April 28, 2022

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885

PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022

VOL. CXXXVIII

Black Du Bois residents frustrated with demographics, living conditions

NO. 14

Hey Day loses its signature biteable hats

On the 50th anniversary of its founding, residents are calling for Du Bois to provide a haven for Black students MATTEO BUSTERNA Staff Reporter

On the 50th anniversary of the founding of Du Bois College House, Black students raised concerns about the perceived changing demographics and comparatively poor living conditions of the historical college house.

Du Bois was founded in 1972 and became a center for “Black intellectuals searching diligently for an African identity and perspective within a historically White institution of higher learning.” Today, however, students have noticed that the rising numbers of non-Black residents at Du Bois and issues with poor amenities contradict the context in which the house was founded.

A need for community

At the end of the 1960s, Penn admitted record numbers of Black students, who faced racial prejudices while attending college — experiencing harassment from white peers, frequent stops by Philadelphia Police, and disregard from their professors. In response to increasing pressure from students, Du Bois College House was founded in 1972 to promote the retention and academic success of Black students.

Fifty years later, however, students have noticed a significant number of non-Black residents, which has made them uncomfortable, especially considering Du Bois’ original goal of providing a haven for Black students.

Many current residents said that they were motivated to live in Du Bois for a sense of community. College sophomore Olivia Haynie, who currently lives in Du Bois and is a former DP staffer, said that she felt the need for a safe space at Penn.

“Being at a PWI, you really feel like you need to have a community of other Black students. It’s just hard to get that naturally,” Haynie said.

But when Haynie’s mother visited her residence, she was confused by the racial demographics, considering the college house’s history.

“We’ve passed multiple students, but none of them are Black,” Haynie recounted of her mother’s visit. “I think Black people make up the majority of the residents, but it feels closer to 50/50.”

Du Bois resident and College first year Sarah Oburu said that the primary place she has seen devotion to fostering community is Du Bois’ fourth floor — which is reserved exclusively for first-year students.

But with increasing numbers of non-Black residents in the rest of the college house, including those who ranked Du Bois last in the housing selection process, Oburu said she feels that the house is less of a safe space for Black students than it was 50 years ago.

“If people don’t want to be here because it was their last choice, [Penn] should give these opportunities to incoming students or other Black students who want to be here,” Oburu said.

Former Du Bois resident and Engineering sophomore Matthew Romage said that it is important that there are spaces on campus where minority students feel safe and comfortable.

“Being a Black person at a PWI, you can kind of feel very out of place when you look at the demographics of the people around you and realize that you’re very much in the minority,” Romage said.

College junior Emilia Onuonga, a former columnist at the DP, remembers going to Du Bois her first year for kickbacks and other social events. But with the change in demographics, she felt that Du Bois College House “is losing its cultural significance.”

Push for change

Despite the history of Du Bois’ founding, Penn’s official stance is that Du Bois welcomes students of all races and backgrounds. Since its doors opened, Du Bois has never given priority to Black students in its housing application process, Faculty Director of Du Bois William Gipson told the DP in 2020.

“White students and administrators perpetually misunderstood the purpose [of Du Bois], often assuming that it was only available for Black students,” the Du Bois website reads. “From its inception, the Du Bois program never rejected students on the basis of race.”

After seeing that Black students struggled to find housing in Du Bois, 2021 College graduate Kristen Ukeomah — then-Undergraduate Assembly representative who lived in Du Bois — lobbied in 2020 for Black students to receive priority in the Du Bois housing selection process and for the creation of a program community for Black students.

See DU BOIS, page 6

PHOTO BY SAMANTHA TURNER

Students at Hey Day festivities in October 2021.

At today’s Hey Day, juniors will don plastic hats instead of the classic styrofoam JASPER TAYLOR Staff Reporter

Penn’s signature Hey Day hats that juniors have donned for years will no longer be made from crisp, biteable styrofoam.

Hey Day, an annual Penn tradition that dates back to 1916, celebrates the junior class entering their senior year by marching down Locust Walk clad in red shirts, holding mahogany canes, and wearing the iconic white, red, and blue hats. This year’s Hey Day celebration will take place on April 28, but the signature styrofoam hats will be replaced by plastic ones due to manufacturing issues.

Class Board 2023 made the decision to change the material of hats due to manufacturing issues, Wharton junior and Class Board 2023 President Derek Nhieu said. Nhieu said that Penn did not have enough inventory of the original Hey Day hats, and the manufacturer of the traditional styrofoam hats

stopped making them.

After being informed of the problem by the Office of Student Affairs, the Junior Class Board was tasked with coming up with a solution for a new hat, Nhieu explained.

“There was a lot of discussion about actually changing the material of the hat because a lot of people were having issues with the sustainability aspect of the hat,” Nhieu said.

He added that the Junior Class Board saw the hat material change as a chance to introduce a new and environmentally friendly option that did not create a mess on campus after the event, which led them to decide on a plastic material.

Nhieu said that Class Board 2023 considered returning to the original hay hat material, but that they knew many students wanted to keep the hats as a

keepsake. Making the hats plastic allows students to keep them after they graduate and to sign them for memories.

Nhieu added that, while plastic hats are not ideal, they are the best alternative to the traditional styrofoam.

“I’m sure there are a lot of mixed reactions,” Nhieu said. “[We’re] basically redesigning a tradition that has been around for a long time.”

College junior Sienna Robinson said it is “a little disappointing to read after missing out on many Penn traditions and then finding out we’re the first class to not have the classic hats.”

She added that not being able to bite the hats is disappointing as that has been an iconic part of the See HEY DAY, page 2

Penn COVID-19 case count decreases for the first time in two months The decrease comes after the University and the City of Philadelphia mandated indoor masking in public spaces for five days JONAH MILLER Senior Reporter

The Kite and Key Society, which was established in 1924 with the goal of welcoming prospective students and families to Penn’s campus, has been a strictly volunteer organization since its inception.

Kite and Key President and College senior Steven Wren said that the shift to a paid model will help to reduce the burden of participation as well as make being a tour guide more equitable.

“This collaborative shift will allow the Kite and Key Society to continue its long-standing pride in student leadership and volunteerism while compensating individual members for their time and efforts to engage with Penn’s in-person and virtual audiences,” Penn Admissions Director of Visit Experience Tommy Bergstrom wrote in an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian on April 26.

While many specifics of the shift to compensating

Penn’s COVID-19 case count last week decreased for the first time in two months following guidance from the University and the City of Philadelphia that mandated indoor masking in public spaces.

A total of 304 community members tested positive for COVID-19 during the week from April 17 to April 23 — down from 801 cases the week before.

The new data collected through Penn Cares was during the five-day period where the University required all community members to mask in public spaces.

Despite the short-lived mask mandate, undergraduates saw over a 70% decrease in cases, dropping from 557 last week to 165, the lowest number of cases in four weeks. The undergraduate population comprised just over 50% of total cases. Graduate students made up 86 new cases — down from 170 last week.

“Our own reassuring data trends on campus this week allow us to safely align our indoor masking policy with the most recent guidance from the City

See KITE & KEY, page 2

See COVID-19, page 2

PHOTO BY JESSE ZHANG

Jordyn Kaplan, a College senior and Kite and Key Outreach Chair, giving a tour outside Claudia Cohen Hall on April 27.

Kite and Key tour guides to be paid starting fall 2022 The Kite and Key Society has been a strictly volunteer organization since its inception JASPER TAYLOR Staff Reporter

Beginning next semester, members of the Kite and Key Society, who serve as University tour guides, will receive compensation from Penn for their work for the first time in the organization’s history.

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KITE & KEY, from front page guides are still in the works, including how much society members will be paid, Wren said that he and Kite and Key Vice President and College junior Jonah Charlton — who is also the DP’s editor-in-chief — were excited to work together with Penn Admissions to set the plan in place for

all guides beginning in fall 2022.

“We were more than happy to have these discussions and agree that, moving forward, tour guides should be paid for their time,” Wren said.

“We really believe that this shift will help to ensure that Kite and Key accurately represents the University.”

Wren added that he thinks the values of Kite and Key — including leadership, passion, and volunteerism — will still remain strong with the new model because the type of students joining

the society truly have the desire to welcome students to campus.

“I don’t think having tour guides compensated for their time will change that mission at all,” Wren said. “Our guides have been giving tours without compensation for years just because of how much we enjoy it. Adding compensation won’t change that passion.”

While the main role of society members is giving campus tours, members also engage with prospective students through group panels and

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM more personal “Live Student Chat” conversations.

The change to a compensation model comes at the end of a tumultuous two years for Kite and Key, which was forced to largely overhaul its programming during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kite and Key continued to operate during the height of the pandemic after unveiling the first live, virtual tour in the Ivy League in May 2020.

In fall 2021, on-campus tours resumed after well over a year of solely virtual programming.

COVID-19, from front page of Philadelphia. Masks will continue to be required in classrooms, health care spaces, and on Penn Transit, the email wrote.

“While the lifting of the City’s masking requirement is reassuring, we must continue to minimize transmission risk whenever possible by socializing outdoors and maintaining physical distancing,” Dubé said.

Penn reflected this change in policy by shifting its public health response level from Level 2: “Awareness” to Level 1: “Baseline Mitigation Strategies,” which keeps its basic protective strategies but lifts the indoor mask mandate for most indoor spaces.

“The onus is really on personal risk assessment,” Dubé told the DP on April 21. “That’s why we pivoted from alert levels to levels of protective measures, reinforcing people’s agency in this process, and not simply asking, ‘What is Penn doing to protect me?’ but rather reminding people, ‘What can I do to protect myself?’”

On-campus cases reflect a decrease in positivity across the City of Philadelphia. The citywide number of cases plunged during the week from April 17 to April 23, decreasing to 1,018 positive tests — down from 1,730 the week before.

Student Health Service Medical Director Vanessa Stoloff said that she continues to track students reporting sore throat and congestion symptoms through PennOpen Pass, adding that COVID-19 remains a “really variable virus.”

According to research conducted by Penn Medicine in collaboration with Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the BA.2 Omicron subvariant has become the dominant strain of COVID-19 found across the Delaware River Valley in recent weeks.

“We’ve known all along that BA.2 is far more transmissible, and I think we’re just seeing people engaging in normal social interactions, in close proximity to one another indoors, where food and drink are being shared,” Dubé told the DP on April 7. “That’s the trifecta — the perfect conditions for people to be exposed and possibly infected.”

“While there may be more people becoming infected, people are not more sick or more likely to become hospitalized,” Dubé said. “That’s a good sign.”

Campus

PHOTO BY JESSE ZHANG

A total of 304 community members tested positive for COVID-19 during the week of April 17 to April 23.

HEY DAY, from front page Penn tradition for years.

“I feel like most people I know kept the bitten hat as a souvenir,” Robinson said. “I think

it will look odd at first because we’re so used to seeing the bitten hats.”

Nursing junior Adriana Arias said that she was “a little confused about the change” because she heard different reasons for the switch — including that the manufacturer stopped producing them and that plastic hats are better for the environment.

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“I don’t think it will take away too much from the tradition,” Arias said. “I think what everyone’s looking forward to is that final walk over the bridge.”

Hey Day begins on Thursday at 10 a.m. with a picnic on high rise field. Juniors will then process to College Hall at 11:45 a.m. to be officially pronounced as seniors.

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NEWS 3

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022

Fossil Free Penn ends encampment as University-wide student events approach FFP Campaign Coordinator and College sophomore Sarah Sterinbach called the protest “the most successful action in FFP history” KATE RATNER Staff Reporter

On April 24, Fossil Free Penn ended its sixday-long encampment on College Green, which was held to call on the University to divest and support climate justice organizations on Penn’s campus and beyond.

The encampment began on April 19 when FFP hosted a “S’mores & Community” event on College Green. Members of the organization remained on the premises past their reserved time for the event, pitching tents and hanging up signs listing their demands of the University.

FFP Campaign Coordinator and Engineering senior Ari Bortman said that the group decided to end the encampment in light of upcoming University-wide student events, such as U-Night and Hey Day, as well as the upcoming final examination period. He added that the protest was held against “Penn and the administration, not against fellow students.”

FFP Campaign Coordinator and College sophomore Sarah Sterinbach called the protest “the most successful action in FFP history.”

“We ended it because we achieved so much, and wanted to let our organizers and participants rest, and get ready for what’s next,” Sterinbach added.

Interim President Wendell Pritchett allowed Penn administrators to schedule an upcoming meeting with FFP to allow the group to voice its demands. However, FFP rejected the meeting opportunity, citing frustration with a lack of effectiveness of meetings with University administrators in addressing its concerns.

“We’ve gone through the process of having a meeting with administrators who took away the need for pressing action,” Bortman said. “Our demands and how to achieve them are very clear. We want a plan of action, not another stalling meeting.”

In an email sent to The Daily Pennsylvanian on April 24, University spokesperson Ron Ozio reiterated Penn’s efforts to combat climate change. He referenced Penn’s goal of reducing the net greenhouse gas emissions from the University’s endowment investments to zero by 2050 — which Ozio said is an effort that is “currently underway” — and the announcement that Penn would cease any new commitments to private equity vehicles dedicated to investments in fossil fuel production.

“Taken together with Penn’s educational, research and operational initiatives, these investment decisions are significant and major steps that will reduce Penn’s carbon footprint and lessen the impact of climate change on society,” Ozio wrote.

In November 2021, members of climate-focused student groups, including Fossil Free Penn, criticized the University for stopping short of complete divestment.

On April 20, Sterinbach said that Penn Police had asked 12 student protestors present at the encamp-

PHOTO BY KYLIE COOPER

Fossil Free Penn began its encampment on College Green on April 19, 2022.

ment for their Penn IDs. The next day, the same students received a message from the Office of Student Conduct stating that the students violated the University’s Guidelines on Open Expression.

“During a registered event you participated in activities that were not part of the registration, then failed to end the event at the scheduled time, and failed to follow University officials’ instructions regarding leaving the area,” the message read.

The 12 students will meet with officials from Penn’s Office of Student Conduct on April 25 to discuss this incident. According to the message, each student is able to bring a faculty member to represent their case.

Although the group did not achieve all of its demands of the University, some members of FFP consider the encampment successful.

“We achieved all our goals — over 70 students slept out with us, we talked to over a thousand people on Locust, and more read our signs, we received outpourings of support from around Philly and around the world, and Penn administration were asking our demands and begging us to leave,” Bortman wrote to the DP. In February, FFP launched its “Know Our Demands” campaign to inform the Penn community about the importance of divestment and other climate justice-related initiatives. FFP called on the University to divest and cut all ties from fossil fuels and all destruction from profit, reinvest in a sustainable future for Philadelphia, and “repair the damage from Penn’s complicity in environmental racism.”

Sterinbach said that the fact that University administrators asked to hear FFP’s demands during the encampment represents a major positive step, as she believes they often neglect FFP’s concerns.

Sterinbach added that, though the encamp-

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istration that we can’t be intimidated or threatened away,” Sterinbach said. “Fear won’t keep us from fighting for these issues.”

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ment is over, FFP will continue to fight to achieve its demands.

“The power of what we did was showing admin-

4 OPINION

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022

Opinion

138th Year of Publication

THIS YEAR’S BOARD ALESSANDRA PINTADO-URBANC President PIA SINGH Executive Editor JONAH CHARLTON DP Editor-in-Chief TYLER KLIEM Design Editor TORI SOUSA News Editor EMI TUYẾTNHI TRẦN News Editor DELANEY PARKS Assignments Editor SOPHIE APFEL Copy Editor JESSE ZHANG Photo Editor ASAAD MANZAR Opinion Editor PHOEBE LEUNG Social Media Editor MATTHEW FRANK Sports Editor ESTHER LIM Sports Editor KAVEEN HAROHALLI Video Editor NICOLE ZHAO Podcast Editor GREG FERREY Business Manager RAUNAQ SINGH Technology Manager ANVIT RAO Analytics Manager BAILEY CAMPBELL Marketing Manager SUNNY JANG Product Manager

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Penn shouldn’t fund Greek life GUEST COLUMN | The Social Ivy’s decadent party scene — funded by the University?

I

n a recently published article in The Daily Pennsylvanian, columnist Isabella Glassman presented her argument for why Penn should cover the costs of vacancies left in Greek life chapter houses due to the implementation of the Second Year Experience Program, which requires all sophomores to live on campus. But my question is this: Why should I care? Don’t get me wrong — Penn’s decision to require second-year students to live on campus is a “blatant cash grab” and has unfairly burdened Greek life, whose members must now scramble to fill rooms traditionally used to house sophomores. But for a school where roughly 75% of students aren’t a part of Greek life, why should our tuition dollars pay the rent for these multimillion dollar party houses?

Many of these fraternity houses are located in highly coveted locations in the middle of campus on Locust Walk. Asking Penn to use tuition dollars to pay for these fraternity mansions that a lot of us can’t even get into is ridiculous. With demand among Penn students for better dining options and an increase in on-campus cultural spaces, funneling money into keeping up fraternities’ exclusive, jungle juice-fueled basement ragers is not high on the Penn student body’s list of priorities. If these fraternity students don’t want to live in these centrally located houses, reappropriate them into spaces for students who actually want to use them. Turn these Locust Walk fraternity houses into department buildings, cultural houses, or student buildings with study spaces, group study rooms, or simply lounges for all students to enjoy. If Penn really wants to build community, give us spaces to do so.

The idea to reappropriate the Locust Walk fraternity houses into spaces for the entirety of the student body to use is nothing new.

The Coalition Against Fraternity Sexual Assault, or CAFSA, has been calling for an end to Greek life’s presence on Locust for years.

The group cites Penn fraternities’ long history of racism, hazing, and sexual assault as their reasoning to turn the Locust Walk chapter houses into cultural and wellness centers.

CAFSA’s concern over sexual assault within fraternities is well-justified, as revealed

by Penn’s participation in the 2019 AAU Campus Climate Survey. The survey reported that 13% of students had experienced sexual assault sometime during their time at university, and that number has been rising among all gender identities since 2015. The Association of American Universities also found that over 20% of such incidents took place within a fraternity house. Why should student tuition dollars go to funding spaces known to harbor sexual misconduct?

Additionally, support for the end of fraternity culture within the Penn student body has been increasing. Violence in Penn Greek life has made headlines in recent months following the assault of a student at a Castle party last year at the hands of a brother. Students were furious, holding a weeklong demonstration outside of the Castle chapter house and hanging more than 300 flyers around campus demanding the end of “frat culture.” A petition was even drafted to evict Castle from campus, which has amassed almost 6,000 signatures as of publication. Despite this, and the subsequent University’s investigation into the incident, the fraternity has faced no visible repercussions. What does it say about

PHOTO BY EDWIN MEJIA

our institution if it allows these organizations in the heart of our University’s campus to go virtually unpunished?

However, the reality of the situation is that the financial burden caused by Penn is falling primarily on Greek life students in the form of increasing annual dues. But there is another solution to this problem: downsizing. If fraternities can’t fill their giant houses, why not move to a smaller one? Asking Penn to finance these virtually empty, gorgeous houses in prime locations is frivolous, and considering that this call comes during the midst of the movement to save West Philadelphia townhomes from “Penntrification,” it comes off as insensitive. Underutilizing existing University buildings (such as fraternity houses) directly contributes to Penn’s eagerness to expand into other parts of West Philadelphia. Penn fraternities can move to more affordable and appropriately-sized accommodations, freeing up their Locust houses to be used by the entirety of the Penn

community, not just a select few.

The only reasonable solution for Penn to protect these Greek life chapter houses would be to once again allow sophomores to live in them. But, as this best-case scenario most likely will not come to fruition, the responsibility to keep these chapter houses financially afloat should not fall on the wider Penn community. The fact of the matter is that Greek life has been on the decline nationally for years, and Greek life institutions as a whole tend to cater to students who come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. If Penn Greek life is unable to fill their million-dollar party mansions, my only response is this: Let them drink jungle juice.

JACK NYCZ is a College sophomore studying English and cinema studies from Bucks County, Pa. His email is jacknycz@sas.upenn.edu.

System.out.println(“Hello World”) THE BREAKDOWN | Get comfortable with the uncomfortable

THIS ISSUE’S TEAM BECKY LEE Deputy Design Editor CALEB CRAIN Deputy Design Editor ALICE CHOI Deputy Design Editor ALLYSON NELSON Deputy Copy Editor DEREK WONG Opinion Photo Editor ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL Sports Photo Editor LILIANN ZOU News Photo Editor TAJA MAZAJ Deputy Opinion Editor ANDREW YOON Deputy Opinion Editor VALERIE WANG Deputy Opinion Editor LEXI BOCCUZZI Deputy Opinion Editor CAROLINE MAGDOLEN Deputy Opinion Editor TIFFANY PARK Copy Associate NICK RUTHERFORD Copy Associate LAURA SHIN Copy Associate LEANNE WATTAR Copy Associate

M

y path to complete my computer and information science minor at Penn has been long and winding, rife with self-doubt and numerous failures, but also with many victories and moments of personal growth.

I have taken coding classes that I wanted to drop two weeks later because I did not trust my own skills. This happened with my first, second, third, and fourth coding classes in high school. In college, I wanted to drop CIS 160, and when I didn’t, I wanted to withdraw.

I have felt dejected and defeated for receiving poor grades on tests that I worked hard on.

However, I never did drop, and, in fact, ended each course with a strong grade. I continued to persevere and push myself because deep down, I sought and still seek discomfort.

As course registration opens soon, my experience with computer science offers two important lessons.

The first is to push yourself outside of your academic comfort zone. Taking crossdisciplinary courses provides opportunities to view yourself, your surroundings, and the larger world differently.

Difficult and novel courses will make you think harder, forcing you to challenge the way you view yourself and your world. No longer will everything around you be viewed solely through a “humanities” or “engineering” lens, but instead through a confluence of the two. In the increasingly integrative and complex world that we live in today, having the skills and abilities to pivot across disciplines is key.

Any professional basketball player can shoot a free throw, any chemist can balance

a chemical equation, and any constitutional lawyer can explain the intricacies of the First Amendment. Yet, it takes a truly brave, courageous, and confident individual to merely dip their toes into uncharted multidisciplinary waters. Few constitutional lawyers can shoot a free throw or balance a chemical equation. Those who can, though, are likely thankful for the multidimensional worldview they have as a result.

More importantly, while you may not always succeed in these new spaces or receive the best grades, the inherent process of struggle, perseverance, and personal success will

courses while still having more than enough time to complete majors.

My experience with computer science exemplifies this. I’m a political science major.

I’m bad at math. Proofs bore, frustrate, and sadden me. Yet, I could not be happier that I took these classes. Because of them, I trust myself more and am now more willing and confident to try something new, academic or not.

The second smaller and separate lesson from my time in computer science classes is that they help students ease into the increasingly tech-based corporate landscape. At

PHOTO BY DEREK WONG

lead to unmatched levels of self-growth. If you intentionally and strategically expose yourself to difficulty, you will experience positive physical, mental, and emotional change.

In this case, taking a course outside of your comfort zone will simply make you comfortable with the uncomfortable. You don’t need to be good at what you do; you just need to try.

The Penn curriculum is purposely designed to allow students room to take these very

their core, all companies are tech companies.

Some, like Google and Apple, are what I refer to as “pure” tech companies, or those in which technology is the foundation of the product. Yet, all other corporations still rely on the use of code and technology to operate on a daily basis through websites, data analysis, mobile apps, and more.

Even outside of jobs, the world has become tech-dominated. We take classes on our

laptops, order food on our phones, and receive much of our entertainment on our TVs. This article itself will likely be read many more times online than it will in print. Having a foundation of knowledge in computer science will thus be incredibly useful, regardless of where you work or what you do.

Not convinced? There are 500,000 current job openings in computer science-related professions, and the amount of available computer science jobs is projected to grow by 22% by 2030, 175% higher than the average occupation. Taking even one computer science class can put you at an advantage over many others who have no knowledge of how to code — there are similar benefits to taking any course in a major one isn’t initially familiar with.

While I pushed myself through computer science, that doesn’t need to be the case for everyone. Regardless, through my experience, I have learned that seeking discomfort leads to exposure, this exposure leads to comfort, and this comfort leads to confidence and courage. With these two traits, you feel empowered to try novel things, inside and outside of academics. More importantly, with these two traits, you can seek even more discomfort; with that, you can try anything.

DANIEL GUREVITCH is a College sophomore from Wynnewood, Pa. studying political science with a minor in computer science. His email is dgure@sas.upenn.edu. edu.

Creating difficult exams but then curving them harms student learning TONER’S GROANER | Reducing the difficulty of exams will foster a fairer and healthier learning environment

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LETTER SUBMISSION Have your own opinion? Send your letter to the editor or guest column to letters@thedp.com.

Editorials represent the majority view of members of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. Editorial Board, which meets regularly to discuss issues relevant to Penn’s campus. Participants in these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on related topics.

any of my midterm exams at Penn so far have been emotional rollercoasters. Going toward the end of my first year at Penn, I’m finding a common pattern after taking each exam: thinking that I absolutely failed it at first, until the professor releases an announcement saying that the exam will be curved. Talking to many of my friends, I’ve learned that I’m not alone in feeling strained by this recurrent situation. Although everyone appreciates getting a curve on any assignment, I can’t help to point out a much simpler solution: Create exams with more reasonable levels of difficulty.

Overly difficult exams inherently indicate the fact that the scope of exam problems is inconsistent with the material taught in class.

This results in assessments that evaluate aptitude instead of diligence and preparation. The purpose of an exam is to check a student’s understanding of the material discussed in class and their ability to apply those concepts — not their ability to solve convoluted problems that are only tangentially connected to the class. From my own experience last semester, I often found myself struggling with an exam problem only to later discover that the topic in question wasn’t ever discussed in prior lectures.

Granted, many students would study more

effortfully when a more difficult exam is administered. However, an overly difficult exam fails to serve as a proper assessment if the majority of the class fails it. If the entire class is going to ultimately get their grade curved, making these exams less challenging in the first place would greatly improve the mental wellness of many students by reducing their performance anxiety after each exam.

Moreover, curving itself is problematic because it undermines the implementation of a fair grading system. The purpose of having cutoffs for different grades in an exam is to enforce a marking line for objective level of mastery of the material. However, a curve in an overly difficult exam changes the purpose of cutoff lines such that they reflect only the performance of the whole class instead. Such a practice unfairly demarcates one group of students from another based on the relative performance of the class rather than the independent learning progress of each student. As most Penn professors believe that all students can excel in a class simultaneously, curving the exam undermines such a belief. Penn professor Adam Grant discussed the idea of limiting the portion of a class that can excel in his New York Times column: If, in a class of 10 students, the professor implements a

forced curve that only allows seven students to get an A, the remaining three students would be unfairly punished. Similarly, in a situation where an exam is overly difficult, the opposite happens — some students would arbitrarily, and unfairly, obtain A’s among a notoriously poor class-average raw score. In this case, people whose grades were boosted by the curve gained an unfair advantage granted by the poor performance of the entire class, as opposed to their objective level of subject mastery.

While advocating for less difficult exams, I’m not claiming that all courses at Penn have this problem — many professors still administer exams that are appropriately challenging and fair. However, a proper end goal would be that every class offered at Penn creates a fair and healthy learning environment.

My “Introduction to Experimental Psychology” class last semester offered an exemplary model of why less difficult exams are more conducive to student learning. The exams in that course heavily focused on materials mentioned in the lectures, and points were fairly rewarded to those who paid close attention to the materials verbally mentioned.

Instead of creating notoriously difficult exams that students struggled to even finish on time, the multiple-choice format provided

every student ample time to properly reflect and apply the knowledge they previously learned.

It is impossible to make every exam appropriately challenging, and sometimes one batch of students may perform much better in a given year compared to previous years.

However, it is still important to acknowledge that excessively difficult exams can only cause more harm than benefit. Penn students constitute some of the most talented youth across the globe. If these students find themselves struggling on exams, perhaps the exam was too difficult to begin with.

DESIGN BY JO XIANG

TONY ZHOU is a College first year from Zhejiang, China. His email address is hyy0501@sas.upenn.edu.

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022

OPINION 5

Penn, where true eros comes to die ARTUR’S DIALECTIC | What is and isn’t love?

A

re you part of the inglorious 60% of American adults who believe in soulmates? Or do you, perhaps, entertain the idea that what people call love is “just a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed”? The electrified dance between mysticism and scientific materialist reductionism has left but one actor agonized in boredom: It’s time for a philosophy dance.

Approximating our intuition, Robert Nozick perceived love as a distinct conjunction of the lovers’ sense of well-being with one another. Through love, you create a shared and unique bond; you experience your partner’s flourishing and hurt as your own. Alexander Nehamas described friendship love as an experience that is a lot closer to our aesthetic experience of beauty.

We love as a consequence of observing dissimilarity and express love through partial and differential treatment. Thinking of love within the framework of art also demonstrated the lack of agency that is characteristic of both love and art — when you see a beautiful painting you find yourself gravitating toward it without much of your own volition.

I believe that love is fundamentally a perception of value. As Jacques Lacan wrote, “I love you, but, because inexplicably I love in you something more than you — the object petit a — I mutilate you.” Lacan was describing the process by which the declaration of love is indicative of the objectification of the lover — we love our partner because of attributes (honesty, beauty, etc.) that we perceive as valuable. This perception of value, however, is reductive because it does not capture the wholeness and complexity of our lover. Instead, our gravitation toward them is guided, in part, in a self-motivated way. Love initiates a process by which your lover’s personhood transforms into your object of desire.

Lacan famously believed that there is no such thing as a sexual relationship. In sex, as also Alain Badiou’s interpretation suggests, each individual is to a large extent on their own. Lacan considered that the other’s body must be mediated but the pleasure will always be your pleasure. Sex does not unite — it separates. He regarded the fact that you are naked and pressing against the other as an image, a representation. What is real, he asserted, is that pleasure takes you a long way and tremendously far from the other. What is real is narcissistic; what binds is imaginary. According to this view, the strictly sexual is narcissistic, and as such, there is no such thing as a sexual relationship. Love, then, is that which binds and fills the absence of the sexual (and makes it a relationship).

A task easier than explaining “What is love?” may consist in answering the question of “what love is not,” or even, “What is untrue love?” Our experience may prepare us better for this kind of question, knowing the typical disappointments with all everyday imperfect instantiations of love. Here, I would like to be more radical and assert that most of your experiences with love in your life, and especially at Penn, can be described as relations of mutually beneficial consensual exploitation. If you have been lucky enough to find true love (and here I am

DESIGN BY JO XIANG

arrogant enough to include myself), I congratulate you.

The rest of this column, however, is not for you.

In the philosophical literature on coercion, there’s a lot of interest in relations that seem mutually beneficial and consensual but are exploitative. As an illustration, think of large corporations that outsource their production overseas to a distinctively poor country. The companies then proceed to pay their workers a wage that is below the living standard. The workers may prefer a suboptimal wage to the alternative of no pay, an even lower pay, or a comparatively riskier job. However, despite being arguably mutually beneficial and consensual, this is still an exploitative relationship. This is best indicated by the fact that had the workers had greater bargaining power in the international labor market, they would have never agreed to the current terms of the relationship. I believe that if we understand love as a relation (comprised of inner relations of power), we can easily see how love is a prime example of the above.

We do not fall in love in a vacuum — that is to say, love flourishes through a set of unequal initial conditions. Those conditions may include socioeconomic status, attractiveness, social norms about romantic

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partnership, and willingness to walk away — all of which determine power relations. As such, oftentimes one finds themselves in a love relationship characterized by a great imbalance in the distribution of power.

More often than not, one may be part of the relationship as a result of scarcity. They still prefer the outcome to the alternative of being alone, the risk associated with the prospect of pursuing another lover, or the social cost of a life in solitude. Despite being consensual and beneficial, had they had greater market power, they would not have agreed to the current terms of the relationship.

This model encapsulates even relatively healthy expressions of love within relationships. However, a love of this kind fails to live up to the truer, completely satisfactory, understanding of love. For one, true love could not be exploitative. More particularly, true love is unconditional love and could not be contingent on the mere distribution of power within the relationship.

Moreover, intimacy can be coercive in yet another way: It is a lot easier to refuse an undesirable offer from a stranger than from your lover. This effect is exacerbated by uneven power relations. In the context of intimate relationships, we may feel coerced by

intimacy and thus become unable to give genuine consent (refusal) when sexually objectified.

With over 70% of its students in the top two quintiles of household income and 5% in the second-lowest quintiles, Penn severely lacks socioeconomic diversity.

With such a strong economic discrepancy, a lot of students are significantly more economically vulnerable than others. As such, there is a non-negligible chance of (implicit) exploitation manifested through the intimacy of love.

With the socioeconomic division in mind, the prominence of hookup culture (that separates and lacks the love that binds), and the fact that you are more likely to find a talking squirrel on campus than someone who can cite even a line from Socrates’ speech on love in Plato’s “Symposium,” Penn may introduce its new slogan: “The place where true eros comes to die.”

ARTUR VLLAHIU is a College sophomore studying philosophy from Kosovo. His email is arturvhh@sas.upenn.edu.

6 NEWS

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022

DU BOIS, from front page “If it was more codified somewhere that Du Bois was a space for Black students, it would get at the issue of non-Black students being unaware of the fact that this is a cultural space,” Ukeomah said.

Ukeomah said she started the project after speaking to Black students who wanted to live in Du Bois but were not selected.

“That’s when I started my project, I think my junior year, because I noticed it was overwhelmingly not Black,” Ukeomah said.

While Ukeomah was not able to bring her project to fruition, she still believes that Black representation at Du Bois is important.

Students including Oburu reported that they knew Black first-year students who ranked Du Bois as their first choice but were not chosen.

“Why would you take away that opportunity from Black students? Because of our algorithm?” Oburu said.

Douglas Berger, executive director of business services and who oversees residential and hospitality services including student housing, said that the University has to abide by fair housing laws — meaning that neither residential communities nor housing applications consider race.

Poor amenities, living conditions

Students who have lived in Du Bois reported that comparatively poor amenities deterred them from returning. Romage and Ukeomah both cited this as the primary reason they didn’t return to the college house after their first year.

“Rodin had an elevator and AC and, at the time, Du Bois didn’t have AC,” Ukeomah said. “The functionality of the building sucked.”

The summer after Ukemoah’s first year, Penn installed air conditioning in both Du Bois and Kings Court English College House in 2019.

Earlier in 2009, the University considered adding an elevator as part of a major renovation. However, Berger said that the cost of having to build a separate structure attached to the college house led it to abandon that plan.

Students added that they would like to see improvement in other aspects of Du Bois, including the amenities and upkeep of the college house. They said that they felt the University did not care about their living amenities as much as other residential buildings.

“Our basement is unfinished. We only have six washing machines and six dryers for everybody in the building,” College first year Tytianna Pope said. “We’re getting overlooked, ignored — which [explains] why a lot of Black students are leaving Du Bois.”

According to Berger, the company that supplies the University with washing and drying machines has a population-based formula used for all college houses.

Students compared Du Bois to the newer college houses on campus such as New College House West, Penn’s newest residential building, and Lauder College

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House, which opened its doors in 2016. They pointed out that the three high rise college houses include rooms with full kitchens, whereas Du Bois only has kitchenettes.

“I feel like Du Bois is the cheapest dorm for a reason,” Onuonga said. “There are a lot of amenities in other dorms that compel people away from Du Bois,” Onuonga said.

Wharton first year Bijon Gayle, who lives in Du Bois, said Du Bois was not his first choice in the housing selection process because there are newer buildings on campus that have elevators, full kitchens, and more washing and drying machines.

“It would be nice for Du Bois to have some renovations and have some nicer amenities,” Gayle said.

Berger added that there are other buildings also in need of renovation including Stouffer College House, which is undergoing its first-ever renovation. The renovation will add an elevator — making the building accessible. The University strives to keep college houses equal, but when most are 50 years and older, “there’s limitations to what [Penn] can do without basically tearing the building down and redoing it,” Berger said.

“If [students] can understand that we have a fairly transparent process on how these things are done, and we follow it and we’ve been following it for over 20 years now — that might help [students] understand how our decisions are made,” said Barbara Lea-Kruger, director of communications and external relations at Penn Business Services.

Looking ahead

On April 1, current and former residents and members of the Penn community gathered outside of Du Bois to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Penn alumni recounted their experience in the college house, including Penn graduate Brian Peterson, director of Makuu: The Black Cultural Center.

Peterson lived in Du Bois for four and a half years as an undergraduate at Penn before returning to pursue both a master’s degree and Ph.D. at the Graduate School of Education. Peterson said he hoped that despite its changing demographics, the college house could still foster community.

“The house is grounded in those values that people still feel like Blackness is the center,” Peterson said. “We have to do a lot more to think about how to leverage all the different opportunities on campus, but still figure out, ‘What does it mean to be a part of Black Penn?’”

Oburu, who attended the 50th-anniversary celebration, said she hopes that Du Bois will become more reflective of its history.

“As the world is diversifying, we need to continue to provide safe spaces for Black individuals,” Oburu said.

Onuonga said she hopes that the increase in nonBlack students will prioritize Penn’s consideration and upkeep of the college house and its residents.

“We know that Penn has the resources to invest in Du Bois, and yet they have not done so,” Onuonga said. “[It] is really saddening that it doesn’t just take this being a house with predominantly Black students [as a reason] to want to invest in it.”

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NEWS 7

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022

‘Massive shoes to fill’: Penn Hillel’s Allison Sorgeloos announces departure Sorgeloos is currently the manager of student leadership for Penn Hillel JACOB POLLACK Staff Reporter

Penn Hillel’s Manager of Student Leadership Allison Sorgeloos announced her departure from the organization on April 12 — three years after she joined its team.

In an email sent to students and alumni of Penn Hillel, Sorgeloos announced that she is leaving Penn to start a new job as a consultant for a nonprofit organization in Washington. Sorgeloos will graduate from the School of Social Policy & Practice with a Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership this May. Sorgeloos joined the Hillel staff in August 2019 as a Springboard Innovation Fellow, tasked with brainstorming new ideas, connecting with students, and bringing creativity into Hillel’s work.

Over time, Sorgeloos has taken on multiple leadership roles at Hillel, helping to establish the Student Leadership Executive Committee and the First Year Leadership Board. She was also responsible for planning the 2021 Penn Hillel PreOrientation Retreat.

Sorgeloos has run Hillel’s fellowships, including the Jewish Learning Fellowship, a 10-week seminar for students looking to deepen their understanding of Judaism, and the Pincus Scholars Fellowship, a fellows group in which students engage in a semester of Jewish learning and exploration of Jewish life.

Sorgeloos said that her time at Hillel has been marked by creating meaningful connections with students through initiatives such as coffee chats.

“I counted at one point my number of coffee chats, and it was, like, over 800 different Penn students [over three years],” Sorgeloos said. “The thing I’m going to miss the most is really the students. It’s why I took the job, and it’s been such an honor and a privilege to have met so many amazing people.”

For some Penn students, their first exposure to Hillel was meeting Sorgeloos.

“Allison was one of the first staff members [I met] and that I formed a connection with when I was in my first year doing everything online,” College sophomore and Co-President of Penn Hillel Lilah Katz said. “Ever since we met, she’s always been a huge part of my Hillel experience.”

Students said that Sorgeloos was dedicated to supporting the Hillel community, willing to speak to students about Judaism, academics, or whatever was on their minds.

“Allison is very, very supportive. I meet with her every Thursday, and it is really nice to just sit

Period@Penn pilot program stocks campus bathrooms with free period products Period@Penn placed more than 6,300 menstrual pads and tampons in bathrooms in 12 high-traffic buildings SOPHIA LEUNG Contributing Reporter

Period@Penn launched a pilot program this semester to stock bathrooms around campus with free period products.

During the week of April 8, members of Period@Penn placed more than 6,300 Always brand menstrual pads and tampons in bathrooms in 12 high-traffic buildings — including 1920 Commons, Williams Hall, Van Pelt Library, and Pottruck Health and Fitness Center. The supplies are available in a variety of sizes.

The Penn club is a chapter of PERIOD — a national organization founded by a Harvard University student which seeks to increase the accessibility of period products. It has been active since 2017 and began discussing the possibility of stocking campus bathrooms with period products with Penn administrators during the fall semester.

College sophomore Maya Litvak — the Period@Penn University Relations Committee chair — said that while administrators expressed support for the project, it was entirely student-led.

Period@Penn President and College senior Michele Anzabi said that access to high-quality period products is a matter of dignity.

The club decided to purchase Always brand products for the pilot program based on anecdotal student feedback, Anzabi said, adding that she

PHOTO BY HANNAH LAZAR

and relax with her and talk about classes and other stuff,” College sophomore and Penn Hillel VicePresident of Social Affairs Brianna Fisher said.

College senior and J-Bagel Co-President Gregory Levy said he believes that Sorgeloos is the reason why he became fully immersed in Hillel’s community.

“Allison really encouraged me to engage more with the Jewish community at Penn and assured me that I do have a place at Hillel beyond my little corner in J-Bagel. Before Allison, I didn’t really consider Hillel to be a second home, but now I absolutely do,” Levy said in a written statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian on Wednesday. wanted to ensure that Period@Penn spent the time and money to give period product-users the highquality supplies they need and deserve.

“People wanted products from brands whose names that they recognize,” Anzabi said. “They didn’t necessarily want something that was the ‘cheapest option.’”

Both Anzabi and Litvak said that they were overwhelmed by the immediate positive response the launch received: Nearly all of the product bins placed around campus were emptied in just two days. The original plan was to restock the bathrooms weekly — but going forward, Litvak said, that may increase to two or three times per week.

Period@Penn applied for funding through Penn’s Common Funding Application, which allowed the club to obtain financial support from groups like the Undergraduate Assembly, the Penn Association for Gender Equity, the Intercultural Fund, and Tangible Change.

The organizers initially predicted a need for approximately $4,000 worth of products at the program launch, but quickly discovered that the community’s need for supplies was higher than they anticipated. Some of the bathroom bins — stocked with 20 pads and 20 tampons each — had to be restocked three times in just four days, Litvak said.

Litvak said that she was surprised by how much of the Penn community has been using the products and spoke to a University staff member who said she was grateful for the product bin in 1920 Commons.

“It was something that didn’t even cross her mind that Penn didn’t offer,” Litvak said.

After the pilot program closes out at the end of the semester, Anzabi said that she hopes the University will ultimately take on the project as a permanent fixture in the Penn community. At least six other Ivy League schools began providing free menstrual products to students in recent years, and Litvak hopes that Penn will soon follow suit.

“The University ultimately has to care for our well-being and our ability to participate in student life,” Anzabi said. “Students shouldn’t be missing class time because they don’t have access to a

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women started wrapping tefillin together every week and then it ended kind of petering out in the group, but Allison and I would wrap tefillin weekly together for a while which was a really awesome experience,” Katz said.

Students said that Hillel and the greater Penn community have been greatly impacted by Sorgeloos’ presence, dedication, and engagement.

“The effort and attention Allison puts towards everything she does is why she’s been able to successfully be a core part of Penn Hillel and spread joy to the wider Penn community,” Levy wrote.

“Allison is frankly leaving behind some massive shoes to fill.”

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Sorgeloos said she is proud of leading the Jewish Learning Fellowship and the Pincus Fellowship, where she has created close relationships with many Penn students.

“In the Jewish Learning Fellowship, we take all of the topics you learn in Hebrew School and find ways to make it accessible and meaningful to young adults,” Sorgeloos said.

After taking a Jewish Learning Fellowship with Sorgeloos, Katz said she became interested in learning how to wrap tefillin — straps worn during prayers traditionally by men. In response, Sorgeloos helped organize a time for Katz and her peers to learn.

“Myself and [Allison] and a couple of other

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8 SPORTS

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Three races to watch at the Penn Relays In the women’s 600m on Saturday, three Olympians will be going head-to-head ANDREA MENDOZA Sports Associate

It’s been three long years since the last Penn Relays, but at last, they are back.

The 126th Penn Relays will invite athletes from across the country this Thursday through Saturday to Franklin Field. Whether you will be in attendance, or plan to keep up with the results, here are a couple of races you should keep an eye out for.

Women’s 100m Hurdles Elite — Saturday 2:12 p.m.

Penn Relays just added a fierce competitor to this lineup: Tokyo Olympics two-time gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin. While her medals were in the 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay, she is still a strong contender for the 100m hurdles with a personal best of 12.65 seconds that ranks ahead of all her competition.

Among other strong competitors, McLaughlin is facing two-time Olympian Shermaine Williams, whose specialty is the 100m hurdles.

Men’s 110m Hurdles Elite — Saturday 2:17 p.m.

The 110m hurdles this year features competitors like Devon Allen and Omar McLeod. McLeod is an Olympic gold medalist and World Championship winner in the event. His most recent performance was at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational in Miami-Dade, Fla. on April 2, where he won the 110m hurdles with a time of 13.27 seconds.

Allen is a two-time Olympian, and in his most recent Games in Tokyo, he finished just a spot out of a medal finish. The University of Oregon alumnus just signed with the Philadelphia Eagles as a wide receiver, and will be preparing for the Relays in large part by taking part in organized team activities with the Eagles this week. Last weekend, he competed at the Navy Invitational and mustered up a time of 13.12 seconds, the best in the world this year.

The two also have a shared history, with Allen having finished four spots back from McLeod during the 2016 Rio Olympics, earning him a fifth-place finish, and, during the 2017 World Championships in London, he finished eight spots back from McLeod for a ninth-place result.

Women’s 600m Elite — Saturday 3:47 p.m.

The 600m elite is one of the most stacked races of the weekend. Athing Mu won two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics in the 800m and 4x400m relay, respectively. She also holds the U.S. record in the 800m with a time of 1:55.04, and during her

DOLAN, from page 10 he’s serving as a historian, so I still have him as a huge resource.”

Dolan was declared the new director in October 2021 after Johnson, who is the longest tenured director in Penn Relays history, announced his retirement in September 2020.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT, PHOTOS BY PHIL ROEDER _ CC BY 2.0, ZACH SHELDON, STEVEN PISANO, MONDFEUER61 _ CC-BY-2.0

Clockwise from top left: Ajeé Wilson, Sydney McLaughlin, Nia Akins, and Devon Allen. They are among the athletes to look out for during the upcoming 2022 Penn Relays.

most recent 600m race in March 2022, she hit a time of 1:24.13.

Ajeé Wilson, a two-time Olympian, will also be competing in the 600m. Wilson recently won the World Championships in the 800m, and her most recent 600m race was in February with a time of 1:25.59. The 27-year-old has been competing in

the Penn Relays since her high school days, so she’ll have the most experience out of anyone in her field coming into the race.

Another two-time Olympian, Natoya Goule, is also competing. A year ago, Goule and Wilson faced off in the 600m at the Adidas Boost Boston Games, and Goule won the race

is acting as the executive director of the event. Aaron no environment like this. It’s always the highlight to the Robison, who spent the last five years as the director of start of my season to come here and get back with the FELIX, from page 10 Collegiate Track and Field at The Armory Foundation, is ladies and work together and just come out and compete the associate director of the relays and its operational diand see all this support.” rector. Gail Zachary is the assistant director, and Claire A champion both on the track and in standing against Hewett, Penn track and field’s director of operations, has McLaughlin and Athing Mu, are still scheduled to com- restrictive maternity policies, Felix has been vital to the been doing a large amount of hotel planning and com- pete at the Penn Relays. McLaughlin will appear for the representation of women athletes in the past several munication with and for the athletes.

100m hurdles, and Mu in the 600m, both events running years. Along with competing in her first Olympics as a Despite the previous two versions of the event’s can- on Saturday afternoon. mother last year, she founded Saysh in June 2021, a lifecellation due to COVID-19, Dolan believes that the meet At the Penn Relays in 2012, Felix ran in the 4x100m style brand focused on women athletes. will remain much the same of what fans remember about along with Tianna Madison, Felix, Bianca Knight, and She recently announced her plans to retire following it.

Carmelita Jeter, and set a meet record in the race. Just the 2022 season. Her final appearances on the competi“The core of the event, with athletes of different levels competing, has stayed the same,” Dolan The said. “We Newhave York Times Syndication Sales Corporation athletes all over the East Coast, and all over the620 country Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 and from some international locations, particularlyFor fromInformation Call: 1-800-972-3550 the Caribbean.”

For Release Friday, December 10, 2021 Some of the notable athletes participating are Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver and Olympic hurdler Devon Allen and Olympian and Philadelphia native Ajeé Wilson, both of whom appeared at a Penn Relays press conference along with Dolan on April 21. Dolan Edited by Will Shortz No. 1105 and his team of staffers have designated a few individuals to help these Olympic athletes find accommodations 59 Midcruise 28 Really, really ACROSS in Philadelphia.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 milieu What has changed from 2019, however, is the event’s 31 Gender-___ 1 Result of a rise, 14 15 60 Where Bill and perhaps schedule.

According to Dolan, the college women’s 34 T-Bird Hillary first met 16 17 alternative competition is now 8 Other half aligned with the men’s competition 62 In on Friday andofSaturday, and36some additional individual Cabbage 14 One the 18 19 20 Budgeting alternative?

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21 22 23 24 weekend, to “dazzle the crowd Franklin 37 at “This isn’t Field.” a 15 Dessert order Automotive trick question” at a Mexican “The college women’s competition being aligned64 with 25 26 27 28 29 30 amenity that restaurant “___ c’est Paris” that of the men’s is great for 40 their publicity,” Dolan said. offers an (French soccer 16 Quirky sort 31 32 33 34 35 36 “We got some really high-level athletes competing on annual Santa club slogan) 17and Life-form ledso that should Tracker Friday Saturday, be really exciting for 37 38 39 41 Vibe

by Optimus the crowd.”

65 Stingrays, often Prime in the 40 41 42 42 Airs during the PHOTO BY CHASE SUTTON Even “Transformers” with recent concerns about COVID-19, Dolan holidays Allyson Felix 43 competing44at the 45 2016 Rio Olympic Games. does notmovies expect fan attendance to be any lower than in DOWN 46 43 Jimmy of highprevious years, where over 100,000 spectators came to 18 Monthly end footwear 1 Emissions 47 48 49 expense Franklin Field over a three-day period, including nearly several months later at the London Olympics, the quartet tive50 track51are52scheduled for the United States Championconcern 45 Made it 19 Ballpark figure 50,000 in the last day alone. through put up a world record ships from 23-26, and the World Championships 53 54 in the very same 55 event.

56 57 June 58 2 Like some “The response has been great from many fans, and conference prior to her competing at from July 15-24, which will take place in Eugene, Ore. 21 ___ Lonely pools During a news 47 Pro in D.C. 59 60 61 Boys, many have evengroup held their tickets from two years ago3 to The Penn Relays will begin with its first event of the “Thusthe …”Penn Relays the next year, Felix talked extensively 49 Exaggerated with the 2004 62 63 go to thishit event.

For many people, this is an annual must- about her appreciation for the meet and its place in the competition Thursday at 9 a.m. with the High School “Heaven” What 50 “The be[-at] event,” Dolan said. “This is the 126th running4 of track world. 64 Girls’ 4x800 Small Schools, and run until Saturday something 65 Bachelorette” 23 Button for the Relays, back from hiatus, so we are really bacillary“Iislove the Penn Relays,” Felix said. “There really is when the headlining talents will compete. network enlarging an a two-year shaped like excited to be back.” image 53 Deli lunch PUZZLE BY JOSEPH GREENBAUM 5 Word with options 24 Mark of wonder or perfection winning squad that secures a program, or even a 15 Sound 51 Mowgli’s 57 Sound after a 32 Cousin of a designer investment in teacherrecord. in “The collegiate 25 Expose sip firth from page 10 6 Protest QUAKERS, the 1980s?

Jungle Book” the 4xMile, and it’s obviously “I’m running movement 33 Ones calling 52 Belt wearer, 20 Follower of more competitive this year than it probably ever ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE launched in the strikes?

Jesus Christ? hasperhaps been, but our goal is to just get out in the 2011, familiarly SE G U M S D O J O B E T S 53 Lead-in to 35 Zwölf elf front, Paper e.g.he was 4x800 three 22 years agocut, when just minus a freshfinish as high as possible, and ideally snag a 7 Peace slogan -graphic A S A P U B E R R U P E E man. school record, and potentially also go for the col26 Troubles 38 Chill SC H O R T L I N EG 8 Barricaded A R I A L 54 Keeping current “The first one, I was kind of shocked how big it legiate 27 ___ power withAmerican record,” Lee said. “If we can be A E R I A L G O U G E D 39 “___ problem” 9 To ___ mildly was,” Lee said.

“I remember the 4x[800] was right the first full American team to finish, we might be P R I N T M A N N K E G S 55 Graduation Sovereign land, 44 Acorn, by 10 Cry from a some 29 before prosorelay, and I was shocked at how ableclass to get that record.” to speak T A C O C L A R E T balcony another name loud everyone was cheering just as I was warming Other 56 This ishighly takinganticipated events for Penn include H U B B L E M O O H I GH S 30 Excuses 11 Big adventure up in the infield. It was exciting.”46 Fine wool the fore-e-ever College Men’s Javelin Throw Championship, AB U S T R I AP A D O A D A through the 31 It has a $100 source Though excitement senior 58 Many startMarc with Minichello, who owns the secV A L B R E W U P I NL E T concrete jungle thatbillion line of can become over- which “I”: Abbr.javelin throw in school history and has O H D E A R T S A R whelming, Lee (as well as Dolan) asserts that if ond-longest 48 Cybertruck credit with the 12 Emissions 61 Sinus doc maker of the placed Dept.

C O I N O O Z E B E L O W his non-senior Treasury teammates let the energy first at three of his last four meets, is seeded concern N C I S L A N E P A L I crowd fuel them, they’ll be able to translate their first in.

Mayyi Mahama will also be competing in 13 Ciudad del Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more the thanCollege 7,000 past L E G O S S P L I T E N D S efforts into results.

Women’s Hammer Throw Champion___, Paraguay’s nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

A C O R N E P I C A C M E largest This city timepuzzles, around, Lee feels more confident, ship, and like Minichello, she stands tall in the Penn after and Asunción Read about and comment N A P E T E E S B O TN E T in better shape heading in thanon heeach waspuzzle: when nytimes.com/wordplay. record books, with the longest indoor weight throw he was a freshman. He hopes to be a part of a and outdoor hammer throw in program history.

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PHOTO BY SAMANTHA TURNER

Steve Dolan, in a Penn Relays tie, discusses the event at a press conference

Dolan expects roughly 600 events to be contested, with over 20,000 athletes competing. To help host and officiate this massive contingent of competitors, many external volunteers were required.

“Beyond the athletic department, we have hundreds of officials and volunteers, some of which are track and Penn Relay alums, that come on the day of the event to help make this happen,” Dolan said. “As you watch the Penn Relays carnival, you will realize that this is a whole lot bigger than a regular track and field meet. We got Vendor Village, we got athletes of all ages, and it really takes the whole department and so many people to make this happen.”

As Dolan alluded to, the entire athletic department is involved in all aspects of the extensive preparation, from ticketing and marketing, to setting up the facilities for the races.

Specifically, Scott Ward, Penn Athletics’ senior associate athletic director and chief operations officer,

Puzzle Answers

with a time of 1:24.00 compared to Wilson’s 1:24.007.

In addition to the Olympians in the event, Penn track and field’s own Nia Akins will be returning to Franklin Field. A 2020 alumnus, she holds the Penn program record in both the indoor and outdoor 800m.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022

Quaker legend Nia Akins returns for Penn Relays, faces stiff competition In 2019, Akins was named Penn Relays College Athlete of the Meet BRANDON PRIDE Former Sports Editor

This weekend, the Penn Relays are returning for the first time in three years, and so is one of the most dominant athletes in Penn history.

Nia Akins, who graduated in 2020, holds eight Penn records, including the fastest outdoor 800meter and 1500-meter times ever put up by a Quaker. She was a four-time Ivy League Heptagonals Champion and five-time indoor first team All-Ivy selection as well.

However, in the 600 meters, she will not be without competition.

“The women’s 600 is probably our best field,” Director of Penn Relays Steve Dolan, who is also Penn’s track and field coach, said at a press conference on Thursday. “Led by [Ajeé Wilson, who] just won the World Championships at 800, she’s a two-time Olympian, and she’ll lead that women’s 600 field.”

Wilson also has ties to Philadelphia, having grown up in the area and competing at the Penn Relays since she was in high school.

In competing against this tough field, Akins will bring not only her Penn experience with her, but also a bevy of experience at the Penn Relays themselves. This will be Akins’ fourth time in the Relays, having competed in both individual events and relays in the past. In 2019, she was named Penn Relays College Athlete of the Meet.

Still, Akins will be wise not to count her competition out.

“It’s a great field, we also have some local stars, Athing Mu is going to join the field,” Dolan said.

“She won the Olympics last year, which is super exciting, she’s another person [with] Philadelphia area ties. Nataya Goule is going to run, she’s the Jamaican record holder in the 800.”

Mu, who won two gold medals in Tokyo, beat out Akins in the 800m in the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. last year, costing Akins an Olympic bid, so this will be something of a revenge race for Akins.

Mu is a native of Trenton, N.J. and runs collegiately for Texas A&M. “A couple of young runners, one we’re proud of is Nia Akins, who was the NCAA runner-up here at Penn and is now running for the Brooks Beasts, she’ll be in the field,” Dolan said. “And Jazmine

PHOTO BY CHASE SUTTON

Penn alumnus Nia Akins, who graduated in 2020, will be competing in the 600-meter event at the 2022 Penn Relays.

Fray, who was the NCAA champion in the 800, will also be in the field.”

Since her college career came to an abrupt end, Akins has run professionally in Seattle, where she

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is also pursuing her nursing career. Additionally, Akins recently ventured into the music field, releasing her first single, “Smoke,” in January.

“She always showed up at the big track meet

when it was time, and she would always come through in that situation,” Dolan told the DP in 2020. “She definitely leads by example with her hard work and ability to respond in big situations.”

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PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022

VOL. CXXXVIII

NO. 14

PENN RELAYS RETURN

PHOTO BY JESSE ZHANG

Franklin Field on April 27 amid preparations for the Penn Relays.

Penn track and field gears up for first Penn Relays in three years All of Penn’s freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will compete at the historic event for the first time in their collegiate careers MATTHEW FRANK Sports Editor

For many Penn track and field athletes, the Penn Relays, the world’s oldest and largest track and field meet, serves as not just the highlight of their season, but of their careers wearing red and blue.

The Relays are back for its 126th running after a COVID-19 hiatus. With it, Penn track and field’s freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will compete at the historic event for the first time. Across the three days of competition, the Quakers are named in 35 different events, ranging from sprints to the throwing field.

According to track and field coach Steve Dolan, who has been serving as the director of the Relays, the team has “missed hosting and missed competing in it.” Pressure has been anticipated but largely subdued with the excitement around such a monumental home-hosted occasion.

“What I’ve found in my 10 years at Penn is that the team really rises to the occasion, because it’s our home track, we have a huge alumni following, and their families and friends are here to see them,” Dolan said. “If anything, I think the team tends to compete at even a higher level at the Penn Relays than anywhere else, just because of the natural adrenaline of being at home.”

Dolan also makes sure that he and his coaching staff emphasize the importance of enjoying the spectacle of the event, especially for first-timers, like sophomore jumper Addie Renner.

“I have been told that it’s basically like a big track party, which … we’ll see if it lives up to the expectations,” Renner said. “But I’ve just been told that it’s insane. Lots of people, lots of fun, so I’m just excited for that; excited to see family and friends that are coming from all over.”

This will also be freshman sprinter Caia Gelli’s first time in the Penn Relays, as she will compete in arguably the most highly anticipated event for the Quakers: the College Women’s 4x400m Championship of America. “[There’s] not so much pressure-wise because I think our coaches actually want us to have fun at this meet,” Gelli said. “But I’m really excited, actually, because I’ve never been. I never went in high school, and I’ve heard a lot of good things about the atmosphere, and it should be really competitive, too, which is cool.”

Gelli will be competing alongside the likes of senior Skyla Wilson, who broke Penn’s 100m hurdles record this past weekend at the Virginia Challenge, and sophomore Bella Whittaker, who holds the program records in both the outdoor 200m and 400m.

Though Gelli placed first in the 200m at Widener over the weekend, she did not compete with the 4x400m team that won first at the Virginia Challenge and finished fifth in the program record books. As such, she enters a relay team that has been pondering its lineup for a while, See QUAKERS, page 8 SEND STORY IDEAS TO DPSPORTS@THEDP.COM

Olympian Allyson Felix pulls out of 300 meter race The five-time Olympian had been slated to compete in what would have been one of the final competitions of her career

ESTHER LIM Sports Editor

After being one of the first Olympic athletes to be announced for competition in the Penn Relays, seven-time gold medalist Allyson Felix will no longer be competing this Saturday.

The announcement was published by the Penn Relays official social media channels, with reasons for her absence left unstated.

Felix was scheduled to run the Olympic Development Women’s 300m Elite on Saturday afternoon in her first race since the Tokyo Olympics. The entries for the event, which were announced on Wednesday, include Olympic gold medalist Morolake Akinosun and four other former Olympians.

The Los Angeles native most recently took bronze and gold in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Over her entire career, Felix has won a monstrous 11 Olympic medals and has been to the Olympic Games five times in a row, beginning in 2004 in Athens, Greece.

Her fellow Team USA gold medalists who ran with her in the 4x400m final at the Tokyo Olympics, Sydney See FELIX, page 8

PHOTO BY KYLIE COOPER

Freshman sprinter Caia Gelli runs at the Big Five meet at Franklin Field.

and has been rotating competitors throughout the season.

“Last week, I wasn’t in it, but the girls ran a really good 4x400,” Gelli said. “We’ve been thinking about it since indoor, that we have a pretty solid 4x400, so I know we’re all really excited.”

Sophomore sprinter Dimitri Nicholson is also coming into the Penn Relays having not competed in his specific event at the team’s most recent meets, but he is returning from an injury that sidelined him for the past couple of weeks.

“This is going to be my first meet in a while. So for me, it’s all excitement,” Nicholson said. “But I feel like you need to be a little bit nervous. So it’s

a little scary, but I just can’t wait to see everybody in the stands.”

Despite only recently coming back from injury, Nicholson hopes to contribute to a Penn program record in the 4x100m, and potentially even medal in the 4x200m. Either way, for Nicholson, the Penn Relays serve as not just a historic meet, but an opportunity to return to high-level competition.

Many seniors on the team have competed back in 2019 at the 125th running of the event, and are passing along words of wisdom to their younger counterparts.

Among those seniors is distance runner James Lee, who competed at the Penn Relays in the See also NIA AKINS, page 9

ONLINE AT THEDP.COM

Track coach Steve Dolan prepares for first run as director of Penn Relays Dave Johnson held the position for the last 26 runnings of the meet EASHWAR KANTEMNENI Deputy Sports Editor

For the last 26 editions of the Penn Relays, Dave Johnson has been at the helm as its director. But now, after a three-year hiatus from the meet due to COVID-19, Penn track and field coach Steve Dolan will assume the reins.

“I am very honored and humbled to take the role of director from the longtime director Dave Johnson … he did amazing things with the event,” Dolan said. “Fortunately for me, Dave is still helping and a part of our team, See DOLAN, page 8 CONTACT US: 215-422-4640