Plantiffs will file amended scholars suit

A coalition suing the University over the number of Mayor's Scholarships it provides said yesterday it will file an amended version of the suit this morning, bringing the city into the suit. The additional parties named to the suit include the City of Philadelphia, Mayor Edward Rendell, the commissioner of public property and the Mayor's Scholarship Committee -- a six-person panel appointed by Rendell to oversee the scholarship program. It is not clear which side of the suit the new parties will ultimately join, although city officials, led by Rendell, have consistently backed the University's position for months. In the court papers, lawyers for the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia -- which is representing the plaintiffs -- suggest the city could end up as a plaintiff against its will. "Each [party] is joined, in the alternative, as involuntary plaintiff, or co-plaintiff or defendant, in the first instance as each party chooses and ultimately as the facts and operation of law require," according to a copy of the suit provided by PILCOP. The make-up of the scholarship committee may complicate matters. Of the six members, at least two -- Councilman-at-large Herbert DeBeary and State Senator Chaka Fattah -- have publicly spoken against the University on the scholarship debate. None of the committee members could be reached for comment last night. The plaintiffs, which include labor unions, student groups and individuals, argue that a 1977 city ordinance requires the University to award students from Philadelphia schools 125 new scholarships each year for a total of 500 in any one year. The University maintains it must provide a total of 125 awards, or their equivalent, in any one year. The agreement requires the University to award the scholarships in exchange for rent-free city land it received in 1882 and 1910. Today's filing comes ten days after Common Pleas Court Judge Nelson Diaz dismissed an initial suit. Diaz ruled that the plaintiffs, who filed suit against the University last October, failed to include "necessary parties." Diaz noted in the dismissal order that the city belonged in the suit because the disputed ordinance -- which lies at the heart of the scholarship battle -- is a contract between the city and the University. Besides adding the new parties, the modified class-action suit largely restates the plaintiffs' original claim that the University is shortchanging Philadelphia schoolchildren on the scholarship deal. The 76-page suit, the third version filed by PILCOP to date, repeats and expands several allegations from the two earlier versions of the suit, including: · The total value of the University's scholarship awards falls short even of what the University claims its responsibility to be -- 125 scholarships total or the dollar equivalent. · The University has awarded numerous Mayor's Scholarships to students from schools outside Philadelphia, including Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, despite a large number of qualified students from Philadelphia schools. · Many scholarship recipients come from families that are too well off financially to qualify for the awards, shutting out poorer students from the city who are equally qualified. · Since at least 1978, the University has underpublicized the scholarship program intentionally, causing the number of city students attending the University to decline while the overall student body increased. · The University does not live up to the ordinance's requirement that the University provide "full tuition" scholarships, because recipients receive just $500 on top of their standard financial aid packages -- which include loans and work-study grants. The suit also claims that the University could absorb the extra number of scholarships with no effect on its finances, either by "committing some portion of its endowment or other funds" to the scholarships or by offering non-Philadelphians fewer scholarships. Arthur Makadon, a lawyer for the University, declined to comment on the amended suit last night, adding that he does not speak publicly about court papers until they are filed. But Makadon criticized PILCOP for releasing the document to The Daily Pennsylvanian before filing it in court, where papers automatically become a matter of public record. "I think they should file with the courts before they file with the DP," he said. "I will look forward to reading this complaint when I finally get a copy," University General Counsel Shelley Green said last night. "And I will be most interested to see if they correct the deficiencies in their last complaint."

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