Commission readies report

Proposals due out by month's end Members of the Commission on Strengthening the Community are expected to finalize their preliminary report to the University during a two-day retreat this weekend. The preliminary report is officially due out by the end of January, but Interim President Claire Fagin said yesterday that some details of the report will be made public at next Wednesday's University Council meeting. Created this summer in the wake of last spring's Daily Pennsylvanian confiscation and water-buffalo incidents, the 17-member Commission consists of University Trustees, administrators, faculty and students. It is charged with discovering ways of promoting a community "in which all members may learn from and be enriched by their similarities, and their differences, and in which the free exchange of ideas may flourish." The Commission's retreat is being held at Sugar Loaf, a secluded University-owned compound in Chestnut Hill -- an affluent neighborhood in northwest Philadelphia -- Commission Chairperson and Trustee Gloria Chisum said yesterday. Here, commission members will take the reports from their four working groups -- student life, judicial policy, faculty-student relations and communications -- and combine them into a coherent and comprehensive report. The Commission will finish up the last of its "information gathering" before this weekend's retreat, Chisum said. Several Commission members said they are looking forward to the retreat. "I'm very optimistic," Trustee and Commission member Norma Killebrew said last night. "It's an excellent group of people and everyone has done their home work in terms of speaking with as many groups as possible. I think [the final report is] going to be very exciting." Commission member and Associate Professor of Social Work Peter Vaughan said he expects the Commission's work this weekend to go smoothly. "The commission has, I think, done a good job in information gathering," he said. But several Commission members are not expected to attend the retreat, Chisum said. Those absent will include high-profile Commission members U.S. Circuit Court Judge and Trustee Leon Higginbotham, former U.S. Congressman William Gray and History Professor Mary Berry, now chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. While Berry attended some early Commission meetings, Higginbotham and Gray have yet to attend any, leading some to question whether they will sign the report. But Chisum said she has been in contact with Higginbotham, Gray and Berry and that she would be "extremely disappointed" if all the Commission members did not sign the report. Chisum said "extremely busy" schedules have kept some of the Commission members from attending all of the group's meetings. "People have a hard time believing Trustees don't get paid for what they do," she said. "I tell them, Trustees don't get paid, Trustees pay. I want people to realize [the Commission's work] is being done by people who are genuinely concerned about the future of this university." A first draft of the preliminary report has already been distributed to working group members, sources close to the commission said earlier this week. Chisum said she would not comment on any of the report's specifics until it is officially made public. "Until the full Commission has had a chance to meet and give their opinions I would not want to say anything that would preempt the prerogative of the [members]," she said. Describing the state of the University community as "almost at a crisis point," Chisum did say that the the Commission has identified a number of problems at the University, which she termed "structural irritants," the removal of which "should make people more happy here." And, she said the report will deal with issues of free expression, campus diversity, housing and faculty-student, faculty-staff and inter-faculty relations. Chisum also said she hoped the report would lead to increased "spirit building" on campus. "We believe we have found some ways to reduce the psychological size of the University," Chisum said, refusing to comment on the specifics at this time. The Commission's preliminary report will be open for comment by the University community through March when the final version of the report will be released, Chisum said. Chisum and Commission Director Rebecca Bushnell said that the Commission expects to receive many letters commenting on their report. They will also hold several open forums so that the whole community can respond. The Commission's report will specifically outline how their recommendations should be implemented and may place ultimate responsibility for its implementation in the hands of the Trustees, Bushnell, graduate chairperson of the English Department, said yesterday. "We want to make sure this gets done," she said. Both Bushnell and Chisum said they hoped some of the report's recommendations would be implemented by the time Interim President Claire Fagin leaves office at the end of June. "We did this [Commission] in part for Claire," Bushnell said. Chisum said that the Commission has been in contact both with Fagin and President-elect Judith Rodin.