February 6, 2025

Three former Penn swimmers sue Penn, Ivy League over Lia Thomas competing in NCAA women’s swimming

The case was fled in federal court on Feb. 4 and alleges that the four defendants — Penn,

and the NCAA — violated Title IX regulations VALERI GUEVARRA Sports Editor

League Championship.

Three former Penn swimmers have filed a lawsuit against Penn, Harvard University, the Ivy League, and the NCAA for allegedly violating Title IX by allowing 2022 College graduate Lia Thomas — a transgender woman who competed in Penn’s women’s swimming and diving

program — to compete in the 2022 Ivy League Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship.

The case was filed in federal court on Feb. 4 and alleges that the four defendants violated Title IX regulations by allowing a “trans-identifying male swimmer” to compete in the 2022 Ivy

The three swimmers are seeking relief for “damages for pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, suffering and anxiety,

See SWIM, page 2

See OBITUARY, page 2

‘We’re scrambling’: Shutdown of Penn clinic following campus unrest leaves veterans without

The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania has served thousands of veterans and their families since its founding in 2016. But following a tumultuous year for Penn, the Cohen Clinic was shut down in August 2024.

The clinic was the result of a partnership between Penn Medicine and Cohen Veterans Network, a philanthropic organization created by 1978 Wharton graduate and hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen. Former employees and patients of the clinic told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the closure left veterans in Pennsylvania and New Jersey without a crucial source of care.

“We’re scrambling,” Darcel Rideout, a former veteran patient of the Cohen Clinic who later served on its advisory board, said. “[The closure] not only impacts the veterans in the community, but it impacts the family members, the caretakers, and everyone else who wants to support veterans.”

“We were disappointed in the decision to discontinue funding to Penn’s Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic, and across Penn Medicine, we remain committed to a wide array of health care services and partnerships to support veterans,” a Penn Med spokesperson wrote to the DP.

According to its website, Cohen Veterans Network is a national nonprofit focused on helping post-9/11 veterans “overcome the challenges of transition from active military service back to civilian life and beyond.” The model for CVN clinics like Penn’s was to provide confidential specialized therapy for military veterans and their families.

Following a $275 million donation by Cohen to CVN, the group opened over 20 clinics between 2016 and 2023.

At the Cohen Clinic’s opening ceremony in 2016, then-Penn President Amy Gutmann noted Penn’s “long history of supporting veterans” and praised the clinic as a continuation of that effort.

According to former Cohen Clinic Faculty Director and Perelman School of Medicine professor David Oslin, the clinic was initially fully funded by CVN, but contractual changes forced the clinic

to independently fundraise a certain percentage of their annual expenses.

“The model became less of a full philanthropy model and more of a shared financial burden model, and that was complicated to pull off,” Oslin said.

Pete Whitney, a veteran who previously served as the clinic’s outreach director noted that the size of Penn’s endowment and Cohen’s net worth made it difficult to attract potential donors to the clinic but that there was little worry among members of the clinic that CVN was going to stop funding the clinic.

“I was told that as long as there was a good faith

effort by the clinic to raise these funds, Mr. Cohen wasn’t going to shut anybody down,” said Whitney.

In February 2024 — as Penn was reeling from ongoing donor backlash over former Penn President Liz Magill’s response to the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, subsequent resignation and allegations of antisemitism — Oslin received a phone call from CVN informing him that they would not be renewing the clinic’s funding beginning in the fall of that year.

“CVN regularly evaluates the operating model and impact of the network to ensure we are delivering care where it is needed most and to best

steward donor dollars,” a CVN spokesperson wrote to the DP. “We shifted to a telehealth model in Philadelphia given the clinic demand for in-person services was not sufficient to justify a bricks and mortar clinic.”

While Oslin admitted that the decision was “hastily decided” given that the clinic had been in operation for over seven years, he declined to speculate further about CVN’s reason for withdrawing.

However, other former Cohen Clinic employees said it was clear to them that criticisms of Penn’s See CLINIC, page 2

OBITUARY

widely for her warmth and kindness.”

The spokesperson wrote that Best was also a member of the Order of the Coif, an honor society for law school graduates.

“Sarah will be missed by all who knew and worked with her. Our hearts and thoughts are with Sarah’s family and friends during this tragic and difficult time,” they wrote. Before coming to Penn, Best attended Vanderbilt University and worked as a high school teacher for five years. After graduating, she served as a clerk for judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She had joined Wilkinson Stekloff last fall.

“Sarah was a brilliant, kind, and compassionate soul who touched the lives of so many,” Penn Carey Law Dean and Law professor Sophia Lee wrote in a statement on Penn Carey Law’s website. “As we grieve together, we hold close the memory of Sarah and the light she brought into our lives.”

Vice Dean for Student Services and Dean of Students Felicia Lin wrote in the same statement that Best was “a wonderful friend and leader.”

“This is an unimaginable loss, but we are all better for having known Sarah,” Lin wrote.

Following the crash, Penn Carey Law created a website for Penn affiliates to leave their memories of Best. 1977 Penn Carey Law graduate Paul Diamond, who employed Best as a clerk for two years, wrote that Best’s “brilliance, ebullience, and kindness lit up Chambers, much as it lit up the Law School. The tragedy of her unfulfilled promise is great.”

response to allegations of antisemitism played a role in the closure.

“I’m sure of it,” Whitney said when asked if he thought backlash against Penn contributed to CVN’s funding withdrawal. “I don’t think it was the sole reason, though I think it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Another former Clinic employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, noted that in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, there was a distinct change in CVN’s attitude towards Penn and the Cohen Clinic.

“[The clinic] didn’t have contact with senior [CVN] leadership after the beginning of October,” the former employee said. “It was a very, very significant tone shift.”

The former employee also stated that, while financial concerns and changing aspects of CVN’s model likely contributed to the closure, its abrupt nature was “driven by politics.” In particular, they noted — despite the outstanding care typically given by CVN — the way Penn’s closure was handled “destabilized the experience” for clinic patients.

“We got three months to wind down the clinic. That’s just absolutely inappropriate care,” the former employee said. “It really created a picture of instability when what people need from their care system is stability.”

A CVN spokesperson said that the decision to withdraw funding from the clinic had “nothing to do with political issues.”

Following CVN’s withdrawal, the clinic sought alternative funding to remain operational, including securing financial support from the Pennsylvania General Assembly. As part of this effort, clinic leaders and Penn officials held a series of meetings with state legislators in late spring and early summer of 2024.

However, these meetings ultimately failed to secure funding.

“We went to the state and heard very adamantly that investing in an academic institution was not

something the state was interested in doing, given the environment,” said Oslin, who noted that this request to the state occurred in June 2024, following the disbandment of Penn’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment.

“This would be a lot easier if this money wasn’t going to a university,” Oslin recalled one state legislator telling him.

Another former employee of the clinic agreed that there was “a lot of hesitance” in these conversations.

“People were feeling really skeptical about including Penn in the budget specifically because of what was happening on campus at the time,” the employee added.

Rideout stated that she was confused by the Commonwealth’s denial of the clinic’s funding request.

“I have no idea why funding would be so firmly denied, especially for a service that is going to help veterans and their family members and has been doing it for the last eight years,” Rideout said.

In December 2023 — months prior to these meetings — the Pennsylvania House of Representatives had voted to withhold funding for Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine and Penn Med’s Division of Infectious Diseases when antisemitism concerns spread throughout campus and the Penn community.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Joe Webster (DMontgomery), a longtime supporter of the clinic, attributed the inability of the clinic to get state funding to the narrow time frame and size of the request — which he says was in the range of $2 million.

Webster also stated that he did not believe his colleagues in the Pennsylvania General Assembly denied the clinic funding due to concerns about antisemitism at Penn, but rather that the request was “swamped by other issues.” However, he acknowledged that media attention surrounding Penn’s encampment “certainly didn’t help the Cohen Clinic.”

After not being able to secure funding from the Pennsylvania General Assembly or other sources, the Cohen Clinic closed on Aug. 31, 2024

during the 2021-22 season.

expenses costs and other damages against the NCAA, Ivy League, Harvard, and UPenn due to their wrongful conduct.”

A request for comment was left with the University and Penn Athletics. Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The suit was filed by 2022 College graduate Grace Estabrook, 2024 College graduate Margot Kaczorowski, and 2024 College graduate Ellen Holmquist — all of whom competed with Thomas on the Penn women’s swimming and diving team

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PennCard holders who want to be assured of speaking at Open Forum must submit a request to the Ofce of the University Secretary (ucouncil@pobox.upenn.edu) by 10:00 a.m. on Monday, February 17, 2025, briefy indicating the subject of the intended remarks. Speakers’ statements are limited to three minutes and should be framed to present topics of general University interest and be directed to University Council as a body through the moderator, and not to an individual.

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— immediately affecting around 600 veterans and their families across Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to Whitney.

Rideout also discussed her personal experiences with the clinic as a former patient, emphasizing the importance of the clinic in her life after her service in the military.

“I would probably not be sitting here speaking to you today had it not been for the clinic and those services being there for me,” said Rideout.

Rideout also said that the closure of the clinic left her family without an important resource after her older son was “murdered in the streets of Philadelphia,” at 17 years of age, just 11 days after the clinic closed.

“Had the Cohen Clinic been there, it would have been a valuable resource for my family — especially my younger son,” said Rideout.

Whitney agreed that there is “definitely going to be a vacuum” left behind by the Cohen Clinic closure.

“There are a lot of professions where [veterans] just don’t want to come forward for something that happened while they were in service,” said Whitney. “They don’t want anyone else that they work with to know about it, much less their boss.”

“We ensured continuity of care for all patients who were receiving services through the Cohen Clinic when we learned of this funding decision, and have provided resources to ensure that this patient population has access to resources both through Penn Medicine programs and outside of Penn,” the Penn Med spokesperson wrote.

The CVN spokesperson wrote that the organization “put a plan in place that is now complete to ensure all existing clients could complete their course of treatment in-person or by telehealth as they chose.”

While Oslin and Whitney noted that alternative resources exist, such as the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Easter Seals, they do not provide the same level of support that Penn’s Cohen Clinic once provided.

“It’s just not seen as part of the community,” Oslin said. “It’s not the same resource.”

“There’s absolutely nothing on par with what [the clinic] was,” Whitney said.

League Championship.

The suit is another major development in the national controversy surrounding transgender athletes in women’s sports. The day after the suit was filed, 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump signed an executive order explicitly banning transgender athletes from women’s sports.

The three former Penn swimmers alleged that the defendants deprived them and other competitors “of equal opportunities as women to compete and win while being denied the opportunity to protect their privacy in separate and equal locker rooms” by allowing Thomas to represent Penn women’s swimming and diving.

Holmquist, specifically, alleged that she was left off of Penn’s 2022 Ivy League Championship roster because of Thomas. Estabrook and Kaczorowski competed at the championship, but they allege that they finished one place lower than they would have if Thomas had not competed.

The suit included Harvard as a defendant because it served as the host school for the 2022 Ivy League Championship. The plaintiffs alleged that Harvard violated Title IX by allowing Thomas to compete at the meet and not providing a “unisex bathroom or separate bathroom for Thomas to use or for any other women to use who did not want to use the Women’s Locker room while Thomas was using it.”

The plaintiffs also alleged that Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris and other members of the Ivy League Council of Presidents used Thomas to “engineer a public shock and awe display of monolithic support for biological unreality and radical gender ideology.”

“This lawsuit exposes the behind-the-scenes scheming that led to the attempt by Harvard University, UPenn, the Ivy League, and the NCAA, to impose radical gender ideology on the American college sports landscape,” attorney Bill Bock, who is representing the three swimmers, wrote in a written statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Trump’s executive order, notably signed on National Girls and Women in Sports Day, promises to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”

The order added that the United States will begin to “oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.” It also cited Title IX, stating that any educational institutions receiving federal funds “cannot deny women an equal opportunity to participate in sports,” and cited previous court cases to claim that “ignoring fundamental biological truths between the two sexes deprives women and girls of meaningful access to educational facilities.”

Trump’s order also calls for the assistant to the president for domestic policy to gather representatives of athletic organizations, governing bodies, and state attorneys general to “identify best practices in defining and enforcing equal opportunities for women to participate in sports and educate them about stories of women and girls who have been harmed by male participation in women’s sports.”

Trump has been a longtime supporter of banning transgender women from women’s sports, having previously signed an executive order on Jan. 20 establishing that the U.S. government will only recognize two sexes — male and female — advancing his agenda to prohibit biological males from women’s sports.

The U.S. House of Representatives also passed a separate bill explicitly prohibiting the participation of individuals who were assigned biologically male at birth in women’s sports programs.

Thomas was initially a member of Penn’s men’s swimming and diving program during her first two years at Penn. After the 2020-21 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Thomas returned to competition as a member of the women’s team for the 2021-22 season.

Te Ofce of the University Secretary can be contacted at ucouncil@pobox.upenn.edu or 215-898-7005

In the lawsuit filing, the plaintiffs also argued for the suit to be a class action, citing that the case meets the criteria outlined under the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure. The three swimmers are the proposed representatives of the class — all female athletes who were allegedly negatively affected by Thomas’ participation in the 2022 Ivy

While representing the women’s team, Thomas collected numerous accolades, including a win at the 2022 NCAA Division I Championship in the 500-yard freestyle, fifth place in the 200 freestyle, and three Ivy League individual titles.

FactCheck.org, the award-winning political website at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, is now accepting applications for its 20252026 undergraduate fellowship program. The next class of undergrads will be trained if necessary) from May 27 to July 18. Those who are trained this summer must agree to work 10 to 15 hours per week at FactCheck.org during the fall and spring semesters, if their work merits continued employment.

The fellows at FactCheck.org help our staff monitor the factual accuracy of claims news releases. They also monitor viral claims and rumors that spread through email and social media. They help conduct research on such claims and contribute to articles for publication on our website under the supervision of FactCheck.org staff.

The fellows must have an ability to write clearly and concisely, an understanding of journalistic practices and ethics, and an interest in politics and public policy. The fellows also must be able to think independently and set aside any partisan biases.

If you are interested, please submit your resume and two writing samples by the February 11 deadline to FactCheck.org. Deputy Managing Editor Rob Farley at rob.farley@factcheck.org. Please direct any questions about the program or application process to the same address.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PENN CAREY LAW

2021 Penn Carey Law graduate Sarah Best.

SWIM, from front page

How Penn is celebrating Black History Month, from panels to murals and music

The Penn community — from cultural groups to the University at large — has organized a variety of programs throughout February to celebrate Black History Month

PHOEBE ANAGNOS Staff Reporter

The Penn community — from cultural groups to the University at large — has organized a variety of programs throughout February to celebrate Black History Month.

Campus organizations, including Penn’s chapter of the Student National Dental Association and the Black Student League, have planned community-focused events throughout the month to honor the achievements and cultural contributions of Black people.

SNDA is set to host its annual Black History Month event on Feb. 6 at 5:30 p.m. in the Levy Center for Oral Health Research building’s Arthur E. Corby Auditorium. The event reflects SNDA’s goal of supporting the academic and social environment for minority students on campus.

BSL coordinated with Harnwell College House to launch a Black History Month mural event on Feb. 3. The event of approximately 30 students was catered by Sheba’s Soul Plate, a local Caribbean restaurant, and gave students “an artistic outlet and a way to support and celebrate Black history,” graduate student Fionnuir Ni Chochlain, a Harnwell resident advisor, told The Daily Pennsylvanian.

The organizers provided participants with flags from African and Caribbean countries, Black History Month stickers, and other supplies. The completed mural will be presented in the Harnwell mezzanine and displayed throughout February.

Penn Dining similarly launched its celebration of

Black History Month on Feb. 3 with new culinary and

musical offerings. Students can enjoy recipes from award-winning chef and author Patrick Clark at multiple dining halls. Partnering with Makuu: The Black Cultural Center, Penn Dining welcomed DJ KillSing and violinist Tauhida Smith for performances at 1920 Commons and Kings Court English House.

Onyx Senior Honor Society, an organization that seeks to promote leadership among underrepresented communities on campus, will kick off the month on Feb. 4 by hosting a panel featuring Penn professors Amalia Daché, Tukufu Zuberi, and Herman Beavers. The event will explore the professional and personal successes of Black members of the Penn community.

As part of the “Explore. Reflect. Become.” lunch series, Penn’s Women’s Center will host DaCarla Albright, a physician and professor at the Perelman School of Medicine, on Feb. 5 to speak about her career as a Black woman in healthcare and her expertise in women’s health.

Penn’s Black History Month programming will run alongside the University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium events from Jan. 16 to Feb. 7. The symposium will culminate with “The Light of Creative Altruism” art exhibit and reception at Irvine Auditorium, which is sponsored by the Division of the Vice Provost for Student Engagement Educational Talent Search Program and the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs.

Judge dismisses Penn faculty group’s amended ‘McCarthyism’ lawsuit with prejudice

The amended complaint was dismissed with prejudice by Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Mitchell Goldberg on Jan. 30 for lack of standing and failure to state a claim

AYANA CHARI Staff Reporter

An amended lawsuit, which was filed against Penn by a group of faculty and alleged a pattern of “McCarthyism,” was dismissed with prejudice by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The lawsuit was initially filed in March 2024 and dismissed by Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Mitchell Goldberg in June 2024 for lack of standing. The amended complaint was dismissed with prejudice by Goldberg on Jan. 30.

The initial lawsuit was filed by associate professor of Arabic literature Huda Fakhreddine and History and Africana Studies professor Eve Troutt Powell in conjunction with Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine.

The plaintiffs originally accused the University of “McCarthyism” for stifling speech critical of Israel. They sought to block Penn from complying with the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s request for documents related to alleged antisemitism on campus, arguing that such compliance would threaten academic freedom.

A request for comment was left with a University spokesperson, Fakhreddine, and Powell.

In the amended complaint, Fakhreddine and Powell brought constitutional, breach of contract, and conspiracy claims against Penn. According to the ruling, Penn moved to dismiss the amended complaint for “lack of standing and failure to state a claim.”

Goldberg dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, writing that further amendment would be futile and the plaintiffs would be denied the ability to amend their complaint.

“Plaintiffs have once again failed to allege the nature or contents contained therein,” Goldberg wrote in the decision. “[T]hey failed to allege that the documents … ‘would contain defamatory statements or reveal private details.’”

The court’s decision noted that Penn complied with the House committee’s request, though it remains unclear what documents were produced.

In the decision, Goldberg stated that the plaintiffs’ claim of breach of contract stems from a clause in Penn’s Guidelines on Open Expression.

“Plaintiffs allege that in providing documents to the Committee, Penn has violated or will

violate this guideline,” Goldberg wrote. “The key question is whether this guideline creates a contractual duty. I find it does not.”

In a post on Instagram addressing the dismissal, Penn PFJP wrote, “Despite the judge’s decision to dismiss our claims, it is clear that Penn has failed to protect its students, faculty and staff standing for justice in Palestine.”

“While the university ignores anti-Palestinian racism, it readily punishes and suppresses those protesting genocide,” the post continued. “The judge’s misinformed decision will encourage Penn’s double standards and unjustified restrictions on Palestinian focused and anti-genocide activities on campus.”

The post also added that the group is appealing the ruling.

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HANNAH JUNG | DP FILE PHOTO

Penn Dining planned meals dedicated to Black History Month on Feb. 12, 2020.

CHENYAO LIU | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

A Pennsylvania court recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by members of the Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine

Debunking the sorority myth

M’S MANIFESTO |The negative impact of Sidechat on sorority rush

When I told my Colombian friends I was rushing for a sorority, they asked me if I was going to get a Venmo notification each time I missed a chapter event. Then, they asked me if it was some sort of cult. After I (cluelessly) denied both things, they asked me if I was prepared to go into a room full of high school-like mean girls.

My friends and I, all foreigners to American culture, had gathered our understanding of sororities from many different types of media. After watching “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” in which one of the characters finds herself shocked when she’s charged $80 for missing mandatory bonding activities, and the famous “Bama Rush” documentary depicting girls being judged on elitist standards, I had internalized the idea that a sorority was definitely not for me. Like most pop culture intends, in our heads, sorority girls were everything we should run away from. Yet, as a personal rule, I avoid making a value judgment about something before actually experiencing it. So, on Dec. 23, I decided to jump headfirst into a culture I knew nothing about and registered for sorority rush.

I never thought I would be this pleasantly surprised. I was prepared to feel awkward because I was Colombian, because I knew little about greek life, and because I come from a lower-middle-class family. The little information I had, I gathered from Sidechat, where anonymous students claimed that sorority girls would just ask about “your father’s yachts.” Other articles I read claimed one needed to have “travel experience” in order to have fun in the rush process. I went in nervous, I’ll admit, but at the same time I went in without any expectations. I was not in it for the bid; I was in it to experience what I considered to be one of the beacons of American college culture. However, as open house day went on, I couldn’t help but get more excited. I met some

of the sweetest women and had the most amazing conversations about “Sex and the City.” Some of the girls were also very excited to get to know more about my favorite places in Colombia. I have to admit, all the demonization of sorority girls is totally unfair. In fact, I encourage you, reader, to participate in this rush process! It definitely taught me that things are never what they appear, and you have to let yourself be surprised! However, no matter how sweet the girls were, a dark cloud seemed to loom over our week: Sidechat. My happiness was brief, as I was soon introduced to Sidechat’s sorority ranking posts. Far from nice, they claimed that some houses had “ugly” or “weird” girls, and some posts even asked if it was “social suicide” to join certain houses. Additionally, some people were making pretty disgusting comments related to some sexual activities supposedly happening inside the houses. As a potential new member, or PNM, I can confirm that these were all lies. But, as someone who not long ago was a complete outsider to the greek scene, I can confirm that I used to believe everything I saw on Sidechat. I can’t imagine how it must have been to see these posts as a first year thinking about rushing sophomore year or as a current PNM who already has enough on her plate to now be anxious about what strangers are saying on Sidechat. The negativity on Sidechat had effects that went beyond the immature and silly jokes.

The day of our philanthropy round, I started to hear about a lot of people dropping out of rush. And of those who hadn’t dropped out of rush, I would hear them complaining on the lines about how they only had certain houses left. The truth is, Sidechat sorority rankings were a buzzkill for all, even me. I, who initially wanted to experience this in hopes of finding a true sisterhood and a group of girls with whom I could make lifelong memories at Penn, found

myself obsessing over the rankings until the late hours of the night during rush week.

One first year, who wishes to remain anonymous, commented to me, “After seeing the houses I was left with and comparing them to Sidechat rankings, I didn’t understand what the point of rushing was anymore, so I dropped out.” Frankly, I find it unacceptable that something as trivial and arbitrary as Sidechat gets in the way of such a fun and exciting experience that should focus around making new friends and meeting amazing women.

People hide behind anonymity to make immature comments and turn sorority rush into a social status parade, when in my opinion, it should be about empowering women and helping them find solace.

During rush, I had some beautiful and comforting conversations where I truly felt seen. Penn’s Sidechat culture is dangerous, as it can

mislead girls to choose a place where they might not feel as comfortable, all on behalf of avoiding “social suicide.” Think about it: Would you rather be stuck for four years in a “top-tier” house where you don’t fit in, or find your true family as you allow fake claims of social status to slip to the back of your mind?

This process has taught me so much. First, it taught me that I am not alone. It taught me the importance of saying yes to new experiences. But lastly, and most importantly, it taught me how crucial it is to prioritize genuine connections and to follow your heart in these types of decisions. To this day, I am so glad I said yes to rush on Dec. 23.

Educating Ivy League student-athletes

GUEST COLUMN |You deserve scholarships, like the thousands of other Division I athletes

In his song “No Surrender,” Bruce Springsteen wrote, “We busted out of class, had to get away from those fools. We learned more from a three-minute record, baby, than we ever learned in school.”

Today, as Ivy League student-athletes, you have the opportunity to learn a great deal about life outside the Ivy League classrooms. You will experience successes, failures, joys, and sadnesses. The real world in and after college will challenge you to better understand and deal with power politics, elitism, arrogance, greed, backstabbing, irrational behavior, and hypocrisy. Life is not easy.

As student-athletes, you have worked your asses off on and off the field. You have conditioned your bodies to absorb the pain, pushed your muscles to excel in motion, studied techniques of your sport, read books, worked with trainer gurus, modeled yourself after mentors, sacrificed time, money, effort, and fun. You have steeled your minds for intensity, pressure, focus, competition, risk of failure, and more, all to achieve personal goals, to be part of team dynamics and sisterhood, and to win championships, in this case for Penn.

To attain the status of a Division-I studentathlete in today’s world is an accomplishment many non-athletes, faculty, provosts, Ivy League presidents, and trustees cannot know or appreciate — unless they have achieved that rarified air themselves or lived it through their own children. Rather, there are faculty who have no comprehension of any of the above, and for some who never experienced this marriage of mind, body, and soul, they may even have antipathy for your athletic pursuits. Perhaps you’ve encountered faculty who have refused to reschedule an exam for you when you were on an away trip with your team. They lack the experience of what sport and athletic skills can mean to a human being.

We wrote about the current revolution in college athletics for The Daily Pennsylvanian over three years ago on Aug. 13, 2021. We wrote that the Ivy League needed to join the other 357 D-I universities by offering you athletic scholarships and more. You earned it,

and you deserve it. You devote at least 30 hours per week to your sport and in some weeks far more. Trying to study at 9 p.m. after those hours of practice, dinner, and getting back to your dorm or the library is not a simple task. Fatigue and the need for sleep impede the ability to focus and concentrate. Your classmates who are not D-I student-athletes have a profound advantage over you with many more hours of study time and a chance for better sleep hygiene.

We advocated that the Ancient Eight must repeal its longstanding agreement prohibiting a school from giving merit aid to you and other students with special skills — chess masters, musicians, dancers, math geniuses. We wrote that the eight Ivy League schools needed to compete for your services, just as provosts, faculty members, athletic directors, school presidents, and coaches can have the schools compete for theirs.

We wrote that the eight Ivy League schools had endowments now at around $200 billion, from which they can easily afford to pay for the merit aid of student-athletes and others.

The Ivy League is by far the richest conference in all of D-I sports. No conference even approaches the Ivy League’s endowments.

We wrote about the United States Supreme Court’s 2021 9-0 decision in NCAA v. Alston that was a hand grenade blowing up the old, outdated notions about how college studentathletes were amateurs undeserving of the protections of our nation’s antitrust laws.

The unanimous Supreme Court decision held that such concepts of amateurism were outdated and nonsensical in today’s world.

The economic reality is that the narrative has changed with schools, administrators, athletic directors, coaches, television and radio, and others making billions of dollars off of the backs of college student-athletes.

We wrote three years ago that it was time for the Ivy League presidents and trustees to be transparent and open-minded about these issues and join the other 357 D-I schools by giving at least scholarships to you, the student-athletes, and others.

Since then, these presidents and trustees have done nothing to join the other 357 D-I schools which give scholarships to the 190,000 student-athletes who compete for them. They are doubling down and doing the opposite. As lawyers with the class action firm Berger Montague, we then joined with the firm of Freedman Normand Friedland to sue the eight Ivy League schools and the Ivy League in federal court in Connecticut.

Our expertise on these issues runs deep.

One of us, Alan Cotler, was the point guard for the 1971-72 Penn men’s basketball team that went 25-3, was ranked No. 3 in the nation, and reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament. His Class of 1972 team had a four year record of 99-6 and was ranked No. 3 in the nation every year. Cotler was one of four players on that team drafted by the NBA. His backcourt mate, Corky Calhoun, was the No. 4 pick in the draft by the Phoenix Suns. Cotler went on to receive an MBA from the Wharton School and is now a Philadelphia trial lawyer. Those teams that Cotler was on produced lawyers, successful businessmen, NBA players, NBA and college coaches, NBA general managers, athletic directors, and for over 50 years, they have all consistently kept in touch with each other as lifelong friends.

For Robert Litan, our other columnist, his prolific career in antitrust litigation spans several decades. He was formerly deputy assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department. He has held other high-level positions in the government and private sector, including as associate director of the office of management and budget, as vice president and director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, and as director of research at Bloomberg Government and the Kauffman Foundation. He has also authored or co-authored 30 books and over 300 articles on a broad range of economic policy and legal issues.

Given our backgrounds, our respect for the rights of Ivy League student-athletes, and our love for Penn and the opportunities it has afforded us, we could not sit on our hands and watch the Ivy League leaders ignore the tidal wave of change in college athletics today.

We asserted in the lawsuit that the eight Ivy League schools violated antitrust laws and impeded competition for your services by prohibiting scholarships and compensation. Seventeen months after legal briefs were filed on the issue, the trial judge granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss our complaint before we were given the right to take discovery — that is, before we could get the Ivy documents, emails and texts, and take depositions of Ivy League administrators, coaches, and presidents. The judge primarily ruled that we did not define a market properly that precluded competition for your services. We have since appealed that ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and legal briefs to the court are being filed presently.

So while we wait to see if the complaint will be reinstated and facts can be determined from discovery, what does all of this mean for you as Ivy League student-athletes at Penn? It means you can educate yourselves about these issues

and your rights so that you can determine what conduct, if any, you want to take. Moreover, what meaningful action can you take for yourself and the thousands of student-athletes who will follow you?

You can discuss these issues with teammates, friends, coaches, parents, and trusted advisors. Are you finding that coaches do not want to touch these issues? We do not hear much from the presidents, trustees, coaches or the administrators, or the athletic directors of Ivy League institutions. In fact, we hear nothing from them. Why? In the open-minded, transparent, enlightened Ivy League, are there forces at play that squelch such issues from open and free debate? Do some of these Ivy League administrators, coaches, and the like feel intimidated? Fear losing their jobs?

You student-athletes are extremely busy with responsibilities to yourself and to others. You have many obligations to meet, including the need to study intensely and extensively to achieve your academic goals. And you have the need to be with friends, satisfy your interests and hobbies, meet with family, and keep abreast of politics, culture, and religion. And to strive for championships in your sport, after thousands of hours of practice and work at your craft.

Your lives are incredibly busy and stressful. It is a remarkable schedule and lived experience that you negotiate. It is a cliche, but true, that these are the challenges that mold you and help you grow to do something special in the future. The fact that you are a student-athlete does not connote lesser academic ability. On the contrary, what you learn from athletics broadens your horizons and molds you for positions of leadership.

Springsteen wrote, “We made a promise we swore we’d always remember, no retreat, baby, no surrender. Like soldiers in the winter’s night with a vow to defend, no retreat, baby, no surrender.” It is all part of the education of Ivy League student-athletes.

ALAN COTLER is a 1972 Wharton graduate, 1974 Wharton MBA graduate, and former Wharton Business Law Professor. He also holds a J.D. from Georgetown University. He is currently of counsel at Berger Montague, a Philadelphia-based litigation firm. His email is alancotler@gmail. com.

ROBERT LITAN is a 1972 Wharton graduate. He holds a J.D. and a Ph.D. from Yale University. During his time at Penn, he was a manager in his first year for Cotler’s basketball team and assisted coaches Dick Harter and Digger Phelps with data analytics. He is currently a shareholder at Berger Montague and has a career in antitrust litigation and economic research, including in government and the private sector. His email is rlitan@ bm.net.

GRACE CHEN | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Senior columnist Mariana Martinez shares her perspective rushing as an international student and the dangers of Sidechat’s influence on the experience.

MARIANA MARTINEZ is a College sophomore from Bogotá, Colombia. Her email is marmari@sas.upenn.edu.

ANNIE LIU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Guest columnists Alan Cotler and Robert Litan argue for Ivy League athletes’ rights to scholarships and more.

Our apps can’t dictate our politics

NOISE & POISE | The rise of technology is affecting our relationships with the people in charge

At the moment, there is arguably no form of media more important than social media — for many cultural, social, and political reasons.

It might even be labeled “technofeudalism,” where we essentially “rent” little plots of space from each platform, whether through a TikTok account or an Instagram profile. According to Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister of Greece, we cultivate our existence by producing posts, stories, and comments. For many of us, our being and knowledge of others are owed directly to those at the top of these trillion-dollar companies (and to CIS majors too, of course).

We’re giving rise to ultra-powerful, uber-rich executives who — as we have apparently just now discovered — can consolidate their power with heads of state to create dangerous technocracies with little regulation. As Mark Zuckerberg bows to President Donald Trump, Elon Musk continues to rule X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), and TikTok seeks a way to stay in the United States with the help of the new administration, perhaps this is a sign we need to expand our streams of information. Government-led propaganda is as old as time, from stories of the “divine right of the king” to the censorship of books. Recently, social media has even helped former President Barack Obama, orchestrating a sense of charisma critical to his campaigns. We just don’t get user-captured moments of charisma such as Obama calming a baby or playing basketball on busy television networks.

Perhaps Trump’s success among young voters can also be attested to a similar, subtle effort by those close to him. He might even be using his 17-year-old granddaughter, Kai Trump. I was surprised to find myself hooked as I watched her vlog her way through the presidential inauguration. With her “chill guy” jokes, “frat flicks,” Drew Starkey fangirling, and other pop culture references, it’s easy to see how social media can humanize the distant in a way that hasn’t been the norm, with politicians being no exception. That might have even been what Trump was going for when he went on Joe Rogan’s prominent conservative podcast one week before the 2024 election, allegedly at the behest of his 19-year-old son Barron Trump.

When weaponized strategically, social media makes politics feel like reality TV with fun characters instead of governance. Our impression of

politicians (and their families) is then based on infamous memes like “coconut tree” or “suitcase,” while informed and nuanced policy discussions take the back burner.

Besides the cleansing of personalities, social media can also build false realities. When you sit down and watch the news, like you might have done before social media, you do so to see the situation at hand, perhaps through footage and accounts of something dramatic. When you use social media, yes, you have orders of magnitude more information, but also an incredible ability to ignore or hide from things you don’t want to see. When overloaded with reports, most of which are negative, you might find that scrolling or even the unfollow button is necessary for preserving your sanity — but this potentially results in the loss of beneficial information.

Take, for example, Trump’s threats to shut down FEMA, America’s federal agency for disaster response and recovery. After watching a 45-second clip, skimming an article from Fox, and scrolling past a dozen comments from anonymous users, you can easily convince yourself that the program is a “waste of taxpayer money.” Once you put away your phone, you don’t get to see the perhaps millions of people and dozens of states that FEMA has helped.

I’m not arguing that FEMA is perfect, but I am concerned about the way social media leads people to preemptively jump to conclusions. With social media, we get infinite sources in exchange for the extra step of siphoning through and deciphering the truth ourselves. If we don’t, quick, sensational solutions will garner the bulk of our attention, such as the elimination of agencies or one-sided, impractical ultimatums.

How do politicians and their proposals look outside a cell phone and in the real world? We need to tone down our love of “personality politics” and tune into diverse sources of information to understand what’s happening. It’s up to the technocrats to do their part in ensuring that their platforms are not used for the dissemination of myths. Then, it’s up to us to urgently foster a sense of media literacy to hold our government accountable.

NAMRATA PRADEEP is a College and Engineering first year from Raleigh, N.C. Her email address is namratap@seas.upenn.edu.

The caclulus of Blackness

A DOSE OF DILLARD | Identity, gatekeeping, and the illusion of proximity

Who has jurisdiction over Blackness? Who gets to determine who is and isn’t Black, and why? And what is it based on? Is it phenotype — complexion, hair texture, lips, eyes, your nose? Is it who you hang out with? Is it how you dress, or where you went to school? Is it where you’re from or how you talk? Is it your name? Is it what you eat or where you worship? Who gets to make that decision? Who is in charge of validating a person’s “Black card”?

This Black History Month, I want to opine about something controversial, something I rarely hear discussed in polite company — but it is definitely discussed or at least internalized in our community. The hierarchy is divisive, and that’s the point.

Everywhere I go, every time I enter new spaces, most recently at Penn, I’m met with the dreaded interrogation. It typically goes something like this: “Are you mixed? ... One of your parents is white, right? ... If you’re Black, where did those eyes come from?” Or, I’m met with declarations like “There’s no way you’re just Black.”

Like clockwork, I can depend on some version of this inquiry to bury the lede: “What are you?”

The casual conversation about my appearance belies the faux (or maybe real) exoticism playing out. While I won’t call the comments I face colorism, I will call them a form of alienation, prejudice, or projection.

Why am I offended when someone asks if I am mixed? Because I don’t live the life of someone who is.

The question reveals a lack of understanding of American history. For the record, I am a descendent of enslaved Africans in America on both sides of my family tree — full stop. On one hand, I can trace my lineage to 17th century England and Wales, while at the same time, I’m only four generations removed from American chattel slavery — that’s right, my grandfather’s grandmother was enslaved in North Carolina.

These are simply facts that don’t negate my lived experience; they add context and meaning. So much of our history has been erased or forgotten. So when I tell you I’m Black, believe me, respect me, and ask yourself why you think you have the authority to challenge my identity.

As Black people in this country, whether acknowledged or not, we see proximity to whiteness as positive, though it’s a residual effect of colonization. Although on the surface it might look like a privilege, this dehumanizing obsession with proximity to whiteness is a double-edged sword. For example, popular music created by Black musicians perpetuates a fetishization of light-skinned Black women. In Pop Smokes’ song “Hello,” he has a recurring line in which he states, “I like my bitches redbone, ass fat, Jell-O / Light skin, yellow, iced out, hello.” Or, in “Redbone,” Childish Gambino paints light-skinned women as untrustworthy or scandalous. While both songs perpetuate a caricature of the desired light-skinned woman, they are reductive and coated in racialized misogyny. So, while it looks like a privilege (and don’t get me wrong, I understand how it

is), it comes at a cost.

At Penn, where diversity is a celebrated yet complicated reality, Black students come from all walks of life — different socioeconomic backgrounds, different regions, and different relationships with their Black identity. Some have attended predominantly white schools all their lives, while others have been shaped by historically Black communities. Yet even here, within a space that should foster understanding, the threat of colorism and identity politics persist.

As a community, we are so closely gatekeeping what it means to be Black, who is and is not Black, and why some people feel they have the jurisdiction to decide that for others. Because of my light skin and light eyes, features that many others have almost fixated on, I am often mistaken as mixed race; specifically, that my parents are from two different backgrounds. However, that is not the case: My parents are both Black, my grandparents are Black, my family is Black, and I am Black. And no, there isn’t an “and” to follow. So, when I tell people I am not mixed, they often look at me as if I’ve said something in a foreign language — they are genuinely confused. Often, within the community, light-skinned Black people are treated as if they are something other than Black.

So, why can’t I be Black? It’s because we refuse to accept that the United States is a melting pot, not just in the sense of immigration, but in the way generations of people have been shaped by an amalgamation of cultures, histories, and ethnicities. So on one hand, of course I am “technically” mixed, and likely, you are too. I mean, unless you are from some isolated, faraway region of the world or part of a closed society along with your entire lineage, are you not a little mixed with something?

So, what’s the calculus of Blackness? As a Black community, what do we gain from keeping ourselves concerned with color? What do we gain from devaluing someone’s cultural experiences and expression because of their shade? Further, we must acknowledge the difference between racial/ethnic identity and culture and lived experiences — it’s not simply a genealogy test. At Penn, Black identity is already underrepresented. We should be expanding the conversation, embracing our complexity, and challenging the internalized biases that keep us divided. If Blackness is about shared struggle, resilience, and culture, then why do we fixate on arbitrary markers?

This Black History Month, I challenge us all to rethink the calculus of Blackness. Not to erase identity, but to recognize its depth, its history, and its undeniable presence in all of us who claim it. My Blackness doesn’t require an explanation; I am who I am.

MARIE DILLARD is a College first year studying history and urban studies from Englewood, N.J. Her email is mdilla@sas.upenn.edu.

‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’

THE RAMIREZ REVIEW | Why the former president’s farewell address should not be taken lightly

Following a disappointing loss for Democrats in the 2024 presidential election, many Americans grew unsure of what was to come for our democracy. Then, on Jan. 15, former Penn professor and President Joe Biden delivered his farewell address and confirmed what many had already feared: “I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. …

Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy.”

Having served 36 years as a state senator for Delaware, eight years as vice president, and four years as president, Biden could’ve used his farewell address as an opportunity to selfishly detail his nearly 50 years of service to our country. Instead, the former president illustrated key accomplishments that revolutionized our democracy while still taking the time to alert Americans of the growing presence of a concerning oligarchic movement within the American government.

Recently, 1997 College and Wharton graduate Elon Musk and 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump have begun sharing more in common than just their alma mater. Following the attempted assassination of the 47th president in July 2024, Musk publicly endorsed Trump’s candidacy. In the following months, Musk would funnel roughly $250 million into the Trump campaign in a forceful attempt to get him to the Oval Office. Additionally, during the election, Musk launched a petition targeting swing-state voters to pledge their support for Trump’s platform.

Not only did Trump’s election victory allow him to escape his 34 felony counts without any tangible consequences, but it also paved the way for Musk to obtain a role of influence over our government. Notably, Trump green-lit Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” which still seems to have somewhat of a gray area in terms of its function and responsibilities.

Regardless, Musk’s appointment questions the qualifications of Trump’s entire cabinet and whether the president is appointing bureaucrats who will put the interests of Americans first.

Another key takeaway from Biden’s farewell address was an allusion to the unconventional dangers of social media. Biden stated, “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation. … Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and profit.”

The abandonment of fact-checking has become commonplace. On Jan. 7, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced his plans to scrap third-party fact-checking, a practice that the company historically employed. The company replaced it with user-written “community notes,” a model that the Musk-owned and Trump-backed platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has already implemented. This shift likely comes as a result of the turbulent relationship between Trump and Zuckerberg. During the 2020 election, Zuckerberg donated $350 million to two nonprofit organizations that helped implement mail-in ballot programs, which was highly criticized by the Trump campaign.

Because of Zuckerberg’s donation to fund election offices during the 2020 election, he was widely criticized and blamed for contributing to Trump’s loss that year. As a result, during the 2024 election cycle, Trump claimed to have been “watching him closely,” threatening to imprison Zuckerberg if he engaged in similar actions. The outcome that American citizens are now forced to live with is the adoption of a platform that will

turn the sphere of social media into an online battlefield of dishonesty and deception. What many Americans didn’t expect was for Biden’s warnings to have been proven true so quickly. On Inauguration Day, many tuned in to watch Trump get sworn into office and were surprised by the presence of some of America’s wealthiest individuals. The row of tech billionaires in attendance was composed of Musk, Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook, and many more of our country’s most economically influential people. The attendance of these incredibly high-profile characters is likely a reflection of how a second Trump term will favor these businessmen.

As we stand on the precipice of an uncertain four years, it’s important that we remain fully aware of our longstanding culture of advocacy — advocacy that demands respect for our liberties as free Americans ready and able to stand up for what is rightfully ours. Do not discount the irony of Trump’s inauguration having occurred on a day dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. As avid advocates for equality and justice, we cannot allow King Jr.’s legacy to be tarnished by the implementation of a dangerously oppressive oligarchy in our government. We are free and able college students, and I implore Penn students to embrace the same advocacy and fighting spirit of King Jr.

ELIJAH RAMIREZ is a College first year studying political science from El Paso, Texas. His email is elijah11@sas.upenn.edu.

SANJANA JUVVADI | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Columnist Elijah Ramirez calls on Penn students to lean into former Penn professor and President Joe Biden’s advice in his farewell address.

SANJANA JUVVADI | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Columnist Namrata Pradeep discusses the impact of social media on American politics and government.

KATE AHN | SENIOR DESIGNER

Columnist Marie Dillard reviews Black identity and the different implications of how Blackness is viewed and perceived.

Renaissance in Love

Pick up your copy on February 10

U.S. Department of Justice establishes task

force to combat antisemitism on college campuses

The formation of the task force comes after 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump’s executive order directing federal agencies to deport non-citizen students involved in pro-Palestinian protests

ISHA CHITIRALA Senior Reporter

The United States Department of Justice an-

nounced the formation of a task force to combat antisemitism on college campuses on Monday.

The task force’s first priority, according to a DOJ press release, “will be to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”

The formation of the task force comes after 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump’s executive order directing federal agencies to deport non-citizen students involved in pro-Palestinian protests.

The task force is the latest development in Trump’s efforts to crack down on antisemitism — particularly on college campuses, which were the sites of months of protests following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. Throughout the past year, Penn was a hotspot for numerous pro-Palestinian protests, which were often cited as evidence in allegations of antisemitism.

The DOJ’s statement echoes Trump’s Jan. 29 executive order that described an “unprecedented wave of vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against our citizens, especially in our schools and on our campuses.”

“Anti-Semitism in any environment is repugnant to this Nation’s ideals,” Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Leo Terrell, who was tapped to serve as the head of the task force, said in the press release.

“The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found,” Terrell added. “The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending

anti-Semitism in our schools.”

A White House fact sheet for Trump’s executive order promised “immediate action” and prosecution by the DOJ against all threats against American Jews, calling for the full force of “all federal resources” to combat antisemitism on “campuses and streets,” specifically “anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”

The order instructed the DOJ to report all “criminal and civil authorities or actions” available to combat antisemitism, within the next 60 days, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the projihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump said in the fact sheet.

The creation of the DOJ task force is the latest in a string of executive actions by the Trump administration, many of which have been challenged in federal court. According to Edward Mitchell, the deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the task force may also be subject to possible legal challenges.

If the task force “weaponizes the power of the federal government to suppress the speech of college kids who have advocated for Palestinian rights, then that is going to run into a wall called the U.S. Constitution,” Mitchell said in an interview with Reuters.

According to the DOJ, the task force will be conducted in collaboration with representatives from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and coordinated through the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

How black squirrels became Penn’s unofcial ‘mascot’

Most Penn students know that black squirrels are a common sight on campus now, but the unoffcial fxtures of campus culture were likely introduced to Penn over 200 years ago

KATE

AHN Staff Reporter

Most Penn students know that black squirrels are a common sight on campus now, but the unofficial fixtures of campus culture were likely introduced to Penn over 200 years ago.

“Black squirrels” — a term which can refer to any squirrel with fur that ranges from dark gray to jet black — result from specific genetic mutations. According to Sarah Tomke, a postdoctoral researcher at the Wildlife Futures Program at the School of Veterinary Medicine, squirrels were introduced to Philadelphia around the mid1800s, making it likely that black squirrels were also brought to Penn’s campus around a similar time.

“Black squirrels are just a different color morph of the common gray squirrel,” Tomke said. “That’s caused by a genetic mutation in a very specific gene that controls how much melanin each cell expresses.”

This mutation, Tomke added, can also manifest itself as a version of genetic inheritance known as incomplete dominance, a condition in which a squirrel possesses both a version of the genetic mutation and the normal variant, resulting in brown fur rather than gray or black. Tomke is currently involved in a phylogenetics research project on fox squirrels to determine the extent to which certain subspecies are related to one another. It is these fox squirrels, Tomke suggested, that may have been the origin of this genetic mutation found in black squirrels.

“A mutation like that is actually really rare to happen spontaneously,” she said. “Previous research found that this mutation probably came from fox squirrels a long time ago when gray squirrels and fox squirrels would hybridize with each other, and that mutation actually passed from fox squirrels into gray squirrels.”

Today, black squirrels have become a staple of Penn’s campus culture. Jessica Peterson, manager of the Common Press at the Fisher Fine Arts Library, highlighted how the black squirrel came to achieve mascot status not just at the Common Press but throughout campus.

SCUE 2025 white paper calls for academic flexibility, DEI initiatives, free speech reform

The Student Committee on Undergraduate Education released its 2025 white paper offering Penn recommendations in six areas: Academics; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; One University; Wellness; West Philadelphia; and Open Expression

JASMINE NI AND ETHAN YOUNG News Editors

The Student Committee on Undergraduate Education released its 2025 white paper issuing recommendations to Penn last week.

Every five years, SCUE publishes a white paper proposing short-term and long-term changes to Penn’s academic policies. The 64-page document offered recommendations across six areas: Academics; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; One University; Wellness; West Philadelphia and Beyond; and Open Expression.

Around 90 undergraduate Penn students developed and wrote the paper over the course of three years, according to the document’s introduction. The white paper provided details on how the final recommendations were produced, including through surveys, focus groups, roundtable discussions, and meetings with “student leaders, faculty members, and administrators from across [the] University.”

College junior Max Annunziata and College senior Sophia Leung — who are both former staffers for The Daily Pennsylvanian — served as the co-executive editors of the white paper. In their introductory letter, Annunziata and Leung expressed their hope that Penn administrators would use the document as a “reference” in addressing “Penn’s current shortcomings and the ways to fix them.”

In the Academics section of the white paper, the group called for greater flexibility in fulfilling general education requirements, including allowing more courses to “double count” towards both major and general education requirements.

In addition to curricular reforms, SCUE pushed for a review of Penn’s advising system, which the group wrote came about after “conversations with undergraduate students over the years have consistently revealed advising as a topic of special interest and concern.”

As part of an effort to make Penn’s academic environment more inclusive, SCUE recommended the introduction of a Disability Studies minor and recommended that departments incorporate more authors, case studies, and historical perspectives from marginalized communities to reflect a wider range of voices.

The report also suggested that Penn “invest in expanding diverse programs and diversifying all fields in its hiring methods.”

Outside the academic space, SCUE called on Penn to take stronger action in promoting campus inclusivity, addressing financial disparities, and improving access to resources. The group also wrote that there was a need for more opportunities for students to connect with peers from diverse backgrounds and find ways to address socioeconomic disparities that are present on campus.

In an effort to address student concerns with “inequities between the four undergraduate schools,” the document suggested that study spaces currently accessible only to Wharton School students be made available to all undergraduate Penn students.

Among the central issues reported by students in Penn’s undergraduate academic experience highlighted in the document were complications encountered when registering for courses across undergraduate schools. SCUE suggested that Penn cross-list “existing courses across schools and departments to better support

students’ interdisciplinary endeavors.”

In response to ongoing concerns about student mental health, SCUE recommended Penn increase the visibility of wellness resources and create dedicated spaces for mental health on campus.

The group also proposed that the University better balance wellness resources across the four undergraduate schools in an effort to “help bridge the wellness gap at Penn.” To that end, SCUE suggested that the wellness branches of four undergraduate schools better coordinate their initiatives through a more centralized approach.

The Wellness section of the white paper pointed to Penn’s preprofessional culture as “unintentionally undermin[ing]” students’ wellness.

SCUE further urged Penn to expand its commitment to West Philadelphia. The white paper called on Penn to “redouble” its efforts to improve relationships with the local community while providing pathways for individual students to engage with West Philadelphia, specifically citing “the creation of a centralized database of community service opportunities” and “expanding the breadth of ABCS courses.”

The group also wrote that it hopes the University will work to repair its relationship with West Philadelphia, adding that “feeding current tensions between Penn and the surrounding community are a series of historical wrongs inflicted by Penn.”

In the final section of the white paper, SCUE addressed the ongoing debates surrounding open expression and free speech at Penn. Among its recommendations was a suggestion to create more spaces for “safe dialogue among students on sometimes-thorny political and cultural issues.”

The document also credited Penn’s push for institutional neutrality as “a step toward protecting faculty members’ free speech and an acknowledgment of Penn’s limited ability to address all of the global issues persisting today.”

The group, however, recommended that students be included in the design process to make the University’s temporary open expression guidelines a permanent fixture of Penn’s policies and make first-year students “aware of their rights and responsibilities with regard to speech and inquiry.”

“Everyone who works at Fisher is aware that in our tours and orientations when we start as employees, people point out there’s like a group of black squirrels that occupy the area by the ADA entrance and the Shakespeare Garden that’s in front of Fisher,” Peterson said. “So I just started adopting it, including it in our newsletters, and we have little buttons.”

Peterson added that events at the Common Press — such as their recent open studio “Black Squirrel Pattern Postcard Printing” event — are a testament to how students and staff around campus have become engaged with the campus squirrels on a regular basis.

“Like in that event, some people from Wharton came, and they give [stuffed] squirrels away as prizes in their behavioral labs,” she said. “So they brought us a [stuffed] squirrel. And then someone from the law school came and was like, ‘I have a whole blog about the black squirrels in front of the law school.’”

“It feels like a real community-building thing that’s kind of below the radar of the official dialog of the University,” she concluded. “It’s a unifying thing.”

CHENYAO LIU | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Trump recently passed an executive order aimed at combatting antisemitism on college campuses.

JEAN PARK | MULTIMEDIA EDITOR SCUE discusses changes to Penn’s university policies in a white paper published every five years.

PHOTO FROM PENN TODAY

Penn Vet researcher Sarah Tomke suggested that the origin of the genetic mutation resulting in black squirrels may have originally come from fox squirrels.

‘Wouldn’t even consider it a rivalry right now’: What will it take for Penn men’s basketball to beat Princeton?

It has been 2,557 days and counting since the Quakers last defeated the Tigers

WALKER CARNATHAN

Former Sports Editor

There is a display in the Palestra dedicated to it.

It calls the matchup “the toughest game you’ll ever play in … the kind you never forget.” Its teams have each won 26 conference championships, including a 44-year stretch in which each won or shared the title all but twice. It is the third-oldest consecutively played contest in the history of the sport.

But in recent years, the men’s basketball rivalry between Penn and Princeton has been anything but. “I wouldn’t even consider it a rivalry right now,” senior guard George Smith said. “They’ve been kind of having their way with us.”

Long considered one of the fiercest competitions in college basketball, Penn versus Princeton has gone the way of the Tigers as of late. The Quakers have not earned a win since Feb. 6, 2018, when they rolled to a 82-65 victory en route to a 12-2 conference record and an Ivy Madness championship. Since then, the Red and Blue are 0-11, the longest losing streak for either side in the history of the series.

On Friday, Penn will get its latest chance to renew the rivalry when it hosts Princeton at the Palestra at 7 p.m. The Tigers enter as favorites, sitting at 4-2 in conference play compared to the Quakers’ 2-4. But as the Red and Blue prepare for another installment of this storied matchup, their recent history has only added fuel to the fire.

“Absolutely,” junior guard Ethan Roberts said when asked if the Quakers are using their losing streak as motivation. Roberts is playing in the matchup for the first time after transferring to Penn last summer. “Any rivalry or conference game is such a big one, but this is a little bit more knowing the history and the extent of this rivalry and who’s won the last few years.”

This year’s iteration of the Tigers poses a number of threats: At the top of the list is the Orange and Black’s dynamic duo of guard Xaivian Lee and forward Caden Pierce, who were each unanimously named first team All-Ivy last season, with Pierce also bringing home the Player of the Year award.

This season, Lee ranks third in the Ivy League in points per game (18.5) and second in assists per game (4.7) since the start of conference play, while Pierce ranks 14th in PPG (14.5) and first in rebounds per game (9.2).

According to Penn coach Steve Donahue, containing Princeton’s star duo is one of Penn’s top priorities.

“Lee’s such a dynamic scorer in so many ways. It starts there,” Donahue said. “Obviously Pierce, we voted him player of the year last year because he does everything. He’s the heart and soul. … And then they play those two in a lot of the same actions, so you gotta figure out how you’re gonna guard that.”

Penn has allowed an average of 80.3 opposing PPG in conference play, sixth in the league. Opposing stars have also found success against the Quakers this season, with Brown guard Kino Lilly Jr. and Yale guard John Poulakidas each going for over 21 points on 50% field goal shooting or better.

Penn men’s basketball will play Princeton at the Palestra on Feb. 7.

From Philadelphia to the Superdome, the picks are in!

The Daily Pennsylvanian’s Sports team in New Orleans sent in their predictions for Super Bowl LIX

SEAN MCKEOWN, VALERI GUEVARRA, TYLER RINGHOFER, AND LYDIA TONG Sports Editors, Deputy Sports Editor, and Sports Photo Editor

NEW ORLEANS — This weekend, the Philadelphia Eagles will battle the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.

The Daily Pennsylvanian’s Sports team, currently reporting on the big game from New Orleans, sent in their predictions on the winner of this year’s championship.

Sean McKeown — Sports Editor Eagles 40, Chiefs 34

As an Eagles fan, I understand why no one wants to see these two teams play in the Super Bowl.

On one hand, you have the “Devil Magic” Chiefs: a team that has won a multitude of games on blown calls, fluke field goal misses, and other debaucheries that many chalk up to unholy intervention.

On the other, you have a team that wins in the most frustrating of ways. Two star wide receivers that don’t get the ball, an offense that never shows up until the second half, and a dominant defense that forces increasingly unlikely turnovers seemingly by whim.

Annoying to watch for everyone outside of Philadelphia and Missouri, these teams’ constant winning despite their unappealing play styles could frustrate even the best of football purists.

That all said, they are here for a reason. With talent galore on each side, the game will come down to who depends the least on luck. As the Chiefs seemingly have had a lot of “luck” affecting the outcome of their games, the Eagles’ divine ability to avoid turnovers and mistakes will help the Birds prevail over the Chiefs’ devilish tricks.

Valeri Guevarra — Sports Editor Eagles 35, Chiefs 27

I’ve always been attracted to slow-burn success stories. I have been a fan of Sabrina Carpenter since 2018 — well before “Espresso.” I’ve been a fan of Ariana Grande’s acting since her time on Broadway. Those stories prove that slow-and-steady hard work makes the dream work. And while these examples are from a completely different industry, I think it’s finally the Eagles’ time. It helps that quarterback Jalen Hurts is more dedicated than ever. His strength and perseverance after Super Bowl LVII and the Eagles’ 2023 season collapse are not one to be underestimated. After speaking with him during media week, all the pieces seem to be coming together.

The Eagles’ well-developed defense will be a key to a victory. The Chiefs haven’t been winning games in the same flashy ways they have in the past, now seemingly relying on luck and external factors while the Eagles’ defense is a proven stopper.

In the center of it all is star running back Saquon Barkley — the most slow-burn story of all. After

five quiet years with the New York Giants, Barkley has broken through in his first year with the Birds in record-breaking fashion. And with his place on the roster being a key differentiator from this Super Bowl matchup two years ago, the signs point to finally rewarding these long-awaited storylines this year with the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Tyler Ringhofer — Deputy Sports Editor Chiefs 29, Eagles 27

Three-peat, Chiefs-peat, whatever you want to call it.

Sure, the Chiefs are a dynasty, but they are also a team of destiny. For 59 years since the inception of the Super Bowl in the NFL, there has never been a repeat three-time champion, three years in a row.

With history seemingly against the team, the odds could not swing any more in its favor from a coaching and quarterback perspective. Led by arguably the best coach and quarterback in history, the duo can cover up a lot of the team’s weaknesses and mistakes.

On paper, the Eagles have more talent from a roster position standpoint, with Saquon Barkley leading the way by (backwards) leaps and bounds. With a dominant running game that sees the offense run more run plays than any team in the league, the Chiefs’ defense will be tested early and throughout.

Ultimately, I believe this underrated Chiefs defense holds its ground with a game plan by defensive coordinator Steve Spagnoulo. I also expect the Chiefs’ wide receivers to step up in the game, including Penn football alumnus and 2018 Wharton graduate Justin Watson.

And just like last time, the Chiefs will win on a game-winning drive fueled by one of the greatest: Patrick Mahomes. Lydia Tong — Sports Photo Editor Eagles 41, Chiefs 34

The poles are greased for a reason.

I thought I understood what it was to be a sports fan was back home — most recently from the Astros’ exhilarating victory over the Phillies in 2022.

But in just four short months, Philadelphia has shown me how hard the city goes for its Birds. This genuine belief in their players and coaching staff is what will bring the Lombardi home to Philadelphia.

That said, my time in the Caesars Superdome has tested me.

Battling through a seductive wink by Justin Watson and a shared love for an underground Houston food spot with DeAndre Hopkins, my favorite player since childhood, was a test — but there was something ringing in my ears every 10 minutes: the Eagles fans chanting something even more seductive. Go Birds.

But the Quakers have a dynamic scoring threat of their own: Roberts’ 20.3 PPG in conference play leads the Ivy League, a streak which he attributes to his “having fun and being aggressive.” Sophomore guard Sam Brown has also averaged 17 PPG in the Ivy slate, and the Quakers’ 11 three-pointers per game rank second in the conference.

The only team with more? Princeton.

“We both recruit to that, we’re built to that,” Donahue said of both teams’ three-point shooting capabilities. “They really, probably more than us, take threes as like ‘Hey, you’re open, shoot.’ We’re probably a little more deliberate in our approach, but both of us feel that if you over-help, we’re gonna get an open shot for our teammates.”

Friday’s matchup will be a critical one for the Quakers’ Ivy Madness hopes — Penn currently sits one game behind fourth-place Dartmouth and will need every win it can get to keep pace with Brown and Harvard, both of which also trail the Big Green by one game.

It is far from the first time the matchup has held larger ramifications. Before the advent of Ivy Madness, the duel between Penn and Princeton often determined the Ivy League’s representative in March Madness, further heightening the matchup’s intensity.

“Every time we played Princeton, it was war,” former Penn guard Alan Cotler, who played for the Quakers from 1969 to 1972, said. “We were top 20 teams every year. … In those days, only the league champion went to the NCAA Tournament, so it was even more important to win the league championship. And it was always Princeton or Penn.”

But in recent years, the Quakers have struggled in the matchup’s most pivotal games. In the inaugural game of Ivy Madness in 2017, the clash between the undefeated Tigers and the 6-8 Quakers went to overtime. Princeton won. In 2022, the teams faced off with a share of the Ivy title on the line, and Penn opened up a 19-point halftime lead. Princeton won. Then, less than a week later, the teams faced off in the first round of Ivy Madness for the chance to play in the conference championship game. Princeton won.

The Quakers are aware of the rivalry’s history. But they’re also seeking to rewrite it.

“I know this game means a lot to so many, us in particular,” Donahue said. “We haven’t done a good job. There’s been a lot of close ones, but I think we all feel the weight of that.”

“It’s one of my last two times, maybe three times playing Princeton,” Smith, a senior captain who has never seen a win against the Tigers, said. “So [I] really want to get in there, fight, compete, and win.”

TONG | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER The Philadelphia Eagles walk out during Opening Night at Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 3.

FRIENDSHIP, from back page

Stokes has found his own success since moving to Philadelphia. After playing sparingly as a freshman, Stokes burst onto the scene as a sophomore in 2022, bringing home the Phil Steele Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Year award and being named to All-Ivy first team as a special teamer.

After a leg injury kept him sidelined for the entire 2023 season, Stokes returned to action in 2024 and regained his form, hauling in 37 receptions for 313 yards and two touchdowns, while also earning an All-Ivy second team nod as a kick returner.

In addition to his role with the Quakers, Stokes also became a permanent fixture at every Eagles game day.

“Many of my weekends this past year consisted of playing Saturdays at Franklin Field, then [being at] Lincoln Financial on Sundays to watch Johnny, [and] then spending the rest of the weekend at his place playing video games,” Stokes said. “I’m grateful to have witnessed Johnny grow into not only the NFL player he is, but the genuine, humble man he is.” Stokes has aspirations to join Wilson in the NFL, saying he plans “to run into him on the field again very soon.” Wilson also praised Stokes’ work ethic, complimenting his constant willingness to work. But regardless of whether they ever share the field again, Stokes and Wilson will share a bond for life.

, from back page

House v. NCAA settlement and that Ancient Eight athletics “will continue to not provide student-athletes with revenue sharing allocations, athletics scholarships, or direct [NIL] payments.”

The settlement — which will have a final hearing for approval on April 7 — will set up a revenue-sharing model allowing NCAA conferences to share 22% of their annual revenue with student-athletes. The Power Four NCAA conferences and the Pac-12 Conference, who are the defendants in the settlement, have agreed to this model. The Ivy League is opting out of the settlement and not participating in revenue-sharing or any forms of “pay for play.”

At Penn, Watson was a two-time Ivy League champion and two-time finalist for the Walter Payton Award as FCS Offensive Player of the Year. He remains the leader in several Ivy League receiving records and is second in all-time receiving yards in the Ancient Eight. Watson is competing in the upcoming Super Bowl LIX with the Chiefs, looking for a fourth Super Bowl ring and the chance to be part of the first NFL team to complete a three-peat Super Bowl Championship. If Watson wins Super Bowl LIX, he’ll earn an additional accolade: the most Super Bowl wins by a player to come out of the Ivy League.

CHENYAO LIU | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

WATSON

LYDIA

Whether you are new to Philadelphia sports or not, the recent Philadelphia Eagles NFC Championship victory is grounds for major excitement. If you are a longtime Philadelphia resident or sports fan like myself, you know exactly what’s next.

However, if you are new to Penn and being in Philadelphia, you might be a little bit confused. If you are looking for a guide to this current moment in the Eagles fandom, look no further: The Daily Pennsylvanian has got you! The history

One thing that is true for Birds fans is that they know the team’s history. While no one is going to expect you to rattle off Eagles facts while watching the Super Bowl, there are certainly some things that might come up that you should be sure to know.

The first piece of Eagles history to know is

that the 2018 Super Bowl win was huge, because it was not only a Super Bowl win, but also the team’s first ever Super Bowl win. The Eagles have appeared in four Super Bowls: 1981, 2005, 2018, and — most tragically — 2023. This record is a major contributor to Philadelphia’s label as the “underdog city,” or more rudely, “the city that chokes.” This is an important thing to be aware of because it explains why this Super Bowl means so much to Philadelphians.

People from Philadelphia smile fondly on the amazing memories of the 2018 win and cringe in pain thinking about the horrible losses, especially the recent loss in 2023. The 2023 loss will play a major role in the passion around this game because that loss was to the Kansas City Chiefs, who is also this year’s Super Bowl opponent. An opportunity for a comeback in the city of underdogs brings a lot of pressure but also a

lot of excitement.

The second piece of recent Eagles history to know is “The Philly Special.” This infamous play has a major role in taking the Eagles to success against the Patriots in Super Bowl LII. At the end of the second half, the Eagles had the opportunity to kick a field goal, but instead made the bold move to run a trick play. The trick play led to a touchdown pass to quarterback Nick Foles, and an iconic moment was born. It is also good to understand the history around Michael Vick, Jason Kelce’s mummer outfit, and Jamie Pagliei (otherwise known as @ thephillysportsguy).

Attire

While you might be tempted to buy the first piece of Eagles merch that you see, it’s crucial that you make sure to do so with care. While obviously merch is a must, you have to find the right merch for you. While you might be tempted to buy the first Saquon Barkley jersey you see, you have to ask yourself a few questions first.

Do you care about being outed as a new fan?

If not, then the Barkley jersey is a great pick! Not only will it look great, but this should serve you for a few years to come as he has a threeyear contract and hopefully will re-sign (I mean, the Eagles would be stupid to let someone who brings so much energy to their organization walk). If you want to seem like a slightly more seasoned fan, you might be better served to find a Jason Kelce (recent retiree, Eagles legend) jersey, a Jalen Hurts jersey, or even an A.J. Brown (who joined the team in 2022) jersey. If you are a true Eagles fan and want to prove the longevity of your dedication, you would be best served to pull out your old Carson Wentz jersey, Nick Foles jersey, or — if you are me — your vintage Brian Dawkins jersey (my prized possession).

What color merch do you want?

When buying your merch you will have the choice between black, white, midnight green, or kelly green. While all options are viable, you’ll want your choice to match your outfit, so choose wisely!

Lastly when it comes to attire, make sure you have layers. While a T-shirt will serve you well at your Super Bowl party, it will not serve you well celebrating on Broad Street. The fight song

The Eagles’ fight song, a Philadelphia hymn that children like me memorized from our cribs as our parents sung it to us as a lullaby, is something that all new fans should take the time to learn. Newer fans often jump to the final line of “E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles,” completely skipping the rest of the song. To be a true fan, make sure to be ready to sing the whole thing:

Fly, Eagles, fly

On the road to victory Fight, fight, fight Fight, Eagles, fight Score a touchdown 1-2-3 1-2-3

Hit ‘em low

Hit ‘em high

And watch our Eagles fight Fly Eagles fly On the road to victory E-A-G-L-E-S!

Eagles!

What you don’t want to do is mess it up … like Philadelphia Mayor and 2016 Fels Institute of Government graduate Cherelle Parker. Places to be and how to celebrate In deciding where to watch the Super Bowl, you have to decide what kind of fan you are. For example, I would not be well received at my dad’s Super Bowl party, because he likes to watch the game in a very serious and quiet setting, and I much prefer to watch in a loud, silly, and (I’ll admit) chatty setting. So if you are serious about your sports watching, a small watch party of dedicated fans might be the place for you. But if you prefer to be loud and talk to your friends while watching, a bigger party might be your vibe. If you truly want to experience the Philadelphia sports atmosphere and watch the loud and brash passion of Eagles fans play-out, watching somewhere in Center City or (if you are over 21) at a Philadelphia sports bar might be best. No matter what you choose, upon a victory your first move should be to mobilize your friends to Broad Street. This infamous stretch of Philadelphia is the only place to correctly celebrate a sports win. The palpable passion that

LYDIA TONG | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Swoop, the official mascot of the Philadelphia Eagles, makes an appearance in the Caesars Superdome for Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 3.

A FIRST LOOK AT SUPER BOWL LIX

Penn alum, Chiefs wide receiver Justin Watson supports Ivy League decision to opt out of ‘pay for play’

The three-time Super Bowl champion and 2018 Wharton graduate is competing for a Ivy League record-breaking fourth Super Bowl win

VALERI GUEVARRA Sports Editor

NEW ORLEANS — Justin Watson, the former Penn football wide receiver and three-time Super Bowl champion set to play in Super Bowl LIX this weekend, supported the Ivy League’s decision to opt out of the House v. NCAA settlement.

“I definitely trust the Ivy League board and their decision-making. … Even when I was there, Penn did a great job of protecting studentathletes,” Watson told The Daily Pennsylvanian exclusively while stressing the importance of the “student” in “student-athlete.”

The Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver graduated from the Wharton School in 2018, notably well before the NCAA allowed student-athletes to make money off of their name, image, and likeness.

‘Like a little brother to me’: Eagles’ Johnny Wilson, Penn football’s Julien Stokes reflect on friendship ahead of Super Bowl

The two wide receivers have known each other since childhood

WALKER CARNATHAN AND SEAN MCKEOWN

Former Sports Editor and Sports Editor

“I understand that the main focus is on academics, but when you see all these other schools looking out for their athletes, it sort of gets you thinking like ‘oh, maybe the transfer portal would be best for me and my family,’” junior and current wide receiver Jared Richardson said.

Watson thought differently when considering his feelings if he was a current Penn athlete.

“If it was me, if I was at Penn today, I’d still be playing all four years, I would give up anything to be with my guys at Franklin Field,” Watson said. On Jan. 21, the Ivy League announced in an email sent to all Ivy League student-athletes that it will not participate in the $2.8 billion

“[NIL] is definitely a new world,” Watson said. “I think there’s such a value in [an Ivy League] education in how, at another university, you may get a small paycheck on the front end, but there’s such an immense value [in the long run] of an education at the University of Pennsylvania.” However, several current Penn athletes, notably multiple current Red and Blue football players, expressed disappointment with the decision.

See WATSON, page 8

NEW ORLEANS — Millions of Philadelphians will spend the weekend rooting on the hometown Philadelphia Eagles in the upcoming Super Bowl LIX. But at Penn, one Quakers athlete will be cheering loudest of all.

That athlete is Penn football senior wide receiver Julien Stokes, a two-time All-Ivy selection and close friend of Eagles rookie wide receiver Johnny Wilson. Stokes and Wilson grew up together in southern California, playing football together at Calabasas High School, and maintain a close bond to this day.

As Wilson prepares to play at the sport’s pinnacle during his first year as a pro, the pair reflected on their bond and the experience of watching each another grow.

“It’s unreal seeing one of your best friends playing in the Super Bowl while being a rookie,” Stokes said. “When I heard Johnny was being drafted to Philly, I couldn’t believe it.”

“Me and Juice, we go way back. I’ve known Juice since middle school. He’s just always been

like a little brother to me,” Wilson said. “It’s funny to see [him] now, all grown up. Playing ball at Penn, doing his thing.”

After their time together at Calabasas, both Stokes and Wilson graduated to Division I college football. Wilson began his career at Arizona State in 2020, where he played for two seasons before transferring to Florida State in 2022. There, Wilson immediately became the Seminoles’ leading receiver, hauling in a combined 1,514 receiving yards during his two seasons with FSU.

After declaring for the 2024 NFL Draft, Wilson was selected 185th overall by the Eagles, giving him the familiar rookie task of making a home in a new city. But luckily for Wilson, a piece of his home was already in the City of Brotherly Love.

“[Stokes] was one of the first people I hung out with when I got [to Philadelphia],” Wilson said. “He showed me around a little bit. … He’s a great friend.”

‘Those lacrosse guys like to party’: Eagles running back Will

See FRIENDSHIP, page 8

Shipley details memories on Penn’s campus

The Eagles running back, who is the brother of former Penn lacrosse player James Shipley, recently had a forced fumble and 57-yard run in the NFC Championship

SEAN MCKEOWN Sports Editor

NEW ORLEANS — Will Shipley, a former lacrosse star and current backup running back for the Philadelphia Eagles, has gotten drunk at Smokey Joe’s — just like you. Shipley — a newly emerging household name in Philadelphia — had a breakout game in the 2025 NFC Championship. He caused a gamechanging fumble on a kick return in the game that sent the Eagles to the Super Bowl. One fact that most may not know is that the Clemson alumnus has spent many days on Penn’s campus. Why? His brother. A 2024 Wharton graduate and two-time

second team All-Ivy lacrosse player, James Shipley played four years with the Red and Blue. A consistent contributor and standout in his own right, James Shipley often found his brother in the stands watching his games.

“I tried to make as many games as I could, ending up attending four or five [games] just because it was during football season,” Will Shipley said. “It was always pretty hectic getting up there just for a day or even a couple of hours. ... Little did I know I was going to get drafted by Philly and that [visiting] gave me a little precursor.”

In a breakout game against the Eagles’ division

rivals the Washington Commanders, the most important matchup of the year for the Eagles, Will Shipley not only forced a crucial fumble but also capped off the game with a 57-yard run during a drive that ended in a victory-sealing touchdown. Filling in for whatever role is asked of him, Will Shipley understood that his past as a dualsport athlete helped him become the all-around competitor he is today.

“I would give some credit to my success in football [to] being a multi-sport athlete and having to learn different things and [the]

eye-hand coordination that comes with it,” Will Shipley said. “Cutting, playing defense, you know, physicality — [it] definitely played a pivotal role in my success in football.”

When asked about possible escapades at Smokes’, a popular campus bar, Will Shipley shared that he would join the Penn lacrosse team at Smokes’ and that his family often reflected on the time they spent inside of the “Pennstitution.”

“Like I said, those lacrosse guys like to party,” Will Shipley said. “You know, Smokes’ was a frequent conversation in our family group chats, and [we] always had a good time there.”

NEW ORLEANS Every Penn connection to Super Bowl LIX

KATE HIEWON AHN AND LYDIA TONG | SENIOR DESIGNER AND SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER