July 23, 2015

THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015

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

PENN MUSEUM: CROSSING BORDERS AND PROTECTING CULTURAL HERITAGE

Safety alerts not sent to students in summer Temple and Drexel send alerts to students even if they’re away from campus for the summer DAN SPINELLI News Editor

COURTESY OF ALI OTHMAN AND THE MA’ARRA MUSEUM

Gunfire damage to the collection of the Ma’arra Museum, Idlib Province, Syria.

Penn Museum leads efforts to protect historical landmarks threatened by violence in Syria LAVI BEN DOR Staff Reporter

The Syrian Civil War, which has devastated the nation since 2011, has not only exacted a heavy toll on the nation’s people, but also on the archives of its rich culture and history.

Cultural heritage sites such as historic cities, museums and archeological excavations,

many of which are hundreds if not thousands of years old, have often been caught in the crossfire of the violence that has swept the nation or even been specifically targeted by various factions. Many have suffered significant damage, which is why the Penn Museum’s Penn Cultural Heritage Center has been leading efforts to protect and document these historic landmarks.

The center has operated the Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria and Iraq Project since 2013, aiming to prevent future

destruction to cultural sites in the region and enable local communities to repair and preserve damaged historic buildings.

“We really wanted to take some action, to do something that wasn’t just talking about the damage, it wasn’t just crying over spilled milk but rather was going and moving in the forward direction,” Penn Cultural Heritage Center fellow Katharyn Hanson said. “A lot of folks don’t think that action can take place on the ground while the conflict is going on, and much of the work going on

that the Penn Cultural Heritage Center is involved in is really proving that action can take place,” she said.

“You can work with invested, brave local colleagues on the ground and get them the materials they need to move forward and make projects take place and make sure that heritage is protected and documented,” she added.

Last summer, the center worked with the Smithsonian Institution to put together a

Though other Philadelphia universities send students safety alerts over the summer, Penn does not.

After a shooting over the Fourth of July weekend near Kings Court English College House, various students reported not receiving a UPenn Alert about the incident, though some faculty and staff members did.

The Division of Public Safety said the decision to not enroll students in the summer alert system stemmed from technological issues as well as concerns of bothering students away for the summer with late-night messages.

Drexel University, whose policing patrol zone overlaps with Penn’s, does not allow students to opt out of receiving summer alerts, according to its Public Safety website. Temple University also sends safety alerts to at least some students during the summer months, including to those away from campus.

“Communication via the DrexelALERT system is a critical component of Drexel’s emergency notification strategy,” the website states.

“If you are a student, faculty or staff member, messages from DrexelALERT to your Drexel e-mail account and voice messages to all Drexel landline phones will be automatic.”

Drexel, which operates under a quarter system for scheduling, sent out two safety alerts since the beginning of the summer. Penn also sent two alerts — one for the Fourth of July shooting, and another for a daytime snatch-andgrab.

Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said she did not feel any pressure to adjust Penn’s alert system because of Drexel’s policy.

“We’re not Drexel,” she said. “It’s an SEE ALERT PAGE 6

OFSL appoints Penn’s Larry Liu wins Oxford scholarship a new director

2015 College graduate will earn his Master’s at Oxford University through Cooke Foundation’s scholarship VAMSEE MUPPARAPU Staff Reporter

From the Community College of Philadelphia to Oxford University, Larry Liam Chiung Liu, 23, continues his remarkable scholastic journey after being named the Cooke Foundation’s first Oxford Scholar.

2015 College graduate Liu received the scholarship, which provides up to $85,000 to work towards a master’s degree in comparative social policy at Oxford University’s Lincoln College, after graduating with a degree in sociology in May. After a recent partnership between Lincoln College and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, a Virginia-based organization that provides scholarships to students with financial need,

the two introduced the Oxford Scholarship. The scholarship is the only one currently offered by the Cooke Foundation that allows students to pursue a master’s degree at Lincoln College at Oxford University.

Liu is also a recipient of the Cooke Foundation’s Graduate Scholarship, an award for graduate students that gives annual scholarships of up to $50,000 for four years. Liu will use it to pursue a doctorate in sociology at Princeton University after he finishes his studies at Oxford.

Liu first encountered the Cooke Foundation when transferring out of CCP. While applying as a transfer student to several universities in Philadelphia, Liu discovered another Cooke Foundation scholarship, the Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. His academic advisor, Ralph M. Faris, who is a sociology professor at CCP and a co-coordinator of the college’s honors program, urged him to apply.

Liu added that he got a “tremendous

NO BUDGET YET, BUT STATE FUNDS STEADY PAGE 2

Eddie Banks-Crosson will direct the Office of Fraternity and Sorority life beginning on Aug. 17 BRYN FERGUSON Staff Reporter

“Back in January of this year, it was my senior year at Penn and, of course, like thousands of other seniors, I was asking myself ‘what can I do for a

On Tuesday, the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life announced the appointment of Eddie Banks-Crosson as director.

Banks-Crosson will oversee Penn’s 51 recognized chapters and 3,500 members. He comes to Penn from the University of Syracuse, where he served as Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs for seven years.

Banks-Crosson is a graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he received a Bachelor’s in Communication and Capella University, where he received a Master of Science in Higher Education.

SEE OXFORD PAGE 8

SEE OFSL PAGE 8

FIRST LAST/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

amount of help from Faris” when describing the application process of the Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship.

Ultimately, Liu secured both a transfer to Penn and the transfer scholarship to support his education.

DENTAL SCHOOL MAKEOVER PAGE 8

SEE PENN MUSEUM PAGE 6

They took the kind of path you can’t plan for, the kind you discover as you go along.”

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2 NEWS

THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015

THE SUMMER PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Despite Harrisburg budget impasse, state funds for Penn are unlikely to change Gov. Wolf’s proposed 2016 budget would not change current allocation LUIS FERRE SADURNI Staff Reporter

Today marks the 23rd day of a prolonged and frustrating political gridlock between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican controlled state legislature in Harrisburg. With no significant developments in the past three weeks, both parties seem far from an agreement on the Commonwealth’s budget for the new fiscal year.

On June 30, a day before the start of fiscal year 2016, Wolf vetoed the Republican lawmakers’ proposed state budget, the first time a Pennsylvania governor has vetoed a budget in over 40 years, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Without a budget deal, funding is on the line for local governments and

HEART OF UNIVERSITY CITY

many nonprofit organizations.

Although Com monwealth appropriations for Penn are at stake, the University isn’t immediately affected by the current budget impasse.

According to budget reports from the University’s Office of Budget and Management Analysis’s, Penn received $31.51 million in state funds in the 2015 fiscal year. This funding represented a meagre one percent of Penn’s $3.18 billion Academic Operating Budget this year.

The governor’s proposed state budget would allocate the same amount of funds to Penn as last year, according to BMA administrators. A majority of the state appropriations received by the University are designated for the School of Veterinary Medicine, which received $28.26 million out of the $31.51 million dispersed in

fiscal year 2015. The rest of the appropriations are meant for Penn’s School of Dental Medicine and the Perelman School of Medicine.

Although it seems likely that state funding for the School of Veterinary will remain unchanged for this fiscal year, this hasn’t always been the case.

According to BMA reports, Commonwealth funding for the Vet School has been reduced by $14.4 million or 34 percent since 2008. This decrease has been detrimental for Penn Vet’s budget, since state appropriations represent 22 percent of its budget.

“We have faith that they will receive [the appropriations] once the budget is adopted and appropr iated.

It’s not a cash-flow issue for us, but, obviously, the level of appropriations is important to us, especially for the Vet

School,” said Dan Katzenberg, the Deputy Budget Director at BMA. The University has played a key role in lobbying against reduced funding for Penn Vet, the only veterinary school in all of Pennsylvania.

“Pen n work s wit h t he governor and the General Assembly to emphasize the value of the School of Veterinary Medicine’s contributions to education and research in the Com monwea lt h, to public health and to Pennsylvania’s largest industry: agriculture,” said Hugh Allen, Senior Director at Penn’s Office of Government and Community Affairs.

Because Penn doesn’t extensively rely on state funding, the University is not immediately threatened by Pennsylvania’s policy makers inability to agree on a budget deal. The same

EVERY WEDNESDAY 11 to 5

can’t be said for many other local nonprofits that rely almost entirely on state appropriations.

Jack Phillips, the director of legislative affairs at the Rehabilitation and Community Provider Association, told the Inquirer that most of his nonprofits and providers would start to feel the financial constraints by the end of July.

“When you talk about these nonprofits, they rely heavily on state funds, they may have trouble making payroll. We’re not going to have trouble making payroll because of this,” said Katzenberg.

Meanwhile, in Harrisburg, the Wolf administration is pushing for increased spending on publ ic education, financed through a tax on natural gas drilling, which Republicans oppose. The governor is also looking to increase state income and sales taxes in order

to initiate a property tax relief program, according to the Inquirer.

Republicans, on the other hand, have advocated against tax increases and support a smaller increase in education spending than what Wolf is proposing, while pushing for the privatization of state liquor stores, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

While Democrats and Republicans continue to negotiate over a compromise, Penn officials are confident that a deal that respects the needs of the University will be struck soon.

“Like other colleges and universities that receive funding from the Commonwealth, we are hopeful for a swift resolution to the current impasse,” Allen said. “It is by no means the first time the Commonwealth has experienced a delayed budget.”

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THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015

Andrew Stober seeks City Council seat as an independent candidate South Philly resident would be the first independent to sit on City Council LUIS FERRE SADURNI Staff Reporter

At 37, Andrew Stober is on the hunt to defy all odds by winning a seat in Philadelphia’s City Council as an independent candidate.

Although the feat has never been achieved, the young South Philly resident has an optimistic view of his chances of winning an at-large seat in the Nov. 3 general elections.

“No one has ever won as an independent before. And people often say you can’t do it because no one has done it, but I’m about to prove that that’s not true,” said Stober in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian this week. “And once I’ve done that I think that a lot of people are going to follow.”

Stober, a Harvard Kennedy School of Government graduate, boasts some serious credentials.

He was chief of staff for Mayor Michael Nutter’s Office of Transportation and Utilities until he stepped down to run for the Council on June 10.

Stober was the mastermind behind the recently implemented, city-wide Indego bike share system. He also led the efforts in securing tens of millions of dollars in competitive federal grants to improve Philadelphia’s pedestrian and biking viability. Moreover, he

aided in the reestablishment of the City Energy Office to save million of dollars in utility costs.

“When we launched our bike share system, in contrast to all the other bike share systems in the United States, since day one we focused that the system worked for low income citizens,” Stober said.

“I’m going to take that same approach in City Council … It’s about studying best practices, talking with your citizens and figuring out how they apply in a Philadelphia context.”

Although a registered Democrat until 2013, Stober doesn’t believe local government necessarily works along ideological or party lines. That is one of the reasons why he is running as an independent.

“Effective city government, the delivery of essential services, the development of local, social and economic policies are not ideological issues,” said the former transportation official. “In fact, there are many city councils all across the United States that are nonpartisan because there is a recognition that it is not really a partisan issue. You run as an individual.”

The Philadelphia City Charter stipulates that a majority party, in this case the Democratic Party, can only hold five of the seven at-large Council seats. The remaining two seats, which have traditionally been held by Republicans, are reserved

LINDSAY DOCHERTY | COURTESY OF ANDREW STOBER

Andrew Stober announces his candidacy for City Council.

for non-majority candidates. Stober is seeking to win enough votes as an independent to claim one of the two Republican-dominated seats.

His opponents in the November elections will be five Republican candidates, including the two incumbents, David Oh and Dennis O’Brien. Besides Republicans, Stober might face opposition from other rumored independent candidates such as Graduate School of Education graduate Kristin Combs from the Green Party.

“The two top Republicans [incumbents] weren’t even endorsed by their own party, Oh and O’Brien,” said Stober. “The Republican field is not a particularly strong one this year. I think the voters have shown an appetite for

candidates who are really different.”

There are a number of reasons why Philadelphia still hasn’t witnessed an independent Council member. Without the backing of a political party, candidates are left with the immense burden of campaign organizing and fundraising.

“In elections like these it’s all about organization, organization, organization,” local politics expert and St. Joseph’s University professor Randall Miller said. "[Stober] doesn’t have any of that. He doesn’t have an organization or [a nonpolitical] organization that is going to back him, not just with money, but with manpower. People working the phones, working the doors, getting

his people out to vote. In a low turnout election, which this will be, organization is everything.”

Stober seems to be dealing with this issue by taking a grass-roots approach to his campaigning.

The independent candidate has engaged with potential voters by collecting signatures throughout the city, making appearances at local Philadelphia events, garnering favourable press coverage and accepting donations through his online webpage.

“I’ve been very heartened by the response that I’ve gotten from people who are very excited about an independent running and the number of volunteers that I’ve garnered,” said Stober. “I’m very proud of my set of donors already and it’s just building. It runs from someone who I used to work with who donated $10 online to some family members who have given me a couple of thousand dollars to support me and every dollar level in between.”

As a fresh and appealing candidate for millennial voters, Stober faces another problematic obstacle. Young voters have one of the most disappointing turnout rates in Philadelphia elections and are one of the hardest constituencies to mobilize.

“The groups to whom he is making his special appeal are the ones that get enthusiastic and never show up at the polls. That is not a good recipe,” said Miller.

Despite this challenge, the independent candidate does not seem phased by the challenge of getting young voters out to the polls on election day.

“I think the approach to young voters is to try to get them excited about this race and make them understand why its important,” said Stober.

“If you’re someone who has the wealth to be able to enjoy this city, to live in a safe neighborhood, to take advantage of everything the city has to offer, you have to not take that for granted. That just didn’t come out of nowhere, it comes from having a good effective government and you need to make sure that your government continues to be that way.”

In regards to his campaign’s main issues, Stober acknowledged that public education and addressing the way local taxes are collected and administered are a priority.

“We need to bring an end to this ongoing education funding crisis that we’re facing in our public schools. We need to make sure that we’re collecting all the taxes that we’re owed and that it’s as easy as possible to pay our taxes. That our real estate taxes are accurately and fairly assessed,” said Stober.

When asked what his plans were if the elections didn’t turn out his way, Stober chuckled playfully and determinedly said, “I’m going to be elected.”

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4

Opinion

THE SUMMER PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

VOL. XXXII, NO. 9 The Sunmer Edition of the Independent Student Newspaper of the University of Pennsylvania

32nd Year of Publication SHAWN KELLEY, Editor-in-Chief KATIERA SORDJAN, Opinion Editor JESSICA MCDOWELL, News Editor

STEVEN TYDINGS, Social Media Director

CAROLINE SIMON, News Editor

TOM NOWLAN, Sports Editor

DAN SPINELLI, News Editor

COREY FADER, Summer Street Editor

ILANA WURMAN, Photo Editor

MIKAELA GILBERT-LURIE, Summer Street

KATE JEON, Design Editor

Editor

JENNY LU, Design Editor

LETTERS

HAVE YOUR OWN OPINION? Write us! The SP encourages guest submissions from the Penn community. Submissions can be up to 700 words long. The SP reserves the right to edit for accuracy, clarity, grammar and DP style. The SP does not guarantee publication of any submission. Send submissions to Opinion Editor Katiera Sordjan at sordjan@thedp.com.

The SP wants to ensure that all content is accurate and be transparent about any inaccuracies. If you have a comment or question about the fairness or accuracy of any content in the print or online editions, please email corrections@thedp.com.

ANNEKA DECARO is a rising College sophomore from Austin. Her email address is annekaxiv@gmail.com.

Consider reconsidering

T

his May I went home to see my younger sister graduate from high school. Throughout the weekend I listened to her teachers and the president of her school’s board tell her that, as she went off to college and into the adult world, the most important thing she could do was make up a plan for her life and stick to it.

Draw a road map, one speaker instructed her. Decide where you want to go, then plan out a route to take you there.

For a long time, I would have taken that advice unquestioningly.

I knew I wanted to be a writer before I started kindergarten. More than a decade later, I’m still living the plans I started laying then.

Do great in school, always. Write often. Write well. Get into college.

Major in English. Become an author.

My parents never provided the best model for this sort of advance planning. After high school, my

GIRL, INTERRUPTING | The undervalued art of changing course dad worked in a series of eclectic low-paying jobs — as a pin monkey and a junior security guard, for instance — before teaching himself to code and finding work as an engineer. After graduating from Yale, lacking direction,

Santa Cruz. They went on to found a local internet service provider together, where they work to this day.

Listening to their stories, I’ve always been struck by the unlikeliness of it all, the haphazard way

Because the truth is, a 6 year-old — or even an 18 or 22 year-old — can only really love the idea of life. Almost none of us go into college with real experience in the careers we’ve chosen.” my mom went to Taiwan to teach English and work for an import/ export business, before moving to San Francisco and taking the minimum wage bookkeeping job at the answering service where she met my dad. She started an accounting degree, but abandoned it in favor of one in computer science after moving with him to smaller-town

in which they stumbled into their marriage and their careers. As a child looking for a clear path to happiness and success, their example frustrated me. They took the kind of path you can’t plan for, the kind you discover as you go along.

It’s only recently, as I’ve neared the end of the plans I laid so long ago and begun preparing

for the reality of life after college, that I’ve started to recognize in the twists and turns they took a certain kind of profound strength. Because the truth is, a 6 year-old — or even an 18 or a 22 year-old — can only really love the idea of a life. Almost none of us go into college with real experience in the careers we’ve chosen. We decide we want to be doctors and bankers, lawyers and artists before we understand what it would mean to become those things — what kind of work we would do, day in and day out, and how we would feel while doing it for weeks and months and years. All dreams, when we’re this young, are just distant fantasies, our imagined futures places we’ve never come close to visiting.

It turns out it’s hard drawing a roadmap to a place you’ve never been.

As I was told I probably would during orientation, I ended up majoring in something different than I planned to when I started at Penn,

dropping criminology from my anticipated double major in favor of a creative writing degree and early graduation. One of my closest friends came into college wanting to go into corporate communications and is now majoring in medieval literature and considering a career as an English professor. I’ve seen many others transfer between schools. Last year, I met two fifthyear students who had stayed to complete new majors after decid- ANNIKA NEKLASON ing that they wanted to do somehonor in sticking with the wrong thing different with their lives.

That’s okay — good, even. decision just because it’s the one Much better than the alternative, you made first. You can always which would leave us all pursuing change your mind. You can always paths we no longer want to follow, say no. You can always admit you toward dreams we’ve since recon- were wrong, turn back and throw sidered. The straight path — the out every map you drew for yourplanned path — might get us there self. And sometimes, you should. more quickly, but it’s also far more likely to take us somewhere we ANNIKA NEKLASON is a rising don’t want to be.

College junior from Santa Cruz, Instead of telling my sister to Calif., studying English. Her email follow a plan into her future, I address is neklason@sas.upenn. want her to know that there’s no edu.

Love me harder

I

n his “100 Love Sonnets,” Pablo Neruda wrote, “I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”

In a wildly separate realm, Taylor Swift, in her hit song “Red,” proclaims, “Losing him was blue like I’d never known, missing him was dark grey all alone, forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met, but loving him was red.”

Despite their vastly different intended audiences, Neruda and Swift both speak about the same, colorful human experience: love.

Yet young people seem to believe romance and its complications are unimportant, especially regarding mental and emotional health.

Recently, I co-founded an online mental health awareness magazine called Beautiful Minds, dedicated to sharing and disseminating young adults’ narratives of mental health.

As I began reading submissions, collecting essays and con-

GUEST COLUMN BY REBECCA HEILWEIL versing over coffees, I observed that love had a profoundly underrepresented relationship to mental health. So many of our writers felt compelled to talk about their romantic experiences, yet simultaneously awkward about it. Their experiences couldn’t be mental health issues; they were just being emotional.

Yet, it’s always on our minds.

This trend seems especially prevalent in young people. Our feelings manifest diversely and across the spectrums of gender and sexuality: unrequited and reciprocated, sexually and romantically, proximate and longdistance. But as young people, we think we’re not supposed to care.

To do so is naive and weak; we’re supposed to have other, “real” problems.

I can empathize; I remember how silly and stupid I felt, telling a counselor at Counseling and Psychological Services how shaken I was after a break-up. I was another broken-hearted fresh-

man girl, and I needed to get over myself.

But our reactions can be strong, and emotionally dislocating. This is especially true if you’re prone to mental illness.

ship problem or break-up.”

The Wall Street Journal recently looked at the science analyzing the links between love and mental health, and found that the brain — and even the rest of the

College students, especially those at stressinducing institutions like Penn, seem to feel guilty about the intensity to which love can affect their mental and emotional health. Penn students are not supposed to be symbiotic; rather, we’re accomplished and independent.”

And this disdain for looking at love as a valid potential mental and emotional health challenge just doesn’t add up. According to the Jed Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on addressing the mental health of young people, “approximately half of all suicides among 18 to 24 years olds are preceded by a relation-

body — has a clear physical and chemical response to a break-up.

We can look at serotonin and dopamine, for instance, and see clear effects.

One interviewed doctor noted, on the topic of break-ups, “You’re feeling intense romantic love, you’re willing to take big risks, you’re in physical pain, obses-

sively thinking about a person and you’re struggling to control your rage. You’re not operating with your full range of cognitive abilities. It’s possible that part of the rational mind shuts down.”

Many of these studies also found that relationships can be incredibly good for mental health as well.

So many stories I’ve encountered began with falling in love, a break-up, the beginning of a longdistance transition or a significant change in relationship status. In many ways, we grieve, yet we don’t think these reactions are rational enough to grant authority.

Scientifically, however, it makes complete sense. Love needs to be discussed.

College students, especially those at stress-inducing institutions like Penn, seem to feel guilty about the intensity to which love can affect their mental and emotional health.

Penn students are not supposed to be symbiotic; rather, we’re ac-

complished and independent.

But we’re also young, and we’re experiencing so many of our firsts. First loves and first times, first random hook-ups and first break-ups. This is the age of “it’s complicated.” We’re coming out, moving out and everything in between.

While we can be simultaneously intellectual and preprofessional, we’re often unsympathetic to romance. This is inane, considering its power.

Neruda and Swift are popular because they admit to their romantic vulnerability. Love is allowed to be a colorful and impactful part of our experience. We shouldn’t feel so uncomfortable admitting that.

REBECCA HEILWEIL is a rising College sophomore from New York studying history. She is the editor-in-chief of Beautiful Minds magazine. Her email address is rebecca.heilweil@gmail.com.

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THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015

ALERT

>> PAGE 1

individual decision of each university.”

When UPenn Alerts were first set up in 2007, all members of the Penn community — including faculty, staff and students — received the safety messages, according to Rush.

But DPS received complaints during the summer from some students upset about receiving alerts when they weren’t on campus.

“We were met with a number of unhappy students who were in Japan, Los Angeles … etc

PENN MUSEUM >> PAGE 1

workshop entitled “Emergency Care for Syrian Museum Collections” for Syrian citizens dedicated to protecting these sites. The program served to enable the participants to

THE SUMMER PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

saying, ‘I don’t need to get this [alert],’ “ Rush said.

Compla ining students couldn’t just opt out of receiving alerts, Rush said, because the technology DPS uses to send UPenn Alerts was not equipped to allow them to voluntarily unsubscribe.

“We have to weigh the needs of the communities in various ways,” Rush said. “If I’m causing you distress because you’re waking up in California [from receiving an alert] and have a medical condition, I could be causing you harm.”

Since that summer, DPS cut most students off of the list of

people receiving alerts.

“We stopped sending them to students, except for RAs, GAs, or students involved in summer camps,” Rush said. Work-study students and other campus employees should receive the alerts as well, but Rush said there is not a comprehensive list of these groups for DPS to include, unlike the readily accessible records of College House staff.

“Databases don’t all speak to each other,” Rush said of the varying groups of summer workers, researchers and students living off-campus.

And the system is often tedious for administrators to use.

“We were putting [names of RAs and GAs] in one by one by hand,” Rush said.

The UPenn Alert system has undergone some policy adjustments in its short history.

Faculty members were allowed to opt out of receiving alerts this year after negotiations between DPS and the Faculty Senate.

“We were able to develop that system through our vendor and ISC (Information Systems and Computing),” Rush said.

Even though the technology lets faculty opt out of receiving alerts, it doesn’t allow students to do the same. “[The names] come from

different databases,” she said.

“Students come from Penn InTouch whereas faculty and staff come under the payroll system.”

It was unclear why work-study students, who are on the University’s payroll, could not have been included as well.

DPS would like to automatically enroll students next summer with the option of them opting out of the system.

“We are entertaining the option of doing that for students next summer,” Rush said. “We’ll give you the opportunity to stay in — you wouldn’t have to do anything.”

Rush empha si z e d t hat ,

while UPenn Alerts are a valuable safety tool, they are not the “end-all” of safety on and around campus.

“It’s important not to make the UPenn Alert the only thing to protect the students,” she said.

“The thing that protects students is people.”

She pointed out that if students had wandered near the crime scene over the Fourth of July weekend, police would have directed them to leave the area anyway. “[It’s the] totality of the public safety program that keeps people safe,” she said. “Not one solution fits all.”

effectively protect valuable museum possessions from potential looting and destruction.

“While it is very difficult for international heritage organizations to travel into Syria today, there are a number of Syrians who regularly risk their lives to protect their cultural heritage,”

said Penn Cultural Heritage Center Director of Research and Programs Brian Daniels, according to a press release.

“This workshop and other efforts going forward are designed to support these individuals and their efforts.”

The work and planning

done at the workshop enabled Syrian volunteers and experts to complete the preservation of the Ma’arra Mosaic Museum in March 2015, a project organized by a consortium of international groups including the Penn Cultural Heritage Center and the Smithsonian.

The effort involved reinforcing and protecting the mosaics in the building, which date back to the third through sixth centuries, and repairing the damage done to the building, according to a Penn Museum press release.

“We’ve seen how the invaluable cultural heritage of Syria has fallen prey to destruction by heavy artillery, targeted explosive attacks and looting as never before,” said Syrian archaeologist and Penn Cultural Heritage Center consulting scholar Salam Al-Kuntar, according to the press release. “We all know that what a group of dedicated Syrians have done is a small but meaningful act and a courageous act, taking difficult steps during wartime to preserve Syrian history for future generations. Let us hope that this will be the first of many more concrete efforts of preservation.”

Hanson said the work on the Ma’arra Mosaic Museum took place as a result of its representatives asking for assistance while at the workshop, adding that the Penn Cultural Heritage Center only takes on projects that local communities request.

“One of the important things about doing community work and working with colleagues in countries where you are coming in as an outsider is making sure that the projects that you’re doing are wanted by the community, and you’re working not as someone coming in with answers but working in connection with the community,” Hanson said.

The Penn Cultural Heritage Center’s efforts have also included a research component.

Thanks to grants received from the National Science Foundation last year, the center, the Smithsonian Institution and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have been building a database of the damage done to historical sites across the region.

Combining ground reports, information from databases and geospatial data to identify and

record structures that have sustained damage, the effort has located over 1,200 sites so far, according to the Penn Cultural Heritage Center’s website.

“This is really important as we move forward not just for the research angle of it: why does this happen? How does stuff get damaged during conflict? but also [for] the potential [use] when we think about documenting things in advance of war crimes prosecution,” Hanson said.

Hanson said that she hopes that the center’s efforts are able to empower communities in the region to protect valuable, culturally significant sites and artifacts from the destruction that the conflict has caused.

“I hope that the impact is that we are able to help facilitate projects and work that our colleagues coming from the ground would want to have happen and we’re able to in some way both have these projects go forward to better protect sites and to document sites and also that we’re able to conduct research that will allow us to better respond to these situations in the future,” she said.

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THEDP.COM | THE SUMMER PENNSYLVANIAN

STREET 7

THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015

STREET TALKS WITH

WENDY FINERMAN

BY MARLEY COYNE She’s no Miranda Priestley. Hollywood producer and Penn alumna Wendy Finerman talks killing ‘em with kindness and trusting her gut on “Forrest Gump.”

BOYS, BRAS AND PUBESCENCE A REVIEW OF THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BONING

BY STEPHANIE BARRON

SCHOOL » Wharton, Class of 1982 JOB » Film producer SELECTED FILMS » Forrest Gump, The Devil Wears Prada, P.S. I Love You, FairyTale: A True Story, Drumline AWARDS » a BAFTA for FairyTale, an Oscar for Forrest Gump, a PGA for Forrest Gump WORDS OF WISDOM »“Acknowledge that you have a perspective that people may want to hear about.”

Street: What were you involved in at Penn?

Wendy Finerman: I was involved in my studies at The Wharton School. When we were at the university, there were not really a lot of clubs or organizations, and I think there were only one or two sororities. Greek life was predominantly, maybe 99 percent, male. Those extracurriculars have really emerged in the last fifteen years, so we didn’t have that.

Street: What about the academic culture?

WF: That “team” aspect of people working together at the university had not been part of the curriculum. We did work together and share a lot together, but being a team and working as a unit was not part of traditional class study. In some ways, that was less of a pressure cooker than it is today because we were able to just be who we were and not define ourselves by those other things.

Street: What was it like pursuing a creative career while studying at the Wharton school?

WF: I loved being in The Whar ton School. It was also a very different environment then. Very often there were two girls in a class. So it was a very, very male–oriented world, not that it was taught to males.

Being a female, you were almost able to think more out of the box because you were an anomaly.

Street: So you didn’t find it to be an alienating environment as a woman?

WF: It was kind of like you knew if you were there in the class, everybody knew that you had something wor thy of contributing.

You knew that if you were there you had some intelligence to contribute or you’ve got something that is, you know that whatever you had to offer would be respected.

Street: When and why did you decide you wanted to go into film production?

WF: I never had any intent to go into it. I kind of came into it through backdoor ways, so it was not my goal to go into film production. I knew that I did not [want] to go into the traditional sort of investment banking life.

And I knew I needed to find something [else]. I was not terribly creative at the time — I’m not uncreative — [but] I just knew a formal, traditional program was not of interest to me.

Street: So what was your first job after graduating from Penn?

WF: My first job was at the Movie Channel for MTV and Nickelodeon, and I was a financial analyst and structured all the deals. It was a very creative environment and a very young environment, founded by Bob Pittman and Tom Preston who were real trailblazers in the content media world.

There were no constraints, and there was really no traditional path. You learn while you earn, you know?

Street: I read that it took nine years to make “Forrest Gump” happen! How did you stick to your guns and keep going, especially as a relative newcomer to the industry?

WF: One of the things I did learn is believe in what your instincts are and the story of “Forrest Gump” was something that hit me from a very personal level. Everybody knows somebody

who is different.

Street: So, when making decisions about which films to produce, do you trust your brain or your gut?

WF: Here’s one of the things I’ve also learned — If you read a book or a script, in the amount that I read, and you are compelled to reading, there’s a voice there that you have connected to. It doesn’t have to always be about happy stuff. “P.S I Love You,” for example, is not a happy story, but it is a story people can relate to instead of just “woe is me.”

Street: What's your favorite film that you've produced?

WF: I really don’t have a favorite. But one of the ones, though, that I am most proud of is called “Fairytale.” And one of the things that I really relished about it, the reason it was a very special movie to make was two–fold, because it was about young girls’ imaginations, and it was a story that had never been told. And I always think it’s fun to tell a story that has never been told before.

Street: As a female producer, what’s your take on the gender gap in Hollywood?

WF: I really never want to wear the gender jacket, but I also think there’s nothing wrong with wearing the gender jacket and being a woman! And I feel very strongly that if I’m in a meeting and looking into clothes or financing or whatever it is, I’m a girl.

Period. There’s nothing that’s the matter with it, and I don’t need to apologize for it. And I don’t want to be a man. I’m a woman.

That’s what I am and I have something to offer being

that, and the fact that I’m in the men’s club as a woman, frankly, I think I’m more respected for it. Acknowledge that you’ve got a perspective that people may want to hear about.

Street: What upcoming projects do you have in the works?

WF: I’ve got a wonderful project called the “Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.” It’s a best selling book that sold over a million copies. It’s a fantastic YA book that’s kind of mandatory reading in middle school, so that’s the forefront thing I’m working on.

I have a couple TV projects I’m doing, one of them on the sex toy business. The sex toy business is a huge business. So I have that.

It’s more like “Desperate Housewives” but edgier. I have another series that features historical women, and that’s really fun.

Street: What advice would you give Penn students who want to go into the film industry?

WF: I do not recommend the film business. I think it’s a business that’s really hard, and I think it is a business that is often changing, and I think the creative voice in some ways has been kind of silenced. How many movies do you want to see that are out there that have been nominated?

But the other thing I would say to you is that, one thing you can’t do is that you can’t make movies for what you think people want to see. And I think if you’re a real entrepreneur, if you look at real fresh stories, the people took a chance.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

I’ll never forget the first carrot I ever put a condom on. No, I hadn’t been inspired by the antics of Jim, the protagonist of the American Pie movies — I was actually participating in one of the many, many awkward exercises of a school-board-approved sexual education program. I sat in a room full of 30 or so 12-year-old girls, fiddling nervously with the strap of my training bra as Ms. Terry, the unfortunate teacher who had somehow managed to make even a lecture that included words like “clitoris” and “testicles” boring, evaluated our handiwork. Once she was satisfied that none of the carrots, cucumbers or various other similarly-shaped fruits and vegetables used in the exercise stood any chance of impregnating her students, she passed out fresh condoms and dismissed us. We left, giggling and whispering about the awkward videos we’d watched, and tasks we’d completed and moments we’d experienced in the past hour. Giggling and whispering, yes, but armed with the knowledge and skills we were going to need when, in no time at all, the floodgates of our uteri would open for the very first time, welcoming us to the wonderful world of real bras, real boys and, most importantly, real live boning.

Eight years later, here I am in Philadelphia at an improvised comedy show, “The Wonderful World of Boning,” where sexeducator and producer Lux Alptraum and co-star Joe Garden are standing in front of a screen showing various sex-education films intended for young people. As hilarious as Lux and Joe are, about half of the laughter and gasps from the crowd are in response to the poorly-acted and poorly-produced videos themselves. One could call it “Readymade Comedy.”

The show made me laugh, a lot. But it also got me thinking. If this audience here tonight, of which the average age and (theoretically) average maturity is far higher than that of a class of pre-high schoolers, are laughing, what does that say about the effectiveness of conventional sexual education methods and materials on what ought to be their most receptive audience?

The answer becomes more obvious each time I laugh or squirm at the on-screen interactions so excruciatingly awkward that I almost wish I were receiving an “Abstinence-Only” education: a lot. It says that they are ineffective if not mal-productive. It says that they are hilarious, unintentionally, and that they therefore undermine themselves. Good for an audience who wishes to be entertained, yes, but not so good for an audience who desperately needs to be informed. And they do need to be informed.

The Guttmacher Institute reports that, in the United States, 46 percent of males and 33 percent of females do not receive formal instruction about contraception before they first have sex. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of the 20 million new sexually transmitted diseases each year are among young people between the ages of 15 to 24, and, in 2013, approximately 273,000 babies were born to teen girls aged 15–19 years. How different might these statistics be if sex education were administered more effectively?

The problem regarding the cinematic teaching tools stems, Lux tells me, from the fact that — in general — people who are passionate enough to make films on the topic of sexual education often lack the necessary means or skills, and their well-intentioned product is often, subsequently, ineffective.

Sex education is “always imbued with something intimidating and awkward,” Joe said — the result being that the audience is usually left both uncomfortable and uninformed. In its failure, the whole ordeal becomes laughable. Lux and Joe seek to turn this laughter-producing discomfort from an enemy to a friend of sex-education.

“With humor,” Joe explained, “things go down a lot more easily.” No pun intended. Luckily, he and Lux do have means, skills in comedy and a passion for education.

“The goal isn’t to tear these projects down,” Lux said, “so much as to poke fun at the discomfort that we feel around sexuality and why we’re so bad at talking about sex.”

That we are. I can’t be the only one who’s shocked every time a health professional from Student Health Services asks me an uncomfortable question. Am I sexually active? Do I have sex with men, women or both? Have I been tested recently for sexually transmitted infections? (I mean, really, how is that relevant to the renewal of my prescription for allergy medication?) It just seems rude, inappropriate and unnecessary. But what if these were actual conversations we had with the only people who have a stake in the matter, our sexual partners? Maybe then our risk of unintended pregnancy and contracting STIs would be lower. Maybe then the doctors wouldn’t hold me hostage and would just let me leave with my damn Clarinex.

I can’t speak for an entire audience, but I can highlight the fact that “The Wonderful World of Boning” did encourage me to get more comfortable with talking about sex. And it did make me laugh at both my former and my remaining discomforts. In fact, since seeing this show, I have not only shared the most intimate moment I’ve ever had with a carrot, but I’ve also used the word “clitoris” in an article which I am fully aware will be published online under my name. I’ll even say it without quotation marks.

Clitoris. Now I’ll shout it out in the middle of Saxby’s.

I’m sorry. I tried. I’m not quite there yet.

The first sentence of this piece was a lie, of course. I’d completely forgotten that carrot. Not once since that day had it crossed my mind, even as I grew up and the skills I’d practiced on it became useful ones. I forgot because, well, for 12-year-old me, that day was far too uncomfortable to be taken seriously.

And I only remember now because of how hilarious it seems.

“The Wonderful World of Boning” doesn’t just make its audience laugh — it also confronts our discomfort and shame with regards to sex. It reminds us of the times and places when these things were instilled — or, indeed, reinforced — in us. Personally, it brought me to the realization that these times and these places seem to be the ones where open conversation and a sense of humour are most necessary yet also most absent.

And it caused my painful memories of carrot-condomming to rush back to me like blood to a pubescent boy’s very first

8 NEWS

THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015

THE SUMMER PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Penn Dental Medicine’s 100-year-old Evans Building gets a makeover School leadership hopes the renovations will last another 100 years

Dean of Development & Alumni Relations, explained that “when it opened in 1915, it was a stateof-the-art building, it was the talk of the town, [and] it was the most important development in dental education ever.”

“All of the notables were here — the governor of the state was here, the mayor of Philadelphia and all kinds of dignitaries came when the building opened,” she added.

The Evans Building Centennial Renaissance Project will impact all four levels of the 133,304-squarefoot building.

“The thinking is that we want to get the 100 year-old building secure and stable and looking fantastic going forward for the next 100 years,” Dean Kinane said, though he acknowledged that the reconstruction may only last another 50 years. Kinane was recently appointed to a second term as the dean of the School of Dental Medicine.

Keterlinus said the dental school is funding the project through three methods, each covering roughly a third of the $34 million reconstruction.

A century bond made available by Penn and money from the

VAMSEE MUPPARAPU Staff Reporter

The Evans Building, home to Penn Dental Medicine for one hundred years, is slated for a $34 million reconstruction in the hope of lasting another hundred years.

The reconstruction, dubbed the Evans Building Centennial Renaissance Project, is set to begin this fall and is expected to be completed

by January 2017. The project is part of a 10-year strategic plan for the School of Dental Medicine, as envisioned by Dean Denis F. Kinane and the school’s leadership.

In order to preserve the Evans Building’s rich history, the project will retain unique architectural details from the original design. The building, which reached its 100th anniversary this past February, is dedicated to Thomas W. Evans, a Philadelphia native who provided dental services to European royalty before leaving behind a fortune and the site of his estate to create a world-class dental institute.

Liz Keterlinus, Senior Associate

OXFORD >> PAGE 1

living?’, ‘what am I going to do after I graduate?’” Liu said.

“I didn’t have much work experience plus the number one and two destinations for Penn graduates, as you might know, are consulting and finance,” he said. “And I wasn’t particularly attracted to go that route,” he added.

It was then that Liu got an email from the Cooke Foundation about their partnership with Lincoln College and the resulting inaugural Oxford scholarship.

Finding it an interesting opportunity, Liu decided to apply to Oxford and send an application to the Cooke Foundation for the scholarship. At the same time,

he also sent out applications for various jobs and Ph.D. programs.

“I got a few Ph.D. offers eventually and visited many colleges here in the U.S,” he said.

In March, Liu was accepted to Oxford’s one-year Master’s program in comparative sociology, but was still unsure about his future as he had not heard back from the Cooke Foundation.

Once Liu received the scholarship in May, he did not hesitate to accept Oxford’s offer of admission.

Studying in Oxford for a year meant that Liu had to request Princeton University to defer his acceptance into their doctoral program in sociology. In response, Princeton asked him to justify his deferment.

“My presumption is at least

dental school reserves will cover a combined two-thirds of the funding. The final third, approximately $12 million, comes from the Dental School’s fundraising.

“My role as a Senior Associate Dean is to raise that money from private individuals, alumni, friends of the school, companies, [and] foundations so that we can complete this project on time,” Keterlinus said.

Jeff Fahnoe, who will oversee the Evans Building Centennial Renaissance Project as Senior Director of Operations and Planning, noted that the building will remain active throughout the construction.

“The biggest obstacle is the fact that we are doing construction in an active building and [still] meeting the needs of the students and the faculty to [sustain] our mission,” he said.

Despite this complication, Fahnoe is confident that the project will be completed on time.

“It is a very tight timetable and we have incentives to get things done quickly to reduce the impact on students and the faculty,” he added.

Of the improvements being made to the Evans Building, Dean

‘would I not become a better researcher and thinker and develop better research questions and better research methods if I were to go to England and study on my own and figure out things by myself?’” Liu said.

After completing his Ph.D., Liu plans to enter the field of academics, but he is also interested in doing consulting work for at least some part of his career.

“My opinion also is that [as] social scientists, our primary goal is to do research, to ask questions, [and] to find out unsolved puzzles about society,” Liu said.

“But on top of that I think social scientists should be able to use their knowledge about society to engage in public debate,” he added.

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Who Owns the “West Bank”?

The ancient lands of Judea and Samaria, east of Jerusalem, have been part of the Jewish homeland for 3,000 years.

Today Arabs demand all of it.

Judea and Samaria, the land where Jewish ancestors Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rachel, David and Solomon created Biblical history, was renamed the “West Bank” during Jordan’s brief, illegal 19-year occupation. Today, some 380,000 Jews own land and live in the territory, yet their rights are denied by Palestinian Arabs.

COURTESY OF PENN DENTAL MEDICINE

Through the Centennial Renaissance project, the lower concourse of the Evans Building will be transformed to become an area completely focused on student instruction and support.

Kinane said the most critical transformation of the building involves the lower-concourse, which contains the General Restorative Dentistry laboratory.

“The GRD laboratory is unchanged for the last 100 years, and it’s really an entire space that is jokingly referred to by the students as the ‘dungeon’,” Kinane said.

“We’re going to really revitalize the area, so the whole lower concourse of the Evans Building is going to be a total transformation [as an] educational student-centric area,” he added.

Among the parts of the Evans Building that won’t be immediately transformed is the second floor clinic; the dental school

plans on renovating it after the completion of the reconstruction.

The school’s future plans also include connecting the Evans Building with the Levy Center for Oral Health Research and The Robert Schattner Center. The school also intends to renovate the Levy Center after the Evans Building Centennial Renaissance Project is completed.

Birth control cheaper under Obamacare Penn Medicine study looks at effects of legislation on contraceptive prices YASMEEN KABOUD Staff Reporter

Penn Medicine reveals a victory for women who buy birth control under the Affordable Care Act. A recent Penn Medicine study found that the average out-ofpocket cost of contraceptives has fallen dramatically since the Affordable Care Act took effect in 2012.

Researchers found that from the first six months of 2012 to the first six months of 2013, the national average out-of-pocket expense for birth control pills had fallen 38 percent from $32.74 to $20.37. Similarly, there was a 68 percent drop in cost for IUD insertion from $262.38 to $84.30.

The ACA requires that private insurance plans cover prescription contraceptives with no consumer cost-sharing, or money paid at the time of the medical service, such as copays or deductibles. The average price found in the study was above zero because

not all forms of contraception are subject to the no cost-sharing requirement and some employers are exempt from participating on religious grounds.

Nora Becker, the lead author of the study and an M.D./doctoral candidate in the Perelman School of Medicine and the department of Health Care Management and Economics in Wharton, is optimistic that this study confirms the ACA’s success. “In a way, this paper is really just validating that the law is doing what the law is supposed to do,” she said.

However, this study may not be entirely optimistic. Becker also points out some downsides to the increased accessibility of affordable contraception. “Potentially this drop in out of pocket costs could result in an eventual rise in insurance premiums,” she said.

“Now that insurers have to fully cover the cost of these methods [of contraception], it’s potentially possible that they might charge higher premiums going forward because providing health insurance to people is now slightly more expensive.”

Defenders of the ACA argue

that insurance premiums will eventually see a net decrease because the cost of providing birth control is significantly less that the cost of childbirth and the medical care associated with the birth.

“The question is — and it all kind of gets back to how pricesensitive women are for these products — if women start using birth control at higher rates or using more effective methods like the IUD, we could see premiums start to go down,” Becker said. “If women aren’t very responsive to these price changes, then we’re more likely to see premiums go up. But that’s another really big question down the road in terms of what the final impact will be.”

This study is the first of its kind to detail how contraception prices have changed since the ACA went into effect. Further studies are in the works and will continue to shed light on the ultimate effects of the ACA. “There are lots of people who are interested in this subject, so I think this will definitely be an active area of research going forward,” said Becker.

vision to Greek life at Penn and a keen understanding of the lifelong connections forged by fraternity or sorority membership,” Kozuma said in the press release. “We look forward to him getting to know our students and staff and becoming an integral leader at OFSL, in VPUL, and across campus.”

President of the Intrafraternity Council and rising Wharton senior Jacob Wallenberg has not yet met Banks-Crosson, but echoed Kozuma’s excitement.

“I have not interacted with the director personally, but heard good things about him from student representatives during the interview process,” Wallenberg said in a statement. “We’re happy to hear that a new director was found during the summer, so as to limit the impact on OFSL’s

day-to-day operations, and we are looking forward to working together in the fall.”

The hire comes after multiple controversies surrounding Penn’s fraternities and sororities in the past academic year.

In December, fraternity Phi Delta Theta was under investigation by its international organization and campus officials for including a dark-skinned blow-up doll in its holiday photo.

The fraternity was later placed on probation, and required to complete cultural sensitivity training and sexual misconduct education programs in order to participate in social activities.

And in April, Penn’s Alpha Epsilon chapter of Sorority Alpha Chi Omega voted to revoke its charter with the university after the sorority was found in violation of Penn’s policy on drinking and drug use. Eighty-five percent of members did not want to comply with the demands of the OFSL, which included abstinence from social events for two years.

Former members formed an offcampus sorority, OAX. Banks-Crosson will officially begin at Penn on Aug. 17.

What are the facts?

rights, own about 95% of private land in the territory.

Jews, however, are not granted similar rights, so Jewish Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after farming on unsurveyed land does not entitle Jews to World War I, the Allied Powers, which were the only private ownership. Nonetheless, Jews own about 5% of parties with the right or power to resolve ownership of all private land in Judea and Samaria. vast tracts of the Middle East, allotted to the Jewish Israel offers land for peace. Israel has a clear, people the land west of the Jordan River, including millennia-old historical claim to Judea and Samaria, Judea and Samaria. This resolution, made at the San and it reacquired the territories defending itself against Remo Conference, was effected through the Mandate an aggressive war. In addition, Israel has an irrefutable for Palestine, which was adopted by the League of legal claim to these territories backed by the 95-yearNations in 1922 and assumed by the United Nations in old San Remo Resolution. Nonetheless, recognizing 1948. This document, based on “the historical that its claims are disputed by Arab neighbors, the connection of the Jewish people with Palestine,” Jewish state has shown uncommon willingness to secured “the establishment of the Jewish national share the land. home.” Nothing since Starting in 1967, 1922 has changed the “Israel has an irrefutable legal claim to following the Six-Day legal status of those War, Israel has offered to internationally binding these territories backed by the give up almost all the documents. land it controls in the Much of the land 93-year-old Mandate for Palestine.”

“West Bank”—plus a allocated to the Jews, Palestinian capital in the including most of Judea eastern part of Jerusalem—in exchange for peace. and Samaria, was taken from them by Egypt, Iraq, Unfortunately, despite numerous such land-for-peace Jordan and Syria following Israel’s War of overtures by Israel, including two most recently in Independence in 1948, when the Jewish state was 2000 and 2008, the Arabs have consistently rejected attacked by those Arab nations—the latter three of them. which were also established by the Mandate for Not only do the Arabs reject any Jewish claims to Palestine. Jordan illegally seized the “West Bank” and land in Judea and Samaria, they have also insisted east Jerusalem, and expelled all Jews from these during peace negotiations that the territory be made Biblical homelands. judenrein—free of Jews. Worse, many Palestinian In fact, the territories of Judea and Samaria have Arabs, such as the terror group Hamas, maintain that never been part of any nation except the Jewish state. the entire land of Palestine—from the Jordan River to In 1967, when it was again attacked by Arab armies, the Mediterranean Sea, including all of Israel and the Israel defeated the invaders and recovered the occupied “West Bank”—belongs only to Arabs. Today, official “West Bank” from Jordan. It should be noted that Palestinian maps do not depict the state of Israel. during Jordan’s occupation of the “West Bank,” no How will the dispute over Judea and Samaria be Arab Palestinian movement emerged in favor of resolved? Over Israel’s 67 years, it has become a worldindependence. Indeed, it wasn’t until Israel reclaimed class cultural, economic and military power. Its the land and Jews returned to their ancestral home standard of living is among the highest in the Middle that claims of Jewish “occupation” were raised.

East. Clearly the Jewish state is here to stay. Yet despite Today, most land in present-day Judea and Samaria is its strength, Israel has shown willingness to negotiate not privately owned, but rather is unsurveyed— and exchange land for peace. Sadly, this willingness has without proven ownership. Israel claims about 30% of not been matched by Palestinian leadership. Until such the public land in the territory. However, the Supreme negotiations are consummated, the “West Bank” will Court of Israel has ruled that unsurveyed land in Judea remain in dispute—a no-man’s land in which claims of and Samaria can be acquired by Arabs who cultivate it ownership remain cloudy and contested. consistently. Arabs, through deed and cultivation While Israel has clear rights to ownership of Judea and Samaria—also known as the “West Bank”—it has taken a practical position, offering to trade those rights and that land for peace with its Arab neighbors. As of yet, however, tragically, no Palestinian leader has been willing to compromise his people’s unrealistic expectation that all of Palestine—from the river to the sea—belongs only to Arabs.

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“I am excited to join the University of Pennsylvania family,” Banks-Crosson said in a press release. “My passion for fraternities and sororities stem from my own experience as an undergraduate fraternity member at Jacksonville State University. The influence of these organizations spans far beyond the realms of camaraderie and union.”

Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs Hikaru Kozuma conducted the search for a new director following former director Scott Reikofski’s announcement in early April that he would be retiring. Reikofski held the position for 20 years.

“Eddie brings a contemporary

W J Starbright Foundation, Inc. AMERICA FIRST! Peace Movement PEACE AT ANY PRICE is preferable to the most inexpensive WAR The United States must Embrace A Foreign Policy based on Neutrality, Isolationism + Appeasement

Abrogate all Foreign military commitments and order All Armed Forces to Come Home to AMERICA to defend only Our Nation and Hemisphere NEVER AGAIN Sacrifice the lives of young AMERICAN MEN & WOMEN in foreign conflicts. AMERICAN Lives Are too precious to be lost in disputes abroad

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THEDP.COM | THE SUMMER PENNSYLVANIAN

SPORTS 9

THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015

RYAN BETLEY

OLYMPIC TRIALS

is because coach Donahue turned around a Cornell program and Cornell has a great history in the Ivy League I don’t think and he took them to the Sweet 16. I think he can take Penn to the Sweet 16. He said he wants to play up and down basketball. I’m a pretty good shooter so I like what he said about getting up and down the floor, running, kicking out passes for open shooters. I think that’s something, that pace of play style, that I can really fit in. Also, the kid who committed before me — A.J. Brodeur — he’s a really good player. He had offers from a bunch of high major programs and coach Donahue getting a player like that really shows his impact already on the team and the future of Penn basketball.

DP: Have you seen A.J. play at all? Do you have a relationship with him? Do you have a relationship with any of the current players?

RB: I have not seen A.J. play.

We were both on the Adidas circuit so we were both at the same tournaments in April but I did not get a chance to see him play. At that point, I didn’t know we’d be teammates obviously but I do have a bit of a relationship with Darnell Foreman. They invited me down to work out with him and I went down and worked out with him in the practice gym and we’ve texted with him from time to time. He texted me congratulations. He’s really the only player on the team I’ve met in person I guess.

DP: With Darnell, he’s made his reputation as a hard worker and a tough defender. What was it like working out with him?

RB: That’s definitely the first thing I saw in him. He told me to come down to the gym at three and I showed up half an hour early and he was up there by himself. Even in the little scrimmages we had there that day, he was definitely the one who was going hard, coaching me, help giving me tips while I was playing. He just seems like he would be a great teammate to have, someone who wants to win at all costs. So I look forward to playing with him.

DP: How would you describe

Earning multiple selections to First-Team All-Ivy and Academic All-Ivy lists, McHugh broke several Penn swimming records in his collegiate career from 2009-12 . After his Penn graduation, McHugh competed in the Olympic Trials hoping to swim for the United States in London. Needing to place eighth or better, he narrowly missed the cut by 24 hundredths of a second, placing 10th with a time of 1:01.04.

That fall, the Classics and Science, Technology & Society major enrolled in law school at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. “I was definitely always gonna go to law school, it was just a matter of when. Because I did pretty well in trials, I had a chance to make the national team. [I feel like] if I had gone to another meet and raced a little faster, I would have made the national team.�

That decision was influenced by a fractured scaphoid — a small bone in the wrist — that McHugh broke in a friendly basketball game. The injury would likely have prevented him from swimming in the next Olympic qualifier.

At first volunteering to assist in coaching the Washington and Lee swimmers, it wasn’t long before McHugh jumped into the pool himself. He trained alongside the Generals and filled his entire weekdays with nothing but schoolwork and swimming.

Despite so much on his plate, McHugh proved adept at managing his time. “It wasn’t that much harder than, I would say, being a student-athlete at Penn was, being

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a hundred percent honest. It was maybe just a little harder,�

McHugh said.

During his summers while at Penn, he interned at Philadelphia law firms and trained at the Greater Philadelphia Aquatic Club. Last summer, McHugh surprised most of the swimming field with his performance at the 2014 National Championships.

At the 2014 U.S. Open in Irvine, Calif., McHugh set the Open record with a 27.10 time in the 50-meter breaststroke in the preliminary round. He later finished off the title with a 27.24 time, besting 100- and 200-meter breaststroke specialist Kevin Cordes , who was expected to win.

After the world championships conclude, he will represent the United States in two FINA World Cups in August, in Moscow and Paris. He will then return home, where his only focus will be the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

His final Olympic training push will occur back on Penn’s campus. He plans to serve as a volunteer assistant coach for Penn swimming, a role that will allow for McHugh to train with the team with a focus on the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke, since the Olympics do not have a race in the 50-meter.

Since he will now have had the opportunity to swim in the national and world championships, it is easy to focus on his main goal of swimming in the Olympics. He says the Olympics are the only thing he has not experienced in competitive swimming. “I’ve kind of done everything in the sport other than that, and right now it’s the one and only goal.�

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“The fact that we were able to pull it off in a very challenging college basketball scheduling environment is a credit to the ADs, coaches and conference commissioners, all of whom displayed tremendous perseverance and flexibility.�

When the Palestra last hosted an event of this magnitude 11 seasons ago, the Red and Blue beat the Explorers, 78-67, en route to a 20-9 record and their third Ivy League title in four years. The Owls eked past Villanova, 53-52, and — in order to make the evening a City Six event — the Hawks and Drexel took part in a third affair, a 57-49 Dragons victory. “This is how Philadelphia first fell in love with college basketball, by seeing two great games and four great teams in one night in what I think is the most intimate setting to watch a game, the Palestra,� Penn coach Steve Donahue said. “January 20 should be an incredible evening

your game and how do you see it translating at the next level?

RB: I think I play as smart as I can. I try to make all the right plays. I think I’m known for being a shooter. I made 48 percent of shots on the Adidas circuit. I think I’m more than that. I can get to the rim. I can handle the ball. I can handle the ball against pressure. But I think the thing that stands out about me is I just want to make all the

for college basketball fans, and we are so excited to be a part of it and have the classic ‘Big 5 Doubleheader’ return to the Palestra.� “Big 5 games in the Palestra are some of the best experiences I have had in coaching,� La Salle coach John Giannini added. “The great competition, the venue, the tradition, the rivalries and the loud, passionate, split crowds create a most unique environment.�

The announcement of the Big 5 doubleheader brings along with it the first confirmation of a game on the Quakers’ 2015-16 schedule by Penn Athletics. According to ESPN.com, the Red and Blue are also slated to host Central Connecticut on Nov. 15 and Binghamton on Jan. 2, while traveling to George Mason on Dec. 5. However, the squad’s full slate of contests for Donahue’s first campaign at the helm has yet to be announced.

Beyond its four Big 5 matchups and three nonconference foes already revealed, it remains to be seen whether or not Penn

right plays, whether it’s passing, shooting, dribbling. I play hard and I think I want to win at all costs, just like Darnell.

DP: Beyond Donahue and Lintulahti, what other coaches were involved in your recruitment and what were your overall impressions of each of the coaches?

RB: They were all involved actually. Coach [Nat] Graham, he was probably the one who,

manages to schedule a top-tier opponent prior to the beginning of the Ancient Eight season.

Even if the Quakers do so, they won’t be the only ones facing off against challenging competition.

Fresh off its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, Harvard will venture westward for a Dec. 5 date with perennial power Kansas. A year after clinching its first Ivy title in 13 years, the Crimson’s main rival, Yale, will visit defending national champion Duke on Nov. 25, as well as Southern California on Dec. 13.

Around the rest of the Ivy League, several other nonconference battles — although less intriguing than the Big 5 doubleheader — have been confirmed.

Brown will take on SMU in late November; Cornell has a Nov. 13 affair slated against Georgia Tech in Atlanta; and Columbia and Princeton both have dates with Big Ten foes, as the Lions travel to Illinois to take on Northwestern on Nov. 20 while the Tigers will host Maryland almost a month later.

@dailypennsports fb.com/dailypennsports

besides coach Donahue, was most involved with my parents.

He would call my dad every now and then. Coach [Ira] Bowman also texted me every now and then. The new assistant coach, coach [Joe Mihalich], he texted me pretty much almost every day.

I have a good relationship with each coach and hopefully that will translate at the next level.

For more about Ryan off the court, check out thedp.com.

The Daily Pennsylvanian Sports Blog

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DOUBLEHEADER

COURTESY OF RYAN BETLEY

Once Steve Donahue became Penn’s head basketball coach in April the first student he contacted was high school student Ryan Betley.

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THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015

Big 5 doubleheaders return to Palestra

DP FILE PHOTO

With the announcement of a Big 5 doubleheader, the Palestra will host matchups between La Salle and Temple as well as St. Joseph’s and Penn during the 2015-16 season. Slated for Jan. 20, it will be the first official twin bill at the Cathedral of College Basketball since 2004, when all Big 5 teams and Drexel played three games on Penn’s campus.

PALESTRA | Only one ticket

basketball fans in Philadelphia have seen one of the city’s greatest hardwood traditions take place. Fortunately, that RILEY STEELE drought will come to an end in January.

Senior Sports Editor Former Penn Athletic Director and current Big 5 Executive Director Steve Nothing says honoring hisBilsky announced last week that the tory like an homage to the Palestra will host the first Big 5 doubleheader in 11 years on Jan. 20. In past. consecutive contests on that WednesIt’s been over a decade since college day night, La Salle will face off against

required for games on Jan. 20

Temple before the Quakers host Saint Joseph’s.

The arranging of the two contests on Penn’s campus pays tribute to the Big 5, which will be celebrating its 60th anniversary during the 2015-16 season.

However, it marks the first time since December 2004 that an official doubleheader will take place.

Throughout the history of the Big 5, doubleheaders involving Philadelphia’s

2012 College grad hopes to swim in 2016 Olympics

premier teams occurred regularly at the Palestra. Although a January 2014 weekend also saw Temple, La Salle, St. Joes and Penn in action in two separate games, that twin bill was made possible when ESPN sought to host its weekly pregame show, College Gameday, at the Palestra.

As a result, when the four squads get together again prior to the start of conference play early next year, they will

M. HOOPS | Betley is set to

join the Penn Class of 2020 Social Media Director

DP FILE PHOTO

M. SWIMMING | Brendan

to achieve his dream and punch his to Rio for the 2016 Games.

McHugh ready for Olympic ticket McHugh, a former Quaker swimming standout, will first compete in trials the FINA World Masters ChampionJACOB ADLER ships in Kazan, Russia, which are set Staff Reporter to begin July 24. It presents another opportunity for the breaststroke speHe narrowly missed swimming in cialist to race against top levels of the 2012 Olympics. This time around, competition prior to the 2016 OlymBrendan McHugh is determined pic Trials.

SEND STORY IDEAS TO DPSPORTS@THEDP.COM

“I think it’s actually a higher level than the Olympic trials, because the Olympic trials are just Americans,” he said. “World Championships are essentially the Olympics on years that there is no Olympics … every country [sends] their top two guys.

It’s just one of the highest levels of competition out there.”

SEE OLYMPIC TRIALS PAGE 9 ONLINE AT THEDP.COM

SEE DOUBLEHEADER PAGE 9

Q & A with M. Hoops recruit Ryan Betley STEVEN TYDINGS

Brendan McHugh will compete at the FINA World Masters Championship in Kazan, Russia in advance of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials.

be throwing back to the first several decades of the Big 5 as it approaches its 60th birthday.

“The Athletics Directors wanted to do something very special to celebrate this unique achievement,” Bilsky said.

“We thought nothing would capture its history better than a competition to be held in the famed Cathedral of

Coach Steve Donahue and his staff have hit the ground running, already getting two commitments for the Class of 2020. This week, I spoke with the second such commit, Pennsylvania native Ryan Betley. Betley spoke about why he chose Penn, his overall game and seeing LeBron James play at the Palestra.

Daily Pennsylvanian: When did Penn get involved in your recruitment? Where in the process?

Ryan Betley: Penn got involved in my recruitment last July. Mike Lintulahti expressed interest in me last July and once coach [Steve] Donahue was hired, he told me I was his first recruiting call on the job. They’ve been involved for about a year now — both old and new staff.

DP: Can you take us through the circumstances when you were offered by Penn? What are the emotions in that moment? Which coaches were involved?

RB: I was actually on a visit with the new staff in early May. I was just with my family in the head coach’s office and they said they were going to offer me. It was a great moment for me and my family. At that point, I liked Penn a lot and getting that offer was very exciting.

DP: So you were offered by Lafayette, Holy Cross and Brown as well. Were there any other schools involved and what truly separated Penn from the others?

RB: I got some interest from other Ivy League schools. Also [schools like]

Quinnipiac, Lehigh, Bucknell. I had a lot of Ivy League and Patriot League interest. So what separated Penn for me was I grew up around Penn. I attended games at the Palestra as a little kid growing up.

It was a special place for me growing up.

Also I loved coach Donahue’s vision for the program. Also you can’t really beat the academics at Penn. You go to an Ivy League school like Penn and no education really beats that.

DP: I’ve seen that you saw LeBron James play at the Palestra a dozen years ago. What was that moment like? That has to be quite the experience.

RB: It was an interesting day. So my dad had one ticket and my mom was supposed to watch my brother and I but she was sick, so my dad was like you know what, I’m going to take my brother and I to the game. He didn’t want to be that person, making my mom watch two kids while she’s sick. So we go down and we have one ticket. Both my brother and I were on my dad’s lap and they oversold the Palestra by a thousand people, so it was packed in there. It’s something that I’ll never forget. I only went that day because my dad promised me a Snickers bar. I probably didn’t know what was going on but now I realize how special a day that was.

DP: You’ve talked about coach Donahue’s vision but Penn has struggled recently, leading to Donahue taking over.

What made did you believe in him and his staff that they are going to turn this program around? What have they told you about their vision for the program?

RB: Part of the reason I believe in it SEE RYAN BETLEY PAGE 9 CONTACT US: 215-422-4640