October 28, 2015

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

U. stays silent on Cosby scandal

Cosby allegedly groped a woman during the 2004 Penn Relays DAN SPINELLI Senior Reporter

Penn continues to stay silent on whether it will revoke entertainer Bill Cosby’s honorary degree.

When contacted today, Vice President for University Communications Steve MacCarthy said there is “nothing I am willing to offer on the subject right now.”

Cosby, 77, has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 50 women, and some students have called for the University to revoke the honorary Doctor of Laws degree he received

in 1990 as a result.

One accuser, Donna Barrett, said in a press conference last week that Cosby groped her while she was officiating the Penn Relays in 2004 at Franklin Field.

“Hey, back that thing up here, girl, back it on up!” Cosby reportedly said while pressing Barrett toward his body.

She spoke to other officials at the Penn

Relays about the incident, “but no one knew what to do,” she said at the press conference.

Cosby has been an honorary race starter and even filmed an episode of “The Cosby Show” at the famous track meet in 1986.

Penn Athletics confirmed to The SEE COSBY PAGE 2

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CARSON KAHOE | ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

Karen Carraro serves Penn researchers as a contracted worker through her own glassblowing business.

Zamboni-driving and glassblowing have made their way into Penn careers COREY STERN Senior Reporter

Penn’s workforce is more than 17,000 members strong, including about 5,000 faculty members.

Amongst the thousands of employees and contracted workers are individuals with a wide array

of jobs driven by their own passions. Though some of these roles might be atypical for a University, they can play a big role in furthering Penn’s goals as an institution.

Not all of Penn’s employees are professors or administrators.

Tasked with everything from Zamboni-driving to gardening to glassblowing, here are a few roles you might not know existed at Penn, and the people behind them.

David Sabin David Sabin’s love of hockey led him to his job as the assistant manager and hockey director of the Ice Rink at the Class of 1923 Arena.

Commonly referred to as the Ice Rink, the facility is unique in that it’s not managed by Penn Athletics, but by the Business Services Division. With no NCAA hockey team to monopolize the ice, Sabin

and his colleagues work on programming and rentals to keep the Arena busy.

“We try to be good at just utilizing every minute of our time,” he said. “If the arena’s open, we want to bring someone in to take advantage of it.”

Throughout the week, skaters anywhere from ages six to 70 can be found on the ice. Sabin shuffles through local teams from Lower

Merion High School and the Ed Snyder Youth Foundation, as well as club teams from Penn, Drexel and Temple universities.

Plus, he runs an adult league and helps facilitate hockey and skating clinics for those new to the ice. A die-hard hockey fan, Sabin appreciates any time he can get out on the ice to help out,

Bringing pres. debates to the classroom

GPA not a major factor in finding employment Graduates find that GPA not commonly talked about in job interviews SYDNEY SCHAEDEL Staff Reporter

Students analyze past and present debates

Penn students had to have stellar GPAs to get accepted into the University, but how much does college GPA affect landing a job after graduation?

Penn alumni find that GPA wasn’t a main factor that employers considered.

Morgen Alden graduated from the College in 2012 with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in medical anthropology, and now works for a boutique investment bank. She said GPA was “definitely something I advertised on my resume, but it never came up in discussion during the

MITCHELL CHAN Staff Reporter

SEE GPA PAGE 6

SEE JOBS PAGE 3

COURTESY OF PETER STEVENS | CREATIVE COMMONS

Kathleen Hall Jamieson’s “Introduction to Political Communication” course incorporates past and current presidential debates into the curriculum.

National media outlets won’t be the only ones scrutinizing Donald Trump’s every move at Wednesday’s Republican debate.

This semester, students in Kathleen Hall Jamieson’s long-standing “Introduction to Political Communication” course have used the presidential debates as case studies for the relationship between

television and politics. Course materials examine past and present televised campaigns, including speech-making strategies and ways candidates use news outlets, to understand the broader field of political communication.

Although much of the class focuses on past elections, the current round of presidential debates has been fully integrated into the curriculum. Students engage in “breakout sessions,” small group conversations that discuss what candidates communicated well in SEE DEBATES PAGE 2

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Local artists plaster Phila. with voting signs ‘Vote here’ signs are meant to create election awareness GAJAAN SITTAMBALAM Contributing Reporter

Voter turnout at Philadelphia elections is generally suboptimal; yet, this year might be dramatically different.

“Next Stop: Democracy” is a new civic engagement project that has hired 60 Philadelphia artists to create eye-catching “vote here” signs for the upcoming City Council elections on Nov. 3. The signs will be placed near polling sites in an attempt to draw people’s attention and encourage more of them to vote, given that these elections directly impact their community.

The “Next Stop: Democracy” project will involve 40

locations in total. Twenty of these locations will contain the artwork, serving as the experimental group. The remaining sites will be monitored as the control group in order to determine the effects of art on voter turnout.

According to Project Director Lansie Sylvia, the goal of the art exhibit is two-fold.

On the one hand, the project is a potential vehicle through which the City of Philadelphia can increase voter participation in elections. On the other hand, the project also serves to create a more enjoyable experience for all voters. The latter was the primary inspiration for “Next Stop: Democracy” because, as Sylvia said, “For many citizens, voting for the first time can be a very intimidating experience,” which repels people ever y yea r.

COURTESY OF AMBER LYNN

Local artist Amber Lynn works on creative voting signs as part of the Next Stop: Democracy project.

Sylvia said she hopes that the art exhibit will impact the tone outside of the polling place by making it more welcoming.

What can students do to have an impact? Sylvia encouraged students to register to vote in Philadelphia, given that the

issues at hand, such as bicycle lanes and LGBT protection, are pertinent to University students.

“If you’re going to be here for four years, you need to make it your home, and for it to be your home, you need to be an active citizen,” Sylvia said.

According to City Commissioner Stephanie Singer, voter participation has always been low in Philadelphia. She added that one main issue of low voter participation is that people are unaware of when elections take place, which will be addressed by the “Next Stop: Democracy” P roject.

However, there a re several other issues, including the lack of millennial voters who claim they don’t have enough information to make a decision.

“Every election, Philadelphia passes up a chance to demand respect and resources from the rest of the state,” Singer said.

Stimulus Children’s Theatre performs for West Phila. school Group performs ‘Junie B. Jones’ for local children CLARIS PARK Contributing Reporter

Over the weekend, a student theater group brought a childhood literary classic to life.

At a local elementary school on Oct. 23, members of Penn’s Stimulus Children’s Theatre Company, or STIM, performed numbers from their upcoming fall show “Junie B. Jones: The Musical” as their community show. With upbeat song and dance numbers, the cast brought smiles and laughter to both students and teachers.

The community show is a concept that is unique to STIM, in which the cast and crew of

DEBATES >> PAGE 1

the debates and what they did that stood out. Each breakout session encourages students to more thoroughly evaluate a specific element of the 2016 presidential debate cycle.

“Students made two-minute presentations in breakout session on whether — if implemented — debate reform proposals would

COSBY

>> PAGE 1

Daily Pennsylvanian in December

the current STIM show travel to a local elementary school­— the name of which was asked to be withheld — and perform about half of their play. It is treated as just as important as their full performance dates.

Nu r si ng ju n io r Ja ck ie Nikpour currently serves as STIM’s Community Service chair and organized the community show.

“We plan it as early as possible, so that during auditions, we can ask if actors can be there since it’s really important that everyone in the cast can be there,” Nikpour said.

Show director and Nursing junior Christopher Haddad said that the community show is great because it allows STIM to both share their work with

more individuals and gauge their own progress.

“They’re always great because you get a sense of what

it’s like to act in front of an audience before the show, sense of kid’s reactions to certain things, what is appropriate and what is inappropriate,” he said.

“It’s great practice and just great to perform for Philadelphia schools.”

T h roughout t he p er form a nc e, st udent s laug he d loudly at the characters and their personalities, snapped or swayed along with the beat of the music and visibly melted at particularly heartfelt moments between Junie B. — played by College senior Grayce Hoffman — and Herb, played by sophomore exchange student Hyunwoo Jeong. In a particularly noteworthy moment, College junior Derek Arbige donned a costume stuffed with

improve primary debates,” Jamieson said of the most recent breakout session.

Jamieson referred to a report released in June by the Annenberg Debate Reform Working Group, an initiative of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, which Jamieson directs. The report’s recommendations included limiting moderators to acting as time keepers, bringing in print journalists as debate moderators and prohibiting moderators

from asking follow-up questions.

Students had to choose one of this fall’s debates and analyze what might have been different had these reforms been applied.

Many students enjoy Jamieson’s unique classroom approach to the debates, which teaches a methodical way of judging candidates’ presence and performance on stage.

“We discuss strategies such as agenda setting and framing and

apply them to the debates. Discussing the debates in an academic setting definitely forces a more nuanced and critical viewing of the candidates’ actions,” College sophomore Christin Molisani said.

Molisani cited an assignment from this week that asked whether media outlets were wrong to declare Hillary Clinton as the winner of the first Democratic debate, a question she found interesting.

College sophomore Nick

DeMarie agreed, adding that the assignment forced him to consider what “winning” or “losing” a presidential debate actually means for a candidate on national television.

“We look at how the media responds to them more than their actual strategies,” DeMarie said.

“For instance, when Trump says something outrageous we look at how news outlets set the agenda, prime and frame it in order to convey meaning.”

DeMarie added that the class compares the current round of debates to strategies used in past campaigns, where the data set is larger and where we already know the outcomes.

Jamieson has been teaching the popular course, which is crosslisted between the Political Science Department in the College and the Annenberg School for Communication, since fall 2002, according to Penn Course Review.

that they have no official relationship with Cosby, but acknowledged paying him for a stand-up comedy set in 2013 after the

men’s basketball team’s season opener against Temple University at the Palestra.

Among multiple endowed pro-

fessorships and programs, Cosby has received almost 60 honorary degrees. On Tuesday, Muhlenberg College became the latest school to revoke Cosby’s honorary degree, a decision voted into effect by the college’s Board of Trustees last week.

“Cosby’s behavior violates the ethics, character and highest aspirations of this college community,” Richard C. Crist Jr., chair of the board, said in the announcement.

At least 11 other schools have revoked Cosby’s honorary degrees: Springfield College, Franklin & Marshall, Tufts, Goucher, Lehigh, Fordham, Marquette, Baylor, Amherst, Wilkes University (Pa.) and Brown. Cosby resigned last year from the board of trustees of his undergraduate alma mater, Temple University.

The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he earned master’s and doctorate degrees in education, also cut ties with him.

Some schools, including Brown, have pointed out that the accusations against Cosby come at a time of great concern over campus sexual assault. “It is particularly troubling as our university community continues to confront the very real challenges of sexual violence on our campus and in society at large,” Brown President Christina Paxson said in a campus-wide email on Sept.

28 announcing Cosby’s degree would be revoked.

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CLARIS PARK | CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

Members of Penn’s Stimulus Children’s Theatre performed a free community show at a local elementary school on Oct. 23.

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pillows to play Ms. Gutzman.

“It’s really just being able to work with the kids and seeing them smile [...] and giving them a piece of joy and allowing them to experience the love that I have for performing and for theater,” STIM Vice Chair and Producer Pearl Lo, who is also a College junior, said.

After the show, children giggled and waved goodbye as the cast hauled their costumes and props back to Penn’s campus.

They waved back at the children, and Haddad said he was happy with the group’s progress.

“I think it went really well,” he said.

STIM will perform the full version of “Junie B. Jones: The Musical” on Nov. 19, 20 and 21.

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including at the clinics.

In between all of these events, Sabin takes on what is perhaps the most eye-catching part of the job — driving the Zamboni around the rink. (He makes a point to clarify that the Arena actually uses a different, Canadian-made machine called Olympia.) Sabin said the ice-resurfacing process can take over an hour of “slowly dragging in circles.” His expressions hint that after hundreds of laps around the rink, the excitement of being able to drive the machine has worn out for him.

It’s not only hockey or ice skating events that take place at the arena. When the ice comes out for the summer, the Arena is home to roller derby events, volleyball camps, basketball camps, arena football games and even the Wharton vs. Law: Fight Night charity boxing event.

Even during the winter, Sabin helps student groups rent out the rink for a late-night hockey alternative that he loves almost as much as the real thing: broomball.

Broomball is similar to hockey except players run in shoes and use broom-like sticks.

“It’s more accessible to those who are scared off by the skating aspect,” he said. “But it’s a really fun game.”

Sabin emphasizes that the Arena is available for any student group that might have a unique idea about how to use the space.

“Our biggest challenge is to get Penn students to know we’re here,” he said. “If you walk by, the arena is kind of camouflaged into the side of the street.”

Natalie Subeh Nuhn One of the groups that makes frequent visits to the Ice Rink can be found just across Walnut Street at the Penn Children’s Center, home to the tiniest members of the Quaker community.

Also part of Penn’s Business Services Division, the Center provides care for the children of Penn faculty, staff and students.

“Our job is to support [these parents] so that they can go to work or be a student and feel that their children are being cared for in an environment that is

NEWS 3

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015

COURTESY OF MORRIS ARBORETUM

Louise D. Clarke tends to yucca plants at the Morris Arboretum, where she oversees the 65-acre Bloomfield Farm section.

nurturing,” said Executive Director Natalie Subeh Nuhn, who has been with the Children’s Center since 2001.

On average, the PCC serves about 185 children, ranging from as young as six weeks to five years old. Unlike most of Penn’s classrooms, here powerpoints and textbooks are swapped out for toys and picture books.

Nuhn admitted that it could sometimes be difficult to find a way to be fair to everyone and their individual needs when there is such a high demand for childcare. However, she added that interacting with families at the University and serving as a support system for them are among her favorite parts of the job.

“One of my passions is education and always learning,” she said. “I think that I can learn from my staff, I can learn from 3-yearolds, or even 15-month-olds.”

And while she is learning, there is certainly a lot that Nuhn is teaching her staff as well. Nuhn loves to help those that are new to the profession and points to the journey that many of her staff members have taken.

Most staffers begin as temporary workers who enjoy working with children. Through the support of the Children’s Center and the University at large, their careers have developed and some are even working toward their bachelor’s degrees.

Nuhn also expressed how much she enjoys being able to mentor student workers. She appreciates their commitment to the PCC and likes to help them find ways to incorporate their own interests into activities for the children.

“What’s your interest and how can you build that with us?” she asks each new student worker. In addition to reading books, helping

at meal times or simply engaging in conversation with the children, Nuhn encourages her staff, especially student workers, to make use of their areas of expertise.

“I think it’s a break from their studying,” she said of the student workers, adding that for those who have younger siblings or cousins, the center feels like home.

“Who wouldn’t enjoy walking into a room of a bunch of threeyear-olds that run up to the door to hug you?” she joked.

Karen Carraro It might sound like an oxymoron that Karen Carraro calls her work “the art of scientific glassblowing.” But sculpting glass instruments for research experiments requires both a technical expertise and a creative touch.

Carraro, a contracted worker through her own glassblowing business, has been serving Penn

researchers for 25 years. She learned the unique skill as an apprentice under a master scientific glassblower, who was also research-trained.

While more basic lab glassware like standard beakers are typically “churned out by a machine,” Carraro makes custom apparatus that are tailored to the needs of researchers within the Chemistry Department and other fields at Penn.

Carraro’s process begins when a researcher comes to her with a problem or an idea. Her expertise allows them to take their work beyond the standard lab tools.

“Knowing that there’s a scientific glassblower on site lets [researchers] think outside of the box, outside of the catalogue product line,” she said. “And we try to find a way through the creative process and the limitations of glass itself — and that’s where it becomes a lot of fun.”

From the planning stage, Carraro has to record the specifications and measurements, draw a blueprint and prepare her tools before she can actually begin creating the glass apparatus. The entire process can take several days.

Among the most complex tools she crafts are high-vacuum systems used for synthesizing pharmaceutical products. Though her work is mostly engineeringbased, Carraro believes there is also an artistic quality to it.

“Everything that I create is made by my hands, and each piece can be slightly unique,” she said.

“That is why it is considered the art of scientific glassblowing.”

When asked what she enjoys most about her job, Carraro said that it was the ability to live her passion working with both Penn researchers and a material that is one-of-a-kind.

Many universities, like Penn, have their own in-house glassblowers, but “it’s becoming less common,” Carraro said.

“The very first glassblowers were actually the researchers themselves making basic apparatus for their own labs and their own use,” she explained, adding that after World War II, scientific glassblowing became a popular field.

Carraro says that it’s “now

considered somewhat of a dying art,” but that doesn’t stop her from enjoying the opportunity to support researchers by doing something she loves.

Louise Clarke Louise Clarke’s job is much dirtier than her past career as a clinical laboratory scientist. In 2008, she put down her sterile lab tools and opted to get her hands dirty as an intern at Morris Arboretum.

Today, Clarke oversees the Arboretum’s 65-acre Bloomfield Farm section, which includes more than 1,200 trees and shrubs, two green roofs and a community garden.

And while she has the help of a part-time intern, Clarke admits that maintaining such a large swath of land is no easy feat.

“Having to manage everything from trees, shrubs, gardens, roofs and even a grist mill requires a lot of time, labor and equipment,” she said. “There never seems to be enough to go around and that is our biggest challenge.”

Nevertheless, whether it’s the physical activity, the seasonal changes or the glimpses of wildlife, there’s so much about working at Bloomfield Farm that Clarke loves.

“It is enjoyable to have a position where I work both outdoors and indoors,” she said. “My favorite job is tending the green roofs, where I experiment with plants to determine which ones are best suited to green roof culture in our region.”

In addition to her duties out in the field, Clarke teaches classes, runs workshops and writes for Seasons (the Arboretum’s publication). She appreciates the role the Arboretum plays within the University as a resource for sustainability and community leadership.

“Self-selected students visit the Arboretum at the beginning of the fall semester, and some come with their professors to view the sustainable features of the Horticulture Center,” she said.

Though Penn students can visit the Arboretum free of charge with their Penn ID, Clarke says many of them don’t know it. She hopes they take advantage of the resource at their fingertips.

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OPINION The health of the University GUEST COLUMN BY J. LEON

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 28, 2015 VOL. CX X XI, NO. 92 131st Year of Publication

Penn employees cook your meals and haul your trash.

These employees teach your students, they collect your scientific data and they clear

leaves on Locust Walk. What are employees worth to a university? Is the University

MATT MANTICA President JILL CASTELLANO Editor-in-Chief SHAWN KELLEY Opinion Editor LUKE CHEN Director of Online Projects LAUREN FEINER City News Editor KRISTEN GRABARZ Campus News Editor CLAIRE COHEN Assignments Editor PAOLA RUANO Copy Editor RILEY STEELE Senior Sports Editor COLIN HENDERSON Sports Editor

as committed to its employees as it is to its students?

Personally, I’ve enjoyed Penn from several perspectives over a decade: as a student at a neighboring university in Philadelphia, an employee,

a post-bacc student and as a graduate student. Now that I am an alumnus of Penn working at a rival institution I feel that I need to present why I left to the wider Penn community for discussion.

I believe that the University means different things to the different groups of people who interact with it, and on the other side of that argument, I also believe the University has varying levels of commitment to these different

groups. When I transitioned

to being a graduate student, I felt my connection to the University changed drastically.

This potent transition also came with an employment change within the University where I switched labs within a department, and this change in labs will forever be a part of my educational experience.

The first lab I worked for at Penn was great. There were empowering tasks, professional interactions, meaningful results from strong science and friendships I’ll always cherish. I still feel it was extremely worthwhile having worked there, and it is the position I talk about when I interview for new positions.

The second position I had at Penn was with a lab that was, and still is, in disarray. This lab recently transitioned its leadership which opened up the possibility to decentralize, and this change let the individual principal investigators make more independent decisions about their day-to-

day operation. This gap in leadership revealed an issue at Penn to me: The University is harboring employees who are

micromanaged everyone; they bullied peers, subordinates and their bosses daily. They held conversations ripe with

I believe that the University means different things to the different groups of people who interact with it. … I also believe the University has varying levels of commitment to these different groups.” not up the standard that Penn should expect.

The decentralization of decisions created a level of employee disposability I doubt I will ever see again in my life. Prior to accepting the

position, I heard from several coworkers that this lab had a history of mistreating employees of all levels, but I thought that it couldn’t be that bad.

I was wrong.

Essentially, there was one “rogue” PI who was unprofessional. They excessively

innuendo and intolerance of non-WASPs that were much more explicit than your usual

microaggression, and became toxic when disagreed with — be it unscientific practices, administrative or regulatory concerns. All of these issues were brought up through proper reporting channels at Penn time and again by several employees including myself, and the answer was to deal with it or leave, so I left.

I’m torn about leaving Penn.

While yes, this is capitalism

and workers can talk with their feet, I still feel a deeper commitment to Penn that mandates this opinion to be published.

So, as a member of the Penn community, what should be done about this? Are some of Penn’s employees disposable, and if so is that OK? What about individuals who work for Penn who can’t afford to talk with their feet and leave?

Does the University offer different levels of commitment and protection to the different groups it serves? Are there departments that need a closer look? If there are issues where does this bias accumulate?

Who would be protected in the instance I put my name on this submission: The PI or the alumnus?

Penn should survey its employees about their working environment in an unbiased fashion and then make the results public. If there are issues, there should be a way to address them and achieve meaningful results rather than losing talent to other

universities. I am sure this is something we can accomplish given our resources. This information is important for the health of the University, and by extension, the health of firms with workers in Philadelphia. Getting a better picture of the work environment at Penn is as important to the community as is the data on student loans.

Universities should be the leaders for which other organizations look to for guidance, and I feel Penn should revisit its commitment to its staff.

There are far worse employers in the city than Penn, but Penn should set the example and make a stronger public commitment to its employees at a time when the working

J. LEON* is a 2015 GSE graduate and former University employee. His name has been changed to protect his identity to due the sensitivity of his position.

Email Opinion Editor Shawn Kelley at kelley@thedp.com for any inquiries.

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LETTERS Have your own opinion? Send your guest column to Opinion Editor Shawn Kelley at kelley@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 artword represent the opinion of their authors and are not necessarily representative of the DP’s position.

GUEST COLUMN BY JORDYN JONES AND LEXI AYALA Recently, negative talk surrounding fraternities

and sororities have raised questions about why we are relevant. As proud members

of the Penn community, we offer information about what we stand for, both at Penn and elsewhere.

When people ask what we get from sororities, we say sisterhood, philanthropy and networking opportunities. A sorority is different because all aspects of the above are enhanced by our values.

Our chapters uphold values chosen by our founders hundreds of years ago. A commonly held value is friendship. Sorority women strive to be good friends

to each other, and we are active in our communities.

We hold each other accountable, and take care of each other. Alpha Delta Pi hosted an “Unbirthday Party” to give members a chance to unwind from Penn life and develop stronger friendships. For Alpha Phi, the value is called “boundless

love,” and members tutor each other, recognize a “Phi of the Week” and use other methods to celebrate their women. We attend retreats, service projects, educational events and even standards

based sisters and resources.

Our values are broad on purpose, and living them connects us to women with similar experiences. Kappa Alpha Theta values lifelong opportunities for growth.

[Sororities are] not for people looking for an exclusive social circle, or community without limits.” meetings because the value of friendship develops in well-rounded settings.

Our service is values-based too, and the philanthropies we serve match our values.

Chi Omega values service and involvement. Their commitment to the Make-A-Wish Foundation allows members to contribute to bettering the lives of sick children. Delta Delta Delta values altruism.

In spring 2015, members raised nearly $8,000 for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

We gain a network of values-

Their chapter advisor, a member from Ole Miss, serves as a role model on the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life staff. Last fall, Zeta Tau Alphas from across the country came to celebrate the chapter’s new house. Everywhere you go, there are affiliated members around you, and the shared experience of national affiliation serves as a powerful connector.

Does living our values mean conforming? No. One of the most amazing things about being in a sorority is that

although we share values, we are individuals. Sigma Kappa demonstrated personal growth last year by hosting multiple chapter-based events for women’s issues.

Though other chapters also value personal growth, their programs are specific to their members. Having a bond over similar values does not make us clones; it makes us sisters and gives us relationships with deeper meaning.

A shared value is academic success. Panhellenic women have higher GPAs than non-members. Last semester, every Panhellenic chapter had a GPA average over a 3.5, and our average chapter size was 192 members.

That’s no small feat. Sigma Delta Tau has consistently held the highest GPA average in the Penn community, maintaining above a 3.6.

The National Panhellenic Conference researches the academic experience of affiliated women nationally, and affiliated women graduate at higher rates. We are successful in the classroom

and contribute positively to institutional retention and graduation rates. We are not the stereotypes.

Finally, some argue that our structures and policies are oppressive. The main source of evidence for this argument is usually recruitment.

Recruitment is a structured process to sustain the overall health of the Panhellenic community. Panhellenic’s average chapter size this semester is 142, with all of our groups in a similar range of membership. The recruitment methods support the growth of all groups equally to maximize opportunities for membership.

By growing all groups at the same time, all chapters remain healthy and strong.

Since Panhellenic sororities moved to the current method of recruitment in 2004, the number of bids given out has increased nationally. Why? Because women want to live their values, be successful and contribute to something great.

As for other rules, membership in anything has expecta-

tions for participation. These expectations are reflections of respect for the community as a whole, and are in place to offer direction and common goals to the participants.

We acknowledge that sororities may not be for everyone.

It is not for people looking for an exclusive social circle, or community without limits. It is for women ready to make a lifelong commitment to a sisterhood bonded by values, to empower other

women and to lead lives with integrity.

Signed, University of Pennsylvania’s Panhellenic Council

JORDYN JONES is a Wharton senior studying operations, information and decision. She is president of the Panhellenic Council. Her email is jordynj@ wharton.upenn.edu.

LEXI AYALA is a Nursing senior. She is the Panhellenic Council vice president of risk management and standards.

Her email is alexisay@nursing. upenn.edu

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

NEWS 5

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015

Vigil held to remember missing Sri Lankans 80,000 Sri Lankans still missing six years post-war ERIN FARRELL Contributing Reporter

“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness” — this is both the motto of Amnesty International and what a handful of students proved outside Van Pelt.

Marked in Sri Lanka and around the world on Oct. 27, the vigil remembering the Sri Lankan Civil War strives to bring awareness to the issue of the many thousand victims whose statuses remain unknown to friends and family. Penn’s chapter of Amnesty International gathered by the Button with candle light vigils to commemorate the tens of thousands of Sri Lankans civilians

ERIN FARRELL | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Penn’s Amnesty International chapter hosted a candlelight vigil on Tuesday night to bring awareness of the lives taken in the Sri Lankan Civil War.

still unaccounted for. With candles in hand, the student advocates recited a poem and gave a few remarks in remembrance of those lost.

“These kinds of events bring awareness. And the primary goal for government actions with disappearances like these is to silence speech

Deputy mayor talks public safety and Black Lives Matter Everett Gillison serves as Phila. mayor’s Chief of Staff JESSIE WASHINGTON Staff Reporter

On Tuesday, 1978 College graduate Everett Gillison,checked Chief of Staff in the Mayor’s Office and former Deputy Mayor of the added thePublic Safety Office, spoke to students about community, crime and public safety. The discussion was hosted by the Philadelphia Mayor’s Scholars Program and the Penn Democrats.

Gillison, who is a Philadelphia native, spoke at length about his time at the Defender Association for Philadelphia, where he worked for twenty-eight years. A major issue at the beginning of Gillison’s career in Philadelphia was the death penalty.

“At the time we had a district attorney that wanted to line up people and kill them,” Gillison said. “We had the third largest death-row population after Georgia and Texas.”

While working for the Defender Association, Gillison was tasked with defending criminals who faced the death penalty, something Gillison has taken a stand against for all of his career.

“I would sit down with them and force them to think about their choices, and if they can do that I think society has an obligation to give them a second chance.” He said.

Second chances are a major issue that Gillison has addressed in his career. As Deputy Mayor, Gillison oversaw the Office of Reintegration Services for Ex-Offenders, also known as RISE. The program seeks to reintegrate formally incarcerated citizens back

into their communities.

“People have become used to separating people from society, but it’s a flawed system.” Gillison said. “When you take people away you destabilize the community, you need to have people in the community working to make the disease go away.”

While Gillison believes that the current state of the penal system needs to fundamentally change, he does not believe that police are the only source of the problem.

“We kill each other at a faster rate than any police officers can,” though he added that “we also need to listen to the Black Lives Matter group — their pain is real, it’s not made up.”

For Gillison the solution has to be listening to all of the involved groups.

“We need to listen to the pain, encounter it and move through it together.”

and to hide what has happened,” said Zohair Azmi, Penn Amnesty International outreach chair and a Wharton junior. “And so by bring-

ing attention to what has happened we can combat that direct motive.”

The event highlights the Sri Lankan Civil War, which began in 1983 and consisted of a 26-year conflict between the nation’s government and the LTTE, a rebel group who aimed to create a separate government for the Tamil people. The war resulted in the disappearances of an estimated 80,000 people.

These disappearances are enforced by the government and have been a method utilized by the Sri Lankan government to oppress political dissidents, an act that is considered a crime under the international law of the Rome Statute.

This form of violence, intended to create terror and to violently suppress dissenting opinion, has cultivated an atmosphere of fear that

still exists in Sri Lanka. This fear prevents many to this day from participating in such displays of commemoration of those lost.

“A lot of us are very much insulated and do not have to worry about our governments imprisoning us for speaking out,” Penn Amnesty International President and College senior Michelle Rosen said.“But in a lot of parts of the world, people cannot openly criticize their government without fear.”

“We often go about our day just stuck in our own worlds. Sometimes it’s important to take a moment to remember people who don’t have the same opportunities that we do and to reflect on all that we’ve been fortunate enough to have,” Penn Amnesty International secretary and College sophomore Madeleine Jacobs said.

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Microsoft engineer says tech is a romance Laura Butler gives talk about her road to success EMILY CIESLAK Contributing Reporter

Laura Butler is tired of tech being portrayed as a horror story.

Instead, she believes it to be a romance.

This is the narrative Butler, a distinguished engineer at Microsoft, told a room full of Penn students on Tuesday night. Having stumbled upon the technology field accidentally in the 1980s, Butler gave her perspective on why technology is great not only for a single population but for everyone.

“Why are misfits perfect for tech?” Butler said. “Innovation by definition is a deviation from the normal and standards.”

Butler is a self-proclaimed misfit, and her unique habits like baking cookies for employees have

GPA

>> PAGE 1

interview process.” Her first job was working for a law firm as a paralegal, and she said there were other things that took the forefront when she was applying for that job.

“More important factors were what I studied in college and just personality on the phone and in person, and where my interest laid in terms of working for that company,” she said.

Similar factors — especially personality and internships — were among the things that Nadya Mason, a 2014 College graduate with a double major in Communications and Cinema Studies, emphasized were important in getting her job in Advertising at Nickelodeon.

“If you had internships, if you were able to come out of an internship with some solid skills, they

OWAIN WEST | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Laura Butler, a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft, spoke to a group of Penn students in Bodek Lounge on Oct. 27. She described her unique journey to Microsoft and how being a misfit helped her be a leader.

helped her become a successful and memorable leader in the company.

Butler said she currently oversees a team of about 170 employees and

want to see if you can apply those skills to the job,” she said.

But GPA was a different matter.

“I don’t even think it was on my application, no one ever asked me,” Mason said, but added “If I was applying for a job in finance it would be more relevant.”

But what about engineering jobs? According to GPA data from 2001, Engineering has the lowest GPA among the four undergraduate schools. Alex Zhang, who graduated in 2013 with a major in Computer Engineering and now works for Qualcomm, said it only matters “somewhat.”

“A lot of the top engineering companies care a bit more about what you’re capable of and not what you’ve been doing,” he said. “You can’t have a super low [GPA], but at least in engineering it matters less than in other fields.”

Barbara Hewitt, senior associate director of Career Services,

supervises another 1,700 people.

Engineering junior Cristina Buenahora said that when she was supposed to determine a campus

speaker as a part of being Microsoft’s campus ambassador, Butler was her first pick. While interning at Microsoft last summer,

Buenahora said she found Butler inspiring during a women tech talk.

“She is one of those people that is really inspiring because she has done so much to get where she is, and she is so loved,” Buenahora said. “She loves what she does, and you can tell.”

Needing an internship, Butler began interning for Microsoft in 1989 after first thinking she was being offered an internship from Goldman Sachs. A Harvard University undergraduate at the time, Butler ultimately dropped out of the university to pursue her new passion for Microsoft.

“I thought, ‘I am getting paid for what I love to do,’” Butler said.

“Whereas over there I was paying for a crappy service.”

For Butler, technology is all about solutions and the tools to achieve them.

“Time and quality of life are the most precious things in life,”

GUYRANDY JEAN-GILLES | ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

Penn graduates find that their GPAs don’t take precedence in their job search. More important factors include personality and work experience.

said GPA “comes up a lot” when students come to get advice for applying to jobs.

“Almost always students have this idea that a GPA has to be so much higher than it does to actually

be considered,” she said. “People will come in and say ‘I only have a 3.7’, and I’m like, I can’t think of

Butler said. “The point of all this tech is life, and the best way to make tech is to live.”

From 2000 to 2006, Butler took a break from working to become what she called a world traveler.

She went on adventure hiking and took circus and improv classes.

“She is kind of a powerhouse,” College freshman and event attendee Audrey Liu said. “You don’t meet a lot of people like that.”

In her spare time, Butler also jots down ideas for inventions and businesses in a notebook, some of which she shared with the crowd.

She also gave students her top life and career advice.

“Try a bunch of stuff,” Butler said when interning. “It is like a buffet.”

By taking the time to explore interests, Butler said, you discover who you really are. She added that she believes this is essential to success.

any employer that would not consider you with a 3.7.”

And really, added Director of Career Services Patricia Rose, GPA primarily matters when companies have to screen so many applications that they don’t have time to look at them holistically.

“It’s not by industry as it is by market leaders — if you want to go to one of the handful of top banks or consulting firms or technology companies that are absolutely inundated with candidates,” she said.

The highest GPAs at Penn are not even found in the places one might expect. Hewitt said that students who go into consulting and banking do have high GPAs, but they’re beat out by students that go into the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps.

“People who are really passionate about what they’re doing doesn’t mean they’re not really smart too,” she said.

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When the Democratic National Convention descends upon Philadelphia this summer, Penn will be no stranger to national politics. Penn students have a tradition of involvement in past nomination conventions.

The DNC, whose planning committee launched its Philadelphia operations on Oct. 15, will be one of the largest public events ever held in Philadelphia, with an estimated 50,000 people expected to attend the week-long

convention. In the past, Penn students have actively participated in national conventions during election years.

In 2012, a group of students taking “Conventions, Debates, and Campaigns,” a course offered jointly by the Annenberg School for Communication and the Fels Institute of Government, joined The Philadelphia Daily News to cover that year’s Republican and Democratic conventions.

“For any citizen or student of politics, attendance at a national political convention is a once-ina-lifetime experience that will forever change one’s perspective on politics and even influence career choices,” said Annenberg

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professor David Eisenhower, who co-taught the course, of the trip.

Eight students covered the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., in late August, while a dozen covered the Democratic convention in Charlotte, N.C., the following month.

Eisenhower accompanied students on both trips alongside other members of Penn’s faculty, including Fels professor Marjorie Margolies, Fels executive director David Thornburgh and lecturer and presidential historian Alvin Felzenberg.

The student political group Penn Democrats also worked with the 2012 DNC. DNC Chief Operating Officer Theo LeCompte reached out to the organization with summer and convention internship opportunities during the spring, according to a blog post on the Penn Dems website.

LeCompte returned to Penn earlier this semester to speak to

students about the current presidential election cycle.

Although the planning for the 2016 Democratic convention is still in its early stages, Penn student groups are already eager to get involved when opportunities become available.

“We are most certainly getting involved and having members of the committee on campus, but nothing is formalized yet,” said College junior and Penn Dems Political Director Sam Iacobellis. “We hope to secure as many internship and volunteer opportunities for Penn Dems members.”

College sophomore and Penn Students for Bernie co-founder Sarah Figgatt agreed, adding that she hopes the organization will have a solid following before the convention.

Applications for student involvement at the convention don’t open until next semester, Figgatt said.

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SPORTS 7

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015

Montgomery’s meteoric rise with the Red and Blue XC | Junior runner shows

drastic improvement COLIN HENDERSON Sports Editor

This season, Ashley Montgomery has made it look easy.

The breakout junior has been first across the line for Penn women’s cross country in each of her races thus far. Finished 11th among a stacked field at the Notre Dame Invitational.

Dropped consistently elite 5K times south of 17 minutes. Not to mention her outstanding performance earlier in the year in outdoor track.

And if you told her any of this would have been possible heading into freshman year?

“I probably would have laughed.”

That’s because only three years ago, it wasn’t even in Montgomery’s plans to be a collegiate runner at all. In fact, throughout much of her high school career, she had another sport on her mind.

XC

>> PAGE 10

that’s in the past.”

But for all of the Quakers’ successes this season — and there have certainly been a lot of them — Heps is ultimately the meet that will be referenced by future teams. Meaning, this weekend

“It’s almost like she ran track and cross country part time because she was really into soccer,” coach Steve Dolan said. “So, in all honesty, her times were not very competitive compared to Division I running standards.”

“It wasn’t something that I had planned,” Montgomery added. “I always thought that I was going to end up doing soccer.”

However, Montgomery ultimately decided that, given the opportunity to pursue a Penn education and Dolan’s enthusiasm, Penn track and cross country was the right path for her. And her results on the course and the track suggest that she did ultimately choose the right path to take.

However, that doesn’t mean that it was the smoothest path by any means.

“I was so sore,” Montgomery said with a laugh, remembering her first summer of training before college. “I was like, ‘There’s no way I’ll be able to run in college and be

good.’”

Ultimately, though, Montgomery’s was able to overcome any early struggles with pure force of will and determination.

“She’s a really great competitor,” Dolan said. “When she came to Penn, it’s just amazing how quickly her times dropped.”

Dolan is quick to praise

will go a large way toward either making or breaking Penn’s season.

And there isn’t much margin for error, even for a men’s team that has recently broken onto the national stage.

“We need me and Nick [Tuck] ... to finish in the top five,” Awad said. “And then we need our

[fourth and fifth finishers] to really run well.”

Adding to the intrigue surrounding the men’s team is the physical condition of Awad, who admits to having had an inconsistent fall in terms of training.

Regardless, he will need to step up with his best race of the season this weekend to give the Red and

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surrounding the meet may be fun to talk about during the week, but when it’s time to step up to the run the race, the objective is simple.

“We’ve prepared,” he said.

“We just need to go out there and win.

“Because right now is the time we’ve been waiting for.”

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dreaming a little bit.”

“For the men and the women, there’s really eight good teams [in the Ivy League],” Dolan added.

“No [team] is ranked lower than ninth in their region. Anything in the top four at Heps is really what we’re wanting.”

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The women’s team has firsthand experience with just how difficult it can be to put together a successful run at Heps, and as such, the Quakers are quick to control expectations on their end.

“We’re a little timid to set our hopes to high,” Whiting said.

“But I think deep down, we’re all

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better and better, and now, for the first time, she’s extending that fitness out to 5K, 6K.” In that sense, Montgomery’s improvement mirrors that of Penn’s cross country program as a whole.

Three years ago — much like Montgomery — the Quakers were struggling for relevance in the cross country. But after steady improvement over the past several years and a string of recent success, both the men’s and women’s squads have jumped dramatically to the upper reaches of regional rankings, with the former even breaking into the top 30 spots nationally.

“I think that’s our focus now — to have a great team result,” Dolan said. “And Ashley’s clearly one of the leaders of that.”

So both Ashley Montgomery and Penn cross country as a whole are on the rise. And as improbable as it may have seemed three years ago, it may not be long until they find themselves together at the top.

Junior Ashley Montgomery has put up the top times for Penn women’s cross country this year despite almost not running in college.

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Montgomery in terms of her determination and work ethic, terms that would be equally appropriate for a scrappy walk-on doing anything she can just to maintain a spot on the team. For her part, Montgomery’s humble, understated demeanor fits this characterization perfectly.

“Even if I know that I can’t

be the best at something, I need to know that I gave everything I had,” she said.

But whether they want to accept it or not, she’s a lot more than that. She’s a bona fide star.

Halfway through the season, Montgomery has not only established herself as one of the top runners on the team, but also as one of the top runners in the Ivy League.

Even she is, however hesitantly, starting to realize the enormity of her potential, admitting that she has personal hopes for a top-10 individual finish at the Ivy League championships.

What makes Montgomery’s rise to the upper regions of Ivy League running even more exciting is how quickly it’s appeared to transpire. After all, just a year ago she was nowhere to be found in the team’s top three finishers.

But to hear Dolan tell it, Montgomery’s vast improvement is no recent development.

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8 SPORTS

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

ESPN’s ‘GameDay’ coming back to Philadelphia FOOTBALL | First time

show is in city since 2002 RILEY STEELE Senior Sports Editor

Move over Pope Francis — another cavalcade of stars is preparing to take over Philadelphia.

With Penn’s Big 5 rival Temple off to a 7-0 start for the first time in program history, many around the country are beginning to take note ... including the powers that be at ESPN. As the No. 21 Owls prepare to host No. 9 Notre Dame at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday night in one of the biggest games in Temple history, ESPN’s “College GameDay� has elected to make a return to the City of Brotherly Love. Fresh off a stop at James Madison last weekend, the Saturday morning show focused on previewing college football games from around the country will take

ATHLETICS >> PAGE 10

players, to their coaches and to the strength and conditioning staff.

Fink immediately went all in. “My biggest thing was if they’re going to bring this in and spend all this money on bringing it in, then I want to utilize it to the highest level and capacity,� she said.

What’s great about SpartaTrac — aside from the obvious fitness benefits — is that it enables a level of coordination between the coaches never before possible.

Every coach, from the nutritionist to Fink, has access to a players’ lifting workouts, sleep, nutrition and workout intensity rating from the most-recent practice. The hardest thing, Fink said, is remembering to input all of the data on a daily basis. “It’s about getting the girls to buy in,� she said. “The information is only as good as what they are putting in. ... But if we keep up on it, it becomes second nature.�

place in Philadelphia for the first time since 2002.

The show will be aired live from Market Street between Fifth and Sixth streets — directly in front of Independence Hall rather than on Temple’s campus. Despite having to clear hurdles corresponding to the federal nature of the site, ESPN made the announcement on Monday afternoon that it was sending “GameDay’s� crew to Philadelphia rather than the campus of Washington State. “This was the toughest call we had to make in my 12-year tenure producing the show,� Lee Fitting, a senior coordinating producer at ESPN, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “There were two schools that “College GameDay� has not visited, in addition to having great seasons.�

After several years as a perennial loser near the bottom of the Pac-12 standings, the Cougars are off to a 5-2 start in 2015 and host No. 8 Stanford on Saturday. However, the fact that both the Owls

and Fighting Irish are ranked teams gave Philadelphia the edge over Pullman, Wash. “Having ESPN ‘College GameDay’ come to Philadelphia is

tremendous not only for Temple football, but for the university as a whole, as well as the city of Philadelphia,� Temple Athletic Director Patrick Kraft said in a statement.

“GameDay�, which began broadcasting in 1987, has visited myriad campuses across the nation on a regular basis since 1993. However, over the course of 22 years, the show has made it to Philadelphia only once: Nov. 16, 2002, when it aired live from inside Franklin Field prior to Penn’s matchup with Harvard.

That was the first time “GameDay� went to a school outside the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Since covering the Quakers’ 44-9 thrashing of the Crimson that day, the show has since gone to several other Football Championship Subdivision locations, including the campuses of Massachusetts, North Dakota State and Harvard.

On a weekly basis, “GameDay� features former players Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and David Pollack, reporter Samantha Ponder, former coach Lee Corso and host Seth Davis, who visited Penn in 2014 to host the basketball version of College GameDay. The show is best known for

Hitti said. “The only difference now is that the workout is on our phones.�

These workouts are also customized for each player on the roster, as the app prescribes and records everything from the exercises, to the reps, to the specific weights.

According to Associate Athletic Director for Sports Performance and Head Athletic Trainer Eric Laudano, the customization aspect is the biggest asset of SpartaTrac. “Everyone needs to do different workouts,� he said. “Monotony of training is one thing that we’re not about. “We always say a training session or a program should not look like the Sahara Desert, it should look like the Swiss Alps. So you’re doing something hard, you’re coming down and doing something new and different.�

Additionally, Steel completely restructured the team’s strength and conditioning strategy in the spring offseason, effectively rendering the

topology of the team’s workouts much more “mountainous,� as Laudano’s metaphor goes.

Instead of attempting to maintain peak game-ready fitness for all nine months of the academic year, the team now follows a block schedule with distinct phases for each part of the year. During the winter, the team undergoes a bulking phase with a focus on strength over stamina. As Fink’s squad transitions after spring break to start playing in tournaments, the emphasis shifts back to stamina.

The fall regimen is characterized by four week cycles: three week of intense lifting followed by one unload week to allow each players’ body a chance at muscle regeneration. “One of our weaknesses and mistakes in the past is that we would just go, go, go, go, go, go and we didn’t realize that we were breaking them down,� said Fink.

This year’s team is not broken down. No, far from that.

Thus far in 2015, the team set a record for the best start (10-1 as of Oct. 10) and the longest win streak (nine games) in school history.

Even the individual players have reached historic levels of productivity.

For example, only 10 games into the season, Alexa Hoover broke the single-season records for goals and points. At that point in the 201516 season, the Quakers still had six games left to play. Beyond just Hoover, the stat sheet for almost every player on the team’s 20woman roster have improved from the 2014 campaign.

Even just amongst the returning players and the freshmen, there is a tangible fitness gap. As junior attack Elise Tilton explains, “the people that have been doing the [SpartaTrac] and lifting stuff longer are faster and are quicker because you just don’t do that stuff when you’re in high school.�

Although it would be naive to attribute all of the team’s success

COURTESY OF THE PENN GAZETTE

The last time “College GameDay� came to Philadelphia, the show aired from Franklin Field prior to Penn’s 44-9 victory over Harvard

It took time for the team to get accustomed to the new technology. “In the beginning we weren’t using all of the different aspects,� senior captain Elizabeth Hitti said. “We had the app, but we didn’t have the workouts on there. [Steel] was still writing the workouts on the board, and we were entering the information into our app.�

Now that nearly nine months have passed and the kinks have been worked out, the team’s routine when they arrive at Weiss Pavilion, home of the varsity weight room, is completely different than it was last fall. Previously, the team would huddle up and each player would perform the same exercises at the same pace, referencing workouts printed out on sheets of paper tacked to the room’s sturdy cement pillars.

This fall, the workouts are paperless, just a few finger taps on a phone screen away using the SpartaTrac app. “Steel still kind of runs the lift,�

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in 2015 purely to the physical side of preparation, it is clear that the Quakers that call Ellen Vagelos Field home this year are a fundamentally different squad than their 2014 iteration. It shows in their confidence, and it shows in their game plan. “We implement fitness clearly into a lot of our games with the speed of the game and we attack the game versus letting the game come to us,� Fink said. “The games we play the best, that is our approach.�

Perhaps the craziest thing about this field hockey team is that Fink thinks there is even more to be gained from SpartaTrac and all of the other sports performance intiatives the University introduced in the past calendar year.

For now, with only two games left in 2015, Tilton and the rest of the team are happy with what they’ve been able to accomplish so far. “If we make it through five overtimes I think we’re alright.�

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ACROSS

Corso’s ritual of putting on the headgear of the team he thinks will win the feature game on-site.

While many wonder if the proximity to Independence Hall will cause the 80-year old will dress up as Benjamin Franklin, it seems unlikely: Corso pretended to be Penn’s founder when he picked the Red and Blue over Harvard more than a decade ago.

In between GameDay and the Temple-Notre Dame matchup at 8 p.m. that night, the Quakers — albeit outside of Philadelphia — will try to extend their winning streak to three when they face Brown in Providence.

Though Penn has not been over .500 in a season since November 2013, a victory may inspire ESPN to do something else it has never done before: Broadcast “GameDay� from the same place in consecutive weeks, previewing Penn-Princeton on Homecoming on Nov. 7.

Hey, it’s 2015. Anything can happen.

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Palestinian Incitement to Terror Refusing peace talks with Israel, Arab leaders issue incendiary lies and anti-Semitic slander, inciting waves of deadly hate crimes against innocent Jews.

The Palestinian Authority, desperate for international attention, now falsely accuses Israel of threats to al-Aksa mosque atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Denying all Jewish rights to Judaism’s holiest site, President Mahmoud Abbas rants about Jews defiling the mosque with their “filthy feet.� Result: Dozens of terror attacks and five murdered in 21 days.

Jerusalem killings, the Palestinian Authority (PA) “saluted� the murderers and denounced Israeli police for A teenage girl on an official Palestinian Authority TV shooting them. No wonder terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, show proudly recites a poem with the lines “Oh sons of who hijacked and blew up an Israeli bus, killing 38 Zion, oh most evil among creatures/Oh barbaric Israeli civilians, has had Palestinian schools, summer monkeys, wretched pigs.� The program host cries camps and a town square named after her. Likewise, the “Bravo!� and applauds. A young girl on Palestinian TV Hamas terror organization in Gaza glorified as “heroic� explains she wants to be a policeman when she grows up the execution of three innocent Israeli teenagers last “so that I can shoot Jews.� year.

In fact, Arab Palestinian culture is saturated with Collapse of the PA and Chances for Peace. The anti-Semitic incitement, starting from the first grades of Palestinian Authority is in shambles—on the edge of school, in daily news media, political speeches and most bankruptcy, in a mortal struggle with archrival Hamas insidiously the mosques of Gaza and the West Bank. and staggering under the (Imagine our outrage if the leadership of 80-year-old U.S. President declared that If incitement does not stop, Mahmoud Abbas, now in his an ethnic group had filthy twelfth year of a four-year feet and would contaminate Congress should reduce the $500 term, with no successor in a place of worship.) The core issue at the heart of million in aid we currently spend to sight. Abbas refuses to return to peace talks, Palestinian hate for Jews is prop up the Palestinian Authority. though Israeli Prime an obsessive belief that Jews Minister Netanyahu invites are non-believers who have such negotiations with no preconditions. Truth told, zero rights in Muslim Palestine—this despite inarguable since recent polls show the majority of Palestinians scientific proof of the Jews’ 3,000-year continuous believe their mission is to conquer all of Israel, it is history in the Holy Land, preceding Muslims’ arrival by unlikely the Arab street would accept any peace deal 1,600 years. based on a two-state solution. Meanwhile, Hamas The most recent incitement has been the fantastical continues to gain strength in the West Bank and is likely claim by Palestinian authorities that Israel is planning to to seize power on Abbas’ departure, putting radical tear down al-Aksa mosque—for which there is no Islamists in control of the entire Palestinian enterprise. evidence and which Israel has steadfastly denied. In What Can Israel Do, What Can the U.S. Do? Israel addition, Palestinians are now insisting that Jews, continues to show restraint in managing terror attacks Christians and other “non-believers� no longer be throughout Israel and on the Temple Mount. But clearly, permitted to visit the Temple Mount—despite the in the face of the current wave of murders and other hateallowance of such multi-sectarian visits since Israel motivated violence against civilians, Israel has no choice liberated the site from Jordan in 1967. but to keep the peace—increasing police presence in No surprise that a rash of anti-Semitic terrorist violent hot spots and levying stiffer penalties for violence is currently roiling Israel. One Jewish man was perpetrators (and their parents, since many offenders are killed on Rosh Hashanah when Palestinian youths juveniles). bombarded his car with large stones, forcing him to The U.S., for its part, can pressure Mr. Abbas and the crash. Another 30ish couple was shot in their car as their Palestinian Authority diplomatically to cease its lying four children watched from the back seat. Two Orthodox about the Temple Mount, anti-Semitic slanders and Jews were killed in Jerusalem’s Old City when a other incitements to violence. In addition, if such Palestinian teenager stabbed them to death. Dozens incitement does not stop immediately, the U.S. Congress more rock, firebomb, stabbing, shooting and car attacks should take steps to reduce the $500 million in aid we on innocent Israelis have occurred in recent weeks. currently spend to prop up the Palestinian Authority, What’s worse, perpetrators of such murderous hate millions of which provides “salaries� to convicted crimes are celebrated as heroes by Palestinian leaders Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails. and the Arab street. Indeed, instead of condemning the

What are the facts?

The Palestinian Authority’s inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric has led to a wave of terrorism that threatens to devolve into a third intifada. Although President Abbas claims he wants peace, his words and actions prove he wants to provoke another explosion of violence to win international sympathy and bring pressure on Israel. Israel must deal firmly with these violent outbreaks, and the U.S. must indicate to Abbas and the PA that it will not fund lies, racism and terror.

This message has been published and paid for by

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FLAME is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational 501 (c)(3) organization. Its purpose is the research and publication of the facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the interests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world. Your tax-deductible contributions are welcome. They enable us to pursue these goals and to publish these messages in national newspapers and magazines. We have virtually no overhead. Almost all of our revenue pays for our educational work, for these clarifying messages, and for related direct mail.

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FOOTBALL >> PAGE 10

During his high school days, Watson was a highly sought recruit out of Pittsburgh-area South Fayette High.

“I was pretty much deciding between going to Buffalo [of the Football Bowl Subdivision MidAmerican Conference] or Penn,” Watson said. “What really sold me is that, when I got here, it felt like a big football school. It was the best of both worlds, both academics and football.”

“He had a lot of different options, including some at higher levels,” Ulrich said. “He’s here, and the rest is history.”

T he wideout i mpressed during his rookie season a year ago, notching 42 catches for 497 yards, both program records for a rookie. After getting his feet wet during the first half of the season, Watson emerged as a bona fide offensive threat during Ivy play.

“It was about this time last year, before the Brown game,

SPORTS 9

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015

that I knew I was about to start having a bigger role in the offense, and I’d start taking over that role as the No. 1 receiver.”

“You could see during his freshman year that he was going to be something special,” head coach Ray Priore said.

A year ago, Watson had established sen ior receivers Spencer Kulcsar and Conner Scott above him on the depth chart. While the team sputtered to a disappointing 2-8 overall record, Watson believes he gathered valuable experience under their tutelage.

“Conner was the first guy in and the last guy out every day. I learned to lead through my actions from him. And Spencer was always in my ear; he was kind of a gnat,” Watson said, laughing. “I’ve been trying to fill their role and make sure that all the other receivers are working as hard as we can.”

Despite all his early-season success, Ulrich still maintains that Watson has areas of his game that can be improved.

NOT EVEN CLOSE ALL PURPOSE YARDS Watson Solomon

584 390

RECEIVING YARDS Watson Pearson

561 325

CATCHES Watson Pearson/Countryman

“He’s not a quality blocker just yet,” Ulrich admitted. “I’m on him about it every day. He doesn’t like to hear me talk to

39 19

him because it’s probably about his blocking.”

However, improvement in that category may have to

wait. Watson has been donning a red non-contact jersey in practice over the last few weeks as he nurses a shoulder

injury suffered in that win over Villanova. Though he sat out the second half of that game — making his 87 yards and two TDs on the night even more impressive — Watson has managed to avoid missing meaningful game action.

“Like it is with everyone else, the healthiest you’re going to be is the first day of camp, and after that you’re going to be banged up,” Priore said.

“And our training staff does a phenomenal job of getting us ready.”

Going forward, Watson has some clear-cut goals for his career in University City.

“One, I want to win as many Ivy League championships as we can,” Watson said. “And I want to be first team All-Ivy each year. ... If I could get that this year and the next two, that would be pretty cool.”

Those goals are perfectly attainable, if you ask coach Priore: “When a real good player is also your hardest worker, that’s a great combination.”

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Thursday, October 29 at 6:00 PM, Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik, “Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg” Nearly a half-century into being a feminist and legal pioneer, something funny happened to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: the octogenarian won the internet. Across America, people who weren’t even born when Ginsburg made her name are tattooing themselves with her face, setting her famously searing dissents to music, and making viral videos in tribute. In a class of its own, and much to Ginsburg’s own amusement, is the Notorious RBG Tumblr, which juxtaposes the diminutive but fierce Jewish grandmother with the 350-pound rapper featuring original artwork submitted from around the world.

“Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg” offers a visually rich, intimate, unprecedented look at the Justice and how she changed the world. From Ginsburg’s refusal to let the slammed doors of sexism stop her to her innovative legal work, from her before-its-time feminist marriage to her perch on the nation’s highest court—with the fierce dissents to match—get to know RBG as never before. As the country struggles with the unfinished business of gender equality and civil rights, Ginsburg stands as a testament to how far we can come with a little chutzpah.

GAMEDAY RETURNS

METEORIC RISE

For the first time since 2002, “College GameDay” returns to the City of Brotherly Love

Ashley Montgomery has excelled for Penn cross country after almost not running in college

>> SEE PAGE 8

>> SEE PAGE 7

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015

Watson continues schooling the Ivies FOOTBALL | Wide receiver

impresses in second year

The Last Team

Standing

TOM NOWLAN Associate Sports Editor

AMANDA SUAREZ | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Sophomore Justin Watson leads Penn in receiving catches, yards and touchdowns.

For Watson, things are looking pretty elementary.

Justin Watson, that is.

Through the first six games of Penn football’s season, the sophomore wide receiver is putting together one of the best pass-catching seasons in recent memory. The Bridgeville, Pa., native has tallied 39 catches for 561 yards and five touchdowns, all of which lead the team.

“He’s a great kid. He works exceptionally hard,” Rick Ulrich, the Quaker wide receivers coach, said. “And he’s got great open-field running ability. He breaks a lot of tackles.”

That elusiveness and physicality was perhaps best exemplified during Penn’s shocking upset of Villanova on Sept. 24.

Watson hauled in two touchdown passes in that game, one of which came on a dominating 33-yard catch-and-run that featured several broken tackles and one particularly nasty stiff-arm.

“I’ve really tried to work on my running after the catch,” Watson said. “This year, I’ve really made a point to stay on my feet and make sure that just one guy never tackles me.”

SEE FOOTBALL PAGE 9

THOMAS MUNSON | ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR

With a revamped strength and conditioning program from Strength and Conditioning Manager Jim Steel and an all-new training customization technology in SpartaTrac, junior attack Elise Tilton and the rest of the Penn field hockey team are fitter than ever - and its showing in their four overtime wins in 2015.

TRACKING ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE Part 2 of 4 FIELD HOCKEY | Sparta

system boosts fitness LAINE HIGGINS Sports Editor

Penn field hockey has played through five overtimes this year.

Five!

What’s crazy is that in a sixgame span between Sept. 25 and Oct. 28, the Quakers played almost 70 extra minutes of sudden death field hockey. Even

crazier is that the team emerged unscathed every time but one — a tough 2-1 loss to Columbia on the road that snapped Penn’s nine-game winning streak.

Tallying a 4-1 record in such closely contested games shows that Penn is capable of literally running circles around its opponents deep into games. This level of fitness and stamina is new for the Quakers, thanks to a revamped strength and conditioning program and the help of Penn Athletics’ new SpartaTrac

training system.

“It just is funny because I do think a lot of teams think we’re pretty fit,” coach Colleen Fink said.

“One of our opposing teams that we had already played and had beaten earlier in the year came up to us and said, ‘What are you doing? Do you do your strength and conditioning? Does somebody else do it? What do you do? What’s your focus? How are you doing it?’”

So really, how is field hockey

doing it?

It all boils down to new technology and a smarter approach to training. Back in Jan. 2015, after the team returned from winter break, strength and conditioning manager Jim Steel started incorporating SpartaTrac technology into the team’s weight room regimen, making field hockey a guinea pig program. At the time, the app and all of its data were new — to the SEE ATHLETICS PAGE 8

Quakers head into Heps with league title in sight XC | Men’s squad in

top 30 for first time COLIN HENDERSON Sports Editor

MICHELE OZER | DP FILE PHOTO

According to senior Thomas Awad, both he and junior Nick Tuck will need to finish in the top five at Heps in order for Penn to have a shot at an Ivy title. Although he has had an inconsistent fall, a strong performance by Awad is certainly possible.

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Heading into its Ivy championship meet at Heptagonals this weekend, Penn cross country looks better than it has in a long time — maybe better than ever.

And the Quakers know it.

Just ask coach Steve Dolan about his expectations for the men’s team, which recently was awarded with its first top-30 national ranking in program history.

“For the first time in a number of years, we’re gonna go in ... trying to win it,” he said.

Or ask junior Cleo Whiting, whose women’s team has emerged as a force to be

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reckoned with throughout the year despite finishing dead last in cross country Heps only one year ago.

“We’re better than that,” she said. “And that’s all that matters.”

Of course, they have plenty of reasons to be confident.

The men’s squad, as per usual, features star senior Thomas Awad and most of the athletes that helped the team break through to a top-three finish last season at Heps.

But over the past year, it has developed into a much more substantial whole.

Now, with the emergence of junior Nick Tuck as a legitimate force amongst the Ivy League’s elite and a solid next three runners to round out the team’s top-five, the team could very reasonably contend for an Ivy title this weekend.

There is also reason for

optimism on the women’s side.

With the emergence of junior Ashley Montgomery along with typical lead runners Cleo and Clarissa Whiting, the Red and Blue may have the most formidable front-of-thepack presence it has ever had.

And it has shown in the team’s performance this season, particularly with its impressive top-10 finish at the highlycompetitive Notre Dame Invitational.

But unlike its male counterpart, the women’s team does not have much previous success at Heps to build off of, and the Quakers will need to move forward from their disappointing 2014 result to live up to their current potential.

“We use it as motivation,” Whiting said. “We were definitely let down last year, but SEE XC PAGE 7 CONTACT US: 215-422-4640