Commission members call retreat a success

Members of the Commission on Strengthening the Community said yesterday they made "great progress" in drafting their preliminary report at their weekend retreat. But, the members refused to reveal any details of that report, due out by the end of the month. After months of information gathering, interviews with people from all sectors of the University community and a telephone poll of 400 students, the Commission met over the weekend at Sugarloaf -- a secluded executive conference center in the affluent Philadelphia neighborhood of Chestnut Hill. Here, the Commission was supposed to take the draft of their preliminary report and the reports and recommendations of their four working groups -- student life, judicial policy, faculty-student relations and communications -- and emerge with a preliminary report. They were mostly successful but are still trying to hammer out the report's semantics and a few recommendations, Commission officials said last night. "We had an excellent retreat and we still have a little ways to go," said Commission Chairperson and Vice Chairperson of the University's Board of Trustees Gloria Chisum. "We've set January 31 as our deadline [for releasing the report] and I am optimistic that we may even beat that deadline." The Commission is a 23-member committee made up of University Trustees, faculty, staff and students charged with discovering ways of promoting a multi-cultural, enriching community "in which the free expression of ideas may flourish." The Commission was created by former University President Sheldon Hackney and Interim President Claire Fagin last spring following the 'water buffalo' incident and Daily Pennsylvanian confiscation. Chisum said the Commission is on schedule, adding that she will report on the Commission's progress at Wednesday afternoon's University Council meeting. Chisum said, however, she will not "be specific about any recommendations" until the preliminary report is made public. While it was originally anticipated that the preliminary report might appear in tomorrow's Almanac, Commission Director and English Department Graduate Chairperson Rebecca Bushnell said last night that no written material will be released for at least another week and half. "The report is not in its final form at this point," Bushnell said. "We are hesitant to release anything until it's in its final form. We want the recommendations we make to be accompanied by the written rationale for those recommendations." Chisum and Bushnell described the work remaining mostly as hammering out the report's specific language and making sure that all the Commission members are in agreement. "Just about all the recommendations are agreed upon," Chisum said. "We did find that some [suggestions] were overlapping and we had to resolve those issues." She also said that some of the working group's suggestions were already being implemented by the University, an overlap Chisum attributed to "a lack of accurate information on campus." Chisum said she was happy some of the Commission members were able to attend the retreat. Some of the Commission's most well-known members were absent, however. Federal Circuit Court Judge and University Trustee Leon Higginbotham, former Congressman William Gray and Chairperson of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and University History Professor Mary Berry were unable to attend the meeting. Chisum said she has been in contact with these members and is continuing to get their comments and suggestions on the report. She and Bushnell both said they are confident that all members of the Commission will sign the report. "This is a consensus document," Bushnell said. The full Commission will meet at least once more before the preliminary report is made public, Chisum added. The report may contain many controversial findings and recommendations. Last week Fagin said that it may garner national media attention. Those close to the Commission said last week that a first draft of the preliminary report addresses a wide range of issues including the University's racial harassment policy, diversity on Locust Walk, housing issues and issues pertaining to student-faculty, inter-faculty, faculty- staff and inter-staff relations.