April 22, 2015

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

FLING CITATIONS DOWN 94 PERCENT BLCE “pretty amazed” by calm during this year’s Spring Fling ANNA HESS Staff Reporter

How engaged is the “Civic Ivy”?

Students tend to engage in activism but do not turn out to vote DAN SPINELLI Staff Reporter

Engage with purpose.

Alongside “explore across disciplines” and “innovate and apply knowledge,” this deliberately vague phrase teases visitors to the Penn Admissions homepage with an enticing promise: at this university — the self-described “Civic Ivy” — you will engage others with some purpose.

As the website proudly proclaims, Penn’s founder Ben Franklin said, “The great aim and end of all learning is service to society.” At Penn, the glaring headings and bright red and blue colors promise you will engage in service to society.

With dozens of partnerships and service programs through the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and Civic House, Penn students have certainly fulfilled their founder’s duty of providing service to society. Despite their active involvement in the community, however, Penn students remain generally averse to one key aspect of local affairs: city politics.

Philadelphia: A Temporary Home SEE ACTIVISM PAGE 3

SELECTIVE ACTIVISM

This Spring Fling, the Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement officers on campus issued only two citations for underage drinking — down from 35 during last year’s Fling.

Penn Police issued seven citations in total for a combination of disorderly conduct, underage drinking and public

urination — the same number as last year. In 2013, the BLCE issued 31 citations and Penn Police issued two.

There was only one illegal drug arrest this year, and it was a non-University affiliated individual at the annual Fling concert. There were, however, students who used the “medical pod areas” set up outside of the concert, where they received help from the Medical Emergency Response Team and Emergency Medical Technicians.

This year, 22 students were transported to the hospital

for alcohol intoxication. That number is only slightly down from 2014’s 24 transported students. Ten non-University affiliated individuals were transported as well.

“Those numbers speak highly of the compliance we received from students,” Vice President of the Division of Public Safety Maureen Rush said. “Fling was very successful this year — the students took heed of all the information that was put out, and as a result, the [B]LCE was pretty amazed at how calm it was.”

Penn Police received 27

SEE FLING PAGE 5

NUMBER OF CALLS PENN POLICE RECEIVED ABOUT

NUMBER OF CITATIONS ISSUED FOR DISORDERLY CONDUCT, UNDERAGE DRINKING, AND PUBLIC URINATION

calls about disturbance houses.

That number is up from eight in 2014 and six in 2013. Rush said this number could include multiple complaints about single nuisance houses.

“We did a better job this year of categorizing these problems and we had preknowledge of some houses we needed to check in on,” Rush said. “Some of the problem houses did not disappoint us.”

Rush said even though those numbers are up, most students complied when approached by

UNDERAGE DRINKING 2

HOUSE DISTURBANCES

7

27

7 * issued by Penn Police

2014 FLING

2015 FLING

1

ILLLEGAL DRUG ARREST

* issued by Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement officers

22 STUDENTS

35

2014 FLING

2015 FLING

TRANSPORTED TO THE HOSPITAL FOR ALCOHOL INTOXICATION

GRAPHIC BY KATE JEON | NEWS DESIGN EDITOR

PAGE 9

As U. goes global, Penn brand aims to follow Amid initiatives, administration hopes to boost worldwide recognition COREY STERN Deputy News Editor

… [A]ttaching rhetoric of unsafety to ideas which offend suggests that the proper reaction to such ideas is suppression or removal.”

- Alec Ward

PAGE 4

LOOKING AHEAD TO PENN RELAYS BACKPAGE

When Penn President Amy Gutmann called Shadrack Frimpong to tell him he won a President’s Engagement Prize, she heard him scream in excitement.

If the College senior is successful, the $100,000 prize from Penn will help build a girls’ school and community clinic in his village of Tarkwa Breman, Ghana, making the community healthier, better educated and stronger.

But there will be another likely result for the village: Almost everyone will know Penn — a University more than 5,000 miles away — and will have experienced first-hand what Penn stands for. As the University expands its global reach in the 21st century, the school is focused not only on making an impact around the world, but also ensuring that the name Penn has the same meaning for individuals in Ghana, in China and elsewhere as it does for those in Philadelphia.

“What our goal is, very broadly speaking, is to bring the world to Penn and Penn to the world,” Gutmann said. “Our mission is going global, to become more inclusive, to become more innovative and to have a greater impact, both at home and around the world.”

Gutmann points to the

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President’s Engagement Prizes, as well as the Penn World Scholars Program, the Perry World House and the Penn Wharton China Center as examples of the University “making a bold statement to how committed Penn is to being an American university with a truly global perspective.”

In the inaugural year of the President’s Engagement Prizes, two projects are making investments to solve problems beyond the borders of the United States.

In addition to Frimpong’s project, Engineering seniors Adrian Lievano and Matthew Lisle are going to develop a water purification system and community education program in Kimana, Kenya. Gutmann hopes that these projects will not only make an impact in their respective communities, but also foster more worldwide relationships for Penn. "[Shadrack] is absolutely committed as a man who has succeeded, despite odds, to enabling, not just his four younger sisters, but every girl to having that same opportunity,” Gutmann said. “My highest hope is that one of those young girls could aspire to come to the University of Pennsylvania one day.”

Building a global brand William Burke-White, Deputy Dean for International Programs at Penn Law and the Inaugural Director of the Perry World House, believes that the University’s SEE PENN PAGE 8

SARAH BARAKSO MARTIN | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Ellie Kemper, star of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”, spoke at Penn on Tuesday night.

An evening with Ellie Kemper

The TV star discussed her journey to ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ ZOE STERN Contributing Reporter

Though she’s worked with Kristin Wiig and Tina Fey, Ellie Kemper didn’t always know she wanted to go into acting.

Kemper, most recognized from “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “The Office” and “Bridesmaids,” came to speak at Penn for a moderated interview and an open Q&A with Penn students. She was one of the Social Planning and Events Committee Connaissance speakers for this spring.

Kemp e r g r a du a t e d f r om

Princeton University with a degree in English, and then spent a year at Oxford University studying English literature, when she finally asked herself “What am I doing?” Kemper realized she wanted to try comedy and moved to New York.

Without a job or a safety net, Kemper started taking acting classes at theaters in New York.

“Coming out of college is a strange transition. Many of my peers had much clearer routes such as medical or law school,” Kemper said.

Kemper said she never gave that much thought to what she wanted to do, not even in college. From Kansas City, Mo., Kemper moved to St. Louis at age five where she grew SEE ELLIE KEMPER PAGE 9

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Huntsman freshman serves Peruvian communities This summer marks fifth time Menelaos Mazarakis will travel to Peru RUIHONG LIU Staff Reporter

While most people are planning to return home or work internships this summer, Huntsman freshman Menelaos Mazarakis will be returning to a remote area in Peru for the fifth summer in a row.

After spending the previous four summers helping to build an elementary school and dormitories for students, he plans to return to work on an on-site consulting project with five other Penn students.

During his first trip to Peru in 2011, Mazarakis came up with the idea for the Princeton Peru Partnership, an organization that aims to raise funds to help with educational access in Peru. Mazarakis is originally from Greece, lived in Mexico for six years and now lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

“Since I was young, I’ve always loved traveling and going outside my comfort zone to see how other people live,” Mazarakis said. “For

me, it’s so amazing working in communities like Taray and Ollantaytambo because you’re in an environment that is foreign yet intimate at the same time.”

The idea that triggered the idea to build dormitories was a threehour walk each way to and from the community of Socma. “These areas are completely isolated from civilization, small communities with no access to basic electricity and to water,” he said. In the morning, he walked with a girl named Nohemi at 4:30am down the mountain to get to the school, Mazurkis said.

For Mazurkis, the moment was very life-changing: “I realized how privileged we feel in the U.S., especially walking down the mountain with a 12 year old girl who gracefully walked down the mountain while I was struggling the whole way down.”

Since then, he has been involved in the management of the construction of the dormitories, which were built with the help of international volunteer groups.

Now after four years, Princeton Peru Partnership is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

According to Mazarakis, one of his hopes is to promote the access to early education in developing countries. “I hope to help with social mobility in developing areas and especially underprivileged children,” Mazarakis said.

Because of his active involvement in the international community, Mazarakis have given two TEDx talks at Princeton University about how average high school students can make positive impacts in international communities.

Mazarakis’ efforts have been recognized by the Peruvian government when he received a gold medal of service from Peruvian Ambassador Harold Forsyth. “It felt like the team had really made a difference in Peru and I was so ecstatic that the Peruvian government was coming on board to try and help us,” Mazarakis said.

Moreover, Mazarakis has been awarded the President’s Volunteer Service Award from President Barack Obama.

At Penn, Mazarakis has continued to work on this project. “It’s one of the coolest thing in high school that I haven’t let down.”

Mazarakis said. Princeton Peru Partnership will be a client for the Management 100 class, one of Wharton’s core classes. He said he submitted his proposal to Wharton professor Anne Greenhalgh and she was very supportive.

Princeton Peru Partnership also collaborates with on-campus organizations such as Penn International Impact Consulting, through which Mazarakis worked closely on both on-site and off-site projects. Mazarakis hopes to reach out to professors to help mentor the project and give feedback as Princeton Peru Partnership progresses. In addition, he hopes to create a “Penn Peru Partnership”.

This May, he will represent the United States in the American delegation at the G20 Youth Summit to create policy recommendations for G20 leaders.

Mazarakis is recipient of a $6,000 Wharton Social Impact Research Experience grant, so he will also be spending a month in five African countries to conduct research related to social impact.

Mazarakis envisioned his future engagement in non-profit

COURTESY OF MENELAOS MAZARAKIS

Huntsman freshman Menelaos Mazarakis is helping build schools and dormitories in Peru.

organizations and social entrepreneurship.

“I would either continue Princeton Peru in the long term, or create another long term project that involves access to education and gender equality, somewhere in the developing world,” he said.

For Mazarakis, helping others is where his passion lies.

“I do [these projects] because I enjoy them and because it doesn’t feel burdensome to me,” Mazurkas said. “It’s kind of like an adventure because when I do these project, I always feel exhilarated.”

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ADVISORS The Office of College House Computing is currently seeking nominations for its annual award:

2015 Outstanding Information Technology Advisor of the Year.

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 2015 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.

Your College House has a team of experienced computer troubleshooters who are ready to come to the rescue.

SAVING YOUR LIFE

ACTIVISM >> PAGE 1

Penn holds a virtually unchallenged role as the preeminent nonprofit institution in Philadelphia. Its $7.25 billion annual budget for the 2015 fiscal year dwarfs the City of Philadelphia’s $3.87 billion budget. As the largest private landowner in the city, Penn holds considerable weight over economic policy in the city. Despite its signifcant influence in city affairs, most Penn students are from outside the region.

Over 80 percent of the Class of 2018 comes from outside Pennsylvania, with an even larger amount hailing from outside Philadelphia.

These students, many of whom are substantially knowledgeable about national politics, are generally disinterested in local affairs.

“There is, to my knowledge, no group who is really focused on Philadelphia politics,” said Sarah Simon, College sophomore and President of the Government and Politics Association.

Simon, whose nonpartisan political group has attempted to broaden their focus to local issues, thinks Penn students prefer service to political outreach.

“People are interested in volunteering more civically but not politically,” she said.

With well-over 20 programs available through the Netter Center, Civic House, and Fox Leadership Program, Penn students have ample opportunity to provide service to the local community.

However, voter turnout by the Penn community remains dismally low, even in national elections. Only 1,060 students turned out to vote in the November midterm elections out of almost 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students on campus.

Student leaders attribute this disparity between community involvement and political engagement to student disinterest and apathy toward Philadelphia’s one-party politics.

“What it comes down to for some people is inertia,” College sophomore and Vice President of Internal Affairs for the GPA Samuel Byers said.

Byers, a former Daily Pennsylvanian staff reporter, is from Bucks County, PA, and chose to vote there for the 2014 elections instead of in Philadelphia.

“I like the idea that in Bucks County, I can cast a vote as a selfdescribed moderate for a candidate from a major party,” with a realistic chance of winning, Byers said.

Philadelphia, like most major urban areas, notoriously bleeds blue. Democrats hold thirteen of the sixteen seats on City Council — which includes two seats given to the minority party by law. The last Republican mayor in Philadelphia was elected in 1948. With 78 percent of registered voters identified as Democrats, that statistic does not look bound to change anytime soon.

Byers admitted to not having “a

NEWS 3

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

huge interest in a lot of the local issues,” but added that Philadelphia’s noncompetitive general elections have not incentivized him to develop an interest in local politics.

“I can vote in the [Philadelphia] primary for a Democrat of one stripe or another, but overall it’s a less competitive election than I would see at home,” he said.

Simon also identified the issue as being rooted in students’ political efficacy. In her view, Penn students have low trust in local governance to substantially affect change.

These students opt for meaningful change on their own terms, through individual service work rather than political activism.

A knowledge gap of local affairs also blocks student involvement in city politics.

“A lot of students don’t see this as their home. They have issues in their own community that they care about more than the issues in Philadelphia,” Byers said.

These issues, often involving complex and monotonous City Council and community ordinances, tend to not capture most students’ attention.

“Let’s say you come from California and you love it, but then you show up in Philadelphia and have a whole new [political] landscape that you have to learn. You’re not invested in it the same way,” Byers said.

Simon is disappointed in this political disengagement because of the greater opportunity to actually enact change on a local level.

“Where we can actually infect change is local policy and Harrisburg. College students won’t be able to affect much change with federal policy,” she said.

An inconvenient primary election date also weakens student involvement in campaigns. The primary election is on Tuesday, May 19, the day after Penn’s Commencement. Most students will have finished up exams a week prior. For student organizers, the primary date poses a major obstacle to enhancing student interest.

“It’s pretty difficult [to attract interest] because the primary is right after graduation,” College sophomore and Penn Democrats Vice President Max Levy said.

Additionally, Penn Leads the Vote — a key student group for increasing voter turnout and awareness on campus — does not organize registration drives for the mayoral primary. The group, which is very active for national elections, does not partake in local turnout drives.

Communicating information to students about local elections is mostly left to the Office of Government and Community Affairs, which does a significant job distributing information for early voting and absentee ballot registration in dining halls and residential areas.

Despite their considerable effort, voter turnout has stagnated in Penn’s voting district. In the 2007

Democratic mayoral primary, 1,910 voters casted ballots in Philadelphia’s 27th Ward, the district encompassing Penn and the surrounding area. In 2011 — Mayor Michael Nutter’s reelection year — that total decreased to just 980 votes.

Choosing Campus Politics Over City Politics In recent years, advocacy groups have focused prominently on campus issues rather than Philadelphia-specific problems.

Penn for Immigrant Rights, a recently formed advocacy group on campus, has reinforced immigrant rights and awareness through communication with Penn’s administration.

“Pushing Penn, as an Ivy League institution, to start developing more sensitive policies helps the whole university network,” College sophomore and a PIR Executive Director Athena Buell Becerra said.

Since its inception in 2012, PIR has advocated for other substantive changes in University policy, specifically with regard to financial aid. Applicants can now use the “askBEN” search engine on the Student Financial Services website to find information specific to undocumented students. Information materials even include a checklist for undocumented prospective students to streamline their application process.

PIR has also made strides in campus dialogue on immigration through offering sensitivity workshops to different campus groups — including The Daily Pennsylvanian — and providing a scholarship to college-bound students in the Philadelphia area.

The group has continued performing service work in the local community, in coordination with groups like Juntos, but has mostly strayed away from political activism in Philadelphia.

“The advocacy work we are doing is not community based. It’s in the Penn administration,” Buell Becerra said.

These “behind the scenes” initiatives complement PIR’s mission to “refocus” itself through campusoriented programs. Often, these initiatives spur great change even if they are not as eye-catching as public protests.

“There’s a lot of great [protests] being done. We don’t necessarily have to be the ones doing it,” Buell Becerra said.

The Student Labor Action Project is foremost among these organizations in their citywide political involvement. SLAP’s yearlong battle for Penn to make Payments in Lieu of Taxes has attracted headlines from across the state. Though voter turnout numbers would suggest generalized student apathy toward local affairs, various student groups have made strides in their issue-specific political outreach.

SLAP has previously advocated for labor rights on campus, most notably in their successful unionization of Penn’s employees in Hillel’s

VOTER TURNOUT Democratic Mayoral Primary

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

78%

2007

1,910 voters in Philadelphia's 27th Ward

2011

980 voters in Philadelphia's 27th Ward

of registered voters in philadelphia are

Source: Philadelphia City Commissioners Falk Dining Commons. This year, however, the group set its sights on the PILOTs issue, which involves Penn’s role in addressing the massive funding deficit in the local school district.

As a nonprofit, Penn is exempt from paying property taxes under state law. In lieu of these taxes, which normally go to the school district, Penn has been asked to make voluntary payments to the district instead.

While SLAP has not changed the administration’s opposition to PILOTs, their frequent protests — including a high-profile sit-in at Penn President Amy Gutmann’s holiday party — have attracted a response from the city government.

Last month, the City Council approved a resolution calling for “mega-nonprofits” in the city to pay PILOTs with an overwhelming 15-1 vote. While the resolution is nonbinding, it brought the PILOTs issue to the forefront of the policy agenda.

SLAP members were involved in helping Penn alum and Councilman W. Wilson Goode form the resolution, and one SLAP member, College sophomore Devan Spear, even testified in favor of PILOTs in front of the Council.

However, in their direct political dialogue with city government, SLAP proves generally the exception among most campus political groups, who focus their issue advocacy on campus or with national issues.

With SLAP moving toward Philadelphia-specific outreach and PIR mostly focusing on Penn and higher education, other groups continue to struggle balancing issue advocacy with generalized political engagement.

Penn Democrats, who have hosted four mayoral candidates this semester, see a vital importance to local elections.

“When people get the opportunity to engage in the community, there’s a lot of positive feedback there,” Levy, the Penn Dems Vice President, said.

Penn Dems even visited a local high school to promote voting and speak about the importance of local

advisory, the suspect fits the characteristics described in an advisory sent on Friday, warning of a suspect described by three female victims as a 5’7” or 5’8” man in his 30s or 40s. The women each reported being harassed between 38th and 40th Streets near Spruce

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The advisory noted that the arrested suspect is also connected to two other assaults mentioned in the original message that occurred outside of the Penn Patrol Zone. Penn Police will continue to work with Philadelphia Police on the case.

KATE JEON | NEWS DESIGN EDITOR

elections.

“In a very bipartisan sense, we talk about why it’s important to vote,” Levy said.

In past years, the support of Penn Dems has even spurred a mayoral candidate’s campaign. In 2007, the group was one of the first organizations to endorse Nutter for mayor.

Nutter, who visited on behalf of Penn Dems earlier in the semester, expressed his gratitude for their early support.

The group has not yet endorsed a candidate for mayor this year, though they plan to do so sometime soon.

The Divide Between Advocacy and Action From an outsider perspective, there hardly seems to be a problem with political engagement at Penn. Just last week, Students Organizing for Unity and Liberation staged a protest on College Green due to the University’s closing of the Africa Center while SLAP led a march around campus to support the PILOTs cause.

These issue-oriented groups prominently make their missions known across campus, yet student voters support of local candidates who also champion these issues is lacking.

Advocacy groups often prefer to champion their own issues rather than trust politicians to do it for them.

“By their very nature, social advocacy groups have to paint things in black and white,” Simon, the president of GPA, said.

These groups often rally behind singular causes, which end up being one of dozens of issues elected officials have to worry about.

“It’s not that those issues are

unimportant, it may [just] not be the highest priority [for elected officials],” Simon added.

For students devoted to a specific cause, lobbying compromise-friendly politicians may not be their option of choice.

“It’s not as sexy to compromise,” she said.

Disconnect between ward politics and campus issues accentuates the electoral divide.

“Rarely is there a connection between what’s going on in the ward and what’s going on in campus. It doesn’t exist,” College senior Kelly Stine said.

Stine, who is a Democratic committee person in Philadelphia ‘s 27th Ward, Division 9, ran for elected office at age 20 with little electoral competition.

“I was elected with 13 votes. I think we had a total of 20 voters at our polling place when I was elected,” Stine said.

Through her duties as committee person, Stine facilitates problems with people in her division and assists the Ward Leader with get out the vote tactics. Convincing her peers at Penn to vote has gotten considerably more difficult.

“If more than 20 Penn students showed up to vote for a particular candidate or referendum, that would sway our entire division,” she said.

If campus groups brought their issues directly to the ward, Stine thinks greater political change would be possible.

“That’s the coolest thing about local politics — you can actually make a direct difference,” she said.

If Penn students want to “engage with purpose,” embracing local politics may be the next step.

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4

OPINION This isn’t jeopardy

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015 VOL. CXXXI, NO. 50 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 | Reconsidering the rhetoric of safety

O

n Monday of last week, conservative writer David Horowitz gave a speech on Israel at the University of North Carolina during which he claimed that two U.S.-based pro-Palestinian campus groups, the Muslim Students Association and Students for Justice in Palestine, had connections to the Muslim Brotherhood.

I have absolutely no idea whether or not that’s true or even supportable. What I do know is that a number of students who objected to Horowitz’s comments began a social media campaign around the slogan “Not Safe UNC” which, through a tumblr page, published — among other things — claims that Horowitz’s comments, because they made Muslim students feel targeted and marginalized, represented a threat to those students’ safety at the school.

I only heard about the incident by following a link from an unrelated article, and I probably wouldn’t have given

it much thought except that I had noticed a slideshow in the ARCH building earlier that day which featured pictures of a number of students and quotations from them about “[their] safe space at Penn.”

I’d seen references to

nology for this conversation. I don’t doubt that students sometimes do experience intense and sincere negative emotional reactions to ideas which contradict or defy their own deeply held beliefs. Such emotional discomfort, however, doesn’t

Destruction and suppression of controversial ideas, however, is absolutely antithetical to everything a university stands for.” safety in academia twice in a few hours and now it was on my mind. I remembered that students who advocate for socalled “trigger warnings” when potentially offensive material will be covered in classes often talk about safety in the classroom. Half an hour’s Googling reveals instances in which students who oppose a speaker’s position claim that their views make a campus unsafe are far from a rarity.

I can’t help but think that the language of safety and unsafety just isn’t the right termi-

rise to the level of a threat to life or limb, which is the inevitable implication when we say that something is unsafe.

Moreover, attaching rhetoric of unsafety to ideas which offend suggests that the proper reaction to such ideas is suppression or removal. After all, when a playground is unsafe for children, we tear it down.

When a person is a threat to public safety, we incarcerate them. These are appropriate reactions to dangerous people and things.

Destruction and suppres-

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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.

Society for the Extermination of Short People on campus advocating immediate violence against specific demographic groups on Locust, we’d have a somewhat different set of concerns, but that isn’t really what we’re dealing with right now.

Punch “Brandenburg Test” into Google if you want my opinion on how to deal with these things. Quiz next week.

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

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TALL, SKINNY, MOCHA | What varying reactions to culture reveal

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ity to challenge deeply held beliefs about right and wrong, truth and falsehood. If David Horowitz believes he has evidence linking SJP and MSA to the Muslim Brotherhood, academic integrity itself requires that UNC hear him out and examine his arguments critically.

The notion that such a process represents a danger, and the accompanying implication that it should be suppressed, has no more place on a college campus than the Torquemadean idea that we should ban scientists from looking into microscopes

to try to better understand the structure of matter, lest what they find contradict our beliefs.

If some spaces on campus are safe and others unsafe, the implication again seems to be destructive. Unsafety is danger, and danger is to be eliminated.

I sincerely hope that those who talk about safe spaces on campus don’t wish to see all other spaces homogenized or obliterated. As such, perhaps it’s time to reconsider the vocabulary of safety as it relates to ideas that hurt our feelings. If certain organizations have a particular ideological bent, that’s fine.

But it’s improper, in an academic context, for any group to suggest that those who don’t subscribe to its ideals represent a threat to the community’s safety.

A final note: Explicit advocacy of violence directed against specific individuals or groups is really not what I’m talking about here, but it seems I should address it, since I’ve broached the subject of dangerous ideas. If there were a Revolutionary Marxist Club or a

The double standard of culture

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sion of controversial ideas, however, is absolutely antithetical to everything a university stands for. Critical inquiry and intellectual progress toward truth — the philosophical cornerstones of the academic endeavor — demand the abil-

SAM SHERMAN is a College junior from Marblehead, Mass. His email address is samsherman6@gmail.com.

Restoring the Voting Rights Act

O

GUEST COLUMN BY ZAKYA HALL

n Aug. 6, 1965, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, thereby helping to eliminate a century of voter intimidation and discriminatory tactics, such as poll taxes and literacy tests. After a hard-fought battle in which civil rights activists bled and died, the right to vote became a reality for black Americans.

The impact of this law cannot be overstated. Within four years of its passage, voter registration in the South doubled.

This transformative legislation not only upended discriminatory practices, but also required jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting to receive “preclearance” from the federal government before enacting any proposed changes to voting procedures. But on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, the right to vote is still under attack in this country.

In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the section of the law identifying the states requiring preclearance in the Shelby County v. Holder decision. The majority opinion stated that the existing formula “kept the focus on decades-old data relevant to decades-old problems, rather than current data reflecting current needs.” Sadly, this contention that these problems are a thing of the past is erroneous.

To this day, state legislatures in the former preclearance states continue to introduce measures that restrict access to the ballot, including — but not limited to — voter ID laws as well as restrictions on early voting and same-day registration. These policies disproportionately affect lower-income

citizens and communities of color, the very people that the Voting Rights Act was designed to protect. It is unconscionable that we are still fighting for the right to vote in 2015.

Because the right to vote remains elusive for countless Americans, preclearance is still necessary to prevent disenfranchisement. On the same day of the Court’s 2013 decision, Texas announced that it would enact a voter ID law that had previously been blocked under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Furthermore, scholar J. Morgan Kousser plainly rejected the majority’s assertion that the old formula was no longer applicable. In his study of more than 4,100 voting-rights cases and proceedings from 1957 to 2013 concerning impediments to minority political participation, he found that over 90 percent of these events occurred in jurisdictions that were required to preclear their voting changes.

In the Court’s Shelby decision, Chief Justice John Roberts encouraged members of Congress to enact new legislation based on current conditions. In light of evidence such as that which Kousser presented and the regressive policies implemented in states such as Texas since the 2013 ruling, Penn Democrats urges Congress to reinstate the original formula that was overturned. Moreover, we implore Congress to remain vigilant of any new jurisdictions that attempt to limit voting rights.

Unfortunately, Republicans in the House and Senate have refused to restore the Voting Rights Act, which once received overwhelming bipartisan support. As recently as 2006, Congress nearly unani-

mously voted to reauthorize the law for another 25 years. And when President Bush signed the reauthorization bill into law, he declared unequivocally, “My administration will vigorously enforce the provisions of this law, and we will defend it in court.” Furthermore, this March, more than 20 Republicans visited Selma to honor the bravery and courage of the men and women who fought for the right to vote. Republicans should once again join with Democrats to honor these heroes by restoring preclearance and protecting the right to vote.

The right to vote is sacrosanct in the United States, and the attack on voting rights is a fundamental threat to American democracy. It is imperative that our elected officials fully restore the Voting Rights Act in order to ensure that every American has a say in our democracy.

Although we no longer live in 1965, ignoring the ways in which racial discrimination still serves as a barrier to the ballot is both naive and wrong. Will we continue to accept a system that silences the voices of those who need to be heard most?

When marching for equal rights in Washington in 1963, Martin Luther King urged national leaders to respond to the call for racial justice with “the fierce urgency of now.” Today, Penn students must call on Congress to heed King’s call. Let’s restore the Voting Rights Act, and let’s do it now.

ZAKYA HALL is a College sophomore studying Hispanic studies and political science. Her email address is zakyah@sas. upenn.edu.

id you go to holly last we e kend?” my friend asked on a Monday morning. I had just seen his recently updated profile picture while scrolling through my Facebook News Feed. It showed him with his arm around his girlfriend’s waist, both wearing white shirts and both covered in some kind of colored powder.

I have celebrated Holi (pronounced the same as “holy”) my entire life and considered it a great privilege that Penn was tolerant enough to sponsor a campuswide celebration where people from all walks of life participated in the festivities. However — and I didn’t realize this until the event was already over — I was slightly annoyed that it was taken out of its spiritual context, possibly in an effort to draw a bigger and more diverse audience.

Thinking about cultural appropriation as it affects

more superficial reasons, but as an Indian American, there are so many examples of cultural exchange that has led to conflict that I have been almost desensitized to it.

Following celebrities on Twitter is often a great way to observe some cultural clashes playing out in real time. Is Katy Perry racist for incorporating Japanese themes into her concerts?

Should Iggy Azalea and Eminem not be allowed to win music awards in the rap category? Does Selena Gomez have the right to wear a bindi on her forehead?

I asked Amanda Martinez, a Wharton sophomore, about her thoughts on Iggy Azalea. While she doesn’t identify with hip-hop culture, she said, “I never saw Iggy Azalea as someone who tried to take a group’s culture. There’s a difference between exploiting and celebrating a cultural tradition.

But I can see how it might be hard to recognize that difference.”

The answers are far from

RAVI JAIN make this their own, white dominance and cultural appropriation become an extension of slavery. People’s cultures are shunned, but when other people make money off it then it’s not right.”

To return to the bindi example, an Indian-American woman wearing a bindi and shopping for groceries might be criticized for not acculturating, whereas the same bindi on the forehead of a white woman might be perceived as edgy or even fashionable. What Justin was alluding to was not an issue of a lack of cross-cultural understanding, but the

It is difficult to disentangle when exactly exchange becomes oppression, but what seems clear to me is that cultural appropriation itself is not the issue.”

my life brings up more questions than I expected. It is a complex topic because of the way it has been handled and regarded over time, and how it has impacted the lives of marginalized minority communities.

Tina Lulla, a College sophomore, is optimistic about Holi being celebrated on campus, and more broadly speaking, the mainstream adoption of some Indian cultural ideas such as yoga and even vegetarianism.

However, she suggested that “[The Hindu Student Council] should have given a fiveminute introduction to what Holi is so that people actually know why they’re throwing colors around, other than just to get cool photos for Facebook.”

I am definitely among those who celebrate Holi for

clear. However, I do think the ideal version of cultural exchange is quite different from what actually happens.

It is difficult to disentangle when exactly exchange becomes oppression, but what seems clear to me is that cultural appropriation itself is not the issue. It is simply a revealing symptom of a larger, more pervasive presence of racism that manifests in various ways.

Justin Malone, a Wharton senior, agrees to an extent, but feels more strongly about the kind of oppression that cultural appropriation reinforces. “I think the problem with Iggy Azalea is that she’s from Australia and does not talk the way she raps. People think she’s trying to rap or spit verses in a way that isn’t authentic.

The problem is when people

fact that often times cultural ideas can only become mainstream if a white audience adopts them.

I find it incredibly gratifying that I can share cultural traditions and values with other people in this setting.

However, the idea that culture can be imported without acknowledging its origins is more problematic. In this salad bowl of backgrounds, we should try to be conscious of the ways in which we appropriate culture and perpetuate ideas about it as well.

RAVI JAIN is a College sophomore from Syosset, N.Y., studying economics.

His email address is jainravi@sas.upenn.edu.

“Tall, Skinny, Mocha” appears every other Wednesday.

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New Critical Writing Seminar to premiere next fall Writing Seminar would combine academics and community involvement JILL MOELY Staff Reporter

Two Penn students have taken their coursework beyond the classroom and put a new spin on the Critical Writing Seminar in the process.

College junior Dan Eder and College sophomore Sophia Witte are making their research proposal for a new Academically Based Community Service course into an actual class starting next fall. Last year, the two worked together on a research proposal for the ABCS seminar “Urban-University Community Relations.”

Their assignment was to create a program that combines academics and community involvement.

Along with one other student they presented the concept of a writing seminar course that will incorporate a community service aspect.

“Through theoretical research and practical work on the project, they learned a great deal, and I was very impressed and pleased,” course professor and Director of the Netter Center Ira Harkavy said.

But the two didn’t stop there — the hypothetical writing seminar slowly became a reality even after the course ended. Through a partnership with the Critical Writing Program, the College of Arts and Sciences’ Dean’s Advisory Board, and the Netter Center, they developed the idea further.

The course, which will be offered in the fall, adopts the normal Critical Writing Seminar format with a community-focused twist: each week, students will spend one

FLING

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the Penn Police. Thursday night was the most active night for complaints and Saturday was the slowest, according to DPS. Several guest riders also joined Penn Police in patrolling the area this year, including representatives from Penn Athletics, Student Heath Services, The Vice Provost of University Life’s office and various other resource center directors.

DPS found no damage inside of the Quadrangle this Fling, and reported that the Quad was more quiet than usual this year.

Several phone thefts were reported Thursday night from a party at the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity house. Other than that incident, however, there were no criminal offenses reported on campus in conjunction with

NEWS 5

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

hour acting as college counselors in West Philadelphia high schools.

This component of the class is coordinated with the Netter Center’s existing college coaching program.

Besides benefiting college-bound teenagers in West Philadelphia high schools, the class will allow Penn students to apply their experiences to coursework.

When drafting writing seminar staples such as the justificatory and explanatory essays, students can use anecdotal evidence and observations from their community service time to support arguments in place of additional scholarly works.

Witte, a Daily Pennsylvanian staff reporter, and Eder, a former DP staff member, both say this method will bring additional meaning to a course that can seem sometimes formulaic and pointless to some students.

“A lot of people hated the writing seminar,” Witte said. “I didn’t love every assignment, but I really cared about the content of the course. I believe this will be an opportunity for students to not only enjoy the content of their course, but also have a more enriching experience as they integrate their experiences in the community into their work.”

“A lot of the exercises seem kind of meaningless,” Eder added. “But if you can apply them to outside work that you’re doing, they fit very nicely.”

Witte says the course also addresses another problem: the lack of Penn student involvement within the surrounding West Philadelphia community.

“We don’t think that enough Penn students are engaged with the local community,” Witte said.

“There are opportunities to apply academics and just their own personal interests to helping the community.”

Given this focus, the development of a course that targets mostly freshmen is key: As a traditional first-year course, this Critical Writing Seminar introduces students to the format of ABCS courses early in their academic career at Penn.

“A lot of students don’t hear about these opportunities until they’re juniors and seniors, but they’re leaving,” Witte said. “The best idea we had for that is really targeting freshman, and I think the writing seminar is perfect for that.”

Although the hybrid seminar is new, its student and faculty creators say this course will continue after the initial semester next fall.

According to Witte, the Critical Writing Program is tentatively planning to use the pilot seminar as a model for a range of similar courses.

“The first time is always a test, you learn from it — how much sense it makes, what the problems are, what needs to change, what should remain the same,” Harkavy said. “Certainly, this is the pilot run; it’s the first time through it, so we’ll be learning. But the expectation is this will be the first of a sustained, ongoing course in writing.”

As this seminar continues to evolve, the developers of the ABCS-component course hope that Penn students will continue to engage with their community on greater scale.

“It’s a great way to kind of expose freshman students to all of the opportunities to engage civically within the community right when they get here,” Witte said.

Fling.

Rush said DPS, the Philadelphia Police Department and the BLCE were aware that various Fling parties were to occur downtown this year, but DPS did not hear any negative reports from the PPD or the BLCE concerning these events.

“We can’t thank MERT enough for their help,” Rush said.

“And, I’d like to thank the students for listening.”

Rush warned that students cannot climb onto the rooftops of houses during parties because of the City of Philadelphia Licenses and Inspections Safety Code that forbids individuals from going onto rooftops unless there is a certain height fence surrounding the roof.

She recalled that one year during Temple University’s own Spring Fling, a female student on a rooftop took a step back to take

a picture of her friend, and she fell off of the rooftop backwards and did not survive her injuries.

“They don’t have Spring Fling anymore because of that,” Rush said. “Alcohol and rooftops without a fence do not mix.”

THE 55

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Rain Location: Houston Hall, Bistro

April 8 Paul Rozin

Professor of Psychology

Why Do Some Oppose Genetically Modified Foods?

April 15 Masao Sako

Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy

The Origin of the Elements

April 22 Jonathan Moreno David and Lyn Silfen University Professor of Ethics

Impromptu Man

April 29 Paul Saint-Amour

Associate Professor of English

The World Has Raised its Whip; Where Will It Descend?

Got a ? e t u n i m Watch past lectures online at www.sas.upenn.edu/60second

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

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SAYID ABDULLAEV

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

DENZEL CUMMINGS

theDP.com/pennten

FREDA ZHAO | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

He came to America with $30 and with a wealth of knowledge JESS MCDOWELL Deputy News Editor

College senior Sayid Abdullaev perches in his chair in the Penn Bookstore and smiles to himself.

His red button-up dotted with tiny white anchors has the collar elegantly tucked in, and his black tweed blazer is frayed at the edges.

Altogether, he gives off an aura of casual sophistication, as though his perfectly coordinated look was randomly thrown together from his closet.

He greets me with a warm, personable grin. He gestures excitedly, ready to begin his story. But there’s something about the way he looks around, the way he looks at me — even though he has a story to share, it’s almost as though he is more interested in hearing mine.

“So, where do I begin?” he says, mostly to himself. “I feel like it’s hard, because there are so many beginnings to my life. It’s like a big puzzle, and I don’t see the whole picture yet, but every piece is beautiful. I just have to piece them together.”

And that’s perhaps the best description of Sayid’s life. “I’ve had a series of defining moments, if that makes sense,” he explains.

The first puzzle piece Born in Kyrgyzstan, Sayid and his family are Uyghurs, an ethnic minority that has historically been persecuted throughout the country.

His mother worked at a food truck, and his father was a shepherd and a driver.

He speaks especially fondly of his mother. “She worked 24-7. She never had time for anyone else,” he says with a mixture of adoration and sadness. “Hard work, commitment and kindness — I feel like she really braided those qualities in to me.”

Sayid was active in school growing up, receiving what he remembers as “every award imaginable.” He was crowned valedictorian of his high school, despite sometimes struggling to

pay for school. When his older she was going to die and that there brother, Anvar, graduated, he was nothing I could do about it ... began working to help Sayid pay that was the hardest day of my life I think.” for his books.

A year after Sayid’s return “We’re very different, me and my brother. He’s very into sports; home, his mother died. “Her last I loved school and community ser- words to me were, ‘Sayid, a you vice,” Sayid says. “But he always are my gift to the world, and I am so proud of you,’ and that has supported me, no matter what.”

In the midst of school, Sayid really driven me,” he said. “She started his own non-profit called was giving me permission to be Youth for Peace, an organi- myself.”

But his mother’s illness wasn’t zation devoted to promoting leadership opportunities among the only trauma Sayid endured young people. He also worked for a while back in Kyrgyzstan. “I had project called Kids for Kids, where done some modeling and had he helped children with disabili- grown my hair out when I was in ties gain opportunities for social the U.S. In Kyrgyzstan, it isn’t okay entrepreneurship, learning and for men to have long hair,” he explains. “I started leadership. get ting deat h After learning threats. That’s to speak English when I knew that I from a group of It's like a big couldn’t stay there Peace Corps volpuzzle, and — I had to leave.” unteers, Sayid I don't see His time in received an offer the whole Kyrgyzstan came from the U.S. with a silver lining, State Department picture yet, but though. The day to come study in every piece is of his mother’s America. Sayid arbeautiful. I just funeral, he came rived in the United ” have to piece home to an accepStates and was them together. tance letter from placed with a host family in Arizona - Sayid Adbullaev Penn — an offer he didn’t hesitate to attend school.

There, he was named a Global to accept.

“There was nothing left for me Teen Leader by the organization Three Dot Dash and received an there. I couldn’t breathe,” he said.

Sayid returned to the United award for excellence in global activism before moving on to attend States emaciated and broken.

“Dave and Monica picked me up the College of Southern Idaho.

“It was hard being there. I was at the airport,” he said, referring to working three or four jobs and still his current host parents, Dave and living on like $400 per month,” Monica Willard. “I still didn’t have Sayid said. “I originally received a visa, so I essentially became an a full scholarship from the U.S. undocumented.”

“When he got off that plane, he embassy, but when I got there, they cut my scholarship by 80 percent. was just devastating. He weighed I ran for the student senate to help like 80 pounds,” Monica Willard said. “I honestly don’t even know me pay for it.”

But Sayid’s journey in the how he lifted his suitcase.”

Sayid went back to his original United States was about to be cut short. After being in Idaho for a host family in Arizona for a few short time, he had to return to Kyr- months before coming back to stay gyzstan to take care of his mother, with the Willards. “That summer, he got here as a caterpillar, but he who had fallen severely ill. emerged as a fragile but beautiful butterfly,” Monica Willard said.

Peace from the broken pieces Sayid and Willard first con“That was probably the hardest time in my life,” Sayid says, for the nected through an organization first time his perfect composure Sayid works with called Miracle cracking a little. “Knowing that Corners of the World, a nonprofit

FREDA ZHAO | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

that works to “empower youth to become positive agents of change in their communities,” according to their website.

“That’s when I realized that my story wasn’t about surviving. It is about thriving,” Sayid said. Now, he is a mixture of calm and confidence. “I have a very spiritual connection with myself. I know that even if I fall, I will build my own wings.”

‘Coming to own who he was’ But he didn’t always have those wings. Sayid’s return to the United States was accompanied by another major change in his life.

“Growing up, I had always felt different,” he said. “I started discovering who I was in terms of sexuality, which was hard because I was growing up in an environment where being gay is a sin, and teachers tell you it’s a disability.”

“I knew I was different, but I didn’t have the vocabulary to explain it. I just knew there was no one else like me,” Sayid said.

“I used to pray for the pain to go away, but I didn’t want to give up. I didn’t want the pain to define me.”

Sayid came out to Willard and other friends and family members in the United States when he returned after his mother’s death.

“It was honestly pretty evident to me,” Willard said. I never saw it as anything more than him coming to own who he was.”

Sayid feels some sorrow that he did not have the chance to come out to his mother before she died.

“Probably my biggest regret is that I never got my mother’s blessing, but I feel like she knew,” he says with a hint of fondness in his voice.

“She always told me that I was special and that she would love me no matter what.”

Today, Sayid has still not come out to his brother or his father in Kyrgyzstan, but he suspects they have probably figured it out. “I mean, it’s kind of obvious. We’ve just never had a conversation about it,” he chuckles.

Coming out was not Sayid’s only concern when he came back to the United States — he only had $30 to his name.

“So many people actually came to this country with nothing — at least I had $30, right?” he says so confidently.

While he might have been able to afford a Penn hat or T-shirt, there was no way his $30 would cover the cost of a Penn education.

“I had received this letter of acceptance from Penn, but I wasn’t able to apply for financial aid because I was undocumented,” Sayid explained.

Through a series of private scholarships and donations from friends and family on a GoFundMe page, Sayid essentially crowdsourced his entire education.

“I felt ashamed here at Penn for doing that,” Sayid admits. “Everyone here is so fucking rich. I was like, ‘What am I even doing here?

Do I even belong?’”

“Then I realized I’m also fucking rich — I’m rich in knowledge and experience, and I’m going to own it,” he says with a mixture of ferocity and laughter.

With his tuition paid, Sayid got to stay at Penn, where he is now a successful student studying political science. “I’m an OK student I guess. I’m working on my thesis right now,” he shrugs, almost

bored by what many students con- come as one, but I stand as thousider their biggest achievement in sands’ by Maya Angelou.” college.

For his friends at Penn, this is Sayid’s true talent — getting to Finding asylum know people, unfolding their stoWhile most other students were ries and becoming their friends. juggling classes and extracurricu“Sayid is one of the most suplars, Sayid was doing something portive people I’ve ever met,” said else unique. “It was at Penn that I College senior and fellow APO began the process of applying for brother Mike D’Antonio. “He’s political asylum,” he said, noting always there. If you’re having a that he was the only Penn student hard time or a bad day, whenever to be going through the process at you need him, he makes time for the time. you.”

Sayid sought asylum because he Sgarro agreed. “We joke that he risked persecution in Kyrgyzstan ‘doesn’t even go here,’ because he due to his ethnic and sexual iden- travels so much,” she said, quottity. Last week, his case was finally ing the iconic line from the movie approved by the State Department, “Mean Girls.” “But even when he’s he explains, clapping his hands gone, we’re constantly talking.” together excitedly, the happiness evident in his eyes.

I-M-Possible “When I got that letter, I just lost As a friend, Sayid is selfless it,” he said. “I had always known I and inspiring. “He reminded me belonged, and now I had the docu- of the truly beautiful things in mentation to prove it.” the world,” said Roberta Richin, After going through the process a board member for Miracle Corof applying for asylum, Sayid de- ners of the World and Sayid’s cided to do something to transform mentor. “He has been put on this the process. Along with College path, populated by monsters and senior Katie Sgarro, he is currently angels and huge challenges, and working on a database called he’s been protected, in my view, Asylum Connect to help LGBT po- by his own moral compass.” litical asylum seekers find material “The unique thing about my resources when they arrive in the story,” he says, pondering for a United States. moment, “is that I have been able “We found great mentorship in to survive everything and do all of Dr. Hocine Fetni who has expertise these different things.” in international law and we also Sayid has big goals for the spoke with professor Fernando future. He tells me about his plans Chang-Muy from the Law School,” for a book about all of these stoSgarro said. The duo unsuccess- ries he’s discovered, and about fully submitted their project to the his dreams to be the Secretary President’s Engagement Prizes this General of the United Nations one year, but they are still moving for- day. I find myself believing it — ward with the proposal. all of it.

“We feel that this issue is too im“It’s not impossible, it’s ‘I am portant to ignore,” Sgarro added. possible,’” he says, explaining one Outside of his partnership with of his personal mottos.

Sgarro, Sayid is also working “He’s an incredibly forward with College senior Ariel Koren looking individual,” said Linda to develop his Barsik, a friend own line of Beats who Sayid conheadphones and siders his sister. It shades that he I used to pray for was Barsik who calls Bloque the took Sayid to visit the pain to go Hate, the proceeds Penn for the first away, but I didn't of which will go to time. want to give up. supporting home“I think the imless LGBT youth, portant thing to I didn't want the and he is also curremember about pain to define rently working Sayid is that none me. ” with teams of teleof this has been - Sayid Abdullaev vision producers easy,” Willard in Los Angeles to said. create his own TV show.

Sayid’s life coach Rebecca On top of all this, Sayid serves Arnold agreed. “He has sensias a Youth Ambassador to the tivities deep inside him, but he’s United Nations and regularly doing something about it,” she gives speeches at their headquar- said. “He’s managed to flip that ters in New York City and around equation and turn those sensithe world. He is also currently the tivities into something really United Religions Initiative Youth powerful.”

Representative to the United NaAnd powerful is perhaps the tions and was named a Point best word to describe Sayid today.

Scholar last year.

“He is a force,” Arnold said. “It is When Sayid isn’t busy attend- so of his being to make positive ing conferences or giving keynote change in this world — it’s just so speeches, he enjoys being a typi- viscerally of him.” cal college student. He gushes “He is destined for greatness about Shonda Rhimes, the creator and nothing will stand in the way of ABC shows “Grey’s Anatomy,” of that,” Barsik agreed.

“Scandal” and “How to Get Away Willard, with the heart of a with Murder,” and he spouts Oprah truly proud mother, also agreed. quotes without even blinking. He “I’m just so incredibly lucky and is a member of Penn’s national ser- fortunate to be in his life and on vice fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, this journey with him.”

Sayid, who will graduate in and maintains a large circle of May, is beginning his plans for friends.

“I’ve always known that my life his life after Penn. “I have really mission is to help people unfold big dreams,” he said, recalling his their stories — and what an amaz- favorite quote from the poem, “Ining gift that is. This will help me victus.”

“I am the master of my fate: I get there,” he says confidently.

“One of my favorite quotes is, ‘I am the captain of my soul.”

NEWS 7

OLLY LIU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Denzel hopesCummings to serve colAs Denzel lects diploma as a his voice for this the spring, he’ll leave behind an important legacy disenfranchised ITAQUASSUM QUI NE ex eum explia simus ra

from his work over the last four years.

First and foremost, it is a legacy of empowerment and compassion. To friends and loved ones, Denzel is a symbol: when a Penn student finds their unique voice, they can use it to become an effective advocate for social change.

“Over the last few years, Denzel has emerged as one of the more thoughtful and intentional leaders on our campus,” said Charles Howard, the University Chaplain. “He presents a kind of contemplative activism that really has been a model for his peers.”

Amongst Denzel’s closest friends, he is recognized for his “superior command on benevolence and altruism,” Jelani Hayes said. “I truly believe that this University, and especially the black community at Penn, has been uplifted by not only his activism and tangible contributions but by the warmth with which he surrounds his friends.”

But Denzel’s story is not without struggle, and it explains how he came to acquire such admiration from others. A lot has changed since he arrived on Penn’s campus as a quiet, shy boy who grew up in rural North Carolina.

From Canada to compromise The injustices Denzel experienced in his upbringing catalyzed his desire to affect social change.

He was born in Toronto, Canada, where his parents had moved from Guyana to give him a better life. The Cummings then moved to Laurinburg, N.C., where Denzel attended a predominantly white high school. His father described him as someone who would spend his vacations studying, and Denzel soon found himself rising through the ranks into the academically gifted classes.

Denzel was ranked second in

the class in his junior year. But for minority students accepted when the school realized that he to Penn just before Quaker days, was in the running to become Denzel did everything in his valedictorian, the administration power to negotiate a compromise.

He was successful, saving banned him from pursuing AP classes, Denzel said. The reason something for students who was not disclosed, but to Denzel, would never have known what it was evident that the institu- they missed. It was then that tion did not want to see a person Denzel realized he could influof color triumph academically ence decisions concerning the rights of others on a grander above an entire class.

At such a young age, Denzel scale. Denzel was appointed had come face to face with ex- as co-chair of UMOJA, and ternal structural inequalities, in his junior spring he learned a lot about limiting him how to run a in a way that system behind was out of his the s c e n e s. c o nt r ol.

To He was conchallenge this, Don't be afraid stantly being he transferred challenged to to another high to ask for things. common school, where Don't be afraid to find ground between he did become tell people what the 30 odd orva ledictor ia n. ganizations that The transition you want and UMOJA repreand the reason desire. Because sents. Forced to for it was devfind common when you tell a st at i ng for themes beDenzel, but he people what you tween different looks back on want, people will p e r s p e c t ive s , it as a source of u nwaveralways be willing Denzel gained a set of skills that ing motivation to help you. ” would prove to to change the - Denzel Cummings be invaluable in system. ways he could “As a result of the negative impact of injus- not have imagined.

In hindsight, it was easy to see tice on my community in rural North Carolina, I have decided just how Denzel put these skills to tirelessly pursue justice for the to strategic use. That summer of underrepresented and the disen- 2014 would call upon each and every of his capacities. Denzel franchised,” he said.

Denzel was given this opportu- was at a conference in Boston nity when he left North Carolina when he heard about the incident with a handful of Ivy League of Michael Brown’s death in Feracceptances under his belt, in- guson, Mo. He attended a panel that featured Charles Blow, the cluding one from Penn.

After joining the Society for New York Times op-ed columnist the Pre-Law Students of Color who pulled no punches: the issue as a recording correspondent, of race was alive in America.

Denzel heard about UMOJA, the umbrella organization that unites ‘The path you need to take’ Undoubtedly, one of Denzel’s the African Diaspora groups on Penn’s campus. He went on an greatest and most timely achieveUMOJA retreat and was soon ments was his response to the elected to the admissions team to outrage over Michael Brown’s represent the interests of colored death: he played an integral part in the formation of the Black students.

This position was his first op- Ivy Coalition on Sept. 21, 2014. portunity to be an activist. When Signed by two leaders from each Penn’s Office of Admissions of the eight Ivy League schools, planned to cut the Multicultural the Black Ivy Coalition’s declaraScholars Preview, a day of events tion that Denzel helped to write

and sign is a straightforward, direct critique of the current system.

It began as a lengthy op-ed piece between Denzel and his contemporaries at other Ivy League schools who were keen to add their voices in the heat of the moment. Despite their differences in geography and institutions, Denzel identified their common agenda of solving systematic oppression. From his work at UMOJA, he helped to show his Ivy League contemporaries how small individual differences could be put aside for the broader goal of positive change.

With this, they realized, they could conduct large-scale political activism. They joined forces and firmly supported the REDEEM Act, which aimed to seal records of people who committed non-violent crimes.

Most importantly for Denzel, the Black Ivy Coalition unites the civil rights activists of this generation and is backed by the rationale of the nation’s brightest and best-educated students.

“It is now time for our generation to lead the movement against injustices toward people of color in the 21st century,” the declaration’s tagline reads. The piece itself highlights their agreement to use “awareness campaigns, peaceful marches and legislative proposals” “to address this systemic problem and incite change in the current national policy of viewing black people solely as instruments of fear and violence.” It conveys the group’s indifference to the work of current leaders such as Rev. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and President Barack Obama.

Crucially, the Black Ivy Coalition demonstrates Denzel’s wholehearted belief that the civil rights movement is not over.

Denzel stressed that sometimes the graveness of the situation forces one to take a firm stance.

He said, “it may be the path that is less traveled, but if you want to do something about these issues, it is the path you need to take.” Then he offered reassuringly, with a smile, “Don’t be afraid to ask

OLLY LIU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

representing and advocating for disenfranchised juveniles of color and low-income communities. He wants to jump on widely publicized issues such as the school-to-prison pipeline and the shocking rates of incarceration in the criminal justice system.

“I want to be an advocate for people of color or individuals who are from impoverished communities,” he conveyed firmly.

“Ultimately, I hope this leads to me running for Congress one day.”

Talking to him, one understands his desire to enter challenging spaces like deathrow prisons in Alabama. He Ubuntu believes that in order to compreFollowing the university-wide hend the issue you want to tackle, concern about student mental you have to occupy those spaces. health in the spring of 2014, Immediately after graduation, Denzel spearheaded the creation Denzel is working in education and implementation of the “My policy through the Emerson NaSafe Space at Penn” campaign. tional Hunger Fellowship. In Working closely with Vice Pro- partnership with Penn’s Netter vost for University Life Valerie Center for Community PartCade McCoullum in Denzel’s nerships, the program involves junior year, the advocacy for initiative adverspaces on tised on-campus Capitol H ill networks for like the Senate students coping Committee on I want to be an with weighing Health, Educaissues. They tion, Labor and advocate for created a video Pensions. This people of color to engage stuis the next step or individuals dents with the in his journey work at the of advocacy and who are from Greenfield is his chance to impoverished I ntercult u ra l enter the spaces C e n t e r, La communities. that he hopes to Casa Latina, work in during Ultimately, I the LGBT law school. hope this leads C e nt e r, the D en z el is Black Cultural grateful for his to me running Center Makuu, time at Penn for Congress the Pan-Asian and its opporone day. ” American Comt u n it ie s; he munity House feels “blessed,” - Denzel Cummings he said, beand Penn Women’s Center. cause “[Penn] Denzel’s collaboration in this has brought so many interestproject exhibits his broad vision ing people into my life, who I of community and the impor- constantly learn from.” But he, tance he places on common in turn, has brightened the lives humanity. He is empathetic and of many people here. When he’s sees all human beings as equally not watching scary movies in worthy of representation and his downtime, or hanging out at having their voices heard. He is Makuu, Denzel is an avid supthe embodiment of the concept of porter of all those close to him.

Nguni Bantu the term “Ubuntu,” Victoria Ford, Denzel’s dear or “humanity toward every friend, nicknamed him Diesel beand all human beings,” a term cause he is “quite literally the fuel presented in the Black Ivy Coali- that keeps me going.” “Denzel tion’s declaration. will be front row cheering for you In his senior year, Denzel or- at a performance, help[ing] you ganized a panel on the diversity study for class and then lead[ing] of Penn faculty and held a public a discussion on intersectional forum designed to train both feminism all in the same day. He students and faculty of the per- is an ally, a friend and an incomceptions of affirmative action. He prehensibly loving leader.” worked tirelessly with the Vice In the campaign for racial Provost of Faculty, Anita Allen, equality and respect for all of to publicize student testimonials America’s citizens, Denzel on why having a diverse faculty embodies in his spirit and his is important to students. Denzel practices the steadfast, effective devoted his efforts to these chal- leader that the campaigns for lenging yet crucial discussions social and racial equality need. and debates. This dedication is He symbolizes how students can echoed by the words of his friend, channel their feelings of frustraKatherine Mateo, who served tion at systems that are seemingly with Denzel on the 5B as Vice out of their control into concrete Chair of the Latin@ Coalition: mechanisms for progress and si“Everything Denzel does, he does multaneously retain values such with careful consideration and an as respect and altruism. He has incredible personal investment.” shared his power to sift through Denzel is majoring in politics, our preconceived differences and philosophy and economics with extract common goals. a focus in distributive justice, As Victoria describes him, but this is only the shadow of his Denzel is “a man who ignites, deeper ambitions: to dedicate who motivates you, who generhis life to social justice — first ates power for every single person by going to law school, then by around him.” for things. Don’t be afraid to tell people what you want and desire.

Because when you tell people what you want, people will always be willing to help you.”

It was not long before the Black Ivy Coalition received media attention. Articles were posted about it in The Huffington Post, the holy grail of online mass media. Reading about it in Yale news was a rewarding experience for those close to Denzel, who saw the growing ripple effect of his work. In his father’s words, “We are so proud of his accomplishments at UPenn and the humanitarian he has become.”

8 NEWS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

PENN

>> PAGE 1

international initiatives are simply building on existing globally-focused projects at Penn. According to Burke-White, these existing projects will benefit greatly from additional resources and support, as well as the “branding and recognition that they deserve.”

“A lot of what is going on at the University level is trying to embrace what is going on here at all of the schools and centers and giving it a big platform in way that is more meaningful,” BurkeWhite said. “Sometimes it doesn’t all come together in a way that adds up to more than the sum of its parts.”

Wharton marketing professor Cassie Mogilner, whose research focuses on branding, explained that universities like Penn have to be strategic about their brand as they spread their reach around the world.

“The important point for a university is to, like with any brand, figure out what their sources of

differentiation are,” Mogilner explained. “Importantly, the points of differentiation need to be compelling and appealing.”

She added that while companies sometimes localize their brands to appeal to a specific region, universities should generally keep a consistent message while going global, as anything else could potentially undermine their brand.

According to Burke-White, although all 12 of Penn’s schools have developed various programs to address important global challenges, not everyone realizes that these programs have come from Penn. There are even cases where someone involved with a project “doesn’t know where Penn is or what Penn is.”

“We’ve all been overseas somewhere or at a dinner somewhere and when you say you’re from the University of Pennsylvania, you get a blank look back and they don’t realize that you are actually from a premier Ivy League school,” Burke-White said.

This predicament, however, “has changed a lot in recent years

as Penn is better known and recognized around the world,” he said.

When the Perry World House opens in April 2016, it will be a central hub for all of the globally focused activity on campus and will host visiting faculty and scholars from around the world.

“When scholars come to visit, not only will they leave knowing where Penn and Philadelphia are, but they will also feel a part of this community,” Burke-White said.

“It’s a long-term strategy that will really raise our profile and identity in years ahead.”

Throughout her world travels, Gutmann has noticed that Penn has developed a stronger international reputation and is not deterred by the fact that the University is still sometimes confused with Penn State.

“Whether it is India or China or London, there are people who 10 years ago had never heard of the University of Pennsylvania, and now they want to come here, or if they are parents, they want their children to come here,” Gutmann said. “I am proud that we are the

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University of Pennsylvania, and we do want more and more people to know who we are.”

Lost in translation Though the Perry World House will not focus on any particular regions, Burke-White sees certain areas of opportunity for Penn like more work on the ground in China and India. He also sees room for growth in Latin America, especially given Penn’s active alumni base in Brazil. The long-term strategy for each region, he says, is to build name recognition, build an alumni base and develop research partnerships.

Penn is using this strategy in China, where it opened the Penn Wharton China Center this past March and continues to foster a growing alumni base. While Wharton is widely known in China, Penn has, in some ways, not received the same name recognition as its peer schools.

Some Chinese students at Penn believe the popularity of the Wharton name in China is the result of the increasing emphasis on business education there.

“I think people in China know Wharton better than Penn, but it’s mainly because we all read about Warren Buffet when we were young,” Eric Yifan Xu, a College and Engineering sophomore from Nanjing, China, said.

Claire, a Wharton senior who did not want to use her last name, echoed Xu, adding that Chinese parents are really pushing their children to go to business school to increase their job prospects.

“When I first came here I was in the engineering school,” she said.

“Most of the parents I know gave their children pressure to transfer into Wharton because it was the ‘good part.’”

Sherry Wang, a Wharton senior from Shanghai, says that there is a “very sharp contrast” between the recognition of Penn and Wharton in China, a country that places a very high value on brand names.

“Back home, many people think that Wharton is definitely more prestigious than Penn; I don’t think most people know that Wharton is a part of Penn,” Wang said. “A lot of people don’t recognize Penn in China because they think of it as a state school.”

Wang added that when one talks about Penn in Chinese, they refer

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COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

With the opening of the Penn Wharton China Center, Penn is focused on ensuring that the name Penn has the same meaning for individuals in China and elsewhere as it does for those in Philadelphia.

to it as “UPenn” or “University of Pennsylvania” because the Chinese name for Penn is too easily confused with the Chinese name for Penn State. However names like Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Wharton are recognized easily by their Chinese translations.

It’s not clear whether this disparity is the cause for Penn’s decision to not name the center simply the Penn China Center.

Nevertheless, Gutmann is confident the right choice was made.

“I think with the Penn Wharton China Center, we’re doing it exactly right — this is a winwin,” Gutmann said, when asked about the naming choice. “The fact is that Wharton is, and I am very proud of the fact that it is, a prominent part of the University of Pennsylvania, and we’re running with that.”

She further explained the factors behind the decision.

“The way we run in the case of the Penn Wharton China Center is that because business schools have gone global before a lot of other parts of universities, we are proud of having a center that is called the Penn Wharton China Center,” she said. “And every school in this university and every dean of those schools is strongly supportive of

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that.”

Wharton is not the only school to help lead an international initiative. The Perelman School of Medicine was a driving force behind the Botswana-UPenn Partnership, which even writes on their program website that they go by “UPenn” so as to not be confused with Penn State.

Mogilner sees the naming of the Penn Wharton China Center as an advantageous decision from a branding perspective.

“It’s leveraging that strong brand equity that Wharton has in China and internationally and then it’s sort of makes an endorsement, in that case, to the Penn brand,” Mogilner said. “It is highlighting that there is a relationship, and that relationship is beneficial and it is not suggesting any disconnect.”

Gutmann is very enthusiastic about Penn and Wharton becoming more well-known around the world.

“The reputation of the University has increased and the reputation of Wharton has increased and there is a great synergy,” Gutmann said. “It is a rising tide with all ships.”

Staff Reporter Ruihong Liu contributed reporting.

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

NEWS 9

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

West Phila. center helps launch local restaurants

Death of Walter Scott prompts little activism around campus

Center for Culinary Enterprises is a laboratory for aspiring restaurateurs

LOWELL NEUMANN NICKEY Contributing Reporter

A center close to campus is behind new and healthy options popping up on GrubHub. The Dorrance H. Hamilton Center for Culinary Enterprises was opened in 2012 at 310 S. 48th St. as a part of The Enterprise Center, which supports local entrepreneurs in West Philadelphia.

By providing commercial-grade cooking and food-processing facilities, the Center helps give those without access to a health department approved kitchen a way to build their recipes into a functioning business. The center has assisted businesses including Sugar Philly, Smackaroons and the 48th Street Grille.

“Lots of people have great recipe ideas, but the key to turning that into a successful business is how you are going to access capital, develop your business and grow at a pace that keeps up with customer demands,” Food System Director for the Enterprise Center Brett Heeger said. “We feel that the Center [for Culinary Enterprises] is really trying to help entrepreneurs with all of that.”

The Enterprise Center’s goals are two-fold: to support small business development in West Philadelphia, and to help improve the West Philadelphia community as a whole. “We help small business by providing support with business development, product development and obtaining capital,” Heeger said. “We help

LOWELL NICKEY | CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

the community by creating jobs, community engagement as well as physical improvement of the area.

For example, the building we are in used to be an abandoned supermarket.”

The Center for Culinary Enterprise has Penn connections besides proximity. One of the Center’s most recent success stories, Herban Quality Eats, was started by two 2013 Wharton MBA graduates, Kalefe Wright and Amir Fardshisheh. You may have seen their delivery service on GrubHub over the past year; they were in fact cooking out of the Center for Culinary Enterprises. Herban is currently on hiatus as they prepare to move into a retail space on 36th and Market streets this fall.

“What was exciting about what they did is they really used the delivery service to test their recipes and train their team so that when they move into a full brick-andmortar retail location in the Fall, they will be able to kick off and hit the ground running because they

have strong recipes and a staff that knows what to do,” Heeger said.

The small businesses working in the Center for Culinary Enterprise get this help in-part through the CCE’s connection with the Enterprise Center as a whole.

“By attending workshops or programs hosted by The Enterprise Center, small businesses are able to develop a plan going forward.”

The size and scope of The Enterprise Center itself also provides benefits. “With an organization the size of The Enterprise Center, we can actually utilize a lot of the businesses that work here. For example, we regularly higher catering services from within the Center for Culinary Enterprises to host EC events,” Heeger said.

This works both ways.

“A woman who came through one of The Enterprise Center’s other programs started her own cleaning company, and now she is the primary custodial service for the Center for Culinary Enterprises,” Heeger said.

Vanessa Bayer to star in alum’s film ‘Carrie Pilby’ to be adapted for the screen NIKHIL VENKATESA Contributing Reporter

Hailee Steinfeld, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard, Jason Ritter.

It’s the kind of H ol lywo o d ca st that makes an independent f il m st a nd out from the crowd, and CAREN LISSNER it’s the cast of “Ca r r ie Pilby,” an upcoming film adapted from a book with a cult following written by 1993 College graduate Caren Lissner.

The film has also cast 2004 College graduate Vanessa Bayer, who is currently a cast member on “Saturday Night Live.” Aside from working with Bayer, Lissner said she was particularly excited about Steinfeld joining the movie.

“That [on Steinfeld’s casting] was a very exciting thing, because I didn’t realize that news until it came out,” Lissner said, who is the editor-in-chief of The Hudson Reporter. “I was busy at my newspaper job, and I happened to check my email, and there were all these emails saying ‘Congratulations’ and I

ELLIE KEMPER >> PAGE 1

up with her siblings. “My whole family is funny. I’ve always liked laughing and joking around,” Kemper said. She reflected on watching Seinfeld with them, and describes Elaine as an inspiration.

“The Office” was Kemper’s big break. Previously, Kemper was focused on commercials and web series.

“I feel very old. It’s such a different landscape now. Doing web videos and web series is so different and it didn’t reach a mass audience as it does now,” she explained.

“The Office” was a result of Kemper’s one-person show “Feeling Sad/Mad with Ellie Kemper.” According to Kemper, her now-husband was in the audience not laughing, and one member of the audience blogged

didn’t know what that was about.

I looked online and there was this big Hollywood Reporter article about how Hailee Steinfeld was cast as the lead.”

It’s been a long journey for Lissner since writing “Carrie Pilby.” It was first released in 2003 to positive reviews under Harlequin’s Red Dress Ink label.

The book follows Carrie, a 19year old college graduate, who struggles to fit into her post-college life in New York City. It was an early member of the chick lit genre that included bestsellers like “Bridget Jones’ Diary.”

“I was about to turn 30 and I was really frustrated and I thought I really want to publish a novel. So I started writing this rant and I thought: What if there was a very smart woman who didn’t really know how to communicate well in society and she had all these black and white ideas.”

The book was re-released in 2010 under the Harlequin Teen label, when it caught the eye of Hollywood producer Suzanne Farwell, who also produced “Something’s Gotta Give” and “It’s Complicated.”

“What stood out about it was just how smart and witty her [Carrie’s] inner voice was,” Farwell said. “It was incredibly observant. It felt to me like a female “Catcher in the Rye,” [it

had] that sort of tone.”

Farwell handed the book over to director Susan Johnson, who has produced several independent films herself, including “Mean Creek” and “Eye of the Hurricane.” Although she has directed over 40 music videos before, this is Johnson’s first feature film project.

“I’ve been looking for a script for a decade,” Johnson said. She added that it was the story of “Carrie Pilby” that really made her take the jump into directing. “The biggest thing for me in ‘Carrie Pilby’ was Carrie learning not to judge a book by its cover,” she says. “Watching Carrie’s transition from thinking she knows everything about everything to understanding she knows nothing about nothing was a really beautiful thing to explore.”

After Farwell and Johnson, along with producer Susan Cartsonis of “What Women Want” and “No Reservations,” contacted Lissner in 2012 to option the rights to the book, Johnson spearheaded a Kickstarter campaign in 2013 to raise the funds needed to hire a writer to adapt the book into a screenplay. That campaign was a massive success, collecting $73,213 on an initial goal of $51,650, and allowed the creative team to hire Kara Holden to write the script.

hatefully about the show.

After not getting a part for the show “Parks and Recreation,” the part of Erin on “The Office” opened up. Watching the series for a long time before being on the show, Kemper felt like she knew the characters.

“I went to work with them and I realized they were real people.

It was intimidating and surreal, but they very welcoming,” Kemper said.

Nevertheless, Kimmy of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” is Kemper’s favorite role to play.

“I’m not only inspired by the character but the women who made this character. It’s fun to play her and I derive a lot of strength from her,” Kemper said.

“We are similar in terms of outlook. My hope for Kimmy is that she finds something that captures her interest, as well as a good companion.”

While Kemper is currently

trying to write humorous personal essays, the show is her priority for now.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was initially produced on NBC, but ended up being aired on Netflix. “Netflix is a cool company and I feel lucky to be a part of it,” she said.

For Kemper, college was the place where discovered a love for improv.

“People do it for a living and its doable. This planted a seed.

If this hadn’t worked out, I think I would have become a teacher, which is infinitely more difficult,” Kemper reflected.

Kemper reflected that it is good to be bad at something and be humbled by it — she spent her freshman year field hockey career sitting on the bench.

“In general, college taught me how to socialize and begin to accept adult responsibility,” she said.

GUYRANDY JEAN-GILLES | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Amid other student demonstrations, SOUL held a protest last week against the closing of Penn’s Africa Center, yet there has been no student activism surrounding the recent shooting in South Carolina.

Shooting reminiscent of Tate-Brown’s death in Phila. earlier this year JESSICA WASHINGTON Staff Reporter

Recent activism at Penn has centered around campus issues, rather than on national ones, leaving a major national event out of campus discourse.

In late March, footage from a police car dash camera in South Carolina sparked national outrage because it showed a police officer shooting a 50-year-old black male, Walter Scott, in the back as he ran away.

Scott was unarmed at the time of his death, and the officer, 33-year-old Michael Slager, has since been charged with murder.

The incident was reminiscent of a shooting in Philadelphia earlier this year where a Philadelphia Police officer shot 26-year-old black male, Brandon Tate-Brown.

Tate-Brown was shot in

the back by police during a routine traffic stop, after allegedly reaching for a weapon.

The officer involved in TateBrown’s death has since been cleared of charges.

Tate-Brown’s death sparked major activism on campus in the form of Ferguson Friday protests — the weekly protests hosted by Students Organizing for Unity and Liberation.

As a part of these protests, students hung up banners around campus asking “Who Killed Brandon T. Brown?” in protest of the fact that the video of Tate-Brown’s death and the name of the officer responsible had not yet been released for well over a month after the shooting.

Despite the similarities between this case and the incident in South Carolina, there has not been a major protest or demonstration over the latter.

UMOJA Co-Chair College sophomore Ray Clark explained that it is difficult to arrange a sensitive

demonstration on short notice.

“It’s a lot of pressure for individuals to organize and come up with a collective statement within the short time span that they have,” Clark said. “Trying to cope with your own emotions is a lot, so doing that on behalf of others is very courageous in itself, in my opinion.”

Still, activism has continued around campus over other recent events. A few weeks ago, SOUL staged a demonstration highlighting a recent case at the University of Virginia where a black student was held to the ground by police, even as he was bleeding from the head.

Last week, students from the Penn African Student Association, students majoring in African Studies and members of SOUL organized a demonstration at College Palooza in protest of the closing of the Penn Africa Center.

Even so, there has not been a protest around the incident in South Carolina.

PENN’S COCAINE CULTURE.

Check out this Thursday’s feature in

10 SPORTS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Junior phenom returns for his curtain call After sub-4:00 mile, Awad now on relays JACOB ADLER Associate Sports Editor

Last year, then-sophomore distance runner Thomas Awad came out of the Penn Relays as the victor in the Olympic Development open mile with the second sub-4:00 mile in Penn history. But don’t expect a repeat this year.

Now a junior, Awad will compete once again in this weekend’s festivities. However, he will not defend his open mile title. Instead, he will look to lead two of Penn’s relay teams — the 4xMile and distance medley squads — to success on track and field’s biggest stage. “Thomas is a team captain and a big part of what we do as a team, and I think he values the opportunity to run with his teammates,� coach Steve Dolan said. “I think after college he’ll have plenty of opportunities to run individually.�

Last year, Dolan explained,

he didn’t believe the team had a “championship-caliber relay,� which was a big factor in the decision to run Awad individually. Now, Dolan is more confident that Penn’s relay teams can make a dent and “put Penn on the map as a team.�

Awad’s 3:58.34 time in the mile last year was the second-best in school history behind D. Elton Cochran-Fikes, who is now the compliance officer for Penn Athletics. A few days before the race, Dolan said that Awad would break the four-minute mark, and Awad himself believed it was achievable. “I felt really good in the race, so I knew breaking 4:00 was definitely possible,� Awad said. “And running 3:58, I was excited to get the opportunity to do it. I wasn’t supersurprised that I ran that fast.� “What a great time to break 4:00 for the first time,� Dolan added barely masking his enthusiasm.

Awad is not upset about missing out on individual events this weekend. Instead, he’s thrilled to get the chance to contribute to the Quakers’ overall team success.

ANALYN DELOS SANTOS | DP FILE PHOTO

Junior Thomas Awad has established himself as one of the top all-around runners in the nation, and he will look to repeat last year’s electric performance at Penn Relays this weekend.

“It’s Penn Relays, after all,� he said. “It’s all about the relay events and running with your team. And as much fun as it was last year, I really want to put forth a really good relay.�

Awad’s inclusion in this year’s relay squads presents some interesting matchup possibilities against some of the nation’s top runners, including a potential (albeit unlikely) faceoff with the

Looking back at 2014 Penn Relays

MONROE >> PAGE 12

and Klim has taken notice. “He’s the most excitable person I’ve ever coached,� Klim said with a smile. “He is so happy to be jumping.�

But bliss without drive is often not enough to yield accomplishment. For Monroe, his unique and often unparalleled competitiveness has allowed him to vault into a position from which he will be competing for an individual title on Saturday. “In the beginning [of his career] you could tell he was kind of nervous just coming to practice and competing against me,� Pitt said.

But his resolve quickly evened the playing field between the two teammates.

At the Indoor Heptagonal Championships this winter, Monroe won the high jump title, edging out Pitt to get the victory. “The thing is he loves competition,� Pitt added.

First time since 1922 Penn wins three events SEAMUS POWERS Sports Reporter

COURTESY OF BILL SHEARN

Freshman Mike Monroe won indoor Heptagonalss this season, but he has never competed on a stage as big as Penn Relays. He will get his first shot at college’s biggest stage this weekend.

The clash between the two Quakers will be a sight to watch as they both aim to jump 7-foot-2 and battle for position amongst the top five in the Penn Relays field.

“He and I are gonna push each other along with the rest of the competition, and that’s gonna be pretty exciting,� Pitt proclaimed.

Klim is confident that his young stud will pull through

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The New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 For Release Wednesday, April 22, 2015

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reigning king of college running, Oregon’s Edward Cheserek.

Although Awad has not necessarily devoted all of his training time to relay events, he prides himself on his versatility as a runner.

“I look at myself as a distance runner. I’ll run anything from a mile to the 10K,� Awad said.

And it’s not just talk — he has proven his versatility with his wide range of success over the past two years.

In addition to his astounding run at last year’s Penn Relays, Awad was able to drop a four-minute mile indoors earlier this year, this time surpassing Fikes’ program record.

Furthermore, the star junior also has track Heps titles in both the 3,000-meter and 10,000-meter.

At one point in his dominant 2014 outdoor track season, he won six consecutive races at six different distances.

Ultimately, though, runners are not recognized — at least by the general public — for consistent greatness, but rather for brilliance shown on the sports biggest stages.

And none are bigger than Penn Relays.

Awad has already shown that he is up to the task. Let’s see if lightning can strike twice.

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under the stress. “He’s going to rise to the competition. He’s going to rise to the crowd. He’s going to rise because he’s wearing a Penn uniform,� his coach noted.

An added bonus is that Monroe is 100 percent dialed in. “He is hype,� Pitt said. “He is watching every possible video there is on high jump.�

Other thoughts have taken a backseat this week for Monroe, who is eager to make his inaugural Penn Relays appearance. “This whole week is super exciting,� Monroe said before admitting, “it’s all I can really think about.�

The prospective psychology major has not yet been the focal point of the media’s coverage and is not used to being in the spotlight. But if Monroe performs to both his own and his coach’s expectations, his name will begin to reverberate throughout the track and field community as a force to be reckoned with when the NCAA Championships commence.

One thing is for sure: Monroe’s smiling face will be a fixture of the Relays for years to come as he tackles the expectations that lie before him.

For now, though, Monroe can sit back and soak it all in.

The 2014 Penn Relays had everything you could ask for: dramatic finishes, record setting performances and a number of impressive victories by the hosts.

Penn’s performance was one for the record books. The Quakers featured three athletes that took individual titles, the first time since 1922 Penn did so.

T hen-f resh ma n Noel Jancewicz showed no signs of inexperience in her first heptathlon at the Relays with the Quakers, capturing the event with a score of 5053 — the third best total in Penn history. The victory made her the third woman in Quakers’ history to take the heptathlon title at the Penn Relays.

Freshmen continued to impress on that Thursday, as Cleo Whiting submitted a top-10 performance in the women’s 3,000-meters, while Brendan Shearn ran the third-fastest 10,000-meter race in program history.

On top of the infusion of youth success, Penn’s seniors also found success in their final go-round at the relays.

Veteran Kersie Jhabvala capped off her career with a 35:12.05 in the 10,000m, the second-best mark all-time for the event in the Penn record books.

Even more impressive was Maalik Reynolds, who — with his winning 2.19-meter leap — became the first Penn high jumper in 107 years to claim multiple titles at the Penn Relays.

Reynolds, who holds the school record for both indoor and outdoor high jump, took his first title in the 2010 Relays.

The Saturday of the

spectacle also featured a historic performance from then-sophomore distance runner Thomas Awad. He triumphed in the Olympic Development mile with a time of 3:58.34 to become the second Penn athlete to ever break the four-minute mark.

The first-place finish further bolstered Awad’s remarkable resume as a Penn athlete, as the East Norwich, N.Y., native already held the program record in the outdoor 5,000m race.

After the race, Awad applauded his team’s efforts on the season and hinted at even greater things to come. “We’re coming through this season, and we’re looking to be a force to reckon with in the future,� Awad said at the time.

Other notable Penn performances came from thensophomore Sam Mattis — who finished second in the discus — and the men’s 4x800m relay team, whose 7:30.14 mark also resulted in a runner-up finish.

Yet as one of the world’s largest track meets, the 120th edition of the Penn Relays also featured a great deal of events that didn’t involve the Red and Blue, including the USA vs. The World men’s 4x100m relay on Saturday.

Despite the absence of star Usain Bolt, the Jamaican squad led the Americans by a good distance early on before the United States climbed to within striking distance heading into the final lap. Down the stretch, anchor Walter Dix ran a blazing final leg and eclipsed Jamaica’s Oshane Bailey by 0.02 seconds at the finish line to give the Americans a thrilling victory.

With highlights from last year in mind, if the 121st Relays are anything like last year’s event, fans of track and field will be in for a hell of a weekend at Franklin Field.

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

SPORTS 11

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

STEELE

>> PAGE 12

LARGEST MEET IN THE WORLD

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS FROM PENN LAST YEAR

STRAIGHT YEARS WITH OVER 100,000 IN ATTENDANCE

So when Penn goes through a difficult stretch like that, the University’s fanbase needs something in which it can take solace. This year, and every year, that outlet is Penn Relays.

And unlike that contest between Harvard and Yale, the Relays actually feature a handful of Penn athletes. Beyond the event’s importance for bringing superstars like Usain Bolt, Marion Jones and Allyson Feliz to campus, it also showcases homegrown standouts like juniors Thomas Awad, Sam Mattis and Kelsey Hay, all of whom will be on display in arguably their most important meet of the season.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Penn Relays is its ability to mesh supporters and cultures in a similar fashion to Penn itself. Between the over 300 events between Tuesday and Saturday, parents of local high school students, families of the top college runners and many from the island of Jamaica are able to share Franklin Field like it’s their backyard. If you’re not going to Relays for the action, at least go

YEARS THE PENN RELAYS HAVE BEEN RUN

for the entertainment in the stands.

Tuesday marked the 121st anniversary of the first running of the Penn Relays, an awe-inspiring figure if you think about it. The meet hasn’t been interrupted once over that time period, living through 21 presidencies, two World Wars, nearly the entire span of Major League baseball and making it older than six states.

Talk about a legacy.

Still, one of the foremost issues confronting college athletics today is the problem of student apathy.

Luckily, if Penn students need an excuse to visit Franklin Field this weekend, it isn’t for a college sporting event.

It’s for a world affair.

And if people on campus aren’t going to pay attention to the beauty of what’s happening right before their eyes, there’s no harm in having outsiders come show us the awesomeness of what sports at Penn can truly look like.

RILEY STEELE is a College junior from Dorado, P.R., and is senior sports editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. He can be reached at steele@ thedp.com.

Now an assistant, former star ready to take in Relays from sideline

Brenza reunited with throwing squad as coach STEVEN JACOBSON Sports Reporter

Jake Brenza is no stranger to the Penn Relays. But he’ll be seeing the meet from a different perspective this year.

Brenza, who graduated from Penn last spring after throwing for the Quakers for four seasons, has remained at his alma mater this year as a volunteer assistant coach.

“It’s something I love to do. I love throwing,” Brenza said. “My love of throwing made me want to stay here.

I still have friends here and people that I care about, so I try to help them do as well as I can.”

Brenza’s involvement with the team has been born purely out of his passion for the sport. Volunteer coaches are not paid for their

services, and Brenza also works a full-time job at a bioengineering firm.

While he acknowledges that it’s tough to balance the two, he states that his hours work out in such a way that he is able to do both.

Tony Tenisci, who has coached Penn’s throwers for the past 29 years, has found Brenza’s contributions to be invaluable this year.

“He’s done a great job of bridging the connection of coaching and understanding the idea of what it was like to be an athlete,” Tenisci said.

“He has another set of eyes and another set of words for the athletes.”

“Tony has always been my guide,” Brenza said of the pair’s unique bond. “He’s always been the guy that’s been there.”

In fact, during Brenza’s first season in the Red and Blue, Tenisci was the only guy that was there, as Brenza was one of only two Penn throwers that season. However, the

DP FILE PHOTO

Jake Brenza was a versatile thrower in his career with Penn, and he is using that technical knowledge to his advantage as a volunteer coach.

program steadily grew throughout Brenza’s years to 13 throwers by the time he graduated.

Brenza’s love for throwing was reinforced through his schoolwork. As a freshman, he wasn’t exactly sure which particular field of engineering

he wished to study. After taking some bioengineering classes and independently researching shoulder injuries, however, he knew he had found his passion.

“All the biomechanics that [engineers] study is present in

throwing and lifting, and that’s what I love,” Brenza said. “Bioengineering pointed me in that direction, and I’ve flown from there.”

This weekend will be a culmination of a year of hard work for Brenza and Penn’s throwers.

“Starting in the offseason and last semester, you start prepping, building certain things to get ready for this time of year,” Brenza said, “And then you taper everything down. You just focus on some more big throws.”

While competing for the Quakers, Brenza had his fair share of big throws. A two-time NCAA Championships qualifier in the shot put, he finished third all-time on both Penn’s outdoor and indoor shot put leaderboards. Having thrown in the Relays during all four years of his college career, Brenza remembers his last throw in the annual classic as his favorite.

“My senior year, I got to throw

in the championship section of the shot put,” Brenza recalled. “I didn’t do very well, but ... it was great being a part of all that competition and knowing that you’re with the best, even if you don’t do your best.”

Tenisci thinks that Brenza’s technical knowledge of throwing will help carry the team to success this weekend.

“He did a lot of events for us at Penn — he did shot put, he did discus, he did hammer — so he’s a very well-rounded athlete,” the coach said.

Past that, however, Brenza’s easygoing demeanor and unique connection to the team truly make him an asset.

“He has a great sense of humor, he knows [the athletes] really well, and he’s been through the wars with everybody,” Tenisci said.

“He just knows how to calm them down.”

NOW LEASING!

4X800

>> PAGE 12

members, save perhaps Celata, specialize purely in mid-distance.

“Ashley is kind of a miler, Candace is more of a 400 [meter] runner and Carrie is more of a pure 800 runner,” Martin said.

Penn’s lineup capitalizes on each of the girls’ strengths. In an event such as the 4x800m relay, there is a specific strategy behind each leg of the race.

“Everyone has their job, no job is more important than the other,” Martin said.

The first runner’s main responsibility is to establish her team’s position at the front of the pack of runners. This is especially crucial in a race such as the 4x800m relay because runners start en masse and are not assigned to specific lanes.

“There are a million people on the track at one time,” Taylor said with a hint of exaggeration. “The 4x8 is crazy.”

On Saturday, this responsibility will fall on Hennig, the most veteran member of the Quakers’ squad.

“She can fight her way through a pack and she can be good at fighting for our position in the

beginning and setting us up,” Montgomery said.

The second and third runners — Taylor and Celata — must maintain the team’s position in the pack. Once the baton is in the anchor’s hands — Montgomery — it’s a matter of laying it all down on the track.

The quartet faces some of the country’s top competition. Back in 2013, Villanova set the event’s national record inside Franklin Field. Thus, the biggest hurdle for the Quakers is staying focused on their own race.

According to Martin, the challenge is “competing against that level of athlete and really kind of keeping your calm and running your race as opposed to trying to run someone else’s.”

The training is there. The adrenaline is there. The atmosphere at Saturday’s finals will be electric. The coaching is there too; the girls received one prediction from coach Steve Dolan at their relay team meeting with the coaching staff last Monday, according to Montgomery.

“He just said ‘we can do big things.’”

And if the stars align on Saturday, big things might just happen for the Red and Blue.

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

PENN RELAYS ISSUE THE

A WORLD AFFAIR RILEY STEELE

T

oward the end of Penn’s spring break, the basketball teams — and respective fan bases — from Harvard and Yale gathered at the Palestra for the Ivy League’s one-game playoff.

On the line in that matchup

was everything: With a win, one team would advance to the NCAA Tournament while the other, it turned out, wouldn’t play again in 2014-15.

On that March afternoon, Penn’s famed basketball arena played host to one of the greatest basketball games in the venue’s history, probably the most thrilling game most people at the Palestra — myself included — had ever seen in person.

The sort of energy from that game isn’t seen terribly often

when Penn’s campus hosts a sporting event, especially ones involving the Red and Blue.

Except for Penn Relays, that is.

Over the course of the next four days, over 120,000 people will fill the stands at Franklin Field in support of some of the most dominant athletes in track in field. For over 12 decades, the Relays — by far the most popular athletic event at Penn on an annual basis — have showcased an amalgamation of the purest

raw talent the sport has to offer, with high schoolers and college athletes, professionals and Olympians all on display.

However, similar to the Ivy League Playoff, as well as the overwhelming majority of sporting events on campus, many students at Penn are apathetic about the Relays, arguing that they aren’t important because ... well, I don’t really know why.

To me, anyone — be it a sports reporter for The Daily Pennsylvanian or a senior who

has never been to Franklin Field while at this school — who is apathetic about the nation’s most famous track meet clearly doesn’t understand the event’s importance.

Because on top of the sheer size of the spectacle, one simple fact stands out: Penn Relays are important because they keep Penn Athletics — and, by extension, the University atlarge — relevant in the sporting world, even when the Red and Blue’s flagship sports do not.

Yes, just like that one-game playoff at the Palestra.

The past two seasons have been undeniably rough for Penn football and men’s basketball. On top of the significant changeover in coaching for both squads, the product the Quakers have put out has been exasperatingly — and, in comparison to the established standards for those sports, significantly — subpar.

SEE STEELE PAGE 11

ANALYN DELOS SANTOS | DP FILE PHOTO

Nine minutes from history Penn’s 4x800m relay to run in top heat LAINE HIGGINS Sports Editor

Track is a unique sport in that months of training can boil down to one race that is over in a matter of minutes.

The story is no different for Penn’s women’s 4x800-meter relay squad, as just nine minutes separate four runners from glory.

For the first time in nearly a decade, the Red and Blue will be represented in the championship heat for the 4x800m relay with a squad of junior Taylor Hennig, freshman Candace Taylor and sophomores Ashley Montgomery and Carey Celata.

“This is one of the more talented 4x8’s that’s been put together in the last 10 years,” mid-distance coach Robin

Martin said.

What’s so special about these? For one, they are fast.

If the Quakers manage to run as quickly as their coaches project, they could smash the school record of 8:40.36 set in 2006 by 10 seconds.

To put things in perspective, last year’s lineup from Penn in the women’s collegiate heat crossed the finish line at 9:00.74.

“If it’s a good day for all of us, we’re really all capable of doing it,” Montgomery said.

“There’s a chance for us to be a top-five team.”

Also, the four girls have yet to compete together in this event. The only returning member from the 2014 squad is Celata, who is fresh off of an impressive indoor season.

Perhaps what’s most remarkable about this year’s relay team is that none of its SEE 4X800 PAGE 11

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Monroe looks to soar to new heights Freshman jumper has big shoes to fill THOMAS MUNSON Associate Sports Editor

COURTESY OF TOM CONNELLY

Sophomore Ashley Montgomery primarily runs the mile for Penn track and field, but she will anchor Penn’s 4x800m relay at Penn Relays this weekend.

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Penn freshman track and field star Mike Monroe loves to jump. And Mike Monroe can jump pretty damn high.

This weekend, the young phenom will make his Penn Relays debut in the 121st running of the annual event.

His dad, who has never seen Monroe compete at the collegiate level, will make the trip up from South Carolina to watch his son take on the nation’s best.

As if that wasn’t enough to put on the shoulders of one of the most highly recruited freshman high jumpers, Monroe will also be competing in the shadow of Maalik Reynolds. Reynolds, who graduated in 2014, won the Penn Relays twice in Monroe’s event during

his tenure with the Red and Blue. He also holds six AllAmerican titles to his name. “[Monroe’s] got big shoes to fill,” jumps coach Joe Klim said. “I think he felt like there was a lot of pressure.”

For many rookies, a setting like this could cause them to tremor. But Monroe shook out his nerves early on in the season, and the ferocious competitor has enjoyed an abundance of successes ever since.

Perhaps it’s the joy jumping brings him that has allowed him to cast away the weight of the expectations.

“He loves high jump,” junior high jumper and co-captain Thomas Pitt said of his teammate. “And I think he’s the most passionate about his event on the entire team, which is what you need to be good at track.”

His love is not just felt by his teammates. It radiates brightly, SEE MONROE PAGE 10 CONTACT US: 215-422-4640