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

PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026

VOL. CXLII

NO. 19

Soon to step down, Jameson hopes to leave Penn more ‘agile’ ’I think Penn is well poised to have someone new come in and lead,‘ Penn President Larry Jameson said in a wide-ranging interview on Monday ETHAN YOUNG AND CHRISTINE OH Editor-in-Chief and Senior Reporter

Next Monday will mark Penn President Larry Jameson’s 1,000th day on the job. In a volatile climate for higher education, Penn has been sued by the federal government and investigated by the Department of Education. Since Jameson was appointed interim leader of the University in 2023, Penn has faced a changing federal funding landscape that has reshaped support for its schools and research, and been forced to navigate evolving immigration policies affecting international students. Despite the relentless external pressures, Jameson maintains that his job is the “best presidential leadership role in the country.” And, he would rather spend time discussing the people, places, and innovations he thinks define Penn than linger on pressures imposed by the federal government. It’s an attitude that permeates Jameson’s approach to the role. As he enters his final act as president, he remains guided by what he says is an unrelenting focus on steering the University toward its best possible future. “I think Penn is well poised to have someone new come in and lead,” he said in a wide-ranging interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian on Monday. “You can go through all the different kinds of metrics that you would like to look at: quality of the faculty, the quality of the students, the engagement of the alumni, the breakthrough advances, the research productivity, and the rankings of the schools.”

*** Jameson stepped into the presidency following a 12-year stint as executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. The endocrinologist, who trained at the University of North Carolina, began his career at Harvard Medical School before spending 18 years at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. For Jameson, becoming Penn’s president represents an extension of his time leading the Health System, not a departure. “The bulk of my time, I served as the EVP and dean at Penn Medicine, and so I think about the whole arc,” Jameson said. “I consistently focus on innovation and creativity and how to get things done.” While at Penn Med, Jameson championed a strategic plan — “Serving a Changing World” — to improve patient affordability and boost the Health System’s name recognition as a hub for innovation. As dean of the Medical School, he served on the consultative committees that selected Provost John Jackson Jr. and Wharton School Dean Erika James, as well as the committee that helped pick former Penn President Liz Magill. Through regular meetings with Magill and former Penn President Amy Gutmann, he forged close relationships with his predecessors-to-be. Jameson — at the time, the University’s longest-serving

dean — was named Penn’s interim president just days after Magill resigned in December 2023. His work leading the hospital system helped familiarize him with the responsibilities that come with an administrative role at Penn, he said. Following his interim appointment, Jameson’s colleagues at Penn Med lauded his unpretentious approach to leadership and ability to raise provocative questions. Jameson has sought to apply those same qualities over the last three years — an effort he said has rendered the University “more innovative and agile.” Last fall, he announced Penn Forward, a new strategic framework for the University designed to address both the challenges and opportunities facing higher education. “When you’re sitting in the seat, you get much more familiar — in the weeds, if you will,” Jameson said. “It was going to be important for the University’s decision-making to become more agile so that we could, in an ecosystem kind of analogy, adapt effectively to what’s going on in the external environment.” In April, Penn unveiled nine key initiatives born from the framework, centered on extending the University’s global reach, lowering financial barriers to attendance, and embracing new technological advances. Finer points of the plan included expanding Penn’s San Francisco campus and cementing the University as a leader See JAMESON, page 7

Penn student groups adjust plans as club funding uncertainty grows Funding guidelines from the Student Allocations Commission have sparked confusion among campus organizations AMY LIAO Senior Reporter

New funding guidelines from Penn’s Student Allocations Commission have sparked confusion among student groups as they navigate the start of a new academic year. Updates are made to SAC’s funding guidelines annually. The rollout and communication of this year’s

changes, however, have drawn particular scrutiny. Office of Student Affairs Executive Director Katie Bonner described the new guidelines as an effort to “steward funds” and “efficiently support the most groups possible.” “No targeted funding cuts were made to specific

CHENYAO LIU | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

categories of groups, though we understand that changes to the guidelines can have impacts on organizations,” Bonner wrote in a statement. According to a board member of Onda Latina, Penn’s premier Latin dance troupe, funding and logistical changes were discussed during the Student Organization Summit on Aug. 24. While the board member said there were some “pros” to the new model — including a new committee dedicated to arts and performance — they highlighted potential complications for student groups. Singers, Musicians, and Comedians Council Chair and College senior Zoe Champ said she was initially “concerned on behalf of the performing arts groups that I represent.” “I don’t think that the way that the funding is currently laid out is very sustainable for a lot of the performing arts groups given the fact that they’ll have to pay more and receive less of their revenue,” Champ said in an interview. According to Champ, SAC will now grant the group a broader allocation intended to cover the entire academic year rather than dedicating funding for specific shows. She said that the change could force groups to make tradeoffs between different production costs. “Now you have to pick and choose,” she added. “If you want a really impressive set, your group maybe wouldn’t be able to buy a new piano for the pit.” Champ said that the changes could disproportionately affect newer clubs or those that “don’t have enough funding to move forward.” “We already have to give up some ticket revenue in order to fund SAC, so I hope that they would support us in return and make sure that performing arts is well supported,” she said. A board member of the Asian Pacific Student Coalition similarly cited a “continuing trend of delays” from OSA, which distributes SAC funding. Requests for the 2026-27 academic year were due March 29, with fall funding distributed in four stages ending Sept. 13, Oct. 4, Nov. 1, and Nov. 22.

The SAC Fair on Jan. 25, 2025.

KEVIN REN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Jameson in his College Hall office in Nov. 2025.

See SAC, page 6

Proposed visa fee could burden international students Experts say a plan to attach a $100,000 charge to Optional Practical Training could erode a key career pipeline RIANA MAHTANI Staff Reporter

The Trump administration is considering imposing a six-figure fee on international graduates seeking work authorization in the United States — a move that Penn experts say could price out recent graduates and erode a pipeline American universities and employers have long relied on. The plan would attach a $100,000 charge to Optional Practical Training, which currently allows international students to remain and work in the country for one to three years post-graduation, according to The Wall Street Journal. The proposal has not yet been formally introduced, and key details remain unclear, including who would bear the cost: the students, their universities, or their prospective employers. For many international students, OPT is the bridge between earning a degree and building a career in the United States. Wharton School Management professor Britta Glennon, whose research focuses on immigration and the economy, described it as the crucial link in a multi-step pipeline. Students usually enter the country on an F-1 visa, then rely on OPT for temporary work authorization after graduation, with the eventual goal of securing employer sponsorship for an H‑1B visa. With H-1B visas capped at 85,000 annually and allocated by lottery, the OPT window — one year for non-STEM graduates and three years for STEM graduates — gives students “extra time to win the lottery.” “This is the typical path for skilled immigrants in the U.S.,” Glennon explained. A fee of this size would function as a deterrent, See OPT, page 2

The rise of CAR T-cell cancer research 2016 College graduate Erin Piacenti Renowned Penn immunologist Carl June pioneered CAR T-cell killed in Times Square stabbing therapies to revolutionize cancer treatment

During her time at Penn, the 32-year-old New Jersey native was a member of Alpha Phi sorority and Dischord A Cappella

MARIACRISTINA CALCAGNO Staff Reporter

When Immunotherapy professor Carl June started working with CAR T cells, he was not focused on treating cancer. At the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, June studied bone marrow transplantations for patients with radiation exposure during the Cold War, thinking about how to expand T cells — cells that attack foreign invaders in the body as part of an immune response — outside of the body. Later, during the AIDS epidemic, he began using those cells to treat HIV-1 in his lab at the Naval Medical Research Institute. June’s idea was that a patient’s T cells could be removed from their body, grown in the lab using certain proteins, and returned to the body to continue fighting against HIV-1. Bruce Levine — who now serves as the Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy — later joined June in his lab. But when the pair came to Penn in 1999, they pivoted to looking at CAR T-cell applications in cancer research — specifically, leukemia. “The Department of Defense does infectious disease work, but they don’t do cancer research,” Levine explained. “We move up to Penn — now we can start clinical trials in cancer.” “We used the lessons from HIV but just changed NEWS Tailored programming welcomes transfer students as they adjust to life on Penn’s campus.

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the CAR design and then changed its targeting so that it would target leukemia-associated molecules,” June added. He now serves as the director of Penn Medicine’s Center for Cellular Immunotherapies. In 2010, the two treated their first patient suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia with CAR T-cell therapy. Two subsequent patients in the clinical trial also showed promising results. “We had treated three patients,” June said. “All three responded, but we had no more money.” The field of cancer immunotherapy had, for over a decade, been in what Levine described as “the dark ages of gene therapy,” where skepticism ran rampant and funding was hard to acquire. The team, with dwindling funds, went ahead and published the results in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2011. “It’s very unusual in an end-stage cancer trial to have three out of three patients respond,” June added. “We had smoking-gun good evidence that the CAR T cells did it.” Their work, including the subsequent treatment of pediatric patients, paved the way for the United States Food and Drug Administration’s approval of See CAR T, page 2

NEWS Meet the 19-member committee guiding the search for Penn’s next president.

ETHAN YOUNG Editor-in-Chief

2016 College graduate Erin Piacenti (née Guiltinan) was killed in a stabbing in Times Square on Monday. Piacenti was a vice president at Bank of America, the firm confirmed on Tuesday. After graduating from Penn with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a minor in history, she earned a law degree from Fordham University School of Law. During her time at Penn, the 32-year-old New Jersey native was a member of Alpha Phi sorority and Dischord A Cappella, frequently performing solo renditions of artists ranging from Tina Turner to Sia and arranging music for the group. She also served as an alumni admissions interviewer for the University after graduating. “We are profoundly saddened by Erin Piacenti’s tragic and untimely death,” Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Mark Trodden said in a statement. “Our thoughts go out to her family, friends, and all those who knew and loved her at this difficult time.” Piacenti is survived by her husband, Frank OPINION Columnist Kamau Louis argues that Penn should provide on-campus housing for its graduate students.

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Piacenti, and her 5-month-old daughter, Madison. “The Piacenti and Guiltinan families are devastated by the loss of Erin and request privacy at this time,” a spokesperson for the family said. “They appreciate the outpouring of support they have received.” A spokesperson for Alpha Phi’s Penn chapter said the sorority is “deeply saddened to hear of Erin’s passing.” “Any death under these circumstances is tragic, but the loss of an Alpha Phi sister hits especially close to home,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement. Piacenti was one of two individuals stabbed in New York’s busy tourist hub on the afternoon of Aug. 31. The other victim, a 68-year-old man, remains hospitalized. His identity has not been released. According to Jessica Tisch, commissioner for the New York Police Department, the attacker was Pamela Cisneros, 49, of Queens. She was shot and killed by police officers after the stabbing. The Associated Press contributed reporting. SPORTS Penn student-athletes spent their summer beyond Philadelphia — competing around the globe.