After 2 hours,group leaders sit down with Gutmann

Three members of the group protesting police treatment of minorities met with President Amy Gutmann, Interim Provost Peter Conn and Chaplain William Gipson yesterday at College Hall, which produced three concrete decisions but did not specifically meet the students' demands.

From the meeting came the creation of an advisory committee led by Conn, a Penn Police report on last month's mistaken arrest of College sophomore Warith Deen Madyun and a forthcoming statement from Gutmann. The group of mainly-student protesters and administrators said they left the meeting satisfied.

The episode with Madyun occurred on Nov. 21, when he was mistakenly taken by Penn Police as a suspect in a cell phone theft. He claims that the officers exercised excessive violence against him.

Conn will convene an ad hoc committee composed of students, senior staff and faculty to "develop concrete recommendations going forward" with regards to Penn Police and issues of race.

The proposals brought forth from this committee could result in improved communication with the student body or the creation of a new office.

"The president would like to see some action fairly rapidly," Conn said, noting that the committee could be convened within the week.

Madyun, College sophomore Ibraheem Basir and College junior Elizabeth Curtis-Bey had four demands going into the meeting -- an independent investigation of the Nov. 21 incident, a large community forum to address race relations, an acknowledgement that racial profiling and police brutality are problems on campus and a formal apology to all black males.

Though none of these specific demands were agreed to at the meeting, participants were pleased that their concerns were heard and being addressed.

"One of the reasons for the president to ask the provost to take it on," Conn added, "is to suggest that as the chief academic officer, this is pretty high on the University's agenda."

Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush, who will likely sit on the ad hoc committee, said that it will not be specifically focused on racial profiling. Unlike the committee assembled last year in response to the arrest of Spruce College House Associate Faculty Master Rui DaSilva, -- who was pepper-sprayed and wrongfully arrested in the Quadrangle -- this committee will have a broader focus.

"This is an ad hoc committee that is bringing students to the table to find out what their concerns are broadly," Rush said.

The investigation of the incident cannot, by Penn Police union rules, be performed by an independent investigator, but Conn said that it is "moving expeditiously." When it is completed it will be sent to Rush and potentially to the Division of Public Safety Advisory Board before being made public.

Gutmann also agreed to issue a statement in response to the incident. She is working on the document now, and its exact contents are unknown. Madyun said that Gutmann gave him "a very sincere apology."

Instead of a large community forum, Conn said that "more local, well managed, targeted venues in which these conversations could go on" would be a more viable possibility.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.