THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
New sexual assault process discussed at U. Council
A special investigator will handle cases, instead of the Office of Student Conduct HARRY COOPERMAN & HANNAH NOYES City News Editor & Staff Writer
Penn plans to revamp its handling of sexual assault disciplinary proceedings by next semester, Penn’s chief lawyer confirmed Wednesday after the University Council meeting. The change in procedures, following new federal guidelines, will shift Penn’s disciplinary process for sexual assaults from the Office of Student Conduct to a separate sexual violence investigative SEE U. COUNCIL PAGE 6
INSIDE
Disciplinary office four years behind on annual reports Compared to Ivy peers, Penn lags in disciplinary transparency LAUREN FEINER Deputy News Editor
For the fourth year in a row, the Office of Student Conduct has failed to publish an annual report on the number and types of student disciplinary cases it has seen in the previous academic year. The last report, which covered the 2008-2009 school year, was published in the Almanac in May 2010. The charter of Penn’s student disciplinary system mandates that OSC produce “periodic reports to inform the University community” about the number of rule violations, broken down by
type of violation, and the outcomes of reported cases. As the University searches for a new director of the office — which investigates complaints regarding breaches of the Code of Academic Integrity and Code of Student Conduct — it is unclear whether a new report can be expected any time soon, even once a new director is in place. “Getting the reports out on an annual basis will be a priority for the new director,” said Rob Nelson, the executive director for educa-
tion and academic planning in the Provost’s Office. Last year, a new report almost made it to the Almanac — where the statistics are typically published — but OSC asked that the data be returned because they contained errors. Almanac Editor Marguerite Miller said that her office has periodically inquired for the reports from OSC over the past four years, but made little headway. The last director of OSC, Michele Goldfarb, told The Daily Pennsylvanian several
times between March and October 2013 that the report was being prepared. She cited technical difficulties in compiling the statistics — owing to a new record-keeping system — as the reason for the delay. Julie Lyzinski Nettleton, the interim director of OSC since July, deferred comment to the Provost’s Office. Nelson, of the Provost’s Office, declined to comment on why there have been no reports. SEE REPORTS PAGE 5
Shock waves reverberate in Canadian alumni community after shooting in capital Penn alumni react to active shooter and threat of terrorism
NEWS LOAN SCARE
Some undergrads believed their loans were canceled after an email from SFS PAGE 2
PRINCETON PHILOSOPHER PETER SINGER VISITS PENN Singer spoke on “effective altruism” PAGE 5
SPORTS AVOIDING THE TRAP GAME After a big Ivy win, Penn men’s soccer looks to beat last-place Yale BACK PAGE
FIONA GLISSON Senior Writer
Penn alumni in Canada found themselves under lockdown in their office buildings after an armed gunman stormed Canada’s main Parliament building and National War Memorial, killing an honor guard and shutting down the nation’s capital. Elisabeth Preston, a class of 1989 Law School alumna who works in counterterrorism, works several blocks away from the National War
Memorial. She stepped out of the office around 9:45 a.m. and saw police cars flying to scene of the shooting. “All of a sudden there were 20 or so police cruisers speeding as fast as I have ever seen through the light with sirens screeching. I looked up the hill, and the top of Elgin was literally ablaze with flashing lights of Ottawa police, [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] and ambulances,” she remembered. “Then I saw people running down the road away from the turmoil.” While locked down in their office buildings, alums tried to reach family and friends through overloaded phone lines and broadband.
The attack is not only shocking to alumni and students in its violence, it is also contrary to the nation’s ethos, they say. “I have lived in a city where you feel safe having a shower upstairs when all of your windows are open downstairs. Or puttering in your backyard with the front doors unlocked,” Elisabeth Preston, a class of 1989 Law School alum wrote in an email. “We talk to strangers here, give a stranger with shopping bags a lift from the bus stop in our cars, expect the best from others.” This attack also comes just days after another attack on members of the Canadian military. An allegedly in-
tentional hit-and-run crash killed a soldier and injured another in Montreal yesterday and officials believe both attacks were motivated by radical Islam. “I work in this area and am not naive about geo-political risk,” Preston said “We are caught off guard by these sorts of events. Shocked. Mostly because we cannot understand how anyone who lives in Canada, in one of the most prosperous and most comfortable liberal democracies in the world, would grow up to revile a place so comfortable.” she added. Paul Howard Gardener, a 1999 Wharton MBA grad SEE CANADA PAGE 3
Penn Vet funding hinges on new Pennsylvania legislature
Bringing ‘truth amid the lies’ Harold Essex has protested by the Penn bookstore for the last decade
Over 30 percent of Penn Vet’s budget came from Pa. government
EUNICE LIM Staff Writer
JONATHAN BAER Staff Wrtier
SEE PROTESTER PAGE 3
EUNICE LIM/STAFF WRITER SEND STORY IDEAS TO NEWSTIP@THEDP.COM
They huddled around televisions and twitter, watching the story develop. The lockdown continued until evening when Preston and the other denizens of downtown Ontario were gradually allowed to leave their office buildings and return home in shock. “Ottawa has the reputation as a quiet government town. It’s unthinkable that something like this would happen,” College senior and Ottawa resident Patrick Liao said. Liao spent most of Wednesday afternoon glued to press coverage of the event trying to reach his parents and family who work or attend university in downtown Ottawa.
As partisan attacks become more commonplace as the midterm election approaches, there is an issue on which Democratic and Republican Pennsylvania lawmakers seem to agree: giving money to Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine. Vet School funding, which amounted to $28.26 million in 2014 and comprises over a third of the school’s $82.6 million budget, remains one of Penn’s biggest stakes in Pennsylvania government. “It’s incredibly important;
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I really don’t think we’d be as good as we are without it,” said Carol Pooser, assistant dean of advancement, alumni relations and communications for Penn Vet. “Because it is primarily given in support of agriculture, which is the state of Pennsylvania’s largest industry, most of the way we spend that state money goes towards that.” Statewide support for agricultural interests, which include the work at the Vet School, has rendered it a minor issue in the gubernatorial race, which heads into its final two weeks with Democratic candidate Tom Wolf leading Republican Governor Tom Corbett in most polls. Both candidates continue to express broad support for Pennsylvania agriculture, the state’s largest industry.
But as Election Day nears, Penn’s state lobbyist isn’t focusing as much on the governor’s race as he is on convincing new state legislators why Penn Vet funding is so important. While the 50 state senators and 203 state representatives have historically supported Penn Vet funding in a bipartisan manner, new elected officials always require convincing. “For this particular issue of the Vet School, we typically see all 253 members of the General Assembly every year,” said Hugh Allen, Penn’s state lobbyist in the Office of Government and Community Affairs. “What we strive to do for our campus clients is to show the General Assembly why there is a SEE ELECTION PAGE 2
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