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(02/08/00 10:00am)
As Bergin O'Malley trudged through the snow on a cold January day, she realized why the majority of young voters were at home in front of their televisions instead of standing next to her, waving colorful campaign posters at passersby. "The whole time I was thinking, 'Is this how we get our votes? How will this make a difference?'" the Columbia junior said, reflecting back on her New Hampshire experience volunteering for the Bill Bradley campaign. O'Malley is not alone in her revelation. Many college students across the country are trying to make their voices heard and get their peers involved. And many others say they don't care at all about who moves into the White House next year. With the first presidential election of the century looming on the horizon, students, organizations and political candidates alike are struggling to mobilize what have historically been apathetic young voters. As Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain fight for the bid of the Republican Party, and Vice President Al Gore competes with former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley for the Democratic slot, many of America's students have only been watching the races from the comfort of their own homes. But while the candidates don't always agree on lowering taxes or subsidizing college education, they are all working to get young people off their couches and into the voting booths. "There are 25 million 18-24 year olds in this nation," said Andrea Jones, national youth coordinator for McCain 2000. "If they decided collectively, they could choose a candidate together and have that candidate win." It was just decades ago that college campuses were characterized as bastions of political involvement. The universities of the 1960s saw riots, sit-ins, peaceful protests and tear gassings with an eerie regularity. But since then, voter participation among 18-to-24 year olds has been steadily and significantly declining. In the 1996 presidential election, according to the coalition group Youth Vote 2000, less than one-sixth of the eligible voters in the 18-to-24 age range actually voted. And in 1998, only 15 percent of young people showed up at the polls on election day. Experts claim youth turnout is so low because politicians fail to address issues that affect young voters or to campaign through media outlets, like MTV or Cosmopolitan, that are geared toward young people. "Youth don't vote because they don't think the candidates care about them," Youth Vote 2000 spokesman John Dervin said, adding that in return, "The candidates don't target them because they don't vote." "At some point somebody needs to step forward to break this cycle," he added. This failure to communicate often means candidates do not relate issues to college students' lives, losing the interest of many potential young voters. "Perspective is key," explained Aili Langseth, youth inclusion director of Project Vote Smart, an organization designed to educate voters. "When politicians talk about the economy they usually talk about Social Security or today's prosperity," she said. "But students don't look at the economy that way. They look to see if there are going to be jobs for them when they graduate." Other experts say the problem lies not only in the message, but in the medium. Young voters feel alienated simply because candidates do not transmit their messages through youth-oriented media outlets, said Richard Thau, president of Third Millennium -- a group that aims to inspire young people to get politically involved. "What you need are ads running on the WB and Fox. You need to be putting a lot of banner ads on Internet sites that target teens," he said. Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of Southern Florida, said politicians have underestimated the power of the Internet as a way to reach young voters. "All the candidates have finally realized that this is not something you can put number five" on the priority list, she said. But, as several students and experts said, perhaps the entire process of democracy just is not suited to students' mobile lifestyles. Ryan Hayden, a sophomore at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California, recalled that last week a fellow student could not register to vote because it would jeopardize his residency status in his home state. "[He] found out that if [he] registered in California? he would have to get new license plates for his car at home," Hayden said. "The political process isn't suited for college students who move around frequently," he added. In light of these challenges, several groups are trying to convince students that, in the end, their involvement matters. One such organization, Youth Vote 2000, has brought together about 51 national organizations to prove, as their spokesman said, that "youth do care." The coalition has sponsored youth training conventions in New Hampshire and Iowa designed to teach students how to discuss issues with candidates, increase political activity at their colleges and, above all, make their voices heard, Dervin said. Neglection 2000, a project sponsored by Third Millennium, has taken a somewhat different approach. Thau said his group is trying to make the candidates use their campaign funds to target all voters, rather than just those who historically vote. "If one of the parties made a $10 million contribution to youth for the next few years, they'd see an immediate response," Dervin agreed. With New Hampshire and Iowa behind them and the Super Tuesday primaries fast approaching, the presidential frontrunners are developing strategies to get young voters in their headquarters for the final campaign stretch. All four candidates have Web sites designed to aid student volunteers in creating a campus movement to support their candidate of choice -- which, students say, are effective. "It's easy to start a group at any campus," O'Malley explained. "When I wanted to start a Bradley group at Columbia, all I had to do was go to his Web site, download a kit and follow the instructions." McCain's volunteers will be co-sponsoring voter registration "derby days" with college fraternities and sororities nationwide, pitting the greek organizations against each other in a contest to register voters, Jones said. While Gore's campaign will also challenge schools to sign up voters through a similar competition -- grouping schools by athletic conference -- Students for Gore coordinator Allison Friedman said that is not all Gore wants from young people. "We've had students in Iowa and New Hampshire canvassing, making phone calls and acting as field organizers," she said. But, in the end, it is unclear whether the candidates are doing what it takes to captivate the younger generation. Karl Von Vorys, a Penn Political Science professor, said the presidential campaigns simply are not idealistic enough to make America's youth care. "Young people like to get involved with causes -- and this is not a cause," he explained, adding that the race's lack of idealism has kept candidates from successfully reaching young voters. Regardless of organizational sway or candidates' efforts at getting young people involved, it is the students themselves that have to prove to the candidates that they are willing to get out and vote. At Penn, students have formed official student groups supporting Bush, Gore, Bradley and McCain. As part of their campaign push, each group sent supporters to volunteer at the New Hampshire primaries. College junior Beth Harkavy, one of several Penn students who traveled to the primaries to support Bradley, said the most memorable part of the weekend was spending the night in a New England Boys and Girls Club. "There were like 500 kids, and we were all crowded together in our sleeping bags," she said. "There was so much enthusiasm and spirit." That kind of energy is exactly what many politically active students, including those at Penn, want to share with their peers. College senior Patrick Ruffini, leader of Penn Students for Bush, said his group will set up a voter registration table on Locust Walk in the coming months to help with voter registration and absentee ballots. The other groups are planning similar drives. "During the fall, groups [on Locust Walk] registered more than 700 voters for the mayoral election," said Harkavy, who also helped campaign for Mayor John Street. "The mayoral election was close -- those votes mattered." And the groups provide more than just voter registration forms. They are all devoted to educating the student body about their candidates. According to College sophomore Matthew Oresman, co-chair of Bill Bradley for President at Penn, these efforts do have an impact. "The first day we were tabling for Bradley we had a girl who had formerly voted Republican come up to me and ask me why she should vote for Bill Bradley," Oresman recalled. "And we sat there and talked about it for a long time. That happens a lot. Now she comes to a lot of political events to support Bradley," he added. The success of these students will not truly be apparent until November when the effect of the youth vote -- which Ruffini has dubbed the "sleeping giant" of the upcoming election -- can accurately be assessed. "When we do come out, we can make our voices heard and really surprise people," he promised.
(02/08/00 10:00am)
From Alan Lowinger's, "The Rest of the Story," Fall '00 From Alan Lowinger's, "The Rest of the Story," Fall '00Sometimes I really long to be a kid again. Amid work obligations, response papers and haphazard social networks, the college experience can be very trying. Then, one day, puberty happened. Hormones magically changed a short and chubby boy to a tall, lanky and awkward boy with a single facial hair. And thus started my downfall. Cootie-phobia was eradicated by the onset of sexual desire. At that age, millions of barely teens like myself started on a bumpy ride in the pursuit of a love that we really weren't sure existed (but blindly chased anyway). The segue was subtle. Grade school Valentine's Day card exchanges were the method of choice for shy young ones itchin' for love -- a great introduction to the ups and downs of courtship. And then, at some point, we realized that such feelings could not be confined to one day of the year. That said, today marks the six-day countdown to that most useless day in the world: Valentine's Day. The significance of the day goes back to Roman rituals directed toward a marriage goddess and a god who protected shepherds. I don't know about you, but the idea of pairing sheep and love is something I'll leave to all the pledges out there. And guess what? The holiday was held on February 14 then, and it's on February 14 now. And that's not all. As Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire, a patron saint came around to save this day. Turns out, a priest by the name of Valentine (actually there were seven Valentines whose legends were put together into one collective saint) married people in secret during a time when marriage was illegal. He was subsequently beaten to death on -- yep, you guessed it -- February 14. I accept days like Mother's Day or Father's Day that are dedicated to parents, for they are the unsung heroes of our lives. Completely oblivious to anything outside of my kiddy-world, could I really appreciate the undying and unending care that my parents gave me over the years? I also accept other days such as Veteran's Day or Memorial Day. They make us reflect upon the sacrifices of the many who gave their lives for this country, despite its loss of patriotism. That rare breed of loyal Americans ready to die for their country is another unsung hero, worthy of our appreciation. And then there's Valentine's Day. A day for love -- a day to show your significant other your undying appreciation. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't that day called an "anniversary?" What better day to shower your loved one with affectionate reminders of love than an anniversary. A day with significance that is both real and extremely personal to both parties involved. From my own experience, I have heard of more break-ups than romantic hook-ups occurring on Valentine's Day. Maybe it's just the cold weather. Or could it be that people are wising up to the day's ultimate lack of substance? Old tradition and modern commercialization work to pressure people into trying to gift wrap their emotions in costly bow and lace. But exchanging objects that display one's love is not the same as actually being in love. And there is no better day to realize that than on Valentine's Day. Thus, the faults of the mass "day of love" is clear. Those who aren't in love feel at a loss -- and those who are don't need the day in the first place. Keep the momentous displays of affection to the anniversaries, birthdays and other important dates. As the days count down to Valentine's Day, resist the urge to show someone you care with useless gold-plated trinkets or overpriced chocolate-covered flowers. Forget about the reservations at Le Bec-Fin or Billybob. Love, in all its wonder and complexity, is daily, not annual. If anyone tells you otherwise, that someone is just trying to make money off your attempts to do what you feel is right. So ignore their claims. St. Valentine would be proud. Having a Valentine's Day is random, useless and outdated. If we collectively need to be reminded to love, then I say it ain't love in the first place.
(02/03/00 10:00am)
From Siona Listokin's, "Think Different," Fall '00 From Siona Listokin's, "Think Different," Fall '00Penn sex is alive and well. At least it is for alumni. Dan Gluck and Alison Maddex, graduates of the Graduate School of Fine Arts, are spearheading the effort to build the Museum of Sex on New York's Fifth Avenue. The stated purpose of the Museum of Sex (MoSex?) is to serve as a center for the study of "the history and evolution of human sexuality." The museum will examine how sex has invaded our culture, from politics to art to movies. I am interested in what sort of special exhibits the Museum of Sex will have. Perhaps "Adam and Eve: The Sexual Avant-Garde of Their Generation" and a permanent collection dedicated to Michael Douglas' female problems on film. Dare I joke about a hands-on exhibit for the kids? Certainly the museum's panel of sex experts will manage to entice tourists and New York natives with something educational. The New York State Board of Regents -- the group in charge of non-profit cultural institutions -- declined to offer support to the museum, expressing concern that the name "Museum of Sex" made a mockery of the institution of museums. I wonder, though, if anyone will express concern that the institution of sex will be denigrated by its association with the term "museum." Whether and what the Museum of Sex threatens to belittle matters, since it appears that the museum will be opening its doors to an eager and amused public within five years. More interesting than its title is the museum's mission. An in-depth look at the history of sex is promised but may be muddled by a more marketable look at sex in popular culture. Gluck and Maddex insist they do not intend the museum to be a collection of oddities or a mockery of anything, but rather a "Smithsonian of Sex." Their proposal for a legitimate resource center for sex studies are made suspect, however, by the museum's planned public relations campaign. Gluck has said that what he wants most for his collection is to acquire Monica Lewinsky's famously stained dress. The Museum of Sex's Web site is equally subtle: a black background greets browsers, followed by a quick succession of exploding sex, SEX, Sex!, sex. An image of the absurd reality of the museum opening is created. Enlightened intellectuals, horny teenagers and New York socialites will be herded through the museum doors with the expectation of discovery. (Sounds eerily like a sorority rush event.) What they will learn about is how sex is portrayed through the eyes of history's artists, writers and directors. They will leave the museum thinking they have learned about sex itself. The prospect of our educated masses mistaking sexual portrayals for reality is unfortunate, but hardly new. We have all grown up with graphic movies and explicit prime-time TV. So why should we be surprised when a teen magazine offers tips to "Make Your Valentine's Day (and Night) Movie Perfect?" We are so tuned in to TV's notion of sex that we try to emulate circumstances, music and mood in our exploits of everyday life. I have heard a group of girls argue over the best sex scene in a movie with a passion that should be reserved for, umm, other things. Seventh graders spend educational slumber parties in front of the TV, watching every variation of the filmed kiss in order to figure out what goes where, when. And so every kiss is compared to Hollywood's pretty people procreating in picture-perfect form. Gluck and Maddex want to build a museum that examines how sex has pervaded our culture. Perhaps they should focus on how culture has invaded sex. As it is now being presented, the Museum of Sex poses a danger of adding to a false picture of ideal sex. We expect certain things from museums. These institutions give us a chance to learn, commemorate and appreciate different aspects of our lives. However skillfully the Museum of Sex is arranged, there is a risk of presenting the world with a subliminal how-to guide to sex. What a shame that some things are not left to imagination and intuition. Regardless, the Museum of Sex will be a reality one day, and visitors to New York will hop from the Guggenheim to the Met to the Sex to the Park. Let's hope beauty can be appreciated and absorbed without infringing on the private aspects of our lives. Will I go to the Museum of Sex? Sure. I am up for anything new and exciting in Midtown Manhattan. And I have a purely intellectual curiosity to see what is in the museum gift shop.
(01/19/00 10:00am)
BY Daniel Shu BY Daniel ShuIn recent years, the University has made efforts to improve the school's relationship with West Philadelphia. Among those efforts, Academically Based Community Service courses have offered students an opportunity to take a role in this change. Through these courses, students engage in action research and community service by working on real-world problems related to West Philadelphia. Every day, as I go to class on Locust Walk, I am greeted by the gaping hole that will be Huntsman Hall. Next I see four or five fraternities, several academic buildings, the Women's Center, Steinberg-Dietrich Hall and a few administrative buildings. And every day, I also see the FIJI house and the Christian Association, lonely for student activity during the day and desolate and empty at night. Why dedicate those facilities to Academically Based Community Service? Currently, there are about 100 ABCS courses, and this number grows each semester. More than 45 are offered in an academic year, serving approximately 1,000 enrollees, some of whom might take more than one. Last year the School of Arts and Sciences commissioned a survey of graduating seniors to rate their satisfaction with academic programs at Penn. ABCS received a rating of over 70 percent satisfaction, second only to study abroad. The next-highest program received a rating of only 40 percent. I can vouch for the quality of this program. Take my internship last summer. As an intern for the Penn Program for Public Service, I spent 12 weeks on campus living, learning and working with 20 other undergraduates. Through the Center for Community Partnerships, we enrolled in an Academically Based Community Service seminar, worked in a local community organization and lived in a rented fraternity house together. Our challenge: to create equal, mutually beneficial partnerships among ourselves and between our group and our West Philadelphia neighbors. One group of students was interested in exploring health in the West Philadelphia community. After interviewing teachers and students from Sulzberger Middle School at 48th Street and Fairmount Avenue and identifying local health needs, they created a middle school peer education program focusing on issues including teen pregnancy, drug addiction and violence. Through the internship, these Penn students used their academic interest in medicine and health to create an ongoing, sustainable, service-based research project -- one that fits their own Penn curriculum and one that to this day continues to promote health within the Sulzberger community. But over the summer, the academic and real-world aspects were never distinct from the residential experience. Discussions of Dewey and Plato spilled over into the living room. Debates about integrated diversity and the social obligations of universities became conversations at the dinner table. Reflection on both our successes and our obstacles at school occurred at home and in seminar, and house issues often had to be addressed just before class began. Each facet of the internship complemented the others to create one integrated learning experience. Additionally, the internship was my first experience with true socially integrated diversity at Penn. My fellow interns were of all different colors, shapes and sizes. They would identify as Muslim, short, African-American, Buddhist, extrovert and Korean, to name a few. Together, we faced routine problems such as unwashed dishes left in the sink, a cockroach infestation and the hottest Philadelphia summer in years. At the same time, we faced the challenge of building bonds with our radically diverse community partners. Out of these struggles came some of the most serious dialogues I have had here at Penn and my deepest interactions ever with the West Philadelphia community. The summer program sought to improve University-community relations, foster integrated diversity and promote undergraduate research. An Academically Based Community Service Living-Learning program during the academic year would do the same year-round. More than any existing residential program, such a house would seamlessly merge the living, learning and public service aspects of the University. And placing the program in the FIJI house would introduce a desperately needed non-Greek residential presence to Locust Walk. What about the Christian Association? Why put an ABCS hub there? There is no better way to use these buildings than to fill them with programs that foster undergraduate research and better the Penn-West Philadelphia relationship.
(01/19/00 10:00am)
Freezing temperatures caused some heating problems in both HRS and off-campus housing. Even North Face couldn't help College sophomore Graham Lyles weather the North Pole-like temperatures and piercing gusts of wind that swept across Penn's campus yesterday. "It was miserable. I had to walk to David Rittenhouse Laboratory at nine this morning," said Lyles, who was bundled up in a double-layered parka, fleece hat and waterproof gloves. "My face hurt. My eyes hurt. It was pretty painful. Already sick with a wintertime cold, College senior Joanna Czekajewski, had similar complaints about the freezing weather. "I am layered up and taking NyQuil, DayQuil, orange juice and just waiting for this to end," she said. "I need to go on spring break." Temperatures in Philadelphia dropped into single digits yesterday morning with wind chills falling near zero or below zero, producing a bitter reality check for Penn students who have experienced an otherwise mild winter. Even when the sun poked through in early afternoon, temperatures on Tuesday barely rose above the teens with brisk winds pushing the wind-chill factor well below zero. "It is the first genuine day of winter that we've had this year in the region," said Bill Gartner, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in State College, Pa. "Temperatures this cold make it dangerous to stay outside for long periods of time." However, most Penn students and faculty, who had no choice but to attend their first classes of the semester, ventured outside -- grinning and bearing the arctic temperatures and winds. Though not before they layered themselves in their warmest clothes and hurried along Locust Walk, rushing into the warmer confines of the classroom. "I look like a refugee with a scarf over my head, and I'm walking very quickly," said Meg Jewell, a research manager in the Opthamology Department. Decked out in a long wool coat, scarf and sweater, wind-burned Engineering senior Betsy Hamme was chilled-out enough. "It's freezing cold out here," she complained. "I just wanted to crawl back into bed. My room is nice and warm." But some Penn students didn't have that luxury, as the cold weather caused heating units in a number of off-campus rental properties to shut off. College senior Ali Olshewitz said that when the heat in her apartment did not work for almost two days, she and her roommates were forced to vacate the freezing building and sleep over at their friends' places. "What made it so unbearable was that it felt like it was negative 10 degrees," she said. "One of my roomates left a glass of water and it was frozen. Our toothpaste was frozen, our mouthwash was frozen and you could see your breath inside the apartment." Campus Apartments President Dave Adelman confirmed that some of their properties did lose heat for around four to six hours yesterday when computerized thermostats malfunctioned. "When you get to 12 below, it's a shock to any system," Adelman said. "This is extreme cold that we haven't seen in two to five seasons." On campus, the cold weather left residents of Harrison College House shivering in the shower when a steam pipe burst early Monday morning, Faculty Master John Richetti said. The weather also prompted Philadelphia to implement its Code Blue program, which puts extra police officers and social workers on the street to encourage the homeless to go to shelters, city spokesman Ken Snyder said. However, the cold weather hasn't been bad news for everyone. According to Eastern Mountain Sports Assistant Manager John Clark, sales at the campus outdoor sporting gear store in Sansom Common have spiked over the past few days as students who left their gloves and hats at home attempted to purchase new ones. "Everyone is picking over what we have left," Clark said. "People were frustrated because they couldn't find scarfs, headbands and earmuffs -- which we've been sold out of for days." While the freezing temperatures forced many freshmen girls rushing sororities to walk quickly from house to house, it didn't put a damper on Engineering freshman Jen Portland's rush experience. "I like it. I like the cold," she said. According to the weather service, temperatures are expected to rise through midweek but remain below 40 degrees. Another arctic cold front is pushing out of central Canada and coming this way. Today will be mostly cloudy with scattered snow showers or flurries in most locations. Highs will average in the low 30s. Daily Pennsylvanian staff writers Joshua Liez and Michael Sonsino and the Associated Press contributed to this article.
(01/18/00 10:00am)
From Jeremy Reiss', "Vegas, Baby," Fall '00 From Jeremy Reiss', "Vegas, Baby," Fall '00Imagine, if you will, you're a 25-year-old kid, traveling around the country from city to city, staying in the fanciest hotels, driving fancy cars, appearing regularly on national television. That is exactly how Braves relief pitcher John Rocker's life was playing out just a month ago. But for the near future at least, Rocker may have thrown it all away. In an issue of Sports Illustrated last month, the tall left-handed closer made incendiary comments against immigrants in general and specific groups such as "Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there." Careful not to exclude anyone, Rocker also insulted homosexuals and teen mothers, and even referred to an African-American teammate as a "fat monkey." Rocker has unleashed his brash temper before, you may recall. During the 1999 National League playoffs against the New York Mets, he publicly criticized New York for being, basically, a big and crowded city and the Mets fans for being loud and obnoxious. The fans pegged Rocker with batteries in his next appearance. But there seems little explanation as to why Rocker willingly chose to do the interview with SI and publicly run his mouth in a way that has demoted his status from Mets arch-nemesis to bigoted villain -- even in his own clubhouse. Was it stupidity? Perhaps. The arrogance of a young pitcher who thought he could do no wrong? Probably. But there seems to be a much scarier reason for why Rocker said what he did: He truly believes it. And he isn't afraid to say so. And despite the fact that he publicly apologized for his comments in an interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons last week, Rocker may have lost his credibility with the league, the general public and his teammates. Rocker would like us to believe, for instance, that he isn't a racist and was simply angry at New York fans. But it's hard to believe that he simply lost his cool in the presence of a reporter. Teammate Randall Simon, the Braves first baseman, has already spoken out since the ESPN interview, saying Rocker lied about the meaning of the "fat monkey" comment to cover himself. Simon also told ESPN that the pitcher has no relationship with any of the Braves' black or Latino players. It would be naive to say that racism does not exist in even the most cosmopolitan of cities. But while it would not be fair to stereotype rural Southerners, Rocker certainly is not unique in his perception of cities like N.Y. and ignorance of racial and ethnic groups. But it is because Rocker is a baseball player that his comments are all the more disheartening. That sharing the playing field with such a diverse group of athletes couldn't open Rocker's mind is the real tragedy here. For, while racism may have persisted, what was sacred about sports was that they have, for decades, bridged the gap between races and ethnicities. In many ways, the playing fields have been a place where ethnicity and race become irrelevant. Baseball, the most international of the major sports leagues, has been the prime example. Nothing could exemplify that better than the images of 1998's historic home run race, with an American, Mark McGwire, and a Dominican, Sammy Sosa, hugging and smiling their way toward baseball immortality -- and carrying a nation on their shoulders for the ride. Worst of all, Rocker has undermined the spirit of the game that Sosa, Jackie Robinson and others helped create. He has caused us to question whether other, less vocal players feel the same way. And he has made a mockery of the very diversity that has popularized -- and recently repopularized -- his own sport. Already, the league forced Rocker to undergo psychological testing. A harsh punishment from the commissioner may follow. But the Braves can make a strong statement by cutting Rocker, one of the key players in their World Series run last year. Still, the reality is that even if baseball comes down hard on Rocker, he'll likely end up back in the game. History has shown that even a convicted rapist, such as boxer Mike Tyson, can be allowed back into the ring. Isn't it reasonable to assume that a team will need Rocker's blazing fastball more than it will care about his views? And so, the arrogant left-hander who thought he was free from accountability might, in fact, have the last laugh, solely because he can strike people out. That is, if he can share a locker room with the foreigners on whatever team he joins.
(11/22/99 10:00am)
Bright lights, designer clothing, dance and music all added to the energy of the nearly packed Irvine Auditorium Saturday night for the 10th annual Black Student League Fashion Show, "Rapper's Delight." About 300 students from Penn and other area schools attended the performances, which celebrated black culture and chronicled the evolution of hip-hop through a combination of poetry, music and dance. In addition to students modeling everything from evening gowns and tuxedos to jeans and pajamas, the show included the performances of several campus groups. The show was named after the popular hit song "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang. According to College sophomore Natasha Williams, who co-produced and spoke at the show, the song "taught the record industry that there was a new genre for black music." "'Cause it sounds so nice, hip-hop, you the love of my life. We 'bout to take it to the top," were the words echoed in Irvine by the rap group The Roots as the night began. The show opened with a performance by African Rhythms and a spirit-provoking performance with poetry and song by the group Assata, which was followed by students modeling the clothing of designer Vernest Moore. All scenes in the modeling told stories that were choreographed by students as well. In Scene Four, called "La Di Da Di," students modeled to the song "Bedtime Stories" by rapper Slick Rick and followed the theme of the song by including students dressed as little girls in pajamas, listening to the story acted out on the stage in the background. The final scene, which was entitled, "The Last Dance," featured students in formal clothing. Men presented roses to women as the couples slow-danced to the popular rap song "I Need Love" by L.L. Cool J. Other designers featured in the show included French Connection, Nine West, I. Goldberg, Amera Archie -- designed by College sophomore Shafeqah Archie -- Don Don, Mad Gear and Formal Dimensions. The show's theme centered around hip-hop's place in contemporary society. Thus, music accompanied the models throughout the night and speakers talked about the influence of hip-hop music around the world. According to Williams, she and co-producer College sophomore Tanji Gilliam decided over the summer that they wanted to make the show a dedication to hip-hop. "We thought of the first commercial rap song released, 'Rapper's Delight,' and wanted to use that as the theme for the show," Williams said. Planning for the show first began in late April. According to Williams, students interested in trying out were judged on whether or not they could do the routine and had the right attitude. About 50 students tried out and 28 earned a place in the final show. Practices were held three times a week, in which students learned the steps choreographed for each scene. "I was just amazed to see how almost every African American on campus was somehow involved in the show," Wharton freshman Lorenzo Brown said. "It was a night of black teens giving their different talents to make a great night for a good cause."
(11/18/99 10:00am)
Ernest Green, one of nine teens to integrate a Little Rock high school in 1957, spoke last night. In 1957, Ernest Green faced jeers, racial slurs and overwhelming hatred from hordes of white teenagers as he entered Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. Last night, 32 years after securing a key role in the civil rights movement as one of the "Little Rock Nine," Green delivered an engaging keynote address in College Hall as part of the United Minorities Council's Unity Week. Green was part of the first group of African-American students to enroll at Central High School following the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision that declared school segregation illegal. In his talk, Green stressed that all people can and should make a difference. His experience at Central High School, now taught in schools as a defining moment in the civil rights movement, became the subject of a recent film and earned him a Congressional Medal of Honor last week. Much of Green's talk focused on the integration of the school and the controversy surrounding it. When he enrolled at Central in the late 1950s, Green said, he had been merely trying to improve his personal lot. Little did he know, however, that being one of the first black students to demand rights in a then all-white school would have a major effect on the entire nation. "Coping was part of our issue at Little Rock," Green said. "I didn't have any particular insight into the future." Although Green might not have fully understood the implications of integration then, he was hardly oblivious to the danger of his situation. "Armed federal escorts were as much an entrance requirement for me and [the other African-American students] as pencils and paper," Green told the crowd. "It was a dangerous time for black folk who had the hope and courage to dare not know their place." But the potential harm that the nine teenagers' actions presented did not subdue Green and the other students. Instead, they relied on the "fundamental belief that you were either going to deal or get dealt." Green underlined his point by quoting Frederick Douglass, who said, "You may not get what you pay for but you certainly will pay for what you get. Power concedes nothing." Still, Green said, the parents of the nine students deserve as much recognition as the students themselves, for it was the parents who were willing to risk their families' welfare in order to change the status quo. "They were able to see the difference between the American Dream and the American reality [and] they were able to sacrifice their own personal comfort to merge the two," Green said. Shifting forward, Green expressed pleasure with the strides taken since the 1950s to improve race relations and seemed optimistic about the future. "We are very much more alike than we are different," Green said. But the work begun with Green's integration and continued with protests and marches throughout the following decade is far from done, he noted. "With so many core common experiences? how have we gotten to the place where we have gotten so far apart?" Green asked the audience. In order to bridge the gap between different cultures -- a chasm which Green said is considered exceptionally large by many "scientists and sociologists" -- he urged students to get involved in their local communities. "When you leave these hallowed walls of the University of Pennsylvania, it is up to you to be of service to the greater community," Green told the students. There are also opportunities for students to give back while at the University, Green said. He cited student groups, religious organizations and mentoring as some examples. "The lesson from Little Rock is that we can change our environment, we can change the world," Green said. When asked how he is continuing his service work, Green told the group that he works with various service organizations, serves on the board of Africare, a non-profit organization which deals with quality of life issues in rural Africa, and has created a scholarship with his wife for minority students at Michigan State University, his alma mater. During the question-and-answer period, a student asked Green his views on the push to end busing students from underfunded school districts to better schools. With regard to what one student called the current "assault on affirmative action," Green expressed a lack of concern for the future of the institution. He believes even if affirmative action falls out of favor now, it will return -- although not necessarily under the same name. "Corporations? will want to grab talent, no matter what color it is," Green said.
(11/17/99 10:00am)
Organizers parodied a Britney Spears hit into this year's Spring Fling theme: 'Fling Me Baby One More Time.' Think Britney Spears' songs are overplayed on the radio? Can't get the line "Hit Me Baby One More Time" out of your head for days after a frat party? Well, get ready to be hit with the line one more time. The theme for this year's Spring Fling will be "Fling Me Baby One More Time" -- one more play on the teen pop star's chart-topping song. About 20 members of the Social Planning and Events Committee's Spring Fling Committee voted on the slogan for the April 13-15 festivities last night in Vance Hall. The two other choices on the ballot were "Fling It to Me Baby" -- a twist on the repeating plea "Give it to me baby" in the Offspring's "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" -- and "Fling 2K," yet another millennium reference. But the teen dream's theme garnered all but two votes. When Fling Committee Co-director Mike Silverstein, a College junior and 34th Street magazine editor, announced the winning motto, the concurring voters and committee members were visibly excited with the choice. "It sets the tone for Fling," said Co-director Lisa Malbacho, a Nursing senior. "It's big," Co-director and College junior Jason Ebert said. "It means this Fling is gonna be good." And even if you're not the president of the Britney Spears' fan club, have no fears for the upcoming Fling. "The slogan really has no bearing on how well Fling runs," Silverstein said. "It gets on the T-shirts, and that's the main thing." Besides the words "Fling Me Baby One More Time," the T-shirts will also display a logo that fits with the freshly chosen theme. The logo will be chosen from student submissions entered to the Office of Student Life by December 10. The student whose artwork is selected will win $100, two free Spring Fling concert tickets and the honor of seeing their logo on all Fling signs and shirts. Because the committee came to a decision on the motto with some time to spare before Spring -- last year's theme, "Do the Right Fling," was not picked until February -- the committee directors are confident this Fling will be flung without a hitch. Details concerning the rest of the weekend, including the selection and booking of the traditional Friday night band, have yet to be settled upon. Last year's Fling was headlined by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and other musical acts included Run DMC and D-Generation.
(11/17/99 10:00am)
The six freshmen on the Penn men's basketball team are being hailed as the Quakers' best recruiting class in 20 years. Being hailed as one of the best recruiting classes ever for Penn men's basketball is one heck of a billing to have to live up to. But strength lies in numbers, so maybe the high expectations for the Quakers' Sensational Six will prove to be a motivating factor, and not a burden, as they take to the court this winter. "I think these guys are talented but it's a whole different world playing in the collegiate setting than it is in the high school setting," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "So as much hype as that freshman class has had -- and I think that's great -- let's give them a chance to see what they can do at the collegiate level." You might have seen them around campus -- towering above you on the Walk, adorned in And 1 gear and strutting around as if they already own the place. They are Koko Archibong, Howard Bailey, Andrew Coates, Duane King, David Klatsky and Ugonna Onyekwe, and they came here to play basketball -- and to win. But as much as these student-athletes came to Penn for the rich tradition of hoops, they also came to pick up a little thing called an education along the way. King was the valedictorian of Pleasure Ridge (Kent.) High School -- he never missed a day of class in four years and never got less than an "A." Both of Bailey's parents went to league rival Brown, but this Connecticut swingman went against the grain and chose Penn. The Coates' family must have the words "Ivy League" stitched into their shirts. Andrew's father has degrees from Yale and Harvard, and his sister is now a student at Princeton. Archibong, a Pasadena, Calif., native, is following in the footsteps of his father (Columbia) and mother (Rutgers) in taking to the East Coast for his higher education. Family was also a factor in the all-important college choice of Klatsky. He's the younger brother of Penn senior Mike Klatsky, a former varsity tennis player and current member of the JV basketball team. The younger Klatsky readily admits that having his elder brother around campus "is big time." · Having such a large recruiting class has had big benefits not just for Dunphy, but for the freshmen as well. Off the court, being one of a half-dozen eggs brought into the basket-of-hoops at Penn has given the freshmen an immediate group of friends. "The guys have all become my best friends," Coates said. "We all hang out together, we go to study hall together, we eat together and we go out on the weekends together." And Archibong, despite rooming with a hometown friend from Pasadena, recognizes the bonds that being part of the team brings. "I think it's pretty cool that there's so many of us," Archibong said. "We kind of have our own little backbone and set group already." · But it hasn't been all fun and games and a free ride for Penn's super six freshmen. Despite literally being the big men on campus, they can't get everything to go their way. Archibong has even been warned to keep the volume of his music down. "My RA is having some issues with my music," Archibong said. "I listen to a lot of West Coast rap. And when I'm studying and when I'm in the house just chilling, my music is on. That's how I relax. "The thing about it is that the people down the hall from me play some rock music really really loud, so I don't know if it's a problem with rap music or what." The troubled lives that freshmen -- hoopsters or not -- must lead. · But the Quakers' new players are far from pulling their best Minnesota Golden Gopher impression and ignoring all things academic. Classes take up just as much a part of their lives as they do for any other freshmen. "As for academics, it's the same thing as basketball -- if you work hard, you're going to do well," said Klatsky, who then let on about a little-known studying secret. "There's as much work as you make it to be -- if you read every thing you're assigned, you're going to have a lot of work, but you can find ways around that. "The thing I've had trouble with is when the day of a midterm we have a three-hour practice and there's not much time to study. That's where it gets you a little bit." As with most freshmen, the move to a college environment is a shock. "Classes are pretty tough," Archibong said. "I'm really not liking math right now -- I'm in Math 151 and I don't like how the College system is set up where so much of your grade is dependent on one test." Overall, though, it's a mixed bag academic-wise for the youngsters. "I like the Legal Studies class I'm in. I like the law -- my dad's a lawyer -- so that's interesting," Klatsky said. "But I don't really like any of my other classes at all. But I've got to go." "Academically, it's been a little tough but I'm surviving. I kind of expected college life to be like this," said King, attributing an easy transition to advice from his older brother, Ibn Green, a football player at Louisville. · Being 6'8" will present you with problems no matter where you go. It must not come as a surprise, then, that one pet peeve that comes to the minds of the big men is the length of dorm room beds. "Penn says their beds are extra-long," Coates said, scoffing at that notion. The 6'8" forward, though, found an unorthodox way around this problem. "I never sleep straight anyways, I sleep in the fetal position, so it's never been a problem for me." Even 6'4" swingman King has been affected by the small-bed syndrome. "That's a big adjustment because I have a big bed at home," King said. "And coming in here, with that little small bed, it just ain't happening." · While some of the players must find new and inventive ways to find rest at night, the hallmates of these long-armed frosh see many uses for the tallest boys in their grade. Several freshmen girls on Archibong's floor have praised the lanky frosh, noting that, "he's good to have around, especially to hang things up." Likewise, Koko sees many uses for his hallmates -- when he's not at practice, studying or work, that is. "There's four girls that live next door that my roommate hangs out with, so most of the time we're over there because we don't have a television," Archibong said of his nefarious motives. "I want to see a lot of games now and I watch ESPN a lot. "And they have food and they have a kitchen -- and we don't have a kitchen -- so they have all sorts of snacks and fruit laying around. They're always gracious about it." · With so many complaints about the quality of dining hall food from non-athletes, the opinion of several big-eating young men should carry extra weight in determining how good Penn food is when it comes to taste. After all, these guys eat a lot. "I try to eat breakfast because it's the most important meal of the day," Coates said, sounding like a public-service announcement. "I try to eat a lot of eggs so I can get protein. I don't really like hard-boiled eggs but I try to choke a couple down. "And then I just get some bacon, some hash browns, some cereal, a little fruit." So where do they like to go when the hunger hits? A quick survey indicates that the fried chicken delicacies of FWOT -- Fingers, Wings and Other Things -- are a heavy favorite over dining. "Commons kills me. I thought I'd want a meal plan, but?," Bailey said. "Prep school was better because it was a smaller number of people. Here there's mystery meat that you don't know what it is. The food does a number on your stomach and you need to have some Pepto-Bismol always handy." Archibong echoed several fellow frosh in saying that Penn dining is "as good as cafeteria food is going to get," but went on to address the (in)convenient side of a meal plan. "I was a little disappointed in the fact that I kind of jumped myself out there by signing up for 19 meals without knowing that I'm not going to ever wake up for breakfast," Archibong said. "Thus, I'm losing massive amounts of money which could be going to something else." For the frosh, that something else could be a solid meal at FWOT. "We did that -- me, Koko, Duane, Lamar [Plummer] and Andrew -- went up to FWOT one time, but the next morning?," Bailey trailed off, grimacing at the memory. Perhaps if Bailey had a more personal relationship with the campus' finest eatery, he might be accustomed to the award-winning chicken. "Oh yeah, me and FWOT go way back," Archibong said. "I'm a big fan, I eat there a lot. I get the eight [wings] and four [fingers] most of the time with an extra big thing of fries. Or I get the fried chicken with fries." Again, more big eating. But a split may divide the frosh -- while Bailey swears off FWOT before a game, Archibong stresses his ability to "digest stuff real fast" as incentive to eat FWOT as often as possible. No matter, the Quakers' traditional pre-game meal at Smokey Joe's should keep all parties happy. Like true freshmen, the basketball frosh have sampled the full fare of off-campus cuisine that Penn has to offer. Eat at Joe's was named as a solid meal-in-waiting by two newcomers, King professed a love for Beijing and Klatsky noted that "the lasagna at Allegro's is the real deal." · Like many members of Penn's incoming class, the Quakers freshmen have occasional longings for home. Archibong's only trip home until May will consist of a few days over winter break. And Coates will only return home to Seattle for a few days in between semesters as well. But if Bailey's first trip back home as a grown-up college man is any indication, these West Coast hoopsters will have a great time. "I went home just once. I tell you -- it was the greatest weekend," Bailey said. "In terms of starting basketball this early and the intensity of it, I had never done it before. It had been about three months since I'd been home, and it was great. "But now I don't really miss home. I'm adjusting here and I love it. I miss my family, but things are going well." · Onyekwe has a leg up on the competition. At 20 years of age, the freshman -- who was born in Nigeria, raised as a teen in London and went to Mercersberg (Pa.) Academy -- already has the experience of boarding at a school across the Atlantic. Ugonna is in the singularly important position of being able to both identify with what the others are going through and be able to help them on their way. · The best part of Penn for the Sensational Six has varied as much as their games do on the hardwood. But one theme keeps popping up. Ask them about academics, and an analogy to hoops is inevitable. Ask them about food, and talk drifts first to the pre-game meal, then on to the basketball game. Ask them about free time and adjusting to Penn, and discussions of Fran Dunphy's practices show through. Make no mistake about it, these six frosh take the same courses as their 2,400 classmates and long for the next weekend of partying as much as any Quad dweller. For the boys named Koko, Howard, Andrew, David, Duane and Ugonna, however, hoops has been and always will be No. 1 in their lives. And for now, they're the center of attention on a college campus that has starved for eight long months without the thrill of men's hoops.
(11/16/99 10:00am)
College senior Taryn Brill is making her way in the TV game-show business. When contestants vie for the big prize on ABC's highly rated new game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, College senior Taryn Brill helps make sure their nerves don't get the best of them. Since the hit show began with a two-week summer run, Brill, 21, has worked as a contestant coordinator for the new game show which has taken the country by storm, keeping tens of millions of viewers glued to their seats with its dramatic trivia format and colorful staging. While the show enjoys its second run on TV -- ABC has scheduled it to run for 15 consecutive days this month -- Brill is taking a three-week hiatus from her final semester at Penn. The program, filmed in New York, is scheduled to finish its run on November 21, after which Brill will return to Penn to finish her Communications major and Spanish minor. Laughing, she explained that she still has to make up lots of classwork. "I was concerned but at this point, I'm so far behind, what's another week?" she asks. And with this daily schedule, who can blame Brill for not worrying about schoolwork? She arrives at work by 10:30 or 11 a.m. to greet the contestants when they arrive at 11:30. Brill and her partner give them the welcoming "shpiel" and then start interviewing them in order to make up "blue sheets," which are short information cards. Regis Philbin, the host of the show, reads from these cards if the contestant lands in the "hot seat" -- the center stage, where the contestant has the chance to answer 15 questions to win $1 million. While the show is taping, Brill is active behind the camera as well. During commercial breaks, she is at the hot seat with the contestant, calming him or her down. She also instructs the contestants to show some charisma when the camera zooms in on them, for example, giving a thumbs up or a salute. Brill works at least 12-hour days, sometimes not leaving until hours after rehearsal and taping of the show, which usually ends at 10 p.m. Although making the jump from Penn to a nationally aired show and working just a few feet away from famed host Philbin may seem nerve-wracking, Brill swears she's not intimidated. "Never let them see you sweat," she says. And while Brill may be five or six years younger than most of the people she works with on the show, she is hardly a newcomer to the industry, having had valuable internships the past few years. Early in her sophomore year, Brill landed an internship at Picturetube, a video production company. During the latter half of that school year, she worked with Mike Lemon Casting, where she helped cast for well-known movies such as Twelve Monkeys and The Sixth Sense. Simultaneously, she interned at A Wedding Story, which Brill said is the "No. 1-rated daytime show on The Learning Channel." During her junior year, she interned with The Nancy Glass Show at Star 104.5FM, waking up at 5:30 a.m. twice a week to be at work by 8. "My friends think I was nuts," Brill says. Brill also worked as one of the hosts on a pilot for a teen show created by Glass' production company, Glass Difede Productions. She will know in the next five months whether the show will be picked up. But it was during the summer after her sophomore year that her hard work paid off, as Brill was hired as an intern with The Late Show With David Letterman, where a fellow intern told her about a job opening up at "Camp Millionaire." While it may be hard to remember that Brill is still a student, she's scheduled to graduate summa cum laude in December. And she has been on the dean's list every semester she's been at Penn. One of Brill's unique hobbies is keeping up a collection of photos with celebrities. She currently has 25 pictures, with such big names as Conan O'Brien, Sugar Ray, Luke Perry, L.L. Cool J and tennis star Patrick Rafter. But perhaps her biggest obsession is reading People magazine. She anxiously awaits the issue's arrival each Saturday. As for her future after graduation, she plans to stay with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, for a while, at least. She wants to take head shots and start auditioning for commercials in New York City. And while she would love to be the anchor of Entertainment Tonight, for now, she settles for something less high profile. "My passion is being in front of the camera," she says.
(10/12/99 9:00am)
Using victim accounts and forensic evidence, police are tying more attacks to the murder of a Wharton student. Twenty-eight months after he struck for the first time and 18 months after he killed a Wharton doctoral student, the Center City serial rapist is still on the run -- though police hope the noose is tightening. Since last week, two more 1997 attacks have been definitively connected to the rapist, and an incident over the weekend is under investigation. That raises the total number of incidents to at least six, including the May 1998 strangling death of Shannon Schieber, 23, in her Rittenhouse Square apartment. All of the victims have been in their late teens or 20s, and all occurred within blocks of each other. It wasn't until a year after Schieber's death that police began linking the murder -- initially believed to be the result of a botched burglary or a stalker ex-boyfriend -- to first two, then three, and now five other assaults. And with the rapist known to have struck as recently as August, police are hoping new evidence will continue to lead them in the right direction. "Anytime a person commits more crimes, there's a chance that he will leave evidence that will lead to an apprehension," said Philadelphia Homicide Lt. Ken Coluzzi, who is leading the investigation. Though describing the situation as somewhat of a catch-22, Coluzzi explained that the more crimes they can link, the better the odds are that police will catch the attacker. Philadelphia Police are now turning their attention to a Sunday night break-in on the 1800 block of Chestnut Street shortly before 8 p.m. that bears resemblance to the earlier attacks. The 29-year-old victim was able to successfully fight off the assailant who entered her third-floor apartment. Yesterday, police detectives combed the scene of the latest attack for possible DNA evidence that could link the crime, but right now "it's too early in the investigation to tell," Coluzzi said. Though detectives working on the case said the suspect description in this latest incident is "very close" to previous ones, both the time and location of the attack set it apart. Ann Burgess, a Penn Nursing professor who specializes in the study of crimes and their victims, said that although there are strong similarities in the descriptions, it is important to focus more on the attacker's methods, or "signature," especially since the intense media attention the case has received makes it more likely that victims will believe that their attacker resembles the serial rapist more than he does. As the list of crimes connected to the attacker continues to grow, he will likely experience more satisfaction, Burgess said. "[The rapist's] motivation rests on power and control, so if he's in control of the media and putting one over on the police, it feeds an ego," Burgess said. For Schieber's parents -- who sued the city and the police for failing to properly handle a 911 emergency call related to their daughter's death -- the continued revelations have been difficult to handle. Schieber's father, Sylvester, has pleaded with city residents to turn in the attacker, saying that someone in the Rittenhouse Square area must know who he is. Others, too, are encouraging residents to be on the look out. Penn has posted a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the rapist and the Philadelphia Daily News has added $5,000 to that sum. Yesterday, Sylvester Schieber expressed frustration at the police department's failure to keep his family up-to-date on the investigation, saying that detectives were "ordered not to talk to us" because of the pending litigation. He also said he questions whether there were other crimes that occurred in the several month gaps before and after his daughter's killing. "Is there any reason to believe that there weren't more crimes committed?" he asked. The suit says that police officers who responded to a late-night 911 call from a neighbor of Schieber's should have knocked down the door once they arrived. Instead, they knocked and left after hearing no answer. The Schiebers believe their daughter was still alive with her killer inside the apartment. Schieber's body was found 12 hours later by her younger brother when she failed to make a lunch appointment.
(10/08/99 9:00am)
Ten years later, though, certain aspects of my senior year remain with me as if they occurred just yesterday. Among them, unfortunately, is the tragic suicide of a good friend and fellow Penn classmate at the beginning of the second semester. Joe had been a friend of mine since the beginning of freshman year, when we both lived on the same floor in King's Court. During our sophomore and junior years, we were roommates. Over those three years, I came to know Joe as an intense, brilliant, passionate person who defended his views on economic theory, the jazz of Charlie Parker and his right to leave unwashed dishes in the sink for two days with equal vigor. We did not always see eye to eye but generally respected each other's right to an opinion. Senior year, competing interests took us separate ways but we still remained friends. During the week of finals at the end of the first semester, Joe and I ran into each other at the foot of the 38th Street footbridge. It had been a while since we had seen each other and we made a promise to try to go out before the semester break. That never happened and, as it turned out, that was the last time I saw him. A few days into the second semester, Joe took his own life. The experience of college can be an exciting one -- four years away from home with virtually total self-control over every major decision in your life. For most, this occasionally results in some degree of stress. Many who are well beyond their college years too often dismiss this as some form of post-teen angst that pales in comparison to the problems of the "real world." But for the four years you are in college, college is the real world with real-life issues. It is important to remember, though, that your peers and the multitude generations of college students before you have experienced the same everyday problems and stresses you encounter. My only advice, and the point of this piece, is too seek the counsel of those around you if those problems and stresses become seemingly unbearable. No problem, no matter how apparently insoluble, is dire enough to warrant taking one's own life. In times of need, reach out to your roommates, friends, family, professors, advisors, dorm RAs, coaches, teammates or the bartender at Smoke's -- anyone who will listen. Give them the opportunity to help and give yourself the opportunity to be helped. If everything seems to be going well in your life, reach out to those around you who appear to be having a difficult time coping. Joe obviously had problems that eventually resulted in his making a hopeless and irreversible decision. The fact remains, though, that he spoke to none of his family, friends or classmates before taking his own life -- there were no "warning signs." While it is unfair to Joe and everyone who was close to him to conjecture how things might have been different had he spoken to someone, it is hard to believe that the outcome could not have been dramatically improved. At Joe's memorial service, I read Rudyard Kipling's poem "If." The few lines from that poem that follow succinctly summarize what I have tried to say: If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same? If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone? Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it. Best of luck in the coming years.
(10/04/99 9:00am)
Penn faces tough competition in its attempts to recuit new Political Science, English and Chemistry professors. As the University's Political Science, English and Chemistry departments struggle to hire faculty, officials from peer institutions say their schools are in strikingly similar situations. Majors, non-majors and graduate students in the nation's highest-ranking universities sit in the classrooms of shorthanded departments -- and officials don't expect this trend to change any time soon, saying it's more important to make the right hire rather than a quick one. "We will choose to carry forward a recruitment for an additional year rather than offer a position to someone who is not at the top of our list," Penn Provost Robert Barchi said. Indeed, Barchi compared the national faculty search to a baseball draft, saying that every university must continuously seek out "the top players." And with schools across the country all trying to sign the top free agents, Penn's peer universities are also playing the recruitment game. 'Only the best' In addition to Penn -- which has placed ads in nationally circulated professional journals and The Chronicle of Higher Education -- Cornell, Yale, Princeton and Duke universities will scour the nation this year for top faculty in those departments. And School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston cited the University of California at Los Angeles as one of the University's "leading competitors" for faculty in an age where the hiring tug-of-war is "going to heat up." "We and 10 other universities want to hire only the best people," Preston said, adding that the complex faculty search process starts at least 14 months in advance of a professor's start date and can take more than two years. Attributing the increase in faculty hirings to a rise in the college-aged population, Preston said competition for faculty will increase as more students start needing more professors. In the same vein, University President Judith Rodin said the search for faculty is growing more competitive. "I think in the early '90s, there was tendency to reduce the number of faculty slots," Rodin said, noting that course demand and curricular innovations are now requiring increased hiring initiatives. Now, she said, "we are all stealing from one another." With that in mind, the University has authorized approximately 35 SAS searches, concentrating in the six traditionally popular departments that Preston highlighted in last April's SAS strategic plan. The plan calls for increased funding and hiring in the Biology, Economics, English, History, Political Science and Psychology departments. "I don't share the sense that there is any difficulty in hiring at this point," Preston noted. Barchi agreed that the University can handle the tight faculty crunch. "There are a number of senior [faculty] appointments that are world class," Barchi said, pointing to Political Science Professor John DiIulio and Chemistry Professors Virgil Percec and Gary Molander, all of whom were recruited from other schools earlier this year. Political decisions Penn's Political Science Department -- which has lost several standing faculty members over the last two years to retirement, dissatisfaction and tenure issues -- is in the midst of a national faculty search. With about 20 standing faculty and over 200 undergraduate majors, the department -- which offers American politics, comparative politics, international relations and political theory concentrations -- will continue to recruit after successfully scoring three new appointments last spring: DiIulio, junior professor Jerome Maddox and senior hire Robert Vitalis. The department posted job positions on its World Wide Web site -- a strategy Yale also employs -- and in the American Political Science Personnel Newsletter over the summer and early fall. Penn Political Science Department Chairperson Ian Lustick said that as senior professors retire, the department has difficulty growing but is aiming for a "much younger and much stronger" American politics division in the future. "You gotta run faster just to stay in the same place," Lustick said, adding that sister institutions often raid Penn's distinguished faculty. "We do not consider ourselves to be a struggling department." According to Preston, the Political Science Department is striving for a collective group of roughly 27 full-time professors. The larger Department of Politics at Princeton University will also look search for faculty this year. "We hope to hire," Department of Politics Assistant Chairperson Diane Price said last week, adding that the school will look to recruit between eight and 10 junior- and senior-level faculty this year. The 45-member department, with 230 undergraduate majors, was ranked the second-most popular major at Princeton last year. Another top-tier university playing the recruitment game, Duke, has between 200 and 225 majors and 28 tenure-track faculty teaching. "We are always one of the top five majors in the university," Acting Political Science Department Chairperson John Aldrich said. Re-writing English Suffering the loss of five faculty members last spring, Penn's English Department -- the most popular undergraduate division with over 500 majors -- is searching for professors. Currently maintaining 32 standing faculty members, the English Department needs around eight more to reach the optimal number of around 40 professors, Interim English Department Chairperson John Richetti said earlier this month. The department will attempt to recruit four new professors this year, including two or three senior-level faculty. Last year, the department hired two assistant professors. Richetti blames the decrease in standing faculty on recent retirements, SAS budget problems and a "raidable" faculty -- meaning that other schools are actively trying to lure Penn professors away from their Bennett Hall home. Recruitment problems, Richetti added, are not the cause of the department's decrease in size. "There is no crisis that can't be solved by more appointments in English," he said, adding that the University has its pick from hundreds of the brightest young doctoral students in the country. The 48-member English Department at Duke, which recruited two of Penn's faculty members last spring -- former English Professor Maureen Quilligan, Duke's new department chairperson, and former African-American Studies Program Director Houston Baker -- will also continue to search for faculty this year. Duke's department in particular went down a crooked path after being top-ranked for years. The university finally called in a committee to reorganize and redirect the department, which national media reports had labeled as "troubled" before last year's successful effort to bolster its faculty ranks. And Princeton's English Department, with 22 tenured professors and about 180 undergraduate majors, will attempt to hire several junior professors this year, according to department staff. Princeton successfully hired one junior- and one senior-level faculty member last year. Balancing the equation After struggling to recruit senior faculty from other universities for the past three years, Penn's 32-member Chemistry Department has four new faculty members this year, including two senior professors. It still aims to recruit one more senior professor, a bio-organic chemist, before completing its recruitment initiative. The undergraduate division, which offers chemistry and biochemistry majors to 83 students, consistently placed at the high teens in terms of reputation, according to members of the Chemistry Department staff. "With the recent addition of several faculty members and continued success of existing programs, it is likely that the reputation ranking will quickly improve," Chemistry Department Chairperson Hai-Lung Dai said. The department, with divisions in biological, inorganic, organic and physical chemistry, offers 28 courses, including labs and graduate-level courses. In comparison to Penn, Cornell has about 85 chemistry majors and 35 faculty members. According to Cornell Chemistry Executive Director Earl Peters, the department recently ran an ad announcing an open search for two junior-level professors. Cornell hired a junior professor last year and still has one outstanding offer. "A lot of departments are looking for the very best people," Peters said, adding that the department is very selective. And according to Peters, intense faculty searches are nothing new. "It's been competitive all along," he said. Yale is also casting a search for Chemistry faculty members. After a failed search last year, the 23-member department will attempt to recruit three new professors this year, according to Susan Peters, the registrar in Yale's Chemistry Department.
(09/03/99 9:00am)
This summer again proved to be a relatively quiet one for the Penn Police Department, as crimes on and around campus continued to decline sharply. Significant decreases in thefts and aggrivated assaults highlighted the statistics, which were taken from the University Police log book. The figures include crimes reported between June 1 and August 31. While Penn Police tallied 257 summer thefts last year and 375 the year before, only 177 thefts were recorded this summer. Among this summer's total were 24 bike thefts -- a 50 percent decline from one year ago. The number of aggrivated assaults, which include stabbings, gunshot wounds and serious beatings, fell from 13 last year to just 4 this summer. Automobile theft was the only area of serious crime to experience an increase, creeping up one to 15. ROBBERIES AND BURGLARIES BLAH BLAH BLAH. University Police said they were pleased with the steadily declining crime rate, and that they hope the downward trend of crime in University City this summer will spill over into the upcoming school year. Detective Supervisor Pat Brennan explained that a growing presence of police and security strongly contributed to the reduction of crime on and around campus during the summer months. "Crime has been steadily decreasing because of the increasing patrol," Brennan said. Brennan noted that the Penn Police force grew in size this summer, from 93 to 104. She also explained that the 250 unarmed security officers that patrol campus -- like Spectaguards and University City District Safety Ambassadors -- play a major role in crime prevention and apprehension, creating an "influx of uniforms" that act "like our eyes and ears." In June, while working with the Philadelphia Police Department's 18th District, Penn Police apprehended 29-year-old Casey Brunson in connection with a string of summer burglaries starting in mid-May. Noticing a pattern in the crimes -- always at night and always on 41st Street -- Penn Police deployed plainclothes officers who caught Brunson red-handed on the morning of June 9. During the early hours of July 25, two Penn students were robbed at gunpoint near the corner of 41st and Pine streets. One of the two suspects, described as a black male in his late teens or early 20s, flashed a handgun and proceeded to take a cellular phone and about $70 in cash. University Police are currently investigating the case. And just five days later on July 30, Penn Police apprehended three unidentified male suspects in connection with the shooting death of 30-year-old Michael Rainey on the 4400 block of Sansom Street. An investigation concluded that Rainey was a bystander between two groups that were firing gunshots at each other from across the street, according to the Philadelphia Police Department Office of Public Affairs. The three suspects have been charged with homicide and are currently awaiting trial.
(07/29/99 9:00am)
The two students were robbed early Sunday morning on the 4100 block of Pine Street. Two Penn students were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday morning at 41st and Pine streets, according to University police. The two students, a 21-year-old male and 23-year-old female, were not injured in the incident. The robbery occurred shortly before 2 a.m. as the two students were walking north on 41st Street. They were approached by two men who were walking on the other side of the street, according to the statement the students gave to police. One man, described by the students as a black male in his late teens or early 20s, 6'0", 160 pounds and wearing a blue shirt, removed a metallic handgun from his waistband. The other suspect was described by students as a black male in his 20s, 5'11", with a thin build and black hair. Neither male reportedly said anything when they approached the students. The male student gave his wallet, a pair of keys and a black cellular phone valued at $155 to the assailants, who then removed between $60 and $80 from the victim's leather wallet and took the phone as well. They dropped the empty wallet and keys on the ground and told the two students to turn around and walk away. The assailants escaped on foot and reportedly did not take anything from the female victim, University Police officials said. The victims were taken to the Philadelphia Police Department's 18th District Headquarters at 55th and Pine streets. University Police Deputy Chief of Investigations Tom King said yesterday that no suspects had yet been identified. University Police detectives are currently investigating the case. In an unrelated incident, employees at the Commerce Bank at 3731 Walnut Street reported that an unidentified man stole $3,000 from the bank at about 2:10 p.m. on Friday afternoon, according to information obtained from the University Police log book. Employees at the bank reported that a male in his 30s, wearing sunglasses and a denim baseball cap, entered the bank shortly after 2 p.m. on Friday. He presented a teller with note demanding "big bills" and left the bank with the cash. No weapon was visible at the time of the robbery. King said the Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the bank robbery and has identified a possible suspect.
(06/10/99 9:00am)
A female student was attacked in her home at 46th and Spruce streets. Penn students living off campus recently said that they feel less safe in the wake of the attempted sexual assault of a Drexel University student in her University City apartment last week. The young woman, a Drexel graduate student, was alone in her apartment on the 4600 block of Spruce Street at about 1:45 a.m. Thursday morning when an intruder attacked her as she exited the shower, according to Special Victims Unit Lt. Michael Boyle. "She exited the shower and she noted at that time that there was an intruder in her room," Boyle said. Boyle said Tuesday that the intruder knocked her to the floor with what may have been a walkman and unsuccessfully attempted to sexually assault her. "He threatened to hurt her, to kill her," Boyle said. The intruder appeared to be a black male in his mid-to-late teens, about 6'2" and 130 lbs, although Boyle said the student did not get a good look at him. The woman was able to kick him and get back on her feet, Boyle said. She ran into the building's common hallway, where she sought help from neighbors. According to Boyle, the intruder then exited the building, probably in the same manner in which he entered, which was through an unlocked second-floor balcony door. The woman was treated at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and released that morning, but was not seriously injured. Boyle said that the important thing is that "she was able to fight him off successfully and he fled." He also noted that the Philadelphia Police Department, although investigating the matter, has "nothing that would lead [it] at this time to an apprehension." The division then called homicide investigators to examine the scene for evidence of a connection to the still-unsolved May 1998 murder of Wharton doctoral student Shannon Schieber. Boyle said that while the two cases share some similarities -- specifically that the attack was focused on a student and entry was made through an unlocked second-floor balcony -- the dissimilarities between the two cases outweigh any potential connections. "It appears at this time that they're unrelated," Boyle said. Penn students living off campus were shocked to hear that the assault occurred nearby and many said that while they generally felt safe, an incident like this strikes particularly close to home. Oliver Carley, a second-year City Planning graduate student and resident of the 4200 block of Walnut Street, said the attempted assault did make him feel more nervous living off campus. "It's a little more disturbing that it happened inside of someone's house," Carley added. College senior Mary Mitchell, a resident of the 4300 block of Spruce Street agreed, saying "when anything happens that's negative, and it happens in you're home, it's a little bit more scary." And Shawna Spears, a first-year Nursing graduate student also on the 4300 block of Spruce Street, said the news was shocking because it happened only three blocks from her apartment. "I'm not fearful; cautious is probably a better word for it," she said.
(04/23/99 9:00am)
From Daniel Fienberg's, "The Fien Print," Fall '99 From Daniel Fienberg's, "The Fien Print," Fall '99I went to seventh and eighth grade at Bailey Magnet School, a 95 percent black middle school/high school in Jackson, Miss. Because of various poorly veiled prejudices, Bailey was run-down externally and internally. For all the disrepair, at every door was an armed guard. Locker searches were daily and indiscriminate and it was hardly interesting when knives, drugs or even guns were uncovered. And when violence broke out in our overheated concrete world, it was upsetting but nobody was shocked. Even in tragedy, people are comforted when their assumptions and expectations are met. We make racial or economic justifications because they make us feel better. It's always easier to say, "Well, it was at an inner-city school, so it makes sense." For the two years I spent at Bailey, I accepted that school simply was a battleground. Littleton, Colo., is a quiet town. The median income is 25 percent higher than the national average. The community is more than 90 percent white. Columbine High School, right outside of Littleton, is large and well-funded,with green athletic fields and spacious grounds. And after this Tuesday, the Denver suburb will never be the same. When two students marched into the high school and opened fire, they took 13 lives before ending their own. But more than that, the students who survived the attack had their youth stolen from them. And the community of Littleton and the country as a whole lost its innocence. "It can't happen here." That's the easy answer people have used to console themselves as the number of school shootings across the nation has soared. From Oregon to Kentucky, regional boundaries have been irrelevant; the sizes of the towns and schools have been irrelevant. Sometimes the shooters have been misanthropic outcasts, as in Littleton, but other times, a veneer of popularity masked deep-seated problems. I dream that we could see things simply: Children with healthy upbringings should grow up decent. Schools should be a refuge, a place for support and enrichment. And idyllic communities should remain idyllic. But sometimes the outward shows of good breeding hide abusive families or dangerous obsessions. And schools are often sites of alienation and festering. Once the silence is shattered, how can we ever get the harsh ringing out of our ears. Our innocence is gone because the last 18 months, in which school shootings have left 27 dead and many more wounded, have eaten away at our trust. A belief that certain ways of life can only harbor decency now has been highlighted as the hypocrisy it probably always was. From the obvious danger zone of my early schooling experience, my brother now goes to a fine new school in southern New Hampshire. The grounds are spacious and the playing fields are verdant and well-maintained. The median household income is above the national average. And suddenly it doesn't seem so safe. Within the next month, classes will still end at Columbine High School. Students and teachers will go off for a summer trying to recuperate. And a legion of school board members, psychologists and sociologists will descend upon Littleton searching for answers. The trained professionals will try to find out where the school went wrong. And how a group of teens from supposedly nice families became killers. Why did nobody see it coming? Or, more chillingly, could anybody possibly have seen it coming? But finally, the problem is that we are always aware that no matter how much we try to rationalize, mourn, curse or pity, our response can only be hopelessly inadequate.
(04/23/99 9:00am)
Every year, the Harry Truman Scholarship Foundation awards a lucky and carefully selected handful of college juniors from across the country $30,000 each in scholarship money. This year, College junior Sarah Zimbler is one of them. The award is given to two students from each state who are committed to a career in public service and plan to attend graduate school to help achieve such goals. As a team leader in the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project and a member of a research project involving the implementation of curriculum reform in middle school science classes, Zimbler credited her passion for educating children with spurring her success. "I love my kids," the English and History major said emphatically, referring to the middle schoolers she teaches six hours every week. "I miss my kids when I'm not with them." So much so, in fact, that while she was studying abroad at Kings College in London last semester, she realized that she "can't be away from them" and decided to make teaching and urban education her future career. "So many people look at urban schools and see the problems. They only ask, 'What's wrong with urban schools?'" said Zimbler, 21, stressing that people need to probe deeper into the issue. But Zimbler's positive outlook couldn't possibly go farther. Her experiences with children in need started in her home state of Illinois with her work involving kids from Chicago's notoriously dangerous Robert Taylor housing projects, which she referred to as "a lawless land." Combining her love of the visual arts and her strong propensity for educating struggling urban youth, the Fine Arts minor worked for the Chicago Children's Museum in a program which allowed teens from the projects to "run the floor of the museum [for] a couple nights a week." Working to improve the state of urban education, Zimbler feels educators need to step back and ask, "What's great about city kids? And what do they have to offer?" "They have so much energy, so much creativity and potential," she marveled, adding, "They crave teachers." Zimbler's dedication and enthusiasm were not the only factors which garnered her the prestigious award, although her commitment to service was certainly one prerequisite in a grueling application process the Delta Delta Delta sister started last year before she left for England. Eligible College juniors must complete a series of 15 essay questions and come up with a policy proposal which Zimbler describes as being "like a research paper." The University then chooses three applicants based on the applications and a personal interview. The next step is selection at the state level, including what Zimbler called an "extremely rigorous interview." Finally the 65 award winners are selected for having demonstrated leadership potential, intellectual ability and likelihood of making a difference. Zimbler said that while the $30,000 is a wonderful benefit, it is not the only advantage open to a Truman Scholar. "Above and beyond [the financial award] it provides you with a network of people that are committed to service," she said.
(04/21/99 9:00am)
College senior Joshua Levy was one of only 15 collegians competing on 'Jeopardy!' This Penn senior with a wealth of trivia experience was one of two students from the East Coast to make it on to the 1999 Jeopardy! College Tournament. If you said "Who is Joshua Levy?" then you're correct. When Jeopardy! auditions came to Philadelphia, Levy decided to audition. He went to the local ABC network affiliate on City Line Avenue, armed with trivia knowledge and a bright red Hawaiian shirt. "My roommates told me to wear something to stand out," Levy explained. "Apparently it worked." First, Levy passed a 100-question test which eliminated about 90 percent of the applicants. But the interview session was where the judges decided that Levy's light-hearted personality was perfect for television. "When asked what we would do with the money, I said that I'd convert it into fives and ones and roll around in it," Levy said. Levy is contractually barred from revealing the outcome of the game until the two-week tournament begins to air on May 3. The first-place contestant wins a minimum of $25,000 and a new car. Eight months passed before Levy received a phone call inviting him to the Jeopardy! tournament. He said he was "shell-shocked" upon hearing the news. On April 10, Levy joined 14 other students in Chicago for two intense days of trivia. Levy was the only student from an Ivy League university and the one of just two students from the East Coast. During the tournament, Levy chose questions from categories that included "Acronyms" and "Science & Nature," noting that his strength is pop culture. But just about every contestant knows the answers, Levy said. Often, the difference between the winner and the losers is who's fastest with the buzzer. In the interview that occurs right after the first commercial break, Levy chatted with host Alex Trebek about his work testing video games for the Discovery Channel. Trebek joked to Levy and the audience that his son would love that job. Overall, Levy described the experience as very positive, but his love of trivia is nothing new. From the time he was in high school, the Bethesda, Md., native was an avid fan of Jeopardy! and dreamed of competing. But when he auditioned for the popular syndicated game show's teen tournament in New York City three years ago, he was rejected. While at Penn, Levy has remained a trivia buff, participating on the Quiz Bowl team for four years. And so, rather than being deterred by his earlier failure, Levy tried again and his persistence paid off. His roommate, Management and Technology senior Jeremy Kalan, always thought his friend would be good at Jeopardy! "He knows facts about everything," Kalan said. "We do well when we go to Quizzo at New Deck [Tavern]." Another Penn supporter, College senior Deborah Sager -- who won third place on the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament in 1995 -- gave Levy tips on how to hold the buzzer and another important bit of information. "Don't get nervous," Sager told Levy. "If you do, you're giving yourself a big handicap."
