Coalition to reopen debate on the Walk

As a daunting question mark looms over the now-vacant Theta Xi house on Locust Walk, the Coalition to Diversify Locust Walk is busy working on changing University history. Currently, Coalition members are re-addressing their demands for diversifying the residences on the Walk that were made at a meeting with President Sheldon Hackney and other University administrators late last spring. And some Coalition members said they want to see the University respond to recommendations and complaints group members have lodged in the past and will bring up again. According to Wharton and Engineering senior Nicole Bloom, a Coalition member, the Coalition was established last January by a group of undergraduates, graduate students, faculty members and administrators. In its first move, the Coalition published a statement with about 300 signatures in The Daily Pennsylvanian and The Graduate Perspective last spring to notify the University community of its existence, to express a "desire for change" in the composition of the Locust Walk population and to show that "people who have a lot of power at this University support this issue." The statement criticized Hackney for his refusal to remove fraternities from their Walk houses and also said the University was promoting racial and sexual discrimination by permitting the Walk residences to be inhabited by "privileged white males living in fraternities" which were frequently sites of "verbal and physical harassment" for a number of "students, staff and faculty." About 20 Coalition representatives met with President Hackney, Assistant to the President Nicholas Constan and Vice Provost for University Life Kim Morrison on April 28 to address the problem of the dearth of diversity among the residents of Walk houses, Bloom said. In their meeting, Coalition members made several recommendations: · 1) The immediate and permanent removal of fraternities who misbehave from Locust Walk. · 2) A commitment to provide two or more diverse residential living spaces on Locust Walk each year for the next five years. · )The creation of an on-going task force with representatives from the Coalition to enforce public accountability for misbehavior on Locust Walk. · 4) A follow-up meeting with Dr. Hackney within two weeks of April the 28th to begin the implementation of the Coalition's goals. Bloom said the University officials were not particularly receptive to their proposal and were unwilling to make further commitments outside the report that Hackney's Committee to Diversify Locust Walk made in spring 1991. Another meeting was never scheduled because the school year ended and little progress had been made during the two-week period said former Faculty Senate Chairperson Louise Shoemaker, another Coalition member. In a letter that Hackney sent to the Coalition in May, the president failed to promise quick and permanent removal of misbehaving fraternities. Nevertheless, he said he would strive to strengthen University procedures dealing with fraternity "violations and misconduct," but without the aid of the recommended "oversight task force." In the letter, Hackney said he could not guarantee the provision of two or more diverse residences each year for the following five years, but highlighted the success of the Community Service Living-Learning Program's first year in the Castle. He also mentioned the "residential conversion" of 3609-11 Locust Walk, which uprooted the University Counseling Services, the Management and Technology Department and the Tutoring Center, for future residents. Constan said yesterday that the renovations for 3609-11 are now underway for occupancy in the fall of 1993 and said the University Police department at 3914 Locust Walk will eventually be relocated to 40th & Walnut streets. Constan said he does not yet know what will occupy either of the structures.