April 12, 2016

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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

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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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