THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF PENNSYLVANIA
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2014
Undercover liquor police ‘likely’ at Fling COUNTDOWN TO
FLING 2014 Last year, Bureau of Liquor Control undercover officers made an appearance at Fling BY KRISTEN GRABARZ Staff Writer The Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement for the District of Philadelphia will “likely” be on campus during Spring Fling again this year, continuing last year’s presence of
undercover officers, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said. In addition to the undercover officers, Penn Police officers, Philadelphia police and fire department will also be on campus throughout the weekend of April 11. Last year, the Bureau issued 31 citations to students at two offcampus parties. All students either admitted to drinking or had an open container of alcohol in their hand.
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An underage drinking citation carries a $500 - $1000 fine for the first offense, as well as a 90-day driver’s license suspension — even if the license is from a state other than Pennsylvania — and in some cases, alcohol education and community service. Furnishing alcohol to minors carries a penalty of $1,000 for the first violation and a fine of $2,500 for each subsequent violation and up to a year in jail. While the undercover officers are
making a return appearance, Rush said DPS has taken a critical look at Fling security and may make some changes. Each year, the DPS puts together a program to critique the event for future reference. “Any special event — regardless of what the event is, annual events like Spring Fling, the Penn Relays and Commencement — we look at after ... Do we have enough officers, etc.? What would we change in the future?” Rush said.
DANCING WITH THE SIXERS
Last year, DPS focused on Quad security because there had been records of property damage in the college houses. Only Quad residents were allowed to enter the buildings. As part of a coordinated response, the college houses, with Penn Police, succeeded in reducing property damages in the Quad, Rush said DPS will also work cooperatively with the college houses and the Vice SEE FLING PAGE 6
Forty years of feminism at Penn today The Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies program and Women’s Center will celebrate their 40th anniversary at a two-day conference starting today BY MELISSA LAWFORD Staff Writer Carol Tracy remembers winning a major victory for women at Penn 40 years ago. For four straight days, she led a group of over 200 women at a sit-in in the President’s Office at College Hall in 1973. The women were protesting the University’s lack of response to the rape of five women over the course of three days. Tracy was one of the lead negotiators with then-Penn President Martin Meyerson in finding a suitable resolution where Penn women could finally feel safe on campus. Ultimately, these discussions led to the creation of the Penn Women’s Center and the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies program a year later. “We won and we won big,” Tracy said.
Yuzhong Qian/Staff Photographer
Onda Latina brought its Latin dancing magic onto the basketball court at the Wells Fargo Center before the 76ers game as part of a guest performance yesterday. Founded in 1996, Onda Latina — which means “Latin wave” in Spanish — has more than 20 members. The Philadelphia 76ers went on to lose to the Orlando Magic, 101 - 90.
Sophomores help satisfy Penn’s sweet tooth BY ZAHRA HUSAIN Contributing Writer Three sophomores want to bake for you. College sophomores Alina Wong and Rachel Stewart and Wharton sophomore Roopa Shankar — all roommates — started baking for fun during their free time. The pastime became a regular activity, and soon the three were baking on a weekly basis. One night, Shankar shared one of their creations with
a friend, who told her it was good enough to sell. A seed was planted in their minds. Wong, Stewart and Shankar started meeting at the Starbucks under 1920s Commons on Locust Walk to talk about the business potential of baking. “We knew we wanted something quirky, something funky, something slightly nonsensical,” Wong said. NOMsense, their new venture’s name, was inspired by the word “nonsense” and the foodie phrase “noms.” The girls
even sign emails “NOMly Yours” and like to describe creations as “pheNOMenal.” Shankar said the bakery will aim for “weird desserts that work.” Cookie sandwiches with a twist are their signature item. According to Wong, each sandwich includes “two innovative cookies, a never-before done filling, a drizzle and a topping.” Wong, Stewart and Shankar spent hours playing around with recipes and ingredients to create the most unique product they could — they
wanted to give Penn students something they had never tasted before. After several small-scale tastings that tested several flavors and recipes, the girls settled on four they liked best and started a marketing campaign. The girls intend to run NOMsense like any small business. They created spreadsheets to track finances, made a Facebook page and spread the word through sorority
*** Today, the Women’s Center and the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies program are celebrating their 40th anniversary at a two-day conference, which will address the issues women still face in modern society. The conference will consist of a sequence of panel discussions and workshops. Keynote speaker Jessica Valenti, named as one of the 100 most inspiring women by The Guardian in 2011, will be speaking this evening.
SEE BAKERY PAGE 7
SEE WOMEN PAGE 2
FERPA permits parental notifications for alcohol hospitalizations Analysis | Penn’s policy lets U. contact parents after second hospitalization BY COSETTE GASTELU Staff Writer A little-known University policy, which was cited in a recent campus study, states that if a student is hospitalized twice for alcohol or other drug use, the student’s parents can be contacted. The policy, which was mentioned in last Tuesday’s Report of the Commission on Student Safety, Alcohol and Campus Life, said that “if a student is transported to the hospital a
second time (or more) due to alcohol or other drug use, the University reserves the right to notify his or her parents.” For minors — students under 18 years old — the University’s policy is to immediately notify parents. This policy comes in similar forms at colleges across the country. It’s legality stems from exceptions in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, commonly known as FERPA. At Penn, 36 parental notifications were made during the 2012-13 academic year, according to the Commission’s report. Julie Lyzinski Nettleton, director for the Office of Alcohol and Other
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Drug Program Initiatives and project manager of the Commission, said that each year, about 10 percent of hospital transports related to alcohol or other drug use are “repeated transports” — which means that parents are usually notified in these cases. Nettleton explained in an email that personnel from AOD “contact parents on a case by case basis after any student has had multiple transports to the hospital.” She emphasized that the parental notifications are “proactive, not punitive” and that the University has had “tremendous success engaging both the student and parents in a caring action plan to support the
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student so they may be safe and successful at Penn.” While FERPA contains provisions that maintain the privacy of students’ educational records, it still guarantees Penn the legal right to notify students’ parents about hospitalizations under certain conditions. “FERPA [permits] a university to notify a student’s parents [if the student] is under age 21, if that student has violated any law or university policy related to alcohol or controlled substances,” Preston Green, a professor at the University of Connecticut who specializes in educational law said. Jacob Rooksby, a professor at Duquesne University School of
Law, explained that universities can disclose this hospitalization information if they believe that the “disclosure is necessary ‘to protect the health or safety of the student or other individuals.’” Penn can also apply the parental notification policy to students who are 21 or older, Rooksby said, because repeated hospitalizations for alcohol or other drug use could be “in connection with [a] health or safety emergency” for the student or other students, as outlined in FERPA. But these exceptions by no means require that institutions like Penn SEE ALCOHOL PAGE 7
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