Inside: Voter’s Guide 2024
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2024
VOL. CXL
NO. 25
DARTY’S OVER Penn has banned party registrations during the day of Homecoming, prompting student outrage NEEMA BADDAM Senior Reporter
Penn has banned daytime parties on Homecoming — a decision which the University attributes to new event policies. The change will take effect on Nov. 16, the day of the Homecoming football game against Harvard. Homecoming weekend, which this year is scheduled for Nov. 15-17, is a widely anticipated celebration that welcomes alumni back to campus and features celebrations of University pride, including the football game. Students have historically marked the day of the football game with daytime parties thrown by greek organizations on and around campus. Under the new policies, which Penn said were introduced last year and known as Major Event Weekend protocols, events cannot overlap with official Homecoming activities, Penn’s Division of University Life wrote in a statement To The Daily Pennsylvanian. The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life did not respond to a request for comment. “During these weekends, the Community Care team, in collaboration with DPS and other campus partners, implements additional event registration protocols to ensure adequate support and safety staff
are available to serve the Penn community,” a University Life spokesperson said. Describing the Major Event Weekend protocols, the spokesperson said: “Undergraduate student group events must occur on Saturday evening during Homecoming Weekend to avoid overlapping with the University’s official Homecoming activities scheduled across campus throughout the weekend.” Penn defines a Major Event Weekend as one when there has historically been “a significant increase in events and social activity.” The University implements additional parameters on these weekends — including a mandate that undergraduate social events be held during designated time blocks to “ensure sufficient support and safety staff is available.” Penn’s event registration policies require that student organizations register all events with alcohol, regardless of where the event will be held. According to the University Life website, the last days to submit event registrations with alcohol for Homecoming Weekend are Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Several fraternity members expressed frustration with the new policy and alleged a lack of
transparency from Penn in interviews with the DP. The students, who were granted anonymity after citing a fear of retaliation from the University, claimed that Penn prohibited daytime party registrations to encourage students to attend a University-sponsored tailgate in Penn Park marking 175 years of fraternity and sorority life at Penn. The University-sponsored tailgate is free for students under 21 but costs up to $20 per ticket for general admission with an alcohol wristband. Engineering junior Aditya Sirohi, who serves as Beta Theta Pi’s social chair, told the DP that OFSL has prevented them from registering any events before 7 p.m. on Homecoming — and added that, after 7 p.m., only around six fraternities are allowed to register due to capacity restrictions. A fraternity president said the University issued no written communication about the change in policy and said they became aware of the change when the social chair of their fraternity was unable to register an event on the day of Homecoming. The president said that during a Sept. 4 meeting with greek life presidents and OFSL administrators, they brought up the apparent technical difficulty to
Coordinator of Fraternity & Sorority Life Jennifer Probert, who then informed attendees about the change in policy. “It spiraled into, like, 20 minutes of mostly Panhellenic and [Intercultural Greek Council] presidents being like, ‘What the hell?’” the president said. While Probert was the administrator who delivered the news, the fraternity president added that it was made “very clear” during the meeting “that this decision wasn’t on their end.” “[T]his is something that was pushed by the school on them, and it seems that they have very little say over it,” the president said. At the Sept. 4 meeting, there was a “civil” and “productive” conversation about potentially allowing groups to register parties beginning at 4 p.m., rather than 7 p.m., the president added. While they said that the topic was not discussed as much at the October presidents’ meeting, and no change was made, “it sounded like they were trying to work on bringing down the time until right after the football game ends.” See HOMECOMING, page 3
‘Laws must be enforced’: Penn defends off-campus raid amid mounting criticism
Timothy Rommen named The statement marks the University’s first official comment since the search, which occurred on the morning of Oct. 18 Penn’s inaugural vice provost for The spokesperson added that Penn remains committed the arts EMILY SCOLNICK Senior Reporter
ABHIRAM JUVVADI | PHOTO EDITOR
Penn Police Station on Oct. 23.
Penn strongly pushed back on criticism of its execution of a search warrant at an off-campus residence belonging to pro-Palestinian student activists amid mounting community condemnation of the University’s actions. The statement from a University spokesperson marks Penn’s first official comment since the search, which occurred on the morning of Oct. 18. The search, which was publicly disclosed on social media on the evening of Oct. 21, occurred after the Penn Police Department obtained a search warrant that was reviewed by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office and approved by a bail commissioner. The search relates to an ongoing criminal vandalism investigation, according to Penn’s Division of Public Safety. In the nearly two weeks since the raid, several community groups and stakeholders — including two local politicians representing Penn and multiple faculty groups — have denounced an allegedly unnecessarily
heavy-handed police response during Penn’s search of the residence. In the statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, a University spokesperson defended Penn Police’s actions by writing that “a small group of individuals, some of whom may be students, continue to take disruptive and at times illegal actions against the University community” and that part of Penn Police’s work “involves investigating alleged incidents to determine if laws have been violated, following the facts wherever they lead.” “[The individuals] continue to flout policies and laws that they do not think apply to them, and then blame their own institution when they encounter consequences,” the spokesperson wrote. “Laws must be enforced uniformly and fairly and are not designed to be waived when they do not suit a particular viewpoint. Ignoring inconvenient rules or wildly mischaracterizing facts weakens our whole community.”
to “ensuring a safe and welcoming community,” calling Penn Police “one of the most professional and highly regarded University police forces in the country.” “We will not tolerate hate of any kind, violence, vandalism, or threats, whether it comes from outside or from within the Penn community,” they wrote. “And Penn Police will continue to prioritize the safety of all our community members, even and especially those who are investigated for potential crimes.” Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine’s Instagram post announcing the raid alleged that 12 Penn Police officers and one Philadelphia Police officer “stormed the house in full tactical gear” after pointing a gun at a neighbor and threatening to break down the door, and “point[ed] rifles and handguns” at residents’ heads as they exited their rooms. PAO said one student was taken in for questioning and saw their personal device seized “on suspicion of vandalism.” The post also alleged that officers did not show a warrant or provide their names or badge numbers. The DP was unable to confirm these details about the search. “This is a disgusting escalation from the University, and comes after a year of disciplining, arresting, and brutalizing their own students who organize for Palestinian liberation, and they made the deliberately traumatizing and threatening decision to invade our home,” the house residents said in a joint statement to The Philadelphia Inquirer. In a previous statement to the DP, Vice President for the Division of Public Safety Kathleen Shields Anderson wrote that “[t]hroughout the execution of the warrant, our officers took care to explain to all involved what was occurring and to treat them with all respect.” Last week, the Executive Committee of Penn’s chapter See WARRANT, page 3
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Rommen specializes in Caribbean music, and his major research interests include popular music, sacred music, critical theory, ethics, tourism, diaspora, and the intellectual history of ethnomusicology NEEMA BADDAM Senior Reporter
Music and Africana Studies professor Timothy Rommen was named the University’s inaugural vice provost for the arts. Rommen, a Davidson Kennedy Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, specializes in Caribbean music, and his major research interests include popular music, sacred music, critical theory, ethics, tourism, diaspora, and the intellectual history of ethnomusicology. He has taught at the University since 2002, and will begin his new position on Jan. 1, 2025. In the announcement of Rommen’s appointment, Provost John Jackson Jr. called him the “ideal colleague” for the new position. “[Rommen] is widely respected as a collaborative and consultative leader who is strongly committed to scholarship and teaching, to our diverse arts communities on campus and in Philadelphia, and to the goals of In Principle and Practice, the University’s strategic framework, which he played a key role in developing as a member of the Red and Blue Advisory Committee,” Jackson said. Rommen is currently a board member of the Center for Africana Studies, Greenfield Intercultural See ARTS, page 3
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