Daily Pennsylvanian

Mount your bike outside the Pottruck Fitness Center and peddle your hardest to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Turn around and ride back to Pottruck.

Repeat this 38 times.

Twenty teams of eight riders from around the world tackled a course of that distance, 156 miles, at Sunday’s 26th annual Philadelphia International Cycling Championship. Crowds gathered throughout the city to watch the intense competition for the top spot in sweltering heat and with rain clouds looming overhead.

In the end, Australian Matthew Goss, 23, beat out 197 competitors, finishing in 6 hours, 15 minutes, 46 seconds to take first place for the HTC-Columbia team.

Ross Marklein, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly representative on the Penn Cycling Team, called the event “arguably the biggest one-day cycling race in America.”

“The big name riders that attend the Tour de France are not present, but their teams are and the members are always willing to put in a strong effort to win,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Marklein watched the race from a party on Lemon Hill.

Michael McGettigan, one of the owners of Trophy Bikes, closed his 3131 Walnut Street shop Sunday and rode over to Lemon Hill, as well. There, he said, the area’s bike community comes together.

He described the scene as a big party where everyone has time to catch up. That is because biking is “not like baseball,” McGettigan said.

“The game goes away and comes back,” he explained, noting that often the competition has completely changed from one lap to the next.

Racers in Sunday’s TD Bank-sponsored event completed ten 14.4 mile laps that ran from the Benjamin Franklin Parkway ­— near the foot of the art museum — through the neighborhood of Manayunk and back.

McGettigan called Lemon Hill one of “two crazy Philly love things,” the second being the Manayunk Wall.

The famous wall is so steep, McGettigan explained, that a casual rider probably couldn’t keep the bike steady while climbing it, and even experienced riders can struggle with it.

This year, Canadian Will Routley (who was competing for Jelly Belly, much to the amusement of Mike Eisner, the day’s announcer) held the lead. But on the final trip up the wall, Routley lost steam and was overtaken.

He finished well behind the tight finishing pack.

“The best strategy in most races is to behave like the typical college student and procrastinate,” Marklein wrote. “Do as little work as possible until the last second and make it count.”

Mike DeLiso, the cycling team’s Recreational Cycling Coordinator and a rising School of Engineering and Applied Science senior, wrote in an e-mail, “While it’s easy to see the sport as a giant pack of cyclists, it’s quite complex, requires a heavy amount of strategy and is all about energy conservation and management.”

Marklein agreed, writing, “It’s more of a team sport than people realize. While some riders are strong enough to ride away from the field, having a strong team presence can help to put particular riders in a better position to win.”

“Not surprisingly at Penn, I’ve found the sport attracts a lot of engineers,” DeLiso added.

McGettigan was at the first version of this race and believes that it remains the best one. He explained that 1985 was “pre-Lance [Armstrong]” and at the time, “most Americans were ignorant about bike racing.”

During the ceremony to announce the victors of the race, Jerry Casale, one of the race’s founders, said the idea for this event came while he was attending a race in Barcelona, Spain. “[We] gotta bring something like this to Philadelphia,” he realized at the time.

Casale and co-founder David Chauner have now convinced four mayors to close down dozens of city streets and bring in hundreds of Philadelphia’s finest to provide a safe day of racing and celebration.

According to the University’s IRS 990 form for calendar year 2009, Penn President Amy Gutmann brought home a total compensation of $1,367,004 — about $500,000 more than her base compensation of $859,857.

This represents approximately a 4 percent increase from last year’s base compensation, which was $825,000.

For the first time, the IRS 990 form covers calendar years instead of fiscal years, which last from July to June — so this year’s 990 form represents a hybrid of Fiscal Years 2008 and 2009, according to Board of Trustees Chairman David Cohen. As a result, he explained, comparison with past years’ salaries is “like apples to oranges.”

However, Gutmann’s salary this year falls within the range of other Ivy presidents. While Harvard’s president Drew G. Faust received $822,011 in total compensation and benefits in 2008 according to the Harvard Crimson, the Yale Daily News reported that Yale President Richard Levin’s made over $1 million last year.

For the second year in a row, Penn’s highest paid employees were Arthur Rubenstein, Dean of the School of Medicine and the Health Systems Executive Vice President, and Ralph Muller Health System Chief Executive Officer, both of whose total compensation packages exceeded $2 million.

University spokeswoman Lori Doyle confirmed that President Gutmann and the officers of the University did not receive any base-pay increase for the 2010 fiscal year, following a pledge Gutmann made in a University-wide e-mail in December 2008 about Penn’s financial condition. Salary numbers for the second half of 2010 will be made public next year.

The University President’s salary is determined in part by an employment agreement and in party by the Trustees Compensation Committee, according to Cohen. The committee makes a recommendation based on market competitiveness, the compensations of presidents at comparable schools and a self-evaluation from the president.

“The trustees are very pleased with Penn’s direction and momentum under President Gutmann’s leadership. We believe she is the best university president in the country and should be paid accordingly,” Cohen wrote in an e-mail regarding Gutmann’s pay increase.

Cohen cited the closing on Penn’s purchase of the U.S. Postal lands, which “marks the largest expansion of Penn’s campus since it moved to this side of the Schuylkill,” the Making History Campaign, and the implementation of the no-loan program, “boldest financial aid initiative in Penn’s history,” as factors reflecting Gutmann’s positive performance resulting in a pay increase.

On Sunday, professional bikers flooded the city for the Philadelphia International Cycling Champtionship. The course ran the breadth of the city, from Logan Square to Manyunk, and bikers came from all over the world to compete in the race that was the national championship race until 2005. According to its website, the race was started in 1985 with a goal of bringing a bit of internationalism to Philadelphia, and it’s clear just by looking at the roster that the race has met that goal.

But the race has not made Philadelphia more bike-friendly, and there is still a long road before the city becomes friendlier and safer for bikes. In 2008, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia estimated that 36,000 residents commuted to work via bicycle at least once a month in Philadelphia and that 300,000 Philadelphians ride a bike at least once a month during the summer. The number of Philadelphia commuters who bike to work increased an estimated 76 percent between 1990 and 2006, and the Bicycle Coalition estimates that the number of bike commuters has increased since 2006. Despite those statistics, the group reported that Philadelphia had about 205 miles of bike lanes as of 2008 and about 1,000 bicycle racks. New York, by comparison, has 4,700 bike racks and Chicago has 10,000.

Penn’s Division of Public Safety has made great strides toward increasing bike-friendliness on campus, and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter won an award last year for his efforts. But the city could still be safer for those 36,000 commuters. Many of Philadelphia’s busiest streets lack bike lanes, making commuting by bike an incredibly risky endeavor and sharing the road more than a little unpleasant.

Drivers and bikers should be able to share the road safely, and we encourage both DPS and city officials to continue working to make Philadelphia safe for cyclists.

Last week, AT&T announced that it is dropping its $30 “unlimited data plan” and instead will offer tiered plans priced at $15 for 200 MB or $25 for 2 GB per month. This decision comes as a result of a small number of customers streaming massive quantities of music and video to their Smartphones, consuming a large amount of data each month and almost single-handedly slowing down AT&T’s entire network. According to AT&T, most consumers will save money from this change since only 2 percent of users exceed 2 GB each month.

However, though tiered plans are arguably more fair, they entirely miss the point. As Giorgio Galante, an AT&T customer, astutely pointed out in the e-mail he sent AT&T’s CEO (which achieved notoriety when AT&T threatened to take legal action if he contacts their CEO again), “I may not use 2GB/month today, but the point of these devices (iPad 3G, iPhone 4G, etc.) is that we’ll be able to do more and your network … can’t handle it.”

In what is a rapidly evolving technological field, consumers expect to have the full power of a computer at their fingertips. Although I currently do not download 2 GBs of data on my iPhone, I consume much more than that on my laptop. I am also consistently doing more of the things I used to do on my laptop on my phone, such as getting driving directions, browsing Gilt and streaming Pandora. Logan Steinhardt, a rising College senior, is a perfect example of this trend. He noted that he uses his iPad on AT&T’s 3G network to download content from his Netflix account. Of his daily data usage, Steinhardt said, “Even if I’m not watching a movie every day, I’ll watch a TV episode or two.” Pretty soon, like Steinhardt, we will all be consuming more than 2 GBs a month on our mobile devices, whether they are Smartphones, tablets or eReaders.

This leaves AT&T with a choice. They can either dramatically expand their network’s capacity as consumer demand increases or cede the mobile industry to the internet, like so many other dying technologies. During Google’s 2010 I/O conference, keynote speaker Vic Gundotra exemplified this when he showed that from 2004 to 2009, time spent listening to the radio was down 18 percent, reading newspapers was down 17 percent, reading magazines was down 6 percent and watching TV had flat lined. The punch line: Time spent on the internet had grown a massive 117 percent.

This trend should matter to AT&T. Though a National Pew Global Attitudes Survey published in January reported that over 80 percent of Americans own mobile phones, nothing says they must be used on traditional mobile networks. Data is often transferred over 3G networks, but Steinhardt noted that he finds WiFi the fastest way to connect while he’s at Penn. The growth of wireless internet in metropolitan areas — like Clear’s WiMax in Philadelphia, which provides citywide connectivity — will directly compete with mobile carriers’ data networks and lead users to trade in data plans in exchange for wireless providers.

Further, the rapid advance of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) — the technology Skype uses to host phone calls through the internet — means that with a strong WiFi connection, a consumer would not even need a traditional network for data or phone calls.

So once a wireless internet carrier permeates the United States, consumers will be asking AT&T and other carriers: What stops us from buying a phone and using wireless internet for both our phone calls and data?

Give it another five years and I still don’t think they’ll have an answer, but by then it won’t matter.

Nick Greif is a rising Wharton senior from Los Angeles, Calif. He is the chairman of the Nominations and Elections Committee. HIs e-mail address is ngreif@wharton.upenn.edu.

About a month ago, I wrote a column in this very newspaper that was supposed to be my last published piece in The Daily Pennsylvanian. As a graduating senior, it was time to say goodbye and move on to bigger — and better? — things. So I dispensed some sappy advice and signed off.

That was silly, wasn’t it?

Today I find myself back in the city that I was so ready to leave, living, albeit temporarily, just five blocks away from the very offices where this lovely newspaper is produced. I’ve decided to take on the ultimate graduation challenge — staying here while the most important people in my Philadelphia experience have moved on.

Don’t get me wrong. Philadelphia is wonderful. I rave about it to anyone who wasn’t lucky enough to spend four years here, but in the month before graduation, my aims laid elsewhere. The jobs I was applying to were located exclusively in Washington, D.C., a city I fell in love with last summer. Tons of my friends were going to be there. We planned to have our own little Penn enclave in our nation’s capital. On a whim, I applied to one job in Philly.

Guess which one I got?

Getting a job offer has a strange way of changing your priorities. When presented with the option of earning a decent salary and health benefits in a city you weren’t expecting versus toiling over application after application for a city that doesn’t really seem to want you, your dreams become surprisingly malleable.

So after an initial period of pontification, I took the job. And now, as I shuffle off to Center City every morning on the trolley, I find myself wondering: What am I doing here?

It’s a little lonely out west. It’s not that I don’t have friends here, I really do. It’s just different. My experience is boringly similar to any other grad moving to a new city. The difference is, my city isn’t new. Every day I see the high rises as I walk down Spruce Street, or I take a detour past my old apartment, and the memories come rushing back.

But the longing for the past ends soon enough, I assume. Let’s face it; I don’t want to be back in college. It was a fabulous time, but I’ve overstayed my welcome. And when I reach a point in the day when my mind is clear, I realize just how excited I am to have another shot at this city.

I want to be a Philadelphian without a permanent address in another city. I want to vote in local elections and actually feel attached to the issues up for debate. I want to get pleasantly drunk at Center City Sips on Wednesdays after work and stroll aimlessly through city parks and down obscure (but safe!) side streets.

Philadelphia summer is, in its essence, a time for new beginnings and new discoveries. The truth is, I’m embarrassed by the vast amount of Philadelphia I just haven’t seen yet.

I’ve assigned and edited a 2,000-word article on the South Street Magic Gardens, but I’ve never been. I’ve seen ads for Picasso and Dali and Cézanne at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but I haven’t stepped foot in the building since freshman year NSO. I’ve read food blogs and reviews of the city’s greatest new restaurants, but most days a buffalo chicken wrap from Varsity Pizza was enough to hold me over.

Quite simply, I’ve got a lot left to do.

They say that when you go abroad, you never have enough time in your new location. In a city like Philadelphia, the same thing is true about college. So when you get your diploma, give some thought to sticking around. Chances are, you won’t regret it.

Paul Richards is a recent College graduate from Carlisle, Pa. He began work this week at a social security and disability law firm in Center City. His e-mail is paul.l.richards@gmail.com.

Starting today at noon until 2pm, the Radian Plaza will host a farmer's market featuring healthy snacks and locally grown produce. The market will be held every Friday until July 30.

As the market is a collaborative effort by The Food Trust, University City District and the Rotunda, the produce will come from Seeds for Learning Farm at Martin Luther King High School and Visalli’s Scattered Acres Farm, and vegan, gluten-free snacks from Greenwood Kitchen. Locally sourced musicians such as the West Philadelphia Orchestra and the samba collective Unidos da Filadelfia will perform at the market.

"Even though Fresh Grocer is right there, it doesn't have the same feel as locally grown food," said College junior and Radian resident Amanda Young, who said she looked forward to attending. However, she said that until now places to buy locally sourced, organic, and vegan were inconveniently situated.

Young said her friend, who is "really big on healthy foods," generally has to trek deep into West Philadelphia in search of the perfect produce. In contrast, the farmer's market is well located, and in an "area where there's a lot of traffic."

Other nearby farmer's markets includes the Saturday Farmer's market at Clark Park on 43rd and Baltimore. According to University City District Director of Marketing and Communications Lori Brennan, this new farmer's market is meant to complement existing ones and make buying local more accessible.

Brennan said that the University City District seized the opportunity to start the market this summer when they had accumulated enough funding. Sponsors include Philadelphia Weekly and the University City Review.

Although the Radian Plaza market is set to end on July 30, Brennan said if all goes well University City District will consider making the market a more permanent establishment.

Assault

May 26 — Shaun Burrows, 31, unaffilated with the University and of the 2900 block of Clearfield Street, was arrested at about 10:30 a.m. for allegedly assaulting a male employee, 57, of Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.

May 22 — Donte Douglas, 29, unaffiliated with the University and of the 800 block of Scattergood Street, was arrested at about 11:00 p.m. for allegedly assaulting a woman unaffiliated with the University, 21, on the 3900 block of Walnut Street.

Burglary

May 24 — An emplyee of Scheie Eye Institute, located at 39th and Market streets, reported at about 4:45 p.m. that a laptop was removed from a secured office.

Vandalism

May 27 — A male student, 21, reported at about 9:45 a.m. that an unknown suspect vandalized his apartment door in Domus, located at 3411 Chestnut St.

May 22 — Windows on the 3700 block of Locust Walk were reported to have been broken at about 10:00 p.m.

Narcotic

May 23 — Schuyler Crossman, 23, unaffiliated with the University and of the 1500 block of Spruce Street, was arrested at the Radian at 5:45 p.m for possession of marijuana.

Fraud

May 26 — An unknown suspect was reported at about 1:48 p.m. to have fraudulently withdrawn funds without authorization on the 3800 block of Locust Walk.

May 25 — A woman unaffiliated with the University, 62, reported to Penn Police at about 8:45 p.m. that someone made fraudulent charges on her credit card at the Penn Rehab Center, located at 3609 Chestnut St.

May 24 — An unknown suspect was reported at about 6:45 p.m. to have fraudulently withdrawn funds from the Credit Union at 3401 Walnut St.

May 24 — A female employee, 26, of the Greenfield Intercultural Center on 37th and Chestnut Streets, reported at about 11:30 a.m. that someone cashed two bank checks without her authorization.

Theft

May 27 — Devin Collins, 50, unaffiliated with the University and of the 5800 block of Angora Street was arrested at about 8:00 a.m. on the 3200 block of Walnut Street for allegedly attempting to remove personal property from a vehicle belonging to a 52-year-old man unaffiliated with the University.

May 26 — A male student, 20, reported at about 10:30 a.m. that an unknown suspect entered and removed property from his residence on the 4000 block of Baltimore Avenue.

May 25 — An unknown suspect was reported at about 8:30 p.m. to have removed merchandise without paying from CVS, located at 3925 Walnut St.

May 24 — An unknown suspect was reported at about 10:00 a.m. to have removed merchandise without paying on the 100 block of S. 36th St.

May 24 — James Hillman, 35 and unaffiliated with the University, was arrested at about 8:30 a.m. for removing merchandise from Fresh Grocer without paying.

May 21 — A female unaffiliated with the University, 64, reported at about 10:30 a.m. that someone entered her secured vehicle and took personal property at the WXPN Radio Station, located at 3025 Walnut St.

May 21 — A woman unaffiliated with the University, 20, reported at about 10:15 p.m. that an unknown suspect took her unattended personal property on the 3800 block of Chestnut St.

May 21 — A woman unaffiliated with the University, 30, reported at about 4:00 p.m. that someone took her unattended purse at Fresh Grocer, located at 40th and Walnut Streets.

May 21 — Cayonna Brown, 28, Danielle Brown, 38, and Carleice Robinson, 24, women unaffiliated with the University, were arrested at about noon for allegedly removing merchandise from American Apparel, located at 3661 Walnut St., without paying.

May 21 — An unknown suspect as reported at about 4:39 a.m. to have removed merchandise without paying from 7-11, located at 4201 Walnut St.

All information was provided by the Division of Public Safety.

Philadelphia Police arrested former Penn Football player and Wharton alumnus Travis Roesler, 27, for possession of over $1 million worth of marijuana on Wednesday May 26.

Roesler had been the subject of an ongoing investigation, according to Lieutenant Robert Otto from the Philadelphia Police Narcotics Unit. A warrant to search his studio at 4112 Spruce Street was issued at 7 p.m. that day.

According to Otto, 131 marijuana plants were found, as well as two pounds of the plant packaged and ready for sale.

Vice President of Public Safety Maureen Rush said students generally aren’t found with two pounds of marijuana.

“What you’re dealing with here is someone who’s obviously involved in distribution and selling of narcotics,” Penn Police Chief Mark Dorsey said. “This is a large quantity of marijuana to be able to sell and that’s exactly what he got arrested for — possession and intent to distribute.”

Dorsey added that in order to ascertain what charges to press in situations such as these, the quantity of the drug found determines the level of the offense. “There was no way that would be for personal use,” he said, referring to Roesler’s case.

“The entire room was outfitted with a marijuana growing system,” Otto added.

The police discovered a hydroponic grow room on the second floor of the building, where Roesler runs a fight-training business known as Babylon Studios. Roesler was present when police entered his studio, and was subsequently arrested.

Roesler, whose bail is set at $300,000, is facing five charges, including possession with intent to distribute, causing catastrophe and reckless endangerment. His arraignment is scheduled for June 10.

Otto would not confirm how Roesler had come under investigation, but said that Roesler had been observed taking part in illegal activities during the course of an investigation.

“What he was doing was risky to his roommates and to the city,” Otto said. “He deserves to face punishment.”

Otto added that while similar drug busts have been made in the past, this is not a normal occurrence — “especially to come across a natural growth operation.”

A telephone call made to Roesler’s residence was not answered Friday morning.

Roesler graduated from Wharton in 2006 and was formerly a defensive lineman for the Quakers. According to the Penn Football website, Roesler earned a letter in 2003.

For the third straight season, the Penn men’s heavyweight rowing team will enter the IRA Championships with a fresh taste of defeat.

The Quakers lost all five of their races to Cornell last Friday morning on the Cayuga Inlet Lake in Ithaca, N.Y,, surrendering the Madeira Cup to the Big Red for the third consecutive year.

Penn coach Greg Myhr saw the race, his team’s last dual meet of the season, as a tremendous opportunity to prepare for the Championships.

“With Cornell having the great team they have, we knew this meet would be intense,” he said. “It seemed like an appropriate way to enter [the championships] that are coming up.”

Myhr is now more concerned with his squad’s performance last week. Penn’s Varsity Eight boat was the only one to finish its race in under six minutes, yet it still fell 15 seconds short of Cornell’s mark of 5:42.9.

Other individual races saw losses by margins of more than 20 seconds, though the Red and Blue’s Novice Eight took the Big Red right to the finish line, losing by only 8.6 seconds.

“We obviously wanted to finish with better results,” Myhr said. “There’s certainly room for improvement for us as we head forward.”

The Quakers’ final challenge of the spring season will be the IRA Regatta, held on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J., which begins today and runs through Saturday.

Myhr is pleased that his team qualified, but is looking to keep his rowers motivated.

“We just squeaked in [to the championships] this year,” he said. “But we’re not just going to be proud of ourselves for that. We’re going to go out there and give it all we’ve got, just as we’ve been doing all year.”

Last year, the Red and Blue had two boats participate in the IRA Regatta. Their Varsity Eight finished in 20th place overall, while their second varsity finished 10th.

Ali DeLuca scored 148 goals during her four-year lacrosse career, the most in Penn history, and has received enough accolades to fill an entire trophy case.

But when the senior midfield was named a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award — collegiate lacrosse’s highest honor — three weeks ago, she was, surprisingly, “shocked.”

Even now, with the award ceremony taking place tonight at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., DeLuca is putting her chances of winning at “slim to none.”

According to Penn assistant coach Liz Kittleman, these are simply two cases of Ali being Ali.

But with DeLuca’s playing career over — after a second-round loss to eventual national champion Maryland last Saturday — and a National Player of the Year trophy at stake, it’s time for others to sing the praises of one of the greatest players in Penn history one last time.

“Part of what makes Ali such a good player is that she has literally zero ego,” Kittleman said. “I think it’s because of that that she’s been open to learning every single day.

“She doesn’t play like she knows it all; she doesn’t practice like she knows it all,” the coach added.

That mentality has clearly paid off, as DeLuca has increased her scoring output in each of the last three seasons, after a sensational freshman campaign that saw her win the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award unanimously.

Three consecutive All-America seasons followed, including a first-team selection this year, when she broke the 29-year-old Quakers record for points in a season with 76.

In her effort to become the first Penn player to win the Tewaaraton Award Saturday, DeLuca will be up against four senior midfields from major conference programs: Katrina Dowd from Northwestern, Brittany Kalkstein from the University of Virginia, Caitlyn McFadden from the University of Maryland and Jenn Russell from the University of North Carolina.

Penn’s representative claims she’s not even rooting for herself.

“I’m a big fan of Caitlyn McFadden,” DeLuca said of her former teammate on the United States Developmental Team. “My fingers are crossed for her.”

Looking at sheer numbers, Dowd appears to be the heavy favorite. The Wildcats’ captain totaled a whopping 110 points this year, including 77 goals, while McFadden was the closest behind among the finalists with 85 points and 50 goals.

However, a big reason for the drastic statistical separation among the players is style of play, as DeLuca pointed out.

“They’re from teams that love to score and rack up points,” she said. “We were not as run-and-gun on attack.”

In fact, DeLuca tallied 22 percent of her team’s goals, highest of the five players. Dowd ranks a close second at 21 percent.

“Dowd is more of an attacker than a midfielder, but the other four are true midfielders,” Kittleman said. “They all have great speed, [but] Ali probably has some of the best moves of the four. Her ability to challenge from the top … I think she’s the best in the country at that.”

She may also be the most modest, at least among the elite players. When asked if a Tewaaraton Award could make up for her failure to win a national championship — as Dowd and McFadden have now accomplished — DeLuca responded in typical fashion.

“Never in a million years,” she said. “I would take a national championship over everything.”

As recently graduated Penn pitcher Todd Roth watched Philadelphia Phillies ace Roy Halladay finish off the 20th perfect game in Major League Baseball history Saturday, he had a thought that few people who’ve ever played baseball could have had.

I’ve done that before.

Sure, Roth’s no-hitter came in middle school, but a near-perfect game as a junior in high school (it was broken up in the second-to-last inning) validated the fact that he can flirt with perfection when in top form.

And while surely other Quakers’ hurlers threw gems throughout their pre-collegiate playing days in order to make it to the Division I level, what Roth did March 24 of 2007 gave him the honor of being the Penn athlete with the most experience with no-hitters — and the most in common with Halladay, whose perfect game in Florida still has the city of Philadelphia buzzing.

That March day marked the first Ivy League start of Roth’s career, and as far as debuts go, it couldn’t have gone much better.

The righthander, a freshman at the time, threw a complete-game one-hitter at Meiklejohn Stadium — the only base knock coming on a two-out, seventh-inning single by Columbia’s Noah Cooper on a 2-1 count, Roth recalled.

“I just left the ball a little bit up in the zone just enough [for him to hit it],” he said. “When I threw it, I knew it wasn’t a very good pitch.”

Still, the college pitcher can forever say that he topped his professional counterpart in that respect. Halladay’s first near-no-hitter in the major leagues was also broken up with one out remaining, but that came in his second career start.

Coach John Cole watched Roth’s debut from the bench in ‘07, and listened to Halladay’s historic moment on the radio Saturday. While he said he was never a part of a no-hitter during his playing days, he distinctly remembered a near-perfect day during his first year as a collegiate head coach, at Rowan University in 1999.

“I had a lefthander named Mike Toews, in a seven-inning game, who was perfect for 6 and 2/3,” Cole recalled of the game he called from the dugout, “and had a 1-2 check swing that was a no-doubter that got called a ball and he ended up walking the person on a 3-2 count. That was the closest I’ve gotten.”

Indeed, the close calls seem to be just as memorable as the real deals when it comes to no-hitters. In either case, a handful of quirky superstitions come into play.

First and foremost, the words ‘no-hitter’ or ‘perfect game’ should never be uttered. Roth has had the most fun with that unwritten rule during his finest outings.

“I try to talk to guys and make them uncomfortable because I’m not uncomfortable with it,” he said. “If I can tell some guys are trying to avoid that I might go up to them and [tell] them … ‘I haven’t given up a hit yet; I’m doing pretty good, right?’”

Players, coaches and fans also typically avoid talking to the pitcher, and remain in the same seat throughout the game if it proves to be ‘good luck.’ Like Roth, Cole isn’t buying it.

“It’s kind of a youthful thing,” the 45-year-old said. “I wasn’t too much of a superstitious player and I’m definitely not a superstitious coach.”

The Red and Blue player and coach also agreed on the elements that need to be present in order for a no-hitter to occur: a favorable and consistent strike zone, good defense behind the pitcher, a low pitch count and some luck, of course.

Seven Quakers pitchers have accomplished the feat, the last being Andrew McCreery April 8, 2001.

But could those factors create that perfect environment for an Ivy League pitcher in upcoming years?

Don’t count on it, Cole says.

“Not too many Ivy League pitchers have all three pitches with tremendous command,” he explained. “[And] I think it’s harder in college because of aluminum bats. You can hit it off the end or the handle and it could go for a hit.”

In other words, Citizens Bank Park remains a Philadelphia baseball fan’s best bet when it comes to witnessing pitching history.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ryan Wittman’s dad has been making him run all his life.

Tuesday was no different for the graduated Cornell guard, as he stood sweating, shoeless in the bowels of the Washington Wizards’ Verizon Center.

In Washington D.C., Wittman took the next step in his journey to the NBA draft, participating in a six-man workout for the Wizards staff, which now includes his father, Randy, as an assistant coach.

After an improbable Sweet Sixteen run in the NCAA tournament to end his collegiate career, the younger Wittman is taking his sharp-shooting show on the road to try to gain some more exposure before the June 24 draft.

“Obviously when you play well and win games in the tournament that’s only going to help,” Wittman said, though he thinks that the Big Red’s run did more for the school than any individual player.

The 6-foot-7 Wittman picked up Tuesday right where he left off, putting on a display for the Wizards’ coaching staff, as well as the other five players, which included the likes of Maryland’s Eric Hayes, who beat Wittman in the three-point competition at the NCAA Final Four this year in Indianapolis and California’s Jerome Randle, the 2009-10 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year.

“It’s every kids dream who plays basketball to try and get a chance to play in the NBA,” Wittman said. “That’s what this is all about: just trying to show teams what you can do.”

Despite competing against players from higher-caliber leagues like the Atlantic Coast Conference and Pac-10, Wittman showed off his pro tools. He said he doesn’t think much about the fact that he’s coming from the Ivy League, where he averaged 17.5 points per game last season, and shot a blistering 43 percent from beyond the arc.

“I’m just trying to go out there and concentrate on playing my game,” he said. “Show that you’re competitive, show that you’re in shape.”

Playing in Washington in front of his father was just one stop on Ryan’s tour. He’s headed to Sacramento to play for the Kings Monday and then to his home state of Minnesota on June 22 to work out for the Timberwolves.

He wouldn’t be the first Wittman on the Wolves roster — his father served as head coach there from early-2007 to late-2008, when he was fired in an organizational shake-up.

And he wouldn’t be the only Wittman drafted by Washington. His father’s nine-year professional career began when he was drafted by the Wizards organization (then the Bullets) in 1983 after playing college ball at Indiana. The older Wittman was traded to the Hawks before the season started, then moved to Sacramento and Indiana before he stopped playing in 1992.

The Wizards’ coaching staff, including Wittman, was not available for comment after the workout.

As Ryan works out for teams with familial ties, he’s joined by several others from the Ivy League. Big Red teammate Jeff Foote attended a workout with the Knicks on May 27. Harvard’s Jeremy Lin is also attracting attention from NBA teams. All three attended the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament in April, where NBA scouts got to take a look at the Ivy Leaguers — a rare sight in the pre-draft circuit.

In fact, the last Ivy player to be drafted into the NBA was new Penn coach and former Quakers star Jerome Allen, who was drafted by the Timberwolves in 1995. Since 1980, only 15 players have made the jump from the Ancient Eight to the NBA.

Wittman may have the touch and smarts to be the first in 15 years to accomplish that feat, and even more strange than that, he might just do it with the team his father now coaches. While Cornell and Washington had drastically different seasons — one stunned the nation during March Madness while the other floundered amidst off-the-court issues — come draft day, the two teams and two generations of Wittmans may unite.

International House Philadelphia kicked off its centennial celebration this Tuesday with hors d’oeuvres, speeches and insight into their plans for the upcoming year.

IHP, which is located on 37th and Chestnut streets, is a residential facility that houses both international and American students. The residence boasts representatives from over 80 countries and 35 universities — including students from Penn, Drexel University and Temple University.

Along with being a home for students, IHP is a home for the arts. The facility is an independent art and entertainment venue, hosting 240 arts and cultural events per year. It is also the last remaining independent cinema in the city of Philadelphia, according to IHP Marketing Director Lauren Pagliaro.

At Tuesday’s press conference, IHP’s board chair, executive director and arts and music curator spoke about the organization’s past successes as well as their hopes for the future.

“Tuesday’s celebration was only the beginning of what promises to be an exciting year for IHP,” said Pagliaro.

The organization has more than 100 cultural events planned for the upcoming year, the majority of which involve movement — the centennial year’s theme.

“Movement can be so many things,” said IHP Executive Director Tanya Steinberg of the theme. “There is movement of people, of borders, of image,” she said, referring to migration, interculturalism and cinema, respectively.

The 12-month celebration of movement will include series of film screenings, musical performances and lectures, said Jesse Pires, the Curator of Film and Music Programs for the IHP.

The independent, non-profit organization is trying to expand into new areas of art and introduce up-and-coming artists, he said.

The programs at IHP are “beyond something you’d see in a gallery, but also different from what you’d expect in a cinema setting,” Pires said.

Many of these programs are accessible with the IHP Centennial Passport to the Arts, which will give holders free access to some IHP Centennial Signature Events and free or discounted admission to other major arts venues in Philadelphia, many of whom collaborate with IHP yearly.

This year’s celebration, however, is not solely a celebration of art. To Steinberg, it is “a celebration of an experiment that started 100 years ago.”

IHP was one of the first international houses in the world when it was founded; today, it meets with 22 other international houses from around the globe, all of which aim to maintain diverse and welcoming communities for scholars from around the world.

The diversity of IHP “is tremendous,” Steinberg said, “but all of our residents have one thing in common: they are all future leaders.”

Weeks after his victory over incumbent Senator Arlen Specter, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak is facing questions regarding a statement he made that the White House had offered him a job in exchange for dropping out of the Pennsylvania primary.

Sestak’s recent upset victory has pushed the story into the national spotlight and encouraged the White House to provide additional information on the story.

In a May 28 statement, Sestak claimed that in the summer of 2009, former President Bill Clinton discussed Sestak’s “being on a Presidential Board while remaining in the House of Representatives.”

It is illegal under federal law to promise an employment position “as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity.”

Although Congressional Republicans are demanding a thorough investigation into Sestak’s claim, political experts have explained that this kind of horse-trading is not unusual in Washington.

In 1981 President Ronald Reagan offered Senator S. I. Hayakawa (R-Calif.) a job in exchange for dropping out of the heavily contested California primary, according to a Nov. 25 1981 Associated Press article.

The Democratic leadership at Penn agrees with this assessment.

“This kind of thing happens often,” Philadelphia Student Coordinator for Students for Sestak and rising College junior Ted Koutsoubas explained.

“This is just an attempt to distract from the campaign. Ultimately the people and especially students want to hear about the issues,” added Koutsoubas, a former Daily Pennsylvanian Photo Manager.

“Sestak does not have anything to be concerned about,” Penn Democrats President and rising College junior Emma Ellman-Golan said. “It was not a paid position, nor was it something that would have distracted from his duties as a Congressman.”

These kinds of responses have not dissuaded some Congressional Republicans, including the Ranking Member on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Representative Darrell Issa, who recently claimed that the Sestak scandal could be “Obama’s Watergate.”

Some political experts, such as Republican National Committee communications director Doug Heye, expressed that while the event was not illegal, President Obama should be held to a higher standard than his predecessors because he based part of his campaign on greater transparency and accountability, according to a May 26 WashingtonPost.com article.

“I do not think Obama’s actions merit criticism,” Ellman-Golan explained. “He’s been more transparent than any other President before him, using technology to accomplish it.”

“The President has a lot on his plate right now,” Koutsoubas said. “It is difficult to fulfill all of his campaign promises and be held to the highest standard possible at the same time. I think he is doing the best job he possibly can.”

Colorado U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff revealed in a statement to the press on June 2 that he too was offered an administration job in exchange for dropping out of the race. Romanoff revealed an e-mail sent to him by Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s deputy chief of staff, which listed three jobs — two at USAID and one as director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency — with a page-long set of job descriptions.

Sestak will face former U.S. Representative Republican Pat Toomey in the November general election.

On May 27, singer Chrissie Hynde and a group of protesters organized in front of the McDonald’s on 40th and Walnut Streets to let people know they’re “hatin’ it.”

The demonstration was part of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ “McCruelty” campaign. According to PETA Vice-President Dan Matthews, the campaign aims to raise awareness of McDonald’s chicken slaughter methods.

“McDonald’s uses a chicken slaughter method in which chickens have their legs and wings broken and in which they are boiled alive in de-feathering tanks,” Matthews said.

Hynde, lead singer of 80’s rock band The Pretenders, had approached PETA about any potential rallies she could lead.

“She told us she has a new album coming out, and she was in New York doing some promotions. We were planning this protest in Philadelphia, so we asked her to come down … Chrissie’s been very generous with her time,” Matthews explained.

Hynde’s presence at PETA rallies is not new. “I’ve been involved for 30 years, all my life,” she said.

Hynde joined PETA in the 80’s and “was one of the first outspoken vegetarians in the music world,” according to Matthews. He added that when Hynde participates in a rally, “she usually kicks it up a notch.”

At the rally, however, her music career came into greater focus than she liked. While signing her autograph on several Pretenders records, she said,“this is getting creepy now — this is a protest about animal cruelty, not about me being a rock and roll star.”

Matthews explained that when people ask for one autograph, Hynde “doesn’t mind doing that ­— but sometimes people come with a stack of 20 things, and a lot of times people who want to sell a star’s autograph and she’s not interested in engaging that.”

According to Penn Police Chief Mark Dorsey, McDonald’s had received notice of the protest one day before. They notified the Penn Police, who in turn notified the Philadelphia Police Civil Affair unit, which speciaizes in conflict resolution.

The civil affairs unit “dispatched a small team to watch and monitor the situation, and because it was in the area, we did the same,” Dorsey said. “It was mainly a plainclothes assignment where they just interacted with the protestors and made sure everything was done safely and according to the law.”

According to Dorsey, the protest went smoothly. “They did exactly what they said they would do – just give out their message for about an hour and a half. They did not block the entrance, and people had access to go in and out of McDonalds. It was a very peaceful gathering,” he said.

Matthews agreed. “The police were really terrific, I have to say. They were really very decent.”

Members of the regional McDonald’s corporation present at the protest handed out press releases stating that “McDonald’s expects humane treatment of animals by our suppliers in every part of the world where we do business” and that they require “food suppliers to do the right thing – for animals, for humans, and for the environment.”

However, Matthews disagreed. “I think that’s all null and void when you look at the fact that McDonald’s own humane advisory panel recommended a functioning, more humane slaughter system and they completely ignored them,” he said, adding, “McDonald’s is just cheap.”

If you’re looking for a way to meet new people, exercise and tear up the local salsa scene, you can now take social ballroom lessons over the summer at Penn.

Penn’s Latin and Ballroom Dance team has begun offering classes where students and faculty can learn anything from the Viennese Waltz to Latin dances like the Salsa and the Bachata during four-week-sessions.

The group’s first social classes — featuring the Waltz and the Foxtrot — were held Tuesday, June 1 in Houston Hall. Other classes are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 6 and 7 p.m.

According to PLBD member and School of Medicine Ph.D. student Senthil Kannan, the social lessons’ function is to spread dance to the larger community while the PLBD team competes nationally and internationally on behalf of the University.

In the past, PLBD has participated in several contests, including the Manhattan Championship and the Ohio Star Ball. Penn has categorized the PLBD’s activity an official dance sport, Kannan said.

She added that competitions improve the technique of the dancers by exposing them to more advanced ballroom dancers.

The amazing aspect of the competition team is that anyone can join, Kannan explained.

“There is no selection process for the team,” Kannan said. The PLBD philosophy, he continued, is “anyone can dance.”

For students with a full course load, being part of the dance team can be quite demanding — it’s more “dedication oriented,” said School of Engineering and Applied Science rising sophomore Elisabeth Sum, PLBD’s Dance Captain.

Sum said she felt inspired to dance after seeing two PLBD performances last year. She went on to become PLBD’s dance captain after a year of dedicated practice.

“The people who encouraged me helped me stay with it,” she said.

For less ambitious dance aspirants who are simply looking for a fun activity to fill their schedules, the social lessons are ideal for getting to know other people, Kannan said.

The classes are taught by 2004 College graduate Christy Kam, who formed PLBD in 2000 and currently teaches ballroom across the tri-state area.

The fee is $20 for 6 lessons for Penn students and $20 for 4 lessons for others. More information about the social dance classes can be found at www.dolphin.upenn.edu/ballroom.

Penn students’ daily journeys to calculus class will soon include less gray and more green.

A project to construct a park on 33rd street — next to the David Rittenhouse Laboratory — by the fall of 2012 will be part of a Sustainable Sites pilot program to develop and test a rating system for green landscape.

The Shoemaker Green park will replace a current greyfield of tennis courts and will, among other things, “improve water quality and minimize runoff, reduce the effect of the urban heat island by greening large paved areas [and] restore biomass on site,” according to the Penn Connects website.

Project Manager Marc Cooper and University architect David Hollenberg said they envisioned Shoemaker Green as a commons with a role similar to that of College Green.

According to Hollenberg, with the school’s “active recreation moving east, it makes sense to make this site more passive.”

The University is “clearly characterized by wonderful open spaces,” said Hollenberg, who said he hoped that Shoemaker Green will enhance that characterization.

Sustainable Sites — a partnership of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the U.S. Botanic Garden — will rate the park based on the organization’s “guiding principles,” which include designing with local cultural conditions in mind and maximizing the benefits of ecosystem services, according to their website.

The plans for the 3.75-acre space —made by Philadelphia-based architecture firm Andropogon Associated — were included the rating program after meeting numerous Sustainable Sites prerequisites taking into account environmental advantages for the site’s hydrology, soil and vegetation, materials selection and human health and well-being, according to a Penn press release.

Plans for the park will also transform storm water management to conform to new regulations imposed by the Philadelphia Water Department.

Water from the roofs of buildings around the green, including DRL and the Palestra, will be contained in underground storage basins to be used for purposes such as irrigation.

A new tennis center containing twelve courts will be built as part of the 24-acre Penn Park which will stretch from Walnut to South Street and is to be completed by 2011.

Hollenberg and Cooper also worked with the University’s event planning staff to make the park more useful during special events such as Penn Relays and Commencement.

“Being green at Penn certainly fosters more activity and energy in the student body and leads to more happiness,” College junior Kenny Guber said.

Guber added that he appreciates the parks around the Schuykill River and feels positive about the plans for the park for reasons other than its environmental benefits.

On Wednesday, Philadelphia Police arrested former Penn Football player and 2006 Wharton graduate Travis Roesler, 27, for possession of over $1 million worth of marijuana.

According to Lieutenant Robert Otto from the Philadelphia Police Narcotics Unit, Roesler had been the subject of an ongoing investigation. He said, a warrant to search Rosler's mixed martial arts studio at 4112 Spruce Street was issued at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The police discovered a hydroponic grow room on the second floor of the building, where Roesler runs his fight-training business known as Babylon Studios. Roesler was present when police entered his studio, and was subsequently arrested.

According to Otto, 131 marijuana plants were found, as well as 2 pounds of the plant packaged and ready for sale.

“The entire room was outfitted with a marijuana growing system,” Otto added.

Otto could not confirm how Roesler had come under investigation, just that he had been observed taking part in illegal activities during the course of an investigation.

Roesler faces five charges, including possession with intent to distribute, causing catastrophe and reckless endangerment. His arraignment is scheduled for June 10.

Otto said he believes Roesler is being held on $1 million bail.

“What he was doing was risky to his roommates and to the city,” Otto said. “He deserves to face punishment.”

Otto added that while similar drug busts have been made in the past, this is not a normal occurrence – “especially to come across a natural growth operation.”

A telephone call made to Roesler’s residence was not answered Friday morning. Roesler graduated from Wharton in 2006 and was former defensive lineman for the Quakers. According to the Penn Football website, Roesler earned a letter in 2003.

For two Penn track and field athletes, the year-long wait after a heartbreaking finish last May is finally over.

Five members of the women’s team and three members of the men’s team are set to compete at the NCAA East Preliminary Round of the NCAA Championships beginning today in Greesboro, N.C.

But two in particular are happy that this day has arrived at long last.

Senior Anna Aagenes and junior Darryll Oliver represent the only repeat qualifiers from last year’s NCAA Regionals, in which eight men and two women from Penn participated.

Aagenes will compete in the 1,500 meters in possession of the 28th best time in the East Region. The senior missed the cut for nationals by just one second in the 800 meters at last year’s regionals.

She has since posted a career-best time in the 1,500 — 4:24.32 at the April 10 P-Y-P meet.

Oliver, meanwhile, ranks 17th in the East in the 800 meters. His time of 1:48.41 places him third in his heat, automatically qualifying him for tomorrow’s quarterfinals.

A year ago, Oliver finished just over a second shy of third place in his heat, meaning his road also ended at regionals.

On the women’s side, Aagenes will be joined by seniors Jamie Massarelli (800 meters) and Kathryn Gevitz (long and triple jumps), sophomore Paige Madison (400-meter hurdles) and junior Kali Strother (400 meters).

For the men, junior James Foreman and freshman Tim Carey will also compete, in the pole vault and 400 hurdles, respectively.

With regional meets eliminated from the postseason schedule beginning this year, the top 24 competitors from each event this weekend will move onto the quarterfinals, where the fields will be narrowed down to 12.

The remaining runners will advance to the semifinals and finals of the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Eugene, Ore., June 9-12.

In an ever more globalized market, growing numbers of students and working professionals are flocking to overseas firms and organizations for internship experience.

According to a survey of approximately 1,500 educational institutions conducted by the Institute of International Education, the number of individuals taking internships abroad doubled from 6,950 to 13,658 between 2000 and 2008.

Not surprisingly, this nationwide trend has begun to emerge at Penn as well. In recent years progressively more undergraduates are applying to — and accepting — internships abroad.

About 95 students applied to the 30 positions offered by Penn’s International Internship Program, marking a 36-percent increase from the year before, according to IIP Coordinator Cara Bonnington.

“Students are going abroad more often, and there’s been lots of interest this year,” Bonnington said of the hike in applicants to the program, which places students with non-governmental organizations in developing countries.

According to annual summer survey reports provided by Career Services, more College and Wharton seniors are opting to intern abroad each year.

“I think that Penn students are aware of the opportunities out there — there’s an increased demand on campus for international opportunities,” Bonnington said. “And if programs aren’t there to create these opportunities, students create them for themselves.”

While visiting extended family in Korea last summer, College junior Emily Park did just that.

Park, a communications and behavior major considering a career in media at the time, submitted her resume to Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), the largest mainstream television station in Korea.

She later met with the vice president of the company, who was “impressed” with her bilingualism.

Park was assigned to the documentary department, in which she worked as a liaison between producers of KBS Special, Korea’s most widely-viewed documentary program, and select personnel in the United States.

“I helped [a producer] contact Levi’s headquarters to see if they’ll allow us to film,” Park said, explaining that he wanted to include the company’s founder, Levi Strauss, in his documentary about the lives and successes of Jewish individuals in the United States.

In addition, she translated production proposals and interview questions from Korean into English to expedite the production process.

Because of her English fluency, Park was able to secure more contacts than another full-time employee at KBS who had a similar job to hers.

However, at times her status as a foreign intern rendered it difficult for Park to socialize with her coworkers.

“My Korean co-workers treated me somewhat differently because I was studying in the U.S. and because I spoke fluent English,” she said, adding that she had also faced some difficult cultural adjustments.

“Here, I get out of work at 4 p.m.,” she said. “In Korea, you work until you’re done.”

While Park expects to take a job in the United States after graduation, she characterizes her experience at KBS as “positive” and said the company had agreed to invite her back.

Last summer, Wharton senior Carlotta Siniscalco traveled to Kenya to perform volunteer work at an orphanage in Nairobi, the country’s capital.

While there, she helped clean, cook, organize activities for the children and teach subjects ranging from math to logic to English grammar.

“It hit me that I had one free summer to do something that would make me a better citizen and person in general,” said Siniscalco, who had interned at a London bank the previous summer.

“Penn is fantastic in terms of giving you the right knowledge and contacts, but if you don’t step outside the bubble you risk becoming too self-centered and unaware of what’s going on outside,” she added.

After taking an internship at French pharmaceuticals company Sanofi-Aventis last summer, College and Wharton junior Lauren Mifflin said she is “definitely open” to the idea of working long-term overseas, particularly in Europe at a larger French or Swiss pharmaceutical company.

Mifflin, who “loves the opportunity to explore and get to know new cities,” had learned of the Sanofi internship from Roy Vagelos, with whom she had had the opportunity to speak as a result of her involvement with the Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management.

While at Sanofi, Mifflin conducted research concerning the effects of certain toxins on neurons and attempting to find protecting agents that may have applications in the treatment of Alzheimer’s.

She also benefited from the opportunity to “spruce up her French” while in Paris and dispel widespread misconceptions of the French as cold and snobbish.

“I enjoyed every minute I spent in Paris … [and] absolutely adored my colleagues,” Mifflin said.

According to Senior Associate Director of Career Services Kelly Cleary, working abroad affords students invaluable opportunities to master other languages and learn about other cultures firsthand.

“Students develop a flexibility valued by many employers — the ability to make yourself comfortable when you’re outside of your comfort zone and being able to see the world from another perspective,” she said.

In addition, the initiative that students must frequently demonstrate in landing an international internship contributes to setting them apart from other applicants.

“It helps to have international experience on a resume just because any workplace now has some global element,” Cleary said. “Having the experience living and working in another culture is definitely seen as beneficial, especially if you’re interested in working for large global companies.”