Theodric Reed, 22, died Sunday
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2014
The College senior’s cause of death is currently unknown
INSIDE
BY HARRY COOPERMAN City News Editor
NEWS NSO EXCITED
PAGE 2
College senior Theodric Reed died suddenly on Sunday at his home in California, according to an email sent out Monday to students who knew him. Reed, whose friends called him Theo, was 22 years old. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical ExaminerCoroner has not released Reed’s cause of death because they have
yet to speak to his next of kin. Reed’s death marks the sixth student death this calendar year. The University said in a statement, “We were all deeply saddened to hear of his death, and Penn staff have reached out to his family in California to do everything we can to be supportive.” Reed knew that he wanted to come to Penn since the beginning of his college search process. “As soon as he set foot on Penn’s campus, he knew that was the school for him,” Linda Douglas, Reed’s mother, said. “He was a good kid, and a mother couldn’t ask for a better son.”
When Reed first got to Penn, he was a student in the Huntsman Program in Business and International Relations. But after taking a year off from school following his freshman year, Reed rethought his major and decided that he wanted to pursue his true passion — English — since he enjoyed writing. Concentrating in Law and Literature, Reed wanted to become a lawyer after college, his mother said. He was interested in studying contracts law, possibly negotiating deals for a publishing firm. Anyone wishing to contribute comments should email the author at cooperman@thedp.com.
THE NEW DP
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History professor Michael Katz died Saturday BY KRISTEN GRABARZ News Editor
Michael Katz, the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History and a former co-director of the Urban Studies department, died Saturday of cancer at Penn Hospice of Rittenhouse. He was 75. Students in the Urban Studies program were informed of Katz’s death via an email Tuesday. Current department co-chairs Elaine Simon and Mark Stern also posted a reflection on Katz’s Penn career to the Urban Studies site.
MICHAEL KATZ
SEE MICHAEL KATZ PAGE 5
SHS DIRECTOR SEARCH
Penn has begun the search to replace Evelyn Wiener, who died in May PAGE 3
SPORTS FALL 2013 RECAP
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PENN FOOTBALL MEDIA DAY RECAP AND TAKEAWAYS Our sports editors give you a look into what’s new with Penn football BACK PAGE
OPINION A LETTER FROM AMY GUTMANN
PAGE 4
Innovators of disruptive technology will be a focus of the Oct. 31 event BY JESSICA WASHINGTON Staff Writer
The grand opening of the Pennovation Center — Penn’s innovation center on the South Bank Campus — will be celebrated on Oct. 31 at a Universitywide event, Penn President Amy Gutmann said on Tuesday. To mark the opening of the center, Gutmann will host the 2014 David and Lyn Silfen Forum, where she will interview author Walter Issacson about higher education and innovation. Issacson, who wrote the biography of Steve Jobs and “more importantly,” Gutmann joked, the biography of Benjamin Franklin, is also the author of the forthcoming book “The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks SEE PENNOVATION PAGE 7
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Engage the world, Gutmann tells 2018 Admins talked to freshmen on College Green at Convocation last night BY VICTORIA MOFFITT Staff Writer
The Class of 2018 seems almost perfect — with record high SAT scores and percentages of
international and minority students, they represent the top 9.9 percent of the largest application pool that the University has ever seen. But at convocation last night, Eric Furda, Penn’s dean of admissions, welcomed the new class with advice that is often hard for Ivy League students to swallow: They need to shed the need for perfection. “Life is not perfect,” Furda said. “And we do not expect or want you to try to be perfect.”
Not all students’ paths at Penn begin in a perfect way. In his speech, Furda mentioned Kylie Murrin — a senior in the college and the drum major of the Penn Band — who admits that before her freshman year, she was on the waitlist “until the very last day.” Furda told the incoming class that Murrin “reminds [him] to be good to the waitlist students.” As a leader of the Penn band, the director of philanthropy in Zeta Tau Alpha and a member
of the Soundworks Tap Factory dance group, Murrin still found time to complete an honors thesis with the Center for Autism Research at CHOP. “A lot of it is coffee and enthusiasm,” Murrin said on her ability to manage so many different tasks. “It’s amazing what people will excuse if you show up with a smile on your face every day.”
ONLINE
THEDP.COM More photos of Convocation
SEE CONVOCATION PAGE 7
NSO hospital transports increase 65 percent over 2013 Three parties shut down, three students cited for underage drinking BY JOE LI Staff Writer
This year’s New Student Orientation saw a 65-percent increase in hospital transports compared to last year’s NSO, according to the Division of Public Safety.
Between Aug. 21 and 26, there were 28 students who were transported to the hospital due to alcohol, an increase from last year’s 17 transports, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said. Of the 28 students, 21 were freshmen, 4 were sophomores, and 3 were juniors. Eleven students were men and 17 were women. Last year, 13 of the 17 students transported to the hospiSEE ALCOHOL PAGE 8
Number of hospital transports
Gutmann to interview Walter Issacson at Pennovation celebration
YOLANDA CHEN/NEWS PHOTO EDITOR
A breakdown of NSO hospital transports 30
28 17
2012
2013 Year
SOURCE: DIVISON OF PUBLIC SAFETY
ONLINE AT THEDP.COM
2014
11 21
males
freshmen
4
17
females
sophomores
3
juniors
GRAPHIC BY VIVIAN LEE
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