Council speakers criticize U. planning

Miscommunication and ambiguity surrounding the role of planning committees fueled a lengthy exchange at yesterday's University Council meeting. During its second session this semester, the campus-wide advisory body also discussed ways to improve relations between students and University Police, which have been strained in recent months due to increased crackdowns on late-night parties and the alleged beating of a student in October. City and Regional Planning Department Chairperson Anthony Tomazinis, the interim chairperson of Council's Facilities Committee, accused top administrators of having "the ultimate control" in proposing and implementing "multi-school, multi-function and multi-constituency" projects. He added that the majority of planning committees merely serve as rubber stamps in the decision-making process. But University President Judith Rodin said that "the University has taken many steps to continue to evolve the planning process and involve a number of constituencies." Graduate and Professional Student Assembly representative Scot Kaplan echoed Tomazinis' sentiments in relaying his experiences on the Fine Arts Department's New Building Committee last year. "I spent hundreds of man-hours compiling reports, and I found that all of my recommendations were thrown in the trash," the Fine Arts graduate student said. Controversy over the planning committee model surfaced at last month's Council meeting after members of the Dining Services Steering Committee complained of only being minimally-involved in the process of deciding whether to outsource Dining to one of two companies or keep it under University management. At the time, committee members said they feared a repeat of the University's surprise decision, announced in October, to outsource facilities management to Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. "We are sort of giving up on seeing any change," Tomazinis said. Penn Consumer Alliance spokesperson Matt Ruben, an English graduate student, also expressed disillusionment over the administration's efforts at consultation. PCA, the University administration and the University City Vendors Alliance met with Philadelphia Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell earlier this week to negotiate a proposed ordinance designed to regulate vending on and around campus. After reaching a number of agreements, the University faxed a revised copy of the proposal to Blackwell's office yesterday. As of last night, it was not known whether Blackwell would introduce an ordinance at today's City Council meeting. "More than half of the substantive agreements we reached with the administration have now been reneged with no explanation to us," Ruben said. "The administration is either unable or unwilling to work in a democratic manner." Council also heard from members of a police and community relations panel organized by Undergraduate Assembly Chairperson Noah Bilenker. The three speakers -- Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush, United Minorities Council Chairperson Temitope Koledoye and University Chaplain William Gipson -- advocated increased communication and better understanding between University students and police. The UA suggested several specific steps to improve police-student relations, including sensitivity training for officers, police involvement in area high schools and student-given awards to distinguished officers. "There are far too many stories of [an] unfriendly police force," Bilenker, a College junior, said. "We must show individual officers that they are members of the community." Rush stressed that "students need to trust police, so they can call us in a crisis." She added that Division of Public Safety officials hope to foster a more intimate connection between the two parties. One way would be to assign individual detectives to specific college houses next year under the new residential system, which will reorganize current residences into 12 college houses with expanded programming. Gipson stressed that it is essential to nurture relationships early on so that "each constituency learns something about the humanity of the other."