August 31, 2015

Page 1

MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2015

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Inside Penn’s soaring tuition

Administrators explain why tuition is rising at twice the rate of inflation JACK CAHN Senior Reporter

Students have gone to extreme measures to protest soaring tuition costs. At USC, students climbed on

tables, stripped off their shirts and threw money in the air in protest at a Board of Regents meeting. At the University of Warwick, a sit-in ended in Taser threats and tear gas. And while their cries that “tuition is too damn high” have fallen on deaf ears — Penn’s tuition has risen at twice the rate of inflation in recent years — research indicates that students could

be right. A New York Federal Reserve Bank study released in July found that for every dollar of aid students receive, colleges increase tuition by 65 cents in order to exploit the “willingness to pay” — or demand — of students for a college education. In response, the Wall Street Journal reported that federal aid is “enabling

college institutions to aggressively raise tuitions,” and Wharton Dean Geoffrey Garrett tweeted “Do loans make higher ed cost more, not less?” But despite these findings, Penn’s administration is skeptical that aid is the true cause of soaring tuition. “There’s this hypothesis ... that SEE TUITION PAGE 7

NUMBER OF HOSPITALIZED STUDENTS DURING NSO DROPS 50 PERCENT Seven of 14 hospitalized students were freshmen

Hospitalizations

LOWELL NEUMANN NICKEY Staff Reporter

The 2015 New Student Orientation saw a 50 percent decrease in alcohol-related hospitalizations compared to 2014, according to the Division of Public Safety. From Aug. 20 to 25, there were 14 students transported to the hospital for alcohol-related reasons, down from last year’s 28, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said. Of these 14 students, seven were freshmen, compared to 21 hospitalized freshmen in 2014. This year, four sophomores, two juniors and one graduate student were also hospitalized. There were no seniors hospitalized for alcohol-related reasons. Eight of the hospital visits were by women, and six by men. “We aren’t looking for fish in a barrel, but we are looking for responsibility,” Rush said. “We want to make sure students can explore in a safe way.” There were 35 disorderly house complaints during NSO

BREAKDOWN BY GENDER

BREAKDOWN BY YEAR 7

FRESHMAN

6 MALES

4

SOPHOMORE 2

JUNIOR SENIOR 0

8 FEMALES

GRAD

35

SEE NSO PAGE 5

DISORDERLY

HOUSE

COMPLAINTS

1

1

1

CITATION FOR URINATING ON BEN STATUE

CITATION FOR UNDERAGE DRINKING Graphic by Kate Jeon | Design Editor

PennApps relocates to Wells Fargo Center

Penn researcher refuses to analyze Ashley Madison data

PennApps will take place this coming weekend from Sept. 4 to 6 SHOBA BABU Staff Reporter

Randal Olson does not believe it would be valid or ethical to analyze the stats VIBHA KANNAN Staff Reporter

Many surprising statistics have come from over 30 gigabytes of private information that hackers leaked from the extramarital affair website Ashley Madison: among America’s top colleges, Cornell has the most registered emails; of the largest tech companies, IBM employees top the charts. Since the release of over 35 million Ashley Madison accounts, media and data analysts have been searching for high profile names and drawing conclusions. The data website dadaviz. com can tell you everything from which cities have the highest number of registered users to how many accounts are linked to official government email addresses. But one data expert from Penn does not believe information from the leak should be analyzed. Randal Olson, a postdoctoral researcher at Penn, says the reliability of the Ashley Madison data is in question — anyone could sign up with a .gov email and pretend to be President Obama himself. Even if the data is verified, Olson still believes it is unethical to analyze the information. “These people did everything on that website

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

This weekend, over 2,000 top coders from across the globe will gather together in the near 21,000-person-capacity Wells Fargo Center to compete for over $30,000 in prizes.

PREPARING FOR STUDY ABROAD PAGE 2

SEE ASHLEY MADISON PAGE 2

FOLLOW US @DAILYPENN FOR THE LATEST UPDATES

Move over, Silicon Valley — with the recent growth of PennApps, Penn is putting Philadelphia on the tech world map. This year PennApps has partnered with Comcast to relocate the 12th biannual PennApps — the largest collegiate hackathon in the country— to the Wells Fargo Center. From Sept. 4 through 6, over 2,000 top coders from across the globe will gather together in the near 21,000-person-capacity stadium to compete for fame, glory and over

… students who want to maintain a healthy state of physical and mental well-being have to try pretty hard to keep this competitive atmosphere from getting under their skin.”

$30,000 in prizes. The move highlights the collegiate competition’s vast growth over the years. Instead of hacking websites and secret files, coders at the PennApps XII hackathon will use their skills to create the most innovative software and hardware apps possible in a matter of just 36 hours. Founded in 2009 by a few Engineering students with a passion for coding, PennApps spurred the introduction of leagues of hackathons across the country since then. “We’ve gone from 17 students who wanted to work together for a weekend to being able to accept only a small fraction of the people that apply to come to PennApps,” SEE PENNAPPS PAGE 3

W. SOCCER WINS OPENER BACK PAGE

— Gina Elia PAGE 4

ONLINE 7 DAYS A WEEK AT THEDP.COM


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
August 31, 2015 by The Daily Pennsylvanian - Issuu