Campus Briefs: Wednesday, April 29, 1998

SAS honors profs with achievement awards Later this month, School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston will honor the winners of the annual Ira Abrams Awards for Distinguished Teaching and the first-ever Kahn Awards, given to the school's top departments and programs. English Professor David DeLaura and Physics Professor Eugene Mele will receive the prestigious Abrams Award, first given in 1983, for teaching that is "intellectually rigorous, exceptionally coherent and that leads to an informed understanding of a discipline," according to a statement from SAS. Mele, who concentrates in "theoretical condensed matter," has been teaching at the University since 1981. As a sign of his popularity, students have consistently given his courses grades of 3.9 out of 4.0 in the Penn Course Review's Undergraduate Course Guide. DeLaura, the other Abrams honoree, has been with with Penn since 1974, lecturing and writing on Victorian literature. He was chairperson of the English Department from 1985 to 1990 and recently served as University ombudsman. A bequest from the late 1925 Wharton School graduate Edmund Kahn and his wife Louise established the Kahn Awards, presented this year to recognize the achievement of the undergraduate programs in the Music and Psychology departments. "We have long honored the teaching excellence of individual faculty members in SAS, but the Kahn Award allows us to celebrate group efforts that have contributed more broadly to the educational experience of our students," Preston said. -- Kevin Leland and Edward Sherwin Mad 4 Mex opens 'dry' late-night section Mad 4 Mex will be open "4" all during the late-night hours. The popular restaurant, which opened last September in the 3401 Walnut Street complex, has decided to create a "dry" section of the restaurant after 11 p.m., seven days a week. The move will allow underage patrons access to Mad 4 Mex's late-night half-price special on food. The policy reverses a mid-April decision to close the restaurant to underage patrons during most late-night hours, a move which had spurred a storm of protest. Customers under the age of 21 will not be allowed into other parts of the restaurant after 11 p.m. "We are not a bar and don't want to be a bar," Assistant Manager Scott Brown said yesterday in announcing the change in policy, which has been in effect for the past week. "We want everyone to have access to half-priced food." University spokesperson Ken Wildes called the plan " a good solution" to balancing the need to control underage drinking with providing late-night options for students. According to Brown, Mad 4 Mex has tried setting aside "dry" space before, but the area was understaffed and did not deter underage drinking. Brown said staffing for the area has been increased, adding that the new policy has been working well. -- Binyamin Appelbaum University Copy Service to move near campus University Copy Service, currently located in Houston Hall, will move next month to a location in St. Leonard's Court at 39th and Chestnut streets, officials said yesterday. The move was necessitated by the May 29 closing of Houston Hall for renovations as part of the Perelman Quadrangle project. Once renovations are complete in about two years, the store will move back in. The Copy Service, owned by the Mapp brothers and at its current location since 1983, is the second mall retailer to be offered space elsewhere in University City. Not all stores will be offered alternate spaces. Auntie Anne's remains in negotiations with Penn for the 3401 Walnut Street complex site presently occupied by Cinnabon. -- B.A. U. unveils newest dual degree program Three University schools recently finalized plans for the creation of a dual degree program in digital media design. The 38-credit degree program, based in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, seeks to provide students with the artistic and communication skills needed to produce computer designs, in addition to the necessary programming skills. The program, with courses in the Engineering School, the Annenberg School for Communication and the Graduate School of Fine Arts, was created for students considering careers in computer-software design. More than 20 students are expected to enroll in the program, which requires six communications and six fine-arts courses. Most of the other requirements are science courses from the Engineering School's undergraduate Computer Science Engineering program. Presently, Penn students from any school may apply for entrance into the program, while future students will apply on their admissions applications. Admissions will be based not only upon grades, but also upon artistic talent, as a portfolio and an essay on an applicant's career goals are required for entrance into the program. -- Andrew Ribner Work begins on first fresh air food plaza Construction began yesterday on the first of the food plazas, located at 40th Street between Walnut and Locust streets. The 40th Street food plaza, which will take four to six weeks to build, will have the capacity for 12 vendors, according to Jack Shannon, the University's top economic development official. Penn is building five food plazas on its property to house vendors displaced by the recently passed City Council ordinance that will ban them from most streets and sidewalks in the area. The five food plazas will hold a total of 45 vendors. The plazas will provide outdoor seating for customers, as well as electrical hook-ups, sewage, water lines and improved lighting for vendors at the cost of $1 per month. The other four plazas will be built behind Meyerson Hall near 34th and Walnut streets; by Franklin Field at 33rd and South streets; between Gimbel Gymnasium and the parking garage on the 3700 block of Walnut Street; and at 34th and Spruce streets next to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. -- Seth Grossman UA seeks opinions on Sansom Common retail While members of the junior class celebrated their rise to the rank of seniorhood last Friday, the Undergraduate Assembly was busy collecting student input on the future of Sansom Common. Members of the UA's executive board spent Hey Day asking students to fill out surveys on what they would like to see fill the remaining two or three retail spaces in the complex. Sansom Common, scheduled to open in the fall of 1998, is already slated to house a Xando, Urban Outfitters, City Sports and Parfumerie Douglas Cosmetics, in addition to a Barnes & Noble superstore. UA Chairperson Bill Conway, a College sophomore, said Executive Vice President John Fry asked him for input on what other retailers students would like to see in the complex. Conway estimated that about 225 surveys were filled out Friday. -- Ginny Dorsey Rhymes thrills crowd in Relays Concert For a moment, Busta Rhymes' Saturday night concert on campus seemed about to get "dangerous." At the post-Penn Relays concert in the Annenberg Center's Zellerbach Auditorium, a brief fight between the crews of several opening acts -- including Wu-Tang Clan member Cappadonna and newcomer Cam'ron, brought several police officers onto the stage. Rhymes would not let the incident go without comment. "The last thing I'm tolerating is disrespect at my show," the shirtless, dreadlocked rapper told the crowd when he reappeared on stage. No one was injured in the fight. Rhymes delivered a powerful performance that brought the audience to its feet. He performed all his hits, including the recent Billboard top-10 single "Dangerous." Though no official attendance was available, the 900-seat theater was nearly full. -- Edward Sherwin and Maureen Tkacik