THURSDAY, JULY 20TH, 2017
The Independent Student Newspaper of the University of Pennsylvania
SUMMER EDITION
Leidy Labs 10 to be renovated before fall semester The well-known classroom will be modernized with larger desks MICHEL LIU Staff Reporter
Leidy Laboratories 10, a classroom that hosts many biology classes and various introductory courses, will have a fresh look after summer renovations. “We will really spruce the place up,”
said Terence Brooks, project manager in design and construction for Penn’s Facilities and Real Estate Services. “We’re trying to make it more comfortable, give better sightlines to the space and an improved system.” In the fall, students will experience a redesigned seating layout, wider seats with larger desks and carpeted floor instead of the old vinyl. The classroom will also feature upgraded technology, like
new energy-efficient lighting, a new HD projector, a new sound system and a new widescreen. The renovations also include the introduction of a handicap lift that abides by standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The lift is a “small elevator” that allows students to access the classroom’s podium area from the basement several flights down, according to Brooks. The renovations began in May after
graduation and will be ready by the first day of classes of the fall semester. Leidy 10, the classroom’s common name, is familiar to many Penn students, as it often holds students’ first biology lectures, but it is also home to several introductory computer science courses and holds exams for highly populated classes. Rising College sophomore Chetan Parthiban, who attended both biology and computer science courses in Leidy 10, said
he is happy with the new changes. “It needs the renovations, to say the least,” he said. “There are some seats that are straight-up unusable.” Parthiban noted the large columns in the room blocking the view from certain seats and the tiny desks, which he said make taking tests “actually living hell.” Rising Engineering sophomore SEE LEIDY PAGE 5
Jon Huntsman Jr. formally nominated as U.S. ambassador to Russia NATALIE KAHN Senior Reporter
Jon Huntsman, Jr., the former Utah governor, diplomat and 1987 College graduate, is President Donald Trump’s choice to be the next ambassador to Russia, according to an announcement from the White House. Huntsman is a Penn luminary whose father’s name adorns one of the most notable sites on campus: Huntsman Hall, the Wharton School’s main building. If confirmed by the Senate, he will assume one of the most politically fraught roles in Moscow — serving as Trump’s main emissary to the Kremlin as accusations of collusion with Russia to tilt the balance of
the 2016 presidential election swirl around members of Trump’s orbit. Huntsman has previously served as ambassador to Singapore under presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton and ambassador to China under President Barack Obama. In 2012, he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president. On Tuesday night, after the White House announced Trump’s intention to nominate Huntsman, various commentators pointed out how the likely ambassador’s first name was misspelled in an initial press release. SEE HUNTSMAN PAGE 3
JOY LEE | NEWS PHOTO EDITOR
Meet the new College Dean: Paul Sniegowski
When we do everything for a pre-professional purpose, we lose sight of who we are. - Jessica Li
PAGE 4
Sniegowski is an evolutionary biology professor NATALIE KAHN Senior Reporter
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PHOTO BY PENN DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY
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The new College dean bikes to work evvery day, has served as a sexual violence disciplinary officer, and is known by colleagues and students as a kind person.
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If the morning’s not rainy or snowy, odds are you can catch Paul Sniegowski riding up to Penn’s Leidy Labs on his white Trek road bicycle. After the 15-mile journey to work, the biology professor brings the bike into his office. Sniegowski, donning biking clothes and pedal shoes, then takes a quick shower at the Leidy Labs and emerges a few minutes later in his professional attire ready to start his day. Sneigowski has worn out three bikes since he started riding to work 15 years ago, which was five years after he first arrived at Penn as a faculty
member. Over this time, he has worked as a professor, chaired the Biology Graduate Group and last July, began to serve as the new Stephen A. Levin Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Sniewoski enjoys biking to work for very much the same reason he likes biology: he enjoys interacting with nature. As a professor of evolutionary biology, Sniegowski has had to handle some controversial subject matter in the classroom. Nonetheless, Karen Hogan, Sniegowski’s former teaching assistant and Ph.D. advisee, and now a lab coordinator at Penn, said the professor has always been even-tempered and respectful to the occasional SEE DEAN PAGE 2
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Penn Museum to receive $500,000 grant from Pew Center
It will go towards renovations and programming MICHEL LIU Staff Reporter
The Penn Museum will receive a $500,000 grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage to launch a five-year initiative focused on developing new strategies for exhibition design, public programming and communications. The Center’s advancement grants support high-performing institutions spearheading innovative initiatives, with the intent of encouraging a vibrant cultural community in Philadelphia. Past recipients include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Opera Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute and the Philadelphia Zoo. The Penn Museum is one of two institutions this year so far to receive the grant.
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skeptic. “[Sn iegowsk i] teaches something that outwardly society thinks is controversial but inwardly, as a discipline, is not,” Hogan said. “Striking that balance when you’re doing scientific communication can be very difficult but he’s handled it well.” Phil Gerrish, a professor at the University of New Mexico and a personal friend of Sniegowski for over 20 years, agreed that Sniegowski strikes that balance well. “He’s what I would call a ‘real scientist,’” Gerrish said. “By that I mean he’s an exasperatingly careful thinker, and I mean that as a compliment.” In 2011, Sniegowski’s colleagues recommended him to serve on University’s Office of Student Conduct and Office of the Sexual Violence Investigative Officer. He has been a Disciplinary Hearing Officer since then, working to ensure
MORGAN REES | ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR
The renovations will begin with Penn Museum’s Ancient Middle East gallery, which will feature an expanded area with more than 1,200 artifacts from Nippur, in modern day Iraq.
“Ever yone at t he Pen n Museum is very grateful for the grant,” said Rosemary Perez, Penn Museum’s associate director of Foundation and Corporate Relations. “We are
trials on sexual violence and student conduct proceed according to University rules. As a professor, Sniegowski has always been welcoming to colleagues seeking advice. Biology Department Chair Brenda Casper said she would periodically stop by his office for input on administrative matters, and 2015 Philosophy Ph.D. graduate Emily Parke said she used to come by to pick his brains on various intellectual topics, often staying for over an hour. And there’s a reason why Sniegowski’s office is always so busy: the professor is approachable, said the Undergraduate Chair of the Biology Department Mecky Pohlschröder. His pleasant disposition, she said, makes it difficult for people to have real disagreements with him. In the 20 years she has worked alongside him, she does not recall ever having any significant arguments with him. Seven other individuals close to
proud to join a select group of institutions with exciting new initiatives.” T he gra nt will sponsor several upcoming transformations that Perez said will help
Sniegowski echoed this sentiment. “I wish I had a little dirt,” Hogan joked. Sniegowski’s Ph.D. advisor and later colleague Brian Charlesworth said his former student is easy to get along with because of his strong sense of humor. He even remembers Sniegowski sending him a clipping from a Michigan newspaper of cows’ farts blowing up a nearby barn. Charlesworth added that Sneigowski was one of the most popular students in his graduate program at the University of Chicago. Charlesworth said this is because he was always friendly and empathetic. Gerrish agreed and shared a story about a time he spent staying over Sniegowski’s house. While Gerrish watched TV, Sniegowski left to help his elderly, widowed neighbor with her yard work. “It tells you the kind of person he is,” he said. “Just a good human being.”
make the galleries and public programming enjoyable for students. Penn Museum Director of Exhibitions and Public Programming Kate Quinn added
that the grant will help fund the renovation of exhibition space, creating permanent “signature galleries.” This is part of a comprehensive renovation plan for the museum. The first space to be renovated will be the Ancient Middle East gallery, which will have an expanded area to include artifacts from Nippur, modern day Iraq. More than 1,200 artifacts from Nippur, which have until now been held in storage by the Penn Museum, will be unveiled at an exhibit slated for April next year. Quinn said the project will also introduce more innovative and interactive features to the exhibit’s design infrastructure. The museum plans to make similar renovations to the the Egyptian and Asian galleries. The grant will also help fund the renovation of the museum’s Harrison Auditorium.
Quinn said she hopes the funding will expand digital reach, rethink the museum’s public programming and refresh branding efforts. She said the museum plans to dedicate the funds to improve the way they interact with the public. To receive an advancement grant from the Center, Perez said, each institution must already have received at least two grants in the past five years from the Center. In 2014, the Penn Museum received a grant for an exhibit called “Science and Race: History, Use, and Abuse.” In 2011, the Penn Museum received a grant from the Center for an exhibit called “Imagine Africa,” which lasted through 2012. “It is a special and exciting time at the Museum. We’re eager to get you interested in the museum from a different angle,” Quinn said.
Antitrust law expert joins Penn Integrates Knowledge’s ranks Hovenkamp has authored more than 100 articles SARAH FORTINSKY News Editor
Herb er t Hoven k a mp, a world-renowned expert in antitrust law, is the latest scholar to be named a Penn Integrates Knowledge professor. “ P r ofe s s o r Hove n k a m p epitomizes the uniquely collaborative and multidisciplinary skill sets of our PIK professors,” Gutmann said in a statement, noting that Hovenkamp’s understanding of how law, business, patents and innovation can interact will help provide more opportunities at Penn for integration across disciplines. Since its launch in 2004, the PIK program has recruited faculty members whose scholarship transcends two or more academic areas. As the 21st PIK professor, Hovenkamp holds appointments in Penn Law School and in the departments of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at Wharton. Hovenkamp, who has authored more than 100 articles
PHOTO BY PENN NEWS
Herbert Hovenkamp holds appointments in Penn Law School and in the department of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at Wharton.
and a dozen books, is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Rockefeller Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies at Harvard Law School. He served as a Presidential Lecturer at the University of Iowa, where he received the University of Iowa Collegiate Teaching Award and has taught at the University of
California Hastings College of Law. A New York Times piece from 2011 called him “the dean of American antitrust law.” Hovenkamp was appointed by Gutmann and then-Provost Vincent Price on June 14. He officially started at Penn just before the Fourth of July holiday.
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Penn Medicine named seventh best employer by Forbes
The institution employs more than 35,000 people NATALIE KAHN Senior Reporter
Penn’s sprawling medical system, home to major scientific innovations and the largest capital expenditure in the University’s history, just added another distinction: a nomination as one of the best employers in the United States, fromto Forbes magazine. Penn Medicine placed 7th in the country on the list. Several of Penn Medicine’s over 35,000 employees spoke to The Daily Pennsylvanian this week about the honor and why their workplace is one of the nation’s best. M icha el A shbu r n, t he
director of Penn medicine’s pain management center and an anesthesiology professor, noted the historical significance of working at the home of America’s first hospital and first medical school. “That sense of history gives people a foundation on which to try to make their own history,” he said. Maria Molina, who has been a nurse practitioner with the heart transplant team for the past seven years, said, “You come to work not just to ‘survive’ your job. It’s to survive and grow, because Penn has this culture of excellence.” She added that this high-level climate is not a double-edged sword that forces people to work too hard. Instead, she said employees are like-minded,
ZACH SHELDON | SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR
Medical oncologist Kim Reiss Binde emphasized Penn Medicine’s focus on teamwork and praised the dedication of her assistants.
committed to what they do and ready to collaborate. Medical oncologist Kim Reiss Binder specializes in gastrointestinal malignancies. In an
interview with the DP, she emphasized Penn Medicine’s focus on teamwork and praised the dedication of her administrative assistant, nurses and physician’s
assistants. This way, she said, no employees get too overwhelmed and the patients assigned to her team receive the best care possible. She added that Penn Medicine has a strong emotional support department as well for patients and families going through rough times. As in any good workplace, Penn Medicine employees also know how to have fun. Reiss Binder descr ibed annual, “very raucous, very entertaining” brunches at her division chief’s house with the women in the oncology department. “You feel like you’re just hanging out with a bunch of really cool ladies who happen to be absolutely, unbelievably brilliant and extraordinary
scientists,” she said. “I think that was the moment for me when I went to that brunch. I was like, ‘I am part of an unbelievable group of women.’” Molina lauded her mentor as well, a former president of the American Heart Association who has written textbooks about heart failure. “When I first met her, I was starstruck,” she said. “That’s probably why I have this culture of, ‘I have to strive harder,’ because I am with the best.” Molina, who earned an International Nursing Excellence Award in 2015, was also inspired by a collaborating physician to get started in the research field. “There’s a number of opportunities,” she said. “It’s difficult not to excel in anything because the opportunities are just there.”
Vintage clothing store to replace Penn’s American Apparel Raxx West Vintage also has a location on South Street MICHEL LIU Staff Reporter
When Penn students return to campus this August, they’ll no longer see the clearance signs, which seemed to have become a permanent fixture, in the windows of the American Apparel store on campus. Instead, they will see signs for a new vintage clothing store, Raxx Vintage West, which will open in its place just as school starts. The opening of the new store comes after a long-time struggle for American Apparel to stay open. In January, American Apparel filed for bankruptcy and announced that all of its stores would close, including the one on Penn’s campus. Raxx Vintage — founded by Amanda Saslow, who has been in vintage clothing for 19 years and who also runs a wholesale supplier warehouse called Bulk Vintage — has another store on South Street.
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He was identified in a header as “Governor John Huntsman Jr.” The correct spelling of Huntsman’s first name is “Jon.” The Jon/John distinction has tripped up other writers before. In an article in The New York Times from February 2011, Huntsman was referred to as “John.” The press release stated that Huntsman, whose father is the namesake of Huntsman Hall, has had “a distinguished career as a politician, diplomat, and businessman.” This White House announcement comes after months of speculation that Huntsman was being considered for the post of ambassador to Russia, despite his previous criticisms of Trump. After initially urging Republicans to rally around Trump’s candidacy once it appeared inevitable that the real estate developer would secure the
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Raxx Vintage, which is replacing American Apparel, offers men’s and women’s clothing from the 1960s through the 1990s, which manager Lauren Thomas said appeals to college students.
1960s through the 1990s, which Thomas said appeals to college students today. “Students are excited to get their hands on the real thing,” she said, adding that she thinks that the newfound accessibility to vintage clothing through online shopping has rekindled such interest. Thomas noted a shift in attention from stores like American Apparel to stores with antique clothing. She said this is clear in campaigns like Urban Outfitters’ “Urban Renewal,” which offers vintage clothing but “not at the same volume” as Raxx Vintage. Although this new store is an offshoot of the original, Thomas said that Raxx Vintage West will differ from the original store in several ways. The space is a big factor. The location on Penn’s campus is six times the size of the South Street location, according to Thomas, with room for three changing rooms instead of just one. Thomas said they plan on utilizing the extra space by
bringing in local artists to showcase their work, “like a gallery wall exhibition.” She added that many of Raxx’s employees are also artists, and the store invites them to display their own art. Raxx Vintage West plans to work with local antique dealers, artists and craftspeople to sell their work in the stores. This includes Philadelphia-centric ceramics, jewelry and home goods. Saslow imagined that there be “cool collectibles for dorm rooms and small apartments, neat vintage prints and bar-wear and home goods like glasses from the 1970s and cocktail shakers from the 1950s.” Raxx Vintage West plans to cater their merchandise towards college students’ tastes by making it more preppy. Saslow promised a “full wall of denim” and a lot of cool band T-shirts. However, Thomas said the pop-up will still stay true to the Raxx aesthetic. “We’ll keep it young, keep it funky, and keep it affordable at price points younger kids can afford.”
Store ma nager Lau ren Thomas said the opportunity for Raxx Vintage to move in “just popped up about a month ago.” “College kids and vintage clothing kind of go together amazingly,” Saslow said. “We already have a lot of Penn and Drexel students that come down to our store [on South Street].” “We are great for theme
parties,” she added, noting the popular demand for Hawaiian shirts, Halloween ensembles and Christmas sweaters. Still, many students visit Saslow’s store for more than just a costume. “We have a lot of students that – this is what they wear,” she said. “They don’t believe in fast fashion, they don’t believe
in mall stores. They believe in recycling and they believe in quality goods.” The store, which sits on 36th and Walnut Streets next to Pottruck Center, began its transformation during the second week of July. There will be a soft-opening on Aug. 1st. Raxx Vintage offers men’s and women’s clothing from the
party’s nomination in spring 2016, Huntsman changed course in the fall. Once a vulgar tape of Trump appearing to brag about committing sexual assault was reported on by the Washington Post, Huntsman called on him to drop out of the race and let then-vice presidential nominee Mike Pence replace him. At a Penn Board of Trustees meeting weeks before the presidential election, Huntsman even joked about Trump’s standing as a candidate. “I remember sitting in this meeting 20 years ago, and the great lament was, ‘we don’t have enough Penn people running for politics at the highest level,’” he said, according to a recording of the meeting. The trustees and assembled guests bellowed with laughter. Trump, for his part, tweeted an attack at Huntsman during the 2012 presidential campaign, claiming that he “gave away our
country to China.” Their relationship has strengthened in recent months and “the two have maintained a cordial relationship,” according to a Politico report from March, when it was initially reported that Huntsman was the likely choice to be Trump’s ambassador to Russia. Huntsman’s has a long and multifaceted history with Penn. After studying at the University of Utah, he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Penn at the age of 27, having already married and raised two children. His name only appears in Penn student directories for the 19851986 and 1986-1987 academic years. While at Penn, according to former active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, Huntsman attended services often and completed volunteer work with his wife. Executive Editor Dan Spinelli and News Editor Sarah Fortinsky contributed reporting.
Jon Huntsman Jr., the 1987 College graduate who was recently nominated by President Donald Trump as U.S. ambassador to Russia, is pictured here speaking at Huntsman Hall.
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Lessons from an African American colony in Colorado SUMMER POSTSCRIPT | On loneliness and new beginnings
THURSDAY JULY 20TH, 2017 VOL. CXXXIII, NO. 62 133rd Year of Publication AMANDA GEISER Editor-in-Chief MADDY OVERMOYER Business Manager REBECCA TAN News Editor SARAH FORTINSKY News Editor YOSEF WEITZMAN Sports Editor CAMERON DICHTER Opinion Editor REMI LEDERMAN 34th Street Editor JAMIE GOBRESKI 34th Street Editor WENTING SUN Design Editor ZACH SHELDON Photo Editor ZOE BRACCIA Copy Editor LUCY HU Social Media Editor BROOKE KRANCER Social Media Editor 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.
Nearly all the town’s buildings had been razed for scrap wood, and those that remained standing had either caved in, or seemed to be held up by the dead trees rising besides them. The wooden bones of the blacksmith’s cabin poked out of the sagebrush. The barn and the gas station were hollowed out, and the largest building, a false-front house, was full of trapped birds which clamored at the windows. Walking through the remains of Dearfield, Colorado, was an isolating experience. I thought of a friend who called the night before to say how lonely she felt in New York City. Then I thought of a text I had received earlier from someone in the suburbs of Houston. He said he was going crazy living with his parents for the summer. That we had all felt similarly lonely in such different places — in the middle of a densely populated city, in the privacy of a suburb and in a ghost town at the western edge of the Great Plains — suggested to me that loneliness had little to do with actually being alone. On the contrary,
this loneliness we felt did not depend on other people at all, but on being captured by the daunting possibilities of a changing setting and the challenges that come with it. What I sensed in the town, which I had driven to mostly out of curiosity, had already hinted towards this conclusion. As I made my way from the barn to the gas station, I was surprised by a feeling I usually get while walking through the streets of large cities. It was a shrinking of the world, a feeling of being enclosed by narrow avenues and tall structures, where a glimpse of the horizon is hard to catch. Something I felt for the first time in Philadelphia — where I could not see beyond the next three or four blocks towards a mountain or ocean for a reminder of the world beyond the city limits. Standing by the rotting wall of the station, I felt a similar enclosure and lack of an exit. All I could think about was the loneliness the settlers of Dearfield must have felt when they just arrived there, to a place where the sun seemed to rise and set from the same
edge — a thin red line over the yellow fields — and where nothing, not even the rows of trees and power lines there today, broke the winter gusts and flatness of the plains. Nonetheless, this initial impression of the town had eclipsed the reality of what
For many early settlers — who worked with little independence as household servants, Pullman porters and tenant farmers — these acres of tussock and desert soil stood for a future they could determine by themselves. Because of this, the seven
Loneliness is a sign that something has changed, and that something needs to be done for us to move further down the path of our own history. had actually happened there. W hat d ist i ng u ished Dearfield from almost every other town in America was its founding residents. Led by Oliver Toussaint Jackson, a businessman who was born to slaves, the town was planned as a colony where African Americans could begin anew after having experienced slavery, civil war and the tumultuous period of reconstruction that followed.
families that arrived here in 1910 were not held back by the hardships of their condition or the solitude of their surroundings. Instead, they braved the following winters living in tents, pit-houses, and caves — burning dry buffalo excrement and sagebrush to keep warm. They hauled wood from miles away to build their homes and slowly learned how to tame the unyielding
soil. By 1921, there were several hundred people living in Dearfield. The town had its own church, school and grocery store, and the surrounding land was flushed with the colors of strawberry, cantaloupe and pumpkin fields. W hen white fa r mers moved into the town, the board of immigration noted how the two races in Dearfield lived in harmony. At the height of the Jim Crow Era, Squire Brockman, the blacksmith, could often be found sitting on a wooden stool at the town ballroom, plucking a tune on his fiddle as blacks and whites danced before him under the same roof. Driving back home, I realized that the residents of Dearfield contended with a question many of us are struggling with now — what do we make of ourselves when we are left on our own? When the world seems to close in and ask: what will you do? And, where will you go when our surroundings seem smaller and emptier, and when the people we used to see everyday are replaced by strangers?
JUAN SEBASTIÁN PINTO That loneliness can be a phase of transition — a place between belonging somewhere because we were born into it, and finding somewhere else to belong to because we can — is a belief that I ascribe to since visiting Dearfield. Loneliness is a sign that something has changed, and that something needs to be done for us to move further down the path of our own history. A rare time in life which is ours and nobody else’s. A time to see what we are capable of, where we can go and how we can fill up the empty space. JUAN SEBASTIÁN PINTO is a College senior from Quito, Ecuador studying English.
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ISABEL KIM is a College senior from Warren, N.J., studying English and fine arts. Her email address is kim@thedp.com.
Art (for the sake of art) is important ROAD JESS TRAVELLED | Tackling pre-professionalism and why art doesn’t need to be justified I’ve been thinking a lot about why education matters. Or more specifically, why certain education seems to matter more than others — what needs justification and what does not. Like all freshmen students, I came into Penn lost, confused and in need of guidance. In my own head, I knew what I liked — literature, writing, psychology, stories — but I knew what other people liked — hard, preprofessional routes with clear paths to success. I began doubting my own interests and passions, unsure if the path I wanted to take was a path even worth taking. I took an advanced poetry writing workshop last semester, and I loved every minute of it. I loved churning out a poem every week, reading the work of my peers, settling into a three-hour class every Tuesday in which I could immerse myself in the words of different poets and writers. One night, however, I sat down to write my weekly poem with
friends who were studying other subjects, ranging from computer science to statistics. As I prepared to pull an all-nighter to painstakingly write a poem worthy of workshopping, my other friends were pulling all-nighters for difficult, technical classes — classes, one could say, that would actually prepare them for jobs in the future. A nagging voice in my head told me what I was doing was somehow less, not worthy, a waste of time. There have been more instances like this, in which I question or have to justify what I do to myself and to others. What’s the value of spending all night writing a poem? Will it help me get an internship? English majors, or any humanities majors in fact, are often asked why or how they do what they do. What is the value of your education and how will it help you in the “real world”? These are questions that can haunt us. The sad reality of the culture
at Penn is that every choice we make in our education comes with a cost-benefit analysis, a price tag with a clear value written out on it. We don’t take classes unless
seemingly more narrow-minded place as we grow in college. As the daughter of two Chinese immigrants, I know only too well how narrow the profes-
The sad reality of the culture at Penn is that every choice we make in our education comes with a costbenefit analysis, a price tag with a clear value written out on it. they fulfill a sector requirement, advance our majors, increase our GPAs or make us look impressive to other people. This attitude isn’t found only at Penn. It’s the increasingly cutthroat professional environment we find ourselves in at elite institutions, attempting to mirror the “real world,” a
sional world can seem. Growing up, law, medicine or engineering were the only three options given to me, and if I even thought to stray, I’d be met with intense opposition from my parents. So far, Penn hasn’t told me anything too different. Though I’ve met incredible people from all sides of the
humanities and social sciences, the underlying, pulsing current of pre-professionalism is always present, always visible to me. I don’t claim to know an answer or a solution to this toxic environment countless students have rallied against. But I do know, and can say so with certainty, that art, for the sake of art, is extremely important and vital to Penn and the world. The focus and emphasis on STEM, business and other straightforward, calculated concentrations of study has caused us to devalue the humanities, the arts and our inherent longing and passion for humanistic endeavors. When we do everything for a pre-professional purpose, we lose sight of who we are. We lose sight of what makes us human and what makes us connected to each other. Artistic expression, especially in academia, needs to find a better home here on campus. Amidst a preprofessional atmosphere, which isn’t necessarily all bad,
JESSICA LI there should also be a collegewide community that fosters artistic growth and encourages it, that doesn’t question it. That doesn’t require an explanation. I wrote those poems because I loved writing them. For now, that’s a good enough reason to stay up all night to write a poem for me, and that should be good enough for everyone else, too. JESSICA LI is a rising College sophomore from Livingston, N.J., studying English and psychology.
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Penn lags behind peers in affordability, says MONEY
Graduate student to develop high-functioning robots
Penn ranked 27th out of 711 universities
The robots will be able to “feel with their eyes”
ESHA INDANI Staff Reporter
Penn, fresh off of earning a designation as the “most beautiful college in Pennsylvania,” is no stranger to ranking highly in lists of American colleges and universities. But, in lists ranking affordability and access, Penn still has ground to cover with its peers in the Ivy League and across the country, according to a series of recent rankings. The most recent such ranking, published by MONEY Magazine, a magazine affiliate of Time, Inc., listed Penn 27th on a list of the 711 “best colleges for your money.” The magazine based its ranking off of 27 data points in three categories: quality of education,
affordability and outcomes. Four Ivy League universities, including top-ranked Princeton, edged out Penn on the list. MONEY determined “affordability" by tracking each institution’s tuition without aid, tuition paid with the average grant, the percentage of students that receive need-based grants and the percentage that receive merit-based grants. The magazine also looked at the median SAT/ACT scores and the average early career earnings. In college rankings focusing on affordability and access, Penn’s standing has fluctuated relative to its peers. The New York Times’ College Affordability Index, released in May, listed Penn 45th among 170 schools, below many of its peers in the “Ivy Plus” group of schools, with the exception of Georgetown University and Cornell University.
The Forbes Best Value Colleges ranking, which uses a similar methodology, focused on alumni earnings and median student debt, among other indicators, listed Penn 44th, again behind many of its peers except for Columbia. On college-ranking site Niche’s ranking, Penn ranked as high as ninth place, third among Ivy League universities on the list. Niche takes into account social life and the quality of campus athletic teams, in contrast to Forbes and MONEY. University spokesperson Stephen MacCarthy declined to offer comment on Penn’s comparatively low ranking on MONEY’s “best colleges for your money” list. “As a matter of practice we don’t comment on individual rankings, all of which use slightly different metrics,” MacCarthy said in an email.
HALEY SUH Staff Reporter
While technology surrounding artificial intelligence has advanced rapidly in recent years, experts generally acknowledge that modern AI still lacks an important kind of ”common sense" that limits their functionality. Researchers at Penn are working to change that. Alex Burka, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in electrical and systems engineering, is working to create a database of more than a thousand different surfaces that will allow robots to “feel with their eyes.” “We want to give robots the ability to not just take images and data from their surroundings but understand what they’re looking at,” Burka said. “Our goal is that the robots wouldn’t need to touch the object if they can get
information about the object just by looking at it.” To gather data, Burka has been going around campus wearing a “Proton Pack” — a large orange backpack equipped with a long, narrow instrument that has three different types of sensors attached. Burka taps and drags the sensors along each surface while a camera records his movements. One perk of the “Proton Pack,” which Burka built with the help of several other students, is that it’s portable and can be used to test surfaces, such as floors, furniture, etc., all across campus. Eventually, Burka hopes that with the database he creates, robots will be able to discern properties of an object — whether it is soft or slippery, for instance — just by looking at it, and then make an informed decision on how to best handle it. Burka’s project is a continuation of work previously done in the lab of Penn professor Katherine Kuchenbecker, who
specializes in mechanical engineering. Burka joined Kuchenbecker’s lab in 2015, when Kuchenbecker and Trevor Darrell, co-director of the University of California, Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab, received funding for the project from the National Science Foundation as part of the National Robotics Initiative. Burka continues to collaborate with researchers from Darrell’s lab at UC Berkeley. “[The project] will allow robots to help people in the everyday environment,” Kuchenbecker said. “It will enable them to interact physically with the world.” This database could potentially allow robots to help in a search and rescue mission, she added. With the database, they would be able to predict what types of surfaces they have to go over, such as rocks or ice, and successfully adjust their settings to walk across them.
LEIDY
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JULIO SOSA | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
The magazine based its ranking off of 27 data points in three categories: quality of education, affordability and outcomes, placing four Ivy League shools above Penn.
Annie Su shared concerns about the seating, mentioning the narrowness of the aisles which often forces students to stand during class. “When you’re trying to get to the middle of a row of seats, you have to pass by all these people,” Su said, “and it is very awkward and difficult.” The Central Pool classrooms committee, which reviews specific classrooms on campus and considers their renovations, similarly recognized Leidy 10’s drawbacks and pushed forward the renovations. Though the Leidy Labs building was last renovated in the mid-90s, Brooks said “the space is pretty much original to 1910,” its original year of construction. The entire building is also
FILE PHOTO | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN
The classroom will feature upgraded technology, like new energyefficient lighting, a new sound system and a new widescreen.
experiencing a revamp in all heating, ventilation and air conditioning, according to John Mahony, a project manager in design and construction for FRES. The Century Bond program funds the replacement of Leidy’s HVAC system, pursuing its two aims of increasing energy
efficiency and upgrading mechanical systems in poor repair, Mahony said. “Every space will be as energy-efficient and comfortable and up-to-date as it can be,” he added. The expected completion for Leidy’s new HVAC system is February 2018.
6 SPORTS
THURSDAY, JULY 20, 2017
THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM
Former Penn basketball player Harrison Gaines is now Lonzo Ball’s agent YOSEF WEITZMAN Sports Editor
If you follow basketball at all, then it’s probably safe to assume that you’ve heard of Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball and his outspoken father, LaVar Ball. After all, it’s pretty hard to not hear about them when they are doing stuff like this and this. A better question, though, is have you heard of Lonzo’s agent and former Penn basketball player, Harrison Gaines? It’s perfectly understandable if you haven’t. Gaines has not played for the Quakers since 2009 and until the world saw Lonzo shake hands with Gaines right after being drafted, very few probably even realized that Lonzo’s agent wasn’t his dad. That’s pretty remarkable for someone who is so closely connected to one of the world’s most famous athletic families — a family that will soon have its own reality television series. A recent Sports Illustrated profile helped unshed
some of the mystery of Gaines. It describes how the 28-year-old Gaines, despite not having a single client playing in the NBA, was able to win over the Ball family. And while the article does discuss Gaines’ decisions to come to Penn and ultimately to transfer to UC Riverside after just two years with the Red and Blue, much still remained unclear about his time in University City. Unclear it shall remain no more. ... Even as a freshman, Gaines showed the makings of a future sports agent. “I’ll tell you what he would do,” former Penn guard and Gaines’ freshman year roommate Tyler Bernardini recalls. “In the dorm rooms, I would buy my sodas, and he would take them, but he would always leave a dollar.” SEE GAINES PAGE 7
PHOTO BY: FILE PHOTO | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN; TONYTHETIGER / CC 4.0
Rhodes Field attracts Q&A with Penn 2015 global soccer talent grad Ronnie Glenn Swansea City AFC and USMNT visit Penn
BASEBALL | Glenn in
Minor League
THEODOROS PAPAZEKOS
THOMAS NOWLAN
Sports Reporter
News Editor
Rhodes Field: home to Penn men’s and women’s soccer, the US men’s national team, and Swansea City AFC. No, you didn’t misread that; Penn’s soccer stadium hosted a Premier League team and a national team in the midst of a major tournament within the span of just a few days this past week. Welsh weather followed Swansea last weekend for the first leg of their American preseason tour in Philadelphia as the soccer team from Wales was in town for a match against local MLS side Philadelphia Union. Despite the near constant rain, the Swans managed to get settled enough for a few training sessions at Rhodes ahead of their Saturday match. Back in Europe, Swansea plays in the English Premier League, arguably the best national soccer league in the world. The Swans survived their first major relegation scare last season in 15th place. Swansea has more American ties than most Premier League clubs. Two Americans own the club, and this summer marks their fourth US tour. The Swans also hired the Premier League’s first American Manager, former US men’s national team coach Bob Bradley, who was fired after only 85 days. The Swans view their trip
(IA) Bees. The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with Glenn to get his thoughts on minor league life, his player development, and the newest crop of 2017 Penn baseball draftees. This interview has been edited for brevity. Daily Pennsylvanian: It’s been awhile since we last spoke. Can you give us a quick update on what you’re up to these days? Ronnie Glenn: I’m back in Burlington, Iowa playing for the Bees again. I’m a reliever this year — I’ve fallen into a long relief role. I really like pitching
more often and getting my innings in. I’ve been working on pairing my curveball and my slider, while working those off of my fastball. I’ve also learned a cutter this year. DP: It sounds like you’re still being stretched out — pitching multiple innings at a time. Is a return to a starter role still a possibility? RG: I’m not sure what my future holds. I’m just trying to do my best to show that I’m versatile. I’ve been trying to be more efficient with my pitches
The US men’s national soccer team practiced at Penn’s Rhodes Field in preparation for their Gold Cup Quarterfinal against El Salvador.
After four stellar years at Meiklejohn stadium, 2015 Penn graduate and left-handed pitcher Ronnie Glenn was taken in the 22nd round of the Major League Baseball draft. Since then, Glenn has been steadily working his way up the Los Angeles Angels’ minor league ladder; he currently is in his second season with the Single-A Burlington
as a great way for the team to prepare for a grueling season while giving state-side supporters a chance to see their club first-hand. The United States men’s national team is also back at Rhodes Field ahead of their Gold Cup Quarterfinal against El Salvador at Lincoln Financial Field in South Philly. Bruce Arena’s tournament squad added six familiar names to what was a young and inexperienced lineup ahead of the knock-out stages. The Americans won their group to start the Gold Cup, but not without intense discomfort, most notably in a hard fought 3-2 win over lowly Martinique. Arena acknowledged that his team had not played their best thus far in the tournament. This is not the first time the national team has prepared for a tournament match at Rhodes. They also trained at Penn’s
After pitching for the Quakers for four years, Ronnie Glenn was selected by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the 22nd round of the 2015 MLB Draft and is now pitching in Iowa.
ERIK DROST / CC 2.0
facility last year, ahead of a Copa América match against Paraguay. Rhodes Field has become Philadelphia’s premier location for visiting teams to train before big matches. Penn’s facility has everything a bigname guest would look for: a secluded private stadium, carefully manicured grass field, and a relatively close location to both big game soccer locations: Lincoln Financial Field and Talen Energy Stadium. The grass field is not common among colleges as the majority of private soccer fields around the country are artificial turf. And while Penn’s soccer teams could definitely use some of these teams’ players during the grueling Ivy League season, they can at least take comfort in knowing that they use a facility that attracts global talent on a near constant basis.
SEE GLENN PAGE 7
RILEY STEELE | FILE PHOTO
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SPORTS 7
THURSDAY, JULY 20, 2017
Q&A with former Penn player Fran McCaffery
M. HOOPS | McCaffery
currently coaches Iowa YOSEF WEITZMAN Sports Editor
After playing one year at Wake Forest, Fran McCaffery transferred to Penn in 1978. In University City, his play earned him the nickname of “White Magic.” After graduating Wharton in 1982, McCaffery stayed at Penn for one more season as an assistant coach. From there, McCaffery decided to take an assistant position at Lehigh. In 1985, he became Division 1’s youngest head coach when he was promoted. After Lehigh, McCaffery took stops at Notre Dame, UNC Greensboro, and Siena before settling at Iowa. McCaffery is now preparing to enter his eighth year as Iowa’s head coach. The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with McCaffery to get a sense for how his time at Penn has shaped his career. The conversation has been condensed and edited lightly for clarity. The Daily Pennsylvanian: Just kind of generally, when you look back, are you happy that you transferred from Wake Forest to Penn and finished your playing career there? Fran McCaffery: Absolutely. It was a phenomenal experience
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For Bernardini, that kind of behavior was unusual. He was used to friends taking his sodas, but the idea of actually being paid back for the sodas was completely foreign. In hindsight, though, Bernardini’s memories of Gaines don’t seem all that surprising. Isn’t that the exact kind of financial responsibility you would hope and expect to see from someone who now has a fiduciary duty to a player worth tens of millions of dollars? Probably, but for Bernardini, the story says something even simpler than that. “That just shows you the kind of guy he was,” Bernardini says. “He’s a guy that just is genuine, and even if he took it, he’d never do something without making sure it was just a dude trying to go about it in the right way.” On the court too, Gaines quickly proved himself as one of the team’s hardest workers. “He was the one guy who was always in the gym working out, playing and trying to get better every single day, and I think that kind of rubbed off on a lot of us on the team,” former Penn guard Remy Cofield, another teammate and close friend of Gaines, remembers. And that shouldn’t be taken as hyperbole. For Gaines, there truly was no such thing as a day off. Even on weekend nights, while the rest of campus was enjoying the latter half of Penn’s “work hard, play hard” culture, Gaines could be found getting shots up in the gym.
GLENN
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in order to give the other guys in the bullpen an extra day of rest; I do whatever I can to throw strikes and eat innings and give the team a chance to win. DP: It seems like when you give up runs, they come in bunches — some games you’ll throw multiple shutout innings but then you’ll give up multiple runs a few days later. Has improved consistency been a focus of yours? RG: (Laughing) I’ve kind of noticed that pattern too. The biggest thing is, I find success when I’m getting ahead of hitters. Sometimes when my stuff flattens out and I get behind in counts, I get punished a bit. Even on days when I don’t have my best stuff, I need to try and find a way to keep them off balance and get ahead. DP: This is your third summer away from home as a professional ballplayer — does that bring difficulties with staying in
for me in so many different ways. I’ve got so many great memories — I was on really good teams, I played for a great coach, I maintained a very close relationship with coach [Bob] Weinhauer — he texts me after every game that I coach at Iowa. But the ride we had my senior year was so unique-- we won our first three games, we beat Stanford in the Stanford Invitational Tournament to win the championship out there, so we go 3-0, then we lost 9 straight games to go 3-9, and then we lost our last 14 games to go to the NCAA Tournament. So very few teams have that kind of a rollercoaster, but I remember that season well, because I remember how high we were after we beat Stanford, how low we were after we lost our 9th game in a row wondering if we’d ever win again, and then we couldn’t lose. And how our team endured through that adversity was really an amazing experience for me — and my teammates most importantly, we fought through it together. But you know, playing in the Big 5, playing in the Palestra, growing up in Philadelphia, to be truthful, I really kind of wanted to go to Penn all along. One of the things that I wasn’t excited about at the time was freshmen were not eligible, and so I played my freshman year at Wake, then transferred to Penn and finished my career there. Of
course in ‘79, I was a redshirt member of the team that went to the Final Four, which was an incredible journey in so many ways. DP: And had you always wanted to go into coaching or was there something specific about the situation at Penn — what was the thought process behind taking that original job? FM: You know, truthfully, when I decided to go to Penn, I didn’t have coaching in mind at all. I just figured I would go into business, something like that, work on Wall Street. You know, coaching at that time, none of us made any money, it was kind of just like you did it if you loved it. Essentially what happened was when my career
ended, I knew i wasn’t going to play professionally, I just wasn’t ready to walk away from the game. One of the great things about that one year at Penn was we still had the JV program, and i got to coach the JV teams. So not only was i coaching on the varsity, i was essentially the head coach of the JV team, which was a phenomenal experience. You know, we’d travel, you’d have to plan all of the practices, talk to the team before the game, halftime, timeouts, I think that’s how you grow as a coach. You know you make decisions, you make mistakes, you make adjustments, and you learn from it. So I was very thankful that coach [Craig] Littlepage gave me
that opportunity to work there, and then also coach the JV team there, and then when coach [Tom] Schneider, who was his top assistant, got the Lehigh job, i went with him. DP: And I imagine you’re happy at Iowa right now, but was there any ever thought about trying to return to Penn later in your career? FM: Well, you know, I think they’ve got a great coach at penn right now, I really do, and I think the program is really in a good place. You know and I love the fact that the Ivy League now has a tournament and the tournament is in the Palestra, I think that’s great. It gets them on TV during Championship Week and so forth, I think steve is doing a great job. So I’m pretty happy here, getting ready to start my 8th year, you know my children have grown up here, they play high school locally, two of my sons are going to play for me, so pretty happy here. DP: You mentioned that you think Penn is in a good situation, do you still follow them closely? FM: I do. I follow them closely, and then obviously as the season got to the end, and they were right there, I was really interested to see how that would transpire, and who do they sign and so forth. You can see the progress being made and I think this coming season could be a big one for the Quakers, and iI’m really pulling
“I remember like walking past the Quad or walking past all the frats on like a Friday night, and we’d be in like the Palestra or Weightman Hall — we really liked that just for some reason — so a lot of nights we’d spend up there just the two of us, just working out or playing one-on-one,” says Bernardini. All the hard work paid off for Gaines once the 2007-2008 season finally rolled around. Despite his youth, the rookie quickly proved himself to thencoach Glen Miller. That year, the team finished with a mediocre Ivy League record of 8-6, but it also seemed to have found its point guard of the future in Gaines. As a freshman, Gaines led the entire conference in assist-to-turnover ratio. Gaines was excited for the team to continue progressing the next season, but the Quakers took a step backwards, struggling mightily as the team finished second-to-last in Ivy standings. Worse yet, Gaines suddenly felt as if his role on the team was in jeopardy. He managed to increase his scoring average to 9.9 points per game, but the message from coach Miller was clear. New freshman Zack Rosen was the point guard of the future, and Gaines’ job was to complement Rosen off the ball. That didn’t sit well with Gaines, so he decided to transfer. In his Ma rch 20 09 announcement that he would be transferring from Penn, Gaines explained how he was hoping to find a school that would provide better “long-term satisfaction.” More specifically,
he stated, “I need to attend a school where I have confidence in the basketball team’s leaders.” Less than a year later, Penn fired Miller after an 0-7 start to the season. The school Gaines ended up deciding on was UC Riverside, which was much closer to his family’s home in Victorville, California — just an hour’s drive away. From a basketball perspective, though, things did not get much better for Gaines. After sitting out a year due to NCAA transfer rules, he struggled to carve out minutes in his final two years of eligibility. He finished his career at Riverside with averages of just over three points and one assist per game. Still, Gaines has no second thoughts about his decision to leave Penn. “You know what, I don’t regret the transfer to the Riverside,” Gaines says. “When I look back to it, now I’m 28, when I look back on decisions from back then, each stop shaped and helped to get me where I am today. If I stayed at Penn for four years and graduated from there, do I end up at 28 is in the position I’m in? Maybe, maybe not.” At the same time, Gaines harbors no ill will towards Penn. He still values the time he spent at Penn in more ways than one. As a player, Gaines remembers the battles his team fought in the Palestra fondly. Some of his favorite games came against Cornell, which won the Ivy League in both of Gaines’ seasons at Penn. And just for those keeping score at home,
Cornell’s coach at the time was none other than current Penn coach Steve Donahue. Off the court, Gaines continues to utilize many of the connections he made during his time in University City, like Cofield, who now works in the front office of the Boston Celtics. “He represents a client [Lonzo Ball] right now for the Lakers,” Cofield says. “You know, I would talk to him in the spring and everything, trying to get his client to come and work out for us, so yeah, it’s been good.” Since the Celtics held the No.
1 draft pick until trading down two picks to the Philadelphia 76ers’ — who happen to be owned by another Penn alum in Josh Harris — the relationship between Gaines and Cofield had the potential to change the entire future of the NBA. Ultimately, of course, Lonzo was drafted second overall by the Lakers, but that has done little to discourage Cofield from wanting to work with Gaines again in the future. “He’s definitely going to have more clients, and I’m definitely going to have more conversations with him about those guys as well,” Cofield
touch with friends and family? RG: My fiancee is a nurse, and we’re really blessed that she gets out to see me a couple of times a season. I know a lot of my teammates aren’t able to see their family often, so I’m really fortunate to be able to make time when we can. We try to pray every night, so even if it’s just limited to talking on the phone, we have quality time together. DP: Have you stayed in contact with your Penn classmates, particularly [2015 graduate and Philadelphia Phillies farmhand] Austin Bossart? RG: I really try to keep up with the guys from my own class. I know Austin and I have weddings coming up, so we’ll probably have a couple of reunions with the class. Austin and I try to do our best to check in and keep each other positive; he’s always so encouraging with the ups and downs. He’s been a really good friend to go through this with. DP: Penn had four guys go in this year’s draft, all pitchers. Have you reached out to them
with any advice? RG: That really was phenomenal. I was really close especially with [Detroit Tigers signee] Billy Lescher and [Washington Nationals signee] Jake Cousins. I was following the draft religiously, and was so excited when I heard their names called. It really reflects upon our pitching coach Josh Schwartz and John Yurkow, being able to recruit and develop major league talent the way they do. All four [draftees] are such workhorses, and Austin Bossart and I will be here with any advice. They’ve got a great future ahead of them. DP: You’ve been at this for three years. What’s the one biggest piece of advice — either on or off the field — that you’d give to one of those guys just starting out? RG: Enjoy the process; enjoy where you’re at. Don’t look too far ahead — enjoy where you are, enjoy the guys around you, be a good teammate, and just trust the work you put in. You can only control the controllable.
RILEY STEELE | FILE PHOTO
Former Penn men’s basketball player and current Iowa man’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery got his first coaching job at Penn as an assistant.
for coach [Steve] Donahue and his staff and his players. You know, I went to one of their practices last year, and I was really impressed with their talent level. I think the quality and the depth that he’s been able to attract is terrific. DP: And I’m interested, do you think outside of everything you learned on the court at Penn, both playing and coaching, do you think anything you learned at Wharton or in your classes still helps you as a coach? FM: There’s no question, because essentially, when you become a head coach at this level, you’re essentially a CEO of the basketball program. So the Wharton background is just an integral part of what I do on a daily basis —how do you motivate staff, how do you hire staff, how do you communicate with your players, how do you teach, how do you prepare, the sophistication of our of scouting reports and how we prepare and how we present to our players, and how we manage not just the season, but the whole calendar year. How we handle strength and conditioning, its being able to handle the administrative side, the public relations side, the financial side, and then the marketing and sales, and the recruiting side. It all fits together and those are all concepts that are ingrained in me through my experience with Wharton.
adds. On top of all Penn did to expand Gaines’ professional network, he still stays in touch with several former classmates and teammates as friends, like Cofield and Bernardini. Not to mention, his wife is also a Penn alum. So while the question of what could have been for Gaines if he stayed at Penn will always be there, he’s found peace with his relationship to the university, which at least on the surface, seems pretty complex. In Gaines’ own words: “I loved Penn. Always have, always will.”
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THURSDAY, JULY 20, 2017
THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM
STREET SUMMER SKINCARE KIMBERLY CORSON Penn will probably give you gray hair, but it doesn’t have to give you wrinkles.
THE PLACE FOR PENN ARTS, CULTURE, AND COMMENTARY
HIT IT OR QUIT IT: SUMMER ON CAMPUS
My grandma doesn’t age. Really. And if there is one thing I’ve learned from her (other than to always wear your eyebrows, eyelashes and a bit of lipstick), it’s that there is nothing more important than taking care of your skin. So, let’s learn something from Grandma. You’re Never Too Young for Eye Cream You might be thinking: eye cream? Kimberly, I’m a ripe age of 20 and I’m in my prime! I don’t need any anti–aging!! Well, my friends, you’re completely wrong. Not all skin is created equal. Skin around your eyes is thinner, more sensitive, and has less oil glands, which makes it more prone to a variety of issues like fine lines and wrinkles. Yuck. If that was convincing, check out Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Eye Cream with Retinol ($17) Face Wash I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to not use an exfoliator on your face every day. As someone who had cystic acne and insane breakouts growing up, I lived on those salicylic
acid exfoliators. And they really didn’t help. When it comes to washing your face, my Mom and G–Ma always told me to use soap and warm water, hold a warm towel to my face and open up my pores. Then, use a toner and moisturizer. Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser works for all skin types, and will give you a really nice, clean face without all the harsh chemicals. Moisturizer This is arguably the most important thing on this list. Regardless of your skin type, it is so important that you moisturize your skin. You know how after a night of drinking you wake up and look in the mirror and are in complete shock at how dull and sad your skin looks? Well, that’s because alcohol dehydrates you (in case you didn’t know that already, which you should because I bet you have a nursing friend who makes sure you wake up with a glass of H2O next to you after you’ve been vomming all night—thank you, nurses.) Well, the sun and daily activity will also dehydrate your skin, so it’s important to make sure that you’re always feeding it. Any moisturizer will do the trick, so no need for anything fancy. Personally, I have an AM and PM moisturizer, but that’s because my skin doesn’t need to be covered in SPF at night—but if that’s your preference, you go Glen Coco.
ILANA WURMAN | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
ANNABELLE WILLIAMS Sometimes you’re in, but most of the time you’re out.
Hit it: Summer Curfews Quit it: Philly nightlife Between the mandated curfew for 9–18 year– olds in Philly’s 18th police precinct and the overabundance of summer programs adding to the already–long list of infestations in the Quad, it seems like our beloved corner of the city is shutting down. Now that the Fourth has, as Julius Caesar once said, “veni, vidi, darty”, the party scene may flatline till NSO rears its drunken head this August. So for some of you degenerates, this July may be an opportune time to give your lungs and livers a long–overdue rest. On the bright side, fewer people are jostling for room at the Smokes’ bar. Highbrow will have two green tea shots, please. Hit it: Short–sleeved dress shirts Quit it: SABSing on Locust Highbrow hates to be the one to break it to you, but the Frontera benches are currently a
SEAN KELSO Crime! Danger! Romance! Edgar Wright’s latest film, Baby Driver is a high octane heist movie sure to please many audience members this summer. Baby Driver tells the story of Baby, portrayed by Ansel Elgort (from The Fault in Our Stars), a young, yet talented getaway heist driver for local kingpin Doc (Kevin Spacey). The film starts out with the engines revved up, as an exhilarating heist scene ensues with Baby and a few of his peer robbers (Jon Hamm, Jon Bernthal, Eiza Gonzalez), escaping the cops. Baby is not the usual robber, however, as he almost always has earphones in to compensate for his partial hearing loss due to a car crash when he was younger.
JULIETTE PALERMO The rising sophomore from New Jersey talks travelling, self-discovery, and feminism camp. Cindy Lou: I was in Hong Kong and Zhuhai, China. It was part of the Global Biomedical Service Learning Program. I took it as an elective course, one that I could learn more about my culture, while being able to learn about the orthotic fabrication process. We helped children with cerebral palsy, and we learned how to build orthotics from Hong Kong Polytechnic students. Street: Did you work directly with any of the children? CL: Yes, of course. We took their measurements, talked to them, and fitted them with their orthotics. I speak Cantonese, so I could talk to some of them in Cantonese (they spoke English too, but they would
social dead zone. Sure, you might see that preternaturally skinny betch from your writing sem at Saxby’s once in awhile, but to reallllllly summer SABS (SSABS?), it’s best to snag that summer internship or job in NYC. If you’re here on campus, beat the Philly heat by wearing last year’s fling tank every day of the weekend (weekdays merit some Dwight Schrute–type dress shirts) You’re much more likely to meet your future Penn trophy spouse sipping frosé at Central Park or waiting in line at Lavo than anywhere in the 91014. And what good is summer if you’re not wearing your skimpiest outfit and trolling for trophy wives/husbands? Hit it: OCR early action apps Quit it: Sense of self–worth It’s the most Wharton–full time of the year. Highbrow doesn’t have too much to say about this—it’s all been said before. Applications for summer analyst programs are open and Handshake is up (RIP, Pennlink, we’ll paper your grave with our resumés). We’re all in for a world of Bain come September—may the odds be ever in your favor.
MAX PIXEL / CC0
BABY DRIVER IS A BLAST
Matters soon get complicated for Baby after he meets Debora (Lily James), a waitress at his favorite diner, who wants to escape her monotonous life in the restaurant industry. Thus, Baby Driver becomes a love story entangled with crime and danger for all parties involved. While the general shell of Baby Driver may seem unoriginal (boy meets girl, decides to leave past life, in favor of new one and romance, ie. Heat), director Edgar Wright infuses enough of his flair to create a fresh take on the romance and crime genre. Much of the quick dialogue and humor found in his previous successes, like The World’s End, Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead can be found in this film, and his wonderful cast really delivers believable, lifelike performances. Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm particularly standout
in this film as robbers with dedicated backstories, and Kevin Spacey conveys his ubiquitous charm, even as a wily boss. In addition to top–notch performances, Baby Driver offers stunning cinematography and a vibrant soundtrack on par with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films. From the initial
brilliantly edits the action scenes, never focusing too much on one particular frame, but meshing them together in an exciting and organic way that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. Baby Driver really escapes the normal mold for action–romance films through the extensive use of music, a key part of both Baby and Debora’s lives. The soundtrack is so unique and fun that you lose yourself in the story SCREENSHOT and each song adds great depth to the characters, like “Easy,” by heist scene to the film’s conclu- The Commodores. sion, the camera action is always While Baby Driver is quite enthrilling and personal, offering tertaining and enjoyable, there are the audience lively frames to keep a few narrative issues that altered us invested in the characters and the experience slightly. First, Jon events playing out on–screen. It is Bernthal was greatly advertised very tough to distinguish the real for this film, and I have been a filming compared to the visual fan of his work (Fury, Daredevil, effects added later, which adds The Wolf of Wall Street) for a to the reality of this film. Wright while now. However, he appears
in one heist and then mysteriously vanishes for the duration of the film, which was disappointing. Second, the essential romance between Baby and Debora did not feel as organic as I had hoped it would be. Most of their scenes together felt very formulaic and predictable, and we got little insight into Debora’s character besides some superficial pursuits she had, which was disappointing since many of the other characters (ie. Jon Hamm’s) had interesting backstories and I wish she had one too. Essentially, none of the female characters were developed at all—that is, the two there were. Besides those relatively small gripes, I had a blast with Baby Driver. It is a thrilling, original and stylistic take on the crime–romance genre, and a rare summer film that really pleases audiences and critics alike.
SUMMER SPOTLIGHT: CINDY LOU speak to me in Cantonese). Street: Would you ever go somewhere where you couldn’t speak the language and didn’t know a lot about the culture? It seems like enhancing what you already know is a big part of going abroad for you, like diving deeply into some cultures, rather than just scratching the surfaces of others for a few weeks. CL: I’m really open to studying abroad anywhere. For me, learning about a new culture is so important. I realize with each trip abroad how much I don’t know, but also how much I really want to learn. I live with the philosophy that that education is liberation. The more knowledge that I gain, the more I know I have a social responsibility. I’m going to Rome next month, and I don’t speak any Italian so I know it will definitely be an adventure. Street: Does the sense of social responsibility gained from studying abroad translate over into other programs or activities that you do? CL: Because of everything that is happening in America and around
the world, I am more mindful and I always want to be my best self, to represent the underrepresented, to understand, or try to understand some of the things that are hard to understand at first. I don’t know. Every time I’m travelling, I get a new sense of hope and optimism. It’s refreshing to put yourself out there and to be present and really learn outside of the classroom. Street: I think that optimism is really so important in today’s world, and I know that studying abroad isn’t the only thing you did this summer to learn more and increase your optimism. Tell me about the feminism camp and the Penn Women’s Center. CL: Wow, feminism camp was the most insane thing. I went in not knowing what to expect, but it exceeded any and all expectations. They describe it as part conference, part professional development workshop, part activist Launchpad, and part retreat. I can’t possibly put into words what that week did for me. I learned so much. I met
so many incredible people. Penn Women’s Center gave me a scholarship to go. Street: Can you share with me some of the most enlightening insights? I know that’ll probably be difficult to choose. CL: I learned so much about intersectionality, especially about what that means in today’s political climate. I learned about activism, what it means to live out loud. I learned about my identity and how complicated it all is. Our identity is ours, you know. I never appreciated how multi–faceted we all are, but going to camp made me realize how much there is to learn about people and the world. It connects back to the travelling thing. I tend to internalize many of my experiences, but being there allowed me to see that I have a platform. I have so much. Street: So it sounds like you definitely consider yourself to be a feminist now. Is that correct? CL: Of course I consider myself to be a feminist (although I’ll say that I’m a loud and intersectional
feminist). I’m still learning all of the vocabulary. I took the first steps on my journey of activism and advocacy. I learned how to embrace my feminist values. I think in high school, I was in AP Language, and my teacher asked us who was a feminist. I raised my hand (probably just one of three) and then he asked us who was a feminist but afraid to say so. I raised my hand again and he asked why. I don’t think that I had a good answer. I’ve been trying to discover why ever since. Now, it’s not just about wanting more for yourself; it’s about helping others realize that they can want more equality— that term is so complicated. What the hell does that mean, right? Street: Yes, everyone seems to have different ideas about equality and if it’s even possible to attain. A lot of people would argue that feminism is divided into the white feminists and feminists who identify as minorities. Could you talk about that a bit and could you talk about the concept of intersectionality? CL: Yeah, of course. So I’ve
always considered myself a feminist, but I also realize that me being a woman of color, and also from a low–income background means that I’m not like everyone else. I guess when I learned more about the concept of intersectionality, I learned that it seeks to embrace all parts of our identity—race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, etc. I guess the general idea is that we don’t have to fit into one box. There’s so much in between that sometimes we don’t highlight because we don’t know about it. It’s a process. I’m just beginning to learn everything and it’s been enlightening. I’m more aware that systemic injustices and inequality occur in so many different dimensions. I’m learning how everything fits together or doesn’t fit together. Like I said, I’m taking the first steps and I hope to be learning much more, to continue to educate myself and to start asking the tough questions. I don’t know if I answered your question clearly. It’s hard because I feel like I don’t have the right words.