Though the college-aged demographic is usually not a major target for politicians, both of the city's front-running mayoral candidates made a visit to campus yesterday to solicit student support.
Philadelphia Mayor John Street and Republican mayoral candidate Sam Katz spoke in a non-partisan forum held in Irvine Auditorium last night, drawing an audience of hundreds.
Both Street and Katz were allowed 15 minutes to speak and 15 minutes to answer questions. The event was mediated by Political Science Professor John DiIulio.
However, incumbent candidate Street, who was scheduled to speak first, arrived late, leaving little time to respond to students' inquiries.
"It was a problem that Street got here so late that he could only answer one question," College freshman Lynn Haimowitz said.
John Staggs, who is running for mayor on the Socialist Workers Party ticket, also attended the event, but was not slotted to speak.
After excusing his tardiness due to a "pit stop," Street touched on five major points of his re-election campaign. These included focusing on the development of Center City while continuing to improve neighborhoods, fostering a competitive economic environment, building more schools, creating more market rate housing options and accelerating job creation.
Following Street, Katz spoke of the need for Philadelphia to become a "21st Century city."
Specifically noting the city's failure to participate fully in the "knowledge revolution" of the 1990s, Katz stressed that Philadelphia should focus on developing high-tech businesses, especially those involving medical research and biotechnology.
"Philadelphia can lead in life sciences," he said. "We can't let [a] lack of management or leadership undercut" the city's potential.
In order to foster such progress, he suggested plans to lower the city wage tax and reduce medical malpractice premiums in order to retain professionals in the city.
Katz fielded questions regarding his Republican partisanship and how it might influence Philadelphia voters' sway in the 2004 presidential election.
"I doubt that when a person goes to vote in 2004 for the president that before they push the button, they will ask themselves, 'What does Sam Katz want me to do?'" he responded.
Katz also affirmed his support for public school Chief Executive Officer Paul Vallas' plan for improving the city's public education system, which was privatized as a result of low performance.
Both candidates extolled Philadelphia as an ideal location for young people. Street stressed the importance of retaining students by making Philadelphia "more than a college town, but a place where college students live."
Katz echoed this, and repeatedly addressed the need for those of the "creative class" -- young people pursuing higher education -- to ground their entrepreneurial efforts in Philadelphia.
Some students were not impressed with the candidates' student-focused speeches, though.
"My opinion of this was that it was focused too much on what they would be doing for college students and not on the entire spectrum," Drexel University freshman Shreyansh Shah said.
Although the crowd seemed to be dominated by Katz supporters -- made visible by the "Students for Katz" T-shirts and buttons that the College Republicans were distributing -- Street proponents attended the event as well.
"A lot of the things Katz talked about, Street has done already," Drexel junior Michelle Freeman said. "A lot of change has been made."
Others said they found Street's speech to be too self-serving.
"A couple things Street talked about have no direct correlation with him," Drexel junior Cersi Asare said. "Just because he is mayor doesn't mean he causes everything to happen."
The forum was a collaborative effort among several student organizations -- including Penn Rock the Vote, the College Democrats, the College Republicans, Penn Forum and the Fox Leadership Program.
"I think it went very well," said College junior Erin Wilson, who chairs Penn Rock the Vote and is a coordinator of Philadelphia Rock the Vote. "I am very happy with the attendance."
The crowd included not just students from Penn, but also those from a number of campuses in the Philadelphia region, such as Drexel, Temple, St. Joseph's, Villanova and La Salle universities.
