Rodin was a star even as undergrad at U.

During her days as head of the University's Women's Student Government Association, The Daily Pennsylvanian used to call her President Seitz. And within a month, University alumna Judith Seitz Rodin will likely grace the pages of the DP as President Rodin. Rodin, currently provost at Yale University, was nominated Monday to be the University's seventh president and the first woman president of an Ivy League school. She is likely to be approved by the University's Board of Trustees on December 16. This would not be Rodin's first time as a leader on campus. During the 1960s, she led the WSGA with a strong hand. As Judy Seitz, she changed women's social regulations by abolishing a curfew for senior women and allowing first-year women in men's apartments. In another revolutionary move for the time, the WSGA under Rodin voted to allocate $1,500 to "Project Mississippi," an effort to construct a community center for unemployed workers. While the University prohibited the donation from taking place, Rodin argued that "the project forced [WSGA] to recognize our responsibility to the student [body]." A DP editorial following her announcement praised the WSGA for "leaving its male counterpart behind in the dust." "We congratulate WSGA for its resolute action," the editorial read. "There can be no doubting which student government has the guts around here, and which is in tune with the times. "Perhaps we are not ready for co-ed government after all, when the men are so badly outclassed," it concluded emphatically. Rodin also voiced disappointment that there was no student-run honor system at the University. When one residence assumed responsibility for a dorm-wide honor system, "it?worked out beautifully," Rodin said in 1965. She added that students perceived the administration as "a stumbling block." In addition to her work in student government, Rodin found time while at the University to join the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority and the female honors societies Sphinx and Key, and Mortarboard. Sue Marx, then-Delta Phi Epsilon president, said she lived next to Rodin in their sorority house and remembers admiring her greatly. "She was a very accomplished, involved and achieving person," Marx said of her former hallmate. "Whatever she took on, she excelled at, which is probably a quality she maintains through today." Academically, Rodin majored in psychology, faring quite well. She gained membership in Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Gamma Mu and Sigma Tau Sigma, as well the psychology honor society, Psi Chi. At her Monday press conference, Rodin said Psychology Professor Henry Gleitman's Psychology 1 class sparked her interest in the subject. Gleitman said last night he did not remember Rodin from the class. "I taught many students at two great institutions," Gleitman said, referring to the University and Swarthmore. "If you do that, you will of course get first-rate students. But they would have been first-rate without Henry Gleitman, without a doubt." Gleitman, though, said he still feels proud of Rodin. "You feel proud, and you feel that maybe in some way, you had an effect," he said. Rodin's confirmation would testify to what some have called her exceptionally charismatic leadership. Others might say it fulfills a prophecy. In the University's 1966 yearbook, then-president Gaylord Harnwell wrote a farewell message to that year's graduates, concluding: "We trust that the years ahead for you will be enlightening and successful ones. We also hope that you will return to your University often as alumni and that our concerns will always be your own as well."