April 12, 2016

TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Students mourn Wharton junior Olivia Kong was killed by a train at 40th Street Station JESSICA MCDOWELL Enterprise Editor

A large crowd of students gathered last night for a candlelight vigil on College Green to remember the life of Wharton junior Olivia Kong.

Kong died Monday morning at the 40th Street Station on SEPTA’s MarketFrankford line, according to an email sent to undergraduates by Provost Vincent Price and President Amy Gutmann at 2:22 p.m. She was described in the email as “a bright, well-liked and successful member of our junior class.”

Kong was identified in an email sent to Wharton undergraduates by Wharton

Vice Dean Lori Rosenkopf. Her name was not released in the original email sent to all undergraduates.

The incident happened at 6:59 a.m. on Monday while a train was moving eastbound toward 40th Street, SEPTA Youth Advisory Executive Chair and Wharton and Engineering senior Jeff Kessler said.

Rosenkopf’s email described her

death as the result of an accident.

But Chief of SEPTA Police Thomas Nestel said early reports “point to a suicide.” The final decision on cause of death will be made by the Medical Examiner’s Office, Kessler said.

The University has been in contact with the student’s family, according SEE VIGIL PAGE 2

LOOKING INTO GALAXIES FAR, FAR AWAY Penn and NASA team up to research exoplanets SHOBA BABU Staff Reporter

O

ne Penn professor has set his sights far beyond University City: He has teamed up with NASA to discover planets like Earth that exist beyond our own galaxy.

In March, Physics and Astronomy professor Cullen Blake joined NASA’s efforts to create a cutting edge exoplanet detector.

Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars other than the sun. The creation of the detector, a $10 million device, will be a collaboration led by Penn State and funded by NASA

and the National Science Foundation.

While exoplanet detectors were originally directed toward discovering larger gaseous planets like Jupiter, one of the benefits of the more precise technology is that it will be able to detect smaller earthlike planets.

“Planets like Earth are actually very common. So our solar system is really not the exception — it’s maybe a pretty typical thing among stars and a system of stars,” Blake said.

Blake also said that with the new technology, scientists are now finding more planets in the habitable zone — an area where a planet is located relative to its star so that it receives a similar level of radiation to that of Earth. There is an incredibly high chance that some of these planets can have water as well, he added. Still, the question of possible life on these planets remains mysterious.

SEE EXOPLANET PAGE 3

COURTESY OF MARK HANNA

Over one hundred profs sign letter urging divestment

After Brennan protest, student groups debate The event was hosted by the Penn Political Union in Huntsman Hall CARL-EMMANUEL FULGHIERI Contributing Reporter

The letter comes after Ad Hoc committee was formed

Students for a Democratic Society and Penn Political Union engaged in a formal debate Monday night, arguing over the merits of the Central Intelligence Agency and its role in promoting global security.

PPU organized the debate in the wake of a protest against the CIA that was organized by SDS, which resulted in administrators shutting down an April 1 talk with CIA director John Brennan.

After protestors continued to disrupt the talk, dean of Penn Law School Theodore Ruger read Penn’s freedom of expression policy. Ruger then accused them of trying to silence speech.

However, PPU claimed that it held this event not to debate whether the SDS was prudent in protesting the talk, but rather to recognize their criticisms and provide a space for open dialogue on the issue.

College sophomore Cornell Overfield and College junior Olivia Webb, of the Whig and Libertarian Caucuses of PPU respectively, defended the proposition that “the CIA helps ensure global security.” They were opposed by College freshmen and SDS members John Matthews and Daniel Pitt.

Overfield and Webb defended the CIA’s covert actions by highlighting its limitations as an agency that merely carries out policy decided by the executive and legislative branches. They also praised its role as a service for collecting and analyzing

CHERRY ZHI Staff Reporter

DP FILE PHOTO

Fossil Free Penn has been collecting signatures from faculty in support of Penn’s divestment from fossil fuels, following a successful student referendum.

AUTISM AWARENESS PAGE 2

SEE CIA DEBATE PAGE 5

FOLLOW US @DAILYPENN FOR THE LATEST UPDATES

On April 8, Fossil Free Penn released a letter in support of divestment from fossil fuels that was signed by over 100 faculty members across 10 out of the 12 schools at Penn.

An Ad Hoc Committee on Divestment was formed in March to consider the divestment proposal submitted by Fossil Free Penn in

The more years I spend as a student, the more I find myself wondering, ‘What is the point of an education?’”

October 2015 following the successful student referendum in February 2015. The committee is expected to convene for up to 12 months and will then submit a recommendation to the Board of Trustees who will ultimately make the decision of whether or not Penn divests its holding in the fossil fuel industry.

While the committee convenes, Fossil Free Penn has been collecting faculty signatures in support of divestment all semester. The 102 SEE DIVESTMENT PAGE 2

TACKLING THE ISSUE BACK PAGE

- Emily Hoeven

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TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016

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Penn professor finds alternative uses of methane NISHANT UPENDER Staff Reporter

One Penn professor and his team are working towards creating more sustainable applications for one of the world’s most plentiful fossil fuels.

Methane is the most abundant hydrocarbon found on Earth and makes up the majority of resources like natural gas. Because of the copious amounts of methane collected by the energy industry, the storage of the gas is an extremely tricky proposition, especially because of the insulating properties methane

VIGIL

>> PAGE 1

to Gutmann and Price’s email.

A “gathering of sharing and support” was held for Kong at 5 p.m. in Huntsman Hall Room 250.

Kong was a member of Phi Gamma Nu business fraternity and Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity. She studied abroad at the University of Melbourne in Australia last fall and lived in Rodin College House, Rosenkopf’s email said.

At the vigil, attendees stood in silence as students spoke to remember Kong’s life. The Penn Glee Club performed “Amazing Grace.”

Even after the event was over, students remained, standing in silence. After more than a minute, the Glee Club performed a second song, “Afterglow”, after which students began to disperse.

Engineering junior Ahmed Mohieldin organized the vigil, though he did not know Kong personally.

“It just struck a chord with me,” Mohieldin said of his motivation for organizing the event. “I wish I had a better reason than that, but I don’t.”

One of Kong’s friends,

exhibits once released into the atmosphere.

Most of this methane is burned as a fuel source, which releases carbon dioxide and water, two of the most impactful greenhouse gases, into the air . This poses a huge threat to the stability of the environment, since it escalates the process of global warming.

The energy industry burns hundreds of millions of dollars worth of methane as fuel every year, simply because it’s currently the most efficient use of the gas. But Penn Chemistry professor Daniel Mindiola is researching cleaner and more productive uses.

“We’re looking at two ways of taking methane and essentially

Engineering and Wharton senior Calvin Nguyen, spoke in her memory. He described meeting Kong at the Student Federal Credit Union, and remembered her for her “fierce and sassy” demeanor.

“So many people have come out in support… if you’re here, it’s safe to say that she has touched you in some way,” he said.

“From dark days to light days, Olivia, you have been a part of our lives,” he added.

Wharton junior Terry Lin remembered Kong in a Facebook post he shared on her wall. “I’m honestly not regretful for any of memories shared... And that influence will always stay. Thank you for your friendship,” Lin wrote.

The Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity released a statement about Kong’s death as well. “Our community is still reeling from the news about Olivia. A member of our brotherhood for three semesters, Olivia exemplified the principles of Alpha Phi Omega.

She was actively engaged in service with the Philadelphia community and was always willing to offer a smile or hand of friendship to her peers. She brightened our days and will be dearly missed.”

University Chaplain Chaz

making it a chemical reagent, not as a gas now, but something that has higher storage capacity, is much more reactive, and something that can be used as a building block rather than as a fuel for burning,” Mindiola said.

Mindiola and his team worked with Penn Chemistry’s High Throughput Screening Center to expedite the research process.

The Screening Center is basically a robotics system that screens through many different conditions to find the best reagent for a reaction. This way, each reaction did not have to be manually carried out, allowing Mindiola’s team to cover much more ground.

In the work that Mindiola and his team are doing, one of the

carbon-hydrogen bonds in methane is broken, and the hydrogen is replaced with a much more complex molecule, allowing the methane’s methyl group to be delivered to other molecules as a building block. This process allows for the use of methane in the production of cleaner fuels or even pharmaceuticals.

“This opens up the window for exploratory chemistry where we say, ‘Hey, instead of burning it, can we do something more useful?’ We’ve essentially cracked the nut, and now it’s a question of digging deeper to see if we can find optimal ways to get economically viable reactions that can compete with burning the fuel,” Mindiola said.

COURTESY OF PIXABAY

Chemistry professor Daniel Mindiola is researching better uses of methane, which threatens the environment by escalating global warming.

DIVESTMENT

and happy to support the cause, it inspires you to see that same some have been hesitant or op- sort of thing in the U.S., to see posed. your institution involved in signatures come from faculty in “We’ve gotten a wide range this,” he said. all of Penn’s schools except the of responses from ‘yes I’d love Richter explained his reasons Law School and the School of to sign, let me know what else for signing the letter, saying Veterinary Medicine.

I can do to help’ to ‘I don’t be- that failing to divest from fossil “The Ad Hoc Committee lieve in this cause, stop wasting fuels represents an inherent goes base by base: do we have your time,’” Rissman said. “But contradiction on the Universtudent support? Check. Do we a lot of the time I think profes- sity’s part. have alumni support? Check. sors may support us quietly but “The knowledge we produce Reaching 100 signatures was a don’t want that public name out with regard to climate change baseline to show that yes, we do there.” and global warming is inconhave faculty support,” College Lopez added, “We tried trovertible and is the basis for freshman and Fossil Free Penn targeting tenured professors all kinds of action,” he said. member Zach Rissman said. since they are allowed to put “The University supports this “The thing about something as their names on things they feel knowledge production and I big as divestment is that if you strongly about.” think it should be consistent in don’t have all your bases covSimon Richter, professor of also realizing that a proper way ered then you have no chance of Germanic Languages and Lit- to address climate change is to succeeding.” erature, said he believes that a divest from fossil fuels and reFossil Free Penn members general cynicism causes some invest in green technologies.” reached out to faculty via email faculty to be hesitant about supLopez explained that divestand in-person meetings and porting divestment. ing helps stigmatize fossil fuel once there was an initial core “There was an extremely industries and contributes to group of support, many faculty well-organized effort a few breaking the political link that members helped connect the years ago to get faculty mem- these industries currently enjoy. group with other supportive bers to sign the letter urging After Fossil Free Penn pubfaculty, creating solidarity in the University to divest from lished the faculty letter with scholarly voices. tobacco and yet [the movement] 100 signatures, the representa“Faculty reaching out to fac- did not go anywhere,” Richter tives said they hope to continue ulty really makes a difference said. to build momentum for divest34 3434 TST it shows that your colRichter teaches the Penn-in- ment.

ST Sbecause leagues are signing this and Berlin and Rotterdam summer “We want to draw on the resupporting this movement,” program which focuses on sus- sources and the connections College senior and Fossil Free tainability, environmentalism of the faculty and continue to Penn member Michelle Lopez and policy-making. make our campaign grow,” Colsaid.

“Being in Germany, seeing lege senior and Fossil Free Penn Film Film Film polled polled polled you you you totofitond fifind nd out out out how how how you you you are are are getting getting getting your your your Sunday Sunday Sunday afternoon afternoon afternoon While many faculty mem- what the energy transition is member Jorge Mancilla Uribe ANTHONY BYANTHONY ANTHONY KHAYKIN KHAYKIN movie movie movie xes. fifixes. xes.

Here’s Here’s Here’s what what what wewe we learned. learned. learned. bers fihave been enthusiastic like over there,BY isBY inspiring andKHAYKIN said.

Howard also spoke at the vigil.

“This has been a very hard day.

It’s been a sad day. It hurts. And it doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“But you’re doing the right thing now. We need to come together and stand with each other.

And I truly believe this is the best of Penn,” he added.

At the beginning of the vigil, students were urged to gather closer so they could hear the speakers. Howard said that the sentiment expressed by that gesture is what he would take away from the vigil.

“When you got here tonight, the first words you heard were take a few steps in so we can hear each other, and I think that’s the charge I’m taking with me tonight,” he said.

“In these dark days, we all need to remember to take a few steps closer so we can hear each other.”

The Division of Public Safety deferred comment to the Office of University Communications. Vice President for University Communications Steve MacCarthy referred to the email sent to Wharton undergraduates in response to a request for comment.

Staff reporter Charlotte Laracy contributed reporting.

>> PAGE 1

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Methane is main contributor to greenhouse gases

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NEWS 3

TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016

Penn speaks up for autism awareness

Grad students ‘wine and whine’ with admins

BOWMAN COOPER Staff Reporter

STEPHAN CHO Contributing Reporter

April is Autism Awareness Month

According to the Center for Disease Control, about 1 in 68 children fall somewhere on the autism spectrum. Despite its prevalence, the disorder is not often on the forefront of people’s minds.

Penn Speaks for Autism is trying to change that.

April is Autism Awareness Month and the organization is working to get a dialogue started about Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD. “This is a thing,” Penn Speaks for Autism President and Wharton junior Jason Lerner said. “It’s important and it affects a lot of people.”

Lerner has a personal connection to the cause — his older brother is on the autism spectrum.

Some other members of the club have a similar connection, and they are all passionate about supporting those on the spectrum.

“That’s kind of the objective of the club,” he said. “We want to support people who either have autism or are tied to it in some way.”

Lerner said it is very important to be proactive and supportive to those that are affected by Autism.

“Having a family member with autism is really difficult, and I don’t think people quite appreciate all the complexity and difficulty that comes with it,” he said.

The club hosts regular programming for people with autism and their families, such as an after-school program with arts and crafts, workshops for kids on the weekends and “young adult meetups” for people on the autism spectrum. They also host a tennis program.

Through these events, Lerner hopes to provide “a nice, interpersonal, real connection.”

For Autism Awareness Month, Penn Speaks for Autism is focused on bringing the disorder to the mainstream via events online and on Locust Walk. So far this month, the group has had

a promotional campaign, which includes Facebook profile picture changes to support awareness.

They have also given away over 100 wristbands.

Another focus for Penn Speaks for Autism during April is to raise funds for more programming and for financially supporting other organizations related to autism support and awareness.

To celebrate this month, the group also brought around 50 people on the autism spectrum to a Phillies game.

“It’s an opportunity for people on the Spectrum and their families to get a break, [to] come to a Phillies game,” Lerner said.

Lerner has also found that a surprising amount of students stop to talk to club members on Locust Walk about their experiences with autism.

“I think it actually affects more Penn students than we realize, whether the Penn student is [personally] on the Autism spectrum or they know someone really well, but it’s not something that comes up in conversation,” he said.

Diversity and financial aid were discussed

O ver wi ne a nd hor s d’oeuvres, graduate students from the School of Arts and Sciences came to the second annual ‘Wine and Whine’ Town Hall event to discuss concerns ranging from employee status for doctoral students to gym memberships.

Organized by SASgov, a graduate student government group for the School of Arts and Sciences, the forum on Monday allowed graduate students to raise questions for Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Eve Troutt Powell.

Issues of financing and diversity loomed throughout the course of the discussion.

Third-year political science student Joseph Wuest opened the discussion, asking

EXOPLANET >> PAGE 1

JULIO SOSA | NEWS PHOTO EDITOR

Penn Speaks for Autism hosts events, such as after-school programs and Phillies games, to help those on the autism spectrum and their families.

ANNOUNCING THE 2016 BOARDMAN LECTURE

D N I M L A U T I R I P S E H T

Insights from

Science and

Anthropolog

THURS, APRIL 14 3:00–6:30 PM UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ARCH 208 (3601 LOCUST WALK) Join Penn’s Department of Religious Studies as we explore cutting-edge neuroscientific, psychological, and anthropological approaches to religious experience with two leading scholars of the subject.

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Religious E

xperience

3:00–4:30 The Science of Religious Experience: A Conversation with Andrew Newberg and Tanya Luhrmann

4:30–5:00 Dessert Reception

5:00–6:30 Keynote Address Tanya Luhrmann, “The Cultural Kindling of Spiritual Experience” Andrew Newberg, Professor and Director of Research at the Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital, is a pioneer in the neurological study of religious experience.

Tanya Luhrmann, the Watkins University Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University, is a psychologically oriented anthropologist whose research includes the attempt to understand what makes God real for people.

The detector will use technology that detects the gravitational pull that a planet exerts on its star, which is known as the “wobble effect.”

Smaller planets have smaller wobbles, which are indicated by smaller change in light wave absorption, which makes them harder to detect.

Since the early 1990s scientists have successfully used devices that can pick up these changes, called spectrographs, to detect exoplanets.

“These tiny little movements correspond to the movement of a star, and the movements of the star are caused by the movement of a planet. So we don’t see the planet but we

why Penn does not guarantee financing for sixth-year doctoral students, unlike rival institutions such as Yale and Columbia.

Powell said Penn is working to balance financing with larger enrollment numbers compared to these institutions.

“We are under so much pressure, in the grander vision, to limit our class sizes. But we are trying to welcome as many students as possible,” Powell said.

After being asked about the “strange logic” of her response to financing issues later in the discussion, Powell noted that financing issues are common for those who work in academia.

“Part of your professionalization is adapting to that pressure, because it’s not going to change. You chose this life, as I did. It’s not going to change in the next ten or fifteen years,” Powell said.

One student asked why Penn had filed a brief in opposition to graduate student labor unions, citing an article in The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Fourth-year sociology student Leslie Jones asked about why gym memberships are not subsidized for graduate students, considering that they are classified as students and not employees of the University.

“Considering the empirically proven relationship between exercise and better mental health, it would actually be great for the University to market it as a mental health initiative,” Jones said.

SASgov Vice President Akshay Walia expressed his hopes that the forum would open discussions between graduate students.

“It was a unique opportunity for us, it was the first time we actually got to meet with the dean. Hopefully, this will lead to future events like this.”

see the star’s reaction to the planet,” Blake said.

Blake says the new detector will be able to detect planets up to ten times more precisely than current technology, like the spectrograph, allows. The new detector is slated to be completed in 2019, and will be installed on the WIYN telescope in Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The device will be named NEID, which means “to discover/ visualize” in the language of the Tohono O’odham people, the Native American tribe who owns the land where Kitt Peak is located.

With the new detector, Blake and his team will focus on both looking at stars that have not been studied yet to understand their systems of planets, and

further studying planets that have already been discovered by other NASA missions.

College senior and Astronomy major Therese Paoletta said that the detector presents an interesting breakthrough for students regardless of whether they are studying astronomy or not.

“I think people are really curious about what there is outside of the universe and I think that students outside of astronomy will be really excited about this sort of news ... It blows a lot of people’s minds to think about that sort of structure going on outside of our solar systems,” Paoletta said. “It’s really inspiring to know that our professors are involved in these really important projects.”

4

OPINION All the things I don’t know GROWING PAINS | What I’ve learned in college

TUESDAY APRIL 12, 2016 VOL. CXXXII, NO. 44 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

The more years I spend as a student, the more I find myself wondering, “What is the point of an education?” In general, there are two answers to this question. One answer emphasizes the journey — education is an end in itself, something that ought to be celebrated and pursued because of its inherent, internal qualities.

The other points out that education is necessary: Getting a good job and moving up in the world are often dependent on one, if not more, degrees from an institute of higher learning.

Even in a world where attending college would have no effect on my future job opportunities, I think I would still choose to go. The classes I have taken here, the professors I have had the chance to learn from, the students with whom I live and work and share this crazy four-year experience of trying to balance social life and academics and growing up and navigating a new city — all of these things are intrinsically valuable to

me. The many layers of the college experience have challenged me in innumerable ways, presented me with new viewpoints, caused me to continually reexamine my identity and my beliefs, broken me down and built me back up.

However, in many ways, college has become a burden to students because of the huge price tag attached to it. While this price tag exists partially as an attempt to put a numerical value to the intangibility of the college experience, it also makes it clear that college is a financial investment that the student can only justify by landing a lucrative and prestigious job.

It’s a negotiation: Pay me this now, and I’ll help you get to where you want to go.

As college is the natural step between young adulthood and adulthood — which usually involves a job — it does have a certain responsibility to prepare students with the skills they need to succeed in the workforce. But at the same

time, there is more to the future than just a career — there is also future life. Life outside of work, life after retirement.

One could argue that this, having a successful and happy life outside of work, is just as important, if not more so, than having a successful, prominent and fulfilling career. And thus I ask myself: What am I

neither?

Answering such a broad question is nearly impossible.

Yet it is something that is often answered with references to our GPA, our resume and the extent of our networks.

While these things do to an extent measure our accomplishments and our preparedness for the future, they are

proxies.

This is difficult for me to admit, as I’ve always been someone who correlated good grades with knowledge. Yet since coming to Penn, even if I perform well in a class, I sometimes feel that I don’t deserve the grade because the class has made me extremely aware of all the things in that field that I don’t know about.

I worry that I’ll graduate in two years without knowing so many things about so many different subjects, and even lose knowledge that I’ve gained (like how to perform a statistical t-test, or all the different facets of literary theory). And this makes me feel that I have squandered the cost of my tuition and that I am unqualified for the future.

But what I will graduate with is a deep and genuine appreciation for the sheer expanse of what is out there to learn, question and discover — and the sincere thankfulness that I was able to get a taste of it. And I think this

The more years I spend as a student, the more I find myself wondering, “What is the point of an education?”

actually learning in college — and what should I be learning in college? When I graduate with a Penn degree, what will I have to show for it? Will I be prepared for my career, for my life outside my career, both or

too simplistic. These metrics exist because they allow us to quantify experiences and characteristics that fundamentally cannot be valued by a one-size-fits-all standard. In other words, these metrics are

EMILY HOEVEN consciousness — that I do not know nearly as much as I want to, but that I do in fact want to know more, discover more, meet more people — is what makes college both financially and intrinsically valuable. It is this awareness that will most catapult me towards the future I want, both in terms of my career and the rest of my life.

EMILY HOEVEN is a College sophomore from Fremont, Calif., studying English. Her email address is ehoeven@ sas.upenn.edu. Her column “Growing Pains” usually appears every other Tuesday.

LAINE HIGGINS Sports Editor TOMMY ROTHMAN Sports Editor JOYCE VARMA Creative Director

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ALEX GRAVES Design Editor ILANA WURMAN Design Editor KATE JEON Online Graphics Editor JULIO SOSA News Photo Editor ANANYA CHANDRA Sports Photo Editor CARSON KAHOE Photo Manager SUSANNA JARAMILLO Video Producer MATTHEW MIZBANI Video Producer CARTER COUDRIET Digital Director KRISTEN GRABARZ Analytics Editor EMMA HARVEY Business Manager SAUMYA KHAITAN Advertising Manager LINDSEY GAON Marketing Manager MEGHA AGARWAL Business Analytics Manager MAX KURUCAR Circulation Manager

THIS ISSUE SYDNEY SCHAEDEL Deputy News Editor AMANDA GEISER Associate Copy Editor ANNA GARSON Associate Copy Editor

CLAUDIA LI is a College sophomore from Santa Clara, Calif. Her email is claudli@sas.upenn.edu.

HARRY TRUSTMAN Associate Copy Editor JEN KOPP Associate Copy Editor

League of lazy gamers

JIANING WANG Associate Copy Editor JULIA FINE Associate Copy Editor

CUP O’ JOE | How video games have tons of positive benefits we tend to overlook

STEVE SHIN Associate Copy Editor CAROLINE LU Associate Design Editor ALYSSA YUN Associate Design Editor WILL SNOW Associate Sports Editor WILL AGATHIS Associate Sports Editor CANDY ALFARO Social Media Staff JEFFREY CAREYVA Social Media Staff KENEALLY PHELAN Social Media Staff NELSON DONG Social Media Staff

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.

I am a huge fan of League of Legends. For anyone not familiar, this game — abbreviated LoL — is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game where players work together in teams of five to destroy a series of enemy structures while preventing their five opponents from doing the same to their own base. At Penn, there’s a LoL club with 361 Facebook members, and even more students play casually outside of the club.

Many, including myself, follow the professional LoL scene, where professional players in organized teams compete against each other in a way reminiscent of major league sports, complete with coaches, sponsors and screaming audiences. In 2014, more people watched the League of Legends World Championship Finals than the World Series or NBA Finals.

Video games are incredibly addictive, and do not appear to be the most productive way to spend our day.

Yet many Penn students still

play games, from extremely light iPhone apps like Candy Crush all the way to hardcore, grindfest console games like Fallout 4. Are we all just wasting our time?

Although there are certainly drawbacks to excessive gaming, it’s also worth pointing out the upsides of playing video games, and how gaming can be used to motivate people to solve complicated tasks that could otherwise not be done.

Penn students participate in all sorts of other time consuming extracurricular activities such as sports, clubs or even the school newspaper. Many have value beyond simply being a fun hobby.

For example, many believe the discipline gained from playing sports improves career success and work ethic years down the line. In the same vein, there are many opportunities for growth and self-improvement that video games like LoL provide: 1) Teamwork: Players are matched a team of 5 people, all playing different roles, and the game is designed in

such a way that players are dependent on working with others in order to win. Like many tasks in real life, cooperation is essential and a lack of individual skill can easily be offset by a team effectively working together.

2) Thinking ahead: As

ter. This sort of foresight is incredibly useful in real-life fields such as business or law, and is arguably another word for “experience.”

3) Accepting defeat: LoL has a skill-based matchmaking system that matches you with equally proficient

Although there are certainly drawbacks to excessive gaming, it’s also worth pointing out the upsides of playing video games ...” you improve your mechanics and fundamentals, the game becomes more mentally focused. Eventually, after playing enough games, you can begin predicting what will occur in advance. Indeed, the best players seem to know exactly what their opponents plan on doing long before it actually happens, and can respond to it quicker and bet-

players to ensure that you win roughly 50 percent of the time. Unfortunately, this means you also lose 50 percent of the time. Even the best players in the world still lose roughly 40 percent of their games. Much like real life, it is possible for an individual to do everything right and still lose.

And video games teach all

these skills while still being fun.

If you need more evidence that video games are worthwhile, Jane McGonigal argues in her book “Reality is Broken” — far more effectively than I ever could — that millions of Americans play video games in some capacity. She writes — and I agree — that video games have merit beyond killing time and that using the principles developers have pioneered will allow us to confront complicated problems we would otherwise be unable to solve.

My own psychology class linked us to a site called Eyewire, a video game designed by Princeton researchers to help map out the brain. It essentially turns the tedious task of mapping out the locations and connections of various neurons, a problem too complicated for computers to complete, into something enjoyable humans can easily do. As such, by crowdsourcing this complicated task into something enjoyable, significant

JOE THARAKAN headway has been made into the overarching project of mapping the brain.

Although video games have addictive qualities, that doesn’t mean we should write them off entirely. They have the ability to develop important skills applicable to the rest of our lives, and solve otherwise impossible problems. And they do this while being fun.

I certainly won’t stop playing anytime soon.

JOE THARAKAN is a College junior from the Bronx, in the Biological Basis of Behavior program. His email address is jthara@sas.upenn.edu. “Cup o’ Joe” usually appears every other Saturday.

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

NEWS 5

TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016

SEPTA Key to be pushed back until at least June The new fare card system will replace tokens and tix CHARLOTTE LARACY Staff Reporter

SEPTA has announced that they have pushed back the estimated launch date of SEPTA Key, a new fare card system that will replace tokens and tickets on Philadelphia’s public transportation system. SEPTA is the only transit system servicing a major American city still using tokens as the major form of payment.

SEPTA had previously hoped to begin implementing the new payment technology in April but it has been pushed back to at least early June; the arrival of SEPTA Key is two years behind schedule.

“By and large, everyone would agree that we would like this

CIA DEBATE >> PAGE 1

intelligence, advising on policy and in some instances allowing for small-scale covert actions rather than more direct military involvement.

“Whatever the tragic death tolls of CIA action in Latin America and Iran [are], they pale in significance to the billions of lives saved by CIA intelligence gathered during the course of the Cold War to prevent full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and Soviet Union,” Overfield said.

Matthews and Pitt, meanwhile, criticized the CIA, describing it as an “agent of state terrorism.”

Matthew argued that its involvement in South America subverted global security by allowing “rapes of El Salvadorian nuns,” causing “drug trade that fueled the U.S. crack epidemic” and building “the cartel system in Mexico [that] created the current gang system in the US.” They argued that the CIA was more in line with projecting U.S. power, no matter whether their enemies were democratically elected governments or their allies cocaine

system as soon as possible, but it is well worth it to do this right the first time,” said Jeff Kessler, executive chair of the SEPTA Youth Advisory Council and a Wharton and Engineering senior.

The fare card system has been in the works since 2008 when SEPTA first issued a request for proposals. A contract with Xerox subsidiary ACS Transportation Solutions Group was signed in 2011.

Andrew Busch, public information manager at SEPTA , said there are many challenges that SEPTA has to face because “there has never been a project like this before that reaches all parts of the SEPTA system.”

Officials at SEPTA and Xerox will be meeting on April 14 to figure out if the phase-in roll out is a “go or no-go.” If SEPTA is

given the go ahead, it will take approximately six weeks to prepare the rollout.

The delay has been caused by numerous problems including unexpected complexities and software bugs, according to a December 2015 article from PlanPhilly. The project is also massive in scope: a $140.6 million program that includes 1,850 onboard fare processors, 350 vending machines, 650 turnstiles, 550 platform validators, 300 parking payment systems, 480 handheld sales devices, 1,200 offside card purchase locations and 2,000 card reload locations.

Learning from the experiences

of cities with similar payment systems, SEPTA has been taking precautions to ensure a smooth roll out of the fare card system.

Chicago’s Ventra system had numerous glitches, including cards that would not load fares but still charged credit cards, and fare cards double-charging even if the customer only swiped once, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Kessler noted that SEPTA has focused a lot of their attention in the past on fixing the infrastructure and allocating its funds for the primary goal of having a strong transportation system.

“Even though the tokens are inconvenient, they still work,”

Kessler said.

SEPTA plans to expand a testing program by adding up to 10,000 transit customers — a group called “Early Adopters” – who will use a new key card for their regular travel. Busch said the Early Adopters are individuals who are looking forward and most ready to use the new payment system. They will also work with SEPTA to give feedback on

any complications.

On the SEPTA Key website, it says, “We know that you’ve been waiting for our new fare program and we’re anxious to introduce it to customers. But maintaining your trust and confidence is as important — maybe even maybe even more important — than launching the whole program and assuming the system will perform without any issues.”

monopolies.

Pitt questioned the effectiveness of the CIA at stopping terrorist attacks on the U.S. “Within this decade, you are literally more likely to be hit by lightning while being eaten by a shark than you are to be killed by an Al Qaeda attack.”

Before the debate, College senior and Government and Politics Association co-founder Varun Menon compared the day’s debate to one held by GPA three years ago after Indian politician — now Prime Minister — Narendra Modi was uninvited from giving the keynote speech at a Penn conference.

“The debate ... did lead to a greater understanding and respect and toleration between the two sides,” he said. “It was something real.”

Engineering freshman Robert Zajac said he was pleased with the debate.

“I think it was a step in the right direction to encouraging discourse between both parties. We weren’t really getting anywhere with shouting and disruption. So this is great, this is why we’re at Penn,” he shared after the debate.

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6 SPORTS

TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

PHOTO FEATURE

TAKING ON YOUR TEAMMATES On Sunday, Penn football held its annual Spring Game at Franklin Field, running a series of situational drills pitting coach Ray Priore’s offense against its own defense as students and alumni watched.

NICK BUCHTA | SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

The Ivy title is finally the Red and Blue’s for the taking And accordingly, the team has not been as dominant as it was a year ago. Though they sport a still-very-good 5-3 conference record, their preseason dominant pitching duo of Jake Cousins and Mike Reitcheck have struggled while the offense has seen a marked decline in all major statistical categories.

Still, this year’s Quakers are poised to do something that the Class of 2015 failed to accomplish during their four years in University City: win the Lou Gehrig Division. Columbia has thwarted the Quakers’ championship series aspirations each of the last three seasons, including in one-game playoffs in both 2014

TOM NOWLAN

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his year was supposed to be a step backwards for Penn baseball.

After a program-record 16 Ivy League wins a season ago, the Red and Blue graduated a cavalcade of veteran standouts. A total of 10 seniors played their final games in 2015, two of whom — Austin Bossart and Ronnie Glenn — were talented enough to take their skills to the professional level.

and 2015.

However, the Lions — hindered by the loss of 2015 senior standouts Jordan Serena, Gus Craig and Joey Falcone — have stumbled to a 3-5 start to Ivy play, putting them far behind the 8-ball if they wish to four-peat as Ivy champs.

Leading the Gehrig Division with a 6-2 mark is upstart Princeton, who finished dead last in the conference a season ago. The Quakers will play a four-game road series against the Tigers this weekend; the winner will likely be in the driver’s seat of the division over the following eight games of the regular season.

With the typical divisional

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TOM NOWLAN is a College sophomore from Montpelier, Vt., and is a sports editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. He can be reached at nowlan@ thedp.com.

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37 “Anatomy of a Murder� director

a grand total of 1.2 innings a season ago, has emerged as one of the squad’s best arms, touting a 4-1 record and 2.48 earned run average.

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roadblock of Columbia out of the way (at least for now), the Red and Blue have done an admirable job of making the most of their young talent. Catcher Matt O’Neill and first baseman Matt Tola, both freshmen, each sit within the conference’s top 10 in batting average. Sophomore righty Billy Lescher, who pitched

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4

ILANA WURMAN | DESIGN EDITOR

In each of Penn baseball coach John Yurkow’s first two years, the Quakers fell just short of a Gehrig Division title. Now, the time is theirs.

the team’s leadoff hitter, he has done an admirable job of setting the table for the RBI talent of Tola, O’Neill and junior catcher Tim Graul.

If the Red and Blue had their roster from a season ago, they would likely be running roughshod over conference competition. But, as it stands, they are still in prime position to end their streak of disappointing secondplace finishes.

There is obviously plenty of baseball left to go; only eight of the 20 conference games have been played.

But even so, Penn is in great position to break its curse as a perennial runner-up.

And in this of all seasons, that is a very pleasant surprise.

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QUAKER CUP >> PAGE 8

do that,” Freeman said. “We’ve had student-athletes out to races on the river for crew, going to watch throwing events for track and field, so in some respects, we’ve helped expose people to events that maybe they would never have gone to.”

The boosts that a lively crowd can provide to those on the field should not be underestimated.

“It’s really important to have

fans there, especially given that we need to win the rest of our Ivy games,” said D’Amore, whose team is just one game out of first place in the Ancient Eight behind Princeton. “The more, the merrier, so if [the competition] gets fans to come out, it’s a great solution.”

Needless to say, no empire is built overnight, and Penn Athletics still has work to do to restore fan interest to the levels of the department’s glory days.

But with an innovative staff

working to find clever ways to buck the overarching trend of student apathy, the ball is rolling for the transformation of the culture to continue.

“At the end of the year, we’ll talk with all of our teams and we’ll talk with SAAC for feedback on how we did and what we could do better and try to make some of those changes next year,” Freeman said.

“But I think we’ll definitely have some version of the Quaker Cup for the near future.”

BUCHTA >> PAGE 8

head. Division I college players know how to tackle.

Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens has long made this cause his hallmark crusade, unilaterally banning in-season tackling in 2010. And it didn’t go unnoticed.

I can’t think of any other way anything relating to Dartmouth football would get airtime with Stephen Colbert.

The Big Green’s share of the 2015 Ivy title is proof-positive that teams can compete without hitting during practice.

After news broke of the decision, Penn coach Ray Priore pointed out that the team had already transitioned to teach a more rugby-style of tackling. The cessation of tackling seemed like the logical next step.

Shortly after the tackling ban was announced I asked an old teammate of mine from high school who plays football at a Division III college what he thought of the changes.

He was incredulous, and his

SPORTS 7

TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016

NICK BUCHTA | SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

In March, Penn football coach Ray Priore joined the other seven Ivy League coaches in voting to end tackling at all in-season practices.

initial knee-jerk reaction was similar to mine. Banning tackling seemed a ridiculous proposition.

But after a minute of consideration, he offered another thought.

“You know, I guess we only hit about once a week during the season anyway,” he said.

With the landmark change to football practices, the Ivy League is putting itself on the right side of history.

serving Philadelphia

for over

25

years!

TACKLING >> PAGE 8

definitely help if it passes.”

Although already afforded the protection from hits in practice that comes with wearing the red jersey, junior quarterback Alek Torgersen was also accepting of the idea.

“It doesn’t affect me much because I never get hit,” he admitted before adding, “It’s always nice to worry about the safety of our players, because concussions are an issue. It’s nice to have a league that’s being progressive like this.”

Torgersen, of course, sustained a concussion last season and as a result missed a start early on in the campaign, so he knows the effects of concussions.

He is optimistic the measure can affect not just Ivy League players but the game itself.

“We’ll see how it goes and works out once it passes, but I think it should be a good thing for the sport.”

The main concern being voiced by outsiders is that players will face a disadvantage when they face out-of-conference teams that are practicing tackling on a regular basis and who are used to taking hard hits throughout the week.

ALEX FISHER | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

The ban on tackling in practice approved by Ivy League football coaches in March is still pending approval from Ivy Presidents.

Panciello isn’t worried.

“All these kids that we’re playing with have been playing football their whole life,” he said.

“If you don’t know how to tackle by now, I guess you’ve got to figure it out.”

As Penn looks forward to its quest to repeat as Ivy League champions, the last thing on players’ minds seems to be logistics. Their mind is focused on winning. They’ll play with whatever hand they are dealt.

@dailypennsports

Time and again, I’ve heard Calhoun argue that Penn and the Ivy League pride themselves on being innovators in the world of college athletics. Maybe that claim isn’t that far off the mark.

FACEBOOK.COM/ DAILYPENNSPORTS

NICK BUCHTA is a College junior from Olmsted Falls, Ohio, and is senior sports editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. He can be reached at buchta@thedp.com.

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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.

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Tom Nowlan argues that the Ivy title is finally Penn baseball’s for the taking

Students and alumni made their way out to Franklin Field for Sunday’s football Spring Game

>> SEE PAGE 6

>> SEE PAGE 6

TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016

On the right side of history NICK BUCHTA

A

sk Athletic Director Grace Calhoun to talk broadly about Penn Athletics and somewhere along the way, you’ll almost certainly hear the phrase “pure studentathlete.”

This idea manifests itself in myriad ways — to Calhoun, the pure student-athlete balances sports with the player’s primary focus on academics — and means that concerns about the physical and mental health of Penn’s studentathletes are purportedly paramount. And the March vote by the eight Ivy League football coaches to end tackling at in-season practices is an example of that philosophy in action.

Although many college administrators and coaches pay lip service to this idea of holistic student-athlete wellbeing, when it comes down to making the decisions to live up to what they say, the results tends to be underwhelming.

Pending this summer’s vote from the Ivy League presidents to approve the ban on tackling at in-season football practices, however, the Ivy League is putting its money where its mouth is. With the endorsement of the league’s eight coaches virtually guaranteeing the rule’s passage, the Ancient Eight is about to make a bold — and positive — decision.

When I first heard the news of the tackling ban, I wasn’t sure I had read the article correctly.

And based on reactions to the Daily Pennsylvanian’s reporting on the decision, many people in the Penn community and beyond felt the same way.

But let’s be realistic. We’re never going to see more tackling added to football practices. Programs have been limiting hitting, and that trend is only going to continue. And as more research comes out about the detriments of concussions in athletics and more cases of CTE are made public, the movement to make football safer is only going to gather steam.

Ivy League teams already only hit twice weekly once the season starts, and there will still be the chance to get some of the rust off in preseason practices before the in-season tackling ban takes effect.

“All these kids that we’re playing with have been playing football their whole life,” junior linebacker Donald Panciello said after Sunday’s Spring Game. “If you don’t know how to tackle by now, I guess you’ve got to figure it out.”

Panciello’s comment hits the nail right on the

TACKLING the ISSUE

Penn football readies to end tackling for inseason practices THOMAS MUNSON Associate Sports Editor

F

or college football programs, the annual spring game usually provides an opportunity to answer questions about who will step up to replace the production of graduating seniors.

For Penn football and the other seven Ivy League programs, two questions remained unanswered: Will the coaches’ proposal to eliminate tackling from regular season practices be passed? And if it does, what effect will it have on the players?

Over this summer, the eight presidents will vote on the motion and, if it does pass, it will be implemented in preparation for the

2016 season.

The idea has attracted both widespread support and scrutiny.

While many applauded the move for the emphasis it places on protecting the brains of the schools’ collegiate athletes, others, like former NFL lineman Mike Golic, have condemned the proposal for going too far.

The Quakers, fresh off their intrasquad scrimmage that marks the culmination of spring practice, had mixed feelings about the motion but generally supported the goals of the motion and rejected thoughts that if the rule passed they would lose a

competitive edge to out-of-league opponents.

Junior linebacker Donald Panciello is confident that no matter the final decision, he and his fellow defenders will be well-prepared.

“We have to be ready for anything. But it shouldn’t change much,” he explained. “We’ll be able to play at the same level without being able to tackle. We do safe drills and stuff like that throughout practice.”

Panciello commended the effort by administrators to protect the players.

“It’s good to keep the players safe. They have our best interests

in mind. We wanna keep guys on the field. So limiting the amount of contact we can do helps us do that.”

But this ruling alone is not the only way Penn is attempting to keep its players safe. It is merely the next logical step, after years of reducing exposure to potential concussion-causing drills.

“With how we’ve been practicing how to tackle a lot lately, it’s already eliminated a lot of the danger,” Panciello added.

“So whether it passes or not it doesn’t effect us that much but it’ll SEE TACKLING PAGE 7 NICK BUCHTA | SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

SEE BUCHTA PAGE 7

Quaker Cup pits Penn squads against each other Red and Blue compete to show each other support

COLE JACOBSON Associate Sports Editor

ANANYA CHANDRA | SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR

In the Quaker Cup — where Penn Athletics teams compete against one another to show support for the Red and Blue — Lauren D’Amore and women’s lacrosse stand in second place, just behind cup-leading field hockey.

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In order to completely change the culture of any group, the first step is to start from within. And for a Penn Athletics brand looking to reignite its formerly passionate fan base, the road to remodeling is underway.

The athletic department has made strides to promote a support system among its varsity teams thanks to the efforts of first-year Senior Associate Athletic Director Sherryta Freeman. Starting the “Quaker Cup” competition this year, Penn Athletics has pitted its varsity teams against one another to determine the most actively supportive athletes on campus.

“It was an initiative we talked with our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee about to just kind of add a little bit of flavor to what they’re already doing to increase the attendance and some of the spirit among our student-athletes,” Freeman said. “We decided ,‘Hey, let’s give it a shot,’ and we’ve seen a lot of excitement.”

In this contest, each of Penn’s varsity teams is scored based on their team grade point average, game results, community service

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engagement and attendance of other teams’ events, among other factors.

As of April 4, field hockey is the competition’s overall leader with 767.50 points, with women’s lacrosse in a close second place at 742.76.

“I think that our team has been able to do well with the Quaker Cup because we have friends on other teams and supporting those friends is, at least from most of our points of view, the main reason we go,” women’s lacrosse midfielder Lauren D’Amore said. “But the points system kind of becomes a good way to draw in other girls on the team to go to games.”

Efforts to raise student interest in athletics are nothing new, but the innovative thinking of Freeman and the SAAC to institute an aspect of competition seems to be paying off so far. Understanding that Division I athletes are an inherently competitive group, Penn Athletics has worked this to its advantage.

“It’s a really good idea to incentivize student-athletes to go to each other sporting events and to encourage more of those connections across teams to be made, so we really like it,” D’Amore said.

Strictly for Penn’s flagship programs, the raw numbers might not show a significant increase in fan passion. Football averaged 6,048 fans per home game

in 2015, a decrease of more than 2,500 from 2014. Men’s basketball saw a marginal jump from 3,141 fans per game in 2014-15 to 3,214 this season, but that still was the school’s second lowest mark since 1992.

Even for women’s basketball — which completed a remarkable 24-5 season culminating in Penn’s fourth ever NCAA Tournament appearance — the school couldn’t muster enough interest to justify a fan bus to the team’s first round loss to Washington in College Park, Md. (although the game being played on Saturday of St. Paddy’s weekend couldn’t have helped).

But if one looks deeper, the signs of a revolution are there. Aided by the usage of Penn Rewards — an application started in the 2012-13 academic school year that offers prizes to students based on their attendance of athletic events — more heads have popped into the stands for Penn’s lesser known programs.

As a result, national champions like senior Chris Swanson (men’s swimming, 1650-yard freestyle) and senior Sam Mattis (men’s track and field, discus) no longer showcase their abilities in silence.

“For what we wanted to do in terms of getting students out to events that they maybe haven’t been to, I think we’ve been able to SEE QUAKER CUP PAGE 7

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