Race relations party rocks Chestnut Cabaret

The "shock" was tremendous at a party given by students who attended the Penn Student Summit on Race Relations last Thursday night. The social gathering, which was dubbed "Culture Shock," took place at Chestnut Cabaret, at 38th and Chestnut streets. Although only 20 people graced the bar stools and dance floor at 11 p.m., more than 500 people had come to dance, eat and "have fun" by the 3 a.m. ending time, co-organizer and Engineering junior Ha Nguyen said last night. "I thought it was a smashing success," she said. "The turnout was more than we expected for a non-alcoholic event and everybody had a great time." Nguyen said the goal of the event was to "give people an opportunity to mix with other ethnicities, races and groups." She added that there was "a lot of mixing" between different groups at the "Culture Shock" event. The party, which cost $2,500, was sponsored by the Undergraduate Assembly, the Provost's Office and the Vice Provost for University Life. It stemmed from the Race Relations Summit, a gathering of 60 student leaders in January who wanted to formulate a plan to improve campus race relations. The summit, which was held at the Temple University-owned Sugarloaf Compound, located in northern Philadelphia, cost the University $24,000 for lodging and facilitators. While the group did not come up with a one-year plan for race relations, two summit participants, Nguyen and Senior Class President Matthew Canner, spearheaded the idea of the party. Undergraduate Assembly member and Wharton sophomore Vincent Scarfaria said the party was "one of the better social gatherings I've seen on campus." "Different types of people got together and an awful lot of people were there," he said. "It was a great feeling to see so many people from different campus organizations all hanging out together under one roof." Thuy Vu, executive vice president of the Vietnamese Student Association, said she decided to go to the party out of "curiosity." "I ended up staying longer than I thought I was going to because it was a lot of fun," the College sophomore said. "There were enough people there to make it fun but it wasn't to the point where you couldn't move around and see everybody who was there."