Council to debate vending at last meeting of the year

The signs of the school year's end are apparent campus-wide. Final exams are rapidly approaching, College Green is blanketed with afternoon study groups and today, University Council will hold its last meeting of the academic year. Council, which began the year with the controversy over outsourcing, will also end the year on a point of contention -- the controversial, Penn administration-backed vending ordinance that is expected to be passed by Philadelphia City Council tomorrow. As a result of a petition signed by a quarter of Council members, the University will hold a special session after the meeting to "exercise its deliberative and advisory role" with regard to the bill, which would ban food trucks and carts from most streets and sidewalks on and around campus. Separately, the University has promised to build five food plazas around campus to hold 45 of the vendors displaced by the bill's enactment. More than 90 vendors currently operate at Penn. Three speakers will present their views to Council, including English graduate student Matt Ruben, spokesperson for the Penn Consumer Alliance -- one of the ad hoc groups created to oppose the ordinance. Ruben will be joined by a representative of the administration and of a local community group, though more details were not available. Council rules prohibit any vendors from speaking on the issue, Ruben said. At the last special session of Council in November, members voted against the University's plan to outsource facilities management to Trammell Crow Co. -- a recommendation ultimately rejected by the University's Board of Trustees, which approved the deal. Resigned to the fact that the vending ordinance was all but assured of passage, Ruben said he hoped that the bill's opponents could at least "draw some lessons from this year-long struggle." Members of the PCA and the University City Vendors Alliance had hoped for an open forum on the vending issue. Ruben said they accepted the Council hearing after the administration refused their initial request. Council will also be wrapping up the year with the final reports of several of its committees. The final report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Consultation -- released March 31 -- will be discussed. The committee, which met for the first time February 16, is chaired by Law Professor Howard Lesnick. The report calls for Council to implement changes in the consultation process to allow students, faculty members and staff to give input on the University administration's decisions. Student, faculty and staff groups in the past have complained about not being consulted on issues such as outsourcing and vending regulations. The Committee on Pluralism, chaired by English Professor Eric Cheyfitz, will discuss its report, released yesterday, dealing with the status of Asian Americans on campus. Its recommendations include the University's hiring of several Asian-American professors and support staff and the creation of an Asian-American Resource Center. Council's committees on recreation and intercollegiate athletics and on safety and security will also discuss their closing reports. Both the Council meeting and special session will be held in the Quadrangle's McClelland Hall. The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. and the special session will begin at 5:45 p.m.

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