THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2016
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SHOUtouts inside.
Penn freshman creates works of art for major companies and institutions
MASTER OF MURALS
GENEVIEVE GLATSKY News Editor-elect
Connor Wright is only a freshman, but he has already made massive murals for Facebook headquarters and counts Mark Zuckerberg as a fan. Wright’s artistic career started with his senior thesis project at St. Louis Priory School in St. Louis. Although his background was in math and science, he took a liking to pointillism after learning about it in his high school art history class. Pointillism is a painting technique in which small, distinct dots of color are arranged in patterns so that they blend to create an image in the viewer’s eye. “When I came across pointillism, basically it’s like it has the exactitude of math but still has that freedom that art provides, so it’s like a combination of my two passions,” Wright said. “So I don’t have to worry about being a perfectionist because it’s gonna turn out exactly how I want it to turn out with no exceptions because it’s just the physical pieces and it gives you that liberation that I get through art.“ When he got home from class one day he noticed a Rubik’s Cube on his desk, and thought that if he had enough of them they could be used like pixels to create an image. That was when he got the idea for his high school senior thesis, to make a mural of St. Louis Cardinals legend Stan Musial, completely out of Rubik’s Cubes. He got to work, first speaking to the senior vice president of Rubik’s Cube. At the time there weren’t enough available Cubes in the country to complete the project, so the company arranged for extra shipments from China. He then emailed the president of the Cardinals and convinced him to make space for the mural in Busch Stadium, the team’s home. “He did say that if I were actually really passionate about the project then I would be able to come up with the money myself,” Wright said. Wright ended up emailing parents of friends throughout the city offering to sell charcoal portraits to raise the roughly $20,000 needed to COURTESY OF CONNOR WRIGHT
SEE WRIGHT PAGE 2
Under pressure, Gutmann calls Penn ‘sanctuary’ campus
Wharton grad and Jesuit priest consults new Scorsese film
President announced policy in a University-wide email Wednesday
Father Jim Martin advises Scorsese on religious references in movie
CHARLOTTE LARACY & REBECCA TAN Staff Reporters
CARL-EMMANUEL FULGHIERI Staff Reporter
Father Jim Martin: Wharton graduate, Jesuit priest…and film consultant? Martin, a 1982 Wharton graduate and former Daily Pennsylvanian cartoonist, has led an eclectic career since leaving Penn: a job in corporate finance for six years at General Electric, a life change to become a priest in the Jesuit order in 1999 and now, a consultant on director Martin Scorsese’s passion project, the film “Silence,” starring Liam Neeson and Andrew Garfield. On Tuesday, Martin premiered the film in a special screening at the Vatican. Scorsese, who for a long time has wrestled with his devout Catholic upbringing, based the film on the 1966 novel of the same name by Japanese author Shusaku Endo. It tells the story of two Jesuit missionaries in Japan during the country’s isolationist period when Catholics were persecuted and tortured for their faith. The DP exchanged emails with Martin, who has been in Rome to premiere the film, to learn more about his experience working with Scorsese and his own spiritual growth since Penn. DP: In general, how was working with and advising Martin Scorsese? Perhaps what was the capacity in which you consulted him? Was SEE SCORSESE PAGE 5
DANIEL XU
Facing pressure from student groups such as Undocumented at Penn, President Amy Gutmann declared Penn a sanctuary campus.
Penn will stay a “sanctuary” for undocumented students, President Amy Gutmann announced in a University-wide email on Wednesday morning. “Penn is and has always been a ‘sanctuary’ — a safe place for our students to live and to learn,” her email read. “We assure you that we will continue in all
of our efforts to protect and support our community including our undocumented students.” Gutmann’s announcement comes amid calls by undocumented students for her to make an active, concrete statement about Penn being a “sanctuary campus.” Various other colleges including Portland State University and Reed College have declared themselves sanctuary campuses. While her statement did not use the phrase “sanctuary campus” itself, the SEE GUTMANN PAGE 3
Women’s center kicks off ‘Got Consent?’ campaign Group seeks to encourage conversations online, on campus SARAH FORTINSKY Contributing Reporter
Penn’s Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention group celebrated its annual “Got Consent?” photo campaign at a launch party Wednesday evening. The group, affiliated with the Penn Women’s Center, debuted posters of over 60 student groups on campus stating what
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consent means to them. The number of campus groups that participated in ASAP’s campaign is double what it was last year, a fact that Isabella Auchus, the chair of ASAP and a College senior, attributes to greater outreach by the group and an increased awareness of consent issues on Penn’s campus. “All of these issues that have happened, like Brock Turner, have brought to light rape culture and sexual violence and consent,” Auchus said.
“People are starting to talk about it in their communities even if they aren’t a group centered on these kinds of issues, and they’re learning that it’s more pervasive.” ASAP’s executive board began outreach for the campaign as soon as the fall semester began, but Outreach Chair and College junior Caroline Ohlson said throughout the past year, she’s heard interest from student leaders in participating for a second year. “It’s definitely something that
people have come to look forward to in the fall and to associate with ASAP,” Ohlson said. “I think a lot of people really care about the issue and want to be involved, but not everyone can designate the time to come to ASAP every week.” On Wednesday evening, though, many campus leaders gathered at Penn Women’s Center to demonstrate support for ASAP’s campaign and to SEE CAMPAIGN PAGE 5
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