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(04/09/93 9:00am)
They sang, they danced and they killed a few presidents along the way. The two-hour long presentation of Steven Sondheim's Assassins by the 15-member Quadramics cast was entertaining and educational. They combined drama, humor, history and music in a way that held the audience's attention and made them laugh and applaud at all the right moments. The musical talent of the cast was impressive. College junior Michael Shames' incredible performance of John Wilkes Booth and College senior Dan Cromie's Balladeer, who tied the whole show together, were especially noteworthy. Shames' voice resonated throughout the theater and the audience hung on every note, anxiously waiting for more. And Cromie's talent with the guitar, as well as with Sondheim's humorous lyrics, were high points of the show. The show also introduced the audience to a few less well-known assassins and would-be killers. The actors displayed their dramatic talent with monologues that tried to explain their motives for assassination. They seemed to take the words and add their own touch, resulting in a convincing and thought-provoking delivery of the prose. The more humorous moments of the show came during the scenes featuring College junior Megan Wozniak and College sophomore Eileen Everly. The audience never stopped laughing as Wozniak's Squeaky Fromme, lover of Charles Manson, and Everly's Sarah Jane Moore, plotted to kill Gerald Ford. The two practiced by shooting a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, but the funniest moment came when their attempt failed. Other highlights included the musical performances of College junior Michael Phillips and Wharton junior Erik Sandorff. The actors, however, seemed to be at their best during the numbers that included all or most of the cast, including the finale which featured choreography reminiscent of the song "One" in the musical A Chorus Line. One unique element of the performance was the use of a slide show that ran through most scenes depicting various guns, presidents and other related items. During the scene with Lee Harvey Oswald, the screen showed images of the Texas School Book Depository and the window from which Oswald shot Kennedy. It was an effective touch that gave the audience more to look at and think about and added to the depth of the story by adding a facet that the script and the actors could not. Assassins runs tonight and next Wednesday through Saturday at the Annenberg School Theater. Performances begin at 8 p.m. and tickets are $5 on Locust Walk or at the Annenberg box office.
(04/03/92 10:00am)
The loss of state funding will affect the Engineering school's ability to improve and to grow, Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington said last week. "The loss of money is going to diminish our ability to invest in improvements," Farrington said. "The improvements we were hoping to make in labs, classrooms, libraries and in bringing computers into education will be very difficult." "This is where we feel it the hardest," he added. The funding loss will also affect the amount of staff the school can maintain. "The loss of money is certainly going to affect staffing levels in the school and the ease with which we can staff our programs," he said. "Also, it's going to diminish our ability to replace staff who resign. "In this situation, constancy is success and we are trying to avoid getting smaller and making really serious cutbacks," he said. "The problem is, whether we have the money or not, we still have to figure a way to [pay for everything,]" Farrington said. Farrington would not specify where the cuts were being made, because he said there were too many to list. "I find it hard to put in exact figures, it comes out of so many funds and allocations," Farrington said. Director of Fiscal Operations for the Engineering school Patrick Burke was not available for comment last week. The budget cuts are due to Governor Robert Casey's proposed budget which eliminates all funding for the University. Last week, administrators announced the 1992-93 budget, assuming that Pennsylvania legislators would approve Casey's budget. President Sheldon Hackney said the primary concern of administrators in formulating the budget was to "protect academic core functions of the University." And Budget Director Steven Golding said the schools have "sufficient time to reconstruct their budgets to account for the loss of Commonwealth funds." While the Engineering School is trying to deal with the loss, Farrington said, "It's just not fun."
(04/01/92 10:00am)
The Wharton School will name Samuel Lundquist the new admissions director for its graduate division, effective April 2, Wharton Public Affairs said last week. Lundquist, who is currently admissions director at Dartmouth College's Amos Tuck School of Business, served as Wharton's associate admissions director from 1985 until 1987. The position of admissions director was formerly held by John Enyart, who stepped down in February in order to pursue a "more senior position at the university level." Lundquist said he will come into the admissions process at the tail end of the selection phase. "My primary focus will be on making sure the yield is managed correctly," Lundquist said. "There is a lot of management to be done over the summer with deferrals and people who change their plans." "I'll also need to start developing the plan for the next year of recruitment," he added. Lundquist said his main focus will be to make the admission process more personal and representative of the school. "My overall goal is to help make the admissions process as reflective of the Wharton experience as possible," he said. He said he feels Wharton has many strengths which he would like to communicate to applicants. The "breadth and depth" of the choices in course selection and the innovative quality of the courses makes it a unique place, according to Lundquist. And he added that the faculty work hard to stay updated on current events that are relevant to their students. Finally, Lundquist said he believes the school's greatest strength lies in the dynamics of the diverse student body. "The key word is opportunity and there are a lot of them [at Wharton]," he said. He added that he does not want students to feel that his office is merely a "vehicle for selection." Lundquist said he is also concerned about the challenge and potential problem of the size of Wharton's applicant pool, which this year exceeded 50,000. "With such a high volume of applicants, students may not feel they are viewed individually," he said. "My goal is to let them know and make them feel that they are all evaluated as individuals." Lundquist said that since Wharton has one of the largest business programs and Dartmouth has one of the smallest, this move will be a big change for him. However, since he worked at Wharton so recently, he said the transition will be made easier because he already knows and has worked with so many of the people he will work with again. He said the biggest changes are really the physical ones. "When I was last here, the executive education building was under construction and the Lauder-Fischer building was just a plan on paper," he said. "The physical aspects of the campus have changed significantly." Lundquist added he loves Philadelphia and is excited about the move. Isik Inselbag, director of Wharton's graduate division, said in a statement he is pleased that Lundquist will be returning to the University. "We are extremely pleased that Sam Lundquist will be coming back to Wharton," Inselbag said. "He is a highly respected professional in his field with a proven track record of success -- and he is already very familiar with the Wharton School."
(03/05/92 10:00am)
All she has to do to get her doctorate from Wharton is finish her dissertation. However, Kathy Engebretson has found little time to write about tax exemption and risky credits since January 13 -- the day she began her tenure as the city of Philadelphia's treasurer. As treasurer, Engebretson handles the city's finances and cash management. As a Wharton student, she has finished her coursework and plans to complete her dissertation sometime during the next academic year. "I'd hoped to finish it over the summer, but that seems unlikely," Engebretson, 35, said. "I work on it during the weekends and two or three nights a week, but I have been so busy here during the first few weeks that I've worked on it less than I had hoped to." Engebretson said she is enjoying her new job and the people have been easy to work with -- a "pleasant surprise." She said she has learned a lot, adding that "city government is a lot different than the private sector," where she worked before. After graduating from Luther College in Iowa and receiving her Masters of Business Administration from Wharton in 1981, Engebretson went to work as an investment banker for Shearson Lehman Brothers on Wall Street. She said her job was similar to what she does now, but in the private sector. After several years, however, she returned to the University to pursue a doctoral degree. "I think it will help me in terms of understanding in greater detail the underlying economic issues that the city is facing and help me to better analyze the different policy alternatives available to the city," she said. Engebretson said she was recommended for the job by Anita Summers, an emeritus real estate professor at the University. Summers said she recommended Engebretson because of her performance at the University and on Wall Street. "When the new administration came in, I knew they would be looking for top finance people," Summers said. As a member of Mayor Ed Rendell's tax policy advisory body, Summers has had a great interest in Philadelphia finance for a number of years. "I knew Kathy as an MBA student and she was a phenomenal student," she said. "She had an active interest in urban finance." The two kept in touch while Engebretson was working for Shearson and met occasionally when Engebretson returned to pursue her doctorate. "I felt she was uniquely qualified for the job because of her work on Wall Street," Summers said. "She is also a good teamworker." Engebretson said she will serve as treasurer for as long as Rendell is in office, provided she does not quit or get fired. Should Rendell be re-elected, Engebretson said she could be asked to serve again. After completing her tenure as treasurer, Engebretson said she will pursue one of two paths. "I'll either find another job in government or on Wall Street," she said. "Ideally, I'd like to go back and forth between the public and the private sector, so I could make some money. My salary here is definitely lower than what I was making on Wall Street." Engebretson said she thinks it is good for students to do some work in the public sector. With public work comes what she calls "psychic benefits," a sense that one's job is important and contributes to society. Engrebretson also said that in the public sector, talented students can move up more quickly in terms of responsibility. Besides Engebretson, one of two deputy treasurers Scott Mills, the city's finance director Stephen Mullen and the mayor are former University students.
(02/25/92 10:00am)
A Residential Maintenance official said yesterday his office has received only nine student complaints about mice in Kings Court this year, which he said does not constitute a problem. Residential Maintenance Assistant Director Phil Genther said his office placed traps in the basement of the building to avoid a problem in Kings Court for this school year because of the renovation of English House and the demolition of the Law Dorms nearby. The nine student complaints were filed during the months of August, September, January and February. Genther said only two of these complaints were from fourth floor resident Connie Fang, who said Sunday she and her roommate have placed several complaints. Fang said the two students have caught six mice over the course of the year with glue traps they received from the Kings Court desk after filing the complaints. Fang said someone from Genther's office called her yesterday to inquire about the problem, offering to send a carpenter to to board up the hole in her roommate's closet, the place where she believes mice enter the room. "They never did anything more than give us the traps before," Fang said. "Now, they're so concerned about their image -- sending carpenters to my room and asking me if I know of anyone else with a big mouse problem." Genther said if a certain room has a chronic problem, someone from his office will go to the room to survey it, looking for a nest or a hole, which will then be removed or boarded up. Genther said exterminators went through Kings Court today for their quarter-yearly roach extermination. Exterminators reported mouse problems in Fang's room, the room directly below hers and another room on the third floor -- the same rooms Fang named when Residential Maintenance asked if she knew of any other existing problems. Genther said students sighting a mouse in their room can file a complaint at the front desk. The report goes through his office and the exterminators, who are in every second day, take glue traps to the residence. Once a mouse is caught, the students in the room can either dispose of the rodent themselves or call Residential Maintenance to have it removed. If the students choose to dispose of it themselves, they can flush it down the toilet or throw it in the trash. Genther said the glue traps are used now because of previous problems with poison. "The mice would eat the poison and crawl away to die," Genther said. "But, they would die in the walls and the students would complain, rightfully so, of the smell." "If students are opposed to the traps because they don't want to come into their room to find a live mouse stuck to the trap, they still have the option of the poison," Genther added. "But, then they run the risk of the smell." He added that the glue traps, which catch the mouse alive, are just as effective in getting rid of the mice in the end. Genther said he believes the problem may at times seem worse than it is because several students will see the same mouse and suddenly believe the building is infested. He also said he has only received one complaint of a rat in six years and that it is very rare for a rat to enter a student's room.
(02/24/92 10:00am)
The first group of Joseph Wharton Scholars is scheduled to graduate in May and program advisor Bill Whitney is proud -- not only of what these 40 students have done, but of where they are going. According to Whitney, they have excelled academically, occupied some of the top leadership positions on campus, become a cohesive social unit and received some of the best job offers on campus. The scholars' program has also served as a curriculum trendsetter, with much of the JWS curriculum for the class of 1992 being incorporated into the standard Wharton curriculum for the class of 1995. "These 40 students have participated in the pilot phase of an honors program that is aimed at maximizing the liberal arts half of the Wharton curriculum and producing an honors section of introductory business courses," said Whitney, associate director of Wharton's undergradute division. Originally, JWS members were chosen from the top one-tenth of the incoming freshman class. However, during the past three years, several students have later been let into the program based on their academic record. "As we have become more well-known, there is more interest," Whitney said. "But I am a one-person operation and the program has begun to overpopulate and outgrow the administrative capacity." Because of this, the JWS program will again be limited to only incoming freshmen starting next year. In tune with the current attitude of Wharton, the scholars are globally-minded. "We don't have a specific requirement," Whitney said. "But in choosing what they wanted to do, they've been internationally-minded." With graduation quickly approaching, many of the students are deciding what they are going to do with their lives. Five are going to law school, three of those to Harvard University, and the rest are planning to enter the job market. "It's obvious that they are landing some of the most highly demanded entry level positions," Whitney said. Jeff Pearson said he disagrees with Whitney, saying that most of his interviews have been comparable to those of other Wharton students. "As the program develops, it might help people get better interviews," Pearson said. "We are the first class and the program is still a little sketchy. As the program gets more widely-recognized, it might help people in the future." Aside from the after college part of the program, Pearson said he thinks he is a more well-rounded person than he would have been had he not been involved in the JWS program. The liberal arts requirement for the program closely resembles that of the College, as does the foreign language requirement. "I think it made us take better, more challenging courses, but the biggest thing is how well-rounded we are in the liberal arts," Pearson said. JWS Katie Cheng said the social aspect of the program was important to her. "I got a good friend and a roommate out of it," Cheng said. "Also, because we all take a lot of classes together, we got to know each other really well. I have four or five really good friends that I wouldn't have made without JWS." "The really exceptional accomplishments come through the students finding their own intellectual path," Whitney said. "It's not what we impose on them -- it's what they find for themselves. And almost all of the 40 have found something to give their enthusiasm to."
(02/24/92 10:00am)
Students say rats, mice infest their rooms Kings Court residents said they saw them the first week. And much to their dismay, they've been seeing them every week since. Third floor residents said they have seen not only mice, but also rats -- eight inches long without the tail. Some residents are taking the situation lightly, naming the rodents after Kings Court residential advisors. Other students, however, are worried. Wharton freshman and fourth floor resident Connie Fang said she and her roommate have caught six mice since September. "We've seen quite a few," said Fang. "At first, it was not that many -- maybe one or two. We went [to the front desk] and reported it." She said that within a few days, she and her roommate received glue traps, and soon after, caught their first mouse, which they discovered still alive, stuck to the glue. "We came into the room and we heard it squeaking," said Fang. "My roommate started screaming 'we caught the mouse, we caught the mouse!' We got our R.A. to get rid of it because it wasn't too pleasant." About a month later, Fang caught another mouse. Returning to school after Winter Break, Fang was sure the problem would be gone, but after she and her roommate both saw another mouse, she knew the battle was not over. "Two weeks into second semester, we saw one," she said. "We caught three in just that week. Then, we caught a fourth a week later." "I guess we're lucky not to have cockroaches, but it is pretty disgusting," she said. "We have a crate of food in our room and we can hear them rummaging through it all the time. All we do is move it and it scuttles away, but we can't even eat our own food." The traps that Fang and other Kings Court residents receive are glue traps, which do not kill the mice. The traps are sticky, so once the mouse gets stuck, it can not get away. College freshman and fourth floor resident Charles Tarvin said he has heard of students coming back to their room to find the trap has been used, but no mouse is in sight. "One guy came in and saw the rat's leg on the paper, but the rest of him was gone," said Tarvin. Tarvin said he has also seen large rats on his floor. Wharton freshman and second floor resident Glenn Desy was bitten by a mouse in November while he was trying to get it out of a trap. According to College sophomore and second floor resident David Toccafondi, Desy was taken to HUP to be treated. Second floor Resident Advisor Chrissie Forke said she has had no complaints on her floor, but has heard about a lot of mouse-sightings on the third and fourth floors. "They exterminate every semester, but that's for cockroaches," Forke said. Third floor R.A. Matthew Rice said he does not feel the mouse problem in Kings Court is any bigger than any other building on campus. "Anyone who tells you there are not mice in other buildings is either stupid or on drugs," Rice said. "Our problem may be slightly bigger because we've had two bulidings either torn down or opened up right beside us, so the mice wanted to be warm and came inside the closest building." Rice said he has put in one complaint on his floor and knows of one other person who put in one complaint on their floor. Rice said he knew nothing about Fang's situation. Rice said he feels everything that can be done is being done by giving out the traps.
(02/18/92 10:00am)
Wharton Graduate Admissions Director John Enyart stepped down from his position last week. Catherine Molony, associate director of Wharton's executive Masters of Business Administration, will serve as acting director until a permanent replacement is found. Enyart will formally resign from his position at the end of the semester in order to pursue a "more senior position at the university level," Enyart said this week. Isik Inselbag, director of Wharton's graduate division, said he was surprised by the abruptness of last week's announcement because he said it is a critical time of year. "He told me on Friday [February 7] and resigned on Monday the tenth," he said. "But you never know how long he was contemplating doing this. He might have told me at the last minute, but he might have been planning to step down for quite a while." Enyart said he felt the release of information regarding his resignation was abrupt and badly handled, causing a disturbance among the student body. However, he said "things are great -- there is no turmoil." Inselbag said that Molony is taking over now "to make the transition smooth." Both Enyart and Inselbag said this is the perfect time to step down. "Recruiting is finished and it's time to start strategic planning for next year's class," Enyart said. "It's the perfect time in . . . our internal business cycle for me to step down." "We are in the middle of the process, but there are stages," Inselbag said. "This is the right time, if one is leaving admissions, to leave." Under Enyart, the recruitment phase of this year's admissions process has been completed. In order to ensure that the same person is in charge during the following two stages -- selection and yield, during which next year's class will be selected and encouraged to enroll -- Molony is taking over now. Enyart has held the position for three and a half years and said he has been "the longest reigning admissions director in 35 years." "I've made something like 22,000 [admissions] decisions," Enyart said. Inselbag said Enyart is a "very energetic and dedicated person" who added a lot to the program. "Applications have increased 15 percent since last year and inquiries to our office have gone up by about 50 percent," Inselbag said. Both Enyart and Inselbag said they are confident that they will find a qualified replacement. "In the admissions industry, this is one of the top jobs," said Enyart. "There will be many excellent people interested in this position." Inselbag said Enyart is a great asset who will be difficult to replace. "But we're the Wharton School and I'm sure we'll find the right person to move us ahead," Inselbag said. Molony was chosen to serve as interim director because of her experience. She previously served as Associate Director of Admissions for the Wharton Graduate Division. "It's been a great and wild ride for me and will be that for the next person," Enyart said. (CUT LINE) Please see WHARTON, page 5 WHARTON, from page 1
(02/06/92 10:00am)
The Wharton School is reaching out. Starting next fall, the school will administer a program to connect Wharton freshmen with the Wharton School and all other areas of the University. The Connects program, which will begin next fall, will help incoming Wharton freshmen define their roles as Wharton students, University students and members of the Philadelphia and world communities. The program will try to explain each of these roles and help students understand the relationship between them. Groups of 50 freshman, led by second-year Masters of Business Administration students, will participate in a number of activities and projects in order to accomplish these goals. Stewart Friedman, director of academic affairs for Wharton's undergraduate division, said that in the past, freshmen have arrived on campus and taken virtually no classes in Wharton. "Many have never even been in Steinberg-Dietrich," said Friedman. "This program will help them come to understand what being a student in the Wharton school is all about." The program will also help students determine their relationship to the rest of the University. "While we want students to be aware that they are members of the Wharton school, it is clearly in our interest to ensure that their University of Pennsylvania identity is also reinforced during the first year," Friedman said. Vice Dean Janice Bellace conceived the program and Friedman is now in charge as the program moves into the final planning stages. "We hope this will be an exciting innovation in the first-year experience," Friedman said. "We are going to deal with a lot of important issues . . . and at the same time help [first-year students] to develop skills in teamwork, negotiation, communitcation and other aspects of personal development." "The basic theme of the program is to help the students become socialized," he said. The groups, or cohorts as Friedman calls them, will make students aware of Wharton's goals and values. The 50-member groups will probably undertake projects as a whole and also split up into smaller groups that will "aim to reach out beyond the community of Wharton," Friedman said. "Those communities include the other parts of the University, the College primarily, but also the other schools, and the community at large," he said. The details of the group projects and activities are still in the developmental stages, but Friedman said he hopes many ideas will "bubble up from the students." In general, Friedman said some projects may be social activities that help students recognize the different schools. Others may try to involve students with the people of West Philadelphia or various industries in the Delaware Valley. More specifically, the Wharton students could meet with other University students to discuss how their curriculums converge. With the Engineering School, for instance, students may help determine new course ideas that involve concepts from both schools. Friedman emphasized the importance of the MBA students as leaders of the cohorts. He said that they will act as mentors for the freshmen and give those freshmen a good opportunity to see what lies ahead of them. Friedman also said that Wharton peer advising would be an integral part of the Connects program. Friedman has been working closely with the advising program on its design and delivery. Wharton freshman Shannon Fullerton said she thinks the program is a great idea and that it is definitely necessary. "I have three classes in Steinberg-Dietrich, but that's pretty abnormal," said Fullerton. "Most people only have one or two." Fullerton also said she does not think of herself as a Wharton student yet. "If someone were to ask me where I went to school, I'd say Penn," she said. "But some upperclassmen I know, if you asked them, they would say Wharton." She added that she thinks there are so many "Welcome to Penn" programs, but that there are no "Welcome to Wharton" programs. Fullerton said she thinks that Wharton freshmen could get a better sense of themselves as Wharton students if Connects were introduced during the summer and implemented during the first semester. "If they had something like this, I'd feel like I was doing something more than just taking my requirements -- like I was doing what I came here to do," Fullerton said. Although many aspects of the program are still in the planning stages, the Connects program will begin in the fall for the class of 1996.
(01/29/92 10:00am)
It's an ideal investment scenario -- little risk and the potential for a deep tan. Over 70 Wharton students are vying for $25,000 and a trip to the Bahamas by participating in the fourth annual AT&T; Collegiate Investment Challenge, a national contest that gives students a chance to play the stock market. And weekly surveys of the students' portfolios show the students' earnings to be among the highest in the country. Over 20,000 participants from universities and high schools all over the country paid a $49.95 entry fee and received $500,000 to trade, as well as a set of rules, an official stock listing, a transaction ledger, a monthly newsletter and monthly portfolio statements. While students play as individuals, the average account value of Wharton graduate students was recently ranked fourth in the country, while the Wharton undergraduates ranked fifth. Currently, no one from Wharton is ranked in the top 20, but former Finance Club President and Wharton junior Lenny Tannenbaum led the country for the first two weeks of the competition and is now hovering around 120th place. He said he still has a shot at first place. Tannenbaum said that he learned about the AT&T; Challenge a few years ago and figured he would try his luck. "It's a pretty cheap way to learn about the market because if you make a mistake you lose $40 -- not thousands," he said. "People who play the game take risks they wouldn't take in real life, and that's the only way to really learn about the market." Trading for the AT&T; contest began November 1. To trade, participants use a 900 number and may only make 50 transactions during the four-month competition. The top 10 winners from the collegiate division will receive cash awards from $1,000 to $25,000, as well as a five-day trip for two to the Bahamas. A University club offers a similar contest on a smaller scale. The 12th annual Investment Games, offered by Wharton's Undergraduate Finance Club, begin Monday, February 3rd. Participants pay a five or seven dollar entry fee, depending on whether students are members of the Finance Club, and receive $100,000 in fake money to invest in any of the major stock markets. After one month and a maximum of 20 transactions, the student with the most valuable portfoilio wins $200, followed by a $100 second prize, a $50 third prize, and several $10 prizes. Finance Club President and Wharton junior Nelson Tao said the game is an opportunity for students to take risks in investing they probably would not take with their own money. Students make transactions over the phone or through electronic mail. Players may only invest $25,000 in one company, encouraging players to maintain a diverse portfolio. Students can register for the Finance Club's Investment Games through Friday in the mail folder room of Steinberg-Dietrich.
(01/28/92 10:00am)
Second-year MBA student Danielle Downing is going places -- Moscow, to be exact. At the age of 26, Downing owns a commodities brokerage firm in Moscow that trades grain and oil throughout the former Soviet Union. After she receives her Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Arts in international relations from the University's Lauder Institute in the spring, Downing plans to move to Moscow for between three and five years in order to run her business first-hand and full-time. After her first year at Wharton, Downing traveled to Moscow to look for a summer internship that would fulfill the Lauder program's requirement to find work in another country. She arrived in Moscow soon after economic reforms began to kick in and just two days after the mayor of Moscow agreed that, according to the new reforms, commodities exchanges were legal. Downing served as the personal assistant to the chairman of the Exchange, with whom she spent the summer putting together a development plan of how the Exchange would evolve and attract members. Downing said that the Exchange is a "central wholesaling network" for oil and grain. As compensation for her work, Downing was given two trading seats on the Exchange. If the Exchange grows, the value of her seats will appreciate as well. To complement her seats, Downing spent the next year setting up her own brokerage firm, which has since become the largest grain trader on the Moscow Commodities Exchange. The firm finds grain in the former Soviet Union and sells it to buyers through the Exchange. The brokerage firm is now "downstreaming into processed products," Downing said. It will be turning wheat into flour to be sold to bakeries. With the recent break-up of the Soviet Union, the major difficulty Downing has encountered has been trade laws between republics. Instead of being able to freely move grain from one republic to another, she must obtain an export license. The break-up of the Soviet Union has not had any real impact on her business yet, Downing said. However, when Ukraine starts to print its own money, she will have to deal with two different kinds of currency, which she says will cause a problem. Downing also said that should any political unrest or war commence, "business will not be as usual." While she is completing her last semster at the University, Downing talks to her 15-person staff for several hours every other day, traveling to Moscow during every school break. Downing speaks Russian -- as well as four other languages -- fluently, which she learned while she attended Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Downing said although she looks forward to running her business hands-on, she added that her life in Moscow will not be as comfortable as in the U.S. "Living is rough in Moscow," she said. "It's not New York, but it comes with the business." While Downing was working for the Exchange, she coordinated a corporate jog. "Most corporations in the Soviet Union don't do corporate runs -- they get together and drink vodka," Downing said, adding that she thought it would be a good idea for them to get together and do something healthy for a change. Lauder Institute co-director Herb Levine said he finds Downing a very interesting student. "She was not an expert in the commodities exchange, so she figured out many things as she went along," Levine said. "She got in at the beginning of something very exciting in the post- Soviet economy and she is going to be an entrepenurial leader there." "She's very energetic, very bright and linguistically very capable," he added. "What she's doing takes some guts, some vision and some knowledge, and she's looking forward from the work she's doing into the future. She's going to go very far."
(01/23/92 10:00am)
A reinvention of the Engineering School's undergradute curriculum is underway. The second of three committees studying the Engineering School's curriculum this year will study what the school should be teaching their students and then devise a plan to implement these ideas. The committee, which met for the first time last Friday to receive their charge from Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington, will first need to decide what will be important and necessary for students to know in the 1990's and beyond. The group of professors and one student will then have to determine the most important values of the curriculum, considering how to combine the teaching of technology with the teaching of such things as writing and speaking. These aspects of the curriculum will be considered for the school as a whole, rather than for each individual field, as the committee tries to redefine the "philosophical basis for undergraduate curriculum," said Civil Systems Professor John Lepore, the committee's chairperson. The committee will then consider how to go about implementing their findings. Farrington said he hopes committee members will put a lot of emphasis on the structure of the first-year curriculum, which he feels is the most important. He said he thinks that freshman year should be an interesting year because students form their general impression of the University. Currently, he said students take the exciting classes during junior or senior year. Lepore added that they will consider how to teach subjects such as math, physics and chemistry, either as entities unto themselves or as they apply to the field of engineering. The committee will also have to consider whether or not it wishes to remain an accredited program. While high schools and professional industries may be more responsive to accreditation, the guidelines for maintaining accreditation are very constrictive, Lepore said. Farrington expects to see a blueprint for the curriculum change within the year, expecting that it will take a few years to implement the changes. He challenged Lepore's committee to talk to alumni, students, industry leaders and educators at this and other universities to see what works and what does not. "We want to learn from the good and reject the bad," Farrington said. After Farrington's charge, the committee began a lively discussion of what they thought they were going to do in the upcoming months. Farrington said he believes that because of the enthusiasm he heard at that first meeting, this will be "a very effective group of people." Last month, Farrington charged a committee of Engineering professors to study how best to bring technology into the lives of all University students and how to "internationalize" the Engineering school. Farrington plans to charge a third committee later this month to study another aspect of the Engineering curriculum.
(01/21/92 10:00am)
After finishing 26th two years ago, there is much room for improvement. In 1990, 22 mechanical engineering students and 38 electrical engineering students, led by Electrical Engineering Professor Martin Wolf, designed and built a solar-powered car and then raced it from Epcot Center to Detroit in ten days. In 1993, Wolf said he hopes to race an improved version of the car from Texas to Minnesota, but waning students interest has made the immediate future of the project very bleak. In April of 1989, the University submitted one of 32 proposals chosen by the General Motors Corporation from a pool of more than 60 to particpate in a cross-country race, scheduled for the following July. GM gave each team $5000 and the U.S. Department of Energy gave each team $2000 as kick-off funding, leaving the rest of the fundraising to each team. The University's car cost approximately $125,000. After working all year on the design and construction of the car, and actually finishing construction in Florida just days before the race, the team had little time to test the car for bugs or to train drivers effectively. This proved to be the beginning of the end. The morning of the first day, during the two and one half mile drive from the team's hotel to Epcot, an inexperienced driver lost control, hit a curb, and damaged the frame of the car. The team spent the entire day repairing the car while the other teams took off for Detroit. Racing from nine each morning until six-thirty each night at an average speed of 25 to 30 miles per hour, it took the team about ten days to reach Detroit. After the initial experience, Wolf said he feels he now knows what the students need to do to improve their chances in the next race. Engineering School senior Parris Wellman, a mechanical engineering student, is less optimistic about the future of the project. Currently, only between 12 and 15 students have expressed some interest in the project, and unless Wellman can get at least nine others besides himself to commit, the car will be impossible to complete and the project will have to end for this year. Wellman and Wolf's original goal was to race the vehicle in May, but for now, that will be impossible. If their proposal is accepted by GM this year, they hope they can participate in the 1993 race. But as of now, the prospect of that also appears faint. Wolf said that because the basic car is already built, this year's team would be able to spend the year working out the kinks and "de-bugging" the vehicle. Wellman and Wolf last semester formed the Solar Race Car Club in order to bring students from all four undergraduate schools together to work on the project and to add an element of continuity to the project. Theoretically, Wharton students would be involved in the fundraising end of the project, and Wolf would gather other students to look at environmental and safety concerns, examine the legal liabilty of the University, and help with organization and manangement. He would also bring in art students to design banners and T-shirts to publicize the project. The club now has between five and ten active members, and will remain intact even if there is not enough interest to go ahead with the project this year. Wellman said they will attempt to gather enough interest for future years. Wellman said that he feels the project is a good way to practically apply the theory that engineering students learn in class.
(01/20/92 10:00am)
To several University students, the project has provided long awaited hands-on experience and a good senior design project. To Mechanical Engineering Professor Ira Cohen, it has been seven and a half years of hard work. Since the spring of 1984, Cohen has led a team of six student assistants in researching ways to improve the assembly of semiconductor chips for a prominent local company. The research project began when the local supplier, Kulicke and Soffa, contacted Cohen to answer several questions about how to process the integrated circuit chips faster, more efficiently and more defect-free. Integrated circuit chips are used in VCR's, answering machines, CD players, computers and calculators, as well as innumerable other devices. "Integrated circuit chips are ubiquitous," Cohen said. Since 1984, Cohen has worked with Engineering students and Mechanical Engineering Professor Portonovo Ayyaswamy on related research for K & S, sponsored also by the National Science Foundation and the University. "The work we do is related to the manufacturing of semi-conductor chip packages," Cohen said. "It's been found that if you take, say, a piece of silicon, or one of a number of different kinds of semi-conductors, you can put different layers of conductors and insulators, so that in a few square millimeters, you can have thousands of circuit elements." To emphasize the chips' importance, Cohen said that when he was doing his doctoral thesis, before the introduction of integrated circuit chips, he used a computer the size of a large auditorium that took an entire weekend to complete one run on a problem. Now, because of the development of the semiconductor chips, the same problem can be done in three to five seconds with a lap-top computer. Carlos Ramos, who graduated last month with a degree in mechanical engineering, joined Cohen's research team over two years ago. Ramos said the project allowed him to learn a number of research skills he otherwise would not have learned because he said he feels the education in the Engineering School is more theoretical than practical. "It gave me a lot of hands-on experience and really rounded the education I had at Penn," he said. Beginning the summer after his sophomore year, Ramos was an assistant to the group of seniors working with Cohen on the project. During his junior year, Ramos worked on the project as part of his work-study program, and during his senior year, it became his senior project. Last semester, the work he did was mainly independent study. Cohen said Ramos was "the most valuable student [he'd] had in the lab" and that his presence added a factor of continuity to the project. Engineering School senior Amina Ali, a mechanical engineering student, joined the project last summer to begin her senior design project. She also said the project has provided her with hands-on experience she otherwise would not have received. "I learned a lot about how to use the laboratory and lab equipment . . . It also gave me the opportunity to put use to the formulas I'd learned and actually come up with designs," Ali added.
(01/16/92 10:00am)
The Engineering School is planning an outreach program to both Delaware Valley industry and high schools, school officials said last week. The program is "designed to make [the University] a regional industry," said the school's Dean Gregory Farrington last week. The goal of the program is to inform regional industry about the University's students and to help initiate joint research programs with those organizations. Farrington said he also hopes the program will create some internship opportunities for undergraduates, perhaps allowing students to use their summers to "really do something." Farrington said he wants to interact with regional industry to learn how to strengthen the University's program to fulfill the needs of the outside world. In order to become "partners with local industry," Farrington said, the School of Engineering and Applied Science will soon hire a person to develop these industrial development connections. In the next few months, Farrington will meet with regional industrial leaders to tell them about University students and to "listen to them to hear how we can work with them." Undergraduate Dean John Keenan also said it is important to make the presence of the University more well known in the Delaware Valley. He said that only good can come from the project, including ideas for senior design projects and possibly undergraduate internships. To further the University's connection with the region, SEAS administrators are now gathering names to form a committee to talk with regional high schools about how the University can help them to improve their science and math programs.
(01/16/92 10:00am)
A combination of hard work and changing perceptions about engineering has contributed to large increases in undergraduate applications to the Engineering School for the past two years, administrators said last week. Early applications for the class of 1996 increased by 13 percent and regular applications rose by nearly 23 percent. And the Engineering School's matriculation rate for this year's incoming class increased by 27 percent. Sending videos to all applicants last year, inviting all female applicants to a "Women in Technology" day, and re-doing the undergraduate literature all contributed to the increase in matriculation and applications, said Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington. The video presents Engineering students talking candidly about their lives both in the Engineering school and at the University. The students, who are from all classes and fields of engineering, talk about the academic benefits of having access to large research facilities as well as the Wharton School and the School of Arts and Sciences. The students in the video also convey a sense of life outside the classroom by discussing the cultural benefits of the city and various on-campus activities. "Women in Technology" day, or WIT day as it is affectionately called, brings female engineering applicants to the University to spend a day talking with female students and professors about life at the University. Instituted last year, Undergraduate Dean John Keenan said it was a big success, bringing over 100 applicants from places as far away as Colorado. The purpose of WIT day is to increase the number of women matriculants. Since the percentage of women students in the class of 1995 is the highest ever at 20 percent, Keenan has booked President's Day for this year's WIT day. Redoing the undergraduate literature sent to all applicants may have contributed to the increase in Engineering applications -- as the old brochures included a picture of the Towne Building in the rain, Farrington said. He also noted that the Engineering School received more applications than the Wharton School, which he said was significant because there are many other undergraduate engineering programs than undergraduate business programs in the country. "It's a function of the perceptions of the career goals of the students. Historically, [admissions] has been very cyclical because of the perception of engineering," said Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson. He also noted that the Engineering School has been very aggressive in getting those accepted to matriculate. The school, he added, has also tried to make the process more personal by asking current students to write letters to those accepted. The increase in Engineering applications coincides with an increase in applications in all four undergraduate schools.
(01/14/92 10:00am)
Engineering School Dean Gregory Farrington took the first step in bringing technology into the academic careers of all University students last month, charging the first of three committees which will review Engineering curriculum. The committee will be responsible for defining what is necessary for non-Engineering students to know in order to function effectively in a technological society, Farrington said. The committee, which is made up of several Engineering professors, will also look at how to give graduate and undergraduate Engineering students an education which will equip them for international technological experience. Electrical Engineering professor and committee head Dwight Jaggard said this week that the committee "is going to look at two major areas, the first one being the relationship of technology and applied science between the school of Engineering and the rest of the University. The second topic will be the internationalization of SEAS." The first task of the committee is to determine the best way to create a "technologically literate community" throughout the rest of the Universtity, said committee member Shirley Aderman, assistant to the dean for academic administration. Farrington explained that he feels it is important to educate not only the scientists and engineers about modern technology, but also the entire voting public who make the decisions in everyday life. Farrington said he believes that courses that accomplish this goal do not exist at the University and that "this is not necessarily accomplished by freshman Chemistry, Biology, or Astronomy." Without these type of courses, "a liberal education is not liberal, it's narrow," Farrington said. Noting the University's efforts to give Engineering students a well-rounded education, Farrington asked "Why should mechanical engineers take English literature and not the opposite?" The second task of Jaggard's committee will be to determine how to restructure the Engineering curriculum so students will qualify for international experience in technology. Farrington said the current structure of the Engineering curriculum makes it difficult for students to take a semester or a year off to study abroad. The committee will consider the merits of reinstituting a foreign language requirement, which Farrington said would involve mastering a "language for living, not literature." The second part of the discussion on internationalization will focus on options for student experience abroad. Farrington said the committee would look at "what kind of international experience would give the highest value to the student." When he charged the committee last month, Farrington challenged the members to do more than just sit in a room for a year and listen to one another, but to go out into the University and talk to students and faculty. He also suggested that they travel to other universities and see what works and what does not. Management and Technology senior Eric Eisenstein will sit on the committee to offer a student's perspective on what he and other SEAS students feel is important to reworking the Engineering curriculum. Farrington said he will charge two more committees to study the school's curriculum later this week.
(01/14/92 10:00am)
Houston Baker, director of the Center for the Study of Black Literature and Culture, took over as the first black president of the Modern Language Association last month. English Professor Baker, who has taught at the University for 18 years, said he is excited about his role as spokesperson for the 30,600 member organization that represents and furthers the study of modern language and literature around the world. As the first black president, Baker said this week he hopes to "make sure that the democratic opening up of literary studies of the last 20 years continues." After being elected second vice president two years ago, Baker automatically succeeded to the position of first vice president last year and to the presidency this year. The century-old association is best known for producing the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, which is regarded as the premier place to find the do's and dont's of writing in English. The book is widely used in the United States and Canada and has been translated into other languages, including Japanese. The MLA made headlines last year during a controversy over the nomination of Carol Iannone to the National Council on the Humanities, an advisory board to the National Endowment of the Humanities, by NEH head Lynne Cheney. Iannone,the president of the National Association of Scholars, a conservative organization, is herself a known conservative. When the MLA announced its opposition to Iannone's nomination, several major newspapers accused the organization of being a "crusader for political correctness" and basing its decision on her political views, rather than her scholarship. The Executive Council of the MLA, however, said it did not feel Iannone was a distinguished enough scholar to sit on the board. When Iannone's nomination came up for a vote before the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, she was denied being placed on the Council by a vote of eight to nine. Baker said this shows that the MLA's doubt was justified. The MLA's membership increased after the incident, which Baker said indicates the English community's support of the MLA's view that Ianonne's qualification did not meet federal regulations. Baker said the MLA began over a hundred years ago when "a group of rebellious professors decided that they had had it with instruction only in Greek and Latin classics and wanted to introduce work in modern languages such as English, French, German, and Spanish." The main functions of the organization include the production of three major publications, as well as a number of minor publications, and hosting an annual convention attended by between 9,000 and 12,000 people. Besides the MLA Handbook, the Association also produces an updated version of their bibliography each year which is used as a reference source for anything of a scholarly nature that has been published. Baker said that he is excited that the bibliography now includes the work of black and Asain authors. The Publications of the MLA is an annually produced journal which Baker said is "the premier place to publish in the study of modern languages and literatures." The annual convention includes 800 sessions on subjects ranging from feminist literature and criticism to discussions on up-and-coming writers and also serves as a forum for job interviews and hiring. "[Dr. Baker] is a man who is so passionate about so many things," English Department Undergraduate Chairperson Alice Kelley said. "I am sure his presence will make a difference."
(11/26/91 10:00am)
History Professor Mary Berry gave her last lecture yesterday. As part of the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society's "last lecture" series, Berry delivered a talk as if it were the final lecture in her career. In her hour-long speech, Berry -- who recently traveled to South Africa to help the country write its constitution -- spoke about the birth and development of the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights. She began her speech, which she originally delivered to the American Studies Association, by talking about how the history of rights in America are usually taught in schools. She started with the Bill of Rights, tracing its interpretations and functions from its birth through the 1980s. The majority of her speech focused on the things that she said are not taught in the schools, such as the appointment of Supreme Court justices and their role in shaping the rights of citizens. She said that the Supreme Court deals primarily with the rights of the majority and leaves the rights of the individual up to the Congress to determine. She then discussed the conflict between those who believe the Constitution should be applied to modern day situations, continuing the framers' original intent, and those who view the Constitution as "a living document." Berry next spoke about how the American court system has been flooded with rich, white, conservative men appointed by Presidents Reagan and Bush. She said these men all follow the same pattern of judgement on the major issues, leaving the courts with a narrow view of the issues. Berry ended her lecture by saying that the necessary political transformation could occur if voters became so fed up with the lack of attention being paid to domestic issues that they began a progressive movement. "Only time will tell," she said. Following her speech, Berry opened the floor to questions, which included some heated discussion on the nation's healthcare system and the emergence of a national third political party. The majority of the 35 students at the lecture said they felt Berry was an effective and intriguing speaker. "I think that while she brings a valuable approach to the reading of American Constitutional history, equally interesting is her backround in political activism," said College senior Harry Sandick. "Even though she has clear views on party affiliation, she was able to give a general view of the process," College senior Sekar Kathiresan said.
(11/20/91 10:00am)
Let the race begin. In conjunction with house parties nationwide celebrating presidential candidate Tom Harkin's 52nd birthday and kicking off his campaign, two University students gave a short presentation Monday night on the Iowa senator. The presentation, which drew 20 students to the Houston Hall room and also served as a recruiting function for the campaign, began with a 10-minute campaign video which presented Harkin as a "courageous maverick," willing to work for ordinary, hardworking Americans. A two-term Iowa senator who served 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Harkin advocates resource economics, wishing to discard supply-side economics and the trickle-down theory. "Let's put [money] at the bottom and let it percolate up for a while," Harkin said in the video. The video also focused on his personal life as a former Navy pilot and family man. The video stated that his greatest accomplishment in Congress was writing the Americans with Disabilities Act. The video ended by indicating that Harkin was running a "grassroots campaign," looking for contributions wherever he could find them. Following the video, forum Co-sponsor and College senior Fred Nemeth continued the upbeat trend of the evening adding that he believes Harkin's fiery nature and willingness to speak his mind will make him appeal to college-age students. Nemeth ended his remarks by asking for monetary donations, stating that a donation of energy and time in the campaign would be well appreciated, but that Harkin's campaign relies heavily on small contributions. The majority of the 20 students at the forum said they wanted to get some information on Harkin in order to begin assessing their choices in the upcoming primaries. "Democratic candidates are having a difficult time differentiating themselves from each other," said Penn Political Union member and College senior John Bertland.
