June 23, 2016

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THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2016

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

READY,

On-campus housing locks go electronic

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Students will use their Penn card to enter their room instead of brass key

GO

LUCIEN WANG Copy Editor

In a resolution passed by the Board of Trustees during a meeting on May 12, approximately $7.85 million has been allocated for the replacement of 6,000 brass key locks in residential buildings around the University with an electronic system. The college houses affected include Kings Court English, Stouffer, the Quadrangle, DuBois, Harrison, Harnwell and Rodin College Houses. Students will now swipe with their PennCards at the lobby and scan the card again at their suite, finally entering their unique four-digit code to access their rooms. This comes two years after a pilot test in Gregory College House. Although Gregory has had electronic locks for about 20 years, a new electronic lock mechanism was put into place two years ago after the original was found to have a security flaw, according to Director of Residential Services John Eckman. After the discovery of the flaw, a team was sent by Penn to Princeton University, to investigate its

Penn study finds traffic light labeling cuts calorie consumption

SEE HOUSING PAGE 2

FATTAH AWARDS $1.9 MILLION FOR RESEARCH

CHARLOTTE LARACY News Editor

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I magine you a nd you r friends are ordering McDonalds on GrubHub and before you confirm your order, there is a red stop light signifying high calorie content next to your double bacon burger in the online cart. Would you keep it in your cart or switch it for a grilled chicken sandwich instead? The findings of a Penn study suggest that you might switch to a healthier option. When the researchers added color-coded or numeric calorie labels to online food ordering websites, the total calories ordered decreased by about 10 percent compared to menus featuring no calorie information. Lead author of the study and postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Health Incentives and Behavior at the Leonard Davis Institute, Eric

The College Board’s 6,000 member institutions — including Penn — are the only ones who can reasonably hold it accountable.”

VanEpps, said that the study is a very media-friendly topic due to the large interest in nutrition and healthy eating. “There has been attention to calorie labeling in Philadelphia due to the soda tax and then nationwide attention due to calorie labeling laws that are supposed to go into effect next year,” VanEpps said. “It is timely topic and we wanted to have something important to say that is relevant to policy.” By May 2017, the Affordable Care Act mandates that chain restaurants, movie theaters and vending machines must have calories marked on their food and drink items. Some states, including New York, have already started this process at restaurants. Traffic light labeling has SEE STUDY PAGE 5

- Jack Hostager

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Phila. becomes first major city in country to enact soda tax

GIVING BACK BACK PAGE

Funds raised will go toward universal prekindergarten SYDNEY SCHAEDEL Editor-in-Chief

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The soda tax, signed by Mayor Jim Kinney on June 20, makes Philadelphia the second city in the country to enact such a law after Berkeley, California.

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Mayor Kenney signed a soda tax into law on Monday, June 20, making Philadelphia the second city in the United States to instate such a measure after Berkeley, Calif. The tax, which actually goes beyond soda to tax teas, sports drinks, flavored waters, bottled coffees, energy drinks and other products — anything with added sugar, excluding milk and drinks that are more than 50 percent fruit or vegetables — goes into effect January 1,

2017. Philly.com reported that it will be levied on distributors, not consumers, but the cost will eventually trickle down to prices for customers. Qualifying drinks will be taxed 1.5 cents per ounce, so 18 cents on a typical 12-ounce can, or an extra dollar on a two-liter container. The $91 million per year the city expects to raise from the tax will go toward paying for universal prekindergarten for children in Philladelphia, as well as funding community schools and reinvesting in parks and recreation centers. These specific benefits are seen as major reasons the tax passed. SEE SODA TAX PAGE 3

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