One year of Russian aggression: We cannot afford to grow weary of Ukraine

Two weeks ago, Ukrainian Parliamentary member Oleksiy Goncharenko took my call from a train in Donbas, apologetic over a shoddy phone line. The ride was anything but peaceful. That morning, just 10 kilometers from the frontline, he had been preparing for Russia’s new offensive — wave after wave of soldiers like in the First World War. His troops were hopeful, but Goncharenko was reminded that the odds were stacked against them.

Exactly a year after Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine, it is important for the Penn community to remember why we must do everything we can to help them.

Lawmaker Goncharenko says this is a war of values — of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights — which form the basis of the free world. “If they can be violated in Ukraine, they can be violated anywhere.”

We’ve all seen the images that have come out of Ukraine over the past year. Anguished parents clutching the bodies of their children, killed by Russian shelling. Cratered buildings, entire walls sheared away to reveal intimate portraits of a lost peace.

Doctors in blood-spattered surgical gowns, stress etched deep into their expressions as they labor to save as many as possible.

These pictures shock us, as they should.

They are pictures of atrocities, each one encapsulating humanity at its breaking point.

Ukrainians are a stoic, tenacious people. Their history, past and present, has ensured this. But no amount of inner strength and grit can compensate for the mind-numbing violence inflicted upon them. There are harms that cannot be undone and wounds that will never heal. We owe it to Ukraine to take a stand against the unforgivable path Russia has taken. We have a responsibility, as citizens of the United States, to fulfill the promises we made to Ukraine in 1994, when it gave up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security assurances. So far, we have not yet fulfilled these promises.

We have a responsibility, as inhabitants of a global world, to stand against the genocide, torture, rape, and destruction Russia is mercilessly inflicting on Ukraine, and ensure that such horrors are not visited upon Ukraine’s neighbors and the tens of millions of citizens residing therein.

There is no reason to believe that Putin will be satisfied by winning this war. He never has been before. Look no further than Georgia, attacked by Russia in 2008, or Crimea, annexed in 2014. The relative ease of these conquests has only bolstered Putin’s misguided ambitions to restore the Soviet sphere of influence in Europe and beyond. Ukraine could very well become the launching ground for Russia’s next bloody war of conquest.

For now, that future is still only a possibility, and while Ukraine is holding their own, they need help. As the war has dragged on, we have become increasingly numb to their plight, scrolling through the pictures that once shocked us without batting an eye. Absent the blockbuster city battles of earlier months, the headlines no longer grab our attention. However, the reality has not changed. This war will not simply disappear. The Russian threat to Ukraine remains constant. To replace their decimated troops, Russia has pardoned criminals and drafted hundreds of thousands of young men. Their artillery mercilessly pounds civilian infrastructure and their forces mass on the outskirts of cities. In sheer numbers alone, they may overwhelm the Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine’s advantage lies in its access to high quality weaponry and in the solidarity of the West, and these circumstances must be maintained or the war may be lost. Some say that we have done enough, but the circumstances show this cannot be true. The U.S. needs to lead the way and set an example by sending more weapons and pushing for greater sanctions and increased international pressure. So long as Putin continues to drag Russia along on this mad path of destruction, our work is not done.

Every contribution, no matter how small, helps. The summer before starting my first semester at Penn Law, I quit my job to lend a hand. I flew to Prague, from where my parents had fled Russian oppression themselves under communist rule. I volunteered to teach Ukrainian children who had fled their war-torn home. They left behind fathers, brothers, grandfathers, uncles, and, sometimes, mothers who had stayed behind to fight. Their subsequent trauma led even the sound of helicopters to trigger tears. In spite of this and in spite of their precarious circumstances in the Czech Republic — living in crowded cloisters and learning in makeshift classrooms — every day was filled with their laughter and smiles. They taught me the Ukrainian national anthem. I taught them Barney’s “I Love You.”

You may wonder, rightfully so, what you, as individuals, can do to make a difference. The answer is simply to do what you can and do it as well as you can. Call your representatives and senators and express your support for Ukraine, requesting they take action. Donate to the cause, raise awareness in your community, or volunteer your time.

The Ukrainian children I taught are in dire need of $25,000 to keep their classroom going through the spring of 2023. Through GoFundme, I have been able to raise over $13,000 in donations for full-time teachers, supplies, and psychological care. Now at Penn’s law school, fellow classmate Julia

Jarrett and I have co-founded the student group Slavic+, which, in addition to raising visibility about Russia’s unlawful military action in Ukraine, has set out to raise the remaining $12,000 to support these Ukrainian refugee students.

If you aren’t sure where to start, this can be your way to make a difference. The longer we wait, the greater the devastation will be. We can no longer turn away and refuse to look.

The first-hand point of view and accounts in this column are courtesy of Kristina Kotyza, and Rachel Kabat contributed history and current events background.

KRISTINA KOTYZA is Penn Law’s Slavic+ Club co-founder, and a Penn Law first year from Rye, N.Y. Her email is kkotyza@penncareylaw.upenn.edu.

RACHEL KABAT is a member of Penn Law’s Slavic+ Club and a Penn Law first year from Atlanta, Georgia. Her email is rkabat@penncareylaw.upenn. edu.

If you take a quick scroll through your TikTok

For You page, chances are that you may come across multiple videos with the background audio reciting, “Everything is working out for me at any given point in time” — an affirmation stated by Esther Hicks, known for her publications and workshops centered around The Law of Attraction. There are over 49,000 videos using this soundbite, with people from around the world explaining how their lives have drastically changed after replacing their negative thinking patterns with this positive belief system. In just a few weeks, #luckygirlsyndrome has accumulated over 459 million views and counting.

Dubbed “Lucky Girl Syndrome,” this viral tactic is professed as a means to attract your desires by speaking them into existence. But it can also be employed as a wellness tool to improve thinking, behavior, and regulating emotions.

The logic here is that through consistent positive reminders, you can gradually alter your inner voice to become more self-compassionate, thereby distancing yourself from a constant attitude of scarcity, lack, or loss — any one of which may stifle and swallow you in the process.

Affirmations are often clustered with manifestation methods. But whether or not you believe in manifestation as a mechanism to alter your reality, there are significant benefits to practicing affirmations to diminish damaging dialogue in your mind. Our worldviews are formulated by our thinking patterns. Thus, when the self acts, the social framework reacts in a reciprocal system.

Evidence-based research illustrates that affirmations rewire your brain by challenging anxieties. Results demonstrate that self-affirming practices amplify activity in self-processing regions of the brain as well as the brain’s valuation systems. Subsequently, affirmations influence sedentary behaviors. Additionally, psychologists and researchers studying self-affirmations have discovered wide-ranging benefits, including stress-buffering effects, greater adaptability, and enhanced internal reflection.

Of the Ivy League schools, Penn scored a D+ in student mental health. In our hyper-competitive, pre-professional atmosphere, it is easy to fall into the trap of perfectionism and ceaseless dissatisfaction. Given the toxic grind culture at Penn, students frequently neglect their present well-being, impeding their abilities to sit back and recognize their worth.

Rather than legitimizing Penn Face and reinforcing toxic positivity through an unfavorable facade, we can actually work towards improvement by viewing and speaking to ourselves with care. While our thought patterns may seem obscure to us, if we tend to them we can begin to assert control.

It is when you find meaning in these affirmations that you truly begin to believe them and develop a healthier frame of mind.

“I made peace with me. I stopped finding fault with me,” Hicks’ affirmation includes. “I stopped looking for reasons to feel bad and started looking for reasons to feel good.” This perspective offers an optimistic, gentle lens to daily life — that is, if you truly believe its content as opposed to merely repeating it.

Because humans are habitual beings, routine selfdepreciation quickly becomes all that you know. When you repeatedly consider your life in terms of lack, you dwindle your capacity to behave in the ways you truly desire due to burnout. Consequently, you will continue enduring a cycle of goal-seeking without ever attaining happiness.

To overcome intrusive negative and futuristic thoughts, affirmations can play a pivotal role. Since they inform our emotions and change how we feel, they thereby alter our behaviors, responses, and actions. By extension, exercising affirmations helps to mitigate stereotype threat and self-fulfilling prophecies that deprive us from self-actualization.

Keep in mind, simply repeating affirmations has its limits. Although developing a new mindset of growth can assist you in improving your habitual thinking, opportunities and resources vary for all people. Affirmations do not close yourself off to reality, and ignoring negative thoughts does not fix them. However, solely engaging in negative self-talk largely impacts self-esteem and fuels maladaptive behaviors.

Further, it is important to recognize that affirmations are not intended to invalidate our struggles. It is perfectly natural for negative thoughts to seep in and it is unrealistic to convince yourself of a fantasy life in which everything is always perfect. Rather, Hicks explains how hyper-obsession over unfavorable events and experiences may bar you from true fulfillment. Additionally, hyperfocusing on the missing pieces may prevent you from actually achieving them. Hicks warns, “you can add to this world in a very positive way, but it’s your concern about the things that aren’t going well that keep you from doing that.”

In a world with never-ending expectations, you is ongoing and multifaceted.

In elementary school, February was the only time I learned about Black historical figures. I recall cutting out paper dolls of Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks — all the same shade of brown due to the singular brown crayon. While the lack of diverse skin color crayons posed an inconvenience that has since been rectified, the real issue of approaching and teaching the entirety of Black history as a 28-day event has not.

You may leave this very narrow curriculum knowing what year the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, and what the Montgomery Bus Boycott was, but beyond that, nothing more.

Unfortunately, many people don’t seek out information about Black history because they haven’t been taught that it is important for them to know. This very narrow view of Black people’s history in America — one that often focuses on slavery and civil rights but leaves out everything in between — is the extent to which most young people (particularly those who are not Black themselves) interact with Black history. Rather than focusing on Black people’s ongoing contributions, we spend lots of time reliving past trauma

When Black history is treated as a subgenre of history that is never fully explored, teachers neglect the history and accomplishments of Black people. Black

History Month’s origins lie in what was once a weeklong celebration known as Negro History Week. This week was established by Carter G. Woodson with the purpose of encouraging Black history education all year long. Woodson intended for that week to spur the teaching of Black history, not confine it.

Leading up to entering the workforce or attending college, many people are ingrained with the belief that Black history knowledge is not crucial. This lack of proactive learning by non-Black people about Black history does a disservice to not just the person, but to the greater community.

In light of Florida outlawing the teaching of AP African American Studies, and several states banning the teaching of critical race theory, the importance of understanding Black history cannot be understated. Direct attacks on the Black history curriculum mean that seeking out this understanding on one’s own is all the more important.

When asked about his view of Black history, English and Africana Studies professor Herman Beavers expressed the importance of viewing Black history as an evolving process: “We tend to think of it as quantitative … but if you think of Black history as a verb — as this thing that people do, that people make, something else happens.” Rather than unchanging, Black history

Professor Beavers went on to state that “Non-Black people have got to stop looking at Black history as not having anything to do with them — it has everything to do with them.”

Regardless of your race, Black history is your history. Whether you identify as “American” or an ethnic group not of the Black diaspora, American history is Black history and vice versa. As Penn students, the importance of Black history is especially prevalent, as Penn is located in West Philadelphia, an area that was once known as the “Black Bottom.” The very area we occupy is home to a Black community that is being gentrified by institutions such as Penn.

Learning Black history is not as simple as opening up a history book and reading about notable historical figures. It also means learning about the city or state you live in, or the Black people who may have founded the community. It means that when listening to genres of music such as rock ‘n roll, you recognize its origins in jazz and blues genres. It means learning about historical topics that they don’t usually highlight in school such as Black Wall Street or the murder of Emmett Till.

Above all else, it means seeing yourself in Black history. There is a looming sense of apprehension I find myself feeling when I talk about Black history with as an individual have the power to assume control over your intrusive, futuristic thoughts in order to harness your joy. Recognize that there is joy in your present moment, even in seemingly meager or mundane circumstances. non-Black people, as though they shouldn’t be expected to know about it or are ashamed that they don’t. I’m here to tell you that it’s never too late to start learning, appreciating, and valuing Black history. creates an “egotistically ruinous” experience for the rest who have to listen to a garbled speech for what feels like an eternity. The main goal of a “smart question,” really, serves no valuable purpose. It is not a demonstration of intellectual curiosity. It aims to impress an audience instead of exploring a subject thoroughly. Smart questions are not particularly unique nor revolutionary if the motivation is to present a facade of the all-knowing Penn student.

I compel you to wholeheartedly recognize your potential to alter your daily lived experience by simply understanding your immense value where you are right now, wherever that may be. You are more than enough, and you can reframe your mind to believe it.

So give “Lucky Girl Syndrome” a try — you might just end up feeling lucky too.

RIANE LUMER is a College junior studying political science and journalistic writing from Huntingdon Valley, Pa. Her email address is rlumer@sas.upenn.edu.

There are many ways to do this. This month alone ARCH has had many events centered around Black history. And recently, due to Black History Month, there have been several events on the greater campus that I encourage students of all backgrounds to check out and participate in.

There is no expectation to focus on Black history as an adult; it’s something you must seek out yourself. Whether that is in the form of taking a class through Penn’s Africana Studies program, attending a collaborative cultural event in ARCH, or simply learning more online, it can only add to and help you understand your own history.

Even without attending events or taking these steps, Black history is something inherent and inescapable in everyone’s life. We are all a part of Black history every day and interact with it simply by living.

MIA VESELY is a College first year studying philosophy, politics, and economics from Phoenix. Her email is mvesely@upenn.sas.edu.

It is also important to distinguish between Thompson’s example of a smart question and a specific question. Arriving to discussions with specific, relevant questions is a characteristic that many good students already possess, as it shows thoughtful engagement with assigned literature. No one is advocating that you waste class time by asking uninformed questions that will deter a rich, probing conversation from taking place.

Browse the internet for context. Take note of the author’s background when you do so. And then, research the breadth and depth of what is available on the subject so that you regurgitate rich, wordy literary analysis in class, impressing everyone with your innate, effortless intelligence, even though you knew nothing about the subject just three hours ago.

Come to class prepared with neatly typed or handwritten annotations of your readings. And then, ask a smart question.

Penn students want it all, so they ask it all. Intellectually curious and inclined to participate, they ask every kind of question. In my experience, the obligation of knowing what you should want to ask and what you should want to learn generates a certain internal turmoil even before you open your mouth. This apprehension particularly manifests itself in smaller humanities classes, where participation is often weighed more heavily in comparison to lecture-style STEM courses. As an

English major, I find myself anxiously preparing for my discussion-based seminars, so that I can contribute thoughtful, eloquent points, narrowly escaping judgment from my peers and my professor.

The Atlantic recently published an article called “Stop Trying to Ask ‘Smart Questions,’” exploring the design of a “smart question” and arguing that it rarely finds good answers. Paradoxically, Derek Thompson, the author, posits that a “smart question” is incredibly counterproductive to learning, as it often only scratches the surface of a more complex issue.

According to Thompson, here are the characteristics of a suspect “Smart Question”: long and try-hard nonsense often rife with jargon and arcane abbreviations. The “smart” question, then, is really a mini-summary stuffed with contextual knowledge. Often, this so-called try-hard nonsense is used to frame the question as intellectual. Sure, asking a “smart question” shows you did your research, but it

To clarify, specific questions maximize the productivity of a discussion, guiding students to look at topics from all angles. In an English class it looks something like this: “In this paragraph there is a lot of imagery compared to the rest of the page. What is Dickens trying to convey?” A “smart question” on the other hand, looks like this: “Feminist theorist and writer Simone de Beauvoir wrote prolifically about class welfare and gender, in part due to her exposure to London writers, like Dickens’ work on the tough lives of the working life in particular. What would a feminist like Simone de Beauvoir say about how Dickens writes about women in this passage?”

Here’s another example of this phenomenon existing outside your small humanities seminar.

You’re in your Intro to Biology lecture and the week’s material is on DNA replication. Suddenly someone asks about its relevance in senescence, a topic beyond the scope of the class.

Either one of these questions derails your professor for a cool 15 minutes while they clarify what exactly senescence is, or what exactly Simone de Beauvoir thought, before having to speed back to a topic that the entire class can apply their knowledge to. Both these cases are obvious exaggerations, but the point stands. No one wants to look unprepared. But take the pressure off yourself to be the smartest person in the room. You won’t grow without “failure to prepare,” regardless of what kind of class you are in. A seminar should engage your intellectual curiosity by stimulating active learning, and that requires a little bit of vulnerability, and a willingness to be wrong.

As Thompson explains, we should ask broader, “stupider” questions instead. Ask the big ones that could help you and your peers delve deeper into the implications and real-world impacts. From their simplicity, they can guide the conversation to more helpful “specific questions.” Broader, “dumb,” questions would center less on, say, a particular statistic mentioned in the reading, but more on the larger social context of how that statistic was arrived at. Critically thinking about the social systems and impacts of a subject is far more fascinating and productive than asking a smart question that would most likely have a dry, unproductive answer. Perhaps the best way to participate in fruitful dialogue is, yes, still engaging with the material, but to consider valuing other important aspects of classroom discussion. Active listening and building off the responses of your peers in class triumph over any rambling question that prioritizes your perspective over everyone else’s.

Pulled directly from my discussion-heavy seminar’s syllabus this semester, my professor says, “We all make mistakes and don’t know some things … part of learning how to argue well about philosophical, political, and conceptual matters is disciplining oneself to avoid counterproductive impulses and strategies like insult, oversimplification, and misrepresentation.”

Chill out with the “smart questions.” Ask instead: what do you want to learn?

Committee structure, which will continue its commitment to a collaborative, flexible approach which ensures strong human resources support for housestaff," a Penn Med spokesperson wrote to the DP.

The spokesperson pointed to efforts to improve resident life and wellness, such as a raise to resident salaries effective in July 2023 that will increase first-year salaries by nearly 7%, with subsequent increases ranging from 7% to 11% as residents move through the program.

The spokesperson also said there are a number of other benefits that residents receive, including retirement employer contributions, subsidized public transportation and tuition, national testing, and medical license reimbursement.

By unionizing, organizers told the DP that they hope to achieve more representation and better work conditions.

Madison Sharp, a third-year OB/GYN resident and member of the organizing committee, said that the letter from Penn Med residents and fellows marks a milestone in an ongoing unionization effort that began in fall 2020. Sharp said that a surge of COVID-19 in January 2021 drew more attention to the issue across all housestaff.

Chantal Tapé, a third-year resident in family medicine and organizing committee member, told the DP that the COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call.

“For many of us, the pandemic was an awakening in recognizing that the work we do is really essential to the health care system and that our concerns as residents aren’t prioritized in the ways they need to be,” Tapé said.

The organizers said that their movement is not focused on any one issue, but rather on “having a seat at the table” and a say in hospital policies that directly impact them. They hope to enact change that will allow all future residents to be actively involved in conversations about them.

The organizers said that one driving factor in organizing the movement is resident salaries. The residency program salaries at Penn Med currently range from $61,000 to $70,000,

RETIREMENT, from FRONT PAGE

invest in, nor is it the best means to produce long-term value for our investors and other stakeholders,” the spokesperson wrote, citing the company's efforts to tackle climate risk.

Penn professors that the DP spoke with said that there is a lack of awareness about the climate impact of retirement investment options for faculty, with some taking an active role in opposing TIAA's connections to the fossil fuel industry.

English professor Jim English said that he signed a complaint to the Principles for Responsible Investment because of TIAA's connection to Adani Group. Adani is a conglomerate that owns Australia's recently constructed Carmichael coal mine, which could emit 78 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. According to research by Toxic Bonds, TIAA is the secondlargest holder of Adani bonds in the world.

“I think that most professors — most well-educated people, at least in a city like Philadelphia — do not want to be investing their money in companies like Adani," English said.

English and other professors said that the University's and TIAA's retirement investment policies are confusing. Faculty are largely obligated by Penn to invest through TIAA, which makes it hard to know where their money is going, he said.

"The lack of information is a problem," he said.

One alternative to TIAA's funds is the brokerage option, which lets faculty build their own investment portfolios. Legal Studies and Business Ethics professor Eric Orts said that the problem with this option is that faculty have to follow "some basic principles" of portfolio investing.

“I put in a lot of hours [at Penn], doing academic things, research, working with students,

TOWNHOMES, from FRONT PAGE

However, Winter Schneider, who works in direct contact with the townhomes residents, told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the residents had been given Feb. 21 as the day that the HUD contract expired. Confusion about a potential property sale and eviction deadline is just one aspect of the battle over the Townhomes that lacks a clear consensus. In a press release, residents said that they suspected Altman Management of intentionally neglecting upkeep to induce a faster move, but IBID denied these claims.

“The mice and cockroaches are everywhere. It’s unacceptable how Altman is treating us,” townhomes resident Krystal Young wrote in the press release. Feeley told the DP that IBID has not been ignoring the complaints of the residents, but rather addressing their concerns and providing onsite management services to ameliorate the living conditions.

“From the moment that they decided to opt out, IBID made it clear that it wanted to treat the residents as fairly as possible and try to do the right thing by them,” Feeley said. “On the rodent question, as soon as complaints were filed, we had folks go out there, and we had it remediated by an exterminator.”

According to Feeley, the decision to not renew the contract was a result of “considerable interest” shown in the property for a variety of uses, potentially including research spaces, retail stores, and a replacement of the affordable residential units.

“The highest and best use of that land is as a laboratory research facility. And our preference was to find a buyer who would be interested in building a residence there, so the impact on the residents would be minimal,” Feeley said.

According to the Business Journal, the property was in the process of being sold to a Philadelphia-based company called National Real Estate Development, but Feeley said that the sale was never completed. He did not name any other prospective buyers.

Feeley emphasized the benefits of the Section 8 vouchers granted to residents, which can be taken to any rental property to obtain a federal subsidy for an apartment of the resident’s choice.

Urban Studies instructor John Kromer said that some landlords might choose to reject these vouchers.

“Discrimination is probably part of it,” Kromer said. “It may be that a landlord doesn’t want to sign a contract with HUD and be subjected to HUD-mandated inspections, or it could be racism.”

Kromer said that a potential solution to the existing problems would be allowing the city to mediate an agreement between Penn, IBID, and the residents.

“I think there was a big opportunity early on for the mayor to get involved,” Kromer said. “Expressing sympathy for the residents is not enough. To say, ‘That’s just the way the HUD program works’ is not enough.”

Students involved in the protest said that they intend to continue pressuring Penn administration to take action.

“We are here to make the universities uncomfortable,” College senior Gigi Varlotta said. “Drexel and Penn have close relationships with all of these billionaires. We know that they have influence over what happens with the townhomes, and we know that once they commit real funds to the preservation, other institutions in the city will follow suit.” and resident physicians often work up to 80 hours per week — which amounts to a maximum hourly wage of $16.50 for a first-year resident, the organizers said. In addition to living expenses, residents have an average of $200,000 of medical school debt to pay off.

Staff reporter Vidya Pandiaraju contributed reporting.

Medical students are placed in residency programs through the National Residency Matching Program, which requires them to accept the contracts offered to them. Residents cannot leave their programs for a more lucrative offer, which means hospitals have little incentive to raise wages, the organizers said.

“We came to work hard, learn and take great care of our patients,” Tapé said. “We’re not opposed to putting in the work, but it doesn’t feel like the salary and benefits we receive reflect the great care that we provide our patients and the revenue we bring to the hospital.”

Recent cost reduction efforts were another driving factor for residents. Tapé said that they received no salary increase in the 2020-21 academic year. In addition, a recent announcement informed residents that subsidized parking will be ending in June, which impacts those who work at multiple hospital sites or opt to live in more affordable areas farther from the hospital.

“[The parking loss] made us feel like even the benefits that we do have could be taken away at a moment’s notice,” Tapé said. “There and so on," Simon Richter, a Germanic Languages and Literatures professor, said. "I do not have the time to spend really informing myself or keeping up to date about what's going on in the market so that I'm able to invest my money responsibly.”

Another alternative is environmental, social, and governance investing and social value funds, which people may think have no oil stocks, Orts said. However, Orts and Cornell University professor Caroline Levine said that the reality of social value funds is more complicated.

Some faculty have discussed their concerns about their current retirement options through the Faculty Senate's Select Committee on the Institutional Response to the Climate Emergency.

In November 2021, CIRCE passed a resolution recommending that University administrators “revise the investment menu of retirement funds for faculty and staff to include additional lowcarbon investment fund options.”

A graphic attached to the resolution estimated that faculty and staff retirement funds are equal to approximately 2,470,320 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, while Penn’s endowment has an estimated 4,263,784 metric was very little openness to resident concern about that.”

The GME Program — which the Penn Med spokesperson pointed to as a place for trainees to seek human resources support — has a House Staff Governing Council consisting of housestaff who advocate for resident and fellow needs, working with GME leadership to improve patient care and quality of life. Sharp and Tapé, who have both been involved with the council, said that it has failed to make substantive progress.

“It’s incredibly frustrating to have our concerns brushed aside,” Sharp, a former president of the council, said. “After struggling to advocate for my colleagues and not being listened to, it became clear that we really need a union. We’re at the whim of hospital and departmental policies that are subject to change, and we need to be able to better advocate for ourselves.”

The organizing committee plans to continue discussing the benefits of unionizing with other housestaff while continuing to advocate for their right to unionize.

“We hope that Penn will voluntarily recognize our union given that we have a supermajority of residents and fellows who want one,” Sharp said. “But given the response, that seems unlikely, in which case we will move forward with our campaign to compel them to come to the negotiation table.” tons.

A manual to assist faculty in achieving sustainability goals, published in August 2020, said that CIRCE was working with University leaders to "negotiate the inclusion of fossil free and green mutual funds among individual investment choices" with TIAA and Vanguard. As of January 2023, a guide for Penn's retirement savings plan does not explicitly mention lowcarbon or carbon-free options.

Penn professor Bill Braham, the chair of CIRCE and past chair of the Faculty Senate, said that Penn is "heavily constrained" as a fiduciary to offer investment fund options that will do well regardless of whether faculty pay attention to how their funds are spent. The manual is a part of CIRCE's Penn Faculty Climate Pledge.

Beyond Penn, Levine said she has been trying to inform other TIAA clients who are unhappy with the company's fossil fuel investments.

"We're teachers, so we spend our days — our lives — investing in students so that [they] can live full, rich, flourishing lives," Levine said. "The idea that our earnings are going into destroying the future so that [students] cannot live those lives feels like the biggest contradiction.”