November 18, 2021

INSIDE: BEST OF PENN 2021

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2021 VOL. CXXXVII NO. 27

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Student leaders call on Penn to add more all-gender bathrooms

Penn Wharton Budget Model lays off student workers mid-semester

Students met with top admin. to discuss non-cisgender students’ experiences with bathrooms on campus DELANEY PARKS Senior Reporter

BRANDON LI

Some students were offered their jobs back after reporting the termination to Student Registration and Financial Services EMI TUYẾTNHI TRẦN Senior Reporter

Work-study students at Penn Wharton Budget Model were laid off in the middle of the semester without prior warning, prompting the Office of Student Employment to intervene to help get their jobs back.

Seven work-study students who were employed at PWBM received an email on Oct. 26 notifying them of their forthcoming termination on Nov. 5. After reporting the termination to Student Registration and Financial Services, some students were offered their jobs back. The student workers, some of whom identify as first generation and low income, were surprised and disappointed after the sudden layoffs, saying they relied on the income for academic and personal expenses.

Penn First Plus Executive Director Marc Lo said that while he could not comment on this specific situation,

terminating a work-study position mid-semester is out of the ordinary.

A work-study student who requested anonymity for fear of losing their employment shared an email with The Daily Pennsylvanian sent by William DiPierre, PWBM data software director and work-study manager, to students on Oct. 26. The email informed the work-study employees that PWBM would no longer need their help and that they would no longer have a job.

“We’ve decided to focus our efforts on a new project and will not be doing curation of the PWBM data for the foreseeable future. As such we will be ending the work program you all participate in as student curators,” DiPierre wrote.

The particular project that the seven students had been working on had existed for two years and involved data curation. The students who spoke with the DP had been working on the project for a year and a half, since their first semester at Penn. Students said that they worked individually and remotely with occasional meetings on Microsoft Teams with DiPierre to discuss the project.

DiPierre told the DP that PWBM had decided to terminate the project that the seven work-study students were working on because the program decided to shift gears

and that some students’ productivity had waned. He added that the agreement for the work-study position was that students would work around 10 hours each week, with some doing more and some doing less.

“We actually separately had a business decision to change tack on what we’re building and how we’re deploying it,” DiPierre said. “I looked at the students [and] either they were already over their allotment of hours for the semester or they weren’t doing [the work].”

Prior to their termination, students said that they did not receive any indication that the project would be coming to an end anytime soon.

Wharton and Engineering sophomore Michael Sun, another terminated PWBM employee, said that on his return offer letter in the beginning of this semester, the end date for the work-study program said May 2022. He said that this gave him the impression that he would be working at PWBM for the entire academic year.

Sun said that he had worked with PWBM since September of his first year. He said that he had worked up to 20 hours per week during the academic year and up to 40 hours per week during the summer to help his parents pay SEE BUDGET MODEL PAGE 3

Penn will invest $750 million in science, engineering, and medicine The investment will include renovations to David Rittenhouse Laboratories LIAM UMBS Contributing Reporter

Penn President Amy Gutmann announced a $750 million investment into science, engineering, and medicine at Penn over five years to further research programming and create new on-campus research spaces.

The investment will support research in novel therapeutics and health-related initiatives, energy and sustainability, and data engineering and science, according to a press release. It will also include renovations to David Rittenhouse Laboratories and the development of a new Physical Science Building.

The Perlman School of Medicine will use the funding to invest in research programming efforts, faculty recruitment, and improvements to campus research spaces, according to the press release. Research will focus on mRNA biology, vaccine development, immune health, cellular engineering, and gene therapy.

“The large scale of these [Medical School} investments is more than matched by the opportunity to continue making breakthrough discoveries to create new therapies and improve health,” Gutmann said in the press release.

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EDITORIAL | PENN CAN AFFORD NEW BUILDINGS. IT’S TIME TO UPGRADE CAPS.

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A hallway in David Rittenhouse Laboratories on Oct. 21.

The investment will also allow the University to “substantially reimagine” the DRL. The building, originally constructed in 1954, has faced a series of issues in recent years including broken heating, water damage from burst pipes, and a lack of functioning women’s restrooms.

In 2013, plans to renovate DRL were scrapped due to a lack of funding. The press release acknowledged that renovations to the DRL are critical for recruiting and retaining faculty.

In addition, a modern Physical Sciences Building will be built between the DRL and the Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology. It will provide research spaces for faculty and teaching laboratories that allow undergraduate students to get involved with research, the press release states.

The investment will also allow for creation of the Eidos LGBT+ Health Initiative by the School of Nursing, the SPORTS PAGE 9

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Energy and Sustainability Initiative by the School of Arts and Sciences and the Innovation in Data Engineering and Science Initiative by the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Funds will also be used to recruit 10 new faculty members to the Energy and Sustainability Initiative and IDEAS Initiative focus areas.

The investment was made possible by faculty, the Penn Center for Innovation, and the Power of Penn fundraising campaign, according to the press release.

Gutmann said she believes the new investments will be an important addition to the University’s research initiatives.

“These new initiatives will continue to support faculty recruitment and retention, and position Penn to be a world leader in some of the most critically important and impactful scientific fields for years to come,” Gutmann said in the press release.

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The University is adding multi-stall, all-gender bathrooms for future buildings on campus, but student groups are still advocating for renovations to existing buildings that are popular among community members.

University Architect Mark Kocent said that Penn has recently installed all-gender bathrooms in the Biotech Commons, which was formerly the Biomedical Library, and is nearing the completion of bathroom renovations in Houston Hall. More long-term plans for all-gender bathrooms include a $200 million Quad renovation project, and a yearlong project to renovate Stouffer College House — which will close in summer 2022 and reopen in fall 2023.

While Kocent said he is unable to give a current number of campus buildings containing all-gender bathrooms, LGBT Center Director Erin Cross said less than 50% of buildings have them. Penn had 89 all-gender bathrooms as of January 2020.

“The pace of the University changes are much slower than the lifetime of students,” Penn Association for Gender Equity Chair and College senior Sam Pancoe said. “It’s happening. It’s not happening at a pace as quickly as we would like it to. But things are moving.”

Beyond these renovations, some student groups have called on University administration to increase the number of all-gender bathrooms on campus in order to ensure the health and safety of current noncis students.

Last week, representatives of Lambda Alliance and PAGE presented results of an anonymous survey about non-cisgender students’ opinions and experiences with bathrooms to top administrators, including Penn President Amy Gutmann. Lambda Alliance Chair and College senior Blake Rubenstein said the administrators seemed receptive to students’ concerns.

According to Pancoe, the survey contained quotes about non-cis students’ struggles to plan their day around accessible bathrooms, as well as which buildings still need all-gender bathrooms — such as Fisher-Bennett Hall, Williams Hall, and 1920 Commons.

“I think the most impactful quotes centered around the fact that non-cis students are basically dehydrating themselves during the day, or holding their bladder for extended periods of time because there are only so many gender-neutral bathrooms on campus,” Pancoe said.

College senior and Penn Non-Cis Co-Chair Claire Medina said their biggest priority is to adding all-gender bathrooms to Fisher-Bennett Hall.

The building houses the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies department but has no all-gender bathrooms. They added that residential buildings, like the Quad, should also have all-gender bathrooms, because the current bathrooms are organized in a communal rather than suite-style.

When Medina was living in the Quad during their first year, they said the bathrooms were originally designated as men’s and women’s only — which made them uncomfortable as a nonbinary student.

While their resident advisor offered to convert the men’s bathrooms to become gender-neutral, they said that it was “not really solving the problem.”

It is easier to incorporate all-gender bathrooms into plans for new buildings due to space constraints in older layouts, Kocent said. In order to convert existing gendered bathrooms, Kocent said it is necessary to create private stalls with robust partitions. These private stalls can lead to plumbing code issues, adding they also require additional lighting and airflow.

“All of a sudden, what works for the general room, you might have four times the cost in lighting and plumbing, and so the cost gets much more expensive,” Kocent said. “So the schools have been very responsive, very receptive to doing it. It just doesn’t work everywhere.”

He added that in some cases, only single-stall all-gender additions can be incorporated into older buildings, since it is sometimes not physically feasible to convert bathrooms in older buildings into multi-stall, all-gender bathrooms.

Medina, however, said single-stall all-gender bathrooms can cause further issues, because that stall is often both the family bathrooms, and the only accessible option for non-cis people in a building.

Forcing people to choose between the gender they were assigned at birth and the gender they identify as by using gendered bathrooms leads to SEE BATHROOMS PAGE 6

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for his tuition to Penn.

The anonymous student, who identifies as a first-generation college student, similarly said they felt blindsided when they received the email about their termination because they relied on the income from their work-study to supplement living and academic expenses such as textbooks, groceries, and prescription medications.

Sun also said that he was disheartened that his sudden termination was delivered via email after working for PWBM and with DiPierre for more than a year.

“It’s disappointing,” Sun said. “Thinking about how they basically laid us off over email — not even over a team meeting — it’s disappointing.”

On the day they received the termination email, the anonymous student reached out to Penn First Plus for support. The student said Lo contacted SRFS on their behalf, who then spoke to PWBM. DiPierre said that he received a complaint from Student Employment about the student workers’ terminations, which prompted him and PWBM to reopen the workstudy positions.

On Nov. 3, students said that they received another email from DiPierre, this time informing them that there was more work available. He added that only students who had not yet worked the 150 hours allotted for this semester’s work-study could return to their employment.

Sun said that because he had already worked for 150 hours this semester, he was not able to return to work at

PWBM according to the email.

The anonymous student said that neither DiPierre nor PWBM acknowledged that SRFS had been involved with the decision to bring the student workers back. They added that although the email had said that additional work had appeared, the students were instructed to continue working on the data curation project from which they were terminated originally.

“They didn’t acknowledge SRFS at all. From my perspective, it’s very strange that they didn’t apologize,” the anonymous student said. “They suddenly went from Oct. 26 to Nov. 3, from being ‘You’re fired,’ to ‘Now we have some additional work available.’ What the additional work is, I have no idea.”

Lo said that when student workers encounter problems in their employment, they are welcome to reach out to P1P as a resource. He also encouraged students to contact their financial aid advisor and Student Employment directly because they run the work-study program at Penn.

He added that when student workers and their employers encounter issues in the work-study program, P1P often facilitates solutions that can involve retraining student workers.

“In my time at Penn, I’ve never witnessed the accountability process result in letting go of a student worker,” he said. “Generally speaking, if a student worker is asked to leave their student employment position, there’s some sort of process that is taking place to say: ‘This is not a good match for the student or for the office,’ and those conversa-

Penn COVID-19 positivity rate stays low as local rate rises Most cases were linked to travel to areas with lower vaccination rates or transmission by unvaccinated family members JONAH CHARLTON Senior Reporter

Penn’s COVID-19 case count stayed relatively low this week, as the case count in the city of Philadelphia experienced a much larger uptick.

A total of 59 Penn community members tested positive for COVID-19 between Nov. 7 and Nov. 13, compared to 39 the week before, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6. In Philadelphia, 1,391 people tested positive for COVID-19 last week, over 200 more than the previous week. The positivity rate last week within the Penn community sat at 0.45%, while the positivity rate in Philadelphia increased from 2.90% to 3.20%.

Chief Wellness Officer Benoit Dubé said the majority of the cases were linked to either travel to areas with lower vaccination rates or transmission by unvaccinated family members, such as children who remain ineligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Given our incredibly high COVID-19 vaccination rate, coupled with our other mitigation strategies, Penn is an incredibly safe place to be,” Dubé said.

He emphasized that the continued lack of classroom and workplace transmission is an incredibly positive sign and that the University’s in-person fall semester has largely been a success. Penn’s COVID-19 positivity rate has sat steady around 0.40% for the majority of the semester.

In addition to a sustained low positivity rate, close to 80% of Penn students complied with the University’s biweekly COVID-19 testing, Dubé said. Every two weeks, the University issues red PennOpen Passes to students who have failed to test for COVID-19 in the prior two-week period.

On Nov. 9, halfway through the testing cycle, thousands of students — including 2,856 undergraduates in the College of Arts and Sciences — were at risk of receiving noncompliance red PennOpen Passes on Nov. 16. A large

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Testing observer Brittany Sellers stands at her station in the Du Bois/Rodin Field testing site on Jan. 19.

number of students remedied the situation by the Nov. 13 deadline, while the remaining students were barred from many campus buildings on Nov. 16.

“Having 80% of students follow the rules is great, and it is a really encouraging thing to see the progress we have made on this front over the last few weeks,” Dubé said. “The fact remains, however, that there are still many students who are not doing the right thing, and that really needs to change.

Many students have struggled to adhere to the COVID-19 testing requirement over the past month. On Oct. 19, over 9,000 students received noncompliance red PennOpen Passes.

Ahead of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, the University will extend the hours at the Du Bois testing center. The testing center — which is typically open six days a week — will offer testing on Sunday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Similarly, the University will offer testing on Sunday, Dec. 19, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ahead of winter break.

Dubé said the number of students who are scheduling their COVID-19 tests ahead of time continues to remain very low. The lack of appointments has continued to create backlogs in Penn’s COVID-19 testing laboratory, leading to a challenge to return results within 24 hours.

“We continue to truly encourage students to schedule their tests ahead of time. If you schedule a test, you will always be able to get it. If you walk in, there may be times in which we are forced to turn students away, which we obviously never want to do,” Dubé said.

BIOSPHERE SUMMIT 2021

Vast majority of spring 2022 courses will be held in person The University’s emphasis on inperson instruction applies to all four undergraduate schools STEPHANIE CHEN Staff Reporter

MIRANDA GONG

Most undergraduate courses next semester will be taught in person, although some Wharton School courses will include online instruction in the spring.

The University’s emphasis on in-person instruction for spring 2022 applies to all four undergraduate schools, according to an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian from Associate Vice Provost for Education and Academic Planning Gary Purpura. While most courses this semester were taught in the classroom, many still included hybrid and virtual components.

“In some extremely rare cases, an undergraduate course may be offered online during spring 2022, but even in those cases, we will strive for in-person activities for the course (inperson office hours, for instance, or in-person recitation sections if the lecture component is online),” Purpura wrote.

Courses being taught virtually next semester include STAT 435: “Forecasting Methods for Management,” which will be fully online, and STAT111: “Introductory Statistics,” which will offer recorded lectures with in-person recitations and exams. The decision to incorporate online elements into these courses was not related to COVID-19, Senior Vice Dean of Teaching and Learning at Wharton Brian Bushee clarified in an email to the DP. Bushee wrote that STAT 435 was approved to be online in March 2021 by the Wharton Dean’s Office, and that the decision was not related to COVID-19. The course, which is cross-listed as a graduate course with 70% of the class comprising graduate students, will not be offered online to undergraduates after spring 2022, Bushee wrote.

Meanwhile, STAT 111 was not considered an “online” course by Wharton due to it having significant in-person components, Bushee wrote.

“The Wharton Dean’s Office approved this structure in May 2021 so we could free up our large lecture hall for other large courses to meet student demand. This course was also included in the Provost’s Office approval process in August 2021,” he wrote.

After next semester, undergraduate Wharton courses will no longer be offered online and

A Wharton class being conducted on Feb. 13, 2019. Some Wharton classes will continue to include online instruction for the spring 2022 semester.

only graduate courses will be considered for approval by the Wharton Dean’s Office, Bushee wrote.

Multiple courses were mistakenly listed as “online” in Penn InTouch earlier this month due to a coding error, which has since been resolved.

“Some of the coding attached to our spring 2021 courses — i.e. the coding indicating courses were to be held ‘online’ — was simply never removed when the spring [2022] courses were rostered,” Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies Yvonne Fabella wrote in an email.

Wharton courses MGMT 101: “Introduction To Management,” MGMT 267: “Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation,” and BEPP 208: “Housing Markets” were listed as online but are actually slated to be in person in the spring.

“I have really enjoyed being back in the classroom for the Q2 fall section of MGMT 267, and I am looking forward to staying there,” Wharton professor Jacqueline Kirtley wrote in an email.

Some College of Arts and Sciences courses were also mistakenly listed to be online. HIST 027: “Ancient Rome,” BIOL 109: “Introduction to Brain and Behavior,” and AFRC 168: “History of American Law to 1877” were just a few of the several courses entered as having online components.

College Dean Paul Sniegowski clarified the online listings were just an error, writing in an email that the College is “emphasizing in-person instruction for the spring, as it did for this fall.”

The move to return fully to in-person teaching ref lects the University’s confidence in its handling of the pandemic during campus’ reopening this fall.

“We as the Penn community have been very successful this semester,” Chief Wellness Officer Benoit Dubé said. “We have seen no COVID-19 cases due to classroom transmission, and that is continued proof that our multilayered mitigation strategies — vaccines, testing, and masking — are working to protect the community and achieve our educational mission.”

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OPINION THURSDAY NOVEMBER 18, 2021 VOL. CXXXVII, NO. 27 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 KYLIE COOPER Photo Editor ALFREDO PRATICÒ Opinion Editor SUNNY JANG Audience Engagement Editor BRANDON PRIDE Sports Editor LOCHLAHN MARCH Sports Editor SOPHIE HUANG Video Editor

EDITORIAL

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Penn can afford new buildings. It’s time to upgrade CAPS.

n a recent Daily Pennsylvanian article, students reported month-long waits to meet with a Counseling and Psychological Services counselor. Especially for people calling CAPS for the first time, this long wait time is what one student called the “most discouraging thing in the world.” Chief Wellness Officer Benoit Dubé suggested that students take greater advantage of CAPS walk-in services (like walk-in hours and Let’s Talk), but many students aren’t aware of these services. Walkin hours (and most other CAPS services) are distant from the heart of campus, as CAPS’ office is on Market Street. Let’s Talk brings counselors to common student gathering places, but the hours and locations change depending on the day of the week, making it difficult for students to know where and when they can get immediate help.

While the services CAPS provides are still incredibly helpful, one thing is abundantly clear: CAPS is long overdue for an upgrade. Here are the two most pressing issues that need to be: One, CAPS must be centrally located on campus; two, the resources that CAPS has at its disposal must be increased. Namely, more personnel should be hired so that CAPS can offer services to a greater number of people in a greater number of locations more quickly.

Penn certainly has the resources to make

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here is a quiet movement brewing at other Pennsylvania universities. First Penn State. Now Drexel. Is Penn next?

This movement is how students label themselves. Rather than using the terms “freshman,” “sophomore,” “junior” and “senior,” these schools are moving toward a more inclusive, flexible labeling system. For example, instead of “junior,” they would use the more informative term “third year.”

Rather than use the terms “upperclassmen” and “underclassmen,” which both reek of male-centric hierarchy, Penn State has elected to use the terms “upper division” and “lower division” students.

When were these colloquial terms created?

In the 1600s, these labels were coined at the University of Cambridge to categorize students. “Freshman” was used as a term for “newbies” (another term that I have qualms with). The meaning of “sophomore” can be broken down into “a wise fool.” “Junior” and “Senior” were used to delineate upper division students, which exudes a father-son naming convention. It is ironic that the United Kingdom no longer uses these terms (they use the labels “first year,” “second year,” and “final year”), yet it’s the former American colonies that are reluctant to give them up.

You may be thinking, it does not matter how we label ourselves. Many college students in Pennsylvania don’t seem to care about the label change. Some may assert that how we label ourselves has a negligible impact on our day-to-day lives.

Although I concede that changing class year labels would largely be a performative gesture, I believe that the words we use to describe ourselves matter.

Rigid labels can hold us back, whereas flexible labels may help us overcome stress.

One study found that students who attrib-

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could be met without significantly increasing wait-times. And with more mental health professionals available, CAPS would be able to offer a greater variety of mental health services, such as more group-therapy sessions that could meet to address a wider variety of experiences.

Penn’s campus is one that is forever under construction: Year after year, Penn invests in new research and academic buildings, dorms, and other amenities. With the amount of resources at Penn’s disposal, there is no excuse for Penn not to invest in the mental health of its students and provide the vital upgrades that CAPS needs to adequately provide services to students.

uted personality as changeable (both for themselves and for others) turned out to be less stressed in social exclusion situations compared to students who used fixed labels.

We tend to use labels to lighten our cognitive load. Some people are uncomfortable with ambiguity, so fixed labels help simplify a complex world. However, I also value inclusivity and flexibility, and I believe that Penn should adopt a similar flexible labeling system as Drexel and Penn State.

The system would make it especially inclusive of students who are on unique academic journeys, whether they are graduating in three years or spending an extra academic year submatriculating into a graduate degree program.

This communication change would not be new for us. The Penn community recently revised the term “freshman” to “first year,” so why not expand it?

In a request for comment, Penn University Life responded that “The University does not have an official policy on the terms used to refer to class years. We are beginning to introduce more neutral, inclusive, and contemporary language for class years that will be reflected in institutional programs and initiatives - for example, the new SecondYear Experience program.”

If we want to be more neutral and inclusive, then let’s experiment with using different terms to describe ourselves, such as third-year, fourth-year and upper/lowerlevel students. Of course, it is up to the student community on if this cultural change will catch on or not.

While being declared a “fourth year” on Hey Day has a different sound than being called a “senior,” I think it can be normalized if a majority of students adopt this change. The symbolism of becoming lead-

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ers of the school does not need a “senior” label attached to it.

This change in labeling also reminds me of how communities are beginning to embrace the singular pronoun “they.” Both Penn students and academic departments have increasingly and consciously practiced this cultural norm of asking for pronouns in people’s introductions.

Once I arrived at Penn in 2018, I recognized that students don’t use the word “grade” to refer to their academic standing like I did in high school. They use the term “class year” or “year,” so I quickly complied with the social norm. These two examples demonstrate that the Penn community is flexible enough to redefine class year labels.

However, inclusion will not be achieved by this single symbolic revision. Although Penn sends messages of diversity and inclusion, this change in how we label ourselves would be just one small step in creating a more inclusive community.

It is time for us to rethink our labels, and the change does not have to start administratively. We all have the power to choose the words we communicate with others.

Now it is up to you. What year are you?

JADEN CLOOBECK is a College fourth year studying psychology from Laguna Beach, Calif. His email address is jaden@sas.upenn.edu.

I didn’t write off fraternities for myself, and you shouldn’t either

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Cloobeck’s Call | The terms for class year must be revised if we want to become a truly inclusive academic community

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tually follow through on its voiced commitment to student mental health. And it would make CAPS far more accessible to students, wherever they live on campus. Currently, CAPS is a 12-minute walk from the Quad, a 12-minute walk from the high rises and New College House West, and a 10-minute walk from Hill. A central campus location would significantly cut down these travel times, or allow students to easily access walk-in hours on their way to or from class.

But even as Penn works to move CAPS to a more central location, immediate needs can be met by increasing the number of personnel on their payroll. For one, this would allow Penn to address the concerns we initially raised about Let’s Talk — therapists could be stationed in popular campus locations permanently and offer services for a greater number of hours. This would not only increase student access to vital services, but it would also address the appearance that Penn favors certain undergraduate and graduate schools more than others. For another, students who have identity-related preferences regarding the therapist with whom they meet experience longer wait times. Students should not have to choose between having culturally competent care and having any mental health care at all.

By hiring more therapists from more diverse backgrounds, students’ identity preferences

Let’s rethink how we label class years

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this change happen. In the fiscal year 2021, Penn’s endowment rose a record 41.1%, and it currently stands somewhere close to $20.5 billion. Moreover, Penn has been embarking on a number of renovation and construction projects, including the recently built New College House West and Pavilion, in addition to future projects, like the Quad/Stouffer renovations and Amy Gutmann Hall. Certainly, many of these projects were funded by donations from alumni that were specifically earmarked for that purpose. But these building projects demonstrate the power of Penn’s alumni network (and wallet) and show that if Penn were as concerned with student mental health as it claims to be, it could move the mountains necessary to give CAPS the vital improvements that it needs.

Why is it vital that CAPS be moved to a more central location? For one, the structure of a university’s campus is revealing of what that university values. Locust Walk lies at the heart of Penn’s campus, and yet it is dominated by fraternities, exclusionary spaces characterized by wealth and privilege, and spaces where numerous Penn students have been physically or sexually assaulted. Students should feel at ease on Locust Walk, not reminded of their past trauma or how they don’t belong. By moving CAPS to a location on Locust, it would allow Penn to ac-

J to the Z | How rush gave me a chance to rediscover Greek life and myself

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stood in the corner of a dimly lit fraternity house, solo cup in hand, observing the commotion in front of me. The air reeked of cheap beer accompanied by the occasional crisp sound of ping pong balls landing in cups. I had two thoughts in mind: it is surreal that I’m finally at college after a year of online school and I can’t believe how much I’m enjoying a fraternity party.

Before coming to Penn, I harbored little intention of going to fraternity parties, let alone rushing a fraternity. My only experience with American social culture at the time was my boarding high school in southern Pennsylvania, and my sole cognizance of fraternity parties are from movies and TV shows. My idea of “a frat bro” was someone who always wears their cap backward, puts a sports jersey over a hoodie, and talks in a brassy deep voice. I, a nerdy Asian kid who is more artistic than athletic, did not necessarily fit that archetype — or at least my perception of it.

Thinking that I had to fit that mold in order to fit in at a fraternity party, I was nervous when my friend invited me to one.

Though, in the spirit of trying more new things, I went regardless.

As I walked up to the house, nervously screaming internally, I decided to put on a façade of what I perceived a stereotypical fraternity brother to be, hoping that it would allow me to fit in. I stepped in, started dabbing people up, greeting them with “’sup,” and calling strangers “bro.” To my delight, I was chatting with a dozen different strangers, pulling up to different pong tables, and blending in. This isn’t so bad, I thought. As antithetical as it may sound, I had a lot of fun

PARIS ROSEN

that night pretending to be someone else.

Over the next few weeks, I began hanging out with the brothers outside parties. We worked together in class, ran into each other on Locust Walk, and got lunch throughout the week. Our conversations evolved from the simple “oh, where are you from” to talks about interests, aspirations, and more. I got to know these guys beyond their perceived “frat bro” persona: some are passionate about activism, some are artistic, some want to teach after graduation.

At first, I would still put on an alternative personality in order to fit into the conversation, sometimes feeling exhausted by the whole act. Though unwittingly, somewhere along the way I let my guard down and became myself. I saw how the brothers did not

impose judgment on those different from themselves or those who would not fit into society’s idea of a fraternity bro. More importantly, to my own surprise, I befriended guys that my high school self would never expect to. They showed me, through their actions, that I do not have to change myself to fit into a community: the community is what you make of it and everyone adds their own nuances.

In retrospect, I approached fraternities at Penn with a stereotypical mindset — and while stereotypes exist in part because they could be true to a certain extent, it is important that we do not embrace essentialist views of people. We can be quick to put ourselves and other people in boxes, labeling bins of things that are for us and those

that are not. However, we sometimes fail to recognize that all of us have multiple labels and no one only fits into one box only. There is no singular way to enjoy a fraternity party, just as there is no singular way to be a fraternity brother.

I recognize that my experience does not represent that of everyone, which is undoubtedly wide-ranging. While I do not wish to defend the actions of those who marginalize and hurt others because they do not fit their idea of someone who belongs in fraternities, I want to encourage our community to not reduce everyone in Greek life to one stereotype. It is irrational to judge the majority of a community by the actions of a few and inevitably creates an us-versus-them mindset which can be counter-constructive in building a more inclusive community. Moreover, it is unfair to reduce people to the conventional portrayal of “frat bros” when there are many other facets to their personalities.

Many of us can feel intimidated, unnerved, or even fear being excluded by fraternities when we first arrive at Penn and that is natural. However, we should not overtly restrict ourselves to fit certain boxes and decide that something is not for us based on preconceived notions. After all, it never hurts to keep an open mind. You might end up discovering a piece of yourself that you never experienced before, just like I did.

JESSE ZHANG is a College and Wharton second year studying marketing and communications from Shenzhen, China. His email is zhexi@ wharton.upenn.edu.

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OPINION 5

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2021

AirPods: The new age of being antisocial in a generation of loneliness

The case for deleting social media

Consider This | Take out your headphones and tune in to life

Allison’s Attitude | How social media robs us of the full human experience

W

e’ve all seen it, and most of us fall victim to it: wearing noise cancelling headphones while walking to class, or even at times, in class. I vividly recall walking into my first period class my first year of high school after winter break. Having the predictable conversation of “What did you get for Christmas?” was being returned with a widespread, unanticipated response: AirPods. That was four years ago. Now walking out on the streets of Philadelphia, or into any café, it’s rare to see a single person without the two white earbuds sticking out of their ears.

This new trend silences the world around us and limits us to our thoughts. Listening to the newest episode of a podcast, playing “Careless Whisper” on repeat, or even cramming 10-15 minutes of the recorded 8 a.m. lecture you missed — in our fast paced lifestyles, we try to utilize every minute of our day, even the few minutes walking to and from classes. While we may feel a deeper connection with the artists we religiously tune into, we are inversely furthering our pre-existing antisocial bubble of loneliness around us.

An unsaid rule when people wear AirPods or headphones in public is that you don’t approach them. We all voluntarily encase ourselves in a tiny Bluetooth bubble.

In all honesty, I can say that I am guilty of this. There are multiple occurrences where I haven’t approached or said “hi” to someone I knew on Locust Walk or in Starbucks because of the inconvenience it would be to take out my AirPods and for them to take out theirs. Here is my formal apology to Ray Bradbury who would be, to say the least, appalled and disappointed. His prediction in “Fahrenheit 451” warned us about the potential for similar devices, aka “seashells” in the story, taking over and ruining societal connections in the long run. Ironically, we are seeing the same issues exacerbated by our unwillingness to reach out to people.

Let’s delve into the aftermath of social isolation during the pandemic. A study conducted last October by researchers at Harvard Graduate School of Education reported that nine out of every 25 respondents to a national survey of Americans reported feeling alone a majority of the time during their day-to-day lives. The most striking result may be that 61% of those aged 18 to 25 reported higher levels than any other age group in the study. Well over a third of young adults reported increases in loneliness since the start of the pandemic and about half of lonely young adults in the survey reported that no one in the past few weeks had “taken more than just a few minutes to ask how they are doing.” Gen Z in particular suffers high rates of loneliness, anxiety, and depression. According to a recent CDC survey, 63% of our age group is suffering significant symptoms of anxiety or depression.

AirPods becoming a tool to avoid social interaction is the last thing we need. Why are we willingly ex-

acerbating our currently fragile state of being? How long can we stay away from interacting with the culture around us?

I took it upon myself to practice what I preached for a day. I rarely leave my room without my AirPods in, even if it’s just to go down the hall. And yes, it was slightly awkward and loud. But I did make some observations. The majority of people wearing headphones were, unsurprisingly, young adults. While standing in line for coffee, the barista repeated her sentence three times to a kid that had AirPods in and his response each time was “huh?” While their interaction was brief, many people without headphones were greeted with a “How is your day going” or “You should really try this new drink.”

ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

These small and seemingly insignificant conversations are actually very important. Researchers have found that high levels of social integration and an increase in weak-tie interactions leave people with a greater sense of belonging. Looking at this analogically, another group of researchers stated that “Just as a diverse financial portfolio makes people less vulnerable to market fluctuations, a diverse social portfolio might make people less vulnerable to fluctuations in their social network.”

Unplug (or should I say “unpair”) yourself from the technological world. Our time at Penn is going to be gone before we know it. I know I would regret it if I couldn’t accurately reminisce over the environment and people surrounding me during such a vital time in my life. Make small talk. Honor the label of being “the person who I run into at the grocery store that asks me about my dog.” Connect with the world around you.

Before you know it, your four years here will be up and you’ll be moving on. Embrace everything in the now.

LIALA SOFI is a College first year studying health and societies from Roanoke, Va. Her email address is lsofi@sas.upenn.edu.

S

ometimes, I catch myself doing it — my least favorite repertoire. I open up my phone and scroll through Snapchat, Instagram, or whatever social media platform fancies me at that moment to avoid the awkwardness of a social situation, to appear busy, to fill my boredom, or to procrastinate completing important tasks, such as homework, laundry, or exercise.

I’ve been trying to be more mindful of how much time I spend on my phone over this past year. Particularly during quarantine, I intentionally filled my days with activities such as running, baking, and reading because I feared the state of despondency I might slip into if I spent my entire days immobile and sucked into the world of virtual reality. One of the first steps I took was deleting TikTok. Within the past week, I put stringent time limits on my Instagram use. I haven’t looked back since, but I still struggle with social media as a whole.

Admittedly, it’s hard to not mindlessly scroll on apps designed to be addictive. Lately, I’ve not only been upset that I’ve been sucked into this meaningless, curated version of life, but also because I’ve realized how much I’m missing out on in the real world. I’ve started to think about how I could spend those four to six hours of screen time in more enriching ways, such as reading, learning how to play an instrument, exploring new areas of Philadelphia, engaging in conversations with other students, or even just enjoying the peace of mind without a buzzing distraction in my pocket.

We’ve all heard that social media is linked to mental health issues, such as an increased risk of anxiety and depression. But that’s not to say that social media is the root of the problem. The transition between teenagehood and adulthood is an uncomfortable, trying time in our lives.

Social media not only heavily exacerbates the preexisting issues associated with this age but adds novelty to them. We are figuring out who we are, and we are making many mistakes along the way. It only becomes that much more difficult to do so when there is a constant feed of photos, videos, and messages sitting at our fingertips.

Not only does social media interfere with our ability to meaningfully construct our individual self-concept, but it also interferes with our ability to maintain focus. Sometimes I check my phone out of pure habit — even when I don’t get a notification. I believe this is a symptom that I, along with others, experience from the neurological effects of social media. Because we are becoming more accustomed to our attention being fragmented between the virtual and real world, we are losing our ability to concentrate diligently on one task and execute it efficiently.

Concentration is not the only realm in which social media has a real world outcome.

Equally important is the power that social media has on political communication and political outcomes.

Netflix’s “Social Dilemma” delineates how social media enables political disinformation to disseminate with

unprecedented ease and how these same algorithms isolate the viewer’s content to only heighten and intensify their views. The number of countries with political disinformation campaigns on social media doubled in the past two years, and a startling 64% of people who joined extremist groups on Facebook did so because the algorithms directed them there. It’s clear that people on both sides of the political spectrum are being drawn toward extremism directly because of what they see on their Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram feeds. This sharp divisiveness contributes to a diminished mutual understanding and compassion within American political discourse, and more saliently, the American citizenry.

A deceptively strong case for social media is that it keeps us connected with people all around the world. The reason this case is deceptive is two-pronged. One, social media connects us through a carefully curated version of life that does not exist in reality, so it’s not really connecting us. Two, this case circumvents the truth that social media is not the only avenue of communication. Don’t we usually stay in touch with the ones we really love via calling and messaging, anyways?

AVI SINGH

I know that it’s hard to imagine actually deleting all forms of social media because it has such a formidable presence in everyday life. In an effort to be realistic, I propose to you that maybe you shouldn’t go cold turkey; perhaps a slow cessation by setting app time limits, or even disconnecting for hours at a time by turning your phone on Airplane Mode would be a more appealing and efficacious approach.

Join me in being happier, more focused, more engaged, and more compassionate: lessen your time spent (or even delete) social media.

ALLISON SANTA-CRUZ is a College first year studying philosophy, politics, and economics from Jackson, Miss. Her email address is allisant@sas.upenn.edu.

Stop saying ‘Penn Face’ Quirky Quaker | To deconstruct ‘Penn Face,’ we must start with the name

A

few weeks ago, the College Dean’s Advisory Board hosted the event “Deconstructing the Penn Face.” A panel of upperclassmen shared advice about navigating “Penn Face” and the challenges they’ve encountered. The design of the flyers promoting the event made the focus clear. The phrase “Penn Face” was in large print at the top, and “discussing mental wellness and how to thrive at Penn,” although arguably more important, was in small font at the bottom. Though a simple example, that flyer represents how we, as a school, view Penn Face: the center of our conversations about mental wellness.

Although no formal definition exists, Penn Face is understood as the tendency for Penn students to act as if their lives, both academic and social, are perfect. Penn Face leads you to believe that a classmate has stellar grades, amazing friends, and great mental health. In other words, they have put on an act that makes their life seem free of stress, anxiety, or challenges.

I was warned about Penn Face before I even stepped foot on campus. Penn Face unnecessarily scares incoming first years and conditions us to conform. A student new to Penn is left thinking: if everyone else will be hiding behind their Penn Face, why shouldn’t I? Instead of using Penn Face to describe what incoming first years should expect, the message should be realistic yet encouraging. Yes, there are going to be challenges during your time at Penn, but there will also be resources available to tackle those challenges.

As Penn students, we like to think we are unique.

TYLER KLIEM

When it comes to Penn Face, we are not. Stanford has “ floating duck syndrome.” Duke and Princeton have “effortless perfection.” People present a façade of their lives. Lack of mental health awareness is a problem beyond college campuses. We do ourselves no favors by attributing this problem to only Penn.

In 2015, the Undergraduate Assembly launched a website called Penn Faces “to deconstruct the Penn Face” by giving students a platform to share their stories and experiences, both positive and negative. Since 2016, the College Dean’s Advisory Board has hosted the “Deconstructing the Penn Face” event annually. In 2017, Wharton

hosted a similar event as a “fireside chat.” With each passing year, the message remains the same: Penn Face is bad, but, if we talk about it, things will get better.

In a 2017 sidebar poll, 81% of students responded “no” when asked if Penn is doing enough to combat Penn Face. How can we expect Penn to effectively solve a problem we have already decided is part of who we are? We are binding ourselves to the idea of what Penn is instead of focusing on what Penn can be. If the conversation around Penn culture constantly revolves around Penn Face, it becomes difficult to make progress. Instead of dwelling on Penn Face, we can simply talk about mental health and wellness.

If we want to truly deconstruct Penn Face, we have to start with the name itself. We must be intentional with our language and reframe how we speak and think about Penn’s culture. Penn Face has a negative connotation. It’s associated with feeling inadequate, stressed, or unhappy, and nevertheless, the pressure to pretend those feelings don’t exist. Instead of saying Penn Face, why not talk about the pressure of perfection? Instead of deconstructing Penn Face, why not deconstruct mental health? Penn Face only has the power we give it. Let’s stop giving it power.

YOMI ABDI is a Wharton first year studying finance from Chicago. Her email is yomiabdi@wharton.upenn.edu.

What do weed-out courses really measure?

Caroline’s Queries | Weed-out courses exacerbate educational inequalities and fail as a proxy for passion and aptitude in a major

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early everyone at Penn has experienced that one course with the nonsensical lectures, the mountain of work, the impossible exams, or some ungodly combination of all three. We often experience this course early in our Penn experiences, and it can remake our entire academic trajectory. Yes, I’m talking about the infamous “weed-out” course.

Penn students and faculty disagree over whether weed-out courses even exist. Professors state that course difficulty is not a factor in their curricula design, so there are officially no courses constructed to weed students out. But intentional or not, roughly half of STEM entry courses at Penn have a difficulty level above 3.0 out of 4.0, based on PennCourseReview. Should a student’s first introduction to their prospective major be that challenging?

Many believe that it should in order to determine whether a student can succeed in that major in the long term. The argument goes that if students are exposed to the hard parts of their major first, they will realize early on if the major isn’t for them and avoid “wasting” classes on a major that they supposedly aren’t fit for. Don’t get me wrong; most introductory courses have material that is challenging but essential to the major, and should thus be taught. If our coursework were easy and accomplishable with minimal effort, there wouldn’t be any need to attend college, not to mention a top university like Penn.

However, weed-out courses can make fundamental content more confusing and complicated than it needs to be.

The biggest issue isn’t that weed-out courses are hard, but that it’s easy to falsely equivocate low grades in weed-out courses with being a bad fit for a major. Doing well in these courses doesn’t necessarily indicate a good fit either. Performance in a weed-out course has little to do with the material or subject itself, and correlates more with mastery of study skills. Forging connections with one’s peers or professors can be impactful when struggling academically, as lots of learning is done in study groups and office hours. Study skills are vital, but do they measure suitability for a major? A student can get an A in both BIOL 101 and CIS 120 using strong study skills even if they love biology and hate computer science. Similarly, a student that struggles with studying wouldn’t gain much from switching from a biology to a computer science major, or vice versa.

This false equivocation of grades to proficiency harms disadvantaged and underrepresented students most. Because Penn students come from varying academic backgrounds, students enter introductory courses on an unequal playing field, which gets worse when these courses try to “weed” students out. There’s evidence that weed-out courses hamper

diversity, and even when studies account for differences in high school rigor, FGLI students are more likely to leave their major than their peers upon receiving low grades in introductory STEM courses.

Additionally, there are key factors to consider in determining major compatibility that are ignored in weed-out courses. At a school as pre-professionally minded as Penn, I am surprised that there isn’t more time devoted to discussing careers and real-world applications of material beyond the classroom.

While introductory courses could incorporate these topics into their curricula, they are instead treated as asides and rarely show up in grading schemes.

Weed-out courses have little incentive to prioritize such exploratory topics, as these add on to the already excessive workload that students have, and would also probably boost grades.

So, what can be done? First off, we should repudiate the connection between weed-out course grades and major fit. We should emphasize that it’s okay (and often expected!) to receive lower grades in these courses, and that there are other factors that indicate whether a major is a good fit. Though we struggle with Penn Face and unrealistic academic expectations, we can break down barriers through our everyday conversations. When I’ve felt down about my academic performance over the past year, I’ve found solace in Penn’s Anti-Resume Project, a

platform that features students’ and faculty’s failures and unconventional successes.

Second, we should add more exploratory components to introductory courses, and encourage students to pay attention to them. Though a physics professor can’t jump into the intricacies of quantum theory at an introductory mechanics level, providing at least some background could both inspire prospective majors and provide a fuller picture of a physics major’s experience. As another example, though ECON 001 and ECON 002 focus on the fundamentals of economic theory, hosting a speaker panel in class could offer unique insights into careers and research.

When you next think about that weed-out course you survived, I encourage you to ponder how it could have been made less painful, and how it has shaped your academic path at Penn. Did it measure your suitability for the major? If not, let’s do something about it, and demand curricula changes.

CAROLINE MAGDOLEN is a College and Engineering second year studying environmental science and systems engineering from New York City. Her email address is magdolen@sas.upenn.edu.

6 NEWS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Penn prof. talks dismantling racial inequities in child welfare system Penn prof. Dorothy Roberts’ book on the child welfare system will be published in spring 2022

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

BATHROOMS FRONT PAGE

ISABELA BAGHDADY Contributing Reporter

Penn Law and sociology professor Dorothy Roberts discussed the systemic racial inequities in the child welfare system during a virtual event on Nov. 16.

Penn professor Dorothy Roberts discussed the systemic racial inequities in the child welfare system at a virtual event Tuesday evening.

The event, titled “Black Families Matter: How the U.S. Family Regulation System Punishes Poor People of Color,” is the fourth installment of the 2021-2022 Race and Regulation Lecture Series sponsored by the Penn Program on Regulation and the Penn Law Office of Equity and Inclusion. The series explores the relationship between government regulation and racial inequality, as well as potential policy reforms to combat institutional racism.

In conversation with Penn Program on Regulation Director Cary Coglianese, Roberts discussed her upcoming book, “Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World,” which is set to be published in spring 2022. The book explores how the child welfare system — which Roberts calls the “family policing system” — disproportionately targets Black families and calls for it to be dismantled.

The child welfare system is intended to identify and protect children who are at risk of parental abuse or neglect. Roberts argues, however, that the child welfare system means something different for Black children and white children as Black children live in greater fear of being separated from their parents.

“I’m now convinced that we need to completely dismantle the child welfare system while we build a radically reimagined way of caring for families and keeping children safe,” said Roberts, who is the 14th Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor with joint appointments in the departments of Africana Studies and Sociology and the Law School.

In her lecture, Roberts discussed how the child welfare system has disproportionately targeted “economically and racially marginalized communities” by monitoring families of color and forcing children into foster care, highlighting the connection between the child welfare system and criminal law enforcement.

Roberts said the child welfare system disproportionately criminalizes Black, brown, and Indigenous parents as a “risk” to their children. She added that the child welfare system also criminalizes Black children, citing two examples of Black children who were killed by staff members while they lived in residential care facilities.

Roberts added that low-income Black families are at greater risk of family regulation because they face greater “state surveillance.” She said that, compared to wealthy white families, lowincome Black families are more likely to interact with public service providers for their health care, schooling, social services, and welfare benefits, resulting in their increased likelihood of being reported by “mandated reporters.” Roberts defined mandated reporters as professionals — such as teachers, health care providers, and daycare workers — who are required by law to report “suspected child abuse and neglect” to the government. “[The Child Welfare System] is a multi-billion dollar state apparatus that relies on terrorizing families by taking their children away or weaponizing their children with the threat of removing them in order to impose intensive surveillance on every aspect of the family’s life. It executes this extraordinary level of state intervention and family regulation by both acting like police and working hand in hand with criminal law enforcement,” Roberts said.

Roberts added that more than half of Black children will face investigation by Child Protective Services before they reach the age of 18.

Family separation ultimately interferes with Black children’s physical health, social-emotional well-being, and education, Roberts said. Many Black children in foster care face a greater risk of poverty, homelessness, imprisonment, and suicide, Roberts added.

The event concluded with Roberts’ advice on how members of the Penn and larger community can work to combat the structural racism rooted in the child welfare system.

Roberts encouraged the audience to learn more about organizations, such as JMacForFamilies, that are working to abolish the current child welfare system and replace it with a more equitable system. In addition, Roberts encouraged Penn Law students to become involved in family defender services, such as the Interdisciplinary Child Advocacy Clinic at Penn Law. “Those are just some ways of not only dismantling the system through legislation — through protest — but also just as importantly, building the society that we would want for our families and making sure that we all equally can raise our families,” Roberts said.

different levels of harassment, Medina added.

“Asking people to make that choice is asking you to pick what manner of unsafe behavior you’re okay with, and what manner of harassment you’re okay with,” Medina said. “I’m nonbinary. But if I use the women’s bathrooms, it’s legitimizing everyone who thinks that it doesn’t matter, or it’s not a big deal, or like I’m just being pissy.”

Medina, Pancoe, and Rubenstein said that non-cis students being forced to “out” themselves is another danger resulting from the lack of all-gender bathrooms.

“A lot of the time when there aren’t these bathrooms, it can be very detrimental to people’s selfworth, self-respect,” Rubenstein said. “It can ‘out’ individuals who are trans or gender nonbinary by using a bathroom that may or may not match to their gender.”

Because many campus buildings do not have allgender bathrooms, Pancoe said non-cis students are not able to participate in the same activities as cisgender students. Cross said she has spoken with students who plan their class schedules around the availability of all-gender bathrooms. Non-cis faculty members also face the same issue, she added.

Student groups have been calling for all-gender bathrooms for several years. The Student Committee on Undergraduate Education released a White Paper this year that called for more all-gender bathrooms.

Aidan Young, SCUE’s Chair External and Engineering senior, said the group’s recommendation was for 30% of all Penn bathrooms to be all-gender by 2025, which was determined after speaking with students through surveys and focus groups.

“I think the goal of the University should be to make everybody feel welcome, in every part of the campus and every building,” Young said. “It’s important that you make sure that whatever you can do to help students feel comfortable and feel that they’re in a safe place is important.”

Kocent said he’s currently working with the Division of Public Safety to address two challenges that students and faculty have mentioned in surveys — minimizing the gap between doors in individual stalls to ensure privacy and fitting the maximum amount of bathrooms possible into a space.

Other upcoming projects that will contain all-gender bathrooms include Amy Gutmann Hall, the new Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology, and a project that will connect the Graduate School of Education with Stiteler Hall, all of which are scheduled to be completed in the next two years, he said.

The McNeil Building renovations — which included multi-stall all-gender bathrooms — have been particularly exciting, Rubenstein said.

“There definitely has been an increase in numbers, and each time it makes me so excited to see it,” Rubenstein said. “Penn is adding multi-stall allgender bathrooms to new buildings on campus, so trying to increase the number in current buildings on

SUKHMANI KAUR

The McNeil Building has had all-gender bathrooms since 2019.

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NEWS 7

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Penn Abroad will expand study abroad offerings for spring 2022 Nearly 200 Penn students have been accepted to study abroad in 18 different countries ABBY BAGGINI Contributing Reporter

Penn Abroad is significantly expanding the study abroad programs available to students this coming spring, following limited options in the fall 2021 semester due to COVID-19.

For spring 2022, 191 Penn students have been accepted to study abroad in 45 different programs across 18 countries — a significant jump from the 39 students currently studying abroad in just seven countries. The 18 countries span Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa.

Students studying abroad this spring must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, attend in-person classes at their host program, and comply with their respective country’s rules and protocols.

Senior Associate Director of Penn Abroad Erica Sebastian said the jump in participation is “symbolic of a slow and steady return to study abroad” and reflects a broader trend within college study abroad programs nationwide. Over 200 students typically study abroad in the spring semester, indicating that Penn is close to pre-pandemic numbers. In spring 2020, Penn sent a record number of more than 350 students abroad.

Penn Abroad continues to work closely with the Committee on Travel Risk Assessment, which was created in response to the pandemic, to monitor and support University travel.

“We work really closely and collaboratively with our partners abroad, as well as with Penn leadership and CTRA, to make sure that every student who is accepted fully understands Penn and the host programs’ guidelines and expectations before they commit,” Sebastian said.

Sebastian said Penn Abroad secured approval for its applicants in early November. The 191 accepted students have until the end of Thanksgiving break to confirm their commitment to study abroad next semester.

Of the 18 countries to which students were accepted, seven — Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Israel, and Greece — are currently classified as “Level 4: COVID-19 Very High” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But although the CDC advises people to avoid travel to these destinations, Sebastian said CTRA approved the travel because there is infrastructure on the ground to mitigate risks.

Sebastian added that, thus far, Penn Abroad has experienced no issues with students who are currently overseas.

The University will continue to require students to register all personal trips through Penn’s travel registration system, allowing them to make trips to

Penn event helps marginalized students break into consulting Four Penn alumni shared advice about key skills for entering the industry RACHEL MILLER Contributing Reporter

Penn’s United Minorities Council and business fraternity Phi Gamma Nu co-hosted a two-day information session and workshop for students from marginalized backgrounds who are interested in consulting.

More than 100 students attended the hybrid event to listen to four Penn alumni share their personal experiences in consulting and the skills they believed aided them in their career successes.

College senior and UMC programming director Oliver Kaplan said the event was held to help students from marginalized backgrounds realize that they too can make it in big-name consulting firms if they have the right skills.

The second day of the workshop helped students learn about the skills that they need to succeed in consulting — from having a strong résumé to learning how to prepare for case interviews.

The information session started with a general introduction to consulting as a career, including distinguishing between the types of consulting firms, the progression of a typical consulting career, and what skills are relevant for careers in consulting. The event then switched gears to focus on the experiences of the four Penn alumni and guest panelists who are currently working in consulting.

Wharton junior and UMC chair Jessica Liu, who led the event, said the first day of the workshop was meant to inspire and empower students who identify with marginalized groups.

“A lot of students from underrepresented backgrounds don’t really have the resources or knowledge that they need for careers in fields like consulting,” Liu said. “I really wanted to bring that knowledge to minority students, and give them the opportunity to learn from these amazing industry professionals.”

Panelist Gizelle Gopez graduated from the College in 2005 with a double major in Political Science and Urban Studies and a minor in Asian American Studies. After earning her Master’s in Public Health, she began working for the Centers

KYLIE COOPER

The spring 2022 Penn Abroad cohort is significantly larger than the 39 students studying abroad in just seven countries this semester.

destinations that are pre-approved by Penn so long as the return trip does not require testing or quarantine.

Penn policy states that students must adhere to their host programs’ requirements, which may include additional travel restrictions. For example, CASA Barcelona and Seville programs currently require that students remain in Spain for the duration of the semester.

College senior J’Aun Johnson, who is currently studying abroad with eight other Penn students through the CASA Seville program, said that while the travel restrictions are not ideal, he has really enjoyed his experience in Spain so far. Johnson has been able to visit the Spanish cities of Granada, Malaga, Cordoba, and Ronda, and is planning a trip to Barcelona for this coming weekend.

“It’s definitely an experience I felt like I needed personally to really just grow as a person. It’s probably going to be a hallmark of my college life,” he for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2018, she started working at Deloitte Consulting in Government and Public Services.

Since Gopez did not follow the typical path to consulting, she provided advice to students interested in pursuing consulting as a career from a non-business standpoint. She emphasized that students should focus on embracing their differences in education, which can be an asset to consulting firms. Students with majors in sociology or international relations – both of which she said Deloitte hires – can bring different perspectives to the table than someone with a major in economics or finance.

Audience member and College freshman Amanda Cui said she valued the opportunity to hear about Gopez’s non-traditional path to consulting, showing her that the path to consulting does not necessarily have to be a linear one.

“Even though [Gopez] majored in a subject that is usually not something that leads to consulting, she ended up working in consulting at this big-name place.”

Panelist Ernesto Rosales graduated from Wharton in 2019 with concentrations in Finance, Marketing, and Management, and a minor in Latin American and Latino studies. Since graduation, he has worked as a consultant at Oliver Wyman.

Rosales said he knew nothing about consulting or banking when he first came to Penn. He credits Wharton Latino for introducing him to the world of consulting.

Rosales added that his background allowed him to find his niche in his firm through getting involved in diversity recruiting and helping jumpstart a social mobility network where first-generation, low-income employees are able to connect with coworkers from similar backgrounds.

Panelist and 2019 College graduate Olufemi Palmer worked for a startup in Nigeria before working for Bain & Company. Like some of his peers, he had finance and investment banking experience through internships before entering the consulting industry, but as a first-generation American college student, he felt that there were differences between his experiences and those of his peers.

He noted that while interning over the summers, while his friends often discussed plans of where to go out on the weekends, he was sending money home to support his siblings.

The information session concluded with a question-and-answer period where students asked about advice for summer internships and learning skills that can help them pursue consulting as a career.

Following the event’s closing, Cui said that as a FGLI student, she was grateful for the opportunity to learn from the four panelists who also came from FGLI backgrounds.

“It gave me a lot of hope to see that the panelists were able to work for these big-name companies even though they came from this background that is fairly similar to mine,” Cui said.

said. “I’m getting that truly immersive experience, where you’re forced to communicate in Spanish and you hear it all the time, and you see it all the time.”

Next semester, College junior Sylvia Goldfond will be studying abroad in Dublin, Ireland, at Trinity College. She said her biggest hope is that she will be able to travel across Europe, although she is aware that travel restrictions may be put in place depending on COVID-19 positivity rates.

“I’m looking forward to getting away from the Penn bubble a little bit — just living in a whole new country and experiencing that life,” Goldfond said.

“It’s going to feel like [my first] year again, just not knowing anybody and going into a whole new country.”

Wharton junior Andrew Spangler, who will be studying at the London School of Economics next semester, also hopes to travel across the continent and said that LSE has not yet made any explicit

Special election fills four Undergraduate Assembly seats after resignations Turnout for this election was higher than in previous special elections ELIZABETH MEISENZAHL Senior Reporter

Four representatives won seats on the Undergraduate Assembly in Monday’s special election.

The election was held to fill four seats made vacant when elected UA members stepped down from their roles, College sophomore and Nominations and Elections Committee Vice Chair of Elections Mohammad Abunimeh said.

College sophomore Cody Eskandarian was elected to be a College representative with 108 votes, and College junior Asaad Manzar was elected to be a College representative with 104 votes. Engineering and Wharton sophomore Toyosi Abu and Engineering sophomore Simone Kwee were elected Engineering representatives with 13 and 11 votes, respectively.

The UA previously held its general election in April, when the entire body was up for election. College senior Tori Borlase and College and Wharton senior Janice Owusu were elected President and

mention of travel restrictions for students. Spangler has friends who will be studying in Spain and Italy whom he wants to visit during the spring.

“If you have all of your vaccines and you’re staying relatively safe and following protocols, then I’m not super worried,” Spangler said. “I see it almost in a similar vein to the same way I’d be acting here on campus. I plan to conduct myself similarly abroad.”

In addition to study abroad options, Penn Abroad is also planning travel for the eight Penn Global Seminar courses slated for the spring semester, as well as for Global Research and Internship Programs this coming summer.

“Obviously, the situation remains fluid and it’s impossible to predict, but I do feel incredibly optimistic about study abroad this spring and next year and in the future,” Sebastian said. “I do think that we will maybe even surpass pre-pandemic levels. I think students want to go abroad.”

Vice President, respectively. The UA also consists of elected representatives from each of the four undergraduate schools.

This special election led to questions about voter eligibility, College senior and NEC Chair Zarina Iman said. First years, who are represented by New Student Representatives on the UA, cannot vote in special elections, but there is not a rule defining whether new transfer students can vote. Iman said that after consulting the UA and the Office of Student Affairs, the NEC decided to allow new transfer students to vote in this election.

“It’s kind of like a gray area with [new transfer students] and the voting population for the special elections aren’t really clearly defined, so it’s one of those discretionary decisions, and there wasn’t really any precedent set in the past,” Iman said.

Special elections have been held consistently over the past several years, typically to replace UA members who have resigned. Two years ago, the UA saw six members resign mid-term, which UA members said was more than usual.

Turnout for this election was higher than in previous special elections as the NEC has historically struggled to attract voters. Last year, the NEC held three special elections in which fewer than 25 students voted. In a 2020 Nursing special election, just 17 students voted.

Abunimeh, who is also a Daily Pennsylvanian staffer, said that the NEC promoted this special election on social media more than for past elections. He added that the NEC also posted flyers encouraging students to vote.

“The NEC is always happy to make sure that we have free and fair elections, and are happy that this special election was successful,” Abunimeh said.

PHOTOS FROM ASAAD MANZAR, SIMONE KWEE, AND CODY ESKANDARIAN

(From left to right) College junior Asaad Manzar, Engineering sophomore Simone Kwee, and College sophomore Cody Eskandarian are three of the four newly elected UA representatives.

8 SPORTS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2021

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

A century later: how Penn Athletics adapted to its first pandemic SPORTS | COVID-19 was not Penn’s first battle with a pandemic EZRA TROY Sports Associate

Much like last year, 1918 was an unusual year for sports at the University of Pennsylvania.

While entire seasons weren’t canceled for all teams, sports at the university were undoubtedly affected. But in 1919, just like in 2021, things were starting to go back to normal for Penn sports.

In 1918, not only were sports affected by the global pandemic, but World War I loomed large over the school. The Students’ Army Training Corps encouraged all male students to play for school sports in order to stay physically fit in case they were drafted (Penn did not establish a Women’s Athletic Association until 1921). As a result, SATC students not only played sports, but also participated in military exercises and ate in military style mess halls to prepare for the possibility of being drafted. Additionally, teams at Penn were no longer representing Penn, but represented SATC at Penn.

These changes were short-lived, however, as the war ended in November 1918, only a few months after the establishment of SATC. Despite this, many players on the swimming and water polo teams enlisted, leaving the teams shorthanded for the year.

Things were further complicated by the flu.

The entire athletics season wasn’t canceled like it was in 2020, but many sports played incomplete seasons, while some didn’t play at all.

The pool was closed to the swimming team on and off throughout the season. Crew had its season canceled and the team’s coach left after his wife contracted the flu. Soccer also had its entire season postponed. Football managed to play a full season despite a four-game ban, but players had to wear gauze masks at times and many games were canceled.

Coming back into the 1919 season, it looked like things would be normal again. The war was long over and influenza, despite rearing its ugly head with three separate waves in the country, seemed to no longer be affecting the U.S. This return to normalcy resulted in full seasons for Penn sports once again.

Soccer, which had its entire intercollegiate season canceled in 1918, played against another school for the first time in 710 days on Nov. 1, 1919. They took on Princeton, the team they had defeated in 1916 for the league championship.

The Quakers decimated the Tigers, 5-1, cementing themselves as favorites to win another league title.

The Quakers rolled through the remainder of the season, winning the next five games without

giving up a goal. The Red and Blue defeated Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, and Cornell, scoring 14 goals over the span of four games.

The Quakers then took on Haverford on Dec. 6 at Franklin Field with a chance to take home the intercollegiate championship. Penn hadn’t beaten Haverford since 1914 and their most recent match had come in 1917, when the Scarlet and Black beat the Quakers to take home the college championship. All of this didn’t matter, however, as Penn won a decisive 3-1 game, completing their perfect season and taking home the championship for the third time in four years.

For football, 1919 represented normalcy after the strange 1918 season. In 1917, the Quakers managed their only bowl appearance, losing to

Oregon 14-0 on the heels of a 9-2 season. In 1918, with the pandemic and the war hanging over their heads, and games being canceled, the Quakers managed to go 5-3, a mediocre follow up to the success of the previous season.

This made the 1919 season all important for the Quakers, as they tried to prove that 1918 was a fluke caused by the multitude of confounding factors. And prove that they did, winning their first five games while outsourcing opponents by a whopping 237-7. Led by future NFL commissioner Bert Bell at quarterback, the Quakers were on track to vie for the national championship.

This led to a matchup with rival Penn State, who were 3-1 on the season. With 20,000 fans packing into Franklin Field on Nov. 1, the Red

and Blue needed a win to prove themselves as contenders. The Quakers were unable to do so, however, dropping the game 10-0, a loss that ultimately proved too much for the Red and Blue to overcome, as they finished their last three games of the season 1-1-1, posting a final record of 6-21.

Overall, the season proved to be the beginning of a successful turnaround for the Quakers, as 1919 set the tone for the prosperous next decade for the program. Penn went 65-25-4 in the 1920s.

The 1919 season was an important one for the athletic program at Penn, as the return to normalcy allowed for triumphant seasons for the football and soccer teams, which paved a path for the next decade of success for these programs.

DP ARCHIVES

Penn sports events held in 1927 (from left to right): the 60-yard dash, the pole vault, and rowing.

Belgrad | Men’s basketball demonstrates resilience, poise, and promise from sitting kind of illuminate the issue,” senior guard Jelani Williams told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “We went to Florida State … We got NICKY BELGRAD booed and yelled at, and one of our guys’ little Deputy Sports Editor brother and sister got into a verbal altercation with one of the fans there that left them in tears.

In its first four non-conference bouts, Penn Myself, I got called a slur by a Florida State fan.” men’s basketball has shown very promising With all this emotion hanging in the backsigns. The team, though young, has faced ad- ground, the Quakers managed to pour in a versity on and off the court, dealing with the season-high 85 points to trounce Lafayette and COVID-19 pandemic, racism, and of course, its move to 2-2 on the season. opponents.

Lafayette was no sleaze of an opponent, as the In the Red and Blue’s home opener against Leopards are a rising team in the Patriot League, Lafayette, the team warmed up wearing hood- posting consecutive winning seasons. Senior ies and sweatpants highlighted by social justice captain Tyrone Perry and sophomore Kyle Jenmessages, analogous to their NBA counterparts. kins, who made Patriot League All-Rookie team During the national anthem, all but three players last season, are both talented scorers who can get sat, and several players linked arms. The same their own shots easily. gesture three games ago at the team’s season Known for its willingness to shoot threeopener against Florida StateThe prompted Seminole pointers, Lafayette’s game plan coming into the New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation fans to yell racial slurs at Penn basketball playevening was clear. Yet, an observer might have The New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 Eighth New York, N.Y. For Information 1-800-972-3550 ers — and yes, that is still the620 name of Avenue, FloridaCall: guessed that10018 it was Penn who had the reputation Information Call: November 1-800-972-3550 ForFor Release Thursday, 18, 2021 State’s mascot. for lethal12, three-point shooting.

For Release Friday, November 2021 “A lot of some of the reactions we’ve gotten Penn immediately got out to a 9-0 start. The

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offense effortlessly attacked the paint, and when the Quakers opted not to take easy layups inside, willing shooters winged the three-point line and drained in a couple early threes.

On the defensive end, Penn gave up nothing on drives or cuts inside the paint, daring Lafayette to jack up threes, which the Leopards did to no avail. This early sequence set the tone for the rest of the game as the Quakers’ tight defense caused an inefficient shooting night from Lafayette.

On the other hand, Penn’s offense was fueled by inside drives. Williams, sophomore Jordan Dingle, and junior captain Lucas Monroe were determined to get to the rim, often alternating between tough finishes or great kicks outside to catch-and-shoot players like junior Jonah Charles and freshman Nick Spinoso.

The pair combined for 30 points with six KYLIE COOPER three-pointers made, and most of these came off of beautiful assists to a wide-open Charles or Sophomore Jordan Dingle attempts to shoot a threepointer while Lafayette guard Tyrone Perry tries to Spinoso. block it at the Palestra on Nov. 16.

Penn shot nearly 56% from the field and 48% percent from deep, but it was not merely a lucky on their strengths, whether that be perimeter shooting night. The Red and Blue against Lafay- shooting, hustling on defense, or facilitating the ette proved to themselves what the optimal offen- offense. sive game plan is.

More importantly, the Quakers have consisFor the Quakers to thrive, athletic guards and tently showcased their poise and maturity in the wings — like Williams, Dingle, and Monroe — face of adversity. Racism, slurs, or discrimination need to be ready to attack the paint, and then look have no place at a sporting event, much less when to finish, dump it off to a big-man, or kick it out- directed at student-athletes. What kind of “fan” side to willing shooters. berates college basketball players with slurs for While this should be the focus of Penn’s of- expressing themselves before a game? fense, impact players like Dingle and Williams In spite of these disturbing remarks, Penn also need to pick their spots, searching out key basketball has and continues to be graceful and moments and capitalizing with isolation play or intends to admirably stand by its beliefs. These deep threes. Likewise, Charles should always be instances only add fuel to the fire of justice. ready to shoot, and even if he has an off night and winds up 1-9 from deep, he should not let his NICHOLAS BELGRAD is a College junior from Los Angeles studying philosophy. He confidence waver.

Penn is talented, and the team is well-rounded, can be reached at belgrad@dailypennsylwhich in my mind, means players need to focus vanian.com.

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SPORTS | The young Quaker team beat Lafayette 85-57

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SPORTS 9

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Penn field hockey and other Ivy League teams on to the offseason without conference playoffs SPORTS | Most other major conferences are currently in the midst of postseason conference tournaments JOEY PIATT Senior Sports Associate

For many schools, the end of the regular season is just the beginning.

At the end of a slate of non-conference games and hard-fought conference matchups lies the reward for months of tireless work: a shot at a conference championship. Winning the conference is a chance at immortalized glory, a chance for a team to cement itself in conference lore and history.

But for some fall sports in the Ivy League, the end of the regular season is just that: the end.

Instead of preparing for a conference championship game or a conference tournament, these teams head into their offseason to prepare for the next year. The champion is the team with the best record at the end of the season, the one that managed to get out of conference play with the fewest schedule slip-ups.

Awarding a regular-season conference champion is not a faulted practice. In fact, it has been embraced by conferences, even in sports where the conference tournament reigns supreme. Take basketball for example.

In many cases, the only chance an Ivy League program has at the NCAA Tournament is by winning the Ivy League Tournament. There is still a regular season champion, and that title carries weight. But the path to the tournament lies in the conference tournament, a place where an invitation must be earned and where anything can happen.

When a conference tournament is in place, the playing field stays larger for longer. Teams that lost one or two fluke games early in conference play can right the ship and earn a tournament berth. Young teams, for whom early games serve as valuable reps for underclassmen, have a chance to build confidence and grow into their full potential. And even super teams that finish the regular season with only one loss, or none, to their name are rewarded with a bye that puts them one step closer to their goal.

Without a conference tournament in place, the field of contention starts shrinking early, and in less than a handful of games, a team’s hopes can be fully dashed.

“Say you are one of those teams and you’ve lost three of your first Ivy League games,” Penn field hockey coach Colleen Fink said. “How do you continue to motivate your team, and how do you continue to provide an exceptional experience for those athletes when they know they have no shot?”

ISABELLA COSSU

Field hockey head coach Colleen Fink stands in the center of a huddle talking to the team during a match against Temple on Oct. 31 at Ellen Vagelos Field.

On Nov. 5, while field hockey teams across the country were taking the field to compete in conference tournaments, Fink tweeted about how much her and her staff struggle watching others knowing that their own players don’t have the same chance. Fink, whose Quakers team finished in third place in the Ivy League, believes that a conference tournament would get everyone more involved.

“Even if you’re fighting for fourth place, just to get into the playoff, now those games become more meaningful,” Fink said. “Because you can frame the rest of your season to be the best of the rest.”

Fink’s Penn team came up short in its quest for the Ivy League title. Harvard, who finished 17-1, (7-0 Ivy) claimed the Ivy League conference crown. But with a four-team conference tournament, Fink’s team, as well as Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, would have had the chance to battle it out on the field.

Penn also boasted a younger team than usual this season. In addition to upperclassmen that

missed out on a year of competitive experience due to the pandemic, the team featured underclassmen playing their first collegiate field hockey. One of Penn’s most prominent players, Sabien Paumen, was a sophomore goalkeeper forced to learn the position while playing in games.

Learning on the job is challenging enough.

Doing so when facing a plethora of nationallyranked top teams, as the Quakers did this season, makes it all the more difficult.

“I think that it’s hard when you play the top of your league at the start of the season,” Fink said.

“We played Harvard and Princeton first, and I do think we were an inexperienced team that grew over time.”

With a conference tournament in place, growing teams have room to do just that. But when teams have to win the regular season outright, there isn’t the same opportunity for growth.

That’s part of the reason Fink has been an advocate for a tournament, which she believes would benefit all involved.

“There’s a case for the top of the league, and there’s a case for the bottom of the league in any given year,” Fink said. “It definitely aligns with what Alanna [Shanahan], our new athletic director, is pushing for, which is competitive excellence and student-athlete experience.”

The support for a conference tournament is nothing new, either. Talks about introducing something in that format have been going on for years. But, like it did with everything else, the COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on any discussion on the topic.

Now Ivy League athletics are back, and support for a conference tournament is as great as it’s ever been. As a result, Fink is hopeful that both the Penn administration and the Ivy League will continue making progress on her goal of greater competitive opportunity.

“Penn and the Ivy League have been doing a lot of good work in a lot of good areas … let’s start making progress again,” Fink said. “Let’s start having these conversations that will really impact Ivy League athletes.”

Ma | Fire Ray Priore

SPORTS | Barring a miracle on Saturday, Penn football will finish its season at the bottom of the Ivy League CHARLIE MA Sports Associate

Ray Priore, your time is up.

On Saturday, the Quakers will play Princeton in their season finale. And, barring a miracle, they will lose, finishing the year at the bottom of the Ivy League. After what will be their worst season in nearly a decade, Penn football must move on and fire coach Ray Priore.

Let’s be honest, we all saw this column coming.

After all, it has been undoubtedly an incredibly disappointing season for the Red and Blue. In the most likely scenario, the Quakers will finish 3-7 overall with a 1-6 Ivy record. Penn’s only victories this season will have come against a one-win Bucknell team that sits dead last in the Patriot League, a two-win Lehigh squad who is not far from the Bison in league standings, and a twowin Brown team that joins the Red and Blue as one of the worst in the Ancient Eight.

It will be the Quakers’ worst season since legendary longtime coach Al Bagnoli stepped down following a 2-8 campaign in 2014. And not to add insult to injury, but it has been a while since Penn has had this bad of a league record — since 1981, in fact.

Unfortunately, it gets worse for the Red and Blue.

Entering the final game of the season, the Quakers are last in the Ivy League in total offense. And there is more — they are second to last in scoring offense, last in passing offense, last in passing efficiency, last in first downs, and second to last in penalty yards.

Now that is bad, especially for a seventh-year veteran coach like Priore.

Why were the Red and Blue so bad this year?

Sure, they lost an entire season due to COVID-19, but so did the rest of the Ancient Eight.

Maybe it was due to the absence of star talent on the field. Or maybe it was the result of the mistakes and a lack of execution by the players.

Whatever the reason, it falls on Priore at the end of the day. The Quakers’ struggles all year ultiThetoNew York Times Syndication Sales Corporation mately comes down to Priore’s inability formuEighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 late a winning game plan throughout this620 season.

Honestly, a season like the current one hasFor beenInformation Call: 1-800-972-3550 Forfew Release Friday, November 19, 2021 long overdue for the Red and Blue. In the past years, Penn has been very much a middle-of-thepack team in the Ivy, finishing with 6-4 and 5-5 records. With inconsistent quarterback play, the Quakers have not been considered contenders for Edited by Will Shortz the league title in years — since winning two in No. 1015 Priore’s first two seasons — mainly with players his predecessor recruited.

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2021 VOL. CXXXVII NO. 27

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

FOUNDED 1885

PENN MEN’S BASKETBALL

BLOWS OUT LAFAYETTE 85-57 IN HOME OPENER

SUKHMANI KAUR

Senior guard Bryce Washington attempts to dunk during the first home game of the season against Lafayette on Nov. 16.

SPORTS | Quakers showed strength both offensively and defensively in return to Palestra ASHIL SRIVASTAVA Sports Reporter

The Quakers’ first home game at the Palestra in nearly two years was impressive across the board.

Penn men’s basketball was able to dominate the Lafayette Leopards (0-3), who struggled for momentum throughout the game, en route to a 85-57 victory. With this win, the Red and Blue improved to a .500 record, and are now 2-2 on the year.

Penn opened the game with a tough first bucket by junior guard Lucas Monroe, and followed up with

a 9-0 run that forced an early timeout by Lafayette.

As the first half progressed, the Quakers showcased their defensive prowess, preventing Lafayette from attacking the paint and forcing them to shoot from beyond the arc. The Red and Blue were able to force a rare shot clock violation midway through the half, along with six turnovers on Lafayette.

While the Quakers had a few careless turnovers themselves, Penn made up for it through their blazing offense.

Penn stayed aggressive and attacked the paint frequently. There were quite a few highlight plays, including an emphatic dunk by junior center Max Lorca-Lloyd, and a long three-pointer by junior guard Jonah Charles, who led the team in scoring at the half with 13 points.

Sophomore guard Jordan Dingle and senior

guard Jelani Williams added six and four points to Penn’s tally, respectively. Freshman center/forward Nick Spinoso added an efficient eight points on 3-for-3 shooting, including 2-for-2 from the arc, to cap off a solid 40-point half for the Quakers.

“I thought we really played good defense the first 20 minutes,” coach Steve Donahue said. “Nick has been terrific. He’s confident, he’s skilled.”

The start of the second half was similar to the first. Monroe opened with another bucket at the rim, and the Quakers continued to stay aggressive on both sides of the ball.

Rebounding also emerged as a strength for the Quakers, as they out-rebounded Lafayette 45-27.

Once again, Lafayette had no choice but to call timeout early in the half, as Penn blazed to a 54-35 lead. With about eight minutes left in the game, the

Quaker lead had ballooned to 28 points.

Charles and Dingle continued to lead offensively in the second half, with Charles finishing with an admirable 18 points.

The defense stayed consistent, with Penn able to force eight turnovers total. The Quakers were able to remove their starters and empty the bench with four minutes left in the game.

“It’s really cool to see how far [we’ve come] since Florida State last week,” Charles said. “It’s pretty cool to see the development, and now people are starting to lock in, and pay attention to little details.”

The Quakers will look to use the blowout win as momentum for their next game against Utah State this Thursday, where they will have a chance to extend their win streak to three games.

Women’s basketball returns to Palestra victorious, defeating King’s College 91-55 SPORTS | Sophomore Jordan Obi recorded her first career double-double GABRIEL STEINBERG Sports Reporter

After a 43-point victory at Hartford on Sunday, Penn women’s basketball returned to the Palestra for its first home game of the season, defeating King’s College 91-55.

Sophomore forward Jordan Obi’s 29-point, 12-rebound contribution marked her first career double-double, and was instrumental to Penn's (2-0) win over the King’s College Monarchs (2-1).

“Jordan’s a super talented kid. I knew she was going to play a big role," coach Mike McLaughlin said. "Here’s a girl who's a sophomore, who hasn’t played a college game … This is her second college game.”

While the first points of the game went to the visitors, Penn was on top for most of the first quarter. However, back-and-forth baskets prevented either team from taking a large lead.

Senior guard Mia Lakstigala’s three-pointer gave the Quakers a six-point lead at 14-8, which was quickly responded to by King’s Kiersten Krouse, who sank her own three-pointer to make it 14-11.

Several Quakers added to the 20-16 score at the end of the first quarter, but the Red and Blue’s lead would extend much further in the second.

Penn's strong offensive performance gave them an 11-3 run to start the second quarter.

After a layup from junior guard Sydnei Caldwell put the Quakers up 31-19, the Monarchs’ coach called for a timeout to regroup her team. However, Penn’s total of 64 points in the paint was no match for King’s eight.

However, Penn was unable to extend its lead more than 16 points in the second quarter, as the Monarchs dialed in several second-chance threepointer jumpers. Despite a Quaker victory, the Monarchs scored 12 three-pointers compared to Penn’s four — this offensive style prompted McLaughlin to change up Penn’s defensive style later in the game.

“Sometimes, we do play a lot of zone and pressure in the zone. Probably not the greatest fit for this team today," McLaughlin said. "I recognize SEND STORY IDEAS TO DPSPORTS@THEDP.COM

that, that’s why we got out of it. I do want to stay the course, so the team can grow, but I didn’t wanna go too far with it. So, second half, man-on man was a better fit for us.”

The first half concluded with Penn ahead, 48-35.

The second half opened with back-and-forth baskets, however the Monarchs then remained scoreless for four minutes while Penn enjoyed an 11-0 run. Backup layups from sophomore guard Michaela Stanfield and junior forward Silke Milliman closed out the third, putting Penn

ahead by 21.

The Red and Blue outshined King’s College in the fourth, allowing only nine points and extending their lead to 36 points. Layups from freshman guard Stina Almqvist and freshman forward Sima Visockaite closed out the scoring plays of the game.

Despite a shortage of players due to suspensions being served by junior and senior athletes for an undisclosed violation of University protocol, the Quakers were able to pick up their second victory of the season.

“These are unbelievably high characters.

These are amazing students here. These are amazing athletes. They’re caring … They will grow from it — they’ll learn," McLaughlin said.

"We’re coming close together for this. We’ve had a lot of conversations, and we’ve spent a bunch of time together … and I think we’re gonna end up on the right side of this.”

The Quakers look ahead to their matchup with St. Francis Brooklyn on Thursday, Nov. 18, in Brooklyn, N.Y., in hopes of extending their winning streak.

ISABELLA COSSU

Sophomore Jordan Obi jumps up to shoot at the Palestra during the first home game of the season against the Monarchs on Nov. 16.

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