THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2022
VOL. CXXXVIII
NO. 28
Some Penn students eligible for part of $4.5 million proposed settlement to COVID-19 lawsuit The plaintiffs alleged that Penn “breached a contract” when it transitioned to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic SIERRA WEI Staff Reporter
In a written statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, FFP coordinators College junior Jae Hargest and College sophomore Eug Xu said that Penn’s claim that having net-zero carbon emissions in its endowment and ending direct, but not indirect, fossil fuel investments constitutes divestment “is false.” “While both of these policies sound nice on paper, they fail to encapsulate the majority of Penn’s investments in fossil fuels,” Hargest and Xu wrote. They went on to reiterate their belief that Penn should divest from indirect holdings as well in order for the University to stop “‘punishing the world’s most economically vulnerable,’ as they state themselves.” “[The University’s] power comes from Penn’s status as a prestigious institution, one which boasts the world’s best business school, and making a political statement is its most powerful way to signal
A class action lawsuit against Penn seeking a refund for the switch to remote learning reached a proposed settlement of $4.5 million. On Nov. 3, plaintiffs Asha Smith and Emma Nedley — former Penn students — and the University announced a proposed settlement in response to the lawsuit, which was filed on April 30, 2020 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The plaintiffs alleged that Penn “breached a contract” when it transitioned to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, demanding a refund for a portion of their tuition and fees for the spring 2020 semester. According to the settlement notice, Penn previously denied all allegations of wrongdoing and there has been no finding of liability in court. However, citing interest in finding a swift resolution to the issue, Penn and the plaintiffs have agreed for the University to pay $4.5 million into a settlement fund to be distributed to students who fit the class definition in the settlement. In response to a request for comment, University spokesperson Ron Ozio directed The Daily Pennsylvanian to the University’s notice of a proposed class action settlement. Ed Ciolko, Nedley’s legal counsel, directed the DP to the settlement website upon a request for comment. Although the court has preliminarily approved the proposed settlement, the distribution of payments will occur only if the court grants final approval of the proposed settlement. The final approval hearing in this case is scheduled for Jan. 17, 2023, at 9 a.m. At that hearing, the court will consider whether to grant final approval of the proposed settlement, and whether to approve payment from the settlement fund to each settlement class representative and to class counsel’s requested attorneys’ fees. On April 20, 2021, the court dismissed the tuitionbased claims for breach of contract, unjust enrichment and conversion, and the fee-based claims for unjust enrichment and conversion. After the dismissal, the only remaining claim in the lawsuit is the plaintiff’s claim of breach of contract due to fees that were required to be paid, such as technology fees and clinical fees. In the lawsuit, members of the class are defined as anyone who was enrolled in any Penn program after March 17, 2020 and assessed fees for the spring 2020 semester in a program that was not meant to take place
See ENDOWMENT, page 9
See COVID-19, page 9
PHOTO BY HANNAH SHUMSKY
Fossil Free Penn, a student group calling for Penn to divest from fossil fuels, camped out on College Green for 39 days in fall 2022.
Penn announces it no longer holds direct investments in fossil fuel companies The announcement goes further than any previous statement from the University regarding its fossil fuel holdings JARED MITOVICH Senior Reporter
Penn clarified that it no longer holds any direct investments in fossil fuel companies, going further than previous announcements about its fossil fuel holdings. In a written statement published Tuesday, Penn President Liz Magill and Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok wrote that the University does not hold investments in 200 companies whose reserves contain the largest amount of potential carbon emissions. The administrators acknowledged the current arguments being made against fossil fuels in university endowments. However, Magill and Bok wrote that policy decisions are made “complex” by the significant role that fossil fuels still play in the global economy. “We must move away from fossil fuels, but we can only do so completely once we can produce abundant, affordable, and secure energy from carbon-free sources,” Magill and Bok wrote. “Even as we are moving down the path toward our collective goal,
society will still have to consume fossil fuels.” In response to a request for comment, Penn spokesperson Ron Ozio wrote that there was no information he wanted to add to the statement. The message appears to address parts of the demand raised in a renewed campaign by Fossil Free Penn this semester that Penn divest from fossil fuels. Most recently, FFP stormed Penn’s Homecoming football field on Oct. 22 during the game’s halftime, leading to 19 arrests. The disruption marked the last event of the group’s 39-day encampment on College Green, which sought to bring attention to the group’s three demands — which included total fossil fuel divestment. This demand had three components: that the University end new investments in the fossil fuel industry, remove direct and commingled holdings in the top 200 fossil fuel companies within five years, and reinvest a portion of the extricated funds into clean energy assets.
Penn Med develops multivalent flu vaccine using mRNA technology The vaccine draws on the mRNA technology used in Pfizer and Moderna’s SARSCoV-2 vaccines STEPHANIE CHEN Staff Reporter
Penn Medicine researchers have developed a flu vaccine that can protect against all 20 subtypes of flu using the same mRNA technology pioneered at Penn to create Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines. Influenza activity in Pennsylvania has been higher this season compared to the last five flu seasons, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Current flu vaccines are seasonal vaccines, meaning they only protect against recently circulating strains, but Penn Medicine researchers have developed a new multivalent flu vaccine that can protect against future strains, according to Penn Medicine News. “The idea here is to have a vaccine that will give people a baseline level of immune memory to diverse flu strains, so that there will be far less disease and death when the next flu pandemic occurs,” Scott Hensley, a professor at the Perelman School of Medicine and the study’s primary author, said. Hensley’s lab collaborated on the study with the lab of Penn professor Drew Weissman, who pioneered the breakthrough mRNA technology used to make Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines.
Researchers used this same technology to create the new flu vaccine, which can encode certain antigens from all known influenza virus subtypes. The mRNA-based vaccine is not expected to completely prevent viral infections, but it will elicit a memory immune response that can be quickly recalled and adapted to new pandemic-causing viral strains. “For a conventional vaccine, immunizing against all these subtypes would be a major challenge, but with mRNA technology, it’s relatively easy,” Hensley said. The experimental vaccine yielded effective results in mice studies, eliciting high levels of antibodies and reacting to all 20 flu subtypes. Prior influenza exposure also did not lower the antibody response. Hensley and his colleagues are now designing human clinical trials to test this new multivalent flu vaccine. “We think this vaccine could significantly reduce the chances of ever getting a severe flu infection,” Hensley said.
PHOTO BY SUKHMANI KAUR
Penn Medicine researchers’ experimental vaccine could protect against all 20 known influenza virus subtypes. SEND STORY IDEAS TO NEWSTIP@THEDP.COM
PHOTO BY LILIANN ZOU
Five Guys will be located on 3714 Spruce St.
Five Guys will open on Penn’s campus in mid-December Originally scheduled to open by spring 2022, supply chain issues construction JARED MITOVICH Senior Reporter
Five Guys plans to open its University City location near campus in mid-December, over a year since its initial announcement. The new location at 3714 Spruce St., next to the Quad, was first announced in August 2021 with an anticipated opening date of late fall 2021 or early spring 2022. However, the opening was pushed back, Executive Director for Real Estate Ed Datz wrote in an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian. “It’s our understanding that the new Five Guys location is planning for an opening for mid-December,” Datz wrote. “Construction was impacted by supply chain for materials which delayed the restaurant opening until now.” The restaurant is currently hiring shift leaders and crew members at its Spruce Street location, according to its careers website. A spokesperson for Five Guys did not respond to a request for comment. The new Five Guys location replaces Beijing Restaurant, which closed its Spruce Street location in September 2020. Datz previously said that one of the reasons the Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services advocated for a Five Guys location is because Penn lost its on-campus burger restaurant in 2019 when Bobby’s Burger Palace closed its Walnut Street location. Five Guys is a fast food chain that serves burgers, hot dogs, french fries, and milkshakes. The chain currently
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has three other locations in Philadelphia at 1527 Chestnut St., 1100 Cecil B. Moore Ave., and 2552 Grant Ave. Wharton junior Xavier Shankle said he grew up appreciating Five Guys for its consistent high quality and late hours, which he said differentiates it from other food offerings around campus. “It was like a dream come true” when the chain announced its Penn location, Shankle said. “I’m really happy I can have the last two years of my college career with Five Guys whenever I need it.” Shankle added that it was “naturally frustrating” that the store has taken longer than expected to open, but he is optimistic that the store will open by mid-December. “One of the jokes that I made was, it’s almost like there are five guys building it,” Shankle said. “It’s taken a while, but I have faith that they can do everything right.” The opening of the chain’s Penn location comes amid a flurry of new eateries in the University City area. In the past year, four other restaurants — DIG, Raising Cane’s, El Taco, and Amma’s South Indian Cuisine — have opened new locations near Penn’s campus. In addition, Franklin’s Table will welcome two new restaurants in the coming weeks. Datz previously told the DP that FRES is continuing to explore new retail opportunities in University City, saying that the office wants to grow the number of apparel or accessory establishments around campus. CONTACT US: 215-422-4640