U. seeks to improve ties to community

Ask many West Philadelphia residents their opinion of the University, and you will quickly see their faces cloud over with anger at a veritable laundry list of Penn misdeeds from the past few decades. Older residents still smolder with anger over the University's purchase and demolition of several blocks of row houses to build what would later be known as Superblock, a slight almost 30 years old. Younger residents, meanwhile, often accuse Penn of using its considerable political clout to push an agenda at odds with neighborhood wishes, pointing to issues like the University's support of a controversial bill restricting vending in the area. Indeed, as the University pursued policies residents viewed either as misguided or as racist, few have had any reason to change their views of Penn as a selfish, callous bully. Until now. In recent months, administrators have unveiled a slew of new initiatives designed to strengthen the surrounding community -- and begin to repair the damage caused by years of often-hostile relations with the University. Taken together, the initiatives -- offering financial incentives to faculty and staff choosing to live in the area, housing a public library in a Penn-owned building and teaming with the city to create a new area public school -- amount to a veritable sea change in Penn's attitude toward, and cooperation with, the community. And although the plans may not match the glamour of the recently opened Sansom Common or the renovated Gimbel Gymnasium, few things are likely to be as important to the University's long-term success. On June 18, University President Judith Rodin announced that Penn would join with the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers to establish a new University-assisted public school for the neighborhood. The new school, which will be located at 42nd and Spruce streets, will include grades pre-K to eighth and is scheduled to open no later than September 2001. Penn officials hope the school will remedy what has long been a huge obstacle to their efforts to convince employees and faculty members to live in the area -- the poor quality of the neighborhood's public schools. While the District will pay for the construction of the school, the University has promised to contribute $1,000 per student each year. The estimated annual total is about $700,000. Enrollment in the school will be open to anyone who lives in the area, according to Carol Scheman, Penn's vice president for government, community and public affairs. While the exact area will be defined by the school district, Philadelphia Superintendent of Schools David Hornbeck estimated in June that the boundaries for this area will be 40th Street, 49th and Market streets and Baltimore Avenue. Graduate School of Education Dean Susan Fuhrman explained that the school will be a demonstration school, making it exempt from the hiring requirements of teachers' contracts with the school district. Normally, teachers are able to choose their school assignment based on their seniority. The exemption will allow parents, teachers and the University to have control over hiring, budgeting, curriculum and the staff. In addition to the new school, the University has also agreed to relocate the Carver High School for Engineering and Science to the corner of 38th and Market streets. Currently located at 17th and Norris streets, the school is overcrowded and in run-down quarters. Penn will fund the construction of the new Carver building and will support its operation. The University also announced that as part of the school district's "Children Achieving" initiative, it will take on the leadership responsibility for two Cluster Resource Boards that serve West Philadelphia. Fuhrman will head the cluster board for West Philadelphia while Urban Studies Professor Ira Harkavy, the director of the Center for Community Partnerships, will lead the University City cluster board. The University's attempts to improve relations with the community are not encompassed by the school projects alone. In February, the University announced that it would rent the former Student Employment Office, located at 3927 Walnut Street, to the Free Library for $1 a year. The Walnut Street West Branch of the library was forced to close two years ago when electricians hired to install computer wiring at its 40th and Walnut streets location found the 90-year-old building's foundation was structurally unsound. Several engineering firms estimated renovation costs to be more than $6 million, leading the Free Library officials to announce, despite lobbying from community groups, in May that the library would not reopen. In addition to renting the library its current location for the next few years, the University will also help the library find a permanent site for a full service branch. The old Acme supermarket at 43rd and Locust streets and a chapel on the grounds of a former divinity school at 42nd and Spruce streets are being looked at as possible sites for a permanent location for the library. Penn's community initiatives have also been designed to stop faculty members and staff from leaving University City when they leave work for the day. The Home Ownership Incentive Program, modeled on a successful program at Yale University, offers Penn faculty and staff who buy homes in University City and agree to live in them for at least seven years with either $3,000 per year for seven years or $15,000 up front to defray housing costs. Penn's Home Improvement Loan Program allows those who already own homes in the area to get up to $7,500 in matching funds for exterior home improvements. Additionally, the University announced a plan that, in association with Commerce Bank, offers "120 percent loans" to faculty and staff seeking to buy homes in the area. The loans provide 100 percent of the purchase price, 15 percent of the total costs of housing rehabilitation and five percent for closing costs, the expenses incurred in transferring ownership of property. Daily Pennsylvanian staff writers Seth Grossman, Eric Lomazoff, Laura McClure and Ginny Dorsey contributed to this article.