TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 2016
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Mental health advocate shares hope
INTERNATIONAL
PERSPECTIVES International students not surprised by 2016 election LUIS FERRE SADURNI Staff Reporter
Survivor of suicide attempt discussed mental health education ELAINE LEE Contributing Reporter
Are you ok? Is something wrong? Can I help you? These are questions that Kevin Hines emphasized as he shared his story of struggling with mental illness, attempting suicide and handling psychiatric care. Had someone asked him these same questions as he cried on the bus to the Golden Gate Bridge, he may never have jumped, he said at an event Monday night. Now 34 years old, Hines is a mental health advocate, documentary filmmaker and bestselling author. Hines shared his story at Penn in an event hosted by the Philadelphia chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Reflecting on Sept. 25, 2000, the fateful day he survived his attempted suicide, he shared his story of recovery and renewed outlook on love and living. SEE MENTAL HEALTH PAGE 7
ENDING CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS PAGE 3
We are competing at Penn with this abstract ideal person, this ideal self.”
T
he 2016 United States presidential election cycle — with both parties featuring unorthodox political contenders and extensive global media coverage — has been an unprecedented surprise for the American electorate and, perhaps more so, for international students. At Penn, international students have borne witness, much to their surprise and concern, to what is turning out to be a historic election for American politics. Two of the major surprises this election cycle have been the emergence of 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump as the current front-runner for the
Republican nomination and the rise of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — a self-proclaimed democratic socialist — as a serious contender for the Democratic presidential candidacy. The real estate mogul’s rise wasn’t shocking to some international Penn students, such as Engineering senior Zahed Saifi from Jordan. “I actually wasn’t surprised by Donald Trump to be honest,” said Saifi, who is half Lebanese. “I always thought that if you scare the American public and tell them what they want to hear then you’re obviously going to end up getting the votes. In the past [President George W.] Bush used this tactic, a lot of other presidents have used this tactic. Back then it was 9/11 and Al Qaeda, now it is ISIS, refugees and the Paris attacks.” Currently, Trump leads the Republican field with 743 delegates out of the 1,237 needed to secure the nomination without a contested convention. On the Democratic side, Sanders trails former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by an estimated
250 pledged delegates, although her lead is significantly greater when including superdelegates. For certain international students, Trump and Sanders’ emergence was easy to understand because of Americans’ dissatisfaction with the status quo under President Barack Obama. College junior Jesus Alcocer, who is Mexican, said that the American electorate is reacting to the big policy changes enacted under Obama’s administration, such as the Affordable Care Act. “When you go to political science classes they always say that candidates are going to be close to the median voter,” Alcocer said. “The truth is that, in retrospect, it doesn’t seem like a surprise because it is a reaction to Obama’s administration. He implemented some really big reforms, very ambitious.” Alcocer noted that, although many Mexicans regard Trump as a “clown,” the current election cycle has brought a lot of citizens into the political process who previously felt disillusioned with the government.
The amount of people expressing differing opinions was surprising to Wharton junior Aneesh Kancharla, who is Australian . Although Kancharla expressed concern for the amount of support Trump’s unsubstantiated claims have received, he also noted the benefit in the range of opinions seen so far in the elections. “It is definitely a surprise for me because our system is much more constrained in regards to the diversity of views you get,” Kancharla said. “Most of Australian politics fits within the Democratic party … I think it is a really good thing that there has been so much differences in opinion and a much more hardly contested [election] than people might have thought.” Another shocking aspect for many international students has been the behavior among some of the candidates. Many students expressed concern for the lack of substance in the Republican debates and the overwhelming amount of name-calling SEE INTERNATIONAL PAGE 3
Former mayor to teach at Columbia, UChicago The 1979 Wharton graduate has not joined Penn faculty CHARLOTTE LARACY Staff Reporter
- Ritika Philip
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ACES WILD BACK PAGE
MICHAEL NUTTER
Since his term as Philadelphia’s 98th mayor ended in January, Michael Nutter has had no lack of job opportunities. The 1979 Wharton graduate’s latest job offer is at the University of Chicago. As a fellow at the UChicago Institute of Politics, he will teach a week-long seminar series during the upcoming spring quarter. Unlike Penn, UChicago is on the quarter system. At IOP, he will focus on
how crisis management can upend a mayoralty, the challenges of institutionalizing changes after an election and how the 2016 presidential election will affect America’s big cities. Marc Meredith, professor in the Penn department of political science, said he is not surprised Nutter is a popular commodity on the academic circuit because of his strong record as mayor. “He was seen as having a very successful tenure as mayor here,” Meredith said. “I think he is seen as being very policy knowledgeable and I think universities try to attract people with real world experiences.
He will also work as a senior fellow for What Works Cities, a data-driven program funded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg with the goal of making government more effective and increasing community engagement. Since leaving office, Nutter has already been a CNN commentator, urban policy professor at Columbia University and a U.S. Department of Homeland Security advisor. As Mayor of Philadelphia, Nutter reduced murder rates to their lowest point since the 1960s, and was able to grow the city’s SEE NUTTER PAGE 6
Students debate existence of Asian privilege in PAACH Organizers hope to unite minority groups at Penn NADIRA BERMAN Contributing Reporter
Students and faculty discuss white privilege in a wide variety of settings on Penn’s campus, from seminars to protests. But few have
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talked about, or even heard of, the concept of Asian privilege. Students participated in an open discussion at the Pan-Asian American Community House Monday night entitled “Does Asian Privilege Exist?” College freshman Queenie Lam and College junior Danielle Pi facilitated this week’s discussion, which comes after the Asian
Pacific Student Coalition’s failure to be guaranteed a seat on the University Council shined a light on issues Asian students face on campus. Participants talked about the definition of privilege, then recognized their own privileges — able-bodiedness, sexual orientation, speaking English and even being a Penn student — before launching into the discussion.
Students disagreed about the existence of Asian privilege. Some argued that Asians are not a privileged group because they often do not have to consider their racial identity and Asian-American issues if they don’t chose to, a privilege not afforded to some other racial SEE PRIVILEGE PAGE 5
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