October 22, 2015

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THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015

ITZA HOT MESS

Beer and Kweder at this year’s Oktoberfest The food festival will raise money for The Penn Fund CHLOE CHENG Contributing Reporter

Now an annual Penn tradition, seniors will have the ability to attend Oktoberfest without having to travel halfway around the world. On Oct. 22, the Senior Class Board and Seniors for The Penn Fund are co-hosting Oktoberfest, a free festival featuring food, beer and a performance by Smokey Joe’s staple Kenn Kweder. The event is set to take place on College Green from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The menu features a potato and sweet potato bar with unlimited toppings, gourmet macaroni and cheese, vegetarian chili and soft pretzels. Beverages will include India pale ales, light beers, seasonal crafts, hard SEE OKTOBERFEST PAGE 5

Alum running SMART

2004 Penn graduate consults with several professional sports teams HOLDEN McGINNIS Sports Editor

Predicting the future isn’t easy. When he was in middle school in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Robby Sikka agreed with close friend Mike Trudell that the two would end up in the professional sports industry. They didn’t know what the path would look like, but they had a destination in mind. “We realized that the sports industry is a great way to experience a lot of human emotions without the maximum stakes that can go with something that’s a little more serious,” Trudell, a 2004 Northwestern graduate, said. “It’s not a war zone, but you can experience human joy and sadness and triumph and determination and heartbreak. We were both huge sports fans, so the question was how would we channel our respective skills into actual careers.”

CARSON KAHOE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

John from Itza talks twerking, toilets, tequila DAN SPINELLI Deputy News Editor

It’s Saturday, 5:20 p.m. There are three hours until a party of 60 Penn students is set to arrive at Iztaccihuatl, and John Lewes, the one-man show behind the popular BYO restaurant in South Philadelphia, is giving me an earful. “Ninety percent of my parties are Penn kids. I get some Haverford, which I don’t mind the Haverford — they’re really nice. The Temple or the Drexel — ehh — you know, they’re

the ones I always have trouble with. ‘Oh I’m not eating, I’m not drinking. Yeah, I’m not going to eat or drink. I’ll give you a tip.’ I don’t care. Then don’t come back. I don’t want you here,” he says. “On the phone I say, ‘It’s loud, crazy, obnoxious. You can’t hear yourself think. Drunk people running around having a blast. Psychotically loud and crazy. Lot of fun. Is that what you’re looking for?’ Hey look, I’m honest!” The names of Penn fraternities, sororities and clubs, many of whom rent out his entire restaurant each Thursday and Friday night, roll off

his tongue. “I get APES guys, OAX girls, some Castle guys. Not a lot of Castle, but some,” he says. Some of his favorite regulars — leaders at APES, Alpha Phi and The Daily Pennsylvanian — get special “VIP Gold Cards” entitling them to free meals, better tequila (“I keep it in the back,” he says) and access to walk around in the kitchen. By day, Iztaccihuatl (pronounced “It’s-a-sea-will” and colloquially called “Itza” or “It’s-a-shit-hole”) operates as a regular Mexican restaurant: home to sit-down dinners of beef nachos, a wide variety of

burritos and a decadent flan dessert. But, when Penn students come in, the restaurant turns into a “glorified hall party,” complete with liquorstained floors and makeshift disco “bulbs” where lights should be. He taps me on the shoulder. “Look at the wall. See how bare it is? That’s because you guys steal all my pictures. It’s OK because I just go to Goodwill and shit.” Waiters and menu service disappear. All food choices are made by John, who turns down the lights and puts the SEE ITZA PAGE 5

Admins to address sexual assault Conversations have started among Penn deans

SEE SIKKA PAGE 11

CAROLINE SIMON Deputy News Editor

ALL OF THE LIGHTS BACK PAGE

COURTESY OF FRANCIS BOURGOUIN/CREATIVE COMMONS

The Vice Provost for University Life and the Vice Provost for Education have spearheaded efforts to address sexual violence at Penn.

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When the results of the Association of American Universities sexual assault climate survey were released on Sept. 21, Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price addressed the student body in an email, promising to initiate change on campus based on the “deeply troubling” information revealed in the survey. A month later, the offices of the Vice Provost for University Life and the Vice Provost for Education have spearheaded efforts to address the issue. Vice Provost for Education Beth

Winkelstein, who is leading conversations among Penn’s deans, confirmed that “conversations already started the day the survey was released, with all constituencies.” The conversations will address questions regarding how students can be better informed about Penn’s policies and resource centers, which areas need more efforts and whether or not there are aspects of the situation that the administration is not considering. The survey indicated that Penn students are less likely than their peers at other Ivy League universities to understand their school’s sexual violence policies or trust their ability to handle incidents. Penn students also reported higher-than-average rates of sexual SEE RESULTS PAGE 5

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