Search Results

Below are your search results. You can also try a Basic Search.

Student unity, awareness highlight 'Day of Solidarity'

(02/28/03 10:00am)

Amid the Locust Walk regulars, there were some new flyers and new faces this week. Clad in black, Penn graduate and undergraduate students handed out flyers yesterday and beckoned for passers-by to "Support Affirmative Action," "Dress in Black" and "Get on the Bus!" As part of yesterday's "Day of Solidarity" -- organized by various student groups on campus, including the Black Student League and UMOJA -- several affirmative action supporters showed their solidarity by wearing black, helping to hand out flyers on the Walk and signing up to attend the April 1 March on Washington, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the affirmative action admission policies at the University of Michigan. "This is the Civil Rights Movement of our generation," said College sophomore and BSL Vice President Cassi Pittman, one of the event organizers. "We're trying to get the campus jumping," said College junior Chevon Walker, an event organizer and member of the Political Action and Research Committee of UMOJA and the BSL. Numerous students grabbed flyers and signed up for the march. College junior Clarence Tong, vice president of the Asian Pacific Student Coalition, wore black and signed up for the march today. Despite the fact that the APSC has not officially endorsed affirmative action -- "Not all of our constituents support it" --Tong said that he came out because he personally is "a firm supporter." According to Walker, the main goal of the day was to show the urgency of this issue and reach out to the people who are "teetering." This day was meant to "get people to educate themselves." "Even if they form an opinion against affirmative action, at least they have one," she added. Pittman, who spent time on the Walk handing out flyers, concurred. "We did a good job of mobilizing core supporters," she said. "We are getting people talking." College freshman Elizabeth Curtis-Bey took her shift handing out flyers in the afternoon. "Support your peers!" she yelled to a group of high school students touring campus. "This campus is an active campus!" "People have really been responding," she said. Vinay Harpalani, a Ph.D. candidate in education, a master's candidate in bioethics and a member of the national group BAMN -- Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary -- was instrumental in helping to organize the day and other efforts on campus. According to Harpalani, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, affirmative action mobilization at Penn began well before the University of Michigan case. "Starting in '99, there were large rallies with 100 to 200 people in support," he said, adding that since the Michigan case, the movement has really taken flight. Today, "we've had lots of support, and people just keep coming -- over 60 people signed up today" for a space on the buses to the March on Washington, he noted, beaming. "Around 60 signed up on Wednesday, too." Tia Jackson, a second-year Social Work graduate student, has been a driving force in organizing support for affirmative action at the School of Social Work. "Our dean [Richard Gelles] was the first dean [at Penn] to support this and fund buses," Jackson said. Out of roughly 300 students enrolled in the school, she said, 80 have signed up for spots on the buses to D.C. While there was support, however, there was also avoidance. "A lot of people wouldn't take flyers," said College junior Nicolas Rodriquez, spokesperson for the Latino Coalition, which has yet to officially take a stance on the issue. While he was pleased with the day's success, Rodriquez lamented that "no one came up to us and said, 'We're against this'" -- whether in "fear of appearing racist" or just apathy. "We welcome dialogue," he said. "Better dialogue leads to a better outcome, whether positive or negative."

https://www.thedp.com/article/2003/02/student_unity_awareness_highlight_day_of_solidarity

More U. students rally for race policy

(02/21/03 10:00am)

With affirmative action policies in jeopardy, students at Penn are taking the opportunity to speak out. After the University signed the amicus curiae, or "friend of the court," brief to the U.S. Supreme Court this week in favor of the University of Michigan's undergraduate and law school's policy of using race as an admissions factor, student organizations across Penn's campus have begun to mobilize. On Wednesday, following another brief submitted to the Court by 13,922 law students across the country, including several from Penn, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly passed a resolution in support of the University of Michigan, endorsing the Civil Rights March to the Supreme Court on April 1, and commending and encouraging Penn's support of affirmative action. GAPSA Chair Emeritus Kyle Farley drafted the resolution, which will be used as a "voice to encourage the Penn community" and to "inspire other groups across the country," he said. "GAPSA represents Penn's 10,000 graduate students," all of whom, the history graduate student said, would be affected by the court case. The Black Student League is one of the many groups on campus that plan to attend the march that GAPSA is supporting. The BSL, UMOJA and other student groups are developing a campaign to increase awareness of both the case and the march. According to College junior Chevon Walker, a member of the Political Action and Research Committee in both UMOJA and the BSL, the campaign will include "teach-ins, debates and a day of solidarity on Thursday, Feb. 27," when supporters of affirmative action will be asked to show their support by wearing black. "This is among the most important political issues of our lives and will undoubtedly affect us all," Walker said. Indeed, should the Supreme Court rule against Michigan, many fear for the continuity of affirmative action policies here at Penn. While Penn does not use a point system akin to that in place at the University of Michigan, which awards 20 out of 150 points needed for admission qualification for minority status, Penn officials say that racial diversity is taken into consideration in the admissions process. "Diversity is considered part of those extraordinary features that you'd want at the University," BSL President and Wharton sophomore Yewande Fapohunda said of Penn's policy. According to Fapohunda, in light of the Michigan case, institutions fear being sued, so they are already scaling down -- in other words, universities are limiting the chances of having to deal with minority applications by looking at a more limited pool. "They are looking more at private prep schools," Fapohunda said, "not urban, public schools so much anymore." While she is pleased with Penn's recent support of affirmative action, Fapohunda added that the brief is only "superficially positive." "If the court strikes down U. Michigan, will the University still support affirmative action?" she asked. According to College sophomore Efren Olivares, president of Mex at Penn and director for the Latino Coalition admissions initiatives, Penn's admissions process is in need of improvement, despite being better than many of its peers. "Penn's pretty hands-off in affirmative action," Latino Coalition spokesman and College junior Nicolas Rodriquez added. "It's not fully committed" to minority recruitment. Fapohunda points to the numbers for Penn's Class of 2006 as an example -- 13.7 percent of the class has legacy status, she said, which is considered a bonus factor, like race. "There are only 144 blacks, or 5.9 percent, and 166 Latinos, or 6.8 percent," she said. "How much less is okay?" While Asian Pacific Student Coalition President Julia Lee stated in an e-mail that she was pleased with Penn "displaying a commitment to diversity," she, too, sees room for improvement. The Engineering senior praised Penn's recruitment of students from various backgrounds through programs such as Minority Scholars Weekend but said that Penn should improve its representation of Southeast Asians, increase commitment to allocating appropriate resources and funding to underprivileged communities and work for greater recruitment and retention of a more diverse faculty. Olivares said that minority recruitment in the Ivy League as a whole has room to grow. The number of "minority students that attend Ivy League schools is low enough as it is," Olivares said. "It is not because they lack merits -- without affirmative action, I am convinced these numbers would be lower." Indeed, at institutions without affirmative action policies, such as the University of Texas, minorities are severely underrepresented, according to Fapohunda. Ever since the University of Texas dropped its affirmative action policy, Fapohunda pointed out that "admission rates for minorities have plummeted," adding that if you take the Texas example and apply it to Penn, the number of minority students at Penn would drop to around 40 to 60 per class. It is "blind to say that race doesn't exist -- it is part of American culture," she added. It is not that "unqualified people are getting in, but that qualified people aren't."

https://www.thedp.com/article/2003/02/more-u-students-rally-for-race-policy

Classes to resume despite snowfall

(02/18/03 10:00am)

There were snowball fights, snowmen, snow football and even a little snowboarding as Penn's campus came out in full force to celebrate its second snow day of the semester. But to many students' chagrin, at around 8 p.m. last night, Provost Robert Barchi and Executive Vice President Clifford Stanley decided that classes would resume today. However, all non-essential faculty and staff are asked not to report. The winter storm, reported as the worst since the notorious blizzard of 1996, pounded most of the east coast over the weekend and into yesterday, dumping close to 20 inches of snow in the Philadelphia area. With conditions rapidly worsening throughout the day Sunday, the decision to close Penn's campus on Monday, made jointly by Barchi and Stanley came shortly after 11 p.m. "Dr. Barchi and I were talking all day long since the morning," Stanley said. "It was obvious. It was already bad, and we knew it was going to get worse." "It wasn't clear that anyone was going to be able" to get to work, Barchi said. Both noted that the decision was also made to cooperate with the state of emergency declared Sunday by Governor Ed Rendell -- which called for clearing emergency routes by lessening nonessential traffic flow to allow emergency vehicles to get through. "I think we could be able to get things moving by tomorrow," Barchi said last night prior to the announcement. "We're going to be struggling to make up the time for classes." The National Weather Service extended a winter storm warning for blowing and drifting snow, as well as an additional inch of snow and sleet into last night.

https://www.thedp.com/article/2003/02/classes_to_resume_despite_snowfall

Achebe tells stories of his people

(02/17/03 10:00am)

Famed Nigerian author Chinua Achebe delivered his own Valentine message of peace and justice to Penn's campus on Friday. "I am truly delighted that my humble attempts for peace and justice are receiving attention in this great institution," Achebe said, speaking to a crowded Irvine Auditorium about his life and his works. In opening his speech, Achebe stressed the importance for him of his image as a peacemaker. Indeed, Achebe was the recent recipient of a German peace prize, which he claims "saved my life from those who call me a troublemaker." His quest for peace is manifested in his poignant and expressive portrayals of African history in several essays, short stories, poems and novels about Nigeria. "I have heard people ask, 'How do you write Africa?'" Achebe said, adding emphatically that the answer is to "read our books." African authors "are the movers of the story," he added. In his works, Achebe said he deals with the issue of black humanity "most simply." "I write my own story," he explained. "I tell the story of my own people.... If you tell your story, your humanity will emerge. You don't have to shout it." Though he resides in upstate New York where he teaches at Bard College, Achebe feels closely tied to his "mother country" and hopes one day to return to Nigeria. While he wants to instill pride and identity through portrayals of African history, he also states that "it is not my business to tell people who their mother is." Achebe, whose full name is Chinualumogu Albert Achebe, was born in Ogidi, Nigeria in 1930. He describes himself as an activist from the beginning, a young man in his 20s who began to ask dissatisfied questions. The strength he needed, he says, "came partly from the accident of my time." The other, "from inquisitive reading" of authors such as Joseph Conrad, whose novel Heart of Darkness Achebe criticized as a dehumanizing portrayal of Africans. "The longest speech given by a black man in Joseph Conrad is six words long," Achebe said. "The African I write about is not without speech." After reading a selection from one of his most acclaimed novels, Things Fall Apart, Achebe noted the verbosity of one of the characters. According to Achebe, "the people I write about are often great masters of their own language. "I wrote what I did hear" in the books, he said. "I wrote a translation that accorded equal respect to the languages I did have." Indeed, he is considered by many to be one of the best novelists writing in the English language today, with his works studied at countless academic institutions around the world -- recently, Things Fall Apart was selected for the Class of 2006 Freshman Reading Project at Penn. After discussing the book for the project, "several of us dared to dream the author would come," said Center for Africana Studies Director Tukufu Zuberi, who helped bring Achebe to campus. Steve Tsui, an Engineering freshman who was required to read Things Fall Apart, said that the event "gave me a fresh perspective on Africa." At the conclusion of Achebe's speech, several students in the audience honored the writer by singing a Nigerian folk song. "We came as a class to greet him in his own language," said Chidi Ukazim, who organized the hymn and who teaches a class on the Igbo tribe of Nigeria at Penn's Center for Africana Studies. The song, Ukazim said, is about "brotherhood and endearment." "The Igbo people are not well known," she added. "We have just as much humanity. We all have equal rights, and it's time to be one with humanity." Overall reaction to Achebe's talk was positive. "I was struck by his humility," College sophomore Nana Mensah said. "He never wanted to speak for the whole, just himself." College sophomore Leconie Archer added, "It's good that Penn is taking the initiative to address other parts of the world."

https://www.thedp.com/article/2003/02/achebe_tells_stories_of_his_people

From preaching to teaching Tupac

(01/30/03 10:00am)

(See below for corrections.) "Shh!" he blows into the microphone. "Listen to the words." The chattering stops and music fills the room. And even as a crack fiend, mama/You always was a black queen, mama/I finally understand/For a woman it ain't easy tryin' to raise a man. Michael Eric Dyson is poised at the podium, eyes closed, head bobbing to the words of late rapper Tupac Shakur's "Dear Mama." New to Penn's faculty this year, Dyson's class on the life and lyrics of Tupac Shakur this semester is a highly popular course in the African American Studies department, drawing around 200 students into the lecture room at Logan Hall for three hours on Tuesday afternoons. The course looks at Tupac as a religious, historical and social figure. It examines "his music, his philosophy, the contradictory factors of his life, the conflict he engaged in... and the uses to which his memory has been put now that he's dead and a member of that great pantheon of figures that are claimed to still be alive, like Elvis or JFK," says Dyson, who is not only a fan of Shakur's music but has written a book on him entitled Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. Like Shakur, Dyson, 44, is popular for his controversiality and outspokenness. "I'm a 'tweener," Dyson says of his position in the African American community. "I'm not old enough to be part of the Civil Rights Movement but too old to be part of hip hop." He sees himself as a "bridge figure" between the two generations, "trying to connect civil rights identity to hip hop culture and to forge a connection between older and younger Americans, especially black Americans." Dyson's daily life is dizzyingly packed. In addition to his class, he appears on a local radio show and preaches around the country at colleges and other venues about black and religious issues. He also writes -- his latest book, Open Mike: Reflections on Philosophy, Race, Sex, Culture and Religion just came out in December. Dyson describes himself as a "paid pest" -- the "Socratic gadfly at work." His goal, he says, is to "try to prick the conscience of myself... and of others to see if we can't fashion a better world." But before the exclusive interviews, nationwide speeches, signing and promotions for his eight books and professorships at a slew of prestigious universities, Dyson's life was a vastly different picture. • Dyson grew up in the inner city of Detroit, Mich., in the 1960s, the second of five boys. His mother was a teacher's aid in Detroit public schools and his father worked in a factory -- neither went to college. "They were just two hardworking black people trying to protect their children from the society in which we lived," Dyson says. From a young age, it was clear that Dyson possessed a gift for rhetoric. Through his Baptist church, he began acting and giving speeches, winning his first oratory contest when he was 11 years old. At the age of 16, Dyson got a scholarship to a top-ranked Michigan boarding school. But what seemed like a fortunate experience quickly turned into a nightmare -- Dyson, who had previously lived in what he describes as a "segregated world," was confronted with being one of 10 black students in an elite white school of over a thousand. "It was very jarring to me, like a sense of Hitchcockian Vertigo," Dyson says, adding that he would often return to his dorm to find his door adorned with racial slurs. Eventually, Dyson was kicked out of the school and returned to Detroit. From then on, things only seemed to get worse. Though he eventually earned his high school degree, Dyson was on welfare and a teen father at 18. He was in a gang, hustled, worked in a factory and got fired from his clerk job at Chrysler a month before his son was due -- "There were several days we didn't eat," he says. During this turbulent time, however, Dyson also discovered a passion for preaching and became a licensed and ordained minister. And at 21, Dyson decided that a change needed to be made.

https://www.thedp.com/article/2003/01/from_preaching_to_teaching_tupac

King honored with U. events

(01/21/03 10:00am)

(See sidebar article below.) (See below for corrections.) There was sock-stuffing, banner painting, a candlelight vigil and even some heated controversy as Penn's campus came together in celebration and remembrance of the birthday of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. yesterday. The holiday, in observance for a third year at Penn, was hoped to be a "day on" rather than a day off. The day opened with a community breakfast at Houston Hall's Hall of Flags, with addresses from University President Judith Rodin, keynote speaker Minister Lorina Marshall-Blake and several students. Marshall-Blake, the vice president of government relations for Independence Blue Cross and associate minister at Vine Memorial Baptist Church in Philadelphia, spoke about the motto of this year's event, "Justice, Peace and Service." "Dr. King used positive constant action against poverty, racism and war," she said. "We are facing these same issues now. We need to be concerned about Korea, Iraq.... Our destinies are intertwined." In introducing Blake, Rodin emphasized the importance of service. "Penn has every reason to take pride in its achievements," she said. "It is a leader in service learning." "The walls that separate us from West Philadelphia are tumbling down," Rodin added. But not everyone agreed with this statement. In a performance, College junior Carlos Gomez took the opportunity to criticize Rodin for not doing enough to stand up against social injustice both at Penn and in the community at large. "You speak out against anti-Semitism in newspaper articles/Portending to fight prejudice and discrimination/Yet you comply/With the USA Patriot Act/Following the lead of Stalinist Russia/You comply with Homeland Security following the lead of apartheid South Africa and Third Reich Germany/... Oh yes, I did just call you a Nazi," Gomez recited in a poem he authored. The performance raised eyebrows and drew both criticism and applause, with some audience members likening him to a young King and others firmly rejecting the comparison. "You have to take both perspectives in -- it allows you to think," said Roz Stanley, wife of Penn Executive Vice President Clifford Stanley. "I wanted to convey the message that the Penn student body is neither satisfied nor fooled by the compliant and passive stance both the administration and Dr. Rodin have taken with regard to the inherently racist, classist and nationalistic government policies," Gomez said of his comments later in an e-mail statement. Ira Winston, School of Arts and Sciences executive director of Computing and Educational Technology Services, was outraged by the speech. "It was uncalled for," said Winston, who yelled for Gomez to sit down. "He's allowed to say what he wants, but when you start calling people Nazis, that's pretty serious." "He pointed out that we still have a lot of work to do," said Machamma Quinichett, associate director of the African American Resource Center and event organizer. However, she said she found the speech to be "highly inappropriate." However, "aside from the surprise at the breakfast," she added, "the day of service projects went really well." Indeed, Houston Hall bustled with people into the afternoon as Bodek Lounge was transformed into a center of service. Members of both the Penn and Philadelphia community were present, including the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Upward Bound program, Penn VIP mentoring program and several kids from area middle schools. There was also book-sorting training for community members interested in volunteering with the Philadelphia Reads program. Kids from the Upward Bound program and other community organizations gathered around tables with markers, glitter, glue and construction paper to decorate cards for retirement homes and design lap blankets for senior centers. And an assembly line was formed at the sock-stuffing table, where toiletries and other knick-knacks were wrapped in socks to give to homeless shelters. "It brought people from different races, areas, classes, sexual orientations," Quinichett said. "I think Dr. King would have been proud." Across campus in the ARCH building, young kids from around the community gathered to paint banners with inspirational King quotes such as "We're all the same, we're just painted different colors" and "If you can't be the sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are." Danielle Bujnak, a graduate fellow and head of the banner making committee, said that in addition to the banners, books on King and civil rights activist Rosa Parks were made available for the adults to read to the children while they painted. "We felt like this was an opportunity for the kids to learn about King and his legacy and to have fun," Bujnak said. Several volunteers headed away from campus to help with projects in the community. Empty the Shelters, a Penn Service group, offered a "Reality Tour of North Philadelphia." Starting at the Kensington Welfare Rights Union office in northern Philadelphia, the group was led on a tour of nearby welfare centers and homeless shelters by a formerly homeless father of three. Afterwards, participants distributed food throughout the neighborhood. "We wanted to bring awareness to this side of Philadelphia," College senior Samantha Heller said, adding that around 40 people, including some Penn, Drexel and area middle school students attended the event. Martha Cooney, a College sophomore who heads Educational Technology Services, said the group set up the tour -- which is done multiple times throughout the year -- for the first time on Martin Luther King day because, "the day is not just about action, but awareness. Martin Luther King spoke about human rights, economic human rights and conducted a poor people's campaign," she said. "We wanted to highlight the poverty aspect of King's campaign."

https://www.thedp.com/article/2003/01/king-honored-with-u-events

Making her mark on the UMC and Penn

(01/17/03 10:00am)

While the spring semester hasn't reached full throttle for most students, Darcy Richie already seems to have trouble finding enough time in the day to accomplish everything she wants to get done. Richie, a College junior and Urban Studies major, is the new chairwoman of the United Minorities Council, an umbrella organization of 15 minority groups on campus, as well as an active member of both the Penn and Philadelphia communities. "Sometimes I feel like I'm living the life of an adult, with four meetings a day," Richie says. "But in reality I'm still such a kid. I don't want to think about what I want to do with my life yet." As she plows around in her bag to find her day planner, Richie notes that she always keeps four essential items with her: the planner, a meeting book, a "Goings-On" book of various activities on and off campus, and an idea book for projects she hopes to begin. "People have given me so many opportunities that I feel I have to overextend myself to repay them," Richie says. "But I have a huge support network. My friends hold me back and push me forward." Friend and Engineering senior Julia Lee agrees. "Every year she has this list of things she wants to do, to get involved in," said Lee, who is president of the Asian Pacific Students Coalition and worked with Richie last year on the UMC board. "She wants to make her mark, to get her hands into everything and work with a variety of people. She is always reaching out to other fields." While involved in a variety of organizations on and off campus today, Richie says that she was not always interested in social reform. "I was on a totally different track," she says. She wanted to become a photographer and appreciated Philadelphia for the city's art scene. Originally from Birmingham, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, Richie attended a private high school which she described as an "isolated world." Though her parents were involved in politics and public education, Richie says she never considered these elements as central to her life. At the same time, however, she credits her parents in addition to her friends at Penn for getting her into minority issues. "In high school I always had diverse friends," Richie said. "Diversity was there but we never recognized it. If it is not highlighted, you don't learn from it." At Penn, Richie says "things kind of found me." Her friends, she says, made her become curious about things outside the "glass bubble." She began volunteering in the community, working at the Philadelphia Children's Alliance, the People's Emergency Center, and more recently at the ACLU and Campus Philly, a group that strives to retain college students in the city. She also became involved with organizations on campus like UMOJA, the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, the Office of Student Life, various tutoring programs and more recently with Civic House. "Once I got exposed to the public education and economic discrepancies in Philadelphia, I had no choice but to get involved," Richie said. "I feel Penn has so much potential," she continues. "But it still has a long way to go." Richie cites the under-representation of minorities in Penn's student government as an example. According to her, because student government has access to various resources, under-representation excludes minority groups from easy access to those resources. In her capacity as UMC head this semester, Richie says she hopes to strengthen the relationship among its constituents and with other campus organizations, as well as to debate and address contentious issues such as affirmative action and relations with Philadelphia and Penn Police. She also hopes to work on projects such as a business/University public education collaborative endowment project and an Ivy conference on progressive policies, an area where Richie feels Penn is particularly lacking. One of the projects Richie is particularly passionate about is increasing exposure to the myriad of different groups on campus. "The normal Penn student comes to Penn and is automatically, and unfairly, put in this box, which they stay in for four years," Richie says. "That needs to change." To combat this phenomenon, Richie says she is currently working on developing an Inter-community Exchange Project to institute workshops conducted through the college houses as a means of exposing incoming freshman to all communities at Penn, not just minority groups. "My main goal is that the typical Penn student doesn't enter the world as isolated as Penn can let them be," Richie says. "There's a whole world just one block away that they don't see. "There is a natural tie to being exposed in our little world and being curious about the outside world," she adds. On a personal level, Richie notes that her other plans for this semester include volunteering at a women's shelter and getting more involved with the Penn Women's Center, because, somewhere along the way, "I forgot that I was also a woman," she says. "Penn is busting at the seams with talented leaders," said Sean Vereen, program coordinator at Makuu, the black student cultural center for which Richie has implemented and participated in programs. "But it is the rare student who through all that the campus throws at them keeps a faith in a community and in our collective ability to make it better. Darcy is one of those rare students." "I'm 100 percent in love with Penn and 100 percent in love with Philadelphia," Richie says. And it shows.

https://www.thedp.com/article/2003/01/making_her_mark_on_the_umc_and_penn

PennConnects