September 18, 2017

Understanding

MENTAL HEALTH AT PENN SEE PAGE 6

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 VOL. CXXXIII NO. 71

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when a student dies, faculty are often the last to know The recent death of College senior Nicholas Moya has raised new questions about the way Penn communicates student deaths HALEY SUH & ALIZA OHNOUNA | Deputy News Editors

O

n the Friday afternoon following the death of College senior Nicholas Moya, staff members from Counseling and Psychological Services, the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life and Student Intervention Services visited the kitchen of the Sigma Delta Tau chapter house, where members of the sorority gathered together, sharing hugs and warm pizza.

The Penn administrators — who were there to offer support to members of a sorority identified as close enough to Moya’s fraternity to warrant a visit of its own — introduced themselves and discussed the various resources they could provide to students in need. When the administrators asked for questions, however, they were met with the complaints of students frustrated by the University’s inconsistency in communicating student deaths.

When a student dies on campus, only a section of the Penn community is informed. In 2016, students criticized University administrators for the way they communicated the death by suicide of Wharton junior Olivia Kong. The joint offices of Penn President Amy Gutmann and former Provost Vincent Price initially sent an email to all undergraduates, stating that an unnamed undergraduate

“to have to be in that position the day of grieving your friend, and even a week later, to have to still explain that to your teachers, I think that’s irresponsible of the schools” - Elana Waldstein

junior had died in an “accident.” Less than an hour later, Wharton students received another email from Vice Dean of Wharton Lori Rosenkopf identifying Kong by name.

Students were critical of these mixed messages, prompting the Provost’s Office to change Penn’s policy of “episodic” notifications to a more systematic approach last year.

Now, in the case of an undergraduate death, all undergraduate students are sent an email notification from the Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain­-Cade McCoullum, though faculty members do not receive this notification. As a result, faculty members are often not informed of a student death until hours and sometimes days after undergraduates are.

The recent death of College senior Nicholas Moya, who is the 14th student to die by suicide since 2013, has brought renewed attention to this decentralized policy.

President of Sigma Delta Tau and College senior Elizabeth Heit said she was shocked when on the day of Moya’s death, one of her professors, who Heit described as “deeply caring and nurturing,” went on with class as if nothing had happened. Heit later learned SEE NOTIFICATION PAGE 6

Why graduate students struggle to access mental health resources Many mental health groups are intended for undergrads NATALIE KAHN Senior Reporter

Penn has almost 11,000 graduate students, outnumbering the undergraduate population at 10,109, but these older students don’t seem to be able to access the University’s mental health resources as easily as undergraduates.

Five of the 14 students who have died by suicide since February 2013 at Penn have been graduate students.

Graduate students at Penn are divided up among 12 schools, and then further subdivided within those schools according to their areas of study. Many of these students spend their entire days alone in labs, and

few live on campus. Some are in year-long masters’ degree programs while others spend eight years at Penn in pursuit of a Ph.D. Since the graduate school network is more decentralized compared to the undergraduate system, students often spend a majority of their time within their own departments, said Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Chair for Student Life and fourth-year Nursing Ph.D. student Rosario JaimeLara. This becomes a problem when these students encounter issues with mental health.

GAPSA President and third-year Design and School of Arts and Sciences professional master’s student Miles Owen agreed.

“It’s really no secret that grad students have a high percentage of

mental health problems,” he said.

He noticed that in his home school, the graduate school of design, many students did not know that Counseling and Psychological Services even existed. University resources, Owen said, are underutilized by graduate students.

Jaime-Lara also noted that many mental health student groups, which are designed to supplement University resources, seem geared towards undergraduate students. She cited the example of Penn Benjamins, a peer counseling service which she often recommends to the undergraduate residents in Ware College House, where she is a graduate associate. On its website, Penn Benjamins describes itself as a resource for the “Penn undergraduate community.”

CAPS has recently hired four new staff members to expand its outreach by placing full-time clinicians in professional schools. The new clinicians spend between six and ten hours each week serving the graduate students in each of their respective schools: School of Dental Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine and Penn Law School.

Jamie-Lara also raised the student group Penn Reflect, which runs specialized programs for freshmen but none for first-year graduate students.

Rachel Stonecipher, a fourthyear Annenberg Ph.D. student and vice president of LGBTQ interest group Lambda Grads, said she still remembers her difficult adjustment to graduate school. She described

the loneliness she felt during her first semester, as Annenberg’s small class size barred her from integrating with the larger graduate student community.

“Within your department, there’s not always someone who gets you,” she said. “Annenberg is just so small that it doesn’t have a queer student group, and so it was very difficult to [find] … people who identified as gay or bisexual.”

Graduate students said they also struggle with heavy academic pressures. A third-year Ph.D. student in the School of Arts and Sciences who wished to remain anonymous said the stress of graduate school led him to go to CAPS. He explained that graduate students can easily be dismissed from their programs if they do not maintain a minimum

OPINION | Toe the line

NEWS Peer counseling groups

NEWS Mental health task force

SPORTS | Finally Off and Running

Penn Benjamins, Active Minds and others provide support to peers PAGE 6

No new conclusions were found by the reconvened committee PAGE 7

This week, Penn Democrats and College Republicans discuss President Trump’s decision to rescind DACA PAGE 4

Quakers kick off season with convincing win over Division II Ohio Dominican BACKPAGE

FOLLOW US @DAILYPENN FOR THE LATEST UPDATES ONLINE AT THEDP.COM

standard of academic performance.

For him, this meant that he needed to receive at least a B-plus in his first several curved classes.

This is even more stressful for international students, who could lose their visa to stay in the U.S. if they don’t maintain a strong academic performance.

Owen agreed, adding that graduate students, many of whom are international, also face challenges interacting with CAPS, which students have said isn’t always sensitive to different cultural backgrounds.

CAPS, while making an effort to hire diverse counselors, is not always able to place students with counselors of their same background because of scheduling.

SEE GRAD HEALTH PAGE 7

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2 NEWS

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Penn Walks safety service makes 1,400 trips each month

The program has been offered for the past 21 years

tor of Security Services for the Response Team last year, many Division of Public Safety Che- students say they are not aware rie Heller said. They complete of Penn Walk’s existence. around 1,400 trips every month.

“I’ve never even heard of Penn KELLY HEINZERLING Although not technically part Walks before,” College sophoDeputy News Editor of Penn Police Department, Penn more Ila Sethi said. “They need David Gordon was originally Walks acts as “the eyes and ears better marketing because most from Jamaica before he graduat- of the force,” Gordon said. Es- people don’t use their services.” ed from Northeast Philadelphia corts are always radio comThese Flexible Leasing • Single and inDouble Rooms • services include a 24 flight school. Today, Gordon munication with both Penn Po- hours a day, 365 days a year Individual Leases and Utilities Included doesn’t spend his days piloting• All liceAmenities and the Penn 511 Center and escort for anyone in University aircrafts. Rather, he works as have the ability to call officers if City who phones the Penn Walks one of the 125 patrol officers that the need arises. number, utilizes Penn’s blue light make up the little-known safety But although the program system or asks a public safety ofCall program Penn Walks. has attempted to advertise its ficer. Penn Walks covers the area Penn Walks is a walking es- services through initiatives like between Market Street to Balti215.662.0802 cort service that has been offered its poster campaign partnership more Avenue and between 30th by the Division of Public Safety with the Undergraduate Assem- and 43rd streets with extended for the past 21 years, Direc- bly and the Medical Emergency Email area before 3 a.m. to 50th Street.

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Students who do use the service said that they used it early in their freshman year when they were unfamiliar with campus.

“I was new to Penn and I didn’t want to walk home by myself,” College sophomore Rachel Liu said, after noting she didn’t know anyone else who used the program. “I definitely think there’s no shame in utilizing it, especially given the rise of armed robberies around Penn’s campus.”

College sophomore Colleen Campbell said the distinguishing factor of her Penn Walks experience in her first semester freshman year was how “friendly” the escort was — a characteristic that Penn Walks specifically seeks in possible escorts.

“We do a hiring process just for Penn Walks looking at communication skills, emotional intelligence [and] a friendly personality,” said District Portfolio Manager for Allied Universal Security Services Yaya Diakite.

Fourty-three percent of Allied Security officers are familiar with the area and call West Philadelphia home.

Escorts like Twanda Daniels form the backbone of the program and can work anywhere from 30 to 40 hours a week.

Daniels has worked for Penn Walks for the past 20 years, following her four-year stint in the Army.

“Since I’ve been doing Penn Walks, I’ve met a lot of people and I made a lot of friends out

of the deal,” said Daniels, recalling a few students who would request her specifically. “I love meeting people.”

Although Heller said the program has seen an “increased interest,” many students remain skeptical, and often embarrassed, about having used the service. A few students declined being quoted for this article.

But Gordon maintained that Penn Walks is a “very, very important” service for Penn to have as it protects the safety of students like Campbell and Liu, who both said they would use the service again.

“It was a very pleasant experience,” Liu said. “If you have those resources, why wouldn’t you use them?”

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Penn Walks offers walking escorts to Penn students 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for any person in University City. The service is accessible by phone, the blue light system or by simply asking a public safety officer.

The Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania

is searching for a new logo tshirt design for our

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TWO Prizes will be offered: $100 prize will be offered to the winning t-shirt design and to winning logo Submissions can be sent to mec-info@sas.upenn.edu Deadline is Friday, September 29th at 11:59pm For additional information, please visit our website at www.sas.upenn.edu/mec

FREE College Concert

Tuesday, September 19 at 7:30 PM Kimmel Center for the Preforming Arts Register at www.philorch.org/free-college-concert

IT’S TIME TO

VOTE! Undergraduate Assembly & Class Board Elections

FRESHMEN & TRANSFERS are Eligible Voting period is from Monday 9/18 to Wednesday 9/20 at 4 PM

vote at www.pennstudgov.com

Remember when PE class was the best part of the school day? It was a time to play, be active and have fun with your friends! It was also a time to play your favorite sports and learn skills that could keep you fit for life! If you loved PE in school and want to help ensure that K-12 West Philadelphia students have an awesome PE experience, join our University-Assisted Community Schools (UACS) PE Support Program today!

SPORTS & FITNESS COACHES NEEDED!

TO GET INVOLVED, CONTACT PAULETTE BRANSON, UACS SPORTS DIRECTOR, AT PBRAN@SAS.UPENN.EDU

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

NEWS 3

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

Exchange students unable to use Penn job search application Penn’s exchange program is the largest in Ivy League KATIE BONTJE Staff Reporter

There are more exchange students at Penn than ever before, though some of them have found it difficult to achieve their professional goals on campus without the resources that typical undergraduate students are given access to.

In the last two years alone, the number of exchange students has risen from 192 to approximately 230, making Penn’s exchange program the largest of any Ivy League institution, said Penn Abroad Director Nigel Cossar.

Penn’s exchange program has its roots as far back as

1939, though it was only in the late 1980s that the University began increasing their documentation of the program.

Study options at universities in English-speaking countries, such as King’s College London in the United Kingdom and the University of Sydney in Australia, have become much more popular over the years, Cossar said.

Cossar added that Penn takes every step to ensure that the transition to Penn for exchange students is as seamless as possible. This year, however, some exchange students have complained that they were not given access to Handshake, an online tool used by many students at Penn to access information for job recruitment events and deadlines.

Wharton junior Nicholas Chang, an exchange student from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said not having access to Handshake has made his transition difficult, especially because he was planning on looking for jobs in the Asia-Pacific area.

“Since I don’t have Handshake, and I don’t know too many people here, it’s even harder for me to know which events are going on.” Chang said. “Not a lot of people are applying for jobs in the AsiaPacific, so it’s even harder for me to ask for people for these kinds of events.”

Chang said he visited Career Services during the first week of school to complain about not having access to Handshake, but nearly a month later, still

has not received a response on when exchange students will be granted access to the platform.

On-campus recruiting started at the beginning of the semester.

“We just got the list of exchange students a couple of days ago,” Director of Career Services Patricia Rose wrote in an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian on Sept. 15. “They will all be uploaded into Handshake by next week.”

Wharton junior Kartik Shastri, an exchange student from the University of Sydney, already has a job lined up in Sydney. He said not having access to Handshake has not posed additional problems for him, though he has had to edit the resumes of some of his peers who are nervous about recruitment without Handshake.

He added that exchange students are in a particularly difficult situation because it can also be difficult to communicate with their home universities when it comes to job recruitment.

Another common concern among exchange students at Penn is the cost of their stint here. Students participating in the bilateral exchange — whether for a single semester or for the entire year — pay the tuition fees for their home university. At Penn, however, the cost of living on campus and of participating in a dining plan — both of which exchange students are required to pay for — are not included in their tuition. Rather, it’s an additional cost on top of their school fees, which they pay to their home

university.

Engineering senior Gustav Bredell, an exchange student from ETH Zurich, said living on campus has made his Penn experience more “vibrant,” but it is also more expensive than living off campus in Zurich.

He said he was also required to purchase a meal plan, the least expensive of which costs $1,200, even though he is accustomed to cooking for himself in Zurich.

Nonetheless, Bredell said he chose to come to Penn because he knew multiple people from ETH Zurich who had high reviews of the University. Cossar said these relationships with international universities, such as ETH Zurich, are important for the expansion of the exchange student program.

Job postings for humanities grad students on the decline Number of doctoral degrees has gone up MANLU LIU Staff Reporter

Job hunting at Penn brings up a distinct image of undergraduate students dressed in formal wear, hurrying down Locust Walk complete with backpacks and padfolios, but the scenario is quite different for graduates seeking jobs in academia.

In August, Inside Higher Ed released a report of the most recent statistics gathered by Academy of Arts and Sciences for their Humanities Indicator Project, which aims to provide an nonpartisan view of the state of the humanities in the United States today.

According to this report, the number of Ph.Ds awarded annually in the humanities has increased steadily from 4,700 in 2007 to 5,891 in 2015, but another analysis shows that across the same period, the number of academic job postings in humanities related fields has declined overall.

Robert Townsend, director of the Washington office of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, said it’s important to note the time delay in data due to the length of Ph.D. programs.

Since completing a humanities Ph.D. takes an average of eight years, “the rising numbers generally reflect admissions that occurred before the recession really hit, and before departments recognized that there would be a long-term change in the number

of academic jobs,” he wrote in an email.

He also said that while admissions are declining in Ph.D. programs, it would take a number of years for that to be reflected in the number of Ph.D.s awarded.

Penn Philosophy Department Graduate Chair Samuel Freeman said he hasn’t seen a decline in the number of Ph.D.s awarded in philosophy at Penn, which averages five-to-six a year, but is unaware of the number of students admitted to the program.

Out of the eight Penn philosophy graduates in 2016, all are employed, with five graduates in tenure-track positions, Freeman said.

“If you take the class of Ph.D.s, they have higher employment than anyone else,” Freeman said, “what they don’t have is the employment in universities – that’s what’s declining.”

He also added that he thinks there is a difference in job prospects for graduates from top-tier schools versus schools with lower ranking PhD programs.

“If you take Ivy League schools, Stanford – the top schools – generally they do pretty well [in job placements],” Freeman said.

Penn Philosophy graduate student Justin Bernstein said when applying to philosophy Ph.D. programs, he only applied to those that would provide him with the best chances at job placement.

“I was worried about the career angle of it,” he said, but to mitigate his concerns about finding jobs after graduation, he told

himself “[he] should only go to a top Ph.D. program that pays really well.”

Penn English Department Graduate Chair and English professor David Eng said in an email that his department has fared well in terms of placing its graduates in tenured-track jobs in comparison to other universities. One reason for this is the English department’s reputation, Eng said.

According to U.S. News & World Report, Penn’s graduate English department is tied for third best in the nation. It currently has a 64 percent six-year job placement rate.

“One variable for placement is also whether the people who have received degrees have geographical limits as to where they will apply, usually based on family and spousal considerations,” Penn History Department Graduate Chair and professor Peter Holquist said in an email.

According to Bernstein, the job search for humanities Ph.D.s is already beginning for certain positions. To look for jobs, he said that he uses the online service PhilJobs and plans on applying to about 80 to 100 jobs in total.

Although the job search process “hasn’t taken full effect yet,” Bernstein said that he could already feel the stress of the job search.

“You’re looking at what you’re doing for the past seven years and wondering whether people are going to read this and think that it’s a waste of time, so that’s really stressful,” he said.

Ph.D. Students in Humanities Number of doctoral degrees in Humanities awarded in US per year Year

RAHUL CHOPRA Staff Reporter

Most students in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research have to spend their summers poring over academic research, but not all of them find it applicable to their future careers. Many have set their sights on working in the energy industry after graduation rather than staying in the field of academia.

VIPER is a coordinated dualdegree program between the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science for students interested in energy science and research.

As part of the program requirements, VIPER students must perform research under a Penn faculty member for three months during at least two summers. Students have to either complete three summers of research, or complete two summers of research and two semesters of independent study research during the regular academic year.

Kristen Hughes, the managing director of VIPER, said the research requirements are meant to help students better understand what kind of energy work they might want to pursue after

graduation.

“Research is where students take what they’re learning and what they are aspiring to be and make it real,” she said.

VIPER accepted its first class in 2012 and has only produced two graduating classes so far, though the majority of program graduates have indicated that they intend to pursue master’s degrees or Ph.D.s, Hughes said.

Yann Pfitzer, a junior in the VIPER program, began working in a Penn lab the summer before his sophomore year investigating the ramifications of climate change on the microscopic marine algae, phytoplankton.

Pfitzer said that even though VIPER encourages students to continue with the same lab or research group while completing their research requirements, he decided to switch labs during the spring of his sophomore year.

Pfitzer spent the past summer working on a project concerning alternative energy sources and is still working on it part-time.

Although he said he enjoyed his prior experience, he wanted to pursue an area of research which would more closely align with his intention to work in energy venture capital after graduation.

“Every time I talk about it, I get excited about it,” Pfitzer said about his current research, which is more closely linked to energy venture capital. “It really

motivates me to get to the lab.”

Raj Bhuva, a sophomore in VIPER, is also seriously considering working in the energy industry after graduation rather than pursuing academic research.

Over the summer, Bhuva performed research in nanotechnology. While he found it to be interesting and educational he said that he wished that he could have done more “applicationoriented work.”

“I hoped I would have had the opportunity to place my research within larger and more real life consequences,” he said.

Julia Chen, a sophomore in VIPER who also wants to work in the energy industry, said VIPER research isn’t always applicable to the world outside of academia.

“I would prefer research in the industry because there would be more tangible impact to people’s lives,” she said.

Chen, who worked this past summer on redesigning photobioreactors for biofuel-producing algae, added that while she appreciates that VIPER connects students with multiple research opportunities, she feels that there isn’t a direct connection to industry research.

“For VIPER, what they expect for us is to do the academic research,” she said. “They want to support us to become researchers or scientists.”

6 year job placement rate is currently at

# of PH.D.

1988 2000 2007 2015 For Penn Philosophy department Past 5 years:

64%

In calendar year 2010-2016,

3110 4994 4770 5891

58%

were appointed to first-time, tenure-track positions in higher

23

Ph.D. graduates in Philosophy

11 are in tenure-TRACK Positions 10 are in non-tenure Positions 2 ARE PRACTICING ATTORNEYS Wendy Sun | Design Associate

VIPER students skeptical of benefit of research requirements Students earn degrees from College and Engineering

At Penn EngLish Dept.:

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4

OPINION

DACA: Morality beyond economy

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 VOL. CXXXIII, NO. 71 133rd Year of Publication CARTER COUDRIET President DAN SPINELLI Executive Editor LUCIEN WANG Print Director ALEX GRAVES Digital Director ALESSANDRO VAN DEN BRINK Opinion Editor REBECCA TAN Senior News Editor WILL SNOW Senior Sports Editor CHRIS MURACCA Design Editor CAMILLE RAPAY Design Editor JULIA SCHORR Design Editor LUCY FERRY Design Editor VIBHA KANNAN Enterprise Editor SARAH FORTINSKY News Editor MADELEINE LAMON News Editor ALLY JOHNSON Assignments Editor YOSI WEITZMAN Sports Editor BREVIN FLEISCHER Sports Editor JONATHAN POLLACK Sports Editor TOMMY ROTHMAN Sports Editor AMANDA GEISER Copy Editor HARRY TRUSTMAN Copy Editor ANDREW FISCHER Director of Web Development DYLAN REIM Social Media Editor ANANYA CHANDRA Photo Manager JOY LEE News Photo Editor ZACH SHELDON Sports Photo Editor LUCAS WEINER Video Producer JOYCE VARMA Podcast Editor BRANDON JOHNSON Business Manager MADDY OVERMOYER Advertising Manager SONIA KUMAR Business Analytics Manager SAMARA WYANT Circulation Manager HANNAH SHAKNOVICH Marketing Manager MEGHA AGARWAL Development Project Lead

THIS ISSUE MARC MARGOLIS Sports Associate THEODOROS PAPAZEKOS Sports Associate PRANAY VEMULAMADA Photo Associate JULIO SOSA Photo Associate

PENN DEMOCRATS It isn’t often you see the interest groups of major internet service providers, Facebook, Amazon, Lyft, the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP on the same side of an issue. And yet, such is the political climate that has been fostered by President Donald Trump, making strange bedfellows and coalitions of organizations, corporations and individuals and certainly pushing one to wonder —how could anyone support this if such a diverse range of interests can not support it?

This is the present scenario facing Trump’s administration and his threats to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program this year. DACA is a program initiated by former President Obama that has helped to protect 800,000 unauthorized immigrants from deportation and has permitted them to stay, live and work in the United States. As of right now, Trump will leave DACA in place for the next six months, giving Congress until that deadline to come up with some sort of legislative compromise to replace or institutionalize the program.

If this program is to be rescinded, as Trump has threatened publicly, it would mean the loss of protection from deportation for 800,000 unauthorized immigrants, creating the possibility for forcible removal of hundreds of thousands of people born in the United States to parents who immigrated here. For many of these DACA recipients, this means possible deportation for young adults who know no other home, who have lived and prospered and worked in the United States for years.

And yet, as many of its opponents fail to recognize, the stringency of requirements alone for DACA recipients is astounding, as not even all Dreamers in the U.S. qualify for protections from the program. Some of the many requirements include that all DACA recipients must have grown up in the United States, must be registered with the American government and must submit to comprehensive background checks. DACA recipients pay taxes, own businesses, attend prestigious colleges and contribute to American culture.

Thus, those who point to the economic concerns of continuing DACA are simply misinformed.

Studies suggest that ending DACA could cost the United States $460.3 billion in its GDP, and $24.6 billion in Medicare and Social Security tax contributions alone.

Likewise, more than 6 percent of DACA recipients have started their own businesses, while another 12 percent have purchased their own homes in the United States thanks to the benefits they have received from DACA. Indeed, contrary to much of the conservative punditry,

DACA recipients contribute largely to the American economy.

However, more important to this debate than the asinine and falsely supported economic arguments defending Trump’s new policy is the simple and direct violation of every American value that is supposed to be intrinsic to our national identity.

It is fundamentally unsound and un-American to belittle the belief in the right of existence of these Dreamers in the United States due to an economic defense of their productivity, their contribution economically to our society.

These Dreamers are more than statistics, more than businessowners, more than contributing students, more than researchers or computer scientists. Most fundamentally, DACA recipients are people. And they are Americans.

America, since its inception, has continuously postured itself as a land rife with opportunity for those who will take it, offering education as the great equalizer, offering citizenship and the right to vote and participate in the world’s leading democracy as mobilizing emblems of agency and representation. America has always claimed to promise all within its bounds a chance to prosper through a system of meritocracy, that anything is possible with grit, hard work and perseverance.

And perhaps no sect of the American population better embodies these attributes and aspirations than the Dreamers that DACA protects. To strip them of these rights — of the right to pursue these opportunities, to live without fear of deportation from the U.S., to have a job, to contribute to our culture and to our economy — is inhumane, base and deplorable.

This decision, coming on the heels of a proposed border wall, a travel ban and various other instances of hate-based policies led by the Trump administration cements this presidency as one blindly and impulsively led by prejudice, xenophobia, nativism and white nationalism. Immigrants have contributed to, shaped and defined what it is to be an American and what our political values have fundamentally always been since the founding of our nation. To propose that these 800,000 men and women lose their right to legally work and live in the U.S. is a direct and bigoted contradiction of all that Americans hold dear.

To be sure, DACA is only the very beginning of a much needed, revised American immigration policy. And yet, it must be sanctified and institutionalized as an early step to protecting the rights of unauthorized immigrants in America, and to begin a more thorough, open path to legal citizenship for those unauthorized immigrants currently in the United States.

TOE THE LINE

ERIN FARRELL is a College sophomore and the Penn Democrats communication director.

TOE THE LINE examines issues from two different sides. Both Penn Democrats and College Republicans argue why their collective positions on major political issues is best for the country.

MICHAEL MOROZ is a College sophomore and a co-chair of the College Republicans Editorial Board.

COLLEGE REPUBLICANS

Trump’s DACA compromise and the left’s hysteria COLLEGE REPUBLICANS In spite of the heartwarming histrionics of liberals and Penn’s own President Gutmann — but I repeat myself — President Trump was right to rescind President Obama’s unconstitutional Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order. He was also right to call for Congress to send him a bill making DACA U.S. law.

DACA was a desperation move.

President Obama said, both during and after his 2008 presidential campaign, that such an order would be an abuse of power. In 2011, he addressed this issue during a Univision town hall: “With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that’s just not the case.” He clarified these comments on other occasions, making the extremely salient point that he was neither an “emperor” nor a “king.”

Unfortunately, President Obama in 2012 apparently had more of an aspiration to regency, so he decided to unilaterally confer legal status, work permits, drivers’ licenses and Social Security numbers in an executive order that would eventually cover 44 percent of illegal immigrants from Mexico and 24 percent from other nations. He did the same for the parents of those eligible for DACA in the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability executive order, leading to a successful lawsuit by 27 states.

Though Obama official Eric Columbus, who worked on DACA, is “sad” about the status quo, he concedes that a legal challenge is “very likely to succeed.”

Given this is the case, President Trump pursued an option, one that can be described as either gracious compromise with or capitulation to Democrats in Congress. He agreed to pursue a bill making DACA law without any funding for a border wall. On his preferred platform, Twitter, the president asked: “Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military?”

DACA defenders have a right to be slightly angry at the president, but only because he seems to have plagiarized their talking points. That’s the most remarkable aspect of this entire controversy — everyone is actually agreeing, though it’s hard to tell over all the yelling. In essence, Trump’s critics are in complete agreement with him about DACA; they just prefer it to exist as a liminal and probably unconstitutional executive order, as opposed to a bill passed by Congress. In their zeal to bitterly oppose last November’s election result, Trump’s critics are forced into admittedly impressive acts of mental gymnastics, as they rush to condemn a man who is forwarding their cause.

Very little of this context and nuance is present in the current

debate about DACA. Those on the far left in media and academia have drawn their battle lines, condemning the president for the callous act of following the Constitution he swore to defend. As I mentioned, Penn President Gutmann was chief among these critics, and her response was to have Penn promulgate an institutional view on DACA. Penn’s “Supporting DACA Students” informational session, which I attended, is an excellent example. Attendees were referred to illegal immigrant activist groups and leftist groups like the Trans Queer Liberation Movement, Juntos and the New Sanctuary Movement. We were told to support “immigrant rights organizations” and lobby our representatives on immigration reform, as pictures of pro-reform protesters were displayed in the background. Afterward, a student speaker kindly informed us that we can’t talk about “good” and “bad” immigrants and we can’t talk about sending any of them home.

Leaving aside the fact that, with all due respect, Penn and its president don’t have any relevance in terms of immigration policy proclamations, Gutmann’s message, and Penn’s message, is nonsensical and logically incoherent. Firstly, no one is arguing here about the substance of DACA, but about whether a bill or an executive order is the best legal means of implementing DACA. Does Penn have some institutional interest in a debate about the balance of powers in the federal government? I remain skeptical.

Her letter claims this was a “shortsighted decision” that “violates our core principles” as a nation. Gutmann made the correct though completely irrelevant observation that “this country was founded by immigrants and exiles.”

This country has indeed benefited from immigrants, including my parents, for example. That said, just because the United States accepts immigrants does not mean that it must accept illegal immigration. Such an argument would lead us to the absurd position of opening our borders entirely, lest we violate the “inclusion” and “diversity” dictates mentioned in President Gutmann’s letter. Of course, immigration should be as open as possible to people of whatever ethnicity and yes, Congress should allow those who were brought here illegally as children to stay while securing the border for the future.

This country, with the backing of President Trump and both parties in Congress, is being incredibly humane and gracious in allowing most illegal immigrants to stay. I hope they succeed, though I don’t expect a leftist in Washington or in her College Hall office to cease the condescending condemnations.

LIZZY MACHIELSE Photo Associate WEIWEI MENG Photo Associate

CARTOON

ALEX RABIN Copy Associate SANJANA ADURTY Copy Associate ALISA BHAKTA Copy Associate CATHERINE DE LUNA Copy Associate RYAN TU Design Associate

LETTERS Have your own opinion? Send your letter to the editor or guest column to letters@thedp.com.

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.

SARAH KHAN is a College freshman from Lynn Haven, Fla. Her email address is skhan100@sas.upenn.edu.

5

We need to normalize rejection ROAD JESS TRAVELLED | On removing the stigma surrounding rejection and failure The first few weeks of September signify many beginnings on Penn’s campus — new leaves turning, new academic schedules, new students walking down Locust Walk. However, they also represent something else — the beginning of rejection.

Club recruitment starts as soon as we hit campus, and stretches on for weeks afterward. Auditions for performing arts groups, rush for professional fraternities, written applications for everything from consulting groups to tutoring initiatives. As the weeks go on, we are oddly silent about the inevitable, countless rejections that result from Penn’s aggressive club culture.

Recently, I attended an introductory panel about various consulting groups on campus. As I sat through each representative of the group listing off unique, cool-sounding facts about their club experiences, I couldn’t help but think about the incredibly low acceptance rate for each of the organizations. Finally, one girl at the very end said something I had never heard before in a

panel like this — she stressed that it was okay if applicants did not get in, and that it was not the end of the world.

A breath of relief almost escaped out of me, and the freshmen around me dropped their shoulders — I realized these are the kind of words we need to say more. We need less sugarcoating and more honesty from organizations that require multiple rounds of applications and interviews. We need less “brochure talk” and more honest discussion.

We don’t find rejection exclusively in clubs. It’s everywhere — from not being able to find a social niche on campus to struggling in the bottom quarter of a class. College life — and real life — is inherently filled with failure, and by trying to hide this reality, we allow many students to suffer silently.

Freshmen often come in as successful, high-achieving kids who have rarely experienced rejection.

The transition from high school to Penn’s competitive nature is a shock to many, and we need to do more to ease that transition and

open up the conversation about it.

Countless rallying cries have been made about Penn’s toxic club culture, and I agree with these statements. However, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the

Strides have already been made.

The Wall of Rejection is an incredible student-led initiative in Houston Hall where people can tack on Post-It notes of things they’ve been rejected from, whether those

Oftentimes, the best comfort in the face of a string of rejections — something we’ve all experienced, especially as Penn students — is to know we’re not alone.” inherent competitiveness will go away anytime soon — clubs have limitations on the students they can take for a variety of reasons, and it is inevitable that not everyone can receive acceptances. That is why we must directly deal with rejection itself and not shy away from the topic.

are clubs or jobs or everything in between. Words of encouragement also cover the wall. Multiple columns have been written about club culture — about empathizing with freshmen.

However, we must go further in ensuring students, especially freshmen, that rejection is inherent in

everyday life, and is a natural component of success. Oftentimes, the best comfort in the face of a string of rejections — something we’ve all experienced, especially as Penn students — is to know we’re not alone.

Clubs must be more transparent from the very beginning about the likelihood of acceptance; this would allow students to be more realistic in the application process.

From a student’s standpoint, we must try to cultivate an overall culture of openness by talking more about rejection and removing the stigma that comes with it.

I still remember my own personal struggles adjusting to Penn.

I was a freshman who was eager to try new things and branch out. I applied to a variety of different organizations, but was shocked at the lack of acceptance and inclusivity on campus as a whole, as many of my friends felt too. Back then, and even now, I wish there had been more discussion and transparency on the inevitability of this happening, as I was often in the dark about what was going on behind clubs.

JESSICA LI It’s difficult to change an oftenstagnant environment. Penn’s competitive club culture is not going away, and rejection itself is not going away, either. The least we can do is give students the resources and the honesty to combat the negative feelings that come with rejection — and let them know that it’s okay to fail.

JESSICA LI is a College sophomore from Livingston, N.J., studying English and psychology. Her email address is jesli@sas.upenn.edu. “Road Jess Travelled” usually appears every other Monday.

An ode to language learning MERICAN IN AMERICA | Why we should consider taking foreign language courses When I came to Penn last year, I decided to pick up Korean from scratch, enrolling in Korean 011: Elementary Korean. This semester, I had second thoughts, but ended up registering for Korean again. Something keeps me going back.

In Elementary Korean, our class spent the first week learning the Korean alphabet, and I was able to pronounce words — at a maddeningly slow speed — by the end of it. In Korean, the character for the sound “b” and “p” is the same, as well as the character for “r” and “l.” To pronounce the first character, I was taught to say it not as hard as a “b,” but also not as soft as a “p.” What is a sound between “b” and “p”? What is a sound between “r” and “l”? Learning a new language forces us to see beyond our 26-letter Roman alphabet. Not every sound can be captured by our alphabet alone; Romanization often falls short.

Learning a new language means learning to “babble” again. There is something awfully humbling to stutter and struggle (with other college students) to express simple thoughts, or string together a simple sentence like “I like to eat noodles for lunch” in another language.

Sometimes in Korean class I stare at the PowerPoint slides and rage silently, “Why does this rule exist? It’s so arbitrary!

Who came up with this?” My frustration with a new language has helped me develop a newfound fascination with my old one. For example, why does “pinning” have two Ns

and “pruning” have only one N? Why does “cut” not have an –ed past tense? Why does “awfully” sometimes mean “dreadfully,” but also “very”?

Languages have rules, but they are often still messy, quirky beings.

In other classes, we often study complex theories and ideas, deep into the field, submerged in jargon. We talk about the “anti-colonial consciousness of modernism” and “Aristotelian critiques of contemporary ethical theories.”

To suddenly struggle in a language class to say something

ing for a very vivid, sensorial experience of language, perhaps more so than English.

Through Chinese, I learned the power of language to stimulate the imagination.

In Malay, I learned to describe nouns differently and reverse the order of the way we see things. While we write “my blue book” in English, we say “book blue my” in Malay; “my new house” is “house new my” in Malay. There is something humbling in deferring the possessor of the noun to the end, to acknowledge the “thing” before ourselves.

To suddenly struggle in a language class to say something simple like “my friend’s shirt is blue” is deeply humbling, slightly amusing and carries a precious childlike quality.” simple like “my friend’s shirt is blue” is deeply humbling, slightly amusing and carries a precious childlike quality.

Learning a new language also means uncovering new ways of thinking. I remember the gush of images and color I experienced while learning Chinese in elementary school.

Chinese is a language full of stories and metaphors, allow-

In Korean, we almost never say “my mother,” “my father” or “my family.” Instead, we say “our mother,” “our father” or “our family.” This extends to some other nouns — “my country” and “my neighborhood” become “our country” and “our neighborhood” in Korean. Using the plural possessive perhaps reflects a cultural preference to prioritize the

Have your own opinion?

Send your letter to the editor or guest column to: letters@thedp.com

@

group over the individual and a reluctance to define ownership as exclusive and singular.

Languages are riddled with ambiguities, exceptions and irregularities, but are also rich in history, myths, cultural nuances and social codes. Many of us are able to have our language requirement fulfilled and waived using languages we learned before coming to Penn.

For Engineering students, there is no language requirement at all. The Wharton School also reduced the language requirement from four semesters to

two semesters this year.

I understand that taking language classes at Penn can be daunting — some involve 8 a.m. recitations meeting four times per week, along with weekly vocabulary and lesson quizzes. I also admit that the language-learning journey is riddled with tedious memory work, but there are plenty of treasures and pleasant surprises along the way. Learning a new language is ultimately a lesson in intellectual humility, and can be deeply rewarding, eye-opening and stimulating.

SARA MERICAN SARA MERICAN is a College sophomore from Singapore. Her email address is smerican@sas. upenn.edu. “Merican in America” usually appears every Monday.

6 NEWS

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

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NOTIFICATION >> FRONT PAGE

that this was because her professor had not received an email regarding Moya’s death.

Later that same day, around 5 p.m., Heit reached out to a professor in another undergraduate school with whom she shared a close relationship. Again, she realized that the professor had no idea about Moya's death.

Penn sent an email regarding Moya's death to all undergraduates at 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 1, but did not notify faculty or staff in any comprehensive way.

Rob Nelson is the executive director for education and academic planning at the Provost’s Office, which is responsible for sending out notifications of student deaths. He said only selected faculty members were informed of Moya's death the day after it occurred.

“Our initial effort is very much focused on students’ family members, and other students who are close to the student [who has died],” Nelson said.

“Sometimes that includes staff members and professors, advisors … anyone who’s close to the student, we try to identify them.”

Faculty members are only notified of a student death at the same time as other undergraduate students if the individual who died was a current student of theirs, said Director of Media Relations for the University Ron Ozio, in an email.

After undergraduates and relevant professors have been notified, the deans of the various undergraduate schools decide on the faculty members with whom they would like to share the news.

After Moya's death, some professors in the College received an email from Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Steven Fluharty the same day that undergraduates were informed, while others were only notified of what happened days later.

Psychology professor Ayelet Ruscio, said she received an email that was timestamped at 3:46 p.m., over six hours after all undergraduates were informed.

Scott Barry Kaufman, a lecturer in the Psychology Department, first learned about Moya’s death through his students. The only correspondence he recalled receiving from the administration was an email on Sept. 5, almost a week after Moya’s death.

The email, which came from Sonya Gwak, the director of Student Life and Undergraduate Education, informed him that one of his students in his "Introduction to Positive Psychology" seminar — the only course at Penn dedicated to students’ mental wellbeing — was close to Moya and was unable to attend to his schoolwork.

Spokespersons from the Wharton School, School of Nursing and School of Engineering and Applied Science declined to comment on whether their respective faculties were notified.

Professors may hear directly from the administration if their student is experiencing particularly acute distress in light of a classmate’s death. This notice comes only after Counseling and Psychological Services works with Student Intervention Services to determine which students are struggling with grief or trauma in the wake of their peer's death.

“Concentric circles between friends and acquaintances develop when we think about who was affected in the case of a student death,” Director of CAPS Bill Alexander said.

CAPS Director of Outreach and Prevention Meeta Kumar added that some students “self-identify and reach out.”

CAPS customizes the way it offers support to each affected student. Through a combination of “hearsay” and conversations with other students, they identify affected students and contact them out of clinical concern, Alexander said. In some cases, professors of students are also contacted.

But this notification process is frequently delayed, largely because CAPS doesn't have direct access to any student listservs. It has to rely on students and faculty to give them access to these listservs.

Kaufman said the way the administration communicates student deaths to faculty is “mind-boggling.”

“I think it is essential that professors are aware of the social life of the students,” he said.

“I’ve been in situations where students just found out [about a death of a classmate in the past],” he said, adding that he wants to understand why students need to excuse themselves from his class and be able to support them.

Chair Elect of the University Faculty Senate Santosh Venkatesh, professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering, had a different opinion.

“I think [the Provost’s Office does] as good a job as can be done under the circumstances,” he said. “I really don’t have any qualms or quibbles with it.”

Students disagree.

“Penn tends to foster this whole Penn community thing, but that doesn’t work if you’re separating the schools [in] the way that they’re doing [it],” College senior Elana Waldstein said, adding that Penn places an undue burden on students by requiring them to tell their professors the news.

“To have to be in that position the day of grieving your friend, and even a week later, to have to still explain that to your teachers, I think that’s irresponsible of the schools," she said. "If [the administration is] not telling half of the school, or leaving it up to different people to notify their professors [of the student death] when it’s someone from the Penn community, then that’s not a community."

College junior Max Schechter, a peer counselor for Penn Benjamins — the University’s first and only student-run counseling group — said notifying all faculty of a student death is just a step towards improving campus mental health and promoting healing among students who are grieving.

Schechter also said he believes professors should be trained by CAPS in active listening and resource referral in the same way that Penn Benjamins members are, and that professors should be involved throughout “the whole process” of promoting students mental health, which entails receiving the same notification that undergraduates do when a student dies.

Nelson said the Provost’s Office is currently reviewing the procedure on communicating student deaths to faculty members.

“Certainly the communication to faculty is an issue that surfaced with the most recent death, but every time this happens, we look at our processes and protocols,” he said.

“I think it’s really important to balance the competing interests and needs of students and faculty who are members of the Penn community with the people who are closest to the student who has passed away, and that means sometimes that we don’t necessarily broadcast a lot of information that’s going on,” Nelson said.

“That information gap can lead to some frustration but we’re always looking at how we approach these issues with the idea of doing it better next time," he added.

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

a guide to caps and its resources

first line of defense: peer counseling groups Penn Benjamins, Active Minds and others provide support and training to peers

Penn mental health services have expanded and diversified over the past several years

OLIVIA SYLVESTER Senior Reporter

F

ollowing a student death, the University administration refers students to a variety of school-sponsored resources. But some student groups also step forward to provide various services for their peers.

Penn Benjamins is the first peer-counseling organization at Penn. It provides students with confidential oneon-one peer counseling sessions led by students trained to listen.

College junior and on-going training director for Penn Benjamins Max Schechter said that while the group has no formal procedure for dealing with a student death, they “want people to know [they’re] there.”

Available Sundays through Thursdays from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., Penn Benjamins offers “peer-to-peer help for issues big or small” and provides referrals to professional resources, Schechter said.

“Everyone should know about the resources that Penn has because Penn has so many,” he added. “A lot of people don’t know about specific clubs like Penn Benjamins, [Reach-A-Peer Helpline] and Actively Moving Forward.”

He referenced a 34th Street article he had read in which a student who was feeling overwhelmed could not schedule an immediate Counseling and Psychological Services meeting but was unhappy to have to wait a week when she wanted to talk to someone immediately.

“That’s exactly what these peer counseling organizations like Penn Benjamins are here for,” Schechter said.

“It’s a shame that not everyone knows about these clubs, especially the people that need it the most.”

College junior Mariya Bershad is one of the marketing and finance chairs of RAP-Line, a student-run over-thephone confidential helpline that provides “support, information, and referrals” to students from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Bershad said that after student deaths, RAP-Line tries to ramp up publicity efforts for their services and the services of other on-campus resources.

Student members of RAP-Line undergo training to teach members how to help people with a variety of problems and mental health issues, including a day set aside for

learning about how to help students with “death, dying, and issues of loss.”

“There’s something to say for talking to a student who is the same age as you and maybe who has gone through something similar,” Bershad said. “If you’re just looking for somebody to talk to in that moment and maybe you’re not looking for a semester of therapy, it could just be a nice thing to do.”

Active Minds Penn is another club that seeks to help start conversations about mental health and erase the stigma surrounding the topic.

Co-President of Active Minds and College senior Jasmine Paz said the club’s main response to a traumatic incident such as a student death is to share any resources and contacts that could be useful to students through platforms like Facebook and email listservs.

“Especially in the mental health sphere, we try to make sure to be cautious about anything we share around that time period and make sure that it’s something that would be beneficial for anyone who is struggling,” Paz said.

Vice President of Outreach for Active Minds and College senior Meghana Reddy said that while their purpose is to be a support system for the student body, they ultimately try to encourage students to consult professional resources offered by the University.

“At the end of the day we are students,” Reddy said.

“We can be there for people to lean on, but if someone is really going through something that requires professional help or they are experiencing a very deep tragedy, it’s most important to kind of seek out the types of resources that are most appropriate.”

Paz agreed, but added that while Active Minds advocates for professional resources, she recognizes the importance of peer support as well.

“Following a tragedy, one way that [peer counseling clubs] are different is that clubs like Penn Benjamins are a part of the student body,” Paz said. “They’re students who have also lost a student, one of our peers. It makes it a little more relatable.”

KATIE BONTJE & SARAH FORTINSKY Staff Reporter & News Editor

JULIO SOSA | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Students gathered in April 2016 to memorialize Olivia Kong, a Wharton junior who died by suicide. In the aftermath of Kong's death, Penn announced that it would reconvene a task force on mental health, but that task force never released a public report.

penn's reconvened mental health task force offers no new conclusions The task force concluded that previous measures — including more CAPS hours — were sufficient CAROLINE SIMON Senior Reporter

A

“Delivering, assessing, and expanding mental health serfter Wharton junior Olivia Kong's death by suicide in 2016, Penn reconvened a Task Force on Student vices and support have been, and remain, top priority in Psychological Health and Welfare. The task force VPUL," University spokesperson Monica Yant Kinney wrote concluded its work about a year ago but has not released any in an email. “Staff in many departments — CAPS, Student public report on its findings or offered any recommendations Intervention Services, Student Health Service, OFSL, and other offices outside of VPUL such as the Chaplain’s Office that directly sparked policy changes.

This is because the goals of this task force were different — have been working around the clock to support students from those of the first one, which convened in February 2014 impacted by the recent death of their classmate.”

After the task force reconvened in April 2016, it met a and concluded its work a year later. This earlier task force was explicitly charged with researching the state of mental number of times throughout the summer of 2016 before conhealth on campus and making recommendations for improve- cluding its work in fall of 2016. Like the first iteration of the task force, students were not included because the work ocment.

The reconvened task force, on the other hand, was de- curred over the summer and certain aspects of the discussion signed to review ongoing progress, and was not charged were deemed too sensitive, administrators said.

“My sense was that this was a little more of a targeted with compiling a public report. Members of the task force concluded a few months after it had reconvened that ongo- task force, versus the first one, which was exploratory,” said ing mental health initiatives — expansion of I CARE train- CAPS Director of Outreach and Prevention Meeta Kumar.

One of the only direct changes ing, the Wellness Ambassadors that stemmed from the aftermath program and increased Counselof Kong’s death in 2016 was a ing and Psychological Services new system for communicathours, to name a few — were ading student deaths to the Penn equately addressing the issue. community. Previously, certain “The charge to the task force groups of students would be when it reconvened did not innotified by their dean dependclude a charge to release a public ing on the situation. Now, all report and, that, in a nutshell was undergraduate students receive a why there was no report,” said singular message from the Vice Executive Director for Education Provost for University Life’s ofand Academic Planning Rob Nel- Meeta Kumar fice when an undergraduate dies. son who staffed both task forces.

This policy is slightly differ“The Task Force completed its ent when applied to graduate work at the end of the summer of 2016, so we have nothing new to say,” wrote English profes- students. Only the community in the student's home school sor Rebecca Bushnell in an email. Bushnell, along with Med- is emailed; University Communications then proactively forical School Psychiatry professor Anthony Rostain headed the wards that email to The Daily Pennsylvanian. Following the death of Penn Vet student Brett Cooper last week, the Unireconvened task force.

Fourteen Penn students have died by suicide since 2013. versity notified Penn Vet students in an email and forwarded Throughout this period, Penn's administration has struggled the email to the DP. Four Penn students have died this year, two of whom are to address the mental health of students — an issue that’s sparked grave concern from across the Penn community as confirmed to have died by suicide. Aran Rana, who was a College sophomore, died by suicide in Hong Kong while on well as several bouts of student activism.

The issue has earned renewed attention over the last few a leave of absence in February. The cause of Cooper's death weeks after the death of College senior Nicholas Moya, who is still unknown.

The University's task force concluded after Kong's 2016 died off campus Aug. 31, just two days after the first day of death that Penn’s wide array of ongoing mental health initiaclasses.

Administrators have not said whether Moya's death will tives are sufficient to address the issue. It's unclear if this is still their position following the deaths of Moya and Rana. prompt any concrete policy changes.

"my sense was that this was a little more of a targeted task force, versus the first one"

ANANYA CHANDRA | PHOTO MANAGER

"there’s something to say for talking to a student who is the same age as you and maybe who has gone through something similar" - Mariya Bershad

CAPS Resources Sexual Assault 1. Support & Empowerment Groups a. Survivors of Sexual Assault b. Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse c. Women of Color Survivors of Sexual Assault d. Male Survivors of Sexual Assault 2. Penn Violence Prevention 3. Individual Therapy

Counseling and Psychological Services has existed at Penn for decades, but in the past few years, both the resources offered and the discussion around mental health at Penn have grown substantially.

From 2012 to 2016, funding for CAPS increased by 24 percent.

Between 2014 and 2016, Penn increased funding to CAPS by approximately $860,000. The additional funds have helped CAPS hire new staff, allow more students to receive treatment and shortened wait-times.

Making an appointment: There are three ways to make an appointment at CAPS: Students can walk in during business hours, reach CAPS clinicians over the phone at 215-898-7021 or fill out an Online Initial Request Form on the CAPS website.

At the initial consultation, a CAPS clinician will ask a series of questions about “personal and private information.” This lasts about 15 minutes. The clinician will then instruct the student on what the next step might be, which might be scheduling an initial appointment, attending a CAPS group or workshop or connecting to other resources on campus or in the community.

Attending group programing: There are three different types of group programs, and each has a different procedure to attend.

Issue-specific therapy groups are designed to address specific issues, such as eating concerns or sexual assault. Students are referred to one of these groups by a CAPS clinician and generally complete a screening beforehand. Then you will complete an online form expressing interest in the group, and a leader of the group will contact you.

There are also drop-in groups, which require no registration and workshops that students can choose register for all sessions or for specific sessions depending on the workshop.

What's new at CAPS: CAPS extended its hours this year for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and added weekend hours on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

CAPS also hired four new staff members to serve at four of Penn's graduate schools: Penn Law School, Perelman School of Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine and School of Dental Medicine.

The new employees will spend six-to-ten hours each week at their respective schools and spend the rest of the time working as fulltime CAPS employees.

In the next few weeks, CAPS also plans on changing the way after-hours calls are received. In the past, when students called after regular business hours, they would be directed to the operator of the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. The operator would then page a CAPS clinician, who would be responsible for returning the patient's phone call. Starting from this semester, however, students will be connected to a CAPS clinician the moment they call in, Alexander said.

CAPS is also continuing its efforts to expand I CARE, a unique program focused on training members of individual communities with skills and resources necessary for dealing with mental health issues.

In addition to some specialized workshops, CAPS has added more resources for students who choose to take leaves of absences for mental health reasons or otherwise.

GRAD HEALTH >>FRONT PAGE

“There’s no way you can have enough people at CAPS to cover all the cultures and all the correct ways of doing things all over the world, so it makes it very hard,” he said.

Due to the stigma associated with seeking help for mental health issues, Jaime-Lara added, graduate students sometimes choose not to go to CAPS for fear of seeing undergraduate students they teach.

Stonecipher said she visited CAPS during her first semester and was told mid-way that she had reached her limit of appointments.

Because she did not want to pay for an external therapist, she stopped receiving treatment for mental health. Stonecipher noted that she has heard of this happening to other students too.

CAPS did not respond to request for comment.

Both Stonecipher and Jaime-Lara have organized stress-relieving events for graduate students. Last year, Jaime-Lara organized a coffee conversation series to talk about mental health, which she said reminded people that they are not alone in their challenges.

“Even if it’s just one person that’s able to make it, and it makes a difference to that one person,” she said, “then I think it’s worth everything."

CAMPUS RESOURCES

Group Options 1. Issue-specific a. Drop-in b. Workshop c. Therapy groups 2. Interpersonal Growth Group

Individual Options 1. One-on-one therapy 2. Referrals 3. Couples therapy 4. Crisis management 5. Self-care a. Brochures b. Online tips and exercises

NEWS 7

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College Republicans warm up to Trump administration

Eating off campus costs less than a Penn meal plan

Pre-election, most members were against Trump

Off-campus diets cost, on average, $750 less

JAMES MCFADDEN Staff Reporter

CHRIS DOYLE Staff Reporter

Less than a month before the 2016 presidential election, the executive board of Penn’s College Republicans voted to condemn President Donald Trump. This was prompted by a September poll showing that 60 percent of the group’s constituents did not support Trump in the election.

Since then, however, the group’s position towards Trump has shifted. Leaders of the group have noticed increased support for President Trump among its members and a spike in event attendance overall.

“I think Americans in general want to get behind a leader,” Wharton senior and College Republicans President Sean Egan said. “Americans are naturally optimistic, and I think that people want the leader of their country to succeed.”

College junior and College Republicans Director of Communications Rich Murphy said it is important for the group to acknowledge Trump’s wrongdoings when they occur, but that there are still actions that Trump has taken that members of College Republicans agree with.

“We should stand up when he does something that’s wrong, like not saying right away that Charlottesville was about white nationalism.” Murphy said. “But some of his actions people have been very

Over 40 percent of Penn students live off campus, almost all of whom are upperclassmen. Many of these students eat off campus too, but for years Student Registration & Financial Services estimated the same cost of meals for students living on and offcampus. During the 2016-17 academic year, that estimate was $5,086.

Beginning this semester, SRFS reduced the cost of meals allotted to students living off-campus by a little under $600 to $4,500.

Director of Financial Aid Elaine Papas Varas said SRFS calculated the figure by looking at what the Bureau of Labor Statistics lists as the average amount someone living in Philadelphia spends on groceries per month. This figure is then analyzed alongside the price of Penn’s less expensive meal plans.

For the 2017-18 academic year, SRFS increased the average cost of on-campus dining to $5,248 — increasing the disparity between the cost of on- and off-campus meals to nearly $750.

Varas said the resulting cost reflects the dining habits of students who eat breakfast and lunch on campus and return to

ILANA WURMAN | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Although College Republicans, as a whole, voted to condemn Trump during the 2016 election, there is now increased support.

happy about, like the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.”

There still remains a diversity of opinions regarding support for Trump among the group’s primarily conservative members, but Murphy said this has not caused any internal issues for the group.

“As a group, we really haven’t struggled with that,” Murphy said.

“We don’t have many people who blindly follow Donald Trump.

You get together and you see your similarities more than your differences.”

College Republicans has also been making a concerted effort in recent semesters to reach out to more students and broadcast their events to a larger audience. Wharton sophomore and College Republicans Treasurer Worth Gentry said this outreach has paid off.

“Numbers are definitely up,” Gentry said. “I would attribute that to the work that our central chairs have done.”

As with many conservative groups on college campuses across

the nation, the issue of free speech continues to be an area of focus.

Murphy said an issue that concerns many Republicans, particularly those on a college campus like Penn’s, is the freedom to voice opposing view points and recognize their legitimacy.

“There does seem to be this overarching free speech issue where people reject an idea because they don’t like it emotionally, without taking it on rationally” Murphy said.

The group remains committed to encouraging healthy debate with students from both sides of the political spectrum, despite the controversial nature of much of today’s political discourse.

“What we get at a place like Penn [is] that not everyone is of the same opinion— that would be unhealthy,” Egan said. “We just want to further the conversation and we want to have a respectful dialogue in terms of policy and in terms the future of our country. I think that’s an overall plus to the campus community.”

Penn professors discuss how cities can improve disaster response post-Harvey Prof. recommends removing insurance subsidies RAHUL CHOPRA Staff Reporter

Hurricane Harvey caused $180 billion in damages, which some experts estimate is more than any other natural disaster in United States history. Weeks after the storm, various members of the Penn community are still dealing with its aftermath.

Penn faculty have found ways that communities, particularly those living in cities, can better prepare for a natural disaster of this scale.

Wharton professor Howard Kunreuther has conducted extensive research into how the public and private sectors can mitigate the damage produced by natural disasters.

Kunreuther, who is also the codirector of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, said individual biases help explain why cities

are consistently underprepared for natural disasters such as Harvey and Irma.

Kunreuther co-wrote a book with Wharton professor Robert Meyer titled, “The Ostrich Paradox: Why We Underprepare for Disasters.” It explores why people tend to be short-sighted and overly optimistic in the face of natural disasters.

“We focus on the short run — the idea of thinking for the long run is very hard for any of us to do.” Kunreuther said.

He added that people tend to forget disasters after they happen and resist changes to the status quo.

Looking forward, Kunreuther said people can better prepare for natural disasters by removing insurance subsidies (which obscure the true risk of living in flood-prone areas) and using vouchers to encourage homeowners to mitigate risks. He added that he believes changes in legislation and insurance policy are critical to

preventing such extensive damages in the future.

“We have to take action now, rather than waiting and forgetting all that has happened,” he said.

Professors said in the long run, governments also need to think more meaningfully about the role that climate change plays in natural disasters.

“We don’t talk about climate change; we talk about changing weather. I think that is really sad,” said Wharton professor Eric Orts, the director of the Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership.

Nikhil Anand, an assistant professor of Anthropology who wrote about urban infrastructure in his book “Hydraulic City,” agreed.

“Climate change is not something that is a question or in the future, but something that is changing now” he said.

Anand added that flood prevention measures also need to take into account the history

of race and class, as zoning laws in the past have often put marginalized communities in harm’s way.

Rather than build temporary stopgap measures, such as dykes and river walls, Anand said that city governments should start looking for more permanent solutions.

“We must move from thinking about ‘if’ to ‘when,’” Anand said.

Yet, while the link between climate change and natural disasters seems clear to these professors, various members of the federal government have refrained from raising the issue climate change in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said on Sept.

11 that it is “insensitive” to raise the question of climate change in the immediate aftermath of deadly storms.

“I think that’s poppycock,” Orts said.

@dailypennsports

FILE PHOTO

SRFS increased the average cost of on-campus dining to $5,248, which is $750 less than the estimated cost of an off-campus diet.

their off-campus housing for dinner. SRFS found that on average, this diet would be about $750 less expensive than paying for one of the three more expensive meal-plans.

Varas said SRFS is now better communicating student costs and attempting to be more transparent about what a student will actually have to pay.

“Students are making decisions to move off-campus, because it’s cheaper to go to the supermarket and cook for themselves [than to purchase the full meal-plan],” Varas said. “And I think that’s great, and I think [SRFS needs] to reflect that.”

College senior Sarah Holland is one student who moved off campus and saved money on her dining expenses.

When she was a freshman and was required to have one of the three most expensive

meal plans, Holland found eating at dining halls “inconvenient.” During her sophomore and junior years, Holland selected a meal plan with more dining dollars and fewer meal swipes.

As a senior, Holland rents an off-campus apartment room with a kitchen and finds it much less expensive to cook for herself.

“I did a calculation back in the summer, when I was deciding whether or not I wanted the dining plan and I found I’m saving an excessive amount of money [by eating off-campus],” Holland said.

Varas said SRFS is working to account for the different decisions students make when allotting financial aid.

“Students make choices,” Varas said. “So we want to be sure we’re reflecting that when we’re giving a student a budget.”

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SPORTS 11

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

Sprint football destroys Caldwell in CSFL debut Defending champs put up 69 on brand new team MARC MARGOLIS Associate Sports Editor

quarterback, no problem.

W.New SOCCER

I n 69 his first 6 c a reer start for Penn sprint football, sophomore Eddie Jenkins looked more than capable of replacing the graduated two-time Collegiate Sprint Football League MVP Mike McCurdy. Jenkins gashed Caldwell for 85 yards and one touchdown on the ground and 191 yards and three touchdowns through the air, almost all of which came in the first half of the Quakers’ 69-6 victory over the Cougars.

“I think we came out confident as a team, and we were able to do some good things on both sides of the ball,” Jenkins said, crediting his team’s three weeks of preparation behind the big win.

Jenkins also credited McCurdy and current senior backup quarterback Zack DiGregorio for teaching him what it takes to be a successful PENN CALDWELL

college quarterback.

From the start, it was obvious Caldwell (0-1) was no match for the defending CSFL champions. Trying to hang with the Quakers (1-0) is a tall task for most teams, but it was an even harder task for Caldwell, who was playing its first ever sprint football game.

Despite the much-anticipated debut of Jenkins, the story of the game for Penn was the Madden-esque stat line put up by junior running back Jake Klaus. Despite only playing in the first half, Klaus racked up 208 yards of total offense and three touchdowns. Klaus was a juggernaut, averaging 10.9 yards per carry and 27.5 yards per reception. As a team, Penn put up a monstrous 370 yards on the ground.

Both Klaus and Jenkins credited the success to the offensive line.

“In the three years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen a line this good,” Klaus said. “Really it all goes to them for opening up holes for me.

I didn’t really have to do much after that. On the ground all the success goes to them.”

Though the holes were big, Klaus was frequently able to shake off would-be tacklers once he got past

the line.

Though the game turned out to be an easy win, playing a team in its first career game provides a unique challenge: no game film. Luckily, Penn was not left completely in the dark.

“We did have a verbal scouting report, head coach to head coach,” coach Bill Wagner said. “We had a pretty good idea of what we were going to line up against.”

Though game film is the more preferred way to scout opponents, the Quakers had no problem taking care of business with the information they had.

One of the most-hyped moments of the game came when it was already out of reach.

With 9:56 left in the fourth quarter, Wagner and special teams coach Ralph Roesler trotted out backup freshman kicker Ben Robinov to kick the PAT instead of sophomore Theodoros Papazekos. With five family members in attendance, Robinov drilled his only attempt to give the Quakers 69 points, causing his personal fan section and the sideline to go wild.

“I was definitely nervous but psyched to hear my name called,”

Robinov reflected. “When I got out there I just mentally took myself back to practice when I was hitting them and focused on the fundamentals of kicking.”

Though his extra point was not crucial to helping the Quakers win, the successful PAT meant a lot to him and his family.

“My uncle filmed the extra point and in the video you can hear my family going crazy,” Robinov said.

“I was really nice to have their support and I thank them for coming out. It feels really good to know that my family was there and I was making them proud.”

Still, this game was much bigger than the final score would indicate.

The game had an electric atmosphere. Sounds from Caldwell’s band and cheers from its fans reverberated throughout the stadium.

The Cougar’s side of the bleachers was filled to the brim, with many fans having to stand near the fence to view the game.

“It was a big day for Caldwell,” Wagner said.

Looking ahead, Penn faces its next challenge in next week’s opponent, Chestnut Hill, who only lost to CSFL powerhouse Navy by

ALEX FISHER | FILE PHOTO

Penn sprint football junior running back Jake Klaus put up a series of Madden-esque numbers against Caldwell — 208 yards and 3 TDs.

10 points last weekend. Following Chestnut Hill (0-1), the Quakers will then take on Army –.- a huge test for their title defense.

“When we practice, we are going against one of the best defenses in the league, so practicing on them is going to help us against stronger

opponents like Army and Navy.”

Klaus said. “Everyday in practice we are competing and getting better.”

Beating up on a lesser opponent is nice, but the key for the Quakers will be avoiding complacency as their schedule gets inevitably harder.

Back-and-forth play, inconsistencies mark field hockey’s weekend split Quakers beat Drexel, fall to No. 18 Iowa WILL AGATHIS Associate Sports Editor

You win some, you lose some.

That seems to be Penn field hockey’s 2017 season motto.

It was another split weekend for the Quakers (2-4), who took down cross-town rival Drexel, 3-2, before falling to No. 19 Iowa on Sunday, 2-3. Despite the losing effort, the Quakers showed that they could handle a top-20 opponent in the Hawkeyes (4-5).

On Friday, the Red and Blue traveled across University City to take on the Dragons (3-5). For the fourth time this season, the Quakers conceded the game’s first goal, but for the first time this season, the Red and Blue were able to recover and pull out the victory.

“We’re really trying to concentrate, myself included, on being in the moment,” coach Colleen Fink said. “If you worry about the score during the game, especially that

early on, it can bite you in the butt.

You have to just move forward. The results will come if you stick to the game-plan and continue to work hard. I didn’t feel any different really.”

Senior forward Gina Guccione opened the scoring for the Quakers four minutes after the Dragons’ first tally. It was Guccione’s first goal of the season and one that boosted her play for the rest of the night. She would pick up an assist two minutes later on the team’s second goal and made a few highlight plays with fellow goal-scorer Alexa Hoover.

The game-winning goal came just 10 minutes after Hoover’s tally on an attacking corner. Sophomore midfield Alexa Schneck was given a shot on the set piece, one that she drilled into the back of the net. It was her fourth career goal for the Quakers and her first of the season, and the goal served as a testament to the Quakers’ work on attacking corners.

“We always do them in practice, but we do a lot of practice on our own, working on our own skills like inserts, stick stops, and for me, my

shot,” Schneck said. “We’ve all been doing a really good job of working on our individual skills, and it came together in the game.”

The second half saw a surge of chances for the Dragons, who went with an all-out attack. It was an exciting 35 minutes, one that showed the Penn defense’s heart.

On two separate occasions, junior center back Paige Meily extended her stick mid-stride to stop a surefire goal. One of the team’s premier backs, Meily said that the game-saving plays were a result of Drexel’s up-tempo play.

“They play with high energy, but they also play very aggressively,” Meily said. “We tried to intercept more if possible and force pressure outside of the circle.”

The Quakers allowed one goal in the second half but escaped with a win. It seemed that after two consecutive wins, the Red and Blue were ready to play spoiler against the Hawkeyes.

Unfortunately for the Quakers, any hope of an upset was soon dashed, as the Quakers gave up the first goal and ultimately fell on Sun-

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Despite the early concession, the Red and Blue would even the play before halftime with another goal for Hoover, who now has five goals in six games.

Although the Quakers tend to allow the game’s first goal, Fink has no doubt that her team is working hard and staying resilient.

“They’re doing well. We fight.

We fight for 70 minutes. I don’t see any quit on my team’s face at all.

We’re responding well. But we have to dig. You have to dig the whole game.”

For the first time this season, Penn took the lead against a ranked

opponent when junior midfielder Rachel Mirkin found herself in perfect position on a rebound.

The lead would last just over a minute when the Hawkeyes stormed downfield, set up shop in the Quakers’ defensive third and pelted shots at senior goalkeeper Liz Mata. The result: two goals in seven minutes, including the game-winner by Mallory Lefkowitz.

After six out-of-conference games, the Quakers are now heading into Ivy League play at 2-4 and with some noticeable question marks. That said, the team is confident that it will be able to work out those kinks before it takes the field

against Cornell on Saturday. Mirkin thinks that the team’s focus should be on attention to detail, among a few other points.

“We have to focus on ourselves more and our own skill. We let up communication in the backfield.

And also scoring from the forward line. We’ve had a bit of trouble, but we’re gonna make it work and fight at practice and do a lot better.”

Fink had similar sentiments about the offense but still holds that her team has plenty of promise.

“I don’t think we’re playing poorly but there are some lapses, and when you’re playing strong teams you can’t have those lapses.”

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JESSICA GOODMAN C’12 is a senior editor at Cosmopolitan magazine. Previously, she was a digital news editor at Entertainment Weekly and an Entertainment Editor at Huff Post.

STEPHEN FRIED ’79 (moderator) is an award-winning author and journalist who teaches non-fiction writing at Penn and Columbia. He is the author of 6 books and a former contributing editor at Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour and Philadelphia Magazine.

Monday, September 18 • 5:00 pm Kelly Writers House Arts Café • 3805 Locust Walk No registration required; this event is free & open to the public

12 SPORTS

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Watson’s heroics earn DP Sports’ Player of the Week FOOTBALL | Captain led

team to victory Saturday WILLIAM SNOW Senior Sports Editor

Many uncertainties filled the build-up to Penn football’s season opener against Ohio Dominican, but one thing was never in doubt: that Justin Watson would lead the offense.

The Quakers’ star senior wide receiver helped save Penn’s skin in his team’s 42-24 defeat of the Division II visitors who gave the hosts more trouble than expected. His performance outshone all others throughout Penn Athletics over the weekend, earning him DP Sports’ Player of the Week.

Regardless of the quarterback

situation on Saturday, Watson came to Franklin Field ready to run routes, run the ball and even return the ball as needed.

He did all three — and to great success.

As senior Will Fischer-Colbrie struggled to get going in his debut, Watson provided a constant option for the new quarterback, acrobatically snagging multiple balls that were inaccurately thrown but still within his reach.

Likewise, when sophomore Nick Robinson subbed in for Fischer-Colbrie at the start of the second quarter, Watson immediately gave Robinson a gift, running the perfect route to give Robinson a 59-yard touchdown pass in his first ever snap for the Quakers.

His presence in the first half

was crucial for Penn, as his touchdown kept his team in the game — the Quakers trailed 10-7 at halftime. As they dominated the Division II Cougars in the second half, he only shone brighter, but his performance in the first half might have been even more important for the team.

In the end, the senior wide receiver registered eight receptions for 134 yards — an average of 16.75 yards per catch — and scored two touchdowns.

He also picked up a few yards on special teams for the Red and Blue.

With nine more performances like this, excitement will only build in anticipation of the NFL Draft in April. Watson could end up a mouth-watering prospect to coaches in the big league.

Volleyball takes two of three at successful Robert Morris Invitational Team follows tough loss to Rutgers with good wins TOMMY ROTHMAN Sports Editor

Preseason games don’t count for the Ivy League standings at the end of the year, but the Quakers are confident that their momentum will prove to be very real.

Penn volleyball won two out of three this past weekend at the Robert Morris Invitational, bouncing back from a tough loss against Rutgers with wins against Robert Morris and Middle Tennessee State. “I think it was a great tournament,� coach Katie SchumacherCawley said. “We got better with every match.�

Indeed they did.

The Quakers started their weekend the same way they ended the previous one: with a tight loss. Penn (5-4) dropped the first two sets by a combined five

points before clinging to life by winning a close third set.

But the early hole proved too much for the Quakers to dig out of, as Rutgers ended the match with a slightly more comfortable win in the fourth set to produce the 25-23, 25-22, 24-26, 25-20 final scoreline.

The Red and Blue found themselves in another close match later that same night against the tournament’s hosts, but were able to pull out a five-set win over Robert Morris (6-9). Penn won the first set rather comfortably before the hosts bounced back with a close win in the second set. This pattern repeated itself in the third and fourth sets, but the Red and Blue managed to avoid yet another close loss by prevailing over the Colonials in the fifth set to seal a 25-17, 23-25, 25-19, 22-25, 15-12 victory.

Saturday’s match carried far less drama for the Quakers, as they coasted to a clean sweep of Middle Tennessee State (4-10).

The Blue Raiders never led by

more than two points in any set (with even those leads coming at just 3-1 and 6-4) in Penn’s 25-17, 25-19, 25-17 win.

With the win over MTSU, the Quakers secured their first winning preseason record since 2013, when the team’s current seniors were seniors in high school.

One of those seniors, captain Kendall Covington, had an absolutely phenomenal weekend, bouncing back from a pedestrian performance against Rutgers with dominant showings against Robert Morris (13 kills, two block assists and an remarkable .650 hitting percentage) and MTSU (nine kills, six block assists and a .600 hitting percentage). For her pivotal role in both of her team’s wins, Covington was named the MVP of the tournament, and made the all-tournament team for the third time in as many weekends this season. “It feels pretty good,� Covington said. “I could not have done it without my teammates and coaches, so I think there’s some

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that] everyone will contribute to the success of this team,� Schumacher-Cawley said. “I think we did well this preseason. We built on every weekend, getting better and learning to compete on a high level consistently.�

After their strongest preseason yet as a group, this squad is trending in the right direction, and they know it. The wins have been encouraging and the losses, most of which have featured several very tight sets, have done little to dampen the team’s spirits. Wins and losses are about to become all that matter when Ivy play tips off this coming weekend against Princeton, but the team is as confident as ever heading into conference competition. “As a unit we were strong last year, but now we’re even stronger,� Molnar said. “If we play as well as we did this weekend, as consistent and as hard, we have every tool we need to win.�

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Hayley like that,� said senior captain and setter Sydney Morton, who dished out a whopping 119 assists to Molnar and her other teammates over the weekend. “She had fire, you could see it in her eyes. Every time I set her, I knew she was gonna get a kill.�

Several other Quakers finished the preseason with strong showings of their own. Junior outside hitter Courtney Quinn had a monster game against Robert Morris with 17 kills and 12 digs. Sophomore outside hitter Caroline Furrer had an incredible 22 digs in one matchup and 11 in another, while junior middle blocker Brooke Behrbaum received praise from the coach for her blocking and intangibles.

If the team is excited about anything, it’s the fact that night in and night out, several different players are chipping in. “That’s one thing that we’ve been working on, [the mentality

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other people that deserved the award as well. But it definitely felt good to know that my hard work was recognized... I definitely have a lot more confidence in my skills and play [this season], and a bit more swag on the court.�

While there could only be one MVP, some of Covington’s teammates did indeed receive recognition for their performances.

Freshman outside hitter Parker Jones continued her terrific rookie season with a team-high 41 kills and a pair of doubledoubles, and senior outside hitter Hayley Molnar had a careerhigh 16 kills against Rutgers and added 14 more over the next two games, finishing with 30 kills and a .409 hitting percentage on the weekend. Both players joined Covington on the all-tournament team, and Molnar’s performance had her teammates raving: “It was really fun to play with

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Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 7,000 past Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 7,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

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ZACH SHELDON | SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR

When Tre Solomon went down in the first quarter injured, sophomore running back Karekin Brooks stepped up to replace him admirably — but the lowered level of competition may have made him deceptively better.

FOOTBALL COLUMN >> BACKPAGE

opponents a year ago; though of course, that was a team that featured departed stars like Mason Williams and Donald Panciello.

If Saturday’s defensive performance is the new standard, Penn will need to win in shootouts, and without Alek Torgersen un-

der center, the offense looks unlikely to stay competitive in such games.

Scheduling a Division II team for a season opener has its benefits, for sure: second-stringers can get some playing time and fans at Franklin Field get to watch a near-guaranteed blowout victory. But such contests provide very little in the way of il-

lustrating a team’s talents — they can only reveal weaknesses.

Next week against Lehigh, we’ll get a picture of the real Penn football.

TOM NOWLAN is a College senior from Montpellier, Vt., and is an associate sports editor for The Daily Pennsylvanian. He can be reached at dpsports@thedp.com.

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

FOOTBALL RECAP >> BACKPAGE

Torgersen, who now plays on the Washington Redskins’ practice squad. For the entire first quarter, Penn did little to answer to answer that question.

Making his first ever collegiate appearance ever, senior starting quarterback Will Fischer-Colbrie struggled to get any kind of rhythm going early. After multiple drives, he managed only three completions for 23 yards with multiple pass attempts going into the ground.

Early in the second quarter, coach Ray Priore decided to go with another quarterback. Sophomore quarterback Nick Robinson subbed in for Fischer-Colbrie and promptly threw a 59-yard touchdown bomb to star senior wide receiver Justin Watson to tie the game 7-7 after the Panthers (0-3) took an early lead.

SPORTS 13

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

Robinson started the next series for Penn too, but this time the Quakers were backed up on their own 1-yard line. The Quakers suffered a quick three-and-out and were forced to punt the ball back to the Panthers.

Taking advantage of good field position at Penn’s 35 yard line, Ohio Dominican marched into Penn’s red zone before being forced to kick a field goal and take a 10-7 lead with 3:51 left in the half.

Despite the promise Robinson showed on his first drive, Priore elected to go back to Fischer-Colbrie for the Quakers’ next offensive series. Fischer-Colbrie appeared more comfortable in the pocket than he did earlier in the game, but he failed to put up any points again as the Red and Blue went into locker room down 10-7 at the half.

“During the week, we had said that we were doing it [subbing quarterbacks] no

matter what it was going to be. Obviously, it gave the glare and the appearance that ‘oh my god he [Fischer-Colbrie] wasn’t doing well’, but then he went right back in,” Priore said. “I think it was really, really good for him to settle down, relax, and see the game.”

In the second half, FischerColbrie looked like a different player, as he led Penn to the end zone on its first three drives of the half to break the game open for the Quakers.

Robinson went in for FischerColbrie again in the fourth, with the senior finishing his day with two touchdowns and 198 yards on 18 completions.

“You could probably tell I had to get my feet underneath me there, you know after the first quarter, first half.

But after that, it felt good,” Fischer-Colbrie said. “It felt like I was playing football again, which is something I really enjoy to do, and I just had to get back to that.”

While Penn seemed to find a better answer to its quarterback issue than it did after the first quarter, the game exposed some other areas that the Quakers will need to improve before Ivy League play starts.

With All-Ivy cornerback Mason Williams now playing for Duke following a summer transfer, Penn’s secondary struggled to contain Ohio Dominican’s passing game. All three of the visitors’ touchdowns came through the air as the Panthers scorched the Red and Blue’s defense for 353 passing yards.

And while the pass defense will certainly be something to watch out for in the coming days, the Quakers’ proved that they were capable of making big plays when it mattered as they forced Ohio Dominican into four fumbles and cut several deep Panther drives short of the end zone.

“Our focus was just on us.

Our focus was on Penn foot-

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ball. Being in our zone, doing what we do, and our coaches set us up with a great game plan, made it super easy for us,” senior linebacker Colton Moskal said.

Something else to look out for is the health status of AllIvy senior running back Tre Solomon, who left the game in the first quarter with what appeared to be ankle injury.

The good news for Penn was that the team’s other running backs filled in admirably for Solomon. Led by sophomore Karekin Brooks’ 142 yards and two touchdowns, the Red and Blue rushed for 302 total yards.

Next weekend, the Quakers will travel to Lehigh with an eye for revenge after the Mountain Hawks defeated them 49-28 last season.

“It’s building blocks,” Priore said. “We just hit the first little rest stop on this mountain, and now we’re ready to pack up and climb a little more.”

>> BACKPAGE

the Houston cause.

For Nwokedi, Watt’s efforts have shown just how much impact an athlete can have.

“J.J. Watt showed that football players or even basketball players are not just football players and basketball players,” Nwokedi said. “Seeing J.J. Watt, a guy not actually from Houston but a guy who plays there, go out of his way not just for face. He did the work, and he was genuine. To see how much of an impact he had, to see how much of an impact athletes can have, I was happy just to do the little that I could do.”

Maybe compared to Watt’s totals, Nwokedi’s donations can seem “little,” but in reality, what Nwokedi was able to do for her city was plenty inspiring.

“I’m from Houston,” Nwokedi said.

“That’s something I’ve probably said a thousand times. It’s one of the very first things I say when meeting new people or describing myself. Houston is part of who I am, so I knew I had to help.”

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 VOL. CXXXIII NO. 71

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Lessons learned from football’s win Saturday

r d an

TOM NOWLAN

“Wow, 42 points, that’s a lot!”

“302 rushing yards. That’s insane!”

I can only imagine the conclusions that some overzealous Quaker fans might draw from Saturday’s game.

From a quick look at the box score, the contest was a solid, even impressive, opening-day victory — Justin Watson was his usual self, the new quarterbacks threw three touchdown passes and a seasoned defense forced four fumbles.

But in reality, this game should not be used as a barometer — the Red and Blue were facing off against a winless Division II team. Drawing conclusions from the matchup would be like judging your guitar skills based on a couple rounds of Rock Band (on easy mode).

From the time the game was scheduled, it was guaranteed to be a solid thrashing; unless Ohio Dominican were to pull a full Appalachian State, the Quakers had this one in the bag — it was just a question of how much they would win by.

And to their credit, the Red and Blue didn’t embarrass themselves. Sophomore Karekin Brooks — a backup running back getting significant playing time due to a mild injury to Tre Solomon — had a breakout day, rushing for 142 yards, including an especially impressive 64-yard touchdown dash in the fourth quarter. New faces such as Abe Willows and Isaiah Malcome also showed that they could be important pieces of the offense going forward.

But it is very difficult to take tangible positives away from this game.

Even if the squad had won 69-0, it would have been impossible to assess the Quakers’ talent when it came to “normal” games — versus the Ivy League and other Division I FCS programs. Anything the Red and Blue did well Saturday can, unfortunately, be chalked up to the fact that they were playing a team that was, by definition, significantly worse.

However, that talent gap does mean that we can draw negative conclusions about the contest.

Number one among those concerns is the quarterback situation. Starter Will Fischer-Colbrie (by his own admission) was tough to watch in the first half. Even though many of the plays called were simple screens and quick slants, he missed his targets — often by significant margins — on too many occasions.

Though he did improve in the second half, quality performances should be expected against markedly weaker teams. Sophomore Nick Robinson looked good in his limited playing time, throwing for a touchdown before running for another, but his playing time was just that — limited. It will be interesting to see if his time on the field increases versus Lehigh next week.

Secondly, the defense should not be giving up 24 points to a team like Ohio Dominican. The Red and Blue only gave up an average of 17 points against Ivy League

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FOOTBALL | After sluggish start, Quakers get the season off on

the right foot with strong win over Division II Ohio Dominican

P

enn football hasn’t won its seasonopener in three straight years, and at halftime, it looked like the Quakers were on their way to four. The second half was a completely different story, though.

After falling behind 7-0 and 10-7 in the first half, Penn dominated in the second half to defeat Division II’s Ohio Dominican, 42-24.

“Anybody can beat you at any given

time. We wanted our kids to handle adversity, which was happening in the first half,” coach Ray Priore said, “But there were a lot of new pieces going out there, and I thought our players acclimated well.”

Entering the game, the biggest question for the Red and Blue (1-0) was how they would replace quarterback Alek SEE FOOTBALL RECAP PAGE 13

ZACH SHELDON | SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR

SEE FOOTBALL COLUMN PAGE 12

Houston native Nwokedi raises thousands for Harvey relief W. HOOPS | GoFundMe

surpasses expectations

BREVIN FLEISCHER Sports Editor

Hurricane Harvey was a tragedy.

The storm ravaged Houston, wreaking havoc across the land, killing people, destroying property, isolating families and threatening the fabric of an entire city.

But Hurricane Harvey also displayed the innate goodness of this nation’s citizens, showcasing our country’s solidarity, bravery, unity and ultimately, heroism.

Among those heroes was Penn’s very own Michelle Nwokedi.

Nwokedi, a senior forward on the women’s basketball team, is from just outside of Houston. Considering how profoundly the hurricane impacted those from different parts of the nation, one can only imagine the effect the storm had on a Houstonian like Nwokedi.

After first watching the news and hearing the stories, Nwokedi

felt helpless. Although her family was thankfully safe, she knew that her beloved city and neighbors might not have been so fortunate.

“I’ve talked to all of the Penn athletes from Houston, and we were all just shocked because, in our lifetimes, nothing like that has ever happened to Houston,” Nwokedi said. “Being in Philly, you kind of feel like you can’t do much, like life is still going on, and you’re just stuck here while all of your friends and family deal with this tragedy.”

For Nwokedi, Houston is more than just her hometown. It’s a part of her, and because of that, she knew that she had to take action.

“Houston is so important to me, and I knew there had to be something I can do, so I texted coach [Mike McLaughlin] asking him if I could start a GoFundMe.” Taking cues from Houston Texans player J.J. Watt, Nwokedi was ambitious when setting her donations goal at $2,500. But, after just two days, the proceeds began to amount quickly, and over half

of the goal was met. At that point, Nwokedi knew that $2,500 was plenty doable.

She and her supportive teammates quickly spread word of the GoFundMe on social media, reaching out across the entire Penn community.

Nwokedi’s fundraiser exploded past its previously inconceivable $2,500 goal, reaching a whopping $2,820.

And because the GoFundMe is still open, that total could continue to climb.

“The success [of the fundraiser] is a testament to the Penn community and how much everybody really cares,” Nwokedi said. “And I could not be more proud or more thankful.”

Apart from her love for her city, Nwokedi’s major source of inspiration was the aforementioned J.J. Watt.

Watt, an All-Pro defensive lineman for the Texans, kickstarted one of the most successful fundraising campaigns in recent memory. Hoping at first to raise $200,000, Watt

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ZACH SHELDON | SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR

Michelle Nwokedi, a senior forward for Penn women’s basketball and the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, has set out to raise thousands of dollars in aid for her hometown Houston following Hurricane Harvey.

and his donors have accumulated more than 37 million dollars, and Watt, fully embracing his adopted identity as a Houstonian, has un-

dertaken all of the responsibilities that his fundraising has entailed.

Through television appearances, heartfelt videos, and dogged de-

termination, Watt, an athlete from Wisconsin, has become the face of SEE HURRICANE PAGE 13

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