April 7, 2015 by The Daily Pennsylvanian

TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2015

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AXO votes to move off campus Sorority members think U. demands are unreasonable JILL CASTELLANO Editor-in-Chief

Penn’s chapter of Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Epsilon, plans to officially revoke its charter with

the University this week. They will lose all recognition from the University and the AXO national chapter, even though members plan to informally continue their activities off campus as a philanthropic organization. The decision was finalized Monday night, when more than 85

percent of the sorority’s members voted against signing a formal document with the University, which outlined requirements the chapter would have to follow in order to remain affiliated with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. Among other demands, the document required the chapter to

complete Penn’s First Step program and to abstain from engaging in any social events, including those without alcohol, for the next two years. The expectations were unreasonable to many members of AXO, and they ultimately considered moving SEE AXO PAGE 8

Giving Phila. students a legal edge Students from Phila. law schools rep students in disciplinary disputes JENNIFER WRIGHT Deputy News Editor

Penn students have the chance to be there for the best times in the lives of Philadelphia public school students. But a few have chosen to help with some of the worst. Parents of public school students can call the The School Discipline Advocacy Service which pairs law students from Penn, Temple and Drexel universities to act as pro-bono advocates to help them wade through the disciplinary process in the school district. “In general, we advocate for families,” Penn Law student and SDAS Lead Advocate Dorian Simmons said. “Families just want someone to stand next to them and say ‘here’s what’s going to happen’ so they feel supported.” Penn Law student and SDAS Chair at Penn Richard Shephard said that the advocates work SEE ADVOCACY PAGE 2

FACULTY STARTUP RAISES $100,000

THE GRAD STUDENT

EXPERIENCE The events, classes and activities of Penn’s other half BOOKYUNG JO Staff Reporter

PAGE 3

While undergraduates are busy biting hats on Hey Day, jumping in bouncy castles during Fling, or banding together to scream the night before the first economics midterm, graduate students live in a different world. As of fall 2014, there are 11,035 fulltime graduate or professional students, a larger number than that of full-time

undergraduates, which is 10,406. After pursuing their professional and academic interests, many come back as graduate students to experience the other side of Penn. Robin Acker, a Nursing graduate student, returned to Penn after graduating from Penn’s undergraduate Nursing program in 2012 to get further training. “I didn’t plan on getting my master’s so quickly, but as I started working I realized that it’s definitely something I’d be interested in doing,” she said. On top of Penn Nursing being the top SEE GRAD STUDENTS PAGE 9 EMILY CHENG | NEWS DESIGN EDITOR

ALUMNI

The politics of the Middle East are undoubtably among the most pressing and urgent issues of our time.”

Creating community through donations

- Alec Ward

Alumni can join the Benjamin Franklin or Ivy Stone Societies

PAGE 4

CLARE CONNAUGHTON Staff Reporter

LOOKING TO KEEP SIZZLING BACKPAGE COURTESY OF THE PENN FUND

The Benjamin Franklin Society was founded in 1955 as the University’s largest “unrestricted annual giving group.”

The opportunity to join a society doesn’t end when Penn students graduate. The Penn Fund offers membership to several giving societies, through which alumni can maintain their Penn roots by donating to the University. The Benjamin Franklin Society and the Ivy Stone Society are alumni donor giving societies

through the Penn Fund, the University’s undergraduate, unrestricted collection of donations. Because the Penn Fund is unrestricted, the University can use its discretion in deciding how to allocate the funds — for example, the Singh Center for Nanotechnology was constructed with the support of such funding. The Benjamin Franklin Society was founded in 1955 as the University’s largest “unrestricted annual giving group,” Senior Director of SEE PENN FUND PAGE 3

Penn ranked one of the top colleges for online dating Penn comes in ninth, Hofstra ranked first ANNA HARDCASTLE Contributing Reporter

Penn might be one of the best schools to swipe right at.

The Grade, a mobile dating application targeted toward young females, composed a list of the best 25 colleges for online dating. The criteria included profile quality, response rate and message quality. Penn is No. 9 on the list, with an overall grade of A-.

On the list, Penn is sandwiched in between the University of Texas at Austin and Rutgers University. Within its A- grade, Penn scored well in the “response rate” section, with a score of 50 percent. The other areas, however,

including “after hours swiping” and “messages that are low quality” found Penn lacking. W ha r ton sophomore Ha nna Pisera, an avid user of Tinder, was not surprised that Penn made the SEE ONLINE DATING PAGE 9

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Resources for innovation at Penn go beyond Pennovation Center The Penn Innovation Center is a “one-stop shop” EMILY OFFIT Staff Reporter

With construction of the Pennovation Center underway, innovation is all the rage at Penn — but many may not know that support and funding has been long available through a variety of channels within the University. Innovation has been a buzzword around Penn since Penn President Amy Gutmann announced the opening of the Pennovation Center in Penn’s South Bank this past October. Student-run startups and iPhone apps have been popping up all over campus, and Penn’s array of resources and aid for student ideas are on the rise. The Pennovation Works is a 23-acre site set to be finished in 2016. It will include the Pennovation Center, which will “be a dynamic hub that maximizes Penn’s impact by bringing together researchers, students and the private sector to foster innovation and development in the region,” Gutmann said in October. However, this type of aid for researchers has existed for a long time at Penn, through the Penn Innovation Center, which opened last year as an offshoot of Penn’s Center for Technology Transfer. “We are a one-stop shop for the entire University in terms of commercialization of early stage technologies,” said Penn Innovation Center Chief Operating Officer Laurie Actman. “We try to proactively facilitate relationships with private sector partners.” The Penn Innovation Center mostly works with faculty research in connecting them to various commercialization opportunities — but this summer they are introducing undergraduates to the mix in a start-up

KATE JEON | NEWS DESIGN EDITOR

ADVOCACY >> PAGE 1

to ensure families know their rights at the hearings. “These hearings without proper checks being implemented could be a steamroll process,” he said. Families can call their own witnesses, make arguments and cross examine the witnesses the district presents, according to the due process requirements in the Code of Student Conduct for 2014-2015. Shephard said that the advocates’ familiarity with both the procedures and many of the people involved make for a smooth process. Deputy Chief of the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities Rachel Holzman said the goal of the hearings is to bring out as much information as possible to come to the best decision. The School District of Philadelphia is receptive to the work that SDAS does, even distributing materials about the project to students when they are notified of their hearings. “I think we keep increasing our collaboration,” Holzman said. In January, SDAS leaders and their mentor David Lapp, an attorney from the Education Law Center, met with Holzman so that both sides could discuss issues they were having. “We try to work on anything we can to get a better result,” she said. SDAS advises families on cases that involve potential expulsions,

suspensions or transfers, and its focus is the best outcome for each individual case. Many of the cases are assigned geographically, so Penn Law students would take cases from around the West Philadelphia area. Simmons said the first question to the family is what they want to get out of the hearing, which could be a lesser punishment, leaving the school or just avoiding a blemish on the student’s record. Success can be a tough thing to measure because sometimes the outcomes are the lesser of two evils. He described a recent case with a middle school student who was upset with the prospect of being transferred and separated from her friends — to her there wasn’t much of a difference between being expelled or transferred. “Ultimately we’re doing it for the family,” Shephard said. “I want the family to be happy we were there and feel like we did what we could do.” SDAS, previously known as Students for Students, began five years ago by a group of Temple Law students at a time when the district had strict “zero tolerance” discipline policies in effect. Although the policies were scaled back in 2012 and expulsions became less frequent, SDAS has continued to grow. They expect to have more than 100 cases for this academic year compared to just 10 cases in their first year, reflective of the project’s increased presence

in Philadelphia. A few months ago, Drexel law students joined the project and students from Villanova University are interested in getting involved, Shephard said. Currently, there are about 25 Penn Law students in the project. Simmons, a former New York City teacher through Teach for America, said SDAS was a way for him to use his experience in the classroom in work that will prepare him to be a lawyer. “I’ve had a lot of good experiences with families who have said ‘if we didn’t have someone there, we wouldn’t have known what to do,’” he said. Penn Law students have a 70hour pro-bono requirement, so Simmons said that many people who used to be teachers or were involved in education often find their way to SDAS. While the law students cannot act as lawyers or give any legal advice, the advocates work on a volunteer basis to counsel the family and student through the process from before the hearing to what comes after — whether that is looking to find a new school or giving them information about other services available, Simmons said. “That follow-up part really creates a positive relationship. Then they see it’s not just about the hearings themselves, but more about a supportive network where families feel like they are getting what they deserve out of the whole educational process,” he said.

f University of Pennsylvania Department f Department of Physics and Astronomy / 209 South 33rd Street / Philadelphia, PA 19104-6396 / 215-898-8141 / www.physics.upenn.edu

accelerator program called ICorps. “I-Corps is basically an accelerator where we are trying to graduate 30 student-faculty teams a year and we train them and provide advice on creating commercialization plans around early stage technology,” Actman said. Yet there are other startup incubators on Penn’s campus that help students in different ways. On a student level, the Weiss Tech House is a group that works to help students with funding, commercialization and connections with groups outside of the Penn community. “We are all student-run,” said College junior and future co-student director of the Weiss Tech House Benjamin Feis. “We really have our ear closer to the ground as far as the innovation scene at Penn goes.” The Weiss Tech House holds the annual Pennvention competition, which offers money and advising for students hoping to implement new technological ideas. But even ideas outside of the tech industry can find support at Penn — though it might be difficult to decide which source is best suited for a particular project. Between Penn’s schools, the

list of available resources might be overwhelming. Students can win monetary prizes through Penn-sponsored competitions such as the Wharton Business Plan Competition, or external competitions like the Hult Prize. Students can also apply to grants through the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, which offers funding for travel, research, initiatives and events, even on an individual basis, and the Vagelos Undergraduate Research grant is another path for funding. Undergraduate students can also receive funding and advice for their business and finance ideas through several Wharton initiatives including the Wharton Social Impact Prize and the Wharton Venture Initiation Program — through these resources and others, the University funnels thousands of dollars into student ideas. “We think that there is a great deal of innovation going on here at Penn,” said Sherryl Kuhlman, the managing director of the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, a group that supports social impact ideas. “When students come to us and ask for help with something they want to get involved in, we are happy to do so.”

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P and ASTRONOMY STRONOMY th and presents PHYSICS HYSICS A the 30 Primakoff Lecture th the 30 Primakoff Lecture presents

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Primakoff Lecture Clifford M. Will Clifford M.M. Clifford M.Will Will Clifford Will

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lifford Martin Will is Distinguished

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C 30th Primakoff Lecture C the Clifford M. Will

Was Einstein Right?

A Centennial Assessment

Was Einstein Einstein Right? Right? The David Rittenhouse Laboratory, A8

4000 Spruce Street | (215) 382-1330 Mon.: 11:30am - Midnight | Tue. - Fri.: 11:30am - 2am | Sat & Sun.: 11:00am - 2am

1971. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1989, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002, and was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2007. In addition to his thth His research interests scientific articles, he has published three books. A century after Einstein's formulation of general relativity, a remarkably are theoretical, encompassing the observational and astrophysical diverse setofofEinstein's precisiongeneral experiments established it as the “standard implications theoryhas of relativity, including gravitational forspacetime, gravitational David Rittenhouse Laboratory, A8 radiation, black The holes, cosmology, the physics of curved and David Rittenhouse Laboratory, A8 experiments has established itmodel” as the “standard physics. Yet it relativity. might not be the theoretical interpretation of experimental tests of general final We review model” for gravitational physics. Yetword. it might notthe th the array of measurements that be the final word. We review the ofa ameaA after Einstein's Einstein's formulation general relativity, remarkably A century formulation ofof general relativity, remarkably have array verified general relativity diverse precision experiments hasestablished established the “standard diverse set of precision experiments has it itrelativity asasthe in the laboratory, in“standard the solar surements that have verified general in model” for gravitational model” for gravitational system and in binary pulsars. the laboratory, in the solar system and in binary physics. Yetit itmight might not be physics. not We then Yet describe some of be the A century after Einstein's formulation of general relativity, a remarkably the final word. We reviewthe the the final word. We review opportunities and challenges pulsars. We then describe some of the oppordiverse set of precision experimentsarray hasofof established it as the “standard array measurements that involved in testing Einstein's measurements that th Wednesday, April 8 great , 2015 tunities and theory in strong-field haveverified verified general relativity have general relativity model” for gravitational 4:00 PM regimes, in a in gravitational the laboratory, inYet thesolar inin the laboratory, the A century after Einstein's formulation of general relativity, remarkably challenges physics. itsolar might not be waves,Laboratory, and system and inincosmology. binary pulsars. system and binary pulsars. diverse set of precisionThe experiments has established itinvolved as the “standard David Rittenhouse A8We review the the final word. We Wethen thendescribe describesome someofofthe the model” for gravitational arrayand ofchallenges measurements that opportunities opportunities and challenges for more information, contact: nbeny@physics.upenn.edu in testing physics. Yet ittesting might not be relativity have verified general involved inintesting Einstein's involved Einstein's Einstein's A century after Einstein's formulation of relativity, remarkably thegeneral final We review thein the solar great theory ina strong-field greatword. theory inlaboratory, strong-field in the diverse set of precision experiments has established it inas “standard regimes, gravitational regimes, in the gravitational array of measurements great theory system and in that binary pulsars. model” for gravitational waves, and in waves, and incosmology. cosmology. have verified general relativity We then describe in strong-field physics. Yet it might not be some of the in the laboratory, the solar opportunities and the final word. Weinreview the challenges regimes, inthat for more information, nbeny@physics.upenn.edu for information, contact: contact: system nbeny@physics.upenn.edu in binaryinpulsars. array and of involved measurements testing Einstein's general relativity gravitational Wehave thenverified describe some ofinthestrong-field great theory in the laboratory, inchallenges the solar opportunities and waves, and regimes, in system and in binary pulsars. gravitational involved Einstein's waves, and in We thenindescribe some of cosmology. the intesting cosmology. great theory and in strong-field opportunities challenges involved inintesting Einstein's regimes, gravitational for more information, contact: greatnbeny@physics.upenn.edu theory in strong-field Refreshments 3:00-4:00, waves, and in cosmology. regimes, in gravitational Faculty Lounge 2E17 waves, DRL and in cosmology.

A Centennial Assessment 4:00 PM

Lecture

Wednesday, April 8Rittenhouse , 2015 The David Laboratory, A8 4:00 PM Was Einstein Right? The David Rittenhouse Laboratory, A8 A Centennial Assessment

for more information, contact: nbeny@physics.upenn.edu for more information, contact: nbeny@physics.upenn.edu

Lecture

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Department of Physics and Astronomy / 209 South 33rd Street / Philadelphia, PA 19104-6396 / 215-898-8141 / www.physics.upenn.edu

University of Pennsylvania Department of o University of Pennsylvania Department of oof o f University of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Department University of Pennsylvania Department Department

PHYSICS and ASTRONOMY P HYSICS and ASTRONOMY PHYSICS and ASTRONOMY

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NEWS 3

TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2015

Faculty startup raises $100,000 for better cloud Gencore Systems is currently in pilot mode BENJAMIN ZOU Contributing Reporter

Penn students and faculty have raised thousands to help them create a better cloud. In late March, the Penn faculty startup and Penn Center for Innovation spinout company Gencore Systems secured $100,000 from Philadelphia’s StartUp PHL fund. The investment from the angel fund, run by First Round Capital’s Josh Kopelman, is part of a larger fundraising initiative co-founder and Penn Computer and Information Science professor Boon Thau Loo intends to funnel into product development engineering. Gencore’s system was developed from research based on string processing technology, which the team applied to application monitoring in the cloud — a group of remote servers that provide for centralized data storage. In essence, the product raises alerts and records every instance that it detects an issue when someone is running an application in the cloud. Gencore Systems, which was

COURTESY OF TANVEER GILL

Pictured from left to right: Cam Nguyen, Kevin Lu, Tanveer Gill and professor Boon Thau Loo.

made possible though a $180,000 grant awarded by the National Science Foundation back in January 2014, is the first startup to emerge from Penn’s Computer Science Department. The product, now in pilot mode, is already being used by several companies in the U.S., Europe and India, including a “prominent West Coast publishing company” which Loo could not disclose. “Early reaction and product evaluation have been positive,” Loo said. “Our plan in the next few months is to solidify our early customers into long term customers.” Product co-founders Loo and

Harjot Gill — a former doctorate student who left Penn to work on the project full-time — insist that even though research and correspondence between the two had been ongoing since as early as 2008, “the idea [for the product] was a team effort,” Loo said. The Gencore team also consists of Penn undergraduate and graduate computer science students. The road from inception to manifestation required careful, dedicated planning. Loo and Gill had been writing production quality code for the product in early 2011. “Boon had a lot of research projects and a lot of past

students had written a lot of code over the years,” Gill said. “We took that code and commercialized it.” Then, to receive the initial $180,000 which jumpstarted the company in January last year, Gencore gathered feedback from knowledgeable figures in the industry so that “by the time we applied for government grants, we already had letters of support from people in the industry,” Loo said. Tanveer Gill, who graduated last year from Penn with a master’s degree in computer science and is now working full-time for Gencore Systems, describes Gencore’s technology as “an entirely different approach on application performance.” “There are lots of tools in the cloud today that are host-centric, but we designed the next generation of tools that are faster in detecting problems and goes into deep details into applications and how they are performing,” Harjot Gill said. “It allows our customers to be more agile and deploy their applications multiple times a day.” “We think that [our product] is very promising and we hope it will revolutionize the way things are done,” Tanveer Gill said.

PENN FUND >> PAGE 1

Development of School and Center Annual Giving Jean Findlay said. The society honors alumni who donate at least $2,500 to Penn. Recent graduates can enter the society at the Associate level by donating $250 between zero and four years after graduation, $500 between five and nine years after graduation and $1,000 between 10 and 14 years after graduation. Subsequent donations can boost members to the ranks of Fellow, Founder and Ambassador, with Ambassadors being those who have donated $25,000 or more to Penn. The Ivy Stone Society was founded in 2007 at the suggestion of alumni volunteers, said Colin Hennessy, the executive director of the Penn Fund. The Ivy Stone Society honors alumni who donate every year consecutively, no matter the amount, beginning with three years. Much of the money raised by these societies is allocated toward undergraduate financial aid, which is an

essential part of Penn’s noloan policy. “We have waiting and limitless ability, we will find you the money,” said 1973 College graduate and former Penn Fund Executive Chair Mark Maas. The societies provide a community and recognition for alumni who are at the helm of Penn’s fundraising efforts. Maas finds that donating and being part of the Benjamin Franklin Society, specifically, gives him a place to show how he has been “loyal to the University.” “It is my way of saying to the University, I appreciate my education,” Maas said. Jan Sigmon, 1982 College graduate and former co-chair of the Benjamin Franklin Society, sha res Maas’ sentiments. “I feel tremendous responsibility and the need to give it forward ... Penn graduates benefit from their time at Penn,” Sigmon said. “If you’re able, the ability to help Penn students obtain such a milestone ... is a wonderful thing to be able to do for others.”

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MONDAY, APR. 6 - FRIDAY, APR. 10

Tuesday, April 7, at 6:00 PM, Dr. Jasmine Nichole Cobb, “Picture Freedom: Remaking Black Visuality in the Early Nineteenth Century.” “Picture Freedom” analyzes the ways in which the circulation of various images prepared free Blacks and free Whites for the emancipation of formerly unfree people of African descent. She traces the emergence of Black freedom as both an idea and as an image during the early nineteenth century.

Wednesday, April 8, at 4:00 PM, Penn Prof. Marybeth Gasman and Clifton Conrad, “Educating a Diverse Nation: Lessons from Minority-Serving Institutions.” Anchored in a study conducted at twelve minority-serving institutions (MSIs), “Educating a Diverse Nation” turns a spotlight on the challenges facing nontraditional college students and highlights innovative programs and practices that are advancing students’ persistence and learning.

Save the Date! Thursday, April 16, at 6:00 PM, Paul Halpern, “Einstein’s Dice and Schrödinger’s Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum Randomness to Create a Unified Theory of Physics.” This story of Einstein and Schrödinger’s quest for a theory that transcended quantum weirdness—which ultimately failed— provides readers with new insights into the history of physics and the lives and work of two scientists whose obsessions drove its progress.

Check out this Thursday’s feature in

OPINION Getting religion

TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2015 VOL. CXXXI, NO. 41 131st Year of Publication

MATT MANTICA President JILL CASTELLANO Editor-in-Chief SHAWN KELLEY Opinion Editor LUKE CHEN Director of Online Projects LAUREN FEINER City News Editor KRISTEN GRABARZ Campus News Editor CLAIRE COHEN Assignments Editor STEVEN TYDINGS Social Media Director PAOLA RUANO Copy Editor RILEY STEELE Senior Sports Editor HOLDEN MCGINNIS Sports Editor

TALKING BACKWARD | Understanding faith is a critical part of being informed

ast week, I went to see a lecture hosted by the Middle East Center by a professor from Princeton who specialized in the historical study of the Quran. He was discussing the various men that Islamic texts say Muhammad deputized to oversee the oasis city of Medina on the various occasions upon which he made expeditions to nearby towns and settlements. The lecture was well presented and would have been engaging, but I found myself struggling to keep up on account of my limited knowledge of the basic story of Muhammad’s life and other aspects of fundamental Islamic theology. To have this gap in my knowledge of a major world faith so starkly exposed was unsettling. As a history major concentrating in Western Europe, I can tell you more about the various permutations of Christianity than you’d ever want to hear, and I went to enough bar mitzvahs

as a kid that I can run through the basic tenets of Judaism off the top of my head. But as far as the foundational theology of Islam goes, I’ve got very little. This initially surprised me, but when I thought back on how I got most of my knowledge of religion, it made sense. I’ve never

who have wide gaps in their knowledge of major world faiths. Especially in the College, which aims to expose students to a broad range of disciplines and ideas, this is really inexcusable. I have another professor who is fond of saying that to be an educated person, there are certain things you just have to

are undoubtedly among the most pressing and urgent issues of our time. They will continue to shape and define the world in which I live. My understanding of events in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere may determine who I vote for in the next presidential election. And yet, though I understand

… [I]f the College aims to produce well-rounded, well-informed students ready to be good citizens of a democratic nation, a comparative religion requirement is called for … .” taken a class in comparative religion. What I do know I picked up through personal experience or secondhand exposure. Both my high school and Penn are nonsectarian and as such, I suspect, are hesitant to include a requirement that students study religion. Correspondingly, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that there are many other students

know. This is true, and basic familiarity with the elemental beliefs of the major world faiths is is one of those things you just have to have if you want to call yourself wellinformed. Take my own case as an example of why this maxim, which seems at first to be indefensibly categorical, actually holds water. The politics of the Middle East

that the politics of that region are often defined by conflict between groups with deepseated theological disagreements, I find myself unable to summarize what the nature of those disagreements are in any but the most simplistic terms. This does not speak well of the value of my opinion in discussions I find myself having on a weekly basis. The study of religion in an

academic setting has something to offer even for those whose exposure to faiths before college was broader than mine. I went to an Episcopalian elementary school with weekly chapel services, and yet I think I gained a better understanding of Christianity in the 10-week New Testament seminar I took in my last semester of high school than I did in all those hours of chapel or any of the myriad history essays I’ve written about the Protestant Reformation. I certainly agree that yet another curricular requirement to fulfill is the last thing that Penn students need. However, if the College aims to produce well-rounded, well-informed students ready to be good citizens of a democratic nation, a comparative religion requirement is called for — at least in the three major Abrahamic faiths which have shaped the world in which we live in ways too numerous to list. I, for one, think that Quantitative Data Analysis could be merged

ALEC WARD with Formal Reasoning and Analysis, especially given the notoriously sparse offering of courses which fulfill the latter, but that’s probably my own academic prejudices speaking more than anything else. The College Requirement system could do with a good top-to-bottom overhaul anyhow, but that’s a subject for another day.

ALEC WARD is a College sophomore from Washington, D.C., studying history. His email address is alecward@ sas.upenn.edu. “Talking Backward” usually appears every Wednesday.

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Reconsidering religion in society, part II

COSETTE GASTELU Social Media Producer

THE IDEALISTIC PRAGMATIST | Religion, while susceptible to criticism, must not necessarily be at odds with rationalized society

BECKY TAYLOR-ASHFIELD Associate Copy Editor

CATHERINE SAID Social Media Producer JESSICA MCDOWELL Deputy News Editor

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.

LETTERS Have your own opinion? Send your guest column to Opinion Editor Shawn Kelley at kelley@theDP.com.

wo weeks ago, I made the argument that religion, much like any other force in the world, should not be exempt from our critical judgment in terms of the effects it has on society — we cannot, I argued, simply divorce religion from the real world and think of it in isolation or only in an individualized sense. As an example of this, I discussed activist and author Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s criticism of Islam and argued that these kinds of arguments, even for all the sanctity we attach to religion, deserve space and attention in the public discourse if they bear merit. There are two sides to this coin, however. Just like religion can be criticized for any detrimental effects it has on society, it can likewise be rightly endorsed for its benefits. In the recently published CNN piece “The Friendly Atheists Next Door,” we get to follow the family of Harry Shaughnessy, a regular American who tossed Catholicism aside for

atheism after struggling with reconciling his own views with the faith with which he was brought up. For many like Harry and his family, the atheist social movement that has received increasing attention in the last decade has been a source of comfort and empowerment. Figures like evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and neuroscientist Sam

perhaps more than his peers among the public faces of “New Atheism,” has been relentless in his crusade against religion. His criticism, most famously outlined in “The God Delusion,” is anchored in the bare scientific infeasibility of many of the supernatural premises common to religions, like the existence of God and miracles. What he and many other

ripped away from the world and eradicated. A secular world, it is all too obvious, is preferable. He himself, he often asserts, is perfectly fine without religion — but does this apply to everyone? Émile Durkheim, often dubbed one of the three founding fathers of sociology along with Weber and Marx, would argue otherwise. Indeed, to the contrary of popular projections

Even if some of the supernatural properties of religion do not stand the test of science, does this mean that we are right to reject religion without further ado?” Harris — known for their public engagement in speaking out against religion in various forms — have, to many, represented the vanguards of this movement. “If you take your God too seriously,” Harry noted about the British biologist, “Dawkins will piss you off.” Indeed he might; Dawkins,

proponents of the New Atheism movement often lend too little attention to, however, is the intricate role of religion to society. His view on religion, as it appears, implies that since religion contains components which cannot be forced under a microscope for hard scientific scrutiny, it would do best to be

at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries that religion would succumb to an increasingly rationalized society, religion remains pervading and vigorous today. Durkheim believed that the track record of religion speaks for its merits to human societies, functioning like a moral and social unifier; a kind of glue, the loss of

which could actually result in a far greater degree of damage to social society than the negatives of its preservation would. On an individual level, religion often also has a spiritual importance to a person’s own conception of who they are and how they understand the world. Even if some of the supernatural properties of religion do not stand the test of science, does this mean that we are right to reject religion without further ado? This is where Dawkins, and many of his peers, makes a mistake by assuming that scientific truth must necessarily guide all spheres of life. Certainly, many of us do not need religion to get along in life, but the kind of evangelical atheism where Dawkins and others impose irreligion on others often only replicates some of the practices in religion they go after themselves. Ironically, large parts of the atheist movement associated with Dawkins and the New Atheists are surprisingly faith based, taking the leap of faith that science holds all the

OSCAR A. RUDENSTAM answers. Far from arguing whether or not religion is necessary to society, I have tried to argue that claiming it to have no place in society needs to go far beyond arguing for its scientific infeasibility, but is an argument that requires us to take into account both its benefits and detriments.

OSCAR A. RUDENSTAM is a visiting junior from Tokyo, studying economics, sociology and business. His email address is osru@sas. upenn.edu. “The Idealistic Pragmatist” appears every other Tuesday.

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Penn conducts AAU’s campus culture survey On April 2, an email was sent to the entire Penn community asking students to take part in the Association of American Universities’ campus climate survey. The survey, administered by the social science research firm Westat, asked questions about students’ experiences — or lack thereof — with sexual misconduct in the Penn community and the campus resources dedicated to dealing with misconducts. The same survey is being administered across 27 other universities within the AAU, which is chaired by Penn President Amy Gutmann. All of the Ivies are participating except for Princeton, which is conducting its own independent survey. “I think this is one of the largest surveys of its kind in the field for some time,” Vice President for Institutional

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campus-wide on a weekly basis asking students to take the survey. Because the survey is completely anonymous, “we don’t know who has responded, so the reminders go to everyone,” Binns said. The survey data will be released next fall and the current plan is “to make the information public,” Mitchell said. The information is currently intended to be released to the Penn community and compared to other schools’ data, though the administration is still deliberating whether a PennKey will be necessary for access. “This is a way for us to compare information with other organizations,” Mitchell said. The fact that the data spans multiple universities makes the survey unique. The data collected will enable Penn to find out what other schools, and Penn itself, are doing particularly well and discover “what things we can do better,” Mitchell said. The administration will receive weekly updates of how many students have completed

•

the survey until it is closed later this month. Students who have already taken the survey appreciate its objective but seem more skeptical of the structure of the survey. “I thought that the survey was pretty thorough with regards to asking about the touchy subjects. They also asked really open and honest questions. I thought it was really pragmatic in that way,” Barney said. “I don’t exactly know if I necessarily like the long-form survey as a way to get at understanding the student body. I don’t know if surveys like that lend themselves to being open and honest.” The survey, which states in its instructions an estimated completion time of 20 to 30 minutes, does involve a time commitment. “I didn’t end up reading a lot of it. It’s important, but there were just a lot of questions and I’m sure I missed something,” College sophomore Carla Hoge said. The survey will be open until April 23.

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off campus a better option. Though the specific details that led up to the University’s investigation into AXO are not entirely clear, chapter members say they were placed on probation in January following a phone call that a Penn student’s parent made to the University after an AXO drinking event. AXO members did not want to speak on the record until the sorority’s charter is officially revoked. In March, OFSA told the chapter that they had violated Penn’s Alcohol and Drug Policy. OFSA also found members had violated the administration warnings on the chapter, according to AXO members, because they continued to communicate with their new sorority recruits while on probation. Representatives from the Vice Provost for University Life met with the chapter on Monday night to discuss the logistics of staying on campus, but the final vote — tallied after the meeting — was still largely against remaining affiliated with OFSA. Members of VPUL could not immediately respond to requests for comment by press time.

As part of the requirements to stay on campus, members of AXO’s executive board would have had to step down from their positions. A new chapter president and vice president would have been required to sign the University’s agreement to remain on campus. But no two chapter members were willing to take the roles, according to AXO members. On March 22, after receiving the first version of the requirements from the University, the sorority took an initial vote indicating what they found again this Monday — more than 85 percent of the chapter did not want to sign the document. In the following weeks, AXO worked with members of VPUL to change the terms of the agreement. A revised version was presented to the chapter on April 3, and the voting process took place again this Sunday and Monday. According to a chapter member, the initial document closely resembled the document sent to Penn’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi before they voluntarily chose to close their chapter in the spring of 2012. AEPi, now informally known as APES, was found guilty of violating the University’s hazing policy.

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Affairs Joann Mitchell said. Since the survey relies on student participation, the main concern is having a “significant enough percentage of the population participate to get meaningful results,” Mitchell said. The survey spans across the entire University, including undergraduate and graduate students from all of Penn’s schools. The more students participate, the more accurate the data will be, and the administration is concerned with ensuring that all aspects of Penn’s student body, not just a small subsection, are represented in the results of the survey. “The better response rate we have, the more we’ll understand our campus,” Vice Provost for Education Andrew Binns said. “We want to hear every voice.” “If they can get people to take the survey seriously, you’ll hear from people who otherwise wouldn’t speak up,” College senior Devin Barney said. Em a i ls wi l l b e sent

>> PAGE 1

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Going green is the new black

COURTESY OF JULIAN GORESKO

Recently the Eco-Reps held a community service event at Bartram’s Gardens.

Eco-Reps bring sustainability to Penn JEFFREY CAREYVA Staff Reporter

From turning off the lights to coordinating zero-waste Penn Athletics events, Penn’s team of student Eco-Reps works to promote environmental consciousness throughout the entire Penn community. Penn Eco-Reps is an environmental leadership program run by the Office of Sustainability at Facilities and Real Estates Services that advances environmental sustainability across campus. “Penn has one of the bigger Eco-Rep programs in the country,” Sustainability Outreach Manager Julian Goresko said. “Our development has been based on the trend in higher education for peerto-peer outreach programs to promote sustainability.” Penn’s Eco-Reps program began as an initiative in college houses, but has grown to encompass other campus communities. Approximately 60 student EcoReps are spread across the College House, Athletics, Hillel and Greek organizations. “One of the things that makes the Eco-Reps program unique among all the other great environmental groups on campus is that Eco-Reps is the only one in an official partnership with an office of the University,” Goresko said. Members of the Office of Sustainability are able to work directly with students on a daily basis through the Eco-Reps program. “We give our students funding to have sustainable events that raise awareness throughout the whole campus,” Goresko said. FRES does not release budgetary numbers for matters like the Eco-Reps program. Funding given to Eco-Reps goes to more than just zerowaste events and free efficient light bulbs. “Last year we had a speaker come from Israel who gave a series of lectures on Jewish values and sustainability that a large number of students attended,” said Engineering junior and Hillel Eco-Rep Ariana Schanzer. Funding also goes towards food at educational events, signage and stickers as incentives to foster education and environmental consciousness. “A lot of it is little things — these little details that work to get people curious,” College senior and Athletics Eco-Rep Samuel Ruddy said. “Also to organize passionate and able volunteers.” The largest branch of the student Eco-Reps program is the College House system. “Mostly we focus on increased sustainability within the college houses,” said College sophomore and Gregory Eco-Rep Tabeen Hossain. “In Gregory, for example, we have gotten people to bring their own plates to events — we’re trying

to change people’s mindsets on sustainability and keep waste from generating.” Hossain is an environmental studies major and said her experience as an Eco-Rep is a nice way stay involved and make an impact at Penn. Schanzer started her involvement with Hillel sustainability as an ambitious freshman. “We saw that the Jewish community was a large section of Penn that wasn’t involved much in environmental issues or sustainability, and it’s been great to be a part of a group involved in changing that,” Schanzer said. “People at Hillel have said to me that they formed a religious connection through environmentalism,” Schanzer said. “It’s been great to know that I could make a profound impact like that through the program.” College junior Dustin Klein became a Greek Eco-Rep last year for Sigma Phi Epsilon after hearing about the program from his fraternity brothers. “When I became an Eco-Rep for my house, I definitely put our money to good use ... and I have been very keen about keeping our chapter’s house ecofriendly,” Klein said. Klein is also an environmental studies major and said that Eco-Reps allows him to pursue his passion for environmental sustainability. “I think that the little things anyone can do in their lives — whether it’s just promoting recycling or refilling water bottles — can go a long way,” he said. “I’m really happy to a part of the executive board for Greek Eco-Reps next year.” Athletics Eco-Reps face different challenges. “We have a lot of high-waste events to manage and make sure that those are sustainable,” Ruddy said. “I first joined as a volunteer for the Palestra’s zero-waste events and one of our biggest goals is for those sustainable events to become the default.” “After my four years on a team, it’s really rewarding to know that I’m doing something to help Penn Athletics become better and more sustainable for the future in whatever way I can,” Ruddy said. “It’s easy to focus on how Eco-Reps help to make the campus greener,” Goresko said. “But we see a lot of value in students enriching their Penn experience through the program and getting to do sustainability work that they are so passionate about.” Recruitment for the EcoReps program is held every fall for the College House system and each semester for the Hillel, Greek and Athletics systems. “We look for specific students who we think are going to be successful at behavior change, outreach and education,” Goresko said. “We have an online application ... because it’s important for us to make sure that the student’s interests really dove-tail with ours.”

NEWS 9

TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2015

GRAD STUDENTS >> PAGE 1

nursing graduate school in the nation, Acker said the financial assistance that the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania provides was another factor in choosing Penn. “[The hospital] provides a certain amount of tuition reimbursement every year,” she said. As a part-time student and a full-time worker, her days are filled with three 12-hour shifts, two 12-hour clinical shifts and eight hours of class every week. Even so, she still finds time for Penn Band, a student club that she has been highly involved with since her undergraduate years. Acker lives in South Philadelphia, and while this makes her stay away from the campus more than she did as an undergraduate, she said it doesn’t necessarily make her feel like she’s missing out on social aspects of Penn life. Jamie-Ann Acero, another Nursing graduate student, is also continuing her education at Penn after graduating from the undergraduate Nursing program in 2011. She said that familiarity was key in choosing Penn for her graduate degree. “If I applied to Penn, I already knew the system, knew the professors and knew the instructors. Also my recommendations were from Penn,” she said. Acero added that extracurricular activities and social life are big differences between the undergraduate and graduate experience. “Extracurricular activities may consume your time more [as an undergraduate] than studying would,” she said. As an undergraduate, she was

ONLINE DATING >> PAGE 1

list. “I use Tinder to procrastinate and normally just have f u n ny conver sat ions w it h people,” Pisera said. “I try to avoid people that go to Penn because I don’t ever want to run into people in real life that

involved in Sparks Dance Company, Chi Omega sorority and the Penn Philippine Association. Like Acker, Acero is also currently a part-time student and works full-time, and “it’s a lot to juggle.” “People who are full-time graduate students tend to have better experience with being social within their degree,” she said. While Acero said she values her Penn experience both as an undergraduate and graduate student, the two are difficult to compare because she is at a different level. “Now I make better decisions and have a different kind of fun, not like raging or drinking beers in Smokes,” she said. Acero also said the classroom environment is also a little different. There is a wider age range of graduate students, from those who continued right after undergraduate school to others who are in their 40s or 50s. “Staying within [Penn’s] system is very gratifying and it widened my scope of knowledge and practice,” she said. On the other side of the campus, George Donnelly, a 2010 College graduate, is pursuing his J.D. at Penn Law School. “I really enjoyed living in Philadelphia, and that was a major factor for me,” he said. Donnelly has been enrolled as a student at Penn for nine years. He started as an undergraduate, then took a teacher’s certificate class in the Graduate School of Education and is now at Penn Law. “Everything else being equal, I wanted to stay in Philadelphia and in Penn,” he said. Apart from Penn’s overarching emphasis on practical learning, Donnelly said undergraduate and

graduate life are completely different. “I see College Green like once a month when it’s only three blocks from where I study. I feel more part of a smaller law community but don’t feel as connected to the larger University,” he said. “I think the physical space is a huge part of the difference.” While Penn Law students may not venture into the main part of the campus too often, they still meet graduate students from other schools through the classroom or in an extracurricular environment. Donnelly said many Penn Law students take interdisciplinary courses in Wharton or in the Perelman School of Medicine, which give them opportunities to meet other people. Erica Holland, a Penn Law student and a 2011 College graduate, said the majority of activities take place within the law school building and within Penn Law students. “It’s just one place. There is a smaller amount of people, your classes are really small, you kind of know who everyone is,” she said. She added that being a Penn Law student made her more mindful of the relationships she has with her fellow students. “These are your future colleagues, opponents in court. These are your future bosses,” Holland said, adding that Penn Law students are generally active in extracurricular activities, but many are pre-professional. Penn Law has a minimum of 70 hours of pro bono legal work, and many students find these opportunities through student clubs, such as visiting jails and teaching the prisoners about their rights and laws.

Although Penn Law students are primarily focused on gaining professional experiences, Holland said there are many other recreational events both within and across schools. There is an infamous “five percent” party, which marks passing five percent of the three years at the law school. Later on, there is a “95 percent” party, a party after 95 percent of the law school’s three years have passed. Being of a legal age to drink, social scenes for graduate schools involve various venues within the city. Every Thursday is Bar Review — pun intended — where law students venture to different bars. Holland added that many law school students live in center city and thus many gatherings are held away from the campus. She said another major recreational event coming up for Penn Law students is the Wharton vs. Law Fight Night, where members of Penn Law’s and Wharton graduate’s boxing clubs have boxing matches. While getting hyped up for cross-school events may sound similar to University-wide undergraduate events, Holland said there is still a wider diversity of people one can meet in graduate schools. “Your classmates can be former police officers, former teachers, people in media and entertainment, veterans,” she said. The specific school and program each graduate student is enrolled in, and their status as either part-time or full-time students make their Penn experience distinct, but everyone agreed that they enjoy being graduate students at Penn. “As a grad student, it’s what you make of it,” Acero said.

I’ve talked to on Tinder.” For the most part, mobile dating apps like Tinder and JSwipe have been popular on campus, with mixed results. A College sophomore said that Tinder, for the most part, has been a bust at Penn. “It hasn’t worked for me and the people I’ve met from it turned out to not be very nice,” she

said. “But I know some other peers that have had great experiences.” Hofstra University in New

York topped the list with the University of Connecticut and the University of Miami following close behind.

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PERFECT. CREATIVE • BALANCED • SIMPLE 1608 SOUTH STREET • PHILADELPHIA, PA 215-790-0330 • ENTREEBYOB.COM

La Fontana Della Citta

vote for us for best of Penn “Best coffee house!”

Authentic Italian Cuisine at Reasonable Prices

15% off with Fixed Price Sunday-Thursday

1701 Spruce St. - Philadelphia, PA 19103 - www.lafontanadellacitta.com