NEWS ANALYSIS: Council pulls together for productive session

Whether or not University Trustees approve the plan to outsource facilities management to Trammell Crow Co. today, one thing is certain: There can be healthy and civil discussion on campus about important issues facing the University. Wednesday's special University Council meeting defied widespread notions that students, faculty members and staff are generally apathetic when it comes to taking action on the issues of the day. Making powerful use of the body's function as a deliberative and advisory body, Council members called the meeting in the name of open discourse on the Trammell Crow deal. Despite the emotionally charged nature of the issue -- many longtime University employees seeing their jobs vanish and having to reapply for the same positions with Trammell Crow -- nearly everyone kept their composure while arguing their points. Council's overwhelming vote to pass a resolution asking Trustees to reject the deal followed a two-hour discussion in Houston Hall's Bodek Lounge. About 50 Council members -- slightly more than half of the body -- and 60 non-members attended the meeting. Council also voted to form a committee dedicated to examining "the problems that have been raised about the consultative process." Faculty Senate Chairperson Vivian Seltzer described the meeting as "a dramatic and very successful example" of Council taking advantage of its role. "It provided an opportunity for the kind of open communication that all the constituencies are requesting," said Seltzer, a professor at the School of Social Work. Council Moderator Samuel Preston, a Sociology professor, "did a superb job" controlling the discussion, Seltzer added. One-fourth of the body's members, the minimum amount necessary, signed a petition last week calling for the meeting. The move came amid criticism that administrators didn't sufficiently consult the University community before Penn signed a non-binding letter of intent October 8. Council normally meets once per month. Campus discussion hit a low last fall, when, in the wake of a crime wave, officials invited students' parents to voice their concerns with Rodin, Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell and University Police officials. But the 500-plus people who attended the November 16 meeting were "angry and often unruly," booing Rendell after he suggested that Penn students aren't street smart and that other parts of the city are more dangerous, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported. At least one audience member shouted an obscenity at Rendell. Wednesday's meeting was a markedly different affair. Applause followed only a couple of speeches. Nobody booed when Rodin or Executive Vice President John Fry spoke. And no one muttered an obscenity. "I thought it was a really healthy meeting," Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Chairperson Victoria Tredinnick said. "It was ideal, given the situation." The broad range of participation and the fact that Council took action on an issue stood in contrast to other recent meetings, many of which were poorly attended or debated an issue without making any concrete recommendations. Earlier this year, Council couldn't vote on whether to grant a seat to the United Minorities Council because fewer than 40 percent of members -- the number necessary to vote on changing the body's bylaws -- attended. And last month's meeting featured a lively, one-hour discussion on how to deal with the problem of binge drinking among students. But the session, which Rodin described at the time as "preliminary," produced no official plans or recommendations.

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