Comm. to weigh facilities usage

Planning to hold a big event on campus? It's not going to be as easy as it once was. All requests for holding major campus events or using large University venue must now undergo scrutiny by a committee of senior University administrators, officials announced in late-March The decision came less than a month after the March 1 shooting outside the Palestra that killed one person and injured three -- including a University student -- following the School District of Philadelphia's Public League basketball championship game. Although police officials do not believe the shooting was directly related to the basketball game, University administrators came under criticism for agreeing to host the event, since gunfire had also been reported after the previous year's game. No one was reported injured that year. In the wake of the shooting, University officials pledged to review Penn's facilities-usage policies. According to a March 30 memo from University President Judith Rodin, the committee is being formed to "help make wise decisions in the future about requests to schedule events in campus facilities." "We want to make certain that the events Penn does decide to sponsor go off as well as they possibly can," University spokesperson Ken Wildes said. Officials hope the committee will help the University better prepare for major events, whether it be adding extra security or addressing public-relations concerns. It is still too soon to decide where to hold the basketball tournament next year, a School District of Philadelphia spokesperson said. And Wildes said the University has not made a decision about whether it would host the game next year. A recent Daily Pennsylvanian survey of 153 random undergraduates found that 57 percent of students believe Penn should not offer the use of the Palestra for the 1999 game. The poll had an 8 percent margin of error. Thirty-six percent of those surveyed said Penn should host the event next year, while 7 percent were not sure. While Wildes called the shootings a "factor" in the decision to appoint a committee to review facilities uses, he said officials have been trying to formulate such an approval process for more than a year. The committee will also look at many other considerations besides safety. "Safety and security is an issue," he said, but not the only one. The memo says that events must be brought up before the committee if they have "significant public safety or security dimensions, significant open expression implications, significant public relations challenges or opportunities, the potential to attract a particularly large University audience [or] the potential to attract a particularly large external audience." For instance, events featuring major guests such as last fall's visits by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin would go through the committee. Also, events at the University's major venues including the Palestra, Irvine Auditorium and Zellerbach Auditorium will have to pass the group's muster. A formal procedure for handling events is difficult to implement, Wildes said, because the University is very decentralized. Each of the 12 schools operates for a large part on its own, and until now there was no formal or informal process for groups to consult officials before using University space. In her memo, Rodin stated that the committee will not "reject any event based on the anticipated content of speech at the event." The committee is comprised of Vice President for Facilities Services and Contract Management Omar Blaik; Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum; University General Counsel Shelley Green; Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Carol Scheman; Rodin's Chief of Staff Steve Schutt; Managing Director of Public Safety Tom Seamon and Wildes. The group is a subcommittee of the Senior Planning Group, a committee that includes all University vice presidents and department heads and reports directly to Rodin.

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