Officials to restudy Revlon

University Provost Stanley Chodorow told University Council members yesterday that plans for the Revlon Center must be totally re-examined before moving forward on the project. At the first Council meeting of the year, Chodorow said programmatic questions about the project linger for him because the project has "been whittled down to half the size of the original." Without commitments for full financing of the building, Chodorow said there is "no way we could go ahead" with construction. University President Judith Rodin agreed, saying it would be "very hard to determine" a possible timetable for breaking ground. She cited problems with the identification of resources, incomplete master planning with respect to the overall campus map and security issues. Former interim Provost Marvin Lazerson gave his final approval in April to a plan for the Revlon Center that would have cost less than $40 million. That plan would have consisted of a two-building complex, with a free-standing bookstore and black box theater. Rodin and Chodorow also took a strong stand on other issues that will shape their agenda in the coming months. First, Rodin told Council that her office is developing a master plan to combat crime in University City. She also said she hopes to release a "large-scale report" at the end of next month, detailing the findings of a cost-containment report now being conducted by the firm of Coopers and Lybrand. After hearing from several administrators, Council adopted the report of the Committee to Review the Status of ROTC at Penn -- recommending the implementation of an "arm's length" arrangement -- but with a major change. In a hurried vote, Council passed a motion urging the administration to reject the Committee's final option, which calls for the termination of the University's relationship with ROTC entirely if other options fail. In 1990, Council passed its first resolution calling for the University to remove the Reserve Officers' Training Corps from campus by June 1993 if the Defense Department's ban on homosexuals in the military did not change. A similar resolution was passed in April 1991 by the Faculty Senate Committee on Conduct and again approved by Council. But the June 1993 deadline passed without action from the University. Bob Schoenberg, coordinator of the Program for the Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay Community at Penn, said although the rapidity of the vote may have prevented more Council members from speaking out against the amendment, he does not think the final option will be needed. "Dealing with it today was preferable to postponing it for another month," Schoenberg said. Rodin and Chodorow still have final jurisdiction over implementation of the report's recommendations. Security was the last major topic on Council's agenda. Joined by law enforcement officials from the University and the City of Philadelphia, acting Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum distributed a draft of the University's safety and security outreach program to Council members. She then spoke about the importance of partnership between individuals and the "community writ large" in solving the problems of crime in West Philadelphia. Council also discussed the approval of its revised by-laws at the meeting and set its agenda for the year.