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HOUSING GUIDE
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2024
VOL. CXL
NO. 22
Penn marks Oct. 7 anniversary
An art installation at Penn Hillel on Oct. 7.
A Mitzvah Wall on Locust Walk on Oct. 7.
The Penn Muslim Students’ Association vigil on Nov. 13, 2023.
Jewish Penn community members remember victims and hostages of Hamas attacks
MSA holds Palestine, Lebanon memorial
The events, which primarily took place at Hillel’s Steinhardt Hall, included a memorial service, a five-hour reading of the names of the 1,200 victims of the attacks, and a community dinner
The Muslim Students’ Association held a janazah prayer and an open remembrance space in ARCH
JARED MITOVICH, BEN BINDAY, SAMANTHA HSIUNG, THEO GREENFIELD, GABRIEL HUANG, AND ZION ABEBE Editor-in-Chief, News Editor, Senior Reporter, and Staff Reporters
VIVI SANKAR Staff Reporter
Hundreds of Jewish students at Penn participated in a variety of events commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. Penn Hillel, Chabad House at Penn, and the Penn Israel Public Affairs Committee held a full slate of programming throughout the day to commemorate those killed and taken hostage during the Hamas incursion. The events, which primarily took place at Hillel’s Steinhardt Hall, included a memorial service, a five-hour reading of the names of the 1,200 victims of the attacks, and a community dinner. Hillel also held an all-day art installation in memory of the lives lost, a processing space, and a screening of a film titled “Screams Before Silence,” which depicts the events at the Nova Festival — the music festival where Hamas attacked thousands of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. H il lel P resident Maya Ha r pa z wrote to T he Da ily
Pennsylvanian that the memorial service was “such a special and meaningful event for our community to come together.” She cited the room being situated in a circle with candles in the shape of a Jewish star in the center — a format which she described as “a powerful way for our community to feel united.” The 6:30 p.m. memorial service was attended by Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) Fetterman has maintained an outspoken proIsraeli stance since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack and throughout the ensuing Israel-Hamas war. In an interview with the DP prior to the event, Fetterman said that he was “invited” to take part — adding that he was “delighted to show up” and describing Oct. 7 as “a very solemn anniversary.” Fetterman also spoke during the service, telling the community
About 50 community members gathered at a memorial for lives lost in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria hosted by Penn’s Muslim Students’ Association and the Penn Arab Student Society on Oct. 7. The event consisted of a janazah prayer — a traditional Muslim funeral prayer — followed by an open remembrance space and took place in the ARCH building. The memorial was open to all and required a PennCard to enter. Wharton junior Mouctar Diarra told The Daily Pennsylvanian that he attended the event because he “felt [he] needed to solemnly reflect with [his] community.” “The pain isn’t as visceral when it’s been on your mind every day for 365 days. Nonetheless, I felt very connected with those around me,” Diarra said.
See JEWISH COMMUNITY, page 3
See MSA, page 6
Penn quietly discontinues BioDental program, sparking confusion over student statuses Students described feeling confusion and concern over whether current students in the program were still provided their conditional acceptance into the Dental School JESSICA WU Senior Reporter
ETHAN YOUNG | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Philadelphia coalition of Students for Justice in Palestine organized a rally and march on Oct. 7.
Four individuals arrested after pro-Palestinian march near Penn’s campus The demonstration, titled “One Year of Genocide,” was the first planned action by Philadelphia Students for Justice in Palestine JASMINE NI AND DIAMY WANG Senior Reporters
Four individuals were arrested during a pro-Palestinian rally and march outside the University’s Pennovation Works campus on Monday. Around 400 protesters attended the demonstration, which began at 2 p.m. at Drexel Square Park and was organized by the Philadelphia chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. Participants chanted and listened to speakers for an hour before marching to Pennovation Works, located at 34th Street and Grays Ferry Avenue. The rally and march, titled “One Year of Genocide,” was the first planned action by Philadelphia
SJP, a group that formed earlier this month and consists of students from Penn, Drexel University, Temple University, and other universities across the greater Philadelphia area. In an Instagram post, organizers called for participants to skip class and call out of work on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel to “protest one year of the Zionist entity’s genocide in Gaza” in support of “the student intifada.” See RALLY, page 7
The University has discontinued its sevenyear Bio-Dental submatriculation program and will not be accepting a new class this admission cycle — but the program’s director and a School of Dental Medicine administrator disagreed on whether current students are still able to submatriculate into the Dental School. The accelerated dental program was a joint program in which students in the College of Arts and Sciences received conditional acceptance to the Dental School upon admission to the University. Students spent their first three years as undergraduate students in the College before applying to the Dental School after their junior year. The accelerated Bio-Dental program reduced the tuition and time it took for students to receive both a bachelor’s degree and a dental medicine degree from eight years to seven years. Students were also able to skip the dental school interview process, gaining full admission to the Dental School based on their academic performance while in the College — an application process which one student described to the DP as a “formality.” The program’s discontinuation means that the University will no longer admit first-year students into it. However, current students who spoke with The Daily Pennsylvanian expressed concern and confusion due to a lack of clear communication about the status of students already in the program. The University’s Bio-Dental program did not have a group of faculty members or staff leading
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the program. In contrast, other dual degree programs such as the Roy and Diana Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management and the Jerome Fisher Program in Management Technology are led by a variety of faculty and staff, with positions including program coordinators and administrative directors. The first faculty point-of-contact for students in the program was their advisor in the College Office, Assistant Dean for Advising of the College Srilata Gangulee. While Gangulee created the program and said that she “directed” it, she told the DP that she did not officially hold the title of program director. The DP spoke with three students in the Bio-Dental program, all of whom referred to Gangulee as a pre-major advisor or a general biology advisor and did not know that she directed the program. The three students stated that — while Gangulee helped advise them on their biology courses — she often provided inconsistent information and did not have up-todate knowledge about the Bio-Dental program’s requirements, leading to a heavy reliance on students’ peer advisors. College junior Jaxson Nield, however, said that while most people in the program were assigned to the same Bio-Dental peer advisor, he — along with two other students — was assigned to a different peer advisor who was not a member of the program. Gangulee, in an interview with the DP, spoke See BIO-DENTAL, page 3
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