Rodin earns both praise, criticism for year's efforts

'NBC Nightly News' named Rodin one of the outstanding figures of the year for overcoming gender barriers. University President Judith Rodin's public profile is rapidly expanding far beyond the confines of campus. She gained recognition when NBC Nightly News honored her as one of the outstanding figures of the year, while Philadelphia Weekly named her to its list of "Villains of 1996." And Rodin is no stranger to either negative or positive publicity, maintaining a large staff to facilitate relations with students, the media and the surrounding community. She explained that as one of the University's major spokespeople, she is eager to talk to the media in an effort to educate the public about Penn. Nonetheless, Rodin said she does not believe in establishing a "media image," adding that her on-campus constituency is still her first priority. But outside publicity often serves the same purpose as establishing successful relationships with students, faculty and staff, according to Rodin. "The people who hear about Penn are the students and faculty of tomorrow," Rodin said. "If we don't also inform the external constituency then we are not going to have the great community to draw from." She called the NBC segment extremely positive publicity, adding that "five minutes on national TV is just incredible." Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw began the network's yearly "Best of '96" series with a feature on Rodin praising her for typifying the achievements of women in new fields. The University drew national attention several times in the fall semester, with The New York Times covering September's crimes and Kathy Change's self-immolation in October. But unlike NBC's story last month, these notices were mostly negative. In a similar vein, while compiling this year's list of the city's villains, Philadelphia Weekly reporter Kelvyn Anderson criticized the way Rodin handled the controversy surrounding the University's reporting of crime statistics, calling her public stances "unnecessarily defensive and not very honest." But Rodin said the article in the alternative news and entertainment newspaper did not worry her. "I'm going to be criticized, and I'm going to be praised," Rodin said. "That is really not the issue. The issue is to be assertive and clear about what Penn is and is not doing? The information needs to be out there and I need to be out there giving it." The Weekly article did not alarm Rodin's staff either. "[Philadelphia Weekly] is an alternative paper that has a dozen or so pages devoted to adult entertainment," University spokesperson Ken Wildes said. "The reporter did not speak to anyone at Penn about the piece? It is a blemish, but it is a small one and there is no comparison between NBC and Philadelphia Weekly." And Anderson added that he feels Rodin has done a pretty good job on the whole, and that her media image has been very positive. Rodin agreed that most of the media coverage of the University and herself has been positive, adding that she often has to remind herself that articles such as the Weekly's are "small negative things in the context of an enormous amount of great news." The NBC segment, which aired on December 12, focused on Rodin's successes in areas such as the development of the 21st Century Plan and her response to rising campus crime. NBC staff members stay abreast of current events and look for possible candidates for the series throughout the year, according to Nightly News production assistant Kate Stockbridge. "They looked at a wide variety of people for the feature, said Nightly News spokesperson Heidi Pekorny. "She just really stuck out." Brokaw compared Rodin to Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Dole, lauding her ability to succeed in the male-dominated Ivy League. But Rodin said she was "somewhat taken aback" by Brokaw's focus, since she has found the Ivy League to be "fairly" diverse. Rodin added that Brokaw -- who she met last year when he spoke at Commencement exercises -- is eager to show effective female role models, since he has three successful daughters. Rodin said response to the NBC segment has been overwhelmingly positive, drawing her many letters and e-mails from around the country. She even received one marriage proposal, asking her to call "if you ever dump that guy you were walking with in the video."