THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2024
VOL. CXL
NO. 18
Several Penn classes explore presidential election amid tumultuous campaign Here are four courses highlighting how Penn is approaching teaching about the 2024 election CHARLOTTE COMSTOCK Staff Reporter
DESIGN BY EMMI WU
Police Chief Gary Williams suddenly departs role after less than two years Deputy Chief Derrick Wood will serve as interim chief SOPHIA NEAMAN Staff Reporter
Penn Chief of Police Gary Williams has left his role with the Division of Public Safety. Williams will now serve as the director of community outreach and engagement, according to a statement from Vice President for Public Safety Kathleen Shields Anderson. Deputy Chief Derrick Wood will serve as interim chief. Williams was originally appointed chief of police on Jan. 17, 2023 after being named interim chief in May 2022. He served as an officer for the Philadelphia Police Department before joining DPS in 2001. Williams served as sergeant patrol, executive lieutenant, liaison to student groups on campus, and captain of patrol before becoming chief. He has helped develop the strategic crime prevention west end grid patrol and spent time as an emergency response team
leader and a member of the DPS Union negotiation team. The role of director of community outreach and engagement “will be dedicated to building and sustaining relationships with the community we serve in West Philadelphia,” Anderson wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian. Williams’ new position will focus on implementing projects that examine how and what the Penn Police Department communicates to the University community, Anderson added. He has previously been involved with the Police Athletic League — which aims to engage with children in the community — and will continue his commitment to this group in his new position. He will also assist with revising DPS’ community surveys.
Fall classes are ramping up. But students say Penn’s WiFi is slowing down.
New College dean defends liberal arts, talks protests and curriculum changes
On Tuesday, Penn said 57 campus spaces between 31st Street and 38th Street experienced issues with their connection
Peter Struck discussed his key priorities and the role liberal arts can play in political discourse on campus
BEN BINDAY News Editor
ETHAN YOUNG Staff Reporter
Penn’s campus experienced bouts of poor Wi-Fi throughout the day on Sept. 3, disrupting classes and prompting criticism from students. The problems were centered in the morning and early afternoon hours, according to students who reported poor connection in their classes. The students said that many of the problems seemed to be resolved by around 5 p.m. on Sept. 3. According to Penn Information Systems and Computing, 57 campus spaces between 31st Street and 38th Street experienced issues. A notification sent at 3:12 p.m. on Sept. 3 by ISC attributed the outages to issues with the Vagelos wireless controller. It stated that these issues resulted “in problems connecting to wireless, disconnections, and slow wireless speeds.” According to the notification, the affected
New Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Peter Struck spoke to The Daily Pennsylvanian about the enduring importance of a liberal arts education while also touching on the spate of protests and turmoil that have faced Penn in the past year. Struck, a Classical Studies professor, assumed his role on Aug. 1 after former Dean Paul Sniegowski stepped down to become president of Earlham College. In a conversation with the DP, Struck discussed the value of the liberal arts in managing political discourse and heightened tensions on campus. Struck is assuming his position in the wake of a semester dominated by activism and the Penn administration’s subsequent implementation of stricter protest and freedom of expression policies. He believes that “principles of dialogue” form the basis of the liberal arts, providing a path
See WIFI, page 3
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Before joining DPS as the deputy chief of police operations in July 2023, Wood served as a police inspector for PPD for 24 years, later becoming the Municipality of Norristown’s Chief of Police. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy. While with PPD, Wood worked to develop police-driven programs to improve how police officers interact with the residents they serve. These programs included SAT tutoring for high school students, connecting adults lacking high-school diplomas with GED programs, and hosting job fairs. Wood has also worked with the Police Athletic League. Wood holds a master’s degree of business administration and bachelor of science in business administration degrees from Holy Family University in Philadelphia.
How do campaign and communications strategies play out in a presidential election? How can journalists objectively cover a presidential campaign? Is the future of democracy at risk? The following Penn classes attempt to offer some insights. Here is how Penn is approaching teaching about the 2024 presidential election. COMM 4280: “Conventions, Debates, and Campaigns” This class, only offered by the Annenberg School for Communication every four years, focuses primarily on the national conventions organized by both major parties, and subsequent post-convention campaigns leading up to Election Day. COMM 4280 investigates how political parties share their efforts between persuading and educating the electorate about their agendas, and mobilizing members of their own party. It both examines the roles which political parties play in American life and how nongovernmental organizations can cooperate with parties to reach common goals. “The class is an amazing opportunity to watch not only how campaign and communications strategies play out, but also, in a broader sense, how history is being made,” College senior Carla Agostini, a current student in the class, said. Agostini said that she would recommend the class to anyone who is interested in politics, marketing, and journalism, as campaigns involve all of these fields. Enrollment in this class is limited to students considering and having declared a communication major, and therefore requires an application to enroll. This fall, the course is jointly taught by Annenberg School for Communication professor David Eisenhower — the grandson of former President Dwight Eisenhower and the son-in-law of former President Richard Nixon — Political Science professor Michele Margolis, and Annenberg lecturer Craig Snyder, a former United States See ELECTION, page 2
CHENYAO LIU | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
College of Arts and Sciences Dean Peter Struck in his office on Aug. 30.
forward from a divisive climate on campus. “The core piece of what the art sciences does is precisely give us the tools to talk across great divides in terms of commitments to prior ideas, in terms of cultural difference, questions of value, and notions of justice,” he said, adding that answers to these questions are often “nettlesome, thorny, difficult, cloudy.”
“The impasses we got to came from an inability to talk across vast differences of viewpoints,” Struck continued. “Sorting our way through that is our ticket through these problems.” One of Struck’s priorities for his first year as dean is rethinking the College’s general See DEAN, page 2
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