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PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026

VOL. CXLII

Penn quiet as other Ivies move to curb grade inflation Administrators have identified grade inflation as an area of potential concern, but the University has yet to announce specific action ALEX DASH Senior Reporter

Efforts to rein in grade inflation are gaining traction across the Ivy League. At Penn, the conversation is just getting started. Harvard University faculty voted in May to cap A grades at roughly 20%, while other peer institutions have formed committees to examine the issue. Although Penn administrators have identified grade inflation as an area of potential concern, the University has yet to announce an investigative body or outline a specific policy direction. Penn President Larry Jameson described the issue as a “worthy” topic for faculty members to “discuss and assess” in an August interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian. “I think it’s almost self-evident that if you take grade inflation to an extreme, it’s not particularly meaningful,” Jameson said at the time. “On the other hand, I don’t see the value in just creating an artificial construct when I want to assess students based upon their competency, and I can imagine a small, specialized class where the only students who have chosen to take it have extraordinary expertise.” According to Jameson, the Office of the Provost has taken preliminary steps to assess the University’s grading policies in collaboration with undergraduate deans. He clarified, however, that “there’s certainly no decision we’ve made at this point.” A spokesperson for the Provost’s Office explained that their team has been “working with the four undergraduate schools to assess whether any changes would help to advance our shared goal of continuing to support the success and wellbeing of Penn students.” That process includes “hearing the perspectives of many members of the Penn community about grading policies,” the spokesperson wrote. Jameson also acknowledged grade inflation in his October 2025 letter rejecting the White House’s preferential funding compact, which asked universities to “commit to grade integrity” among other priorities. While Jameson emphasized his disagreement with many of the document’s points, he wrote that Penn shares “concerns about grade inflation” and could imagine “an opportunity to engage the higher education community to seek a broader solution.” Nearly a year later, Penn has not made any formal

NO. 23

TIME TO DROP OUT? As the tech industry booms, more students are forgoing degrees for the startup scene

KORI ROBINSON Staff Reporter AKSHAY GUPTA | DESIGN ASSOCIATE

For generations, there was nothing ambitious students coveted more than a four-year degree from an Ivy League school. Today, at Penn, a growing number are betting they can do better. The traditional calculus of a prestigious education has changed for many of these students. A diploma is no longer the only prize worth their time — and for some, waiting until graduation to take a shot at a startup feels like the bigger gamble. Penn’s Office of Academic Services has seen an increase in the number of students taking a leave of absence to pursue professional opportunities, according to Penn Engineering Director of Student Success and Advising Olivia Roth. Shalini Nag — the executive director of Penn’s Venture Lab, a University-wide center for entrepreneurship and innovation — wrote in a statement that “students are thinking about entrepreneurship earlier and more seriously than they might have a decade ago.” “Students simply have much more visibility into entrepreneurship than previous generations did,” she added. “They see founders building companies in real time,” Nag wrote. “They see classmates working on startups.

They follow investors, founders, and new technologies online. They’re hearing about entrepreneurship through courses, student organizations, internships, alumni, and their own peer networks.” But Roth remains committed to the value of the Penn undergraduate experience. “Students have a lifetime to work, launch companies, and change the world,” she wrote. “The Penn undergraduate experience is a magical window of time.” During his sophomore spring, Nanda Guntupalli took a leave of absence to found Taiga, a billing service that sends notes from doctors to insurance companies for reimbursement. After Y Combinator backed his startup, Guntupalli — who had been on track to graduate with the Class of 2028 — decided to take a gap semester. The accelerator program invests $500,000 in select startups four times a year, with the goal of compressing months of growth into a few weeks. Guntupalli and his friends had been eyeing Y Combinator since high school, he said in an interview. The accelerator drills startups on sales, product, and customer communication, he explained, before a final stage where

Ten years later, Perry World House Theft has consistently accounted for the largest share of crime, making continues to shape up roughly two-thirds of known offenses in 2025 global policy ELEFTHERIA SERMPETI Staff Reporter

Since opening in 2016, the center has expanded its reach across campus while engaging students, scholars, and policymakers

Penn names presidential search committee

MBRESA SIMNICA Staff Reporter

Two professors, six trustees, and a trustee emerita will identify candidates and eventually make a recommendation to the University Board of Trustees JACK GUERIN Senior Reporter

See SEARCH, page 3

NEWS Many Penn students move off campus after their sophomore year, prompting a scramble to find housing

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See STARTUPS, page 2

Campus crime up since 2020, in line with national trend

See GRADES, page 3

Penn has assembled a committee to lead the selection of the University’s next president. The search committee, announced on Monday by University Board of Trustees Chair Ramanan Raghavendran, is the second formal step in the presidential search, following a consultative committee that determined key priorities and qualifications. Two professors, six trustees, and a trustee emerita will identify candidates and eventually make a recommendation to the Board of Trustees. All nine members, including Raghavendran, also served on the consultative committee, which was established in August. “I want to thank the members of the Consultative Committee for their time and the thoughtfulness they brought to every conversation,” Raghavendran wrote in the announcement. “Together, they

companies can raise additional money. For him, taking a leave of absence from Penn was a “no-brainer.” “I mean, I think the benefit of being young is that if the company doesn’t go as planned, I always have the option to come back,” he said. Guntupalli still wants to finish his studies eventually, but he does not see education and professional experience as two separate things. “I think they’re definitely very intertwined, especially early in your career,” he said. Daichi Hiraoka arrived at the School of Engineering and Applied Science with the Class of 2028 and was accepted to Y Combinator in his sophomore year. He applied with his childhood best friend and his roommate, Martin Pan, with whom he had “tossed ideas around” since his first year. Both Hiraoka and Pan decided to take a leave of absence from Penn to pursue their company, Korso. Initially an effort to modernize manufacturing software with artificial intelligence, the company pivoted — to what the founders describe as “a desktop AI assistant that sits on

Crime on and around Penn’s campus has climbed steadily over the past five years. To understand how that increase has affected Penn and the surrounding University City neighborhood, The Daily Pennsylvanian examined figures from Penn’s Annual Security & Fire Safety Reports as well as Weekly Crime Reports. The data — organized by type of crime, location, and time — offers a detailed picture of how, where, and when infractions occur. From 2020 to 2025, violent and property crime on and around campus rose every year, from 593 reported offenses in 2020 to 1,275 in 2025 — an increase of 115% over the period. Violent crime includes criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated and simple assault. Property crime covers burglary, theft, motor vehicle and attempted motor vehicle theft, and arson. Total crime also includes offenses such as forgery, fraud, and vandalism. NEWS SEPTA unveiled a new transit expansion plan. It may still fall short for Penn commuter students

The broader increase in crime over that period is consistent with the country at large, Vice President for the Division of Public Safety Kathleen Shields Anderson said in an interview. “Violent crime rose, not only in Philadelphia, but consistent with the national trends, in the first few years after the start of COVID,” she said. “You’ll see a lot of those numbers much lower in 2021, and then see them slowly increase.” Theft accounted for the largest share of crime every year, making up 66.7% of known offenses in 2025. Motor vehicle theft and simple assault followed, at 15.9% and 10%, respectively. That year, DPS reported 1,275 violent and 190 nonviolent crimes, for a total of 1,465. The statistics reflect an expanded geographic area beyond Penn’s campus, according to the report. “Theft has always been our highest reported See CRIME, page 2

OPINION The Daily Pennsylvanian Editorial Board examines Penn’s culture of sexual violence

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Ten years after Perry World House opened its doors at Penn, the center has adapted to a changing world while retaining its founding mission. PWH opened in September 2016 following a $10 million gift three years earlier from 1977 Wharton graduate and then-Trustee Richard Perry and his wife, Lisa. Since then, the institution has expanded its reach across campus while engaging students, scholars, and policymakers. In an interview, Political Science professor and PWH Faculty Director Michael Horowitz — who has long been affiliated with the center — said that former Penn President Amy Gutmann envisioned PWH as a way to bring together expertise on global policy issues across Penn’s 12 schools. The goal, he said, was to “make the whole bigger than the sum of the parts in a way that could create transformational experiences” for the Penn community. In preparation for that role, PWH began its programming even before its physical space opened. The building replaced the Kappa Alpha Society’s old house on Locust Walk. Most of the old building was torn down, leaving “a huge hole in the ground” during construction, Horowitz explained. “While all of that construction was going on from 2014 to 2016, World House was starting to ramp up programming across the University,” he added. Just a year after its opening, the center received nearly $500,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York — now known as the Andrew Carnegie Foundation — to assist its Global Innovation See PWH, page 2

SPORTS Penn men’s soccer beat Dartmouth in its first Ivy League contest before drawing with Loyola University Maryland

2 NEWS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN | THEDP.COM

News A look at the off-campus housing search near Penn Juniors at Penn cited cost as a primary motivation for moving off campus EMILY KOHLER Staff Reporter

For undergraduates at Penn, becoming an upperclassman often comes with the struggle of finding off-campus housing. Students are required to live in a college house for a minimum of two years, after which they can choose to move off campus or continue living on campus. Often, this decision comes with a major cost consideration,

as on-campus housing rates have been steadily rising over the past five years. For the 2026-27 academic year, on-campus housing rates for upperclassmen were set at either $13,644 or $17,898, depending on the room type. In interviews, juniors at Penn cited cost as a primary motivation for moving off campus, adding that the timeline for

DEREK WONG | DP FILE PHOTO

Students walk past the Campus Apartments office on Aug. 7, 2023.

CRIME, from front page crime, and that’s why we conduct safety presentations and seminars,” Shields Anderson said. “Our strategy leans heavily on reducing opportunity rather than targeting motive.” In 2021, there were 41 reported motor vehicle thefts. That figure jumped to 225 in 2024 before falling to 203 in 2025 — the first reported decrease since 2017. According to Shields Anderson, the earlier rise stems from a change in how the city and Pennsylvania classify e-scooters, which are now counted as motor vehicles. The increase in scooter thefts has been a particular concern for DPS, which issued a campus-wide email last year about its investigation into thefts in areas patrolled by Penn Police. Penn has continued to improve its infrastructure, aiming to bring the numbers down. Efforts include placing hang tags reminding students to register and lock their scooters and a recent investment in secure scooter racks. “The fact that we saw a significant drop since last year is a testament to the effort that the University has put into this issue,” Shields Anderson said. “We don’t know what someone’s motive is for committing crime, but if we can take away their opportunity, that can reduce crime.” According to Shields Anderson, crime around campus has dropped, and total crime today is down 18% compared with the same period last year. In the past 12 months, from September 2025 to

PWH, from front page Program. The grant-funded workshops and initiatives focused on interdisciplinary conversation and international policy issues. Over the following years, the center broadened both its programming and its network. “The mission of World House has always been the same,” Horowitz said, describing its focus as “bridging the gap between academia and the policy world.” One example is its Distinguished Visiting Fellows Program, a key avenue for connecting Penn students and faculty with policymakers, government officials, and scholars from around the world. The program, which has existed since PWH’s inception, has a cohort of 14 global leaders this academic year. While its institutional values have remained steady, other aspects of PWH have changed over time. When it first opened, the center’s work focused on two broad themes: global order and global shifts. In summer 2024, the center reorganized its work around security, climate change, global justice and human rights, and democracy. “World House is an institution that is supposed to reflect a changing world, and so what we do reflects that as well,” Horowitz said. Political Science professor Beth Simmons, a member of PWH’s faculty council, said the change was intended to give the center “a little more precision” in what it focused on. She explained that the revised structure better matched the faculty, visiting fellows, and other resources the center has built over time.

EBUNOLUWA ADESIDA | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Perry World House on March 7.

September 2026, retail theft was the most common type of crime, at 318, according to Penn’s Weekly Crime Reports. In total, DPS reported 1,365 crimes within the Penn Police Patrol Zone in the past year. 4233 Chestnut St. — the location of the liquor store Fine Wine & Good Spirits — had the greatest number of crimes, the vast majority retail thefts, at 158. Crimes were also more likely to occur later in the day. The most common hour was 5 to 6 p.m., with 100 crimes reported, followed by 99 from 4 to 5 p.m. and 90 from 6 to 7 p.m. Fewer than a third of the crimes were reported in the morning. The University is required to disclose crimes on campus under the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, a 1990 federal law named after Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University first-year student murdered in her dorm room in 1986. DPS reporting goes beyond what is required by law, according to Shields Anderson. “We go beyond the Clery Act and publish all crime reported, not only to the Penn Police but other entities in our patrol zone,” Shields Anderson said. She described the disclosures as part of a broader safety philosophy at Penn that treats crime data as a tool for the community. “Safety is a feeling, and also a shared responsibility — a part of that is for folks to educate themselves on crime that’s occurring on campus,” Shields Anderson said. “What I don’t think this data is meant to do is say whether this is a safe or unsafe place. What I do think it does is allow you to make informed decisions about the places you live, study, and work.” “When it was first established, it had no built-in networks or anything like that — those had to be developed over time,” Simmons said. “It took true dedication by the staff, by the University to fund the efforts, by the faculty, by various people who have come in contact with the Perry World House.” Faculty involvement has expanded alongside the center’s growth. According to Horowitz, PWH engaged more than 200 faculty members from all 12 of Penn’s schools during the last academic year. The center also recently launched a Faculty Fellows program built around its four research areas. “These faculty fellow projects are a way for World House to not just build broad relationships with lots of faculty, but deep relationships with faculty who are already doing transformational research,” Horowitz said. “What World House can help them do is connect with the global policy world to have impact.” Student engagement is also a central part of PWH’s work, with three distinct programs offered. One of them, the World House Student Fellows program, includes 31 students from all four of Penn’s undergraduate schools this year. Students participate in weekly seminars, work on yearlong policy projects, and travel to meet policymakers and other global affairs professionals. College senior Ashti Tiwari, a World House Student Fellow and former staffer for The Daily Pennsylvanian, said that the program has shaped much of her experience at Penn. “Places like Perry World House help you make sense of the world and the global issues of the world,” she said. She also pointed to the interdisciplinary nature of the institution. “They really do try to bring people together from all parts of campus,” Tiwari said. Evan Stubbs, a College senior who was previously a World House Student Fellow and a DP staffer, said the program gave him opportunities to engage directly with international policy organizations. “I don’t know if those opportunities would really exist without Perry World House facilitating the connections and guiding people’s interests,” Stubbs said. Through PWH, he had the opportunity to travel to Washington, New York, and Geneva. He also worked on a policy project with the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research. Stubbs also said that the program serves a “dual purpose” by helping students pursue policy opportunities they are passionate about while also giving organizations a way to recruit Penn students. As PWH enters its second decade, Horowitz said that further increasing student involvement will be a priority. “Our task over the next decade is to continue to integrate Penn students even more into our thinking and programming and activities in a way that helps create transformational opportunities to help shape not just people’s careers, but how they think,” he said.

finding housing began much earlier than they expected. College junior Isha Chilukuri found her off-campus housing through leasing agencies operating near Penn’s campus, such as University City Housing and Campus Apartments. During the process, she found timing to be an additional factor to consider when looking for leases. “It was this really weird thing,” Chilukuri said. “Someone apparently submitted their application 30 seconds before ours, so we didn’t end up getting that place.” Ultimately, most students sign their lease agreements by December or January. According to Wharton junior Leo Ding, “people were already in Facebook groups and GroupMes talking about giving up their houses” by September of his sophomore year. Ding, a staffer for The Daily Pennsylvanian, is one of many students who secured housing through a peer connection rather than working through a leasing agency. In October 2025, he got a “direct referral” to an off-campus house from a senior in one of his clubs. The 2026 graduate selected Ding as their successor on their lease. Despite the early start, finding housing itself was an “extraordinarily long process,” according to Ding. For many students, securing off-campus housing entails visiting properties, coordinating with potential roommates, and negotiating pricing — which Chilukuri found “a little bit irritating” while balancing preexisting responsibilities. Students planning to live off campus must also decide whether they want to live in an apartment or a house, each of which comes with its own set of pros and cons. Ding described a house as a “more communal setting,” but explained that it involves more “friction” than an apartment when dealing with

matters such as maintenance. “You have to figure a lot of things out that might cause some trouble,” Ding said. College junior Braden Lipman said that off-campus options vary widely in cost and quality — calling the difference “a tale of two housing arrangements.” According to Lipman, some friends who had planned to live with him backed out of the housing arrangement because of quality concerns. Instead of moving into the house selected by his roommate group, Lipman’s friends opted for their own apartment. “We’re probably more toward the lower end of the spectrum, where we’re in a slightly less nice house, but rent’s probably much cheaper,” Lipman explained. “The other roommates who split off from us, they have a super nice place. It reminds me of a hotel.” All three juniors expressed that living off campus came with benefits and drawbacks. For Chilukuri, having her own stove and other kitchen amenities allowed her to get off the dining plan, but her off-campus housing also has pests and other maintenance issues. In her experience, off-campus housing can also be “a little bit isolated if you’re further away” from Penn. Ding echoed these feelings, encouraging students to spend as much time on campus as possible. While living off campus, “I don’t have those chance encounters I had in my dorms,” he said, adding that “it’s fine because I think that’s also a hallmark of being an upperclassman.” When asked whether she had advice for students beginning the search process, Chilukuri emphasized the importance of starting the housing search early. “Looking at a wide variety of places, rather than having to do it super late and being forced to sign something for the sake of it, will get you a housing option that will be a better fit for you,” she concluded.

JEAN PARK | DP FILE PHOTO

Bikes locked outdoors on campus on Nov. 13, 2024.

DPS’s response to crime trends has changed over the past five years, Shields Anderson explained, shaped increasingly by data and partnerships with other institutions. “We always try to choose the right tool to address issues that affect people’s safety,” she said. “The tool selection is driven by data, and our approach is collaboration with our community and our partners, whether that is PPD, Drexel, or University City Public Safety.”

STARTUPS, from front page top of all of your apps.” Hiraoka said he and Pan saw college as the last point in their lives when they would have “little responsibility” and the flexibility to pursue what they cared about. “We don’t have a job or anything, so if we get the opportunity to do something that we really want to do, we might as well just do it now, even if it means sacrificing a little bit of our college experience,” Hiraoka said. While he felt he was losing the traditional college experience, Hiraoka said the degree itself was “a smaller consideration.” A Penn degree carries less weight in the startup world, he added, than it does elsewhere. After spending time around a lot of “successful startup people,” he said, he concluded that being “motivated enough or passionate enough” to realize an idea mattered more than educational background. Hiraoka said he could see himself returning to Penn to finish his degree, but, for now, the startup comes first. “I don’t think I’ve made a concrete decision just yet, but I would say that I probably won’t come back at least for a couple of years, so that I can go all in on my startup and actually say that I give it my all,” Hiraoka said. Maxwell Stone was on track to graduate with the Class of 2027 but took a leave of absence during his junior year to co-found SubVysion, an AI-powered software company that, in his words, “maps underground infrastructure for contractors and utility grid owners to prevent wastage from utility strikes.” Like several others, Stone and his co-founder were accepted to Y Combinator’s accelerator program. “We both felt that the impact we could have was significant,” Stone wrote. “I was happy to capitalize on current trends in AI and venture capital. Startups are about timing more than anything.” Stone wrote that he weighed his options carefully before concluding that the timing “was perfect in every other way” and that it “made no sense to delay.” “I was perfectly happy completing my degree and regularly advise the same, because the network and experience are hard to come by outside of college,” he wrote. “My leave was approved quickly, and the option to come back has a clear process that is easy to work through if I feel that’s the right decision in the future.” If students decide to return, according to Nag, Venture Lab offers resources to help them “reconnect with mentors, peers, workshops, venture-building resources, and the broader entrepreneurship community at Penn.” David Hsu, a professor of Management at Wharton, said the forces pushing students toward startups go well beyond accelerators. “There are a range of other circumstances associated with the present environment,” he said in an interview. Some students, he said, see the “AI revolution” as a “very short window” of opportunity and want to capitalize on it. He pointed to a “myriad of circumstances tied to startups” — from founding a company to joining an

“Ultimately, at the end of the day, what we are committed to is helping people whenever they have been impacted, whether or not it is crime-related,” she added. “If something has happened and you don’t know where to start, you don’t need to worry about whether it’s a crime or not. The mission of the Division of Public Safety is that when people need help, we’re able to connect them to the right resources.” News Editor Isha Chitirala contributed reporting. existing project. Hsu said students should think carefully before taking a leave of absence. “The longer you’re out,” he said, “the less likely you are to come back.” College, he added, is “formative” in ways that go beyond any particular skill set — it offers social development and the chance to become, as he put it, a “complete person.” Wharton professor Raphael Amit believes gap years are “a great idea” because they offer Penn students “practical experience.” Like Hsu, however, he remains “torn” about whether or not to encourage students to take gap years in lieu of a Penn education. “The danger I feel is that you get so excited and so involved in those other opportunities that you won’t come back to finish your studies,” Amit said. “My concern is that by not coming back to school you’re essentially hurting yourself.” For Amit, returning to school is a critical step. It cements students’ understanding of the foundations of decision-making, he said, and prepares them for the workforce in case things do not go according to plan. Wharton junior Ace Kim founded SphereUS, a marketing technology startup, without going through Y Combinator. He left in the spring of his first year and returned as a junior this semester. “I feel great about the timing of when I came back to school,” Kim said. His return coincided with Penn’s decision to start offering his current concentration: impact, value, and sustainable business. “It’s like the stars have aligned for me in timing.” “If you had asked me a year ago, I was really, really convinced that I was dropping out of Penn,” Kim said. During his leave, however, he realized the startup wasn’t what he wanted to do, a conclusion he would not have come to without his gap semesters. “I discovered in my gap years how much it matters to me to build things that are meaningful. I want my work to be something that is valuable and good for the world,” Kim explained. Engineering professor Jeffrey Babin said the “startup ecosystem has expanded significantly.” Students have more resources available to them, he added, and more awareness of entrepreneurial opportunities. “That expansion is happening within Penn and other universities, as well as nationally,” Babin explained in a statement. Babin wrote that he encourages students to make thoughtful decisions about entrepreneurship without steering them in any one direction. If a student does take a leave, he said he “may stay in touch and continue to be a resource.” If they return, his focus “shifts back to supporting their education and whatever comes next.” Babin also said that taking a leave does not automatically mean a student is more committed to entrepreneurship. “Students can build meaningful ventures while remaining at Penn, and they can develop an entrepreneurial mindset without ever starting a company,” he wrote. “There isn’t one path that defines success.” Senior reporter Christine Oh contributed reporting.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026

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NEWS 3

Penn student commuters say SEPTA revamp might miss the mark The program’s implementation hinges on continued funding from Harrisburg, a dependency that has prompted concern over its feasibility RIANA MAHTANI Senior Reporter

SEPTA’s newly announced Accelerate plan promises new trains, accessibility improvements, and more frequent service, but for Penn students who commute to campus every day, the proposal may still fall short. Announced on Sept. 22, the plan imagines a “generational transformation” for SEPTA made possible by a decade of investments, including 130 new low-floor trolleys, 230 new regional rail cars, and 15-minute-orbetter service at nearly half of the system’s stations. The program’s implementation hinges on continued funding from Harrisburg, a dependency that has prompted concern over its feasibility. SEPTA spokesperson John Golden wrote in a statement that the plan would bring significant changes to University City, which he called “the core” of the regional rail network. According to Golden, the process for modernizing the trolley system will feature upgraded light-rail cars and fully accessible stations, while the arrival of new L cars in 2029 will mark “a major leap forward in safety, customer experience, and operational efficiency.” Near Penn’s campus, the 34th Street L Station is already under construction. Several regional rail lines serving University City — including those to Paoli, Norristown, and the Philadelphia International Airport — are slated for 15-minute service as part of the proposal. For students who ride SEPTA daily, however, the plan may not address the problems they face most urgently. College sophomore Nestor Fioretos — who commutes within the city by trolley and the MarketFrankford Line — said the age of equipment matters less to him than whether it runs on schedule. “I don’t really care too much about how old the trolleys are, or how old the subways are,” Fioretos said in an interview. “That doesn’t really bother me so much as issues in timeliness or communication.” SEPTA’s reliability has waned in recent years, according to Fioretos. “You can look at Google Maps on your phone and it says that a train is coming in two minutes, but you wait five minutes, 10 minutes, and nothing has come still,” he added. Zion Brown, a College sophomore who commuted on the Paoli-Thorndale Regional Rail line during a summer research job at Penn, spoke to a similar issue. She welcomed the promise of 15-minute regional rail service but said that it targets the wrong window. “The 15-minute system is good, but I think that where SEPTA struggles the most is during rush hour,” Brown said. “SEPTA isn’t delaying trains or canceling

GRADES, from front page announcements related to an institutional grading policy. The Faculty Senate, which represents standing faculty across campus and can make policy recommendations to Penn’s administration, has not yet discussed the topic. According to Neurology professor and Faculty Senate Chair Roy Hamilton, there are several issues “currently competing” for the “time and attention” of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. The fact that grade inflation has not yet hit its agenda, Hamilton added, “should not be interpreted as an implicit judgment about its importance.” Political Science professor Daniel Hopkins said grade inflation “has ostensibly been a problem for decades,” tracing back to the Vietnam War era. The trend has only intensified over time, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Professors, not just at Penn, were trying to be understanding of the wide range of situations that students found themselves in,” Hopkins said of teaching during the pandemic. “COVID-19 was the latest of a ratcheting up where it feels like grades essentially only go up.” He added that the pressure grade inflation creates negatively impacts both faculty members and students. For him, one purpose of grades is to “signal to students where they’re relatively stronger or relatively weaker.” “I think it makes it harder for professors to send clear, consistent signals about what kind of work is really high quality,” Hopkins said. “I worry a little bit that, at Penn, our de facto system of grading has defaulted to not entirely a pass/fail system, but just one where professors no longer can send the kind of broader range of signals about how a student is doing.” A solution similar to Harvard’s grade cap “could work at Penn,” Hopkins argued. History professor Brent Cebul said that “structural pressure” leads faculty members to inflate grades. Penn’s nontenured faculty members depend on student course evaluations, which Cebul explained “often have a lot to do with how students feel they’re doing in a class.” He also noted how grading impacts enrollment, another metric considered in

HOPE APPLEGATE | DP FILE PHOTO

A SEPTA trolley travels past Woodland Terrace on April 13, 2025.

trains that are coming in the middle of the day.” After a series of bus route and rail service cuts were enacted last year, many Penn students and faculty members described longer waits, crowded stations, and more difficult commutes. Brown said she would rather see more frequent rush-hour service — both local and express — to reduce delays at the start and end of the workday. College junior Victoria Viera, who rides the L on her way to Penn, spoke of the rush hour strain as well. Morning and evening peaks, she said, leave cars “so full” that “everyone is touching each other.” Regional rail delays, in her experience, are routine, and maintenance issues occasionally leave trains stuck in the tunnel. However promising the Accelerate overhaul may be, Viera questioned how SEPTA will pay for it — and whether those expenses will fall on riders. “I don’t know how they’ll be able to not raise the prices, which can most definitely harm lower-income working-class individuals,” Viera said. She added that the clearest discounts tend to go to children and

students, while “low-income working-class people have to bear costs.” She estimated that her largest regular expense is $95 per month with the monthly pass Penn offers at a 10% discount. Viera said she wishes the University did more for commuters and highlighted SEPTA’s college transit program, which includes a far greater discount than Penn’s 10%. The University’s parking costs, billed by the academic year, struck her as another barrier. Fioretos said he was “not super optimistic” about the funding prospects, citing a longstanding divide in Pennsylvania “about things that benefit urban voters more than suburban or rural voters.” He mentioned that while Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has backed sustained SEPTA support, “a lot of Pennsylvanian lawmakers don’t.” Brown framed the plan’s fate as a question of how Harrisburg chooses to see the city. Philadelphia generates an outsized share of Pennsylvania’s revenue, she said, with much of it tied to the workers SEPTA carries into the city each morning.

the review of a faculty member’s performance. “It’s a very hard position, especially when you’re untenured or in a contingent position, and that is the majority of teachers in the College,” he said. “These are precisely the people who cannot afford to have angry student evaluations. They will lose their jobs, full stop.” While Harvard is the only Ivy League school that has enacted grading reform, other universities are set to announce policy recommendations in the near future. Yale University’s standing committee on Teaching, Learning, and Advising will report its recommendations for addressing grade inflation in November. In May, Dartmouth College formed a committee to address grade inflation, which is slated to release a progress report in early 2027 and

publish any final proposals by the end of the academic year. A committee at Columbia University has considered decreasing the weight of A-pluses for grade point average to be the same as A’s. Penn already calculates A-pluses as a 4.0. Substantial grade inflation discussions have been largely absent at Princeton University, Cornell University, and Brown University. Princeton previously implemented a nonbinding grade limit, but later rescinded it. Cornell discontinued including median grades on transcripts in 2023, a measure that had originally been intended to reduce grade inflation but may have instead perpetuated it, according to the school’s faculty. Brown President Christina Paxson said in March that she was not concerned about grade inflation.

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“Improving SEPTA would behoove the state’s budget at large,” Brown said. Fioretos also described a problem the plan’s new hardware cannot address: the perception, common among Penn students from outside cities, that SEPTA is unsafe or unclean. “I’ve taken SEPTA since I was in fifth grade and it’s been nothing but good to me,” Fioretos said, adding that any revitalization effort should take safety seriously. Philadelphia City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, whose district includes Penn’s campus, wrote in a statement that “no community stands to gain more from SEPTA’s ambitious Accelerate Plan than ours.” Gauthier added that few campuses are as connected to public transit as Penn. She encouraged administrators to “press GOP lawmakers in Harrisburg to come to the table in good faith and work with Governor Shapiro and Democrats on a long-term, sustainable funding solution for public transit.” “My constituents, and all Pennsylvanians, deserve world-class public transportation,” Gauthier wrote.

SEARCH, from front page represented the many different perspectives of our community while sharing a deep commitment to the institution.” University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Eric Feldman and professor Duncan Watts — who is appointed at the Annenberg School for Communication, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Wharton School — are serving on the search committee. Trustees Ryan Limaye, Catherine O’Hern Lyons, Marc McMorris, Dhananjay Pai, and Ted Schlein, as well as Trustee Emerita Julie Beren Platt, are also members of the committee. The committee will head the selection process for Penn’s 11th president, who will succeed current Penn President Larry Jameson after he steps down in June 2027. According to Raghavendran, the committee’s work has already begun and will continue in “very stringent confidentiality.” “There will be little to share in the coming months until we are able to publicly announce a decision,” he wrote. The search committee will produce a report once its work is complete. The Board of Trustees Executive Committee will review this report in a closed meeting before nominating one finalist to be voted on by the trustees, according to the official process laid out in Penn’s Statutes of the Trustees. College senior and Undergraduate Assembly President Musab Chummun wrote in a statement that he felt that his “contributions were appreciated and influential in shaping the outputs” of the consultative committee, which he served on. “I felt as though the process was very smooth and the group put in significant effort,” Chummun wrote. “I have a lot of confidence that the output of the committee will help define the search and bring a strong set of candidates.” He added that he “was glad to represent student voices and made sure to voice high-level student concerns and priorities.” The Board of Trustees has not yet set a date for its vote. Members of the Penn community can nominate candidates through an online survey.

4 OPINION

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026

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Editorial | Penn has a Cornell problem, too Content warning: This editorial contains references to sexual violence. On Sept. 28, Cornell University responded to a lawsuit filed by a woman we know only as Jane Doe. Her complaint alleged that seven members of Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity drugged and gang raped her in October 2024. Only two were expelled, while the other five wrote essays to “mitigate” the harm they’d done. Jane Doe dropped out, and the university went silent. Two years later, America has turned its tides in an outpouring of support. The shock is warranted. But the surprise isn’t. It’s time to face the fact that the “Cornell incident” isn’t just born of Cornell problems or limited to a Cornell issue. When Jonathan Newell texted the Chi Phi group chat inviting them to assault Jane Doe, seven men went into the room, but over 50 watched from behind their screens. That same year on Penn’s campus, only four people formally reported sexual violence to the University, yet one in five respondents in a University-wide sexual misconduct survey answered that they had experienced it. In that gap between the four individuals who submitted an official report and all the rest who didn’t, there lie miles of forms to fill out, immeasurable amounts of University silence, and finally, outrage — but only when trauma seems worthy of a headline. Too often in their responses to sexual

assault, universities prioritize bolstering their own image over making targeted investments in student safety. Pushing alternative resolution methods — like confidential resources and restorative justice practitioners — over informing students of their right to report without a full-blown investigation attached allows Penn to do two things, neither of which involve administering justice or accountability. First, it saves the institution from what it sees as the bureaucratic nightmare of Title IX proceedings. And second, it avoids the blemish of another official sexual violence report on its annual government-mandated disclosure. This is one of many covert ways by which the University silences survivors: It responds to cries for help with talk of “resources.” Even our own student government officials have taken advantage of this tragedy, priding themselves on paving a new path forward while, in actuality, directing students to the same institutional routes that have created our present culture of violence. On Monday, the Undergraduate Assembly sent out an email that began with three sentences acknowledging the Cornell “incident.” They were followed by 17 more sentences, each containing a bureaucratic step to effectively nowhere. The number of nods to University-sanctioned resources, which is to say University-approved methods of resolution, was matched only by the emptiness of the

promise of change. Overshadowing student-focused groups like Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention, these administrator-led initiatives won’t address the epidemic of rape culture on our campus. New layers of bureaucracy will not protect students. A list of “resources” or a haphazardly assembled taskforce are not substitutes for genuine care and support. We don’t need another ad hoc committee — we need accountability from the ground up. From University policy to greek life and clubs to Penn’s social fabric itself, made up of thousands of tiny ties between students, we must challenge the roots of sexual violence and the culture that lets it happen in silence. In destructive ways that are far from unique to Cornell, the social structures of college campuses often allow perpetrators of sexual violence to go unpunished, even after they graduate. Diego Sarabia worked at Wells Fargo, Matthew Ingalls at DataAnnotation, and Scott Norris at Glenfarne Group LLC. Sound familiar? Statistically, you know someone with these aspirations who has committed the same harm. You’ve walked by them on Locust, you’ve stood in line next to them at a downtown, maybe you’ve even coffee chatted them at Stommons. Their positions of power shield them from accountability, and their entire network is incentivized to brush off allegations if it means they can get a job referral. Buying

into this willful innocence is what creates the problem. Perhaps we can agree with one point from the UA email: “Penn is no exception.” It’s true. One way to read that statement is to recognize that sexual violence happens far too often on college campuses everywhere. To see it as a horrific truth, but an inescapable one. And the other way to read it — but the way in which we must — is that the University will fail us if we don’t acknowledge its failures, and our own, first. Let’s turn away from the administrative bloat and bureaucratic buzzwords for a moment. Let’s turn toward what a perpetrator, or a survivor, looks like: someone you know. Let’s meet the insidious gaze of campus rape culture. Let’s not be afraid to look ourselves in the eye, and to say that we, as a community, must do better to eliminate sexual violence from college campuses, once and for all. Editorials represent the majority view of members of The Daily Pennsylvanian Editorial Board who meet regularly to discuss issues relevant to the Penn community. This body is led by Opinion Editor Ingrid Holmquist and operates independently from the newsroom. Questions or comments should be directed to letters@thedp.com.

Make Penn’s Critical Writing Seminars AI-free GUEST COLUMN | Instruction in the AI era means knowing when to leave it out

LETTER SUBMISSION Have your own opinion? Send your letter to the editor or guest column to letters@thedp.com. Editorials represent the majority view of members of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. Editorial Board, which meets regularly to discuss issues relevant to Penn’s campus. Participants in these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on related topics.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The Land on which the office of The Daily Pennsylvanian stands is a part of the homeland and territory of the LenniLenape people, known to the original Indigenous people as “Lenapehoking.” We affirm Indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold The Daily Pennsylvanian and the University of Pennsylvania more accountable to the needs of Native American and Indigenous people.

As the College of Arts and Sciences plans to implement the new general education curriculum in fall 2027, it must make an important update to a continuing undergraduate requirement: Critical Writing Seminars should be free of artificial intelligence. Since the mainstream introduction of large language models in November 2022, many faculty have changed the content and structure of their courses. Some have begun to train students to use AI, while others try to mitigate the negative effects of AI use on learning. However, the structure of Penn’s common curriculum Critical Writing Seminars has remained unchanged since 2020, focusing on genres like white papers, op-eds, and book outlines. Current policies, in practice, permit the use of AI for writing at any stage of the process. What does it communicate to students when we surrender to AI-generated ideas, structure, and text in the only course required of all students across Penn’s four undergraduate schools, a course that they take within months of first stepping on campus? It teaches them that reading and writing are about a final product, rather than an iterative process of gathering evidence, tracking arguments, thinking, and communicating. It indicates that Penn expects and condones the use of AI in their written work. It abandons the central task of training students as critical thinkers, counteracting the aims of the College’s new curriculum and its “Kite” course. It sets up everyone to fail — students and other faculty alike — when higher-level courses aim to build on foundational skills. In a December 2025 white paper, a group of Penn faculty, staff, and students in the Price Lab for Digital Humanities argued that high standards for critical reading, writing, and research can only be maintained at the undergraduate level without AI. When students use AI to summarize reading, collate research, and write papers, it is impossible for instructors to evaluate their true ability, and students do not gain deep knowledge in those areas. Such concerns are not limited to students in the humanities. Reading and writing are the cornerstone of developing expertise in all fields. Further, they are essential in and of themselves. The process of writing is a process of thinking, discovery, and critique. No part of this process can be outsourced without cost. In an age of disinformation and AI-generated text, every person needs to be able to evaluate writing for its plausibility

and authenticity. For these reasons, we argue that Penn has a duty to require some AI-free coursework and authentic assignments. We applaud the new Kite course with a humanities lab that facilitates focused, low-technology reading and writing time for College students. The Critical Writing Seminars are a special curricular space that also requires innovation in AI-free instruction, both because of the importance of the skills Penn entrusts them with imparting and because of their academic and cultural role as gateway courses across the University. The Critical Writing Seminars are common curriculum courses. Many elements of the syllabi, including course policies, lie outside the control of individual instructors, who have in recent years raised concerns about the curriculum and their academic freedom. Responsibility for change thus rests with the Critical Writing Program and especially the Penn administration. A true commitment to high-quality writing instruction in the age of AI requires hard limits: AI-free course policies and significant investment in internet-disabled computer labs for students to complete writing assignments outside of class. The goal of these spaces should be to replicate pedagogically and socially important aspects of writing and revising a paper in a dormitory or library environment prior to the advent of AI, as well as to model good academic work habits. Proctored writing labs are not simple to implement. However, the alternatives — allow AI usage to continue to interfere with foundational learning or turn to expensive surveillance or AI transparency software such as Rumi — are unacceptable. To agree to a Critical Writing Program in which students submit AI-conceived and AI-written work is to concede, as one professor argued in a parallel case at Harvard, that there is no longer any reason for a place like Penn’s College to exist. The Penn administration now budgets huge sums for licensing AI products. Our leaders should devote equal resources toward new physical spaces and staff that support innovations in AI-free instruction. Only through these innovations can Penn ensure students are still gaining the foundational skills they themselves know they need. Is the one course required of all undergraduates not worthy of significant investment at a wealthy institution like ours? On a campus with state-of-the-art athletic

ABHIRAM JUVVADI | DP FILE PHOTO Guest columnist Emily Hammer argues that a true commitment to high-quality writing instruction in the age of AI requires hard limits.

facilities, can we not find the resources and will to construct intellectual gyms that provide the spaces and climate we need to build students’ minds? Our proposals are not anti-AI; they are pro-student. Practicing fundamental skills in an AI-free environment makes students more creative, critical, confident thinkers in any context. It also prepares them to be better users of LLMs and to more effectively evaluate their outputs. Some of our peer institutions have taken clear steps toward AI mitigation, especially in foundational courses. The University of Chicago, for example, has instituted an AI ban and has gone “analog” in all its social science core courses (as well as in the first year of its law school). A recent MIT report recommends that all courses emphasize AIresistant assessments such as oral exams, assignment structures that make process visible rather than just output, and in-person projects in staffed AI-free rooms where students can work on long assignments together. It recommends in-person, structured social

learning in all subjects, not counting lectures and recitations. Penn still has a chance to be at the vanguard of these developments — but the clock is ticking. As AI becomes more advanced and widespread, it will only become more imperative to have well-established structures for strengthening the fundamental skills of our students. There is no better — or more important — place to start than with serious investment in AI-free Critical Writing Seminars. EMILY HAMMER is a professor in the Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures Department and serves as acting faculty director of the Price Lab for Digital Humanities at Penn. Her email is ehammer@sas.upenn.edu. This guest column was written in collaboration with other members of the Price Lab for Digital Humanities Critical AI Working Group.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026

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OPINION 5

Greek life has got to go GUEST COLUMN | A culture plaguing universities nationwide

JACKSON FORD | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Guest columnist Lawson Douglas argues that the “Cornell 7” case illustrates the violence linked to greek life and raises questions about why universities continue sanctioning this culture.

In the wake of New York prosecutors reopening the investigation into an alleged gang rape at Cornell, thousands of college community members are asking themselves how such violence could have been seemingly swept under the rug for two years. I am not writing this to highlight Cornell’s mistreatment of the victim’s allegations or whether the punishment was just, but rather to address a culture creating perpetrators of violence and complicity that plagues college campuses across the country. Greek life is often seen as a cornerstone of

the college experience. From pop culture to oncampus tours, there’s no question that American universities appear inseparable from their ties with fraternities and sororities. However, it is also not far-fetched, and somewhat normalized, to hear of sexual misconduct happening within these spaces as well. A 2007 study found fraternity members are three times more likely to rape compared to their nonaffiliated counterparts. This might seem shocking to some, but at the time this was the third in a series of consecutive studies, and since then

there have been countless more. For example, one study found sorority members were four times as likely to be victims of sexual violence compared to nonmembers, a statistic tour guides sure aren’t telling parents. A social space that’s marketed toward young men and women as the epitome of college life and community is in actuality facilitating an environment where sexual violence, intertwined with the misuse of substances, is the norm. Before these same young men and women can reach the parties, they must first go through the grueling stage of pledging. Hazing, another key aspect inseparable from greek life, is defined by the University as, “any intentional, knowing, reckless, or willful act or situation that recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student.” Over the past five years, two sororities and three fraternities have been caught by the University for violating the Anti-Hazing Policy. These incidents reportedly range from physical and nonconsensual punishment, belittlement and humiliation, forced intake of substances, and potentially even animal abuse (though the hazing report doesn’t specify exactly the lengths of said abuse). Five out of roughly 40 greek life organizations doesn’t seem bad, right? I would agree, except for the fact that the majority of students on campus have heard first-person accounts or even witnessed various other forms of hazing. Penn’s Anti-Hazing Policy just provides the legal framework for the University to address this issue; it does nothing to stop the cultural convention greek life perpetuates. In turn, hazing just gets pushed further underground and becomes more secretive, making the penalty of speaking out even more severe for

unknowing, impressionable pledges. The harder the University punishes the organization, the harder they will intimidate and punish their own members. The “Cornell 7” investigation that is capturing global headlines is just one story among the multitude of sexually violent acts perpetrated under the guise of greek life. While doing the research for this piece, I found myself asking: Why is this still allowed to happen? This discourse of whether or not greek life should exist has been taking place for the better part of three decades and only a handful of institutions have banned it. So, how can these universities that claim to care for their student body still support an obviously damaging lifestyle? Gallup, along with the National Panhellenic Conference, conducted a survey of 10,000 alumni and found that 54% of those involved in greek life had donated to their alma mater, whereas only 10% of nonaffiliated alumni can say the same. Simply put, universities and colleges are not going to stop organizations that are proven to remain financially loyal to them. By keeping greek life on campus, these institutions guarantee long-term donations and they are choosing to guarantee that over the well-being of their student body. This archaic culture has got to go. Along with justice for all the victims of this institutionally sanctioned violence, I also hope students nationally see the violence greek life has bred and rid their campus of this leech.

humanities and policy. The reason? To avoid the senior thesis at all costs and have room for other classes in their senior year. International relations works similarly, as a growing number of students opt for the political science major with an international relations concentration for its optional thesis. The thesis requirement doesn’t intensify rigor; it just quietly pushes students out of the major that actually matches their interests into a similar field that asks less of them. It’s not necessarily the workload that is unattractive for students. Rather, once a thesis class is fixed on your schedule, junior and senior years stop being times to explore. Essentially, that flexibility from your underclassman years is lost. Study abroad gets harder to justify when you need a full year on campus with your advisor. A semester with Penn in Washington or a Penn Global Seminar course you want to take purely out of curiosity starts to look too risky. The eye-catching electives you wish to take outside your major are the first to go when you rework your new schedule. Ultimately, your semester might start feeling like a checklist rather than something that genuinely excites you.

For students who are double majoring, a thesis in each major can mean fighting for an approved combined project or giving up on one of the majors. Even pairing a major with a minor in something like a language or a secondary interest might force you to start weighing pros and cons. Many departments at Penn trust students to decide whether they want to carry the weight of a thesis and be bestowed with an honors distinction. That system works as students who want the challenge or believe it may supplement their further studies can take it on. The departments that haven’t caught up should ask themselves what the requirement is proving if the thesis isn’t required of everyone or preparing everyone for the same future. Often, it is those who are most deterred who are the exact students who came to Penn for its breadth of experience.

LAWSON DOUGLAS is a College junior studying English and philosophy from Denver. His email is lawdo@sas.upenn.edu.

Who is the senior thesis for? CONTRIBUTION | Thesis requirements make Penn less flexible Senior year is characterized by defining events that students anticipate even as underclassmen: Feb Club, senior spring trips, graduation, and, for some, the senior thesis. Starting sometimes as early as junior spring, a portion of Penn seniors disappear into their archives, labs, fieldwork, and advisors’ office hours to produce a document that only people in their department will likely ever read. For students interested in academia, a thesis is an opening to a world of potential research interests and even practice for their future dissertation. Yet, for most students, a senior thesis is just the last obstacle standing between them and graduation. As a double major in international relations and environmental studies, I’ve felt the senior thesis weighing on me in particular, because I happened to choose one of the few majors at Penn to require one. I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit negotiating with two departments in completely different fields about whether a single research topic can somehow satisfy both. The answer is usually a resounding “maybe.” The more I consider my situation, the more I wonder: What does the thesis actually prove, and for whom?

Some departments would argue that it teaches valuable lessons in independent research: how to formulate questions, reason with primary sources, and develop an original argument. For students headed to graduate school or law school, it’s a tool that will obviously prove useful. It’s possible departments require a thesis because they believe academic rigor should be demonstrated by everyone regardless of what they came to Penn to do. Then why is this logic not applied consistently across departments? Within the Computer and Information Science Department, a Bachelor of Applied Science requires a thesis that may be substituted for a senior design project. But the Bachelor of Science in Engineering offers no substitution, creating two versions of essentially the same major that disagree about which final capstone proves aptitude. That inconsistency also shows up in the College of Arts and Sciences, where environmental studies requires a thesis, but its counterpart in the same department, earth and environmental science, does not. I have even met students who dropped environmental studies for environmental science despite being more interested in environmental

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ALYMA KARBOWNIK is a College junior studying international relations and environmental studies from Maplewood, N.J. Her email is alymak@sas.upenn.edu.

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6 SPORTS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026

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Sports

Freshmen cross country phenoms shine at Paul Short Invitational The women’s cross country team finished second overall, while the men took home fifth JAVIER ST. REMY AND DANIEL OBSTGARTEN Deputy Sports Editor and Staff Reporter

Despite scorching temperatures, Penn cross country was ready to bring the heat at the Paul Short Invitational. The open men’s 8-kilometer race featured three Quakers, all making their 8K debuts. After an impressive appearance on the grass at the Main Line Invitational just two weeks prior, freshman Brody Watt held his own, clocking 25:37.9 to take 27th place in a field of more than 500 runners. The women made a statement in the open women’s 6K with five runners in the top 50 finishers and three in the top 15. Freshman Emily Reid led the charge, staying in sixth place for most of the race and never wavering from the top pack. In the third mile, she hit her stride, taking the lead and never looking back. Reid then pulled away to take her first collegiate victory with a scorching time of 21:08.6, a full seven seconds better than the second-place finisher. “I didn’t expect to win going into it,” Reid said. “I just really wanted to stay focused and stay present on the race I was running and not really focus on anyone else around me. I kind of worked on just staying in the pack of runners, and then towards the end, the pack had dwindled, and it was just me and one other competitor. And then it was only in the final stretch of the race that I took the lead.” “It was really fun,” Reid said. Freshman Lily Lyons and sophomore Alexa Matora followed close behind in 11th and 13th, respectively. Lyons stopped the clock at 22:03.0, while Matora crossed the line in 22:05.9. The men also showed out in the men’s college gold 8K. After winning his collegiate debut a month ago at the Friar Invitational, freshman Nick Mazzeo picked up right where he left off. In the first two miles, the Penn Valley, Pa., native stuck with the top runners, sitting comfortably in 15th place. In the third mile, Mazzeo made his move, passing 11 men to cruise into fourth place by the start of the fourth mile. The freshman moved into the top three and put a three-second gap between himself and the eventual fourth-place finisher in the final kilometer. “It went out very fast because there’s a ton of people on the line, and it gets pretty narrow pretty fast,” Mazzeo said. “Kind of ended up a little about where I wanted to be during the beginning, but then [I] had to catch up a little bit in the second mile. Then the pack slowed down a little bit in the part where it gets hilly, so I could catch up a little bit … I was able to hang on until like the last 400 maybe, and then I just kind of couldn’t stick with the faster guys.” Junior Chris Larnard also finished inside the top 50, securing 35th overall in 24:48.6 in his first-ever

COURTESY OF PENN ATHLETICS

Penn men’s cross country prepares at the start line on Oct. 1.

NCAA, from back page Kaczorowski, and 2024 College graduate Ellen Holmquist filed their separate lawsuit alleging that Thomas’ participation deprived them of “equal opportunities as women to compete and win while being denied the opportunity to protect their privacy in separate and equal locker rooms.” The University submitted a motion to dismiss that suit — which named Penn, Harvard University, the NCAA, and the Ivy League as defendants — a few months later, writing that the plaintiffs “cannot establish causation against Penn” and that they “failed to plead that they suffered a concrete injury related to their claims.” In July of that year, a federal court dismissed

8K race. Several other runners put up strong performances — junior Joseph Ruiz and senior George Keen finished 53rd and 65th, notching times of 25:01.5 and 25:13.6, respectively. Sophomore Vinay Raman, senior Kofi Fordjour, and sophomore Liam Jordan rounded out Penn’s top seven, all finishing in the top 100 of the 300 finishers. In the hottest race of the day, the Penn women stepped up for the strongest team performance of the meet. To round off Penn’s phenomenal day, the Quakers finished in second place as a team in the women’s college gold 6K. Freshman Allison Lee was the Quakers’ low stick, clocking an impressive time of 20:25.5. Lee, who was also Penn’s top scorer at the Friar Invitational, stayed remarkably consistent throughout

the race, crossing every mile checkpoint in fifth place. Over time, she built up an astonishing 16second gap between herself and the sixth-place finisher. “I think the [Friar Invitational] was kind of more of a rust buster,” Lee said. “I haven’t really been at that intensity for a long time, so it was definitely good to just get some experience there. But with this race, I think it was a lot more strategic, and we definitely were going into it with a lot more team goals. So I think definitely stakes are higher, but that also makes it a lot more enjoyable and more fulfilling, so it was fun.” The Quakers also logged four other runners in the top 50. The remaining women were paced by sophomore Izzy Rodriguez, who finished 14th

and registered a time of 21:05.1 for a new personal record. Junior Quin Stovall, senior Sarah Fischer, and senior Kelly Murray rounded out the scoring positions, finishing in 32nd, 45th, and 48th place, respectively. To complete the roster of seven top-100 Quakers finishes, juniors L’Mio Edwards and Kate Hos crossed the line within a second of each other, finishing back-to-back in 75th and 76th. Although the Quakers finished tied in the standings with Yale, Penn’s higher-ranking set of top-five finishers served as the tiebreaker to deliver one final highlight for the Red and Blue at Lehigh. Next up, the Quakers will take a trip to Terre Haute, Ind., on Oct. 16 for the Pre-National Invitational.

both Harvard and the Ivy League from the filing, and Massachusetts Federal District Judge William Young issued a stay. “With the Ivy League and Harvard dismissed from the suit, this Court determined, this suit would turn on legal questions almost identical to those at issue in the suit previously filed,” Young wrote at the time. When the judge dismissed the allegations in Gaines v. NCAA, the NCAA moved to lift the stay and grant its pending motion to dismiss the suit filed by the former Penn swimmers. The organization wrote on Oct. 2 that Johnson “rejected an argument Plaintiffs also make in this case: that the NCAA is an ‘indirect’ recipient of federal funding by virtue of its ‘partnership’ with the Department of Defense.” A spokesperson for the NCAA wrote in a statement that the organization “is proud to continually

invest in and expand women’s sports.” Last February, shortly after the suit against the University was filed, 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. The order cited Title IX, stating that any educational institution receiving federal funds “cannot deny women an equal opportunity to participate in sports.” While the NCAA allowed transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports at the time of filing, the organization changed its policy following Trump’s executive order. Currently, students assigned male at birth may practice with women’s teams, but they are not permitted to compete. The NCAA is in full compliance with the Trump “administration’s executive order on women’s sports,” the NCAA spokesperson wrote.

In July 2025, Penn reached a resolution with the Department of Education to settle an investigation into the same matter. Penn Athletics agreed to “adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ pursuant to Title IX and consistent with President Trump’s Executive Orders.” The settlement, which Gaines lauded at the time, also required that Penn remove Thomas’ individual records. In a statement to Politico, Gaines — who competed against Thomas at the 2022 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships — wrote that she plans to appeal the decision. “This momentary setback will not deter me or other women athletes in the least,” Gaines wrote. “We are on the side of truth. I am confident Americans will rally to our side to fight the NCAA. Working together we will defeat the NCAA’s continuing efforts to trample women’s rights in sports.”

THREADS

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T D T C E P E L

U M R O O P O L S P L U G N L T

B P P L A P I R

L E L E K E E L

Theme: Fall Season

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

Instructions: To play Threads, search the grid for hidden words related to the provided theme. Each letter can only be used exactly once.

9/23/26, 11:09 PM

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

10/7/26, 5:43 PM

24 Irritable, like 49 Like the Mark for 1 2 3 4 Sesame Street’s Oscar off-campus housing 14 1*Deadpool actor 26 Protagonist 50 It may be fine or Reynolds 17 Ketchum who’s gotta modern 5 *Mustachioed 20 21 catch ’em all 52 One may be red Minecraft 28 Sense, with your or pink protagonist 24 eyes 54 Texter’s validation 10 *Ruffalo who 28 29 Cleopatra’s ender 55 Parcel container loves to smash 30 Make louder, with for men, or what the 33 34 35 14 Princess of “up” starred clues make? 41 42 Oechalia, in Greek 33 Katniss’s were ever 59 What you may mythology 45 in her favor throw to a dog 15 Aquatic actor 50 36 Lead in to easy or 62 Profitable TikTok 49 Jason 54 feature 16 Take orders from compensating 64 Pied musician? 17 Kool-Aid drinking 39 Say “yay” to 59 60 61 41 Sets up, as 66 In the middle of organization, 66 electricity 67 Wawa’s are 24/7 perhaps 70 43 Chewed, devoured, 69 Nevada city 18 Covers in and left no crumbs 70 Kentucky senator 73 chimney dust 44 Italian fashion Paul 19 Christmas carol locale 71 Aussie-born actor 6 Target of theft, by 20 Got ready to 45 Scrub from the Flynn propose certain fairies 72 Troy founder, in 7 Atlanta university 22 Parker of “South internet 46 Rip off Greek mythology Park” infamy 8 Make your voice 48 Olympic gold 73 *Bolton who’s got heard, in the ballots 23 Youngin medalist Lindsey to get his head in the 9 Classes for the game? unmotivated 74 *Actor Devito 10 Star sign whose work is loved 11 “It’s ___,” cry at ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE by Damien in https://puzzleme.amuselabs.com/pmm/crossword-pdf Mean about 50% of gender AM A O F F H OO V E R Girls reveals C A L F L O ON T I ME C A T H A I R P E T S I T S 75 *Dune composer 12 Stink profusely T S A A G E N T S N I A Zimmer 13 *SNL’s Mooney Print

Z E RO S A L E R T COD E WE T S OME OR E L S E U N T O S C OW L E D B OO K T O K O A K S GR A H AM S H OW T A Y T O T S I P OD S H E N R Y B E T WA R E HOU S E ME T G A L A T HOUGH T D E E P E R L I D L O T Y A R RO S E S E Y OU

DOWN

attempted another shot from the penalty corner, but de Frees saved the shot with a stunning fullbody dive. Despite the team’s best efforts to crank up the intensity of play, Penn remained scoreless against Harvard, ending the game at a score of 4-0.

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.

I’VE GOT A PACKAGE 😏 ACROSS

HOCKEY, from back page

1 *Astley who’s never gonna give you up 2 Still kickin’ 3 “To go”: Fr. 4 Overall deficits 5 iMessage sys.

21 Date between Mon. and Wed. 25 Corp. bigwig 27 Annoying emails 29 Length x width

15 18

29 37

52 55

19 22

48 53

64 68

65 69

30 Folk singer Guthrie 31 Partner of median and mode 32 *Badgley of “Gossip Girl” fame 33 *Wilson a “wow” factor? 34 Like some straits 35 Make a picture with a pencil 37 Sprawling 38 And such, abbr. 40 Bestow life 42 Burn 47 B or C of the Spice Girls 51 Became a brother

Quakers bounce back Facing a nearby opponent in their second game of the weekend, the Quakers were met with a large and rowdy Villanova crowd at Sunday’s home game. Compared to their showing against Harvard, the Quakers had a drastically different pace and approach to start the game. The Quakers seemed to take control right off the bat, with junior forward/ midfielder Reese Czajkowski and junior forward Riley Thomson scoring two goals within the first 10 minutes of the game. “We’ve been working in practice this week to really just connect with one another,” Czajkowski said. “I think we’ve been missing that the last couple of weeks, and today that just took us so far from the very beginning of the game. We came out.” Penn’s defense also found its stride. Although the Wildcats had four penalty corners in the first half, Penn’s defense successfully blocked each one. “I think [the defense is working on] just really keeping a knuckles-down mentality. I think we’ve been working a lot on just bravery, especially in the circle, not fading away from the ball, and just being ready to body up and just take a shot, and

just [keeping] hands on the ground, knuckles on the turf, plant your feet, and just watch the ball,” de Frees said. With a 2-0 lead after the first quarter, the Wildcats picked up the intensity. Penn had four shot attempts and three corners while Villanova had five shot attempts and one corner. The game’s accelerating pace resulted in Czajkowski receiving a green card during the second quarter. Much of the second half was a dominant showing for the Quakers. Penn’s effective communication on the field allowed for long, sustained periods of possession. This momentum carried over to the defense, where the Quakers were able to get key takeaways that kept Villanova out of the striking circle. With less than five minutes on the clock, Penn managed to score again. Villanova had opted to substitute their goalkeeper for an extra field player, which freed up the goal for a shot from the Quakers. With assists from freshman midfielder/ defender Victoria Manzur and sophomore midfielder Lucy Mangat, senior forward Emma Nahon scored an empty-net goal, securing the Quakers’ dominant win. The Quakers will face their next Ivy League opponent on Friday, Oct. 9, against Brown. As the team looks on to its potential postseason run, this game will be critical. Despite this recent loss to Harvard, junior cocaptain Maxi Aranowitz remains positive. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to take the foot off the gas,” Aranowitz said. “We still have four Ivy League games, and our goal is still to make the Ivy League tournament. We’re not giving up, and we see that every day in training, and even more in the games.”

53 Slangy assent 54 Snuggly bear 55 Go through the stages of grief 56 One may say “kiss the chef” 57 Aria setting 58 Noble gas 59 *Boy Simpson 60 Singer Apollo 1/1 61 Boy, in Barcelona 63 Hour, in Honduras 65 *Rachel counterpart 68 Foxy

Play this puzzle and hundreds more created by the DP at www.thedp.com/section/crosswords. Authors: Camron Baldwin, Nira Goyal, and Indy Wink

COURTESY OF PENN ATHLETICS

Penn field hockey defends against Harvard on Oct 2.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026

THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

SOCCER, from back page Although a Dartmouth defender managed to take back the ball, a backward pass sent the ball right into Empson-Speiden’s path. With just two touches, the Brooklyn, N.Y., native put the Quakers in the conference win column. Hoping to stay at the top of the conference standings, the Big Green began throwing everything they had at Penn’s defense. Dartmouth midfielder Olly Spicer had a chance to convert with a shot on goal in the final three minutes of play, but a save by senior goalkeeper Phillip Falcon III foiled Dartmouth’s attempt at a late-game equalizer. “It’s just going to be sometimes a pretty tight affair, regardless of who you’re playing,” coach Brian Gill said. “Games boil down to stringing together consecutive plays that wind up making the difference.” “The more we get into the season, my hopes are that the team is getting more comfortable being in those games,” Gill added. Loyola’s passes stretch the field, evading the Quakers With an Ivy win under their belt, the Quakers entered their Tuesday non-conference match with momentum. The Greyhounds, on the other hand, were coming off their eighth loss of the season against Boston University on Saturday. However, when the first whistle blew, both teams surprised fans with similarly skilled play. The first half saw an even back-and-forth between both teams, with the Greyhounds sending long passes down the field to run out the clock. Despite being

SPORTS 7

faced with fatiguing play, the Quakers fought hard to gain and convert possession. “Sometimes a team is able to make a game feel long and you’re going to have to run and you’re going to have to be together,” Gill said. Whenever the Red and Blue gained possession, they drove the ball deep into the Greyhounds’ side of the pitch. Penn attempted six shots in the first half, but none of them successfully made it past Loyola goalkeeper Felix Huebner. On the defensive end, Falcon made an impressive save in the 22nd minute, turning around to catch a ball that had flown just above his hands. Loyola promptly challenged the call but was unsuccessful. “The players that we’ve been playing in the back line, … goalkeepers, [and] our central midfielders are doing a really nice job covering the ground to make as good of efforts as they can be making towards limiting chances against us,” Gill said. The gameplay in the second half resembled much of the first, with closely matched energy from both sides. The ball continued to fly across the length of the field, and each team played with precision and energy. Even during challenging moments, the Quakers maintained high spirits through a balance of composure and hunger to play well. However, neither the Greyhounds nor the Quakers got on the board, with both teams missing a decisive final piece, and the game ended in a 0-0 draw. Penn men’s soccer will face No. 22 Cornell on the road on Oct. 10 before returning to Philadelphia for a non-conference battle against local rival Drexel on Oct. 13. The last time the Quakers faced the Big Red, they got shut out in the Ivy tournament semifinals. “We feel excited about the opportunity to play a game like this … all these points and all these matchups become pivotal,” Gill said. “The players are excited about playing at big games like this.”

COURTESY OF PENN ATHLETICS

Sophomore defender Kalani Kunimura touches the ball during the matchup against Dartmouth on Oct. 3.

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SPORTS

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885

PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026

VOL. CXLII

NO. 23

Penn men’s soccer earns win over Dartmouth in first Ivy League contest The team tied with Loyola University Maryland in its Tuesday non-conference match ELLIE CLARK AND RACHEL BERLINER Sports Editor and Staff Reporter

Down goes Dartmouth. Penn men’s soccer overcame Dartmouth, 1-0, in its first Ivy League victory of the season, but the Quakers (4-1-3, 1-0-1 Ivy) couldn’t convert against Loyola University Maryland (2-8-2, 1-2-1 Patriot) three days later, drawing the Greyhounds in a scoreless contest. Sophomore defender Becket Empson-Speiden scored the game-winning goal against the Big Green with less than 20 minutes left on the clock. EmpsonSpeiden notched his second collegiate goal and Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week honors with a right-footed strike to the bottom corner. “I was just thinking about obviously getting the spot on the long throw, and then just taking it down, having the composure to put it past the defender and then the goalie,” Empson-Speiden said. WEINING DING | DP FILE PHOTO

The Sheerr Pool on Nov. 19, 2025.

Judge dismisses lawsuit against NCAA over transgender athlete policy The ruling has significant ramifications for a similar lawsuit brought by three former Penn swimmers against the University ARTI JAIN AND LAVANYA MANI Senior Reporters

A federal judge recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former collegiate swimmer against the NCAA alleging that the organization violated her rights by allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports. The lawsuit, filed by former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, stemmed from 2022 College graduate Lia Thomas’ participation in the 2022 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving

Championships. The decision could have significant implications for a separate but similar lawsuit filed against Penn and the NCAA by former University swimmers. On Oct. 2, the NCAA asked a federal judge to revisit its motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by three former Penn swimmers in light of the new ruling. In the Gaines case, United States District Judge Tiffany Johnson wrote that the court ruled in favor

of the NCAA because the organization “is not covered by Title IX.” “Despite its collaboration with the United States Department of Defense, it did not receive money from the federal government,” Johnson wrote in a Sept. 28 brief. In February 2025, 2022 College graduate Grace Estabrook, 2024 College graduate Margot See NCAA, page 6

Quakers down Dartmouth for their first Ivy League victory Dartmouth entered Rhodes Field off an impressive upset victory over then-No. 18 Princeton in its Ivy League opener. The Quakers looked to defend their home turf and get their first conference win of the season after drawing with Yale in September. Penn started off hot, recording three shots and two corners within the first 15 minutes of play. Although Dartmouth began to hit its stride as the first half continued, Penn’s defense limited the Big Green’s attempts to convert and gain control of the ball. Back-and-forth play ensued through the bottom of the first half as players got more aggressive on the pitch. Perhaps threatened by the Quakers’ dominant ball possession, the Big Green began to get physical, recording three fouls in the same five minutes that Penn logged three shots. Although back-to-back offside calls thwarted the Quakers’ initial attempts to score at the top of the second half, Penn wouldn’t be stopped so easily. Empson-Speiden made his way back into the fray in the 62nd minute, immediately making his presence known with a foul less than a minute after coming onto the field. More fouls followed as the game wore on, until the Quakers were awarded a throw-in, which senior defender Owen Sullivan launched into the box. See SOCCER, page 7

Penn football falls to Dartmouth in fourth-quarter thriller

Penn field hockey blanked by Harvard, rebounds with Villanova win

Even though the Big Green missed three field goals, the Quakers came up short in their first conference contest

Although the Quakers stumbled against conference favorite Harvard, they put up a commanding win against Villanova

DANIEL OBSTGARTEN AND SOO YOUNG YOON Staff Reporters

SHANI PEINADO AND BRIANNA WANG Staff Reporters

In a game with every chance to win, Penn football couldn’t find a way to take it home. In the third game of their season, the Quakers (1-2, 0-1 Ivy) fell 14-10 to Dartmouth (1-2, 1-0) on Saturday afternoon. The Big Green were led by quarterback Grayson Saunier, who put up a nearperfect performance with 13 of 15 completed passes for 173 yards and 36 yards rushing. The Quakers struggled offensively again but showed some signs of life behind freshman quarterback Miles Teodecki’s 214 passing yards with a 69.2% completion rate, his best performance yet. The Quakers wasted no time getting Teodecki involved. On his second snap, Teodecki scanned the field and rolled to his left, finding junior wide receiver Ronan Johannson open for a 14-yard gain. That success was short-lived, and Penn was forced to punt on their opening possession. The Big Green were quick to establish their offensive presence. Led by Saunier, Dartmouth alternated between its ground game and passing offense to push into Quakers territory. Penn’s defense struggled to stop Ivy League-leading running back Myles Craddock, who converted a crucial 4th-and-1 to keep Dartmouth’s drive alive. Dartmouth kept pounding on the ground, rushing for 26 yards across three consecutive plays to advance to the Penn 16-yard line. With Penn focused on run defense, Saunier capitalized by firing home a touchdown to give Dartmouth an early 7-0 lead after the extra point from kicker Owen Zalc. After a quick Penn three-and-out, Dartmouth’s second drive started off much the same as its first, with Saunier carving up the Penn defense. On another designed run play, junior linebacker Derek McCrum made a critical tackle, forcing a six-yard loss and a long third-down attempt. Dartmouth’s offense was unable to recover and was forced to attempt a 53-yard field goal that Zalc couldn’t fit through the uprights. Penn took over in decent field position and quickly set up a first-and-goal opportunity. However, a first-down holding penalty proved too much to overcome, forcing a short field goal attempt. Sophomore kicker Mason Walters sent the kick wide right, keeping the Quakers off the board. After Penn’s defense made quick work of the Big Green, forcing a three-and-out, Teodecki got to work. A series of quick plays got Penn down inside the Dartmouth 10-yard line again, where it faced a crucial 3rd-and-1 from the four-yard line. Yet, penalties handicapped the offense, as a false start forced the Red and Blue back five yards. Another third-down failure forced a field goal attempt, which Walters drilled through to cut the deficit to 7-3 heading into halftime. To start the third quarter, Craddock burst out to his left for a huge gain of 25 yards to put the Big SEND STORY IDEAS TO DPSPORTS@THEDP.COM

Green at midfield. However, Penn’s defense was quick to recover, getting a huge pass break-up by the secondary, and then chasing Saunier out of bounds to force a 51-yard field goal try. Zalc stepped up for the kick but ended up missing badly. For the next 10 minutes, both teams struggled to find footing on offense. Teodecki started the second half by completing all four of his passing attempts, pushing the team downfield. Then, from Dartmouth’s 23-yard line, coach Rick Santos elected to go for it on 4th-and-3 but failed to convert. Dartmouth failed to capitalize on the Quakers’ turnover on downs. Saunier and the offense moved the ball down to Penn’s 20-yard line, yet a third field goal miss by Zalc saved Penn to keep the score at 7-3. With a few minutes left in the third quarter, Penn’s offense finally found a way to the end zone. Facing a 3rd-and-4 from midfield, Teodecki completed an eight-yard pass to junior running back Donte West to keep the drive going. A few plays later, West carried the ball five yards for another third-down conversion. Teodecki also participated in the run game, notching a 15-yard run to get the Quakers near the end zone. Then, facing a crucial 3rd-and-3 at Dartmouth’s five-yard line, Teodecki completed yet another pass, going 3-for-3 on third downs to extend the drive. Senior running back Sean Williams Jr. capped off the lengthy drive with a run to the end zone to put Penn up by 10-7 and give the Quakers their first lead in the game. But Dartmouth wasted no time responding. With two quick passes of 34 and 23 yards, it flipped the field into Quakers territory. Dartmouth hustled to the line on every play and outclassed the Penn defense on a quick eight-play, four-minute touchdown drive to retake the lead by four points, with just under five minutes on the clock. Facing a must-score situation, Santos let Teodecki work the field. Teodecki made several quick completions on multiple third-down attempts, including a 13-yard laser to senior tight end Dante Barone on a key 3rd-and-4 just before the two-minute warning. The first play on the other side of the warning was a 17-yard completion to West, who picked up a hurdle and a hard hit before being shoved out of bounds. However, facing a 2nd-and-4 in the red zone, Dartmouth’s defense stuffed Penn’s attacks and forced another 4th-and-3 scenario. On the most crucial play of the game, Teodecki’s throw, intended for Barone, fell flat, effectively sealing the win for Dartmouth. Penn got the ball back with nine seconds left, but Dartmouth notched a game-ending sack to dash any hopes of a miracle for the Quakers. Penn will hope to rebound from another disappointing loss next Saturday, Oct. 10, as it prepares to face Howard (2-3) at Franklin Field.

Penn field hockey is bouncing back. The Quakers (2-7, 0-3 Ivy) faced No. 8 Harvard (8-1, 3-0 Ivy) and Villanova (7-4, 2-1 Big East) over fall break. Despite a 4-0 loss against Harvard on Friday, the Quakers quickly recovered, defeating Villanova by 3-0 on Sunday. A slow first game heats up in the second half The excitement in the air was palpable at Ellen Vagelos Field on Friday as the Quakers introduced their starting lineup with cheers and high fives. As the sprinklers sprayed the field to prepare for the match ahead, so too did the Quakers as they were set to face one of their toughest opponents. The No. 8 team in the nation, Harvard, had a strong offensive showing, as the Crimson capitalized on penalty corners and a strong team dynamic throughout the first half. The Quakers, meanwhile, had a difficult time getting to the net, spending most of the first half on their own side of the field trying to defend. Corner penalties were a major component of the game, something each team dealt with differently. Although senior goalkeeper Ruby de Frees saved two goals, Harvard took advantage of their penalty

corners, using them to score two of four points in the first half. But the Quakers were not as lucky. Despite being awarded two corners in the first half, Penn failed to convert on both attempts. “We weren’t able to sustain longer periods of attacking possession,” coach Scott Tupper said. “When we do win the ball, sometimes we get excited, and we try and move forward. And if we don’t connect early, it means we’re just defending again.” The Quakers sought to take more risks at the top of the second half. With a four-point deficit, Penn forced more difficult shots, increasing its offensive attacks. After coming off of only three attempts at goal in the first half, Penn was able to rally and get four shots in the third quarter alone. However, this momentum would halt during the fourth quarter. Possessions grew to be a backand-forth exchange between the two teams with no shots on goal. Penn managed to enter Harvard’s goal zone in the final minute of the game but struggled to score. With six seconds left on the clock, Harvard See HOCKEY, page 6

COURTESY OF PENN ATHLETICS

Penn field hockey competes against Villanova on Oct. 4.

ONLINE AT THEDP.COM