U. Council discusses Public Safety, minority issues

With Sunday's death of a University alumnus outside the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house casting a pall over its meeting, University Council met yesterday to discuss library renovations, minority affairs and Public Safety issues. University President Judith Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi opened the session with messages of condolence for the family of 26-year-old Michael Tobin, the 1994 College graduate who fell down an outdoor stairwell to his death at the FIJI fraternity house early Sunday morning. Both stressed the need for a continued investigation of alcohol abuse at Penn and new measures to prevent alcohol-related incidents. During the meeting, Barchi talked about the funding and future renovations of the Rosengarten Reserve section of Van Pelt Library. He announced plans for the work to begin this summer, but added that plans for the proposed cybercafe would be postponed until next summer. Vice President for Public Safety Tom Seamon gave a three-part report on campus safety issues. Seamon addressed concerns presented at Council's open forum meeting in December and presented the Division of Public Safety's responses. Seamon also clarified the division's policies regarding the arrests of Penn affiliates and any notification of an arrest. He gave statistics on the number of arrests made by University Police in 1998 -- of the 571 arrests, 42 were University students and 14 were employees. As of yesterday, University Police had made 99 arrests so far this year, with only six of those being of University employees. In the final part of his presentation, Seamon announced the numbers of minorities employed by the division. Since September of last year, the division has had 38.8 percent minority representation among its staff members and 22.2 percent minority representation among supervisory and professional positions. Following the report, Graduate and Professional Student Association Chairperson Doug Hagan, a second-year Wharton graduate student, presented the findings of GAPSA's recent survey of graduate living conditions. And Biochemistry Professor Phoebe Leboy then explained statistics concerning minority recruitment and retention at the University. She outlined Council's report in this week's Almanac -- the University's journal of record -- and cited various statistics on the number of minority faculty and students at Penn. "I had hoped to get across some more specific problems" of minority retention at Penn, Leboy said. University Council is composed of a group of 92 faculty, staff and students that meets monthly to advise the administration on issues of concern to the Penn community. After Council's meeting last night, the United Minorities Council and Student Retention Committee met with representatives of Penn's minority community to talk about retention issues and grievances, most notably financial aid. "We have to show force and show up," College junior and UMC Political Chairperson Daniel Cherry said. "We as students need to put the word out there."