November 11, 2015

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2015

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

BASKETBALL SUPPLEMENT INSIDE

SHOWDOWN OVER PILOTS

New Phila. mayor, city council call on Penn to give the city $6.6 million EUNICE LIM Staff Reporter

Philadelphia’s newly elected leaders have their sights set on a shared cause: urging nonprofits like Penn to help fund Philadelphia schools. Jim Kenney, former Fels Institute of Government instructor and newly elected mayor, and Helen Gym, 1993 College graduate,

former Daily Pennsylvanian editor and newly elected Councilwoman, ran for office on a Penn-centric platform. If elected, they agreed to work with large nonprofits in Philadelphia, including and especially Penn, to revive the city’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, program. PILOTs are monetary contributions that nonprofits voluntarily make to their cities to maintain essential services like road maintenance and trash pickup. Penn was involved in a five-year PILOT program from 1995 to 2000, during which it annually contributed $1.93

million, 55 percent of which went to the school district. Penn did not renew contributions after 2000, and has since stood firm on not paying PILOTs despite ongoing pressure and criticism from activists and student groups like the Student Labor Action Project. In protests over the last few months, SLAP has called on Penn to pay a sum of $6.6 million in PILOTS in order to fund Philadelphia’s struggling school system. Penn has refuwsed, citing an annual commitment of $800,000 to SEE PILOTS PAGE 3

... the University should not rest on its laurels.” -

Penn Dems President Sean Foley

Defining the cultural group comfort zone Some clubs help students learn about new cultures ELLIE SCHROEDER Deputy News Editor

College junior Tunmise Fawole never thought she would join a sorority — let alone Penn’s Asianinterest sorority alpha Kappa Delta Phi. However, after an acquaintance encouraged her to attend a rush event, Fawole, who is Nigerian, decided to give it a try. “I remembered thinking during the process, ‘This is really outside of my comfort zone,’” she said. “I went to rush and ended up really liking it, and it kind of snowballed from there.” After joining, Fawole took on more and more leadership roles, and now serves as the sorority’s external vice president, representing her sorority to the other culturallyaffiliated Greek organizations. Although joining a cultural club is a way for students to find a home at Penn and stay close to their roots, for some, like Fawole, it’s a way to learn about an entirely different culture and immerse themselves in a new group of people. W ha r ton senior Ryan Hull joined the Japanese Students Association as a sophomore after deciding he wanted to join a cultural group, though he is not Japanese. The organization stood

Forget reading: Incoming freshmen will watch ‘Citizen Kane’ Penn’s next theme year is the Year of Media ELAINE LEE Contributing Reporter

his Indian friends. “I’ve definitely lea r ned an enormous amount about South Asian culture — there’s no way you can’t,” McManus said, adding that he’s learned some Hindi because they often sing pieces in the

Next year’s freshmen are in for a treat: Their academic year has been announced to be the Year of Media, and unlike the many previous freshmen classes who were assigned to read novels, they will be instructed to watch and reflect on the classic film “Citizen Kane.” Though the Penn Reading Project will be in its 26th year and the majority of past projects have been centered on novels, next year’s theme will stand out in PRP archives as the first one to focus on a film. “One reason why we chose this, both the theme and ‘Citizen Kane,’ has to do with election politics,” New Student Orientation and Academic Initiatives Director David Fox said. “It has a fairly significant part of media, so this would be related to the presidential election, which will be interesting to freshmen who arrive.” The main question to focus on is, according to an Almanac press release “Can we ever really interpret and understand a person’s life?” One of the ways in which the film director, Orson Welles, approaches this line of thought is to switch the narrative between different observers, a technique that would not only distinguish “Citizen Kane” as one of the greatest American films ever

SEE CULTURAL GROUPS PAGE 5

SEE YEAR OF MEDIA PAGE 5

COURTESY OF BALLARI PRODUCTIONS

Despite his non-Indian heritage, Wharton and Engineering senior Brendan McManus joined Penn’s Indian a capella group, Penn Masala, in the spring of his sophomore year.

out to him because he took Japanese class at Penn and had always heard about Japanese culture from his mother, who lived in Japan for a few years. “It’s really opened my eyes to Japanese culture, and also how other East Asian cultures work,” Hull said, adding that his

experience in the club ultimately motivated him to study abroad in Japan for a semester. Similarly, Wharton and Engineering senior Brendan McManus decided to try out for Penn’s Indian a cappella group, Penn Masala, during the spring of his sophomore year at the suggestion of some of

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