MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2016
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
TAKING NO CHANCES Behind the scenes, SPEC makes sure every detail is in place before the concert
It ’s sunny and beautiful when I arrive at Franklin Field on April 15. While other Penn students are finishing up class and heading to daytime parties by the time I arrive at about 4 p.m., the members of the Social Planning and Events Committee Concerts started their day at 7:30 a.m. I walk over to the Franklin Field ticket office to pick up my yellow press pass. Other SPEC members also wear their credentials around their necks and sport a uniform of white staff shirts. As I enter the stadium, the field looks just like it would on any other day. Members of the track team are running their sprints and testing their jumps in the long jump sand pit.
MARCHING AGAINST GENTRIFICATION PAGE 2
But there is a large stage facing the bleachers — one that will host 3LAU and Chance the Rapper tonight. Other students are running around lifting bike racks into long lines in order to “section off areas and direct traffic” SPEC Concerts Director and Engineering junior Kelsey Simet says. I head back inside and enter a room dubbed the “Committee Room,” a gathering area for SPEC members who are part of the planning process. As the directors pace around, bags of chips are strewn on the tables and empty boxes of Jimmy John’s. The room itself is large with wood panels, a carpeted floor and portraits of Penn Athletics alumni. Just across the hall, I can see a room blocked off by black curtains — 3LAU’s dressing room, a committee member tells me. “Now is a good time to charge your phone,” Simet announces. Members scramble to find open outlets along the wall, while the lucky ones have portable chargers. The front door of the SEE FLING PAGE 2
CHARLOTTE LARACY Staff Reporter
- Meerabelle Jesuthasan PAGE 4
EYES ON THE PRIZE BACK PAGE
Despite meticulous planning, SPEC faces last second hurdles when Chance almost cancels This year’s Fling concert marked another success for the members of the Social Planning and Events Committee Concerts — but it was a show that almost didn’t go on. This past Friday, concert headliner Chance the Rapper almost cancelled his performance due to illness. SPEC Concerts directors received a call from Chance’s management partway through opener 3LAU’s set, detailing his reasons for cancellation. Later on stage, after he appeared over an hour after the end of 3LAU’s performance, Chance also directly referenced the situation and said that “[he] actually almost cancelled the show tonight.” During the concert, he also referenced his health. “It’s really f**king cold… I might just get pneumonia,” he said. But, he continued on with his performance. SPEC Concerts Director and College senior Spencer Jaffe affirmed Chance’s statements on stage.
“The situation was very much like what he said in the concert,” Jaffe said. “He almost cancelled because he was very sick, and we got a call pretty late in the game, which was obviously a little bit stressful.” Luckily for SPEC Concerts, however, Chance did not call off his show. After reassessing his health, he decided that he was feeling well enough to perform. Jaffe said that before he arrived at Penn, Chance was in his hotel room in Philadelphia. Jaffe also added that the call that they received from Chance was a discussion rather than an official cancellation. “What really caused the delay was him understanding how he was feeling so that he could come to a decision,” Jaffe said. At the time of this discussion, the SPEC Concerts directors had not fully formulated a backup plan, but planned to remain transparent about the situation. “We hadn’t fully thought about another plan,” Jaffe said. “We were SEE CHANCE PAGE 2
Prof. apologizes after suicide comment Arthur Dunham said his statement was ‘insensitive’
We must recognize and discuss the intersection of mental health with other issues.”
VIBHA KANNAN Deputy News Editor
Penn, like many Ivy League schools, has grappled with the impact of academic pressure on students’ mental health. The difficulty and complexity of the issue resurfaced last week when Penn professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Biology Arthur Dunham made a comment in his lecture that several students found to be insensitive, especially given the recent death of Wharton junior Ao “Olivia” Kong by suicide. In his April 13 lecture, when Dunham was explaining grading policies and whether students should decide to take a particular exam, he made this comment to the class, which was included in the professor’s recording of the lecture, which he posted to Canvas: “Some people are delirious if they’re getting a B or a B+. Some people want to go out and jump off a bridge if they’re getting a B or a B+, I can’t judge that,” he said. “So you’ve got to decide what you can settle for and all of that. I take no personal responsibility for any suicides that happen as a result of my grading.”
A few days after Dunham had made this comment, he posted an apology letter onto Canvas, which he also shared with The Daily Pennsylvanian. “I would like to profoundly apologize for what was a flippant and ill-considered comment concerning choices about whether to take the last exam. I regret having said what I did, especially at this particular time given recent events,” he wrote. “My comment was insensitive and, normally, I would never have said anything like that. It just came out.” He added, “It was a frivolous comment comparing two hypothetical students who got a B in a course. I was simply not thinking of recent events or of the context in which they were heard. I am truly sorry for the pain I caused.” One student, who asked to remain anonymous since she is currently enrolled in Dunham’s class, felt that he’d trivialized the sensitive campus discussion about mental health. “It seemed like he was being very condescending and implying that all of us are making a big deal out of nothing when he doesn’t know what kind of hardships she was going through,” the student said. “I felt offended because [Kong] was my friend and it felt like he trivialized her experiences to something like she couldn’t handle getting a B.” Dunham elaborated in his apology on the meaning of his comment. “It was [in response to]a query about whether
Off-campus dwellers struggle to find subletters Most try to break even for the summer, not profit JENNA WANG Staff Reporter
The search is on for students trying to find subletters for their residences over the summer. Students advertise sublet options ranging from small one-bedroom units to entire Domus apartments, and are often posted on the Penn Facebook groups Housing or Free & For Sale. Prices vary as well, as renters attempt to find equilibrium amongst their peers and offer the most competitive deal. But most students looking to sublet do not
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to take an exam in a course in which a grade is dropped,” he wrote. “The decision to drop an exam is meant to be a stress reduction device that provides students with more options and flexibility. It’s not a decision worthy of great anxiety.” Dunham encouraged students to talk to him about issues with his comment “publicly or privately,” writing, ”We have an open door policy in this course as reflected by the extensive office hours (12 hours in the 3 days before the last exam) and the range of topics discussed topics during those office hours.” Chair of the Department of Biology Brenda Casper issued a statement about Dunham’s comment after being contacted by the DP, stating, “While we recognize that Prof. Dunham was within his rights in the conduct of his class, we acknowledge that his remarks are inconsistent with our equally important commitment to our students’ well-being.” The February 2015 report from the Task Force on Student Psychological Health and Welfare acknowledged that academic life at Penn can be very stressful. The report cited the “drive for academic excellence along with the perception that to be successful one needs to hold leadership roles in multiple realms” as contributing to the “amount of stress and distress experienced by Penn students.” SEE PROFESSOR PAGE 3
What it’s like to spend Fling in the library
make money on their summer housing — rather, they are trying to minimize the gap between the rent they pay to the landlord and what they receive from the subletter. “[I] definitely won’t be breaking even, but [I’m] just trying basically to get as much as I can,” Wharton sophomore Dave Mathews said. Mathews, who is looking to rent out a bedroom in his off-campus fraternity house, said that he priced his room based on what he saw other people were listing similar rooms for online. Engineering freshman Alex Evelson, who was looking to sublet his bedroom on the second story of a house at 41st and Locust streets, set an initial subletting price of $600 per month for his residence. However, he
While many undergraduates were attending parties and sunbathing in the Quad, a handful of students experienced a different kind of “lit,” perusing through literature in Van Pelt Library. Many students who found themselves within the walls of Penn’s largest library this weekend were tied down because of schoolwork. College senior Leila Ehsan, for example, was
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Students in Van Pelt discuss missing out on parties to study JULIANNE SMOLYN Contributing Reporter
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