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 Dean Richard Beeman announced that he was looking into overhauling the College'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, largely among party lines. -- Frank Cho