Faculty, admin. make plans for summer

Although Provost Stanley Chodorow will spend July traveling to Japan to give a speech and will journey to California in September for his son's wedding, he does not think students would consider his summer activities to be much of a vacation. "I'm afraid my summer won't offer much of what students would think of as fun," Chodorow said, adding that he also plans to attend the tenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law in August. While various faculty and administrators will be traveling this summer, some plan to remain at the University -- doing research and preparing for classes. Linguistics Graduate Chairperson Don Ringe, for one, is not planning to leave Philadelphia during the summer. "My plans for this summer are to lock myself in my study, work like hell and refuse to deal with anything else," Ringe said. "It's the eternal cry of the American academic: 'Summer is coming. Now I can work!' " Mathematics Professor David Harbater, on the other hand, will travel to France -- "increasingly one of the world centers of activity for mathematical research" -- and then to England, where he will vacation with friends and family. Harbater said he hopes that tourist destinations there will be open when he tries to visit them this summer, because last year he found London's sights closed on the days he went to see them. "Little had I suspected that those particular days were a major national holiday there and everything would be shut down," Harbater said. "At least I could see Big Ben from the outside!" Anthropology Professor Alan Mann will also be in France, coordinating the Penn-in-Bordeaux Anthropology course on human origins. Mann -- a self-described "fanatic bicyclist" -- said he and his wife plan "long rides through the French countryside" on their tandem bicycle. And School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Gregory Farrington will travel to Moscow, Sweden, Rome, Maine and North Carolina. Farrington's other plans include "battling the weeds" and "working to be sure that my son mows the lawn," he said. Annenberg School for Communication Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson has a busy schedule filled with conferences in Washington. "I am going to be attempting the equivalent of coordinating the Battle of Normandy Beach," she said. And College of Arts and Sciences Dean Robert Rescorla plans to balance his summer between research and vacationing. "It is difficult having the time to do research during the year," said Rescorla, who will hike with his wife in Maine's Acadia National Park after working in his laboratory. But University President Judith Rodin -- perhaps taking a cue from her own advice -- is more determined than anyone to do something interesting this summer. "I'm going to spend the summer getting a life," Rodin said.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.