March 30, 2023

Penn prepares for Supreme Court decision on affirmative action

If affirmative action is overturned, Penn would be impelled to reframe its admissions process to maintain a diverse student body

SARA FORASTIERI AND ELEA CASTIGLIONE Senior Reporter and Staff Reporter

Penn is actively planning for the possibility that the Supreme Court will overturn affirmative action in an upcoming ruling, but the exact response and impact remains unsure.

Legal analysts widely expect the court to overturn affirmative action by the end of June, in its ruling for two cases filed by Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Administrators, professors, and students that The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with said that the end of affirmative action would force higher education institutions nationwide to recalibrate their admissions processes in order to build diverse classes of incoming students.

Why affirmative action could be overturned

In modern higher education, affirmative action refers to the practice of considering a student’s background as a factor in admissions decisions.

At Penn, the Policy on Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action prohibits discrimination based on a series of legally protected classes, including race and ethnicity, among other factors. Penn admissions are based on a holistic approach, meaning it takes into account various factors — including race — when evaluating applicants.

Penn President Liz Magill wrote in a statement to the DP that diversity is important for preparing Penn students and crucial to the University’s mission.

“We have long been committed to providing the transformative opportunity of a Penn education to the broadest range of talented individuals, and a student body that reflects the diversity of our broader society creates a rich and dynamic educational experience,” Magill wrote. “It is also essential to preparing Penn graduates to lead in our pluralistic world.”

The two cases being heard by the court were petitioned by SFFA, an organization that aims to

Penn to stop awarding dean’s list recognition to undergraduate students

The dean’s list is an annual honor given to students based on academic performance during the fall and spring semesters

KATIE BARTLETT Staff Reporter

Penn announced that it will no longer award the dean’s list to undergraduate students effective July 1. The policy change is a result of “the shared belief that a dean’s list designation does not reflect the breadth and evolution of students’ academic achievements over the course of their education at Penn,” according to a message dated March 24 from Interim Provost Beth Winkelstein and Vice Provost for Education Karen Detlefsen.

Spring 2023 will be the final semester for which dean’s list will be awarded, according to an email sent to students on Tuesday from administrators from Penn's four undergraduate schools. The administrators wrote that the list was redundant and does not capture how a student progresses during their time at Penn.

The dean’s list is an annual honor given to students based on academic performance during the fall and spring semesters. The award is given to any student who achieves a cumulative GPA of 3.7 or higher, provided they also take a minimum of six credits, receive no grade lower than a C, and complete all classes on time.

The administrators wrote that members of the Penn community — including deans and student representatives from the Undergraduate Assembly

See DEANS LIST, page 3

advance a “colorblind” college application process that, historically, has been seen in conflict with the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law.

The current legal precedent has upheld the rights of schools to consider race as a contributing factor to admissions in higher education. University of Pennsylvania Carey Law professor Kermit Roosevelt said that the current case is “absurd” given this precedent.

“I think it would complete what’s been a project

for a while, which is turning the Equal Protection Clause from a constitutional provision that prevents the government from inflicting inequality to one that prevents the government from promoting equality,” Roosevelt said.

In response to an interview request, Penn Carey law students and co-advocacy chairs of the Black Law Students Association Ty Parks and Devontae Torriente directed the DP to an opinion piece in The

See AFFIRMATIVE, page 6

Penn political groups divided on affirmative action, debate methods for diverse admissions

PAIGE RAWISZER Staff Reporter

Leaders of Penn’s undergraduate political organization are divided on how the Supreme Court and Penn should address affirmative action.

Politicians across the ideological spectrum have disagreed about the future of affirmative action ahead of the court’s ruling for two cases filed by Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Democrats have encouraged the court to uphold affirmative action, while Republicans have urged the court to end the policy.

Members of the Young Democratic Socialists of America and Penn Democrats have pointed to how affirmative action policies should increase socioeconomic diversity in addition to racial diversity. College senior and member of YDSA Matthew Liu said in a statement sent to The Daily Pennsylvanian that affirmative action policies have increased racial diversity within admissions, but the policies have failed to recognize socioeconomic diversity within the admissions.

“Although affirmative action has resulted in increased access to elite universities for underrepresented minorities, Penn and other elite schools have remained almost exclusively composed of the wealthy and upper middle class,” Liu wrote. Penn Dems Diversity and Coalitions Chair and College junior Joy Olatunde echoed this sentiment about affirmative action overlooking socioeconomic status. She said that if affirmative action remains upheld by the court, it should encompass both race and socioeconomic status.

“While affirmative status should include race because of the problematic past that the United States has with obviously segregation and racist policies that have held African Americans back academically and financially, I think there should be more emphasis on students’ socioeconomic status, as well as race,” Olatunde said.

Olatunde added that students of lower socioeconomic statuses often cannot afford tutors and books, which can heavily impact which schools they can get into. Certain students also benefit from “extra boosts” in admissions, Olatunde said, such as legacy status and inclusion on the Dean’s interest list.

Expanding beyond the factors that contribute to admissions, Liu added that Penn and many of its

See POLITICAL , page 6

Filmmaker alleges sexual assault by former rowing coach, criticizes his legacy at Penn

Fox calls on Penn to remove Nash’s name from the Ted A. Nash Land Rowing Center

HALEY SON Staff Reporter

A filmmaker who says she was sexually assaulted by a Penn rowing coach is calling on the University to remove his name from a center dedicated in his honor.

The filmmaker, Jennifer Fox, alleges that she was sexually abused by Ted Nash — who died in 2021— when she was 13 years old. Fox gave Nash a pseudonym in her Emmy-nominated film detailing the incident, "The Tale," but publicly named Nash as her abuser for the first time on March 20 in a New

York Times article.

A legend in the rowing community, Nash coached both women’s and men’s rowing at Penn from 1965 to 1983 after winning two Olympic medals. In 2014, Penn honored him with the dedication of its indoor rowing center, the Coach Ted A. Nash Land Rowing Center. Fox, along with Penn community members, told The Daily Pennsylvanian that she wants Penn to change the name of the center to address his legacy.

“My goal is to have Nash’s name taken off of

everything, not just at Penn, but everywhere,” Fox said.

Fox added that she hopes Penn community members stand up against having Nash’s name continue to be memorialized on campus, adding that Penn's reaction could signify a larger message.

“I think hurting his legacy is a big blow to Ted Nash and all the abusers out there,” she said.

See ROWING, page 6

PHOTO

PHOTO BY MEHAK DHALIWAL

Former Wharton vice dean resigns as Temple University president

Former Vice Dean of Executive Education at the Wharton School and 2000 GSE Ph.D. graduate Jason Wingard resigned as Temple University president on March 28.

Mitchell Morgan, chair of the board of trustees, announced the resignation to the Temple community, stating that Wingard’s resignation will become effective on March 31.

Wingard’s resignation comes after a series of recent events sparked outrage from members of the Temple community, including a Temple University Graduate Students’ Association strike that lasted over a month and the shooting death of an on-duty police sergeant in February.

“Given the urgent matters now facing the University, particularly campus safety, the Board and the administration will ensure the highest level of focus on these serious issues,” the statement said.

“We understand that a concerted and sustained effort must be undertaken as we attempt to solve these problems.”

On March 21, the faculty union planned to hold a vote of no confidence on Wingard, as well as Morgan and Provost Gregory Mandel.

The resignation follows the formation of a Special Committee of the Board of Trustees on March

23, created “to apply more rigorous attention to the urgent matters facing the University,” according to a message sent to Temple community members.

Wingard served as the senior director at the Wharton School from 1999 to 2004 before serving as the vice dean of executive education at Wharton from 2010 to 2013.

Prior to his role at Temple, he served as dean emeritus and professor of human capital management at Columbia University's School of Professional Studies. Wingard as the 12th president of the university in 2021, making him Temple’s first Black president. The announcement writes that Temple's board will appoint a small group of senior administrators

to temporarily lead the university.

“This group will have many years of experience at Temple and devotion to its mission,” the statement said. “Each will have discrete responsibilities for the university’s essential functions and provide a stable foundation for us as we look toward the search for our next president.”

Mollick is not alone in his approach. Design professor Sebastien Derenoncourt also requires his students to use ChatGPT. Derenoncourt said that he assigned his students to “specifically” use AI tools in their midterm work, and a text generator to help them with their paper.

“[M]y emphasis has been that ChatGPT and similar tools are there to help them expand and outline their abilities,” Derenoncourt said.

Pettigrew, Osborn, Mollick, and Derenoncourt’s approaches exemplify what Bruce Lenthall, the executive director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, said is a wide variety of policies regarding ChatGPT across the University. However, he said that student ChatGPT usage is limited by flaws in its outputs, as users have to know the subject matter “pretty well” to identify mistakes.

“[T]here’s a real risk associated with it — even if you’re not going to be caught — if you say things that are nonsense,” Lenthall said. “If you’re a student, you should absolutely know that you are using it at your own risk.”

In the absence of a University-wide policy for ChatGPT, Penn professors are creating a patchwork of approaches regarding the use of artificial intelligence in their classes.

The viral chatbot, which OpenAI launched in November, can generate human-sounding responses to a multitude of prompts and is pro

ficient at writing, synthesizing text, and coding. Its abilities rival those of Penn students: A Wharton professor recently found that ChatGPT would pass a Wharton MBA exam, and the newly-released GPT-4 scored in the 93rd percentile on a simulated SAT exam.

Unlike some of its peer institutions, Penn has not published a dedicated policy governing the use of artificial intelligence by students. Without such a policy, six Penn professors and administrators spoke with The Daily Pennsylvanian about how they are tackling the use of ChatGPT, from banning to mandating its use.

Community Standards and Accountability

Associate Director Danielle Crowl wrote that she believes that students who use ChatGPT without explicit permission from professors are considered to have violated University policies from Penn’s Center for Community Standards and Accountability.

Crowl wrote that the use of ChatGPT depends “on the facts of the allegation” and cited sections A and B of the Code of Academic Integrity: Cheating and Plagiarism.

“Fortunately, ChatGPT as it stands now is not good at citation and therefore the CSA has been able to detect plagiarism violations when students are using this AI,” Crowl wrote.

Still, some professors have taken additional steps to prevent students from excessively using ChatGPT to write code or assignments. Stephen Pettigrew, the director of data science at Penn’s Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies, wrote in his PSCI 3800: “Applied Data Science” syllabus that, while using online resources can be beneficial to solve issues, taking code directly from online is unacceptable.

“As somebody who has taught this stuff for a while, I get a good sense of what are the common mistakes that students make,” Pettigrew said.

“And if a student were to turn in ChatGPT-written code, and there’s weird mistakes in it, it’s probably going to set off alarm bells in my head.”

Critical Writing Program Director Matthew Osborn said that the program was allowing students to “explore and experiment” with ChatGPT, with a caveat — “as long as they’re aware

of and understand what appear to be some substantial limitations and some inaccuracies in the content that they generate.”

“You should note that foundation models have a tendency to hallucinate, make up incorrect facts and fake citations, and produce inaccurate outputs,” a draft policy for the Critical Writing Program reads. “You will be responsible for any inaccurate, biased, offensive, or otherwise unethical content you submit regardless of whether it originally comes from you or from one of these foundation models.”

The policy also emphasizes the need for students to appropriately cite “foundation models” like ChatGPT.

Wharton professor Ethan Mollick is taking a more emboldened approach. He supports the usage of ChatGPT in his classes, mandating that students use it for several assignments. Mollick said that ChatGPT and similar AI-based systems are useful tools that can be used for the betterment of education.

“We have to recognize and learn how to use these tools and not fight against them,” Mollick said. “I also think that we can accomplish things educationally that we could not accomplish before by using tools in this way.”

Mollick said that his embrace of ChatGPT cannot be copied by professors in all other subjects. In English composition courses, he said, professors will want to assign blue book tests or have students use computers that are disconnected from the internet.

Beyond ChatGPT’s current abilities, professors raised questions about the chatbot’s future in education, ranging from its increasing abilities to concerns about equity. Pettigrew said that he will need to change his assignments to prevent students from easily cheating on them using AI.

“Part of the thing that ChatGPT is going to force, at least for me, is being more diligent about keeping my materials fresh and new, so that a chatbot cannot regurgitate an answer from online back to me,” Pettigrew said.

Osborn said that he is confident the Critical Writing Program’s current curriculum would continue to be as helpful for students in the future, albeit with minor changes. By contrast, Lenthall said that priorities in education may need to be reevaluated as AI improves and exceeds human capabilities.

“If ChatGPT gets to the point where it can write a better paper than you can, what’s the point of you learning that skill?” Lenthall asked. “[I]f we don’t have an answer for that, then the fact that students can cheat is irrelevant, as getting the degree won’t be worth anything. Because if ChatGPT is better at it than a college student, then we don’t need that college student.”

Pettigrew said that the onus is on students to “take their own learning into their own hands” as AI potentially makes it easier to cut corners on assignments.

“It’s important that human beings know how to do certain things, because ultimately, ChatGPT is never going to cure cancer, and never come up with that creative solution to a problem that human beings have worked on for a long time,” Pettigrew said.

Lenthall said that instructors need to implement barriers to cheating to prevent students from feeling pressure to do so from other students, because students are most likely to cheat when they see everyone else doing so. He also said that ChatGPT will likely be monetized in the future, potentially creating an “in-class divide” between those who can afford it and those who cannot.

As AI advances at a faster pace, Derenoncourt said that ChatGPT’s global proliferation will change his baseline assumptions about his students. He said that AI could increase equity, citing how most of his students are nonnative English speakers and benefit from a tool that lets them express themselves in grammatically correct ways.

“I’m going to have higher expectations,” Derenoncourt said. “I’m going to be more willing to tell students that they can do better than this, because they have the tools to be able to do this work, [and] I’ll also be able to

without

In absence of University-wide guidance, Penn professors vary approaches to AI in academics

DESIGN BY ANI NGUYEN LE

resignation comes after a series of recent events sparked outrage from members of the Temple community

Temple University president Jason Wingard’s resignation will become effective on March 31.

Penn argues RAs and GAs are ‘not employees’ in response to unionization efforts

Penn’s response comes two weeks after a supermajority of RAs and GAs filed for official unionization recognition

JONAH MILLER AND VIDYA PANDIARAJU Senior Reporter and Staff Reporter

Penn is arguing that residential advisors and graduate resident associates are “not employees” in response to their recent decision to unionize.

The Board of Trustees’ official Statement of Position, obtained by The Daily Pennsylvanian, claims that the RAs are not employees of the University, but instead classifies them as student leaders with an “educational relationship” to Penn since they are not on the payroll. Union organizers and RAs told the DP that they see these arguments as a way to delay the election to officially unionize.

In response to a request for comment, University spokesperson Ron Ozio wrote that Penn “greatly appreciates and values our Resident Advisors and Graduate Resident Advisors, who are important student leaders on campus,” adding that “unionization is a very significant issue, and we encourage all RAs and GRAs to be as informed as possible.”

Ozio referenced a Frequently Asked Questions page that College House & Academic Services emailed to all RAs and GAs that contains information about the unionization process.

Cozen O’Connor, the legal team Penn hired, did not respond to a request for comment.

Penn’s response comes nearly two weeks after a supermajority of RAs and GAs filed for official unionization recognition with the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 153 and the National Labor Relations Board.

OPEIU Local 153 organizer Scott Williams, a 2016 graduate of Penn’s Graduate School of Education, told the DP that he thinks the University’s arguments are “very weak,” adding that delaying union elections are a “common union-busting tactic,” citing similar events earlier this month at Duke University.

Williams said he found it “surprising” that Penn chose this route because several peer institutions, including Columbia University, Tufts University, Barnard College, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have recognized RAs as employees and granted a vote to unionize.

“Penn uses the term, ‘student leaders,’” Williams said. “This is an illegal position and, frankly, a criminal misclassification. This is something we will seek to clarify.” College junior and Rodin College House RA Mica Lin-Alves told the DP that Penn’s Statement of Position neglects to include much of the casework that would “take away from their argument.”

“There’s both precedent for us to be employees and to have the right to unionize, so I feel it’s quite drastic that

Penn is challenging that because — not only would it affect us if they go through with this — but it has the potential to really impact millions of other student workers across the nation,” Lin-Alves said.

Lin-Alves said he disagreed with the University’s characterization of RAs not being recognized as employees. He said that RAs and GAs receive compensation — in the form of included housing and meal swipes — for their job, and if they were to stop serving in their current positions, such compensation would be terminated.

Lin-Alves added that the RA selection process contains many similarities to a standard job application, including multiple stages of interviews, inclusion of professional references, a cover letter, a self-recorded video interview, and various written questions.

“Some students have a highly aided package, so their voluntarily being an RA makes it more of a student leadership position and less of an economic relationship. Basically, they’re admitting that they do not pay their students for this work,” Lin-Alves said, building on a core reason for unionization: that first-generation, lowincome students are “essentially doing unpaid work.”

College junior and RA Yasmin Abdul Razak said that RAs are routinely subject to non-business hours, tasked with hosting and planning events, and asked to provide social and emotional support to residents. She added that RAs are on-call and expected to respond to various emergencies throughout the night and on weekends.

Even with Penn’s response, Lin-Alves said that he feels secure that the RAs will be able to follow-through on their plans to unionize.

“The energy is still high,” Lin-Alves said. “I think we know that this is a challenge, but I think we’re still quite confident that it’s something that we can overcome.”

Abdul Razak said that she was disappointed by the University’s Statement of Position, but she said that the RAs have ultimately been motivated by it.

“I think combating misinformation is the main thing moving forward, and we do that by keeping in-touch with the RAs and informing them about their rights,” Abdul Razak said.

Abdul Razak added that RAs will be contesting the Statement of Petition, which she said is a tactic that could delay the union election until the fall 2023 semester.

Williams said that the OPEIU Local 135 will continue to be hosting information sessions for the RAs and GAs to “understand their rights” and a public rally on March 31.

Biotech company founded by Penn alum seeks to prevent food allergies

Lele was inspired to start Hanimune Therapeutics when her son developed food allergies at a young age

The Quadrangle Dormitories on Jan. 26.

DEAN’S LIST, from FRONT PAGE

representatives from the Undergraduate Assembly and Student Committee on Undergraduate Education — reached the conclusion that academic achievement is better reflected through other means, such as departmental and school awards.

“With Latin Honors and these many other awards remaining, our students will continue to have a rich variety of avenues for their academic achievements to be acknowledged,” the administrators wrote in their email to students.

The Pennbook will be updated in July 2023 to reflect the new policy and documentation of the change will be added to Penn transcripts, according to Winkelstein and Detlefsen’s message. The decision was the culmination of several years’ worth of extensive conversations across the Penn community, including with student leaders, the administrators wrote.

Two UA members that the DP spoke with voiced varying opinions about the decision.

“[Ending the dean’s list] takes away a chance for students to receive recognition for their achievement,” College junior and second-year UA College Representative Charlie Schumer said. “College is really hard, and I think it’s worthwhile to acknowledge the effort that people put in.”

Schumer told the DP that the removal of the dean’s list was first discussed among the UA at a general body meeting in September. That conversation occurred after the proposal was brought to the attention of UA President Carson Sheumaker during a meeting with the Council of Undergraduate Deans.

According to the UA GBM minutes, the deans cited a number of reasons for removing the award, including a high number of students qualifying for the list and peer institutions who no longer offer it. They also said it would deemphasize the value that students place on grades.

UA reactions to the decision were mixed, Schumer said. Members tended to understand the administration’s reasons for removing the dean’s list while still preferring that the University keep it, he added.

Wharton junior and UA Speaker Xavier Shankle said that the removal of the dean’s list may seem

“shocking on the surface,” but serves as an indication that Penn is “consciously thinking” about how to reduce academic stress for students.

“Whether or not removing dean’s list is the best way to remove or reduce academic stress … is something still to be determined,” Shankle said, adding that the issue was centered around “finding a balance” between maintaining Penn’s academic rigor while promoting academic wellness.

While Shankle said that some students may experience an “adjustment period” without the dean’s list each year, he added that it could be beneficial in the long term for promoting “learning for the sake of learning.”

He said that the UA brought up with administrators how removing the dean’s list would impact students applying to graduate schools, jobs, and other positions that use the list as an indicator of academic performance. Administrators wrote that the end of dean’s list awards will be indicated on transcripts beginning this fall “to eliminate potential confusion with employers or graduate school admissions committees.”

Winkelstein and Detlefsen’s message said that the University will continue to recognize student academic excellence in a number of other forms, including Latin honors and school and departmental awards.

However, Schumer said that this recognition is insufficient. He said that it was important to acknowledge the effort that students put in on a yearly basis, and that the dean’s list recognized improvement in academic standing.

While this year marks the end of the dean’s list, the award was suspended through the 2019-20 and 202021 academic years in light of the University’s shift to online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic and the extended pass/fail policy that was adopted as a result.

In 2020, some students expressed frustration when the announcement was made. A 2020 petition demanding that the list be re-enacted received support from 249 students.

“The removal of dean’s list for the 2019-20 academic year would be a great disappointment to Penn students who have dedicated efforts to their academics in these difficult times,” the petition said.

2005 Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology graduate Meenal Lele started a biotechnology company that seeks to prevent food allergies.

In 2018, Lele founded Hanimune Therapeutics with the goal of developing food allergy-preventative products. She started Lil Mixins under Hanimune Therapeutics to promote the early introduction of allergens through powder packets and probiotic capsule supplements.

Lele was inspired to start Hanimune Therapeutics when her son developed food allergies at a young age and learned shortly after his diagnosis that a high percentage of peanut allergies are preventable.

“[Food allergies] is a terrible disease that really restricts your life … [and] limits all the various things you can do,” Lele told The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Lele recalled that creating a company was a different experience from what she was taught as an undergraduate student. She said that although the M&T program trains its students to think of what makes the best product from a scientific perspective, a successful businessperson should understand how

the product works and why it works the way it works to prevent making mistakes.

“Any activity you do has ripple effects on all parts of the business,” Lele said. “Think of obstacles four years from now, five years from now. Optimize better instead of doing one thing at a time.”

Lele said that while the initial start-up process — starting with an idea and forming teams — is the same for all companies, the way founders think about their products is what differentiates a company’s level of success.

In January, Hanimune completed a seed round funded by partners such as BioAdvance, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, and angel investors.

Five years from now, Lele hopes that Hanimune Therapeutics put at least two — if not multiple — food allergy treatments on the market.

Lele said the pharmaceutical development process is one riddled with regulations, and the production process is a collaborative effort with the United States Food and Drug Administration. For next steps, Lele said she seeks to “develop things the FDA is excited to commercialize.”

Clint Smith is the author of award-winning bestseller How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, and two poetry collections. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic Mia Bay, Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History, is a scholar of American and African American history. Her books include the award-winning Traveling Black:

PHOTO BY ABHIRAM JUVVADI

PHOTO COURTESY OF MEENAL LELE

2005 Engineering and Wharton graduate Meenal Lele founded the biotechnology company Hanimune Therapeutics, which develops food allergy preventative products。

The art of listening has been lost in both educational and daily settings, translating into disunity locally and globally. This is evident as seen in the symptoms plaguing the world: polarization, disconnection, nationalism, insensitivity, and the systemic ills that are further propelled by our divisiveness. Listening must be cultivated in transformative education as it is the key to deliberation and problem-solving. To listen is not to merely hear others’ views, but to comprehend and digest what they are saying with responsive efforts. Active listening also enhances one’s ability to convey their own thoughts while learning from others.

Fostering tools for listening in higher education is a pedagogical challenge — such developments of active listening begin in the classroom and transcend beyond school. And yet, professors of higher education, including at Penn, are ill-prepared by their universities to employ pedagogical methods generating such skills.

“One of the things that a lot of us have lost is actually the capacity to hold discussions, especially with people with whom we disagree,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, Penn GSE professor and historian of education. “I think we need to think about the civic dimension of higher ed. We have a duty to try to help people learn civic skills, and I think classroom discussion is integral to that.”

Granted, some professors falsely assume that because students are not experts in their fields of study, student-driven discussion is unhelpful. To that, Zimmerman argued, “Students aren't experts, but that's precisely the reason that they need to talk about it. Not so that they can inform people necessarily, but so they can explore the important issues and try to get their heads around them.” And despite this, conventional lectures are still frequent at Penn.

Transformative education is diverging away from conventional methods of teaching and assessment as they do not stimulate nor model necessary skills such as engaging with one another and listening closely. Traditional pedagogy, such as lecturing, often positions the teacher above the student, detracting from student-led teaching. Students listen to the teacher but are not always listened to — making education less so a matter of dialogue between both the student and the teacher, or students with their peers. It is harmful to omit rich discussion from the classroom, especially if school is meant to be a microcosm representative of the larger society. Students should feel invited and empowered to contribute and learn from their peers.

Researchers are not inherently good presenters, nor educators. Someone may be brilliant in their discipline, but pedagogical knowledge requires a different type of mastery. Simply put, rigors of the classroom cannot be self-taught. Thus, the complex

intricacies of teaching necessitate training. As part of the academic system that has a crucial role in societal functionality, educators are obligated to administer the best form of teaching that may only form after generating a tool kit to do so. But the reality is, higher education neglects teacher training crucial to developing practices that emphasize student collaboration rather than passive reception and regurgitation. This is due to professors’ lack of foundational knowledge surrounding formative teaching techniques beyond the antiquated methods they were exposed to when they were taught, perpetuating a negative cycle of defective teaching that has become normalized in higher education. The job of a professor is two-fold, teaching and researching. And arguably, executing transformative teaching should be at the forefront of a professor's job. However, there are limitations to this given how research demands of tenure may detract professors from focusing on pedagogical practice that is time-consuming and sophisticated. At Penn, with high expectations for professors to conduct and produce research, standards for ample teaching skills often fall to the wayside at the expense of student benefit.

“That's a fundamental flaw of the universities. We are learning on the job, basically,” Reto Gieré, earth and environmental science professor, said. “They're not teaching us [professors] how to teach,” political science Professor Loren Goldman expressed.

At Penn, the Center for Teaching and Learning is intended to help instructors

excel as educators through the use of workshops, but its very existence is contradictory. It should be a requirement for professors to be adept at instruction prior to beginning. “The Center for Teaching and Learning reveal[s] the low status of this enterprise. If we actually valued [employing formative pedagogy], we wouldn't need a center devoted to it,” Zimmerman asserted.

“[Penn] teaches people, but it's not focused on teaching,” Goldman has found.

“And so they try to do things that make it more amenable by creating a Center for Teaching and Learning. The production of skillful listeners [and] good academic citizens is not what it does at the undergraduate level. Penn sort of teaches people to go off into the world and not be citizens.”

Gieré contended that the nature of the scale of lecture courses pose logistical obstacles to teaching in the way he aspires. He found that the most adequate, integrative teaching style for his discipline would be to “go into nature” to stimulate interactive student discussion beyond recitations.

Gieré also attested that student curiosity is consequential, noting that he “think[s] curiosity is a really important aspect of our lives. And that involves asking questions” amongst peers.

“Would it be costly in terms of time and money and energy to alter the system? It would,” Zimmerman acknowledged. “But if we valued it, we would sustain that cost. And the fact that we don't sustain the cost or we're unwilling to show that, we don't value it.”

Essentially, it’s a jarring, systematic flaw that professors are not required to learn how to teach in the process of embarking

Pay attention to the Philly mayoral election

on a career in academia. Students are not guinea pigs. While paying expensive tuition, they expect to receive valuable education from quality educators. But many students have become so accustomed to their classroom structure that they do not know to expect differently, despite experiencing notions of detachment in content.

In Zimmerman’s book, “The Amateur Hour,” he discussed how in higher education, “we don't have a standard for what's good. And we don't have a set of systems for enforcing it … nobody's minding the store. It isn't all bad … [but] the point is we don't have systems to really differentiate between [teachers’ quality].” And at institutions like Penn, professionalizing teaching is vastly overlooked; professors feel a lack of incentive that would otherwise not be the case if required to learn pedagogical theories from the get-go of their careers.

Although Penn is a prestigious institution with highly esteemed researchers, we cannot continue to fail to criticize insufficient teaching methods. Frequently, Penn opts for big-name researchers to add to their staff in lieu of effective educators. Ultimately, the priority of the university should be teaching — plain and simple.

It's best to end this column with a simple remark from Gieré: "Primarily, we are professors: We should teach."

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

DELVING DEEPER | The mayoral election affects us as both Penn students and as residents of Philadelphia

This election could also be a historic one, given the diverse slate of candidates. For example, four of the 10 major candidates are women, which is a step in the right direction for a city that has never elected a woman to the mayoral office despite having had 99 mayors in its long history. Furthermore, the presumptive Republican nominee, David Oh, was the first Asian American elected to the Philadelphia City Council. His potential ascension to the mayor’s office would continue the trend set by trailblazers like Michelle Wu, the first woman and Asian American to serve as mayor of Boston, and Aftab Pureval, the first Asian American to serve as mayor of Cincinnati.

This May, hundreds of thousands of Philadelphians will flock to the polls to cast their ballots in the Democratic and Republican primary elections to select each party’s nominee for the city’s 100th mayor, and then again in November during the general election.

So why should Penn students be paying attention this early? The reason is because registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in Philly by seven to one, so barring any major surprises, the winner of this May’s Democratic primary will likely be the winner of this November’s general election.

What’s more, the person we elect as this city’s mayor will arguably affect our everyday lives as students and Philly residents. The University of Pennsylvania and its Health System (UPHS), which includes Penn Medicine, constitutes one of the largest employers in the city, and so local politics can have a massive impact on these organizations. For example, there are

numerous progressive candidates running for mayor that have secured the endorsement of powerful labor unions in the city.

These include Cherelle Parker, who has received an endorsement from the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council; Jeff Brown, who has gained support from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33; and Helen Gym, who was endorsed by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. The involvement of key labor unions in the mayor’s race is especially important in the context of the ongoing efforts by RAs and GAs at Penn to unionize for increased labor rights and fair compensation.

Penn infamously does not pay property taxes to the City of Philadelphia because its tax-exempt status is derived from its existence as a nonprofit entity. The University also refuses to make payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs), a decision that forces surrounding areas such as increasingly

gentrified West Philadelphia to pay for the extra tax revenue that is not supplied by Penn. Current mayor Jim Kenney, as an example, was not willing to negotiate with institutions like Penn, Drexel, and others throughout the city to enact PILOTs programs, but this could change moving forward.

Furthermore, the new mayor’s policies will have an impact on cost of living concerns in a city where housing and utilities are becoming more expensive, directly affecting Penn students who live off-campus.

Public safety has also become an increased issue, with the budget for city-sponsored violence prevention initiatives having increased alongside overall gun violence.

However, since Philadelphia is heavily restricted by Pennsylvania law and a statewide judicial system that blocks the city’s ability to enact meaningful gun control policies at every turn, it is worth exploring the different candidates’ platforms and perspectives on enhancing public safety.

I would therefore encourage you to consider changing your voter registration to Pennsylvania, if you haven’t done so already. And if for some reason you cannot or are unable to, that is totally okay — anyone can get involved in civic engagement, despite their circumstances. Whether it involves discussing the mayoral election with friends, watching debates, or participating in politics-and-government-aligned student groups on campus, there are myriad ways to get involved in the city’s vibrant political atmosphere.

Even if most of us only live in Philadelphia temporarily, the dynamics of city politics does have an impact on our everyday lives. So if you’re a registered Democrat or Republican, I urge you to either apply for a mail-in or absentee ballot or vote in person for Philadelphia’s closed primary election on Tuesday, May 16. And if you don’t belong to either one of these parties, you can still vote on the four questions that will appear on local ballots for all voters.

KESHAV RAMESH is a Wharton and College sophomore studying finance, statistics, and international studies in the Huntsman Program from South Windsor, CT. His email address is keshmesh@wharton.upenn.edu.

and research are not mutually exclusive A RIANE AMONG MEN | A lack of emphasis on pedagogical theories impedes student learning and professor quality

PHOTO BY GIULIANA ALLEVA

The lecture hall in the basement of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design on March 20.

PHOTO BY ABHIRAM JUVVADI Philadelphia City Hall in Center City on Oct. 15, 2022.

Congratulations, but you might hate it here

|This Ivy Day, reflect on what being a Penn student really means

a Penn diploma, students have a leg up on top jobs and top awards, like the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

However, the trifecta of unrealistic expectations — status, wealth, and greatness — compound into a delusion of what life here is really like. Expectations of college perfection are unattainable. Eventually, failure to live this dream can manifest into the infamous ‘Penn Face.’

Newly admitted students will soon face the eventual whiplash of aligning expectations with reality. Failure to live up to lofty expectations sparks disappointment and even adverse mental health effects. Admitted students — often valedictorians — expect to continue their trajectory of excellence at Penn, yet most end up as little fish in a big pond.

How can newly admitted students (and existing Quakers) combat unrealistic expectations of themselves and their college experience?

The secret to Penn sanity may lie within the Penn Admissions Office, in a digital dump of student essays.

as I paid a deposit for a different school, and the Gilmore Girls-esque expectations I had for college faded away. In mid-June, I was lucky enough to be admitted off of the waitlist.

I attribute the waitlist, and my resulting gratitude, as the reason for my happiness here. The waitlist altered my lofty expectations for what Penn was like because, truth be told, I was just happy to be here. The 391 waitlisted students who were admitted in 2020 know that same feeling. The waitlist forced me to think critically about what Penn can realistically offer. No school is perfect, and Penn is not the end-all-be-all for those that aspire to be great.

Where to attend college is an important personal decision, and it must be made with a realistic picture of what Penn can offer.

Newly admitted students, reflect on why you really want to attend Penn. Examine your expectations for who you think you’ll be here, and what you think Penn will bring you.

This Thursday marks an unofficial holiday: Ivy Day. On March 30, the eight Ivies will unleash a slew of rejections, acceptances, and waitlist placements to the Class of 2027.

Stop any current student on campus and they can recount the moment they received their Penn decision: the blue and red animated confetti, the “CONGRATULATIONS” in bold font.

All 10,412 Penn undergraduates remember the relief of their Penn acceptance, knowing that all their hours, semesters, and years of hard work had paid off.

Here in the United States, the college prep industry sits at a net worth of $1,700,000,000 (yep, that’s eight zeroes). Disproportionate attention is placed on getting into elite institutions, evident from trending

decision reaction videos on YouTube to the Lori Loughlin scandal.

Yet, not enough attention is placed on what happens after that acceptance. Sacrifice comes with expectation. For many, the motivation in attending a school like Penn lies in the status, wealth, and greatness that Penn can provide. Admitted students expect to continue their trajectory of excellence, with the pressure of perfection forming a suffocating force.

It’s not difficult to see why applicants expect Penn to be their golden ticket. The starting salary of a Wharton alumnus exceeds $85,000. The Penn endowment sits at $20.7 billion, the sixth largest in the nation, giving Penn the funds to spend $1.63 billion a year on ground-breaking research. With

In the fall of 2022, Penn launched a new supplemental essay prompt giving applicants the opportunity to write a thank-you note to an influential person in their life. In 250 words, students could express their gratitude for someone special. At surface-level, this might seem like the latest excruciating exercise in college admissions. Yet gratitude is backed by science, wrote the Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule in a blog post last fall. Research conducted on campus proves that gratitude can increase long-term happiness, part of the reason why Penn introduced this new prompt. Gratitude is the ultimate weapon to wield off unrealistic expectations.

I speak from experience. On Ivy Day, I was not one of the few who received a ‘yes’ verdict; I was waitlisted. My life ran an alternate course

Penn Dining workers deserve better OF MICE AND MEN | Penn must address its fraught and flawed relationship with its dining hall employees

It is no secret that Penn Dining has been failing its employees and the students they serve. Within a span of a month, students were made aware of two significant deficits. First, the mistreatment of Penn Hillel dining workers, and second, the over 100 health code violations across dining locations on campus. While we have received a statement from Penn addressing the health code violations, there has been no communication regarding Penn’s relationship with its dining hall employees. Penn's unwillingness to acknowledge the concerns of its workers speaks volumes — and may explain some of the broader issues in the dining system.

While retail dining locations and Falk dining employees are contracted by Bon Appétit Management Company, a subsidiary of the multinational company Compass Group, the partnership is nonetheless contracted and overseen by Penn. The other major dining halls, however, are staffed by Penn-employed workers. As a direct employer, Penn has a responsibility for the treatment of their employees and the conditions in which they work. If these workers are dissatisfied, it is ultimately up to Penn to address their concerns.

At every major dining hall location, I asked workers to provide a statement regarding their employment relationship with Penn as well as their satisfaction with their job. All replied with a unanimous, yet unsurprising, response: They weren’t allowed to. Some also voiced fears of retribution for interviewing without guarantees of anonymity. This is a clear indication that there is more to Penn’s relationship with its employees occurring behind the kitchen doors.

I reached out to Penn Business Services Director of Communications and External Relations

Death to the GPA

Barbara Lea-Kruger for a comment on whether worker satisfaction surveys are sent out to Penn Dining employees and whether information collected in the surveys would be disclosed. In her response, Lea-Kruger stated that Penn does not utilize surveys with its dining staff and Bon Appétit sends out an employee-wide survey only once every two years. However, Lea-Kruger emphasized that Penn utilizes an “open door policy,” allowing employees to voice their concerns through direct discussion with management.

An open door policy is not enough.

The Harvard Business Review reports that managers who hold the belief that implementing an open door policy would encourage employees to speak up are often unaware that their employees remain silent.

In fact, 42% of employees reported withholding information when either they have nothing to gain or something to lose. While an employee may be able to report a problem because of an open door policy, this doesn’t mean there is a system in place to work towards a solution. If they don't believe their concerns will be addressed or that their feedback will be acted upon, they may see little point in speaking up.

Many people are quick to blame the workers themselves for the dining hall issues recently brought to light as they are the front line of the dining halls. However, with the lack of feedback from their dining employees, limited scope of the surveys, and lack of transparency, we cannot forget Penn’s role behind the scenes.

Yes, assessing job satisfaction is hard. But the absence of such an assessment is even worse. Regular feedback could improve the workplace culture, increase employee engagement, and identify issues, like the recent health code violations, before they become major problems.

Penn must issue a University-wide statement outlining how it will improve conditions for dining hall workers — starting with utilizing anonymous worker satisfaction surveys. It is imperative that this information is publicized because this issue affects our entire community.

It is important to remember that an employer’s worth is not in its flaws, but in how it addresses and resolves them. Penn, prove to us that you are an ethical and

Current students, whether you love or hate Penn now, take today to think back to the magic of your acceptance. It is too easy to forget that life is not normal on Locust. Gratitude is the key to staying grounded.

Today, on Ivy Day, remember that presence here alone is a win. Remember what you did to get here, what you have done since, and what you plan to do with your Penn diploma.

To the Class of 2027, congratulations on your acceptance — but if you carry unrealistic expectations with you to Philadelphia, you very well may hate it here.

FIONA MILLER is a Wharton junior studying behavioral economics and social impact from Roanoke, Va. Her email is fimiller@wharton. upenn.edu.

responsible employer. Show us that your workers are satisfied. Take meaningful action towards that goal. It is only in your best interest. If not, time reveals all.

NAKED AND AFRAID | The GPA system can stunt our intellectual growth due to undue pressure and excessive grading

given too much work. However, I think the type of work that we are given is not always useful to the development of our intellectual curiosity. Having the time to exercise agency in further exploring each of our subjects outside the classroom is the recipe for deepening our knowledge and passions.

Having to constantly complete assignments, I find that I enter an almost auto-pilot-like state towards each of my subjects outside of instruction time. And the pressure is on, because every homework counts towards my grade. This is not just a problem that international students notice; Tyler Chaud, a College student from New Jersey, said “many times a student picks an easier course that is less interesting to them, purely to boost their GPA.” This is another foreign dichotomy I have found myself considering for the first time. For those students who are particularly concerned about maintaining a 4.0, there is certainly a way to curate your course cart to complement this aim. But at what cost?

on why we are studying what we are studying.

To me, the GPA system is somewhat reflective of certain aspects of American life. Namely, the ‘hustle culture’ that pervades campus and corporate America. Assuredly, ambition, drive, and endurance are crucial and necessary qualities for hard work. However, when that ambition is misplaced to a degree where you have no further interest except getting an A, this is harder to reconcile. Penn’s 'work hard, play hard' ethic possibly derives directly from this culture of incessant work, and the accompanying necessity to release from these stressors may result in equally unhealthy and unsustainable ‘playing.’

As an international student, the concept of the 'GPA' — the grade point average — was foreign to me. Since coming to Penn, long gone are the days where homework did not count towards your grade, due dates were for guidance, and the fate of your subject rested solely on your final exam. Having spent several years in the British education system, I was intrigued by this strange sounding acronym, and the possibility that I wouldn’t have to subject myself to the soul-destroying grind inevitable before the only graded examination. However, despite my love and gratitude for my time here thus far, I could not be

longing more for the good ol' days of the final slog. This is the problem for me: The GPA system requires a type of worker that excels at small, repetitive tasks. Constantly having to submit a problem set, a response, a pre-lecture quiz, there is not a week when due dates are not imminent — students are in a constant state of work. Of course, we are at university and we are meant to be working, but the GPA system is regressive to our academic growth. There is no time to listen to this podcast my professor mentioned or look further into that concept — I simply don't have the time. I am not suggesting that we are

A new international student might argue that this is a wonderful system, because you don't have a large and stressful final exam to deal with! But with a GPA, you get both: the tedious homework assignments and the final exams. The fact that my final 20 page essay is only 35% of my final grade does not make it any less anxiety-inducing (I say that from experience). However, it will nearly always be of inferior quality and depth than something I would have had more time and space to construct.

Before coming to Penn I did not consider myself an anxious person. Even though my final exams were the sole determinant of my university outcome in the U.K., I experience worse academic anxiety at Penn than I did in high school. In a competitive environment that strives for academic excellence, we may benefit from some time to recharge and reflect

So, what's the solution for the GPA? Removing it entirely may not be feasible, as lots of students don’t share my opinion on the grading system. In fact, many students love it, depending on what they were exposed to in high school. And I’m not suggesting that we should derail the entire foundation on which the American university education system is built. However, I would like to reflect more deeply on the true value of some aspects of this structure. Perhaps there is some value in forcing students to exercise more agency within their field of studies, instead of spoon-feeding them with quizzes and reading responses. Give students the freedom and time to pursue their individualized interests (or to choose to not do so). Perhaps, in doing so, we will see a more authentic emergence of passions, which were previously held captive by the shallow bonds of the GPA.

DESIGN BY INSIA HAQUE

PHOTO BY JESSE ZHANG

Path@Penn, the University’s platform for viewing grades and registering for classes.

PHOTO BY ABHIRAM JUVVADI The dining hall in Hill College House on Nov. 28, 2022.

ANNI PARADISE is a College sophomore studying environmental studies and international relations from London. Her email is annipara@sas.upenn.edu.

LIALA SOFI is a College sophmore from Roanoke, Va. Her email address is lsofi@sas. upenn.edu.

AFFIRMATIVE, from FRONT PAGE

Philadelphia Inquirer where they wrote that overturning affirmative action could undermine previous rulings that helped “level the playing fields” for Black students and “fundamentally reshape the landscape of higher education.”

How Penn may be impacted if the Supreme Court overturns affirmative action

Penn Carey Law professor Cara McClellan, the director of the school’s Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic, said that overturning 40 years of precedent is a “concerning” and “unusual” thing for the Supreme Court to do. She said that not considering race in admissions is shown to be “really devastating” to the number of students of color.

A 2020 study evaluating the long-run effects of 19 public universities that banned affirmative action in the 1990s found that it led to “persistent declines” in the number of underrepresented minorities admitted and enrolled. Similarly, a 2012 study cited by the Civil Rights Project came to the conclusion that past affirmative action bans decreased Black student enrollment by as much as 25% and Hispanic student enrollment by nearly 20%.

“Affirmative action is not a panacea for remedying systemic racism,” Parks and Torriente wrote in their opinion piece. “Despite all the nation’s efforts, Black students remain at a significant disadvantage when it comes to college admissions.”

Wharton senior and Natives at Penn member Lauren McDonald also expressed concern that if affirmative action is overturned, there will not be a clear spot to indicate Native identity on the college application and have it be recognized.

“It just feels like our background and history don’t matter,” she said.

McClellan said that — while not perfect — the admissions process at Penn has made a lot of progress, but that all that could be affected by the ruling.

“The reality is that even the progress that has

been made is really under attack and at risk given the Supreme Court’s willingness to consider this decision,” McClellan said.

How Penn may respond if affirmative action is overturned

If the Supreme Court decides to overturn affirmative action, Penn would be impelled to reframe its admissions process in a way that still ensures a diverse student body. McClellan pointed to legacy admissions as an example of a policy that can disproportionately create a barrier for underrepresented students, since legacy students have had access to higher education for generations. Parks and Torriente echoed this sentiment in their op-ed.

Another option suggested by McClellan is a “top 10%” plan — as seen in Texas and California — where the highest performing students are guaranteed admissions to state-funded universities. This would allow students from different zip codes admittance and help mitigate the barrier of access to a high-quality education, she said.

On the other hand, Roosevelt said that Penn and other schools could move towards using diversity statements, which he said would allow them to maintain their practices “without explicitly using race as a factor.”

Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule wrote in a statement to the DP that Penn Admissions is working with the University in “ongoing planning discussions” with administrators, staff, and faculty — but the office’s concrete plans and next steps will depend on what the actual ruling is.

“We will of course follow the law, and we will continue to do all we can to create classes of Penn students who will have the best educational experience here at Penn, and be ready to lead in our complex, diverse, and global world,” Magill wrote. “The future success of this community and our country depends on that.”

In response to request for comment, Penn Athletics wrote in a statement to the DP that it was upset by the news of Fox's allegations.

“We are deeply distressed by this highly disturbing news," Penn Athletics wrote. "Our thoughts are with Jennifer Fox, and others who were similarly subject to sexual abuse."

Penn Athletics did not respond to further request for comment on whether Penn has any plans to remove Nash’s name from the center at this time. A University spokesperson also did not respond for a request for comment.

“If you want to make a building that represents the ideals of the athletic community — that means supporting all athletes, protecting all athletes — you should not be naming the building after an abuser,” College junior Harley Haas, president of Penn’s Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention club, said.

Political science professor Marci Hamilton, the chief executive of CHILD USA, told the DP that she views it as a minimum that Nash’s name be taken off the building.

“One in five girls and one in 13 boys will be sexually abused before they’re 18. So about 15 to 20% of students on campus were likely abused as a child," Hamilton said. "Out of respect for their trauma and for what the University stands for, it’s necessary to remove Nash’s name."

Hamilton agreed with Fox that the situation represents a larger dilemma of how Penn will address the legacy of those accused of sexual assault.

“Institutions faced with these issues are [at a] fork in the road. They have the choice to try to leave it alone, and they have a choice to truly improve their practices and to stand up for victims," Hamilton said. "I hope Penn chooses the latter."

Penn previously changed the name of Wynn Commons — now called Penn Commons — after dozens accused 1963 College graduate and former trustee Steve Wynn of sexual misconduct.

Fox has filed a complaint against Nash with U.S. Rowing — the national governing body for rowing

— and the organization has brought in the law firm Shearman & Sterling to lead the investigation, according to the Times.

“We understand according to the New York Times article that U.S. Rowing has undertaken an investigation using an outside law firm and we are watching closely for the results of that investigation,” Penn Athletics wrote in the statement.

Fox said she wants Penn community members to demand the investigation's findings be made public, adding that if the investigation corroborates her allegations, she believes Penn will take steps to address Nash's legacy.

“The only way we can ensure justice happens is by that report becoming public,” she said.

Fox, who told the DP that she did not meet Nash in any way related to Penn, said that she hopes other sexual predators will realize they are not protected, even in death.

“Even if we don’t get you now, we’ll get you eventually,” she said. “If Ted ever thought that what he did to me was going to destroy his legacy, I think it would have stopped him.”

In November 2022, 1977 College graduate Sean Colgan published "The Book of Ted," a compilation of anecdotes from men and women coached by Nash. While Fox said the book was set to have its launch on campus, she said that she was told the event was canceled following the allegations against Nash.

“I'm sad that I have to break that myth, but it's important that this other truth gets out there,” Fox said. “I’m fighting for this other story of Ted Nash to also exist in history. Up until now, he’s just been worshiped."

Colgan told the Times that he did not see “any dent in [Nash's] moral credibility, whether it’s cursing, lying, cheating, anything like that."

Fox said she hopes other people who were abused by Nash speak up.

“I'm really the only one out here so far. It would be better if there were more of us," Fox said. "But just like it took me so long, it could take others decades, too.”

POLITICAL , from FRONT PAGE

peer institutions are imbued with “exclusivity,” although they could “fill their classes with qualified applicants multiple times over, and despite massive endowments, [chooses] not to.”

In contrast to the stance of YDSA and Penn Dems, College first year and Penn College Republicans Political Director Peter Kapp told the DP in a statement that the College Republicans “do not support the use of affirmative action in college admissions,” adding that they believe such policies fail to produce a “well-rounded

class.”

“Instead of race, admissions offices should consider diversity in a more holistic manner and take into account the experiences and challenges faced by individuals from a wide range of backgrounds to create a truly well-rounded and qualified class,” the statement wrote.

Penn has previously defended affirmative action policies and reiterated its desire to create a diverse student body through its race-conscious admissions process.

ROWING, from FRONT PAGE

PHOTO BY ABHIRAM JUVVADI

Claudia Cohen Hall, which houses the Office of Admissions, on March 18.

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The secret to Penn baseball’s pitching success?

The man behind the plate

Learning the ins and outs of every pitcher is a tall task, but Penn catching is up to the challenge

GRIFFIN BOND

Sports Associate

Penn baseball’s starting catcher Jackson Appel is arguably one of the top catchers in the Ivy League. He was named second team All Ivy last season and has been on fire this season with a .871 OPS and a .325 batting average.

However, while he has lit up the stat sheet, one of his biggest impacts on the team doesn’t show up in the box score. His ability to foster a strong dynamic with Penn’s pitchers has helped the team maintain a 4.29 ERA — by far the lowest in the Ivy League with Columbia coming in at second with 6.11.

For sophomore right-handed pitcher Ryan Dromboski, who is in his first season as a starting pitcher for the Quakers, having a strong relationship with Appel has allowed him to flourish with a 3.74 ERA this season. He highlighted the importance of having a catcher who knows his habits and what pitches he likes to throw in different counts. For the hardthrowing righty, his go-to punch-out pitch is his slider — which has helped him reach 31 strikeouts this season, fifth most in the conference.

“When I get to a two strike count, [Appel] knows to mostly set up outside and be like ‘Yep here comes a slider, I’m ready to go for it.’” Dromboski said.

According to pitching coach Josh Schwartz, catchers need to know the trends of every pitcher on the staff — including what each of their pitches looks like and how to set up behind the plate to make them as effective as possible. He added that catchers need to adjust to pitchers. Dromboski, for example, incorporates pitches that tend to have a lot of movement in which Appel is skilled to expect.

Eileen Wang of women’s tennis promotes a teamfirst mentality

Wang boasts winning records in both singles and doubles this spring

ANIKA GURURAJ

Sports Associate

Sophomore Eileen Wang has wasted no time finding her role in Penn women’s tennis’ roster, quickly cementing herself as an integral part of the team’s arsenal.

This spring season, Wang has consistently held winning records in both singles and doubles — in which she is often paired with sophomore Sabine Rutlauka. Most recently, the pair picked up their fourth doubles win of the season against the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights. Growing up in Buffalo, N.Y., she often spent time in the local tennis center watching her brother play. One day, she decided to join in on the action, and that was the beginning of her journey with the sport. Her family, particularly her father, was a driving force behind her success on court.

“When [my dad] was in college, he taught himself how to play and then taught [my sibling and I] to play

Senior catcher Jackson Appel warms up with senior left-handed pitcher Owen Coady before their

“I think if you asked Appel what he would want Dromboski to do, he would say throw every ball down the middle and let them move,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz added that in addition to telling Dromboski to aim for the middle, Appel might consider setting more towards center to help Dromboski be more effective.

At points in the game when things aren’t tipping in Penn’s favor and the pitcher is struggling, Appel is often tasked with going out to the mound to help settle him down. Appel said that over time, he has developed different approaches on how to handle different pitchers.

“Some guys you want to tell them to lock it in and be a little harder with them,” Appel said. “But then some guys just need a little break, so I’ll just talk about anything, whatever’s on my mind even if it is not baseball-related at all. Sometimes that actually helps people.”

Appel has a whole checklist of information he needs to know to help pitchers be at their best. It might be easy to memorize it all for one pitcher like Dromboski, but on a staff that already has

when we grew up,” she said. “He’s been my coach since I was four, up till now. I still play with him when I go back home. He keeps up with all my matches and texts me about it.”

Wang’s school life was untraditional to say the least. While most students spent their weekends hanging out with friends or catching up on schoolwork, she was traveling across the country, competing on the junior United States Tennis Association (USTA) tour. Inadvertently, she found a community among her competitors on the tour.

“I would leave Thursday or Friday and spend the entire weekend at a tournament,” Wang said. “We would always see the same group of girls at the tournaments, and got to know them pretty well. It was nice to see them when traveling and I am still in touch with them, especially the girls who play for other schools we compete against.”

Playing on a national level, Wang’s talent did not go unnoticed by college teams. Coach Sanela Kunovac singled her out as a talent that possessed both offensive and defensive skills, describing Wang as agile and explosive on court. Kunovac was particularly impressed with Wang’s ability to seamlessly switch between offense and defense.

While the intensity of training and play took a step up at Penn, Wang thinks the biggest change was more encompassing than the rigor of the game.

“The biggest change coming from junior to collegiate tennis is shifting from an individualistic to a group mindset. Here, your team’s success also depends on you,” said Wang. “That might put more pressure on you, but they’re also there to support you and it’s nice to know they’re always there for me.”

Eventually, the pressure of being on a team shifted into the comfort of having a backbone of support during each

seven pitchers who’ve thrown double-digit innings through 19 games, learning all the intricacies of each pitcher is not an easy task.

“The catcher has to know the pitcher inside and out,” said Schwartz. “He has to know what his tendencies are, know where his failures are, know how to rile him up or calm him down or say the right thing. He has to know what’s sharp or weak for that day, and what the past history of his pitches has been.”

Appel added that it takes a lot of practice to build a strong rapport with the pitchers. He catches them often throughout the offseason to learn their mechanics better and build chemistry.

“I’ve caught all of them so many times at this point,” Appel said. “We do a lot of work with them. Just through repetition you end up knowing what’s good for each guy.”

Despite all the important information that goes into a successful pitcher and catcher relationship, some might argue that the most important factor is trust. Dromboski said that he knows a critical part of earning a catcher’s trust is not crossing them up. When a catcher expects a curveball,

match. Wang noted that the stress that comes with adjusting to a new team was as high as ever in her freshman fall. Yet, once spring season rolled around, she grew more comfortable with the Red and Blue.

“I began to understand that they would support me when I was having a tough day, and no one on the team would blame each other for a loss,” she said.

Coach Kunovac has noticed this development in Wang as well, praising her for taking on a leadership role despite still being a sophomore. Her goals are those of a

for example, and ends up getting a fastball that’s 10-20 miles per hour faster and with a lot less movement, it can be dangerous.

At the college level in particular, blocking is an essential component of a strong pitcher-catcher relationship. The college strike zone tends to be wider and pitchers understandably have less command over their pitches than at the major league level, so having a catcher that can prevent past balls is more important than framing pitches and stealing strikes.

Schwartz explained that if there was a runner on third and the best pitch in the given situation was a low breaking ball, the pitcher needed to be confident that the catcher could block the ball and prevent the runner on third from scoring. The pitcher also has to trust that their catcher’s arm is strong enough to throw out runners trying to advance.

The list of demands on Appel and the rest of Penn’s catchers is lengthy, but if they can do all that, Schwartz has one last request.

“If a catcher can hit and run well,” he said, “and really get it done on that side of the ball like Jackson Appel can, then I’m a happy camper.”

leader, aiming to make amends after the heartbreaking end to last year’s Ivy League Championship run.

“The biggest goal I have this season is kind of a team goal. We have our Ivy season coming up and last year we came short of winning the whole championship by just one match,” said Wang. “This year, we really are gunning for it. Hopefully by the end of the season we have a ring.”

You can catch Wang in action next against Princeton on Saturday, as the team embarks on its 2023 Ivy League Championship campaign.

PHOTO BY SAMANTHA TURNER

game against UMass on March 17.

PHOTO BY ELLIE PIRTLE

Sophomore Eileen Wang serves the ball in a match against Villanova on Feb. 22.

Women’s lacrosse victorious in gritty 11-10 win over Georgetown

An explosive second period ultimately gave way to a Quaker victory

ALEXIS GARCIA

Sports Editor

In a game that could serve as MerriamWebster’s definition of “back-and-forth”, Sunday’s matchup between Penn women’s lacrosse and Georgetown resulted in a 11-10 gritty win in favor of the Quakers.

The Red and Blue (5-3, 2-0 Ivy) were looking to bounce back from a tough loss they suffered to No. 10 Maryland earlier in the week, which coach Karin Corbett blamed on a poor draw game. This factor proved to be the key to Penn’s success, as the team tallied 16 draws to Georgetown’s (5-6) nine in Sunday’s victory.

Based on shooting numbers alone, it may seem like Penn should have won in blowout fashion. However, it wasn’t until the second half that the Red and Blue were able to get a hold of, and maintain, the lead.

“We tried to string more goals together, back-to-back, and go on a run,” Corbett said. “We produced a lot more opportunities than we capitalized on, but I still think we worked our

motions pretty well.”

Despite eight shots in the first quarter, the Quakers only had one goal in the frame: senior attacker Niki Miles’ 20th of the season that cut through a pair of Hoya defenders. No matter the clear attempts or fantastic passing happening on the other side of the field, as soon as the Quakers entered the Hoyas’ defensive zone, their momentum was halted. The Georgetown team tallied six saves to Penn’s one by the end of the first period.

Both teams lit up the scoreboard in the second period, though.

Senior midfielder Caitlin Cook was quick to put one in the back of the net and bring the Red and Blue within one. From then on, scoring celebrations seemed to trade off between the two teams. Penn scored one, Georgetown scored one. Penn scored two, Georgetown scored two.

The score would even three times in the second before the Quakers proved to be the victors of the

catch-up game. Fresh off of scoring her first goal of the season eight minutes prior, sophomore midfielder Paige Lipman’s buzzer beater put Penn up 7-6 heading into the half. The two teams combined for nine goals in the second, evident that the scoring troubles Penn experienced in the first period had subsided. But Georgetown seemed to find the back of the net equally as much.

“We came out a little slow,” Lipman said. “I think we were relying on some of our big players to score for us, but once we started to all play together, that is when things started clicking.”

The second half reflected much of the first, but in quieter fashion. Back-to-back goals by junior attacker Julia Chai and junior midfielder Maria Themelis stretched Penn’s lead to three, but the Hoyas would not leave the frame with nothing to show for themselves. A pair of Georgetown goals brought the team back within one.

After struggling to take the lead from the

FENCING, from BACK PAGE

Lu, who finished 15th at last year’s championships, put together an impressive campaign this season with a career high 51 regular season wins. She was also named first team All-Ivy in February after placing second at the Ivy League Championships.

Hoyas the entire first half, the Quakers never found themselves playing from behind again. Despite another tough back-and-forth battle in the fourth quarter, Penn held its narrow margin until the final buzzer.

“No matter what defense they were putting in, relying on each other and working as a full seven kept the team going,” Lipman said. “We stuck to the game plan and took every play as it came — not focusing on the score.”

It took a team effort, but the team’s victory against Georgetown is a testament to Penn women’s lacrosse’s perseverance. The one-goal win may have taken 11 more shots, it may have taken 10 more ground balls. In the end, though, Penn won the statistical category that matters most.

The momentum from Sunday’s win will be as important as ever the next time the Quakers are out, as they take on No. 5 Florida on the road next weekend.

Cho, who was also named to the first team AllIvy, had an equally impressive 47-13 record in the regular season. Cho was competitive on the strip against some of the top competitors. She defeated the eventual national champion, Harvard’s Lauren Scruggs.

With all of this year’s All-Americans returning, coach Andy Ma and the rest of the Quaker team should be feeling good as they begin to prepare for next season.

SPRINT FOOTBALL

Calling all former high school football players and athletes! The Penn Sprint football program is looking for athletes interested in the opportunity to play a varsity sport at the collegiate level. Penn Sprint Football is a full contact, 11 vs 11 football program that follows all the same rules used by the NCAA. The weight limit is 178 lbs, but players range between 150-190lbs between weigh ins during the season. Becoming a member of the Sprint Football program will allow you to become a member of a close knit team and develop great memories during your time here at Penn. If interested, please contact Head Coach Jerry McConnell at gerardm@upenn.edu or call (856)296-0381.

PHOTO BY NATHANIEL SIRLIN

Junior attacker Julia Chai celebrates her goal against Georgetown on March 26.

PHOTO BY NATHANIEL SIRLIN

Senior midfielder Caitlin Cook feeds the ball to teammate Kaitlyn Cumiskey on March 26.

PHOTO BY ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

Sophomore midfielder Anna Brandt cradles the ball down the field on March 26.

PHOTO BY SAMANTHA TURNER

Freshman épéeist Avery Townsend competes in a bout against Notre Dame at the Philadelphia Invitational on Jan. 22.

Athletic scholarship lawsuit against Ivy League threatens to turn conference upside down

Amid the ever-changing landscape of college sports, the Ivy League has refused to budge. Now, it may be forced to.

The conference’s identity is steeped in tradition — it is committed to maintaining the values that have made it one of the nation’s most distinguished groups for nearly a century. But recent legal action has placed one of the league’s most sacred pillars under siege, and the results may alter the lives of the athletes that call the conference home.

On March 7, lawyers representing Grace Kirk, a current Brown women’s basketball player, and Tamenang Choh, who played for the Bears from 2017-22, filed a lawsuit against the Council of Ivy Presidents, as well as its eight constituent schools. The suit alleges that the conference’s practice of refusing to administer athletic scholarships is a violation of federal antitrust law. The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages, but — more significantly — they are seeking an injunction that would allow Ivy League schools to distribute scholarship compensation moving forward.

“This has been a long time coming,” Kayla Padilla, Wharton senior and captain of Penn’s women’s basketball team, said. “A lot of people are accustomed to the idea that the Ivy League is more focused on academics, and they don’t want to compromise that by offering athletic scholarships. But you don’t have to make that compromise.”

Penn Athletics did not respond to a request for comment.

In many ways, the case is about precedent. The plaintiffs say that this case challenges the prevailing orthodoxy of the Ivy League, but it is also based firmly in the result of another pivotal college athletics case, NCAA v. Alston. Decided in 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA’s restrictions on education-related compensation

WALKER CARNATHAN Deputy Sports Editor

were a violation of antitrust law. This decision led to the passing of the organization’s new Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policy, which allows athletes to receive compensation from brands in the form of endorsements.

From the plaintiff perspective, this ruling should be applied directly to the Ivy League. According to the argument, though the conference was not a party in the Alston case, they are a part of the NCAA and as a result should be held to the same antitrust standards as the governing body at large. The plaintiffs insist that if the NCAA cannot limit the way athletes receive education-related compensation, then the Ivy League should not be allowed to restrict scholarships.

The league’s policy is also rooted in their mutual agreement to not administer merit-based financial aid. Wharton statistics professor Abe Wyner said that opponents of the push for athletic scholarships have posited that athletes should not be treated any differently than students who are exceptional in other ways. He added that people argue that the conference’s handling of aid in exchange for talent must remain the same across the board, whether that talent is shooting a basketball or playing an instrument.

“The Ivy League has a policy that the only dispensation you get on tuition is financial need,” Wyner, who serves as the faculty lead for the sports analytics and business initiative, said.

“You don’t get a merit scholarship for being smart. You don’t get an athletic scholarship because you’re good at sports. You don’t get a music scholarship because you’re good at violin. To me, athletics is not any different than those things.

You just don’t get scholarships.”

Wyner’s perspective of equating athletes with the general student population is echoed by the Ivy League itself. Robin Harris, the conference’s athletic director, said in a statement to The Athletic that the conference is “built upon

the foundational principle that student-athletes should be representative of the wider student body, including the opportunity to receive needbased financial aid.”

Padilla said that this idea perpetuates a false reality and diminishes the additional sacrifices that student-athletes make, and that universities benefit from. According to the legal complaint file, Ivy League schools as a whole generated a rounded total of $267 million from athletics during 2020-21.

“Student-athletes here are living a totally different experience,” Padilla said. “Oftentimes student-athletes and college athletics as a whole are a big part of the University and what it represents. That all can still happen, even if we were awarded scholarships.”

As many conferences and institutions have raced to adapt to the evolving norms of college sports, the Ivy League has been content to remain in place, a Rolex in a sea of smart watches. To a degree, Wyner said, their rigidity has worked. He notes that Ivy League schools have begun to nab “much higher-caliber players than they used to,” and suggests that recruits have started to place greater consideration upon the value of an Ivy League education.

Padilla said that the decision to join the conference was “not a four-year commitment, it is a 40-year” decision, referencing the array of benefits that await an Ivy League student athlete even after they have laced their sneakers for the final time.

But in other ways, the so-called “Ancient Eight” have fallen behind, according to Padilla. As NIL transforms the way athletes operate, its benefits remain more of a dream than reality for most Ivy Leaguers. Padilla is currently in the transfer portal for her final year of eligibility, and she added that one of the schools recruiting her is averaging $50,000 in NIL money per

player.

“Being an Ivy League institution, you know NIL is not the biggest priority here,” Padilla said. “But when you hear stuff like that, it’s like, ‘Wow, my life could be changing if I had that kind of money.’”

Padilla also highlighted the discrepancy in the way other universities invest in their athletes, from chartered flights to fuel centers to athletecentered spaces. Though Padilla had nothing but kind things to say about Penn and its Athletic Department, she says the transfer recruitment experience has allowed her to see “what [she] might have missed out on.”

“Not to fault Penn, but the way they treat athletes at these programs is seen as a different priority,” Padilla said.

The lawsuit filed against the Ivy League does not demand fuel-centers or chartered flights, but the position of the plaintiffs is demonstrative of the perspective held by many regarding the conference’s policies — that the Ivy League is so steeped in tradition it risks becoming antiquated in the midst of an athletic revolution.

But the Ivy League way has been prosperous for decades, and Wyner claims that there is compelling evidence for the conference to stand by its successful model. As the scholarship lawsuit challenges that model in a way not seen before, the future of Ivy League athletics hangs in the balance.

“It’s not a fault; it’s just different,” Padilla said of the way Penn and the Ivy League operate compared to other institutions. “People are used to that because it has been so long that the league has operated like this. I think things will definitely change if this lawsuit is successful, but, even if it’s not, I think it will put some pressure on the Ivy League to make changes that can still benefit the student-athletes without having to compromise.”

Fencing secures sixth place at NCAA Championships

The men’s and women’s programs tallied 117 bout victories

GRIFFIN BOND Sports Associate

It was a historic weekend for Penn fencing. who had its best showing at the NCAA Championships in nearly 20 years.

The Quakers traveled to Durham, N.C. and placed sixth with 117 bout victories, the team’s highest finish since 2004. Five Penn players were named to All-America teams, and, for all of them, it was their first times receiving this recognition.

Ahead of Penn, Notre Dame won its third straight

national championship and were followed by Princeton, Columbia, Harvard and Ohio State.

On the men’s side, freshman sabreist Simon Kushkov, freshman foilist Davide Lorenzoni, and sophomore epeeist Isaac Herbst were all named to the All-America second team.

Kushkov finished the weekend in sixth with a record of 12-9. The 12 victories included defeating the eventual runner up from St. John’s, Fares Ferjani, 5-1. It’s been a

strong first season for the freshman, who was the only sabreist from Penn to qualify. Kushkov finished the regular season 55-35, including winning the Temple Open in October.

Lorenzoni also finished sixth for foil. He recorded 14 wins and nine losses. The two teammates are part of a strong freshman class for the Quakers that extends to Jackson Gold, Luke Zhang, and Avery Townsend.

Townsend also represented Penn in Durham for epee

finishing in 17th. Herbst, the other epeeist to represent the Red and Blue, landed himself in seventh place with a record of 14-9. In pool play, Herbst defeated each of the three fencers that ended up placing in front of him.

On the women’s side sophomore sabreist Vivian Lu and junior foilist Sabrina Cho both recorded 15 wins and eight losses, placing sixth, and were named to the second team.

See FENCING, page 9

PHOTO BY ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL