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(01/13/98 10:00am)
If University attorneys have their way, a high-profile court battle won't go to trial anytime soon. The long-standing legal fight between the University and the owners of a local video arcade and laundry ran into further complications last month when Penn appealed three rulings unfavorable to its case. The owners of University Pinball and University Laundry at 4006-4008 Spruce Street sued the University and the city last April, asserting that Penn and the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections conspired to illegally shut down their businesses April 18. In June, Penn filed a countersuit claiming the establishments attracted crime to the edge of campus. All three appeals stem from an October 22 order by U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz denying the University's motion to award partial or total judgment to Penn without a jury trial. Although the case has been ready for trial since early November, the appeals could cause further delays. Recent articles in The Philadelphia Inquirer and the weekly Philadelphia City Paper have raised the case's already-high profile. The city settled its part of the lawsuit in September by paying $60,000 to the Schoepe family, which owns the businesses. Also, the city admitted in court papers that the establishments did not violate any laws and were not a public nuisance when they were closed. The plaintiffs hoped to use such statements against the University during the trial, but Katz issued an order forbidding attorneys from mentioning the settlement to the yet-to-be-seated jury. In asking Katz to award them judgment, the University claimed in court documents that while the city may have illegally shut down the Schoepes' businesses, the First Amendment right to petition government protected Penn's role in the closure. In effect, University lawyers contend, all Penn did was ask city authorities to investigate the matter. When Katz failed to respond to that argument specifically in his October 22 order denying summary judgment, the University filed another motion asking the court to clarify its position. In his November 17 response, Katz denied that the University's actions in the case were protected "because the University defendants' conduct arguably went beyond the mere 'petitioning' of government." Katz cited the presence of a University police officer at the physical closing of University Pinball as evidence that Penn had overstepped its First Amendment rights. Once that motion was denied, the University asked Katz for permission to appeal the two rulings to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Katz refused on the grounds that "the immediate appeal of the denial of summary judgment would delay rather than materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation." In order to appeal a specific order before or during trial, permission must be given by the trial judge. Nevertheless, University attorney Roger Cox appealed the initial motion for summary judgment, the second motion asking Katz to clarify his position and the motion to certify the first two for appeal. The Court of Appeals must first rule on the legality of appealing the orders before ruling on the actual substance of the appeal. The Schoepe family filed a motion December 31 in the appellate court to immediately quash the appeal because the trial judge refused to allow it. The plaintiffs also filed a motion to award judgment to the Schoepes, but Katz ruled against that motion as well. The University has asked Katz to put the case on hold until the appeals court makes its decision. Schoepe attorney Ronald Shaffer could not be reached for comment Friday, and Cox declined to comment on the case.
(11/25/97 10:00am)
Artists from the University community premiered 130 of their finest works in Meyerson Hall last night for the opening of the Undergraduate Arts Exhibition. The annual event provides a chance for undergraduate students to display their pieces to the public, according to Fine Arts Professor Frank Hyder. "In a way, it's a litmus test for them to measure the quality of their work against their peers'," Hyder said. "It's the first step into the professional world." Paintings, sculptures, photographs and computer-generated images were selected for the show from more than 250 submissions. Students in any undergraduate arts class could submit up to five pieces, exhibition coordinator Chad Andrews said. A panel of 12 judges -- comprised of faculty members from the Fine Arts Department and graduate students in the College of General Studies -- decided which works would be included in the display. College junior Gary Magretto, who had two charcoal drawings on display, noted that he felt awkward seeing others examining his work. "It's weird having everyone look at your [art], especially when you walk by it," he said. College junior Spring Moore displayed her piece called "Enlightened Space," which was a mixed media collection of wooden triangles attached with strings to a wall. "I was really fascinated with the shape of the triangle," she explained. Lane Miller, an artist from the Washington, D.C., area, traveled to the University for the exhibit. "It's a good ego-boost. It probably has more benefits for the artist than the viewing public," she said, emphasizing the importance of exposing a young artist's work. Andrews noted an increase in the number of undergraduate students enrolled in arts classes, as well as a general improvement in the quality of art submissions over the past few years. John Woolsey, who earned a master's degree from the Graduate School of Fine Arts in 1973, attended the exhibit opening. "I'm interested in what the students are doing," Woolsey said. "It's got a lot of variety and has a lot of very strong work." He added that he believed the quality of the work is much better than at other undergraduate exhibitions he has attended in the past. Woolsey said he was particularly impressed with some of the computer-generated images, which represent a relatively new form of art. One of the main purposes of the exposition is to give students a chance to see what the professional art world is like, GSFA Assistant Dean Lindsay Falk said. He stressed, though, the added importance of the University community taking this opportunity to embrace the arts. "I think the more undergraduates who are exposed to the fine arts, the better," he said. "Exposure to the fine arts is critically important." And Hyder agreed that yesterday's event stimulated creative discussion. "It's a visual experience and invites dialogue in the community," he said. "There's something for everyone."
(11/20/97 10:00am)
The condoms have arrived. After months of eager anticipation fueled by signs proclaiming, "The condoms are coming," the contraceptives finally appeared in full force yesterday, as part of a Wharton Management 100 project designed to foster "openmindedness on safe sex and sexuality." The Management group -- which calls itself Wharton Students Educating Generation X, or Wharton SEX -- sponsored a workshop on safe sex and homosexuality in conjunction with SafeGuards, a gay men's health program in Philadelphia. At the talk, students distributed condoms -- in different flavors, no less -- as they have done all week on Locust Walk. Wharton freshman Chianoo Schneider, one of the group's members, said the University community needs a more open attitude about sexuality. She noted that after the group hung strings of condoms up and down Locust Walk Tuesday, University officials ordered that they be removed. Safeguards Project Coordinator Chris Bartlett said that he wanted "to set up an atmosphere tonight where people can say what they want about gay people or about heterosexual people? without being harassed." Bartlett, who is openly gay, noted that he always knew he was attracted to men. He recalled an incident when he was a toddler and his mother pointed out a cute girl at a pool, saying that someday he would marry someone like that. "I looked at the lifeguard and knew that that was who I was interested in," he said. Bartlett added, however, that while he may have been born a homosexual, he chose to be gay. "I could have just been a man who had sex with other men," he said. Being gay, he explained, is a lifestyle decision, while being a homosexual is something one cannot help. Later in the workshop, Bartlett provided the event's highlight by showing how to put a condom on your partner with your mouth. Bartlett then put a condom over his entire fist and then over his head to illustrate that "no matter what he says, no one's penis is that big." During the event, each student in the room wrote down one positive and one negative thing that came to their mind about gays. One student wrote that a negative aspect was the fear of having a gay friend hitting on you. Bartlett stressed the importance of communication in such a situation, saying that having gay friends is a wonderful opportunity to learn about a different culture. "It's really being confident in your masculinity and your own sexuality to be friends with a gay man," he said. Positive aspects students wrote about included several stereotypical gay traits, including sensitivity, kindness and good sense of fashion. Bartlett said that while some of these traits are true in some cases, they are no more correct than the belief that gay men are sex-crazed pedophiles. Following the discussion of homosexuality, Bartlett discussed different types of contraceptive devices and tips for having safer sex, including his two demonstrations.
(11/18/97 10:00am)
Some sobering statistics displayed on Locust Walk this week may make some students realize their Economics midterm wasn't the worst thing in the world. One out of three children in the world is poor. One out of five West Philadelphians lives below the poverty line. Nearly 25,000 homeless people live in Philadelphia. As part of the annual Poverty Awareness Week, banners displaying these startling statistics are posted up and down the Walk. According to organizers, the goal is to make students aware of the issues surrounding poverty. College senior Toni Roth, a co-coordinator of the week's events, said the organizers hope to make Penn students realize just how large a problem poverty is. This, she said, is the reason for the banners. "It's hard to do volunteer work in a vacuum," Roth said. "A lot of students in Penn do volunteer, but they often do it without thinking about the reasons they do it. And those reasons are poverty." College junior Joshua Zeichner, who works at Hillel's weekly soup kitchen, said that knowing the facts about poverty will encourage volunteerism. "If you're aware of what's going on, you look for ways to help," he said. Some students, however, said they think University students are largely indifferent to the plight of the poor. During a discussion group yesterday of more than 20 students active in community service, College sophomore Cate Swinburn said most students are simply uninterested. "So many are apathetic," she said. "Most Penn students just don't care about West Philadelphia, and they forget that there are communities past 42nd Street. "I don't know what to do, take away their credit cards or what," she added, to laughter and the nodding of heads. Taking a different viewpoint, one student who asked to remain anonymous responded that it's "not necessarily that people don't care, they just don't have the knowledge. People are really career-driven here, and it blocks their ability to see what's outside." The discussion, entitled "What Every Volunteer Should Know," was sponsored by Empty the Shelters, a local activist organization. The event, which sought to give volunteers background information on poverty, included discussions on welfare reform, housing shortages, the effects of poverty on children and the globalization of the economy. "It's an education about different poverty issues for volunteers -- things they need to know when they go into the community so they can understand the context they're in," College senior and PAW co-coordinator Liz Theoharis said. Chris Caruso, a 1993 College graduate and a founder of Empty the Shelters, discussed how globalization and technological advances have cost many people in Philadelphia -- and around the world -- their jobs. "The result of these twin processes is this incredible polarization between poverty and wealth," he said, noting that in 1996 the world's 407 richest people had as much money as the poorest 50 percent, about 2.5 billion people. Poverty Awareness Week events, which include a speech tonight in conjunction with Unity Week, continue through Saturday. Other highlights include a screening of a documentary about poverty in Philadelphia Thursday night and a charity coffee house Friday night at the Castle.
(11/12/97 10:00am)
A fellowship program at the Philadelphia Association of Psychoanalysis has helped incorporate psychoanalytic theory into the University's academics. Individuals from many fields, including lawyers, secondary school administrators and writers -- as well as University professors -- have participated in the program since its creation in 1995. "A psychoanalytic perspective is a really unique and humane way of approaching problems that affect people," said Bruce Levin, director of the fellowship program. Psychoanalysts, he explained, are trained to understand neurotic behavior. During their year-long fellowships, participants meet monthly with two mentors and attend regular classes at the association's headquarters in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. Through the program, fellows learn how to apply psychoanalysis to their own fields. "I've been surprised at the level of interest, particularly in the academic field," said Levin, adding that several University professors have participated in the program. Center for Bioethics Director Arthur Caplan is currently an honorary fellow, one of the program's three types of fellows. The other two are clinical -- for individuals in the medical field -- and academic. Part of his job as the center's director, Caplan said, is to examine issues such as suicide, euthanasia and artificial reproductive techniques. "Psychoanalysis has something to say about all these sorts of questions," he noted. Lori Lefkowitz, a former visiting English professor at the University, was a fellow in 1995. She used her time to learn how psychoanalysis relates to her areas of expertise -- women's studies and literary criticism. "Much of my critical work is psychoanalytic," she said. "It's been terrifically informative." Lefkowitz is using the psychoanalytic knowledge she gained from the fellowship to write a book on relationships between women. Noting the "reciprocal" nature of the fellowship, Lefkowitz said the association members seem to gain almost as much as the fellows. Levin agreed, adding, "We have the opportunity to hear about their creative endeavors." In addition to scholars like Caplan and Lefkowitz, professionals like Mimi Rose, an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, have taken part in the fellowship program. After finishing her first year in the program earlier this year, she applied for and received a second year in the program. Rose, who is in charge of the family violence and sexual assault unit of the DA's office, discusses cases with her mentors when she needs a better understanding of defendants' motivations. She said she has applied her psychoanalytic skills to a case in which a mother is suspected of making her child sick. The mother allegedly tries to get attention from doctors when she brings him to the hospital. Rose and Caplan agree that psychoanalysis can play an important role in both their fields, despite their obvious differences. "To take mental health concerns and apply them to other disciplines is so incredibly important that it really should be encouraged," Rose said. Caplan added, "There is a tendency these days to reduce everything to either genes or chemistry. I believe that people still act for reasons."
(11/07/97 10:00am)
Fine Arts graduate student Tim Stotz didn't pick up a paintbrush until he was 19 years old, but the late start didn't prevent him from winning the $10,000 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award for representational painting last month. Stotz, 28, won the prestigious award out of an applicant pool of more than 500. "I think they looked at my work and saw I was speaking with my own voice," he said, adding that he submitted about a dozen paintings to the foundation. Stotz has been painting since freshman year, when he decided to pursue a degree in the arts rather than in electrical engineering as he had planned. Although he had long enjoyed drawing, "a bad experience" with a ninth-grade art teacher initially convinced him to drop artistic endeavors in favor of science and math. He continued to draw for his own enjoyment, however. And when a friend looked at his sketches and encouraged him to try art once more at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, Stotz reluctantly agreed. It was a decision he would not regret. "It was just, like, an epiphany -- a complete epiphany," he recalled. The next year, Stotz dropped all his engineering courses at Randolph-Macon and switched to fine arts classes. "At some point I decided that I was called to [paint]," he said. "I feel like painting picked me, not that I picked it." After graduating from college, Stotz -- who is currently in the first of two years at the Graduate School of Fine Arts -- alternated between living in New York City and France. His time in France, he said, was the most important part of his training. "I'm the happiest man alive," he mused. "My faith in the transforming power of images has never been undermined." Stotz spends much of his time painting portraits of both himself -- "the cheapest model to hire" -- and friends and professional models. The majority of the pictures he submitted for the foundation award were such paintings. "When you sit down and do a person's portrait, you learn how to get into someone's head," said Stotz, adding that he likes to paint people because of his "profound reverence" for them and his disappointment that human interaction seems to be declining. "Knowledge of other people is endangered," he said. "I've come to really focus on what it takes to know something about someone else." With this in mind, Stotz predicts that portrait painting, along with teaching, will be one of the ways he'll earn his living in the future. Next year, he is hoping to study in Florence, Italy, on a Fulbright Scholarship, a government-sponsored program that encourages student exchange. But Stotz is not yet sure how he will spend his prize money -- though he said he is hoping to use it on an excursion to the Southwest next summer. Like a typical graduate student, though, Stotz said most of the money will likely go to pay bills. And while he conceded that the extra dough is nice, Stotz said the joy he gets from his work is even better: "I gave up on society and found the world."
(11/03/97 10:00am)
Some people's ears may have been stinging as they strolled down Locust Walk last Wednesday. The sounds emanating from College Green were excerpts from famous books such as The Color Purple, 1984, The Great Gatsby and, of course, The Catcher in the Rye -- all of which have been banned at some point in history for their allegedly offensive content. About 25 students and professors read portions of these and other controversial books throughout the day in front of Van Pelt Library at an event sponsored by the English Undergraduate Advisory Board. "There's no reason to wait until there's a wholesale suppression for a reading like this," said College senior and UAB member Sara Oremland, who coordinated the event. "This was a celebration of the fact that we do have the freedom to read these books." Participants, who read for 15 minutes each, selected works that others have banned or attempted to ban in the United States at one time or another. English Professor John Richetti read "Howl," a controversial poem by beat poet Allen Ginsberg, who died last April. "I always admired the beatniks," Richetti noted. "This is a tribute really to Ginsberg." Echoing the sentiments of many, College senior Amanda Karsten added, "There's a power of these words being expressed here on Locust Walk. It's beyond the realm of Bennett Hall." Many of the participants read books that not only have sparked controversy but that had personal meaning to them. "Most people decided on books they just loved," Oremland said. "They couldn't believe that such a wonderful book could be banned." College senior Ian Van Wert read excerpts from Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, which he said was his favorite book in high school and which led him to major in English. "It's very poetic and well-written and gives very profound insights into the loss of identity," he said. "It would've sucked if I never got to read it, because it turned me on to English." Oremland said she didn't try to encourage or discourage the choice any particular books, though she sought to have people read excerpts of banned works that themselves dealt with censorship, such as Fahrenheit 451, 1984 and Catch-22. "Each of those deal in the literature with book burning, and, ironically, they've been banned," she explained. Oremland stressed that the event, which had been postponed from an earlier date because of rain, was not a protest, since the University does not ban books. She instead called it a celebration. "I think it's good to have this kind of intellectual outlet in the open, outside of the classroom," she said.
(10/31/97 10:00am)
No, that wasn't Neve Campbell you heard screaming on the second floor of Houston Hall yesterday afternoon. The yells were coming from the mouths of young children as they explored the Smith-Penniman Room in Houston Hall, which had been transformed into a spooky haunted house by members of the Kite and Key Society's Penntoring program. Penntoring is a weekly mentoring and tutoring program that brings West Philadelphia grade school children to campus. During the sessions, University students teach the children for an hour and then play various games and activities. In celebration of Halloween, the program turned the usual staid Smith-Penniman Room into a cauldron of ghosts and ghouls. "Last week, something strange happened," Brian Goldberg read from a letter he told the kids he received from the Houston Hall management. Goldberg, a community projects coordinator for Kite and Key decked out in black garb and ghastly face paint, told the enthralled and frightened children that the room was now haunted. About 10 students and their mentors went into the room at a time. In the room, they crawled through a "spider's tunnel," looked behind blinds to find Penn students squirting "silly string" and reached into boxes allegedly filled with candy, only discover a human head. "It was really scary," said 10-year-old Amber Ligon as she emerged from the haunted room. Penntoring, jointly run by Kite and Key and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, is distinct from other tutoring programs, according to Goldberg, a College junior. The children come to campus instead of Penn students traveling to them, and about one-third of each 90-minute session is spent playing games and engaging in other non-academic pursuits. In the past, the group has organized a scavenger hunt and Olympic-style sports. "The activities make this program different from others," Goldberg said. "Mentors and their kids become quite attached." College senior Debra Drummond, now in her third semester with the program and her second semester with the same mentee, added that "it allows us to get on a personal level with the students." Having the children come to campus is an advantage for everyone, said social worker Toni Moody, who coordinates the Human Services side of the program. "[The children] get to see the importance of going to school and furthering their education," Moody said. Goldberg also noted that the program appeals to Penn students because they don't have to travel any further than Houston Hall. Penntoring is also popular because of the individual attention the mentors can give to the kids, according to Moody. Each Penn student is paired with only one younger child and stays with that student for the entire semester. That might change next year, however, when the closing of Houston Hall for renovations will force the program to find a new home. Currently, Penntoring uses five rooms on Houston Hall's second floor each Thursday afternoon. If the program is consolidated into smaller quarters, several children likely will have to pair up with a single mentor, reducing the opportunities for one-on-one interaction, Goldberg said. "I'm not going to get frantic until I know more details," he added. "But I am worried. Where are we going to find five or six rooms close to each other?"
(10/24/97 9:00am)
A group full of youthful vigor and energy, the University's speech and debate team has gotten off to a running start this year. The team pulled in two fifth-place finishes at major East Coast tournaments at George Mason and West Chester universities this fall. And several members have already qualified for a national tournament this spring, team secretary and Wharton junior Jason Auerbach said. But it's not their performance that the team is touting -- it's their freshman class. "They are a strong group with a lot of potential," Auerbach said of the class, members of which are competing in separate novice events until they are ready to compete at the varsity level. "The freshmen this year are phenomenal," added College sophomore David Ecker, the team's vice president, adding that the group did extensive recruiting to build a strong core of younger members. The accolades flow in both directions. "[The upperclassmen are] why the freshmen have been successful," team member Todd Wise said. "The students encourage the students. That's what's so appealing about the team." Wise, a College freshman, added that the freshmen have a "certain amount of vigor, a will to win." "We want to compete with the proverbial big boys," he said. At the GMU tournament October 5, Engineering freshman Ginny Donovan took first place in impromptu speaking at the novice level, with Engineering freshman Jay Haverty placing second and Wise third. During the event, participants have seven minutes to think about and respond to a famous quotation provided by a moderator. And varsity team member Benjamin Shoval, a Wharton sophomore, was a semi-finalist in the varsity impromptu category. "The whole team did a great job," said Auerbach, who placed fifth in extemporaneous speaking and fourth in the "After Dinner Speaking" event. "[But] the most important part was that all our novices went. We're building a strong core of freshmen and sophomores." The ADS event allows participants to present a 10-minute prepared speech looking at a serious topic in a humorous manner. At the West Chester tournament on October 11 and 12, two varsity members, College junior Josh Ewing and College sophomore Sarah Coelho, qualified for the semifinals in the Lincoln-Douglas debate, a one-on-one public policy argument. The team is now preparing for a tournament at Massachusetts' Suffolk University this weekend. And Halloween weekend, the team will attend what Auerbach said is the biggest event of the semester, the "Mad Hatter Tournament" at Pennsylvania's Bloomsburg University.
(10/22/97 9:00am)
More than 130 future leaders of the so-called "Generation X" gathered at the Penn Tower Hotel this weekend to discuss the problems and issues facing the nation's young adults. The weekend-long "We the Future" convention was sponsored by the Foundation for Individual Responsibility and Social Trust. This is the second year of the event, which seeks to "engage a new generation of citizens" by encouraging more civic and social responsibility, FIRST President John Smith III said. "[FIRST] is about individual responsibility, it's about social trust, it's about your generation, a much-maligned generation," Smith told delegates representing 20 states in his opening remarks. The main purpose of the convention, according to FIRST Executive Director Josie Mazzaferro, was to begin a two-year process of drawing up a "Generational Action Plan." The delegates worked in small groups over the weekend to come up with questions that will face their generation in the future. The questions ranged from "How will we address the social security crisis?" and "How do we inspire our generation to become more involved in the political process?" to "What role should the United Nations play in world affairs?" On Friday night, two speakers -- author Neil Howe, the keynote speaker, and Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.), the honorary co-chairperson -- discussed what they viewed as the greatest challenges to Generation X. Andrews said the biggest issue facing young adults is campaign finance reform, noting that despite the qualifications of everyone in the room, none of them is likely to hold elected office because of the "malignant system of money and politics." Under the current system, Andrews added, the only people that can run even a small-market congressional campaign must be able to quit their job and spend all their time raising money. "I believe we'll never have public trust restored until we change the way we [run] elections," he said, adding that until such trust is restored the federal government will be unable to deal with any other pressing national concerns. Howe, meanwhile, compared Generation X -- the first generation in American history to have a lower standard of living than its parents -- to the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He said the Lost Generation suffered through many of the same problems and even had a similar reputation for being apathetic and individualistic. "In the end, [members of the Lost Generation] found abundant meaning in their lives in [helping] the succeeding generation," Howe said. "They suffocated them with protection." Following this comparison, Howe suggested that Generation X should seek to improve the future for the "Millennial Generation," those born between 1980 and 2000. College senior Elizabeth Scanlon, one of the delegates, said that while the conference was important in terms of uniting a generation, she had reservations about how successful it would be in addressing national concerns. "I feel that some of the problems lie at a deeper level than fixing healthcare or fixing Social Security," she said. Still, she added, "The conference was good because it developed a dialogue. I know I'm going to take what we talked about and think about it personally."
(10/01/97 9:00am)
Back everything up. Don't assume all e-mail is genuine or private. Never give out your password. This was just some of the advice Internet Security Officer Dave Millar doled out to nearly 20 King's Court/English House freshmen last night on how to avoid on-line problems. Millar noted that the most prevalent computer problem on campus is the loss of non-saved data. "I can't emphasize enough the need to back up," he said. The best way to back up data, according to Millar, is to use special tape back-up drives that can save an entire hard drive's worth of information. At minimum, he said, any important documents should be saved on floppy disks. The University's system administrators have struggled with many e-mail-related problems as well. Millar stressed that e-mail is not necessarily private. "Generally I tell people not to use e-mail for sensitive [documents]," he said. "E-mail is like a postcard. Don't count on the privacy of it." Millar also noted that e-mail can be forged easily. A forger does not even need to know the victim's password to send e-mail that is seemingly from his account. He advised students to be wary of all e-mail and to not assume it is genuine. Strongly warning students not to pirate copyrighted software, Millar pointed out that University policy states that Penn does not "condone or tolerate the unauthorized copying of licensed commercial software by staff, faculty or students." "An individual or University department engaged [in such activity] may face disciplinary proceedings," as well as civil or criminal charges, the policy continues. Other pieces of advice included never giving a password to anyone and making sure to completely sign off of Penn InTouch to prevent someone else from accessing personal information. Millar -- who has been the ISO since the university created the job five years ago -- also discussed some of the more interesting Internet-related problems he has encountered. "Some people who are new to the Internet can make some stupid mistakes," he said. Millar once wrote a private e-mail about one of the University's Internet policies to someone asking about it, which was forwarded to 1,000 other people without his knowledge. Millar has also seen many students victimized by on-line scams. A student last year, for example, tried to buy a stereo system advertised on the Internet and sent $400 to an address in Atlanta. When the stereo never arrived, the student contacted Millar, who then called the Atlanta police. However, officials were never able to locate the company and recover the money.
(09/25/97 9:00am)
Research universities are in for "a few tough years," according to Allan Bromley, a Yale University professor who was the science and technology advisor to President Bush. Bromley, who is also president of the American Physical Society, addressed nearly 100 students and faculty yesterday at the David Rittenhouse Laboratory on the future of large research universities. One of the major problems facing institutions like Penn, Bromley said, is a poor public image. "The public perception of what [universities] are up to isn't good," he said. "It's remarkable how they've lost the trust and respect of the American public." The public thinks especially poorly of professors, Bromley added, quoting former Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-Calif.): "Go to a research university. I defy you to find a senior professor actually teaching a class of students." But Bromley, who is also Yale's engineering dean, flatly denied those accusations. "We have failed miserably in convincing people that we actually work," he said. "The idea is that about 10:30 in the morning, the research professor comes in and says 'I think I'll do some research today. I wonder what would be interesting to look at'." Another cause for concern, Bromley said, is an up-and-down pattern of federal funding for research. In the 1960s, the government increased funding to research by 20 percent annually, allowing universities to construct new buildings and hire new tenured professors. But when the government began decreasing university funding in 1968, the schools were stuck with the buildings and professors. Lacking the money to pay for them, this lead to a sharp decrease in graduate education programs. Bromley compared the situation of the 1960s to the 1990s. Since the government has been cutting back on research and development spending over the past decade, he expressed concern about similar cutbacks. "I'm worried that by the end of the millennium, we may well realize that we made a terrible mistake," he said. "And if we [implement] another crash program, we're going to freeze each alternate generation out of academia." Bromley predicted that available funding for research will continue to decrease until 2002 -- by which time 20 to 30 percent of graduate programs will have been shut down. Attempting to offset any future damage, Bromley said he hopes research organizations, including universities, will urge the government to keep funding steady. Noting that Bromley is an expert on the topic, Vice Provost for Research Ralph Amado said he had several good points.
(09/16/97 9:00am)
Despite its huge size and population -- more than 17,500 islands inhabited by 200 million people -- as well as its status as one of the world's fastest growing economies, the archipelago nation of Indonesia remains largely unnoticed by Americans. In an attempt to heighten American knowledge of the country's importance, the Indonesian Students Association of Philadelphia held a day-long event at the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Saturday in celebration of Indonesia's people and culture. "If you hear anything about Indonesia, it's the corruption and human rights [violations]," said Ian Tanuwijaya, a Drexel University senior and one of the chairpersons of the event. "I want everyone to know that? Indonesia also has a lot of good things, especially the culture." Callista Murimba, a Syracuse University student who joined the ISA while living in Philadelphia, echoed those sentiments. "I think we feel that not a lot of people know about Indonesia," she said. "This is the second-best thing to going to Indonesia -- we brought Indonesia here." The ISA sought to achieve that goal with a variety of activities Saturday, including flying in performers from Indonesia, especially for the cultural extravaganza. Highlights of the day -- appropriately entitled "Indonesia!" -- included a dance troupe from West Sumatra which performed traditional folk dances from its region and a fashion show showcasing dresses worn in various Indonesian cultures. Groups from New York and Washington also performed gamelan music. A gamelan is an all-percussion musical ensemble common in Indonesia. Tanuwijaya said more than 2,500 people attended the event, making it one of the most popular events in the museum's "World Culture Day" series. "It's always good to be exposed to new cultures and ideas," Education graduate student Melissa Meade said. "It makes you more aware." College senior Yara Vergucht added that she didn't know anything about Indonesia before Saturday. "Maybe now I'll go travel there." The ISA spent two years working on the event, according to Tanuwijaya. He and others worked full-time for six months to secure funding and commitments from Indonesian musical and dance troupes. The day coincided with the opening of a new museum photography exhibit entitled "Eggi's Village: Life Among the Minangkabau of Indonesia," spokesperson Pam Kosty said. Museum curator Peggy Sanday took the exhibit's photographs over a 16-year period. The 45 photos of the Minangkabou, the largest matriarchal society in the world today, will be on exhibit until December 7. Noting that the program's organizers were pleased with the event's success, Tanuwijaya said museum officials have already asked him if the ISA would organize a similar event next year.
