November 12, 2026 by The Daily Pennsylvanian

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PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2026

VOL. CXLII

Silfen Forum celebrates 150 years of women at Penn

NO. 28

AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE FOR THE HUMANITIES ADDISON SAJI Senior Reporter

The Nov. 11 event featured two former Penn presidents, Philadelphia’s mayor, and a professor IMANI GASKIN Staff Reporter

The annual David and Lyn Silfen University Forum hosted a panel of prominent Penn leaders for a discussion on 150 years of women at the University. The Nov. 11 event — moderated by 1967 College graduate Andrea Mitchell — featured two former Penn presidents, Philadelphia’s mayor, and a professor. Panelists discussed the challenges each faced as female trailblazers, opportunities for mentoring future generations, and their experiences shaping various institutions. The event, titled “150 Years of Penn Women: Progress and the Path Forward,” began with a video documenting the history of women at the University that highlighted notable female accomplishments and moments that formerly went unnoticed. In his opening remarks, Penn President Larry Jameson expressed that “Penn would be a very different place without the women who built it,” adding that “recognition does not arrive when it should.” Mitchell took a moment to acknowledge the legacy of her classmate and friend, 1966 College graduate David Silfen, and his wife, Lyn — the forum’s eponyms. She then asked Judith Rodin, who was the Ivy League’s and Penn’s first female president, about the difficulties she faced in her breakthrough role. According to Rodin, her career was defined by moments where she was the first woman to enter a role — as a department chair, graduate school dean, and then university president. Rodin emphasized that she “wanted to show how women can actually change an institution,” a sentiment shared by the other panelists. “I was the first woman to get tenure in the psych department in 50 years, and first person promoted,” Rodin said, referencing her time at Yale University. “But that was much less important when I left than the feeling that I had really helped to transform the culture of that institution.” Former Penn President Amy Gutmann, who succeeded Rodin, celebrated the Trustees’ Council of

Every few years, it seems, someone writes another elegy for the humanities. But at Penn, professors say there’s little reason to start mourning their disciplines just yet. Across the country, the number of published humanities Ph.D. dissertations has declined by nearly half over the past decade. The dawn of artificial intelligence, some have argued, has made writing all but obsolete. These days nearly half of Penn students graduating from the College of Arts and Sciences pursue careers in

finance or consulting. Faced with these circumstances, some have proclaimed a so-called “death” of the humanities. Studying the subjects that once captivated our greatest minds, they say, is no longer congruent with the goals of higher education. The story on Penn’s campus isn’t quite as simple. For many professors, the future of their disciplines remains bright despite the odds. “The death of the humanities has been an ongoing, evergreen refrain for probably 100

years,” History and Sociology of Science Department Chair Elly Truitt said in an interview. “If the humanities are dying, it’s been going on for a really long time.” But the world of higher education has rapidly transformed. New financial and federal pressures have forced universities across the nation, including Penn, to make significant cuts to graduate programs. All the while, according to Penn professors, humanities programs have See HUMANITIES, page 6

ALEC GUPTE | DESIGN ASSOCIATE

See SILFEN, page 2

A look at Penn’s decentralized budget

Penn alum Adopted in 1974 amid financial strain, the system gives individual schools and centers oversight over their budgets Ahmed Moor launches U.S. While often treated as an internal financial matter, For Baladi’s work in SCUE, RCM has been helpful School of Arts and Sciences at $698.8 million and Senate campaign

ANANYA KARTHIK Senior Reporter

Penn’s budgeting system can directly shape students’ access to resources. The process, known as Responsibility Center Management, gives individual schools and centers oversight of their finances while preserving central funding for academic priorities. Adopted by Penn in 1974 amid a period of financial strain, the budgetary structure has evolved over time and become increasingly popular at other universities. College senior Veronica Baladi, a member of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, explained in a statement that the student-facing effects of school finances are often difficult to see. “RCM’s direct effects on students, whether it be access to cross-school courses or other academic opportunities, tend to be pretty behind-the-scenes,” Baladi wrote. Baladi described the financial relationship among Penn’s schools as a form of cross-subsidization, citing her experience as a College student pursuing a Legal Studies and History minor at the Wharton School. “When I take an LGST class in Wharton, those aspects of my tuition go directly to Wharton,” she added.

to understand “why we can and can’t propose certain reforms” — in particular, letting non-Wharton students book group study rooms in Huntsman Hall. Under RCM, a significant share of financial responsibility falls on revenue-generating centers — Penn’s 12 schools, as well as its resource centers and business services. Resource centers include Morris Arboretum and Gardens and Penn Live Arts, while business services include housing, dining, and parking services. Administrative service centers, which do not generate revenue, fund most of their operations through allocated cost and space charges. Some examples are the Office of the President, College Houses and Academic Services, and the Division of Public Safety. Funding reaches schools through several channels, including tuition, sponsored research, gifts, investment income, and internal transfers. A school’s total revenue therefore does not represent a single allocation from University leadership. Penn’s fiscal year 2025 operating budget, for example, projected revenue and transfers for all 12 schools. The Perelman School of Medicine had the largest total, at about $1.62 billion, followed by the

Wharton at $650.8 million. The composition of those budgets varied. Sponsored programs accounted for approximately $1.01 billion, or 62% of the Medical School’s projected revenue, while tuition and fees accounted for $378.6 million, or 58% at Wharton. These were budget projections, rather than final spending figures or a ranking of central subsidies. Baladi expressed concern that the decentralized nature of RCM could create “tension” between individual schools’ priorities and University-wide goals. “I would say it is somewhat concerning that we rely on such a fragmented system and don’t have a common pool to advance the ‘One University’ as a whole,” Baladi wrote. A request for comment was left with the Office of Budget Planning and Analysis. Central support has a specific name: subvention, which the University defines as “an annual operating subsidy provided primarily to schools and resource centers by the Provost.” The funds support ongoing operations, strategic initiatives, and graduate student aid. See BUDGET, page 2

Experts say Penn cybersecurity needs rethinking According to a tax return, the University’s firewall blocked 5.8 billion attacks per month in fiscal year 2025

Ahmed Moor, who studied political science and psychology at Penn, will challenge Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) in 2028 CATHY SUI Staff Reporter

2006 College graduate Ahmed Moor is running to unseat Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) in 2028. Moor, a 42-year-old Palestinian American writer and businessman from West Philadelphia, is a selfdescribed democratic socialist. Outside of a recent role on the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee, he has never held political office. “We’re on the wrong path today,” Moor said in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian. “I’m running to attack the corruption crisis.” Moor — who was born in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip — moved to Philadelphia at age seven. At Penn, he studied political science and psychology. “It’s clear the United States funds wars based on corruption and lies and has turned its back on its own people. We must make sure this never happens again,” his campaign website reads. “That’s why I’m See SENATE, page 7

COSTA GAY-AFENDULIS Staff Reporter

After a series of attacks on Penn’s mainframe last year, the University’s cybersecurity protocols came under scrutiny. Penn’s Information Systems and Computing office now fields nearly 50,000 support tickets a year. But as technology evolves and university-related cybercrime grows more prevalent, experts told The Daily Pennsylvanian that Penn may have to continue revising its approach to managing security threats. Computer science professor Michael Hicks — who runs Penn’s Schlein Center for Cybersecurity — said in an interview that universities are a particular target for cyberattacks because they house a “million intellectually valuable” operations. Last October, a security breach let attackers send mass spam emails to the campus community from multiple Penn-affiliated addresses. The messages, which contained profane language, criticized the University’s security practices and institutional purpose. The cybercrime group ShinyHunters later took responsibility for the attack and published thousands of NEWS In a new filing, Penn argued its graduate worker union does not have an argument to dismiss the eligibility case

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internal files — such as donor records, memos, and other confidential University documents — obtained in the breach. At the time, a ShinyHunters spokesperson told the DP that the group released the files after Penn refused to pay a million-dollar ransom. In May, the ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for a nationwide breach of Instructure — the parent company of Canvas — reportedly compromising the data of millions of users, including roughly 306,000 at Penn. According to a tax return filed by the University, Penn’s firewall blocked 5.8 billion attacks a month in fiscal year 2025 — up significantly from 4.1 billion in the previous reporting cycle. There are more attack vectors at universities because they are “meant to be an open environment where people get together and learn,” according to computer science professor Andreas Haeberlen. “A university is a very different environment from, say, a defense contractor,” she wrote in a statement. Cyberattacks often include elements of social engineering, or the reliance on human nature to NEWS After three decades, the Kelly Writers House is ushering in a new chapter

manipulate people into compromising their personal security or the security of a larger enterprise network — such as Penn’s. ShinyHunters, for instance, was only able to enter the Graduate School of Education’s database after a breach of the school’s internal database. “Penn’s IT security staff are amazing, but they can’t defend against people voluntarily opening their doors to intruders,” computer science professor Benjamin Pierce wrote. Though they acknowledged that human error could be at fault for gaps in protection, several experts recognized that software producers are responsible for vulnerabilities. “If you install some software which causes your computer to be taken over, you have disclaimed all liability from the software producer,” Hicks said. “We have known ways to stamp out those bugs for a long, long time, and the industry has just not been motivated to fix stuff.” Last November, Penn identified a cybersecurity See SECURITY, page 7

OPINION Contributor Elijah Ramirez argues that Penn’s culture of competition interferes with students capacity for humility

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COURTESY OF AHMED MOOR

Moor, a 2006 College graduate, announced his candidacy for Senate.

SPORTS A buzzer-beater over Drexel gave Penn women’s basketball its first Big 5 pod win in years

2 NEWS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2026

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Penn argues grad worker union lacks argument to dismiss eligibility case The filing is the latest in a longstanding dispute over a clause in the union’s contract JAMES WAN Senior Reporter

CHENYAO LIU | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

GET-UP demonstrators at a press conference on Nov. 3, 2025.

SILFEN, from front page Penn Women, whose mission is to advocate for the advancement of women at the University. Elsie Sterling Howard, a 1968 College for Women graduate and one of the council’s founders, was present at the forum. In an interview, she noted the council would be celebrating its 40th anniversary in April. “To see the growth of women having positions of leadership and responsibility being acknowledged by the University over 150 years with increased visibility, and again, leadership, is very powerful for all of us,” Sterling Howard said. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker — the first woman to hold that office — said that while changing outdated systems is important, her gender is not her main focus when she approaches the work itself. “It’s never been my goal,” she said about being the city’s first female mayor. “I don’t want to be a footnote in someone else’s history book.” Instead, Parker explained that she aims to be effective at her job and “let the guys know that my estrogen didn’t provide a seat at the table — it was my preparedness.” Rodin experienced similar tensions with male colleagues during her time in the presidency. She discussed a financial crisis that hit Penn’s

health system during her tenure — which led to $90 million in losses following changes to federal healthcare funding under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Rodin described “saving the health system” as “the proudest thing” she has done at Penn. She added that her efforts were characterized as “a fight between a strong woman and a strong man” — referring to the scrutiny she faced when she decided to dismiss thenhealth system chief William Kelley. According to Gutmann, Rodin’s fight for the health system placed her up against “the most powerful forces” on the board and among the deans. The panelists also placed a strong emphasis on the importance of acting as a mentor for future generations. “The women before us pulled the ladder up after them,” Rodin said. “They really didn’t help us, and it’s why for so many of my years I really wanted to be a mentor to other women and to men.” Parker echoed Rodin’s assessment, adding that “there is a special place in hell for women who succeed but don’t send the elevator back down to pick up other women.” As the event transitioned to a question and answer session, Rodin discussed administrative responsibilities to protect students at institutions similar to Penn. Referencing Cornell University, which has been in the national spotlight for its handling of an alleged gang rape, Rodin emphasized the importance of holding university leaders accountable.

Penn moved to keep its lawsuit against the University’s graduate worker union alive on Friday, asking a federal court to rule that the union cannot arbitrate whether certain doctoral students are employees. In August, Penn sought a ruling that Graduate Employees Together — University of Pennsylvania cannot pursue arbitration on whether first- and second-year students in its Biomedical Graduate Studies program are employees under federal labor law. Last month, GET-UP argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to decide the issue. The filing is the latest in a longstanding dispute over a line in the union’s contract that excludes “Educational Fellowship Recipients in lab rotations in the first year of the Biology PhD Program and the first and second years of the Biomedical Graduate Studies PhD Program.” A University spokesperson reiterated Penn’s “firm position” that first- and second-year BGS students “are engaged in academic activities,” not “bargaining unit activities.” A request for comment was left with GET-UP. In the Nov. 6 filing, Penn wrote that the Labor Management Relations Act “gives federal district courts jurisdiction over suits for violation of contracts between an employer and a labor organization.” For Penn, the University argued, the case falls within the court’s jurisdiction because it is a matter of “substantive arbitrability,” which is “whether a collective bargaining agreement creates a duty for the parties to arbitrate the particular grievance.” GET-UP previously argued to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania that the dispute is “clearly” and “unambiguously” related to “the integration and application” of the

contract’s recognition clause, which spells out who is represented by the union and is “the exclusive purview of the arbitrator.” According to the contract, arbitration would involve arriving at a decision through the Philadelphia office of the American Arbitration Association — which is separate from the court system. The union previously cited a recent case involving graduate workers at Harvard University, in which a judge upheld an arbitrator’s decision on the bargaining unit, which Harvard sought to vacate. Penn argued that GET-UP’s “reliance on Harvard is misplaced” because, unlike Harvard, the University never agreed to arbitrate, and the contract language excludes first- and second-year BGS students. GET-UP contended in August that the contract “clearly applies to graduate student researchers who have finished their lab rotations and are now performing exactly the same research services to Penn as any other graduate student research assistant.” Penn argued again that no such subset of first- and second-year BGS students exists because they “do not perform research services until their third year, when they are included in the unit.” GET-UP and Penn have extensively debated the role of educational fellowship recipients over the past few years. The union filed a grievance in April about the exclusion of BGS students and submitted an arbitration request in July, prompting Penn’s legal action. Over the summer, the University argued that firstand second-year BGS students are not employees as defined by the National Labor Relations Act and that the union cannot arbitrate a matter outside of its contract.

“The role of a university president is to rule with courage,” Rodin said, adding that she believes Cornell’s president is instead “hidden behind process.” Speaking to the broader social and political climate, Rodin said the country is experiencing “an unsafe moment for women,” attributing the shift to the “fall of Roe” as well as “misogynistic language around many campaigns and certainly over the internet.” “Women feel it,” Rodin emphasized, “whether

they’re undergraduates on campus or women at large.” In the wake of last week’s midterm elections, Rodin expressed hope for the future and excitement about the many women elected to office across the country. “Democracy stood up, and we’re celebrating 250 years of American democracy, born right here in our city,” Parker added. “Our nation stood up, and it stood up to some pretty powerful forces.”

DIVYA SOVANI | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Panelists at the Silfen Forum on Nov. 11.

BUDGET, from front page According to Penn’s fall 2024 RCM briefing, the subvention pool receives 20% of nondoctoral tuition and 10.5% of research overhead recovery. The president’s and provost’s offices direct allocations back to schools, resource centers, and cross-school academic initiatives. Tuition revenue is distributed among schools through a formula that accounts for both students’ home schools and where they take courses. The briefing describes an undergraduate block system covering the four undergraduate schools, the Annenberg School for Communication, and the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, with funding bases periodically recalibrated to provide stability. Former Penn President Martin Meyerson, who had championed the idea of “One University,” also implemented RCM as a cost-cutting measure when Penn was accumulating a deficit. Over time, RCM at Penn has evolved to “encourage revenue growth,” according to the Budget Planning and Analysis briefing. As the University launched an administrative restructuring project in the 1990s under former Penn President Judith Rodin, it upheld the RCM framework. “The central thesis of RCM is that planning and

budgeting at the school level is done best by those most directly involved, i.e. the faculty, staff, dean or director,” a January 1995 restructuring plan read. Penn was the first university to adopt RCM, though the idea of decentralized finances had existed before, including at Harvard University. In the 1970s, the University of Southern California and Washington University in St. Louis also took up RCM. Public universities later began adopting the model — especially during and after the 2010s — with 68 public schools in the United States using RCM by fall 2023, according to one estimate. Rutgers University’s 2016 adoption of RCM was driven by its former president, Robert Barchi, who was Penn’s provost from 1999 to 2004. Among Penn’s peer institutions, Cornell University, Duke University, and Harvard similarly use decentralized budget models. Others are categorized as centralized or hybrid by Budget Planning and Analysis. While RCM is steadily growing more popular at universities across the country, it has also faced criticism for imposing marketplace incentives on academic units, increasing competition, and limiting collaboration. “RCM was only implemented when Penn was facing severe financial distress in the early 1970s,” Baladi wrote. “We have since grown dependent on it, for better and for worse. RCM is here to stay. I can’t imagine that the University could sustain itself any other way, at least for now.”

CONNIE ZHAO | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

The Perelman Quadrangle on Nov. 4.

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Is Penn dining bad or are you spoiled? CONTRIBUTION | The weakest ‘stick it to the man’ on campus Penn Dining isn’t that bad; you might just be spoiled. Or bored. Or lazy. Out of the many complaints on this campus, the whining over food and dining halls rings out the loudest. Cafeteria food and dining hall options have been the easiest target for unhappy students since the early days of primary school. It’s almost a rite of passage to say something slanderous about school food, regardless of the institution or how the quality actually compares to others. We did so in our middle-school cafeterias, and we will do so in our Ivy League dining halls. To me, the excessive complaints about oncampus food feel out of touch. As members of an elite institution of higher education, we sit from our cozy vantage point to criticize issues in the dining halls that thousands of students — or just hungry people — would give a lot to be in. Yes, the food is not perfect, and sometimes far from it. It is by no means a shining jewel among Penn’s strengths as an institution, but when we have eight food retail businesses in Houston Hall, a Starbucks, a Pret A Manger, Gourmet Grocer, Quaker Kitchen, and six dining halls, among other options, are we in a place to waste this much breath speaking out against how deprived we are of good quality? One in four people in Philadelphia experiences food insecurity. I’d venture to say that just about none of those people are eating at Bento in Houston. For your choice of rebellion to be a fist raised against this week’s fried rice is not only ineffective but also a lazy way to “stick it to the man” and stand up against the University’s standards

or policies. Students who came before us have put their futures on the line to publicly challenge University practices with protests that risked judicial consequences or sit-ins that argued against immoral recruitment. But maybe this generation’s form of change is an Instagram note about this week’s overcooked pasta. It’s another manifestation of the Penn bubble we begin to exist in once we set foot on campus. From our Ivy ivory tower, it’s a given that we deserve good-quality food, and it’s a travesty if we aren’t provided that. For others, there are no givens. It isn’t a given that food will be on the table, nor is it a given that a roof will be above them. Appreciating the resources and opportunities we’re afforded at Penn is important, but it’s worth more to recognize the sheer amount of privilege we get from being here. Food is a huge part of life to a lot of people, myself included; I know how important it is to have quality options at your disposal, and I am not a blind defender of Penn’s food quality (I have had many a subpar experience). The food we put in our bodies is culture; it is heart and soul and history, and recognizing that is valuable to us as students and humans in its own right. I don’t deny this. It is absolutely a valid concern to feel as though your money is being put toward low-quality food at an expensive university, but my argument is greater than this. Penn students, in their quest to be outspoken advocates for themselves and their peers, and to be sure that the significant money spent on tuition is used in a way that is fair and equitable, default to criticizing food instead of the more

ANNA WU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Contributor Emma Hwang questions the validity of dining complaints and critiques the privilege they represent.

relevant and harmful practices on campus. Is the problem, perhaps, the misuse of University funds? Campus issues are greater than the food we digest; there are systemic failures that loom larger than dining. For example, should we be challenging the Mathematics Department’s flipped classroom approach instead? Or the toxic culture that permeates every school? The way that sexual assault cases are handled, or the frequency at which women are drugged at parties? Calling yourself an outspoken advocate means more than just speaking out about whatever is easiest

or visibly affects you the most. It denotes a willingness to challenge authority on a different level. Let’s discover the answers and fight for the solutions through an avenue that has less to do with noodles and more to do with tangible change. EMMA HWANG is a College first year studying political science from Philadelphia. Her email is emhwang@sas. upenn.edu.

Penn needs more whimsy CONTRIBUTION | We must balance preprofessionalism with individuality

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ALEXANDRA DIMITRIOU | DESIGN ASSOCIATE

Contributor Zoe Mackey argues that Penn must foster a balance between its preprofessionalism and the personal interests of its students.

At Penn, it is remarkably easy to meet someone and, within minutes, learn what they study, which organizations they belong to, and what they hope to do after graduation. However, it is much harder to discover what makes them laugh until they cry, what song they have been listening to on repeat, what obscure historical fact they cannot stop talking about, or what they would do if they knew it would never appear on a resume. It has become much more difficult to discover things like this on a casual basis. This is not because Penn students lack personality or the capacity for genuine connection. In reality, so many students are brilliant, funny, creative, and interesting people who have interests so diverse that their perspectives could provide an entirely new view of college. Yet Penn’s preprofessional

culture can make it difficult for these qualities to take center stage, valuing shallow professional relationships over genuine ones that last a lifetime. When we are encouraged to treat our college years as preparation for the careers that follow, we risk overlooking the experiences and relationships that make those years meaningful in the first place. That is why Penn needs more whimsy. At a university where students are constantly encouraged to “network,” build their “personal brand,” gain work experience, and prepare for competitive careers, it can become difficult to separate a person from their professional trajectory. A classmate is no longer simply someone who happens to sit next to you in a seminar; they might be a future C-suite member. The student

you meet at a party might work at a startup, be applying to law school, or have secured an internship at a firm you have been trying to break into. These are all worthwhile pursuits. The problem, however, arises when those pursuits begin to overshadow the qualities that make us individuals. Instead of one identity overtaking the others, our academic, professional, and personal lives should be allowed to coexist. Ambition is one of Penn’s defining characteristics, and there is something admirable about being surrounded by people who deeply care about what they want to accomplish. The problem begins when ambition becomes the default language through which we understand one another. The only solution to this is Penn embracing a whimsical environment. Students should be encouraged to explore interests that rest outside the professional sphere, and show the fruits of their practice. Imagine a campus where conversations are just as likely to turn to someone’s latest creative project, favorite film, or oddly specific fascination as they are to internships and postgraduation plans. Imagine asking a new friend what they do for fun and having the answer lead to an afternoon spent learning something neither of you knew about before. These interactions allow us to truly get to know one another. Embracing whimsy means getting involved in different activities without the ulterior motive of networking. Walking around campus late at night because you simply do not want to go back to your room yet. Sitting on College Green for no reason. Making ceramic cups with the Penn Art Club. Getting matcha with a friend just because. It means going to a random campus event because the title sounded funny, joining a club you know nothing about, or spending an entire afternoon trying to master a hobby that may never provide a return on

investment and cannot easily be translated into a resume bullet point. Perhaps that is exactly what makes them valuable. Whimsy is simply the willingness to pursue something because it delights you rather than because it sounds impressive. It is curiosity without an agenda and spontaneity without a carefully calculated outcome. The value of whimsy lies partly in what it makes possible: stronger friendships, unexpected discoveries, a greater appreciation for the present, and a sense of identity that extends beyond academic and professional achievement. These things may not translate directly into career advancement; however, they matter to the lives we are preparing to lead. A successful future is not much of a reward if we spend the present forgetting how to enjoy ourselves, establish who we are as individuals, or be surprised by the world around us. I want a Penn where our futures do not consume the entirety of our present. There should be room here for people to be ridiculous. And more importantly, there should be room to encounter people as people, not just as their vocational endeavor — especially because some of the most meaningful relationships we form in college may have absolutely nothing to do with our professional lives. Penn does not need less ambition; it needs to find the balance between pursuing professional development and human connection. We spend so much of our lives being told to become something. So maybe for a little while, we should also be allowed to simply be someone. ZOE MACKEY is a College junior studying political science from Philadelphia. Her email is zmackey@sas. upenn.edu

Penn has a self-hatred problem PIPER’S PENN PAL | Penn has made it normal for us to hate ourselves

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A wise woman once told me that people rarely behave in a way that doesn’t benefit them. I’ve been trying to figure out what benefit Penn students get out of hating themselves. As I trek across campus, I hear the buzzing sound of self-hatred echoing louder than the music in my headphones: “I’m so stupid.” “I ate so bad last night.” “I look disgusting.” “I literally did nothing today.” The words slip so casually out of our mouths that they almost sound like greetings. We say them in passing, between classes, over lunch, while getting ready to go out. We hear them from our friends and offer our own in return. Interestingly, the levels of loathing fluctuate depending on the time of year. We hate ourselves most during exam season, when we can’t force ourselves to sit in the same room for an additional 10 hours (how lazy). When our classmates are getting offers at Goldman Sachs, and we can’t seem to get an internship that sticks (pathetic). Don’t forget when we skip a workout or eat a meal with fat (gluttony kills). Some days, I suspect that liking yourself truly is the most radical thing you can do at Penn. Say you’re exhausted and hate everything you’ve done this week, and everyone nods along. Say you’re actually quite happy with yourself, and suddenly it’s a little uncomfortable. How complacent. Don’t you know you could be doing more? Moreover, I find myself constantly perplexed by how such accomplished people have such little belief in themselves in the face of any slight external failure. We are successful, hardworking, young, and beautiful. Some of the best of our generation. Annoying and snooty, sure, and naturally, we’re still working on that empathy and humility thing. But for the most part, we have the resources, privilege, and brains to be great contributors to our world. Why does no one act like it? The devil’s advocate would say, “What are you talking about? Penn students notoriously have a huge, undeniable ego.” Well, of course, I must concede. We do have

an egregious amount of ego. I can’t forget the time I had to explain why my equally smart high school classmates chose community college (why, when they could go somewhere actually “good”?). Or the scared look someone gives me when I mention that I’m from West Virginia, as though I’ve just escaped the wilderness and luckily made my way into the suitable society that is Penn. Most often, it shows in the way some students assume their family connections, summer internships, or social circles make them inherently more interesting than the rest of us. It’s all ego. Yet, ego is not self-love. It’s quite literally the absence of it. If our confidence seems to exist only as long as we have something to show for it, it demonstrates a lack of belief in the person who exists underneath all of those accomplishments. To me, it’s not a quirky, “take it on the chin” part of our culture. Rather, it’s an epidemic taking away our enjoyment of our days here. How can we be happy with anything we do if we’re at constant war with ourselves? And why does Penn’s culture support it? I might even go so far as to say much of what we put ourselves through leans toward masochism. Because, when we do get that job, that person, or that invite, that nagging voice of self-doubt will still be there looking for the next avenue to prove our worth. I don’t think any of us would choose to spend our days this way, but I do think we’ve convinced ourselves that we have to. If I’m not worried about an exam, am I taking the class seriously enough? If I’m content without an internship lined up, am I falling behind in my career? Should self-criticism really be proof we care? I’ve started to speculate what all of this actually does for us. We can search for a job while telling ourselves each rejection is proof we haven’t done enough or are simply unemployable. Or we can accept that rejection is part of looking for a job and trust that we still have something to offer the next employer. Either way, we send out the same applications. Only one version of us has to sit through the process

CONNIE ZHAO | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Senior columnist Piper Slinka-Petka argues that Penn culture has normalized self-loathing.

repeatedly convincing ourselves we suck. It seems counterproductive, and honestly, a little torturous. The world is already more than willing to tell us what we lack. Why are we so eager to join in? The best thing we can give ourselves is the freedom to go through life without being our own harshest critic. Telling ourselves that we are good even when we fail. We are young and free to make mistakes. We don’t have to have every aspect of our entire lives — career, romance, friends, health — entirely maximized. The American antipleasure crusade has just convinced us of it. I think, in some strange way, engaging in this behavior makes us feel in control. If I can convince myself that I didn’t get the job because I’m not good enough, then perhaps I can become good enough for the next one. If someone doesn’t like me back, perhaps I can change something about myself until they do. It’s exhausting, but it’s easier than accepting that sometimes things just won’t go our way, no matter how impressive or beautiful or interesting we are. And maybe that’s why we hold on so tightly

to the things we can point to: the internship, the grade, the social status of the people we hang out with. They reassure us, for a moment, that we’re doing something right. Penn has convinced us that tearing ourselves down is simply part of doing it all, that we must always be reaching for more and reminding ourselves how far we have left to go. But your life is made up of the days you spend living it, including the ordinary ones when there’s nothing new to add to your CV. I ask you to consider how you speak to yourself during those days. You are the one person you will spend every one of them with. Start treating that person with some love now, because if you keep waiting until you’ve done enough to deserve it, you may never let yourself begin. PIPER SLINKA-PETKA is a College junior studying health and societies from West Virginia. Her email address is pipersp@sas.upenn.edu.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2026

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

OPINION 5

Kill your ego before it kills your curiosity CONTRIBUTION | Stop fearing stupidity There is something so profoundly stupid about being afraid of looking stupid — especially on a college campus. Penn is exactly the kind of place that creates this tension, fostering a culture where students feel as though they can never be wrong, even in learning settings like lecture halls, classrooms, and recitations. But it’s nonsensical for university students to feel as though they don’t have space to be ignorant. At an institution where we demand excellence from ourselves, we should learn to embrace ignorance instead of fearing it. We can achieve this by placing ourselves in situations that challenge our intelligence and self-perceptions, cultivating the humility necessary for intellectual and personal growth. When you reflect on the considerable effort required to get into Penn, it’s no surprise that this school can be a difficult place to find your way. In high school, everyone was at the top of their class, everyone was in club leadership positions, and everyone had volunteer hours. Flash forward to your first semester at Penn, and a 1600 SAT score isn’t an anomaly the way it would be in high school; it’s the baseline. Pre-Penn, our identities were extensions of our intelligence — but what happens when everyone around you is just as esteemed as you are? Being wrong becomes a threat. Not only is ignorance now a weakness, but it’s also proof to those around you that you don’t belong in this space. Swiss psychologist and academic Carl Jung was a pioneer in helping us understand concepts of the human psyche. Jung famously distinguished between two important concepts, “the ego” and “the self” — the self encompassing the entire mind’s psyche, and the ego composing our personal sense of “I.” These two concepts are especially applicable on a campus like Penn, where students unnecessarily incite their egos to the degree that they begin to measure their

self-worth based on their academic, extracurricular, or professional achievement. Rather than getting swept up in Penn’s culture of preprofessionalism, students should learn that it’s a marathon, not a race, and no amount of comparison will ever bring fulfillment. In his text “Modern Man in Search of a Soul,” Jung stated, “It is as though the ego were the earth, and it suddenly discovered that the sun (or the self) was the centre of the planetary orbits and of the earth’s orbits as well.” At Penn, students mindlessly prioritize the ego, losing touch until they’ve really started to believe that the sun revolves around the earth. Jung’s model of the psyche is pertinent to Penn students, who should understand that the ego is just an extension of the self. In doing so, students can recognize that a lot of their actions feed the ego, but are actually harmful to the self. Subconsciously making things like Greek life or social clubs a priority doesn’t help to improve the self — it just builds up the ego. Even things like club applications, internships, and recruiting can be a slippery slope that can be unhealthy and harmful. In psychology, a psychedelic ego death is the deterioration of your sense of self. Borrowing from this concept, I think we should all be intentionally destructing the identities we construct around our intelligence and accomplishments. As high-achieving students, too often do we allow our egos to interfere with our ability to learn. Penn students specifically are conditioned to care more about the performance of perfection. We chase the perception of esteem and relevance because Penn is notorious for churning out corporate professionals, ready to take on industries like banking and finance at the ripe age of 21. But if we could escape the preconception that this is the standard every student has to achieve, maybe our egos wouldn’t be so bloated. Maybe it would be easier to humble

CONNIE ZHAO | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Contributor Elijah Ramirez argues that Penn’s culture of competition interferes with the capacity for humility, learning, and personal growth.

ourselves and actually learn from each other. As students, we should assume that all of us are ignorant about more things than we care to admit. Penn’s hypercompetition can lead to an experience paralleling that of an ego death — that is, a complete loss of our identity. This results when the ego’s performative bubble of protection is popped, and we no longer have the sense of security in our intelligence or even our sense of belonging. While confidence and assurance are necessary for staying tenacious at a school like Penn, it’s important we all learn to know that our capabilities have limits, so that growth becomes a priority for all of us. The ego is a necessary component of the mind’s psyche.

While we can’t get rid of the ego, we can work to better understand it and the ways in which it functions. Using Jung’s analysis, we can aim to build better habits that allow the ego and the self to work in tandem. We can also intentionally put ourselves in situations where we’re confident we won’t be the best — because doing so will allow us to retain humility and grow intellectually.

not begin in senior year of high school. It starts with a random neighbor, sibling, or even distant relative who can introduce them to Penn initially. For students coming from regions where Penn’s presence is smaller, changing states can feel like adapting to an entirely different world. Students from other parts of the country may lack the same exposure to the University through alumni connections, made evident by the lack of representation at home. Less representation means less familiarity with fellow students, and consequently, more isolation on campus. Still, New York’s dominance on campus extends beyond just convenience. When students can frequently return home and maintain relationships over breaks and weekends, relationships continue developing beyond campus. As for students who live across the country, their connections depend on longer breaks. Over time, these differences can influence the formation of social circles, shaping whose friendships remain continuous and whose require greater effort. New York’s proximity, then, does not only influence physical campus life; it also influences the social obstacles students must navigate. Numerical representation does not necessarily

translate into cultural representation. While Penn may admit students from across the country, the disproportionate visibility of certain regions can shape the social environments that students encounter once they arrive. Don’t get me wrong: I am well aware that Penn is located on the East Coast. It would be out of touch to even expect campus culture to reflect anything other than the location at hand. But there is a difference between being located on the East Coast and having one region become so dominant that “the city” becomes shorthand for New York. Geographic diversity cannot be simply measured by how many states are supposedly represented in a University brochure. Instead, it should be measured by how adequately students from varying states can find their experiences reflected in the communities they can find. We go to school in Philadelphia, not New York. Penn students should start acting like it.

ELIJAH RAMIREZ is a College junior studying communication and English from El Paso, Texas. His email is elijah11@sas.upenn.edu.

New York or nowhere CONTRIBUTION | Penn is a mini New York City As a Penn student, you have probably heard that most people are from “the city.” But what city are we talking about exactly? Los Angeles? Chicago? At Penn, “the city” means one place only: New York. During my first week at Penn, I began conducting a sort of informal experiment: I asked nearly everyone I met where they were from, curious to see how many fellow Californians I would come across. By the end of New Student Orientation week, I was left wondering where they had all gone. But if we’re going off statistics, my impression shouldn’t make sense. Historically, California has been one of Penn’s largest feeder states. Out of early decision admits in the Class of 2026 alone, California made up 130 students of the incoming class, while New York constituted 141 spots. The numbers are close, but the campus experience doesn’t always feel that way. Maybe the question is how students from particular regions — like New York or the Northeast — seem to shape campus culture. Part of New York’s visibility on campus can be explained by proximity. New York is close enough that students from there have the luxury to go home on the weekends, visit family, and maintain friendships; this

proximity is a simple pleasure that Californians don’t get to experience. Going home for us may mean taking a lengthy flight, resulting in a disruption that East Coast students here will never experience. Proximity allows East Coast students to remain in touch with their homes in a way that West Coast students cannot. Because of this physical divide, proximity becomes a form of privilege and states become status symbols. More than anything, East Coast students arrive at Penn with overlapping networks in place: friends from high school, mutual connections, or simply more familiarity with certain places and references. These networks extend into campus life, placing New York at the center of Penn’s social culture, even though we reside in our own city. In fact, for many East Coast students, familiarity with Penn begins long before they even set foot on campus. Penn’s second-largest alumni population is situated in metropolitan New York and consists of over 46,000 graduates. As for the West Coast, alumni presence is staggeringly smaller; San Francisco holds fifth place for alumni concentration, home to a mere 9,500 graduates. For some East Coast students, the Penn experience does

YASMINE SANTINI is a College first year studying philosophy from Los Angeles. Her email is ysantini@sas.upenn.edu.

6 NEWS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2026

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

News

Penn AI portal garners mixed feedback

Some users praised the platform’s secure artificial intelligence access while others questioned the need for a separate platform MAHMOUD STAITIEH Staff Reporter

Despite adding new features and touting usage rates since its launch this summer, Penn’s secure artificial intelligence portal remains relatively unknown among many students. PennChat, which launched in July and completed its pilot phase a month later, gives the Penn community access to select Claude and ChatGPT large language models within the University’s network. Some users praised the platform’s secure AI access and document-generation capabilities, while others questioned the need for a separate portal. Tiffany Hanulec — Information Systems and Computing’s executive director of technology services and chief technology officer — wrote in a statement that the portal has “strong usage,” with nearly 6,000 registered users. She added that ISC has implemented web search and image generation and will “continue to evolve the service over time” in response to user feedback. Previously, PennChat’s models were unable to query the web and had knowledge cutoffs at 2024 or 2025. “The AI models themselves do not browse the Internet directly, but a controlled search capability retrieves current public information on the model’s behalf,” Hanulec wrote. “Your data remains protected, and Penn data is never used to train AI models.” According to PennChat’s technical roadmap, one planned feature is integration with the University’s Box service, which allows for secure file sharing. Angela Ross, a genetic counselor at Penn Medicine, said that she likes PennChat “in general” and mainly uses it for wordsmithing, though she acknowledged that “a lot of the time it’s wrong,” similar to LLMs accessed elsewhere. She found that the portal was “a bit slower” compared to the AI integrated in Microsoft Bing. When PennChat launched, Ross initially believed

HUMANITIES, from front page declined in popularity among undergraduates. “It used to be a third of the College of Arts and Sciences at Penn was humanities majors, and now we’re down closer to 15%,” English professor Jed Esty said in an interview. From 2015 to 2025, the number of students working toward a bachelor’s degree in the humanities decreased by 28% nationwide. The “huge decline” in enrollment has to do with students “taking humanities for granted,” according to Department of Francophone, Italian, and Germanic Studies Chair Fritz Breithaupt. “For a long time, there’s been a bias towards seeing scientific or technological fixes to different ‘problems’ as inherently better in some way,” Truitt said.

that the portal would be “hospital-safe.” After attending a “town hall” on the technology, however, she has avoided inputting patient identifiers. ISC’s guidance encourages users to “avoid entering identifiable and protected health information (including names and Medical Record Numbers) when not specifically needed to complete the task.” The Perelman School of Medicine provides the same guidance. Annenberg School for Communication Systems Administrator Etienne Jacquot said that he uses the portal to aggregate information on emerging security vulnerabilities, identify affected systems, and generate reports. “The expectations now from the central University for information security staff are that we’re meeting or matching the velocity at which these vulnerabilities are made public and that remediation or mitigation is applied,” Jacquot explained. After completing his master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Jacquot became “more conservative in thinking about how we expose our community to risk through technical infrastructure.” He highlighted recent cybersecurity incidents Penn has faced, including ShinyHunters’ attack last October. Outside of PennChat, Jacquot emphasized the importance of using LLMs through enterprise licenses, especially when inputting University-related data. With the enterprise licenses, “everything that students and staff do is intellectual property of the University as part of the contractual agreement,” Jacquot said. On the contrary, the “commercial subscriptions are going to train and do whatever they want with the data that you give to them.” “You’re now giving them University property,” Jacquot said. Penn organizes data into th ree r isk

classifications: low risk, which includes “information authorized to be available on or through Penn’s website without PennKey authentication,” moderate risk, which includes “university directory information that has been designated for Penn view or otherwise restricted,” and high risk, whose loss of confidentiality would “have a significant adverse impact on the University’s mission, safety, finances, or reputation.” Annenberg School lecturer Matthew O’Donnell said he views PennChat as a potentially “useful pedagogical tool.” He cited difficulties in detecting plagiarism and properly citing AI usage, which requires transparency regarding prompts, responses, and the chosen LLM. According to O’Donnell, some students may not know how to document their AI usage, and some LLM options do not allow users to export chat transcripts as downloadable files. “Potentially, a centralized tool allows you to say, ‘Yes, you can use PennChat on this assignment in this way,’ and be aware that it’s just like doing something in Canvas,” O’Donnell said. He compared Penn’s AI resources to the University of Michigan’s generative AI page, which he said offers “a much more centralized and also flexible provision.” Engineering senior Thomas Fanjul said he thinks that PennChat is a generally positive tool, especially in comparison to Google Gemini’s document-generation abilities. Fanjul highlighted a proposal he compiled for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which was originally well over the five-page limit. “The Gemini response gave me a seven-page response, and it missed a lot of the important information,” he said. “I put it into PennChat, and it looked a lot better.” However, Fanjul said he rarely uses the platform

otherwise because accessing it requires a connection to Penn’s Wi-Fi or GlobalProtect VPN. Fanjul said he did not know any other students who used the portal and that most people he knew had “never heard” of it. According to Penn’s Policy on Privacy in the Electronic Environment, the University reserves the right “to access, review and release electronic information that is transmitted over or stored in University systems or facilities.” In case of an investigation for violation of law or “a suspected serious infraction of University policy,” authorized officials have the right to access electronic data “without the consent of the assigned user.” College first year Andrew Lee described himself as an infrequent user, arguing that PennChat was “very basic” and limits AI to being “only a chatbot.” “Claude is able to create artifacts for you to work on,” Lee said in an interview, referring to Claude’s ability to generate outputs like interactive study guides and websites. “PennChat is just a chatbot that has the ability to select models.” He also added that the portal was not “marketed that well” and that he does not know anyone who regularly uses it. He suggested that Penn’s individual schools invest in an existing LLM subscription rather than “create their own.” In August, the Wharton School announced that students will gain access to free Claude Enterprise accounts. The subscription is offered alongside Wharton’s ChatGPT Edu workspace, which adds “enterprise-level security, enhanced privacy, and data agreements” to OpenAI’s LLM. The University rolled out similar paid Claude Enterprise accounts for the rest of the Penn community, offering a $16-per-month standard license or a $50-per-month premium license.

That trend has gained substantial ground on Penn’s campus. “Penn has a distinctive, professional oriented campus culture,” Philosophy professor Jennifer Morton wrote in a statement. But a focus on post-graduation outcomes, she added, does not necessarily reflect a lack of interest in the humanities. “We shouldn’t mistake students’ fear about their futures for a lack of intellectual curiosity,” Morton wrote. “What we need to do is find ways to interrogate and address students’ fears.” In comparison to other institutions he has worked at, professor and Undergraduate Chair of Philosophy Daniele Lorenzini said that Penn students “tend to feel more pressure to professionalize.” “Students don’t arrive here thinking that majoring in the humanities is career suicide, they get trained to think that,” Esty said. By gutting Ph.D. programs, he argued, Penn has worsened the issue.

“If you starve the doctoral programs, you reduce the vitality of the humanities fields, and that exacerbates an already difficult problem of undergraduates and their families being skeptical about the professional value.” Morton wrote that she’d “love” to see Penn “help students envision the many paths they can take after graduation, beyond the well-trod paths of careers in consulting, finance, and technology.” For Esty, what the humanities offer — “history, literature, art, culture, and religion” — constitutes the “vital” ingredients for developing an “interesting, reflective, and contextual thinker.” “A narrowly vocational and narrowly quantitative approach isn’t even as desirable as most students think it is,” he said. Humanities disciplines, Truitt said, provide students with a number of skills others cannot, including the ability to “read, synthesize, assimilate, and understand a great deal of disparate information quickly.”

Many of these skills, she argued, “are urgently needed for civic society.” While “a lot of other work will be replaced by AI,” Breithaupt said the same can’t be said for the humanities, which “stand out as a place where people engage in oral connection.” Penn has taken steps in the right direction, according to Associate Dean for Arts and Letters Josephine Park. In April, the College announced upcoming revisions to its undergraduate curriculum in an effort to cultivate curiosity and broaden the scope of students’ learning. The first-year Foundations sequence, Park wrote, will give students a sense of the “full range” of humanities disciplines. For Truitt, the work of a humanist is chiefly to understand “ourselves, human culture, in all of its forms, and human societies.” “We also recover lost knowledge and keep knowledge from becoming lost,” she said. “The fewer people we have doing that, the worse off we are.”

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2026

NEWS 7

Kelly Writers House begins new chapter Simone White entered a new role this summer as the center’s second-ever faculty director MBRESA SIMNICA Staff Reporter

Tucked along Locust Walk, Kelly Writers House has spent three decades building a literary community that has welcomed Penn students, faculty, and Philadelphia residents through its doors. What began in 1995 as a 13-room Victorian cottage has grown into a full-fledged center with expanded programming, a broader network, and a diverse set of staff. Now, as English professor Simone White joins longtime faculty director Al Filreis, the community is looking ahead to its next chapter. White entered her new role on July 1 as KWH’s second-ever faculty director. Filreis, who helped establish KWH, remains involved as associate faculty director — filling White’s previous position. White said she was familiar with KWH long before joining Penn’s English faculty in 2018, largely through her personal work and use of PennSound’s resources in the classroom. “I was drawn to it as a poet,” she said in an interview, adding that she had known many writers who visited the center and that she had previously recorded poetry discussions with Filreis. The leadership transition follows KWH’s 30th anniversary celebration in May, which brought together students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The celebration also marked the completion of a fundraising campaign that added $10 million to the institution’s endowment, bringing its total to $16.5 million. For Filreis, the idea behind KWH emerged from a gap he noticed in Penn’s community. “Writers had no place to go,” Filreis said in an interview. “I saw that they were feeling very orphaned by the University because the University didn’t seem to care about writers.” Filreis said that before KWH’s founding, students interested in writing often gathered in West Philadelphia coffee shops, bars, and apartments because they lacked a dedicated place on campus. Filreis said the University’s environment presented three limitations for students: time of day, space, and curriculum. KWH sought to address these barriers by creating an extracurricular setting where students could discuss ideas beyond the classroom. Jessica Lowenthal, who has directed KWH since 2006, said that although its programming has evolved over the years, the overall vision has remained consistent. “The structure and community are built in such a way that innovation is at its core,” Lowenthal said. Lowenthal first became involved with KWH as a Penn graduate student before transitioning to a staff position. She described her current responsibilities as “one part community work, one part budget work, one part event planning, one part historical memory.” Events and programming are organized by students and faculty. They can emerge from student initiatives, faculty courses, community meetings, or other suggestions. “It’s a complicated, community-driven event planning process,” Lowenthal said. White similarly emphasized that the center’s development into a “national literary hub” has depended on the contributions of various constituents over several decades. “As a poet, I have been able to get a kind of bird’seye view of what its importance really is,” White said,

SECURITY, from front page breach of its Oracle E-Business Suite, the business software Penn uses to manage internal operations. The University was one of nearly 100 organizations simultaneously impacted by the incident. The “only way to remove this huge attacker advantage is to systematically harden our infrastructure,” according to Pierce. “Not just with better design or testing, but by insisting that every piece of critical software comes with a mathematical proof that it is free of security vulnerabilities.” He added that the advent of artificial intelligence contributed to an evolving cybersecurity landscape. “We are on the cusp of a whole new era of attacks on computational infrastructure: frontier AI models have become terrifyingly good at discovering vulnerabilities, even in extremely well-tested and thoroughly vetted software,” Pierce wrote. Hicks agreed that AI models can find system vulnerabilities at record high rates. He pointed to Microsoft’s monthly software patches, which have hit record highs — from just 79 in March to more than 1,400 in October. “There are things that, just a few years ago, you would only have seen from state-level attackers and that are now within the reach of a smart high-school kid,” Haeberlen said. This month, Penn announced that it is beginning to phase out text messages and phone calls as two-factor authentication methods for PennKey holders, citing

SENATE, from front page running for U.S. Senate.” In an interview, Moor outlined a “dignity agenda,” rooted in the core tenet that there is no “liberty in poverty.” “The majority of Americans today are all one medical crisis away from personal bankruptcy,” he said. “I think the federal government is charged with providing universal access to childcare, universal access to healthcare, and affordable housing.” Moor’s campaign website outlines three major policy buckets: affordability, dignity, and anticorruption. Key policy positions include ending “wars and tariffs that have driven up costs” for Pennsylvanians, guaranteeing healthcare and childcare, and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE. Moor added that the country “should be providing access to high-quality, postgraduate education” — either at a “reasonable price or entirely free.” “The fact that the federal government doesn’t recognize the status of our universities in society and driving the American national interest forward is a challenge,” he said. After studying at Penn, Moor went on to receive a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University. While Fetterman has not indicated whether he will seek a second term, constituents and party members alike have routinely criticized him for voting with Republicans and for repeated absences from his Senate duties. “John Fetterman’s story is over,” Moor said. “I don’t know what he does. The view of him in office — given by The Wall Street Journal and The Inquirer — he’s a guy who hangs out on the couch and tweets

DP FILE PHOTO

KWH began in 1995 as a 13-room cottage.

crediting Filreis, Lowenthal, and “the decades of students who built the Writers House.” “This was a totally community effort,” she added. Michelle Taransky, a lecturer in critical and creative writing, highlighted how KWH has adapted to the interests of students and the broader community. “The longer the Writers House is in operation, I’m seeing it get better and stronger, and a better third space for students — and not just Penn students, but people from Philadelphia,” Taransky said in an interview. She came to Penn in 2008 to work as assistant to the director of KWH and has remained a member of the hub. “The Writers House makes impossible things happen every day in a really small cottage,” she said. “It’s been really affirming for me for decades, and especially in the age of artificial intelligence, that there is still great love for writing and reading without technology.” In Penn’s preprofessional culture, KWH acts as a counterbalance, supporting students interested in pursuing careers in the arts. Filreis acknowledged the tension between the center and the surrounding environment. “We both hate that and we embrace it,” Filreis said. “We’ve created this place as a sanctuary and an alternative to that attitude.” He added that many students involved with KWH are unsure about their careers and that even those who

know what they want to do still seek to maintain their interest in creative expression. At the same time, KWH supports students’ professional development through programs such as RealArts@Penn, which offers paid internships in the arts. “I think it’s just amazing that at a preprofessional university, so many people from so many disciplines and walks of life come together to care about and celebrate writing and students that write,” Taransky said. White similarly emphasized that KWH programming invites students from different academic disciplines. “Creative writing doesn’t mean that you’re an English major,” she said. “You could be a nursing student and be extremely interested in writing fiction.” She pointed to the Kelly Writers House Fellows program, which puts visiting authors in conversation with students from across Penn. As KWH enters its fourth decade, White will oversee its next phase of development. Filreis noted White’s experience and leadership qualities. “She was the perfect person to become the faculty director,” Filreis said. He added that he will work with White to ensure that the “succession is smooth.” “A lot of institutions don’t do smooth successions. This one is, and part of that is made possible by our mutual respect,” Filreis said. White described Filreis as a mentor, acknowledging

his efforts to prepare her for the position. “It’s a very unique and special relationship, and I’m very proud to call him my friend,” she said. White said her priority as faculty director is to maintain existing programs and ensure an easy transition. “Some of the things that we’re doing are just making sure that all of our constituents, both students and writers and faculty and all the people who use the Writers House daily, recognize that we’re still here, we’re still strong,” she said. Beyond this, White said she hopes to strengthen KWH’s relationship with the rest of the University community, including institutions such as the Institute of Contemporary Art. “One of the things that I hope to bring is a sort of revitalization of our connection with the broader arts community at Penn,” she said. That effort could include consolidating course offerings and continuing to think about “noncurricular ways that we can serve as a general arts center.” Looking ahead to the next 30 years, White said she envisions KWH growing into an international center for literature while remaining connected to future generations at Penn. “Hopefully we will know each other, and we’ll be able to tell each other stories about American literature,” White said. “We’re following the ebbs and flows of everything that’s happening in the world — that’s what literature does.”

industry standards and security concerns. “I think this is the problem of our time,” Hicks said. “How do we find a way to set up a system of incentives that finds the right balance between the security, quality, and robustness that we need, but also the functionality we need?”

CONNIE ZHAO | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

The Perelman Quadrangle on Nov. 4.

all day.” Fetterman, who was elected in 2022, has been a staunch advocate for the Israeli government over the course of his time in office, frequently drawing the ire of the Democratic Party’s more progressive wing. “I grew up in Philadelphia, but was born in Gaza, Palestine,” Moor’s campaign page reads. “A few years ago my birthplace was turned to rubble in a genocide funded by our tax dollars, with the support of politicians on both sides of the aisle who can’t find money for healthcare, transit, or removing asbestos from our schools.” A range of human rights organizations and experts — including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations — have labeled the Israel-Hamas war as a “genocide” by Israel of the Palestinian people. The “Palestinian genocide is the worst manifestation of what it means to have our public policy captured by special interests,” Moor said. Moor said he was encouraged by recent electoral wins for progressives around the country — including U.S. Representative-elect Chris Rabb. Rabb, who was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, won this month’s midterm election after defeating three rivals in the spring primary. “I feel the urgency around where we’re at today,” Moor said. “I’m encouraged that people are more committed to our constitutional republic than pundits seemed willing to acknowledge before the election. We’ve got to maintain the momentum.” Prior to developing an interest in a political career, Moor worked in finance and journalism. As a reporter, his coverage focused on international affairs, including political developments in the Middle East. “We have seen a surge in enthusiasm,” Moor said. “People are excited. They want to get out there, and they want to fight for a better quality of life in America.”

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8 SPORTS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2026

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

Sports

Men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery’s son diagnosed with cancer Jack McCaffery will take an indefinite leave from the University of Richmond basketball team and will be treated at Penn Medicine ANANYA KARTHIK Senior Reporter

Jack McCaffery, the son of Penn men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery, is taking an indefinite medical leave from the University of Richmond basketball team after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Jack McCaffery was evaluated by medical staff at Richmond earlier this week before traveling home and being admitted to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, according to a Nov. 8 statement from Penn Athletics. He has begun treatment at the hospital under the care of Penn Medicine doctors and nurses. Fran McCaffery, a 1982 Wharton graduate, thanked Richmond’s coaching staff and medical team for their prompt response, as well as University of Pennsylvania Health System CEO Kevin Mahoney and the hospital’s staff. “He is in great hands and our family feels blessed to be here, where Jack’s care is directed by this world-class care team,” Fran McCaffery wrote. Fran McCaffery joined the team’s coaching staff last fall and led Penn men’s basketball to its first March Madness appearance in eight years. Alison Wakoff Loren of Penn Medicine — who serves as the director of the Blood and Mar row Transplantation, Cell Therapy and Transplant program at the Abramson Cancer Center and the chief of the Division of Hematology & Oncology — expressed confidence in Jack McCaffery’s treatment and the medical team overseeing his care. “Any cancer diagnosis is distressing, especially at a young age, but we are confident in Jack’s treatment plan and Penn Medicine’s team of lymphoma experts,” Loren wrote in the statement. Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a “highly curable form of cancer,” she added, crediting years of dedicated research for improvements in prognosis. Jack McCaffery spent his freshman season at Butler University and transferred to Richmond this past offseason. “Our goal is to get Jack through his treatments safely and to return him to school and to his teammates on the basketball court as soon as we can,” Loren wrote.

KEVIN REN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

McCaffery during a game against Yale on Jan. 24.

“When I joined the class, I started a casual run club on Fridays. The club now has 400 members in our WhatsApp group, and we do a very easy run, like a 5k every Friday morning,” he said. “It’s been a great way for people to explore running, get into running for the first time, and also chat with some of their classmates.” He values running for its flexibility and how the sport can be be both individual and group oriented. “It’s interesting, going out for runs, training, and treating it as like an individual pursuit,” he said. “But it’s also incredible how social and team oriented it is.” This balance is well reflected in Penn’s club cross country and track and field team. College senior Nicole Chung, the women’s captain of the team, said the club is beginner friendly and accommodating to varying goals. “Our motto is anyone can join club cross country. I feel like as long as anyone is willing to put themselves out there and become fit and become stronger, we really appreciate that effort,” she said. “You literally don’t have to be a runner to join.” The team runs tailored practices on Mondays

RUNNING, from back page his training. “We’ll see if that translates into some speed on race day.” He will be participating in the famed “Italian Stallion Challenge,” a 13.1 mile combination of the 5k and 10-mile races with hopes to finish on the podium. And while he does have performance goals in mind, the race represents something bigger for him. “I’m Canadian, born in Canada, but my background is Italian, so there is a little bit of a sense of cultural pride there as well,” he said. “I think the fact that people are going out there to run really embodies the spirit of sort of pushing and working to fulfill your goals, no matter how hard they might be.” For many students, however, running goes beyond organized races and becomes part of their daily routines. For Mastromarini, this looked like starting a 400-member run group with his MBA classmates.

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Theme: Homecoming Instructions: To play Threads, search the grid for hidden words related to the provided theme. Each letter can only be used exactly once. Each game includes a “spangram,” which is a challenge word that connects two sides of the board and hints at the remaining words in the puzzle. This is not your ordinary word search: letters may be found horizontally, vertically, and diagonally for a single word! Play hundreds of more DP puzzles created at www.thedp.com/section/crosswords. Editor: Nira Goyal

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and Wednesdays and allows students to run with different pace groups during their practices. That leaves space for students who want to run competitively, like Chung, and those who run more recreationally, like College sophomore Claire Tremba. “When we go on our trail r uns on the Schuylkill River Trail, it is always packed with other college students, people commuting home from work, families, like all sorts of people from all backgrounds,” Tremba said. “It’s really cool to see people no matter where they’re coming from, they’re all united by running.” Chung — who has been running cross country since high school — is preparing for the Philadelphia Marathon in November. She found a community in the club team that made her a more competitive runner. Alongside others training for the marathon and other competitions, Chung runs 50-60 miles each week. “I think I have gotten more competitive with being in a club. There are a lot of our team members that consistently go to competitions. A lot of us were captains in our high school teams, but weren’t quite fast enough to make it to D-I,” Chung said. “So I feel like the competition spirit is still there for a lot of people,” she added. “For me specifically, I’ve definitely had more ambitious goals for my marathon time as a result of being in club running and as a result of running with others and running faster as a group.” For Tremba, her participation as a recreational runner has allowed her to prioritize her wellness. “I have gone to races with the club team, and I did my first half marathon last year. But for me, it’s definitely more about getting out of the house, keeping my body active, and making friends than it is chasing a PR,” she said. The team has also allowed her to reframe her relationship with the sport. “In high school, my senior track season was very difficult for me — I would be in tears on the line for a race. When I came to Penn, I think club track really helped me find my love for running again, and it reminded me that not everything has to be super serious. The point of running is to move your body, and it’s meant to be a hobby that you love,” she said. The reason these two distinct environments

can coexist in the same space is the overarching sense of community and support that exists on the team. For team members, running has been an avenue to form meaningful relationships on campus. “All you have to do is talk to each other on your runs. There’s not really other entertainment, so you really get to know the people you’re around, and I’m very grateful that since coming to college, a lot of my friendships from the running community have stayed very strong,” Tremba said. “I’ve been able to form new ones here as well.” Mastromarini describes the Penn running community as an accessible way to socialize while accommodating the demanding schedule that comes with being a student. “Running with classmates, running with the the Penn club cross country and track and field team, and then just also running in a new city. It’s something different than what students usually consider as core social activities, either going out or going to grab dinner,” he said. “The other thing that that running has given me that’s quite unique is just flexibility in terms of when I do it. I think being a student again, navigating a busy lifestyle, busy schedule, incorporating a run every day is a lot easier than doing a hockey or soccer practice,” he added. The sense of social support and accessibility is reflective of the broader appeal that running has throughout the city, including at the Rocky Run. Because registration for the Philadelphia Marathon and the Broad Street Run fill up quickly, Tremba said “the Rocky Run is great because it allows a lot of new people to participate in a weekend like that and get an experience that they otherwise wouldn’t.” During the race this weekend, Mastromarini will get to compete alongside other lovers of the sport and receive support from the Penn friends he has met through running. “I just want to be able to celebrate with my friends afterwards,” he said. “I have a whole bunch of friends from the program who all are going to be either running or cheering that day, and I think to cross the finish line in front of them, especially at my first race in the city, it’ll be pretty special for me.”

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SOCCER, from back page heading off the pitch for halftime. As the sun began setting behind the trees at Roberts Stadium, the Quakers looked to replicate their quick start to a half. The Quakers took advantage of corner kick opportunities, one of which produced a quality shot from freshman forward Jasper Moorhead, but Princeton’s backline foiled their attempts. The middle of the second half featured backand-forth play with many corner kicks but very few chances in any goalkeeper’s direction. The 77th minute flipped that narrative on its head, as Princeton unleashed a string of quality chances on net. Fortunately, Falcon blocked or turned away all of them. Another offensive rush from the Tigers looked promising, but senior defender Jack Niehenke got a foot in a passing lane and turned the ball upfield. Niehenke advanced upfield before getting hounded and leaving the ball off for Bottene, who dribbled across the top of the box before passing it back to sophomore defender Kalani Kunimura. Kunimura fired it on net, and a deflection from

DREXEL, from back page the stripe after a foul was called on junior guard Brooke Suttle. Njike responded, netting a layup to bring the score to 69-68 in favor of the Quakers. But the Dragons weren’t ready to give up yet. Drexel guard Laine McGurk capitalized on a second-chance opportunity outside the paint with less than five seconds on the clock, landing a 15-foot pull-up jump shot. It seemed as though hope was lost for the Quakers, but a personal foul on Drexel guard Julia Garcia Roig gave Gayle possession with one second on the clock. The Woodstock, Ga., native emulated a play from practice, passing to Njike for the critical shot. Njike initially looked unsteady, but ultimately recovered the ball and sank the first

HOWARD, from back page fouls less than two minutes into the game. “My two fouls earlier were just really bad fouls,” Mohammed said. “All my coaches told me just to be smart and have a medium between playing hard and not having to rebound.” Big names showed up Both Power and Mohammed had a standout night for the Red and Blue. In only his second game with the Quakers, Mohammed scored 17 points and went 8-for11 on the stripe, earning McCaffery’s praise. “He’s a shooter. He’s a driver. He’s a point guard. He’s a center. He’s all of that,” McCaffery said. “I thought he impacted the game in so many different ways, and that’s what we love about him.” But Power and Mohammed really got going during the second half. Penn put up a dual-threat offense with Power’s hot shooting from deep and Mohammed consistently drawing fouls and getting to the line, which

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2026 Bottene sent it into the top-right corner for Bottene’s second goal of the night, extending the Quakers’ lead to 3-1. Bottene finished the year with 10 goals and 22 points, both tops in the Ivy League. Bottene also had the most shots on goal with 26 and tied for the most game-winning goals with three in a remarkable season for the junior. From that point on, Princeton was in desperation mode. In order to win the match and clinch a tournament berth, the Tigers needed three goals in the final 12 minutes to stay alive. They got the first in the 84th minute, cutting the Quakers’ lead to 3-2, but the rush for time limited celebrations. Princeton had some control of the ball, but the Penn backline held strong. One last Penn chance upfield off Bottene’s foot was turned aside, and the Tigers ultimately ran out of time despite all 11 players being upfield. The Quakers congregated near Falcon’s goal, celebrating their tournament berth while undoubtedly knowing they still have work to do. The Ivy League tournament kicks off this Thursday, Nov. 12, in Ithaca, N.Y. The day starts with No. 1 seed Cornell (11-3-1, 6-0-1) facing off against No. 4 Harvard (4-7-4, 2-3-2) at 3:30 p.m., before the No. 2 Quakers take on No. 3 Yale (4-6-5, 2-1-4) at 7 p.m. The Quakers tied Yale earlier this season. game-winning buzzer-beater of her career, ending the Quakers’ Big 5 pod play losing streak that had stood since her sophomore year. “I just shot it,” Njike said. “I just hoped for the best, and the best happened.” “I’m just glad that we were able to do it, and also with this team,” Njike added. “We’ve worked super hard this preseason. I’m just happy we’re able to come out here and win it, especially after what happened last year.” Offensive rebounds contribute to dominance in the paint Although Drexel won the opening tip, Njike showed her dominance early on, scoring the first layup of the game in the paint off an offensive rebound. Within the first six minutes of the game, the Quakers put up boards like no one’s business, five of which were offensive rebounds extending Penn’s time of possession.

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ARIANA ARABADJIEV | DP FILE PHOTO

Then-sophomore Marco Bottene during a game against Harvard on Oct. 4, 2025.

Penn’s ball control was a critical factor as it dominated the time of possession throughout the game. The Quakers’ size and speed were especially assets as they limited the Dragons’ opportunities to execute scoring drives and convert early on. Despite open looks, Penn initially limited by shooting inaccuracy Last season, the Quakers had a reputation for sharp shooting in conference play. 2026 College graduate Simone Sawyer led the conference in free-throw percentage, shooting with an astonishing 88.1% accuracy from the stripe. While the Quakers’ precision was on full display in their season opener against Swarthmore — they shot 55% from the field, 38% from deep, and 88% from the stripe — Penn wasn’t nearly as efficient against Drexel. Suttle’s jumper one minute into the third quarter was the Quakers’ first successful three of the game

after nine unsuccessful attempts. Despite a few clutch threes from Kelley and Thatcher later on in the half, Penn was ice cold, going 18% on threes and 29% from the stripe. By comparison, Drexel shot 32% from deep and 83% from the stripe. Although Drexel was more accurate across the board, the Quakers were able to limit its scoring opportunities by playing an aggressive defense. Penn stole the ball six times, and blocked the Dragons twice. The Quakers’ defensive measures translated to success in the points column, earning 17 points off the Dragons’ 14 turnovers. “We tried to break the rhythm,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said. “I’m not sure we did a great job of that, but we also started switching some things that we didn’t switch up earlier.” With two victories under their belt, the Quakers are in a prime position to take on Norfolk State (1-1) on Sunday afternoon before returning to the Palestra to play Longwood on Thursday evening.

put the Bison into the bonus seven minutes into the half. “It really opens up the floor. … Me and Mike [Zanoni] were getting shots in that second half, and then Sir countered that with getting those fouls and getting us in the bonus, … it’s hard for teams to come back when they can’t play as aggressively on defense,” Power said. Lights-out shooting from the three-point line boosts the Quakers Nobody who watched the first half could have predicted Penn would end the night shooting 42% from the three-point line. After shooting only 2-for-12 in the first half, the Quakers came back out of the locker room a different team. They made their first seven three-pointers of the half, with Power leading the way with five three-pointers in seven minutes. Senior guard/forward Michael Zanoni supplied the other two and made the shot to give Penn its first lead of the night at 34-33. “TJ was cooking,” McCaffery said. The Quakers are back in action Saturday, Nov. 14, when they take on Saint Joseph’s in Philadelphia.

KEVIN REN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Mohammed dribbles past a defender during the game against Howard on Nov. 9.

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Bottene’s brace punches Penn’s ticket to Ivy League tournament The junior forward led the Quakers to a 3-2 victory over Princeton DANIEL OBSTGARTEN Sports Associate

CATHERINE GARCIA | SENIOR DESIGNER

Ahead of the Rocky Run, Penn’s running community hits its stride From competitions to run clubs, Penn students find their community through the sport AMBER URENA Staff Reporter

“All I wanna do is go the distance,” said famed and fictitious Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa in the 1976 film “Rocky.” Little did he know that every year since 2014, tens of thousands of runners of varying experience levels would line up in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to do exactly that: go the distance. Each November, Philadelphia’s Rocky Run commemorates the film franchise set in the city. The 5-kilometer, 10-mile and half-marathon races end at the famed Philadelphia Museum of Art’s “Rocky Steps” where participants are

greeted greet a bronze version of Balboa himself and take in the skyline. The Rocky Run is a snapshot of Philadelphia’s running culture, bringing together experienced runners, first-timers, and spectators. The sense of community permeates onto Penn’s own campus. Anthony Mastromarini is a first-year Wharton MBA student who has been running seriously for about four years. “I started casually during COVID, but then got into it more seriously when I decided to

Women’s soccer coach Krissy Turner steps down

Buzzer-beater propels Penn women’s Men’s basketball basketball to win over Drexel rebounds after In the team’s first Big 5 pod victory since 2023, the Quakers defeated early deficit to the Dragons 71-70 beat Howard

With a 22-30-27 overall record, Turner led the program for the past five seasons

The Quakers earned their first win of the season at the Palestra, beating the Bison 78-65

KAIA FEICHTINGER-ERHART Deputy Sports Editor

Coach Krissy Turner has stepped down from her position as the Penn women’s soccer coach, Penn Athletics announced Monday. “I have been a college coach for 35 years with many great memories, and all of them are about the studentathletes,” Turner wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian. “I think change can bring positives to the program and I look forward to rooting the team on as they strive to be the best in the Ivy League.” “I appreciate Krissy and all she has given to our women’s soccer program,” Athletics Director Alanna Wren said in the press release. “Her dedication to the program and our student-athletes has been evident throughout her time here, and we are grateful for her contributions to Penn Athletics. I wish her and her family the very best.” Turner was hired in 2022 and led the team for the past five seasons, posting a 22-30-27 overall record. Under Turner, the Quakers went 4-17-14 in Ivy League play. Penn earned its best conference finish under Turner this season, finishing sixth in the conference with seven conference points and a 1-2-4 record. During her tenure, eight women’s soccer players were All-Ivy selections. Before coaching at Penn, Turner was the head coach at Monmouth for 24 seasons. Her achievements with the Hawks included 10 regular-season and eight tournament conference championships. Monmouth posted a winning record in 21 of her 24 seasons. Turner wrote that she hopes her impact at Penn was “showing our players how much I cared about them as people as well as leaving [the] program better than when I arrived.” Penn Athletics will conduct a national search to find a new head coach.

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Turner poses for a picture. SEND STORY IDEAS TO DPSPORTS@THEDP.COM

spontaneously sign up for a marathon on my 25th birthday in Madrid,” he said. Since then, Mastromarini has not looked back. He’s run eight marathons and used his love for the sport to become more acquainted with the Penn community and the city at large. His current feat? Getting ready for the Rocky Run. “I’ve been essentially running seven days a week, doing typical long runs on the weekends, and then doing a couple of speed and interval session workouts during the week,” he said about

Penn men’s soccer has at least one more game to play. Men’s soccer earned the No. 2 seed in the Ivy League tournament after a 3-2 win over the Princeton Tigers. In their first win over the Tigers since 2024, junior forward Marco Bottene led the Quakers (7-3-5, 3-1-3 Ivy League) with two goals. Senior defender Owen Sullivan also scored for the Quakers, notching his first goal since 2024. With Princeton (7-5-4, 2-4-1) needing a win to earn a tournament berth, the Tigers came out of the gate with a burst of speed. Senior goalkeeper Phillip Falcon III thwarted an early chance with a diving save — the first of three saves during the match. The Quakers then took control as a quick punt upfield found Bottene, who worked his way around four Princeton defenders and fired a shot into the bottom right corner of the net. The thirdminute goal was Bottene’s ninth of the season. Princeton didn’t take long to respond. Seven minutes later, a broken offensive play for the Tigers saw Falcon come out of his net to get a piece of an initial shot. But the rebound settled on the foot of Princeton’s forward Jackson Martin, who took a touch and fired a shot through a maze of Penn defenders and over the head of Falcon to knot the game at one. Penn responded just as quickly. A play upfield from the kickoff got the ball on Bottene’s foot, but he got taken down outside the box. Playing with advantage, Penn sent a cross into the box that found Sullivan, who deflected it under the Princeton keeper to give the lead back to Penn, just 30 seconds after surrendering the tying goal. Not even two minutes later, Penn got great news out of Cambridge: Harvard and Dartmouth had played to a draw, securing Penn’s berth in the Ivy League tournament. The Quakers still had seeding to play for, however, and the game would go on. The rest of the first half featured significantly less excitement than the opening 15 minutes. Both teams had a few solid chances at the net, but neither recorded another shot on goal before

See RUNNING, page 8

ELLIE CLARK Sports Editor

Despite a last-minute venue change, Penn women’s basketball brought home-court energy in its Big 5 opener against Drexel. The Quakers narrowly beat the Dragons, 71-70, in their first Big 5 pod play victory since 2023. With one second left on the clock and a foul called on the Dragons (1-1) to give the Quakers (2-0) possession, senior guard Mataya Gayle passed the ball to senior center Tina Njike, who sank a 16-foot jumper in the final milliseconds to beat the buzzer. “Honestly, I’m still in shock,” Njike said in a postgame press conference. “I still can’t believe what just happened. We went through that play a lot in practice, and they actually talked about that exact same position happening in practice … I fumbled it a little bit, but I’m happy it all worked out.” Every starter except junior forward Katie Collins scored in double figures to support the Quakers’ victory. Njike led Penn with a 19-point performance, tying her career high, while freshman guard Rachel Thatcher impressed with 14

points and seven rebounds in her second collegiate game. Here’s how the Quakers came back and pulled off the upset. Explosive final minute seals the Dragons’ fate Drexel was up by five points, 34-29, going into the second half. The Dragons would hold on to that lead until junior forward Gabriella Kelley sank a critical shot from deep at the top of the fourth quarter, igniting a Quakers scoring run that gave Penn the lead for the first time since the first half. Six ties and five lead changes defined the second half. This back-and-forth play was emphasized at the bottom of the fourth quarter, when Gayle took advantage of a defensive rebound from Collins to break a 65-65 tie with just over a minute left on the clock. The Dragons responded with a driving layup in the paint of their own and reclaimed the lead on See DREXEL, page 9

JEKEUN JUNG | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Penn women’s basketball celebrates following their win against Drexel on Nov. 6. ONLINE AT THEDP.COM

See SOCCER, page 9

KAIA FEICHTINGER-ERHART AND GRANT HAN Deputy Sports Editor and Staff Reporter

According to basketball legend LeBron James’ favorite saying, putting yourself in uncomfortable situations is a prime way to build character. The Red and Blue proved that Monday. After a slow start, Penn men’s basketball clawed back from a 15-1 deficit to a 78-65 win against the Howard Bison (1-2) at the Palestra. Senior forward TJ Power led all scorers with 23 points, shooting 6-for-12 from the three-point line. “We kept driving at both ends,” Penn coach Fran McCaffery said. “We really grinded just to get back in the game and to get to halftime.” Coming out of the locker room after halftime, Penn (1-2) was a different team. The Quakers more than doubled their point total, with Power going off for 15 points in the first six minutes of the half. After struggling with rebounding and turnover battles in the first half, the Quakers outperformed the Bison on the boards 22-16 and forced six extra points off turnovers. It was the first game with McCaffery on the sidelines since the announcement of his son’s cancer diagnosis, which Jack McCaffery will be treated for at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. “I think we’re doing about as well as we could; [we] feel very good about where he is right now. One of the best hospitals in the world,” McCaffery said. “As parents, … that’ll be a long journey.” The McCaffery family will also have the full support of his father’s team. “Over the past few years, I’ve grown close to coach and his family, so I think the thing for us is just to be really locked in on the things that we can control on the basketball side, and then provide any sort of support we can,” Power said. Here are three takeaways from Penn’s home opener. This team will not go down without a fight Opening the season with a 42-point blowout loss to Illinois can put a heavy mental load on a team. Unless you’re the Penn Quakers, of course. “I thought we learned a lot in Illinois,” McCaffery said of his team’s mentality. “We followed the game plan for a while, and then when the run of play shifted, we didn’t handle it like we should. I think that’s part of why we’re able to overcome a slow start tonight.” Junior guard Sir Mohammed also overcame some mental struggles against the Bison after picking up two See HOWARD, page 9