THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF PENNSYLVANIA
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014
Failed impeachment casts a long shadow The impeachment process
1. Indictment for impeachment is presented to the NEC, which determines the petition’s legitimacy.
2. Upon impeachment, a trial to determine guilt is held one to three weeks after impeachment.
Written charges for impeachment require:
1 3
of the total number of UA members
5%
of all undergraduates
Unimpeached UA members and the Chair deliberate after hearing the charges, opening remarks, cross-examination and closing remarks.
2 3
3. Results specified in the petition take effect immediately if the trial vote meets voting requirements.
of the UA must vote upon the conclusion of this trial in favor of sustaining the charge for the specified result to occur.
Student groups react the the failed impeachment petition, and its effect on the budget BY KRISTEN GRABARZ AND FIONA GLISSON Staff Writer and Campus News Editor Instead of holding its originally scheduled budget amendment meeting this past Sunday, the UA met privately in a closed caucus regarding an unsuccessful petition to impeach the UA president. The meeting contributed to a postponement of the annual budget process, leaving other branches of student government without an official budget allocation until March 23. The UA cited “extraordinary circumstances” as the reason for pushing the budget schedule back until after spring break.
This is is not the first snag in the development of the budget this year. A UA representative’s resignation from the Budget Committee and the resulting internal election for a replacement in January, coupled with frequent snowstorms, put the development of budget meetings behind schedule, UA Speaker and College junior Joshua Chilcote said. While the budget is drafted by a three-member Budget Committee, the UA typically allows for three weeks to collectively discuss the overall budget, Chilcote said. Leaders of other student government branches typically attend the first two of the budget-related meetings, during which they debate the allocation of funds. The first of these meetings took place on Feb. 23 and the second was slated for March 2 - but after the
petition surfaced, it was booted to March 16th. The final vote will not take place until March 23 - weeks after the originally planned date. While the UA took a week of the budget process to work out its internal kinks, the rest of student government and other student groups such as MERT were left in budgetary limbo until after spring break. Leaders of other student government branches were not notified of the schedule change until Feb. 28 - two days before the originally schedule budget amendment meeting, reported leaders of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, the Nominations and Elections Committee and the Student Activities Council. SEE IMPEACHMENT PAGE 7
Alums behind the scenes in Hollywood
CARNAVAL COUNTDOWN
BY LAUREN FEINER Staff Writer
Connie Kang/Photo Manager
Worldtown, a band that mixes international sounds, performed at International House Philadelphia to celebrate Carnaval, a Brazilian festival that leads up to Ash Wednesday. IHP also hosted ensemble PhillyBloco, which has live dancers and mixes samba, funk and reggae music.
Greek houses allocated $10 million for repairs Greek Housing Improvement Program will restructure the funding system BY MELISSA LAWFORD Staff Writer A new Greek Housing Improvements Program will change the way Greek housing is funded. The program will restructure the funding available for maintenance needs of the 23 Greek houses managed by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. It will unite the funds of each Greek house, using a Capital Fund line, to remove the current individual budgetary constraints of the 23 properties. Chapter house funds will now be centrally pooled and distributed according to individual house needs. The University will also con-
tribute a $2 million cash grant and a $3 million lower-interest line of credit to work alongside the $5 million pool of existing house funding. In total, the program has assigned $10 million over the next five years for housing renovations. This provision is a significant step up from the $4 million previously provided by the University over the past ten years to help Greek houses meet life safety regulations, like fire safety. I nd iv idu a l c h apt er bud get meetings will finish at the end of this week. Timelines will then be developed for building projects and capital improvement plans to begin this summer, OFSL director Scott Reikofski said. Chapter houses were informed of the new program on Jan. 27, SEE REPAIRS PAGE 5
Editorial (215) 898-6585 • Business (215) 898-6581
Jennifer Gwar tz, a 1990 College graduate, could count on a familiar name appearing in her inbox ever y Wed nesday mor ning of 2005. Rob Forman, then a Wharton undergraduate, had recognized Gwartz’s name while searching through the alumni directory looking for a job. He had seen the name in the credits as “Co-executive Producer” of one of his favorite television shows, “Veronica Mars.” The show aired on Tuesday nights, so Forman decided to send Gwartz his thoughts each week following the airing. The two had a few conversations about the entertainment industry in which Gwar tz gave For man advice about his post-graduation move to Los A ngeles. Forman, who graduated in 2006, worked for ICM for a year, and then was ready to move on when Gwartz happened to need a new assistant. The rest SEE HOLLYWOOD PAGE 5
Stained glass in ARCH Cafe evokes offensive imagery for some students Students met with administrators to discuss the context of the image BY JENNY LU Staff Writer
Connie Kang/Photo Manager
The rising sun symbol in the stained glass in the ARCH Cafe was historically the emblem of the Japanese military.
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The windows in the Arts, Research and Culture House Cafe have pieces of stained glass embedded within them. One of these panels caught the attention of College sophomore Seunghun Lee while he was eating in Tortas Frontera one day. He noticed in the glass an image of a rising sun, which historically has been represented on the flag of the Japanese military. As an international student from Korea, Lee said, “I grew up in an environment where it’s been natural for me to find the flag really offensive.” Associate Director of the Center of East Asian Studies Frank Chance said that both Korea and China were victims of Japanese aggression in World War II, and there is still
tension today between those countries. Lee reacted strongly to seeing that image in the window and posted about it on Facebook. It immediately went viral, primarily within the Korean student community on campus. Some Korean students decided to reach out to the University to address the issue. College senior Hy un-Soo Lim wrote a personal email to the Director of the Pan-Asian American Community House, Peter Van Do, expressing her sentiments on the rising sun symbol. Lim said that shortly after, University administrators responded and arranged a meeting to sit down with the students and discuss the issue. “They clearly understood this issue to be a very urgent and important one,” Lim said. Lim and Lee sat down for a meeting with Associate Vice Provost for Equity and Access William Gipson, University Architect David Hollenberg, who SEE ARCH PAGE 7
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