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INSIDE: HOUSING GUIDE

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885

PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2023

VOL. CXXXIX

NO. 23

LABOR ORGANIZING SWEEPS PENN RAs and GRAs overwhelmingly vote to unionize RAs are waiting for the National Labor Relations Board to certify the 142-22 vote JONAH MILLER Senior Reporter

In a 142-22 vote, Penn residential advisors and graduate residential advisors overwhelmingly voted to form a union after the votes were tallied Thursday night. The vote represented an approximate 75% turnout from Penn’s nearly 220 RAs who are organizing under the Local 153 branch of the Office and Professional Employees International Union. Now, RAs are waiting for the National Labor Relations Board to certify the results before taking next steps. Voting took place over two days, from Sept. 27 to 28, in the Golkin Room on the second floor of Houston Hall. “It felt empowering to cast a ballot and contribute to the historic unionization of undergraduate and graduate student workers on Penn’s campus,” College senior Conor Emery and second-year RA in Harnwell College House said. The vote to form a union came over six months after a supermajority of RAs filed to unionize under OPEIU Local 153 and the NLRB. Penn then alleged that the RAs were not employees of the University but instead attempted to classify them as student leaders with an “educational relationship” to Penn since they are not on the payroll. In August, however, the NLRB recognized Penn RAs and GRAs as employees of the University, ordering an official union vote. In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, University spokesperson Ron Ozio wrote that “The NLRB must certify the election outcome, at which time we will provide more information to the RAs and GRAs.” “We thank the RAs and GRAs who participated in this important process,” Ozio wrote in the statement. RAs and GRAs present at the ballot count expressed excitement for the results, some saying that the election felt like a culmination of their work. “Achieving unionization gave me a rush of relief, but it also felt exhilarating because bugging my coworkers for the last month paid off,” College sophomore and Fisher-Hasenfield College House RA Omar Elsakhawy wrote to the DP. “This sets a precedent, both practically and legally, for RAs at other institutions seeking better working conditions and democratic representation.” See RAs, page 6

PHOTOS BY ETHAN YOUNG, SYDNEY CURRAN

Graduate Employees Together University of Pennsylvania-UAW held a rally on Oct. 4 to show support for graduate student workers’ push for union

Graduate student workers deliver union notice to admin. Hundreds of students and community members were turned away from College Hall after attending a rally yesterday MOLLY COHEN, SOPHIA LEUNG, AND HALEY SON Senior Reporter and Staff Reporters

Roughly 300 rally goers attempted to enter College Hall this afternoon after showing their support for graduate student workers’ push for union recognition. The rally, organized by Graduate Employees Together University of Pennsylvania-UAW, began on College Green at noon on Oct. 4. Following speeches from multiple graduate students and community members, the crowd walked toward College Hall. Some organizers successfully entered the building and delivered a letter with nearly 500 signatures directed to President Liz Magill and Provost John Jackson. Upon approaching College Hall, around 14 rally goers — including several GET-UP organizers and representatives from the UAW — were allowed

to enter the building before security guards and Open Expression Observers stopped others from entering the building. Outside the building, the other attendees chanted, “let us in” for about 10 minutes. The organizers who were able to enter the building said they intended to deliver the letter to Magill’s office. It was unclear whether or not Magill or Jackson were present in the building, but after a couple of minutes of chanting and knocking on their respective office doors, a representative from the Provost’s Office came into the lobby to receive the letter from UAW Region 9 Director Dan Vicente. “They were too cowardly to come out themselves,” Vicente, a former member of the Local 644 union, said. “They sent their staff, but let’s let them know something: You can’t run from this.”

A University spokesperson confirmed that the letter was delivered to College Hall and received by a representative in the Provost’s Office. “The President and the Provost were in previously scheduled meetings outside of College Hall at the time,” the spokesperson wrote. “Open expression observers were present at the rally.” The letter — addressed to Magill and Jackson — said that GET-UP intends to file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board, adding that their unionization efforts follow similar patterns taken by other unions at Penn and peer universities. Organizers at the rally said that over 2,700 Penn See GRADUATE STUDENTS, page 2

Penn’s Drew Weissman, Katalin Karikó win Nobel Prize in Medicine Over 20 years after Penn demoted her, Karikó was recognized for her and Weissman’s mRNA research that helped develop vaccines to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 BEN BINDAY, SINA SHAIKH, AND NICOLE MURAVSKY Senior Reporter and Staff Reporters

Penn Medicine researchers Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman were named winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday. Karikó, an adjunct professor of neurosurgery at the Perelman School of Medicine, and Weissman, the Roberts Family Professor of Vaccine Research at the Perelman School of Medicine, won the award for their past research into messenger RNA technology on Oct. 2. Their research — primarily a groundbreaking 2005 study — was critical in the development of Pfizer/ BioNTech and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines. Penn President Liz Magill congratulated Karikó and Weissman on their accomplishments at a press conference this morning. “We are bursting with pride of our Nobel laureates and the extraordinary work they have done to serve so many across the globe,” Magill said. “At a University built around [a] Franklin spirit, there are no better exemplars of these character traits than our Nobel laureates, Dr. Kati Karikó and Dr. Drew Weissman.” More than 655 million doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have been administered since their release in December 2020, according to Penn Today. Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Dean of the Medical School Larry Jameson emphasized the magnitude of Karikó and Weissman’s findings at the press conference. “The achievements of Dr. Weissman and Karikó have changed the course of history,” Jameson said. “Since the rollout of two mRNA vaccines in 2020, millions of lives have been saved, and scores of others have been protected from severe disease, even in the face of an increasingly transmissible virus.” SEND STORY IDEAS TO NEWSTIP@THEDP.

PHOTO BY ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL

Penn Medicine researchers Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman at a press conference in the University Guest House on Oct. 2.

In the 1990s, Karikó was on the path to professorship at Penn, but she was demoted after the University saw her work as too financially risky to fund. She stayed at Penn until 2013 but was never reinstated to her position even after the University patented the technology from Karikó and Weissman’s 2005 research.

“Ten years ago I was here in October because I was kicked out and forced to retire," Karikó told the Nobel Prize organization. In an interview with Endpoints News last week, Karikó said she was told that once she retired, she could not come back to Penn. Some academics have called on Penn to apologize for celebrating Karikó's

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Nobel Prize despite their treatment of her. “We acknowledge and are grateful for the valuable contributions Dr. Kariko has made to science and to Penn throughout her time with the University," See NOBEL PRIZE, page 6