THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014
Most international students come to Penn and find an existing community. But students who came from their countries alone must make their own. YOLANDA CHEN/NEWS PHOTO EDITOR
The only ones
PHOTO COURTESY OF AYE NYEIN THU YUEQI YANG Senior Writer
Qais Iwidat is a senior, but he has only gone home once since coming to Penn. “We don’t have Starbucks. But we have ‘Stars and Bucks,’” Qais said of his home in the West Bank, Palestine, as he sipped a grande iced coffee from the Starbucks at the Penn Bookstore. He misses his homemade Arabic coffee, usually thicker and darker than what he can get from a Star-
bucks. The “Stars and Bucks Café,” located in the city of Ramallah, offers Italian cappuccinos, Arabic coffee and hookah, in a country where Starbucks does not exist. Qais — like a few other international students — was the only one accepted from his country. As of 2014, Penn is home to international students from 69 countries. While countries such as China, India and South Korea have large representations on campus, there are 25 students who are their coun-
tries’ sole representative, according to the most recent data from fall 2013. They are from Albania, Lithuania, Iraq, Mozambique and Nicaragua, among others. Without a defined pathway, their experiences before and after coming to Penn differ — sometimes dramatically — from those of other international students. Because studying in the U.S. is uncommon in their countries, they have to figure things out by themselves while educating their parents
about their decision. Once they arrive, they don’t have any immediate support from other students with the same origin. Yet, the feeling of being the selected few gives them high self-expectations that often include giving back to their homes. For Qais, receiving an acceptance letter from Penn did not guarantee successful enrollment. “You don’t really know if you are allowed to travel from Palestine,” he
(Clockwise, from top left) Qais Iwidat from Palestine, Remy Manzi from Rwanda, Aye Nyein Thu from Burma, Arman Tokanov from Kazakhstan
SEE INTERNATIONAL PAGE 8
Ebola fears overshadow flu preparation
INSIDE NEWS
The flu has similar symptoms to early stages of Ebola
ENGINEERS LACK STUDY SPACE Closure of Towne library has left engineering students in a bind PAGE 6
GUTMANN GETS NEW CHAIR Penn President Amy Gutmann elected newest chair of the AAU PAGE 3
OPINION
TINA CHOU Staff Writer
As Penn continues to prepare for potential Ebola cases, health professionals are keeping an eye out for the flu. The World Health Organization reports that 4,555 deaths have been attributed to Ebola this year worldwide,
whereas the CDC estimates a range between 3,000 to 49,000 flu-related deaths per year in the United States alone. The number of flu-related deaths varies due to the severity of the strain and estimates are difficult to produce since the flu is not often listed as the cause of death. Despite media attention given to Ebola, the risk of the virus spreading throughout Philadelphia and Pennsylvania is low. Ebola is not readily transmitted through the air,
however the flu is, said Ashlee Halbritter, a health educator at Campus Health Initiatives. Halbritter’s team organizes the flu clinics on campus, which will happen this Thursday and next Wednesday in Houston Hall . Although she expects more than 3,000 attendees this year, Halbritter’s team was challenged by the focus given to Ebola. “Unfortunately, [Ebola has] just overshadowed the start of the flu season and the importance of the flu vaccine,” Hal-
britter said. On Monday, the CDC released new protective guidelines for health care workers treating patients stricken with the Ebola virus. The guidelines will affect the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, which agreed to receive American medical workers who have contracted Ebola while working in Africa, according to a statement released last Friday. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia will care for pediatric patients
within the region. The new CDC guidelines emphasize covering all exposed skin, wearing a respirator and having a trained person watch and instruct as the medical worker is “donning and doffing” personal protective equipment, said Darren Linkin, an assistant professor at the Perelman School of Medicine and an infectious disease expert. The CDC guidelines will SEE EBOLA PAGE 3
BEYOND THE SURFACE Discussing the ways in which intersectionality affects students’ mental health PAGE 4
SPORTS UNIFYING STUDENT ATHLETES Staff writer Laine Higgins looks at M. Grace Calhoun’s new initiative
PHOTO FEATURE
MALALA YOUSAFZAI: BIG STAGE, BIGGER PLANS “The best way to fight against terrorism is to invest in education,” Malala Yousafzai said in her one-on-one conversation with Ronan Farrow. The youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize visited Philadelphia as a speaker at the Forbes 30 Under 30 conference. She added that having talked with presidents and prime ministers around the world, she felt that asking the leaders to send books not guns was not enough. She revealed her bigger plans: “I will stop asking the prime minister. I am going to be the prime minister.”
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ONLINE CEO UNCOVERS STRATEGY Victoria’s Secret CEO showed off the company’s new marketing plans KONHEE CHANG/ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR
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LOOKING GLASS
Next theme year lacks focus on race, critics say HUIZHONG WU Staff Writer
Langston Hughes was the only black child in a “white” school before he became an iconic musician during the Harlem Renaissance. In his autobiography, titled “The Big Sea,” he wrote about what it was like as a black man
growing up in the United States before the civil rights era. Now, this 74-year-old book, which was selected for the Penn Reading Project next year, is at the heart of criticism from Penn students. Since students were informed of the book selection, some have hoped that the theme year would focus on the themes of
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identity and race that were raised in ”The Big Sea.” They were instead disappointed to find out that the theme would be the Year of Discovery. Their disappointment has also raised concerns about the lack of student involvement in choosing the theme year and Penn Reading Project book selections.
“[In] choosing the theme of discovery, I almost feel as if it’s so broad it gives people a way out of approaching these topics altogether,” said College senior Oyinka Muraina, a member of the Penn African Students Association. “Being a person of color is so important in this book, and identity is so important as a
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theme in this novel.” Given recent events surrounding Ferguson, Miss., and the backlash against some protestors, it’s important to have mandated conversations on race, UMOJA co-chair and College senior Denzel Cummings said. The theme of discovery has “very little to minimal relation to the amount of
racial issues that are related in the book,” he said. These students, upon hearing the news, initially planned to approach the University to change the theme. Cummings, who has worked with administrators in his role with UMOJA, reached out to SEE THEME YEAR PAGE 7
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