THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2018 VOL. CXXXIV NO. 5
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Campus bookstore is getting renovated
FOUNDED 1885
T
ens of millions of dollars are going into completing a major renovation of Hamilton Court. Yet, despite the prospect of a karaoke speakeasy bar and a rooftop pool, many Penn student residents in HamCo say they don’t see the value of many of the new amenities, especially considering the increase in prices. College junior Aiysha Scott pays about $1,100 per month for her share of her threebedroom apartment in HamCo. If she were to stay next year, she said that amount would see a $300 increase, to $1,400. The renovated apartments, which HamCo Asset Manager Josh Guelbart said he hopes will be in working order by July 2018, will now have new kitchen appliances, cabinets, bathroom tiles, and plumbing systems. And in addition to the karaoke speakeasy bar, HamCo will also include a Halal Guys restaurant, as well as a 10,000 square foot, $7 to 8 million “amenity building” with a rooftop pool, hot tub, gym, and outdoor kitchen for residents. The surrounding courtyard, he added, will be landscaped with bocce courts and fireplaces as an area for residents to socialize. The project also included updates to the hallways and a new, several hundred thousand dollar internet system to replace the old one that Guelbart called “beyond antiquated.” College sophomore Natasha Cheung said if she moved from her current five-bedroom HamCo apartment to the three-bedroom she wants for next year, she would have to pay
The bathroom, cafe, and escalator will all be updated wihtout impeding University events KAITLYN BOYLE Staff Reporter
The Penn Bookstore has just completed the first phase of a major multi-year construction project. The main goals of the project, which began over this past winter break, are the replacement of both escalators with a newer model, as well as renovations to the bathrooms, elevator, and cafe. Another objective is to organize construction so as “not to impede major University events” according to an announcement in the Penn Almanac. “The store as a whole will stay open and maintain its regular hours,” said Associate Vice President of Business Services Christopher Bradie. Additionally, some construction is scheduled after hours, and potentially disruptive work will be halted during major University events such as commencement and move-in. Barnes and Noble is ultimately responsible for the cost of renovations. However, Penn will provide some financial support. The last major renovations to the store occurred five years ago, and the escalators have been in place since the original building was constructed in 1999. “The manufacturer is no longer in the elevator business, so that makes things like maintenance and serviceability more difficult because parts are more scarce and things like that,” Bradie said. “It’s not a current model.” Phase one of the project included the construction of a temporary staircase that will provide an alternate path upstairs when the escalators are removed. Bradie admitted, however, that he and others involved in overseeing the project actually like the stairs, and may leave them in place after construction finishes. “I think we should keep the stairs,” said College freshman Saachi Datta. “They are more convenient. You don’t have to walk all the way around to the other escalator.” While the bookstore itself will not close throughout the project, the upstairs Starbucks cafe will close for approximately two months during phase two. During that time, bookstore employees will be relocated to other
SEE HAMCO PAGE 2
CHRISTINE LAM | DESIGN EDITOR
SEE BOOKSTORE PAGE 2
Research group to study Penn founders’ ties to slavery Penn faculty will examine student researchers’ historical findings MANLU LIU Staff Reporter
A team of student researchers discovered that many of the founding trustees of the University had substantial connections to the slave trade. Over a month after the research was unveiled, Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Wendell Pritchett announced on Jan. 23 that Penn would form “a working group to examine the role of slavery in Penn’s early years.” “While it has long been known that Penn’s founder, Benjamin Franklin had owned slaves early in his life before becoming a leading abolitionist,” the statement read, “the student’s work cast a new light on our historical understanding of the reach of slavery’s connections to Penn.” As a part of the Penn History of Slavery Project, five undergraduate researchers worked closely with History professor Kathleen Brown throughout 2017 to investigate the University’s past ties to the slave trade. By December 2017, the students had found that of the 28 founding University trust-
ees they investigated (there were 126 founding trustees in total), 20 held slaves between 1769 and 1800 and had financial ties to the slave trade. “We have always acknowledged that our founder, Ben Franklin, owned slaves early in his life,” University spokesperson Stephen MacCarthy wrote in an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian. In 2016, after Georgetown University publicly acknowledged the university’s own connection to the slave trade, Penn Director of Media Relations Ron Ozio told The Philadelphia Tribune that “Penn has explored this issue several times over the past few decades and found no direct University involvement with slavery or the slave trade.” “Our statements last year regarding any further University nexus were based on the best information that was then known to the University Archives. Through the student’s research, we are now aware of additional information, and as the statement yesterday noted, we have established a high level working group to explore it further so that we might fully understand the affects of slavery on the early days of our University,” MacCarthy wrote. The undergraduate group did not
OPINION | On Aziz Ansari and rape culture
“Throughout my high school and college years, I’ve listened helplessly as friends and acquaintances have described encounters with their own Azizs, and I’ve cried to them when I had my own.” PAGE 5
SPORTS | Reeham Sedky ‘plays like a girl’
Penn women’s squash’s star is undefeated against women this season, so she’s begining to practice with the men. The early returns - the innovative move has improved all parties involved. BACKPAGE FOLLOW US @DAILYPENN FOR THE LATEST UPDATES ONLINE AT THEDP.COM
find evidence proving that Penn, as an institution, owned slaves. Gutmann and Pritchett’s statement indicated that after administrators met with the students, the University decided to form its own research group, chaired by Pritchett and including Senior Vice President for Institutional Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer Joann Mitchell, Law and Sociology professor Dorothy Roberts, Africana Studies professor Heather Williams, and Brown. The “broad contours” of the group’s work could likely be finished this semester, the statement read, “to allow a fuller illumination of this part of Penn’s history.” The University’s acknowledgement of the possible connection of its trustees to the slave trade comes a little over a year after Ozio made his statement, in which he explicitly denied the proposition. Penn is not the only Ivy League institution under scrutiny for its former ties to the slave trade. Two months before Gutmann’s statement, the Princeton & Slavery Project unveiled dozens of archival documents about Princeton University’s ties to slavery. Since its own public admission,
CARSON KAHOE | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Student researchers found that, out of the 28 founding trustees they investigated, 20 held slaves. There is no evidence so far of institutional slaveholding by Penn.
Georgetown has taken steps to offer reparations for its past harms including the possibility of preferential admission for descendants of the enslaved people owned by the university and its
leading Jesuits. “Our intention is to seek the truth and acknowledge it, and to offer recommendations for any next steps,” Gutmann wrote in the statement.
NEWS Gov. shutdown delays congressman’s visit
NEWS Chinese New Year Instagram Photo Contest
PAGE 3
PAGE 7 SEND NEWS TIPS TO NEWSTIP@THEDP.COM CONTACT US: 215-422-4640