CHALLENGES AHEAD FOR PENN’S 10TH PRESIDENT
Larry Jameson appointed Penn’s 10th president following interim term
Jameson will continue to lead the University — and shed his previous interim title — at a time of intense political scrutiny and mounting fnancial uncertainty
ZION ABEBE, FINN RYAN, WILLIAM GRANTLAND, AND AMY LIAO
Senior Reporters and Staff Reporters
Larry Jameson will serve as Penn’s 10th president following a 15-month tenure as the University’s interim leader.
Jameson — who was named interim president in December 2023 — will assume the Penn presidency in a permanent capacity through June 30, 2027. The University Board of Trustees voted to approve his appointment during a virtual meeting on March 13.
Jameson had previously agreed to serve as interim president through the 2025-26 academic year. He first assumed the role just days after former Penn President Liz Magill resigned amid national controversy surrounding the University’s response to allegations of antisemitism on campus.
During the virtual meeting announcing the appointment, Board of Trustees Chair Ramanan Raghavendran said that given the “challenges facing higher education today,” there is “nothing more important than leadership.”
“Penn has been very fortunate to have Larry Jameson at the helm during this time. I am pleased that our Board can recognize his exceptional performance and acknowledge his inspirational leadership and vision by formally extending his appointment to June 30, 2027,” he added.
“I am deeply honored by this vote of confidence from our Board of Trustees. I look forward to continuing the vital work of our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members to uphold Penn’s mission of utilizing knowledge for the greater good,” Jameson said of his appointment.
In the resolution to appoint Jameson, the Trustees noted that a “pressing need for continuity” made it “necessary and appropriate” to appoint him to the presidency without forming a traditional
search committee — the process that is outlined in the Faculty Handbook.
Academic leaders from several of Penn’s schools expressed support for Jameson’s appointment in written statements to The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Provost John Jackson Jr. characterized Jameson’s “expertise, wisdom, and wide knowledge of Penn” as “invaluable to our community as we navigate a challenging and unpredictable period.”
“We are fortunate to have President Jameson at the helm during a profoundly challenging time for all of higher education,” Wharton School Dean Erika James wrote. “His deep understanding of Penn’s values and strategic vision, coupled with his commitment to being a collaborative university leader focused on healing fissures in our community, make him the ideal leader for the remarkable institution that is Penn.”
Vijay Kumar, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, also expressed support for Jameson’s nomination.
“My colleagues and I have greatly appreciated President Jameson’s steady leadership and decisiveness during this very challenging time for our community,” Kumar wrote. “I am personally excited to hear that he has been appointed president through June 2027.”
University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Dean Sophia Lee similarly wrote that Penn Carey Law “looks forward to continuing its collaborative relationship with President Jameson.”
Katharine Strunk, dean of Penn’s Graduate School of Education, wrote to the DP that she was “thrilled” to learn that Jameson would assume
See JAMESON, page 3
Trump administration freezes $175 million in federal funding to Penn
According to a White House tweet, Wednesday’s decision was a result of Penn’s ‘policies forcing women to compete with men in sports’
ALEX DASH AND VALERI GUEVARRA Staff Reporter and Sports Editor
1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump’s administration announced that it would be freezing over $175 million in federal funding to Penn on March 19, citing the University’s failure to bar transgender athletes from women’s sports.
According to a White House tweet, Wednesday’s decision is a result of Penn’s “policies forcing women to compete with men in sports.”
The funding pause follows a Feb. 5 executive order signed by Trump that threatened to remove federal funding from universities that allow the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports.
“This is just a taste of what could be coming down the pipe for Penn,” one senior Trump administration official told Fox News.
In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, a senior White House official wrote that the funding freeze was not a result of an ongoing Title IX investigation into Penn but rather “[an] immediate proactive action to review discretionary funding streams to … universities.”
The official said that the decision to cut funding was made because Penn “infamously permitted a male to compete on its women’s swimming team.” They added that the cuts would be made to federal funding that Penn receives from the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services.
A Penn spokesperson wrote in a statement to the DP that while the University is “aware of media reports suggesting a suspension of $175 million in federal funding,” the federal government has yet to share “any official notification or any details” about the recent action.
“It is important to note, however, that Penn has always followed NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding student participation on athletic teams,” the spokesperson wrote. “We have been in the past, and remain today, in full compliance with the regulations that apply to not only Penn, but all of our NCAA and Ivy League peer institutions.”
A DOD spokesperson directed a request for comment to the White House, and a request for comment was left with HHS.
In a statement to the DP, Philadelphia City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier — who represents Philadelphia’s third district, which includes Penn — called the federal funding freeze “deplorable” and said that the Trump administration was “threatening tens of thousands of jobs, our hospitals, lifesaving research projects … and so much more” by targeting funds unrelated to transgender student-athletes.
“More than anything, Trump’s attack is meant to divide us -- we cannot let him succeed. Penn has an opportunity to stand up for their vulnerable students by taking Trump to court. We have already seen that lawsuits successfully counter Trump’s hateful, cruel, and legally questionable actions,” she wrote. “I urge Penn to do the right thing by standing tall and fighting back.” Gauthier added that if Penn does not take legal action against the funding freeze, it should use funds from its endowment to prevent layoffs or service reductions.
“I am proud that many transgender individuals call West and Southwest Philadelphia See FUNDING, page 2
DANA BAHNG AND ANNELISE DO | SENIOR DESIGNERS
home,” she wrote. “They make our community stronger and a better place to live. I will always stand with them.”
2013 Engineering graduate and Pennsylvania state Rep. Rick Krajewski (D-Philadelphia) wrote in a statement to the DP that Trump’s decision to freeze Penn’s funding was “yet another abuse of his executive power in service to his authoritarian agenda.” Krajewski added that he was “proud of [his] alma mater for protecting the rights of its trans athletes” and urged the University “to resist this bullying attempt.”
Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania Witold Walczak also criticized the move from the White House, calling it “another example of this administration’s punitive and discriminatory policies targeting the trans community and cynically going after the most vulnerable Americans.”
“The ACLU of Pennsylvania will continue to fight for the rights of trans people to be their full, authentic selves,” Walczak added.
Riley Gaines, an activist and former University of Kentucky swimmer, called the news “serendipitous” in a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Three years ago, Gaines tied with Thomas in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA championships and subsequently built a career campaigning against transgender women’s participation in women’s sports. In a separate statement on X, 2022 Engineering graduate and former Penn women’s swimmer Paula Scanlan — who has also built a platform speaking out against Thomas’ participation in
Penn motions to
Penn athletics — wrote, “This is what I voted for. More of this.”
On Feb. 5, Trump signed an executive order explicitly barring transgender women from participating in women’s sports. The executive order promised 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.”
On Feb. 6, the United States Department of Education launched an investigation into Penn for Title IX violations for allowing 2022 College graduate and transgender woman Lia Thomas to represent Penn women’s swimming and diving during the 2021-22 NCAA swimming and diving season. Shortly after, the NCAA changed its policy to align with the order.
Three former Penn women’s swimmers who competed with Thomas during that season also filed a separate lawsuit for Title IX violations.
As part of the Penn women’s swimming and diving team, Thomas collected multiple stillstanding program records, Ivy League titles, and an NCAA championship. The DOE notably sent a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker urging Thomas’ accolades be reallocated.
Since the start of his second term, Trump has instituted a flurry of executive orders and federal actions impacting higher education institutions across the country — including Penn. The National Institutes of Health implemented a funding cut on Feb. 7 that could cost Penn $240 million.
Trump will be in Philadelphia this weekend to attend the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships — co-hosted by Penn, Drexel University, and PHL Sports — at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia.
dismiss Penn Carey Law professor Amy Wax’s racial discrimination lawsuit
Penn’s March 12 memorandum cited Wax’s history of ‘unprofessional and offensive comments in the media and the classroom’ along with her failure to provide a legal basis for her claims
FINN RYAN Senior Reporter
Penn moved to dismiss a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Amy Wax in a March 12 motion.
Penn’s memorandum cited Wax’s history of “unprofessional and offensive comments in the media and the classroom” along with her failure to provide a legal basis for her claims. The document also noted that none of Wax’s “allegations state a plausible claim for relief.”
Wax’s 53-page complaint — which she filed on Jan. 16 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania — contended that the University’s speech policy broke several federal laws. The lawsuit alleged that Penn violated Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the former of which prohibits racial discrimination for programs that receive federal funding and the latter of which prohibits racial discrimination in employment.
The suit also alleged that Penn is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act by “failing to accommodate reasonably — or even minimally — Professor Wax’s then-ongoing cancer treatments,” as well as the University faculty contract that gives employees protection under the First Amendment.
Wax’s complaint primarily disputed sanctions that the University placed on Wax and upheld in September 2024 following her history of discriminatory remarks and two years of disciplinary proceedings.
After receiving reports from students, faculty, and staff regarding Wax’s public remarks, Penn Carey Law’s dean initiated the process for disciplinary action — including a hearing — as prescribed in Penn’s Faculty Handbook.
Following the hearing, former Penn President Liz Magill reviewed the produced report and accepted the recommended sanctions, which included a one-year suspension at half pay, the removal of Wax’s named chair, and a requirement for Wax to note in public appearances that she is not speaking on behalf of Penn Carey Law. Wax’s lawsuit described the sanctions — which were referred to as “kangaroo-court-like procedures” — as a breach of her contract with the University. The suit claimed that the sanctions “were both grossly deficient and a wild departure from established norms governing academic
discipline” and accused the University’s speech policies of discriminating “based not only on the content of speech but also the racial identity of the speaker.”
“White speakers are far more likely to be disciplined for ‘harmful’ speech while minority speakers are rarely, if ever, subject to disciplinary procedures for the same,” the suit read.
Wax also described a false light invasion of privacy — a common law claim when a person is wrongfully portrayed in an inaccurate or misleading way. The suit referred to the University’s reports of Wax’s statements as “cherry-picked, misrepresented, or outright misstated.”
In response to Wax’s suit, the University Board of Trustees moved to dismiss the case, arguing that Wax failed to state and support her claims.
The University declined to comment on its attempt to dismiss the lawsuit.
In the memorandum accompanying the motion, the University reiterated Wax’s unprofessional behavior, including her comments that “the United States is better off with fewer Asians” and that “no one should have to live in a dorm room with a gay roommate.”
The University’s memorandum also addressed Wax’s breach of contract claim, emphasizing that “she identifies no contractual obligation that the University failed to fulfill.”
The memorandum similarly refuted Wax’s assertion that she was a victim of racial discrimination by the University, writing that Wax’s complaint “half-heartedly pleads” that Wax, “as a white Jewish person, was singled out for discipline because of her race” without any factual support.
The University also argued against Wax’s claim that she was placed in a false light.
On March 14, Wax filed a separate motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the University from implementing a suspension for the 2025-26 academic year, which would require Wax to follow Penn’s speech policies and enforce new sanctions. Wax’s injunction also sought to restore her named chair position at Penn Carey Law.
While describing the injunction, Wax alleged that the University’s actions harm her “reputation and continue to violate her civil rights” under federal law.
Penn issues guidance to University community warning of potential travel ban, visa revocations
The March 18 message reaffrmed Penn’s commitment to supporting international members of the University community and issued recommendations to impacted individuals
JASMINE NI News Editor
Penn issued guidance about potential travel bans, on-campus Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, and visa revocations in an email to the University community on Tuesday.
The March 18 message from Provost John Jackson Jr. and Vice Provost for Global Initiatives Ezekiel Emanuel reaffirmed Penn’s commitment to supporting international students, scholars, faculty, and staff amid evolving immigration policies. The email issued recommendations to impacted individuals that included avoiding non-essential travel and seeking guidance from campus and legal resources, among other actions.
“We know that recent policy changes and actions related to immigration, visas, and travel are causing uncertainty and anxiety for many members of the Penn community,” the email read. “We are taking action to offer direct support to impacted community members, plan for disruptions caused by potential policy changes, and provide information to ensure that we can continue to support students, scholars, and others.”
Since the start of his second term, 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump has enacted a litany of executive orders and federal actions that have affected higher education institutions across the country — including Penn. A recent federal proposal considered a new travel ban that would impose visa restrictions on citizens of 41 countries, according to an internal memo.
In the recent email, Penn’s senior administrators wrote that citizens of countries included in the travel ban would face disruptions, including delays and restrictions in acquiring visas and being “barred from entering the United States” altogether.
They also reiterated advice from a March 6 email from International Student and Scholar Services that advised students from several countries to avoid “nonessential” travel ahead of the potential new federal travel ban. Tuesday’s message added that students, staff, and faculty should “be aware that policies are changing quickly and consider carefully whether to travel abroad for the foreseeable future.”
The message also advised students to contact their ISSS advisor and program directors of the schools they are enrolled in for guidance on traveling.
“We are asking deans and faculty members to consider waivers or alternative accommodations for students for whom international travel is a mandatory or key component of their academic program,” the email read.
Penn will also offer short consultation appointments with immigration attorneys, letters of attendance or employment, and information sessions on summer planning for University community members in addition to existing resources, according to the email.
The email also addressed a Jan. 29 executive order that directed federal agencies to identify and deport non-citizen participants in pro-Palestinian protests — including college students. While the administrators noted that Penn “remains unclear who may be directly impacted,” they advised community members to have at least one emergency contact in the United States amid ongoing federal actions.
The email emphasized that despite Penn’s “largely open” campus, law enforcement officers must have “judicial warrants or subpoenas” to access buildings. The email advised members of the community who are “approached by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other law enforcement agents” to contact the Division of Public Safety “immediately.”
“You may document any interaction, or ask them to wait for Penn Police, but do not interfere with or obstruct the agents,” the email read. “Let them know that you cannot grant them permission to enter University buildings or accept service of a warrant on behalf of the University.”
In January, Trump announced the reversal of a policy that previously declared “sensitive locations” such as schools, churches, hospitals, colleges, funerals, and rallies off-limits to ICE raids. Last week, at Columbia University, ICE agents detained 2024 Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist and lead negotiator for Columbia’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment. His detention has prompted nationwide protests, including multiple in Philadelphia over the past week.
“As the situation evolves, we will continue to ensure that our community is informed and supported to care for each other,” the email concluded.
Penn Museum
undergoes largest renovation in its history to update Egypt, Nubia galleries
The Penn Museum’s renovations in the Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries are the second part of the Penn Museum’s Building Transformation project, which began in 2014 and reimagines 75% of the museum’s footprint
AUDREY LEVENSON Staff Reporter
The Penn Museum is currently undergoing the largest renovation in its history.
The museum’s renovations in the Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries are the second part of the Penn Museum’s Building Transformation project, which began in 2014 and reimagines 75% of the museum’s footprint. These galleries span two floors of the Coxe Egyptian Wing, which houses 50,000 Egyptian and Nubian objects dating from 4,000 B.C.E. to the seventh century C.E.
“The Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries will be a feat of major significance and a point of cultural pride for the Greater Philadelphia region and beyond. Nowhere else outside of Egypt will visitors be able to walk through soaring architectural elements of an ancient Egyptian palace — it is worth the wait,” Williams Director at the Penn Museum and Avalon Professor in the Humanities Christopher Woods told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “These galleries will provide an unparalleled opportunity to glimpse a day in the life of ancient Egyptians and Nubians — not only powerful, famous pharaohs, but also working citizens who fueled two of the world’s oldest and enduring societies.”
The renovations are unfolding in two phases in the main and upper levels of the museum. The Main Level renovations are set to be completed at the end of 2026, according to Penn Museum Public Relations Director Jill DiSanto. The main level will
include an 7,145 square foot Egypt gallery that will be anchored by the lime tomb chapel of Kaipure — which has not been displayed in its entirety in over 30 years. The chapel dates back to 2,300 B.C.E. and was a place where priests could perform funeral rituals and give offerings to ensure the prosperity of the dead in the afterlife.
The second stage of renovations is set to be completed by the end of 2028. The Upper Level’s Egypt and Nubia Galleries, titled Royalty and Religion, will showcase the palace of Pharaoh Merenptah. The palace is over 3,000 years old, and its 30-foot columns will be on display for the first time since their excavation over a century ago, according to DiSanto.
To accommodate these changes, the Penn Museum is in the process of installing steel tie rods across the arches in the Main Level gallery to increase floor load capacity. These rods will also allow the Upper Level gallery to accommodate the weight of the palace of Pharaoh Merenptah.
The renovations are part of phase two of Building Transformation’s three-phase update to the museum. Phase one prioritized changes to the Main Entrance and Main Level, while phase three will include the installation of new galleries on Buddhism and the History of China.
Other smaller construction projects in the Coxe Egyptian Wing during this phase the installation of include state-of-the-art lighting and mechanical systems and new artifact storage facilities in order to enhance preservation efforts. The Penn Museum is also building a new study room in the wing for use by students and researchers.
SIRI CHALLA | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries at the Penn Museum are currently undergoing renovations.
GRACE CHEN | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Penn administrators issued guidance to the University community following federal immigration policy changes in a March 18 email.
ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL
2023.
The suit — fled by 2022 Weitzman School of Design graduate Sophia O’Neill — claims that Penn violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by failing to ‘remedy the sex-based harassment that plagued [O’Neill’s] work environment’
GABRIEL HUANG Senior Reporter
A former research associate and graduate of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design filed a lawsuit on March 4, alleging that the University failed to protect her from sex-based discrimination.
The lawsuit — filed by 2022 School of Design graduate Sophia O’Neill in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania — claims that Penn violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Philadelphia Fair Practices Ordinance by failing to “remedy the sex-based harassment that plagued [O’Neill’s] work environment” and engaging in “retaliatory actions” against O’Neill for reporting the harassment.
“This case is about Penn’s refusal to protect a young female employee from sexual harassment by a mentally unstable male student, which forced her to choose between her safety and her job. Penn then retaliated against its devoted and accomplished former employee for filing a complaint about the sexual harassment by giving negative references to her prospective employers,” the lawsuit reads.
“We look forward to presenting this case to a jury, and holding Penn accountable for its willful violations of Ms. O’Neill’s civil rights,” O’Neill’s attorney wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian. A University spokesperson declined to comment.
According to the lawsuit, O’Neill began as a research associate in the School of Design’s Advanced Research & Innovation Robotics Lab shortly after her graduation from Penn. O’Neill also began working as a part-time teaching assistant for Assistant Professor Robert Stuart-Smith.
As part of her work as a teaching assistant, the suit alleges, O’Neill was assigned to supervise a “mentally unstable male student” who had previously engaged in “sex-based harassment” of fellow students. Stuart-Smith did not respond to requests for comment.
The suit alleges that a student in Stuart-Smith’s design studio sent a series of harassing messages to O’Neill and describes an incident where HR “physically intimidated O’Neill by blocking her way.” The
suit also states that O’Neill was previously subjected to “sexist, belittling, and harassing behavior” by a former lab manager.
Due to these incidents, the lawsuit states that O’Neill met with members of the Student Services offices in which Associate Director for Student Support Kayla Richards and Director of Special Services Paige Wigginton proposed remedial measures that the lawsuit describes as “inadequate to the situation.” O’Neill then declined to return to work until additional steps were taken.
The suit states that in March 2023, Wigginton informed O’Neill that no additional measures would be taken and that she was expected to return to work. The suit claims that O’Neill then attempted to transfer to work under Assistant Professor of Architecture Masoud Akbarzadeh in the Polyhedral Structures Laboratory, but Stuart-Smith objected to the transfer unless O’Neill also remained in her role as his teaching assistant, which would “require contact with [O’Neill’s] harasser.” O’Neill then informed Penn administrators that she could not continue in her role, leading to her termination. Akbarzadeh did not respond to a request for comment.
“Penn gave Ms. O’Neill an ultimatum to return to work and teach the harassing student, or be deemed to have abandoned her job, forcing her to choose between her job and her safety,” a press release from Julie Uebler, O’Neill’s attorney, read.
O’Neill then filed an administrative complaint with the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations against Penn. In July of 2023, O’Neill received a contract for a position with Hyperion Robotics in Espoo, Finland. The suit alleges that the offer was later withdrawn by email and that the decision was attributed to “understanding new information about your past-work with your listed references.”
The lawsuit claims that Stuart-Smith was the only work-related reference O’Neill listed and alleges that he gave a negative reference “in retaliation for filing an administrative complaint of discrimination.”
the role of Penn’s 10th president. She described Jameson’s interim presidency as “one of the most challenging times in the history of higher education” carried through by his “steady leadership.”
“Calm under pressure, President Jameson leads with integrity, a deep commitment to Penn’s values, and a true belief in being a good neighbor to our city and state,” Strunk added.
Jameson will continue to lead the University at a time of increased political scrutiny and mounting financial pressure for higher education institutions across the nation — including Penn — following the reelection of 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump.
Since the start of Trump’s second term, a National Institutes of Health funding cut has jeopardized $240 million in federal support for Penn, leaving the University’s financial future uncertain.
This week, senior administrators announced several “proactive financial measures,” including a hiring freeze and a review of capital spending, in response to recent federal actions.
Schools and centers across the University have also stripped their diversity, equity, and inclusion websites — and altered policies, programs, and initiatives — following a Jan. 20 executive order. The changes drew sharp criticism from faculty members as well as local politicians, who alleged the University had “surrendered to the Trump administration’s bullying” and “made a cowardly move” in a Feb. 25 meeting with Jameson and other senior Penn administrators. Under Jameson’s leadership, Penn has implemented numerous changes to its policies and practices in response to campus unrest and intense scrutiny at both local and national levels.
Following Magill’s controversial congressional testimony in December 2023, the United States House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce launched an investigation into
Penn that resulted in a 325-page report released in October 2024. In May 2024, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) also announced that he was opening an expanded investigation, calling for a “House-wide crackdown on antisemitism” on college campuses.
Last spring, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment stood on College Green for 16 days until it was disbanded by Penn Police and the Philadelphia Police Department, resulting in the arrest of 33 individuals — including nine students. Less than a month later, Penn introduced new Temporary Standards and Procedures for Campus Events and Demonstrations, which banned encampments and changed previous policies.
At the start of the 2024-25 academic year, Jameson announced the creation of the Office of Religious and Ethnic Inclusion and also announced that Penn would limit statements on local and world events in a major move toward institutional neutrality.
Jameson’s tenure as interim president is the
longest in Penn’s history, surpassing previous terms held by Wendell Pritchett, who served from February to June 2022, and Claire Fagin, who held the position from July 1993 to June 1994.
Before his appointment as interim president, Jameson served as executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine since 2011. Prior to that, he was dean of the Feinberg School of Medicine and vice president of medical affairs at Northwestern University.
Jameson has held several advisory roles across the University, including serving on consultative committees for the selection of a provost and the dean of Wharton. He was also a member of the presidential selection committee that chose Magill to serve as Penn’s ninth president.
After receiving his medical degree and Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of North Carolina in 1981, Jameson completed his clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, focusing on internal medicine and endocrinology.
JESSE ZHANG | DP FILE PHOTO
A former research associate at the School of Design filed a lawsuit against Penn alleging sex-based discrimination and retaliation.
JAMESON, from front page
Under the weather and under pressure
LA CHISMOSA | Students’ health should be prioritized by both professors and students themselves
A couple of weeks ago, I became quite ill, and my first thought was, “I need to make it to class.” That Tuesday, I went to all my classes against the advice of my friends and family because I couldn’t bear the thought of falling behind on my work. So there I was, at 8 p.m. in a David Rittenhouse Laboratory recitation, barely able to keep up with my teaching assistant. All I could think at that moment was, “How will I be able to make the 15-minute walk back home?”
In a competitive environment like Penn, it may seem that any setback, even if it’s something as important as one’s health, becomes an inconvenience. Following that Tuesday, I chose — albeit somewhat stubbornly — to miss two days of class. Within those two days, amid my diet of Ensure shakes and Tylenol, I fell behind on what felt like encyclopedic volumes of reading.
Among the “hope you get better soon” sentiments I received, there were a few that stood out to me; particularly, ones along the lines of, “I don’t know what I’d do if I ever got sick at Penn” and “I’m scared of how much I would fall behind.” Has the academic excellence most students strive to achieve become so potent that it has overpowered our concern for our well-being?
Think about it. How many times have you given up hours of sleep to be able to cram one more unit for a midterm? Have you ever skipped breakfast because you were late to class or decided to drink one more energy drink, one more cup of coffee to be able to finish a paper by the dreaded 11:59 p.m. deadline? It seems we justify an array of harmful habits in the name of academic success at Penn. In our seemingly eternally busy schedules, finding extra time to attend
to other, far more pertinent matters can be complicated. But what happens when you have no other choice?
Of course, the easy answer would be to tend to your health, but what if our course load doesn’t allow for it? Within those two days of sickness, I still handed in assignments to avoid getting zeros. I texted classmates to get the lecture notes for my missed classes. I sent in my Course Action Notices. I followed the usual routine expected of us. Yet, I couldn’t help but wonder: Is there an easier way to go through all this?
As much as I could try to keep up, there are still evident setbacks as a result of missing class. For example, one of my professors doesn’t upload slides or allow note-taking on computers. While I somewhat understand the benefits of such an approach, when I asked for a classmate’s notes, I accepted the fact that they would be incomplete. Although I could meet with the professor outside of class, the amount of work I had missed in the span of 48 hours left me little time to visit during office hours. One instance stuck out to me, however. That very Tuesday, I got to my 10:15 a.m. class, during which my professor announced they would start synchronous Zoom lectures in case a student couldn’t attend class physically. The professor’s reasoning? They knew a lot of students were getting sick these past few weeks and didn’t want students risking their health just to keep up.
Why couldn’t more courses implement such measures? I understand the process is not as feasible for a small, 12-person seminar, but if the course is composed of over 100 students, shouldn’t such protocols
Don’t hide your Penn pride
GUEST COLUMN | The underappreciated value of studying at Penn
“To be honest, I’m disappointed at Penn.” Other students nodded their heads in agreement. During a faculty-student dinner, our professor had asked us, “What do you think about studying at Penn? Have you enjoyed your experience so far?” I sat quietly in White Dog Cafe as I listened to my peers voice their dissatisfaction toward Penn. Their complaints pointed to our institution’s preprofessional nature, the fixation on wealth and status, or the lack of progress on social issues. Their responses made me reflect on my own — “I can’t imagine myself anywhere else. Penn has offered so many opportunities.” Was I overly positive? Slightly embarrassed at how simplistic my answer seemed compared to my peers, I spent the rest of dinner contemplating my assessment of Penn.
I was reminded of that faculty-student dinner as I sat inside a conference room in the Central District of Hong Kong alongside other Penn students studying abroad. On stage was President Larry Jameson as he introduced Penn’s new strategic framework, “In Principles and Practice.” Jameson reflected on a variety of Penn successes, such as its ability to support and produce academic scholars (12 Rhodes Scholars, 206 Fulbright Scholars, 12 Gates Cambridge Scholars, and 13 Marshall Scholars in the last decade). He reaffirmed his focus of making the University of Pennsylvania “a scholar community that advances discovery and opportunity toward a better future for all.” I was surprised at how little I knew of our University’s impressive track record and continued efforts to cultivate a strong, scholarly backbone for its students.
Jameson’s presentation was followed by a networking session. Aware of the on-campus jokes and occasional criticisms about our school’s focus on business and finance, I expected a room full of bankers. Again, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was wrong. While there were bankers, I also ran into current professors, diplomats and ambassadors, CFOs of various companies from rat trap manufacturers to vessel rental providers, and central bank officials. They greeted current students warmly, offering insight into both their professional and personal lives.
In the weeks that followed, alumni from the Hunstman Program in International Studies and Business, from 1996 graduates to 2018 graduates, invited us for lunch in downtown Hong Kong. They taught us how to play pickleball, but more importantly, they offered serious advice regarding our academic and
professional pursuits. They attentively listened to our description of the recruiting process at Penn, described their logic when making important life decisions, and we even laughed about our different experiences in freshman year. I left the lunch with a renewed sense of gratitude for Penn’s alumni community. What’s significant is that this likely isn’t an experience unique to me. It’s available to all Penn students. The Wharton School alone has 100,000 alumni in 153 countries across all six inhabited continents. Penn boasts mentorship programs uniquely available at our University, such as the mentor program for Huntsman students or the SEAS Connect Career Mentoring Program. The resources, especially alumni resources, that Penn has to offer are unparalleled. It’s not just alumni resources, though. No other institution has the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research where students earn a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of science in engineering. Penn students applying to medical and law school enjoy a 80% and 94% acceptance rate compared to the national average of 44% and 77%, respectively. Penn established the first medical school in North America and the world’s first collegiate business school. The School of Engineering and Applied Science even has the oldest continuously operating degree-granting program in chemical engineering. Study abroad was meant to offer me a break from Penn, its community, and my life in it. Yet, approximately 8,000 miles away from Philadelphia, I find myself in the odd-yetsatisfying situation of being surrounded by fellow Quakers with a greater understanding of Penn’s accomplishments than ever before. So, as I reflect, I’m proud of my previous answer to the professor. It is a privilege to study at Penn. I’m grateful to be part of an institution which has offered unparalleled opportunities and even a small family away from Philadelphia. Penn isn’t perfect. But which school is? I argue there are more reasons to be proud of your Penn identity than to shy away from it. So, eagerly reach out to alumni, embrace our academic offerings, and be proud of the fact that you go to Penn.
SEAN OH is a College and Wharton junior studying international studies and business. His email is jseanoh@ wharton.upenn.edu.
be in place? In a previous course of mine, the professor stopped doing class recordings because students would stop attending lectures. While I understand this worry, the benefits of providing alternate methods in which students can learn while still taking care of themselves should override that worry. Moreover, not providing these alternatives may prompt some students to attend class even when sick, placing other students and the professors themselves at increased risk of illness. If these measures are not in place, aren’t we ultimately promoting an environment where students prioritize their academics over their well-being? While such arguments may seem trivial to some, think about how many classmates you know who have been sick. Think about the possibility of getting sick at Penn yourself. Since October 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated 41 to 71 million cases of the flu within the United States. The threat of being under the weather is clear and dismissing it by not enacting the necessary protocols out of convenience ultimately does more harm than good.
Our intelligence is becoming artificial
ANANYA’S ANALYSIS | We need to stop using AI on all of our college assignments
We’ve stopped thinking for ourselves. Everywhere I look — in classrooms, in conversations, in the way we form opinions — there’s been a subtle but undeniable shift. No one raises a hand in a seminar without first running the text through ChatGPT to uncover its “true” meaning. Discussions aren’t about original ideas anymore; they’re about who can paraphrase artificial intelligence the fastest. Why wrestle with course readings when a machine can condense them for you in seconds? Why struggle through a problem set when AI can spoon-feed you the solution?
The most common response to confusion in college isn’t to ask a professor, consult a teaching assistant, or even just sit with the discomfort of not knowing. It’s to “ChatGPT it.” Somehow, an algorithm has become more valuable than the people who spent decades mastering their fields. Makes sense. OpenAI claims its mission is to benefit humanity. But is it? Instead of making us sharper, AI has made us intellectually complacent. College students don’t grapple with ideas anymore — we copy, paste, and call it “critical thinking.” Professors urge us to engage deeply with the material, but AI offers a shortcut: a surface-level answer, polished enough to pass as genuine insight. And we take it, no questions asked.
Beyond the classroom, the dependence runs just as deep. People ask AI all sorts of bizarre things: how to text back a crush, what to caption their Instagram post, or whether there are more wheels or doors in the world. It’s amusing until you realize what’s at stake. Creativity, originality, the messy but necessary process of forming thoughts on our own — all of these are eroding and being replaced by algorithmic convenience. Our ideas are no longer ours; they’re cookiecutter, stripped of any real thought.
To be clear, I think that AI is an extraordinary tool. It has the power to revolutionize industries, streamline research, and improve our lives. For students specifically, it can generate study guides, create flashcards, and help break down complex topics, which all make learning more accessible.
But what happens when we lean on it so much that we forget how to think? At the end
of the day, AI is human-made. It does not possess wisdom, intuition, or moral judgment. It cannot innovate like human curiosity can. Yet, we increasingly allow it to make decisions for us, to do the intellectual heavy lifting we should be struggling through ourselves.
College students, in particular, are its biggest casualties.
I won’t pretend to be above this issue: I’ve used AI in situations where it wasn’t necessary, or sometimes much more than I should have. But if we outsource all of our learning, why are we even at Penn? The whole point of college is to engage with difficult material, to push through uncertainty, and to learn how to think.
There’s a kind of intellectual pride in figuring something out on your own, a confidence AI can never replicate. And yet, if I took a quick walk through Fisher Fine Arts Library, I’d probably see more ChatGPT tabs open than actual readings.
The irony is glaring: The more we use AI, the smarter it gets — and the worse we become at thinking for ourselves. We let it read, write, and analyze, and in doing so, we surrender the very skills that make us human. Critical thinking isn’t about churning out a 500-word discussion post in record time without opening the assigned reading. It’s about wrestling with ideas, forming perspectives, and challenging assumptions. If we don’t push back against this growing dependency, we risk becoming a generation that doesn’t think, only echoes. Before long, our vocabulary will shrink to AI’s favorite buzzwords: “delve,” “underscore,” “tapestry.” Maybe it’s time to close the tab. To sit with a difficult question. To struggle with an idea. To form an opinion that hasn’t been pre-approved by an algorithm. Because if we don’t, one day we may wake up and realize our thoughts were never truly our own.
SHAH is a College first year studying philosophy, politics, and economics from Bonaire, Ga. Her email is aoshah@sas.upenn.edu.
BEATRIZ BÁEZ is a College sophomore studying mathematics and political science from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her email is beabaez@ sas.upenn.edu.
ANANYA
SYDNEY CURRAN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Senior columnist Ananya Shah asserts that the rise of AI is leading to the intellectual demise of society.
GRACE CHEN | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Guest columnist Sean Oh emphasizes that Penn students should embrace a sense of pride in their University, recognizing its wealth of resources and opportunities.
ELLIE PIRTLE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Columnist Beatriz Báez highlights how Penn students often neglect their health and emphasizes the importance of implementing measures to make it a priority.
The Longchamp tote: Is twinning winning?
M’S MANIFESTO | The Ivy League, race, and the psychology of fashion
I was walking down Locust Walk when I took a picture to send to my friend who attends a different school. Funnily enough, in the picture, I caught three girls: all wearing wide-leg jeans, Adidas Sambas, black trench coats, and the iconic dark blue Longchamp tote.
My friend asked me if no one wears backpacks anymore. Her question reminded me of the times I had felt weird for choosing to use my Jansport in a sea of Coach, Kate Spade, Goyard, and Longchamp. Welcome to Penn, the one place where you can be a college student and still get dress coded.
It all started with the ballet flats. I was seeing patent leather, red, beautiful Steve Madden flats everywhere I went. It made me realize how useful it would be if I had a pair. So I got myself a pair of red ballerina flats. I can speak for myself when I say that my only motivation when giving into the trend was: “This looks cute.” It became a slippery slope: the platform Uggs, the flare leggings, the Longchamp, the gold jewelry, et cetera.
I wonder: What are we looking for when we follow along with these Penn fashion trends? Is it unique to Penn, or is it an Ivy League, social-status-motivated phenomenon? Do we all genuinely like what we choose to wear, or are we just following along to blend in with a crowd of old money, East Coast, legacy babies?
There is, in fact, a lot of psychology to fashion. I say that my only motivation for investing hundreds of dollars on retail items that I picked up from the Penn environment was that they were cute. Well, that’s a lie. You and I, we would both love to think we got our Longchamps because they are cute (and they are). But we got it mainly because there are cognitive and emotional processes tied to fashion trends that keep us hooked.
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon in which people copy each other’s actions “in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation.” I’d like for you to ponder this definition for a while: Is there “correct behavior” to follow while here at Penn?
It gets even better. Social proof, often referred to as “herd mentality,” is especially prominent in situations where people are unable to decode what the correct behavior is, so they assume that others know better. So, are we all clueless and “faking it till we make it” here at Penn? What is it that has got us so confused that we need to look at other people for guidance in fashion? Why do we assume that our fashion style is not appropriate?
There is perhaps something that inevitably throws us off when we get to Penn: We (regardless of our socioeconomic status) are now attending an Ivy League institution, and that name carries
power. Coming from a different socioeconomic background and having to engage with peers whose lives have been entirely different to anything you know can be “a paralyzing concern” according to Sofia Barnett, a first-generation student at Brown University. You go from having no clue of what an elite college environment is like to having friends who are millionaires, socialites, and billionaires. As Barnett put it: It feels like being a lost child.
I’m still surprised when I look at my friends’ hands and I see hundreds (perhaps thousands) of dollars worth of jewelry stacked on their wrists and fingers. Stay back in one of your classrooms after lecture and you will hear of people’s weekend trips to Europe and spring break plans worth over $3,000.
Fashion, then, becomes our way of coping with this transition. We copy those who we think fit in better with the “Ivy League ideal.” The Longchamp tote and the trench coats are small investments compared to the social capital they come with. It is a subconscious defense mechanism.
As a nonwhite person, there is another layer to my fashion choices: passing. With a majority of people expecting Latinas to be dark skinned, people are surprised to find I am Colombian. At Penn, I have used fashion as a way to blend in even more. Comparing the fashion trends from home to what I wear here, I know that when I wear flare leggings and Uggs, I look more American. Looking more American helps me feel like I fit in better, and sometimes it also makes me feel like I’m better received.
Fashion choices, whether motivated by racial identity, socioeconomic backgrounds, or both, tie back to what is known as the “similar-to-me effect.” This is a cognitive bias that explains human tendency to surround ourselves with people who look like us, think like us, and behave like us. It makes sense, then, why if you snap a picture of campus you’ll get twins or triplets carrying Longchamp totes and wearing black trench coats.
While Penn’s diversity is what makes it great, it is also daunting: We don’t know what the “right” behavior is. Subconsciously, we are constantly worried about trying to fit into this environment that for many is unfamiliar and overwhelming.
Fashion is a safe haven in a sea of cognitive biases that tend to favor the elite.
MARIANA MARTINEZ is a College sophomore from Bogotá, Colombia. Her email is marmari@sas.upenn.edu.
Will we really miss DEI?
HAWTHORN | DEI was never what anybody said it was
I think it’s fair to say that the three most controversial letters in the English language today are D, E, and I. To some, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are a long-overdue recognition of how American institutions systematically disadvantage people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community. To others, they are a grand Marxist conspiracy hell-bent on granting historically oppressed classes special privileges. The word has been used as a political litmus test for so long, however, that I fear we’ve stopped considering that it might be neither.
I’ll make no secret of what I think of the Trump administration’s recent actions against DEI initiatives. For all the talk of equality and meritocracy, one doesn’t need to look much further than President Donald Trump’s firing of Charles Q. Brown as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to understand their true purpose. Why was Brown, a four-star general and 40-year United States Air Force veteran, fired? It’s simple: U.S. Secretary of Defense
Pete Hegseth believes he won his position by “playing the race card.” Keep in mind, the former is a decorated career commander, and the latter is a former TV host and current drunkard who believes creatine is a substitute for experience.
Instead of fostering a meritocracy, the Trump administration is set on creating the exact identity-based fast tracks it claims to be destroying, just for white Christian men instead. The administration’s actions are driven by the idea that only people like Hegseth deserve their positions, and no matter how hard everyone else works, how innovative we are, or how much we accomplish, our achievements are just the result of a grand conspiracy. Which, to put it frankly, is absurd. The rotating cast of “America’s Most Talentless” who have seized control of our government use the phrase “DEI” like Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro uses “fascist” or South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol uses “anti-state forces” — as a hammer against anyone they don’t like.
Yet, I find it difficult to defend DEI. Despite their supposed prominence in our public and private institutions, DEI initiatives have done shockingly little to advance diversity, equity, or inclusion — women and people of color are just as underrepresented across S&P 500 companies in 2025 as they were in 2020. It is also unclear what DEI actually calls upon its adherents to do. Addressing systemic inequities is all well and good on paper, but what does that mean in practice? Quotas for disadvantaged communities? Networking and social events? A social media campaign? For many institutions, simply changing their Instagram page and shoving a person of color out in front of investors and donors seems to suffice.
Even when its implementation is more muscular, however, DEI is based on a fundamentally flawed philosophy: the cult of the “Talented
Tenth.” W.E.B. Du Bois popularized the term in 1903 to describe the idea that disadvantaged communities can be uplifted by creating a small elite from among their ranks who would then “save” everyone else. The truth, however, is that such elites ultimately have little impact on structural inequities and feel little compulsion to give back once they have achieved power and status. Black and Latino representation in the professional and managerial classes has risen more than 50% since 2000, yet we see the exact opposite trend in racial wage gaps, income growth, and wealth. Looking beyond the office, our DEI reckoning has given creatives of color a greater role: playing slavers. Take “Bridgerton” and “Hamilton” as examples. In the former, a Black Queen Charlotte romances a “DEI-ified” King George III who extols racial progress despite his real-world counterpart enslaving over 1.5 million people. In the latter, former President Thomas Jefferson — a plantation owner who enslaved his own children — becomes a suave Black man. The heroes are still slave owners, but now they rap.
Out on the streets, an equal-opportunity police squad murdered George Floyd — four officers: two white, one Black, one Asian. Can the races of the United States unite to torture a man to death because he tried to buy groceries? Apparently so. The foundational thesis of DEI is that by coloring in America’s institutions like a paintby-numbers drawing, they will instantly be transformed for the better. Someday, it whispers, skinny kids with funny names from across America will be able to bomb Pakistani children too. As much as I support its stated goals, I can’t bring myself to miss DEI. Maybe in its absence we can fight for true — lowercase — diversity, equity, and inclusion. Children of color in this country disproportionately grow up in lead-lined homes, drink poisoned water, and attend schools that fail them to such an extent that some struggle to multiply numbers by eighth grade. Our institutionally discriminatory medical system turns minor illnesses into death sentences, systematically placing millions in a “Saw” trap they are lucky to leave without losing a vital organ, going bankrupt, or becoming a drug addict. These challenges are the real barriers between us and a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive America. Uppercase DEI, endlessly monetized in Zoom allyship sessions and diversity reviews helmed by overpaid consulting firms, never took them on — and it never intended to. Good riddance.
JASON ZHAO is a Wharton junior studying finance and computer science from Seattle. His email address is jaszhao@wharton.upenn.edu.
Huntsman Hall, plus even more in the Academic Research Building. The School of Engineering and Applied Science recently unveiled state-of-the-art study spaces in Amy Gutmann Hall, exclusive to Engineering students. And the College of Arts and Sciences? Despite being Penn’s largest undergraduate school, it has no dedicated GSRs. The only ones available to the College are managed by Penn Libraries — open to all schools, extremely limited, and almost never free.
At first, the solution seemed obvious: The College needs more GSRs. We just received a hefty Vagelos donation — why not use it to create exclusive study spaces too?
But then I realized: Would building more walls actually fix this issue? Or does it go deeper? Penn prides itself on interdisciplinary collaboration. It boasts of inter-school minors, research opportunities, and clubs that blur academic lines. In theory, a Penn student isn’t confined by school boundaries. In practice, we are.
It starts with the little things. A College student finishes a marketing class in Huntsman but has nowhere to stay and work. A finance major takes a computer science class in the Towne Building, only to retreat immediately to a Wharton building. These aren’t just logistical inconveniences. They shape who we meet, where we go, and the spontaneous moments that define our social circles and college experience.
The real issue is that this division isn’t just cultural, it’s structural. Penn’s schools operate as distinct financial entities. The 2024 Financial Report makes it clear that Wharton and the Engineering
School attract more donor funding, translating into improved student resources. And sure, there’s some logic to that. Alumni naturally want to give back to the specific schools that shaped them.
But when funding disparities create vastly different student experiences, it raises a more serious question: Are we funding Penn or four separate Penns?
At the end of the day, whether you’re in the Engineering School, Wharton, the College, or the School of Nursing, you ultimately graduate with a Penn degree. And while your coursework might shape you, so do the people you meet, the perspectives you’re exposed to, the late-night conversations that challenge your worldview.
That’s precisely why donations to Penn shouldn’t be school-specific; they should be Penn-specific. Taxation works because it lifts the entire community, not just the wealthiest neighborhoods. Why shouldn’t the same principle apply here?
Perhaps restructuring Penn’s financial system will take time. But we can start small. We can stop thinking in silos. We can remove “exclusive” labels from study spaces. We can make interdisciplinary dual degrees more accessible. We can create shared academic resources that reflect Penn’s mission, not just its financial divisions.
Penn doesn’t need more (GSR) walls. It needs fewer institutional barriers.
CHOKSEY is a College first year studying cognitive science from Mumbai, India. Her email is dchoksey@sas.upenn.edu.
GRACE CHEN | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Senior columnist Mariana Martinez summarizes Penn fashion through two main factors: socioeconomic status and race.
GRACE CHEN | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Columnist Jason Zhao argues that DEI initiatives have never been proven to be effective in fostering social equality.
WILLIAM BARTOC | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Senior columnist Diya Choksey looks into GSR reservations and their connection with deeper financial and social systems that affect students at Penn.
The exhibit, which will run through April 6, features over six decades of Cheng’s works, many of which are being shown for the frst time
SHIVAM SRIVASTAVA Contributing Reporter
Penn’s Institute of Contemporary Art is displaying the work of Carl Cheng in a new exhibition titled “Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses.”
The exhibit, which will run through April 6, features over six decades of Cheng’s work. Partly funded by a grant provided by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage in Philadelphia, the exhibit also features numerous works from Cheng’s personal studio, many of which are being shown for the first time. Cheng, who is based in California, has spent over 60 years working as an artist and creating works centered around “critical topics such as identity, technology, and ecology.” He holds an undergraduate degree in industrial design and art and a master’s degree in fine arts, both from the University of California at Los Angeles.
During a fellowship at the Folkwang School of Art in Germany, Cheng experienced the intersection of art, design, dance, theater, and music, leading him to work with a diverse set of materials, including plastic, wood, metal, plants, and sand.
Moreover, Cheng has never had studio assistants and produced the works displayed at the gallery by himself.
The exhibit was curated by Alex Klein, who served as a senior curator at the ICA until 2022. Klein started to work on the exhibit with Cheng five
years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We worked really closely for Carl to tell his own story — going through his archives, creating a comprehensive approach of how to dive into his work,” Klein said during the opening tour.
One of Cheng’s most famous works, titled “Santa Monica Art Tool,” is a large-scale sand project involving a cement roller pressing shapes into the sand present on the public beach area between Santa Monica and Malibu. A video wall in the ICA exhibition features the work.
“It elicited this kind of wondrous, kind of childlike reaction when you get to stomp on a city,” Klein said to Penn Today. “You can also think about the fragility of the built environment and precarity of the human experience. It can all just be washed away.”
The ICA has often hosted several events and exhibitions open to Penn students and other students in the Philadelphia area, including its After Dark event, which is presented by the ICA Student Board and gives students the chance to interact with the art at the institute.
“I don’t have a drawing for it. I just get started, and then it leads me to the next thing. Whatever I’m doing, it just kind of naturally evolves into something,” Cheng said to Penn Today. “To me, you’ve got to just keep open and just intuitively do it. It’s like a performance, even though it is sculpture.”
Penn launches website to track federal policy changes, monitor impacts on University
The new website centralizes updates on federal actions impacting higher education, research funding, immigration, and other essential areas of Penn’s operations
RIANA MAHTANI Staff Reporter
Penn launched a webpage tracking federal policy changes and their impacts to the University on March 7.
The new website — titled “Federal Government Updates” — intends to centralize updates on ongoing federal actions impacting higher education, research funding, immigration, and other essential areas of Penn’s operations. The site includes legislative updates summarizing changes in policy, links to external government resources, and University statements addressing how these changes affect Penn, dating back to Jan. 28.
“Penn’s leadership is directly engaged with public officials to advocate vigorously for the essential role of higher education, scientific discovery, our values, and our service to the greater good,” the website reads.
The website launch comes as higher education institutions across the country — including Penn — face heightened federal scrutiny and policy shifts that have already led to significant changes. Since the beginning of 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump’s second term, new federal initiatives — such as federal funding cuts to research institutions — have affected Penn’s research funding, diversity policies, and academic programming.
The website stated that faculty, staff or students who “see any external law enforcement or have questions about encounters with external law enforcement, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on campus” should call the Penn Police Department, who will respond and “coordinate with other support
resources on campus.”
In January, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to identify and deport non-citizen participants — including college students — of pro-Palestinian protests.
As the University stands to lose $240 million from the changes in NIH funding, Penn instituted several proactive economic safeguards.
In a March 10 message to the Penn community, Provost John Jackson Jr. and Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli announced six Universitywide financial changes — including a hiring freeze and a review of capital spending.
While Jackson and Carnaroli noted the uncertainty surrounding “the extent and final impact of [federal] policies,” the cost-cutting measures were set to go into effect “immediately and until further notice.”
Legislative changes to federal funding models have also forced some graduate programs to reduce class sizes, affecting Penn’s enrollment and admissions decisions. Developing federal policies regarding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives led all of Penn’s four undergraduate and 12 graduate schools to remove references to DEI efforts from their web pages and alter existing DEI programs, initiatives, and policies.
“This resource page informs and guides University community members on what they should know and where they can go for additional support,” the website read.
COURTENEY ROSS | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Penn’s Institute of Contemporary Art will be displaying the work of Carl Cheng until April 6.
JEAN PARK | MULTIMEDIA EDITOR
The University published a website with updates on federal policy changes that affect higher education and research.
Trump set to attend 2025 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in
Philadelphia
The championships are co-hosted by Penn, Drexel, and PHL Sports
VALERI
GUEVARRA Sports Editor
is used to practicing with a 75-foot run-up, but the runway at the Virginia Beach Sports Center was 10 feet shorter. Only days before the competition, he had to do last-minute adjustments, which is never easy for athletes who rely on routine.
“I was pretty upset about my results. … I think going back [to the NCAA championships] this time, I wanted to prove that I wasn’t there just by luck … but rather to actually compete. Because if I had jumped my [personal record], I would have been second. So it kind of frustrates me a little bit,” Kam said in an interview after the championships.
Kam was not the only Quaker — former or current — competing at the 2025 NCAA indoor championships. Using her eligibility from the cancellation of winter sports due to COVID-19, 2024 College graduate Isabella Whittaker represented Arkansas at the meet. In the 400m dash, Whittaker set new NCAA, American, and North American records for the women’s indoor 400m. She finished in first place with a time of 49.24 seconds, just 0.07 seconds shy of the world record. The American record was previously held by Britton Wilson at 49.48 seconds.
Whittaker is no stranger to breaking records. She broke five different Ivy League records last year at Penn: the indoor and outdoor 400m — both of which had stood since 1990 — the outdoor 4x100m, and the indoor and outdoor 4x400m.
At the end of the 2024 season, she qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics Team USA relay pool, finishing in sixth place in the women’s 400m at the 2024 United States Track and Field Olympic Trials. As of March 1, Whittaker is No. 7 on the women’s world indoor 400m all-time list following her 49.90 race at the 2025 Southeastern Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in Texas.
rest of the Ivy League, with junior guard Ethan Roberts the only member of Penn’s six-player junior class averaging more than seven points per game.
The Quakers’ struggles under Donahue are part of a larger decline in Penn men’s basketball. From 1960-2008, the Red and Blue finished with a losing record in the Ivy League just once. In the 16 seasons since, they have finished with a losing conference record nine times, including four in Donahue’s nine seasons.
“We had a meeting this morning with the team, and I think I could kind of tell based off of the energy in the call and seeing that all the athletic directors were in there,” senior forward Nick Spinoso, who recently played his final game for the Quakers,
1968 Wharton graduate and President Trump is planning to attend the 2025 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships held from March 20-22 at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia and cohosted by Penn, Drexel, and PHL Sports.
This will be Trump’s first visit to Philadelphia since beginning his second term as president.
Trump is a longtime competitive and professional wrestling fan. He attended the 2023 NCAA championships held in Tulsa, Okla. where Penn State took home the team national title. In 2024, he invited the repeat-champion Nittany Lions wrestlers on his campaign stage.
For his second term cabinet, Trump tapped Linda McMahon, the World Wrestling Entertainment cofounder and a professional wrestling promoter, as his United States Secretary of Education and tasked her with shutting down the Department of Education. Two WWE Wrestlemania events were held at Trump Plaza in the 1980s.
Trump has been close friends with Ultimate
Fighting Championship CEO Dana White for decades, and White made a speech at a Trump rally at the beginning of the year. In November of 2024, Trump took a break from picking his cabinet and attended the UFC championship at Madison Square Garden with a fellow Penn alum: 1997 College and Wharton graduate Elon Musk.
His attendance at the NCAA championships comes about six weeks after the NCAA banned transgender women from participating in women’s sports, in line with Trump’s executive order signed in February.
Penn is sending seven qualifiers to the championships, with the highest seed being freshman Cross Wasilewski as ninth seed in the 149-pound weight class.
Trump notably did not compete in any sports at Penn. The NCAA championships begin on March 20 at 12 p.m. and conclude with the championship final on March 22 at 7 p.m.
record-breaking
said in the wake of the move. “I got a lot of love for the coaching staff. They gave me the opportunity to play here, and I’ve been fortunate enough to play a lot of games for Penn, and I wish them all the best.”
“The reality is, we’re in seventh place,” Spinoso added. “Not everything can fall on coach Donahue for that. There’s a lot of blame for us. … There’s missed foul shots, there’s fouls, there’s missed assignments, and that’s not something that he can always be blamed for.”
Donahue’s previous head coaching stops include Cornell, where he led the Big Red to three Ivy League titles and a Sweet 16 appearance in 2010, as well as Boston College, where he coached from 2010-14.
The Quakers will be seeking a new head of the program for the first time since 2015. Here are the top six candidates to replace Steve Donahue as projected by the DP.
Dave Klatsky
Current position: Head coach, New York University Klatsky, who played under legendary Penn coach Fran Dunphy from 1999-2003, is the most natural choice for the job. Currently in his third season as head coach of NCAA Division III NYU, Klatsky has led the Violets to a 28-1 record and the semifinal round of the NCAA tournament, where they will play WashU on March 20. Klatsky has assistant experience at the Division I level, most notably coaching at Colgate from 2011-22.
Matt Langel
Current position: Head coach, Colgate
The former All-Ivy first team player under Dunphy also began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Penn in 2004 but quickly rose through the ranks and has helmed Colgate since 2011 — when he hired Klatsky. His time there featured unprecedented success, including three Patriot League titles and a run of four straight NCAA tournament appearances. One potential pitfall is Langel’s contract situation. With a deal in place to keep him at Colgate through 2030, Penn would have to pay a significant portion of Langel’s buyout to hire him.
Andrew Toole
Current position: Head coach, Robert Morris
Toole is currently in the midst of his most successful season as a head coach, leading Robert Morris to a Horizon League championship and a berth to the NCAA tournament, where his team will face Alabama on March 21. Toole played at Penn from 2001-03 and spent one season as an assistant coach at Lafayette from 2006-07 before becoming an assistant coach at RMU, where he took over as head coach in 2010. Toole has led the Colonials to two NCAA tournaments — as well as a third berth in 2020 when the tournament was canceled — but has also overseen subpar campaigns, including four-straight losing seasons from
2020-21 until 2023-24.
Fran McCaffery
Current position: Recently dismissed as head coach at Iowa
The lone candidate who predates Dunphy at Penn, McCaffery was recently dismissed from Iowa after a 15-year stint as the Hawkeyes’ head coach. During that time, he led the program to seven NCAA tournaments and coached 2021 National Player of the Year Luka Garza, as well as All-Americans Keegan Murray and Kris Murray, but failed to advance past the Round of 32. McCaffery played at Penn from 1979-82 before spending a year in the Palestra as an assistant coach.
John Krikorian
Current position: Head coach, Christopher Newport
Another dominant coach at the D-III level, Krikorian was a member of the junior varsity team at Penn and spent his senior year in 1996 as a student assistant coach. Krikorian was eventually hired as the head coach at Christopher Newport in 2010, where he has led the Captains to become one of D-III’s premier programs. In 2022-23, the Captains went 30-3 and won the D-III national championship.
Ira Bowman
Current position: Assistant coach, Auburn An Ivy League Player of the Year in 1996, Bowman played briefly in the NBA for the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers before eventually pursuing a career in coaching. Bowman was an assistant coach at NJIT from 2009-12 before serving on the staff at Penn from 2012-18 under both head coach Jerome Allen and Donahue.
In Bowman’s first season on staff, Auburn made a run to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament, and this season’s Tigers are seeded No. 1 overall in the March Madness field. Bowman is a program legend and has high-major experience but lacks experience as a head coach.
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ABHIRAM JUVVADI | DP FILE PHOTO
will be in attendance at the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships at the Wells Fargo Center.
BENJAMIN MCAVOY-BICKFORD | DP FILE PHOTO
Strong defense not enough as
women’s
basketball falls to Columbia 60-54 in Ivy Madness semifinals
The Quakers were eliminated from Ivy League title contention with the defeat
WALKER
CARNATHAN Former Sports Editor
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — It was the type of game Penn women’s basketball wanted, but not the outcome it needed.
On Friday, the Quakers’ season came to an end in the Ivy Madness semifinals, marking the third-straight season that the Quakers have fallen in the tournament’s penultimate round. In a matchup against top-seeded Columbia, Penn displayed a strong defensive effort and stretches of timely shooting to trim Columbia’s lead to as few as six in the final minutes. But in the end, Columbia’s clutch execution was enough to send the Red and Blue home 60-54.
“I thought for us to have a chance it would’ve been low 60s. We got that number, we had a chance,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said of the team’s game plan. “Defensively, I don’t know if we could ask any more from our players. … The score was right where we needed to be. Just couldn’t score enough.”
“I thought Penn played great tonight,” Columbia coach Megan Griffith said. “This is March, right? This is why you play. … Credit to them for getting to this point and giving us their best.”
The Lions (23-5, 13-1 Ivy), who entered the day with just one loss in conference play, will advance to the championship game on Saturday to face Harvard. Those two teams, along with Princeton, have led the pack throughout the Ancient Eight’s season, with some experts
indicating that all three could earn berths to the NCAA tournament. Penn (15-13, 6-8) was able to hang with Columbia thanks to a strong defensive effort that slowed the Lions’ league-leading offense. The Lions shot just 36% from the field in the first half and turned the ball over 10 times, while Columbia’s All-Ivy guard trio of Kitty Henderson, Riley Weiss, and Cecelia Collins shot just 9-for28 on the day. But offense came at a premium for both teams, with Penn struggling to generate quality looks after sophomore guard Mataya Gayle picked up three early fouls.
Columbia roared to begin the second half, converting its first six field goals en route to a 42-25 lead. But the Quakers hung in, aided by strong efforts from senior guard Stina Almqvist and Gayle, who finished with 17 and 12 points respectively. After a scoreless first quarter, Almqvist, a recent All-Ivy first team honoree, came alive down the stretch to help Penn weather Columbia’s runs.
“I was just trying to rely on, ‘It’s gonna open up at some point. I’m not forcing anything,’”
Almqvist said. “Just let the game come to me. … I think people were a little nervous [early on], and then as soon as that was over, we have nothing to lose here. I think we showed that Penn is a team that can compete with these top three teams.”
A pair of free throws from freshman guard
Brooke Suttle brought Penn within six points with 3:12 left to play, but from there, the Quakers’ offense was unable to gain additional ground. Clutch free-throw shooting from the Lions and a string of misses from the Red and Blue ultimately sealed the win, ending Penn’s Ivy League title hopes.
Qualifying for Ivy Madness required a significant turnaround from a Penn team that started the conference slate 1-5. From that point on, the Quakers won five of their next six games to put themselves in the driver’s seat for the tournament’s fourth and final bid, a reversal McLaughlin credited to the way the team “matured” throughout the year.
Now, as the team looks to surpass the semifinal hump in future seasons, McLaughlin believes the tournament experience will be invaluable to
his players’ development.
“I think it takes players like Stina — that her growth allowed us to have a senior player who was really good. If you looked at her as a sophomore, you probably wouldn’t say the same thing,” McLaughlin said. Almqvist averaged just 11 minutes per game as a sophomore before leading the team in scoring as a junior.
“We were in the locker room showing our gratitude toward our seniors for what they’ve done for our program. But I also did challenge our younger players going forward: This is the level that you have to prepare, it’s the level you have to train, because you have to be able to play in this game. … When they see it at the next level, in this environment, I think we’re gonna find a Stina out of this group,” McLaughlin said.
‘A school that can’t make up its mind’: Former Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell slams Penn’s firing of Steve Donahue
The 1965 College graduate spoke with The Daily Pennsylvanian in an exclusive interview
SEAN MCKEOWN Sports Editor
Former Pennsylvania Gov. and current Penn lecturer Ed Rendell expressed frustration over Penn’s recent firing of men’s basketball head coach Steve Donahue in an exclusive interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Rendell, a 1965 College graduate and avid fan of Penn basketball, told the DP that the school’s decision to fire Donahue was “a shame.” Claiming to have only missed five Penn home games in the past 60 years, Rendell said he saw the leadership change as a sign of “a school that can’t make up its mind.”
“Anybody who knows basketball knows coach Donahue did a fine job this year turning a team of newcomers and holdovers into a group that came very close to finishing second in the Ivy League,” Rendell said, referencing several close conference losses during the season. “And he molded it into a team that, by the end of the year, would give any team a scare — including the top teams in the league.”
Donahue was recently let go after finishing his ninth season as head coach of the program, including one NCAA tournament berth in 2018. The Quakers finished this season with a 4-10 conference record, placing seventh in the Ivy League. Rendell expressed confusion over the firing in tandem with the Ancient Eight’s recent decision to opt out of House v. NCAA — a settlement that allowed student-athletes to be paid and significantly affected the Ivy League’s ability to recruit and retain players.
Rendell saw Penn’s actions as “contradictory,” explaining that the lack of player payment showed the University’s disinterest in being competitively viable, while the firing of Donahue over the lack of on-the-court success spoke to the opposite.
“How could you say in one breath: ‘We are not going to do what all the rest of Division I schools are doing because we don’t think basketball players should be given any special ability [to earn money]’ and then at the same time fire a coach for not winning?” Rendell said. “If you are not going to allow a player to take some compensation for what they are doing, unlike any
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on to sweep Sutton before roaring to the crowd.
“This year, when I saw that I’m the first shift in the final ... I wanted to give the first push for this team,” Hafez said. “Because once you set the tone for the first shift and you win, three love, you give the team such a passion and motivation.”
Just to the side, Dweek — another crucial part of last year’s success — swept his opponent as well, never letting his opponent score more than six points in a single round. With no celebration, Dweek immediately took a towel and walked over to cheer for his next teammate.
Finally, Abdelsalam, after losing a contested 14-12 opening round, went on to win the next three rounds in a devastatingly physical fashion to secure the match. Letting out a scream of celebration towards his teammates, the freshman had done his part in securing a 3-0 Penn lead. With the best start possible, the next wave entered their cages — including senior Nick Spizzirri, senior Dana Santry, and sophomore Varun Chitturi.
Playing out of the second position, Spizzirri made quick work of his opponent — dominating with his fast feet and large frame to complete Penn’s third sweep in four matches. With the championship only a match away, it was now a
other colleges in America, then you shouldn’t fire a coach who hasn’t won enough games. It seems inconsistent.”
“The message this firing sends out is totally contradictory and shows a school that can’t make up its mind,” he added. Penn men’s basketball’s struggles in the past two decades have marked a turn for the program. From 1960-2008, the program had only one
race to see which Quaker could secure the winning point.
Santry, in sixth position, and Chitturi, in ninth position, battled through their respective matches, but each fell to give Yale a glimmer of hope with a 4-2 score. With two losses in a row and a need to stop the bleeding, who better to turn to than Penn’s best in Khalil?
Playing out of a well-deserved first position, the entire crowd would turn to face the middle of the arena. Khalil faced Carney in a rematch of the semifinals of the CSA Individual Championships as the fated pairing traded the first two rounds.
As the third and fourth rounds continued, Khalil’s teammates surrounded the glass as he labored through point after point. Exhausted but determined, Khalil finished the match 3-1, falling to his knees as the Quakers’ faithful stormed the court. “It all comes down to what [Lane] has done, the way he put this team together,” Khalil said. “We were talking about it last night. It’s not [about] recruiting the best players, but the right players. He managed to always get the players who would fit in the team, within the team culture, and match the discipline and drive we have.”
This year’s championship marks the start of a supposed dynasty. With the team’s young star talent returning in the upcoming season — Penn men’s squash looks set to dominate for seasons to come.
losing record in Ivy League play. In the 16 seasons since, Penn has endured nine losing seasons — four under Donahue.
With recent seasons being a far cry from the days of old, Rendell recalled greener pastures — specifically, when Penn won the Ivy League championships a year after his graduation as well as the program’s historic runs to the NCAA’s Elite Eight and Final Four in 1972 and 1979, respectively.
Despite watching some of the best coaches in Penn history, including the likes of Chuck Daly and Bob Weinhauer, Rendell had high praise for the coach that Penn recently asked to depart.
“Everyone in the world can see [Donahue] is one of the best persons in the coaching profession,” Rendell said. “Penn just lost a very good coach and an even better man.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF MAANVI SINGH
Rendell, a current Penn lecturer, served as the 45th governor of Pennsylvania and 96th mayor of Philadelphia.
WEINING DING | MULTIMEDIA EDITOR
Penn women’s basketball played Columbia at the Palestra on Jan. 4.
Steve Donahue out as men’s basketball head coach after nine seasons
The Quakers fnished seventh in the Ivy League for the second-straight year
WALKER CARNATHAN
Former Sports Editor
Steve Donahue will not return as head coach of Penn men’s basketball, Penn Athletics announced on March 10.The decision comes after Donahue’s ninth season at the helm of the program, which saw the Quakers finish 4-10 in the Ivy League for a seventh-place conference finish.
“I’m appreciative of Steve’s long tenure of leadership and service to Penn basketball and our student-athletes, both as an assistant and head coach,” T. Gibbs Kane, Jr. W’69 Director of Athletics and Recreation Alanna Wren wrote in a statement. “Steve has been steadfast in his commitment to the program and the development of our student-athletes. I’ve always had great respect for his commitment to Ivy values, and he has been
a strong representative of Penn during his career. Unfortunately, the competitive success on the court has not been up to our standards.”
The program will immediately begin a national search for Donahue’s replacement, according to Penn Athletics.
A source also confirmed to The Daily Pennsylvanian that assistant coaches Nat Graham, Joe Mihalich Jr., and Kris Saulny will not return.
Donahue, an assistant coach at Penn from 19902000, was first hired as head coach in 2015. During his tenure, the Quakers went a combined 131-130 and won an Ivy League title in 2018.
In recent years, the team has struggled to a historic degree. Penn finished 3-11 in the Ivy League
in 2024, its worst conference finish since 1957. The 2025 season followed a similar pattern, with the Red and Blue finishing 8-19 for their first singledigit win season since 2015.
Donahue also closes his Quakers career on a 13game losing streak to Princeton, once regarded as Penn’s biggest rival.
“While difficult, a change in leadership is necessary to provide the championship-caliber experience our student-athletes, alumni and fans expect,” Wren wrote. “We wish Steve and his family the best moving forward.”
Donahue has coached a number of Penn’s most iconic players. A.J. Brodeur, who played under Donahue as a forward from 2017-20, was named
Men’s squash becomes back-to-back national champions
With a 5-2 victory over Yale, the team completed a perfect 20-0 season
SEAN MCKEOWN Sports Editor
The 1972 Miami Dolphins, the 2004 “Invincibles” Arsenal Football Club, and now Penn men’s squash have all achieved undefeated seasons.
Marked in immortality, Penn men’s squash followed up its first national title win last year with a second-straight College Squash Association National Team Championship win — completing an illustrious 20-0 season that was also marked by an individual national title from sophomore Salman Khalil. The program joins a pantheon of great teams by completing a perfect campaign.
Competing in the Arlen Specter U.S. Squash Center just across the way from Penn on Drexel’s campus, the Red and Blue were seeded first in the Potter Cup tournament — the collegiate men’s squash’s national team championship. Battling through the quarterfinals and semifinals — defeating No. 8 Columbia and No. 4 Trinity, respectively — the Quakers found themselves one
step away from ultimate victory. With only Ivy rival Yale standing in its way, the team completed a 5-2 victory over the Bulldogs, good for the program’s second-straight championship.
“As a coach, you want it so badly for them,” coach and 2007 College graduate Gilly Lane said. “They worked hard. They sacrificed. It’s just a special group.”
CSA’s individual champion Khalil played the winning match — defeating his opponent, Yale’s Tad Carney, in four sets while actively fasting for Ramadan. Despite being minutes removed from sealing a back-to-back team championship, Khalil had his eyes set on the future.
“First of all, I am so thirsty,” Khalil said after his championship-winning match. “I am proud of myself. I am proud of my team, and hopefully it is not the last time, [as we will] come again next year.”
The championship was the highest note the Red and Blue could send their seven seniors off on.
“The seniors we have on this team — the year they got here, the team wasn’t where it is now,” Khalil added. “It was the only right way to send them off by winning a national championship.”
Similarly to last year, Penn faced off against Columbia in the first round. The heavy favorites faced little resistance, going 7-2. In the semifinal, Trinity was dispatched with less effort, as a clean sweep sent Penn to the final.
En route to last year’s championship, the Quakers were more evenly matched. Facing Princeton and Trinity in the tournament — the two teams they lost to in the regular season — Penn was the underdog with a chip on its shoulder. This year, the Red and Blue competed with a target on their back.
“It says 20 and zero, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t struggle during the year,” Lane said.
“That’s what I am proud of, the resilience of these boys to just fight through everything.”
The win meant a lot to the Philadelphia native coach and decorated Penn men’s squash alumnus.
“I am so honored to be the coach of this team, for this program,” Lane said. “Penn is where my heart is.”
With nine competitors for each squad, it was announced that the first team to five individual victories would go home with the lauded Potter Cup. With competition playing three bouts simultaneously, there would be three waves to determine a champion. Penn sent junior Omar Hafez, senior captain Abdelrahman Dweek, and freshman Marwan Abdelsalam out first.
Hafez, the former Ivy League Rookie of the Year playing out of the third position for the Quakers, found himself in a switched position from last year.
The man who clinched last year’s title now found himself as the tone-setter — competing first against Yale’s Lachlan Sutton. Hafez dominated with finesse and seemingly limitless energy, going
Ivy League Player of the Year in 2020 and left the Palestra as the program’s all-time leading scorer. Jordan Dingle, who starred for the Quakers as a guard from 2019-23, took home Ivy League Player of the Year in 2023 and finished second in the nation in points per game during the 2022-23 season before transferring to St. John’s. Dingle’s departure was part of a larger trend that saw Donahue fail to recruit and retain top talent toward the end of his tenure. In addition to Dingle, star freshman guard Tyler Perkins left Penn after leading the team in total scoring in 2024. From a recruiting standpoint, Penn has fallen behind the See DONAHUE, page 8
Whittaker breaks American record at 2025 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, Kam earns AllAmerican honors
Alumna Isabella Whittaker broke the American record in the 400-meter dash, and junior high jumper Kampton Kam tied for 12th in the high jump
PHOEBE WEINTRAUB Senior Sports Reporter
The 2025 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships were held this past weekend at the
team being there, and it being, you know, the last competition to qualify helped me probably get up over the bar,” Kam said of his performance at the Ivy League championships. However, at the NCAA championships, his jump may have been affected by different runway dimensions. At the
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KATE AHN | SENIOR DESIGNER