Rodin hosts second 'town meeting' with students

Tearing herself away from her regular hectic schedule, University President Judith Rodin mingled with one of her most important constituencies on Tuesday night -- students. Rodin began her prepared remarks by assailing an article in Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer on the rising cost of higher education. The piece began by stating that Penn has 1,820 more administrative positions than it did in 1980. Rodin said the statistic is "very misleading," and that the numbers were an "artifact" of the University's accounting system, which will be updated in July. She also said the article was negative, cynical and simplistic. Drawing a comparison between the Inquirer and the University, Rodin asked students to use greater respect on campus. "I want to call upon and challenge you, all of us, to turn the corner and really increase civility among us," she said. Just a day after returning from a week in Hong Kong and South Korea, Rodin briefly commented on her development trip, saying it helped her think more about Penn as a community. "I come back from this trip filled with hope that we can stop apologizing for Philadelphia and start promoting it," said Rodin, a native Philadelphian. As a segue into the question-and-answer part of the evening, Rodin asked students for their advice on how to improve the campus community. During the session, Rodin answered some questions personally and deflected others to top administrators in attendance. Those included Provost Stanley Chodorow, Maureen Rush, director of operations for University Police, and Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, the vice provost for University Life. Similar to her first town meeting -- which took place in January -- students questioned Rodin about the University's plans to improve campus security. "It isn't about police and blue lights and buses," she said. "It's what we do in the core of campus." Rodin said her office was doing a lot of planning about the physical space of campus. "You will hear a lot from us this month about acquisitions and things we've sold," she said. Rush said the Department of Public Safety was looking at Center City's ambassadors program, where store owners work with Philadelphia police to improve the area's cleanliness and safety. Jeremy Zweig, a College senior, told Rodin he was disappointed she was not as accessible to students as was former University President Sheldon Hackney. In response, Rodin said the comparison was unfair because Hackney had been at Penn 12 years when Zweig was a freshman. She added that she and Chodorow had used their first two years at Penn to learn everything they could about the institution. "I ask for a little understanding and a little time so we can serve you as well as Sheldon did and be as accessible as Sheldon was," she said. Another topic of discussion was how to integrate students from different ethnic groups and undergraduate schools into the general University community. "We have scratched the surface by allowing diversity to enrich us through our admissions policies," she said. "But we haven't gotten below it." But while Rodin allowed that University students could improve their integration a great deal, she also said that University policies cannot mandate greater interaction. She added that she was no longer sure that randomized housing for freshmen would help remedy the situation. "What we need is a community decision that it's important," Rodin said. "Putting one black or one Indian in each dormitory is not the answer." She asked Chodorow to give an update on the planning of the residential college house system. He said a committee of faculty and staff are considering how to best mix the residential and academic experiences and will report their recommendations to the University community in the fall. "We're very much concerned about the [connection between the] way student life is organized and what goes on in the schools," he said. Another student, a freshman, said the University's advising program was inadequate and asked how it would be improved. "There's a sense that what the faculty are best at is mentoring and career advising when they may not know how many course credits you need," Rodin said. Students who attended the forum reacted to Rodin's presentation similarly to those who were at her first town meeting, in that they were happy she held the session, but felt she often did not address their questions. "Many times she side-stepped the real questions with an overly optimistic response," said College junior Damon Clemow. "But I thought overall the message was encouraging."