Sugarloaf race summit called "overwhelming success'

The $24,000 Penn Student Summit on Race Relations was deemed an "overwhelming success," organizers of the summit said last night. The summit, which began Friday when 58 student leaders gathered at the Temple University-owned Sugarloaf executive complex in Chestnut Hill, a suburb of Philadelphia, was aimed at designing a comprehensive one-year plan for campus race relations. After ice breakers and discussion groups, the students began to focus on problems and solutions to campus race relations. And, when the conference concluded yesterday afternoon, the group had mapped out several recommendations which will be finalized at a Feb. 13 follow-up meeting, Wharton senior Lawrence Berger , a summit organizer, said. "We were able to come up with a plan that included both practical things to implement and various stands on certain projects and issues," he said. "We were able to come to agreement with a group that was very diverse." The plan deals with both academic and social issues. Academically, the student leaders suggested an increase in classroom group projects and assignments, with "randomized" groups to ensure diversity, Berger said. "You'd be exposed to very different people while exchanging information and ideas," he added. On a more social level, student leaders strongly supported the Revlon Center as a place where all students could gather and share ideas. "We focused on ideas which celebrated commonalities like providing space which everyone could use and have a vested interest in, like the Revlon Center," College junior and Undergraduate Assembly chairperson Seth Hamalian said. The group also recommended building a bookstore/coffee house on Locust Walk, Wharton and Engineering junior Matthew Kratter, chairperson of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, said. "[The coffee house] would be a place for Penn students, faculty and staff to congregate with a social and intellectual environment," he said. "It's something I strongly support." But the practical aspects of the plan made up only part of the conference's accomplishments, co-organizer and Wharton and College senior Jessica Mennella said. "Different student groups represented by their leaders were able to work together in a collaborative effort that was very positive for the University and for the students on campus," she said. The student leaders who attended the conference said the summit was worth the $24,000 price tag. "It was good to be that far away from campus," Hamalian said. "I've never been that focused on one issue for so many days in a row and I don't think that would've been possible on campus. "The housing and the setting didn't strike me as extravagant," he added. Engineering junior Ha Nguyen, vice president of the Social Planning and Events Committee, voiced similar sentiments. "I would say it was worth the money," she said. "We needed an atmosphere that was conducive to the topic we were discussing." After finalizing the various recommendations, student leaders will use their positions to convey their ideas to administrators, professors and staff, Berger said.