MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2020 VOL. CXXXVI NO. 10
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
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Class Board calls for more free Feb Club events next year
The end of an era
Student criticism prompts UA to propose an increase in the Feb Club budget for 2021 ELIZABETH MEISENZAHL Staff Reporter
hopes to open a new supermarket later this year. “The University acknowledges and respects Fresh Grocer’s willingness to open a supermarket in University City in 2001 at a time many
After students complained about difficulties in reserving tickets for Feb Club, the Undergraduate Assembly proposed increasing the Feb Club budget next year to make more events free and increase the number of available tickets per event. Feb Club features events for seniors throughout the month of February organized by the senior class board every year. During the first week of Feb Club this year, many seniors who logged on to reserve tickets on Ticketleap found themselves locked out due to high traffic, College senior Naeche Vincent said. Even after Class Board changed the ticket-buying platform to Eventbrite after the first week, Vincent said students still found it difficult to get tickets for popular events due to limited tickets and high demand. The Class Board requested increasing the $75,000 budget by approximately $30,000 at the Feb. 16 UA meeting for 2021. The UA, however, voted down the request and instead passed an amendment to reallocate $5,500 from the Skimmerfest budget to the Feb Club non-alcoholic programming budget. Feb Club includes a trip to Atlantic City, a Philadelphia 76ers game, and snow tubing, among other events. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-serve basis, 2020 Class President and Engineering and Wharton senior Karim El Sewedy said. Vincent said when she and seven of her friends logged on to Ticketleap to get tickets to the Feb. 7 76ers game, the website told her that they were sold out despite being opened for only a couple of minutes. Class Board later notified students that the website crashed from high traffic and reopened 20 minutes later, Vincent said. She added that she was unable to get a ticket because she had an exam when the website reopened. Although the switch to Eventbrite after the first week fixed the website crashes, El Sewedy said some students still could not get tickets due to the limited number of tickets and high demand. “There’s a lot of demand for events and tickets end up selling out terribly fast, but capacity, most of the time, is constrained by the capacity of the venue we’re working with,” El Sewedy said. El Sewedy said that by increasing the budget, Class Board hopes to make more events free for students. While
SEE CLOSING PAGE 6
SEE BUDGET PAGE 3
CHASE SUTTON
Penn – the store’s landlord – and the Fresh Grocer have agreed to end the supermarket’s tenancy at 40th and Walnut streets on March 31 after nearly 20 years of operations, Penn’s Facilities and Real Estate Services Director of Communications Jennifer Rizzi wrote in an email to The DP.
Its closing ends a fouryear legal battle HAWTHORNE RIPLEY Senior Reporter
The Fresh Grocer, located at 40th and Walnut street, will close its
doors in March. Penn – the store’s landlord – and the Fresh Grocer have agreed to end the supermarket’s tenancy at 40th and Walnut streets on March 31 after nearly 20 years of operations, Penn’s Facilities and Real Estate Services Director of Communications Jen-
nifer Rizzi wrote in an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian. Carly Spross, director of marketing for the Fresh Grocer’s parent company Metro City Management, said, however, the tenancy will end in early March. Rizzi wrote that the University
Oil refinery near Penn closes after years as Philadelphia’s largest polluter The refinery was the largest on the East Coast KAMILLE HOUSTON Staff Reporter
ISABEL LIANG
The largest oil refinery on the East Coast is about two miles from Penn’s campus – but after decades of pollution and deadly fires, the refinery will close permanently following its sale to Hilco Redevelopment Partners. Located in South Philadelphia and previously owned by Philadel-
phia Energy Solutions, the refinery and its toxic air emissions have long been cited as the cause of increased rates of health problems like cancer, heart disease, and asthma in South Philadelphia residents. The refinery shut down in June 2019 after a series of explosions lead to a severe fire. Despite efforts to reopen the refinery, most notably by the Trump administration, Hilco promises to keep it closed and turn the property into a “mixed-use industrial site,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Though Hilco does not yet
have formalized plans in place, they have previously opened warehouses for retailers like Amazon, FedEx, Volkswagon, and Harley Davidson in other spaces they redeveloped. Philly Thrive, a local environmental justice group that has protested PES since 2016, celebrated an end to the refinery and the pollution it caused. But the group said they still need to make sure Hilco acts in the best interest of the community, such as creating local jobs SEE REFINERY PAGE 6
Pa. attorney general visits Penn to endorse gun violence prevention plan The plan aims to cut gun deaths in half by 2030 TORI SOUSA Staff Reporter
Two years after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., policymakers and student activists from across the nation gathered on Penn’s campus to learn about a new plan that promises to cut gun deaths in Pennsylvania in half by 2030. On the afternoon of Feb. 13, about 20 local students convened in Huntsman Hall to witness mem-
bers of March for Our Lives PA and current Pennsylvania Attorney General and former Pennsylvania House of Representatives member Josh Shapiro formally announce the Peace Plan for a Safer Pennsylvania, which has been in the works since November 2019. On March 25, the group will take their plan to Harrisburg to ask state lawmakers for their support. The plan is divided into three sections: ”ensuring safe gun ownership,” “addressing systemic causes,” and “fixing democracy.” Some of the proposed policies include universal background checks, lost and
stolen gun reports, support for mental health programs, civic education initiatives, and funding research for gun violence as a public health epidemic. College sophomore and Pennsylvania March for Our Lives Director Michael Nevett co-wrote the gun safety plan and spoke on its behalf. “Urban violence and violence against people of color is something that is really prevalent in Philadelphia, but is often ignored on a national rhetoric scale,” Nevett said. “So that was something that was really, really important to us.” Shapiro commended the plan’s
OPINION | Support universal child care
“Child care reform may not be the most trendy political issue, but it should be.” - Urooba Abid PAGE 4
SPORTS | Men’s basketball defeats Yale Penn men’s basketball defeated Yale on Saturday night after a loss to Brown on Friday. The Quakers are now 5-3 in Ivy League play with six games remaining. BACKPAGE
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attempt to ensure that sure gun violence prevention will be an issue that is “front and center on people’s minds” in the coming election, and its demand for new laws to be created and enacted. Shapiro also thanked all of the student writers in attendance at the event for their work on the plan. “One of the reasons why March for Our Lives inspires me so much is that when I look at one of the biggest, most challenging, pressing problems in our society today, I see Harrisburg and Washington failing SEE PREVENTION PAGE 6
TORI SOUSA
College sophomore and Pennsylvania March for Our Lives Director Michael Nevett co-wrote the plan and spoke on its behalf.
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