As the Capitol and its satellite office buildings close in response to anthrax contamination, some Penn students have found themselves temporarily out of work.
Yesterday, 31 Senate employees tested positive for anthrax, while hundreds others lined up to be screened. The entire House of Representatives will shut down today, and will remain closed through the weekend for testing.
Of the 15 Penn students who are currently part of the Political Science Department's Washington Semester program, University officials say that at least six work in or around the Capitol.
According to Kathryn Tenpas, the director of the Washington Semester program, no students have reported that they were exposed to anthrax.
"No one's said, 'Gosh, I'm going to go take Cipro,'" Tenpas said.
But some students said there is still a heightened anxiety within congressional offices.
"There wasn't real panic or anything, but if there's more reports that it's spreading then we'll get tested," said a student who works in the office of a member of the House, asking not to be identified.
Several of these students left work early yesterday as members of Congress closed their offices.
College junior Sarah Rackoff works in the office of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), which was one of several dozen offices that closed on Monday. After tests determined that a letter opened in the office of Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle on Monday contained a potent strain of anthrax, all proximate Hart Senate Office Building offices closed.
Junior Mahendra Prasad, who works in the office of Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.), said that Ford's chief of staff called a meeting yesterday advising all staff on heightened safety precautions before dismissing them early.
Washington Semester students generally work three days a week in their respective offices, and take classes the other two days. Like students on Penn's campus, they are also knee-deep in midterms.
And some students said they feel that with the added stress of the anthrax scare, the University should be doing more to support its Washington-based students.
"The President's Office and Political Science Department have sort of forgotten that they have students on Capitol Hill," College junior Kirk Freeman said.
Freeman said that neither University President Judith Rodin nor anyone from the Political Science Department made the effort "even to say 'hang in there.'"
But Tenpas said that, aside from an informal meeting of all Washington Semester students on the evening following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the students have not sought emotional support from their Penn contacts in Washington.
"I think there's a lot of feeling like they don't want this to interrupt their experience in Washington," Tenpas said.
And while investigators test the buildings for the bacteria that cause anthrax, the House has announced that it will cease its sessions until Tuesday.
While anthrax spores have not been detected in the ventilation systems of the Capitol Hill office buildings, they have been detected in a Senate mail room, putting all mail intake and sorting on hold.
And since much of student interns' responsibilities involve the handling of mail, some said that they have found themselves with little to do now.
The mail "occupied most of our day before," another student who works for a member of the House of Representatives said.
"They were even joking, when the mail stopped coming, that we'd get to go home," the student added.
