JOKE ISSUE: Scholarship suit may be settled

Parties in the Mayor's Scholarship suit said yesterday that they were seriously considering settling the case, which has been in and out of court since November, 1991. Attorneys for PILCOP, the city and the University said they were all considering withdrawing the motions they currently have before the Court of Common Pleas. Thomas Gilhool, a Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia attorney, said he was "not married to the idea" of pursuing an appeal of last month's decision by Judge Nelson Diaz. According to Gilhool, PILCOP is considering settling the case because he is "sick and tired of [the case] and can't take it anymore. "I hate talking about it, I hate writing briefs for it, I can't even read any more DP articles about it without wanting to throw up," Gilhool said. He added that if the case was worked out satisfactorily, "there's really no need to make a big deal out of this in court." "I mean, there are probably more important cases that need to go to trial, and this is sort of clogging the docket," he said. He added that he was sorry this case got became so nasty, with name-calling on both sides. In addition, City Solicitor Judith Harris said Mayor Ed Rendell was "very, very sorry" for calling PILCOP "a bunch of idiots" in a speech at the University last November. Green declined to comment yesterday, except to say that the University would look at a dismissal agreement, and then decide what course of action it was going to take. Asked if she had any further comment, Green said "no." "That's it?" I asked. "You're going to look at it and then decide what you want to do? Is there anything else you'd like to say, or add?" "Not really," Green said. "We're going to look at it and decide what course of action to take." "You know, quotewise, that's not really going out on a limb," I said. "I mean, that really doesn't help me at all." "Sorry," Green said. "I hate to have to do this, but if you can't do better than that, I'm going to have to start making stuff up," I said. "OK," Green said, adding that she was "amazed, bewildered and flabbergasted" that there was a possibility of settlement. The Mayor's Scholarship lawsuit -- for the benefit of anybody who has been living in Biosphere II or on Mars for the past two years -- was filed by . . . oh, forget about it. It really doesn't bear repeating, and besides, we have a headache. If you really have a burning desire to know all about the case, we recommend you take two Advil and go to sleep. If it persists, you should go to Student Health Services. If that doesn't work, pick up any back issue of the DP from this semester or last semester or the two semesters before that. It doesn't matter which one. We've been using and re-using the same four paragraphs to explain the lawsuit. Yes, we think it's getting a little monotonous, but we really don't care.