1999 Year in Review:

Officials announced that the 35 employees of the Faculty Club could not be guaranteed employment once management of the facility was handed over to an outside company operating the Inn at Penn. The University eventually reached an agreement with DoubleTree Hotels to rehire at least 70 percent of the full-time workers. But the union still was not happy, and continues to protest the move to this day. The Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity was placed on a semester of social probation and two semesters of standard probation after a rush event at a New Jersey bowling alley. Rushees and brothers allegedly brought five kegs of beer and stole hundreds of bowling balls, pins and shoes. Controversial civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton spoke to an audience in Meyerson Hall about the value of working to make a difference in the world. The University inaugurated its Digital Media Design major, combining technology, graphic art and media studies in an interdisciplinary program aimed at preparing students for a career in the computer industry. And College Dean Richard Beeman announced that he was looking into overhauling the school's General Requirements. In an indication of the increasing popularity of the University among high school seniors, the Admissions Office received a record 17,514 applications, up 6 percent from the previous year's numbers. But the news in the outside world was dominated by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, finally culminating after a year of controversy with the impeachment trial of President William Jefferson Clinton in the U.S. Senate. House prosecutors demanded his removal from office, but the month-long trial ended in the president's acquittal, the vote failing largely among party lines. -- Frank Cho December As the fall semester drew to a close, the University began to embark on its journey to the 21st century. The School of Arts and Sciences took the first step towards overhauling its core curriculum, approved an experimental set of requirements that will be implemented next fall and could be expanded to the entire College in five years. The pilot program overhauls the current General Requirement from 10 narrowly focused classes to four broader, interdisciplinary categories of classes: "Structure and Value in Human Societies," "Science, Culture and Society," "Earth, Space and Life" and "Imagination, Representation and Reality." The September death of Jesse Gelsinger while he was enrolled in a Penn gene therapy experiment continued to draw national headlines. U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials alleged several improprieties during the study, run by Penn scientist James M. Wilson and several colleagues. At a special conference at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., Penn researchers admitted some lapses in communication but vigorously defended including Gelsinger in the study. Graduate students living in Mayer Hall were upset to learn that the residence would become all-undergraduate next year. Though officials changed their minds and are allowing them to live there for two more years, students remain upset that they cannot stay for the duration of their studies. As students celebrated the holiday season with Winterfest '99, Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam livened up the campus while a variety of campus performing arts groups provided holiday cheer. And students prepared to take their final exams of the century, before returning home to ring in the new millennium. Penn officials promise that the campus is ready to face the Y2K computer bug. --EEric Dash