Three varied paths to Walk diversity

It has been said that a house divided against itself cannot stand. But there are three womens groups on campus -- Panhellenic Council, Women on the Walk and the Women's Army -- working to diversify fraternity-lined Locust Walk, and their ways and means toward gaining a house are both united and divided. Panhel is the largest group, claiming a membership of approximately 1,300 women throughout the network of its nine sorority houses. And while Panhel is a primarily social organization, the group has chosen to adopt a political stance on the issue of creating a women's presence on the Walk. Panhel President Allison Marinoff said recently that her organization recognizes a need for women to establish themselves on the Walk. "We were never trying to get a sorority house in Theta Xi," Marinoff said, adding that spaces on the Walk do not necessarily have to be filled by Greeks though a sorority would be a good way to fill the vacancy. A week and a half ago, Panhel presidents issued a letter in which they said that they would prefer a sorority house or a residence to be established in a Walk vacancy over a women's center. The statement issued expressed concerns that whatever ends up in the Theta Xi house be "Panhel-friendly." But the newly-formed coalition Women on the Walk, a group of women from varying organizations throughout campus, has requested the establishment of a women's center in the Theta Xi building itself, citing the center's availability to all women rather than an exclusive group as an important component of women's presence. "We're trying to appeal to the broadest number of students and the Penn community at large, so that this center, be it a residence or administrative area -- hopefully both -- would serve the largest constituency possible," Women on the Walk member Allyson Wagner said. Last week, the group collected 1,500 signatures on a petition requesting a women's center and presented it to Vice Provost for University Life Kim Morrisson. Morrisson said the objectives of Women on the Walk are in accord with the goals of the University's Committee to Diversify the Walk. She pointed out that space for a women's center has been allocated in the Revlon Center, the campus center expected to be completed by 1996. "It was an extensive effort and there were a lot of signatures," Morrisson said of the petition. "I think nothing happens quickly on the Walk." For the so-called Women's Army, however, things should move much more quickly. The nascent radical group has an anonymous membership of fewer than 20 people and, according to a member of the group, wants the University "to either get rid of the fraternities or to educate them and make them a positive thing." While neither Panhel nor Women on the Walk aims to remove fraternities from the Walk, the Women's Army sees this as the only means to the end of true diversification. "We feel that enough hasn't been done by Women on the Walk," the spokeswoman said. "A fundamental difference between Women on the Walk and the Women's Army is that the Women on the Walk is pro-women, period. We are anti-fraternity, bottom line." The group has existed at least five years, and has made the dramatic gestures such as hanging signs all over campus saying, "Why pay the fee for misogyny?" and spraypainting "X"s all over campus, adding, "A woman was raped here." And the Women's Army does not have either a penchant or desire for working towards their ends within the system. "Depending on how the [opinion of] University [administrators] sways, we have the potential to make life very uncomfortable for them," she said. "Unless the administration takes action and addresses the needs of women and people of color, we'll do what we have to do to get the administration's attention." While these three groups range across the political spectrum, they have one common denominator -- the idea that there is a conspicuous void on the Walk that needs to be filled. "I personally hope, as a woman at Penn, that it would be a high priority for the administration to put women on the Walk," Marinoff said.

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