MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2017 VOL. CXXXIII NO. 86
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
FOUNDED 1885
Houston Market to get $15.15 million renovation
The food offerings will include sandwiches, specialty coffees, and an expanded sushi station ALIZA OHNOUNA Senior Reporter
7 out of 23 courses fulfill additional College requirements*
Eighteen years after it was first opened in 2000, the food court in the basement of Houston Hall will be undergoing a $15.15 million renovation. Construction for Houston Market, which is located on the bottom floor of Houston Hall, is expected to begin on May 15, 2018, and conclude by the first day of classes for the fall 2018 semester, Penn Business Services spokesperson Barbara Lea-Kruger said. There will be new types of food on offer in Houston Market, including a Mongolian grill station and a sandwich carving station. A Market cafe will also replace the Beefsteak seating area. This cafe will serve specialty coffees, gelatos, and small plates of food, and will likely be open later than the other kiosks at Houston. “It’s going to look completely different,” said Director of Business and Hospitality Services for Penn Dining Pam Lampitt. After the renovations, the seating and dining areas, which are spatially segregated right now, will be interspersed for students to be able to use the space when the dining area is closed. “There needs to be a rejuvenation of Houston Hall to try to get more students to be there and to find community and to gather there,” Lampitt said. The Bon Appétit Management Company will continue to oversee Houston Market, and many of the current food offerings will remain available to students. The sushi station — a favorite among students — will occupy a larger area in Houston Market, and the menu will be expanded, Lampitt said. The pizza and pasta stations will stay the same. A smoothie, hummus, and salad station will replace the Coke Freestyle machine, and PureFare items will continue to be sold out of the Market cafe. Students looking for a quick meal will also be able to take advantage of a new “grab and go” station that will be located at the center of Houston. The station will provide pre-heated meals that will change daily. The renovated market will feature kiosk portals where students can place orders and pay for items from the various stations, instead of waiting in line at the cashiers. “It’s going to be more flexible for students for different uses at different times,” Lampitt said. Houston Market’s $15.15 million renovation is one of many building projects that the University has approved this year. Earlier this month, Penn announced plans to build New College House West, a residential building
0 out of 19 courses fulfill additional College requirements*
13 out of 26 courses fulfill additional College requirements* *Besides the foreign language requirement
A
s students make the final tweaks to their spring semester schedules, some have noticed a discrepancy among language courses in terms of fulfilling General Requirements. For the upcoming semester, there are 13 of 26 Spanish courses and seven of 23 French courses that fulfill College requirements other than the Foreign Language requirement. For example, both the French course “Perspectives in French Literature: The Individual and Society” and the Spanish
course “Introduction to Literary Analysis” fulfill the Arts and Letters Sector as well as the Cross-Cultural Analysis requirement. However, of the 19 Chinese courses offered, none fulfills any general education requirements apart from the Foreign Language requirement. Additionally, of the 10 Japanese courses and the eight Korean courses offered by the East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department, none fulfills any additional College requirement.
Undergraduate Chair of the EALC department David Spafford said language courses in the EALC department do not fulfill requirements because they focus on language. Many Romance language courses, however, also focus on primarily on language but still fulfill other College requirements, whereas the only EALC courses that fulfill those same requirements are taught in English. SEE LANGUAGE PAGE 6 ANNA LISA LOWENSTEIN | DESIGN ASSOCIATE
SEE RENOVATION PAGE 3
Student petition calls mandatory freshman dining plan ‘robbery’ It has attracted more than 580 signatures in five days JAMES MEADOWS Staff Reporter
An online petition from Penn freshmen is calling on the University to re-evaluate its dining plan policies and accusing administrators of the “simple robbery of students.” The petition, which was posted on Nov. 7, garnered more than 580 signatures by Nov. 12. Wharton and Engineering freshman Jack McKnight, who authored the petition, said he wants to encourage Penn to be more transparent about its dining policy, specifically highlighting the conversion rate between meal swipes and Dining Dollars. Meal swipes can be used to gain access to cafeteria-style dining halls like 1920 Commons and Kings Court English House. Students can use Dining Dollars
JEAN CHAPIRO | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Freshmen are required to be on the meal plan, but it is optional for all other students. The meal plan costs $2,624.50 per semester.
to buy a la carte options at retail locations like Houston Market and Tortas Frontera. Freshman students have three dining plans to choose from. The
one with the highest number of meal swipes offers approximately 16 meal swipes per week and $100 in Dining Dollars. Given that the meal plan costs $2,624.50 per se-
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mester, each meal swipe adds up to be about $9.28. The conversion that Penn offers is $4.87 per swipe, which is nearly a 50 percent loss for students. In the other dining plans, a single meal swipe can be worth up to $16. “This is simply robbery of students,” McKnight wrote. “We ask that the University of Pennsylvania changes the exchange rate for swipes to something more reasonable. At the very least, $8 per swipe.” McKnight drafted the petition in response to an email sent by Penn Dining detailing the conversion process. It announced that students on the meal plan can convert up to 30 meal swipes for a limited time from Nov. 13 to Nov. 19. “I was in my writing seminar one day doing the math, and I just thought it was a little bit unfair,” McKnight said. “I at least wanted to make something that would get
the school to speak out about why exactly this is the conversion rate.” Administrators said the conversion rate is designed to prevent significant losses in operating costs. “The current conversion rate was designed to provide students some value for unused swipes, which had not historically been the case, while ensuring that it would not significantly impact operating costs,” Director of Business and Hospitality Services at Penn Dining Pamela Lampitt said in a statement. However, various students have indicated that they do not think this explanation is sufficient. Images of McKnight’s petition and the email from Penn Dining were edited and subsequently posted on the Facebook meme page, “Official Unofficial Penn Squirrel Catching Club,” receiving reactions from hundreds of Penn students. “I just don’t think that’s fair for us to be paying so much for a dining plan that freshmen have to be
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on,” said College freshman Tiphani Swaby. “And when it’s fine have Dining Dollars, which is the favorable currency, it’s not equally converted.” College freshman Emily McCann agreed, “I think most people agree with the petition,” she said. “Some people say that they don’t think it will get anything done, but they agree with it.” This is not the first time that students have raised concerns about the Penn Dining Plan. In July, Engineering sophomore Colby Cox launched a petition to protest Penn’s policy of disallowing students to cancel their Penn dining plans prior to the beginning of school. The petition received more than 200 signatures, but no changes were made to Penn’s policies. In March 2016, The Daily Pennsylvanian also conducted an unofficial survey which found that nearly 80 percent of freshmen respondents wish they did not have to be on a Penn meal plan.
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