THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2015
THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
COLLEGE HOUSE PRICING OVERHAUL Writing seminar structure edited
83% of rooms will cost about $9,400
17% of rooms will cost about $13,200
Summer pilot seminar tested new curriculum SYDNEY SCHAEDEL Staff Reporter
Penn’s Critical Writing Seminar — whether you love it, hate it or want to forget about it — just got a facelift. The pacing and sequence of assignments in the course have significantly changed. Three of the old assignments have been replaced with a new literature review, a public editorial and a job letter. Plus, the “timed essays” have been renamed “on-demand writing.” These new assignments carry an emphasis on “authentic genre” — different forms of writing from a typical school paper, which students will actually use after they graduate. The audience for the writing seminar — often a professor or teaching assistant — “isn’t really reading to learn from you or be persuaded by you,” Critical Writing Program Director Valerie Ross said. But in a public editorial, for example, the larger audience is reading to get something from it. All three new assignments have a stronger sense of purpose associated with them than their older counterparts, Ross said. There is also an increased focus on content SEE WRITING PAGE 9
Season after Bagnoli exit, Penn football is rejuvenated Athletic director, football board see improved attention to detail by team RILEY STEELE Senior Sports Editor
To improve is to change. To perfect is to change often. For both Penn and Columbia football, however, change over the past several decades — in various fashions — has happened slowly. Except within the last year. On Oct. 18, 2014, the Quakers and Lions met at Franklin Field, with Penn coming away with a 31-7 victory. The win allowed the Red and Blue to snap an eight-game losing streak that had bridged the end of the 2013 and beginning of the 2014 seasons. It was also the last time Al Bagnoli would win a home game as Penn’s head coach. The nine-time conference champion completed his final season with the Quakers in November, finishing with a 2-8 record that ended a 23-year reign in which he made Penn the preeminent power in Ivy League. The .200 winning percentage was the worst of his tenure. But Bagnoli, who had announced seven months earlier that he would accept an administrative role in Penn Athletics upon his retirement, didn’t stay off the sidelines for long. In February, the 62 year old accepted the vacant head coaching position at Columbia, a program that went 24 consecutive games without a win until it knocked off Wagner last weekend. In Philadelphia, former defensive coordinator Ray Priore has helped the Red and Blue buck a trend of their own. After 104 years without a win against SEE BAGNOLI PAGE 10
27%
of rates will increase
Penn to offer two instead of six housing rates JEFFREY CAREYVA Deputy News Editor
A new housing rate structure will make on-campus living cheaper for some, but more expensive for others. Residential Ser vices is
73%
announcing a significant change to housing rates designed to accommodate students’ financial packages. The new two-rate model has just two price rates for on-campus college house residences, replacing a system with six different rates. As of Oct. 14, Residential Services projects these new rates will be $9,452 and $13,234 per resident
of rates will decrease or stay the same
per academic year. The rates — which usually rise about four percent per year — are not set in stone until the Board of Trustees meets in the spring semester, but regardless of the exact prices, 83 percent of all beds in the college house system will be priced at the lower rate and 17 percent at the higher rate.
The $9,452 rate is around the amount that a student on financial aid will be rewarded for on-campus housing. In the old housing rate structure, the financial aid allocated for housing was based on the median room rate of college houses instead. Factoring out the yearly SEE HOUSING PAGE 9
Leave policies vary across schools VPUL explains leave of absence policy discrepancies CAROLINE SIMON Staff Reporter
JULIO SOSA | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Wharton students may be more likely to take only a semester off because they often do short-term work on startups or political campaigns.
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Despite efforts to make leave of absence policies consistent across all four undergraduate schools, differences persist on the websites of the four schools, particularly in each school’s discussion of how long a typical leave should be. According to the report of the Task Force on Student Psychological Health and Welfare released on Feb. 17, students felt that inconsistencies among the leave of absence policies of the four undergraduate schools led to confusion. The report found that while the underlying policies of
the schools were the same, they were explained differently on the schools’ websites. As of Oct. 14, the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the School of Nursing say that “students typically take a leave for a full academic year.” The Wharton School’s website, however, states that “most students who take a leave do so for one or two semesters.” Most of the other language on the websites remains consistent among the four schools. Although each school determines its own policy, Counseling and Psychological Services Director Bill Alexander explained that, “for practical, functional purposes, they’re all the same.” SEE LEAVES PAGE 9
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