Jerry Brown to speak on Green

Democratic presidential hopeful Jerry Brown will discuss his general campaign platform at 5 p.m. this afternoon on College Green. Brown's visit, which comes on the virtual eve of the Pennsylvania primary and a week after Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton spoke in Annenberg, has caused several campus groups to bicker over who has sponsored the event. Both the Philomathean Society and an alliance of the College Democrats, the Wharton Democrats and the Penn Political Union are sponsoring the event, although Philo and the alliance group worked independently to bring Brown to the University. Philo Moderator and College senior Marianne Park said Philo offered a forum to Brown about a month ago. "We heard that Brown was looking for a forum at Penn," Park said. "We bring a lot of programs -- speeches, poetry readings, faculty lectures -- so we became involved." Park also said that College sophomore Lance Dunlop, "a friend of Philo," was responsible for contacting the Brown campaign and for inviting Brown to speak at the University. Dunlop said he became interested in bringing Brown to the University after learning the basic ideas behind his campaign. "I'm not a true believer or anything," Dunlop said. "But I think he says a lot of important things." He said he is especially interested in Brown's proposed social policies. "There is such a wide disparity between people today," he said. "People who graduated from Penn a few years ago will tell you that the crime rate has gone up massively and that the number of homeless people here has skyrocketed." "Brown wants to put money into education instead of defense," he said. "This may help the problem, and I think we should be able to hear more about his ideas." Dunlop said he would also like to hear more about Brown's flat tax proposal. Dunlop emphasized that posters publicizing the speech have created confusion as to which organization sponsored Brown to speak at the University. "I've seen a lot of posters around saying that the College Democrats are sponsoring Brown's speech," Dunlop said. "But Philo put up the money and did all the work in getting him to speak." But College sophomore Samantha Halem, co-president of the College Democrats, said that her organization has been working with the Brown campaign for four months. "I saw a sign saying that Philo was sponsering Brown and I was shocked," Halem said. "I think that maybe the Brown campaign led us both on." Halem also suggested that the Brown campaign did not realize the two University groups were independent of each other. She also said Philo did not pay for Brown's visit, as Dunlop alleged. Halem said Brown will speak at the University for free. College Democrats Co-president Scott Sher, a College sophomore, said he does not want the sponsoring confusion to become the main issue of Brown's visit. "Our main objective is to educate people about politics," Sher said. "But as a fledgling organization, we must make our presence known on campus."

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