September 14, 2023

Indigenous Studies program at risk

The retirement of the program’s founder has left Penn with no tenured Indigenous professors, canceled core classes, and prompted students to rethink or drop their Native American and Indigenous Studies minors

Penn's longtime coordinator of Native American and Indigenous Studies quietly retired, prompting concern from students about the future of the NAIS minor and Indigenous representation at the University.

Margaret Bruchac, a tenured anthropology professor whom Penn hired to found the NAIS program in 2014, was scheduled to teach two classes counting toward the minor this fall. Instead, she transitioned to professor emerita status in June — meaning that the University now has no tenured Indigenous professors and two Indigenous non-tenured professors out of a faculty of

KIRA WANG Senior Reporter

nearly 5,000, according to Bruchac and students involved with Natives at Penn.

Students lamented Bruchac's retirement, describing her as the backbone of Indigenous studies at Penn. They previously credited her for running a “one-person department” during her tenure, in which she worked closely with students completing the NAIS minor at the academic and administrative levels to ensure they finished the minor despite a lack of course offerings.

“NAIS at Penn has minimal funding,” Bruchac told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “It's running primarily on my own enthusiasm and willingness to

overwork.”

Since April 2021, the NAIS website has contained a note that reads: "NAIS roster of courses is in a period of transition, since some faculty have retired and some courses are temporarily unavailable. In the interim, we encourage interested students to take other related courses, which can be accommodated as substitutions (contact the NAIS Coordinator with any questions)."

In response to the concerns raised over the future of the program, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Steven Fluharty and Vice Dean for

Wharton bans student-run consulting clubs from charging fees for services

The policy prohibits Wharton-affiliated consulting clubs from engaging in profit sharing

RYAN WOLFF Staff Reporter

Wharton banned student-run consulting clubs from charging fees for their services and sharing the profits among members.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Brighid Dwyer wrote to the DP in a joint statement that "The School of Arts and Sciences takes great pride in the Native American and Indigenous Studies program founded by Professor Marge Bruchac." They added that the school is "committed to seeing [the program] thrive."

Without an active search announced for a permanent NAIS coordinator – and with no core classes for the minor taught since spring 2020 – Bruchac's departure has raised questions about

Magill addresses controversy surrounding oncampus Palestinian literature festival

The administrators’ statement was the first in recent memory to respond to criticism of a campus event

ELEA CASTIGLIONE, IMRAN SIDDIQUI, AND DEDEEPYA GUTHIKONDA

Staff Reporter and Senior Reporters

Penn administrators addressed widespread criticism about an upcoming Palestinian literature festival held on campus.

The bake sale will be on Locust Walk near ARCH every day this week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. based on volunteer availability.

Student

groups organize fundraiser for Morocco earthquake relief

Penn Muslim Student Association, the Penn Arab Student Society, the Penn Middle East Center, and other volunteers are assisting in the efforts

GABRIEL

Staff Reporter

Penn student groups are hosting a fundraiser to aid the Morocco earthquake relief efforts.

Wharton sophomore Yasmine Kettani is leading the response by coordinating fundraising efforts and a bake sale on campus in partnership with Penn Muslim Student Association, the Penn Arab Student Society, Penn Middle East Center, and other student and faculty volunteers. The bake sale, including Moroccan desserts such as baklava, will be on Locust Walk near ARCH every day this week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. based on volunteer availability.

The recent 6.8 magnitude earthquake left many without access to water, food, shelter, and medical supplies. Over 2,800 people died and 2,500 were left critically injured. The World Health Organization found that more than 300,000 people were affected by the quake.

Wharton senior and Penn Muslim Student Association President Rayane Taroua explained her family’s reaction to the unexpected earthquake.

“They just weren’t prepared for it at all … everyone was kind of confused as to what was happening at first,” Taroua said. “Everybody across the whole country, I’d say, spent the night out in the streets

because raw earthquakes aren’t common in Morocco … the house infrastructure isn’t built to withstand large earthquakes.”

In addition to houses, tourist and sacred sites have also been damaged in Morocco, Kettani told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “I know in Marrakech, the Old Medina has partly fallen which is horrible spiritually and touristically as well," Kettani said. "My mom told me that the top of the most famous mosque in Marrakech also fell … symbolically it’s pretty wild.”

Taroua and Kettani both said that they hope the donations will specifically reach vulnerable groups in villages outside major cities.

“People are living in areas that are too remote to access early … with the earthquake breaking roads. Houses [in these mountainous villages] break the easiest and that’s why we have the most deaths there,” Kettani said.

Kettani said she has received support from students who organized the fundraiser for earthquake relief in Turkey and Syria in February. She also has

On June 5, now-former Wharton Undergraduate Director of Student Life Lee Kramer informed Wharton club leaders via email that they could no longer earn money from consulting services or engage in profit sharing, effective July 1. The new undergraduate policy was also announced to Wharton undergraduates in a message from Vice Dean of the Undergraduate Division Diana Robertson.

The policy prohibits clubs from charging fees to nonprofits as well as for-profit companies. However, clubs are permitted and encouraged to “continue to provide pro-bono consulting work."

Consulting groups that recruit from the Penn undergraduate population but are unaffiliated with Wharton are not subject to this regulation.

For example, 180 Degrees Consulting is not affiliated with Wharton and is instead a branch of a larger umbrella organization – so the group can continue to charge consulting fees from clients in addition to pro-bono consulting.

“Experiential learning is an essential part of the Wharton undergraduate experience," Wharton Executive Director of the Undergraduate Division Jen Murphy wrote in an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian. "We strongly encourage our clubs and students to use their business acumen to provide top-notch pro-bono consulting services to nonprofits and businesses in our Philadelphia community and beyond."

Murphy went on to emphasize the value of pro-bono consulting work to the surrounding community.

“These pro-bono opportunities provide a valuable and unique way for students to apply what they learn in the classroom in service of positive change in our immediate neighborhoods and around the world,” she said.

The Palestine Writes Literature Festival is scheduled to take place later this month with events at Irvine Auditorium, Penn Commons, and other University spaces. It celebrates itself as the "only North American literature festival dedicated to celebrating and promoting cultural productions of Palestinian writers and artists."

Some students and national Jewish groups, however, have pushed back against the event — saying that its speakers' previous statements threaten the safety and belonging of Jewish students on campus.

In response to the criticism, Penn President Liz Magill, Provost John Jackson, and School of Arts and Sciences

Dean Steven Fluharty published a statement on Sept. 12, where they wrote that many people have raised concerns about several speakers who "have a documented and troubling history of engaging in antisemitism by speaking and acting in ways that denigrate Jewish people."

"We unequivocally — and emphatically — condemn antisemitism as antithetical to our institutional values. As a university, we also fiercely support the free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission," the administrators wrote. "This includes the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values."

The administrators' statement — which said the event was not organized by the University — was the first in recent memory to respond to criticism of a campus event.

Palestine Writes organizers told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the goal of their festival is to offer community and support for Palestinians, Arabs, and people from other minority backgrounds.

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School student and organizer Jenan Abu Shtaya wrote in a statement to the DP that she is grateful to be a part of planning this event, adding that it is "a rare opportunity to celebrate our [Palestinian] heritage through literature and the arts."

Penn administrators' statement came after a letter sent See FESTIVAL , page 3

STEINBERG

DESIGN

PHOTO BY ABHIRAM JUVVADI

ARCH building renovations make progress one year after dedication to cultural groups

Additional renovations including the redesign of rooms, furniture, and aesthetics of the building have been completed

HANNAH SUNG AND DEDEEPYA GUTHIKONDA Staff Reporter and Senior Reporter

Renovations to the ARCH building are making progress one year after it reopened and Penn dedicated the building to cultural centers.

ARCH has been undergoing renovations through the “Reimagining the Arts Research and Culture House” campaign over the past year, following decades of student advocacy. The first reopening of the building was in September 2022, which marked the end of the first phase of the “reimagining” project. Since then, additional renovations including the redesign of rooms, furniture, and aesthetics of the building have been completed.

The renovations, which are part of the third phase of the project, include new furniture, decor, and more spaces for student groups. Natives at Penn — which was originally assigned La Casa Latina’s printer room after students advocated for a formal space for the group — obtained a new space on the second floor of the ARCH building as part of the renovations, according to Wharton junior and Natives at Penn ARCH representative Ryly Ziese. Natives at Penn is looking forward to having a physical space on campus they can call theirs, Ziese said. The group is planning to use the space to host movies, dinners, and community events for the Native American community at Penn.

“We're just really focusing on community and showing students that it's okay to be Native on campus, there are students who are thriving here, that are Native,” Ziese said.

Other renovations include the addition of a resource library, an updated and dedicated prayer, meditation, and reflection space; and a satellite office for the the Greenfield Intercultural Center's inaugural associate director, who will advise Natives at Penn.

Over the past year, students sitting on the ARCH steering committee, which included student leaders from 7B groups and members of the Undergraduate Assembly, advised University leadership — including Associate Vice Provost

for University Life Will Atkins — on the ARCH renovations.

“Students have been a part of the process from the very beginning," Atkins said. "We have students on a steering committee, and so every approach that we've taken we've always received input and feedback throughout the process."

ARCH planning meetings occurred throughout the last school year, roughly once a month during the spring. However, students told The Daily Pennsylvanian that communication between students on the committee and administration was not always streamlined.

“In the fall semester, it was almost a weekly or bi-weekly thing, like very regular meetings. You knew what time our steering was going to happen," College junior Taryn Flaherty, an Asian Pacific Student Coalition member and ARCH committee representative, said. "And then we felt as though in the spring, we never knew when it was happening, and never would get the first email of the semester about it until like two months into the semester.”

Communication was particularly lacking during

the summer, they added.

“When we came back to school, we weren't quite sure about ARCH,” Flaherty said. “There was no follow-up on their end to us about things.”

ARCH steering committee members were invited to do a walk-through of the building early this school year. After visiting the building this year, Flaherty said some plans for the building that had originally been discussed were not executed — such as a cafe or vending machines on the first floor intended to draw students into the building. Additionally, Flaherty said a large glass conference room had been planned for the first floor of ARCH.

“One of the biggest things that spaces on campus are lacking are these large conference rooms that can hold large groups of people,” Flaherty said.

While administration has been receptive to certain components of the renovation, such as the type or color of furniture, they have been less responsive to other components, Flaherty added.

Additional student concerns include building

logistics, such as doors, which are often locked, and a lack of support staff for the building. In response to student criticism about staffing, Atkins told the DP that there is a team of staff focused on addressing student needs.

“We do have a full-time dedicated staff member who is working in the ARCH," Atkins said. "That person also has a team of a team of folks who help with the setup and configuration of the space and we also receive support from specialty events."

Atkins said that Penn administrators plan to visit other institutions with cultural centers to gather ideas on how to continue to improve ARCH.

While the steering committee has not yet met this year, Ziese said that she was looking forward to the committee's work this year.

“It's really cool to see that this space is a fruition of all the students coming together and asking for something that they wanted and working for," Ziese said, adding that it has been rewarding to "finally [be] able to sit in that physical space we've been talking about for two years."

Penn Transit announces new transit line, extended hours

These changes come alongside further adjustments from Penn’s Transportation and Parking Department including, most notably, cheaper regional SEPTA passes for Penn staff and faculty

TARAN COURCHESNE

Staff Reporter

Penn has added a new, expanded transit line and extended transportation hours to improve campus service.

As of Aug. 14, the changes include the new Penn Bus North line — a fixed-route program traveling west on Walnut Street from 33rd to 48th Street as well as north to Powelton Avenue — a revised bus schedule that accommodates times of the highest rider demand by beginning one hour earlier, and the adjustment of Penn’s Evening Shuttle service to 90 minutes later in the day.

According to the Penn Transit website, the Penn Bus North line is operating as a pilot program for the 2023-24 academic year. By beginning the revised bus schedule an hour earlier, all bus routes will operate Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., as opposed to previously operating from 5 p.m. to midnight.

"These changes extend Penn Transit’s overall coverage area, expand service hours for

University buses, and better accommodate the considerable increase in ridership that has occurred since announcing the PennTransit Mobile App," the Penn Transit website reads.

Penn Transit decided to make these changes after analyzing rider usage data and receiving feedback from community members, according to the Almanac.

Penn Transit has also recently launched its new app, PennTransit Mobile, which replaced the Penn Rides on Request app. PennTransit Mobile allows students to choose a bus route, determine transit hours, and plan out their commute. Requests for shuttles can also be made via the app, as well as live-tracking of bus locations.

Penn Transit is encouraging riders to provide feedback about the changes on the app. Students that The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with welcomed these changes to their transit experiences.

“I used to take Penn Transit all the time last year. Maybe I’ll try using it again now that it’s updated,” College sophomore Stefany Morales said.

These changes come alongside further adjustments from Penn’s Transportation and Parking Department, including cheaper regional SEPTA passes for Penn staff and faculty.

“I’m excited for the new changes,” College sophomore Anthony Tukanowicz-Hasset said. “It’s nice that it’s free, too.”

Other students echoed Tukanowicz-Hasset's sentiment, adding that they appreciated the simplicity of the bus routes.

“I used Penn Rides a lot freshman and sophomore year,” College junior Ava Cima said. “Penn Rides is just very easy.”

As a carryover from last year, select routes, such as the Penn FMC Shuttle, Penn-Drexel Bus, and Penn Accessible Transit — the University’s designated service for individuals with special disabilities — will remain running as they are.

The change will affect groups such as the Marketing Undergraduate Student Establishment, known as MUSE, which is affiliated with Wharton and offers both generalist and social impact consulting services. In the 2023-24 club guide from the Wharton Council – the overseeing body for all Wharton clubs – MUSE is the only Wharton-affiliated club that lists for-profit consulting among its services.

According to the guide, MUSE provides approximately 16 clients with both professional for-profit and pro-bono consulting services each semester.

Leaders of the MUSE consulting division did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

College and Wharton junior Joshua Frazier, the co-president of the Wharton Undergraduate Consulting Club, said that WUCC was aware of the policy change, but the club has never operated on a contractual paid client model. He wrote that the club “does not officially have a stance on the issue.”

"Every student consulting club affiliated with Penn technically and legally operates as 501(c)(3), so the legality of some consulting clubs engaging in providing contract-based services for profit may be an issue that prompted this change," Frazier wrote.

Frazier also wrote that WUCC was among the clubs that received an email about the policy update.

"All WUCC received was an email from admin that stated the new policy," Frazier said. "There was no communication about the background or reasoning for the change." Wharton senior and Wharton Council Co-chair

Adrian Massuet said he was not aware of any specific incident that prompted the policy change, and that he does not expect this change to significantly disrupt club operations.

“The opportunity to take what you're learning from the classroom and apply with professional businesses is obviously an incredible opportunity,” Massuet said. “A significant portion, if not the majority of these clubs are already pro-bono.” Massuet added that he has not heard of any plans to challenge the rule.

“If there are clubs which do feel like they’d be impacted by this, we see it as our responsibility to help ensure that they can continue doing the great work that they do,” Massuet added.

Some of Penn’s peer institutions have similar policies relating to clubs earning profits, but not specifically relating to consulting services.

At Princeton University, student organizations cannot engage in any fundraising efforts without first submitting a proposal to an administrator. Student organizations can not use outside bank accounts or hold cash, and funds may not be used to purchase gift cards or alcohol. However, there is no specification on the Princeton website of whether clubs can receive fees for their services.

Because of their status as tax-exempt organizations, Yale University prohibits Yale-affiliated student organizations from making a profit and dividing it among student members. The website also outlaws any payment that would be a “disguise for what is really a division of profits.”

PHOTO BY ABHIRAM JUVVADI

ARCH has been undergoing renovations and expansion under the “Reimagining the ARCH” campaign over the past year.

PHOTO BY ABHIRAM JUVVADI

Penn Transit added a Penn Bus North line and a later evening shuttle service to improve campus service.

WHARTON, from FRONT PAGE

PHOTO BY ABHIRAM JUVVADI

Wharton-affiliated consulting clubs can no longer earn money from consulting services.

PHOTO BY GIULIANA ALLEVA

This year’s first Disorientation week, from Sept. 4 to Sept. 9, featured topics like “Sexual Violence at Penn,” “How Penn is Cheating Philly’s Public Schools,” and “A Protestor’s Guide: How to Navigate Penn’s Administrators and Disciplinary System.”

Disorientation Guide hosts week-long programming, critiques Penn’s impact on local community

The events followed the release of the annual publication on Aug. 28

SEJAL SANGANI Staff Reporter

In addition to publishing its annual publication, Penn Disorientation Guide hosted its first Disorientation Week this year.

The week — which ran from Sept. 4 to Sept. 9 — featured collaborative events between the Disorientation Guide and other on-campus and Philadelphia-based organizations, such as a clothing drive with Stop the Crisis Philly, a screening of “Beyond Walls” with Police Free Penn, and a community art build and zine workshop with Fossil Free Penn. The events followed the release of the annual publication on Aug. 28, which criticized Penn’s relationship with and treatment of its students, staff, and the surrounding Philadelphia community.

The Daily Pennsylvanian hosted an open house event for marginalized students to learn more about the history of the University and the independent student media company on Sept. 8 as a part of Disorientation Week.

This year’s issue is categorized into three parts, beginning with Penn's impact on students and staff, the University's impact on Philadelphia and the broader world, and a resource section for current members of the Penn community. Topics discussed include sexual violence at Penn and Penn's involvement with Philadelphia public schools.

College senior Katie Francis, an editor of this year’s Disorientation Guide, said that the publication’s goal is to publicize “everything the University of Pennsylvania

doesn’t want you to know.”

“The [Disorientation Guide] serves a really important purpose to introduce people to what’s actually going on and not just the pretty picture that the University wants to paint of itself,” they said. “[Penn] is a business and it wants your money, so of course they’re not going to tell you about the harms that they commit.”

College senior and Disorientation Guide Editor Mira Sydow echoed Francis’ sentiment and added that the publication “chronicles the history of activism on Penn’s campus.”

The Disorientation Guide’s earliest edition dates back to 1972, although it did not exist as an annual publication until it was brought back in 2017.

One of the Disorientation Guide’s core missions, as Sydow — a former 34th Street staffer — said, is to make students aware of the resources available to them.

“There are a lot of resources available at Penn. Some of them are offered by the University, some are offered by student groups, and some are based in Philadelphia," Sydow said. “We’re essentially parsing through and filtering all those resources for [students] to be able to access [them].”

Some of the resources offered by the Disorientation Guide include mental health hotlines, resources for first-generation, low-income and LGBTQ students, and alternatives to police services, according to Sydow.

Sydow also spoke of the Disorientation Guide’s mission to provide a safe space for minority students.

“It’s still difficult to be a gender minority or religious minority, [or] person of color on campus, and hopefully some of our writing shows people that they’re not alone in that experience,” she said.

Francis, who initially became involved with the Disorientation Guide following their involvement in Fossil Free Penn, told the DP about the interconnectedness of radical activist groups on campus.

The Disorientation Guide’s contributors span undergraduates, graduate students, professors, and community members. Campus and community groups that wrote articles in this year’s issue include Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, Graduate Employees Together – University of Pennsylvania, Penn for PILOTs, and Coalition to Save the UC Townhomes.

Francis highlighted that while the content of the Disorientation Guide can feel very demoralizing, it is important to focus on the hopeful side of activism.

“The purpose is to expose these harms so we can actually do something about them,” they said.

NAIS, from FRONT PAGE

Penn's commitment to its Indigenous studies program, nearly a decade since its inception.

Lack of communication from the University

Five students affiliated with Natives at Penn or the NAIS minor told the DP they received no communication from the University about Bruchac's retirement or the future of the minor. Instead, they said that they were informed by peers or Bruchac directly and independently stayed in touch with Bruchac for advisement.

“It was only after I took the initiative and reached out to [Bruchac] that I was able to be put in contact with Penn,” College junior and NAIS minor Safaya Smallwood said.

Bruchac said she will retain her office to informally advise NAIS minors, and continue to work with the graduate students she oversees until they complete their degrees. However, as professor emerita, Bruchac has no formal obligation to carry out these duties and is doing so on a voluntary basis.

The Anthropology Department’s Undergraduate Chair Katherine Moore has temporarily taken over Bruchac’s on-campus administrative duties as the minor’s interim coordinator. In a statement, Moore wrote to the DP that she hopes to eventually give her role "to someone who can take it on long-term.”

Bruchac was slated to teach two courses this semester — ANTH 3420: "Dispossessions in the Americas: The Loss and Recovery of Indigenous Lands, Bodies, and Heritage" and ANTH 1490: "Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies," a required core class. These classes were two of three NAIS classes that were originally scheduled to be offered this fall, according to an archived webpage from April.

Smallwood, who was enrolled in both classes that Bruchac was supposed to teach, told the DP she received no notification from Penn regarding the class cancellations. College junior Erin Marble — a NAIS minor who was also enrolled in one of Bruchac's now-canceled fall classes — said she had the same experience.

"We just noticed one day that it was not being

offered anymore," Marble wrote in an email to the

DP. "Later, we were told by [Bruchac] herself that they were being canceled due to her retirement."

Limited course offerings

Bruchac's retirement has led to cascading effects on the list of NAIS course offerings, prompting many students interested in NAIS to rethink or drop the minor completely.

While the NAIS website says the University offers about 30 courses that count toward the minor, only a few are actually taught each semester. No required core class has been taught since spring 2020, and every NAIS student since 2018 has needed to substitute courses to complete the minor, Bruchac said.

“I don't really know what I'm going to do now," College junior and current DP staffer Mollie Benn, who is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, said. "I would still love to, but it doesn't seem totally possible, and there's like no course offerings right now."

Benn said she was enrolled in a NAIS course that fit her schedule in spring 2023, but the course was canceled due to a lack of student interest.

Like Benn, Wharton junior and treasurer of Natives at Penn Ryly Ziese, who is a member of the Cherokee Nation, said none of the NAIS course offerings fit her schedule due to conflicts with major-related classes.

College sophomore Carlyle Cornell, who is Indigenous, said that she is "stressed out" about her original plans to pursue the minor after putting "so much time into it" and now realizing that it might not be a possibility.

When asked about student concerns about completing the minor, Moore — the interim coordinator — wrote to the DP: “With careful planning and enough flexibility in their schedule, any College student should be able to make this work.”

In the past month, the NAIS website was updated with two new courses that would count towards the minor, making a total of three NAIS courses offered this fall. The number of offerings is down from seven in spring 2015.

Read the rest at thedp.com

by 15 students representing Jewish groups across campus. The students specifically expressed concerns about some of the festival's scheduled speakers, including academic Marc Lamont Hill and Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters — whom the United States State Department has said has an extensive history of denigrating Jews.

"While we appreciate the learning opportunity that can come from Palestinian literature, we are concerned that the students will be exposed to anti-Jewish propaganda, harm Jewish students who take Arabic, and open the Jewish community at Penn to discrimination," the students wrote in a letter to administrators.

In an email accompanying the students' letter sent to a Penn Hillel mailing list on Sept. 8, Executive Director Gabe Greenberg wrote that the organization had immediately engaged with administrators after learning of the event.

"We appreciate and respect the idea of a festival celebrating Palestinian culture," Greenberg wrote. "However, we have specific concerns regarding some speakers that are being featured at this event given their previous statements regarding Jews, Israel, and Zionism."

The students' letter also discussed the festival's cosponsorship and partnership with Penn programs and departments, including Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Kelly Writers House, and Cinema and Media Studies. They cited how students taking some Arabic courses in the NELC department are required to attend the event and added that the festival takes place as the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur is beginning.

In response to a request for comment, Founder and Faculty Director of Kelly Writers House Al Filreis wrote that KWH will host a poetry reading featuring two poets as part of the conference.

"We are looking forward to our poetry reading as an event featuring creative intercultural expression inside our house, which has always been devoted to open dialogue and the widest possible appreciation of literary writing," Filreis wrote.

In the letter, students requested that Penn issue a statement condemning "articulations of antisemitism by some of the speakers." Students also requested that Penn take "proactive steps" to create open spaces for respectful dialogue and a "positive learning environment."

College junior and Co-President of Penn Hillel Eitan Weinstein said that he did not expect a statement from administration, but described it as "really meaningful."

"It doesn't condemn the whole event because it is not worth condemning," Weinstein said. "But that there are certain elements of it that the University recognizes, that the Jewish community recognizes, are problematic, and I appreciate the University taking a stand on that."

He also said that earlier this week, Weinstein and other Hillel leaders had a meeting with representatives of the administration, including Vice Provost for University

Life Karu Kozuma, to discuss the event, which Weinstein described as an "incredible opportunity" with educational value.

"My takeaway from that meeting was that the University really is taking this seriously," Weinstein said. Organizers of the festival, including Arabic literature professor Huda Fakhreddine, said they were "deeply disappointed" with Penn's statement.

Fakhreddine said that the concerns she has seen are a result of fear, xenophobia, and ignorance about Palestine's history and culture. She added that the festival's organizers "reject the suggestion that we would invite or engage anyone who is antisemitic or endorses antisemitism."

"I have been deeply saddened by all this, and now the statement just added to my disappointment because it recycles the conflation between criticism of Israel and antisemitism," she said. "The assumption that supporting Palestinians means antisemitic sentiment is ignorant and racist."

The festival's executive director, Susan Abulhawa agreed, saying that Penn "could not muster the courage to defend an indigenous people's moral and necessary struggle against Israeli colonial fascism."

"No one at our festival is an antisemite," Abulhawa wrote. "This festival is a minimal recognition of the humanity of a deeply denigrated and marginalized people."

Fakhreddine echoed this sentiment, saying Palestinians "deserve a moment of agency and a celebration of their artistic and literary traditions." In addition to being a celebration of Palestinian culture, history, and art, Fakhreddine said that the festival is an "open space for dialogue and a unique learning moment for all involved."

"We, as a university, should be a space where difficult, uncomfortable conversations are had and where responsible nuanced readings of history and the world can happen," Fakhreddine said. "I hope Penn takes advantage of this moment to live up to its responsibility toward all its students and its diverse community."

Even with Penn's recent statement, some students remain uncertain about Penn's commitment to its Jewish student population.

“We’re happy that they call out antisemitism directly," College junior and Penn Hillel Vice President of Israel Engagement Maya Harpaz said, "but we want to see a bigger commitment in the future to protecting Jewish life on campus."

Fakhreddine said that she invites anyone who has reservations about the festival to attend its events with an open mind.

"This is an open, inclusive space," Fakhreddine said. "Come have a dialogue about things that you are afraid of because that is how we learn."

The event will be held from Sept. 22 to Sept. 24, and it include 120 speakers, according to its website.

FUNDRAISER , from FRONT PAGE

collaborated with students at Brown University and Yale University regarding a later coordinated initiative to help in the relief efforts.

“All the money we’re collecting is going to the people that I know are on the ground that I’ve worked with in the past,” Kettani said, referring to several organizations in Morocco.

According to the organizers, the fundraiser has brought in over $1,400 in donations so far.

“Whether that be just contributing to the bake

sale through buying baked goods, tabling with us, or donating themselves … donating your morning coffee for one day can really go a long way,” Taroua said.

The organizers said that students are encouraged to Venmo @helpmorocco if they are unable to purchase a baked good at the sale this week. They are also encouraged to spread the word by reposting information about the bake sale on social media.

PHOTO BY ABHIRAM JUVVADI

Penn president Liz Magill and other University administrators released a statement regarding the Palestine Writes Literature Festival.

Each year, Penn admits a record number of first-generation, low-income students. As a FGLI student, I acknowledge there are many resources on campus such as Penn First Plus and related groups. But when Penn recently suspended a commonly used textbook code initiative with only a couple weeks’ notice, the faults and limitations of our support became clear. The P1P Access Code Program provided textbook codes for some of the most popular classes on campus across various majors, so the decision came as an unpleasant surprise.

The removal of the program, and more pressingly, the lack of notice for students who were counting on it, made me and many other FGLI students feel unsupported. While I understand many of the reasons given for the program’s suspension — the main one being that it swayed students toward picking classes that offered codes — the removal is still a step

backward in accessibility. The short notice felt like a slap in the face, as no new program was proposed. Students were told to rebudget their refunds, which are intended to cover the cost of living.

When living in a major city like Philadelphia — where the cost of living is 5% higher than the national average — every dollar counts. Rebudgeting to include the cost of course materials, which is estimated at $1,358 a year by Penn, means less money for essentials like food and transportation. Much of Penn’s social calendar also centers around spending money, and it can be hard to budget.

The P1P Access Code Program definitely wasn’t perfect. Only 350 students were supported, and not all subjects or classes were covered. Many students who qualified for the program still had to buy textbooks out of pocket.

I was one of these students. Despite my highly aided status, I was unable to receive any textbook codes last year because they ran out. I went to the financial aid office and was told to go to P1P. Upon entering P1P, I was sent back to the financial aid office. This game of cat and mouse surrounding financial aid and other funding has become a common experience for me and others.

While the diversity of organizations on campus meant to help FGLI students is important, the variety of programs and resources can make it more confusing and difficult for students to receive the help that they need. In my experience, the financial aid office and P1P were not on the same page as to their availability of resources. As a first-year student new to Penn, I was left to figure out how to obtain my books on my own.

However, just because a system is imperfect, that doesn’t mean dropping the entire program is the solution.

Another reason stated for the end of the program was the consensus that the problem lies with the expensive cost of textbooks. Rather than provide the codes to cover the cost, work should be done to lower these costs on the back end. It’s important to note that the struggle of affording expensive class material extends way beyond FGLI students. The solution is to lower textbook costs for everyone, but until that happens, work needs to be done to support the students who need the financial help the most.

On a more positive note, I believe Penn and P1P are making great strides toward providing resources like seminars and, most importantly, space for FGLI students to ask questions and be in community. When navigating college as someone from a disadvantaged background — especially in an Ivy

League — the transition can be difficult and the investment in these students is necessary and worthwhile.

For example, highly aided first years can receive a free laptop from Penn. Highly aided students also have an assigned aid counselor, whom they can talk to about financial issues — a resource many qualifying students don’t utilize.

This being said, there must be more transparency from the financial aid office. There have been many times where financial aid counselors give conflicting information to students or fail to discuss extra expenses. Students without health insurance coverage that meets Penn’s requirements must enroll in the Penn Student Insurance Plan. Purchasing this plan is covered by Penn, yet when it comes to co-pays and other fees for things like medication, highly aided students must pay out of pocket. This can come as a surprise for many students and present additional financial barriers.

Penn needs to do a better job of creating cohesion between groups like P1P and Student Financial Services, so students can know which organization can best address the individual needs they are inquiring about.

Most pressingly, Penn needs to put its students first — and that means all students regardless of financial status. When making decisions, particularly ending programs vulnerable students have come to rely on, administration must keep in mind the potential repercussions.

When I first got into Penn, I remember everyone telling me to prepare myself for the high-pressure environment that everyone associates with Ivy League schools — especially with Penn’s notorious pre-professional culture. For months before even arriving on campus, I would picture myself spending days locked in a library studying for hours on end.

What I never imagined is that the pressure I would be feeling would not come from the difficulty of the classes I was taking or the amount of work on my plate. What was pressuring me was myself.

No one is actually pushing me to be excellent at every single thing I do. I don’t really need to check the daily five-question worksheets for my French class 15 times. It’s not necessary for me to have all of my friends proofread everything I write. No one is asking me to constantly try to get ahead in my work.

So why do I feel the need to make sure that everything I do is perfect? Or that my work must exceed expectations? Why is it that I feel like my best is never enough?

Sitting with my friends on Locust Walk, I can’t help but watch my peers run around to class, work, coffee chats, or club meetings. As I people-watch, I realize that we all run ourselves dry with such hectic schedules because of the same fear: No one wants to be ordinary.

In a society that constantly pushes us to want to be happier, smarter, and more

productive, we have become scared of being regular. Especially here at Penn, where we are immersed in a highly competitive environment where everyone is always doing something novel and new, it can certainly feel like you are never doing enough.

In addition to the academic side, there is also enormous pressure to have an amazing social life. Despite the amount of work one may have, attending as many parties as possible is often at the top of students’ priority list.

There is also a lot of stress regarding how we are perceived. We all want to seem like we have everything under control, even when we internally feel like we are falling apart. We’ve become so good at pretending we are okay, that we have tricked ourselves into believing that we are not allowed to struggle.

The fear of mediocrity is ingrained in our minds, and it continuously exerts ridiculous amounts of pressure in all of us. We all idolize exceptionalism, always reaching for the peak of success. We have convinced ourselves that anything less than extraordinary is unacceptable. I’ve been in tons of conversations in which students have expressed doubt in their abilities and demonstrated that they feel the need to prove themselves — even when we all have achieved remarkable things, studying at Penn being one of them.

While attending a prestigious college usually indicates that we all have a certain level of academic potential, it is important to remember that success is subjective. Our

education and overall college experience should be a personal journey where we get to measure our own goals based on our personal aspirations. At the end of the day, perfectionism keeps us stuck in one place and stops us from becoming who we actually want to be.

With this, I am not saying that we should be complacent. Complacency often comes with a lack of motivation to do better, and that’s not why we are here. We should always strive to improve in all aspects of our lives, but it's important to learn how to differentiate healthy ambition from an impossible pursuit of perfection.

We should be fostering a culture of support

in which taking a break and taking care of our mental health is not perceived as a sign of weakness. In order to destigmatize our fear of being ordinary, there should be discussions around the challenges of maintaining the high standards we’ve set for ourselves. Embracing imperfection is part of being a healthy human, and it makes life way more enjoyable than pushing ourselves to perfectionism.

Campus Apartments’ rampant history of code violations

GUEST COLUMN | A former tenant discusses persisting problems in off-campus housing

dissolve my lease. They agreed, perhaps because I had put so many complaints on record. I had a week to find somewhere else to live. This isn’t a one-off case. Adelman’s Campus Apartments currently owns nearly $200 million of real estate, according to their website, and they’ve been cited for problems before. Some of his properties are in “utterly reprehensible” conditions, per a 2012 lawsuit filed by six students living at 3935 Baltimore Ave. They alleged problems including “leaks, rodents, mold and the collapse of their third floor bathroom ceiling.” The case was withdrawn without prejudice in 2013.

More recently, in 2020, a student living at 4036 Locust St. brought a case alleging that their house was the site of a mouse infestation and that the building had broken radiators and dysfunctional plumbing. The case was settled later that year.

In addition to the properties that are never inspected at all, there are the properties whose violations are marked as “complied” even when they haven’t truly been addressed, as I learned in my own apartment building.

Why does this happen? Short answer: inspections in Philadelphia are performed by the Department of Licenses and Inspections, or L&I.

Any Philadelphia native is groaning at the mention of L&I, and for good reason: The department is plagued by a reputation of “sloth and unaccountability.” L&I has seen scandal after scandal over the years, with recent allegations from 2018 suggesting that a former deputy commissioner was driven from his post by a “politically connected” group.

I have a fairly unusual perspective on the new Philadelphia 76ers arena. For four months, I lived in a renovated Victorian managed by Campus Apartments. This firm is headed by David Adelman, who is also leading the 76ers stadium construction efforts. That short time was more than long enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth at the mere mention of new construction led by Adelman.

Almost as soon as I moved in, my $925-amonth apartment was beset by leaks, a broken faucet, a dysfunctional heater, and the occasional cockroach. I complained dozens of times over four months, filing maintenance requests through their online portal, emailing their maintenance address, calling their office, and speaking in person with

maintenance workers and Campus Apartments staff to try to get something done. The faucet eventually got fixed. But most issues received no attention at all.

Then, as April drew to a close, I discovered hundreds of larvae incubating under a kitchen mat, a living room rug, and all alongside the baseboards. When I called the emergency maintenance line, I was told that the exterminators assigned to my property only came on Tuesdays. I watched in horror as roaches began to hatch in my kitchen, my living room, and my bedroom while I pleaded with the manager to do something. Exterminators wouldn’t come until the following Wednesday. Frustrated and disgusted, I asked to

These complaints are not unique. University City Associates, the University of Pennsylvania’s real estate arm, lists 68 properties, containing 550 total units, on its website. All of these are managed by Campus Apartments. 26 of these properties, or over 38%, have failed an inspection at some point, city records show. Seven of these were classified as “unsafe,” and four as “hazardous.”

These numbers don’t even tell the whole story. For every failed inspection, I suspect many more tenants either didn’t know how to advocate for themselves or were unable to get the city to take action. Take 3935 Baltimore Ave., for example. Despite the history of litigation coming out of this property, to date, it still has zero listed inspections.

So what can be done? For one, the city has to get serious not only about conducting inspections, but also about supporting and reforming its inspectors. The city should also make its inspections more accessible online. I wouldn’t have signed a lease where I did if I had looked into the property’s history ahead of time, but it’s a hard site to find and clunky to use. Finally, we need to keep a careful eye on the companies that are buying and building property in our city, to ensure that they are acting responsibly and in our best interest. Which brings me back to Adelman.

Mr. Adelman: If your stadium will be anything like your apartments, I want nothing to do with it.

PHOTO BY ABHIRAM JUVVADI

PHOTO BY DEREK WONG

The Campus Apartment Office on the corner of 41st and Walnut streets.

PHOTO BY YOLANDA CHEN

Columnist Zara Tena argues for the destigmatization of being ordinary in the midst of Penn’s competitive pre-professional culture.

ZARA TENA is a College sophomore studying political science from Puebla, Mexico. Her email is zaratena@sas. upenn.edu.

The vicious underbelly of the Women’s World Cup

ALLISON’S ATTITUDE| Misogyny’s manifestation where we celebrate women’s peak athletic achievements

women’s soccer was able to evade that binarism in which women’s sports are typically rendered secondary. When I was very young, I didn’t realize it was a privilege to have female icons, such as Mia Hamm and Hope Solo, to look up to. And perhaps naively, as I grew older, I believed that the reverence with which society looks upon women’s sports would only grow over time.

reminder that despite the seeming progress of women’s sports in the cultural sphere, the hatred of misogyny will be waiting alive and well to celebrate our losses.

Despite its putative celebration of women’s athletic abilities, the Women’s World Cup serves as a microcosm in which misogyny can operate powerfully in the implicit shadows. It is deeply ingrained in social culture that women’s sports are secondary to men’s sports.

Men have dominated representation in sports for a multitude of reasons. While yes, men are typically stronger and faster than women, professional men’s sports leagues have simply been around longer. The American professional men’s soccer league, Major League Soccer was founded in 1993, while the National Women’s Soccer League was not founded until 2012. Both of these soccer leagues have predecessor organizations, with the men’s first league founded in 1968 and the women’s in 2001.

Despite the length of time men’s soccer has existed in the United States, somehow, it seemed that

But what is seemingly inextricable from progress is pushback. When asking some of my friends which athletes they looked up to, my first friend to respond, a girl, said Lionel Messi, who is a rightfully revered player. Then, my male friends started responding, with messages that only further reinforce my point. They said, “Megan Rapinoe’s hair,” “Brittney Griner,” and “Hope Solo,” sarcastically.

Men’s sports are considered categorically above women’s at the most basic cultural level. It is generally implied to be a joke if a man were to say that his favorite player, or a player he looked up to, was a woman.

I had been considering this reality as I watched the United States women’s soccer empire falter this past summer: We were outperformed in nearly every match; our losses were fair. But I’ve never seen so many Americans react so giddily while bearing witness to this downfall. Reading the comment section of news posts about the United States’ oust from the tournament was a disappointing

On Bleacher Report’s Instagram post, one commenter said: “Spend less time crying about equal pay you don’t deserve, then maybe you wouldn’t be crying on the pitch.” It received nearly 10,000 likes. Another commenter said: “... As an American, I am thrilled they lost!” This one received nearly 8,000 likes. Many others made sure to mock Rapinoe as well, likely because of her political outspokenness.

What most directly evidences the unacceptable reality between women’s sports and athletes and the rest of our social environment is the recent resignation of Luis Rubiales, the former head of the Spanish soccer federation. The joy of Spain’s first Women’s World Cup title was quickly overshadowed by Rubiales’ unconsensual kiss of Jenni Hermoso during the televised awards ceremony.

In response to Hermoso’s accusation, “Rubiales accused Hermoso of lying about what he said was a kiss she had consented to.” But Rubiales’ reliance on the institutional power imbalance wasn’t enough. Hermoso’s teammates and fellow world champions — among other men’s players — refused to play again for Spain until Rubiales was removed from his post.

And while his resignation is wholly positive, it

The veil of anonymity and its threat to accountability

LEXI’S TAKE | Self-censorship taking the form of 9/11 Sidechat discourse

remains a part of the larger institutional response to scandals: resignation. It happens all the time. Instead of forcing us to contend with the fact that, institutionally, there exists an imbalance that breeds this kind of conduct, we treat each case as an isolated event. It puts the onus of change on survivors rather than on the system itself.

When the head of the Spanish soccer federation exhibits this behavior to the very players which he was supposed to serve, we must reconsider the ways in which our athletic, political, and cultural institutions reinforce regressive power imbalances. Women athletes, from high school, college, and beyond deserve the same reverence and celebration as their male counterparts for their achievements.

Although I am no longer a practicing athlete, I could go on forever about how important soccer was to my formation as a young woman. We can no longer accept this reality for the next generation of professional women athletes at any level in any sport. We must recognize where misogyny still operates, especially in spaces that should be free of it. And for all the wrongdoings against our female athletes, resignation can no longer be the right answer.

ALLISON SANTA-CRUZ is a College junior studying communication from Jackson, Miss. Her email address is allisant@sas.upenn.edu.

PHOTO BY ABHIRAM JUVVADI

Penn College Republicans placed 2,977 flags on College Green to honor those who lost their lives on 9/11.

This past Monday, as I have for the last two years during my time at Penn, I woke up at 7 a.m. to place 2,977 flags on College Green with the rest of Penn College Republicans to honor those who lost their lives in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Although this year President Liz Magill recognized the memorial on her Instagram, I was not surprised to see the complete disregard for the tragedy’s anniversary by the University itself. Despite the proximity of Penn to New York City, the 16 alumni who were killed in the terrorist attacks, and acknowledgment by peer institutions there was neither a social media post, a statement, nor even an email from Penn recognizing the tragedy.

While I had expected our memorial to be the sole recognition on campus, many other students were not expecting this type of behavior from Penn, taking to Sidechat to express their frustrations. The most trending comment (with over 1,200 upvotes) read: “Penn didn’t even post for 9/11. The only memorial we got was from the mf College Republicans. As a Democrat, not remembering this tragedy that left thousands of families ripped apart is heartbreaking.”

The colorful commentary in the post aside, it and many of the replies that followed echoed similar sentiments about concern over Penn’s failure to recognize the 22nd anniversary of 9/11. Many people were frustrated that 9/11 was as treated in a partisan manner, while some (self-acknowledged) Muslim students said they disliked that there is a perception of remembering 9/11 as being “anti-Muslim.” The posts, including one that said “This school is too woke,” covered an array of political discourse on 9/11.

Although the concerns these points raise are legitimate and very well-founded, I find the forum and manner with which they were posted to be equally as frustrating. Why did students not take to Penn’s Instagram or Facebook comments to express these thoughts?

Sidechat’s forum has the intended effect on users: By granting a veil of anonymity, it allows people to remain unaccountable for their opinions. This seems to indicate a new form of “self-censorship”: one in which people are comfortable expressing views only when they can remain free from consequences. This can have positive impacts, like dismantling misconceptions about the state of mental health on campus, but it can also make people feel comfortable expressing hateful opinions. In the case of political discourse, anonymity can often demean the value and impact of speech.

The call for a “column in the DP” on Sidechat about Penn’s lack of 9/11 commemoration indicates the self-awareness of Sidechat’s users about the limiting nature of their discourse. Without being able to put a name to a stance, viewpoints that could make substantial change fizzle away into the anonymous abyss of websites like Sidechat.

Both the humanizing element of putting a face to an opinion as well as the commitment that ownership provides help to signify the gravity of an issue that could otherwise be lost. Similarly, the word limit on platforms like Sidechat stifles the

nuance that these conversations require. If the Penn administration is to really understand what is disappointing about their disregarding the anniversary of a national tragedy, students need to be willing to honestly own those opinions.

Conversations in hushed voices, on Sidechat or otherwise, are a manifestation of one of Penn’s signature problems: self-censorship. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression recently released its annual College Free Speech rankings for 2024 and ranked Penn second to last. Some of the most startling data they collected indicated that 51% of Penn students surveyed said they curb their speech on campus at least once or twice a month, and 55% of students expressed concerns about “damaging their reputation because someone misunderstands something they have said or done.” This second statistic is crucial to understanding the Sidechat phenomenon. Self-censorship is not simply a question of not speaking out, but it is one of not speaking out when you fear the impacts of your speech.

In an institution that is supposed to be truth-seeking in nature and a center for civic engagement, these sorts of numbers are startling and saddening. They create a climate in which students who do speak out feel as though they are alone in their viewpoints, taking away the opportunity to learn and expand one another’s perspectives, and in the case of the 9/11 response example, fail to hold Penn and other institutions accountable. In situations like this, if students were more willing to express themselves in class, in the pages of The Daily Pennsylvanian , or in the social media comments of Penn’s accounts, the University would have a greater awareness of the student body’s points of view, and hopefully, take them to heart.

A comment in the string of Sidechat comments explained: “Democrats over the last few decades have conceded the identity of patriotism to the [R] epublicans. As such they’ve hurt their own brand by increasingly being associated as the party of anti-American, out of touch college kids. It’s not great.” This type of association is one many liberal, Democratic students want to avoid, and is an indication of how something with as wide of a consensus as the tragic nature of 9/11 might be discussed in a censored manner. It is often the case at Penn that fear of associating with Republican aesthetic values or other things which may result in social isolation reduces the conversation around political issues to one that is overly sanitized and/or anonymous.

Recognizing all of these convoluted political realities, even if in anonymity, is the first step to improving our campus dialogue. But as the person who was willing to write the column that was called for in the anonymous Sidechat posts, I encourage you to tell a friend, raise your hand in class, or write a guest column in the DP the next time you have something you want to say. Anonymity can be safe, but ownership and accountability can make a difference.

LEXI BOCCUZZI is a College senior studying philosophy, politics, and economics from Stamford, Conn. Her email is boccuzzi@thedp. com.

HEAT

R. Jisung Park, Assistant Professor, School of Social Policy and Practice

FIRE

Nicholas Pevzner, Assistant Professor, Weitzman School of Design

DROUGHT

Allison Lassiter, Assistant Professor, Weitzman School of Design

FLOODS

Matthijs Bouw, Professor of Practice and McHarg Center Fellow for Risk and Resilience, Weitzman School of Design

OCEANS

Irina Marinov, Associate Professor, Earth and Environmental Science

ICE Sergey Molodtsov, Post Doctoral Researcher, Earth and Environmental Science

OUR FRAGILE MOMENT

WEDNESDAY THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE CAN RISE IN ORDER TO AVOID THE WORST CONSEQUENCES OF GLOBAL WARMING IS 1.5 ° C. WE’RE ALREADY PAST 1°C. WATCH OUR LIVESTREAM ON FACEBOOK OR TWITTER @ PENNSAS

A #1point5

Meet the Lion Man: Penn baseball’s Ryan Dromboski is larger than life

Dromboski’s elite skills on the mound and infectious energy drives the Quakers to success

WALKER CARNATHAN

Deputy Sports Editor

It is deadly quiet as Ryan Dromboski stares down his batter with a glare made even more intimidating by the pitch that waits behind it. Dromboski is in his natural habitat, atop the hill on Tommy Lasorda Field at Meiklejohn Stadium, just sitting, waiting to strike. “On the field, I would say I’m a psychopath,” he said.

Dromboski flicks into motion and fires a pitch past Princeton’s Nick DiPietrantonio, striking him out and making him the 14th Tiger batter to be rung up by Dromboski in the afternoon. The strikeout ends the inning, protects a 3-2 Penn advantage, and ties the Quaker program record for Ks in a single game, a record he would break just two innings later.

As the ball meets the catcher’s glove, Dromboski breaks the silence with a roar.

“With those high stakes pitches, I think that whatever I feel on the mound will be reciprocated by the team,” Dromboski said. “I love playing this game with energy. I want to have fun in this game. I want to play this game because I love it, and not because I have to.”

It is Dromboski’s electric energy — his earthquaking yells and his boot-shaking stares — that has powered him to the pinnacle of Ivy League baseball. After a freshman season that saw him pitch a total of just five innings, all in relief, Dromboski returned with a vengeance for year two, leading the Ancient Eight in strikeouts and earning the Ivy League pitcher of the year award.

“I think it’s really hard for freshmen to show up on campus — they’re trying to figure a lot of different

things out,” Penn baseball coach John Yurkow said of Dromboski’s year-to-year transformation. “There could be a lot on their plate … when [Dromboski] went away for summer ball, I think that’s where a lot of changes occurred. He got some confidence, made some mechanical adjustments, his velocity started to go up, and then he came back in the fall and he was like an entirely different kid.”

For the man known primarily as “Drombo,” personal achievements are seen as only a secondary benefit. His stellar campaign helped the Red and Blue to the greatest season in program history, including the first Ivy League title since 1995 and an NCAA Tournament run that fell one win shy of the first Super Regional appearance ever by an Ivy League school.

“Once we started to play as an official team, that’s when things started to turn around for the better,” Dromboski said. “Individually, I had a whole different mentality than [freshman year], which was a very selfish mentality because of how limited my innings were … [This year was about] learning to realize that this is bigger than yourself. This season is bigger than me.”

That is not to say that the entire campaign was smooth sailing for Dromboski or the Quakers. Penn dropped their first Ivy League series to Harvard, where Dromboski allowed five hits and four runs in three innings of work. The Quakers later faced the Crimson again in the Ivy League tournament and again turned to Dromboski, but the Ancient Eight’s ultimate ace again struggled, allowing six hits and four earned runs.

Penn still prevailed over Harvard, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament with a thumping victory over Princeton. That set the stage for a titanic tilt with the No. 13 Auburn Tigers, and with their season on the line, the Quakers turned to their Tiger hunter.

“Going into Auburn, that week preparing was definitely a big step for me,” Dromboski said. “The first couple days I was a little hard on myself, but I attribute it to the senior pitching staff as well as the coaches just letting me do my thing, letting me figure it out … Then, I was just like, ‘Let’s go into Auburn and show them what Penn is all about.’”

What followed was a game that left an indelible impression — an unprecedented upset. The Quakers became the first Ivy League team in history to defeat a Southeastern Conference school in the NCAA Tournament, knocking off the Tigers in a 6-3 11-inning thriller. Dromboski was brilliant, striking out eight Tigers and allowing just three hits.

Still, even in such a dominant performance,

Dromboski’s most important contribution was sparking the fire.

“I got two strikeouts to end [the fifth] inning, and I came off the mound like, ‘Let’s go! We got this!’” Dromboski said. “It was to get my team going, to get them to believe, ‘We can do this, we’re there.’”

“I wasn’t sure how [Dromboski] was going to handle being on a stage like that with so much energy in the crowd,” Yurkow said. “6,500 people at the game, and most of them are rooting for the Auburn Tigers, not the Penn Quakers. But I think the guys really rallied around him.”

Whether it is a punishing slider or a jolt of inspiration, Dromboski is the man for the job. It will be some time before he takes the mound for the first start of his junior season, a day that will signal the beginning of a new chapter for both the Quakers and their ace. But regardless of how Dromboski’s pitches fly that day, one thing is certain: no one will be having more fun.

offices have become much more numbers driven as well. They have started incorporating calculations similar to his into their analyses.

Drexel on Oct. 18, 2022.

AWARDS, from BACK PAGE

between the posts was much needed. Severely outshot

17-9, Christoffersen’s 10th career shutout kept the Quakers away from a brutal blowout. Picking up right where he left off, the win marked his first clean sheet of 2023 after notching seven in 2022. The senior tallied six saves for his most impressive outing since recording eight against Dartmouth back on Oct. 16, 2021.

The two’s efforts swept the Ivy League’s weekly honors as Hewes was awarded Ivy League offensive player of the week and Christoffersen was named Ivy League defensive player of the week. But as if that wasn’t enough, Hewes also snagged the Penn Athletics student-athlete of the week honor and a feature on College Soccer News’ team of the week.

Nationally-ranked teams aren’t unfamiliar to the Red and Blue, as the team took down then-No.15 Cornell in a 3-2 road victory last season — arguably marking the turning point of last year’s campaign which ended in an Ancient Eight crown and NCAA second round appearance.

The victory was Penn men’s soccer’s first of the season after the team dropped its first two to Fordham and Hofstra in a trip to New York state over Labor Day weekend. Upon their return, the Quakers wrapped up their four-game road trip to open the season with a scoreless draw at Rider.

It’s been tough out of the gate for the Red and Blue, but the season is still young and glimpses of that 2022 squad that brought an Ivy League title to Penn for the first time since 2013 are there. The team welcomes Albany (3-3) next for its home opener on Saturday, and maybe homefield advantage will be the spark the Quakers need to get this season shining as brightly as last.

positions, and have barely seen collective salaries increase much in the last decade. This decline in pay for running backs is correlated to the amount of perceived value a player is expected to provide during the length of their contract.

Similarly, where running backs are selected in the draft shows how much they are thought to help the team during their career. That, too, tells a story of decline. In the last five NFL drafts, only six running backs were taken in the first round. Compare that to the six drafts from 1992 to 1997, when teams used first-round picks on running backs 19 times.

For Cade Massey, this shouldn’t be a surprise. Massey is a practice professor in the Wharton School’s Department of Operations, Information and Decisions, and one of the pioneers in football analytics. His work focuses on determining how good NFL teams are at evaluating talent in the draft, based on the correlation between the value generated by a player and their draft order. One of the things he’s found is that using draft capital on a running back is not necessarily a good idea.

“In the late 2000s, we saw that the only place that you would not expect to generate surplus in the draft was drafting a running back in the top of the first round,” Massey said. “Every other position at every other point in the draft, your surplus is positive, because the rookie wage scale keeps things so low, but for that one position at that one place in the draft, it was negative and we had no idea until we ran the curve and so that was our first inkling that that’s where running backs were.”

Alongside the decline in the running back position has been the increase in the value of having a solid quarterback. Similarly, due to the amount of money top-tier veteran quarterbacks earn — the top 15 highest-paid players by average per year are all quarterbacks — there is an impetus to win while the team still has a young quarterback, which impacts their draft value.

“When we ran our first analysis, quarterbacks hadn’t separated as much from the other positions as they have now these days,” Massey said. “You really need two values of draft pick curves: one for quarterbacks and one for everybody else. There’s still a little bit of debate on that. It’s not completely clear. We’re doing some more work on it now. But to a first approximation, I think it’s fair to say that quarterbacks are so much more valuable than other positions that the advice we’d have on the use of draft picks is different for them than it is for anyone else.”

For Massey, not only have the different positional values in football changed, but NFL front

SUDOKUPUZZLE

The use of big data and analytics in the NFL is relatively new, only beginning in earnest in 2014 when then-Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson sought a more numbers driven way of decision making. Additionally, teams began using player-tracking technology to analyze player tendencies.

“We’ve got so much more data [than in the past],” he said. “The teams have invested more in their analytics departments. There are more people working on this problem before we’ve gotten more sophisticated in our models … and then slowly, analytics-oriented people are gaining power within some of these front offices.”

With all of this effort being placed in numbers and statistical analysis, have teams gotten better at using draft picks wisely on players who will ultimately produce value? According to Massey, yes, but not by much. From his work, there is a slight uptick in the correlation between draft position and value produced, but not as big of one as would be expected, especially given the increase in investment and sophistication of draft evaluation processes.

Massey attributes this largely to the difficulties inherent in running an NFL front office, which he compared to the stock market.

“It’s just tough to beat the market opinion, not because people are dumb, but because a lot of smart people are playing the same game,” he said.

However, there are also factors unique to the NFL environment. Among them is a level of “irreducible uncertainty” that Massey sees in player evaluation. That could change in the future with new statistical tools, but for now, Massey says that there’s a ceiling for predictions.

Another issue that complicates the work of NFL front offices — and the researchers that study them — is the difficulty in measuring a player’s total value. The complexity of the NFL, and the dependence of each player on all the others, makes determining each player’s impact on winning and losing difficult.

“This is one of the real challenges in football [and] in many [other] sports, but it’s so far from being solved,” Massey said. “We’re going to be working on it for a long time and we’ll never know it for sure, we’ll never know it perfectly. That’s one of the things that’s interesting. We know that these outcomes are interdependent, we know that people work with other people on the field to make these things happen, but it’s very hard to parse exactly what that point is. It’s very hard to understand what the interactions are.”

Despite these challenges, Massey and his peers are continuing on in their work of using numbers to solve the mysteries of the NFL.

NFL , from BACK PAGE

PHOTO BY ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

Now-senior midfielder Michael Hewes dribbles the ball up the field during last season’s matchup against

PHOTO BY ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

Sophomore right-handed pitcher Ryan Dromboski at the mound against Brown in on April 15.

In Photos: Penn volleyball’s weekend tournament

The Quakers played Lafeyette and Coppin State on Sept. 8 and Sept. 9

ALEXIS GARCIA AND ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

Sports Editor and Photo Editor

Penn volleyball’s 2022 season was riddled with defeat. So far, 2023 isn’t faring much differently. Making the trip out to Houston for the Molly Howard-Gerwig Memorial Tournament, the Quakers (1-6) couldn’t secure a singular set win, dropping each match to Houston Christian, UT Rio Grande Valley, and Arkansas State by a score of 3-0. However, as the tournament went on, one could argue that improvements had been made. The set scores grew tighter in number, and the team put up

tougher battles. But the improvements didn’t arrive soon enough, and the Red and Blue left the Lone Star State winless.

Maybe home-court advantage was the spark Penn was looking for, as the Quakers returned to the Palestra and picked up its first win of the season — a 3-0 sweep of Lafayette. But after dropping its next two games the following day, it seems as if the team will need more of a push before turning its season around.

PHOTO BY ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

Senior outside hitter Tatum DeMann dives for the ball against Lafayette on Sept. 9.

PHOTO BY CYNTHIA DONG Freshman libero Elsa McDermott returns a hit from Lafayette on Saturday, racking up 13 digs total across the four sets.

PHOTO BY DEREK WONG

Senior defensive specialist Julia Bradshaw serves against the Leopards in the Saturday rematch, which ended in a narrow 3-1 loss.

PHOTO BY ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

Sophomore outside hitter Feyi Ogunlari celebrates back-to-back kills against Lafayette during the fourth set.

VICTORIOUS AGAIN

Three Quakers celebrated a USL League Two Championship this summer

Members of men’s soccer sharpened their skills over the summer while competing with semi-pro team Ballard FC ANTONIO MELONI Sports Associate

Regular-season collegiate soccer may only last three months, but that didn’t stop some members of Penn men’s soccer from partaking in a rigorous and action-packed offseason. The highest-level players know that they need to maintain their fitness to be ready for games in September, and there’s no better way to prepare than by competing in competitive, full-length games.

Junior defender Leo Burney, junior midfielder Charlie Gaffney, and junior forward Stas Korzeniowski teamed up in the United Soccer League Two and helped secure a national championship for Ballard FC this past summer. Rebranded in 2019, USL League Two is now considered one of the premier semiprofessional developmental soccer leagues in the United States. The season takes place exclusively during the summer and has age restrictions, making it attractive for college athletes who are eager to play while maintaining their eligibility.

“This was my second season playing with [Ballard FC],” Burney said. “The first season I played with Ballard was actually their first year in existence. After I heard that a USL [League]

Two team was coming to Seattle, I came in contact with their head coach, Jason Farrell. Charlie and I are actually from Seattle, and we joined Ballard during the same year. Stas joined the team this past summer. Stas and I are very close so I said to him, ‘why don’t you come

Wharton professor Cade Massey on the numbers behind the NFL

Massey has pioneered work on measuring how well NFL teams are at evaluating talent

CRAIN

CALEB

Sports Editor

When the NFL season kicked off week one last weekend, it marked the conclusion of yet another tumultuous offseason. Teams moved off of certain players to bring in replacements, some of whom were signed to big-money deals and some of whom were playing at or just above the veteran minimum salary.

Most notably, this offseason saw the conclusion of the decline in value for the running back position. Several high-profile halfbacks — including Ezekiel Elliott and Dalvin Cook — were released by their former teams, and had to wait months to resign with a new team. Overall, running backs make significantly less than other offensive

live in my house for the summer?,’ which he was really excited about. I don’t want to speak for my teammates, but I think we’d all like to continue playing after college, and USL Two is really good for giving you repetitions and good competition in a different setting. I think it worked out really well for all three of us.”

From May to July, teams compete across 18 divisions and four conferences fight for a place in the playoffs. Ballard FC, based in Seattle, dominated the Northwest Division during the regular season and ended with a goal differential of +28. The team went on an electric run in the playoffs and earned a spot in the final against Lionsbridge FC.

In that final, it didn’t take long for Korzeniowski to get on the scoresheet. The 6-foot-4 forward turned his defender near the left edge of the penalty box, cut inside on his stronger right foot, and blasted the ball over the keeper near the far post to give Ballard the early lead in the 23rd minute.

After a very physical — yet scoreless — stretch of the game, which saw Burney making big defensive plays on the backline and Gaffney having multiple timed runs from midfield toward the opponent’s goal, Lionsbridge ultimately equalized in the 80th minute. Just when extra time seemed on the horizon, Ballard managed to score the winning goal in the dying minutes of regular time, sending Starfire Stadium into a frenzy.

After the free kick set piece winning goal, Burney was seen joyously running alongside his teammates towards the exuberant pitchside Ballard fans. When the final whistle blew, the team erupted in celebration before ceremoniously lifting the USL League Two Championship trophy.

“It was one of the greatest sporting experiences I’ve ever been a part of,” Burney said. “There were around 5,000 people at the game, which is the most people I’ve ever played in front of. A lot of family and friends were there since the final wasn’t far from my hometown, and it was great that they could come and watch me play.”

“The crowd was so into it throughout the whole game. I think the fans have created a very supportive community around the team even though [Ballard] has only been in existence for two years. The roar from the crowd after the winning goal and the celebrations after the game were great. I got to rekindle relationships with a lot of people from my youth soccer days in Washington, and being able to play and win with them again was an amazing feeling.”

The Penn players’ performances against other top prospects throughout the competition may leave some Quaker fans hopeful for another strong season of men’s soccer. Korzeniowski finished as Ballard’s top goalscorer, with 19 goals and 24 total goal contributions across both regular season and playoff games. Gaffney

collected his fair share of offensive contributions and was a consistent creator for Ballard’s attack. Burney, Penn’s stalwart center back, joined Korzeniowski in the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List Players of the Season list. He was a constant set-piece goalscoring threat and showcased his leadership and consistency in difficult moments.

“It’s important for me as a center back to be physically ready to play pretty much 90 minutes every game,” Burney said. “It was really good to get a lot of minutes before coming back to Penn and I feel super fresh and ready to keep going into the college season.”

After losing a few graduating players who were instrumental to their Ivy League title-winning success last season, the Quakers will need to rely more heavily on the growth of rising upperclassmen and their further development. If this summer showed anything, it is that Penn players are hungry to compete and should start the season in high gear. Despite the seasonopening loss to Fordham, Korzeniowski was quick to open his 2023 scoring tally, continuing where he left off.

Penn will now look to build momentum after a dominant 3-0 away win at No. 14 Penn State. With a scoreless draw Tuesday night at Rider ending a four-match opening away streak, a return to Penn Park against Albany this Saturday could help galvanize the Quakers ahead of upcoming Ivy League conference play.

Men’s soccer sweeps weekly Ivy awards following 3-0 win at Penn State

Hewes and Christoffersen took home offensive and defensive player of the week, respectively

ALEXIS GARCIA Sports Editor

With a big win comes big rewards, and Penn men’s soccer is reaping the rewards of their 3-0 shutout at Penn State last Thursday. The Quakers (1-2-1) made the trip out to State College, Pa. to take on the nationally-ranked No. 14 Nittany Lions (2-1-2), and returned a happy bunch behind the heroics of senior midfielder Michael Hewes and senior goalkeeper Nick Christoffersen. Penn had not bested its Keystone State rivals since 2008, and had never pulled off a victory without home-field advantage before Thursday.

For Hewes, a busy second half gave the Red and Blue all the edge it needed to finish on top come the final whistle, as his career-first hat trick came at the perfect time. The match was filled with several firsts for Hewes, as his career-first penalty kick attempt met the back of the net for Penn’s third goal — sealing Penn State’s fate with less than two minutes left to play.

With the hat trick, Hewes is already halfway to his goal total in 2022 of six. If this year’s campaign is anything like his last, the senior will be finding the back of the net in many more clutch moments to come.

As for Christoffersen, his impressive performance

PHOTO BY ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

Now-junior defender Leo Burney (center) and teammates Charlie Gaffney and Stas Korzeniowski played for Ballard FC this summer, securing a National Championship in the USL League Two.

PHOTO BY ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

Senior goalkeeper Nick Christofferson during last season’s matchup against Drexel on Oct. 18, 2022.