THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017 VOL. CXXXIII NO. 81
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
PHILADELPHIA: A PRIME LOCATION Over 230 cities and regions are competing to host Amazon’s second headquarters. Don’t count Philadelphia out just yet. YONI GUTENMACHER & HARRY TRUSTMAN | Contributing Reporter & Copy Editor
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FOUNDED 1885
ith the support of Penn President Amy Gutmann and Mayor Jim Kenney, Philadelphia has escalated its pitch to Amazon to host the retailing giant’s second headquarters in the “City of Brotherly Love.” Gutmann, who in her role as president of Penn oversees the largest private employer in Philadelphia, co-signed a letter to Amazon with the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, one of the most influential business advocacy groups in the city. “When you bring the smartest people together with the best possible resources, you get new ideas. You get discovery, you get day one innovation. That’s the kind of approach that has made Amazon great and that’s what I feel across Philadelphia,” Gutmann wrote in a personal testimonial that was part of the letter. Gutmann has previously touted Philadelphia’s strengths in an interview with The Huffington Post, where she said, “Philadelphia has so much to offer for any innovative company — top talent, ideas and creativity from
our universities, partnerships with global companies, one of the best health care systems in the world, and a city rich with culture as well as a high quality of life.” The Chamber’s letter cited the Greater Philadelphia region’s “104 colleges and universities,” “favorable cost of living,” “rich arts and culture assets,” “transformational real estate projects” and “robust regional mass transit passenger services” as signature features. These “key ingredients” are visualized in a website and a series of videos. The two to three minute videos, which make pitches for the city based on factors such as livability, talent and logistics, push forth the theme “Philadelphia Delivers.” Gutmann makes a quick appearance in the video, which then cuts to images of the Pennovation Center, a site for scientific research that was opened last year. With the support of Penn President Amy Gutmann and Mayor Jim Kenney, Philadelphia has escalated its pitch to Amazon to host the retailing giant’s second headquarters in the “City of Brotherly Love.” Gutmann, who in her role as president of Penn oversees the largest private employer in Philadelphia, co-signed a letter to Amazon with the Chamber of ComSEE AMAZON PAGE 2
Scooter and skateboard policies on campus are not clear
Anti-abortion protest used signs with graphic images
Some signs forbid them, while online policies don’t
The protesters came to College Green on Monday
YONI GUTENMACHER Contributing Reporter
DAN SPINELLI & MANLU LIU Executive Editor & Staff Reporter
Sales of adult-sized scooters are skyrocketing across the country, the Wall Street Journal reported — and the trend isn’t lost on Penn students. Over the past few semesters, there has been a surge in the number of students who choose to get from class to class on wheels. However, many of them say they aren’t sure of the rules that determine where and when they are allowed to ride their scooters. Bicycles are restricted for use only in certain places on campus and at certain times, according to policies from the Division of Public Safety. Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said this bike policy is generalized to include skateboards and scooters, but online versions of these policies do not include any language about skateboards or scooters. Rush added that DPS holds “Share the Road” campaigns several times every year to publicize information relevant to those with bikes, skateboards and scooters. Around Locust Walk and Hamilton Walk, signage explicitly bans skateboards and scooters. But elsewhere on campus, the lack of communication of Penn policy and a reportedly inconsistent enforcement of these rules has led to confusion. College junior and Vice President of the Undergraduate Assembly Jay Shah said he got his scooter after his freshman year “because of
Quakers for Life, a Penn student group opposed to abortion, protested outside Van Pelt Library on Oct. 23, displaying nearly 20 graphic pictures of aborted fetuses. The group partnered with Created Equal, a national anti-abortion organization, for the protest, which attracted more than a few glances from students commuting on Locust Walk. In an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Wharton junior Eric Hoover said the group would be holding a protest on College Green from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Another statement from Created Equal sent to the DP wrote that this event was part of a “fall campus tour” that the organization is holding for 18 colleges in six states. At each of these schools, the group plans to “display large signs depicting the gruesome reality of abortion.” “We just want to talk to students about abortion, answer their questions, share what we have to say and just start dialogue on the topic,” said Emma Mysko, a field assistant for Created Equal, which is based out of Columbus, Ohio. Penn students who passed by the demonstration were “pretty polite,” Mysko added. During the demonstration, counter-protesters stepped in to cover up some of the group’s signs. College sophomore Hannah Rash saw the protests after leaving Van Pelt to get lunch. Along with members of Penn for Reproduc-
LUKE YEAGLEY | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
“I looked up all the rules online before I bought my new scooter and made sure that it was okay,” said College freshman Kia DaSilva.
the crazy walk from the high rises to [David Rittenhouse Laboratory] and the chem building.” He has been told to step off his skateboard, he said, but only inconsistently. “It depends on the person,” he said. “Some of them just don’t care and some of them do.” College freshman Kia DaSilva, who commutes to classes from her [family’s] home in West Philadelphia on her scooter, said did research on Penn policy before buying her scooter. “I looked up all the rules online before I bought my new scooter and made sure that it was okay,” she said. College freshman Nico Tapiero learned to ride his skateboard a few weeks before the fall semester began, planning to use it to travel from class to class at Penn. Tapiero is usually able to skate down Locust Walk without any trouble, but one night early in the semester a Penn public safety official asked him to step off his skateboard, he said.
“There was nobody in sight and I was not violating any policy but he still asked me not to skate there,” Tapiero said. College freshman Sam Goldstein had a similar experience. Goldstein, who has been an avid skateboarder since he was in middle school, was told to step off his skateboard near Williams Hall in the Perelman Quadrangle. However, he said he recognized why he was stopped because there is signage banning skateboarding in the area. “They’re not really strict about it but there are signs [in the the Perelman Quadrangle] which say you can’t skate,” he said. Engineering and Wharton freshman Yan Li has been stopped twice for riding his skateboard and said he hopes policies will be clarified for skateboard and scooter riders. “There’s a reason why there are rules for bike riding,” Li said. “Of course there needs to be rules for skateboards too.”
OPINION | A Call to Action: Let’s Answer
“We hope that a great deal of good can come out of the Campus Conversation and the PULSE survey, but that good will only come if we get involved.” PAGE 5
SPORTS | An Historic Heps?
Penn cross country is set to race for glory on Friday at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships — and both the men and women have a real shot at silverware BACKPAGE
SEND STORY IDEAS TO NEWSTIP@THEDP.COM
NEWS No plans for Central Diversity Office
Grad students raised the proposal months ago PAGE 2
ONLINE AT THEDP.COM
SAM HOLLAND | ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR
The national organization Created Equal, based in Columbus, Ohio, partnered with Quakers for Life as part of its “fall campus tour.”
tive Justice, she blocked some of the signs with her sweatshirt. “It just made me really upset, and I can imagine if I was contemplating abortion or if I had one, how upset that would make me,” she said. College and Wharton sophomore Michael Moroz, co-director of the editorial board of College Republicans, said he disagreed with some students’ reactions to the protest. He said he was particularly concerned with the behavior of the students who blocked the protester’s signs with sweatshirts, calling the behavior “immature” and “unlawful.” “That’s private property, at that point what [they are] doing is arguably illegal. It’s certainly against Penn student code of conduct about freedom of speech,” he said. Quakers for Life is not new to controversy. Various student groups criticized the group when it was formed in October 2016. In an email statement last year, board members for the Penn Association for Gender Equity expressed
concern over the kind of “shame tactics” frequently used by antiabortion groups. “A protest or large action [promoting the pro-life agenda] can be very triggering and alienating to someone who has had an abortion or considered having one,” PAGE said. Hoover said at the time that the group does not intend to “shame women.” “The images are shocking, and to all of us at Quakers for Life quite painful to see,” Hoover wrote in a statement provided to the DP. “But the abortion of these children was sanctioned by law - a law which most Penn students vote at all levels of government to support.” Two months after their formation, the group clashed with PAGE again after they planted 600 flags on College Green to represent the abortions performed in Philadelphia over the span of two weeks. “This group was founded by a self-described (from our unSEE PRO-LIFE PAGE 3
NEWS Overcrowding in CIS 120 office hours
TA’s for CIS 120 call for more resources PAGE 11
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