Commission to issue plan tomorrow

Bold prposals expected The University community will get its first look at what many suspect are the boldest suggested changes in the culture and policies of the University in the past two decades, when the Commission for Strengthening the Community releases its preliminary report in tomorrow's Almanac. The report, the culmination of months of information gathering and interviews, is expected to touch on every aspect of University life. Among the topics that will be covered by the Commission are the student judicial policy, faculty-student interaction, residential living, central administration and inter-staff relations. Chaired by Vice Chairperson of the University Board of Trustees Gloria Chisum, the Commission was created by former University President Sheldon Hackney and Interim President Claire Fagin in the wake of last spring's 'water buffalo' incident and The Daily Pennsylvanian confiscation. Its charge is to discover ways of promoting "an academic 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 preliminary report is open for comment until March, when the Commission will present its final report to the University community. Open forums have been scheduled for the next two months to allow the Commission to get community feedback before it finalizes the report.Once the report is finalized, though, many of its recommendations will be implemented immediately. Fagin and Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson have set a goal of implementing as many of the report's suggestions as possible before their terms expire in June. In order to help achieve this goal, Fagin has appointed Linda Hyatt, executive director of the President's Office, to serve as implementation coordinator for the report. The 22-member Commission consists of Trustees, faculty, staff, students and other distinguished individuals which have had an association with the University. Some its more high-profile members include Mary Berry, popular history professor and chairperson of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; Reverend William Gray, former Congressman and current President of the United Negro College Fund; U.S. District Court Judge Louis Pollak; and former U.S. Circuit Court judge and University Trustee Leon Higgonbotham. The Commission was divided into four working groups -- judicial policy, faculty-student-staff interaction, student life and communication -- which spent months interviewing people from all sectors of the University community and conducting a 400-person telephone survey to confirm their initial findings. The Commission members then took the recommendations and reports of these working groups and compiled them into their preliminary report at a retreat held two weeks ago at Sugarloaf -- an executive conference center in Chestnut Hill. They have continued to get feedback from all of the Commission members over the last two weeks. Although attendance was supposed to be mandatory at the retreat and at several earlier Commission meetings, Gray and Higgonbotham did not attend any of them and Berry only attended a few of the initial meetings. This absenteeism has led some to doubt the role these highly respected Commission members have played in writing the report, and for some, cast doubt on its findings. But Chisum said earlier this month that she has been in continual contact with these members, in particular Higgonbotham, adding that she has received their full input and support. The Commission and the University administration are hoping the report receives national media attention, and plan to send copies out to various media organizations. According to a source close to University News and Public Affairs, the media campaign is an attempt to further improve the University's battered image, showing that it is taking steps to heal the wounds created by last spring's two highly publicized controversies.