Editorial: Open debate on vending needed

The University showed lousy timing when in proposed the City Council ordinance in May. Two ad hoc groups, one comprised of vendors and the other of mostly students, have been instrumental in lobbying Blackwell to hold off on the ordinance, which would eliminate most food trucks from campus and lasso vending carts into three areas on or near 34th Street. Of course, the vendors are simply defending their businesses, and students want food that's less expensive than in places like the Food Court. Most parties agree that it's appropriate for the ordinance to limit vending around the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for patients' and ambulances' sake. And the University shouldn't have a problem temporarily shunting vendors away from 36th and Walnut streets while it begins work on Sansom Common. Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Carol Scheman, who has spearheaded the University's vending-regulation efforts, has been vilified by the opposition for not seeking input from the University community. Scheman maintains, however, that she has asked for ideas every step of the way -- and she cites a long list of recent Daily Pennsylvanian articles as proof. But Scheman and the administration showed bad timing with the vending ordinance, a modified version of which was introduced at the May 29 Council meeting. For such a major change that affects the lunch habits of several thousand students, faculty members and staff, the University should have known better than to push it out just as everyone was getting ready to leave. Only a full, open campus debate this fall on the ordinance will rectify that mistake.