Leaders to discuss race relations

In light of recent campus problems regarding race relations, several student leaders are organizing the first Penn Student Summit on Race Relations. The weekend-long gathering of student leaders, designed to devise a one year plan to improve race relations at the University, will take place between Jan. 27 and Jan. 30 at the Sugarloaf Inn in Chestnut Hill, Pa. University student leaders in areas of government, peer education, advocacy and the press will come together to discuss problems and solutions for campus race relations. Wharton senior Lawrence Berger and College and Wharton senior Jessica Mennella first began discussing the idea of a summit in the fall of 1992. Together with Associate Vice Provost for University Life Larry Moneta, the students began concrete planning last July. "The country is focused on Penn," Mennella said. "We've gotten a lot of negative press and students have the ability to change that." According to Berger, the summit is being held off-campus so that student leaders will be able to completely focus on the issue at hand, and not about other problems. "Unless we take people away, it won't work," he added. Berger said he hopes that something "practical" will come out of the retreat. "It is up to us to do something," he said. "We'll have all different voices to try to figure out the solutions together." Both short-term and long-term solutions will be discussed, Moneta said. "Students will have a chance to work on these issues which affect students," he said. "Nothing but good can come from it." Moneta himself will not attend the student-run conference, though. A steering committee – comprised of Wharton sophomore Rachel Bluth, Wharton junior Sanjay Kacholiya, Mennella and Berger – was set up to work out the details of the summit. Last week, they sent letters to over 100 groups, inviting the president or chairperson of each group to attend. Because of monetary and space constraints, though, only the first 60 leaders who respond will be able to go on the retreat. So far, 30 student leaders have accepted the invitations, Berger said. Student leaders who were invited to the summit expressed hope that the conference will produce positive results. "I think it's an important idea for student leaders to get together and discuss the issue of racism," said Undergraduate Assembly Chairperson Seth Hamalian. "I'm pleased with the emphasis on a concrete one year plan to be implemented when we get back from the summit." Hamalian, who said he will try to attend the summit, expressed concern that the student leaders will not come up with any new suggestions because so much campus discussion has already taken place on the issue. Both Berger and Mennella said they feel student leaders had the ability to affect campus race relations. "We have to take into consideration how important our position [as student leaders] is," Mennella said. "We can come up with a plan so that we are all comfortable here." Individuals from A World of Difference, a New York City institution affiliated with the Anti-Defamation League, will attend the summit to aid in facilitating discussion, she added.