THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026
VOL. CXLII
NO. 19
Soon to step down, Jameson hopes to leave Penn more ‘agile’ ’I think Penn is well poised to have someone new come in and lead,‘ Penn President Larry Jameson said in a wide-ranging interview on Monday ETHAN YOUNG AND CHRISTINE OH Editor-in-Chief and Senior Reporter
Next Monday will mark Penn President Larry Jameson’s 1,000th day on the job. In a volatile climate for higher education, Penn has been sued by the federal government and investigated by the Department of Education. Since Jameson was appointed interim leader of the University in 2023, Penn has faced a changing federal funding landscape that has reshaped support for its schools and research, and been forced to navigate evolving immigration policies affecting international students. Despite the relentless external pressures, Jameson maintains that his job is the “best presidential leadership role in the country.” And, he would rather spend time discussing the people, places, and innovations he thinks define Penn than linger on pressures imposed by the federal government. It’s an attitude that permeates Jameson’s approach to the role. As he enters his final act as president, he remains guided by what he says is an unrelenting focus on steering the University toward its best possible future. “I think Penn is well poised to have someone new come in and lead,” he said in a wide-ranging interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian on Monday. “You can go through all the different kinds of metrics that you would like to look at: quality of the faculty, the quality of the students, the engagement of the alumni, the breakthrough advances, the research productivity, and the rankings of the schools.”
*** Jameson stepped into the presidency following a 12-year stint as executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. The endocrinologist, who trained at the University of North Carolina, began his career at Harvard Medical School before spending 18 years at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. For Jameson, becoming Penn’s president represents an extension of his time leading the Health System, not a departure. “The bulk of my time, I served as the EVP and dean at Penn Medicine, and so I think about the whole arc,” Jameson said. “I consistently focus on innovation and creativity and how to get things done.” While at Penn Med, Jameson championed a strategic plan — “Serving a Changing World” — to improve patient affordability and boost the Health System’s name recognition as a hub for innovation. As dean of the Medical School, he served on the consultative committees that selected Provost John Jackson Jr. and Wharton School Dean Erika James, as well as the committee that helped pick former Penn President Liz Magill. Through regular meetings with Magill and former Penn President Amy Gutmann, he forged close relationships with his predecessors-to-be. Jameson — at the time, the University’s longest-serving
dean — was named Penn’s interim president just days after Magill resigned in December 2023. His work leading the hospital system helped familiarize him with the responsibilities that come with an administrative role at Penn, he said. Following his interim appointment, Jameson’s colleagues at Penn Med lauded his unpretentious approach to leadership and ability to raise provocative questions. Jameson has sought to apply those same qualities over the last three years — an effort he said has rendered the University “more innovative and agile.” Last fall, he announced Penn Forward, a new strategic framework for the University designed to address both the challenges and opportunities facing higher education. “When you’re sitting in the seat, you get much more familiar — in the weeds, if you will,” Jameson said. “It was going to be important for the University’s decision-making to become more agile so that we could, in an ecosystem kind of analogy, adapt effectively to what’s going on in the external environment.” In April, Penn unveiled nine key initiatives born from the framework, centered on extending the University’s global reach, lowering financial barriers to attendance, and embracing new technological advances. Finer points of the plan included expanding Penn’s San Francisco campus and cementing the University as a leader See JAMESON, page 7
Penn student groups adjust plans as club funding uncertainty grows Funding guidelines from the Student Allocations Commission have sparked confusion among campus organizations AMY LIAO Senior Reporter
New funding guidelines from Penn’s Student Allocations Commission have sparked confusion among student groups as they navigate the start of a new academic year. Updates are made to SAC’s funding guidelines annually. The rollout and communication of this year’s
changes, however, have drawn particular scrutiny. Office of Student Affairs Executive Director Katie Bonner described the new guidelines as an effort to “steward funds” and “efficiently support the most groups possible.” “No targeted funding cuts were made to specific
CHENYAO LIU | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
categories of groups, though we understand that changes to the guidelines can have impacts on organizations,” Bonner wrote in a statement. According to a board member of Onda Latina, Penn’s premier Latin dance troupe, funding and logistical changes were discussed during the Student Organization Summit on Aug. 24. While the board member said there were some “pros” to the new model — including a new committee dedicated to arts and performance — they highlighted potential complications for student groups. Singers, Musicians, and Comedians Council Chair and College senior Zoe Champ said she was initially “concerned on behalf of the performing arts groups that I represent.” “I don’t think that the way that the funding is currently laid out is very sustainable for a lot of the performing arts groups given the fact that they’ll have to pay more and receive less of their revenue,” Champ said in an interview. According to Champ, SAC will now grant the group a broader allocation intended to cover the entire academic year rather than dedicating funding for specific shows. She said that the change could force groups to make tradeoffs between different production costs. “Now you have to pick and choose,” she added. “If you want a really impressive set, your group maybe wouldn’t be able to buy a new piano for the pit.” Champ said that the changes could disproportionately affect newer clubs or those that “don’t have enough funding to move forward.” “We already have to give up some ticket revenue in order to fund SAC, so I hope that they would support us in return and make sure that performing arts is well supported,” she said. A board member of the Asian Pacific Student Coalition similarly cited a “continuing trend of delays” from OSA, which distributes SAC funding. Requests for the 2026-27 academic year were due March 29, with fall funding distributed in four stages ending Sept. 13, Oct. 4, Nov. 1, and Nov. 22.
The SAC Fair on Jan. 25, 2025.
KEVIN REN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Jameson in his College Hall office in Nov. 2025.
See SAC, page 6
Proposed visa fee could burden international students Experts say a plan to attach a $100,000 charge to Optional Practical Training could erode a key career pipeline RIANA MAHTANI Staff Reporter
The Trump administration is considering imposing a six-figure fee on international graduates seeking work authorization in the United States — a move that Penn experts say could price out recent graduates and erode a pipeline American universities and employers have long relied on. The plan would attach a $100,000 charge to Optional Practical Training, which currently allows international students to remain and work in the country for one to three years post-graduation, according to The Wall Street Journal. The proposal has not yet been formally introduced, and key details remain unclear, including who would bear the cost: the students, their universities, or their prospective employers. For many international students, OPT is the bridge between earning a degree and building a career in the United States. Wharton School Management professor Britta Glennon, whose research focuses on immigration and the economy, described it as the crucial link in a multi-step pipeline. Students usually enter the country on an F-1 visa, then rely on OPT for temporary work authorization after graduation, with the eventual goal of securing employer sponsorship for an H‑1B visa. With H-1B visas capped at 85,000 annually and allocated by lottery, the OPT window — one year for non-STEM graduates and three years for STEM graduates — gives students “extra time to win the lottery.” “This is the typical path for skilled immigrants in the U.S.,” Glennon explained. A fee of this size would function as a deterrent, See OPT, page 2
The rise of CAR T-cell cancer research 2016 College graduate Erin Piacenti Renowned Penn immunologist Carl June pioneered CAR T-cell killed in Times Square stabbing therapies to revolutionize cancer treatment
During her time at Penn, the 32-year-old New Jersey native was a member of Alpha Phi sorority and Dischord A Cappella
MARIACRISTINA CALCAGNO Staff Reporter
When Immunotherapy professor Carl June started working with CAR T cells, he was not focused on treating cancer. At the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, June studied bone marrow transplantations for patients with radiation exposure during the Cold War, thinking about how to expand T cells — cells that attack foreign invaders in the body as part of an immune response — outside of the body. Later, during the AIDS epidemic, he began using those cells to treat HIV-1 in his lab at the Naval Medical Research Institute. June’s idea was that a patient’s T cells could be removed from their body, grown in the lab using certain proteins, and returned to the body to continue fighting against HIV-1. Bruce Levine — who now serves as the Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy — later joined June in his lab. But when the pair came to Penn in 1999, they pivoted to looking at CAR T-cell applications in cancer research — specifically, leukemia. “The Department of Defense does infectious disease work, but they don’t do cancer research,” Levine explained. “We move up to Penn — now we can start clinical trials in cancer.” “We used the lessons from HIV but just changed NEWS Tailored programming welcomes transfer students as they adjust to life on Penn’s campus.
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the CAR design and then changed its targeting so that it would target leukemia-associated molecules,” June added. He now serves as the director of Penn Medicine’s Center for Cellular Immunotherapies. In 2010, the two treated their first patient suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia with CAR T-cell therapy. Two subsequent patients in the clinical trial also showed promising results. “We had treated three patients,” June said. “All three responded, but we had no more money.” The field of cancer immunotherapy had, for over a decade, been in what Levine described as “the dark ages of gene therapy,” where skepticism ran rampant and funding was hard to acquire. The team, with dwindling funds, went ahead and published the results in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2011. “It’s very unusual in an end-stage cancer trial to have three out of three patients respond,” June added. “We had smoking-gun good evidence that the CAR T cells did it.” Their work, including the subsequent treatment of pediatric patients, paved the way for the United States Food and Drug Administration’s approval of See CAR T, page 2
NEWS Meet the 19-member committee guiding the search for Penn’s next president.
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ETHAN YOUNG Editor-in-Chief
2016 College graduate Erin Piacenti (née Guiltinan) was killed in a stabbing in Times Square on Monday. Piacenti was a vice president at Bank of America, the firm confirmed on Tuesday. After graduating from Penn with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a minor in history, she earned a law degree from Fordham University School of Law. During her time at Penn, the 32-year-old New Jersey native was a member of Alpha Phi sorority and Dischord A Cappella, frequently performing solo renditions of artists ranging from Tina Turner to Sia and arranging music for the group. She also served as an alumni admissions interviewer for the University after graduating. “We are profoundly saddened by Erin Piacenti’s tragic and untimely death,” Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Mark Trodden said in a statement. “Our thoughts go out to her family, friends, and all those who knew and loved her at this difficult time.” Piacenti is survived by her husband, Frank OPINION Columnist Kamau Louis argues that Penn should provide on-campus housing for its graduate students.
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Piacenti, and her 5-month-old daughter, Madison. “The Piacenti and Guiltinan families are devastated by the loss of Erin and request privacy at this time,” a spokesperson for the family said. “They appreciate the outpouring of support they have received.” A spokesperson for Alpha Phi’s Penn chapter said the sorority is “deeply saddened to hear of Erin’s passing.” “Any death under these circumstances is tragic, but the loss of an Alpha Phi sister hits especially close to home,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement. Piacenti was one of two individuals stabbed in New York’s busy tourist hub on the afternoon of Aug. 31. The other victim, a 68-year-old man, remains hospitalized. His identity has not been released. According to Jessica Tisch, commissioner for the New York Police Department, the attacker was Pamela Cisneros, 49, of Queens. She was shot and killed by police officers after the stabbing. The Associated Press contributed reporting. SPORTS Penn student-athletes spent their summer beyond Philadelphia — competing around the globe.
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026
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Behind the scenes of Penn’s Transfer Student Orientation Tailored programming welcomes transfer students as they adjust to life on a new campus AMY LIAO AND KORI ROBINSON Senior Reporter and Staff Reporter
First years are often at the center of campus life each fall, flocking to orientation events, club fairs, and other festivities as they begin their Penn experience. But they are not the only students navigating a major transition. Transfer students are similarly adjusting to a new campus, classmates, and academic environment. Penn’s Office of New Student Orientation and Academic Initiatives — along with the Transfer Student Organization — hosted events from Aug. 17 to Sept. 4 aimed at helping transfer students find their footing on campus. College senior Clara Shin, who is one of the presidents of TSO, explained that the events focus on creating opportunities for transfer students to “find both community as well as connection to the school in itself.”
She added that “a lot of transfers come in feeling like they’re already behind because they miss their freshman year.” Shin — who transferred to Penn as a sophomore because she felt that it “offered the most support and a more tight-knit community of transfers” — emphasized that transfer student orientation is tailored toward a specific environment while regular New Student Orientation programming focuses on “acclimation to college itself.” “We’re aware that transfer students typically come in with a lot of information and knowledge already,” Shin said. This year’s orientation for transfer students included a welcome dessert reception, information sessions, and a transfer-specific student activities fair — with events aimed at both building community among transfer students and introducing them to
Penn’s resources and traditions. Information sessions covered topics ranging from research and course registration to campus safety, public transportation, grocery shopping, and student organizations. Penn also hosted guided tours of Rittenhouse Square and Chinatown. College sophomore Yaman Albittar said that transfer orientation “made Penn feel smaller” by providing valuable information and support from TSO leaders — easing his transition from a small liberal arts school. Albittar added that “the biggest benefit” of attending orientation was not necessarily a specific event, but rather “having a group of people who had already gone through the exact transition I was going through.” “Older transfers made it feel like we had our own orientation experience rather than just being added into the freshman one,” he said.
KENNY CHEN | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Students at Convocation on Aug. 24.
CAR T, from front page the first CAR T-cell therapy in 2017. Now, researchers at Penn are looking at strengthening the effect of CAR T cells — known as “armored” CAR T cells — in blood cancers. Last year, June helped publish a study that found promising results in using a next-generation “armored” CAR T-cell therapy in patients who continued to resist multiple rounds of other cancer treatments, including commercially available CAR T-cell therapies. “CAR T-cell therapy has transformed lymphoma treatment, but about half of patients still won’t have a long-term remission,” Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania professor of Medicine Jakub Svoboda — who pioneered the 2025 study alongside June — wrote. “These armored CAR T cells are designed to produce IL-18, which may help them work better in the tumor environment and improve their ability to kill cancer cells,” he explained. “In our first-in-human study, we saw response rates above 80% in patients whose disease had already progressed after standard CAR T-cell therapy, which was very encouraging.” The 21 patients in the first phase of the clinical
OPT, from front page Glennon said, because it is “certainly more than most startups can afford” and enough to give established companies pause. She added that the policy could immediately affect students who have already secured job offers, where an employer facing the new cost might rethink “whether they actually want to pay $100,000 for that individual.” University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Fernando Chang-Muy similarly warned that the fee “would price out nearly every recent international graduate, effectively ending OPT for all but the wealthiest students.” The possibility that employers might pull back from hiring recent international graduates is a concern that Penn itself has raised. International Student
While Albittar highlighted a mentorship event and small group dinners as particularly beneficial, he noted that orientation was less relevant to the academic transition. He explained that transfer students “don’t really know what [their] classes or workload are going to feel like.” Wharton sophomore Dorian Glogovac similarly described transfer orientations as “really good” opportunities to “connect with new people.” One of his early concerns was how he would be able to “fit in as a transfer student.” Glogovac pointed out that while parts of the programming were designed to help new transfers meet one another, the orientation also connected them with upperclassmen who could offer advice. “They were in our shoes,” he said. While Glogovac appreciated that the programming showcased “a lot of the value and a lot of the opportunities that Penn has,” he added that an event dedicated to student-athlete transfers would have been helpful. College sophomore Imani Gaskin — who transferred from a “super small school” — said she appreciated the chance to join a community “before everything started getting super busy with classes and everyone else moving in.” Gaskin explained that as a transfer student, “it definitely feels like you’re in a bubble sometimes.” “I’m excited to just feel like a Penn student and not like a Penn transfer,” she said. College senior and TSO Co-President Nataley Kim reminisced on her own experience with orientation — especially that it “didn’t make us feel like freshmen.” “We already experienced what that first year of college is like,” Kim said. “Instead of feeling like we’re a year behind, they made us feel like we’re right on track.” Looking ahead, both Kim and Shin hope TSO will receive more funding after budget cuts limited this year’s programming and led to several traditional events being canceled. “Sometimes there was only one event planned for each day just because we didn’t have enough funding,” Kim said. She added that fewer events meant fewer opportunities to meet orientation leaders and other members of their incoming class. “We come to school a whole week early because we want everyone to not feel alone and that we’re always there for them in any way,” Kim said. “I just hope that every year it keeps getting paid for.”
trial in the 2025 study had received a median of seven other therapies before enrolling, and all but one had already tried a traditional CAR T-cell therapy approved for their cancer type. To combat these challenges, a team led by June developed the “armored” CAR T-cell product. This version was modified to secrete a small protein that is capable of enhancing the immune system — which further protects the CAR T cells and promotes their ability to attack cancerous cells. The research team found strong evidence indicating that adding the protein — interleukin-18 — to CAR T cells contributed to the robust response rates. But leukemia, a blood cancer, is in the minority when it comes to types of cancer: It is a liquid tumor as opposed to a solid one. With solid tumors, a host of challenges arise. Now, Penn researchers are devising ways to use CAR T cells to break through barriers — maybe even lowering costs and making the treatment easier on patients’ bodies. “It’s an incredibly exciting time in the field,” Svoboda wrote when asked to consider the future of CAR T-cell research. “We’re studying newer generations of armored CAR T cells and developing therapies against new targets. What’s especially exciting are approaches like in vivo CAR T cells and allogeneic CAR T cells, which could make these treatments faster, simpler, and more accessible for patients.”
Penn Med’s Smilow Center for Translational Research, home to the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, on July 30.
and Scholar Services Executive Director Rudie Altamirano wrote in a statement that “even proposed changes can generate significant uncertainty about career planning, employment timing, financial obligations, and whether employers will remain willing to hire international graduates.” Glennon said that the long-term risk of implementing the proposal is that talented students stop choosing the United States as a permanent home. “If you don’t think that pipeline is going to work, and there aren’t any other really feasible ways to do it, then you may not bother with coming at all — instead, go somewhere else where you think your chances are better at being able to transition from school into the economy with a job,” Glennon said. Chang-Muy added that if the proposal became formalized, it “would gut the return on investment that draws international students to U.S. universities in the first place.” He wrote that those students would be lost to other countries such as Canada, the United
Kingdom, or Australia. Chang-Muy — who characterized the fee as “absurd” — additionally acknowledged the stakes for employers, noting that companies use OPT as “a critical recruiting pipeline for skilled graduates trained in American systems and processes.” “Are there enough U.S. citizens to work in IT and software development? In healthcare, are there enough U.S. citizen nurses, therapists, and specialized surgeons?” he wrote. “If not international students can help to fill in needed HR gaps.” Additionally, Penn Carey Law professor Nicole Simon wrote that the proposal was “yet another attack on students, a group the administration has mercilessly targeted.” She questioned whether the fee could survive a legal challenge, pointing to the Trump administration’s attempt to impose a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, which courts have blocked. Chang-Muy echoed a similar sentiment — adding that federal district and appeals courts have already
ALICE ALLSOPP | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
ruled the executive branch overstepped its authority — and predicted that the proposal “may also be found unlawful.” Beneath the specific proposal, Glennon said, lies a longstanding blind spot regarding how the United States treats the relationship between higher education and immigration. The last significant overhaul of the system took place in 1990, when the H-1B visa was established. According to Glennon, lawmakers at the time did not foresee that its main application would become recruiting graduates from U.S. universities. “Universities find talent around the world, and then firms recruit from universities, but that wasn’t built into any of the immigration policy,” she said. The result, she added, is that “there hasn’t been enough recognition of how intertwined they are.” Altamirano wrote that there has not been a broader OPT rule published for public review, but that “the cumulative effect of changing requirements can create uncertainty” even “before a rule takes effect.”
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Editorial | Actions require real consequences A few weeks ago, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that the number of disciplinary cases against Penn students is on the rise, especially those related to student conduct. Despite this, Penn students don’t actually “get in trouble” very much. Expulsions are nonexistent, sanctions are rare, and students don’t tend to fear the fallout of their actions. Despite increasing academic dishonesty and student conduct violations, virtually no one on our campus has faced serious consequences in recent history. Disciplinary incidents at Penn are documented as either “Student Conduct” or “Academic Integrity” cases. The former includes behavioral issues such as alcohol violations and disorderly conduct, while the latter covers various types of cheating. When a disciplinary complaint has been filed against a student, the Center of Community Standards and Accountability can resolve it in a few ways. If the CSA determines that a student has violated the Code of Student Conduct or the Code of Academic Integrity, they may choose to either file formal charges or resolve
the matter through informal “mediation.” Further, if charges are filed, students may voluntarily agree to accept a sanction, or alternatively, should the student maintain their innocence, a formal hearing is held. Such hearings are wildly infrequent. A striking finding from the CSA’s annual disciplinary report is that less than 0.5% of cases resulted in a hearing by the CSA. Many more — almost 75% — are resolved through voluntary agreements by students who admit to their wrongdoing. The other significant mode of resolution (with a 17% share of the caseload) was mediation through Restorative Practices, which manages wrongdoing through the use of “facilitated dialogue.” By these numbers alone, one might suggest that the system is working as intended: When Penn students are caught, they maintain their integrity by owning up to their mistake and accepting the consequences. But that doesn’t capture the entirety of the situation. In the vast majority of resolved cases, the sanctions placed against students are entirely insignificant. They’re slaps on
the wrist. We argue that the system as it stands is plainly ineffective. The majority of sanctions given are warnings and reprimands, as opposed to more severe punishments like probation, suspension, and expulsion. This reality is apparent in academic dishonesty cases last year, where “decision-mapping exercises” outnumber probations and reprimands, and in student conduct cases, where reprimands and restorative practices exceed the number of all other punishments. Sanctions data show the same pattern in both case types: The softest available outcome is often the most common one. In academic integrity cases, 155 students got a decision-mapping exercise. Student conduct cases lean less on any single soft option — reprimand and probation are the top two — but restorative resolutions and warnings round out a list that, notably, doesn’t include many suspensions. This analysis points out that most students, even when caught violating Penn’s policies for behavior and academic integrity, are not met with serious
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repercussions. That’s not to say that students are in need of heavy surveillance or strict scrutiny. In fact, the use of restorative practices has proven effective in educational settings. Yet, a system that does not enforce some punishment when met with flagrant violation cannot be one that serves its students. Penn has no incentive to punish students. Doing so opens up the University to scandal and reputational risk. Instead, Penn’s CSA chooses to stay quiet and avoid confronting misconduct. When actions are left without consequences, we allow our disciplinary system to descend into uselessness. The CSA’s apathy toward holding students accountable means their work is simply wasteful bureaucracy, instead of the meaningful moral enforcement it could provide. If you just agree to taking part in “decision-mapping” to get off scot-free, who wouldn’t admit to their wrongdoing? There’s no real, lasting consequence involved. At a school that has produced violent offenders, white collar criminals, and America’s first felon president, we need to hold our students accountable. Perhaps our time at Penn is so formative that our alumni end up with the belief that it’s possible to avoid punishment even later in life. If we’ve never faced consequences, why would we fear them now? Moral enforcement, now more than ever, is not something we can give up. The CSA should consider this a call to action: Give Penn students due consequences now, before it’s too late. 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 Editorial Board Chair Jack Lakis and overseen by Opinion Editor Ingrid Holmquist. It is entirely separate from the newsroom. Questions or comments should be directed to letters@thedp.com.
Technology is making us boring CHARLOTTE’S WEB | ‘No-tech’ classes are our saving grace
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.
What happens when you put 30 Ivy League students in a classroom and ask them a question? Apparently, nothing. Whether it’s a first-year seminar with 10 students or a lecture hall with over 100, we’ve all watched as our professor posed a question and was met with an awkward silence. We’ll stare at our computers, pretending we’re deep in thought or entrenched in our notes, and wait for someone to break the tension. It may not be every question or every class, but it’s enough to create an environment where we’ve simply gotten used to not responding. Humanities and seminar-based classes are supposed to thrive off of conversation, discussion, and even contention. But unfortunately, none of that can happen if students don’t feel the need to participate.
It’s hard to believe that Penn students have nothing to say or no opinions to share. As a matter of fact, it seems that Penn students always have something to say. The dead air isn’t necessarily caused by a lack of interesting thoughts or comments, but rather the ever-present technology we can’t seem to go without anymore, and with it comes an increasingly accurate idea: Technology has made us boring. It’s not that Penn students are unintelligent or unable to answer a question if a computer is in front of them. But the presence of tech in class — even if it’s just for note taking — has been proven to produce worse outcomes for students. The result is often a combination of increased distractions, decreased satisfaction with the class, and an overall lack of
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Columnist Charlotte Pulica argues that while “no-tech” classes may seem like a nuisance, they are the best solution to getting the most out of an education.
understanding when it comes to the course material. It’s becoming clear that classes have become a competition between the course material and our screens, and everybody is losing in the process. Penn’s solution? An increase in professors creating a “no-tech” policy for their classroom. No phones, no iPads, no laptops — a completely analog transformation. I’ve experienced my fair share of tech-free classes in both humanities and STEM courses. And although I’ve noticed a general disapproval from students (including, occasionally, myself), I’ve also noticed something much more thought-provoking: everyone and everything seemed less boring. Without the physical barrier of a screen taking up everyone’s view, the only thing left to focus on was the class itself. It’s easy to buy into the justification of foundational or major requirements and only see a class as a means to an end. When you have your laptop right in front of you, why not finish that problem set or reply to that email? Sometimes it can feel more efficient to treat a class like a study hall, and we’re all guilty of it. But in those moments when your focus is on a screen instead of the professor, a whole possibility of education is lost. The reason we don’t just take online classes, sequester ourselves in our dorms, and bury ourselves in self-produced research in order to graduate is because that’s not the point of Penn. We’re meant to collaborate and converse with people who have completely different experiences and backgrounds under the mentorship of world-class professors. And the truth is, that’s harder to do when there’s a screen blocking your view and constantly fighting for your attention. Sure, it might take a little extra effort to take notes with a pen and paper rather than
typing on a laptop. But it’s definitely not without reward. Students do much better on exams and with information retention in general when they handwrite their notes compared to using tech, and without the added distraction, you’re able to focus on the class at hand rather than the screen in front of you. And if all we care about is trying to minimize the amount of time and work we put into everything, why even bother coming to Penn? If not to educate and better ourselves, are we really paying $100,000 a year just to reorganize our Google Calendar during a lecture? No-tech classes might feel over the top or annoying, but when it comes to a discussionbased class or a seminar, they’re starting to feel essential. Participating in discussions, answering questions, retaining and interacting with the content — these are the qualities that make a course truly educational. Yes, technology is always going to be a part of our lives and our education, and yes, it might feel easier in the moment to rely on it, but we have an opportunity to take classes that are meant to expand our perspectives and challenge our ideas, which seems a lot more valuable than whatever is on our screen. Classes can feel boring. Discussions can feel boring. Required readings can feel boring. But in a world where we have a constant stream of dopamine-inducing content inches away from our faces, being forced to confront that feeling might be the only way to realize that it was really us being boring the entire time. CHARLOTTE PULICA is a College sophomore studying cognitive science from Enoch, Utah. Her email is cpulica1@sas.upenn.edu.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026
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OPINION 5
Penn’s Special Event Review Process is an assault on open inquiry GUEST COLUMN | Bureaucracy as censorship This August, Penn’s administration quietly reissued its “Special Event Review Process.” The policy mandates that any event touching on “open expression,” featuring “notable or controversial speakers,” or raising potential “public relations challenges” must first secure approval from the Special Event Review Group. This policy is an affront to the core values of our institution: intellectual freedom and shared governance. For years, Penn has had a process for “reviewing” events. What separates this 2026 policy from those in the past are the direct references to open expression, the emphasis on preclearance and increasingly vague language. It’s easy to let policies slide off the radar because they’re, you know, boring. But let’s be clear: This is administrative overreach that’s being laundered through bureaucracy. It is designed to shift power away from faculty and students and towards the administration. This policy limits faculty’s ability to teach and students’ capacity to learn. It strikes yet another blow to shared governance and threatens to chill intellectual inquiry across our campus. The Special Event Review Group is composed entirely of staff members — there are no students or faculty, but plenty of administrators from the Office of General Counsel, the Division of Public Safety, and the Office of Risk Management and Insurance. Leaving decisions about academic events, guest lectures, and campus gatherings solely to administrative staff prioritizes brand management and risk mitigation over our fundamental educational mission. It treats faculty and students like children who need permission to do the core parts of our job rather than essential members of an intellectual community. Then there’s the issue of how this document is written. The vague criteria and sweeping scope of this policy mean that any event requires approval. I teach classes on feminism. Every semester, I invite
speakers whose work and expertise are by their nature controversial. My expertise on feminist theory is why I have a job at Penn, why I’m given the incredible responsibility of teaching students who want to learn about their world through a critical, cultural lens. It’s this same expertise that makes it literally impossible for me to organize an event or structure a class that doesn’t have “open expression implications.” What’s truly enraging about this language is that it shows that the administration has learned nothing from the widespread community backlash over the proposed Open Expression Guidelines. In listening sessions last spring, community partners rightly identified how chilling the guidelines would be for freedom to teach and freedom to learn because almost anything could fall afoul of the guidelines. That this renewed policy makes the same mistake shows that vague language and obfuscated processes aren’t a bug of the administration’s policies — they’re a feature. This policy must be overturned. We have to go back to having faith in faculty and students to organize events without fear of violating poorly worded policies overseen by invisible administrators. More than ever, we need to transform bodies like the Faculty Senate and University Council into elected, representative bodies that have power to create and enforce policies. The administration will likely argue that objecting to this policy shows naivety, that the climate of higher education is hopelessly politicized and that the institution must act cautiously in order to continue its mission of education. But it is precisely because of the current climate that we have to be clearer than ever about what our university’s values are, and be willing to fight for them. Allegedly, Penn is guided by the motto, leges sine moribus vanae, which translates to “laws without
EBUNOLUWA ADESIDA | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Guest columnist Jessa Lingel argues that through the creation of the “Special Event Review Group,” Penn’s administration has doubled down on dismantling open inquiry and shared governance.
morals are useless.” These guidelines are laws for our community members that don’t just lack morals, they betray our morals. Academic freedom cannot be a nice-to-have luxury of a liberal arts education. Shared governance cannot be outsourced to a group of administrators who lack transparency and exclude the people most affected by their decisions. If Penn wants to remain a world-class research university,
leadership must live up to its values instead of accidentally surrendering them.
too. The cycle will repeat itself. (With nuance of course — your kids might go to Columbia). This sounds great. This is the return of our financial investment in Penn. This is job security and the benefits of being admitted into the top ranks of society. The problem isn’t success, and it’s not ambition. The problem is that we will be powerful, secure, and comfortable, and that’s it. We will never be radical. Throughout my time as a Penn student, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to numerous wildly successful people. Changemakers, entrepreneurs, nonprofit starters: people at the top of their respective fields. My classmates and myself have watched eagerly, waiting for the moment a guest speaker might finally give us the answer to success. Like they might just forget that it’s a secret and it will just come spilling out. Yet, each time we’re disappointed. Because they all have no concrete answer. It’s no one school, no one pill, no one path. So, we chalk it up to destiny and finish that recruiting application we put down momentarily. Harvard student Julia Alvarenga writes about how going to an elite university gives its students boundless opportunities — but it robs them of something, too. She compares schools like Penn and Harvard to a machine: “The machine doesn’t break you. It just builds a smaller room around you until you forget there were other rooms.” Elite universities, meant to make the possibilities seem endless, build a room so small its students think their only options are consulting and investment banking. What does the author of this post decide? She doesn’t end by announcing that she’s going to forget the workforce all together and instead make a living off her humble farm. That would be impractical, especially for those of us who don’t have the security of a colossal pile of funds to soften our landing. What she does decide, though, is that she’s going somewhere, and it’s not BlackRock. She has direction (not destination), and more importantly, she is unafraid to fail. As Penn students, I feel like all we do is want.
We want prestige and money and the validation of knowing we’re on the right track. But I doubt we all arrived here dreaming for our careers to be spent in banking. Penn just made the room so small we decided it was our only option. And uncertainty is scary. Why wait for inspiration to strike when we need a salary and a way to live. We have no incentive to be revolutionary. This isn’t to say there is something wrong with being boring. Some of the most fulfilled people I’ve ever met work simple jobs and have simple lives. But, at least some of us need to be something more, right? I know all of us don’t want to work in investment banking. It’s just not possible. Look at our applications — we’re supposed to be environmental scientists, artists, astronauts, and poets. If we keep going this way, those at large state schools will quickly become all of the revolutionaries in the world. There’s around 300 articles I could point you to that all say the same thing: “Don’t go into banking! Do something else!” While I agree, the point really should be that you can go into banking if you want. But if there is even the smallest sliver of passion somewhere else, know that the room is bigger. Know that every changemaker I know was brave enough to take the time to experience uncertainty until something authentic came out. The people we call changemakers and revolutionaries did not arrive there by default. They did not optimize at 20. They did not choose the safest room and camp out there. At some point, they interrogated what they wanted and were willing to embarrass themselves to get it. If none of us pause long enough to do it, we will never become those people. We’ll be impressive, but never enough to make any substantial change. So, just pause.
JESSA LINGEL is a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication. Her email is lingel@upenn.edu.
Taking a gap year might be the key PIPER’S PENN PAL | Why none of us will ever make any change The realization that life is getting serious seems to have beaten us back to campus this fall. It hits especially hard for those of us in that liminal space that sits past the bliss of the first year and the security of a post-grad job. We’ve barely settled into our schedules, and already the clock is ticking on our future. We’re exhausted, overworked, and our brains are turning into a mush of artificial intelligence, screen time, and info sessions. Still, LinkedIn is exploding with announcements of job offers and internships. So, apparently some of us aren’t quite as troubled. Penn’s push toward careers has morphed from a humorous conversation point into something much more sinister. As if everyone in the “this is stupid,
we’ll figure out jobs later” club has secretly taken a bid at Goldman Sachs. Of course, to see your peers accomplish their dreams and secure their place in the world is a beautiful thing. But it also makes our futures much less of a blurry hypothetical and instead a tangible and solid wall — one we must all begin our climb up. It’s suddenly standard to have our career and life after college secured. This is good. This is tradition. Everything is falling into place exactly how everyone knew it would. We will occupy top spots at top firms and live the rest of our lives summering and skiing and sending our kids to feeder schools where they’ll meet each other. And in the most shocking turn of events, they’ll go to Penn
CONNIE ZHAO | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Senior columnist Piper Slinka-Petka argues that Penn students will never reach true success unless they give themselves time to figure it out.
PIPER SLINKA-PETKA is a College junior studying health and societies from West Virginia. Her email address is pipersp@sas. upenn.edu.
Penn needs on-campus graduate student housing THE CATCH UP WITH KAMAU | Why Penn should do more for its graduate students Penn stands alone in the Ivy League when it comes to on-campus graduate student housing, as the only university that does not provide it. While other schools offer specific living communities for graduate students, Penn leaves its own graduate students to either search for expensive off-campus housing or work as a resident advisor in an undergraduate college house. But our graduate students deserve on-campus housing that is quality, affordable, and community-oriented. Penn has a history of shuttering on-campus graduate student housing and converting it to privately managed student apartments. In 2022, the University closed Sansom Place East, a graduate housing option, and redeveloped the property with a private developer, Greystar. The building is now known as the Accolade, with Greystar owning and operating it. Then, this past summer, the University unveiled a new plan to renovate Sansom Place West, another former graduate student dorm, into off-campus graduate housing through yet another partnership with Greystar. The Accolade markets itself as an apartment “built-in luxury” with its monthly price tag of nearly $1,900 for a 309-square-foot studio. In comparison, the average rent and square footage studio in Philadelphia is around $1,450 and 450 square feet. A quick Google search shows that common complaints of the Accolade are the small rooms, problems with maintenance and facilities of the building, which are some of the same issues residents complained about at Sansom Place East. I also spoke with Rita Wu, a graduate student at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design who is a current resident of the Accolade. Wu said that the rooms are small and the rent is “pricey,” but is still lower than other apartments like The Chestnut or 3737. She also mentioned that the building was a convenient choice given its proximity to campus and popularity on Chinese social media apps like RedNote and WeChat. Still, Wu shared that if she knew the area better before coming to Penn, she would have considered other apartment buildings.
Currently, the only pathway for a graduate student to live on-campus is as a graduate resident advisor. While the benefits like free housing and meals are enticing, being an RA can often be too demanding for those dealing with a graduate level course load. RA responsibilities include holding floor meetings, managing roommate conflicts, and organizing various floor events throughout the academic year. These duties can take away time from pursuing research assistantships, internships, or just time to rest and relax. Graduate students also deserve the chance to live on campus without having to be an employee of Penn Residential Services. Being an RA also removes one of the most beneficial aspects of living on campus: community. As a graduate student, I feel disconnected from my peers in the 11 other graduate colleges at Penn. This is disappointing, as I made lifelong connections during my time living in a dorm in undergrad, meeting people from all different majors. Offering on-campus options for graduate students would provide a centralized place for us to meet each other and build community. In comparison to Penn, schools like Princeton and Yale have robust on-campus graduate housing. Princeton, for example, provides a wide array of housing options including traditional dorms, apartments, or townhomes. Yale graduate students have noted the low cost and convenience of living on campus. Harvard also offers on-campus graduate student housing, but more importantly creates events through its Graduate Commons Program that curates events for graduate students, faculty, and their families who live on campus. Harvard’s Graduate Commons Program helps build connections for graduate students across different disciplines and backgrounds. Obviously Penn’s old graduate on-campus strategy was flawed; that was evident with the high vacancy rate they had. Nonetheless, instead of simply handing off the management of valuable property to private developers like Greystar who
charge high rents, and have been sued in the past for inflating prices, the University should look into unique ways to provide on-campus housing for the graduate student population. That may look like acquiring townhomes and mid-rise apartments that already cater toward Penn students and converting them into on-campus housing, or going back to the dorm model with updated facilities and community programming for graduate students. Being the only Ivy League without graduate student housing and with the recent conflicts between the University and its graduate student union, it sends a message to potential grad students that the
University doesn’t provide for them. I hope for a future where Penn provides on-campus graduate student housing to help students unfamiliar with renting in Philadelphia stop paying for overpriced apartments, avoid predatory landlords, and, most importantly, provide a strong diverse community for graduate students. KAMAU LOUIS is a second-year graduate student studying city and regional planning from Orlando, Fla. His email is louis3@upenn.edu.
ABHIRAM JUVVADI | DP FILE PHOTO
Columnist Kamau Louis argues that Penn should provide on-campus housing for its graduate students.
6 NEWS
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026
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News
Forbes fired its top editor in July. He got his start in journalism at Penn 1990 College graduate Randall Lane was fired for accepting a $6 million payment from a firm with business ties to the magazine ISHA CHITIRALA News Editor
Long before Randall Lane climbed the editorial ranks at Forbes, he was a student journalist at Penn. Known to his peers as a relentless reporter, Lane left Penn in 1990 with a degree in history and political science — and an unwavering ambition to make his mark in journalism. One year later, he joined the staff at Forbes, where he would eventually take the helm as the magazine’s chief content officer. Lane was fired in July for accepting a $6 million payment from a firm with business ties to Forbes. The payment — first reported by The New York Times — came from businessman RJ Shook, whose company has long partnered with Forbes to publish rankings of financial advisors. Shook reportedly made the undisclosed multimillion-dollar payment after selling his majority stake in Shook Research to PPC Enterprises, a private equity firm. “Randall Lane’s acceptance of the undisclosed payment by RJ Shook was unacceptable and is inconsistent with our policies and principles of trust, transparency, and disclosure,” a Forbes spokesperson wrote in a statement. “No individual—regardless of title, tenure or contributions—is above those standards.” After verifying the incident, the spokesperson stated that Forbes “took action and immediately fired Mr. Lane.” The company is “exploring all appropriate actions to hold Mr. Lane to full account,” according to the statement. Forbes requires its employees to seek approval before engaging in outside business activities and prohibits them from profiting personally, directly or indirectly, from the company’s dealings, according to a copy of the employee handbook obtained by the Times. Newsrooms traditionally bar journalists from accepting payments or gifts from sources or business partners in order to prevent conflicts of interest or the appearance of one. Lane did not respond to multiple requests for comment. At the time of publication, it is unclear why Lane accepted the payment. A person familiar with his thinking told the Times that Lane considered the payment a gift in recognition of advice he provided Shook. “I made a mistake, and I take responsibility for it,” Lane said in a statement last month. “I should have disclosed the gift, and failing to was a serious error in judgment. I deeply regret that, and I lost the job and team I love because of it.” According to the Times, Lane acknowledged the payment after being confronted by Forbes. He was replaced on an interim basis by Kerry Lauerman, the magazine’s executive editor. ***
SAC, from front page According to an internal APSC email viewed by The Daily Pennsylvanian, the group canceled its
At Penn, Lane spent his college career working at The Daily Pennsylvanian, rising to managing editor in 1989. Those who worked with him remember Lane as an ambitious journalist who was unrelenting in his pursuit of a good story. Greg Stone — who graduated from the Wharton School in 1990 and served as the DP’s executive editor in 1989 — called Lane a “rival.” “I knew Randall quite well,” Stone said. “We’ve served on the board together, and we were rivals at the time, in the sense that we both were gunning for the top job.” According to Stone, Randall was “relentless, dogged, and determined” with a “definite reporter’s instinct and a storyteller’s appetite.” “Randall would have loved to cover this story,” he added. As a reporter at the DP, Lane found a niche covering crime on campus. Both Stone and 1989 College graduate Charles Cohen specifically recalled Lane’s 1988 reporting on a Wharton student convicted of drug trafficking in a million-dollar case. “That was one of the biggest stories on campus, probably that year,” Stone said. “Randall was the guy who loved staying up late to get the best story possible.” 1991 College graduate Kevin Kassover — who served during the same DP board term as Lane — recalled that “he essentially lived at the DP offices.” “I wouldn’t be surprised if he slept there!” Kassover wrote. Out of those late nights, according to 1991 College graduate Hood Qaim-Maqami, came a peculiar tradition. “Our air conditioning was just terrible back then,” Qaim-Maqami wrote. “Randall had been working late on a sweltering night before a major issue. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt and one the first years complained—perhaps with exaggerated seriousness—that Randall’s back hair was shedding onto the paste-up boards.” A staffer “produced clippers as a joke” which resulted in a “quiet little tradition” where “Randall’s back had to be ‘cleared for production’” before big nights at the office, Qaim-Maqami recalled. In his experience, Cohen said that Lane has “always been focused on ethics in journalism,” adding that he was “really surprised about this latest turn of events.” Cohen — who currently serves as chair of the DP Foundation — said he considers Lane “a close friend” and spent several years working with Lane during their time as student journalists at the DP. Both joined the newspaper’s Board of Directors after graduating. annual CelebraAsian event due to “continued uncertainties with our SAC budget approval.” Before pulling the plug, APSC announced a tentative rescheduling of the event as a result of the “budgetary constraints.” “The motivation for canceling this event is working with the present knowledge that we have on
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Lane was announced as the DP’s managing editor on Jan. 27, 1989.
“Randall has always been a risk-taker, which is why he’s so entrepreneurial in everything he does,” Cohen said. “I think that was part of the issue here: He was thinking entrepreneurially and maybe not thinking as much about the journalism side of his actions.” Cohen described Lane as “one of the best investigative reporters that I’ve ever worked with.” “He knows how to get to the bottom of the story, and then most importantly, he knows how to communicate the key facts in a way that immediately engages the readers,” Cohen said. “If you go to read
Randall’s stuff in Forbes today, you can see the roots of it back in our college days. He was that good back then.” Following his time as managing editor, Lane wrote a biweekly column titled “Missing Deadline.” In one January 1990 column, he praised the DP’s editorial independence. He used the piece to describe a rival paper as “an unprofessional, noxious publication which blurs the lines between objective reporting and editorial biases.” Staff reporter Kori Robinson and senior reporter Christine Oh contributed reporting.
what our budget allocation is, which at the current moment, is on record as zero,” the board member said. “APSC is disappointed that it has had to come to this.” Still, they emphasized that they were willing to extend “grace” for OSA given the “very busy time” of the year.
The Onda Latina board member emphasized that while changes are expected, Penn must “ensure that support does actually reach student groups” during times of transition. “We just want to make sure that we have that support while we navigate through the changes,” they said.
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026
NEWS 7
Meet the committee guiding the search for Penn’s next president A 19-person panel — drawing members from across Penn’s schools and governance bodies — will help select the University’s 11th president ANANYA KARTHIK AND KATHRYN YE Senior Reporters
Penn President Larry Jameson will step down at the end of this academic year. A 19-person committee — drawing members from across Penn’s schools and governance bodies — will help choose his successor and, in doing so, chart the University’s future. The Consultative Committee will gather community input to define the priorities and qualifications that should steer the presidential search. Its members have spent anywhere between three years to several decades at Penn. Two of them — 1979 College graduate Julie Beren Platt and Marc McMorris, a 1990 College graduate and 1994 Wharton School graduate — also served on the last iteration of the committee, which helped select former Penn President Liz Magill. Here’s what to know about the trustees, administrators, faculty, and student leaders shaping the search for Penn’s 11th president.
began her term as vice dean in July 2025. Lamberton — whose research focuses on the impact of dignity and respect in customer experiences — is also the co-founder of the Munich-based Center for Empirical Philosophy and Behavioral Insights.
Kathleen Brown Kathleen Brown is the David Boies Professor of History and a tri-chair of the Faculty Senate. She served as chair for the 2025-26 academic year, during which the body took on efforts to improve engagement, including through publishing a one-pager outlining responsibilities within the University’s system of shared governance. Brown — whose work focuses on gender and race in early America — began her time at Penn in 1995, when she served as a visiting professor.
Ryan Limaye 1993 M&T graduate Ryan Limaye is a member of the University Board of Trustees and is on the Board of Advisors of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He currently serves as a managing director and head of global technology investment banking at Goldman Sachs.
Musab Chummun College senior Musab Chummun serves as the 54th president of the Undergraduate Assembly. He is pursuing a major in philosophy, politics, and economics and a minor in legal studies and history. In his time at the UA, Chummun focused on initiatives to increase club sports funding, disclose Penn’s endowment, protect diversity, equity, and inclusion at University Council, and pass measures to protect students from federal immigration enforcement. Jonathan Epstein Jonathan Epstein is the dean of the Perelman School of Medicine and executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Epstein joined Penn in 1996. From 2006 to 2015, he served as chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and scientific director of the Penn Cardiovascular Institute. Eric Feldman University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Eric Feldman — who also serves as the Heimbold Chair in International Law and Deputy Dean for International Programs — was the Faculty Senate chair during the 2024-25 academic year. Feldman began his term as Faculty Senate chair amid a tumultuous time at Penn, following a semester of protests on campus. He currently serves as senior advisor to the provost on open expression. Cait Lamberton Vice Dean and Director of the Wharton Undergraduate Division Cait Lamberton joined Wharton in 2019 as the Alberto I. Duran President’s Distinguished Professor of Marketing. Lamberton teaches courses spanning the undergraduate, MBA, Ph.D., and executive levels and
JAMESON, from front page in artificial intelligence research and development. Since announcing Penn Forward last September, the University has assembled six working groups and begun to implement key initiatives. The framework’s timeline is a point of pride for Jameson, who said projects like this one can traditionally “drag on for years.” “The lens I think through is, ‘What’s best for the University of Pennsylvania long term,’ and I think this is a good strategic move,” Jameson said. “It’s not the only one.” *** In June, Jameson announced that he would step down as president at the end of this academic year. “When I accepted the honor of leading Penn, my goal was to help restore stability during unanticipated leadership transitions, refocus our community on Penn’s mission, and strengthen Penn for the future,” Jameson wrote in an email at the time. “With your partnership, resilience, and dedication, we have accomplished these objectives and much more.” His final year as Penn president is a historical one. The University is celebrating 150 years since women first enrolled as students, and is commemorating 275 years of Penn Medicine, 150 years of Penn football, and a century of the historic Palestra. Whoever Penn’s next leader might be, Jameson plans to avoid offering them unsolicited advice. “If they want my input, I’ll be happy to work with them, but I also think it’s really important that they’ll be a leader,” Jameson said. “I will do everything I can to be supportive, but not impose anything.” He did, however, have one recommendation.
Yphtach Lelkes Yphtach Lelkes is the Michael X. Delli Carpini Professor of Communication, with research focusing on the intersection of public opinion, political psychology, and political communication. Lelkes serves as the co-director of the Polarization Research Lab, which provides open data and research on American views of democracy and tracking political violence. He also co-directs the Center for Information Networks and Democracy, which examines the impacts of information networks on democracy.
Judith Long Judith Long is the Sol Katz Professor of Medicine, a senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and chief of general internal medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine. Long’s research focuses on the social determinants of health and reducing health disparities in chronic disease treatment. At Penn, she is involved with training in Health Services and Policy Researchers. Catherine O’Hern Lyons 1986 College graduate Catherine O’Hern Lyons is a current member of the Board of Trustees and an advisor for the Board of Advisors of the School of Dental Medicine. Prior to her retirement, Lyons served as a managing director in the Fixed Income Trading division at Merrill Lynch. During her time at Penn, Lyons competed in track and field, setting the women’s outdoor 1,500-meter record in 1985 — a record that stood until 2006. Marc McMorris 1990 College and 1994 Wharton School graduate Marc McMorris is the vice chair of the Board of Trustees and chair of the body’s Investment Board. He has worked in private equity and growth investing, including spending time as a managing director at General Atlantic and Carrick Capital Partners. McMorris was first elected to the Board of Trustees in 2006 and became a charter trustee in 2016. He is also a member of the James Brister Society, which supports Penn’s efforts to recruit and retain students and faculty of color. In 2000, McMorris established the Joan Qualls McMorris Scholarship in honor of his mother. Colleen O’Neill Colleen O’Neill became Penn’s vice president of finance and treasurer in April. In the role, she oversees major University financial operations, including finance “I would advise them to take the time to be consultative and get input from people that have content expertise,” he said. In July 2025, the University struck a deal with the Education Department to restore $175 million in federal funding. At the time, the decision drew sharp backlash from faculty and community members. But only a few months later, in October, Penn rejected the White House’s education compact — a proposal that guaranteed the University preferential funding in exchange for its compliance with a set of sweeping reforms. The decision marked a shift in the University’s approach to negotiating with the Trump administration. Unlike the closed-door discussions that led to the University’s settlement with the Education Department, Jameson was public in his consultation of student and faculty leaders prior to issuing Penn’s formal rejection, in large part due to calls for transparency from the Penn community. *** Jameson described his medical career as one of constant learning, a habit he’s kept alive as president. Just last weekend, Jameson said he spent time studying and taking continuing education courses. A highlight of his job, he added, has been the chance to eat lunch with current students, learn about the careers of alumni, and discuss ideas with faculty. Those experiences are what make the role “totally awesome.” “We’ve been around for almost three centuries — there are very few institutions in our society that last that long,” he said. “I think the judicious way that we’ve navigated over those centuries has served us very well.” Still, Penn’s best days lie ahead, he believes. “The caliber of the institution has just progressively improved over time,” Jameson said. “I’m very proud of those things.”
and treasury and Student Registration and Financial Services. O’Neill previously served as Wharton’s chief operating and financial officer beginning in July 2023 — during her tenure, the school recorded its largest operating margin in its history. O’Neill holds four Penn degrees: a 1998 bachelor’s degree from the College, a 1999 master’s degree from the Graduate School of Education, a 2016 master’s degree from the Fels Institute of Government, and a 2018 MBA from Wharton. Dhananjay Pai 1983 Wharton graduate Dhananjay Pai is a University trustee and chair of the Penn Medicine Board. Pai is president and chief operating officer of P. Schoenfeld Asset Management, a New York-based alternative asset manager. Pai — who has also served as an overseer of the School of Arts and Sciences and as a member of the advisory board of Penn’s Center for the Advanced Study of India — previously co-chaired Penn’s Parents Leadership Council with his wife, Heena Pai. Ramanan Raghavendran Ramanan Raghavendran serves as chair of Board of Trustees and the chair of the presidential search Consultative Committee. A 1989 graduate of both the Engineering School and Wharton, he became a University trustee in 2014 and was elected to chair in January 2024. Before entering his current role, Raghavendran led the Trustee Committee on Local, National, and Global Engagement and chaired the School of Arts and Sciences Board of Advisors. Julie Beren Platt Julie Beren Platt, a 1979 College graduate, is a University trustee emerita, and chair of the Penn Live Arts Board of Advisors. She joined the Board of Trustees in 2006, went on to serve as vice chair, and became interim chair after Scott Bok resigned in December 2023. Platt and her husband, Marc Platt, have funded scholarships, professorships, Jewish studies initiatives, and performing arts facilities at Penn. Their most recent gift is the Platt Student Performing Arts Center, which is scheduled to open in 2027.
Theodore Schlein 1986 College graduate Theodore Schlein is a University trustee and a venture capitalist whose career has focused heavily on cybersecurity and enterprise technology. A 2021 gift from Schlein established the Schlein Center for Cybersecurity — which supports interdisciplinary research and education involving technology, privacy, policy, and law. Whitney Soule Whitney Soule has served as Penn’s vice provost and dean of admissions since July 2021. She is the first woman to lead Penn Admissions and has worked in higher-education admissions for over three decades. At Penn, Soule helped develop “Applying to College 101,” a free online course produced with Heights Philadelphia to guide students and families through the admissions process. Mark Trodden Mark Trodden became dean of Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences in June 2025. Trodden — who has been a member of Penn’s faculty since 2009 — chaired the Department of Physics and Astronomy for eight years and served as associate dean for the natural sciences for two years. Duncan Watts Duncan Watts is the Stevens University Professor and Penn’s 23rd Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor. His primary appointment is at the Annenberg School for Communication, but he also holds appointments in the Engineering School, Wharton, and the School of Arts and Sciences. He directs Penn’s Computational Social Science Lab. Before joining Penn, Watts worked at Microsoft Research and Yahoo Research and taught sociology at Columbia University. Adam Ziada Adam Ziada, a doctoral candidate in the Medical School, is president of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly. As GAPSA president, he represents Penn’s graduate and professional students and oversees the organization’s executive leadership and advocacy priorities. He is pursuing a doctorate in the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Group’s Gene Therapy and Vaccines program.
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Raghavendran will chair the Consultative Committee.
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Sports SUMMER, from back page “I was really focusing on swimming and training, and then you know, I went to the meet and I swam great,” Nguyen said. Sophomore thrower Jessica Oji had a travelfilled summer. Her NCAA season ran until June, when she came in fourth place at Outdoor Track and Field National Championships. After that, it was off to the United Kingdom, where Oji continued representing the Red and Blue at the Transatlantic Series, but her most important meets of the summer were yet to come, with her first senior competition on the horizon. In Glasgow, Scotland, Oji made her senior debut for Team Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games and nabbed the silver medal in a field of seasoned professionals. Just a few days later, she was back on the mound, this time at the World U20 Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore. “I've already been to Oregon Stadium multiple times, so it almost felt a little bit like home turf, and I was able to pick up the gold there. … I didn't really know I was going to go to [the] Commonwealth [Games], but U20 Worlds was something I really wanted to get, so [I was] very much happy that I was able to come away with that,” Oji said. Oji nonetheless spent most of the summer training with Penn throws coach Isaiah Simmons. Despite not being able to travel to the Commonwealth games, he would coach her virtually, sending training plans and working together with the Team Nigeria coach. At the end of a long outdoor season, Oji felt
some burnout, especially given that she had emphasized preparing for NCAAs this season. As a result, she threw less in practice and also scaled back her work in the weight room. With the goal for her next season being to focus more on senior meets, Oji and her coaches aim to take a different approach. Competing for Team Nigeria also meant being able to learn from other senior athletes on the team with many years of experience. Oji appreciated meeting “some really cool people” and getting to pick their brains about preparing for meets. She went shopping in Glasgow with Toni Amusan, the former world record holder in the 100-meter hurdles, and Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, who competes for Nigeria in the men’s shot put, passed on some of his knowledge to Oji. “A lot of his cues and the way he was trying to explain things to me, I was like, ‘Wow, I really don't understand that.’ But, you know, he was trying his best to give me some new drills that I could do, commenting on my throws,” Oji said. Basketball sophomore center Kate Lipatova had a similar experience on the Azerbaijan 3x3 national team. She was the youngest player by far on that team, traveling to Japan, France, and Azerbaijan with three players who were around 30 years old, and got to learn from professional basketball players. It was a stark contrast to her time on the Azerbaijan U20 team earlier in the summer, where she learned a lot by leading the team as one of its main players. Lipatova didn’t even know she would have the opportunity to play in the summer until after the spring semester ended. “When I was coming back from America I was
in an airplane and my coach texted me that I have an opportunity to play for Azerbaijan. … And I was like, ‘Yeah, why not?’” Lipatova said. With basketball as her only focus in the summer, Lipatova was able to take her time with training and conditioning, following the training of the Azerbaijan coaches. It was a welcome change from the life of a student-athlete, or as she puts it: “no homework, no 8:00 a.m. classes.” It also reinforced her desire to play professionally in the future, whether on a club level or for the Azerbaijan national team. Lacrosse junior goalkeeper Orly Sedransk spent her summer months living out a childhood dream. Although she had gone through the youth lacrosse setup for Team USA, she always harbored a desire to represent Israel internationally. The possibility of competing for Israel at the 2026 Women’s Lacrosse World Championships in Tokyo started emerging her freshman year, and everything was solidified by the fall of 2025. Sedransk was able to play significant minutes in the tournament as Israel finished with a bronze medal. On a team with both high schoolers and seasoned veterans, Sedransk was able to follow the older players and in many ways bond over their shared Jewish identity. “It's like serving different roles on different teams. And then also just getting to appreciate different things. I feel so grateful being back at Penn, just having that break this summer, because I really haven't played lacrosse in any other environment besides here in the last two years,” Sedransk explained. Playing over the summer was comparable to the few games the Penn women’s lacrosse team gets to play after finals in May, a time period the players
MARTIN, from back page
COURTESY OF PENN ATHLETICS
Martin competes in the 4x800-meter relay at the outdoor Ivy Heps in May.
Threads - 3x6
was coming into a team and I had people to train with all the time.” “That was a really big change for me, but in a positive way,” Martin added. After coming off the grass with a 59th-place finish at the Heptagonal Championships, Martin hit the ground running for her first collegiate indoor track season. Gosselin immediately made use of Martin’s versatility on the oval, having her run 3,000 meters, 1,000 meters, the mile, the 4x800-meter relay, and the 4x400-meter relay over the course of the indoor season, while utilizing an entirely different training program. Instead of focusing on developing endurance through long trail runs and aerobic workouts, Gosselin pushed Martin out of her comfort zone with speed work and interval training. While any one workout might not jump out at you, Martin’s success during the indoor season was built on “her ability to string together weeks and months of good solid training,” according to Gosselin. Just when she was settled into the pace of her new training regimen, it was time to switch the focus on to Martin’s specialty — the steeplechase, an outdoor-exclusive event. While Martin was used to running the steeple at a high level, she had to adapt to a new challenge: a longer race. At the junior level, runners typically compete in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, while at the collegiate and senior level, they instead compete in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. “I feel like it was kind of hard after indoor [track] and coming into outdoor [track] because I went from running 1ks to 3k steeples, which is not the same at all, and it’s so much longer,” Martin said. “I still felt like I was kind of lacking the fitness, like the base fitness endurance to run the steeple that I think I had the year before, and because I did shorter races last year, I felt like I have more speed and less endurance, so it was kind of hard [running] the first few steeples.” By the Larry Ellis Invitational, though, it was safe to say that Martin found her footing. She kept in contention with the top of the pack throughout the race, cleanly clearing each steeple. By the time she crossed the line, Martin improved her personal record by almost 45 seconds with her 10:17.26 finish, notching the No. 2 all-time program mark and the World U20 qualifying standard. Feeling like “death and super overjoyed at the same time,” Martin also solidified her spot at the NCAA East Regional, becoming one of two distance runners from Penn to qualify for the meet alongside 2026 College graduate Lily Murphy. Martin was nervous going into the biggest meet
jokingly call “pro lax season.” With classes done, the players can solely focus on lacrosse. “I'm obsessed with lacrosse,” Sedransk said. “So it's definitely a completely different world to not have to worry about school during that.” It also prepared her for another one of her goals, which is to represent Israel at the 2028 Olympics. It will be the first time that lacrosse is an Olympic sport, making it all the more meaningful. Even when competing at world championships, though, it is hard for some student-athletes to escape Penn’s hustle culture. While Oji and Lipatova loved being able to focus solely on their respective sports, others felt a pressure to be doing something other than training. Sedransk, for example, worked for the first two months of her summer. With all her friends getting internships, it felt a bit hard to pass it up, but she overall felt okay with her decision to focus on lacrosse since it was only the summer before her junior year. Nguyen, who did finance research at Penn, liked having something that forced him to switch off from swimming. He described himself as an overthinker when it comes to his sport, which made him grateful for the distraction while still being able to focus mainly on training. Still, he explained the urge to do research in the first place came from a sense of pressure to do “at least something very minor towards your career.” Khafagy spent the summer working as a marketing intern for a startup, and shared the same feeling as Nguyen. “I got this weird anxiety feeling that I'm not doing what every single Penn student should be doing,” Khafagy said. of her career so far. At the beginning of the season, she thought making Regionals was an achievable goal, but the depth of the field wasn’t something she anticipated. “I didn’t really know what to expect,” Martin said. “I was like, ‘It’s going to be super fast with super fast people,’ and I think that also made me feel a bit like a spectator of the race [rather] than actually racing.” “I think the fact that the girls in the front were so fast made me not realize that I was actually kind of close to the girls next to me,” Martin added. She ultimately finished 46th in the region and 14th in her heat in 10:49.21. Only a few days separated Martin’s collegiate outdoor season from her World U20 ambitions. She spent the summer training alone with her old club once again while competing at local meets in France, even showing out against seasoned pros from around the world at the Meeting National Est Lyonnais. By the time August rolled around, Martin was back stateside for the World U20 championships, excited but exhausted after competing for almost 11 months straight. She went into the race trying to feel “calm and confident,” keeping in contention with the field for the first two laps, but she couldn’t do away with the stress of a long season plaguing her mind. After hitting the 800-meter mark, Martin claimed she wasn’t “really racing anymore,” feeling disconnected from her feet hitting the fullpolyurethane track as the race became a mental fight to the finish. Even though she didn’t make it to the finals as she had hoped, Martin walked away from the World U20 with a sea of support from her fellow French national team members. She showed up for her countrymen and college teammates in the stands, cheering them on through her finals as she too celebrated a well-deserved rest. But now that she’s back in Philadelphia, Martin is ready to attack the grass once again and help the Quakers fight for the title at Ivy Heps this fall. She’ll be back suited up in the Red and Blue in October for the Paul Short Run at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., to make her sophomore season debut. “She’s locked in on steeple and track in general,” fellow sophomore distance specialist Aoife Shovlin said. “She’s really, really good and she’s very into it, enthusiastic about it, and also super humble about it. She’s gone to Worlds and things, but you’d never catch her bragging about it or anything.” “For her competitive goals this season, I really just want to see her be the best version of herself on and off the track,” Gosselin wrote. “If she keeps stringing together training like she is capable of, she will have a very good season.”
COURTESY OF THOMAS TERMOTE
Martin competes at the World U20 Track and Field Championships on Aug. 5.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026
THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN
SPORTS 9
Meet five new faces on the gridiron for Penn football New faces will help lead Penn football’s charge into the Rick Santos era ELLIE CLARK Deputy Sports Editor
As Penn football gears up for a new season, the Quakers lost key players to graduation and transfers. New talents from the Class of 2030, however, are ready to spring into action. Here are some of the new faces leading the charge into the Rick Santos era: Miles Teodecki — freshman quarterback Miles Teodecki is one of the most touted recruits of the modern era. The first top-50 position recruit and top1,000 recruit in modern program history, Teodecki’s commitment flip from Kansas State to Penn garnered national attention and a writeup in The Athletic. During the 2025-26 season, Teodecki put up 2,504 passing yards with a 67.3% average completion rate. He earned District 25-6A and Texas 6A-2 offensive player of the year honors after consistent showings on the gridiron, throwing 37-for-55 for 437 yards and six touchdowns during his final high school game. Throughout Teodecki’s high school career, he boasted a 27-4 record as quarterback at Vandegrift. While learning from junior quarterback Karson Siqueiros-Lasky, who was named starting quarterback this season, Teodecki will look to make his mark on the program. “I chose Penn because of the unique opportunity to reach my full potential both athletically and academically,” Teodecki told Penn Athletics. “I believe in coach Santos and his staff. I know that they’re going to accomplish great things, and I want to be a part of it.” Foard Polley — freshman offensive lineman Penn football coach Rick Santos has big plans for his offensive line this fall, and Foard Polley is going to be a key asset. Polley originally committed to Penn in June 2025 after two official visits with former coach Ray Priore. Shortly after committing to Penn, Polley became one
of four offensive linemen named to the Houston Touchdown Club preseason team. The Houston native continued that momentum into a strong senior season, earning team offensive MVP honors twice while leading the team to a Bi-District Championship. “I chose Penn because the moment I stepped on campus, it felt like home,” Polley told Penn Athletics. “There’s no place where I’d rather earn a world-class education while playing football.”
being pushed to the highest academic standards,” Smith told Penn Athletics. “As a quarterback, I’m drawn to environments that demand discipline, preparation, and leadership, and Penn represents that in every way.” Jack Sacchetti — freshman defensive lineman Jack Sacchetti joins his older brother, offensive lineman and captain Luke Sacchetti, on the Quakers this fall. He was a three-sport athlete in high school, helping lead West Forsyth High School to regional
championships in football, wrestling, and baseball. A three-time all-county and three-time all-region honoree, Sacchetti will almost certainly be an integral part of Santos’ new defensive lineup. “I chose Penn because of Wharton’s academic prestige, the football program’s championship potential, and the chance to play alongside my brother,” Sacchetti told Penn Athletics. The Quakers will open their season on Sept. 19 with an away contest against Bucknell.
Tyler George — freshman wide receiver Tyler George comes to the Quakers as a three-star wide receiver from Corona Centennial High School, where he served as a captain and helped lead the team to four consecutive Big West Upper League Championships. A top-500 wide receiver, George received at least 10 Division I offers, including other Ivies and Football Bowl Subdivision programs, before deciding to don the Red and Blue. “The balance between academics and high-level football creates a hardworking and motivated family ready to compete and win championships,” George told Penn Athletics. Vincent Smith — freshman quarterback A two-star recruit from San Diego, Vincent Smith was originally committed to the University of San Diego before a November offer from the Quakers convinced him to join the Red and Blue. Smith served as a captain during his junior and senior seasons in high school, helping his team to the 2024 Division 3 CIF San Diego Section championship and the California state semifinals. “I chose Penn because it’s one of the few places where I can compete at a high level on the field while
ABHIRAM JUVVADI | DP FILE PHOTO
Franklin Field on April 15.
SOCCER, from back page
NOAH JEONG | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Freshman midfielder Isaac Tortola during a game on Sept. 1.
attempt mere minutes later, scoring their only goal of the evening. Similar to the Quakers at the top of the period, Monmouth utilized the momentum of their goal to push play onto the other side of the field. The smell of the storm to come wafted through the air as the ball moved back and forth between teams. A yellow card called on Monmouth’s Raul Garcia in the 37th minute broke up the fray for a moment, opening up an opportunity for a Quakers press. Monmouth quickly regained possession, but the Hawks couldn’t foil a sneaky misdirect from sophomore defender Becket Empson-Speiden, which was later converted into a goal from sophomore midfielder Adam Ambrus-Aikelin. Although Monmouth held onto the ball, they were seemingly held in a defensive gridlock by the Quakers, refusing to branch out onto the other side of the field for scoring opportunities. Penn entered the second period confidently, holding onto the ball from the kickoff despite daring dives attempted by Monmouth. The Hawks played
riskily to foil the Quakers’ game of keep away, but strong ball management and straight shooting kept the ball with the Quakers. “We’ve been talking with our attacking players about making a concerted effort to get into the box to take chances as well, and I think it was a nice translation of training sessions that we’ve been trying to put in front of the team over the early parts of the season,” Gill said. A Quakers press into the Hawks’ side of the field resulted in a goal from Stoka, marking the freshman’s first collegiate goal. “The fact that it’s [Stoka’s] first game, for him to come in and be able to have that kind of a play to remember in his first appearance, for Penn and at home, I think that will be a special thing for him,” Gill said. The Quakers will take on the Pitt Panthers in Pittsburgh on Labor Day, hoping to continue their winning streak. For Stoka, the game means more than a typical non-conference contest, as he hopes to show up and show out on his brother’s old stomping grounds. “Pitt is a very, very talented team and they have some great players,” Stoka said. “But we know what we’re able to do, and we have our system, and we’re very confident in our ability to be dangerous on game day.”
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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026
VOL. CXLII
NO. 19
Penn men’s soccer bests Monmouth 4-1 In his first collegiate game, freshman midfielder Mario Stoka notched his first goal within minutes ELLIE CLARK Deputy Sports Editor
In his first collegiate game, freshman midfielder Mario Stoka notched his first goal, helping secure Penn men’s soccer’s (1-0) 4-1 victory over Monmouth (1-2). Although the game was cut short by nearby lightning strikes, the Quakers were electric on the pitch, limiting the Hawks to seven shots and three shots on goal in 77 minutes of play. “The anticipation, the excitement coming into the first game, a lot of nerves, a lot of butterflies that come into it,” Stoka said. “Just to be able to get in the game, find some rhythm, and then be able to run into the box and find that goal … all the work put in, it just feels good.” “Any time you’re able to come out and put together a performance like that, I think you’re going to be happy with things,” Penn men’s soccer coach Brian Gill said in an interview. “The fact that it was a season opener, obviously, with the team kind of still in the early days of figuring ourselves out, putting together something like that will give the team a good amount of confidence moving forward.” A starting lineup of upperclassmen headlined by junior forward Marco Bottene took to the field for the first minutes of play. Bottene made some early attempts at the goal, and was finally able to convert in the sixth minute of play, scoring the Quakers’ first goal of the season with assistance from fellow junior forward Romeo Dahlen. Play paused for a moment as a sea of Red and Blue jerseys descended on Bottene, celebrating his early goal. The energized Quakers took the momentum into their defense as Monmouth attempted to break through their shields and gain possession. By the 17th minute of play, Bottene walked away with his second goal of the night after hitting the bottom left corner of the net, while the Hawks had yet to make a single shot. “I’m super excited to have scored two goals today, especially early in the game and early in the season,” Bottene said after the game. “It just starts the year off really well and ultimately helps us get the win. The team winning is really big, and the fact that I can have an impact on the team winning is huge.” Inflammatory language soared from one end of the field to the other as Monmouth attempted to gain their footing and shift play to the Quakers’ side of the pitch. A yellow card earned by sophomore defender Kalani Kunimura in the 18th minute gave the Hawks their first attempt on a goal off a free kick. Monmouth was able to convert on their second See SOCCER, page 9
CATHERINE GARCIA | SENIOR DESIGNER
A summer beyond Philadelphia for Penn’s student athletes As they competed around the globe, Quakers balanced athletic ambitions and career goals KAIA FEICHTINGER-ERHART Deputy Sports Editor
When summer comes around, most Penn students know exactly where they will be spending their next few months: in an office for an internship, traveling for one of Penn’s summer programs, or perhaps doing research in a lab. There is, however, a whole other side to Penn students’ summers — a small number of Quakers who choose to take advantage of the precious free time to fully invest into their sports. For senior squash player Malak Khafagy, that meant finishing out her professional squash season at the British Open in June before training back on campus for the rest of her offseason. Originally intending to spend the summer in her native Egypt, as she had done the previous years, Khafagy came back to Philadelphia early to work more closely with her strength and conditioning coach at Penn. It also gave her the chance to practice with different hitting partners, some of whom
play for Team USA. Khafagy is currently ranked No. 31 worldwide, and her goal is to break into the top 20. That means practicing three times a day and competing in the full professional squash season, something that can be very difficult during the academic year on top of a full collegiate squash season. “I just didn't have anything left in me, … I was just breathing air,” Khafagy said of the end of last season. The summer is used to recover and gather the energy for another nine months of competition. Khafagy wants to play for the Egyptian national team, and is hoping to make it to the 2028 Olympics. Junior breaststroke specialist Watson Nguyen shares that dream. He, too, decided to spend the summer focusing entirely on swimming after a busy semester that included recruiting for a junior
summer internship. “If I'm trying to do my best with this recruiting, then I'm going to swim this summer,” Nguyen explained. “Because if I'm going to be sure I'm going to be working junior summer, then I owe it to swimming. … If I don't take this opportunity to have a free summer that really doesn't matter that much, when will I ever take it again?” Nguyen spent the first month at home, spending time with family and training with his club team, before coming back to work with his Penn coaches. He appreciated that over the summer, he was able to get “a little bit more individualization” in practice. His work paid off, with Nguyen taking the gold in the 50-meter breaststroke and the bronze in the 100-meter breaststroke at the USA Swimming National Championships in Irvine, Calif. See SUMMER, page 8
Penn to host Women’s Big 5 Classic at the Palestra
Penn track’s Adèle Martin is a flexible force
The third iteration of the Big 5 tournament will come to Penn for the Palestra’s 100th anniversary
After her freshman season at Penn, Martin competed for France at the World U20 Championships in August
ELLIE CLARK Deputy Sports Editor
ELLIE CLARK Deputy Sports Editor
One hundred years in the making. The Women’s Big 5 Classic is coming to the Palestra this December as part of the Cathedral of College Basketball’s centennial celebrations. The tripleheader finals that ultimately determine the Big 5 champion, bronze medalist, and fifth-place finisher will be hosted on the Quakers’ home court on Sunday, Dec. 6. “It’s incredibly special that we get to host the Big Five Classic at the Palestra on its 100th anniversary,” Penn women’s basketball junior forward Gabriella Kelley wrote in a statement. “There is so much history behind the Pal, and we are very lucky to call it home and be in there every day. Getting to share that history with the broader Philadelphia basketball community and compete in that environment on our home floor will be exciting.” Although the Women’s Big 5 round-robin was established in 1979, it transitioned to a tournament format with preliminary pod play rounds when Drexel joined the association in 2023. The
tournament was hosted at Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion for its first two iterations in 2024 and 2025, with the Wildcats successfully defending their home court in 2025. Big 5 pod play kicks off Nov. 6 with the Battle of 33rd Street against Drexel at home. On Nov. 18, the Quakers will take a trip up north to St. Joseph’s University to determine seeding for the tripleheader at home. Although the Quakers came up short in pod play during the 2025 season, they entered the second consolation final with a vengeance, beating La Salle 65-52 to claim fifth place in the tournament. The Quakers missed the Ivy Madness tournament for the first time in four years at the end of last season, ultimately finishing 7-7 in conference play for fifth in the Ancient Eight. Although the Red and Blue retain All-Ivy selections senior guard Mataya Gayle and junior forward Katie Collins, Quakers fans can expect to see some shakeup in the starting lineup this fall.
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The Women’s Big 5 Classic will be held at the Palestra on Dec. 6. SEND STORY IDEAS TO DPSPORTS@THEDP.COM
Sophomore distance runner Adèle Martin ran four seasons in eleven months. After two weeks off, she’s ready to come back for her sophomore season. Martin concluded her freshman campaign at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Eugene, Ore., where she competed for France in the 3,000meter steeplechase. Martin has showed out for the Quakers as well in the event, clocking the secondfastest time in program history in the event at the Larry Ellis Invitational with a 10:17.26 finish. The steeplechase isn’t the Parisian’s only specialty. Martin is a versatile threat, shifting specialties every season. She ran 21:38.9 over six kilometers on the grass at the Princeton Fall Classic to earn a spot on the Ivy League Heptagonal Cross Country Championships lineup. She transitioned to mid-distance during the indoor season, focusing on the 1,000-meter run, running the fifthfastest time in program history for second team All-Ivy honors in March. “Adele’s versatility is one of her greatest strengths as an athlete,” Penn women’s cross country coach Matt Gosselin wrote. “Her best events are the 1500 and 3k steeple, but she has an amazing ability to drop down to the 800 and 1000…She may not like to hear it, but she will also have the ability to run a very good 5k this outdoor season. It is that combination of strength and speed that makes her a very dangerous athlete in championship style racing.” Although it seems like running is a natural proclivity for the rising sophomore, three years ago, Martin didn’t believe she was fast enough to run in the NCAA, much less compete on the French national team. A Paris native and Vienna transplant, Martin began running casually in elementary school by playing tag and other running games with her friends during recesses and breaks. Her natural speed was evident from the beginning of her running career, and she decided to join a club to explore track and field. The club was small, so there wasn’t room to specialize, and Martin was thrown right into distance running. Even though her friends moved onto other passions and stopped competing after a year, Martin was hooked. Despite her talent, Martin viewed running as more of a hobby when she competed at the club level in Vienna. Even when Martin was introduced to the idea of running at the collegiate level after a 2023 trip to the United States, she didn’t think it
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was a realistic endeavor. “We visited a bunch of campuses, but not thinking I would go there, just for fun,” Martin said. “And I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s incredible, like all these facilities. It must be so cool to run for a university in the U.S.’ But I didn’t think at the time I was good enough to actually do so.” That would change in 2024, when Martin crossed the seven-minute barrier in the 2,000meter steeplechase for the first time in her career to claim gold at the Austrian U18 Steeplechase Championships. She clocked in at 6:54.66. “My dad was randomly looking at the times you had to run to qualify for France [for the European U18 Championships], and then he was like, ‘Wait, you ran that time?’” Martin said. Chains of emails ensued as Martin vied for a chance to compete for a spot on France’s national team. While Martin’s coach wanted her to represent Austria in the upcoming European U18 Championships, Martin wasn’t ready to give up her heritage, keeping her French citizenship. When the French Athletics Federation finally responded, Martin had to switch loyalties, leaving her longtime coach in Vienna for the Paris Université Club Athlétisme. Although she was an unknown entering the Pre France individuels qualifying meet, Martin walked away with one of two steeplechase spots on the French national team with a then-personal record 6:45.17. After an eighth-place finish in the 2,000-meter steeplechase at the 2024 European Athletics U18 Championships, Martin began feeling confident in her abilities on the world stage. But as she was entering her senior year of high school, an even more daunting question loomed: Would she study veterinary medicine at her dream school in France or take a risk and go to the United States? “I was like, ‘I’m going to say no to the school I always thought I would go to,’” Martin said of the decision. “And at the same time, I was like, ‘It’s a huge opportunity to go to the U.S.’” Martin grew used to spending long stretches of time training alone in Europe, so training with teammates who were at similar — or higher — levels of fitness was an adjustment, but she embraced the change. “I really felt like I had a group of friends like really fast, and I didn’t really feel like I was lost and didn’t know who to talk to,” Martin said. “Obviously, school was different, too. But for just training, it was like, ‘That wasn’t hard,’ because I See MARTIN, page 8 CONTACT US: 215-422-4640