year. Allen was by no means burned out — her RBI total was second in the Ivy League only to then-freshman teammate Jurie Joyner’s 33 and her five home runs in 2015 put her career total at 18, the third-most in program history. For nearly any other player on Penn’s roster, those numbers would have been enviable. For Allen, it was an out-of-character performance. “Any time you have a really good freshman year, it’s always hard to sustain that, and there’s that term ‘sophomore slump,’” coach Leslie King said of SEE ALLEN PAGE 6
ANANYA CHANDRA | SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR
LEHIGH 4
0 PENN
LEHIGH 6
3 PENN
Offensive woes on eve of Ivy schedule SOFTBALL |
Losses precede Brown, Yale TOM NOWLAN Sports Editor FRIDAY
Brown (11-8) 2 & 4 p.m. Penn Park
SATURDAY
Yale (7-15) 12:30 & 2:30 p.m. Penn Park
Well, hopefully they got that out of their system. In the team’s last bit of action before kicking off Ivy League play on Friday against Yale, Penn softball fell in both games of a doubleheader versus Lehigh at Penn Park on Wednesday afternoon. The Quakers failed to score in 14 out of 15 innings in the twin bill, losing an extra-inning pitchers’ duel, 4-0, in game one before falling 6-3 in the
nightcap. “We were not as aggressive at the plate as we would have liked,” coach Leslie King said. “We got some more hits in the second game — obviously not enough — but we did make some adjustments well.” The Quakers (11-9) were particularly punchless at the plate in game one, notching just three hits against Lehigh junior hurler Christine Campbell, who went the distance in a dominating shutout. However, Penn’s Alexis Sargent — in yet another masterful performance — matched Campbell frame for frame, allowing just two hits to the Mountain Hawks (21-7) before being pulled after five shutout innings. The junior now has a 13-inning scoreless streak and sits sixth in the nation with a minuscule 0.93 earned run average. Junior Courtney Cuzick replaced Sargent and added two more scoreless innings, sending the contest to extras. However, the wheels came off in the top of the eighth. Fueled by a Morgan Decker
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homer, Lehigh scored four times and put the Quakers away quietly in the bottom of the frame. Sophomore righty Mason Spichiger got the start for the Red and Blue in the second game and was knocked around early and often — she left after two innings having surrendered five runs (all earned) on nine hits. Senior Lauren Li came on in relief and pitched much more effectively, allowing just one unearned run over the next five frames. The Penn offense was again held at bay in game two, this time by Lehigh freshman Emily Sorem. Penn finally broke through with three runs in the fifth — headlined by a two-run triple from junior Leah Allen — but did not score again for the rest of the contest. Now, the Red and Blue will turn their sights to the games that really count. Penn will open up Ivy League play this weekend as Yale and Brown visit for doubleheaders. “These non-conference SEE SOFTBALL PAGE 7
Thousands of miles apart TRACK | Quakers to race in
Texas, Florida, California
WILL SNOW Associate Sports Editor SATURDAY
Florida Relays Gainsville, Fla.
Stanford Invitational Palo Alto, Ca.
Texas Relays Austin, Texas
It’s a common saying in the world of track and field: “One moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.” The athletes competing this weekend may not be able to achieve a lifetime of glory just yet, but they can get close — by qualifying for the NCAA preliminaries. Prelims for NCAAs are a while away, but track head coach Steve Dolan is targeting his athletes’ meets this weekend for posting qualification-worthy marks. That’s right: meets. Plural. Members of the Penn track and field team will be in California, Texas and Florida this weekend, simultaneously competing in three different meets: the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, the Texas Relays in Austin and the Florida Relays in Gainesville. Their goals are all similar — compete with the best and take a shot at posting a NCAA-qualifying time or mark.
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DP FILE PHOTO
Penn track and field coach Steve Dolan decided to have his team divide and conquer this weekend so it could compete against the nation’s best.
“The way the process works, you need to put a marker down during the season in order to qualify for NCAA prelims,” Dolan said. “And I think sometimes that’s a matter of getting good competition and good weather. Our hope is that this weekend, we are ready to take that challenge. We do already have some people who have hit their mark, but there’s others that we anticipate will hit it this weekend.” The goal makes sense, but the thing about this weekend that stands out is that different parts of the team will simultaneously be competing in three states, just about as far apart as they could possibly be. While that might make it seem like the team is being spread thin with a crazy logistics issue, Dolan
explained the logic behind his decision. “So we ended up with three meets instead of one. [And] because the highest-percentage chance of warm weather for the sprinters and jumpers is in Florida, we’re trying to play the percentages and send our best jumpers and sprinters to the Florida Relays. “And it’s the same thing for Stanford. They have the tendency to have the best long distance races, where it’s a little bit cooler weather for distance racing and competition, so we wanted to send our distance runners there for that opportunity. And then there’s the reputation of the Texas Relays that SEE TRACK PAGE 6
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