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MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020 VOL. CXXXVI NO. 14

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

FOUNDED 1885

Bloomers takes on sexism in comedy

The all-female comedy troupe put on their spring show this weekend HANNAH GROSS Staff Reporter

nial labor movement lyric, “which side are you on?” and chanted statistics concerning the fossil fuel industry, which included that 1.1 million people had died in India due to coal pollution in 2015 alone, and that climate change would kill over 250,000 people each year between 2030 and 2050. Several police officers, Penn’s Open Expression Observers, and Penn security guards were stationed at the Inn at Penn in anticipation of

A packed Iron Gate Theatre clapped and laughed for two hours at the spring Bloomers show this weekend. But behind the jokes and skits, the Bloomers members are constantly pushing against the stereotypes that hinder women in comedy. Bloomers, Penn’s female comedy troupe, puts on an original sketch comedy show each semester, with their most recent performance, “The Great(ish) Show,” running from Feb. 27 to Feb. 29. Bloomers cast members said although the group is becoming increasingly popular on campus, as women, they often have to work harder and be smarter than men to put on a successful show. Bloomers cast member and College first-year Megan Striff-Cave said that there is a commonly-held stereotype that women cannot be as funny as men. Bloomers cast member and College junior Reagan Bracknell added that although she has never been explicitly told she cannot be funny, she believes it is easier for men to succeed in comedy. “Men can come out in a dress and that’s the punchline and it’s hilarious,” Striff-Cave said. “When a woman comes out in a suit, that’s not the joke. They need to come out in a suit and say something funny.” Bracknell said this discrepancy between male and female humor forces Bloomers to be smarter and more deliberate about the bits and jokes they choose to include in the show. Bracknell added, for example, that men in comedy can be more vulgar without being “unladylike.” Penn’s all-male comedy troupe

SEE BLOCKADE PAGE 6

SEE BLOOMERS PAGE 6

Graveyard Blockade Fossil Free Penn

blockades board meeting, forcing most trustees to leave through fire exit

KYLIE COOPER

BY HAWTHORNE RIPLEY Approximately 30 members of Fossil Free Penn protested outside Penn’s Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, creating a “partial blockade” outside the room and prompting most of the trustees to leave through the fire exit. Protesters arrived towards the end of the hour-long meeting and sat directly outside the conference room at the Inn at Penn. They held signs cut and painted to look like gravestones with epitaphs citing facts about the climate crisis and demanding that the University divest from fossil fuels. FFP coordinator and College sopho-

more Emma Glasser said that FFP wanted to create a “partial blockade” outside the meeting that would allow the trustees to walk out of the meeting but not without having to migrate through the “graveyard” of students. Glasser added that the purpose of the protest was not to shut down the meeting, as they had done in November by entering the meeting room, but to confront the trustees as they exited. “Anticipating that, given our last action, security might be heightened and the meeting might be made less public to large groups of students, we

decided to do something else,” FFP action coordinator Jacob Hershman said. Some trustees who checked their coats before the meeting had to wade through the students seated outside the board meeting room to retrieve their coats. Trustees’ reactions varied, with some looking confused, annoyed, or amused. Walking single-file through the protesters, one trustee member told another, “I have to get a picture of you going through that minefield.” The protesters chanted the peren-

Penn advises students to leave Milan due to coronavirus Penn Abroad sent an email to students Friday JASON YAN Senior Reporter

After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning on Friday against all nonessential travel to Italy, Penn advised all students studying abroad in Milan – the center of Italy’s coronavirus outbreak – to leave the country. Despite Penn’s warnings, some Penn students studying in Milan are choosing to stay

in the city with the hope their school will reopen. Soon after the CDC’s level three advisory on Feb. 28, Penn Abroad sent an email to students at Bocconi University in Milan offering to help facilitate their early departure from the city and continue their studies online. The email also said students may choose to remain abroad, but must sign an acknowledgment of risk waiver from the University. Bocconi suspended on-campus operations Feb. 24 but hopes to resume normal activities March

9, according to its website. Despite the Penn Abroad email and the CDC’s level three advisory – which is the agency’s highest risk level – College and Wharton sophomores Matteo Brunel and Jiaqi Song, who are studying at Bocconi, are choosing to stay in Italy and are optimistic that they will be able to continue their studies in Milan. Brunel left Milan for Tuscany soon after Bocconi canceled inperson classes. He said he will stay in Italy for the time being and hopes to return to Milan

soon to continue his studies. Brunel said he is frustrated at the prospect of completing his credits remotely and finds online classes “dry and boring.” “Not going to class takes away my favorite part of going to school, which is talking to people and interacting with the teachers and your classmates,” Brunel said. “You don’t go abroad to [learn online]. If you want to do classes online, you can just do that from your home.” SEE ITALY PAGE 7

Students cancel spring break trips as coronavirus spreads Students fear quarantines and racism abroad PIA SINGH Staff Reporter

Fearing both quarantine and racism due to the coronavirus, many Penn students are canceling their spring break plans to travel abroad. Increasing reports of coronavirus across the globe prompted students traveling to countries like Spain, France, and England to cancel their trips for fear they would face quarantine or other restrictions when attempting to return to

the United States. Asian Penn students also faced the added fear of racist or xenophobic attacks – due to the novel coronavirus’ origins in China – they may encounter while abroad. With thousands of cases confirmed in Europe and Asia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised travelers against all nonessential visits to China, Italy, Iran, and South Korea. College sophomore Jason Shu and five of his friends decided to cancel their trip to Paris and London, fearing a racially hostile atmosphere in Europe and travel restrictions

on the way home. “Earlier last month, I saw a headline from a French newspaper that said something about a ‘yellow peril,’ which was directed at Asian tourists or Asian people in Europe in general,” Shu said. “Pretty much everyone in our group is Asian American.” Wharton sophomore Chloe Ching and College sophomore and former Daily Pennsylvanian staffer Anushree Aneja were both in a group of six students who canceled their trip to Madrid after the number of reported cases skyrocketed in Europe. Aneja said that,

OPINION | Penn must allow concealed carry

“There really is no good reason for the University to restrict the Second Amendment rights of its constituents.” – Harrison Selznick PAGE 5

SPORTS | Quakers avoid elimination Penn men’s basketball survived a tightly contested game at Brown on Saturday to keep its Ivy Tournament hopes alive going into the final weekend of the season. BACKPAGE

because a few women in the group are East Asian, they fear racist incidents in Europe along with the possibility of quarantine and being forced to miss school. Like most other affected students, Aneja was disappointed she had to cancel her trip. But she recognizes that for many around the globe, the coronavirus yields more life-threatening circumstances. “It’s really concerning to see how many people are being affected by this, because for us we just have to cancel our vaSEE BREAK PAGE 3

ISABEL LIANG

NEWS Penn Dems co-hosts Bloomberg event

NEWS Two studentdesigned communities to open

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