December 2, 2019

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2019 VOL. CXXXV

NO. 58

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

FOUNDED 1885

Penn Book Center now called ‘People’s Books & Culture’ Penn Book Center to undergo renovations along with name change ASHLEY AHN Senior Reporter

YOON CHANG

Three months after a change in ownership, the Penn Book Center was renamed “People’s Books & Culture” to distinguish the center from the University-owned Penn Bookstore. The center will also undergo several renovations in an effort to attract more customers. The Penn Book Center announced in May its plan to close after 60 years of business, citing financial hardship. After several protests and a petition with more than 5,000 signatures called on Penn to help the bookstore stay open, the University extended the bookstore’s lease until the end of August. The bookstore was sold that month to new owners Matthew Duques, an English professor at the University of North Alabama, and his wife, writer Diana Bellonby. Duques said in his few months running the bookstore, workers often had to redirect people

A wintry mix disrupted travel plans for Penn students returning from Thanksgiving break

New magazine showcases ‘Faces of Black Penn’ The magazine will distribute its first issue on Dec. 8 ANDIE PINGA Staff Reporter

From a fashion designer who creates her own clothing to an engineer who raps in his free time, black undergraduate students at Penn are showcased in Faces of Black Penn, a new magazine created by the Black Student League to celebrate diversity in the black community. The magazine includes inter-

views with and photographs of black students who hail from all four undergraduate schools and are involved with several activities on campus. “We wanted to showcase the diversity of the black community and show that blackness is not a monolith,” BSL President and College senior Christine Olagun-Samuel said. “There’s so many different aspects of blackness and people who understand their blackness in different ways.” While Faces of Black Penn will be published on their website, the

BSL will also print 110 copies and distribute the magazine at a launch party on Dec. 8 in the ARCH building. Taylor McLendon, a rapper singer-songwriter and 2015 Wharton alumna who is known as “Ivy Sole,” will perform. Olagun-Samuel worked on Faces of Black Penn with BSL Marketing Chair and College and Wharton sophomore Hadja Diallo over the summer, accepting applications from students willing to share their stories. Olagun-Samuel first came up with the idea for the magazine in fall 2018, inspired by the

“they’re targeting not only a Penn clientele but also Philadelphia clientele”

popular photojournalism series, “Humans of New York,” which publishes photographs and short interviews with random people in New York City. The project was originally supposed to be an ad campaign, but Diallo said she wanted to expand the project after seeing the success of La Vida, Penn’s only Latinxinterest magazine. “After the first day of shooting, I just felt like we could do more for the community,” Diallo said. “Just

who came into the store to buy Penn T-shirts and merchandise, mistaking the Penn Book Center for the Penn Bookstore. “We don’t mind redirecting people, but we prefer to have a name that indicates autonomy of the store and allows us to keep doing great events and sell the kind of books we keep selling,”

SEE FACES PAGE 3

SEE CENTER PAGE 7

- 2019 English Ph.D. grad Hao Tam

Penn Transit to offer free shuttles to Trader Joe’s

Wharton graduate and media mogul Cenk Uygur runs for Congress in Calif.

The UA announced the service on its Facebook page

He founded the liberal YouTube channel The Young Turks

CONOR MURRAY Senior Reporter

The Undergraduate Assembly announced Thursday that Penn Transit will begin offering a free shuttle service to Trader Joe’s in Center City for Penn students. The shuttle will run on Thursdays and Saturdays from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., according to the UA’s Facebook post. The bus will run on a continuous loop departing at 45-minute intervals. The bus, which will be operated by Penn Transit, can hold 40 seated passengers with additional room for standing. The bus is expected to carry between 160 to 180 riders per day, the post said. The shuttle service will first go through a trial run, which will last from Dec. 5 to Feb. 1. Following the trial run, the UA and Penn Transit will decide whether or not to continue the service based on participation and student feedback. UA Dining, Housing, and Transit Committee Director Maria Curry said the initiative is part of an effort to provide healthy and affordable dining options for Penn students. Curry said the idea to provide free

shuttles to Trader Joe’s came up at a semesterly meeting with Penn Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli, in which the UA has been pushing for easier access to healthier food options. Curry said it would be ideal if there were a Trader Joe’s on campus, and Carnaroli suggested that Penn Transit could provide shuttles directly there. Trader Joe’s was chosen because of its established popularity among students, said Curry, who is a College and Wharton senior. Penn Transit currently offers shuttles in the evenings to fixed drop-off locations on and around campus. The nearest shuttle stop to Trader Joe’s is currently 20th and Locust streets, which is 0.5 miles from the grocery store. “Students are already going there, so this is simply making it easier for them,” Curry said, adding that this service will alleviate the cost of an Uber or SEPTA ride into Center City. Curry said she feels optimistic about the popularity of the shuttle service, and mentioned that the UA’s announcement on Facebook was one of the group’s most popular Facebook posts, with 198 likes and 279 SEE TRANSIT PAGE 8

OPINION | Donate items this holiday season

“Donations of coats, jackets, scarves, boots, and other unneeded items intended to keep people warm can genuinely save lives.” - DP Editorial Board PAGE 4

SPORTS | Quakers cap off Wooden Legacy Penn men’s basketball beat Central Florida and Long Beach State but lost to No. 14 Arizona in the Wooden Legacy tournament in Anaheim, Calif. BACKPAGE

FOLLOW US @DAILYPENN FOR THE LATEST UPDATES ONLINE AT THEDP.COM

KATIE BUSCH Staff Reporter

From Donald Trump to Elizabeth Warren to Joe Biden, figures with strong Penn connections are well represented in American politics. Now, 1992 Wharton graduate and liberal activist Cenk Uygur may be the latest Penn-related individual in politics. On Nov. 14, Uygur officially announced his candidacy for Katie Hill’s vacant congressional seat in California’s 25th district, which encompasses parts of northern Los Angeles County. A special election has been scheduled to fill the seat Hill recently resigned from amid allegations of inappropriate relations with a staffer. While Bernie Sanders supporters at Penn said they would enthusiastically support Uygur’s candidacy, more moderate Democrats expressed doubts because of Uygur’s history of controversial statements. Uygur, who has never before ran for elected office, is the founder of The Young Turks, a progressive online outlet with over 4.5 million subscribers on YouTube. Uygur is widely popular with Sanders supporters, and in mid-November, Uygur endorsed Sanders’ presiden-

GAGE SKIDMORE | CC BY-SA 2.0

While Sanders supporters at Penn said they would support Uygur, moderate Democrats expressed doubts because of Uygur’s history of controversial

tial bid. Yet Uygur’s announcement has drawn attention to controversial statements he made before becoming a political liberal. As a columnist for The Daily Pennsylvanian in the 1990s, Uygur penned divisive articles on subjects such as his disdain for “radical feminism” and his

belief that the Armenian genocide never occurred. Uygur also authored misogynistic blog posts in the early 2000s. One excerpt reads, “Obviously, the genes of women are flawed. They are poorly designed

NEWS Residents upset with construction near Quad

NEWS Alum donates $6 million to Penn health care program

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SEE UYGUR PAGE 8

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December 2, 2019 by The Daily Pennsylvanian - Issuu