THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF PENNSYLVANIA
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
After 12 years, a new look at mental health policy
BLACK HISTORY AT PENN, THEN AND NOW
Discovering black history on Locust Walk Seminar delves into the AfricanAmerican experience at Penn
The last mental health task force, in 2002, made four successful recommendations BY SARAH SMITH Senior Writer Twelve years before Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price announced the creation of a task force to study mental health on campus, a similar committee presented its findings to the University’s provost in June 2002. Last week, the administration commissioned a task force to com-
prehensively evaluate the policies and procedures that address mental health at Penn, a task last done in 2002. The 2002 Mental Health Outreach Task Force, made up of students, administrators and staff, presented six key recommendations. The University implemented four of the six, said Director of Education for the Department of Psychiatry Anthony Rostain, who
chaired the 2002 task force. The recommendations to create a mental health outreach coordinating council and to clearly identify mental health outreach goals for the community got lost in the shuffle. “I thought mental wellness and mental health of the staff and faculty and students ought to be something that every year people systematically look at,” Rostain,
who will also co-chair this year’s task force, said of the outreach coordinating council. “Part of what I’m going to do now when I’m charged is try to figure out whether there needs to be something like that.” Another suggestion that fell through was to create “health graduate assistants” for the colSEE TASK FORCE PAGE 3
BY KRISTEN GRABARZ Staff Writer One class at Penn celebrates Black History Month every month. An undergraduate course entitled “The History of Women and Men of African Descent at the University of Pennsylvania” seeks to educate students about scholars and black leaders who have shaped the University and the world. About 25 students attend the class in DuBois College House each Monday. “You can take notes if you feel the need, but it’s very much just a conversation,” said College senior Tanisha Hospedale, a student in the course. “The location is symbolic in itself because of the history of Du Bois. The walls of Du Bois are almost like us being surrounded by our history.” Du Bois College House was opened in 1972 in response to discrimination concerns raised by Penn’s black students. Informally dubbed “Blacks at Penn” by students in the class, the course delves into the contemporary African-American experience, touching upon topics such as Greek life, athletics and classroom environments. The seminar is taught by its co-founders, University Chaplain Charles Howard and Makuu Director Brian Peterson, as well as Associate Director of Makuu Marlena Reese, all of whom seek to spark conversation about the African-American experience in a comfortable setting. “It’s a profound experience to have not only the classmates look like you, but to have the professors look like you too and to have the subject matter you study look like you and resemble you,” Howard said. Guest speakers both from Penn and beyond are common visitors to the class. Recent ones have included Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, Associate Vice Provost for Equity and Access William Gipson and head coach of the men’s basketball team Jerome Allen. One class text, a book entitled “Black Students in the Ivory Tower,” is Penn alumnus Wayne Glasker’s account of his and his peers’ experiences at Penn. Students in the class also maintain a blog, which highlights prominent black leaders and thinkers. Started several years ago as a project for Black History Month, the blog seeks to archive valuable stories about the African impact at Penn and beyond. Students and professors agree that the class is unlike any other at Penn. “It’s a very typical seminar course, in that it is driven by insightful student dialogue. What differentiates it is the proximity; Du Bois College House, College Hall, Africana Studies, Onyx Senior Honor Society, Locust Walk are all elements still very much a part of the Penn experience today, and this course covers their historiSEE STUDENTS PAGE 6
Fellowship to give $10k for research in India BY LAUREN FEINER Staff Writer
Courtesy of Aparna Wilder
The Sobti Family Fellowship was announced this month as an annual award to one standout applicant interested in conducting research in India..
A Penn fellowship is breaking down geographic and financial barriers that surround researching abroad. The Sobti Family Fellowship is a new funding opportunity offered by the Center for the Advanced Study of India. It will provide an alternative to the Fulbright Grant for those who want to pursue a postbaccalaureate research project in India. The Sobti family, of which 1984 College alum Rajiv Sobti is a member, established the endowed fund, which awards $10,000 annually to one student to pursue a project of their choice for a minimum of nine months. The fellowship is available to any Penn senior or Penn alumni up to two years after their graduation. It provides financial support for applicants who are interested in researching the development of modern India. The idea for the fellowship
grew out of the familiar senior year “panic” of students who have taken advantage of CASI’s programs while at Penn but are unsure of how to return to India after graduation, Deputy Director of CASI Juliana Di Giustini said. Christina Wu, a College senior and CASI Student Prog rams assistant , who was also a former photo manager at the Daily Pennsylvanian, understands the yearning for post-baccalaureate research opportunities abroad. She participated in a three-month-long summer internship in India through CASI, and noted that while she was there, she became “interested in certain aspects of the experience and wanted to go back and pursue [them].” She added that prior to the Sobti Family Fellowship, it was difficult to gain ownership of a post-baccalaureate project of this sort outside of receiving a Fulbright Grant.
SEE INDIA PAGE 5
Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell talks immigration reform BY SONIA SIDHU Contributing Writer Former Pennsylvania Governor and 1965 College graduate Ed Rendell spoke about immigration reform last night at an event co-sponsored by Penn for Immigrant Rights and Penn
QUAKER PORTRAITS
Luke Chen/Weekly Pennsylvanian Editor
Darren Wong and Steven Wong, exchange students from Hong Kong, pose with the Penn Quaker, who made a surprise appearance on Locust Walk yesterday afternoon. This appearance was organized by Penn Portraits, a new service by Penn students offering studio-quality photos and photoshoots on campus.
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Democrats to kick off Immigration Action Week. Rendell is the Democratic chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center, which was founded by former Senate Majority Leaders in 2007 and supports political advocacy and outreach. Rendell believes that one of the reasons immigration needs change is because the United States is losing too many qualified graduate students to their home countries after they graduate from American universities. He suggested providing visas to highly skilled workers. “It is imperative that we get younger people to fill our work force needs,” Rendell said. According to Rendell, a majority of both Republicans and Democrats agree that workers contributing to the economy should be eligible for citizenship. People who meet the criteria of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act should also be eligible, he said. The DREAM Act grants citizenship to immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors and then graduated from U.S. high schools. The Act applies to anyone who meets its criteria and arrived in the country in the five years preceding its enactment. Additionally, E-Verification is a point of agreement between the two major political parties. E-Verification is an online software that allows employers to input the names of potential em-
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Alex Liao/Staff Photographer
Former Pennsylvanian Governor and Penn alumnus Ed Rendell spoke yesterday at Steinberg Hall - Dietrich Hall as part of Immigration Action Week, a series of events cosponsored by Penn Democrats and Penn for Immigrant Rights this week. ployees to check their immigration status. Because past reforms were not as successful as anticipated, opponents to immigration reform are hesitant to pass a new bill proposed by Obama. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, for instance, intended to stop illegal immigration as
much as possible. Rendell argued that the Act failed because it focused on border security. He said that current illegal residents, instead, are the problem. Forty percent of illegal immigrants in the U.S. today entered the country legally with SEE RENDELL PAGE 2
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