April 8, 2021

THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021 VOL. CXXXVII NO. 11

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Penn accepts record-low 5.68% of applicants to Class of 2025 This year marked Penn’s largest application pool in history, with 56,333 — a 34% increase from last year.

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Penn to begin COVID-19 vaccinations on campus in mid-April All adults in Phila. are eligible on April 19

LEANNA TILITEI Staff Reporter

JONAH CHARLTON Senior Reporter

Penn will begin vaccinating members of the Penn community at an on-campus COVID-19 vaccination site later this month.

Faculty and staff who live in Philadelphia along with Penn students, regardless of residency status, will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at the vaccination site in Gimbel Gymnasium in the Pottruck Health and Fitness Center. The City of Philadelphia announced on Tuesday that all adults will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine beginning April 19, almost two weeks earlier than the original date of May 1.

The Gimbel Gymnasium — which had been open to students briefly as part of Pottruck’s reopening — closed on Wednesday so that the University can convert it into the vaccination site.

The University released a brief vaccine interest survey on April 1 and deans of the four undergraduate schools sent an email to students on April 7 in an effort to judge how many doses it should order from the city. The survey asks Penn community members a brief series of questions, including if they have already received a COVID-19 vaccine and what times they would be available to be vaccinated. Penn also created a new ‘Vaccinations’ page on its COVID-19 website with information for Penn community members to prepare for vaccinations.

Chief Wellness Officer Benoit Dubé told The Daily Pennsylvanian last week that one of the largest pieces of Penn’s vaccination plan that remains unknown is what kind of vaccine the University will distribute, as the city is the sole arbitrator of vaccines. Since the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines come with a number of different variables, Penn is preparing for a variety of scenarios.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are both two-dose vaccines that require three and four weeks, respectively, in between doses, while the Johnson & Johnson is a one-dose vaccine.

As vaccine eligibility expands, Dubé said that Penn could potentially have one cohort, likely composed of faculty and staff, that would receive a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine and another cohort composed of students that would receive the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

According to the Vaccinations webpage FAQ, Penn community members will receive whatever vaccine is available on the day of their appointment.

The city’s amended vaccination timeline comes as a result of President Joe Biden’s new directive for states to expand eligibility to all adults by April 19. At a press briefing on Tuesday, Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley cautioned, however, that not everyone will be able to get vaccinated right away due to limited supply.

Farley encouraged people who qualify to receive the vaccine under Phases 1A and 1B of the city’s vaccine rollout plan to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

Philadelphia also expanded vaccine eligibility to include four more categories of essential workers, included in Phase 1C, on April 5.

Farley said that all essential workers included in Phase 1C will be eligible to receive the vaccine on April 12 as previously planned.

Penn accepted 5.68% of applicants to the Class of 2025, a record low and a significant decrease from last year’s 8.07%.

This year marked Penn’s largest application pool in history, with 56,333 — a 34% increase from last year. Penn offered admission to 3,202 of these applicants. In December, Penn accepted 1,194 students under the Early Decision Program from a pool of 7,962 applicants — resulting in a record-low 15% ED acceptance rate.

Admissions data for the Class of 2025 returns to a trend of steadily declining acceptance rates. Last year’s acceptance rate saw a rare uptick, wherein 8.07% of applicants were admitted to the Class of 2024, up slightly from the 7.44% of applicants admitted to the Class of 2023. Penn accepted 8.39% of applicants to the Class of 2022, and 9.15% for the Class of 2021.

Fifteen percent of the Class of 2025 identifies as a first-generation college student. At least 18% of the accepted class is estimated to qualify for a Federal Pell Grant, which provides need-based grants to low-income undergraduate students, slightly lower than 20% last year.

For the Class of 2025, 56% of admitted students are United States citizens or permanent residents who self-identify as a person of color, up from last year’s 53%. Fifty-four percent of the newly admitted class are women, up from last year’s 53%.

Admitted members of the Class of 2025 hail from all 50 states, as well as D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The states with the most admitted students include Pennsylvania, California, New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Texas. 155 students are from the city of Philadelphia.

Hailing from 95 countries, 11% of the admitted Class of 2025 members are international students, down from last year’s 14%.

Like last year, 13% of students accepted to the Class of 2025 were legacy students.

Admissions officials attributed the significant increase in applications received this year to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated policy changes, like Penn’s test-optional policy. Penn did not require Class of 2025 applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores with their applications, a move that will also apply to the Class of 2026.

“One of the main stories of this past year has been the transition to test-optional,” Interim Dean of Admissions John McLaughlin said. “We were able to make a fairly seamless transition into reviewing applications, in some cases, without the benefit of that testing information. We focused on all of the information that was readily available in the file, and we feel confident about the decisions we made. In a year where there was a lot of change, that was a significant one that our office was able to cope with.”

Associate Director of Admissions Sara Cohen previously told The Daily Pennsylvanian that students likely applied to more colleges than usual this year because narrowing down top schools may have been more difficult as the pandemic made college visits impossible.

McLaughlin also noted that this year’s applicants stressed the implications of the current social and political climate through their personal statements and essays.

“We are all operating within the context of the current moment. Within the context of the pandemic, a contentious election and aftermath, and the ongoing struggle towards racial justice. We see our prospective students operating within each of these spaces as well,” McLaughlin said.

Though the Class of 2025 may not have had a traditional high school experience, admissions officers praised students for continuing to engage in extracurricular activities under the constraints of the pandemic.

“The way in which students are able to make an impact and find ways to get involved, give back, grow, and learn in the current moment may have looked a little different than what we’ve seen prior to the pandemic,” McLaughlin said. “But the fact that these amazing young people were still able to do that is consistent with what we’ve seen in previous years.”

Penn released admissions decisions for the Class of 2025 on April 6 at 7 p.m. — several days later than usual. The Ivy League, which saw a collective spike in applications, postponed its notification date to allow for more time to review applications. Admitted students will have until May 3 to declare their enrollment, a two-day extension from the traditional May 1 deadline.

“Sexual assault and harassment are epidemics plaguing American society, and Penn’s campus is no exception.” - DP Editorial Board PAGE 5

Top Penn admin. criticizes Fossil Free Penn’s calls for divestment at climate seminar The seminar took place hours after Penn announced it would achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions within endowment by 2050 ELIZABETH MEISENZAHL Senior Reporter

A top Penn administrator criticized Fossil Free Penn’s alleged unwillingness to consider ways for the University to address the climate crisis other than divestment at a climate seminar on Wednesday afternoon.

The seminar took place just hours after Penn announced its new plan to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from endowment investments by 2050. Administrators explained the reasoning behind the plan, which they said would encourage businesses to make climate-friendly decisions — but environmental student groups criticized it for its long timeline and for refusing to fully divest from the fossil fuel industry.

During a section on student input and administrative transparency, Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli criticized FFP’s efforts to communicate with administration, saying that he previously spoke with two Penn graduates and former FFP members who told him that FFP is concerned with divestment, not other methods of achieving sustainability.

“It’s hard to engage with students who say, ‘This is the only thing I care about. If you don’t do what I want, then we don’t want to talk to you,’” Carnaroli said. “Dialogue is a two-way street. Student groups who want to talk to us also have to be willing to listen.”

FFP leaders rejected Carnaroli’s characterization that the group is focused only on divestment. College and Engineering junior and FFP coordinator Emma Glasser said in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian following the event that the main goal of FFP is climate justice, a goal for which divestment is a tactic.

“We’re fighting for climate justice in Philadelphia, and it just seems like Penn doesn’t want that, and so that’s why they won’t talk to us,” Glasser said.

Glasser said that when FFP submitted a proposal in 2018 calling on Penn to divest from fossil fuels, administrators ignored the group’s requests to meet with them to discuss the proposal.

The criticism of FFP came amid a series of questions about how administrators plan to include student input going forward. Vice President for Facilities and Real Estate Services Anne Papageorge said in response to these questions that that her office is willing to meet with any student group that reaches out about climate policies.

College junior and Student Sustainability Association at Penn Co-Chair Vyshnavi Kosigi said, however, that administrators — including Papageorge — have repeatedly ignored SSAP’s requests for meetings about divestment and sustainability.

SEE CLIMATE PAGE 8

As [Rudy] Fuller assumes his new role as interim athletic director, his priority is facilitating a smooth transition back to in-person competition and laying a foundation for fall sports.

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NEW DPS CAPTAIN NICOLE MCCOY AIMS TO BUILD TRUST WITH STUDENTS OF COLOR

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STUDENT-PROPOSED UA RESOLUTION TO DEFINE PAGE 3 ANTISEMITISM TABLED AFTER DEBATE OVER DEFINITION

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2 NEWS

THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Class of 2024 able to run for first time in upcoming Penn Student Government elections

‘An uphill battle’: DPS Captain Nicole McCoy aims to build trust with students of color

The Nominations & Elections Committee postponed the Class of 2024’s fall elections due to students’ limited opportunities for in-person interaction

Superintendent of Penn Police Maureen Rush appointed McCoy as the Division of Public Safety’s first commanding officer of diversity, equity, and inclusion in January

ELIZABETH MEISENZAHL Senior Reporter

BRANDON ANAYA Staff Reporter

First years will soon elect student government representatives for the first time as the Nominations & Elections Committee prepares to hold its second virtual general election.

The online elections, which are set to run from April 12 to April 14, will elect 28 student representatives to the Undergraduate Assembly, the student government body that distributes funding each year and advocates for student needs to administration, and 10 representatives to each Class Board, which provides social programming for each class.

This election will mark the first time that the Class of 2024 will be able to run for office after the NEC postponed the Class of 2024’s fall elections because students had not had a chance to be on campus or get to know one another.

The election will be held using the same rules that applied in the fall general election, College junior and NEC Vice Chair for Elections Zarina Iman said, some of which were implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a ban on monetary and in-person campaigning.

Candidates are typically able to spend up to $50 on their campaigns, but the NEC banned monetary campaigning in the fall because it did not want candidates’ finances to affect their ability to run given the economic impacts of COVID-19.

The NEC will keep in place the 33% reduction in signature requirements to appear on the ballot that the NEC instituted in the fall, Iman said. The NEC implemented the rule after candidates found increased difficulty getting signatures virtually.

Students running to be a 2023 College class chair, for example, were previously tasked with collecting 44 signatures from College sophomores and now only need 29 signatures.

“We just thought it’d be safer and more equitable for everyone,” Iman said.

A new addition to the campaigning rules includes an amendment to the Fair Practices Code, which will lay out how the NEC will deal with reports of bias by candidates. The amendment requires the NEC to report the incident to the Office of Student Affairs and fill out the University’s Bias Incident Reporting Form.

The rule change comes after the fall’s general election, when candidate for 2023 Class Board Executive Vice President and College sophomore Dylan Conrad withdrew from the race after an anonymous GroupMe account shared screenshots of him using the N-word in a GroupMe message in September 2019.

In a letter to the Penn community attached to the general election results, the NEC wrote that while the group did not condone the use of the

slur, the FPC did not have a provision to address the situation at the time.

Several first years expressed excitement that they will be able to run for student government positions this year.

College first year Daniela Uribe served on the UA this year as an associate member after learning that first years would not be able to run for elected seats. Associate members are unelected, non-voting members of the UA who are selected through an application process.

Although she has been able to work on the UA this year, Uribe said she wants to increase her involvement by becoming an elected member next year.

“A lot of us associate members planned on running as first year representatives, but then that wasn’t an option that was presented to us,” Uribe said.

Uribe said that while she is excited at the possibility of being an elected representative for her class with voting power, she plans to continue as an associate member if she is not elected.

For other branches of Penn Student Government, including Class Board, the postponement of elections left a gap that students filled informally. In place of a Class Board, members of the Class of 2024, under the guidance of current PSG leaders, set up a Class of 2024 Committee that planned virtual social events and traditions like Econ Scream. The Committee was open to all first-year students, and did not require an application or election.

College first year Anooshey Ikhlas joined the Committee in her first semester, and is currently running for the College Chair seat on the 2024 Class Board. Ikhlas said that the enjoyment she felt while working on the Committee prompted her to run this spring, adding that she likely would not have run in the fall if elections had taken place then.

“I didn’t want to be in an environment where I felt like I was meeting people just so that I could get a vote from them, but then personally I realized that I really liked this,” Ikhlas said.

Ikhlas said that even though the Class of 2024 has mostly gotten to know each other virtually, she has not had a hard time meeting the signature requirement to appear on the ballot.

Because this is the Class of 2024’s first election, Ikhlas encouraged her classmates to vote in the PSG elections this spring, particularly as the fall general election saw turnout decrease by nearly 50%.

“They’re going to be on [Class Board] for the entire next year, so I think it’s important to just vote,” Ikhlas said.

The Division of Public Safety’s first commanding officer of diversity, equity, and inclusion Nicole McCoy aims to increase transparency about the Penn Police Department and build more trust between Penn Police and the student community — particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds.

Vice President for Public Safety and Superintendent of Penn Police Maureen Rush appointed McCoy, who began working for the Penn Police Department in 2002, to the position and also promoted her to captain in January 2021. Rush said that the position was created to have a central office dedicated to responding to the needs of minority groups on Penn’s campus.

Rush added that the decision to promote her was because McCoy, a West Philadelphia native, has an intimate knowledge of the surrounding West Philadelphia community, and because she admires the work McCoy has accomplished in her career thus far.

“I picked her because of what she’s done in the community throughout the years,” Rush said.

McCoy said that as a Black woman, she experiences the same racism and discrimination as other Black students and West Philadelphians, making her wellequipped to respond to the needs of the community.

Since her appointment, McCoy said she has been working with the University’s cultural resource centers like Makuu: The Black Cultural Center to hire new police officers that can better serve the needs of students from underrepresented backgrounds. She added that she is communicating with students, especially students of color, on how to report any potentially harmful encounters with the Penn Police, which she said is part of a larger process of building trust with students who may not be favorable toward Penn Police.

McCoy said that students often express that they do not know the proper method to report a police complaint, and explained that students can either file a report directly through a police complaint form on DPS’ website, or by talking to a Penn faculty or staff member who can then report the incident to Penn Police on the student’s behalf.

“I’m making sure that everyone who interacts with students knows what to do when they hear these stories,” McCoy said.

Another one of McCoy’s objectives that she has been working on is updating the hiring process for new Penn Police officers, she said, which now involves the cultural resource centers and student leaders from the University’s 6B minority coalition groups as a way to better represent and respond to the voices of students from underrepresented groups on campus. She said that one part of the hiring interview process involves asking potential officers how they would respond if their partner on duty did something harmful toward a citizen, such as racial profiling or excessive force, emphasizing the importance of reporting any inappropriate activity.

“We’re hiring people you’d want responding to your

family,” McCoy said.

In addition to being able to report police officers, Rush said that officers are given mandatory diversity and use of force trainings annually.

In addition to her role at Penn, McCoy also works with surrounding neighborhoods by attending monthly

PHOTO FROM @PENNDPS TWITTER

Nicole McCoy (center) is the DPS’ first commanding officer of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

meetings with West Philadelphia residents and interacting with the Philadelphia School District to hear the needs of local residents in regard to policing and safety.

McCoy said that although she loves getting to interact with the community she grew up in, some Penn students have been apprehensive in starting dialogues with her about the intersection between policing and race. Some students believe she is a “smokescreen” to distract from larger issues, she said. But she emphasized that when these students are ready to have these conversations, she will be there to listen.

“It’s an uphill battle,” McCoy said. “In the beginning, they won’t want to hear me out, but eventually they’ll want to talk.”

Given recent national incidents, such as the ongoing trial of police officer Derek Chauvin for the police killing of George Floyd, McCoy and Rush both said that they have already implemented, and will continue to implement measures to ensure that incidents of excessive force do not happen within the Penn Police.

“We see things like [the killing of] George Floyd and we make sure that type of person isn’t here,” Rush said. “I’ve never seen incidents like these, and we don’t accept that kind of behavior here.”

Rush said she has also been improving the culture within the Penn Police by meeting personally with every officer of color to make sure they feel comfortable within the force and ensure that any discomfort is addressed.

McCoy added that many officers at Penn Police are seen as solely police officers, and not as members of the West Philadelphia community.

“We’re holding roundtables with students so people can know us as people, not just cops,” McCoy said.

“I’ve been on this campus since I was born, and I want students to know that we’re here to listen to them.”

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THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021

Penn professor whose mRNA research paved way for COVID-19 vaccine is leading new treatments Researchers in Drew Weissman’s lab are currently working on three primary projects: developing new vaccines, replacing and editing proteins, and using mRNA to target specific genes IMRAN SIDDIQUI Staff Reporter

SUKHMANI KAUR

The researchers in the Drew Weissman Laboratory, from left to right: Amir Yadegari, Tyler Papp, Hamideh Parhiz, Ousamah Soliman, István Tombácz, Xiomara Mercado-Lopez, Adam Siruas, and Mohamad-Gabriel Alameh.

O

ngoing research led by Penn professor Drew Weissman, whose breakthrough mRNA technology and therapy was a key part of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccine development for COVID-19, is continuing to pave way for innovative treatments for other global diseases.

Weissman said that his laboratory, located in the Hill Pavilion, is working on a wide variety of projects focusing on the larger potential of RNA, including its use in vaccines, gene editing, and mRNA therapeutics. These new projects come years after Weissman published research with Penn professor and BioNTech Senior Vice President Katalin Karikó in 2005 about the antiinflammatory nature of RNA and its potential uses in vaccine delivery. “[mRNA research] has enormous potential for vaccines, therapy, and gene therapy,” Weissman told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “It can be applied to many diseases and will likely be found to be better than current

approaches.”

Researchers in Weissman’s lab are currently working on three primary projects: developing new vaccines, replacing and editing proteins, and using mRNA to target specific genes.

Using mRNA for COVID-19 vaccine developments One of the main implementations of Weissman and Karikó’s research has been in the area of studying and creating vaccines to solve unique problems, MohamadGabriel Alameh, a researcher in Weissman’s lab, said.

“We are working on a new generation of vaccines — an improved generation,” Alameh said. “When you are talking about this improved generation, it means better vaccines that cover pan-coronavirus, which means all the potential coronavirus mutations or the other families of the virus like the seasonal coronavirus.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are currently five variants of concern within the United States. Many health experts,

including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have asserted that a pancoronavirus vaccine is necessary to protect against new variations that may arise.

István Tombácz, another researcher in Weissman’s lab, is working on developing such a vaccine. Without a vaccine that takes care of all possible strains, Tombácz said that “it is just a race against time” to develop new cures, as dangerous COVID-19 variants continue to emerge.

“There have been three coronavirus epidemics in the past 20 years,” Weissman wrote in an emailed statement to the DP. “This means there will be more.

We can either wait for the next one and shut down the world for a year, or develop a pan-coronavirus vaccine now and be prepared.”

In addition to working on a pan-coronavirus vaccine, Weissman and researchers in his lab are working indirectly with the Thai government through Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok to help develop their own vaccine intended for people in Thailand and other surrounding nations, as the country is concerned about the availability of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in lower-income countries.

Weissman previously emphasized to the DP that while people in the United States, Europe, and other wealthy countries are getting the vaccine first, the pandemic will not be over until “the rest of the world” receives it too.

Alameh said that the Weissman lab has played a large role in developing a separate vaccine in Thailand.

He said that the lab has been having regular meetings with Chulalongkorn University to review their data, and Alameh added that he helped produce 400 milligrams of RNA for their factory’s engineering trial.

Weissman wrote to the DP that the Thai mRNA-based vaccine will be put it into clinical trials shortly.

While over 150 countries have begun vaccinating their populations, the “richer and more developed countries” have an advantage due to their existing health care infrastructure that can manufacture, acquire, and administer doses, according to data provided

by Reuters. Approximately 59% of people who have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine are from high-income countries.

Using mRNA to edit genes and replace proteins Researchers in Weissman’s lab are also using CRISPR-Cas9 technology for gene editing in order to correct genetic diseases. This technology can either

disrupt, delete, or insert segments of DNA in the genome by cutting the DNA precisely and allowing the natural repair process to take over.

Tombácz, whose work focuses on gene editing technology, said this work makes it possible to “knock in” the gene for a missing antibody to ensure the antibody will be produced permanently. This, Tombácz said, would be a possible way to treat individuals who are HIV-positive.

Since joining Weissman’s lab over three years ago, Tombácz said that seeing the potential effects of the lab’s research has been rewarding and motivating.

“I just like science, and I like solving problems,” Tombácz said. “Of course, it’s a plus if you know that the research is something useful, but when I actually do the experiment, it is not on my mind that this could help thousands of people.”

Using mRNA to target specific genes Other researchers in Weissman’s lab, like Hamideh Parhiz, are working on targeting genes for a variety of non-vaccine related applications. Parhiz, a research assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, who has been working in Weissman’s lab since 2018, primarily focuses on treatments for acute inflammatory conditions where the mRNA only needs to be in a specific tissue or cell type.

While Parhiz said she has been interested in gene therapy for the past 10 to 15 years, she grew more interested in the potential of mRNA after joining Weissman’s lab. Looking to the future, Parhiz said that companies like Pfizer and Moderna showing interest in the potential of mRNA technology has made further research in the field more practical.

Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the first vaccines that use mRNA to be distributed at the current scale. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 160 million doses of the two vaccines have been administered across the United States thus far, and over 62 million Americans have been fully vaccinated by the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

“The production of the COVID-19 vaccine actually made research possibilities in mRNA fields much, much easier now to move forward,” Parhiz said. “Messenger RNA technology has definite potential, way beyond just vaccines, and that is how I see the future of this field going. In a few years, we will have different types of applications and different [areas of medicine] that will benefit from mRNA technology.”

Penn launches undergraduate fellowship program to foster social equity in West Philadelphia

Penn to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions within endowment by 2050

Students’ projects focus on promoting minority-owned businesses, alleviating local homelessness, and fostering social justice through athletics

While the University announced it plans to achieve this goal, it will not be divesting from fossil fuels

JACK STAROBIN Contributing Reporter

PIA SINGH News Editor

The inaugural class of Penn’s Social Equity and Community Fellows program has begun working on a range of projects to build a more equitable relationship between Penn and the West Philadelphia community.

The new Office of Social Equity and Community, led by University Chaplain Charles Howard, selected eight undergraduates to join the program in late January. Students’ projects focus on promot-

“We wiped out a whole neighborhood of Black residents, and there’s a lot of resentment that has come out of that. We don’t know if we can fix that exactly, but we want to at least look at and explore the harm that was done and see if there are ways that we might be able to make it a little better.”

Director of the Office of Social Equity and Community Scott Filkin ing minority-owned West Philadelphia businesses, alleviating local homelessness and food insecurity, studying Penn’s history of medical racism and criminal injustices, exploring the harm caused by Penn’s territorial expansion across West Philadelphia, and fostering social justice through athletics.

After the first eight fellows finish their semesterlong term this spring, the program tentatively plans to host six more undergraduate fellows each year for a year-long term beginning in the spring or fall. All Penn undergraduates are eligible to apply to the fellowship, which is unpaid.

Wharton first year and SEC Fellow Ashley Song said that most of the fellows generated their own ideas for the projects they’re working on. Song’s project involves creating a comprehensive directory of local minority-owned businesses to share with Penn students next semester.

“We all found an area that we were really passionate about or interested in,” Song said, adding that students then turned their ideas into full projects in collaboration with Director of the Office of Social

Equity and Community Scott Filkin.

Filkin said that the fellowship aims for students to learn about, and listen to, the needs of West Philadelphia before taking action, especially because the trust between Penn and the West Philadelphia community has been broken many times. He pointed to Penn’s expansion into the neighborhood formerly known as Black Bottom during the 1960s and 1970s as an example.

“We wiped out a whole neighborhood of Black residents, and there’s a lot of resentment that has come out of that,” Filken said. “We don’t know if we can fix that exactly, but we want to at least look at and explore the harm that was done and see if there are ways that we might be able to make it a little better.”

With this history in mind, Filkin said that each member of the Penn community should approach the work of the fellowship with the humble mindset of a “guest.”

“It’s choosing to relinquish some power and privilege and view ourselves as being on somebody else’s land or in somebody else’s neighborhood,” Filkin said.

College junior and SEC fellow Michael Hagan is working to improve Penn’s outreach to the local homeless community. He is one of multiple fellows surveying existing homelessness support programs at Penn and communicating with local homeless shelters to determine what kinds of student action are most needed.

Hagan applied to the fellowship after Howard reached out to the Shelter Health Outreach Program, a group of Penn undergraduates providing volunteer support to local homeless shelters, and recommended that students at SHOP apply to the fellowship. Hagan has worked with SHOP since his sophomore year to make primary care and health information more accessible to the local homeless community.

“I feel like at Penn, a lot of times, it’s encouraged to really create something and to start something new, but when it comes to sustainability and ensuring that it makes an impactful change, that’s sometimes where I feel like we can fall a little bit short,” Hagan said.

SEC fellow and College sophomore Lucas Monroe is organizing Penn’s first Sport & Society Week: The Athlete Impact, which began on April 3. The event included three days of virtual panel discussions about the intersections of sports and social justice, as well as social media posts sharing community service opportunities and profiles of former athletes who have created social change.

Monroe said that his work as part of the fellowship extends beyond any one field of study or extracurricular passion.

“I think racism and a lot of these social issues that we have in this country are like a disease, just like we have COVID-19. If you have the ability to help, then you have a responsibility to do so,” Monroe said. “Everybody has a voice. No matter what you do, you have a voice, and you can use that voice to educate people and to try to change people’s minds, [and] change the way people think and the way they look at others.”

“This important step builds upon Penn’s longstanding commitment to achieve carbon neutrality across the University’s operations and upon the previous decision by the Office of Investments to factor the assumption of a decarbonizing economy into investment decision-making,” the email read. “This aim critically recognizes that for our world to achieve net-zero by 2050, the world-wide consumption of fossil fuels must decrease as the supply of clean energy increases and its cost decreases.”

According to the email, this latest goal supports efforts outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to reduce the world’s net anthropogenic emissions to zero by 2050 in order to limit the global warming increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

In order to achieve this mission, University administrators wrote that the Office of Investments plans to collaborate with Penn faculty experts, organizations developing frameworks and accounting standards, and other institutional investors with similar goals.

The administrators wrote they will also support Penn’s managers in encouraging their portfolio companies to develop sustainable decarbonization plans.

“Achieving our goal will also inevitably depend on KYLIE COOPER the commitment of governments to meet emissions Penn plans to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals, on the development of technologies associated with its endowment’s investments. that will support a decarbonized economy, and on significant changes in consumer behavior,” the email read.

Divestment decisions are considered by the Board “We look forward to updating the community over time of Trustees under their established standards and pro- as we develop interim goals and as we progress in our cedures, Ammon told Penn Today, adding that the overall efforts.”

This announcement builds upon Penn’s annual Clinet-zero goal will still have a more significant impact on the portfolio’s emissions footprint than divestment mate and Sustainability Action Plan 3.0 report, released on Dec. 1, 2020, which summarized the University’s would.

“A net-zero goal incorporates the emissions pro- latest progress in environmental sustainability made duced by all businesses within the portfolio, forcing from 2019 to 2024 with a commitment to achieve a consideration of how all sectors can accelerate a transi- 100% carbon-neutral campus by 2042. The report tion to a cleaner future,” Ammon told Penn Today. “A showed significant reduction in carbon emissions net-zero goal also acknowledges that it may be more and waste generation — largely due to March 2020’s efficient for society to offset residual emissions with campus shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Penn has reduced its overall carbon emissions by carbon capture, if such technology can be scaled cost37.2% since 2009 and “greened” its physical footprint, effectively.”

For years, student activists have been demanding according to the email, with 27 buildings achieving that Penn completely divest from fossil fuel companies. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certiIn fall 2019, the student-run group Fossil Free Penn fication, 34 buildings having green roofs, and 14 acres hosted weekly silent sit-ins every Friday in College Hall of open space having been added through the creation to push Penn to address the climate crisis. Nearly 100 of Penn Park. In 2020, Penn signed a Power Purchase members of Fossil Free Penn also shut down a Board of Agreement for the construction of two new solar energy facilities in central Pennsylvania, which will offset 75% Trustees meeting in a November 2019 protest.

Penn graduate Scott Bok, who will become chair of of both the academic campus and the University of the University’s Board of Trustees on July 1, 2021, pre- Pennsylvania Health System’s electricity consumption viously maintained that he would not answer students’ through renewable energy. The University has also afcalls to divest from fossil fuels in an interview with The firmed the absence of direct holdings of thermal coal and tar sands, the email read, which will continue going Daily Pennsylvanian.

The University expects that progress towards its net- forward.

“Working for a healthier and more livable world zero goal will occur by redirecting its capital towards investments with low or improving carbon footprints. is one of our most critical institutional priorities,” the Penn invests by partnering with external investment email read. “The battle to defeat climate change remanagers, each of whom invests in a portfolio of public quires the commitment of nations around the world and companies, private companies, or real estate, Ammon all of us personally, and one to which Penn is unwaveringly committed.” told Penn Today.

Penn will reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions from endowment investments to zero by 2050, a move that comes after years of student-led criticism for the University’s investment in fossil fuel companies.

Penn President Amy Gutmann, Provost Wendell Pritchett, Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli, and Chief Investment Officer Peter Ammon sent an email to the Penn community on Wednesday morning announcing that the Office of Investments plans to achieve the “net-zero” goal mainly through the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the University’s endowment’s underlying investments.

While the University announced it plans to achieve this goal, it will not be divesting from fossil fuels.

4 OPINION

THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

OPINION THURSDAY APRIL 8, 2021 VOL. CXXXVII, NO. 11 137th Year of Publication DANE GREISIGER President ASHLEY AHN Executive Editor HADRIANA LOWENKRON DP Editor-in-Chief ISABEL LIANG Design Editor CONOR MURRAY News Editor PIA SINGH News Editor HANNAH GROSS Assignments Editor BRITTANY DARROW Copy Editor KYLIE COOPER Photo Editor ALFREDO PRATICÒ Opinion Editor SUNNY JANG Audience Engagement Editor BRANDON PRIDE Sports Editor LOCHLAHN MARCH Sports Editor SOPHIE HUANG Video Editor QIANA ARTIS Podcast Editor ALESSANDRA PINTADO-URBANC Business Manager JASPER HUANG Analytics Manager GREG FERREY Marketing Manager EMILY CHEN Product Lab Manager ERIC HOANG Consulting Manager

THIS ISSUE ALANA KELLY DP Design Editor ALICE HEYEH 34st Design Editor QUINN ROBINSON Deputy Design Editor TYLER KLIEM Design Associate MAX MESTER News Photo Editor ANA GLASSMAN Opinion Photo Editor SAMANTHA TURNER Sports Photo Editor NICKY BELGRAD Associate Sports Editor AGATHA ADVINCULA Deputy Opinion Editor VARUN SARASWATHULA Deputy Opinion Editor VALERIE WANG Deputy Opinion Editor NINA WEI Deputy Copy Editor SARIKA RAU Deputy Copy Editor CAROLINE DONNELLY-MORAN Deputy Copy Editor AVA DOVE Deputy Copy Editor EMMA SCHULTZ Copy Associate SOPHIE NADEL Copy Associate SOPHIE APFEL Copy Associate TIFFANY PARK Copy Associate

LETTERS 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.

On a struggling campus, honest conversations about our mental health can be a path for hope Content warning: The following text contains mentions of suicide and can be disturbing and/or triggering for some readers. Please find resources listed at the bottom of the article.

Suicide is not easy to talk about. Despite its prevalence (suicide is the second leading cause of death among those between 10 and 34), it’s still a taboo subject, usually spoken about in hushed tones. Often, we can’t even bring ourselves to use the term.

When Samantha*, a Wharton sophomore, went to Penn’s Student Health Service, she found herself speaking a coded language.

“I remember I was talking to my doctor at SHS,” she told me. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to come back.’” Her doctor thought she meant that she didn’t want to come back to Penn as a student. “But in my head ... I was planning on, over winter break, just doing something, and not coming back.”

At first, it started out slowly. She described it to me as gradual, initially “feeling like life [was] a drag,” and that it was a “chore to wake up.” She began to experience passive thoughts of suicide, saying “she wouldn’t mind if something happened,” but eventually she reached a point where she couldn’t take it anymore.

Late last month at Yale University, mental illness precipitated into a tragic loss when Rachael Shaw-Rosenbaum, a first year, died by suicide. She was mourned by the Yale community, and her death ignited conversation about mental health care at the university. Notably, Yale received an “F” rating in a 2018 report from the Ruderman Family Foundation regarding the state of mental health on campuses, particularly with respect to the policies surrounding leaves of absence. Penn ranked higher than any other Ivy League institution, with a rating of D+.

Among college students, mental illness is staggeringly common. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, “30% of college students reported feeling ‘so depressed that it was difficult to function’” at some point in 2011. A 2014 study found that 11.9% of college students suffer from an anxiety disorder, 9.5% (and 13.5% of female students) suffer from an eating disorder, and approximately 20% “meet the criteria for alcohol use disorder.”

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, things have only worsened. A study from September 2020 said that, of more than 2,000 students surveyed, nearly half had moderate to severe depression, approximately 38% had moderate to severe anxiety, and just under 20% had suicidal thoughts.

Despite this, our campus-wide dialogue surrounding mental health is inadequate.

Sure, we have wellness weeks, free food, and Engagement Days sprinkled through our semester, but seldom do we get real. “[Mental health] is a topic that floats around in the background, but we don’t empathize about it, if that makes any sense,” said Darya Bershadskaya, a College junior and the external director for Penn Benjamins, a peer-counseling service on campus. “We talk about it, but we don’t empathize about it.” In other words, we don’t allow ourselves to connect with one another on a deeper level, instead only discussing mental health on a superficial level. But sometimes, the superficial can be misleading. *** If you looked at Penn student Maddy Holleran’s Instagram profile in the fall of 2013, you wouldn’t be aware of the depth of her struggles with mental health. Each photo she posted was joyful; she was grinning ear to ear, posing with friends and family. Those moments — a party, a track meet, a sunset — gave the impression that Maddy was happy, but a week into her second semester as a first year at Penn, she died by suicide. In “What Made Maddy Run,” journalist Kate Fagan writes about the real Maddy: the Maddy who struggled with both running on the track team and balancing her studies — the Maddy who didn’t understand why she was so miserable. This Maddy was only known to family and close friends.

What we see about other people isn’t the whole picture, and what other people see about us is equally incomplete.

“Even if Madison was not having the college experience everyone told her she should be having, she could certainly make it seem like she was,” Fagan writes.

Like Maddy, Samantha, the Wharton sophomore, was struggling silently but managed to keep up that facade. On the outside, it seemed like she was doing fine, but in reality, she had never been worse. She ended her first semester with straight A’s, but for her, the culture outside of academics was overwhelming. “I was doing well, even though I was struggling ... but it was more just the competition at Wharton, and feeling like everyone has their shit together, and feeling like you have to prove that you have it together, as well.”

The constant pressure of applying for clubs, interviewing, interviewing again, applying for internships, and hearing about everyone else’s successes instilled in her a potent case of imposter syndrome.

As a Black student, Samantha found solace in minority programs, where she found a community of students that understood what it meant to feel like you didn’t necessarily belong in an environment characterized by a culture of legacy. “I would look in a class and be one of only two Black people, but I would know that Black person,” she told me.

She described being fortunate to have “found her niche” through these programs, but they weren’t enough to allay the gnawing feeling that she didn’t belong.

Amid all this, her mental health was deteriorating, and she was struggling with what turned out to be an eating disorder. After working with Counseling and Psychological Services, SHS, and Student Intervention Services, Samantha decided to take a leave of absence and enroll in residential treatment. However, the unrelenting pain inside Samantha was masked by layers of appearances that she kept up. “Even my suitemate had absolutely no idea what was going on,” she said.

“When your mind tells you that you weren’t cut out for Penn, you desperately protect yourself from others finding out. The last thing you would do is reveal that you cannot

walking out of CAPS,” said Malcolm. He acknowledges that other students might not be as fortunate as him and understands that people can have bad experiences there. “But for me, it was, I think, a really good gateway. And it was very helpful for me.”

For students uncomfortable with the idea of seeing a therapist, there are plenty of other resources on campus that are peer-run. “Our mission is to listen,” said Bershadskaya. Peer counselors aim to make students feel heard in the moments where they’re overwhelmed. They don’t try to solve your problems, they just want to remind you that you’re not alone.

But for some students, even Zooming with a peer counselor can be overwhelming. Penn’s Reach-A-Peer helpline (also known as the “RAP Line”), a 24/7 text-based support line, can be a good alternative for students that are struggling.

“And it’s really just for, you know, any students who want someone to reach out to have a conversation anonymously and confidentially,” said Jennifer Ben Nathan, a College sophomore, who is the president of Penn’s RAP Line.

Professors can do a better job of integrating those resources into their syllabi and making a concerted effort in acknowledging that students struggle. In fact, the RAP Line has conducted trainings for teaching assistants in some CIS courses. “We started off doing it because it’s very common that students in those classes have very, very high stress,” said Ben Nathan, who hopes that such programs can go even further. “I feel like the same thing could be done with premed courses, like large STEM courses that are just difficult, stressful, [and] where people are really struggling to find their place.”

Those resources can help, and they have helped thousands of students. But addressing Penn Face is a deeper issue, and goes beyond simply treating students. “Maybe we’re focusing too much ... on the relationship between the student and the institution, rather than the student and the student,” said Bershadskaya. At its core, Penn Face arises from a fear of judgement — we pretend we’re okay because we’re terrified that everyone will view us as ‘less than’ if we’re honest about how we’re doing. Penn Face has nothing to do with CAPS or the University itself — it has to do with us. So, is there hope?

“I want to think yes,” Hu writes. “But the solution would have to overcome something so intrinsic to competitive environments. It would have to change who we are as the student body. It would have to be stronger than our ambition, our intellect and our drive.” She’s right. But what comes with that is the sense of community and a feeling that you’re not alone.

I was having dinner with a friend recently and brought up this article. We sat outside talking about Penn Face and our impressions of other people. She was jealous of the way I seemed so laid back and at ease, and I was jealous of the way she always seemed motivated to keep up with her classes. Then, I told her about the moments of overwhelming anxiety I experience, and she told me about her history of academic struggles.

For a brief moment, both of us felt just a little bit less insecure.

Ultimately, that’s how I think we can improve ment a l health on campus. It happens at the individual level, through moments of shared vulnerability. The less we view each other as one-dimensional, the more we can understand that we’re not alone. It’s a process that won’t happen ISABEL LIANG overnight and, like Hu lamented, requires a monumental Dr. Eells shift in culture. But I’m confident that was the director of CAPS for six months when he died by suicide in fall 2019. it can happen, not least because it already is happening. In “It was extremely shocking,” said Dr. Michal Saraf, the places like the r/UPenn subreddit, anonymous members senior clinical director at CAPS. “It was unanticipated ... of our community are quite open about their experiences and something that we had to wrestle with for some time.” with mental illness. A 2019 project, “The Other Side of His loss was devastating on many levels; he was new to the Me,” featured students sharing personal stories, often about Penn community and was himself a mental health profes- struggles they don’t share with anyone else.

But we can do more. The next time you’re talking to sional, highlighting the fact that those who dedicate their lives to treating psychic pain sometimes cannot escape their someone, go beyond the superficial and ask how they’re really doing. You might find yourself and your friends in a own.

Malcolm was appalled by our community’s silence af- surprisingly powerful moment of candor, and you might feel terwards. “I don’t know — no one talks about it,” he said. a little less alone.

“Everyone kind of forgot about it, like three days later.” But *Name has been changed for privacy reasons. this apparent fizzling out of discussion may stem from a very real concern about the nature of mental health. “As you know, part of what we also have to think about as therapists VARUN SARASWATHULA is a College junior from is just worrying about contagion,” said Dr. Batsirai Bvunza- Herndon, Va. studying neuroscience and healthcare wabaya, the director of Outreach and Prevention Services at management. His email is vsaras@sas.upenn.edu.

CAPS. Contagion is the phenomenon by which exposure to suicide (including through the media) results in increased deaths by suicidal or suicidal behavior in at-risk individuals.

CAMPUS RESOURCES: Yet, Malcolm is right: Dr. Eells’ passing is very metaphorically resonant because he was tasked with addressing our mental health on campus, but the needle has barely budged The HELP Line: 215-898-HELP with respect to how we talk about mental illness as a community.

Counseling and Psychological *** Services: 215-898-7021 (active 24/7) At the end of her column about Penn Face, Hu asks, “Is there hope?” Over the past month of working on this article, I’ve wrestled with this question as well. The attitude that Student Health Service: many Penn students have is that the mental health crisis is 215-746-3535 perpetrated by University administrators who don’t have students’ best interests at heart. The issue is simply that Office of the Vice Provost for there aren’t enough therapists at CAPS, that there aren’t University Life: 215-898-6081 enough breaks, that professors assign too much work. While these might be true, it’s not the complete picture.

The truth is that there are an abundance of resources University Chaplain’s Office: available for students on campus 24/7. “People want to share 215-898-8456 — people want to get support,” said Dr. Bvunzawabaya. Yet, they often don’t, perhaps because CAPS is demonized for only being short-term and for being difficult to access.

Reach-A-Peer Helpline: These are complaints that both Samantha and Malcom 215-573-2727 (every day from 9 p.m. find absolutely maddening. “CAPS saved my life,” Sato 1 a.m.) mantha told me bluntly. If it weren’t for the counselors and 215-515-7332 (texting service psychiatrists who worked with her and encouraged her to available 24/7) seek further treatment, she might not be here.

“I remember, it always felt like a breath of fresh air

handle this place and risk being seen as weak,” 2020 College graduate Lucy Hu writes in a brilliant column from 2017. “The facade of being OK manifests as a shield for your reputation.” Samantha desperately wanted to convince everyone that she was doing okay precisely because she was deeply insecure about her own worth as a student — and it worked. However, the insidious thing about Penn Face is that it’s a two-way street. We have to keep in mind that when we look around, the people we envy for being put-together could actually be struggling beyond belief. *** Malcolm*, a Wharton junior, describes his brain as one that doesn’t have an off switch. “It’s kind of like a hell of complexity and infiniteness,” he said. Malcolm was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, a disease characterized by recursive thinking and anxieties. “It’s like you’re always walking around with a 20-pound or 30-pound backpack.”

If you’re a finance major, you may know Malcolm. However, you almost certainly don’t know that he has OCD. “I don’t think people really get it,” he admitted. In fact, he didn’t really get it either — despite experiencing anxiety in high school — until his first year at Penn. After visiting SHS in fall 2018 for a cold, he casually mentioned that he experienced stress from time to time to his physician, who referred him to CAPS for anxiety. Eventually, after a series of cognitive tests, he was diagnosed with OCD. “So from that point on, for the last year, I’ve been going to therapy, virtually.”

Despite a pervasive culture of Penn Face on campus, Malcolm doesn’t see his illness as a source of shame. “I think that it is kind of stigmatized, but I feel like it’s something really important,” he said. “So I’m very open about it with my friends.” Yet, he laments the fact that at a larger scale, discourse on campus surrounding mental health is sparse, or at times, simply performative. It’s easy to post on your Instagram story in support of mental health, but actually bringing up those issues in conversation with your friends is much more difficult. Malcolm was most disappointed in the absence of campus-wide discourse surrounding mental health after the death of Dr. Greg Eells.

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

OPINION 5

THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021

EDITORIAL

In light of Biden’s Title IX review, Penn must do more to combat sexual assault

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ast month, President Joe Biden announced an executive order reviewing Title IX regulations and how they pertain to sexual misconduct.

This review comes less than a year after the Trump administration released rules that, among other things, narrowed the definition of sexual harassment to offenses that are “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive” as well as restricted the type of offenses universities must intervene in to those occurring on campus or “in conjunction with an education program or activity.”

At Penn, the review was met with a mostly positive reception, with student leaders supporting the review. However, those same leaders also argued that Penn itself must not only implement the guidelines effectively, but also increase its efforts in combatting sexual misconduct.

Sexual misconduct plagues Penn’s campus. In 2019, 25.9% of undergraduate women at Penn, 21.5% of transgender, genderqueer, and nonbinary undergraduates, and 7.3% of undergraduate men reported unwanted sexual contact. Given the size of Penn’s

campus, thousands of students have been victimized, and more will surely follow. Through increasing education on sexual assault prevention, increasing resources for Penn Violence Prevention, and helping survivors understand their options, the University can do exactly that.

SUKHMANI KAUR

Most obviously, Penn must improve education on issues surrounding sexual assault, harassment, and

misconduct. Education is an often suggested tool to combat sexual assault, with bystander training and risk reduction being particular topics that should be taught, as well as ways in which the prevalence of sexual violence can be reduced. Therefore, Penn should mandate additional sexual violence prevention programs.

Through focusing sexual misconduct prevention efforts on student groups such as fraternities and student clubs, as one activist suggested, Penn could take a powerful step in combatting sexual violence.

Second, increase resources for PVP. Over the past few years, PVP has been relocated twice. Despite the second relocation being a move back on campus, the program’s move off campus angered students, with many arguing it signaled a lack of commitment by Penn to tackling sexual violence. The University must rebuild trust with the Penn community by increasing resources for PVP. For example, PVP should expand its full-time staff from its current number of four to six. While such an increase may seem arbitrary, it is much more preferable for PVP to be overstaffed than understaffed, as occurred when the program lacked

a director back in 2019. Hiring more staff members sends a powerful signal to the Penn community: that the University is doing everything in its power to combat sexual violence.

Finally, Penn must do a better job providing survivors with a clear picture of their options. Just 22.4% of students said they were “very or extremely knowledgeable” about finding help if they are a victim of sexual assault, and a mere 9% of students said they were “very or extremely knowledgeable” about what happens after reporting sexual assault. These startling statistics need correction. To combat this problem, the University should mandate annual education for students on what happens after an assault is reported, as well as what their options are if they are a victim of sexual assault.

Sexual assault and harassment are epidemics plaguing American society, and Penn’s campus is no exception. However, through doing a better job helping survivors understand their options, educating students at large, and increasing support for PVP, the University can combat this pervasive problem.

Some lessons from pandemic life, one year later Andy’s Angle | COVID-19 is altering the way we view ourselves and our relation to others — possibly, for the better

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ith nearly 3 million vaccine doses administered per day in the United States, we are growing more optimistic than ever that this troubled episode of our lives will soon be behind us. Indoor gatherings are slowly becoming more socially acceptable. Universities across the nation, including Penn, are resuming in-person instruction this August. And, contrary to the recommendations of public health officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci, some states have even lifted mask mandates. For the most part, this gradual transition to a post-COVID-19 world has understandably been met by widespread enthusiasm. An inescapable feeling of pandemic fatigue is rendering people impatient, restless, and more eager than ever to gather in groups without stigma or the risk of contracting the virus. However, our desire for normalcy regrettably translates into a longing for the past, high anticipation for the future, and outright demonization of the present. I fear that we are too willing to put the pandemic behind us and risk abandoning some of its indispensable lessons.

My first takeaway from COVID-19 is that we should always be in search of new pastimes. What it originally meant to be a senior in high school was to go on day

trips, attend wild parties, and cycle through a series of shared hobbies with friends. What it meant to be a senior in 2020 was to personalize and redefine one’s concept of fun in quarantine. When the first wave of the pandemic struck Seoul, South Korea in January, and classes haphazardly moved online, some friends and I each bought a Nintendo Switch and decided to play the latest version of Pokémon as a means of revisiting our childhoods. Our casual playthrough of the story lasted at most 12 hours, and we were soon ready to move onto the next game on our list. However, I funnily enough grew attached and dabbled in Pokémon’s competitive scene for a few months, devoting hundreds of hours to building teams for online tournaments.

For me, quarantine was characterized not by laying in bed all day, but exploring an endless stream of intriguing pastimes. A random YouTube playlist of famous piano concertos was enough to reignite my passion for classical music, motivating me to dust off my family’s piano and learn a couple of recognizable pieces. After a night indulging in “The Queen’s Gambit,” I played a few hundred games with my new Chess.com account. Even when quarantining turns into a distant memory, we cannot understate or forget

the value of so-called “quarantine activities.”

My second takeaway is that we can always find more time for family. When I had a free night on my hands in high school, I opted to spend time more often with friends rather than family. Lengthy conversations with my parents would sometimes only compound the stress from a demanding workload or the strenuous pressure to be a high achiever. However, two online semesters, coupled with my city’s stay-at-home order, gave me the opportunity to patch up old wounds and make lasting memories at the simplest of settings like the dinner table. In quarantine, time I likely would have otherwise spent playing poker or going bowling with friends was spent more meaningfully. In a post-COVID-19 world, we will regain opportunities to leave our homes and enjoy the company of friends. Nonetheless, the pandemic has hopefully taught us that our new normal should make more room for family time.

My final takeaway is that we should appreciate solitude. We, as a society, regard outgoing people very highly, and those who are more reserved are deemed unconnected and withdrawn. Our social conventions dictate that we should put ourselves out there and take every opportunity to meet new people. However, this

mentality, which overemphasizes the importance of exiting one’s comfort zone to socialize, undermines the ability for introspection and self-improvement.

Alone time affords us the chance, for example, to express ourselves through Spotify playlists, write an entry in a dream journal, or carry out home workouts.

By social distancing from others, we are essentially self-distancing, too — taking a step back, examining ourselves from afar, and critically reflecting. In the aftermath of COVID-19, we should not need an excuse like a quarantine to have some time to ourselves and, in turn, search for fulfillment.

It goes without saying that varying aspects of our lifestyles have changed as a result of the pandemic.

Some practices, such as mask-wearing, will be temporary. Others, such as the transition of some jobs to online platforms, will be more permanent. Less conspicuously, yet more importantly, COVID-19 is altering the way we view ourselves and our relation to others — as I see it, for the better.

ANDY YOON is a first year in the College and Wharton from Seoul, South Korea. His email is andyy327@wharton.upenn.edu.

What happened to candidate Biden’s immigration policies?

Guest Column | The president campaigned on reversing many Trump-era policies. Now, he has to do better.

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o administration, regardless of party, should disregard the humanity of individuals seeking refuge.

In February, the Biden administration opened an emergency facility in western Texas scheduled to hold up to 700 hundred migrant children ranging from ages 13 to 17. While the administration has cited safety concerns for the migrant children due to the COVID-19 pandemic as reasons for adding another facility, these camps are often shamefully left in a gruesome, unsafe, and dangerous living condition. According to a March interview conducted with migrant children, many reported sleeping on the floor, rarely seeing light, and lacking nutritional resources. These are not living conditions any parent would want for their children, and it’s time for America to grapple with their constant disregard for immigrants, often minorities, when they come seeking help.

Similar to the Trump administration, the Biden administration is using the COVID-19 pandemic as a justification for immigration policies that benefit no one. Biden’s reopening of the Carrizo immigration facility as well as the opening of a facility in Midland, Tex. facility, a former oil rig camp, to house children is unnecessary and promotes an agenda of harsh immigration policy. Making matters worse, the administration has also apparently discussed plans to use

military bases as immigration facilities. Although the decision is explained as being due to social distancing guidelines, many of the children who will be housed in these facilities have sponsors or family members in the United States. ready to welcome them home. The children have even already completed a two-week quarantine. Thus, COVID-19 safety is clearly not the true reason behind the opening of the migration center, and the administration must do better processing sponsors and releasing children from inhumane, jail-like facilities. Reopening these facilities is a step backwards in immigration policy.

The continuation of these facilities, which lack cleanliness and resources for children suffering from trauma, reflects America’s disregard for migrant children. As representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) tweeted on Feb. 23, “As long as we see people seeking a better life as ‘aliens’ instead of fellow human beings, our immigration system will continue to fail us.”

When running for president, Biden’s official position strongly condemned Trump’s immigration policies, citing them as immoral, uneducated, and bad for the economy. He claimed he would build a “fair and humane immigration system.” In his first 100 days, Biden promised that he would roll back Trump’s immigration policies such as barriers to asylum seeking,

family separation, and mass deportations. In some ways, Biden has made efforts to fulfill his campaign goals, notably with the proposal for the immigration reform bill that would offer more pathways to citizenship for many. However, in other actions, the Biden administration has not lived up to their promises.

Although Biden signed a 100-day moratorium on deportations on his first day in office, hundreds of people have been deported just in the past few months violating his own policies and calling into question his commitment to fair immigration policy.

President Biden does not need to reinvent the wheel.

From January 2016 to June 2017, the U.S. government tested an initiative called Family Case Management Program to provide support to families seeking asylum without utilizing detention centers or electric monitoring. FCMP had compliance rates of over 99% for court hearings, ICE appointments, and departures. Providing community-based support to immigrants — rather than relying on detention facilities — improves court appearance rates and compliance with final case outcomes while minimizing the disruption to families and damage to immigrants’ mental and physical health.

Community-based alternatives are not only more humane, but also less expensive. The cost of detention is about $133.99 per adult per day and $319 per family

bed per day. In contrast, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, a nonprofit organization, provided case management support and housing to families for an average of $14.05 per individual per day.

Rather than building new detention facilities, President Biden should restart the FCMP and redirect resources and funding to scale up nonprofit initiatives.

Immediately upon arrival in the U.S., immigrants should be screened and assigned a temporary ID, court appointment, and community organization to guide them through the immigration process.

President Biden must build an immigration system based on transparency, fairness, and respect for human dignity. These alternatives build a streamlined immigration process and preserve the values of compassion and humanity that our country claims to value and President Biden has promised to represent. It’s time to stop treating refugees as anything but human. It is time to start recognizing immigrants for what they are: an essential part of America’s economy, identity, and infrastructure.

PENN DEMOCRATS works to advance progressive policies within the Democratic Party at Penn and around Philadelphia. Its executive board sets goals for the organization and is made up of nine students.

Housing selection was a mess. Here’s how we fix it.

Emily’s Eye | Many first years were left in the dark and with broken arrangements, a symptom of a system that doesn’t work well

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ousing has always been a stressful and confusing process for students, especially with Penn’s lotterybased placement system. While intended to provide fair selection, the lottery system and its randomized time slots are actually often detrimental to students and their hopes for housing.

This year, rising sophomores were especially affected. For starters, Penn recently implemented a new policy requiring all sophomores to live on campus, which already caused an uproar among the Class of 2024. While the University’s desire to foster community engagement is understandable, there are certainly much better ways to promote bonding and connection than by forcing students to live somewhere.

“Living on campus for another year is really inconvenient for a lot of students. There are many students looking forward to living in chapter houses for Greek life or even just looking forward to a less costly living situation,” said College first year Mahisha Tanna.

To make matters worse, rising juniors and seniors receive priority when selecting housing, causing rising sophomores to be stuck with leftover options that do not always accommodate their living wishes and expectations. I am sure all first years can attest to the fact that this year has already been incredibly difficult, so Penn’s policies, which create more disappointing news, are completely uncalled for. Not only have first years missed out socially on their entire first semester of college and endured a full year of online classes, but many are now stuck with unfavorable housing thanks to Penn.

With the housing lottery, each student is assigned a randomized time slot to select their housing. They are encouraged to plan roommate arrangements in advance, and the individual with the earliest time slot can select the room for all roommates.

Despite making roommate arrangements, many students I spoke with discovered that the only rooms left could not accommodate their desired number of residents.

This led to many desperate roommate split-ups and forced many students to live with people they do not know at all.

Not only was this completely unfair, this was also incredibly disappointing for many students, including Tanna, who was unable to live with her original roommates.

“At the end of the weeklong process my roommates and I still didn’t have a room, and we were randomly assigned after going through all the last minute stresses of finding new roommates since there were no rooms available for us during our time slots,” she said.

In addition, there were many technical difficulties on the primary housing site, MyHomeAtPenn. Many students were forced to wait extended periods of time before the site would load, defeating the purpose of even having a time slot. Some of those who reached out to Student Residential Services, including myself, received little advice except to simply refresh the page and wait for it to load. Being told that I had no choice but to sit around and wait while the housing options became more and more limited was a frustrating response to hear during such a stressful time.

“Our group definitely had a disappointing time slot,

and on top of that we couldn’t even access the site until 20 minutes after our slot opened due to the website crashing,” said College first year Aakaash Margam.

“Now our group of four is in a three-bedroom high rise, and we’ve been trying to literally pay people to trade them for a four-bedroom, but no luck.” The fact that students are willing to spend even more money to reverse an arrangement they have been put in by their own school is extremely upsetting.

Another first year could not even select housing as her and her roommates’ time slots all conflicted with an important athletic event. They responsibly contacted SRS days in advance with their top six housing selections, but did not receive a response until 15 minutes before housing completely closed. Instead of receiving one of the options requested, they were told that they could not be placed anywhere and “fill-a-bed” was their only option.

In this situation, their roommate group would be split up and each individual would move into any open bedroom on campus, therefore living with strangers.

Furthermore, the lottery system fails to consider those with financial barriers. Nursing first year Oulaya Louaddi, who identifies as first generation, low-income, recalls feeling “cornered,” as there were not many options economically feasible for her and her roommates due to the change in room rates in certain buildings and room setups.

“Even when we made our list of buildings we hoped to get a spot in, it became clear as the ‘move to another building’ days went on that we would not be able to get our first, second, or even third options. Seeing other

students who claimed units and looked for people to fill them after and others making side deals for better rooms made us feel even more isolated. The system doesn’t keep FGLI students in mind at all, and even though we could have gotten a quad in a building we wanted, we couldn’t because it would have cost us too much,” Louaddi said.

Due to the unfortunate events resulting from the housing process, current first-year students feel helpless and frustrated. While there will never be a perfect housing system to satisfy everyone, Penn must improve theirs to accommodate the needs and desires of their students.

“The time slot system is moronic,” College first year Chapin Lenthall-Cleary said. “Rather than making students select rooms at specific times, they could just have each student input a list of preferences and use an algorithm to optimally match students to rooms.” This method would be similar to the system used for class registration. This is also randomized, making it a fair system to maximize students’ preferences. Furthermore, establishing a more responsive and attentive Residential Services is a simple fix that would substantially decrease students’ stress and confusion.

If Penn wants sophomores to live on campus so badly, the least they could do is provide adequate, affordable, and accessible housing selection options.

EMILY CHANG is a College first year studying Sociology from Holmdel, N.J. Her email address is changem@sas.upenn.edu.

6 OPINION

THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Penn, it’s time for financial transparency

The college admissions process needs an overhaul

Brick in the Wall | Penn’s administration must be more open with students about its financial decisions

The Breakdown | The college admissions scandal uncovered the underlying problems of wealth and stress seeded in our college admissions process

I

n many ways, COVID-19 transformed college into an unrecognizable institution: Internships and trips were canceled, the once bustling campuses became quiet and deserted, and lecture halls were replaced with computer screens. Yet one thing remained the same: the cost. Despite largely remote instruction, Penn joined a long list of colleges that elected to freeze tuition instead of lowering it, capping the cost at $53,166. Ultimately, the full cost of a Penn education in the 2020-2021 school year came out to be $76,826.

In the face of such widespread economic crises, the cost of college feels particularly outrageous.

A number of students nationwide actually filed class action lawsuits against their colleges in response, arguing that the exorbitantly high price tag was unjustifiable. Not only did students not have access to essential campus resources like libraries, labs, and gyms, but many argued that the general quality of education decreased — despite professors’ best efforts, online classes couldn’t hold a candle to in-person instruction. So, if we’re not paying for the quality of our education or campus life, what are we paying for?

The pandemic has highlighted the need for financial transparency throughout higher education. College is an investment, and a costly one at that — in the period between 1989 and 2016, tuition rates doubled, growing eight times faster than real wage growth. As a result, our generation is significantly worse off when it comes to paying for college than the generations prior. And these high tuition rates can be debilitating. In the past decade, student debt has increased by over 100%, reaching a record $1.56 trillion in 2020. If students are expected to take on such an immense, life-changing investment, the burden ought to fall on Penn to show exactly what that investment is going towards.

While student frustrations around a lack of administrative transparency is not a new occurrence, this past year, administrative budgeting changes have been especially shrouded in secrecy. For example, according to Student Registration and Financial Services, the general fee typically funds on-campus services such as recreation centers and student activities. But despite remote instruction and limited access to campus facilities, the general fee was only reduced by ten percent. Students who opted to remain at home both semesters still had to pay the $5,354 general fee. First years were also startled by the administrations’ recent announcement to impose a second-year dining plan requirement on students. Even though this plan is meant to “alleviate concerns about the potential of food insecurity,” the dining plan only offers one new option, priced at around $4,000. Students, indignant at this sudden additional expense, dubbed

it a “blatant cash grab.”

Penn’s decision to not reduce tuition came at a time when the pandemic was placing intense financial stress on families across the globe. In the absence of rent relief, consistent stimulus payments, and general government support, many families were left vulnerable. The Washington Post reported that, in the past year, college enrollment plummeted among low-income students.

Despite this, first-generation, low-income students at Penn noted that after the pandemic, a lack of communication and financial support left their enrollment hanging in the balance. Small, accumulated expenses weren’t accounted for in financial aid packages, and students cited a lack of consistency from Student Financial Services in responding to their concerns.

Especially for a high-profile school such as Penn, limiting students’ ability to properly anticipate the costs of college is irresponsible at best and actively deceptive at worst. Rising costs coupled with lack of clarity surrounding tuition prices and campus fees impedes a student’s ability to plan appropriately for college. Opening up avenues of communication between the administration and the student body would make strides towards ensuring they remain equitable even in times of financial struggle, especially when it comes to supporting FGLI students. College costs should not be considered a burden that students are forced to bear with no second thoughts — if students are going to be taking on thousands of dollars in debt, Penn ought to clearly define where that money is going.

The steps towards transparency would be simple: ensure incoming students are aware of the cost of attending and of the financial aid that would be provided to them, and ensure that current students know exactly where their money is going. If students were aware of what expenses such as tuition, general fees, and additional dining plans were going towards, it would help hold the administration accountable on their budgeting decisions. It’s hard to make college more equitable when students are in the dark about what they’re fighting for. If changes must be made to the university budget, these decisions must be made in tandem with the students instead of behind their backs in order to decrease confusion and frustration.

Financial transparency is not just a matter of goodwill, but necessity. Penn has nothing to lose from additional transparency, and it would make a significant step towards making higher education more accessible, fair, and trustworthy.

TAJA MAZAJ is a College first year from King of Prussia, Pa. Her email is tajam@sas. upenn.edu.

T

here are three ways to get into elite United States colleges and universities: the front door, the side door, and the back door. The front door admits students through the process most of us expect yet dread with college admissions: a slew of application essays, FAFSA documents, and standardized tests. Students who enter college through the front door are — at least in theory — judged on their merit and what they can add to a campus.

Acceptance into college via the back door, only available to exceptionally wealthy individuals, requires million-dollar-plus donations to universities.

While legal, students admitted to colleges through this process are largely successful due to their family’s monetary contributions to a school rather than their merit.

Varsity Blues requires that universities address the root causes of wealth and stress that corrupt the college admissions process. Colleges and universities, therefore, must return to an admissions system that accepts students based on merit and not wealth.

Schools should not cease to accept donations from alumni — endowments help create new buildings, fund extracurricular programs, and provide financial aid to low-income students. Wealth, however, can no longer play as important a role in admissions as it currently does.

To accomplish this, schools must examine processes such as early decision and standardized testing. For example, studies show that wealthy individuals score better on standardized tests than those of lower socioeconomic status. This, however, does not necessitate an abolishment of the tests or a critique of wealthy families for acting within the confines of the college admissions system. Instead, the onus rests on colleges and universities to remain test-optional to ensure that wealth does not play as prevalent a role as it currently does in admissions.

Early decision applications exist as another disadvantage in the admissions process as many low-income students lack the financial flexibility to apply during those deadlines. Colleges and universities must structurally change the system by lowering the number of students accepted during early decision periods.

Operation Varsity Blues also exposed the obsession with attending elite institutions that grips much of our nation. Often, the stress to attend top-tier universities originates from parents. For instance, parents rather than the students themselves used the college admissions scandal to guarantee admissions. A report that discusses how a focus on academic achievement leads to ethical lapses poignantly states that “many parents … seeking coveted spots for their children in elite colleges are failing to focus on what really matters in this process. In an effort to give their kids everything, these parents often end up robbing them of what counts.” Students, however, also must take personal responsibility to lower the amount of stress attached to the college admissions process.

All told, colleges and universities have neglected to substantively solve the structural problems of wealth and stress that have corrupted the admissions process. It’s time to change and ensure that colleges and universities equitably open up all doors for students.

SYDNEY JUDGE

The side door — revealed from Operation Varsity Blues, a national investigation into illegal admissions processes — enabled rich families to cheat and bribe their kids into college. A 204-page affidavit from the FBI demonstrated that wealthy parents — including actors Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman — paid to have SAT and ACT proctors change test results, photoshop pictures of their children into extracurricular activities they didn’t participate in, fabricate transcripts, lie about disabilities to gain accommodations for standardized tests, and bribe college athletic directors and coaches to recruit non-students as athletes. All told, parents paid anywhere from $200,000 to $6.5 million to guarantee admissions into elite schools such as Yale University, the University of Southern California, and Stanford University.

Despite the clear ethical issues with the sideand back-door admissions process, colleges and universities have failed to adequately address the underlying problems. The few actions taken by colleges such as the University of Southern California and the University of California system — such as clear documentation and improved verification protocols — offer mere bandaid solutions.

Fixing the problems revealed from Operation

DANIEL GUREVITCH is a College first year studying political science and philosophy from Wynnewood, Pa. His email is dgure@ sas.upenn.edu.

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Student-proposed UA resolution to define antisemitism tabled after debate over definition Critics alleged the definition could censor criticism of Israel and advocacy for Palestinian rights KAMILLE HOUSTON & JACK STAROBIN Senior Reporter & Contributing Reporter

The Undergraduate Assembly indefinitely tabled a student-proposed resolution for Penn to adopt a definition of antisemitism after critics alleged the definition could censor criticism of Israel and advocacy for Palestinian rights.

The resolution, proposed during a general body meeting on Sunday night by College seniors Yarden Wiesenfeld and Sam Kim, would have tasked the UA with urging Penn to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. Multiple students attended the meeting to speak against the proposal, arguing that the IHRA’s definition has been used to target Palestinian activists and does not adequately define antisemitism. The resolution was tabled after about an hour of debate.

The IHRA’s definition — which was quoted in the student-proposed resolution — states that antisemitism is “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The IHRA further lists 11 examples of what it considers contemporary antisemitism — including “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” — although these examples were not included in the text of the resolution. These examples concerned critics for allegedly conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

In 2018, however, the IHRA released a statement clarifying that its definition of antisemitism must include all of its 11 examples, and that the language of its definition cannot be changed, otherwise it is no longer the IHRA definition.

Many students who spoke in opposition to the proposed definition are members of Penn Against the Occupation, a student organization working to foster “open discussion and meaningful action toward ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”

Both Wiesenfeld and Kim are affiliated with the Penn chapter of Students Supporting Israel, a proIsrael advocacy group.

College first year and PAO member Zane Pasha, who spoke at the meeting, said that the IHRA’s definition could silence criticisms that many Palestinian students at Penn share: that Israel occupies Indigenous Palestinian land, establishes systems of apartheid, and discriminates against Palestinians.

College senior and PAO member Elsa WefesPotter, who also spoke at the meeting, added that adopting the definition could limit the ability of Palestinian students to freely express their identities

should those identities exist in opposition to the Israeli government or its policies.

In an emailed statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, however, Wiesenfeld wrote that the definition would not censor criticism of Israel.

“The IHRA definition cannot — and should not — be used to silence or censor criticism of Israeli policy; in fact, IHRA explicitly states, ‘criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic,’” Wiesenfeld

feel that it conflates antisemitism with anti-Zionism, the movement or group of movements opposed to the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.

Like Pasha, Steinig pointed to the examples included with the IHRA definition as a method of censoring Palestinian activists and individuals who are critical of Israel. She added that such definitions of antisemitism have previously been weaponized against Palestinian activists on college campuses.

Former President and 1968 Wharton graduate

EZRA TROY

Students believe the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism does not adequately define the term.

wrote.

Wiesenfeld wrote that she and Kim proposed the resolution to spur Penn to more proactively combat antisemitism, noting recent spikes in antisemitic incidents across Pennsylvania and the United States.

Wiesenfeld added that she feels Penn must establish criteria for identifying acts of hate against minority groups aside from its general condemnation of hate speech in the Code of Student Conduct.

“It is critical to have a definition of antisemitism that will educate Penn students on how to identify acts of hate against the Jewish community,” Wiesenfeld wrote.

College senior and PAO member Rachel Steinig said the IHRA definition of antisemitism is controversial within the Jewish community because some

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Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2019 to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism to target anti-Israel movements on college campuses.

In 2011, a former student sued the University of California, Berkeley on the grounds that the University created a hostile environment for Jewish students by failing to prevent anti-Israel demonstrations on campus. The same year, the Zionist Organization of America filed a similar complaint against Rutgers University arguing that demonstrations for Palestinian rights created an antisemitic environment.

Kenneth Stern, the lead drafter of the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism, previously wrote an opinion column in The Guardian condemning the use of the definition to silence criticism of Israel.

College junior and PAO member Marissa Ephron, a former Daily Pennsylvanian reporter, said she felt concerned that adopting the definition could lead to censorship of pro-Palestine scholars like Angela Davis in Penn classrooms and that it could result in misplaced condemnation of students who oppose the definition as antisemitic.

“I am Israeli. I am Mizrahi Jewish. And it’s just really somewhat ridiculous to me to insinuate in some way that those who would oppose this

definition are antisemitic,” Ephron said.

Ephron said the definition would also fail to protect Jewish students from white supremacy, a source of antisemitic hate and violence, because the definition does not address white supremacy as a form of antisemitism.

“Any understanding of antisemitism needs to be understood within the framework of white supremacy and within the framework of racism,” Ephron said. “The fact that there are six to seven out of the eleven examples included in this IHRA definition that solely focus on Israel really shows that there is a misunderstanding of where the dangers to Jews in this present day and in the past lie.”

Steinig said she felt it is inappropriate for the UA to vote on a definition of antisemitism, as many members are not Jewish and may not understand the nuances of the definition, adding that it would also be difficult to vote on a definition that is not unanimously supported by Penn’s Jewish community.

“There are such deep divisions on this issue that it’s simply not possible for there to be a definition of antisemitism that all of the Jewish community members at Penn would support,” Steinig said.

UA President and College senior Mercedes Owens said the proposal was primarily presented as a means of educating members of the executive board on the topic, regardless if they reached a vote.

When Wiesenfeld and Kim initially approached her about the resolution, Owens said she was transparent about her lack of knowledge on the subject and her concern on whether the UA could deliberate on the topic.

“While we obviously condemn acts of violence against any community, we don’t have the authority or education to define systems of inequality on the University level, or the national level,” Owens said.

Owens said she ultimately allowed Wiesenfeld and Kim to present the proposal despite her concern because she doesn’t believe in making decisions for the rest of the assembly, adding that students have the right to present topics to the UA. Both Kim and Wiesenfeld expressed disappointment in the outcome of the vote.

“I don’t think it’s ever appropriate to be neutral when it comes to racism and hate speech,” Kim wrote in an emailed statement to the DP. While the resolution has been tabled indefinitely, Owens said she encourages Wiesenfeld and Kim to reach out to Penn administration if they want to pursue the proposal.

Kim wrote that although Wiesenfeld and Kim are still in the process of defining their next steps, they are determined to push Penn to recognize a definition of antisemitism.

Steinig, who was pleased with the outcome of the vote, said she would support adopting the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism because she feels it is more explicit on what antisemitism looks like and includes examples of how antisemitism can manifest in such forms as conspiracy theories.

“If a definition of antisemitism is to be adopted, it should be adopted with the primary goal of protecting Jewish students at a university,” Steinig said.

“Not with the primary goal of targeting activists.”

KYLIE COOPER

Fossil Free Penn members hold up a sign reading “Stop funding climate change!” after shutting down a Board of Trustees meeting on Nov. 8, 2019.

CLIMATE FRONT PAGE

The details of Penn’s Wednesday afternoon announcement were also scrutinized at the seminar.

Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions and former Faculty Senate Chair Steven Kimbrough asked administrators to explain what the plan will change in terms of how the University decides its investments.

In response, Chief Investment Officer Peter Ammon said the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 will still help the University think more critically about its investments, even though the University does not plan to completely divest.

Ammon told Penn Today that the net-zero approach allows Penn to influence the companies in which it invests, while divestment would mean Penn’s voice is not a part of the company’s conversations around climate policy and clean energy.

Kimbrough also said that as many companies, including some that Penn invests in, move toward net-zero emissions themselves, the plan may be passive on the University’s part because the companies, not Penn, make the decision to reduce emissions.

Kosigi, who attended the meeting, said that while SSAP is glad to see the University listening to student concerns about the endowment’s environmental impact, the plan is “very far from ambitious.”

She added that the University’s goal for net-zero emissions by 2050 puts it on the same timeline as

BP, an oil company. She said that this means the plan does not constitute a real step forward by Penn, as it continues to align with the fossil fuel industry.

“Having the same timeline as big oil is just not an act of leadership. It’s not something [SSAP is] going to applaud,” Kosigi said.

FFP leaders also criticized the plan for its lengthy timeline, noting that the plan relies on the industries themselves to become carbon neutral, rather than applying financial pressure through divestment.

“Penn’s plan is to sit back and hope that the world will become a better place, but that’s not going to happen,” Glasser said. “With them just sitting back, they’re committing to twiddling their thumbs while the world burns.”

The difference between divestment and net-zero emissions, Engineering junior and FFP coordinator Ari Bortman said, is that divestment would create financial consequences for the harm the fossil fuel industry causes to human life.

Bortman added that a net-zero emissions goal allows the University to continue to invest in fossil fuel companies while reaching neutrality through carbon offsets.

Glasser added that by maintaining investments in the fossil fuel industry, Penn is supporting the human costs of fossil fuels, including the destruction of Indigenous land, disease, and death.

“Nobody should feel any safer about our future after today,” she said.

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FULLER BACKPAGE

and teams can have such an impact in the lives of young people. And I think it’s our responsibility to make that impact.”

Fuller’s tie to the community has only gotten stronger as he raised his children in the Philadelphia area.

“I met my wife the first week of college and we were good friends throughout college,” Fuller said. “We went on our first date the year after we graduated, dated for a couple of years, and then we got married. All three of my kids are born in Philadelphia and they are die-hard Philly fans, born and raised. Some of my friends from home who are Washington [Football Team] fans might have a problem with that, but it is what it is.”

This past year, following the protests last summer and heightened awareness about racial justice, Fuller’s commitment to service has taken on new avenues. Fuller has spent the past year reflecting on and educating himself about how he can be a better ally for marginalized communities.

“Like so many others, what we witnessed over this past year with Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and so many others, really opened my eyes,”

Fuller said. “It forced me to do a lot of self-reflection, but also a lot of self-education. I did a lot of reading, podcasts, movies, and videos. I still feel like I have a way to go, but I feel like it’s very important that people actively take part in these initiatives.”

Fuller has been using his social media platforms, especially Twitter, to post informational content surrounding Black History Month, racial equity in sports, anti-Jewish hatred, as well as other social justice issues. For Fuller, this advocacy has tangible impacts at Penn.

“Sports is an area that brings people together,” Fuller said. “People from all different backgrounds and all different walks of life come together and work together for the common goal and become one. I am going to continue to work to educate myself, but also working with others to make sure we have a division, and we have a community at Penn that is truly inclusive and is supporting everybody equally.”

After 20 years as head coach of the Penn men’s soccer program, Fuller moved into administration, serving as special advisor to the athletic director and member of the Division’s Senior Leadership Team, acting as a liaison between coaching staff and administration. He has served as senior associ-

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

ate athletics director for the past three years.

Fuller feels that the knowledge he gained in Penn’s organizational dynamics program has been especially formative to his administrative work.

However, the hardest part of taking on his administrative roles was missing the meaningful relationships that he formed with the student-athletes whom he coached.

“There is nothing that can mimic or take the place of a relationship between a coach and a player,” Fuller said. “I have some really good relationships with some of our student-athletes, but it’s nothing like the relationship they have with their coach.”

Since he is no longer out on the field coaching, Fuller has to make a special effort to be involved in the holistic development of student-athletes.

“It’s so important for a leader to remain connected to the front lines,” Fuller said. “I really try to build a relationship with the teams that I directly oversee and that means I’m traveling with them on occasion, attending as many games as I can, being present on the sideline, and being a part of their competitive experience, the wins and the losses.”

As Fuller assumes his new role as interim athletic director, his priority is facilitating a smooth

transition back to in-person competition as well as laying a foundation for fall sports. He hopes to maintain stability and the department’s current initiatives until new leadership is identified.

“Dr. Calhoun deserves a great deal of credit, because I think she really did focus on building the human capital within Penn athletics and focusing on the people,” Fuller said. “We have a really deep, talented organization right now. Once Dr. Calhoun departs, I don’t think we’re going to miss a beat because we have outstanding people in the right roles, and we work very well together.”

While Fuller has not yet thought about who will step into the full-time position of athletics director and whether he intends to submit himself for consideration, he said that the future athletics director must stay grounded in the student-athlete experience.

“It’s going to be really important for whoever steps into the role that Dr. Calhoun vacates to find a way to stay connected to the student-athletes,” Fuller said. “Regardless of the role I’m in, as we look to next year, when we return to fall sports and we have what everybody is hoping is a more normal year, I intend to continue to be very visible and present with our teams, our student-athletes, and our coaches, because that’s why we’re all in it.”

Looking back at Penn women’s basketball’s March Madness runs SPORTS | The Quakers have represented the Ivy League five times EZRA TROY Sports Reporter

Since the NCAA created the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament in 1982, schools from the Ivy League have qualified for the tournament 27 times. The Ancient Eight used to send their conference champion to the tournament, but since the introduction of the Ivy League Tournament in 2017, the winner of the tournament has played in March Madness.

The Quakers have represented the Ivy League in the tournament five times in program history, all since 2000.

In addition to qualifying for the tournament by winning the conference title four times, the Red and Blue won the inaugural Ivy League Tournament in 2017.

Penn’s first appearance in March Madness occurred in 2001. A team that many consider the greatest in Penn women’s basketball history, the 2001 Quakers were led by all-time great Diana Caramanico. Caramanico was coming off her third straight Ivy League Player of the Year award, in a season in which she averaged 21.7 points and 10 rebounds per game. The 42 points Caramanico notched in a single game that season still stands as a program record.

Caramanico led the Quakers to the Ivy League title for the first time in nearly 20 years, and their first outright championship. The Red and Blue had an undefeated conference record and a 21- game winning streak heading into the tournament. Despite all this, the Quakers rolled into March Madness as a No. 15 seed, ready

to take on the No. 2 seeded Texas Tech Lady Raiders in Birmingham, Ala. Unfortunately, this storybook season ended with a crushing 100-57 defeat at the hands of a team that made it all the way to the Sweet Sixteen.

The Quakers made the tournament again as a No. 15 seed three years later, finishing with an 11-3 conference record and winning their second Ivy League title.

This time, the Quakers were matched up against No. 2 UConn, who were led by future WNBA superstar Diana Taurasi, who had won the Most Outstanding Player award in the preceding year’s tournament. The Huskies were hunting for their third straight championship, but had made the tournament with an at-large bid following a loss in the Big East Tournament. The Quakers were again handed a crushing defeat, losing 91-55 at the hands of the Huskies, who went on to win their third straight championship.

Following a 10-year drought, the Quakers returned to March Madness in 2012 as a No. 12 seed after going 12-2 in the Ivy League. The team’s success that year was largely thanks to the play of star freshman Sydney Stipanovich, who won both the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards on the way to her first of three Ivy League titles. Despite holding a 38-31 lead at the half over the No. 5 seeded Texas Longhorns, the Quakers eventually fell 79-61, dropping to 0-3 in March Madness play in program history.

The Quakers narrowly missed out on a second straight tournament appearance in 2015, finishing second in the conference, but were back in 2016, again led by Stipanovich, who averaged 13 points and 10 rebounds a game. Her outstanding season earned her a third straight Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year

award to go along with an Ivy League Player of the Year award, making her the first player to ever to win both awards simultaneously.

The Quakers were a No. 10 seed, the highest in program history, and were matched up against the No. 7 seed Washington Huskies. The Huskies were led by Naismith Award Semifinalist and the future all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history junior guard Kelsey Plum. Despite holding the Huskies to just eight first-quarter points and going into halftime with a one-point lead, the Quakers once again collapsed in the second half, and fell to the Huskies 65-53.

The Quakers most recent tournament appearance occurred the following year, in which the Quakers went 13-1 to earn the No. 1 seed in the inaugural Ivy League Tournament, played at the Palestra. Led by forward Michelle Nwokedi, the Ivy League Player of the Year, the Quakers easily defeated Brown 71-60 and moved on to the finals to face Princeton. Led by a strong defensive effort and the excellent play of Nwokedi, the Quakers defeated the Tigers and moved on to the NCAA tournament for the third time in four years. There, the Quakers were a No. 12 seed, and matched up with No. 5 seeded Texas A&M. As usual, the Quakers jumped out to an early lead, but this time, they held on beyond the half, going into the fourth quarter with a 21-point lead. It seemed that the Quakers were finally going to win an NCAA tournament game, but Texas A&M switched to a full court press while down 58-37 with eight minutes to play. The suffocating defense caused the Quakers to go ice-cold, missing their final ten shots en route to a 63-61 loss. The Aggies had completed the greatest comeback in NCAA tourna-

ment history, and the Quakers were again sent home.

Even though the Quakers made the finals of the next two Ivy League Tournaments, they fell to Princeton both times. The two teams were set up for a fourth straight tournament finals matchup as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the 2020 tournament, before the pandemic forced the tournament to be canceled.

Although the Quakers’ streak of seven straight seasons finishing top two in the conference was interrupted this season by the pandemic, they will look to get back on track next season as they continue their quest for thewfirst ever NCAA tournament win in program history.

MICHELE OZER

After a 10-year drought, Penn women’s basketball made it to the NCAA tournament in 2012.

Penn softball shakes off rust, sweeps St. Joe’s in weekend doubleheader Quaker win. In the second contest, however, Penn dominated, besting the Hawks by a 7-1 margin.

The first game opened up with freshman left fielder Brianna Brown making a diving catch to stave off a hit.

MATTHEW FRANK Penn went on to score their first run of the day in the Sports Associate bottom of the first, as all three of the first Quaker batters After losing twice to Delaware in their return to action, got on the bag, with freshman Sammy Fenton bringing Penn softball bounced back on Saturday, sweeping Saint Brown home on an RBI groundout.

Joseph’s University in a doubleheader at Penn Park.

In the top of the sixth inning, St. Joe’s tied the score Both matchups were marked by a seemingly im- up at 1-1 with an RBI bunt into the infield. The play proved Penn defense, with each of the two pitchers appeared to be a fielding mishap, with the Quakers not shutting down most of the batters they faced and several knowing where to go with the ball.

Quakers making some huge plays in the field.

Then, in the bottom of the sixth inning, senior Lucy “There was definitely really great defense behind me Yang got hit by a pitch with no outs. After two successthe entire time,” senior pitcher Abigail Abramson, who ful at bats that saw Fenton and sophomore Sarah Schneipitched the entirety of the first game, said. “Our outfield- der get out but advanced Yang, freshman Julia Mortimer ers were spot-on all day covering much ground. hit an RBI single to bring Yang home, giving the QuakThesoNew New York TimesEvSyndication Sales Corporation The York Times Syndication Sales Corporation erybody really made plays when it counted.” ers a 2-1 lead.

620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 Forone, Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 1-800-972-3550 The first of the two games was a close with theCall: To close the game out, Penn needed to give up no For Information Thursday, April 2021 ForRelease Release2-1 Friday, April 2,8,2021 matchup coming down to the wire in a For low-scoring runs in the top of the seventh inning, which came quite

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narrowly. After an error and a base hit allowed two Hawks batters to reach first and third base, there were two outs. Caela Abadie hit a drive into center field that almost went out of the ballpark, but Brown caught it at the warning track to secure a 2-1 Quaker victory.

Senior Abigail Abramson pitched a complete game for Penn, with seven strike-outs and no runners allowed on base in the lead-off spot in any of the first five innings. It also happened to be the team’s Senior Day, which she feels lucky to have participated in along with her teammates.

“It was really awesome to be able to have a Senior Day,” Abramson said. “We really didn’t know what this season was going to look like and if we were even going to be able to have a Senior Day, so it was really amazing to have that experience and to be able to play against St. Joes as well was really great.”

The second of the two matchups brought far less stress for Penn.

After a one-two-three top of the first, the Red and Blue achieved their first multiple-run inning of the season, scoring two to start the game.

Both Julia and Sarah Schneider walked, which led to Yang hitting an RBI groundout to bring Julia home.

After junior Corrie Phillips walked, Fenton hit an RBI single to bring Sarah Schneider home, giving the Quakers a two-run lead.

The onslaught didn’t stop, as the bottom of the second inning was marked by a three-run home run for junior Emma Nedley, giving Penn a 5-0 lead.

“We were having trouble just pushing runs across later on in the game, and that’s kind of been a habit of ours, so I was looking to just hit something that looks good,” Nedley said of the home run. “I’ve been just eager to hit in general, so the first pitch was kind of fat, right over the middle of the plate and a little bit up in the zone, so I just kept my hands up. My parents were actually able to witness it too, so I was really excited.”

In the top of the third, an infield error brought a St.

Joe’s runner home, but that would be the only time they would score during the second game.

The bottom of the third continued Penn’s dominant performance, with Fenton hitting a single and Mortimer hitting a double to lead off the half inning. After that, sophomore Alyssa Pope hit an RBI blooper into the infield, which was then followed up by a Nedley RBI single, her fourth run batted in of the game.

Penn ended up scoring all of their runs in the first three innings, with the game ending in a decisive 7-1 victory. In the win, junior pitcher Julia Longo gave up only two hits and struck out six batters.

Sweeping the doubleheader was a huge accomplishment for Penn softball, as it improved mightily since their last time playing.

“The major thing we’ve been talking about through practice and everything all year is just maintaining our energy, and we’ve been struggling to keep it up through [the first] two games,” Nedley said. “So that was definitely a goal of ours yesterday, and I think we were very successful in that, and that not only showed in our play, but we had more fun doing it.”

The Quakers will look to continue their winning ways against Villanova on Wednesday in another double-header.

TAMARA WURMAN

In their second game versus St. Joe’s, junior Emma Nedley hit a three-run home run in the second inning.

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SPORTS | Both games were marked by an improved Penn defense

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SPORTS 11

THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021

Penn baseball splits weekend series versus La Salle

NICHOLAS FERNANDEZ

The Red and Blue lost their first two games on Friday but won their next two games on Saturday.

SPORTS | Quakers picked up their first two wins on Saturday LOCHLAHN MARCH Senior Sports Editor

As long as it took for Penn baseball to finally get back in action, it took the team a little longer to notch its first two wins.

The Quakers (2-5) played all four of their games against La Salle University (12-9) this week in front of an empty Meiklejohn Stadium. After dropping the first two contests to the Explorers, the Red and Blue took both games of Saturday’s doubleheader to split the series.

“I think the transition was a little harder than we might have expected,” freshman third baseman Wyatt Henseler said. “But we showed what we’re really capable of when we have all the energy and all the right guys in the lineup.”

Penn’s hitters started off hot on Thursday, with eight of nine starters recording at least one hit in the game. But La Salle was on par offensively, and what started as a close game became a 14-7 win for the Explorers.

Seven Quakers split the job on the mound, with freshman Edward Sarti taking the loss for the Quakers in his first collegiate outing.

A two-run homer off the bat of La Salle’s Jack Cucinotta opened the scoring for the Explorers in the first inning, but the Quakers didn’t take long to rebound. Following a double from Henseler, junior Craig Larsen answered back for the Red and Blue with a two-run homer of his own in the bottom of the second.

The Explorers put up three more runs on two hits in the third. A sacrifice fly from senior Jackson Petersen scored junior Andrew Hernandez to narrow La Salle’s lead, but the Explorers tacked on another run in the fourth inning.

The Quakers scored one run on two hits in the sixth, with a single apiece from junior outfielder Tommy Courtney and senior infielder Eduardo Malinowski.

The Explorers ran away with the game in the ninth inning, capitalizing on an error, three walks, and six hits to put up eight runs. The Red and Blue went down swinging, however. Malinowski opened the bottom of the ninth with his second single of the game, and Hernandez drove him home with a home run over the left field fence. Henseler drew a walk with two outs and was brought home by a double from Larsen.

After sophomore Cole Palis lined out to right field, the Quakers’ bid at a comeback was cut short, and they dropped the first game by a score of 14-7.

Junior left-hander Joe Miller started on the mound for the Quakers in Friday’s game, striking out four and giving up six hits across three innings. Junior right-hander Seth Devries tossed two innings, striking out five and giving up five hits.

Senior Robby Cerulle, sophomore Ross Krakower, and freshman Danny Heinz also made appearances out of the bullpen.

The Quakers opened the scoring this time around.

In the first inning, Courtney was hit by a pitch, stole second, and scored after an error from La Salle’s third baseman. Penn’s offense would go quiet until the fifth inning, when a sacrifice fly from Hernandez scored senior Kyle Cronk.

The Explorers opened the floodgates with three runs in the third and didn’t look back, adding four in the fourth and three more in the fifth. La Salle then put up four runs in the sixth inning to put their lead in the double digits.

For the second game in a row, the Explorers scored eight runs in the top of the ninth. This time, however, the Quakers’ offense was unable to get a rally going in the bottom half, and La Salle blanked the Red and Blue in the ninth inning for a final score of 22-2.

“I think we struggled,” Henseler said. “We were making a lot of silly mistakes, mental mistakes, physical mistakes. It seemed like nothing was going our way.”

The Red and Blue entered Saturday’s doubleheader determined to rebound from their pair of losses and earn the series split.

“We got to the field early, we had a full team discussion with Coach and he was basically like, ‘Look, you guys need to figure this out. At this point, there’s too many mistakes going on. This needs to be on you guys,’” Henseler said. “So at that point, we just got out there. We had fun, we played loose, we played confident.”

La Salle started off hot, with a two-run RBI double in the first inning and five runs off four hits in the second.

The Quakers responded by scoring two runs in the bottom of the second. In the third inning, a threerun double from Henseler, followed by a triple from sophomore Seth Werchan, added four runs to the tally. Courtney’s two-run homer and an RBI single from Hernandez capped off the seven-run inning.

Sophomore Sam Bennett started the game for the Quakers, striking out three and allowing five hits over two innings. Sophomore Brian Zeldin was on the mound in the third and ultimately earned the win for the Quakers, shutting out the Explorers over five innings pitched.

Penn notched two more runs in the fourth and kept the momentum going through the sixth. Singles from sophomore Justin Carboni and Hernandez and doubles from Henseler and Courtney helped drive in four runs.

“I’m just being as aggressive as I can,” Henseler said. “I was a little tentative at first. I still am a little bit here and there. But Coach has been really working with me to be more aggressive and trust my swing, because obviously, the more you swing, the better chance you have of getting a hit.”

While Zeldin walked one, and two Explorers were hit by pitches in the top of the seventh, he was able to get out of the inning and hold the Quakers’ lead for a final score of 15-7. Penn’s first victory of the season also brought with it the end of La Salle’s sixgame win streak.

“I almost didn’t know what to do at first,” Henseler said. “Being a freshman on the field, I was like, after winning, ‘What do we do?’ But it was great.

Pretty cool to have my first one as a Quaker.”

The Red and Blue kept their momentum going into the second game of the afternoon. They opened the game with four runs on five hits, featuring singles from Courtney, Malinowski, Henseler, Petersen and Palis. Malinowski added to Penn’s lead with a solo home run in the second inning.

Junior Kevin Eaise pitched five innings for the Quakers, striking out seven and holding La Salle to a single hit. Senior Brendan Bean was on the mound for the sixth inning, while sophomore left-hander Owen Coady closed the final three innings.

La Salle made a comeback bid in the top of the seventh. A bases-loaded walk followed by a fielder’s choice brought two Explorers home, before Coady ended the inning with a strikeout. The Quakers’ lead narrowed even further after La Salle’s two-run homer in the top of the eighth, but Coady was able to hold the score at 5-4 to earn the save.

“It was awesome to get a group when everyone contributed today at some point, whether it was on the bench doing the books, helping the hitters out with reads, getting the pitch counts down,” Henseler said. “The coaches did a great job of putting us in a good position to succeed. In the end, the hitters took over today, the pitchers kept it close. It was a great team win today.”

The Quakers will look to build off the momentum from these two victories going into their doubleheader against Delaware this Wednesday.

“As much as they were big wins, there were some mistakes that we need to clean up,” Henseler said.

“So, hoping for a great week of practice, and to be able to go 2-0 against Delaware next week.”

In Photos: After a year off the field, Penn athletics returns to competition SAMANTHA TURNER Sports Photo Editor

SAMANTHA TURNER Baseball was the first team to compete this spring, beginning the season at home for the first of two games in a three-game series against Villanova the morning of March 27. The dugout looked different compared to other years as players and coaches wore masks.

CHASE SUTTON The men’s track and field team watched from the empty stands as the women competed in the 1500m. Men and women’s track and field also returned to competition during the afternoon of March 27.

CHASE SUTTON Demetri Whitsett competed in the men’s 100-meter hurdles in front of empty seats during the Penn Challenge track and field meet on March 27. The meet was the second competitive event of the Quakers’ spring 2021 season, during which no fans are allowed to attend games.

SUKHMANI KAUR Opposing teams do not shake hands anymore and coaches keep their distance from one another as seen above during men’s tennis’ first match of the season against Temple University on April 4. During tennis matches, players do not have to wear masks, even if they are playing doubles.

SAMANTHA TURNER Similar to tennis, baseball umpires and coaches are required to wear masks at all times, while players on the field are not required to wear masks. Once innings are over, however, players must put on their masks again.

CHASE SUTTON Tamara Grahovac competed in the women’s long jump and triple jump during the Penn Challenge meet, choosing to wear a mask while competing. Men and women’s track and field have totaled 34 first-place finishes in the first two meets.

THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021 VOL. CXXXVII

NO. 11

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

FOUNDED 1885

PENN LONG-JUMP RECORD

SHATTERED TWICE AT BIG 5 TRACK AND FIELD MEET

CHASE SUTTON

Senior caption Camille Dickson’s initial record-breaking mark measured 6.12 meters, until she broke that record with her following 6.21m leap. On the men’s side of the long jump, senior Demetri Whitsett placed first with a jump distance of 7.19m.

SPORTS | The Quakers notched 15 wins ESTHER LIM Sports Associate

With 15 first-place finishes in the Big 5 meet this past weekend and an 11-year-old program record broken twice in the same day, Penn track and field refused to disappoint in their second meet of the adjusted outdoor season.

In addition to personal records, an 11-year-old program record was toppled twice in the women’s long jump, as senior captain Camille Dickson unseated Kathryn Gevitz’s record of 6.10 meters set in 2010 in her first jump of the day at 6.12m. Dickson then bested her own record on her second attempt with a mark of 6.21m, which sealed her fourth first-place finish of the season so far.

Senior Demetri Whitsett placed first in the long jump on the men’s side, with a distance of 7.19m to take the first place finish.

On the track, sophomore Grace O’Shea placed first in the women’s 100m hurdles at a time of 14.21, after placing second in the 100m dash in the Penn Challenge the previous weekend.

“As a sophomore, I haven’t competed in outdoor since my senior year of high school,” O’Shea said. “So it’s pretty crazy to think of

that, but it’s great to get back into the competitive mindset and start racing again.”

Fellow sophomore Haley Rizek also improved her time in the women’s 100m hurdles since the first meet of the season, pushing her time from 15.11 to 14.74 to place third.

Dickson placed first in the 200m dash; running 24.32 in the first heat and remaining unbeaten for the rest of the afternoon. With Dickson’s win, Penn placed three out of the first five places in the women’s 200m dash, as O’Shea placed third and sophomore Katherine Muccio followed in fourth.

With sophomore Emerson Douds finishing first at 21.88, the Quakers took first place in both men’s and women’s 200m. Robbie Ruppel, another sophomore, secured the top finish in men’s 400m at 49.55.

In an electric finish to the men’s 800m run, junior duo James Lee and Justin Cornetta placed first and second respectively with times of 1:52.54 and 1:52.73; overtaking St. Joseph’s John Walker in the final moments of the race.

Despite not securing the first-place finish, junior runner Ellen Byrnes topped her time from her 800m run win at the Penn Challenge, clocking an improvement from 2:14.38 to 2:13.42.

Freshman Laura Baeyens and senior Alyssa Condell placed first and second respectively in the

women’s 1500m run to extend Penn’s second winning streak in the event.

A win by a Quaker emerged from the men’s 1500m as well, with sophomore Zubeir Dagane setting a personal record of 3:50.84 to cross the finish first.

Several freshmen stepped up to top rankings and set personal records on the track and in throws. Freshman Emerson Douds finished first in the men’s 200m dash, running 21.88 in the first heat and remaining unbeaten on the table for the rest of the afternoon.

In the women’s high jump, freshman Addie Renner made 1.75m to place first in her event as well, improving from 1.70m the previous weekend.

Freshman Ben Kioko also became a name to remember as he won javelin for a second straight week. His new personal record at 61.40m comes after three years of missing competition.

“I actually had to get elbow surgery in my junior year [of high school],” Kioko said. “And just going through that whole recovery process — an entire year of physical therapy — and now being able to see results, it’s definitely really rewarding to see all those hours in the gym and all those hours in physical therapy pay off.”

Kioko’s main goal for the rest of the season is to improve by about five more meters to qualify for the nationals in Florida.

“I think that’s definitely going to be my focus for the rest of the meets that we have this season,” Kioko said.

Senior Ashley Anumba placed first in women’s discus throw with a toss of 52.50m, and was joined by fellow junior Campbell Parker who placed second in the men’s event. At 49.46m, he was just 2.5m off the first place that was taken

by Villanova.

At the Mondschein Throwing Complex, sophomore Olatide Abinusawa improved his results in shot put from the previous weekend from 14.92m to 14.96m, and placed first in his event.

Sophomore Morgan Johnson earned results in women’s shot put as well; placing second by throwing 13.94m.

With the revival of competition, Penn track and field has welcomed a return to the weekly rhythm of preparing for meets on the weekends.

“We started training Feb. 1, so it’s definitely been a different training cycle than we’ve ever experienced,” O’Shea said. “And although it’s been tough with our situation, I just think that the support and the team, and the love for each other, and the great coaching has helped us a lot throughout, throughout this process.”

The Quakers will look to build on their successes over the past two weekends in the two-day Temple Invitational starting on April 9.

With decades of experience, Rudy Fuller ready to lead the Quakers in M. Grace Calhoun’s absence SPORTS | Fuller coached men’s soccer at Penn for 20 years ANUSHA MATHUR Sports Associate

From athlete to coach to director, Brian “Rudy” Fuller has left his mark on the institutions he has served at and continues to do so as he steps into the role of Penn’s interim athletics director after M. Grace Calhoun’s departure for Brown.

Fuller describes soccer as his first love — a thread that began in his childhood and continued into the rest of his life.

“I was in eighth grade, my coach had recently come over from Germany, and we had three Brians on our team,” Fuller said. “At the time, the star of the German National Team was a gentleman by the name of Rudi Völler. Trust me, I was not a star on my club team, but for him to be able to differentiate between the three of us, he started calling me Rudy, one of the Brians just Brian, and the other Brian by his last name. It’s amazing to me that it has stuck and the way it kind of took on a life of its own.”

Beyond playing on the field, Fuller has always loved sharing his sport with younger generations.

He coached youth club teams and the Olympic Development Program throughout college.

“I enjoyed working with young kids, passing on that passion, and creating an environment that would develop their joy and love for the game,” Fuller said. “But at the time, it wasn’t a common career path. So, I really always saw it as an opportunity to continue giving back and coach while SEND STORY IDEAS TO DPSPORTS@THEDP.COM

pursuing a full-time profession in some other area.”

The opportunity to pursue coaching professionally fell into Fuller’s lap almost unexpectedly. He received his first professional coaching job while he was still pursuing his undergraduate business degree from Georgetown University.

For Fuller, the transition from being a teammate in the locker room to a member of the coaching staff was challenging. However, he used the strong role models in his own life as a guide for how to develop himself as a coach.

“During my junior year of college, my coach at the time had found out that our program at my alma mater was going to be funding a full-time assistant coaching position,” Fuller said. “To my complete surprise, and shock, he approached me about taking on that position and becoming his assistant coach after graduation, which was still a year away.

And that was the opportunity that I was looking for. I really never looked back; I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities I’ve been presented since that time.”

After serving as assistant coach at Georgetown from 1993-98, Fuller was hired as head coach at Penn. He took on the program at one of its lowest points in history — it had just one winning season in the 13 years prior to his arrival.

However, he was able to transform the program into one of prestige. He led the team to seven Philadelphia Soccer Six Championships and three Ivy League titles. Five of his players were drafted into Major League Soccer and 23 earned first-team AllIvy honors.

Fuller attributes this dramatic shift in the team’s

performance to the quality of his assistant coaching staff in his early years as well as Penn’s history of athletic excellence. He sold Penn’s story to prospective athletes as an opportunity to help return Penn’s soccer program to its successful ways of the past.

“You have a great deal to offer a young person and their family when you talk about the Ivy League, the quality of the education, and the location in the city of Philadelphia,” Fuller said. “It’s a program that had been around for 85 years at that point. For most of those 85 years, it was one of the top programs in the country. It had a rich history of success and an incredible tradition to it.”

Coaching wasn’t the only part of Fuller’s life at Penn. While coaching at Georgetown, Fuller was working on his MBA. However, he had to leave the MBA program to take the head coaching job at Penn.

After getting a few years of coaching at Penn under his belt, Fuller decided to complete his degree by taking night classes at Villanova. The most recent phase in Fuller’s academic journey was enrolling in Penn’s organizational dynamics program, which he graduated from last spring.

“Thankfully, my family, my wife, and three kids were very supportive, because it required sacrifice from everybody,” Fuller said. “It is challenging because you’re obviously working full-time during the day, and then you have classes and you’re trying to get schoolwork done at night. But it’s very rewarding to, in the end, be a graduate of an institution of Penn’s caliber.”

Another one of Fuller’s missions at Penn was to

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make service a large part of the soccer program.

His teams worked with organizations such as the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, Grassroots Soccer, Junior Diabetes Research, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Philadelphia.

“When young folks are working with a Penn basketball player or a Penn baseball player, to them, they are like Major League Baseball players or NBA basketball players,” Fuller said. “Our kids

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