February 24, 2022 by The Daily Pennsylvanian

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885

PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022

VOL. CXXXVIII

Pennsylvania unveils new state congressional map

Community protests Penn’s role in the eviction of local residents

Leaders of Penn’s political groups weighed in on the redistricting process RACHEL MILLER Staff Reporter

PHOTO BY DEREK WONG

Protesters outside College Hall on Feb. 23 rallying against the selling of University City Townhomes.

The protest came directly ahead of the University Council meeting on Feb. 23 JARED MITOVICH AND SAYA DESAI Senior Reporters

Nearly 100 students and West Philadelphia residents gathered outside College Hall on Wednesday to demand that Penn prevent the eviction of residents from University City Townhomes — a housing development near Penn that is primarily occupied by Black and low-income Philadelphians — before the University Council meeting held that day. The protest was hosted by the Coalition to Save the UC Townhomes, a group composed of Penn faculty and students, the Black Bottom tribe, housing justice organizers, and West Philadelphia community members. Several townhome residents at risk of displacement spoke at the protest, aiming to pressure Penn into intervening in the planned redevelopment of the property.

Real estate firm Altman Management Company currently owns UC Townhomes on 39th and Market streets, but it has not renewed a 40-year affordable housing contract with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. As a result, the townhome residents face an eviction scheduled for July which will displace 69 households. College sophomore and Coalition to Save the UC Townhomes member Janay Draughn listed the group’s four demands to the dozens of listeners, which included a request for Interim President Wendell Pritchett to hold an open meeting with the townhome residents and community members. In addition, the coalition is asking Penn to “repair harms” — by converting the townhomes into a community land trust rather than demolishing them, putting more investment into affordable housing in West Philadelphia, and using its resources to ensure that residents have a “safe, secure, and desirable place” to live. “While Penn stands by and watches, planning its next luxury, high-rise office building, we’re here to-

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day in front of College Hall, where Penn administrators have their offices,” Penn associate professor of English and a coalition organizer Chi-ming Yang told the crowd. Yang noted the University’s $20.5 billion endowment and its exemption from paying property taxes, which she said proves that Penn is an “engine of inequality.” Penn is the only Ivy League university that does not participate in payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, to the city in which it is located. “Housing is a human right. Housing is the people’s right. Stop ‘Penntrification,’” Yang said in a chant that the crowd joined. HUD officials said in October 2021 that the agency, along with a contractor, would facilitate the relocation of the residents to “safe and decent housing.” Connie Astillero, a Philadelphia resident who lives in one of the townhomes, told the protesters that residents have not received vouchers for new homes and that it was difficult for people in general to find somewhere to live in Philadelphia.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court selected a new congressional map on Wednesday that will reshape statewide and national politics for the next decade after a period of standstill. On Wednesday, Feb. 23, by a 4-3 decision, the court chose a map submitted by a group of citizens and proposed by the Democratic plaintiffs that used the “least-change” approach to maintain the same general representation as the previous map. Penn faculty and political club leaders on campus discussed the importance of the process and what needs to be addressed moving forward. College senior and former Penn Democrats Political Director Michael Nevett said that ensuring equitable representation remains the most pressing issue. “The most important thing is to have a map that is fair and reflects changes in population so everyone has equal representation,” Nevett said. Districts are redrawn every 10 years based on the results of the United States Census. Since Pennsylvania lost a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2020 census — going from 18 to 17 districts — an entirely new congressional map had to be drawn. This new map has six Democratic-leaning districts, eight Republican-leaning districts, and three highly competitive districts, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight. Nevett said this change in the number of districts and the initial delay in the release of census data resulted in a longer redistricting process. Along with the announcement of the new congressional map, the state Supreme Court also imposed a new election calendar for the May 17 primary. The primary date will stay unchanged, but the deadlines for candidates to file paperwork to secure a spot on the ballot have been pushed back. See MAP, page 7

See TOWNHOMES, page 3

Greek life rush registration returns to Penn lifts double-masking mandate as pre-pandemic levels COVID-19 cases continue to decline Panhellenic Council sorority rush was completely online, while Interfraternity Council fraternities held a mix of virtual and in-person rush events

The undergraduate positivity rate reached a new semester-low of 1.16% last week DELANEY PARKS Senior Reporter

JASPER TAYLOR Staff Reporter

Over the past two weeks, the undergraduate COVID-19 positivity rate has dropped by more than 10%.

PHOTO BY OSCAR VASQUEZ

Sorority and fraternity houses on Spruce Steet.

Navigating online components, students rushed on-campus sororities and fraternities at levels similar to before the pandemic after recruitment took a major hit last year amid COVID-19. For the second year in a row, on-campus sorority and fraternity rush has had a virtual component. Spring semester rush was held completely

virtual for sororities, while fraternities held a mix of virtual and in-person events due to concerns surrounding COVID-19, according to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. On-campus fraternities and sororities saw increases in registration during spring 2022 rush compared to spring 2021.

See RUSH, page 2 SEND STORY IDEAS TO NEWSTIP@THEDP.COM

Penn administrators lifted the indoor doublemasking requirement for community members as a result of last week’s “remarkably low” COVID-19 positivity rate. In a message to the Penn community on Feb. 22, Interim President Wendell Pritchett, Interim Provost Beth Winkelstein, Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli, and Executive Vice President for the Health System J. Larry Jameson wrote that measures announced on Jan. 12 that mandated either doublemasking, or the use of a KN95, N95, or KF95 mask in campus buildings are now reversed. They added that wearing masks indoors is still required. This change comes after the campus positivity rate reached a new semester-low of 0.97% for the week of Feb. 13 to Feb. 19 — down from 1.86% the prior week. The undergraduate positivity rate also sharply decreased to 1.16% — down from 3.11% the week before. “The removal of the double-masking requirement is in direct response to the continued decrease in positivity on campus and in our surrounding communities,” Chief Wellness Officer Benoit Dubé said. “In alignment with the recently announced city guidance, we will continue to adjust our public health requirements in the coming weeks.” Overall COVID-19 cases decreased to 74 in the last week — down from 170 from the week of Feb. 6 to 12. Campus isolation capacity also rose to 91.1%, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard. Undergraduate students comprised 34 of the positive cases. In the email, the administrators wrote that they

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still “strongly encourage” the use of these additional measures, and that masks are still required in all campus buildings in accordance with Philadelphia’s indoor mask mandate. When the double-masking policy went into effect on Jan. 12, the campus-wide positivity rate was 13.22%, and the undergraduate positivity rate was 18.74%. COVID-19 cases were at a record high when 1,281 community members tested positive. The spring 2022 semester began with two weeks of online classes, as well as a ban on indoor social gatherings — which was recently lifted on Feb. 15 in response to decreasing positivity rates. Several students previously told The Daily Pennsylvanian that they worried the double-masking policy was not enforced with enough rigor. Immunocompromised students were worried that the relaxed enforcement of COVID-19 policies posed a risk to their safety. The administrators also added in the email that the deadline for those who are eligible but have not yet uploaded their booster vaccination documentation on Workday or the Student Health Portal is Feb. 28. Penn announced the campus-wide booster vaccine requirement on Dec. 21 amid the surge in the Omicron variant of COVID-19. “We are grateful to every member of the Penn community for these highly positive trends,” the administrators wrote, adding that they will continue to assess COVID-19 policies as the situation continues to develop. Senior Reporter Jonah Miller contributed reporting. CONTACT US: 215-422-4640

2 NEWS

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022 RUSH, from front page

In spring 2022, 533 students registered for virtual Panhellenic Council sorority recruitment, up slightly from the 448 registering in spring 2021. The numbers did not reach prepandemic levels, however, which saw 556 students registering in spring 2020. Penn’s Interfraternity Council does not track registration numbers for its fraternities, Jessica Ryan, Penn’s Director of Fraternity & Sorority Leadership Community, told The Daily Pennsylvanian in an emailed statement on Feb. 16. Recruitment for Penn’s Intercultural Greek Council is ongoing, and finalized registration or membership numbers are not available yet, Ryan told the DP. “Panhellenic Council saw decreases in registration numbers for 2021 Primary Recruitment in January and didn’t quite catch up to 2020 numbers in 2022,” Ryan wrote on Feb. 16. “However, through continuous open bidding or COB [sic] Panhellenic total number of new members has stayed consistent in the spring semesters for the last three years.” For Panhel sororities, the completely virtual rush process began on Jan. 9 and ended on Jan. 14. College senior Christmas Cotter, the vice president of Panhel recruitment, said that she made the decision to conduct sorority rush in a hybrid format even before the University announced the delay of in-person classes. Cotter explained that it was easier for her to move rush online once the University announced a delay to in-person classes in spring 2022 because “[she] had a model to go off of from last year.” For IFC fraternities, the recruitment process included a series of virtual and in-person events from Jan. 20 to Feb. 2. “Interfraternity Council chapters took in less members in 2020-2021 academic year but this Spring 2022 recruitment, IFC is already seeing great increases from the spring prior and are continuing to rise closer to the 2020 number,” Ryan told the DP on Feb. 16. IFC fraternities held spring rush in a hybrid format because it followed students’ return to campus, whereas Panhel sorority recruitment took place when classes were still online, according to Cotter. College first year Kemi Ogunyankin said that the virtual sorority rush process allowed her to participate while traveling. “I thought it would be a little bit awkward with Zoom, but I think it worked well,” she said. “It was just less pressure.” However, Ogunyankin also emphasized that an in-person rush process would have allowed students to understand and learn more about chapters. “I know a lot of people did love how the pressure was taken off with virtual recruitment,” Cotter said about one of the benefits of online rush. However, she said that she “thinks it definitely was hard for some girls to connect online.”

This year’s Penn A A AS fellows are (from top row to bottom row, left to right) Sara Cherry, Susan Davidson, Douglas Durian, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Katalin Karikó, I. Joseph Kroll, Mingyao Li, Hongjun Song, Duncan Watts, and E. John Wherry.

Ten Penn faculty members named American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows

The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with four of the honored faculty members: Katalin Karikó, Sara Cherry, Hongjun Song, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson LIAM UMBS Contributing Reporter

The American Association for the Advancement of Science named 10 Penn faculty members as AAAS Honorary Fellows. The organization — the world’s largest scientific society and publisher of the Science journal family — recognized 564 scholars for their accomplishments, which spanned disciplines from technology and research to communication, according to AAAS’s website. The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with four of the honored faculty members: Katalin Karikó, Sara Cherry, and Hongjun Song, all of the Perelman School of Medicine, as well as Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg School of Communication. Karikó, an adjunct professor of neurosurgery and a senior vice president at BioNTech, has been recognized extensively — including by TIME Magazine as a Hero of the Year — for the

integral role her research played in the development of the messenger RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines. When Karikó began in researching the field of RNA in her native Hungary, there was relatively little knowledge about the molecule, she said. She was tasked with figuring out if RNA had an antiviral effect. After running out of funding in 1985, she came to Philadelphia and started working on a double-stranded RNA treatment for HIV, which ended up not being a plausible technique. “In that time, when I was young and restless, most of the science was you add something and something happens, but you didn’t know the mechanism,” Karikó said. “Not like today. My goodness. It’s so much more exciting.” When Karikó came to Penn in 1989 to work in neurosurgery, she also began experimenting

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM with the single-stranded messenger RNA. A few years later, she met Drew Weissman, now the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research, who was interested in developing a vaccine based on the mRNA she was making. After years of further research, the pair determined that mRNA is immunogenic and capable of producing a vaccine that can target any specific virus. By the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they were ready to make a vaccine, she said. “The future is already in the present,” Karikó said about scientific research. Jamieson, the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, studies political communication, focusing specifically on science communication — which she said has become polarized in the political fields she studies. “The research that’s being done at the Annenberg Public Policy Center is trying to identify the susceptibilities that increase the likelihood that the public will accept misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories, and, once we’ve identified those susceptibilities, attempting to determine how best they can be overcome,” Jamieson said. Jamieson also emphasized the role that undergraduate students at Penn play in the center’s research. “The research that we’re doing is in partnership with parts of our undergraduate population who will go on to change the world as a result of the education they receive at Penn and the activities in which they participate,” she said. Cherry, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, studies how human viruses infect humans and other animals. In her lab, she said, she studies how viruses overcome pathways to infect hosts. “I think a lot of our research is giving us a fundamental understanding of how viruses are able to infect humans and other animals, and those understandings can lead to new therapeutic developments,” Cherry said. Song is t he Perel m a n P rofessor of Neuroscience, the co-director of the IRM Neurodevelopment & Regeneration Program, and the director of the Epigenetics Institute Neuroepigenetics Interest Group. He investigates brain development and plasticity — studying how the brain is formed, how it functions, and how mental illness and neurological disorders develop. “I hope we identify ways toward [their] potential treatment,” Song said. The other honored fellows from Penn are Mingyao Li and E. John Wherry of the Perelman School of Medicine, Douglas Durian and I. Joseph Kroll of the School of Arts & Sciences, Susan Davidson of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Duncan Watts, the 23rd Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor with faculty appointments in the Annenberg School of Communication, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Wharton School.

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NEWS 3

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022

Self-serve options return to dining halls for the first time since before pandemic Students can now create their own salads and pour their own bowls of soup KOMAL PATEL Senior Reporter

Self-serve stations have returned to Penn Dining, and students now have expanded options for their meal swipes. In an email sent to students on Feb. 18, Penn Dining announced that it will now allow students to serve themselves at various stations in each dining cafe for the first time since removing self-serve options due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students are now able to do a number of things including creating their own salads and pouring their own bowls of soup. In an email sent to The Daily Pennsylvanian on Feb. 20, Director of Hospitality Services Pam Lampitt said that the move back to self-service marks a return to pre-pandemic dining operations. “The easing of this restriction is exciting as it allows our diners, most of whom have only experienced dining under COVID protocols, more customization in their meal choices,” Lampitt wrote. Other changes to dining this semester include an increase in meal swipe options as well as a change in how dining works at Quaker Kitchen. Penn Dining announced in an email sent Feb. 15 that there are now expanded meal exchange options at Houston Market — which includes La Plancha, Houston Market Grill, 34th Street Carvery, Penn Pi, and The Market Café — Joe’s Café and Accenture Café.

PHOTO BY ANNIE LUO

Students use the self-serve station in the Hill dining hall on April 20, 2019.

Quaker Kitchen, Penn’s newest dining hall located in New College House West, was previously only open to students who made a reservation for dinner. However, there is now a walk-in dining option at Quaker Kitchen for the first hour

of service from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on a first-come, first-serve basis. Penn Dining initially removed self-serve stations in the fall 2020 semester, when indoor dining was not permitted and only pre-packaged meals were available.

The spring 2022 semester also began with Penn Dining suspending indoor dining in light of the COVID-19 surge and Omicron variant, instead operating with a “takeout” system that stayed in place until classes began in person two weeks later.

TOWNHOMES, from front page

College sophomore and Police Free Penn member Jack Starobin, a former reporter for The Daily Pennsylvanian, helped organize the protest, and he spoke at the University Council open forum in Houston Hall held after the protest. At the open forum, Starobin reiterated the coalition’s concerns and directed the group’s demands to the University administrators who are University Council members. Approximately 30 open forum attendees stood up from their seats while Starobin was speaking, holding pieces of paper calling on Penn to “Save the UC Townhomes.” “President Pritchett knows what displacement looks like. He is a scholar of affordable hous-

ing law,” Starobin said to the Council. “He and others here know what will happen this summer when the 400 townhome residents, mainly Black, working class families, are scheduled to be evicted.” Sam Rise, a Southwest Philadelphia resident, was one of the speakers at the protest. When they asked attendees to raise their hand if they were a native Philadelphian, most of the audience did not raise their hand. Rise said that since most people in the audience are not native to Philadelphia, they have a responsibility to care for their neighbors who have lived in the city longer than they have. “I think that students at all of the universities in Philadelphia have an obligation to Philadel-

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phia’s communities to show up and care for them if you’re going to benefit from the institution, because at the very least, we need to hold the institution accountable,” Rise said. The pending eviction of the townhome residents comes amid several Penn development projects that have drawn scrutiny, including the purchase of the McDonald’s on 40th and Walnut streets at an unspecified future date. In addition, West Philadelphia’s median market value has increased significantly from 2015 to 2021, which has made it more difficult for current residents to remain in their homes and which has been partly attributed to the founding of the Penn Alexander School in 2001.

The coalition has hosted multiple teach-ins to educate Penn students on the sale of the UC Townhomes. Another teach-in is planned for March 3, and another protest will be held in March on 40th Street with an exact date to be confirmed. “This is going to be a day everyone knows,” UC Townhome resident Darlene Foreman said of the upcoming protest. Astillero emphasized the need for Penn students to continue showing up at future events to put pressure on Penn to prevent the residents’ evictions. “We need everybody’s support. We need physical support out there, singing, raising voices,” Astillero said.

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4 OPINION

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022

Opinion

138th Year of Publication

THIS YEAR’S BOARD ALESSANDRA PINTADO-URBANC President PIA SINGH Executive Editor JONAH CHARLTON DP Editor-in-Chief TYLER KLIEM Design Editor TORI SOUSA News Editor EMI TUYẾTNHI TRẦN News Editor DELANEY PARKS Assignments Editor SOPHIE APFEL Copy Editor JESSE ZHANG Photo Editor ASAAD MANZAR Opinion Editor PHOEBE LEUNG Social Media Editor

Magill’s first test: Getting Penn’s Use Penn’s alumni network. support of Lea Elementary right It may change your life. THE ANGRY PHILADELPHIAN | The multi-year, multimillion dollar investment will show us how much Penn’s new president cares about West Philadelphia

enn just made huge philanthropic waves, and you might have missed it. The University will give Henry C. Lea Elementary, a school that’s walking distance from campus, a total of over $4 million over the span of the five-year agreement. If you believe Penn, it will transform the educational experience afforded to Lea’s students. If you believe some West Philadelphians, it will transform Cedar Park and Walnut Hill into (more) gentrified neighborhoods. But the outcome of Penn’s partnership with Lea is not predetermined, and there’s one person who has an outsized influence on what it becomes: Penn’s incoming president, M. Elizabeth Magill.

supply in the district. In addition, while the school district will continue to provide basic funding for school operations, it is Penn’s extra cash that will differentiate Lea from other schools in Philadelphia. If Penn is signing the checks that could turn Lea into a formidable educational catalyst for neighborhood change, then it’s also up to Penn to avoid repeating the issues of the past. Penn has a long history of swooping in, spending money, and letting projects with little community impact run their course — recent projects like the Wharton Academic Research Building and Tangen Hall were built solely for University use. Lea is essentially the

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Magill’s arrival to Penn is notable for many reasons, but one of them is her lack of connection to Philadelphia. For a University with such a rocky (in good times) relationship with its host city, Magill’s apparent newness to the area is cause for concern. Despite being a major economic driver in the greater Philadelphia region, Penn’s impact on the West Philadelphia neighborhoods nearest campus caused significant harm, economically and socially, to the people who have lived there for decades. In 2022, nearWest Philadelphia’s neighborhood attributes are markedly different than they were just 20 years ago; The area is getting more expensive and white by the year — trends that are changing at a faster rate than in Philadelphia at large. The complicated history of Penn’s famous partnership with Penn Alexander, also a public school, gives a concerning air to the Lea investment. Founded in 2001 by the University, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, and the School District of Philadelphia, Penn Alexander was a major catalyst in increasing University City’s high cost of living. While Penn Alexander continues to be one of the city’s best-performing schools, it is, just like the neighborhood it’s in, not representative of Philadelphia. Without access to fine details of the LeaPenn partnership, it’s hard to make a definitive call and say that it will make Lea as exclusionary as Penn Alexander. And frankly, I’m not qualified to give hard suggestions on how to avoid creating Penn Alexander 2.0. However, I do know well the two key players in this story: Penn and the School District of Philadelphia. In my judgment, the school district will put a premium on making sure that Lea performs to a high standard, and if so, only for the reason that high-performing schools are in short

opposite; as a public school, it’s meant for the community, not research. It requires sustained attention to make sure it meets the needs of the community. But unlike Philadelphia’s public school district, Penn has no elected overseers or voting base who have the power to change leadership. At a university like ours, the only tool community members have to effect change is persuasion. That means that Liz Magill will never have to sit through a community meeting a few years from now and listen to local families share how they can no longer afford to live in the neighborhood served by Lea. But being president of Penn does mean that world-renowned experts are on your payroll and at your service. If Magill is serious about improving Penn’s relationship with Philadelphia, part of the investment in Lea needs to come with serious discussions on how to avoid massive neighborhood change. That likely means more than one-off programs with catchy names, and almost certainly means that the current plan for Lea will need to be modified as induced changes become apparent. Penn’s investment in Lea Elementary will be complicated and ever-changing. But if done correctly, it could also help generations of students access high-quality education without also displacing their families or staining Penn’s history. If President Magill really wants to show our home city that she cares, she needs to show that Penn can be more than a force for upheaval and instead be the true “Civic Ivy.” ALFREDO PRATICÒ is a College senior studying American history from Philadelphia. He previously served as the DP’s opinion editor. His email is pratico@thedp.com.

CLOOBECK’S CALL | Conversations with Penn alumni have influenced my post-graduation plans and allowed me to explore potential career paths in 30 minutes or less

eaching out to Penn alumni has made me reconsider my post-graduation path. While I was originally planning to apply directly to law school, I became convinced by Penn alumni to take time to explore my career interests first. I would like to share lessons I’ve learned about reaching out to alumni to help you start your search. The most valuable alumni connection resource I have used is MyPenn, Penn’s alumni database system (formerly QuakerNet). Think LinkedIn, but exclusively for the Penn community. MyPenn is nice because many alumni list their preferred email address. Another unique benefit of MyPenn is you can see whether alumni are available for mentorship, meaning they have indicated that they welcome messages from members of the Penn community. It is helpful to cross-check a person’s MyPenn account on LinkedIn because some MyPenn profiles have not been updated in a while. One of the best pieces of advice I received from Career Services was that building up one’s career prospects is 75% networking, 25% applying for opportunities. While it is difficult to live up to this advice, it is a helpful motivator to reach out to alumni. With that advice in mind, I started my search on MyPenn. It may at first be overwhelming to see the thousands of alumni you can reach out

Quick Guide to Informational Interviews to learn more about how to craft the introductory email and prepare for the chat. It’s easy to excuse ourselves and say that we don’t have the time to reach out to alumni. I admit it is difficult to do this when classes are in full swing, so I recommend sending messages and setting up calls on breaks or weekends. For instance, in early January 2022, I emailed four alumni — whom I used a lot of filtering to find — and I was fortunate enough to have conversations with all four of them! It’s understandable to feel dejected reading this and predict that the prospect of receiving a response is unlikely. I have fallen victim to this thinking myself. Here’s a word of encouragement: Sending a message is the only way you can know if you will receive a response. The worst thing that can happen is that they don’t respond. Then, you can decide to either follow up with that person or reach out to someone else. It is not uncommon for emails to be lost in people’s inboxes. My own journey connecting with our Penn alumni network has been a very positive one and has forced me to reconsider my path in many ways. Many Penn alumni advised me to take at least a year to do something else before applying to law school since I was not sure I was ready yet. Without the advice of experienced alumni, I would be on a different path than

PHOTO BY DEREK WONG

to on the platform. The filtering checkboxes on the left hand side of the Directory page can be very helpful in sorting through all of the available mentors. By filtering for the person’s school within Penn, their job industry, current city, and more, you can make your search easier by narrowing down your prospective connections. You can even search to see if you studied the same major or were in the same club, which I’ve found to be a helpful icebreaker! A person new to MyPenn may also be worried about cold-emailing someone that they do not know. It is normal to feel nervous about asking someone for their time to have a conversation — also known as an informational interview. Personally, I recommend checking out Career Services’

I am currently on: As of now, I’m planning to take a gap year to explore my interests in American government, politics, and journalism before applying to law school so I can grow as a person. While we may not be able to interview our future selves, reaching out to Penn alumni is the next best option. Over spring break and beyond, I encourage you to check out MyPenn and try emailing a few alumni whom you admire. You may be surprised at the responses you receive and the connections you make. JADEN CLOOBECK is a College fourth year from Laguna Beach, Calif. studying psychology. His email address is jaden@sas.upenn.edu.

EMMA SCHULTZ Copy Associate

Don’t donate to Penn; the world is in greater need

CAROLINE DONNELLY MORAN Copy Associate

GUEST COLUMN| Give to underfunded causes around the world instead of an elite institution with a multi-billion dollar endowment

JENNIFER FRANK Copy Associate ELIZABETH XU Copy Associate

LETTER SUBMISSION Have your own opinion? Send your letter to the editor or guest column to letters@thedp.com. Editorials represent the majority view of members of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. Editorial Board, which meets regularly to discuss issues relevant to Penn’s campus. Participants in these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on related topics.

ast year, Penn’s endowment ballooned to $20.5 billion. Departing President Amy Gutmann raised over $10 billion in donations in her 18-year tenure. Every few months we hear about how Penn is spending these vast sums. But there are far better uses of any money you plan to give to Penn now or in the future. Today, roughly 700 million people globally are living in extreme poverty — defined by The World Bank as earning less than $1.90 a day, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened this crisis. Such levels of deprivation are thankfully unimaginable to nearly all of us reading this newspaper. But that doesn’t mean they do not exist. It is important to remember that despite all the economic progress of the past 200 years, people in vast swaths of the world suffer through no fault of their own but from the circumstances they were born into. Geographic inequality is hugely under-appreciated in the rich world where even a minimum wage job would put you well above average globally. The key point is that a dollar goes much further in poverty-ridden regions like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It goes even further if you donate to the right charities. The difference between an ineffective donation and an effective one is not a percentage point this way or that way, but orders of magnitude. Fortunately, economists such as Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer, who shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, have developed ways to identify the best measures to reduce poverty and save lives. Ideas

like direct cash transfers, anti-malaria bed nets, and child deworming have been proven in randomized controlled trials to be the best ways to achieve these goals of reducing poverty and needless deaths — things we should all want. We know these measures work, so how can you donate to them? One for the World, which was founded at Wharton eight years ago, convinces students to pledge 1% of their post-graduation

but also enough to buy 32 bednets or 222 deworming treatments. As the current co-president of One for the World’s Penn chapter, I know that every semester we get one or two dozen current students to pledge. But looking at that endowment, I also know the Penn community can do dramatically better. Penn spent $163 million on a shiny new dorm that mostly houses sophomores, many of whom don’t even want to

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income to the five most effective charities as ranked by GiveWell, a charity aggregator. The average Penn graduate earns over $80,000, so they would donate $800 per year — the cost of having one Starbucks coffee every day in America,

live on campus but are required to. It will no doubt spend hundreds of millions of dollars in coming years on more impressive buildings. But when you donate to Penn you should know that you are intentionally or unintentionally ignoring

how far a dollar goes somewhere else. This column is not meant to disparage Penn, a world-class institution that is on the cutting edge of many fields, but to illustrate that we must rethink charitable giving. The Red Cross raised $500 million after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti to build houses, but only six houses were actually built. The Make-A-Wish Foundation can spend thousands of dollars on fulfilling a single wish. After the education you receive at Penn, your donations should not be driven by ego or sentiment but by facts. From a finance perspective, it’s about return on investment. In economics, you might call it efficiently allocating resources. Philosophically, it comes down to doing the most good possible. In the long run, people are lifted out of poverty by good governance and economic growth. I come from a country on the verge of sovereign default, so I know the devastating effects of mismanagement. But in the short run, there is a lot of suffering we can eliminate with minimal harm to ourselves. Pledging 1% means you still get to keep 99% of what you earn. The average American donates 2% of their income to charity, so I would urge you to aim even higher. Penn has an entire office whose job it is to grow the endowment in perpetuity. It will be fine without your donations — but millions of people around the world will not be. AMJAD HAMZA is a Wharton junior studying business analytics from Colombo, Sri Lanka. His email is amjadhmz@wharton.upenn.edu.

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OPINION 5

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022

What predominantly white universities could learn from Beyoncé’s “Black is King” GUEST COLUMN| Beyoncé’s “Black Is King” provides an example of cultural inclusion that universities can follow to be more inclusive of marginalized groups

suppose that, compared to some other regions of this country, one could consider Penn to be a fairly diverse place as our student body is only about 40% white. Such percentages are a source of pride, both at Penn and many other similar schools. Our racial diversity is something many highly ranked institutions of higher education enjoy proclaiming in brochures and promotional videos. However, it may be worth considering whether these numbers truly reflect Penn’s inclusiveness. How many of us feel that people who look like us are truly included on our college campus?

“The Lion King” in collaboration with real Black people, rather than simply using animals. Beyoncé did in-depth research to learn more about the history and culture behind each scene and component she sought to include in the movie. She spent over a year developing the film, and she used her Disney earnings from “The Lion King” to recruit Black artists, designers, and musicians, known and unknown, from six different continents around the world, a move that would ensure the accuracy of her film and intercultural inclusion at all stages of production. According to

Having one’s identity praised on screen is a gift that many, sadly, still have not received. Nevertheless, Beyoncé’s work shows us what is possible when we put in enough time, energy, and money. It shows what is possible at our universities as well. Some top universities have significant endowments that stretch far further than Beyoncé’s net worth, but they seem to do far less than they are able when it comes to true inclusion. Perhaps, some believe that universities have a handle on inclusion. I say that we need to take a closer look at what inclusion truly looks like.

DESIGN BY ERIN MA

When I think of intercultural inclusion, I think of “Black Is King,” a 2020 visual album based on the music from her soundtrack album “The Lion King: The Gift.” Beyoncé decided to create “Black Is King” after doing voiceover and musical work on the 2019 live action “The Lion King” film. After learning about a Black artist who did not receive their due credit in the original animated film, Beyoncé became committed to retelling the story of

her mother, Tina Knowles-Lawson, Beyoncé did not make any financial profit from creating and producing “Black Is King.” The visual album was meant to celebrate Blackness in all of its forms, shapes, and sizes. Beyoncé may not have belonged to the cultures represented in the film, but she did her due diligence in giving people across the diaspora the representation they have been denied for so long.

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Putting multiple cultural centers in a small, singlelevel basement, for example, while also developing new structures for already well-represented entities (e.g. business schools) is not the same as inclusion. Featuring land acknowledgements in emails and on websites without pouring meaningful resources into supporting student members of the displaced Indigenous tribes is not the same as inclusion. Proudly claiming a profound connection with the

University’s host communities while simultaneously expanding the bubbles of gentrification, driving up the cost of living, and failing to pay property taxes is not the same as inclusion. What does inclusion look like? Inclusion would be the University’s leadership making a concerted effort to include everyone. This could mean injecting more funds and support into campus-wide holiday celebrations (e.g. Lunar New Year) that mean everything to certain members of the student body. For students who may feel overburdened by the need to plan and celebrate these events themselves, this could significantly contribute to their sense of inclusion in a community like Penn. A similar case can be made for community engagement (i.e. trying to reverse the harm the University has caused the local community) — something that us students are expected to pick up the slack on. In truth, we should be involved in these processes, but we should not be held responsible for them. Pushing students to correct the mistakes and oversights of institutions is both unfair and illogical. Universities spend millions everyday on various social events and university traditions. While they serve to entertain the student body, they do nothing to increase the inclusivity on campus and in local communities. Such events often cater primarily to the most privileged of us while overshadowing the experiences of others. From a business perspective, I understand to an extent the importance of appealing to donors and prospective students. However, universities’ failure to act goes beyond even that: The people who students rely on to make us feel at home craft an environment that makes the marginalized feel further marginalized while continuing to grow their multi-billion dollar endowments. Indeed, many schools are introducing initatives and funds to offset the damage caused by systemic racism in their host communities. Going a step further, some universities are investing more into promoting and growing their cultural centers and adding diversity courses to their general education requirements. However, this is only a start. The real change will come when even more university leaders begin actively working to reverse that damage themselves and pouring more resources into supporting those of us who have been ignored for so long. There is a reason why “diversity, equity, and inclusion” is one complete phrase; proclaiming one makes little to no sense without also enforcing the others. TIMETHIUS J. TERRELL is a College sophomore from middle Georgia studying psychology. His email is timet@sas.upenn.edu.

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022

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NEWS 7

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Fourteen different congressional maps were submitted to the Commonwealth Court by groups of citizens, lawmakers, and even a group of mathematicians, which included Penn Mathematics professor Philip Gressman. The final map took longer than expected to be agreed upon because the traditional process fell through when the Republican-controlled legislature could not reach an agreement with Democratic Governor Tom Wolf, so the state Supreme Court then had to rule on which map should be chosen. It is difficult for the court to decide on these maps because they need to ensure that all votes carry the same weight and that populations are split up relatively evenly, College senior and Penn Leads the Vote Co-Director Eva Gonzalez said. “Depending on what the districts look like, it can change the weight of a vote,” Gonzalez said. “When districts are gerrymandered, it can be done in a way to ensure victory for one political party or the other, and, in doing so, it dilutes the power of certain peoples’ voices and certain peoples’ votes.” Wharton first-year and co-political director of College Republicans Joshua Frazier said that the issue of gerrymandering is a “problem across the board,” and he would not put the blame of this on Democrats or Republicans. “There’s always going to be one side who’s going to try to take advantage of their seat in power, and there’s always going to be one side with complaints, whether justified or not, that their voice is being underrepresented,” Frazier said.

DESIGN BY TYLER KLIEM

Filed in 2018, the lawsuit alleging Penn did not take proper action to prevent Kong’s death ended in a private settlement on Feb. 10, 2022.

Lawsuit over suicide of Wharton student in 2016 settled two days into trial Kong’s parents alleged that the University did not take proper action to prevent her death JASPER TAYLOR Staff Reporter

Almost six years after the death of Wharton student Ao “Olivia” Kong and four years after her parents sued Penn for failing to prevent her suicide, the civil trial between Kong’s parents and the Penn Board of Trustees ended in a private settlement on Thursday, Feb. 10 — just two days after it began. Kong, who was a Wharton junior at the time, took her own life on April 11, 2016. Her parents, Xianguo Kong and Zhao Li, filed a lawsuit against Penn in 2018, alleging that the University did not take proper action to prevent her death after she had told Penn officials on nine different occasions that she was having suicidal thoughts. The exact amount of the settlement was undisclosed to the public. Director of Media Relations Ron Ozio declined to comment on the trial and settlement, stating that the University does not comment on lawsuits. The trial was held in the Philadelphia Common

Pleas Court and was expected to last several weeks, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Testimonies began on Wednesday, Feb. 9 and included over two hours of video deposition from John Stein, Kong’s then-psychiatrist at Penn’s Counseling and Psychological Services. Following Kong’s death, students criticized Penn for their handling of the situation and failure to prioritize mental health on campus. Since 2013, at least 14 Penn community members have died by suicide, including then-Executive Director of CAPS Gregory Eells. Stein testified that he and Kong spoke multiple times about her suicidal thoughts in the days leading up to her suicide. He testified that he did not think it was “clinically warranted” to break patient confidentiality to inform her parents or compel her to go to an emergency room, the Inquirer reported. Stein also testified that either the Saturday or Sunday before Kong’s death, he contacted CAPS Director

FILE PHOTO

William Alexander because he was concerned about Kong’s safety and mental distress. However, he said that he received no reply and that he did not follow up about the inquiry. “Did you have some concern in your own mind in terms of what role you may have played in her death?” Carol Nelson Shepherd, the lawyer representing Kong’s parents, asked Stein during the testimony. Stein responded, “Yes.” Nicole Nardone, a triage clinician who saw Kong on April 7, 2016 — days before her suicide — was also heard by jurors on Feb. 9. Nardone testified that in the days leading up to her death, she had helped Kong begin the process of withdrawing from a class. She said that she did not feel it was necessary at the time to contact her parents or schedule an immediate appointment with another counselor, the Inquirer reported.

Penn to jointly operate one of Philadelphia’s two upcoming guaranteed income pilots The initiative led by Penn and Philadelphia’s Housing Development Corporation will focus on housing LINA CHIHOUB Contributing Reporter

Penn will jointly operate one of Philadelphia’s two experimental pilot programs studying the impact of guaranteed income policies on the city’s low-income population. The University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia’s Housing Development Corporation will jointly operate one of the initiatives, which will focus on housing and be launched in the spring, the Inquirer reported. Philadelphia’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity will execute the other program, which will run for at least a year, providing roughly 60 people with $500 per month to spend at their discretion. The first initiative will specifically examine rent-burdened households in public housing and may begin next month. Vincent Reina, Penn City and Regional Planning professor and co-designer of Philadelphia’s first citywide housing plan, shaped the framework of the initiative. Households will receive cash for two to three years in the program, which was paid for by public money and philanthropic donations, Reina told the Inquirer. The program is expected to subsidize 300 families, paying out the difference between the cost of their rent and 30% of their income. Participants in the other study will be selected from a pool of 1,100 residents who received funding from the Temporary Assistance for Needy

PHOTO BY MAYA PRATT

Families — a state-run welfare program for necessities like food, shelter, and utilities — for the past five years. They will also receive professional help on career development. Researchers plan to identify whether the cash infusions will help participants gain financial independence

from TANF. Last year, over 20 cities in the United States conducted similar experiments which provided select residents with cash. For instance, Amy Castro Baker — a professor at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice — investigated a

guaranteed-income program which gave $500 per month for 24 months to Stockton, Calif. households living below the city’s median income. The study found that participants securing full-time jobs jumped from 28% to 40%, compared to a 5% boost in the control group.

8 SPORTS

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Women’s lacrosse sinks Delaware in 15-4 season opener

PHOTO BY SAMANTHA TURNER

Freshman attacker Keeley Block looks to score on the crease during the game against Delaware on Feb. 19 at Franklin Field.

Ahead of a tough schedule against strong opponents, the Quakers opened their season with a dominant victory against the Blue Hens GABRIEL STEINBERG Sports Reporter

Quaker fans have another team to get excited about. The No. 20 University of Pennsylvania’s women’s lacrosse team opened the 2022 season with a dominating 15-4 win against Delaware on

Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field, winning its season opener for the ninth year in a row. Penn’s season will likely be a tough one, as the Quakers are scheduled to take on seven nationally ranked opponents, including No. 5 Northwestern, No. 6 Duke, No. 8 Maryland, No. 9 Loyola, No. 19 Drexel, and No. 21 Johns Hopkins. The other Ivy team to be on the lookout for this season is No. 16 Princeton. A highly anticipated matchup set for Wednesday, April 20 could determine the top of the Ivy League. In the first game of the season, sophomores Katilyn Cumiskey and Alyson Feeley both

recorded hat tricks, and nine different Quakers found the back of the net. Freshmen Bella Kehoe, Natasha Gorriaran, and Keeley Block all got their first collegiate goals as well. The first two early goals of the game came from Cumiskey, scoring with help from senior Taylyn Stadler and sophomore Lexi Edmonds. Feeley contributed two early goals, which doubled the lead to put Penn up 4-0. The Red and Blue continued to dominate in the second quarter, racking up 10 goals by the half thanks to a seven-goal surge in the second quarter. Despite Penn being up 10-0, Delaware did not back down. The Blue Hens finally got a goal

late in the third, but the Quakers fired back with unassisted goals from junior Niki Miles and Gorriaran. The Blue Hens cut Penn’s lead to 10 at 14-4 in the fourth before yet another Quaker, Block, got her first collegiate goal. Penn took the game 15-4, outshooting Delaware 34-18. Penn senior Krissy Kowalski had 10 saves compared to five from the Blue Hens’ keepers. The Quakers’ next matchup, which will serve as their first game against a ranked opponent, will come against No. 21 Johns Hopkins next Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Franklin Field.

Wessels | Penn can (and should) be a basketball school

Penn’s spot in Ivy Madness serves the perfect opportunity to revive enthusiasm for men’s basketball

tickets for the Penn-Princeton game, but those days seem like ancient history now. Much has been made of the gradual decline in attendance at basketball games over the last two decades. But the long and short of it is that Penn JACOB WESSELS students have found other things to do. Going Sports Reporter out to a party, staying in, or even studying have become more appealing options than a basketball I wouldn’t say I believe in the basketball gods, game. But why? but it was hard not to feel a divine presence in the The quality of play certainly hasn’t helped. Palestra last Saturday afternoon. Since Fran Dunphy left for Temple in 2006, the With just over one minute to go and Penn men’s Red and Blue spent a decade near the bottom of basketball tied with Harvard 71-71, sophomore the Ivy League without an NCAA Tournament guard Jordan Dingle, who had already notched his appearance. Yet, when Steve Donahue brought record-setting fourth 30-point game of the season, competitive basketball back to Penn, attendance was trapped. With the Crimson’s Noah Kirkwood didn’t get much better. Sure, there were some elecand Mason Forbes closing in, Dingle had no other tric moments (the upset win over Villanova being option but to throw up a prayer. The ball banked the best), but whenever Ivy play came around, the off the top right corner of the backboard, then empty seats returned. bounced up on the front of the rim, and finally The schedule hasn’t helped either. Some like rattled through the hoop. The only way to describe to blame the decline of Penn’s basketball culture the shot was miraculous. on the often questionable scheduling decisions If the shot was a gift from the heavens, what made by the league and program, which give was its purpose? What are we supposed to take students fewer opportunities to go to games. away from Penn’s 82-74 win? The answer, I be- Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the lieve, is to show us that Penn can be a basketball University to temporarily close games to spectaschool. tors, there were only five home games scheduled Of course, some people will say that we’ve while students were on campus this season; the always been a basketball school. From the magi- season before that, the number was just seven. In cal 1979 Final Four run to the days of Jerome my four years at Penn, not a single Penn-PrinceAllen and Fran Dunphy in the ’90s, the Quakers ton game will have been played with the majority have played no shortage of nationally relevant bas- of students on campus due to scheduling during ketball. This success has historically translated breaksSales and Corporation COVID-19. Without a number of The York Times Syndication Syndication The New New York Times Sales Corporation to tremendous student interest in the team. My home games to get to know the team and play620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 For Information Information Call:ers, 1-800-972-3550 parents have told me stories about waiting in longCall: it becomes much harder for students to get For 1-800-972-3550 For Thursday, February18, 2022 ForRelease Release Friday, February 2022 lines outside the Palestra to secure free student invested in24,the team and restore the University’s

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feel like it’s not the same experience as going to a game at a “basketball school,” but if people just decided to start going to basketball games again, the student section could always be as electric as it was last Saturday, making it so game day at the Palestra is a must-attend event. All we need is a concerted effort from student groups across Penn’s campus to take two hours out of their week to help lead a student section. The only reason we aren’t a basketball school is because we’ve decided for some reason we can’t be, yet we have all the ingredients. Penn has the right coach, Steve Donahue, who has led the Red and Blue to the Ivy League Tournament in each of its first five iterations. We have one of the most historic arenas in the country that can seat over 8,000 fans. We have the team, Ivy League contenders this season with only one rotation player set to graduate. Add a school culture that cares about basketball and an energized game day environment, and who wouldn’t want to play for Penn? All of a sudden, some of Harvard’s elite recruits might consider the Quakers instead, and the program will continue to get stronger. This is all a dream that I certainly won’t see during my time at Penn, and perhaps none of us will. Culture change doesn’t happen overnight. But the one thing I know is that it’s possible; it just requires students deciding they want to make it happen. Can one jump shot change the trajectory of an entire program? Probably not, but every journey starts with a single step, and by letting Jordan Dingle’s bank shot fall — sending a packed student section home in a frenzy — the basketball gods showed us what was possible.

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basketball culture. In the end, all of this creates a self-defeating cycle. Poor play drove students away from the games, and once high quality play returned, the team didn’t have enough exposure to insert itself back into the school’s social scene. At the end of the day, it’s not that basketball games have some fundamental problem; it’s that students go out with their friends on the weekends, and when their friends stopped going to basketball games, so did they. Just like that, Penn stopped being a basketball school. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be one again. In large part because it was the first Ivy League home game in nearly two years, more student tickets were sold to last Saturday’s game than any Ivy contest in recent memory. As the game wore on, it became clear the crowd would become a decisive factor, willing Penn to a number of key defensive stops. The best feeling for a sports fan is believing that you somehow played a role in helping your team win, and everyone in the Palestra last Saturday went home feeling that way. I have to imagine there are more people out there like me. People who see their friends at big-time basketball schools rocking the arena, screaming and chanting the whole game, watching them help their teams win and wishing that that could be a part of their college experience, too. A lot of people think that is impossible. “It’s because they’re them, and we’re Penn,” skeptics say, but for the last five minutes last Saturday, we could have been anywhere in the country. That’s the thing about it; this notion of being a “basketball school” is mostly just an illusion. People don’t want to come to games because they

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SPORTS 9

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022

Squash, from page 10

PHOTO BY KYLIE COOPER

Kueh’s determination was tangible to the crowd, which stood mere feet from the glass as he shut the door behind him. The Penn home fans returned vocal support at a volume more familiar to the neighboring Palestra.

PHOTO BY KYLIE COOPER

With characteristic poise, Douglas took out his first opponent of the tournament in just eight minutes for a 3-0 win against Drexel’s Lucas Rousselet. His win against Yale the following day went to four matches, a game that turned all attention of the packed Center toward Court 1.

PHOTO BY KYLIE COOPER PHOTO BY SUKHMANI KAUR

Abou Eleinen took both of his wins of the first two days in five matches, each with an intensity that spanned the whole court. But his high-energy tempo could not break down Harvard’s Marwan Tarek; a fellow Egypt native, who served Abou Eleinen his first defeat of the season with a 3-0 game.

Court 1 saw no better luck following Abou Eleinen, as Flynn fell to Harvard in the same manner, 3-0. Flynn had fought 1 hour and 15 minutes the previous day against Yale, pushing to five matches before confronting defeat, 3-2. But on the opposite side of the viewing stands, Courts 3 and 4 entertained redemption arcs and intense wins for Penn.

PHOTO BY KYLIE COOPER

Junior Dillon Huang and graduate student Yash Bhargava both took 3-0 wins against Yale. Huang pulled a 3-2 win against Adam Corcoran of Harvard the following day after soldiering through a 1 hour 35 minute battle. Several teammates crowded behind the glass in full encouragement of their teammate as the game inched on.

PHOTO BY SUKHMANI KAUR

On Saturday, Kueh’s semifinal game against Yale had also drawn some of the loudest support of the competition, as the freshman came back from trailing 2-0 to steal three straight matches. By the time Kueh was warming up for his final game on Sunday, Courts 1 and 4 had already completed their matchups, and the score between Penn and Harvard stood even at 4-4.

PHOTO BY ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL PHOTO BY SUKHMANI KAUR

Junior Saksham Choudhary and freshman Roger Alber Baddour were the only Penn players to complete a 3-0 against Harvard, their wins vital to keeping the Quakers’ hopes alive.

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Kueh put up a valiant effort most representative of the Quakers’ historic season, but the challenge was too steep. He finally surrendered the loss at 3-0, and was met with the support of the whole team on the other side of the glass.

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PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022

NO. 6

Women’s swimming and diving posts program bests at Ivy League Championships PHOTO BY SUKHMANI KAUR

Lia Thomas swimming at a meet on Jan. 8, 2022.

The team totaled a program-best 1,256 total points, toppling its previous record by nearly 200 points. DEREK WONG Sports Reporter

Penn women’s swimming left the Ivy League Championships with a historic third-place finish, thanks in large part to senior Lia Thomas’ consistent standout performance. Thomas was unequivocally Penn’s standout performer, winning three individual events — the 100-, 200-, and 500-yard freestyle — and setting two Ivy League records and three pool records. Thomas also contributed to Penn’s win in the Championships’ final event, the 400-yard freestyle. All told, Penn scored 1,256 points — the most in program history by nearly 200 points — set four new program records, and notched its highest

finish ever at the Ivy League Championships. Thomas’ performance in the 100 free event — one of the most highly anticipated of the weekend — ended with both Thomas and the second place finisher, Yale’s Iszac Henig, beating the previous Ivy League record which was set in 2019 by Yale’s Bella Hindley with 47.85 seconds. Thomas finished the event with a time of 47.63, barely outtouching Henig who posted a 47.82. Anticipation for the Championships was heightened in part due to uncertainties on Thomas’ eligibility to compete. In the weeks building up to the competition, her eligibility to compete was unclear through changes in NCAA guidelines for transgender athletes. With recent clarifications that the NCAA would not immediately adopt more rigid policies on transgender athletes as outlined by USA Swimming, Thomas remained eligible to compete through the Ivy League Championship this week. The updated policies also clear Thomas to

compete in the upcoming NCAA Championships in Atlanta, which take place in March, after she qualified earlier this season with record performances at the Zippy Invitationals. While Thomas was the only swimmer from any school to win three individual titles, Penn junior Catherine Buroker won both the 1,650- freestyle and 1,000-yard freestyle events, cementing Penn’s dominance across the board in freestyle events. In the 200-yard butterfly, freshman Vanessa Chong — the only Penn swimmer to make it to the A final — came away strong with a second-place finish of 1:58.17, setting a new program record. Freshman Izzy Pytel similarly landed in fourth place in the A final of the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:15.11, a Penn program record. Not the be outdone by the freshmen, Penn’s upperclassmen also came out strong. Senior Hannah Kannan placed fifth in 200-yard backstroke, clocking in at 1:57.54. Senior Anna Kalandadze finished third in the 1,650 free behind Buroker, with a time of 16:28.85, junior Grace Giddings

finished fifth, and freshman Amelia Girotto’s 16:41.17 was good for sixth. The three-meter diving proved to be a more challenging event than day two’s one-meter diving. With only junior Olivia Francella advancing to the B finals in the three-meter diving event, Yale was able to regain second place. The Ivy League Championships were capped off with the 400 freestyle relay, which consisted of Thomas, junior Margot Kaczorowski, Kannan, and junior Camryn Carter. The relay team finished first with a pool and program record time of 3:17.80, ending the night with a high note. It wasn’t enough to bridge the gap between Yale and Penn, though, and Penn ended up two points behind the Bulldogs. Penn’s 1,256 points, the best performance in the program’s history and one good enough to beat the previous record of 1,073 points set back in 2007, were just two points shy of Yale for second place. Still, Harvard won the Championships by nearly 250 points, scoring 1,503.5.

Penn’s men’s squash was ranked No. 1 in the country and undefeated until Sunday. ESTHER LIM, ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL Sports Editor, Sports Photo Editor

This past Sunday, when all the pressure of the National Collegiate Squash Championships seemed to weigh heaviest on one of the youngest players in its lineup, Penn men’s squash demonstrated its strongest team bond from behind the glass of Court 3 at the Penn Squash Center. And in spite of the freshman’s toughly battled but heartbreaking defeat that would occur before them, the Quakers proved that even a loss in the final of perhaps the most anticipated competition of the season would not threaten their team unity.

Heartbreak for men’s squash as Harvard defends Potter Cup

PHOTO BY KYLIE COOPER

Juniors Saksham Choudhary (left) and Dillon Huang (right) react to Penn men’s squash’s loss to Harvard in the College Squash Association National Team Championships Final at the Penn Squash Center on Feb. 20.

PHOTO BY ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

Freshman Nathan Kueh was due to face Harvard’s Ido Burstein in the final game of the tournament that would determine the champion of the Potter Cup, as he stepped onto Court 3 with compelling confidence and courage in his gait. After a brief pep talk with coaches Gilly Lane and Jack Wyant, Kueh was escorted by his teammates who had already finished their own matchups and were lined up ready to push full support behind the freshman.

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PHOTO BY SUKHMANI KAUR

Penn’s battles occurred on Courts 2, 5, and 6 versus Drexel, and Courts 1, 3, and 4 through the remainder of the weekend. Court 2 belonged to graduate student Andrew Douglas, senior Aly Abou Eleinen, and sophomore Nicholas Spizzirri as they each took wins on day one against Drexel. Senior James Flynn then joined Douglas and Abou Eleinen on Court 1 against Yale and Harvard.

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