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(11/14/90 10:00am)
Oriental Studies faculty decided yesterday to reexamine the department's name after meeting with students who complained that the current name is stereotypical and derogatory towards Asians. Oriental Studies Chairperson Ludo Rocher said yesterday that faculty decided to form a committee -- composed of faculty members, student critics and Oriental Studies students -- to decide whether the name is insensitive. None of the students who have spoken out against the name are Oriental Studies majors. Rocher said he wants the committee to consider a range of opinions. "I want to hear from all the peoples in Asia from the Mediterranean to the Pacific," Rocher said. Asian-American Student Alliance member Ellen Somekawa, whose group has been one of the most vocal on the issue, said her organization wants the department to move quickly on the issue. The History graduate student said she would like the Oriental Studies department to abandon its current name now and then talk about other names. She said this would "help satisfy our grievance with the department." But Rocher said earlier this week that he does not think a change should be made overnight. Students said the faculty members were receptive and interested in the students' presentations at yesterday's meeting. Undergraduate Assembly member Dan Singer, who was at the meeting, said he told faculty that a growing number of students are concerned about this issue. "This is an issue whose time has definitely come," he said. Students have complained that the word 'oriental' evokes stereotypical images of an exotic and mysterious culture. Faculty argue that the Oriental Studies department has gained an international intellectual identity under its current name and reestablishing the department under a new name would be difficult. Students have suggested several names including Asian Studies, Asian and African Studies, and East Asian and North African Studies for the department, which offers courses on East and South Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. United Minorities Council Vice Chairperson John Shu, who was also at the meeting, said he is happy with the department's decision to create a committee, but said he is taking their commitment "with a grain of salt."
(11/13/90 10:00am)
Oriental Studies Department faculty will meet today with student leaders to discuss concerns that the department's name is ethnocentric and derogatory to Asians. Student sentiment against the department has been rising since last semester, as a broad spectrum of students have banded together to fight against the name. They say the word "oriental" evokes stereotypical images of an exotic and mysterious culture. Oriental Studies Department Chairperson Ludo Rocher said yesterday that today's meeting is intended to provide a dialogue between vocal students and faculty. He said School of Arts and Sciences Dean Hugo Sonnenschein suggested the meeting. The meeting today will be the students' first with department faculty. Last semester, several students met with Rocher about their concerns. Sonnenschein said last month that both the students and the faculty must recognize each others positions for an effective dialogue. Sonnenschein and Rocher said that the Oriental Studies department has gained an international intellectual identity under its current name and reestablishing the department under a new name would be difficult. "In the fifties there used to be Negro Studies programs in some places," Shu said. "Even at this place Negro Studies doesn't exist anymore." Sonnenschein said how the students feel about the name is "equally important" to how the department feels. Rocher said the preliminary contact in today's meeting may result in a committee of students and faculty which will discuss the options for the department's name. Students have suggested several names including Asian Studies, Asian and African Studies, and East Asian and North African Studies for the department, which offers courses on East Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. The movement to change the department's name has received support from, among other groups, the Asian-American Student Alliance, the Progressive Student Alliance and the UMC. Last night, the Undergraduate Assembly passed a unanimously approved a resolution which asked the department to choose a new name. And the issue is on the agenda for the University Council Steering Committee meeting. UA member Dan Singer, who has been involved in the issue, called the meeting today "a very positive preliminary step." Singer said that SAS faculty must take the initiative if the department's name is to change. He said several SAS faculty have said they support the students.
(11/09/90 10:00am)
The take-home exam in last spring's History 451 course that was supposed to take only a week became a five-month case study in cheating, detective work and human nature for History Professor Bruce Kuklick. One of the teaching assistants in Kuklick's War and Diplomacy class brought an exam to the professor last May, because he thought it was strange the student had used two typefaces in a single paper. Suspicious, Kuklick and the TA sifted through the other tests and found an identical paper turned in by someone else. Convinced that some students had cheated, Kuklick and all four course TAs systematically examined the 240 other submissions and found five pairs of matching or similar exams, which he turned over to the Judicial Inquiry Officer. As a result, 10 students were charged with cheating late last spring. Nine received Fs in the course. Five have been suspended. One student's diploma has been withheld. One was cleared. That initial suspicion by a history graduate student led to the University's largest prosecution of students in a single class, a case completed only last week. As part of their punishment, four students had to write anonymous confessions that Kuklick and the JIO are using in an increased campaign against cheating. Kuklick said the fact that students cheated in his upper-level class made him "embarrassed and even humiliated," but hopes the students' punishment and pain deter further academic dishonesty. · Kuklick's office in College Hall is filled with the books and papers collected in 20 years in academia. Sitting behind a seminar table, the American political history specialist said the cheating investigation had no winners. Nine students were punished. An innocent student was investigated for four months. And the professor has become suspicious of his students and somewhat disillusioned overall. Kuklick, a 1963 graduate of the College, said he never considered cheating during his undergraduate years at the University. He had never caught any student cheating in what he called a "premeditated way" in the past. But this semester he is requiring students to provide phone numbers for the people they interview for an oral history project. And he stood in front of a 400-person lecture last month and said, "I beg and urge you not to do anything that even looks shady. The chance of you getting caught, at least in my course, has escalated from last semester." "It really will ruin your lives," he told the class. He said he doesn't like these measures, but feels they are impossible to avoid. "[These are] all sorts of things that make it more like a prison," Kuklick said. "I hate thinking that a university, especially my University, is at all like that. But [cheating] shouldn't be the main thing on your mind when you assign a paper." "It is like picking up a big rock," he said. "I've learned that cheating in various form is more pervasive than I had imagined." For the History 451 final, the students had a week to complete two essay questions. According to Kuklick, the students who were punished each shared information or entire essays with other students. Two pairs of students traded essays with each other. Two pairs traded information and one person copied an entire essay from the other. In these cases, all students received Fs for the class, and five of the six students who copied were suspended for a semester. The other student's diploma has been withheld. One student stole an exam that had already been turned in and retyped it for himself. Kuklick called the last case "the nastiest." The thief never confessed and was found guilty last week only because he had changed the footnote references to incorrect numbers. After it was discovered that the footnotes were fake, the student accepted a settlement under which he received an F and was suspended retroactively for this semester. Kuklick said that the students' excuse that they were under pressure was "weak." "I think it is very weak," he said. "A lot of students, I am told, spend the weekends getting drunk. I think they would have less pressure if they found more helpful ways to spend their weekends." · In their confessions, which Goodman released to be printed without names, most students show pain and regret and some try to justify themselves. All say they were under academic and personal pressure, and all say they would never do it again. "I was looking for the easy way out," wrote one student who turned himself in. "I got overwhelmed by all the work I had to do and couldn't see past it." "My future is much more complicated," wrote another. "I should have thought about that before, but I didn't. Now it's too late . . . My chances at going to law school are gone. No place will accept a cheater." "I didn't think my grade in the course would affect anyone," wrote a then-senior whose diploma has been held because of the incident. "I truly convinced myself that my TA would not seriously look over my essays since I was pass/fail . . . He would just pass me." Kuklick said he blames the Greek system, intercollegiate athletics, and the Wharton School for perpetuating an atmosphere where cheating is accepted. All nine guilty students were involved with one of the three systems. "If I could get rid of fraternities I would," Kuklick said, adding that brothers' old exam files are one example of the system's unregulated problems. "Their culture breeds this sort of thing." Kuklick said that during the judicial proceedings a football coach who served as a judicial advisor for one of the students told him stories about team members' cheating. According to Kuklick, the coach said one current player has bragged to him that he has never taken an exam or turned in a paper that was completely his own work. He said this was only one example in "a whole series of revelations." "I was so astounded by this that I didn't say what I should have said, like 'why didn't you turn him in,'" Kuklick said. "Penn ought to stop making these overtures to athletes. It is lunatic to make this such a priority." Kuklick said the Wharton School and the business world in general teach students to value the end result, while liberal arts professors stress the learning process. He said he would like the Wharton undergraduate division to be eliminated, but "nobody has the guts to do that." · Goodman said she offered students the option of writing a anonymous confession to The Daily Pennsylvanian instead of receiving a notation on their transcripts, in hopes that publicizing the History 451 case might deter other students. "I've heard recently that kids think it is a joke to cheat," Goodman said. "Somehow we have to change the culture here and have students buy into the idea that cheating is wrong. We are intent on stopping cheating at Penn." Last year, Goodman prosecuted 50 cheating cases, almost double the number of the year before. Over the past two years, cheating cases handled by the JIO have risen almost four-fold. Goodman said she understands academic pressure but she would like students to seek other ways out, like asking a professor for an extension on a paper, rescheduling an exam, talking to an advisor, or seeking help at the tutoring center. · In a letter to Kuklick just after the cheating was discovered, one student made it obvious he or she didn't expect to be seriously punished. "If there is any way that I could make amends, I would like the chance to do so," the student wrote. "Whether it be retaking the course, retaking the final exam, writing a paper, or anything else you deem appropriate." Instead, the student failed the course and was forced out of the University for a semester. Goodman said she thinks explaining the sentence to family members and friends must have been the most humiliating part. She said "being JIO is like being a good parent -- you help children deal with an incident and move on in a healthy way." So far, the only concrete results of the incident in History 451 were the ends of six students' chances at a clean academic record and the beginning of a new crusade against cheating by Goodman and Kuklick. "This lesson is just too painful to learn," one student confessed in a letter Goodman released. "I will never make this mistake again, but I wish I had not learned the hard way. I only hope that someday I will be able to put this behind me." But Goodman and Kuklick both hope the lesson will hit home with current students before they have to feel the pain.
(11/06/90 10:00am)
The book, Philadelphia Fire, is a fictional account of the 1985 MOVE incident on Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia. Eleven people died when police acted against members of the group MOVE in neighborhood houses. Wideman and his wife lived on Osage Avenue in the 1960s when he taught English as the first tenured black professor at the University. He is widely known as the author of A Glance Away, Hiding Place, Damballah, and more recently -- Brothers. Wideman was named the second black Rhodes Scholar after he graduated from the University with a degree in English. School of Arts and Sciences administrators said that Wideman should attract a large audience because of his history on campus and his reputation as an author. PEN at Penn speakers are chosen from the ranks of the PEN American Center, a worldwide association of poets, playwrights, editors, essayists, novelists, and translators. The program to bring PEN speakers to campus began in the fall of 1987. It is funded by University graduate and Trustee Saul Steinberg, who came up with the idea for the program. PEN members who have come to speak -- among them George Plimpton, Susan Sontag, and Stephen Sondheim -- are called Steinberg Fellows in his honor. Wideman will speak at 4 p.m. in Room 17 of Logan Hall. Admission to the speech is free.
(11/05/90 10:00am)
When Assistant English Professor Herman Beavers decided to come to the University more than a year ago, he rejected offers from Stanford University, the University of Michigan, Amherst College and Emory University -- a list typical for a sought - after black scholar. Many black faculty members at the University share similar stories. The scholars who have remained here are almost always leaders in their fields, and the University has gone to great lengths to keep them. Beavers said the University has more than exceeded his high expectations. "There has been support for my work in terms of research funding, support for the things I want to do as a teacher and support for me as a new member of the community," he said last week. "People have looked out for me as a new junior faculty member." But some say that beyond the superstars, the administration is not doing enough to attract and retain black faculty. Some black scholars who have left the University say a lack of support and commitment towards minorities drove them to seek positions elsewhere. And even those who stay at the University say the small number of black faculty -- in the School of Arts and Sciences, for example, 12 of approximately 500 faculty members are black -- leads them to feel isolated. Leaders say that to increase black faculty presence, which will in turn draw minority graduate and undergraduate students, the administration must use more creative recruiting techniques and support not only the superstars but also not yet established faculty. · Black faculty members said last week that academic and research opportunities enticed them and keep them here despite the numerous other offers. They said that although the University is supportive in general, they feel that because there are few non-white people in their departments, they are forced to represent the minority voice inside and outside of their regular. Both administrators and minority faculty say hiring more black faculty would benefit the University, but they point to a pool of doctoral recipients in most fields that is prohibitively small. "We are not alone," School of Arts and Sciences Dean Hugo Sonnenschein said last month. "The market for minority scholars is a substantial one. We try to hire the best and the brightest, but the numbers in the aggregate in our country are not in our favor." "It is not just a matter of attracting senior stars, but also young faculty," Sonnenschien added. The dean said that although University is doing better in attracting and retaining minorities than many peer institution, it is held back by the dearth of black candidates. Assistant Physics Professor Larry Gladney said, for example, that between two and 12 black scholars receive a doctorate in physics each year. Although the pool of black candidates is generally small, black leaders said the departments and schools should look beyond traditional recruiting channels to larger minority populations. They said they expect the University to increase the number of black faculty through the $35 million being raised for "minority permanence" in the $1 billion capital campaign. The money will support programs for undergraduates, graduate and professional students as well as endowed and term chairs and research for faculty. · The percentage of black faculty varies widely by school and department. Faculty members say departments and schools with higher percentages of black faculty have greater representation not only because there are more black scholars in those areas, but because their faculty and administrations work harder to attract them. In SAS, black faculty praised the history, English and sociology departments for a commitment to attracting minority faculty. But the faculty members criticized other departments for not recruiting seriously enough. "The School of Arts and Sciences has sort of a pitiful record," Folklore Professor John Roberts said. Black faculty said the Medical School, the Law School and the School of Social Work have better records than the other schools. They said successful recruiting begins with efforts of committed department heads and senior faculty. "There are a lot of departments who really don't care," Roberts said last week. "I just don't think they do very much to attract [black faculty]." In 1980, there were six black faculty members in SAS, and the & number has doubled over the last 10 years. The total number of minorities in SAS has gone from 25 to 36 in the same 10-year period. "[Recruiting minorities] doesn't exist as a priority for most departments," Assistant Physics Professor Gladney said last week. · English Professor Beavers is in one of the departments which has been most successful in recruiting black faculty. He said a combination of factors, including a supportive environment and the presence of two prominent black faculty in the department, drew him here. Beavers said that when he was deciding where to work, other institutions offered him more money, but the opportunities in department here were better. Beavers also credited the University as a whole with a similarly progressive attitude. "People are interested in making it an even better place than it is now," he said. Some departments, like sociology, have several established black scholars. But these departments have to compete with other institutions continually to retain them. Sociology Professor Elijah Anderson was offered a position at Amherst College in 1988, but he said that he "preferred to stay here." Anderson emphasized that for minority faculty, like for majority faculty, the offers made to attract and keep a scholar at the University depend on the quality of the individual as a teacher or researcher. "I think what [the University] does to recruit or retain a person depends on the minority faculty member's merit," Anderson said. "Various people rank either higher or lower in their fields. It would be unfair to place a strictly racial bias on it." Anderson said there are more black candidates in fields like sociology than in physics and organic chemistry. He said certain fields, particularly in the social sciences, have a greater need for the minority perspective than the hard sciences. Anderson said that a minority point of view "enhances the field and contributes to its growth and development" in subjects like history, English and sociology. Anderson was recently offered an endowed chair at the University of Notre Dame. He declined to discuss whether he will take that position or remain at the University. · Several black scholars who have left the University said the administration undermines efforts to increase minority presence by not giving some candidates a chance and some professors adequate support, forcing them to leave or consider leaving the school. Assistant Education Professor Michele Foster said when she went to meetings with her program group in the Graduate School of Education, she was surrounded all men and for several meetings no one would talk to her. "If you said something they'd say 'That is because you are black and a woman and a junior faculty member,' " Foster said. After one year at the school, Foster said, her colleagues took her out to lunch after voting unanimously for her appointment to continue and, only to "trash" her research over the meal. "It was not the kind of treatment that brought you in and made you feel like you could make it," she said. Foster, who is on leave at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, also said the University did not help her find a place to live as most other universities had offered to do. Foster said she has fielded five other job offers in the last two years and that the other schools offered to help her husband find work in the area. "Universities that are serious help people find jobs," Foster said. Foster's leave ends in May, but she said no one from the University has called to ask if if she plans to return. She said she has not decided if she will come back. "I don't love the University of Pennsylvania so much that I am willing to put up with that," Foster said. Carol Blackshire-Belay, a former post-doctoral student in German at the University, left the German Department in the spring of 1989 when she learned the department was not considering her for a tenure track position. At the time, Blackshire-Belay & was one of only two blacks in the nation to have received a Ph.D. in German in the previous six years. Blackshire-Belay would not discuss the details of the case, but SAS administrators said at the time that she was not hired because the department made a procedural mistake. She said she would have seriously considered staying at the University if she was offered a position because of the challenging academic environment. Blackshire-Belay said the University lost "in more ways than one" when she left because she would have added to the community as a black woman and to the German Department as a specialist in the linguistic aspects of German. Blackshire-Belay, who is now teaching at Ohio State University, said that although she was disappointed by her experience here, she cannot condemn the University because she does not know the current situation. "A lot can change and people can change as well," she said last week.
(10/29/90 10:00am)
Admissions officials said yesterday that although applicants are concerned about security, it is not foremost on students' minds during the application process. They added that they do not think the University is losing students because of worry over crime. "It is hard for us to qualify -- it is hard to get the pulse of people who you don't know," Admissions Officer Eric Furda said. "But I don't think we are losing out." Officials said students interested in attending college in an urban environment seem prepared to accept crime in exchange for the cultural activities that a metropolis like Philadelphia offers. Furda, who covers the five-county Philadelphia area, said the prospective applicants he encounters understand what life in an urban area entails. "They see the positive aspects of the city, but see crime as one of the negatives," Furda said. Furda said high school students and their parents tend to be concerned that the University is being progressive in its approach to crime. Admissions officers tell the students about security measures like Escort Service and the 75-person campus police force, as well as crime education programs that the University offers, Furda said. "They have to decide whether they want an urban environment or not," he said. "And they should be making choices like that because the city isn't for everybody." Admissions Dean Willis Stetson said yesterday that campus security is a bigger national issue and a bigger concern of applicants than it was five or 10 years ago. Some suburban institutions have higher percentages of crime per student on campus than the University, Stetson said. "This will allow the reality of the situation to come more cleary into focus," Stetson said. He said though students in the area immediately surrounding Philadelphia are more aware of crime at the University, students have not indicated more concern about crime in the light of several highly publicized crimes this semester. The October 19 robbery of a College junior in which two men in a van grabbed the student's bag, dragged her 30 feet and ran over her, was publicized by media across the city. Stetson also said that students in urban areas are more worried about campus crime because they know about security problems in a large city.
(10/26/90 9:00am)
College of Arts and Sciences faculty discussed many facets of the General Requirement yesterday, as the sub-committee on the General Requirement continues to seek input from the school's faculty. Faculty members debated whether classes should be included in the General Requirement based on depth or breadth, as well as discussing the merits of instituting a core curriculum. Biology Department Undergraduate Chairperson Ingrid Waldron said that in-depth courses better introduce students to the way of thinking in a particular discipline than do broad survey courses. But Oriental Studies Professor Peter Gaeffke said his experience has shown that students need a survey course for background before they understand the more detailed material in higher level courses. Most faculty members said that under the current General Requirement, it would be impossible for the University to institute a core curriculum where students all share a common intellectual experience. "[The General Requirement] is so far from a core," Physics Professor Michael Cohen said. "Whatever else this General Requirement is for, it is not to give students a common experience." Rather, Cohen said, the goal of the General Requirement is to expose students to various bodies of knowledge. Members of the English department expressed frustration for almost 10 minutes that only certain English classes satisfy the Arts and Letters sector of the Requirement, like classes on Shakespeare, while others, like those on Milton, do not. "We've got a wonderful person to teach Milton," Undergraduate English Chairperson Alice Kelley said. "Great things are happening in that class, but it is not on the list." At the next forum, the faculty will discuss interdisciplinary courses, instructional strategies, computing, and the use of residences. The forum will be held on November 8 at 3 p.m. in Room 200 of College Hall.
(10/24/90 9:00am)
Renowned Soviet poet Andrei Andreyevich Voznesensky arrived last week to spend this semester as a poet-in-residence, co-teaching a Russian poetry class and meeting students through a series of receptions and group activities. "It is a time of openness in the Soviet Union and we're looking for someone to share that with the students," School of Arts and Sciences Dean Hugo Sonnenschein said this month. Voznesensky will work closest with the 15 students in a class on contemporary Russian poetry, which he is co-teaching with Russian Professor Elliott Mossman, the director of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies. He will discuss prominent Russian poets -- particularly Pasternak and Blok -- and will try to teach the students how to create the visual poetry that he is best known for. Voznesensky will also participate in activities with Philomathean Society and with students on the Russian floor of Modern Languages House, and attend receptions through several departments. On Wednesday, Voznesensky will give a poetry reading with poet Allen Ginsberg. Voznesensky met Sonnenschein Friday to discuss topics including his living arrangements for the semester, politics and the economy in the Soviet Union today. Sonnenschein said he was particulary interested in Voznesensky's explanation of the extensive use of gestures in the Russian language. For example, the poet said that two fingers from one hand crossed over two fingers from another hand means "prison," and tracing one's eyebrows refers to former Soviet President and head of the Communist party Leonid Brezhnev. These and other gestures formed a secret code in the Soviet Union of the past, where censorship forbade free speech. The poet said that although he fought for many of the changes taking place today in the Soviet Union, he sometimes regrets the consequences. "Maybe it is dangerous, all this dark power," Voznesensky said. "I didn't know it was there. We are not really ready for this, but there is no way back." Despite the poet's doubts, Sonnenschein said that those changes have made it possible for the University to host Voznesensky. "Our privilege in having you here is something we could not have had before," he said. Voznesensky is the first of two prominent Russian poets scheduled to visit the campus this year. Yevgeny Yevtushenko will arrive in January for the spring semester. Mossman, who will co-teach the poetry class with Voznesensky, said he thinks students will enjoy Wednesday's reading because the poetry is unique and progressive and the style of reading is different in Russian than in English. "The voice modulates a lot more than when an American poet reads," Mossman said. Voznesensky's visit is funded by University alumnus and Trustee Saul Steinberg and his wife Gayfryd. The Steinbergs also fund the PEN at Penn program. The reading is Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the Harrison Auditorium of the University Museum. Admission is free.
(10/19/90 9:00am)
In 1967, the country was in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Most current undergraduates had not yet even been born. But that year, the University adopted the admissions policy that it would use to this day. The study, dubbed the McGill Report, sets general standards for incoming classes and still plays a vital role in determining the make-up of the student bosy. The report also defined what would today be considered truisms of the admissions process -- goals such as achieving ethnic and geographical diversity in a given class. Administrators said that the report has benefited the University by increasing the diversity and quality of the student body and added that even after 23 years, the report's guiding philosophy is still valid. · Insurance Professor Emeritus Dan McGill, who led the committee which produced the report from 1964 to 67, said the group was formed because of concern that there was no guiding policy for admissions. "There was a suspicion that the University was not putting enough emphasis on academic quality of applicants," McGill said this month. "We wanted to figure out how to balance intellectual strength with other attributes." McGill said the report was one of the first institutionalized admissions policies in the nation. By the late 1960s, Harvard University also had produced a similar report, and in the intervening 20 years have become much more common, McGill said. The report's introduction says that by 1967, the University's selectivity had increased markedly due to a growth in the 1940s and '50s in the number of college-bound students and of qualified applicants. It also attributes the increased selectivity to the University's improving reputation. To make the increasingly difficult admissions decisions, the report emphasizes, administrators should consider academic promise above all else and should not admit students if they are not expected to succeed at the University. "The Committee registers its firm conviction that, in combination with integrity, the quality that should be should above all others in a student body is intellectual power," the report says. SAT scores, achievement test scores, and class rank are listed as the factors which predict academic promise. The other influential factors include being related to alumni or current staff and faculty members, a diverse background -- either ethnic or economic -- and participation in intercollegiate athletics. The report suggests that admissions look for indications of failure -- which Dean of Admissions Willis Stetson said are now "predictions of difficulty" -- including quantitative information like test scores and grades and references for information about emotional and mental well-being. The report lists target percentages for certain groups of students -- for example it recommends that one-quarter of each incoming class be chosen soley on the basis of academic strength. It also suggests that up to five percent of each incoming class be admitted because of athletic excellence, and that up to three percent of students be admitted because they come from economically and culturally deprived backgrounds. Stetson said the numbers are no longer strictly followed. "The philosophy of the McGill Report continues to be as alive today as it was then, but the specificity is less so now," Stetson said this month. Stetson said that since 1967, two reports regarding admissions have been written. Committees on admission have in recent years discussed drafting another report, but have not taken action. "The one [of the three reports] that is the most germaine is the McGill report," Stetson said. "It is as influential in our admissions program as it was when it was first written in the 60s. It has stood the test of time very well." And supporters said that statistics indicate that the report has resulted in a more diverse student body in terms of geographic, ethnic and socio-economic background. "It edified the issues of minority presence and geographic diversity," Stetson said. "The only thing that has changed is that the percentage of these [minorities and students from diverse geographic backgrounds] has only increased." Physics Professor Howard Brody, who was a member of a subcommittee on admissions which contributed to the recently released five-year plan, said the McGill report is still the framework for the admissions office. Brody said that even today, the 23-year-old report is not outdated. "The constitution of the United States is a little bit older and it seems to work just fine," Brody said. Brody said the report has resulted in "a little more geographic diversity and other sorts of diversity" -- like ethic and economic background. Brody, who was not on the committee which wrote the McGill Report but was at the University in the late 1960s, said he has seen the changes the report has made and praised it overall. "It has essentially stood the test of time," Brody said. "There have been some minor modifications -- they were sort of built in."
(10/18/90 9:00am)
He read the paper, which focuses on Abraham Lincoln's feelings about religion, to a responsive audience of mainly faculty and graduate students which half-filled an auditorium in Stiteler Hall. Kazin explained the role that religion played in Lincoln's life and in his feelings about slavery. He used excerpts from Lincoln's speeches, most notably his second inaugural address. But Kazin pointed out several times that despite what he said in his speeches, Lincoln never joined an organized church. Kazin also discussed William Faulkner and said that experiences in both men's formative years -- particulary the influence of the South -- shaped their feelings about religion. "The experience of his life thrust [his feelings about religion] upon him," Kazin said. These influences are lessening as the South becomes more like the rest of the country, Kazin said. Most of the audience remained for over 45 minutes to ask questions. College junior Danny Cohen said Kazin's speech focused tightly on Lincoln and religion. "There was something very specific he wanted to talk about," Cohen said. Kazin spoke as part of the PEN at Penn program, which is funded by Gayfryd and Saul Steinberg. A committee of faculty members choses the speakers from the ranks of the PEN American Center, a worldwide association of poets, playwrights, editors, essayists, novelists, and translators. The other speakers scheduled for this fall are author John Wideman who is also a University alumnus and former professor of English, and historian and political critic Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
(10/12/90 9:00am)
Kazin is known for his book "On Native Grounds: An Interpretation of Modern American Prose Literature." He has also held numerous academic and editorial posts. Kazin will read from his most recent work, "The Almighty Has His Own Purposes: Lincoln, God and the Civil War." He is currently professor of literature at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. PEN at Penn speakers are chosen from the ranks of the PEN American Center, a worldwide association of poets, playwrights, editors, essayists, novelists, and translators. The program to bring PEN speakers to campus began in the fall of 1987. It is funded by University graduate and Trustee Saul Steinberg, who came up with the idea for the program. PEN members who have come to speak -- among them George Plimpton, Susan Sontag and Steven Sondheim -- are called Steinberg Fellows in his honor. PEN speakers are selected by a committee chaired by English Professor Robert Lucid. He said this week that the committee tries to choose speakers from a variety of backgrounds. "We try to appeal to different constituencies," Lucid said. He also said he is excited about Kazin speaking because of the influence Kazin had during the middle half of this century. "I think so highly of Kazin that it is difficult to exaggerate," Lucid said. The other speakers scheduled for this fall are author John Wideman, who is also a University alumnus and former professor of English, and historian and political critic Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Kazin will speak from 4 to 5 p.m. in Room B-6 of Stiteler Hall on Wednesday. The speech is free.
(10/10/90 9:00am)
History professor Alexander Riasanovsky is teaching Russian History the old-fashioned way. In Russian. For the second semester in a row, Riasanovsky is offering a Russian-language recitation for his Russian History class to students who have completed two years of college-level Russian. Riasanovsky said last week that through the course, students gain practical communication skills which will be vital in a shrinking world. Riasanovsky, who grew up in Russia, said the seven students in this semester's section work on their language skills and learn about Russian history by writing a 10-minute oral report. "No sort of normal American kid would undertake studying a language for four or five years if they weren't serious," he said. Riasanovsky said he is trying not to simplify the material in the special section in light of past criticism that classes taught in foreign languages treated course material superficially. Students called the class "wonderful" and said they were improving their language skills by applying them in another discipline. "I wanted to just listen so I could add to my Russian understanding," said College sophomore Marianne Alves, who is auditing the course because she is only enrolled in third semester Russian. "It is nice to be able to talk to someone who has such a rich family history," Alves said yesterday. "He adds in little tidbits about the Soviet Union." Alves said the students in the section are not competing for grades, so the students are not under pressure and can concentrate on studying such things as how different words evolved. "We are trying to build a Russian vocabulary of historical terms," Alves said. "It is one of the best courses I have ever taken." College junior Janice Lawner, who has studied Russian for five years, praised Riasanovsky for teaching the recitation himself. "You have the advantage of having the teacher as your recitation leader," Lawner said yesterday. "He doesn't have to do a recitation. He volunteers for something like that. You almost have to be a loser to not take advantage of something like that." Lawner also said the recitation is often difficult because Riasanovsky does not simplify the material to make up for the language barrier, but she said the professor helps students. "A lot of it goes over my head because it is not watered down," she said. "I miss a little of it in class but he can explain it to me after class. I don't think I lose any of it." College senior Ron Bobroff said that the students in the section are learning as much as their counterparts in regular recitations. "We are getting just as much as everyone else because we have the lectures at the same time," Brobroff said yesterday. Each students is assigned a lecture to summarize in Russian in the recitation, Bobroff said. "If anything we get it twice," he said.
(10/05/90 9:00am)
The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly last night called for the committee on diversifying Locust Walk to consider the possibility of moving fraternities off the Walk, despite President Sheldon Hackney's request that fraternities remain in their houses along the campus' main artery. About two-thirds of GAPSA members voted to approve a resolution which also asks that two graduate or professional students be added to the committee. GAPSA Vice Chair for Nominations Michael Goldstein suggested that an amendment be added to the resolution in which the current GAPSA representative to the committee would withdraw if two more graduate or professional students were not added. GAPSA did not adopt his suggestion last night, but executive board members said after the meeting that it remains a possibility. GAPSA Chairperson Susan Garfinkel, who is currently the representative to the committee, said she would not resign without GAPSA support. Garfinkel said she will reserve her judgements until after the committee meets. "I think it would be wrong for GAPSA to lend support to an ineffectual or biased effort and I look forward to attending the first meeting to see how the committee interacts," Garfinkel said. Both Garfinkel and Goldstein said they have heard that other groups are considering pulling their representation from the committee, but they declined to say which groups. GAPSA also discussed the possibility of forming a separate committee representing graduate and professional student interests to make suggestions about diversifying the Walk. In other business, Garfinkel also announced that Student Health Services will be meeting with a group of graduate students designated by GAPSA to get input on the health insurance policy that the University will offer next year. GAPSA also discussed plans for a 250th anniversary party for graduate students.
(10/03/90 9:00am)
Assistant Dean for Advising Olga Rubio, who advises Latino students in the College Office, is trying to bridge the gap between two cultures in order to keep Latino students at the University. Rubio came to the University this summer to replace Augusto Hacthoun, who left for a position at another university. Rubio will concentrate on the academic and cultural needs of the approximately 200 Latino students enrolled in the College. Rubio said her major focus will be on retention of Latino students, who have among the highest attrition rates of any group on campus. Rubio said Latino students drop out more frequently because of several factors -- including strong family ties which students -- many from the Southwest and Puerto Rico -- are reluctant to sever, cultural isolation, and socio-economic concerns. Rubio began her efforts by sending letters to the parents of Latino students over the summer to make them aware of her presence. "I received many calls from parents telling me how important it is to consider the cultural perspective in academic advising," Rubio said. Rubio said she is also trying to work with leaders of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, the student group for Chicano students, and La Asociacion Cultural de Estudiantes Latinos Americanos, the student group for Latino students, to make them aware of her efforts. "I want to know the key players and to get them to get the word out that I am here," Rubio said. "I'm on a big mission to get everyone in here." Rubio said that she will not be involved with recruiting Latino students or faculty because she wants to focus on academic concerns of College students. "I was hired as an academic advisor and I want to be true to that," Rubio said. Director of Advising in the College Diane Frey said last week that Rubio will collaborate with Assistant Dean for Minority Affairs and Advising Janice Curington. Frey said Rubio will be able to direct students to resources in the area because she knows the Latino community through her work with the United Way. Carmen Maldonado, president of Latina women's sorority Sigma Lambda Upsilon, praised Rubio as a concerned adviser and an asset to the campus Latino community. "She is not just out there to be a loud voice," Rubio said. "She is very encouraging and what she expects from us, as Latino students, is that we come together." Maldonado said Rubio has made a concerted effort to get to know the members of the Latino community by making connections through Sigma Lambda Upsilon, Lambda Upsilon Lambda, the Latino fraternity, and ACELA, and MEChA. "She has a lot of connections and a lot of ideas," Maldonado said. "She wants us to use her resources. It is nice to have someone understand you, who can relate to you and who knows your culture."
(09/28/90 9:00am)
The scene, or variations of it, is familiar to almost every student already at the University. About 20 high school seniors sit in an auditorium or guidance counselor's office, listening intently as an admissions officer speaks in awed tones about Benjamin Franklin and the "one University" concept. Some of the students wear cheerleaders' uniforms or football jackets. Many are still awkward with the long-armed gangliness of post-adolescence. They are all nervous, curious and hopeful. Eric Furda, a University admissions officer and 1987 College graduate, sees hundreds of anxious high school juniors and seniors each year as he makes his rounds throughout the western Philadelphia suburbs, Delaware and southern New Jersey. Last Friday, he spoke to about 50 students at three suburban Philadelphia high schools, making his sales pitch and answering questions about SAT scores, financial aid and alumni connections. At Upper Dublin High School, Furda's first stop Friday morning, about 23 students listened in silence broken only by occasional tentative laughter as Furda plugged the University. "You are very popular right now," he told the anxious high schoolers. "You can go home and thank your parents that you were born when you were. It's a buyers' market." The nervous tension in the room grew even greater when Furda's talk turned to the essays -- particularly the one which asks potential freshmen to discuss why they want to study at the University. The students hunched over their notebooks, scribbling down virtually every word he said as if it were gospel. The students -- some of them appearing almost as pre-professional as many of the University students they hope to become -- questioned Furda mainly about graduate school and how best to get into a good program. "Get your undergraduate degree first," Furda said after the fourth question about medical school, law school, or MBA programs. Several Upper Dublin guidance counselors hovered nearby, giving encouraging glances to students who asked intelligent, probing questions. Almost all of the students said they have been to the campus. John Lin, an Upper Dublin senior comes to the University weekly to take Mathematics 240 -- third semester Calculus -- in the College of General Studies. After visiting each school in his territory, Furda tries to match cards which students fill out with information about themselves to lists that the University's admissions office buys from the College Board indicating students with certain attributes -- for example, high SAT scores. At Upper Dublin he found several matches, and marked the cards accordingly. At Furda's next stop, the posh Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, the atmosphere was much more relaxed. Counselors directed the students -- most of them juniors -- to a large comfortable room, where they lounged casually on the rug or on couches and chatted amiably with Furda. "Sit on the Button in front of Van Pelt for a half and hour and if you like what you see then go across to College Hall for an information session at 1 p.m.," Furda suggested. "If you don't like what you see then jump on the 'El' and go home." Jackie Kaiser, one of only three seniors who attended the program at Germantown Academy, said that the University is one of 22 schools she is considering. Many students attending the information session, including Kaiser, had family or friends who attended the University. Furda assured them that being the child or grandchild of an alumnus will give them "an extra push" in the admission process. Germantown Academy students were concerned that the University consider the quality of their high school -- which Furda said is very competitive. At Friday's final stop, Wissahickon High School, the information session was in an auditorium, where a diverse group of students sat rather stiffly and seemed hesitant to answer questions except when they were asked jokingly to name the smartest among them. Furda used senior Matt Klinger as an example to explain the academic options available here. He said Klinger, who wants to major in international relations, would have the opportunity to do a dual-degree with the College and Wharton and submatriculate into the Wharton MBA program. "Congratulations, Matt," Furda teased. Furda said he ends his day by driving home and writing a report on his visit to each school. While most of these do not mention individual students, he said he writes notes to himself and makes an effort to remember individuals.
(09/27/90 9:00am)
The SAS Dean's Advisory Board will push for departments to provide majors with mailboxes in or near the department office, Chairperson Susan Begelman said. The School of Arts and Sciences board met with the SAS deans this month to discuss their plans for the year, which were highlighted by the mailbox proposal. The goal is to increase contact both between majors, faculty members, and the departments as a whole. The mailboxes could also be used to provide students with information about research positions, jobs, internships, and lectures. "The major concern was the lack in many departments of undergraduates identifying with their major," Begelman said. Begelman said letters proposing the mailboxes will go out to departments soon. The boxes would be located in the building where each department is headquartered. Norman Adler, the associate undergraduate dean, said yesterday that the College is considering linking students through the use of E-mail, the University's electronic mail network. Begelman said the student board has discussed that option, but she emphasized that it would be years before such a plan could be implemented. Advising, which has been a major concern for several years, took a back seat this year. Begelman said that advising has expanded and improved over the last two years partially as a result of her board's work. Advising in the College is now a residence-based program, with peer advisors and faculty members working together. Adler said the students on the board told him there was almost too much advising for the current freshman class. "It was the best bad news I've had all week," Adler said.
(09/21/90 9:00am)
College senior Jeffrey Bernstein remembers hanging out in cafes during his semester in Lyon, France and watching with amusement as French teenagers -- whom he says probably don't even know where Ohio is -- walked around in leather jackets bearing the names of Big Ten schools. "They hang out in cafes because they have nothing else to do," Bernstein said. "They dream of the concept of fraternities." Bernstein was one of 14 students who last fall attended the first session of an innovative study abroad program affiliated with the Centre International d'Etudes Francaises at the Universite Lumiere Lyon 2. The program, created by French Professor Frank Bowman and Associate Dean for the Humanities Steve Nichols, is unique because it is geared toward students who have recently completed a foreign language requirement. The program's aim is to immerse students in French language and culture so they quickly gain fluency. "Linguistically speaking this is the good time to go," Bowman said. Bowman said he decided to base the program in Lyon instead of Paris for linguistic, social, and economic reasons. "The temptations to speak English are much less [in Lyon]," Bowman said. In addition, Lyon is a medium-sized city with an active social life for its size, including discotheques and cafes, Bowman said. And it costs students about half as much to live in Lyon as it does in Paris. Students live with families during the semester-long stay, after completing a detailed application process that places each of the students with an appropriate family. Maneesha Sagar, a senior economics major at Bryn Mawr College, said she had only taken one year of intensive French before she went abroad, although she had some exposure to the language when she went to school in Switerland. "I think it was a very good program," Sagar said. "It [Lyon] was a good size. You get a more realistic view of life in France than in Paris which is more cosmopolitan." Much of the social life is similar to the life in the United States, Sagar said. "Essentially I think it is the same all over -- people just do things in a different environment with different food perhaps," Sagar said. She was the only non-University student to attend. The program started with week-long orientation, where students were given tapes of spoken French, including slang, to work with. "This gave us an advantage over people who were thrown in from the cold," Bernstein said. "Within three or three-and-a-half months people were fluent." Bowman said he thinks the program can be successful in other languages, like Spanish, where there is a large group of students to draw from. Only Dartmouth College has a similar program, he said. After completing the Lyon program, Bernstein spent the spring semester with Columbia University's program at Reid Hall in Paris. "This [the program in Lyon] is a very strong program in regards to language aspect, but very poor in regard to written expression," Bernstein said, adding that Reid Hall has a stronger writing program. The Lyon program is now offered both fall and spring semesters. There will be an introductory meeting on Monday, September 24 at 2 p.m. in Williams Hall 219 for the spring session.
(09/20/90 9:00am)
Chemical Engineering professor Daniel Perlmutter has been named University Ombudsman, President Sheldon Hackney announced Monday. Perlmutter replaces Associate Finance Professor Susan Wachter, who served for three years, mediating and resolving grievances of students, staff and faculty. She will now return to full-time teaching and research. Perlmutter served two terms as appellate officer of the student judicial system and has been a member on several committees including committees on sexual and racial harassment. The new ombudsman's term will last two years. Assistant to the President Nicholas Constan said yesterday that Hackney made the appointment after consulting with a variety of staff, faculty, and students who are familiar with the tenured faculty. "The ombudsman has to be someone first and foremost who has the trust of the community . . . and [Perlmutter] certainly does," Constan said. Perlmutter has received Guggenheim and Fulbright awards and was the 1988 winner of the Lindback Award for distinguished teaching. Perlmutter was not available for comment yesterday.
(09/18/90 9:00am)
There's a reason why College sophomore Paul Luongo is not an engineer. The walk. So Luongo was a little surprised to find that his 10:30 a.m. course on Ghandi's India was held almost seven blocks from his High Rise North dormitory -- in the Towne Building, home of the Engineering School. Over the years, courses in mismatched locations have almost become a tradition -- a Civil War course in the basement of the Moore School, a Cultural Studies recitation in David Rittenhouse Laboratory, or a Middle East Politics course in the Nursing Education Building. Assistant Registrar Sandy Fagan said last week that the unexpected class locations stem in part from the fact that many departments do not have a designated building. Many large College classes are also relocated to science buildings because of space limitations. History Department Chairperson Richard Beeman said professors often opt for larger classrooms in distant buildings because the rooms which they are allotted -- like those in Williams Hall -- are inappropriate for the nature of the class. And besides, Beeman said, they just don't like Williams Hall. "I wish that someone would blow it up and start over again," Beeman said. "We often look wistfully at Steinberg-Dietrich Hall," Beeman said. "But, we seem to be effectively barred from using those buildings." And, students say the problem with locations is not limited to history classes. Several English courses are being held in the Nursing Education Building and smaller departments and programs like American Civilization, Afro-American Studies and Women's Studies are frequently spread across campus. Assistant Registrar Fagan said she has heard no complaints and does not think that more classes are in distant buildings than in the past. But History Professor Robert Engs, who teaches a course on the Civil War, said that until this semester, none of his courses except those in the College of General Studies have been held in Engineering School buildings. But this semester students of the course must hike to a cramped room in the basement of the Moore School. "Apparently it is because of the size of the course," Engs said last week. "It reflects a really bad situation. It is an awful room -- windowless and dirty." "I keep on walking past those splendid buildings in the Wharton complex and I wonder . . .I think we are being badly served," Engs said. Engs said he has to let students out five minutes early so that they can make their next classes. Engs predicted that the lack of College classroom space will cause departments to limit class size so more classrooms are available. Officials in other College departments said they have not experienced a space problem. Nancy Bonsall, undergraduate assistant for the Economics Department, said few economics classes are actually held in the McNeil Building, the department's home. But she said there are many other classrooms with good blackboards -- necessary equipment for economics courses. "In the Nursing Education Building they have lovely classrooms," Bonsall said last week. Some students say they have been frustrated about scattered classes for years. College senior David Benowitz said last week that he took classes during his first three years that were "a mile from my house." "The big rooms are awful," Benowitz said. "They aren't conducive to learning. You would figure if you are going to pay $20,000 a year you would get more." "Too hot in Towne. It was like 100 degrees," Benowitz said. "It was brutal in that classroom." But Engineering sophomore Tom Yannone said yesterday that College students have no right to complain. "All of my classes are in Towne, DRL, Moore, or Hollenback Center -- which is even further away," he said.
(09/12/90 9:00am)
To help minority students navigate the academic and social maze of the University, administrators in the College Office this year created a full-time post for a minority student adviser. Janice Currington, formerly an assistant dean for advising, began as an assistant dean for minority affairs and advising this semester. She will concentrate her efforts on advising black and Hispanic students. The new position is designed to increase minority student enrollment and retention in the College, according to School of Arts and Sciences Associate Undergraduate Dean Norman Adler. Currington will work with the students as both an academic adviser and a counselor. The problems Currington will address include financial and psychological barriers that minority students face at the University, she said. Adler and Currington said the position is necessary because minority students are not proportionally represented at the University and when they get here they are less likely to graduate. According to the registrar, in the fall of 1989 18 percent of full-time undergraduate College students were Asian, 10 percent were black, and five percent were Hispanic. In the United States, 12.4 percent of the population is black and eight percent of the population is Hispanic, according to government statistics from 1988. According to a report from a committee on advising and retention printed in The Almanac last year, the percentage of students who graduate in six years or less was 88 percent for the University overall, 65 percent for black students, and 78.5 percent for Hispanics. Administrators said yesterday that these figures have all risen slightly across the board since then. Currington said this week she plans to connect students with other resources centers and programs such as the African-American Resource Center, the Afro-American Studies Program and the Women's Center so that they know about and can take advantage of the opportunities open to them. Currington said she will also work with minority students in the sciences to stay in their programs to take advantage of the grants available to them. "We lose minority students in science early," Adler said. "We want to encourage them to stay on track." The assistant dean said she will also to encourage minority students to participate in study groups which are being started in some science classes this semester. Though much emphasis is being placed on science, Currington said she will also advise for such programs as study abroad for humanities and social sciences students. Adler said Currington will also help the students to explore their cultural identity. "College is a time when students begin to look on an area [of themselves] they hadn't before," Adler said. Currington will also continue to hold walk-in hours for any student who needs advising. "I need to see all the students the problems and concerns that they face as well as the successes and rewards so I can effectively advise minority students," Currington said. College junior Jonathan Cropper said yesterday that Currington has been helpful to him since he entered the University and said he was enthusiastic about her chances for making a difference for other minority students on campus. "This will be something that might make a difference," Cropper said last night. "A lot of black administrators have left . . . Basically there is going to be no one around. She is going to have a pretty critical role here." Cropper also emphasized the importance of Currington's appointment in increasing the visibility of minority administrators. He said prominent minority administrators, such as former Wharton Undergraduate Vice Dean Marion Oliver, are crucial in attracting top minority students to campus. "When people would come to campus to visit they would say Wow this black man is a really important administrator,'" Cropper said. "They would think maybe this school would be more committed."
