january 21, 2015

The Chicago Cubs, a round trip to the moon and the Solomon Islands — all things Penn could buy by 2020 with the money it will raise for financial aid.

Following the Making History Campaign’s unprecedented fundraising success, Penn Pres-ident Amy Gutmann recently announced the University’s intention to raise one billion dol-lars for financial aid by 2020.

“We are continuing robust fundraising cen-tered around the Penn Compact 2020. We’re branding it Penn Impact 2020 because we are committed to showing the impact of what we can do at Penn based on the incredibly generous contributions of alumni and friends,” Gutmann said. “We have set a goal of raising an addi-tional $350 million dollars for undergraduate, graduate and professional student aid bringing the total of what we raise over the 15 years —10 years past and five years forward — to a bil-lion dollars. That is an aggressive goal but we can show real consequences that are incredibly positive for our student body.”

The $350 million breaks down into an ad-ditional $240 million in undergraduate aid and $110 million in graduate student aid. Be-tween 2005 and 2012, the University raised $650 million as a part of their Making History

While polarization and gridlock continue in the Capitol, President Barack Obama’s State of the Union on Tuesday night outlined new Democratic proposals, an improving economy and the prospect of a new chapter of bipartisanship in D.C.

Over 40 students gathered at Penn’s Fels Institute of Government to watch Obama’s address, which

was preceded by a talk by College and Law School graduate Miguel Rodriguez . Rodriguez was the di-rector of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs in 2013 . Penn In Washington, Penn Democrats and the Penn Political Coalition co-hosted the event .

“Helping hardworking families make ends meet, giving them the tools they need for good-paying jobs in this new economy, maintaining the conditions for growth and com-petitiveness: This is where America

Front1

ONLINE 7 DAYS A WEEK AT THEDP.COMFOLLOW US @DAILYPENN FOR THE LATEST UPDATES

Penn’s new goal: one billion for fi nancial aid

Miguel Rodriguez spoke and answered students’ questions after Penn’s State of the Union viewing in Rodin.

CLAIRE HUANG/VIDEO PRODUCER

Gutmann raises fundraising goals for Penn Compact 2020JACK CAHN Staff Reporter

Penn grad. Miguel Rodriguez spoke to students before SOTUJONATHAN BAERStaff Reporter

SEE SOTU PAGE 7

SEE BILLION PAGE 5

State of the Union through eyes of ex-Obama staff er

SUMMER ABROADPAGE 5

GLEE AT THE WHITE HOUSEPAGE 3

For too long, the uninsured have gone

without life-saving medical treatment or lived in fear of bankruptcy.

- Quisim Sione

PAGE 4

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015

Sure, ghosts might not exist, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t haunt-ed our footsteps.

Bridging subjects from religious studies to nursing to East Asian stud-ies and more, the Penn Ghost Project consists of a group of interdisciplin-ary professors and academics, who all are interested in studying the social phenomena surrounding ghosts. The

initiative started three years ago and has recently expanded its project list.

“Penn was really the only center that ever did anything like this,” Re-ligious Studies professor Justin Mc-Daniel said.

Penn is unique in having a history of paranormal academia.

The Penn Ghost Project even draws an uncanny parallel to the Seybert commission, a 19th century study on whether ghosts are real or not. The study was prompted by a monetary gift with the caveat that “the Univer-

Religious Studies professor ain’t afraid of no ghostISABEL KIM Staff Reporter

SEE GHOST PAGE 2

WHOYA GONNA

CALL?initiative started three years ago and ?initiative started three years ago and has recently expanded its project list.?has recently expanded its project list.

“Penn was really the only center ?“Penn was really the only center that ever did anything like this,” Re-?that ever did anything like this,” Re-ligious Studies professor Justin Mc-?ligious Studies professor Justin Mc-

Penn is unique in having a history ?Penn is unique in having a history

CALL?CALLTHEDP.COM

Video of Haunted Philly

2 Page Two

The Parthenon, the Berlin Wall and some of the worlds’ best beaches are on the map for students going abroad this summer.

Despite declining enroll-ments, Penn will be expanding summer abroad to Tel Aviv, Havana, Athens, Berlin and Rotterdam.

This is largest expansion of summer abroad in recent his-tory. “We added new programs because faculty approached us and said ‘we want to take an opportunity this summer to have a really unique edu-cational experience with students’,” Director of Non-Degree Programs Eli Lesser said. “Each of our faculty who chose these locations have had previous and past histories in these locations and really see it as a unique opportunity to teach students in the place where their material hap-pened.”

The Athens course taught by professor Jeremy McInerney, for example, is a seminar based on the Archaeology of Ancient Greece that incorporates travel to archeological sites with campus-based lectures and re-search.

“The opportunity is to stand and walk in Athens,” Lesser said. “[McInerney] can de-scribe a sacrificial alter in Delphi, but then to stand in Delphi actually at the alter in front it and look at the various things in it is a totally different experience.”

The Havana course will overlap with the 2015 Havana Bienal exhibition of inter-national contemporary art. Students will visit the exhi-bition, tour artists’ studios, collections, architectural mon-uments and historical sites and learn about the architecture and public culture of Cuba.

“Obviously we couldn’t have picked a better time to go to Cuba,” Lesser said. “If you speak to professor [Gwendo-lyn] Shaw what you’ll learn is that she’s had an amazing experience in recent years in

Cuba. And the first thing that came to her mind was ‘I want to bring students here. I want to let Penn undergraduate stu-dents experience what this is like and to see the opportuni-ties that exist from an artistic point of view.’”

Like the Cuba program, the Tel Aviv courses come at a time in which Israel’s politics are being discussed on the in-ternational stage. “The courses are really focused on contem-porary Israel,” professor Peter Decherney, who is running the program, said. “Israel is the start-up nation, it has an amazing tech industry, all the San Francisco venture capital firms have offices in Tel Aviv. There’s just so much going on. So students will take courses and have the opportunity to do internships afterward.”

Decherney said he is teach-ing in the Middle East because the region is critical to under-standing Internet policy. “My course, which is Global Inter-net Policy, is focused more on kinds of issues that are really relevant to the Middle East generally now. So cyberwar,

how networks are managed, how things like Twitter and other social networks function under different kinds of poli-cies.”

The final new summer abroad course in Berlin and Rotterdam is a shorter 10-day program focused on long-standing traditions of German and Dutch sustain-ability, environmentalism and policymaking. It is among many more short-term, ex-periential programs that the University has been spear-heading to expand students’ global outreach, according to Provost Vincent Price.

If past years’ enrollment rates are any reflection of this year’s summer abroad participation, however, these new courses will not get much traction. As a result of an an-nouncement of changes in financial aid practices prior to summer 2014, at least 28 stu-dents withdrew from studying abroad with Penn.

“There’s been a decline in attendance and a decline in overall summer enrollments,” Lesser said. “I hope that will

change.”The new financial aid prac-

tices only give aid to those with the highest financial need — those who receive aid during the academic year are not necessarily eligible. Di-rector of Financial Aid Joel Carstens said that while the change in practices has re-sulted in fewer grants, they are reasonable. He explained that Penn is the only Ivy League school with an aid program that offers summer grants to undergraduates taking summer courses or studying abroad.

Program coordinators for summer abroad programs, however, are not so sure. Penn-in-Venice, Penn-in-Madrid and Penn-in-Grahamstown directors all noted decreased summer abroad enrollment due to these financial aid changes.

“We are running the risk that the ‘internationalization’ [becomes] a social and eco-nomic privilege, not a mission for the entire collectivity of our students,” Fabio Finotti, direc-tor of Penn-in-Venice, told The Daily Pennsylvanian in an email in April 2014.

New summer abroad programs include Havana, Tel AvivPenn expands offerings despite lack of financial assistance

JACK CAHN Staff Reporter

sity should appoint a Commis-sion to investigate ‘all systems of Morals, Religion or Philosophy which assume to represent the Truth, and particularly of Mod-ern Spiritualism” — in simpler terms, whether ghosts exist.

And while the Seybert com-mission concluded that ghosts are not a real phenomenon, that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to study about them.

“We’re taking the study of ghosts both sociologically, psy-chologically and aesthetically, seriously,” McDaniel said. The group focuses on studying and documenting the idea of ghosts, the ways in which the concept of the lingering deceased has been and continues to be alive and well throughout the world. A 2013 Harris Poll found that 42 percent of Americans believe in ghosts.

In the past, the Penn Ghost Project has brought speakers to Penn, as well as going on ghost hunts and having events.

In the next few weeks, the Project plans to start document-ing ghost stories among the Penn undergraduate community. In-spired by the people who would come up to them at events and share their experiences with the supernatural, the group is under-taking the recording of more than a hundred stories, with hopes of expanding the project to the Penn graduate community and beyond. “The reason we’re doing this is because there’s a huge interest,” McDaniel said. “It’s almost im-possible to meet someone who doesn’t have one eerie experi-ence.”

Both the spectrally-inclined and spectrally-skeptical are en-couraged to come speak about their supernatural experiences. “We’re interested in hearing those experiences, even from people who don’t believe them — people who are like ‘I’m sure there’s another explanation but I can’t explain what that explana-tion is,’” McDaniel added.

The group is surprised by the amount of feedback and support it’s received from the community.

The oral history project will be up for public participation in early February.

GHOSTS>> PAGE 1

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News3

Penn groups bring holiday glee to White House

It’s December in Washington, D.C. Public figures from Associ-ate Justice of the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to actress Emmy Rossum are flocking to the White House for President Obama’s hol-iday parties. Greeting them, no flyers in hand this time, are Penn performing arts groups.

Penn Glee Club, Penn Sori and Penn Shabbatones performed at the White House holiday par-ties in December. They sang in the foyer while guests were en-tering and leaving the building and, more importantly, got the unexpected opportunity to sing in front of the president and the first lady.

Even though Penn Glee Club is currently going through its “Janu-ary Hell Week” for the upcoming spring show, College and Whar-ton senior and the Vice President of the club Jacob Meiner perked up with excitement when recall-ing his time in Washington.

“All the guests as they were walking into the party had to walk in front of us as we were singing,” he said.

This is its first time Penn Glee Club sung for the president of the United States since 1926.

“President Obama made a joke about how we haven’t been to the White House since when Calvin Coolidge was president, so we looked pretty good for our age,” Meiner said. Penn Glee club sang “Deck the Halls” for the president and the first lady.

Glee Club lobbied the White House to get this opportunity.

Justin Kim, a Wharton senior and the business manager of Penn Glee Club, wanted to make sure that the White House would notice the group.

“I sent them a package with CDs and made a presentation about the club, which was not re-quired,” he said.

He said he also reached out to Penn Glee Club alumnus in poli-tics Robert M. Beecroft.

“We tried so many different channels that in the end we don’t know what actually worked,” Kim said.

Penn Sori, a Korean a cap-pella group, also performed for President Obama in December, singing most of its concert rep-ertoire and holiday songs in both English and Korean, often sing-ing one verse in English and the other in Korean.

“I don’t think anyone under-stood [the lyrics] except for this one Korean lady in a uniform,” College sophomore and a busi-ness manager of Penn Sori Sam Joo said. He added that when they finished singing “The Ugly Duckling,” by a famous Korean group, the woman came up to them and expressed how comfort-ing and heartwarming it is to hear Korean songs in the White House.

After their performance in the White House foyer, College junior and Penn Sori president Soomin Kim prepared for the groups’ impromptu performance of “Winter Wonderland” for the president and the first lady.

“I actually forgot my first line

of the lyrics but fortunately I wrote the first two words down [on my hand]. I totally blanked out,” she said.

On the other hand, the White House might have been a little nervous welcoming Penn Sori as well. Woo-Ju Kim, a college sophomore and musical director of Penn Sori, said she almost did not get into the White House and had to wait about twenty minutes because the White House didn’t put her name on the list.

Joo said Penn Sori’s goal for this performance was to expose people outside of Penn to the group.

“We usually have gigs on campus, so we know who our audience is. It was reassuring to look at the reaction from the au-dience who was so different,” she added.

Their gig at the White House won’t be the group’s only glam-orous performance for the school year. Penn Sori also received a request from the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team to sing the national anthem at a game this semester.

Penn Shabbatones couldn’t be-lieve their inboxes when they got the invitation to perform at the White House Hanukkah Party.

“I thought it was a complete joke,” College sophomore and tour manager Jennifer Gold said.

All the songs the group sang

at the Hanukkah party were in Hebrew, including songs spe-cifically arranged for the White House performance by its alumni. Although not all the members un-derstand Hebrew, Goldstein said that “it brings us together in the most unique, amazing and power-ful way.”

For the president, Penn Shab-batones performed its song arranged by the founding members of the group called “Umacha,” meaning prayer for peace and love.

“It was one of the most in-credible experience. It’s hard to articulate, but there’s a certain

amount of connection between people who are watching us and us performing,” Aaron Zell, a Wharton sophomore and Penn Shabbatones member, said.

Among many prominent Jewish politicians and celebri-ties who attended the party, Penn Shabbatones met actress and

a singer-songwriter Emmy Rossum, well known as Kristen in the 2004 “The Phantom of the Opera” film.

Rossum also tweeted about Penn Shabbatones, saying, “Cha-nukah songs never sounded cool until this acapella group I heard at The White House tonight.”

Glee Club, Sori and Shabba-tones serenade dignitariesBOOKYUNG JOStaff Reporter

The Penn Glee Club poses in front of The White House, where they performed at holiday parties for President Barack Obama over winter break.

COURTESY OF PENN GLEE CLUB

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OPINION4

MATT MANTICAExecutive Editor

JILL CASTELLANOManaging Editor

SHAWN KELLEYOpinion Editor

LUKE CHENDirector of Online Projects

LAUREN FEINERCity News Editor

KRISTEN GRABARZCampus News Editor

CLAIRE COHENAssignments Editor

STEVEN TYDINGSSocial Media Director

PAOLA RUANOCopy Editor

RILEY STEELESenior Sports Editor

HOLDEN MCGINNISSports Editor

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COLIN HENDERSONSports Editor

ANALYN DELOS SANTOSCreative Director

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HENRY LINOnline Graphics Editor

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TIFFANY PHAMPhoto Manager

CARTER COUDRIETVideo Producer

CLAIRE HUANGVideo Producer

MEGAN YANBusiness Manager

TAYLOR YATESFinance Manager

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EMMA HARVEYAnalytics Manager

CAITLIN LOYDCirculation Manager

EVAN CERNEAAssociate Copy Editor

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JENNIFER WRIGHTDeputy News Editor

THIS ISSUE

WEDNESDAY,JANUARY 21, 2015VOL. CXXXI, NO. 2131st Yearof Publication

Have your own opinion? Send your guest column to Opinion Editor Shawn Kelley at [email protected].

YOUR VOICE

Unsigned editorials appearing on this page represent the opinion of The Daily Pennsylvanian as determined by the majority of the Editorial Board. All other columns, letters and artwork represent the opinion of their authors and are not necessarily representative of the DP’s position.

For decades, public discussion about human services pro-grams in Pennsylva-

nia has been mired in fruitless debates about the size of gov-ernment or the worthiness of the poor. Not only have these battles failed to reflect the re-alities of the lives of Pennsyl-vanians, but they have also de-layed steps necessary to build an economy with broad-based prosperity. Under the Corbett Administration, programs for low-income Pennsylvanians have been poorly funded or cut altogether, with dire — and predictable — consequences. Yet our newly inaugurated governor, Tom Wolf, should not plan a mere reversion to pre-Corbett-era policies. In-stead, Wolf and the incoming state legislature should take the following three steps to help more people in our state live healthy, secure and pro-ductive lives.

First, the Commonwealth should increase caseworker

staffing and improve educa-tional opportunities for the unemployed. Randomized-controlled trials have found that frequent meetings with a caseworker soon after job loss speeds re-entry to the labor force. At such meetings case-workers review progress in the job search, provide counseling on resume preparation and job applications and give leads on job openings. In Pennsyl-vania, insufficient staffing of caseworkers has rendered this level of individual attention impossible. In the last decade, the number of caseworkers employed by the Department of Human Services in county assistance offices statewide has fallen from 8,000 to 4,400. Meanwhile, the Common-wealth’s job training and job placement programs have seen cuts of nearly 50 percent of total state and federal funding since the stimulus-era peak. Childcare services for low-in-come families have decreased nearly 20 percent in the last

four years. The Corbett Ad-ministration has also cut many GED classes and threatened to terminate welfare benefits of single mothers in job certifi-

cate programs. Without train-ing or education, beneficiaries are forced into minimum wage and part-time work. In many cases, they are back on welfare in short order.

Second, monthly General Assistance (GA) payments, a last line of support for some of the state’s most vulnerable, should be reinstated. After de-cades of cuts in benefits and tightening eligibility restric-tions, GA ended entirely after Governor Corbett called for its cancellation in 2012. At

that point, the program was providing monthly cash pay-ments only to victims of do-mestic abuse, the temporarily disabled, addicts in recovery

programs and caregivers for unrelated children. The pro-gram’s benefits were anemic, providing an average of $205 per month. But for the 70,000 Pennsylvanians receiving GA, it was a lifeline. While state policy should promote work among the employable, seek-ing short-term savings on the backs of vulnerable popula-tions who have no other safety net is both cruel and fiscally imprudent.

Third, the Wolf Adminis-tration should scrap Corbett’s

“Healthy PA” plan in favor of straightforward Medicaid ex-pansion. Under the terms of the Affordable Care Act, the expansion would lower the number of uninsured Penn-sylvanians by more than half while improving all Pennsyl-vanians’ financial security. Most of those newly covered will be low-income working adults. Governor Corbett’s “Healthy PA” proposal, which he insisted on implementing even after losing his reelec-tion bid, requires monthly premiums for individuals and households who earn more than the federal poverty level. It also made drastic cuts to current Medicaid recipients’ access to medically necessary procedures and tests. Medic-aid expansion should proceed without these new premiums and changes in coverage. In addition, the Commonwealth should use available data from food stamp and children’s health insurance program en-rollment to identify newly

Medicaid-eligible residents. Many states have used such data to enroll people quickly. Oregon, for instance, reduced the number of uninsured by 10 percent in less than one month.

For too long, the uninsured have gone without life-saving medical treatment or lived in fear of bankruptcy. Survivors fleeing abuse have been forced to sleep in the streets after their last lifeline of state assistance was cut off. The recently laid-off have waited in vain for help at County Assistance Offices. All of this can change. The three steps above will quickly ensure better health, higher in-come and greater opportunity for Pennsylvania’s low-income working and disabled popula-tions. They should be top pri-orities for the Wolf Adminis-tration.

Participating in the annual gossip that spreads in my home-town with news of

college admissions decisions has had me thinking a lot about admissions lately. In do-ing so, I’ve been surprised to find that, having seen its out-comes, I’m less a fan of the process now than I was as a high school senior facing the uncertainty that it brings.

It isn’t hard to see that the admissions process fails to se-lect for the traits which truly make one suited for a top-qual-ity undergraduate education. Penn and other peer institu-tions have significant popula-tions of students for whom ac-quisition of knowledge and mental self-betterment are not top or high priorities, let alone passions. If the admissions process at a university can ac-complish anything, it should be to detect applicants who are interested in close scrutiny and critical appraisal of their own lives and screen those who are not. I suspect that the admis-

sions department at Penn and other institutions would agree that selecting students with a deep and genuine dedication to learning and excluding those who lack such drive is a funda-mental goal of their office. The methods they use, however, fail to achieve this proper goal.

That the college admis-sions process is flawed is hardly an original insight on my part. For instance, it has already been argued that a disproportionately large per-centage of students admitted to top colleges and universities come from a disproportionate-ly small number of American high schools, that standardized admissions tests are a better

predictor of current wealth than future performance and that the “holistic evaluation” rewards resume-padding over genuine engagement. These are all true to some degree, but I would argue that they are all symptoms rather than root causes of a flawed system.

The current admissions process’ fundamental flaw is that it is almost entirely paper-based, and the qualities which make a good university student cannot be expressed on paper alone. For example, a student deeply committed to community service doesn’t look much different than an ambitious student determined to look committed to commu-

nity service in order to get into college. Likewise with aca-demics — the difference can only be discovered by coming to know the applicant on some deeper level.

Companies seem to rec-ognize this, as they base their hiring decisions on a series of substantive interviews. Col-leges ought to do something akin to this. In order to make the task manageable, the first step in a college admission process should be making a simple binary decision about whether an applicant is quali-fied to attend or not. These standards should be transpar-ent and published. Unlike the mysterious “holistic evalua-tion,” colleges should set min-imum GPA and coursework requirements which are known to potential applicants ahead of time. This would ensure that the applicant pool is small enough that each applicant can be evaluated thoroughly and fairly. The practice of using marketing to bait unqualified students into applying in order

to boost selectiveness percent-ages is disgusting and should be abandoned wherever it is used.

Following this initial cut, an earnest effort should be made by admissions officers to get to know the students about whom they must make a deci-sion. Such a process would also better address educational diversity concerns, as the ex-tent to which an applicant’s life experience has been af-fected by their ascriptive iden-tity could be more accurately determined and accounted for in a process which relies less heavily upon cookie-cutter-on-paper categories.

As an institution which strives to be a hub of social in-novation, Penn should strive to position itself at the head of an effort to develop a better, fairer and more honest application process that is actually capable of selecting students who can and will contribute to a diverse environment of intellectualism and critical inquiry.

This may seem like a

daunting task. However, given the ease of communication in the digital age, given the awe-some responsibility of admis-sions officers at elite colleges to act as de facto gatekeepers to a broad range of privileg-es and given the staggering wealth of such institutions, there is no excuse not to make a gargantuan effort to do bet-ter. The task at hand demands it.

Three steps for our new governor

ALEC WARD is a College sophomore from Washington, D.C., studying history. His email address is [email protected]. “Talking Backward” appears every Wednesday.

For too long, the uninsured have gone without life-saving medical treatment or

lived in fear of bankruptcy.”

Admitting defeat

LUKE MESSAC is a PhD/MD candidate at the School of Arts & Sciences and Perelman School of Medicine respectively.

GUEST COLUMN BY LUKE MESSAC

ALEC WARD

TALKING BACKWARD | It’s time to abandon ‘holistic’ admissions

… [A] student deeply commited to community service doesn’t look much different than an ambitious student determined to look committed to community service in order

to get into college [on paper].”

CARTOON

SAM SHERMAN is a College junior from Marblehead, Mass. His email address is [email protected]

News 5

Campaign — $360 million for undergraduate financial aid and $290 million for graduate finan-cial aid . As gifts continued to come in, Gutmann extended the campaign to target a total of one billion dollars.

“It’s building on the Making History Campaign’s success,” Vice President for Develop-ment and Alumni Relations John Zeller said. “We came off the campaign. We had incredible success, incredible donor en-gagement and alumni, friends and parent engagement. There’s a continued interest to want to do that. We weren’t going to go into another campaign and this is a focused initiative.”

The University emphasizes financial aid in its fundraising efforts to promote further access,

particularly on the undergraduate level. “[Financial aid] continues to be one of Amy’s number one priorities and that is to provide access,” Zeller said. “We had remarkable success during the campaign and there continues to be significant interest in it.”

The new fundraising initia-tive is coupled with another $900

million fundraising target for faculty support, $600 million of which has already been raised.

“We’ve been working on this for a while. It’s really when it got rolled out this past summer and into the fall that it began to cata-lyze as a new goal,” Zeller said.

Zeller emphasized that under-graduate and graduate aid are

equal priorities, despite the fact that the undergraduate financial aid target is higher. “They are both equal. Don’t take numbers as one priority over the other,” Zeller said. “We obviously would love more than $400 million [for graduates]. Part of it is how much are we able to raise in a five year period of time.”

Financial aid fundraising successes have already re-sulted in more diverse classes. “By making it clear that our

commitment to financial aid is robust we have been able to get more low income early decision applicants,” Gutmann said.

BILLION>> PAGE 1

Several international students at Penn didn’t have the good for-tune of returning home for winter break. It can feel easy to be lonely on a barren campus, but two stu-dents made the best of their time off in Philly.

Alparslan Ersoz is an Engi-neering graduate student from Konya, Turkey who spent his break in the International House of Philadelphia. IHP held some events for its residents over break, keeping them active and out of the cold until school started back up again. Ersoz participated in a talk about African diaspora, among other organized events. IHP’s events allowed him to meet new faces around University City, while many people were back home with the same old friends and families.

Although this winter has been

lacking much snow or ice, Penn’s campus was much more socially frozen and bleak over break. “The campus was so silent, and the situ-ation was hard on me, because without students, the campus is like a ghost town,” Ersoz said.

Although few students re-mained, the shops and restaurants in University City were open. “I think that overall, Philadelphia is a nice place for living alone,” Ersoz said. “But on the other hand, I really want to visit my family and go back to my coun-try.”

Though he would have liked to return to Turkey for break, Ersoz still managed to have some fun nights in Philadelphia. He was without any family, but a handful of friends stayed for break as well. Ersoz got together with some of his remaining Turkish friends and ventured downtown to celebrate New Years’ Eve in American style. “It was the first time for most of us to see how Americans celebrate the holiday,” he said.

Minsu Kim, an Engineering

junior, had his first chance to cel-ebrate the New Year in Toronto, Canada, but also spent the major-ity of break on campus. Kim was born and raised in Busan, South Korea, but has studied in the United States since the 9th grade.

America feels a bit more like home for Kim, he said, and sev-eral of his friends stayed on campus with him. “It’s true that not many people stayed and our campus really felt empty,” Kim said, but having friends in town kept break from feeling terribly lonely.

One solution to the break-time lull is to take up a new hobby. Kim learned to knit over break, allow-ing him to keep his hands and his mind occupied. “I was looking for a new and possibly unexpected challenge for myself, therefore I chose to try knitting and ended up making three beanies, two scarfs and a little snowman doll,” Kim said.

Kim also regularly practiced Judo across town, keeping him active and out of the house.

Students fi nd comfort in International HouseJEFFREY CAREYVAStaff Reporter

International students enjoy Philadelphia during winter staycation

Minsu Kim knitted a snowman over his winter break at Penn.COURTESY OF MINSU KIM


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News7

needs to go,” Obama said. “We can’t slow down busi-nesses or put our economy at risk with government shut-downs or fiscal showdowns.”

Rodriguez largely echoed Obama’s emphasis on an improving economy and the need for bipartisanship.

“When people are being drawn at all times to the ex-tremes of a party, it can be a challenge to continue to look for a fight for that common ground and those common interests,” Rodriguez said. “It’s hard, but I think — and I think the President believes as well — that there is a lot of common ground.”

Rodriguez, who prior to serving as Obama’s legis-lative director worked as deputy assistant secretary at the State Department, has an intimate knowledge of the process and importance of a president’s State of the Union address.

This year, the White House released policy pro-posals before the speech, such as Obama’s two-year college proposal and his new tax plan.

“What they did over the last several weeks is they slowly rolled out policies and ideas and gave them each their own space to grab the attention of the public,” Ro-driguez said. “Presumably, tonight’s State of the Union is the closing argument.”

The speech could also act as one of Obama’s closing arguments on his presidency, which has received mixed re-views overall. According to a job approval poll conducted by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 17, 46 percent of Americans ap-prove of his performance, while 48 percent disapprove.

“The president doesn’t have to run two years from now, so he can lay out what he wants to accomplish with a little more idealism than might be realistically pos-sible,” College sophomore and Penn Dems Political Di-rector Sam Iacobellis said. “I remain hopeful, but the real-ism of us seeing a lot of the

proposals that were talked about tonight becoming law are doubtful.”

In addition to outlining his proposals for the next two years, Obama’s penulti-mate State of the Union also begins to frame the debate for the 2016 presidential election.

“That’s how we start re-building trust,” Obama said, referring to his call for find-ing common political ground in the future. “That’s how we move this country forward. That’s what the American people want. That’s what they deserve.”

For Rodriguez, the politi-cian for the job is his former boss: Hillary Clinton.

“She is, in my experi-ence, one of the most capable people, and I think also she is someone who is smart, consumes information, in-ternalizes it and then is able to formulate policy ideas,” he said. “I know who I would vote for, and I know who my Republican mother would vote for, and my Republican wife would vote for her too.”

SOTU>> PAGE 1

This winter break, Penn Band traveled more than 1,000 miles to embark on a performance journey very different from Penn’s sporting events.

On Jan. 6, 35 members of the Penn Band played at Walt Disney World Resort as part of the Disney Performing Arts Program. This is their sixth time performing there.

“We’re the honorable cast of Disney World,” said College seniors Lauren Mendoza and Kylie Murrin, both of whom are drum majors in the Penn Band.

During their five-day stay, mem-bers of the band visited all four main parks of the resort and got to see the backstage areas.

Mendoza, who is also the 2014 president of Penn Band, was among those responsible for planning the trip. “Road trips foster a lot of great memories. For Disney, we wanted to travel as a group because we had done that in the past,” she said. “Two years ago we played on a cruise at the Bahamas,” she added.

The songs the band played at Disney included “Time Warp,” “Since U Been Gone” and “Bad

Romance.” Murrin emphasized that the band played songs that both showcased their talent as a group and excited the audience. She stressed, though, that personal pref-erences of the band members are a factor as well.

“We serve the audience — that’s a great goal of ours — but we also serve ourselves. We want make sure that our members are having a great time in the band,” she said.

For Penn Band Director Greer Cheeseman, who has been in the band for over four decades, the Disney performance was just an-other pleasant trip with the group. “It is a great opportunity to have a great time together, and it is just an-other one of the great memories that we’re going to have as a group.”

For him, although the culture of the campus changes, the band re-mains the same. Just as when he was a member of the band, students now are still having a great time playing music together.

The group also ran into Penn students and alumni during their performance at Disney.

“When we were performing there, an old alumni came to us and told us, ‘Oh, I knew that song when I went to Penn, and that was really

special to hear,’” current Penn Band President and Nursing junior Dana Rosenberg said.

“Penn is everywhere along with the Penn Band,” Murrin added.

For many of the Penn Band mem-bers, the band has become more than an extracurricular. “We really are a really tight-knit group, and the members of the band hang out to-gether all the time. The band is like a family, and that’s how we view it,” Mendoza said.

In the new semester, Penn Band is just as committed. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, though stu-dents were given the day off, most members chose to practice as a group anyway.

“Everybody there volunteered their time because they wanted to be there,” Murrin said.

Even beyond their own personal

commitment, the band as a whole values giving back to the commu-nity, Rosenberg emphasized. “We see ourselves as a service-centered group as much as a performing arts group. We try to be there for every-thing we can be, and we don’t charge for any of our performances,” she said. “We do everything because we want to, and we pride ourselves on that,” she added.

Continuing with the band’s tradi-tion of producing an album every four years, they will release a new album sometime this year. They hope the audience of the album will feel the culture and dynamic of the band through the music. “Hope-fully, if you look into it, you feel like you’re the part of the band,” Murrin said.

“I just hope we can be the best we can be,” Rosenberg said.

Penn Band brings music magic to Disney

Penn Band performed at Disney World over winter break.COURTESY OF PENN BAND

RUIHONG LIUStaff Reporter


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team than the team we faced early last year,” coach Jerome Allen said. “Justin Robinson

has improved immensely.”The Red and Blue — who

commit 17 turnovers a game — will pay if they continue to be careless with the ball against the opportunistic Hawks.

Using its advantage on the boards will be another key for Penn against Monmouth. Led

in the paint by Darien Nelson-Henry and Mike Auger, the Quakers boast a +3.4 rebound-ing margin, while the Hawks get outrebounded by nearly four per game.

If there’s one player the Quakers need to watch out for in the paint, it’s forward Brice

Kofane. The 6-foot-8 senior has racked up a whopping 41 blocks this season.

“They play hard, they play together, they really defend and try to keep you out of the paint,” Allen said of the Hawks. “It should be a good test for us.”

If Penn struggles to penetrate Monmouth’s zone defense, it will need to elevate their three-point game to secure a win — the Quakers average of 25 per-cent shooting beyond the arc in the last two games won’t cut it.

As one of the most promis-ing rookies, Antonio Woods will likely continue to be a fo-cal point of the offense against Monmouth. The 6’1” guard posted a career-high 18 points — including several big threes — to pace the Red and Blue against Villanova.

“I just need to have the be-lief that I can play with anyone I play against,” Woods said. “That’s my mindset going for-ward.”

Saturday’s near upset of Villanova shows that Woods’ mindset has been adopted by the rest of the team. Only time will tell if Penn can translate this attitude into action with a win against Monmouth.

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proven himself valuable in his minutes so far.

The guards could use some more polishing

Taking over the starting point guard position as a fresh-man isn’t supposed to be an easy task. College offenses op-erate a lot differently and com-pete with — and against — an entirely different level of talent than in high school. So it should surprise no one that freshmen Antonio Woods and Darnell Foreman have been among the least efficient Penn players thus far.

Woods and Foreman have both certainly had bright spots this season (see Anto-nio Woods’ second-half three-pointers against Villanova), but they’ve also struggled shooting from the field (38.3 percent and 28.1 percent, respectively). The assist and turnover statistics aren’t too pretty, and both have posted PERs under 10 (the aver-age is 15). It’s tough to succeed when put in the driver’s seat of a college offense from day one, and that’s been the case for Penn.

The Quakers rely on Tony Hicks (and always have)

Who finishes a higher per-centage of his team’s plays — either by field goal attempt, turnover or trip to the free throw line — than any other player in the Ivy League? Brown’s Le-land King. But if I were asking this question about either of the past two years, the answer would be Tony Hicks. And this year, Hicks ranks second at 30.8 percent.

It’s hard to say whether this is good or bad for Penn — most teams tend to have a player who dictates the flow of the offense — but it’s somewhat astonish-ing that he’s been at (or near) the very top of the list in each of his three seasons.

But Hicks is distributing

more than everBefore the season, there was

plenty of discussion of the ju-nior guard’s off-season workout regimen and change in jersey number, but the biggest change has been in his assist percent-

age. While on the floor, 29.3 percent of his teammates’ field goals come off of assists from Hicks, outpacing the junior’s career mark of 24.4 percent.

With Hicks shooting more efficiently — a career-high 42.7

percent mark — and distrib-uting unlike ever before, the Quakers have been more effec-tive offensively with the junior on the floor than they have been in either of his two prior sea-sons.

ANALYTICS>> PAGE 10

THOMAS MUNSON/DP STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER While junior Tony Hicks has been relied upon by his teammates to score at a similar rate to his first two seasons, the guard has assisted on a career-high 29.3 percent of his teammates’ baskets this season, by far the best on the team.

gers and Quakers either winning or losing the conference by one game 25 times since the 1958-59 season, while clinching 39 com-bined outright Ivy titles.

But outside of those seasons where the Princeton-Penn game was relevant, the Ivy season ends with a thud, well before the na-tion’s other conferences play out their conference tournaments.

Therefore, while the Ancient Eight champion silently pre-pares for an unknown opponent, the rest of the country begins a boisterous march to the tourna-ment, featuring buzzer-beaters, six-overtime thrillers and plenty of teams narrowly stealing bids to the all-important Big Dance.

That being said, the Ivy League is not a Power Five con-ference. It doesn’t pretend to be and nor should it. The Ivies aren’t even a high mid-major, never coming all that close to getting more than a single-bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Thus, with each conference receiving more money for more games played in the tournament, it stands to reason that the Ivies need to make sure they have their best team in the tournament.

Proponents of the no-tourna-ment model say that the 14-game regular season acts as its own conference tournament, provid-ing a larger sample size than a few head-to-head matchups in March can provide.

For example, Ivy women’s basketball had games late last season in which the team that fin-ished last and second-to-last beat the teams that placed first and second. That would have elimi-nated the top two teams — Penn and Princeton — if that happened in a conference tournament.

But the model that many small mid-majors follow doesn’t let the bottom feeders into the confer-ence tournament, only allowing the top four teams to compete

for the postseason bid. That’s the conference tournament model that was proposed and rejected by Ivy athletic directors a few years ago and the one that would likely be implemented if there were ever an Ivy tournament.

Allowing the top four teams a chance at the crown would di-versify your possible champions (does anyone really think a team besides Yale or Harvard has a very realistic chance this year?) while not diluting the Ivies chances at a NCAA Tournament win. Assuming you held games on home courts, you would still likely end up with one of the top two teams winning the confer-ence, meaning you’ve given the rightful champion extra momen-tum.

And if the third or fourth seed won consecutive road games to take the title, it would likely mean that team is peaking at the right time and could be a better bet to pull off an upset a week later.

The conference tournament would also be another property the Ancient Eight would have that TV stations would bid on, resulting in more exposure than a TV deal with CBS Sports Net-work and the American Sports Network can provide. It may even help promote subscriptions to the League’s precious online property — the Ivy League Digi-tal Network.

All of this is unlikely in the short term. But with Princeton and Penn finding new athletic directors in 2014 and Columbia looking to hire a new one as well, the tide may finally shift towards a tournament.

To paraphrase an old saying, out with the ancient, in with the new. It’s time for the Ivy League to make a step towards relevancy.

TYDINGS>> PAGE 10

M. HOOPS>> PAGE 10

STEVEN TYDINGS is a Wharton junior from Hopewell, N.J., and is a senior staff writer of The Daily Pennsylvanian. He can be reached at [email protected].

8 SPORTS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 | THEDP.COMTHE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

Against the Spiders, the Quak-ers rebounded from the drubbing in their Ivy League opener, hanging tough for 39 minutes before fresh-man guard Anna Ross hit the biggest shot of her career — a three-pointer with just over 20 seconds left to give Penn the win.

But the Wildcats have played equally well — if not better — of late. Villanova has lost only once in the past month, winning seven of its past eight games including a 15-point win over Temple on Dec. 22 to begin the hot streak.

Despite bolstering a strong front-court of its own, Penn will have to contend with Wildcats’ senior center

Emily Leer in the paint on Wednes-day. The Glenside, Pa., native is Vil-lanova’s leading scorer this season, averaging 13.3 points per game — bolstered by 41 percent shooting from beyond the arc — to go along with 3.4 boards per contest.

Though less of a threat from deep, the Red and Blue’s sopho-more center Sydney Stipanovich could give the Wildcats plenty of trouble down low. The defending Ivy League Rookie and Defensive Player of the Year is coming off a 19-point, 13-rebound performance against Richmond, one which earned her Ivy Player of the Week

honors.The diff erence in the game may

come down to the two squads’ back-courts. While Ross and fellow fresh-man guard Beth Brzozowski have stabilized the point guard position for the Quakers, Villanova junior guard Caroline Coyer is averag-ing 11.7 points per game and has notched 80 assists this season.

For Penn, the game will likely come down to the squad’s defensive prowess. Other than the team’s loss-es to powerhouses Tennessee and Princeton, the Red and Blue have only given up 60 or more points three times this season, losing two

of those contests.If the Quakers can lock down

the Wildcats’ off ensive weapons, there will be more cause for celebra-tion than just another Big 5 win. By the end of the night, Penn could rule Philadelphia like never before, continuing a run of dominance unmatched by any Big 5 stretch in team history.

While winter break may have just been a break from classes for most Penn students, the men and women’s squash teams used it to get a leg up on their opponents.

Per NCAA rules, the program is permitted one international trip every four years. As a result, Penn Athletics sent the men’s team to London for eight days to train and scrimmage against various club teams across the city.

Meanwhile, the women’s team traveled out west to California to train in San Francisco. The Quak-ers played at both Bay Club and the Olympic Club in anticipation for matches against Stanford and George Washington.

Both teams agree that their re-spective trips were invaluable for both off -court and on-court dy-namic.

“The trip brought everyone to-gether,” junior Yan Xin Tan said.

The women’s team was able to secure wins against both of their west coast opponents, defeating Stanford and George Washington in 9-0 fashion.

“That was great preparation for Harvard and Trinity, which were huge matches,” Tan said. “We had no school, people were training together and I defi nitely think that built confi dence.”

Entering the season, the wom-en’s squad was ranked third in the nation, behind No. 1 Harvard

and No. 2 Trinity. However, rid-ing their momentum from the west coast trip and 9-0 victory against Ivy rival Dartmouth, the Quakers also managed to come away with a 5-4, upset over the Crimson on Jan. 10.

“People were studying the game more so than other matches,” Tan said. “It gave everyone a lot of confi dence on the court, and I think that was one of the biggest strengths that we had over them.”

But the Red and Blue had little time to celebrate. Just three days

later, Penn faced a tough Trinity team and found themselves on the wrong end of a close match, losing 5-4.

“It was a very close match, and it showed us that we still had room for improvement,” Tan said. “It let us know that we still have a lot of training to do before nationals.

“It made everyone aware that we’re good enough to win nation-als but that we still have to work a lot harder to win.”

Despite the fact that the men’s team crossed international bound-

aries, the squad had an equally suc-cessful winter break.

“We were able to experience some of the culture that London has to off er, meet a lot of great people and were exposed to some really terrifi c squash,” coach Jack Wyant said.

For Penn, the key was that the team had the chance to have com-petitive matches against clubs, which is more diffi cult in the Unit-ed States because the sport is much more popular in London.

“Having the chance to get fi ve

matches over the holiday break when ... most of our competition

didn’t have that opportunity will prove to be invaluable as we head into the busiest stretch of the sea-son,” Wyant said.

Upon their return to the States, the Red and Blue were thrown into the toughest stretch of the season with matches against Dartmouth, Harvard and Trinity.

Whereas Penn only managed to defeat Dartmouth 5-4 last season, this season’s win against the Big Green was much more decisive, winning 7-2.

But Penn dropped their next two matches, fi rst to Harvard and then to Trinity, with each contest ending 7-2. However, Wyant had positive takeaways from the break.

Still, according to the coach, major success for the men’s team in the coming months will depend on the little things, such as getting rest and eating well.

“They’ve put in the work, so I think they’re capable of springing a big upset,” Wyant said.

And, undoubtedly, both teams will surely be using their experi-ence this past winter break to their advantage as they look to dominate the national tournament at season’s end.

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DO YOU PAY PER VIEW?Film polled you to fi nd out how you are getting your Sunday afternoon movie fi xes. Here’s what we learned. BY ANTHONY KHAYKIN

Though we all know the Internet is for porn (thanks Avenue Q), the

bedroom is no longer the only area being ceded to digital terri-tory. For every girl with daddy’s AmEx, window browsing on Fifth Avenue has been replaced with online shopping. And FYEs everywhere have virtu-ally been rendered useless (pun intended) with the existence of the multifarious iTunes store.

Things are no different here at Penn, where the Rave gets nearly half the traffi c for the midnight screenings of block-buster hits like Twilight as Hulu does the day after the newest episode of 30 Rock airs. This makes sense. We Penn students are too busy procrastinating on Penn InTouch and design-ing funny lacrosse pinnies for the clubs we’re involved in to leave the comfort of our beds to

watch Hugo in theaters. And we fi t this mold of overworked Ivy League students well, with only about 17% of Penn undergrads watching movies at the Rave ev-ery semester.

But how about the other ste-reotype, the one that says all col-lege students are poor? The free movement of information made possible by the interweb makes

entertainment accessible and inexpensive to anyone with an AirPennNet account. Wouldn’t

you guess then that Penn stu-dents would prefer to get their RomCom fi x online with free streaming websites like SideReel and Ch131 rather than pay for services provided by Netfl ix and Redbox?

While 75% of us watch mov-ies online, nearly 50% pay for it. I hear Horrible Bosses — a new release on iTunes — is hys-

terical, but is it worth the 1.5 salads at Sweetgreen it would have cost if I had seen it in theaters? Ramen noo-dles aren’t that bad, I guess.

The average Penn student (who is anything but average, if you ask Amy Gutmann) watch-

es seven movies, more or less, every semester. Simple arithme-tic proves that it’s $40 cheaper to watch said movies on Netfl ix than at the Rave, and an addi-tional $20 less on iTunes (cost of popcorn and Mike and Ikes not included in these calcula-tions). The low cost of watch-ing seven movies on iTunes for less than 30 bucks is worth the many conveniences that online paid services afford us: not be-ing interrupted by incessant buffering and commercials, the immunity to computer viruses and most importantly, not hav-ing to wait 54 minutes after watching 72 minutes of a movie on Megavideo.

Not to mention, it’s a small price to pay when you look at the big picture — the combined savings of the 47.7% of Penn students who pay for their online services rather than going to the movie theater is somewhere be-tween $196,136 and $295,344, depending on whether they use Netfl ix or iTunes, respectively. Moral of the story is: we won't judge if you just stay in bed.

*A simple random sample of 100 Penn undergrads were surveyed to collect data about their fi lm viewing habits.

FILM34ST

1.5%

How Penn Students Watch Movies

Borrow from Library

Don't Watch Movies

Theaters

Free Streaming

Paid Online Services47.7%

24.6%

16.9%

9.2%

0

10

20

30

40

50Other

A Friend

Cinema StudiesMajorProfessor or TA

Street

Whose recommendations do you take?

*Students surveyed were allowed to choose more than one option.

Other

It's a way to hang out with friends

It's a good study break

It makes you feel relaxed and happy

Required for Class

Why do you go to the movies?6.3%

40.6%

25%

25%

3.1%

26.2%

40%

25% 25%

47.7%

BY THE NUMBERS

$153,701>> Total amount of money spent in movie theaters* by Penn students each semester

$196,136>> Total amount of money spent watching online, if all people who paid for online services used iTunes*

$295,344>> Total amount of money spent watching online, if all people who paid for online services used Netflix*

*$12.50/ticket at the Rave*$3.99 to rent a movie on iTunes*$7.99/month on Netflix

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Borrow from Library

Don't Watch Movies

Theaters

Free Streaming


24.6%

16.9%

9.2%

0

10

20

30

40

50Other

A Friend


Street



Other




Required for Class


40.6%

25%

25%

3.1%

26.2%

40%

25% 25%

47.7%

BY THE NUMBERS





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1.5%


Borrow from Library

Don't Watch Movies

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Free Streaming


24.6%

16.9%

9.2%

0

10

20

30

40

50Other

A Friend


Street



Other




Required for Class


40.6%

25%

25%

3.1%

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47.7%

BY THE NUMBERS





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W. HOOPS>> PAGE 10

Red and Blue use winter break to get aheadSQUASH | Teams jetset to London, San FranciscoBY GARRETT GOMEZStaff Writer

HUNTER MARTIN/DP FILE PHOTO Energized by a West coast trip, the women’s squad has been on a tear of late, winning four of five matches since the beginning of winter break including a victory over then-No.1 Harvard. Junior Yan Xin Tan has contributed significantly to the team’s success, winning four of five matches over the same span.

9SPORTSWEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015THEDP.COM | THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

ILANA WURMAN/SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR Coming off a 19-point, 13-rebound performance against Richmond, sophomore Sydney Stipanovich will be forced to deal with Villanova’s leading scorer, center Emily Leer, who averages 13.3 points per contest. The defending Ivy Defensive Player of the Year will be forced to contend with a frontcourt player with range, as Leer has hit 19 threes this season.

With Penn basketball approaching the midway point in its season, fans and opposing coaches alike seem to think they know what the squad is made of.

But the advanced stats tell the whole story. Is anyone surprised that Tony Hicks fi nishes more possessions for the Quakers than any other player? No. But there’s more than meets the eye. Here’s what has stood out through the fi rst half of the year:

The Big Hyphen is dominating the off ensive glass

Darien Nelson-Henry has improved tremendously on the off ensive glass this year, hauling in 13.1 percent of all available off ensive rebounds, after snagging just 9.3 percent last season.

While the number alone might not mean much, consider that Nelson-Henry’s mark ranks second in the Ivy League and he’s one of only seven play-ers — including teammate Greg Louis — to corral at least 10 percent of his off ensive rebound opportunities.

One freshman has shone brightFreshman forward Mike Auger has

easily been the most impressive Penn freshman this season, and the stats certainly support it. Though he’s been limited to only seven games on the sea-son due to a foot injury, Auger has been incredibly effi cient by just about every metric.

The forward leads the team in both off ensive and defensive rating and barely edges out Nelson-Henry for Penn’s top player effi ciency rating at 19.9. He hasn’t had to carry the off ense to quite the same extent as Nelson-Henry and Tony Hicks, but Auger has

The dictionary defi nition of the word antiquated is ‘old-fash-ioned or outdated’.

But in college basketball, it is a synonym for the Ivy League and the conference’s desperate adherence to “tradition.”

What tradition am I referring to? The lack of a conference tournament.

There will always be those who are staunch defenders of anti-tournamnent model for the Ancient Eight, but that’s exactly what it is: ancient.

Prior to the mid-2000s, the Ivy League essentially had an unoffi cial title game in place with the annual Penn-Princeton game to conclude the season. Inevitably, at least one of those two squads seemed to battle for the top spot in the conference with the Ti-

The last time Penn women’s basket-ball played a team from Philadelphia this season, the Quakers did something never before seen in program history: They clinched a share of the Big 5 title in dra-matic fashion.

Now, with the Red and Blue set to do battle against another local rival on Wednesday, the squad has the opportunity to cross another seldom achieved goal off its bucket list: beat Villanova.

Having already knocked off La Salle, St. Joseph’s and Temple, Penn (8-5) can cap an undefeated season against its Big 5 opponents with a win against the Wildcats (10-8) at the Palestra.

While the Red and Blue have secured a share of their fi rst Big 5 championship, a win in the team’s fi nal midweek noncon-ference matchup of the season gives the Quakers the title outright. On the other side, a win by Villanova would give the Wildcats a share of the title for the 15th time under coach Harry Perretta.

But if Penn is going to complete the greatest hometown feat in team history, it’s going to have to buck one of the most dominant trends in Big 5 play. Since 1974, the Quakers are a startling 2-38 against Villanova, with the Red and Blue’s only pair of victories coming in 1975 and 2001, respectively.

In fact, Penn has never beaten the Wild-cats at the Palestra. Still, in the two home games against Villanova under coach Mike McLaughlin, the Quakers have only fallen by a combined nine points, includ-ing last season’s heartbreaking 48-44 loss.

But the Red and Blue enter Wednes-day’s contest with a great deal of confi -dence. Despite falling to Princeton by 29 earlier this month, Penn has won four of its past fi ve games, including a thrilling 49-47 victory over Richmond on Jan. 14.

10Sports

M.HOOPS | Quakers looking to build on promosing Villanova showingBY SEAMUS POWERSStaff Writer

ILANA WURMAN/SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR Freshman guard Antonio Woods was named Ivy Rookie of the Week after he scored 18 points against Villanova.

After hang-ing tough with No. 5 Villanova on Saturday, Penn basket-ball will look to take down

Monmouth as the young squad continues its five-game home stand.

With the bulk of Ivy League play loom-ing, the Quakers (4-9) look to continue their success against MAAC teams — having won two of three games against the confer-ence this season with wins over Marist and Niagara. In Wednesday’s game against the Hawks (9-9), the Red and Blue must also turn around their performance at the Pales-tra, where the squad is just 1-4.

“[A win] would give us a lot of confi-dence going in [to Ivy League play],” fresh-man guard Antonio Woods said. “We need to get a win on our home floor.”

Penn won last year’s contest against the Hawks 79-73 on the road, led by a double-double from Darien Nelson-Henry and 13 points from Tony Hicks.

Hicks, who leads Penn in scoring this season, will look to bounce back from an 0-for-five night from behind the arc against Villanova.

One of the matchups to watch is Hicks against Monmouth guard Justin Robinson. Both are dynamic scorers who can carry their teams and stuff the stat sheet.

The Quakers must be wary of Robinson on both ends of the floor. The 5-foot-8 guard leads the Hawks in points per game (12.6), assists (68) and steals (30). He enters the contest coming off a school record-tying eight-steal performance in Monmouth’s 77-70 victory over Fairfield.

“I think [Monmouth is] a much better

W. HOOPS | Penn eyes win, outright Big 5 title before Ivy BY RILEY STEELESenior Sports Editor

SEE W. HOOPS PAGE 8

Time for change in postseason play

SEE TYDINGS PAGE 8

MIKE WISNIEWSKI/DP FILE PHOTOWith Ivy League basketball having more depth than ever before, a conference tournament could provide exposure to the improving Ancient Eight even if it is not held at the historic Palestra.

5:30 p.m.

TONIGHT

Villanova (10-8)

The Palestra

8:00 p.m.

TONIGHT

Monmouth (9-9)

The Palestra

Doing the math on Penn basketballStatistical analysis tells the real story for the Red and Blue

BY HOLDEN MCGINNISSports Editor

SEE ANALYTICS PAGE 8

STEVEN TYDINGS

Quakers’ chance to stand

ALONESeeking end to home woes

SEE M. HOOPS PAGE 8

the timesONLYPenn beat Villanova

1975 2001Gerald Ford George W. Bush

$3403 $21368

Fire by Ohio Players U Got It Bad by Usher

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Beautiful Mind

Gerald Ford John McCain

President

#1 song

Average college tuition for private university

Oscar for best picture

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TRAINING TRIPS

With two productive trips over break, Penn squash prepped for Ivy play.

>> SEE PAGE 9

M. HOOPSVs. Monmouth

Palestra8 p.m.

TODAY IN SPORTS TRAINING TRIPS

With two productive trips over break, Penn squash prepped for Ivy play.

ALONEALONE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015

CONTACT US: 215-422-4640SEND STORY IDEAS TO [email protected] ONLINE AT THEDP.COM

january 21, 2015

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