The Year Review in 1997: SEPTEMBER

In its controversial annual ranking of the nation's best colleges and universities, U.S. News and World Report rated Penn seventh in the country, up from 13th last year. The University tied with Dartmouth for fourth in the eight-member Ivy League. But beyond the cheer over the ranking, officials had to deal with security problems in dormitories. Thousands of students received new, high-tech PennCards that often didn't work, leading security guards to wave students in without checking their identification. Some students also received free meals at dining halls. After a September 15 Daily Pennsylvanian report that a set of master keys had been missing since August 31, University officials began changing the locks on all Quadrangle doors. Also, seven years after Psi Upsilon was suspended for kidnapping a student, University officials announced that the fraternity would return to its original home in the Castle at 36th Street and Locust Walk. The move has forced the Community Service Living Learning Program to seek a new home. In response to vendor and student uproar over a proposed ordinance that would limit and reorganize vendors on and around campus, University officials sent glossy brochures to all students and employees explaining the University's reasoning in an attempt to win wider support for the plan. College Dean Robert Rescorla, whose term officially ended June 30, announced he would step down December 31 regardless of whether administrators named a successor. Officials have yet to make such an announcement. The City of Philadelphia paid $60,000 to the owners of a local video arcade and laundry to settle its part of a lawsuit alleging that the University and the city illegally closed the businesses in April. The University remains a defendant in the lawsuit and has countersued. And the Mad 4 Mex restaurant opened with much fanfare in the former Italian Bistro space on Moravian Court, near 34th Street. The space had been vacant since July 1994. -- Beth Garstkiewicz