CHEERS
To President Judith Rodin, for presiding over 10 years of growth and achievement at Penn. During her tenure, Rodin took the University to a new level. She will be missed.
To the University, for finalizing its purchase of the postal lands. In doing so, it has secured the future of Penn's campus and opened the door for an incredible amount of development further down the road.
To the University, for its efforts in bringing so many of the Philadelphia Film Festival's movies to the Bridge: Cinema de Lux. Hopefully, this year's successes will be repeated next year.
To the University, for selecting Bono as this year's Commencement speaker. Between his fame as a musician and his noble work fighting AIDS, Bono is a choice that almost everybody will enjoy hearing.
To the women's basketball team, the women's fencing team and the women's gymnastics team, all of whom won championships this year. Also, to Penn students Brian Chaput and Shani Boston for their success at the Penn Relays.
To the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, for continuing to recruit and support Penn students in their efforts to win prestigious grants, awards and scholarships.
To Qdoba and the Metropolitan Bakery, for successfully opening and contributing to the growing array of cuisine choices in University City.
JEERS
To the University, for not funding Facilities Services at nearly the level it needs. Its restricted budget and overwhelming workload has led to a quality of life for undergraduates that has been, at times, very strained.
To the University, for the way it handled the incident involving Rui DaSilva. Turning the investigation over to a committee and releasing a report that largely ignores the incident left many questions unanswered.
To the Athletic Department, for not offering Penn students any sort of discount on ticket prices for the main events at the Penn Relays. While the Relays saw record numbers of attendance this year, Penn students were few and far between.
To the Undergraduate Assembly, for having a closed-door session during its executive elections. Even if students supported the referendum that allowed it to do this, the fact remains that the UA said it would not use that option and then did.
To the city of Philadelphia, for its handling of The Real World situation. While the conflict appears to be resolved at this point, there should never have been that level of disruption in the first place.
To the Marathon Grill, for still not being open. While it finally appears to be making progress toward a summer opening, it should have opened a long time ago.
