November 11, 2021

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2021 VOL. CXXXVII NO. 26

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Penn employees allege ‘dysfunctional, toxic workplace’ in Gene Therapy Program KYLIE COOPER

The Gene Therapy Program’s Translational Research Lab on Nov. 10.

Employees allege Penn has turned a blind eye to the abusive work environment at GTP, failing to hold the moneymaking program and its director, Jim Wilson, accountable PIA SINGH & CONOR MURRAY News Editors

Penn’s Gene Therapy Program is at the forefront of pioneering biotechnology developments — but employees allege a toxic workplace environment lies behind the allure and that Penn is ignoring their complaints to protect the moneymaking program.

“I only lasted four months before I couldn’t take it anymore. I really couldn’t take it anymore,” Margaret Spencer, a former executive assistant, said. “It was a dysfunctional, toxic workplace on many levels, and I didn’t have anything to do ... It was exhausting.”

The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke to 11 current and former GTP employees, all of whom said they endured a dysfunctional workplace environment at the hands of GTP management. Some of these employ-

Penn women’s basketball juniors, seniors suspended four games for violation of University policy The punishments will be levied over the course of the team’s first eight games MATTHEW FRANK Deputy Sports Editor

Penn women’s basketball juniors and seniors have been suspended for four games each this season, Penn Athletics announced Monday afternoon.

In an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Director of Athletic Communications Mike Mahoney wrote that the suspension is over a violation of University policy, but did not elaborate on which policy it is. Penn Athletics has declined to offer additional comment and representatives from the women’s basketball team were not available for comment at the time of publication.

ees, both current and former, requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.

The program, which employees said is marred by extreme work disorganization and inappropriate office behavior, resulted in low morale and unusually high turnover rates among employees. Several have filed formal complaints and spoken to GTP’s human resources department, the Perelman School of Medicine’s human resources department, the University’s Title IX Office and confidential Ombuds Office, and some even hired their own lawyers to demand an end to the abuse.

The DP obtained email correspondence between employees and GTP, Medical School human resources representatives, and other University administrators, Slack messages between employees and GTP executives, unsolicited photos sent to employees from GTP administrative staff, written documentation of medical leave requests, and exit interview notes detailing the experiences of former employees.

Despite numerous complaints to multiple University offices over at least the past decade, employees said nothing has changed. They allege that the University has turned a blind eye to the abusive work environment at GTP, failing to hold the program and its director, Jim

Wilson, accountable.

Wilson is also no stranger to controversy, having come under national scrutiny nearly two decades ago for leading a gene therapy trial that caused the death of an 18-year-old, leading to several research violations

by Wilson and detrimental action against the University’s affiliated research operations.

Twenty years later, Penn has rekindled its relationship with Wilson. The University is financially benefitting from the Philadelphia-based genetics medicine company Passage Bio, at which he serves as chief scientific advisor, until June 2025, according to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission Report for the first quarter of 2021. Passage Bio has a research collaboration with GTP, giving the company exclusive rights, with certain limitations, to technologies developed with GTP, according to the report.

Gene therapy uses genetic modification of cells in order to treat or cure diseases, including cancer, genetic diseases, and infectious diseases. The field is growing fast, with Philadelphia labeled a hub for innovation, partly because of GTP’s location.

University spokesperson Stephen MacCarthy wrote in an email to the DP that the University has no com-

Penn will continue hybrid work for staff next spring, extend employee winter break EDWIN MEIJA

Women’s basketball players scrimmage at the Palestra..

The Penn women’s basketball program will stagger the suspensions over the course of the team’s first eight regular-season games. Penn is not slated to play a conference matchup in any of those eight games.

This is not the first time that a team has faced a punishment of such severity. In November 2019, Penn women’s volleyball’s entire rest of the season was canceled after “vulgar, offensive, and disrespectful” signs were found in the team’s locker room.

The Quakers kick off their season on Sunday, Nov. 14 at Hartford. Their next seven games span through early December, and the team’s first game back at full strength will be on Dec. 5 at home against Duke.

More to come on this situation as the story unfolds.

Winter break will be extended by two days to include Jan. 3 and Jan. 4 as a show of gratitude, University administrators announced EMI TUYETNHI TRAN Senior Reporter

Penn’s hybrid work program for staff will continue through the spring 2022 semester and staff winter break will be extended an additional two days, University administrators announced in a Wednesday morning email.

The email, authored by Penn President Amy Gutmann, Interim Provost Beth Winkelstein, Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli, and Executive Vice President for the Health System J. Larry Jameson, credited the success of University operations this fall to consistently low COVID-19 positivity rates on campus and high vaccination rates.

ment regarding the allegations against GTP or whether the University is aware of employee complaints submitted to the Medical School’s human resources department. Associate Vice President for Communications at Penn Medicine Holly Auer redirected the DP back to MacCarthy in response to a request for comment.

Wilson did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

‘Shit falls downhill’: Employees belittled by meaningless job responsibilities All 11 current and former GTP employees who spoke to the DP alleged mistreatment and ineffective leadership by upper-level employees: namely Wilson and Jessica Alkins, GTP’s senior director of organizational strategy and operations, who leads the program’s human resources and administrative functions.

Many former employees also said the program has an abnormally high turnover rate compared to biotech industry peers, largely because of the toxic environment.

Multiple former employees said Alkins was responSEE GENE THERAPY PAGE 2

COVID-19 positivity rates have remained under 0.5% for the past eight weeks, and vaccination rates among students, staff, postdocs, and faculty are all over 97%, according to the email. On Oct. 12, the University announced that the vaccination rate for students reached 99%. The vaccination rate for faculty and undergraduates reached 97% in September 2021.

Winter break will be extended by two days to include Jan. 3 and Jan. 4 as a show of gratitude, the email stated.

Employees defined as essential workers may still have to work but are able to schedule alternative time off. Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania physicians and Health System employees will follow the guidelines set by the Health System, the email stated.

The administrators also encouraged members of the Penn community to get tested for COVID-19 before traveling for Thanksgiving break and winter break.

In anticipation of increased testing before Thanksgiving break, COVID-19 testing center hours will be expanded to include Nov. 21, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and the three weekdays preceding Thanksgiving.

“As we approach the holiday season, we encourage you to celebrate how far we have come in the past 18 months, while remaining cautious and vigilant about our shared public health,” the email stated. “We thank you again for your resilience and flexibility as we move forward, and we wish everyone a joyful and safe Thanksgiving holiday.”

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sible for the abusive workplace environment, characterizing her and GTP’s own HR department as “manipulative” for ignoring employees’ concerns. Alkins did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“It was such a toxic work environment,” one anonymous former GTP employee said. “I’ve never in my entire life ever experienced anything as awful as this, and I feel so bad for the people that also experienced it.”

Multiple GTP employees have filed formal complaints about Alkins, one former employee said.

Four current and former employees alleged that Alkins would often apply different standards to different people and would talk down to staff members of color, including to lower-paid positions filled primarily with staff members who are racial minorities at GTP, like cage wash technicians.

Turquoise Myricks, a current employee who was hired at GTP as a lab assistant in 2017, said her job responsibilities have completely changed since she first started. Myricks said her senior director at the time promised her a promotion to become a lab manager, and pushed her to fulfill the duties of a lab manager — like ordering supplies, organizing the lab, and talking to vendors on the phone. But once her senior director left GTP, Myricks continued those duties without the promotion.

Myricks believes her promotion was ultimately taken away once GTP’s human resources personnel, namely Alkins, stepped in after rumors about Myricks began to circulate among her coworkers, as they alleged that she was rarely at work or slacking at the job — even though Myricks said her directors did not express an issue with her directly. Alkins eventually called a meeting with Myricks to discuss the rumors, Myricks said.

“I never spoke to [Alkins] before in the first three years that I’ve ever been with GTP, and she always had this demeanor ... She’d talk down to you — she’d talk at you,” Myricks said.

Now, Myricks said she feels like she’s “just a trash person” who has been stripped of everything she learned at GTP in the past. Myricks said she arrives at work at around 7 a.m. and within 30 minutes, she completes her daily tasks, like making sure machines are working properly. After that, she takes the trash out.

Employees said they also felt significantly overwhelmed by the pressure they felt from administrative members to complete day-to-day tasks, including preparing an excessive amount of food for meetings, plating food for upper management, and picking up lunch for executives.

Like Myricks, some said the duties of their jobs were unclear and their responsibilities frequently changed over time.

While some employees implicated Veronique Charles, GTP’s senior administrative coordinator, and Carey Dougherty, GTP’s associate director for talent development and employee engagement, for the office environment, others close to the matter told the DP that Alkins is the main person responsible for the haphazard workplace disorganization, since she gives orders and delegates tasks to Charles and Dougherty.

“I had always felt like someone had a gun to my head when I was doing work, like if I made one mistake one

time, [Charles] would make me feel like I’m incapable of doing anything,” former temporary administrative coordinator Aliza Wolf said of her boss, Charles.

Wolf, who joined GTP in 2019 as a temporary employee, said that after making a couple of mistakes doing purchase orders, she was stripped of all her work responsibilities and was instead asked to make 20 to 25 snack baskets each week, excluding catering orders she had to do before meetings. Preparing food for meetings was “never necessary,” Wolf said, adding that a lot of the conversation at GTP was just about food.

“No one ever touched these snacks. No one really cared — like this was a huge waste, I think, of Penn’s money and my time,” Wolf said.

Like Wolf, a former administrative coordinator at GTP, who requested anonymity, said there was no stability with the job. Her daily work schedule and office location were suddenly changed several times, which she said contributed to her mounting anxiety on the job.

Though the tasks weren’t officially assigned on her computer, the former administrative coordinator said that she was asked to make snack baskets, coffee, and hot water for many meetings, especially for the meetings Wilson attended.

Three employees said that even though they completed various menial tasks correctly, some administrators would continuously say they had done the job wrong — nitpicking and rearranging the work they did all over again. Wolf said she was asked to plate Wilson’s food and that “everything had to be perfectly presented.”

Margaret Spencer, who was hired as a temporary employee in 2019 after working at Penn Museum full time for more than 16 years, said the nature of her role as executive assistant was unclear from the outset.

During her virtual job interview with Dougherty and Alkins, Spencer said she was told she would be working for the deputy director and her two deputies in the Orphan Disease Center, a separate research center in the Medical School led by Wilson. But within her first 10 days at GTP, Spencer said the people to whom she was told to report changed three times.

Spencer sent the DP a three-page document she wrote when she was leaving GTP in July 2019, in which she detailed several issues she experienced at GTP in case she was asked to give an exit interview, which never occurred. In the document, Spencer said the program had a workflow style that resulted in “crap flowing downhill to a job with no clear vision, determination, or boundaries,” as administrative members piled overflow work onto their employees, who passed their work onto others.

Describing the work atmosphere, Spencer wrote that “poor communication leads to poor morale,” as changes in assignments or reporting processes would happen with no prior notice, and there was intrapersonal mistrust between employees and widespread resistance to changing workflow processes.

“My position by the end of the time I was there was the ‘shit-falls-downhill position,’ where anything anybody else couldn’t do got dumped on me, because I could do it,” Spencer said.

‘Nobody stayed’: High turnover rate plagues GTP Some former employees felt their jobs were unnecessary and alleged that GTP hires a large number of employees to bolster the size and reputation of the program.

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The disorganized work environment led to an unusually high turnover rate within the program, some said.

The program currently employs over 300 full-time employees and its annual operating budget is based on funding from public and private sponsors, according to its LinkedIn. In the last year, of the program’s 170 employees who are on LinkedIn, as of November 2021, GTP’s employee distribution and headcount growth has increased by 50% in its human resources sector, 80% in its program and project management sector, 20% in its operations sector, and 17% in its research sector, based on LinkedIn data.

The former administrative coordinator, who — like many other employees — began at GTP as a temporary employee through the talent acquisition firm Juno Search Partners, was responsible for setting up desks for new hires. She said there were always between two and 10 new hires every two weeks for a year. The program has a high turnover rate, she said, adding that “nobody stayed.”

Temporary employees hired from Juno Search Partners “never seemed to last,” the former administrative coordinator continued, adding that she knew of about five employees who were at GTP for less than four months and then was told to leave during the time she worked there. She said many of the temporary employees were younger and recent college graduates.

“It’s every week, we have two or three people leaving,” a current GTP employee said. “People seem miserable ... people complaining about [Alkins], complaining about the work environment, complaining about favoritism,” they said.

One former employee said GTP had a turnover rate of 23% for 2020, a statistic she had access to as part of the human resources team. She added that Alkins did not share this figure with GTP executives to hide that the company was having retention issues.

“Biotech turnover is around 10 to 11% on average, which is good,” the former employee said, noting that GTP’s turnover rate last year was allegedly more than twice this figure. The median voluntary turnover rate for American biotech industry companies was about 8.1% as of the first quarter of 2015.

The former employee attributed workplace toxicity and the high turnover rate to the “ineptitude” of senior leadership.

Like others, Spencer believes the program continues to hire additional people instead of finding an efficient way to allocate work to an appropriate number of employees. She added that if GTP is bringing in a significant amount of money to the University, they “may feel they need to justify bringing in that much money by paying people” even if the jobs are not necessary.

Spencer said her role as an executive assistant was unnecessary because GTP’s Orphan Disease Center personnel were self-sufficient.

“I believe that the only reason there was an executive assistant position was not for the [Orphan Disease Center]. It was not that there was need for that work, but that somebody thought it looked good,” Spencer said.

She earned significantly higher pay — $35 an hour — as a temporary employee at GTP than she did in her previous full-time jobs at Penn. She stayed at GTP for four months until July 2019, before declining to continue as a full-time hire as temporary employees traditionally do.

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM Wolf, who also began at GTP as a temporary employee through Juno Search Partners, similarly said she does not think the duties of her job were of any value.

“They needed people,” Wolf said. “They just wanted people to make baskets and make it bigger as a department.”

Spencer said all of the GTP support staff members were female during her time there, and that, except for her, all of them were young. While she said that many men do not take administrative jobs in the United States, she believes a reason why the majority of employees at GTP are female is because “women are cheaper than men.” The current GTP employee agreed.

Former employees also alleged that some higherups in the company were either slacking on the job, not present at the office, or exhibiting inappropriate behavior while at work.

Several former GTP employees said Charles would make sexually explicit comments to coworkers in the office, interrupt employees while they were working and constantly use online shopping websites and dating apps during work hours. These employees felt the relationships Charles crafted with her coworkers were inappropriate for an office setting.

The former administrative coordinator said after working with Charles, her direct supervisor, for many months, they realized that their seemingly close relationship was a ruse to get her to accomplish tasks at work while Charles laid back and did little.

In an email sent on Feb. 4, 2020 to Penn’s Office of Affirmative Action & Equal Opportunity Programs, the former administrative coordinator attached four photos of a “Complaint of Discrimination, Harassment and/or Retaliation Form” she signed on Jan. 29, 2020.

She outlined three issues that she considered forms of retaliation from Charles.

The former administrative coordinator pointed to an instance when Charles demanded that she remove privacy screens off their computer monitor even though she insisted the privacy was necessary when dealing with confidential emails about employee issues. She also wrote that Charles assigned a task to complete on a day Charles and another colleague would not be present to help with.

“I feel as though my supervisor, Veronique Charles, is [retaliating] against me as there is currently an investigation happening from Penn [Medical School] HR ... I have also filed a formal complaint to the Title IX Office due to the many inappropriate things my supervisor has said to me while working here at GTP,” the former administrative coordinator’s email to the office stated.

The Office of Affirmative Action & Equal Opportunity Programs works closely with the University’s Division of Human Resources on issues related to equal opportunity, affirmative action, and diversity for staff and applicants for employment, according to its website.

The former administrative coordinator wrote, “I would like [Charles] reprimanded for her unacceptable behavior at the highest level possible. Working with [Charles] has caused me to have severe anxiety and stress.”

For the rest of this story, continue reading at thedp.com.

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As temperatures dropped, parts of David Rittenhouse Laboratory were left without heat The heating in several math professors’ offices stopped working on Nov. 3 — as temperatures outside reached a low of 37 degrees JARED MITOVICH Contributing Reporter

Broken heating on the fourth floor of David Rittenhouse Laboratory forced professors and graduate students to work in cold temperatures last week.

Svetlana Makarova and Maximilien Péroux, both math professors with offices in the 4C wing of DRL, said the heating in their offices stopped working on Nov. 3 — as temperatures outside reached a low of 37 degrees. The issue was resolved on Monday, Facilities & Real Estate Services Operations and Maintenance Executive Director Faramarz Vakilizadeh wrote in an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

“Due to a heat timer programming issue with the perimeter steam radiator system, some rooms were not reaching the desired temperature,” Vakilizadeh said.

Makarova said that administrative staff in the Math Department entered her office on Tuesday and attempted to turn up the heating system to the

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A hallway in David Rittenhouse Laboratory on Oct. 21.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2021 second-highest level. The heat didn’t turn on, leading Makarova to email the DRL building administration. DRL is located at 33rd and Walnut streets and houses the Physics and Math departments, as well as several laboratories.

At 3 p.m. Friday — when it was 54 degrees outside — Makarova’s portable thermostat read 63 degrees.

The World Health Organization, in its standards for healthy indoor temperatures, recommends a minimum of 64.4 degrees. Makarova said that she ended up wearing gloves to keep her hands warm, and that the Math Department lent her a space heater.

“With lower temperatures, my fingers freeze and I can’t move them as freely,” Makarova said.

Makarova and Péroux both decided to work from home as a result of the heating issue. Makarova stayed home on Wednesday, while Péroux, who does not teach classes on Thursdays, chose to stay home on that day.

“There’s no reason for me to come over and freeze,” Péroux said.

While Makarova confirmed that the heating returned to her office on Nov. 9, one week after it stopped working, others who work in DRL said that this is not the first time heating has been an issue.

Jiaming Xia, a mathematics Ph.D. candidate in the School of Arts and Sciences, said she has experienced faulty heating in parts of the third and fourth floors of DRL since her first year at Penn in 2017.

Xia said that the difference between the reliable heating in undergraduate classrooms and the faulty heating in “shabby” graduate offices showed a contrast between the resources Penn dedicates to undergraduate and graduate students.

Administrators previously cited a lack of funding as the reason why a 2013 plan to renovate DRL did not move forward. DRL was built in 1954.

“Sometimes it’s working. Sometimes it’s not,” Xia said. “It’s just something really random, and it’s hard to handle.”

Math professor Ryan Hynd, who works in the 4N wing, said that the heater in his office has not worked for a “big part” of the time he has worked at Penn — since 2012.

While Xia and Hynd said that temperatures inside DRL were still warmer than outside, they both said that it can be uncomfortably cold working in their offices for prolonged periods of time. For years, both have taken steps to stay warm in their offices during the winter.

“I do what I got to do to stay warm, get the work done, and then get home,” Hynd said.

Xia said that one of her friends bought a portable space heater off of Amazon to deal with the cold indoor temperatures and shared it with other graduate students, and Hynd said he usually keeps an extra sweatshirt in his office.

“During the winters, we just gather around that small heater. It’s really funny,” she said.

Hynd said that building maintenance staff have addressed previous heating issues with repairs such as resealing windows that were letting in cold air.

However, returning to his office in person this fall after a year of working remotely made him re-evaluate his working conditions.

“I work for an Ivy League institution, as a tenured professor, and I don’t really have adequate heating,” he said. “It doesn’t really add up.”

Penn students, staff reflect on working for the NBC News Decision Desk on Election Day Members of Penn’s Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies helped the NBC News Decision Desk call races on Election Day JACOB POLLACK Contributing Reporter

Penn staff and students affiliated with Penn’s Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies worked for the NBC News Decision Desk on Election Day. Several PORES faculty members work at NBC News Decision Desk, helping the network project the outcome of races. PORES program staff analyzed data and polls broadcasted during NBC’s telecast on Nov. 2. When there are updates such as “too close to call” or “projected winner,” the staff at PORES are the ones making those calls. Two Penn students were also invited to join the PORES staff at the Comcast Technology Center, where they assisted the NBC News Decision Desk.

While Election Day consisted of mostly local positions, there were also two highly contested governors races in New Jersey and Virginia. Governor Phil Murphy (D-N.J.) narrowly won re-election in New Jersey, and Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.) was

NEWS 3 elected governor of Virginia.

College junior Anya Tullman was one of the students who worked at NBC News Decision Desk on election night. Tullman spent her evening looking at NBC’s projections and data in comparison to other news sources, such as The Associated Press.

“It was cool to be in the room where it happened, to really see exactly how elections are called,” Tullman, a former staffer of The Daily Pennsylvanian, said. “The fact that Penn has a program that is essentially in charge of elections for NBC is kind of crazy.”

College sophomore Tyler Jenkins-Wong also worked with NBC on Election Day, arriving at the Comcast Technology Center while the polls were still open.

Jenkins-Wong tracked turnout in different counties across Virginia and New Jersey through Twitter, phone calls, and emails. After the polls closed, he compared data from county and state websites to NBC’s databases.

The PORES staff have a long-standing connection to NBC, which includes Stephanie Perry, executive director of the Fox Leadership Program and PORES. Perry runs the exit polls desks for NBC. “The exit poll is the only poll where we are actually standing outside the polling place,” Perry said.

“We know for a fact that the people answering these polls are voters.”

In past years, NBC News Decision Desk has conducted exit polls throughout the country, but with only a handful of races this year, NBC News decided only to cover exit polls in Virginia, Perry said.

Andrew Arenge, director of operations for PORES and a member of NBC’s election night team since 2016, helps coordinate coverage that happens across all platforms of NBC, which includes MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, NBC News NOW, The Choice, and NBC’s social media platforms.

College junior Anya Tullman (left) and College sophomore Tyler Jenkins-Wong. (Photos from Anya Tullman and Tyler Jenkins-Wong)

4 OPINION

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2021

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

OPINION THURSDAY NOVEMBER 11, 2021 VOL. CXXXVII, NO. 26 137th Year of Publication DANE GREISIGER President ASHLEY AHN Executive Editor HADRIANA LOWENKRON DP Editor-in-Chief ISABEL LIANG Design Editor CONOR MURRAY News Editor PIA SINGH News Editor HANNAH GROSS Assignments Editor BRITTANY DARROW Copy Editor

EDITORIAL

T

his time of year, Penn students are selecting classes for the spring semester. During their selection process, students may consider a plethora of factors, including the timing of course meetings, difficulty and instructor ratings given on the Penn Course Review website, and courses required to complete major or school requirements.

One piece of information, however, is often lacking: course syllabi. Too often, when students search for courses on Penn InTouch, their options do not have a class syllabus, which lays out the expectations, grading scheme, required textbooks, and material covered for that class. Such information can prove invaluable, since it allows students to assess the scope of a course, how much materials may cost, and, ultimately, whether registering is worth it. As such,

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P

rior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was clear that many college students were not doing well. Researchers noticed an increase in students entering college with psychiatric diagnoses and increasingly using mental health services for many conditions, including depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, and ADHD. There are now college rankings on how depressed a school’s student body is. If you listen to students’ conversations around many college campuses, you’ll likely hear conversations about sleep deprivation, hefty workloads, overcommitment, and burnout.

In my first few semesters at Penn, I have noticed that such statements are quite common. Below are a few actual statements I’ve heard over the past months: “If I can just be perfect … I don’t care what anyone else says. I just need to perform absolutely perfectly, and then I can be happy this week.”

From a full-time, employed student who is involved in multiple clubs: “You’re giving me imposter syndrome. I just don’t do enough here. I can’t keep up.”

“I’m way too stressed all the time.

I feel like my time here is just passing by. I’m only using college as a means to get into grad school, and I’m not enjoying anything. Life just moves on without me.”

Anecdotes like this make the actual data unsurprising: a 2020 survey of thirty thousand college students found that over half screened positively for anxiety or depression. The same survey found that 83% of students said that their “mental health had negatively impacted their academic performance,” and two-thirds said that they struggled with loneliness.

Unfortunately, these issues have intensified during the pandemic and continue to challenge our school.

In 2014, after several students died by suicide, Penn created the Task Force on

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can prove to be particularly valuable.

Admittedly, syllabi are not binding documents, nor should they be. Events ranging from natural disasters to disruptive presidential elections to a global pandemic have caused professors to divert from their course plans, altering both the introduction and timing of concepts listed on a syllabus.

What they do offer, however, is an opportunity to know what one is getting into when signing up for a class.

Penn’s advance registration system has numerous problems, and it is built on outdated online infrastructure. While the introduction of Penn InTouch’s replacement will solve some of these issues, students can only make optimal academic decisions if they have access to all available information. As such, all professors should upload syllabi in advance of a class’s initial meeting.

Student Psychological Health and Welfare.

The committee suggested ways to “further strengthen” the University’s mental health efforts in communication, information availability, education and training, and resource distribution.

Penn’s efforts since have yielded significant improvements that are shown by the appointment of Benoit Dubé as Chief Wellness Officer, the free selfcare seminars offered by Counseling and Psychological Services, the studentled services such as Penn Benjamins and Unmasked, and the dozens of other academic, professional, and spiritual resources available.

As successful as these initiatives may be, creating a healthier culture remains a long-standing challenge. Seven years ago, the aforementioned task force identified Penn’s highly competitive environment as an issue. They noted that students have an individual responsibility (in addition to that the institution bears) to care for themselves. However, for perfection-seeking students, this may be easier said than done.

The culture at Penn is one that rewards intense competitiveness. Being highly successful — commonly judged in terms of material wealth — is many students’ top concern. If you ask any one of us about our summer plans, you’ll usually hear of anything but relaxation. Ultimately, the issue of poor health is clear. To address the mental health conditions associated with toxic competition and stress, we should be prioritizing our wellness above all else.

Aside from the fact that being healthy is intrinsically good, studies (unsurprisingly) show that mental health is a predictor of professional success. In fact, mental illness has been found to “be both a consequence of, and risk factor for, unemployment”, and “cyclical” in its detriment to workers. If Penn students seek high-level, intense jobs, it pays to take care of themselves, both physically and

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emotionally.

Some may argue that competitiveness is beneficial for students to acquire realworld skills and cultivate ambition. And it is true — certainly not all stressful experiences are necessarily bad or toxic, and many provide opportunities for personal growth. However, the evidence is clear: severe and chronic stress can trigger physical and mental illnesses, both in the short- and long-term.

In addition to taking advantage of the plethora of mental health resources at Penn, students should be mindful of conversations with peers and focus on creating dialogue for wellness.

To transform Penn’s culture of toxic competitiveness, consider the following: Students: When joining a club, signing up for a class, or taking on any new responsibility, ask yourself how this activity will be meaningful to you. Is it going to have substantial weight on your future making it worth the extra commitment? Is this going to make you happy, or pose an unnecessary burden on your wellness?

Faculty: Be considerate of the often

overwhelming workload students receive from classes, internships, jobs, and volunteering. Recognize that breaks are times for students to rest, not to catch up on ever-piling work. Emphasize that students’ priorities should be on learning and understanding rather than receiving high grades.

Student organizations: focus on welcoming members rather than promoting status and exclusivity. More selective clubs should have, at a minimum, general bodies so that students who are really interested can get involved regardless of acceptance onto a specific team.

As a community, let’s make our health — and not our résumé — our first priority.

BRINN GAMMER is a College sophomore studying neuroscience from Hazleton, Pa. She is also a research assistant in the Scattergood Program for Applied Ethics of Behavioral Healthcare in the Division of Medical Ethics at Penn. Her email is brinng@sas.upenn.edu.edu.

Can we imagine an education system without grades?

TYLER KLIEM Design Associate

PARIS ROSEN Design Associate

For example, if a course is exam-based and a student doesn’t test well, they may want to look for alternatives. Additionally, having information about courses available ahead of time could make it less likely for students to drop. A column by two officers on the College Dean’s Advisory Board said over half of all students surveyed have made final decisions regarding dropping a class after seeing the syllabus.

Furthermore, access to course syllabi is a financial equity issue. In 2018, students spent an average of over $1,300 on course textbooks, for which some of them had limited purchasing options. Knowing what books are required for a course, and how one might have access to them, can save students hundreds of dollars per course per semester, as one may be able to plan ahead.

For financially vulnerable students, this

Guest Column | Some tangible recommendations to improve our mental health

ALICE CHOI Design Associate

BECKY LEE Design Associate

Penn professors must make every effort to make class information more transparent.

The lack of access to syllabi is not a new issue; indeed, The Daily Pennsylvanian Editorial Board wrote about the issue as recently as August of 2019. Since then, COVID-19 has disrupted the learning landscape, leaving whole classes of students unaccustomed to a typical academic schedule. But during that time, progress was made on the issue. Led by the College Dean’s Advisory Board, professors uploaded syllabi en masse to Penn InTouch during the all-online semesters. But now that we’ve returned to in-person classes, Penn InTouch is sparse for syllabi.

Having access to course syllabi has several benefits. Most obviously, knowing what the class entails allows students to make the decisions that best suit them.

Prioritize well-being over résumé building

ALFREDO PRATICÒ Opinion Editor SUNNY JANG Audience Engagement Editor

What happened to course syllabi on Penn InTouch?

Brick in the Wall | Gradelessness can be the solution to revitalizing students’ creativity

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rom the moment we entered preschool, we have received constant, systematic training on how we should exist. The cycle of socialization follows us throughout our lives — don’t speak in class unless spoken to, don’t question authority, sit still for eight hours. Absorb information until you can regurgitate it robotically, then come back the next day and do it all again. These norms of behavior — specifically imitating and obeying authority — are so deeply internalized in students’ psyches that it doesn’t even occur to us to act differently.

As a result, by the time students enter the workforce, we’re perfectly socialized to be the perfect employee.

Grades are undeniably a method of coercion in our education system — they define everything from our interactions with learning to our general perceptions of ourselves as human beings. In my two years at Penn, I’ve seen people, myself included, break down over one bad grade. I’ve seen people question their future job prospects after receiving a B in an introductory class.

I’ve seen people abandon their passion for a certain subject just because they perform “better” in another subject. I’ve been embarrassed to discuss a bad grade because I have some ridiculous notion in my head that I’m the only one in a class of 150 to have performed poorly. I’ve attended talks about mental health where students implore others not to hide behind their “Penn Face,” and then moments later brag about their accomplishments in this class and that club — just to show that despite their struggles, they’ve “made it.” Grades hold such a salient role in the larger education system that students tend to believe that it’s actually a credible measurement of their knowledge and capabilities — both now and in the future.

Now, imagine if you were no longer graded. Ridiculous, right? “Gradeless-

EVELYN EISENSTEIN

ness,” especially at a pre-professional, Ivy League, school seems laughable at best and impossible at worst. What about my law school applications? How will I graduate?

How will I brag to my friends that I actually passed CIS 160 and didn’t sleep through every class? This mindset makes sense, especially when our own undergraduate deans send out threatening emails discouraging students in the middle of a pandemic from taking classes pass/fail so as to not hurt their career prospects.

When I was first introduced to the concept of “gradelessness” in high school, I thought it was ridiculous. If I didn’t have the looming fear of tanking my GPA over my head, what would drive me to study?

What’s stopping me from never showing up? Turns out, when I no longer felt like I had to tie up my self worth to a numerical value, I actually flourished. Most of the things I learned in AP Calculus and AP Government were ejected from my head the minute I handed in my final exam,

but in other classes where I didn’t have to worry about my grades, I actually took the time to explore, learn, and fail. I had my moments of stress, but I never considered failure to be the end of the world.

Gradelessness at the college level is obviously a much harder task, especially considering that the bureaucratic structures of the education system have remained deeply ingrained in our society for the past century. But this is only because we haven’t challenged it. During the pandemic — which, for many of us, was the longest break from school that we experienced — people became more creative than ever, tapping into their undiscovered talents and interests. This only further cements the fact that school and grades alienate us from our potential and the world around us. Now more than ever is the time to challenge the education system.

Even at Penn, letter grades are largely arbitrary — I’ve received “bad” grades in classes that I’m truly passionate about

and “good” grades in classes where I Sparknotes-ed every reading. I’ve taken midterms where I don’t know which material I’m supposed to study, and I’ve been curved down in classes because other students simply performed too well. So why should this arbitrary assessment define our value and success as a student?

Penn is exactly the place that ought to revolutionize education. In a school with notoriously stressed students, why shouldn’t we approach education differently? We likely can’t abolish grades so readily at the institutional level, so let’s start first in smaller seminars. Have each student set expectations for themselves, and then ask them how well they met those expectations in the end. Have discussions and give out assignments, but don’t expect students to conform to a slapdash, arbitrary rubric. Have more projects and fewer quizzes, and encourage failure so that you may foster success. Employ flexible deadlines, or have no deadlines at all. Give students the agency to take risks, and foster the curiosity and energy that makes us all human.

The most important part of gradelessness is redefining the concept of success from a straight line — which inevitably sets people up for disappointment — to a process. Still a long, possibly painful process, but one where you’re encouraged to learn as opposed to perform. The truth is, the best accomplishments in history didn’t come from conforming to a rubric for an A+. Grades are a construct, but our natural creativity is not — and that is what schools ultimately need to nurture. Let’s start educating people and stop grading them.

TAJA MAZAJ is a College sophomore studying political science from King of Prussia, Pa. Her email is tajam@sas.upenn.edu.

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

OPINION 5

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Seek meaning in pre-professionalism

What’s in a name?

Toner’s Groaner | Pre-professionalism at Penn should focus on allowing students to explore the meaning of their future careers

Iskra (The Spark) | On the erasure of foreign names, and how we reclaim our heritage

C

oming to Penn this August, I was more or less prepared to be surrounded by the University’s infamous pre-professional culture. However, I didn’t expect the overwhelming feeling of anxiety and stress that stemmed from such a culture as I tried to navigate through the first month of my first year.

Whether I was at the club fair, in the classroom, or even over the dining tables in the cafeteria, people seemed to always overburden themselves with countless commitments whether it was seeking out an internship opportunity, preparing for a competition as a club member, or networking with a guest speaker. The fact that everyone else was constantly doing something to ensure a secure future constantly made me question why I was not doing the same.

But it soon occurred to me that the more perplexing question is: Why exactly is everyone doing so much?

The current pre-professional culture at Penn asks students to invest too much in packaging themselves as the perfect applicant at the expense of exploring what their desired career is really about. Penn students need to take a step back from acquiring the skills and experiences for a job until they have thought enough about the reason for doing so, which is the crucial step that defines our humanity.

In essence, Penn students partaking in the preprofessional track are burdened with the obligation to showcase themselves before thinking about the intrinsic reason for doing so. The intrinsic reason for getting into, for instance, finance and consulting isn’t about the money or stability these jobs can offer – there are many other jobs that can be equally well-paid and stable, so why not something else?

The reason shouldn’t stem from one’s parents either.

We all hear so frequently that someone is going to be on the pre-med track because their parents tell them to do so. As a human being, it is ultimately our life that we are living. Therefore, what matters the most is what the self believes and ponders. Our ability to think proactively separates us from a robot. Whereas a robot only passively takes in commands from the external environment, a human has agency over themselves and has the power to make themselves unique with their own thinking. For Penn students, taking the time to ask themselves why they, as human beings, want to get into a particular field that they spend so much time preparing themselves for is one way to utilize that power.

Thinking about the reason for getting into a specific field doesn’t mean that pre-professionalism itself is problematic. The ideology of pre-professionalism per se is less of a problem than how this idea manifests itself on campus. There is nothing wrong with preparing oneself to become a more competitive applicant among all the other college graduates who are on the lookout for the same position.

And for many students who face rising tuition costs and aim to achieve financial stability in the future, pre-professionalism is one way to get a head start compared to other students. However, pre-professionalism doesn’t mean getting an internship as a first year or even before going to college. Nor does

PARIS ROSEN

it mean that students should be devoting an excess amount of their spare time to participate in clubs that focus heavily on building connections with people already in the workforce while taking intro classes that don’t reveal the complexity of the corresponding discipline.

One way to reform Penn’s pre-professionalism is to delay the process of skill acquisition, giving students enough time to figure out the almost philosophical question. To many students, this question doesn’t have an easy answer and it shouldn’t be. Instead of skipping the thought process and heading straight into action, a helpful pre-professional program would prioritize the task of helping students find the intrinsic value over preparing these people with the skills they need. There are numerous ways to make such a program possible, but the most effective way is through reforming club activities. The panels and events many preprofessional clubs organize should put a heavier emphasis on the meaning of a career. A prospective first year or sophomore can benefit much more from hearing a panel talking about the meaning of being an employee in a company than the skills an employer is looking for.

However, it is also dangerous for some students to find an easy way out of this mind-boggling problem by making up a humanitarian reason to support their career choice. Echoing a Stanford Daily writer who summarized this phenomenon as the duck syndrome, “[students] quack loudly about deep intellectual thoughts on the surface while paddling furiously toward career goals underwater.” Any decision we make without knowing its intrinsic meaning or while pretending to have one will result in a loss of a fraction of humanity, and the latter is even worse because pretending to have a reason means that someone has willingly chosen to give up their opportunity to think. When a person acquires a job without really knowing the reason why they chose that specific job, they lose that tiny portion of humanity that is a thousand-fold times more valuable than the paychecks and stability.

TONY ZHOU is a College first year from Zhejiang, China. His email is hyy0501@sas. upenn.edu.edu.

Meet Penn’s Board of Trustees, the reason why progress is never made Guest Column | The for-profit nature of the Trustees’ investment practices is why demands from the Penn population and West Philadelphia are never met

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n Nov. 5, Penn sent yet another email congratulating itself for its minimal climate action. Student organizations have already released statements angered by the utter inaction and heavily exaggerated claims of progress. Penn’s lackadaisical approach to responding to student demands, from their climate inaction, to their refusal to pay Payments In Lieu Of Taxes, and their paltry response to calls to do so, are a direct result of the disconnect between the Penn’s Board of Trustees and the actual demands of the student body and the surrounding West Philadelphia community.

Penn’s Board of Trustees consists of 56 members, many of whom are financial executives, CEOs, and billionaires.

Furthermore, only two trustees live in the Philadelphia area, and Tom Wolf, by virtue of being Pennsylvania’s governor, is the only trustee who works in the public sector. The Undergraduate Assembly, the Graduate and Professional Student Association, and the Faculty Senate are able to make recommendations to the Trustees and the administration, but ultimately have no executive or voting power on any of the Trustees’ decisions. The Trustees clearly do not represent Penn’s population and the West Philadelphia community, but the Trustees “have sole responsibility for all investment decisions,” and have the “fiduciary obligation to invest the University endowment so as to maximize University resources.” Essentially, the Trustees are solely in charge of Penn’s investment, and their main objective is profit maximization.

Penn’s Trustees are heavily intertwined with the fossil fuel industry, meaning any calls for fossil fuel divestment fall on deaf ears. President Amy Gutmann is on the board of directors of Vanguard, the world’s largest investor in coal, and holder of over $360 billion total in fossil fuel funds. Chairman Scott Bok is CEO of Greenhill & Co., an investment firm that also invests and profits heavily off of oil and gas companies.

Vice Chairman Lee Spelman Doty serves as Head of U.S. Equity at JP Morgan Chase. JP Morgan Chase has consistently announced climate change and sustainability initiatives and “successes” similar to Penn, such as aiming to invest $2.5 trillion over 10 years in green companies. Yet, even among other large banks, JP Morgan is the largest funder of fossil fuel companies.

Penn’s Trustees’ socially irresponsible investing practices persist for one sole reason: to increase the University’s endowment and, therefore, the reputation of the Trustees. Outside of President Gutmann, all other trustee members of Penn’s investment board are financial executives, applying the same for-profit tactics of Wall Street to Penn’s endowment. Only about 5% of the endowment

is actually reinvested in the school, a similar value to other universities. Penn and other schools argue that this is to ensure donations can be continuously invested in the University for years to come.

The true reason why elite universities insist on expanding endowments is that it is a form of reputation building, even in times of financial insecurity. During the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, universities elected for budget austerity measures over tapping into their endowments.

Another piece of evidence for this is Penn’s rising cost of tuition accompanying Penn’s growing endowment. Philanthropy as reputation cleansing is also on the rise among the wealthy, and one of the ways this manifests itself is through donations to univerBRANDON LI sities. This sentiment extends to the University’s endowment, which has always been a source of pride, a way to compare itself to other universities, and a way to flex the might and influence of Penn’s alumni and donor base. Penn’s prioritization of endowment accumulation, from its shady international investments, to its recession budget austerity, is also a direct product of prioritizing reputation and prestige over the Penn population and West Philadelphians by a board of financial elites and wealthy alumni.

Students’ calls for divestment from fossil fuels, more investment in local schools and the West Philadelphia community, and further transparency on financial investments are justified, but as long as Penn’s endowment is run by a board of financial executives completely detached from Penn and the local community, accomplishing these tasks will be nearly impossible.

The endowment should be reinvested back into the local community often damaged by Penn’s practices, rather than managed like a hedge-fund. As the growing endowment is not being used to pay students’ tuition, Penn students should at least be able to decide how Penn’s endowment is invested. Alternatively, as completely restructuring Penn’s governing body seems unlikely, we should support taxing schools with large endowments, so that money can be reinvested for the greater good.

PENN JUSTICE DEMOCRATS is the premier student-run leftist organization on Penn’s campus. Learn more about them at pennjusticedems.org.

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y name is Vinay. And it’s pronounced ViyNEY — not Vinny, Vinyay, or Vené. I have heard it all, and that’s not even including the gross misspellings encountered on a Starbucks latte cup or fast food ticket. But no matter how many times I hear a letter or syllable out of place, it still stings, and I feel it in my core.

I don’t think this feeling comes out of a selfish desire to simply be known by my name the way I understand it but because my name is more than just a name. It’s a reflection of my heritage and ancestry; “Vinay” doesn’t refer to just me, it denotes a culture thousands of years old and traditions that hold special significance for me and millions that came before. It’s an Indian name, a shortened version of the name Vinayaka, a name of Lord Ganesha, one of the most well-known and worshipped gods in the Hindu faith.

I did not always know all of this — or attach such deep significance to it. In fact, I used to be embarrassed of my name, especially in school as I saw the teacher hesitantly approach it on the attendance list. No special looks or attention were paid to Josh, Nikki, Emma, and Matt and their normal, American names. But my Indian name stood out so I stood out. I was othered before I even had the chance to speak. And so when my teachers inevitably pronounced my name with a misplaced emphasis or scrambled letters, I quietly said, “here” and chose to not correct them. After all, I did not want to draw even more attention to myself and my differences.

ALICE CHOI

In classes surrounded by white people, in a country dominated by white people, it made sense to blend into the crowd the best I could and quietly go about my business. There are even studies and a common understanding in Indian communities that my ethnic name would lessen my chances for success and opportunities in a white world. Although I can only personally speak to this in the context of my own experiences, this slow and often inadvertent erasure of foreign names permeates African, Asian, and Hispanic communities: all of which place special cultural significance on names.

In considering writing this piece, I contemplated what was the impetus that empowered me

to no longer accept the whitewashing — the perversion — of my name. Pondering this I settled on the memory of a speech by Uzoamaka Aduba I had watched in my 10th grade English class. I still remember the line that, after 10 years of hiding from my name, gave me chills: “If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky, and Michelangelo, and Dostoyevsky, then they can learn to say Uzoamaka.” I realized not only the significance of Aduba’s story but also that I had betrayed myself, my family, and my culture by ignoring the mispronunciations and vulgarizing nicknames.

Why is it that Americans can pronounce Tchaikovsky and Socrates but not Vinay? Is it because all these famous men were white — that their names deserve more attention, more correctness than my own? In contemplating that question posed

by Aduba, everything suddenly clicked for me; in that moment, I reclaimed my name and discarded those feelings of embarrassment and shame. When my teachers said my name wrong I corrected them, even as everyone’s heads turned in my direction.

When I ordered food, I spelled my name for the cashiers, making sure they got each letter right.

Coming to college, I have had too many conversations to count with people of color who have decided to make a concerted effort to reclaim their name in the classroom, in their personal relationships, and in life. It is a liberating experience and has been empowering to be surrounded by so many people who have felt those same feelings of shame, as well as guilt of their shame. And this trend makes sense. As people dive into new experiences and settings they feel more empowered to “reinvent” themselves, or in this case, reclaim themselves.

Either way, it should not take nearly 18 years of life for people of color to be able to take pride in who they are, where they come from, and how their name represents all of this and more. A couple years ago, my brother and parents fought over why he was named Nikhil instead of just Nick. It broke my heart that his identity was being stripped away by the predominantly white population that comprised his school and his group of friends.

More must be done to make children of color feel not only secure in their name and what it represents, but proud. Professors, teaching assistants, and students alike have an obligation to make the effort to recognize the cultural significance of names and accordingly pronounce and spell them correctly. And at a predominantly white institution, people of color must stand up for themselves (and in solidarity with each other) and their heritage — for not only their name, but also who they are.

What’s in a name? Well, everything.

VINAY KHOSLA is a College first year studying philosophy and political science from Baltimore, Md. His email is vkhosla@sas. upenn.edu.

Fraternity self-regulation is a myth Isabella’s Impressions | The Penn community must demand more than self-regulation from fraternities

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raternity culture is synonymous with outdated notions of masculinity, status, and a certain ‘look.’

Most media depictions of a fraternity brother fits this definition — a built boy, usually white, decked out in mismatching colors, white sneakers caked with mud and beer, and a backwards hat. We laugh at this stereotype, dress up as it for Halloween, and turn it into memes. But while we may joke about it, the reality is that this culture bred by fraternities still tends to promote certain values including toxic masculinity, elite status, and conformity. And these values come at a price — propagating rape culture, racism, and violence in the social life of Penn.

Penn has unwittingly made a choice in these matters, allowing for a high degree of self-regulation within these brotherhoods. As a member of Greek life, I have witnessed how it is typically up to fraternities to ask their own members to leave when controversy arises. Some students tout the virtues of fraternities who have kicked out brothers accused of engaging in racist behavior, sexual assault, or general violence. I have even caught myself congratulating fraternities for doing exactly what should be expected of them: promoting basic concepts of respect and consent. This, however, is not enough.

It is time for the student body to hold fraternity brothers accountable and Penn to consistently do the same. After the recent events at Psi Upsilon, also known as “Castle,” involving an alleged racially fueled assault, the problem is even more palpable.

While this incident was reported on by The Daily Pennsylvanian and brought to the Penn administration, it is likely many others go unreported. In other cases where a matter is dealt with internally, a punishment such as removing a brother from a chapter is often only a punishment on paper.

Friendships persist past formal sanctions. In other words, it is not a rare sight to see fraternity brothers grabbing drinks or walking down the street with a former member who was kicked out because of instances of violence or racism, as corroborated by friends. In these cases, it is clear that the formal actions taken by fraternities are entirely performative. To solve this, there needs to be a sentiment on campus that students find this type of implicit support intolerable.

These continued friendships with rapists, racists, and violent individuals, also have more tangible effects. It says to not only the victim, but women and other marginalized groups as a whole, that their safety and comfort are relatively worthless. Fraternities often host open parties, accessible to those who are also unaffiliated with Greek life. It is not unreasonable to foresee that brothers will invite their friends, includ-

TYLER KLIEM

ing these former members, creating a toxic, uncomfortable environment at these events and defeating the purpose of kicking them out in the first place.

Related to sexual violence, fraternities have demonstrated some resistance to mending their behaviors.

Interfraternity Council fraternities have historically had low turnout at seminars devoted to anti-violence.

In 2020, however, in order to improve upon this, the IFC placed higher attendance requirements amongst new fraternity members for these educational workshops. Prior to this new implementation, statistics revealed that Penn’s problem with sexual assault had not diminished, as demonstrated by a 2019 survey conducted at Penn, reporting that 25.9% of women, 7.3% of men, and 21.5% of transgender, genderqueer, and nonbinary individuals reported unwanted sexual contact since entering college, little overall change when compared to the 2015 survey. While not all of these percentages stem directly from fraternities, academic journals have studied the link between the two, asserting that fraternity members are more likely to commit rape than those who are unaffiliated with Greek life.

In order to create a safer, more inclusive campus, fraternities need to be externally held responsible by the Penn administration and student body for the toxic culture they are capable of developing. They also need to understand that maintaining friendships with those who have committed acts of aggression against women and other marginalized communities is a danger itself; being complicit will not solve the problem.

ISABELLA GLASSMAN is a College junior studying philosophy, politics, and economics from Suffern, N.Y. Her email is iglass@sas. upenn.edu.edu.edu.

INTRODUCING: ‘GROUPTHINK,’ A NEW PODCAST FROM OPINION

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he Opinion Department is launching a brand new podcast, entitled “GroupThink,” where we discuss Penn’s hot button issues. Tune in each week to hear from your favorite columnists, professors, and experts. Episodes are only 20 min-

utes, perfect to listen to in between classes, while showering, eating, or procrastinating. Available on theDP.com and wherever you listen to podcasts.

6 NEWS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2021

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

PHOTO GALLERY

In Photos: Homecoming 2021 Penn students and alumni celebrated Homecoming this past weekend, marking the first time the Class of 2024 and Class of 2025 were able to experience the tradition. Homecoming events were scheduled throughout the weekend, including a tailgate on College Green and numerous events for alumni. The pinnacle of the celebrations was the football game against Cornell on Saturday. In the end, the Quakers weren’t able to secure a win against the Big Red, losing 15-12. Here’s what this year’s homecoming looked like.

ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

WILLIAM BARTOC

The student and alumni sections of Franklin Field were packed full with fans decked out in red and blue.

The national anthem is performed at the beginning of the game.

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Freshman defensive back Julien Stokes tackles a Cornell player onto the sideline.

SUKHMANI KAUR

Penn President Amy Gutmann bumped elbows with members of the women’s track and field team after the first quarter. Gutmann took photos with some teams and student leaders during breaks and halftime.

SUKHMANI KAUR

A Penn supporter (left) and Cornell supporter cheered from the bleachers.

SUKHMANI KAUR

Students threw toast during the break after the third quarter, a Penn football tradition.

SUKHMANI KAUR

The cheerleading team performed.

SUKHMANI KAUR

The Quaker mascot led the team onto the field.

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The Penn Band played throughout the game, wearing specially designed masks to use their instruments.

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Cornell held a slight lead throughout most of the game, but the Penn section held on to its spirit. The Quaker mascot encouraged the crowd.

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Senior defensive back Jason McCleod Jr. clenched his fists in frustration after not catching an interception.

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A Penn Band director led the Band and crowd in a performance of “The Red and Blue” at the conclusion of the game.

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

NEWS 7

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Penn students voted at record-high rate in 2020 election Penn was awarded the Best Action Plan Award in Pennsylvania IMRAN SIDDIQUI Staff Reporter

Penn achieved record-high voter turnout and registration rates in the 2020 presidential election, a new report found.

Nearly 77% of eligible Penn students voted in the presidential election — a 9.2 percentage point increase from the 2016 election and a 23.1 percentage point increase from the 2018 midterm election, according to data released by the 2020 National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement Campus Report, issued by the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at Tufts University.

“Penn students outperformed both the national college student voter turnout rate and general population turnout rate, which were 66% and 67% respectively,” a Nov. 9 press release from Penn Leads the Vote, a nonpartisan group, stated.

Almost 89% of registered students turned out to vote on Election Day last year, compared to 64% in 2018 and 79% in 2016, according to the report. A record number of students — 86.5% — registered to vote in 2020, a slight uptick from rates in 2016 and 2018.

PLTV Co-Director and College senior Eva Gonzalez said she was proud to see that so many registered students “followed through” after registering to vote and participated in the 2020 election.

Echoing Gonzalez, PLTV Co-Director Harrison Feinman, a senior in the College and School

CHASE SUTTON

A student enters the Houston Hall polling location on Nov. 3, 2020.

of Social Policy & Practice, was encouraged to see that Penn’s voter turnout rate surpassed the nation’s average turnout by nearly 10 percentage points.

The University was also given the Best Action Plan Award out of all four-year institutions Pennsylvania-wide for the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.

The 2020-21 voter engagement action plan — released last June by PLTV, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, and the Office of Government and Community — announced the groups’ goal to achieve 100% voter registration for Penn’s eligible voters by 2028. The 18-page plan focuses on the three groups’ voter outreach strategies, short-term and long-term goals for the 2021-2022 academic year, and results of how successful the groups were at achieving their

goals. It also outlines community programming initiatives in West Philadelphia.

“It is just a wholehearted rejection, nationally, of the fake stereotype that ‘youth don’t care about politics,’ and ‘youth don’t vote,’” Feinman said. “Especially on Penn’s campus, we are fulfilling our role as the ‘Civic Ivy,’ and the announcement that we were awarded for our action plan is so cool because it shows that Penn is a leader.”

When initially working on the action plan in the months leading up to the 2020 election, Gonzalez and Feinman said they hoped to get 75% of eligible students to vote by the 2028 general election.

“Clearly, either we made a mistake, or Penn students really blew everyone’s expectations out of the water, which is super heartening to see,”

Feinman said, expressing surprise that Penn students had already exceeded the University’s goal eight years in advanced.

Cory Bowman, associate director of the Netter Center, said he was impressed by PLTV’s motivation and how students involved in PLTV have incorporated voter education and civic engagement into many different aspects of the Penn experience.

PLTV is housed in the Netter Center, which helped reestablish the group in 2018. Bowman said that while students direct most of the work, the Netter Center provides administrative, financial, and organizational support for the program.

“It’s a matter of working with college houses, cultural centers, and Penn athletics,” Bowman said of PLTV’s efforts with the University. “[PLTV] has been working with existing social and organizational networks on campus to get the word out about [voter] registration and education. It is increasingly becoming a part of the fiber of being at Penn.”

He added that all institutions of higher education, especially universities that pride themselves on promoting civic engagement like Penn, should ensure that they are providing students with resources and opportunities to vote and actively participate in democracy.

The University sent a mass email encouraging students to educate themselves on National Voter Registration Day, and Penn President Amy Gutmann recently signed onto a pledge affirming the voter engagement plan.

Gonzalez said that while the COVID-19 pandemic and Penn’s virtual setting added obstacles to PLTV’s voter mobilization efforts leading up to the 2020 election, it also revealed how essential each voter can be, as elections in some key states were called by close margins.

“People are coming around to realizing how important each singular vote really is,” Gonzalez said. “Some of these races are decided, truly, by a handful of votes, and when you’re not voting and getting out there, you are letting someone else decide for you.”

GAPSA holds food pantry to address food insecurity among grad students The initiative took place in Houston Hall on Nov. 5 and 6 SEJIN PARK Contributing Reporter

Penn’s Graduate and Professional Student Assembly held a pop-up food pantry to combat food insecurity for graduate students over the weekend.

The initiative was led by GAPSA’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access, and Leadership Council and took place in Houston Hall on Nov. 5 and 6. GAPSA volunteers distributed fresh produce from Giordano Garden Groceries, a Philadelphia grocery store, and food from BJ’s Wholesale Club. The pantry also provided personal care items such as facial tissue, soap, and menstrual products.

GAPSA held the pantry to provide healthy food for students and to assist those experiencing mental health issues that prevent them from purchasing products themselves. Event organizers handed students tote bags or cardboard boxes as they entered Houston Hall to store their items, and students moved in a line around five tables displaying products.

Bailey Nance, a fourth-year Perelman School of Medicine Ph.D. student and event organizer said that the food pantry saw such high demand that they had to close early.

“It was a long line, and we ran out of bags.

We ran out of produce and we actually had to shut down almost 30 minutes early because there was just nothing left to give people. We had to go back to the store for the second day,” Nance said.

Penn Dining offers various meal plans for graduate students, but fourth-year Biochemis-

AVI SINGH

Penn’s Graduate and Professional Student Assembly hosts a pop-up food pantry in Houston Hall on Nov. 5.

try and Molecular Biophysics Ph.D. student and IDEAL Council Chair Pamela Gallo said that they are not commonly utilized nor practical because of the busy schedules of graduate students.

“For me, because I do work in the sciences in a lab every day, you have to bring your lunch or buy lunch every day. [Meal plans] are just not really implemented in graduate students’ lives or really even talked about when you first start,” Gallo said.

Sophie Tannenbaum, a student in the School of Social Policy & Practice, added that graduate students are constrained by money and time to purchase food for their meals. She added that it is difficult for graduate students to get free healthy food on campus.

“There’s typically less of an emphasis on graduate students being low-income … so I think we’re just very quick to bounce on [resources] because it’s not all the time that these resources are here constantly,” Tannenbaum said.

The only official food pantry for Penn students is located in the FGLI Center of the Greenfield Intercultural Center, which opened in 2016 — but the pantry is closed until further notice.

Other peer institutions, however, have institutionalized means to reduce food insecurity among students. Columbia University has multiple food pantries located across campus for both graduates and undergraduates. At Brown University, students may apply for Emergency

Penn’s COVID-19 case count remains low, but many students still at risk of testing noncompliance A total of 38 Penn community members tested positive for COVID-19 between Oct. 31 and Nov. 6 JONAH CHARLTON Senior Reporter

Penn’s COVID-19 case count remained low last week, but thousands of students risk being barred from campus buildings next week as a result of continued testing noncompliance.

A total of 38 Penn community members tested positive for COVID-19 between Oct. 31 and Nov. 6 out of a total of 11,216 community members who received tests. While the overall case count remains low, thousands of students — including 2,856 undergraduates in the College of Arts and Sciences — are at risk of receiving noncompliance red Pen-

KYLIE COOPER

A worker at the DuBois COVID-19 testing site checks in a student on Jan. 19, 2021.

nOpen Passes on Nov. 16 due to testing noncompliance, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Paul Sniegowski wrote in an email to students in the College on Tuesday.

Sniegowski’s email — and the larger issue of testing noncompliance — mimics a similar situation from two weeks ago, when the University an-

nounced 7,231 students were at risk.

Chief Wellness Officer Benoit Dubé said that this testing period’s overall number of noncompliant students is less than that of two weeks ago, but it is “still very disappointing.” Dubé did not provide an exact number.

“While the number of students at risk is lower

E-Gap Funding for their meals.

Nance said GAPSA’s pop-up food pantries are also intended to show the University that addressing food insecurity is a prevalent need among graduate students. Gallo similarly called on the University to operate permanent, institutionalized food pantries to remedy food insecurity for graduate students.

“I just want Penn to be able to support this moving forward, because I have come across a couple of obstacles,” Gallo said. “Just with placing donation boxes, I asked multiple schools to place donation boxes and I essentially got shut down or they didn’t even reply. So I just want the University to be more open and more supportive of this effort.” than previously, it is still much higher than it should be,” Dubé said. “Getting one test over a two-week period is not that big of an ask; we need students to do their part in keeping the University community safe.”

Dubé said the number of students who are scheduling their COVID-19 tests, as opposed to walking in without an appointment, is even lower. He added that the lack of appointments is creating backlogs in Penn’s COVID-19 testing results laboratory.

“The laboratory is able to turn out thousands of results in a day, but if we do not know ahead of time that a certain high number of results is coming in, it makes it nearly impossible for us to return results in 24 hours,” he said.

As a result, Dubé said, the University may be forced to stop allowing walk-in testing in the coming weeks, particularly as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches when students may look to be tested before traveling.

Dubé emphasized that students who have appointments will never be turned away from the testing facility, while students who walk in without an appointment could be turned away at any time depending on capacity.

Despite issues with testing noncompliance, the University’s case count and positivity rate have remained at or below 0.50% nearly every week, and Penn again saw no cases due to classroom, laboratory, or workplace transmission this week.

“We consistently feel like we can keep carrying out our educational mission in person,” Dubé said.

“We can do this — but only if everyone keeps doing their part.”

8 SPORTS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2021

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Ma | It can’t get much worse for Penn football SPORTS | The Quakers only managed 12 points against a Cornell defense that has allowed an average of 26.8 points per game CHARLIE MA Sports Associate

Well, it cannot get much worse than that.

After last week’s 45-17 rout of Brown, I think it’s safe to say that Penn was expected to beat an equally bad, if not worse, Cornell team. However, that was not the narrative on Saturday.

It was a tough homecoming weekend for the Red and Blue — tough for those on the field, and for those in the stands who had to endure potentially the worst loss of an already underwhelming and disappointing season to arguably the worst team in the Ivy League.

In a 15-12 loss to the Big Red, the Quakers could not find a way to generate effective offense against a Cornell defense that ranks in the bottom half of nearly every defensive statistical category in the Ancient Eight. Unable to move the ball downfield, the Red and Blue were incapable of scoring a single offensive touchdown against a team that is averaging 26.8 points allowed per game — Penn’s only touchdown came from a blocked punt.

Now that is bad.

And for a team that has been defined by the running game throughout the season, the Quakers’ usual ground attack that has averaged 143.1 rushing yards per game this year was nowhere to be found against a team allowing 128.1 rushing yards a game.

Yes, the running game was not as effective on Saturday as it has been all season, but Penn seemingly abandoned it entirely, despite only trailing by a maximum of seven points throughout the game. Instead of relying on veteran playmakers in running backs Isaiah Malcome and Trey Flowers, coach Ray Priore opted to pass the ball 45 times. Let me repeat that — the Ivy League’s worst passing offense threw the ball 45 times with its true freshman quarterback in his third career start.

Sure, if you just look at the box score, it does not seem too bad — Aidan Sayin completed 26 passes for 246 yards. However, I’ll give you some more context. The Quakers were playing without their two leading receivers in seniors Ryan Cragun and Rory Starkey, Jr. Most of Sayin’s completions were the result of wide receiver or running back screens or short slant routes — the freshman’s only deep attempt of

SAMANTHA TURNER

Penn men’s football coach Ray Priore directs the team after a call during the game against Dartmouth on Oct. 1.

the day was intercepted. And not to rub salt on the wound, but even after 45 attempts with 26 of them being completed, Penn still could not score a touchdown.

So why were the Red and Blue so committed to the passing game?

Maybe it was to give the true freshman quarterback some more game reps. Maybe it was because the run game was in fact ineffective.

Or maybe coach Ray Priore knew something we did not. Regardless, the game was never out of reach for the Quakers, but they decided to stick with the passing game and desert the running game that has been an essential part of the Red and Blue’s victories this season.

And despite all that passing, the Quakers were not even the least bit aggressive on offense, which became especially apparent in the fourth quarter as Penn was playing from behind.

No, I am not even talking about taking shots passing the ball deep downfield — after all, there was a true freshman under center who had

his two biggest weapons on the sideline. I am talking about the Red and Blue’s decisions on fourth downs.

Down 7-6 early in the third quarter, the Quakers punted on a fourth and 3 at midfield. Sure, that’s fine — there was plenty of game left, and the team could play the field position battle.

Then trailing 15-12 early in the fourth quarter, the Red and Blue faced a fourth and 5 at the Cornell 44-yard line. In perhaps a good opportunity to roll the dice and go for it on fourth down, Penn elected to punt the ball to an also struggling Big Red offense.

Still down 15-12 but now with a little over four minutes left in the game, the Quakers punted again on a fourth and 2 — yes, they were at their own 32-yard line, but come on. With the game potentially on the line, and not knowing if the offense would get the ball back again, the Red and Blue decided to punt on a fourth and two? What was there to lose at this point in the season?

Give your players a chance to play.

Despite the grim outlook thus far, there were definitely positive takeaways from Saturday’s game against Cornell. For the second week in a row, the defense played well. They did what they needed to be, albeit against a lackluster offense, holding the Big Red to 15 points. Additionally, in the absence of Cragun and Starkey, receivers Owen Goldsberry, Joshua Casilli, and Julien Stokes stepped up and all set career highs in receptions and receiving yards.

The Quakers’ game against Cornell may have been their last chance to win a game this season, as the team faces Harvard and Princeton to close out the season. At this point, Penn can only hope it does not end up at the bottom of the Ivy League standings come Nov. 20.

CHARLIE MA is a College senior from Nashville studying economics. He can be reached at dpsports@thedp.com.

Club water polo advances to National Championship, but fight for varsity status continues SPORTS | The team will compete against Boston College in the first round on Nov. 14

dent Matteo Brunel said. “You play with seven people on the field, so it was always a bit of a struggle getting people to games.”

He explained that, in his freshman year, there was difficulty retaining players that would show CHRISTINA SALAS up for a few practices and quit the team after reSports Reporter alizing the extent of the time commitment or the physical demands of the sport.

They may not be varsity, but they’re still “This year we have a bunch of guys who are making history. really dedicated and really love coming on playAfter defeating rival Penn State in over- ing. And that’s super exciting for me to see,” time on Oct. 24, Penn’s club water polo team Brunel said. “It’s very rewarding.” clinched the top spot in the Mid-Atlantic DiviThe team’s success has pushed its players to sion to advance to the National Collegiate Club strive for another goal: creating a team at the Championship in Huntsville, Ala. varsity level. The higher status would bring key This is one of the team’s most dominant sea- funding and resources to the sport that could sons since the team won the division title in end up assisting the club team’s practical needs, 2013 and placed fifth in the championship. And such as new equipment, support from coachin recent years, Penn State has dominated the ing staff, and better training facilities. If this division, winning six of the past eight titles. In happened, Penn would become the fourth Ivy fact, Penn’s only loss this season was in its first League school — along with Brown, Harvard, match of the season againstThe theNew Nittany Lions. and Princeton — to sponsor a varsity polo team.

York Times Syndication Sales Corporation “[The success is] just really impressive bedesire to be bumped up to varsity stems The New York Times Syndication Sales 620 Eighth Avenue, NewThe York, N.Y.Corporation 10018 Eighth Avenue, New York, 10018that a club team is great for peoFor Information 1-800-972-3550 cause a few years ago when 620 I started on theCall: from theN.Y. feeling Information Call:ple 1-800-972-3550 ForFor Release Thursday, November 11,limited 2021 experience with water polo. team, we had five, six, seven guys,” club presiwho have

“[The varsity level would allow Penn to] showcase the talent of the players we have in the pool and to provide an opportunity for players who do want to play water polo at a very high competitive level, but also get an education from Penn,” Brunel said.

Due to the Varsity Blues scandal and the COVID-19 pandemic, conversations around the

promotion of club sports to varsity have stalled.

However, the team is hopeful that a varsity program can be established within the next 10 years, especially given the support the team has from alumni.

The Quakers will square off against Boston College on Nov. 12 in the first round of the National Collegiate Club Championships.

For Release Friday, November 5, 2021

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Penn’s club water polo team poses with their division trophy after winning it on Oct. 24 against rival Penn State.

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SPORTS 9

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2021

The picks are in: Penn football at Harvard

Penn football visits Harvard in penultimate game of the season SPORTS | The Quakers face a defense that allows fewer than 14 points per game ASHIL SRIVASTAVA Sports Reporter

Straight off its shocking 15-12 loss to Cornell, Penn football (3-5, 1-4 Ivy) will face Harvard (6-2, 3-2) this coming Saturday in an attempt to salvage an increasingly disappointing season.

The Quakers will need to present a dominant showing on the offensive side of the ball to counter an extremely strong Harvard defense that has allowed an average of 13.88 points per game all season. Freshman quarterback Aidan Sayin has shown promise in his last few starts, throwing for 247 yards in the Cornell loss.

“He is a natural leader … [He’s still] developing that chemistry,” coach Ray Priore said on Wednesday.

While Sayin has been solid, it’s unclear if he will be able to handle the prowess of a defense like Harvard’s.

Penn will also have to rely on its run game, led by running backs Isaiah Malcome and Trey Flowers, who each have five touchdowns apiece on the season. Both Malcome and Flowers have been reliable for Penn, but again, Harvard has one of the toughest defenses in the Ivy League, so it’ll have to be a combination of both passing and running the ball in order for Penn’s offense

to have a chance.

Priore also implied that quarterback Aidan Sayin could be a ground threat.

“He is really talented with the ball in his hand, running,” Priore said. “You don’t want to let him out there.”

Priore went on to emphasize that consistency will be key for the Quakers.

“We have to play good team football across the board, [and] limit the mistakes,” Priore said.

“That should not be happening at this point in time [of the season].”

The Red and Blue’s defense will also have to be nearly perfect. The defense has been inconsistent throughout the year, allowing an average of 20 points per game — shutting out Lehigh but allowing 42 to Yale.

However, the Quakers do have some defensive weapons, including senior linebacker Jake Heimlicher — who has six sacks this season for 47 yards — and defensive lineman Prince Emili, who has four sacks for 30 yards. The Quakers will need to stay consistent and get early defensive stops to keep momentum on their side.

Harvard will look to improve to a 7-2 record and chase Dartmouth and Princeton for the best record of the Ivy League. Meanwhile, Penn will try to redeem itself and improve to 4-5. The Quakers are currently sitting in sixth place in the conference with hopes of ending the final few games of the season on a strong note.

ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

Senior wide receiver Ryan Cragun takes off down the field with the ball during the game against Brown on Oct. 30.

SPORTS | March is the only reporter who predicted a Penn win THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN’S SPORTS REPORTERS

This Saturday at 12 p.m., Penn football (3-5, 1-4 Ivy) will visit Harvard (6-2, 3-2) in its penultimate game of the season. Four Daily Pennsylvanian Sports reporters make their picks ahead of the game against the Crimson.

Penn 28, Harvard 26 - Lochlahn March, Senior Sports Editor You can call me crazy, and you might be right.

But even though Harvard is still in the running for first in the conference while Penn is just trying to avoid dead last, I think the Quakers can pull it off in Cambridge.

Yes, the Quakers are coming off an unexpected and disheartening loss to the Big Red, and they have yet to capture a conference win on the road this season. Yes, Harvard’s rushing defense is ranked No. 1 in the FCS, and its rushing offense paces the Ivy League. But this Saturday has the makings of a trap game for Harvard, and all the factors that make Penn the underdog are exactly why the Quakers will surprise the Crimson and come away with a narrow victory.

Not to mention, recent history has favored the Red and Blue. Penn coach Ray Priore has a 4-1 all-time record against the Crimson, and Penn has won its last three straight games in Cambridge.

Expect running back Isaiah Malcome to notch his sixth rushing touchdown of the season and defensive back Jason “Paul” McCleod, Jr. to put up another strong performance.

Harvard 38, Penn 7 - Jackson Joffe, Senior Sports Reporter It looked like the Quakers were starting to turn their season around after a win over Brown, but the Red and Blue came crashing down hard against Cornell this past weekend in a 15-12 loss. Penn struggled to put up points and yardage against a defense that has had difficulty containing opposing offenses all season, as staff writer Charlie Ma noted in his column.

Harvard, meanwhile, sits at an impressive 6-2, with its two conference losses decided by less than five points total. The losses were to Princeton and Dartmouth, who currently sit tied for first in

the Ivy League.

The Crimson quickly raced out to a 42-0 lead against Columbia this past weekend in a dominant victory, and it’s likely they will be able to find similar success early on against a struggling Quaker squad. However, wide receiver Ryan Cragun will manage to find the end zone for the third time this season.

Harvard 24, Penn 10 - Ezra Troy, Sports Associate The Quakers are coming off a deflating loss to Cornell in which Penn’s offense couldn’t find the end zone all game. The Crimson are coming off a 28-point win against a Columbia team in which their offense put up seven touchdowns.

The Crimson defense, which hasn’t allowed more than 21 points in a single game this season, and is ranked 12th in the FCS in total defense, should have no trouble shutting down Penn’s subpar offense, ranked 97th in the FCS in total offense. On the other side of the ball, Harvard’s high-powered offense, led by running back Aaron Shampklin — the Ivy League leader in rushing yards and touchdowns — should continue to put up points.

Penn will need freshman quarterback Aidan Sayin to lead the offense and continue playing at a high level in order to win this rivalry matchup.

More likely, Harvard will take care of business in this must-win game against an inferior Penn team.

Harvard 34, Penn 17 - Nicky Belgrad, Deputy Sports Editor Though 17 points doesn’t seem like many, I’d be surprised to see Penn’s offense execute more than two or three solid drives against a stingy Crimson defense.

Moreover, Harvard will look to take care of business at home, sitting one game behind both Dartmouth and Princeton for first in the Ivy League with only two games left in the season.

To have any shot at the top spot, Harvard knows this game is a must-win against a beatable Penn opponent.

One might argue that this could be a “trap game” for Harvard, who visits Yale to close out the season next week in “The Game.” However, to have any chance at an Ivy League crown, Harvard needs both of these games, so I don’t expect them to overlook a weak Penn team, even though the Crimson are likely not worried about the Quakers’ scoring capabilities.

ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

Freshman quarterback Aidan Sayin runs down the field with the ball with oncoming Cornell defenders headed towards him during the homecoming game on Nov. 6.

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2021 VOL. CXXXVII NO. 26

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

FOUNDED 1885

PENN MEN AND WOMEN’S SQUASH ENTER SEASON AS

CONTENDERS FOR BEST TEAM IN NATION AMANDA JIACHENG SHEN

Women’s squash senior Jamila Abou El Enin competes in a match against Stanford on Nov. 26, 2019.

SPORTS | This is men’s squash’s first time entering the season as the No. 1 ranked team in the country DOMINIK BONDY Sports Reporter

For the first time in program history, the Penn men’s squash team will enter the season ranked No. 1 in the nation, returning multiple All-Americans and key contributors from its No. 2 seeded team in the 2019-20 season.

Penn women’s squash will enter the season ranked eighth, consistent with the team’s finish from two years ago. The team will lose Jessica Davis, its previous number one option, but the senior-less team is backed by one of the strongest junior classes in the nation, and will only look to improve in the next two seasons.

The cancellation of last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic has made taking the court this year a little bit more impactful. Beyond dashing the national title aspirations of both teams, it allowed the athletes and coaches to cherish the time they could spend on the court.

“Ivy League Athletics is something that’s been around for so long, and it’s something that we’ve taken for granted,” women’s coach Jack Wyant

said. “We didn’t think there would be anything that could get in the way of our season. Now we’ve got a great appreciation for having the opportunity to practice together every day, to compete against one another, and to compete against other teams.”

Instrumental for the men’s success are AllAmericans Andrew Douglas, Aly Abou Eleinen, and James Flynn, who anchored the top-three spots on the team last season. The trio had a combined record of 42-12.

Douglas will make the biggest splash, though.

Already on the shortlist for best players in the nation two years ago, his decision to return to Penn for graduate school completes the team. “[Douglas] decided he wanted to come back, give it one more go, and finish his college career on a high note,” men’s coach Gilly Lane said.

“He’s achieved so much here at Penn, and he’s already gonna go down as one of the best players to ever play at this program, I feel. We just feel really fortunate to have him back.”

Along with Lane, this graduate student and senior trio have helped Penn squash reach nearunimaginable heights. It was just three years ago when the Quakers received their first-ever national No. 1 ranking. It was just last season when Penn men’s squash made its first-ever Potter Cup Finals. Now the team enters the season at No.

1, and a championship isn’t just a goal, but an expectation.

This will require a team effort, of course, and juniors Dillon Huang, Saksham Choudhary, and Tushar Shahani will provide the Quakers with consistency in the middle of the lineup. In their freshman seasons, they had a combined record of 43-9. Since the team’s sophomores this year hold as much collegiate experience as the freshman, the ability for the men’s team to return six significant contributors this season is meaningful.

But the team’s schedule isn’t for the faint of heart. The Red and Blue play every single team that was ranked in the top-10 two years ago. This includes bouts with Harvard and Trinity on Jan. 15 and 22, the only two teams the Quakers lost to in the 2019-20 season.

On the preseason rankings, at least, Penn’s returning strength has superseded its 1-8 and 1-6 losses to Harvard last season. It’s not unlikely that when both of these teams meet, it will be for the top spot in the national rankings.

For the women, Jamila Abou El Enin will start the season at the number one slot, after spending the entire 2019-20 season behind Davis. Team captains Amina Abou El Enin — Jamila Abou El Enin’s sister — and Ashley Manning will also play important roles for the top spots in Wyant’s lineup.

The slightly inexperienced roster is poised to

improve this year, and the outlook for the team is more than promising. Barring injuries, the lineup can only get better from here until the end of the season.

“We anticipate we’ll have a good season this year and an even better season next year,” Wyant said.

But inexperience isn’t just a Penn problem.

The adjustment process will be present for every single team, so a young roster would appear to be less important than other years.

“I’ve never gone through a year with more unknowns than this year. The good news is, though, that the team is working very hard and the chemistry is great,” Wyant said. “Even though there are a lot of unknowns regarding how people will play … we’re still really excited about what the team is controlling.”

Much like the men’s team, the women’s schedule will be rigorous. The women’s team play every single team that was ranked ahead of them in the 2019-20 season, including powerhouses Harvard, Trinity, and Princeton. The team will look for a better postseason performance this year, along with another positive record in conference play.

Both teams start their season this Saturday, Nov. 13, with a home doubleheader against Chatham and Drexel.

Navy sinks Penn’s season, as sprint football loses 52-14 SPORTS | The Quakers fall to the Midshipmen for the third year in a row, turning the ball over five times in the loss ALEXIS GARCIA Sports Reporter

With the Collegiate Sprint Football League South Division title on the line, Penn was unable to sink Navy.

Senior night for Penn sprint football at Franklin Field culminated in a devastating 52-14 loss.

The Red and Blue (5-2) were unable to keep up with Navy’s (7-0) offense and watched its fivegame winning streak and season both come to an end.

With Saturday night’s loss, the Quakers tied their 2019 season record. Both of the team’s losses this season came against the service academies.

Historically, the Quakers have not shaped up well against the Midshipmen. Saturday was no different. The Midshipmen scored the first points of the game and never looked back. It was Penn’s third straight loss against Navy.

“We got out of the box slow,” coach Jerry McConnell said. “[Navy is] a good football team and you know our kids never quit, they just play hard all the time. It just turned out to be a rough night for us.”

Navy indeed came out hot and blew right past Penn. Both of its first two drives resulted in a touchdown and the score was quickly 14-0 by the end of the first quarter. By the half, Navy racked up two more touchdowns and kept Penn to none. The South Division title continued to slip further out of reach for the Red and Blue after halftime.

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Despite leaping efforts by freshman defensive back Jordan Ortiz to break up a 15-yard pass in the end zone, Penn’s defense couldn’t silence Navy. The Midshipmen’s first drive of the third quarter resulted in the team’s fifth unanswered touchdown, extending Navy’s lead to 35-0.

The third quarter also included two interceptions on junior quarterback Andrew Paolini.

The first led to an eventual 43-yard field goal by the Midshipmen. Immediately after, Paolini’s pass was intercepted by Navy yet again and on the team’s third drive, a nine-yard touchdown boosted the Midshipmen to a dominating 45-0 lead.

The Midshipmen forced the Quakers to five turnovers in total by the end of the game.

Late in the third quarter came the Quakers’ best scoring chance of the game. Paolini threw a critical 39-yard pass to senior tight end and linebacker Ben Klaus. Then, the two almost connected for a touchdown later in the drive.

The crowd erupted into cheers before the pass was signaled as incomplete. Cheers turned to silence and there was no score to show for Penn’s best drive of the game yet.

The Quakers would not go down without a fight though. In Penn’s first drive of the final quarter, Paolini’s stunning 13-yard pass was successfully caught by senior running back Laquan McKever. By reaching his arm out to catch in the corner of the end zone, McKever scored Penn’s first touchdown of the game. A kick from sophomore defensive back Bryce Stansfield secured the extra point and made it 45-7.

However, Navy promptly answered the Red and Blue’s touchdown with one of their own, capitalizing on a fumble by Paolini at Penn’s five-yard line. Paolini made up for his mistake by rushing 17 yards and scoring a touchdown

JULIA VAN LARE

Senior running back Laquan McKever runs the ball down to the other endzone at Franklin Field during a game against Caldwell on Oct. 22.

with less than three minutes of play left.

Paolini ended the game with 129 passing yards and caps his season off with 19 total touchdown passes. He finishes just 67 yards shy of breaking into the top-five most passing yards in a single season record for Quaker program history.

McKever ends his career for the Red and Blue strong, with more than 1,500 yards on the ground and 21 touchdowns. Freshman linebacker Cam Janock and junior linebacker Lewis Evans both had season-high defensive tackles

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in a single game, with 14 and 15 respectively.

In his first season as head coach, McConnell led the Red and Blue to the doorstep of a CSFL South Division title. The team last won it in 2017.

“We got better each week,” McConnell said.

“We didn’t reach our ultimate goal but I am proud of the kids and what they accomplished.”

Despite a heartbreaking conclusion to the Quakers’ 2021 season, the trials, tribulations, and triumphs faced will make for a strong comeback next year.

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