A student in the College of Arts and Sciences sold his soul to Donald Trump to get into the Wharton School yesterday afternoon.
At least, that was the plot of a puppet show on College Green, part of the College's first "College Palooza," a fair celebrating Penn's largest undergraduate school.
The fair featured representatives from College departments advertising their disciplines with food and performances -- all in the name of the liberal arts.
"People in the College sometimes get down on themselves," College sophomore and event organizer Andrew Migdail said. "People don't think their education is serious enough or good enough."
The purpose of the event was to "give college students a day to celebrate the fact that there are really interesting things that go on in the College," he added.
Migdail, a photographer for The Daily Pennsylvanian, is a member of the Dean's Advisory Board, a group of undergraduates who meet regularly with DeTurck and who organized College Palooza.
The puppet show was put on by the Germanic Studies Department and designed to display the Faustian genre of German literature, as the show's protagonist wondered if he would be damned to hell.
Unfortunately for John the puppet, that was exactly his destiny after he traded his soul for a career on Wall Street.
Professors also gave popular 60-second lectures, one-minute speeches on a variety of subjects.
The College's dean himself -- Mathematics professor Dennis DeTurck -- bashed fractions in his lecture, "Down With Fractions."
As is the case with many events on College Green, attendees were treated to free food -- but this time, it came with an academic bent.
Representatives from the Chemistry Department made chocolate ice cream using liquid nitrogen, to the delight of passers-by.
Many departments and programs in the College were contacted about the event and given the opportunity to represent themselves and show off the most interesting aspects of their field.
"We really wanted them to do what was interesting, exciting about their departments," Migdail said.
Represented departments aimed at getting students interested in their classes as well.
"We're not asking people to be a major, we're just asking them to take a class," said Wharton junior Dustin Rosen, who represented the Cinema Studies Department.
The event also featured Russian pop music and a miniature "dog house" -- a small wooden structure -- that exploded on demand, courtesy of the Physics Department.
College Palooza was scheduled to occur during Penn Previews -- a week of events designed to persuade admitted students to matriculate -- to help attract them to the liberal arts.
"We want them to see what the College has to offer," College junior and Dean's Advisory Board member Ben Newton said.
According to event organizers, attendance was slow at some points but peaked between classes and when prospective students finished campus tours.
David Frias -- a high school senior accepted to the Class of 2010 -- enjoyed participating in a demonstration by the Physics Department.
"I've only been here 10 minutes and I've done so much," Frias said.
Students also enjoyed free snacks and performances by Counterparts, Freaks of the Beat and even DeTurck himself. The College Dean played the flute with a classical music quartet.
"This is exactly what we wanted to do -- get people out here just talking, thinking about the arts and sciences," DeTurck said.
