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Football Preview 2022
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2022
VOL. CXXXVIII
NO. 19
Penn junior Sarah Katz died Sept. 10
Students demand Penn support Middle East Center at U. Council meeting after funding wipeout
Katz grew up in Jersey City, N.J., and took a gap year before coming to Penn JASPER TAYLOR Staff Reporter
The center lost all of its federal funding last month due to a lack of institutional support JARED MITOVICH & IMRAN SIDDIQUI Senior Reporters
Student representatives demanded that Penn support the Middle East Center at the first University Council meeting of the year. During Wednesday’s meeting — the first to be chaired by President Liz Magill — nearly a dozen students demonstrated their disappointment with the center’s loss of federal funding. Several students shared their thoughts about the importance of the center, while others held up signs with messages like “No Funding = Loss of Culture Scholarship Discourse” and “The MEC is our Community.” College sophomore and Muslim Students’ Association representative Burhan Brula called on University administrators to provide the necessary funding to maintain and expand the MEC, which recently lost all federal funding. On Aug. 4, the United States Department of Education informed the MEC that it had been stripped of its NRC funding eligibility and FLAS fellowship grants, amounting to nearly $500,000 in lost funds — nearly all of the center’s financial support. “To lose the programming and outreach efforts of the MEC would be to lose a crucial part of ensuring visibility and understanding of the often misunderstood people that make up the many Middle Eastern nations the center is committed to studying,” Brula said in his speech. “On campus, there is no other space that has the same mission or impact as the Middle East Center. It is an irreplaceable part of the greater Penn community.” Brula’s speech contained two action items for the University: allocating resources to maintain existing programming efforts like scholarships and student initiatives previously supported by Title VI funding, and increasing “institutional funding and support” for the MEC. In response to a request for comment, School of Arts and Sciences Dean Steven Fluharty, who oversees the MEC, reiterated his previous statement sent to The Daily Pennsylvanian. He noted that the school is currently “considering the challenge” of how to support the MEC without its federal funding — adding that “this process is ongoing, and there are no further details at this time.” The MSA’s appeal to the University was echoed during the speeches of six students representing a wide range of groups on the council, including the Asian Pacific Student Coalition and the Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention board. Latinx Coalition representative and College senior Camila Irabien was one of those who supported the MEC to administrators at the meeting during her own speech. Irabien, a former DP staffer, said that funding See MEC, page 3
RENDERING BY PENN LIVE ARTS
Students call Annenberg Center expansion a ‘step forward’ for performing arts community The 3,100-square-foot building is part of a $25-million renovation plan NITIN SESHADRI Staff Reporter
Students involved with performing arts at Penn said they are “ecstatic” about Penn’s new plans to construct a new theater next to the Annenberg Center, calling it a “game-changer” for the theatre community at Penn. The new theater will be named after 1963 Wharton graduate and luxury footwear designer Stuart Weitzman as part of a “transformative gift” to the University, Penn Today reported. The 3,100-squarefoot building, which is part of a $25 million renovation plan, is expected to have an audience capacity of 300 to 350 people and will connect to the south side of the Annenberg Center using a portion of the plaza between Locust Walk and Walnut Street. “This is a pivotal project for the performing arts,” Penn President Liz Magill told Penn Today. “Naming the theater for Stuart honors his enduring commitment to Penn students, his love of the performing arts, and our shared desire to make the performing arts even more visible and widely accessible on campus and throughout the greater Philadelphia region.” These renovations will mark the first significant expansion of the Annenberg Center — the headquarters of Penn Live Arts — since its construction in 1971.
The theater will include features such as a glass wall supporting both indoor and outdoor performances, state-of-the-art theater lighting combined with natural light sources, and a quadraphonic audio system, according to Penn Live Arts. It will serve as a new home for Penn’s music, theater, dance, and comedy groups for performances, workshops, and community programming. Students involved with performing arts groups at Penn said that they welcomed the change — which they anticipate solving many of the problems they currently face finding sufficient space to rehearse and perform. Wharton senior and A Cappella Council Chair Jack Franklin said the announcement amounted to a “really big deal” for Penn’s performing arts council, as there is currently a moratorium on new groups joining the coalition due to a lack of available space. “Right now, we have to make tough decisions around who gets to rehearse and perform where,” Franklin said. “With a new space like this, it would be really a game changer for us to be able to expand out See ANNENBERG, page 2
Penn Women’s Center to select new director before end of the semester Current students and staff are working to fill the gap left by the departure of its previous director ELIZABETH MEISENZAHL Senior Reporter
PHOTO BY JESSE ZHANG
Penn Women’s Center on Sept. 14, 2022.
The Penn Women’s Center plans to have a permanent director by the end of the semester, as current students and staff work to fill the gap left by the departure of its previous director. After Sherisse Laud-Hammond, the previous
College junior Sarah Katz died on Sept. 10 at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Interim Vice Provost for University Life Tamara Greenfield King notified students of Katz’s death in an email sent on Sept. 11 on behalf of President Liz Magill and Interim Provost Beth A. Winkelstein. Katz’s family wrote in a statement included in the email to the Penn community: “We are devastated by this tragic passing of our beloved Sarah. She loved the University of Pennsylvania so much and was so happy and thriving.” Katz grew up in Jersey City, N.J., and graduated from Elisabeth Irwin High School in New York City. She took a gap year before coming to Penn, as she received a full merit scholarship to learn Mandarin at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in Chengdu, China. At Penn, Katz studied international relations and health and societies with a minor in East Asian languages and civilizations. Katz was committed to community health initiatives inside and outside of the classroom. She worked as a research assistant at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and served as Rep Cap Ambassador with the American Heart Association where she taught CPR in high schools and underserved communities since 2011. As an involved member of the Penn community, Katz served as a membership coordinator and CPR training project chair in the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education and was a student leader in the John Marshall PreLaw Honor Society, a member in Penn Hillel, and was the social chair of Sigma Kappa sorority. Katz had recently begun an internship with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a health communications intern. The University held an in-person support session from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Houston Hall’s Class of 1949 Auditorium on Sept. 11. Also, the Let’s Talk program at Counseling and Psychological Services will also have staff available for confidential drop-in conversations throughout the upcoming week. Katz’s friends at Penn have organized a vigil in her memory which will take place at the LOVE statue at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 16. All members of the Penn community are invited to join. The organizers wrote that they encourage attendees to bring photos of Katz and to write messages and notes which will be taped to the LOVE statue. Katz’s family — Jill, Michael, and Dana Katz — set up a fundraiser through the American Heart Association as a tribute to her “passion and commitment to community health.” As of Sept. 14, over 320 individuals have donated to the fundraiser and over $21,000 has been raised in Katz’s name. director, left last semester, the University began a search for the center’s new director. Associate Vice Provost for Student Life Will Atkins, who is facilitating the search, said the goal is to have a new PWC director in place by the end of the semester. Until a new director is named, work will continue to be distributed among current staff members and students involved in the PWC. The PWC is located at 3643 Locust Walk, where it moved to in the early 1990s. It was founded in 1973 following a sit-in by Penn students and faculty to protest sexual assault on campus. Since then, the center has served as a resource for women on campus and a sponsor of students groups and events related to gender equity. “We’re really excited for the direction that the Center is going, especially as we prepare to celebrate 50 years of the Penn Women’s Center in 2023,” Atkins said. First-year coordinator for Penn Association for Gender Equity and College sophomore Lila DiMasi said she and her fellow PAGE board members began feeling the strain of the vacancy this summer as they planned PennGenEq, a pre-orientation program See DIRECTOR, page 7
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