Year in Review 1998

APRIL And this year, neither Passover nor the Medical College Admission Test could prevent Penn students from taking advantage of the mostly-great weather and Fling's most renowned activity -- partying. Tenor saxophone legend Maceo Parker headlined the Friday night concert -- which was moved from Hill Field to inside the Palestra due to predictions of inclement weather. April was the "cruelest month" indeed for the over 90 vendors whose food trucks and carts decorated Penn's campus. After a year-long fight, City Council passed a Penn-backed ordinance that limited them to certain locations on campus and kept them off such main stretches as Walnut Street. Phi Sigma Kappa brothers also found themselves being evicted from their longtime home. The fraternity's charter was revoked after kegs were found in its house and a link to a pornographic World Wide Web site was discovered on its Web site. Early in the month, the campus was buzzing with politics -- Penn politics, that is. With unusually high voter turnout, nine of the 12 incumbent Undergraduate Assembly candidates were re-elected, while at least 16 of the 23 winners were Greeks. The election also saw the invalidation of a referendum seeking to reverse a controversial UA resolution that gave $30,000 to the InterFraternity Council to hold campus-wide non-alcoholic events. In March, the allocation of the funds by the Greek-controlled UA to the IFC raised some protest from Student Activities Council-affiliated student groups. Penn accepted just 4,837 of 16,651 people who applied for undergraduate admission -- a 29 percent acceptance rate, making the Class of 2002 the most selective ever. Students were entertained and provoked by, among others, Conan O'Brien and Anita Hill. O'Brien, of late-night TV talk show fame, spoke for more than two hours, playfully fielding questions and showing video clips of his career, while Hill told her side of the infamous sexual harassment allegations against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Perhaps the biggest event of them all, the Penn Relays, the world's largest track meet, is an annual Franklin Field occasion in April. This year's Relays featured 1996 Olympics double gold medalist and world record holder Michael Johnson, among others. And hip-hop star Busta Rhymes performed to a packed crowd in the annual Relays concert. Late in the month, officials announced the renovation of Gimbel Gymnasium, made possible by a $500,000 donation from Penn parents Ellen and Howard Katz. And the University mourned the death of Vice President for Business Services Steve Murray, 51, a 25-year veteran of the University who succumbed to a long battle with cancer. -- Eric Tucker