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(03/28/00 10:00am)
The Quakers go to St. Joseph's today looking to score early and often on the Hawks. The Penn men's lacrosse team (3-3) has been giving all it's got so far this season, just not at the start of its games. Perhaps the Quakers would do well to heed the advice that the Rolling Stones give in song, to "start me up, kick on the starter give it all you got." In fact, the Quakers have trailed in the first quarter in all but one of their contests and need to come out strong tonight in their game against crosstown rival St. Joseph's. The Quakers' latest slow start came this weekend against Harvard. Within five minutes, the Red and Blue had spotted the Crimson a 3-1 lead and could not rebound from the deficit. Penn played well toward the end of the game, coming back from an 11-6 disadvantage to cut the Crimson lead to 13-12 with 3:51 to go. But Harvard was too strong and scored the last two goals of the game to defeat the Quakers, 15-12. "They simply played better," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "They have a lot of firepower, and they scored a lot early. And we started slow on both ends of the field." The Crimson's 3-1 lead was nothing compared to a 6-1 advantage held by Yale and a 5-1 lead by North Carolina in earlier games this season. In both of these games, Penn was able to come back and tie the score. The Quakers even took the lead on UNC, but both contests resulted in losses for Penn because of the energy spent digging out of the hole. "If you're going to take something positive from the losses, it's that we do have the capability to score six or seven goals in a quarter," co-captain Pete Janney said. "We'd just like to do it in the first quarter instead of the fourth." Penn hoped it had solved its first-quarter woes with a convincing win over Lafayette last week. In that contest, the Quakers jumped out to a 9-0 lead and held the Leopards scoreless in the first half. That was not the case, however, as the early sluggishness struck again this weekend. The Quakers have continued to work on the problem in practice and though Van Arsdale says the solution is "easier said than done," the team is confident it can play consistently well for a full 48 minutes. "We've really turned up the intensity in practice," Janney said. "We've had full-field scrimmages and are keeping everyone focused." The Quakers cannot afford to start slowly against St Joseph's. The Hawks boast a 6-1 record coming into tonight's game, which is the best start in the school's history. The Hawks are averaging 13.8 goals a game compared to Penn's average of 10.5. In addition, St. Joe's holds an average margin of victory of 11.2 goals -- five better than that of the Quakers. "They're very explosive offensively and move the ball up and down the field well," Van Arsdale said. "They don't play the most competitive teams, but any team that wins as much as they do has to have a lot of confidence." There are three players who make the Hawks offense as powerful as it is. Senior Drew Scott leads the team with 32 points, including 21 goals. Sophomore Bert Whitelock is also dangerous, with 31 points and 28 assists. Junior Randy McNeill completes the trio, also tallying 21 goals, good for 28 points. The Hawks' strong attack faces a young Penn defense whose lack of experience has shown a bit in recent games. Nevertheless, Van Arsdale refuses to use the backline's youth as an excuse. "It is a factor," he said. "But these players have played in games, and we don't want to lean on that at this point in the season." Despite its powerful offense, St. Joe's is coming off its first loss of the season, a 20-7 drubbing to No. 14 Delaware. And speaking of slow starts, the Blue Hens raced out in front of the Hawks, 8-0, and made the score 10-2 at the end of the first half. St. Joe's could never get going and trailed 15-5 at the end of the third quarter. Scott was held without a goal but managed three assists, while 13 different players scored for Delaware. The next stretch of games is arguably the most important in the Quakers' season. After the Hawks, Penn plays three Ivy opponents in a row: Cornell, Princeton and Dartmouth. "Up until now, we've been up and down," Janney said. "It's so important that we get a win tomorrow, and then go from there."
(03/28/00 10:00am)
The Quakers have not won at the Liberty Bell Tournament since 1992. Penn faces Temple at the Vet today. In his three years of playing in the annual Liberty Bell Tournament, Kevin McCabe has never advanced with the Penn baseball team beyond the first round of the competition. Today, however, the senior outfielder feels that things will change for the better when the Quakers (8-7) kick off this year's installment of the single-elimination tournament against Temple (5-11-2) at 3 p.m. in Veteran's Stadium. "This is really a game that I want to win, and everyone on the team wants to win," McCabe said. "Not that we don't play every game to win, but there's an added incentive for the seniors in playing this game." The extra motivation to win this year is understandable in the Quakers seniors, who have literally seen the long and the short of baseball during their previous experience in the tournament. In their freshman year, Penn lost to La Salle 8-7 on a sacrifice fly after going a tiring 16 innings with the Explorers. That 5 1/2 hour marathon with La Salle was followed in McCabe's sophomore year with a 15-6, rain-shortened drubbing from Villanova that was called in the sixth inning. Last year, the Red and Blue again fell to the Wildcats, 11-10, despite a nine-run rally over the sixth and seventh innings that gave the Quakers a temporary 10-9 lead. These three losses in a row aren't unique for Penn. In fact, the Quakers have gone winless in the tournament since the Liberty Bell's inaugural year of 1992, when they made it into the second round. "We haven't won at the Vet in a while in this tournament," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "It would be nice to win after getting knocked out right away in the last few years." Giving the Quakers hope for a turnaround this year is their depth in almost every position on the field. After 15 games, Seddon has had ample time to test and compare his young crop of freshmen and sophomores with his veteran players. The coach, who has spent 30 years at the helm, said he has been pleased with the results. "Nobody's better than anybody else," he said of his roster. "All these guys are going to intermingle all the time. I don't want a guy on the bench not getting his swings, because he's just as good as the guy who's out there [playing on the field]. I've told [the players] that, and there's no doubt about it." The one weak spot that Seddon sees is in his pitching staff. Four freshmen hurlers are leading the team in earned run average, topped by Paul Grumet's 1.50 ERA after six innings of relief pitching. Veteran pitchers Mark Lacerenza, Mike Mattern and Matt Hepler -- all preseason picks for the starting pitching rotation by Seddon -- can claim only the fifth, eighth and 11th best ERAs on the team, respectively. "We can't have failure with three starting pitchers who we counted on from last year," Seddon said. "That can't happen -- if it does, we're going to have a tough time. Hopefully, that gets straightened out, because you can't depend on freshmen carrying you." A chance for Penn's veteran hurlers to redeem themselves will come this afternoon when Mattern, a sophomore who was the pitching staff's statistical leader last year, makes his fourth start of the season for the Quakers. Mattern will try to better his 9.00 ERA against a Temple team that has a mediocre .264 batting average in 18 games played. Slated for relief is Hepler, a junior, and the probable closer in the nine-inning game will be junior Nick Barnhorst. The winner of the Penn-Temple game will face the winner of the La Salle-St. Joseph's matchup. If the Quakers get past the Owls and St. Joe's tops the Explorers, it will mark the teams' second meeting of the year. In Penn's home opener on March 23, the Quakers notched a 13-12, come-from-behind victory under virtual darkness against the Hawks to christen the new stadium at Murphy Field.
(03/28/00 10:00am)
Taking to its home turf for the first time in this 2000 season, the Penn women's lacrosse team (2-2) hopes that a big victory is in the cards when it faces Lafayette (1-2) at Franklin Field at 7 p.m. tonight. The Quakers, who have defeated American and Villanova this spring by a combined 16 goals, are hoping to rebound from a lethargic showing in a 15-5 loss at Cornell on Saturday. And the team knows what it can improve upon from that defeat. "Intensity -- in general, as a whole team -- is what we're working on," Penn senior Lee Ann Sechovicz said. The Quakers were held to their lowest goal output this spring in Ithaca, N.Y., taking only 18 shots. The Big Red, by contrast, fired off 42 shots. This discrepancy can be traced to Penn's struggles with ground balls and moving through the midfield against the double-team. "It's not that we have to change a whole lot. We just have to stick to our game and do the things that we do well," Penn coach Karin Brower said. "And you have to win the ground balls, and that's all about heart. "I know this team can do it if they want it badly enough and they do what they're supposed to do." Last season, despite two goals apiece from Brooke Jenkins and Amy Weinstein, Penn fell to the Leopards, 14-7. Jenkins, who is second on the Red and Blue with nine goals this spring, will be called upon to lead the Quakers attack. Joining her are sophomore Traci Marabella (11 goals) and freshmen Crissy Book (eight goals) and Kate Murray (four goals). Although Penn sports a half-dozen frosh in the starting lineup, the youngsters have executed well in their four outings. Freshmen have combined to net 23 of Penn's 44 goals. "I think the freshmen are doing a great job," Sechovicz said. "They're doing exactly what they need to do." The day after the Penn loss to Cornell, Brower -- who has shown great confidence in her first-year players -- traveled to Easton, Pa., to watch Lafayette take on Monmouth. The Leopards picked up their first win, 13-11. "Lafayette is just real aggressive. They really want the ball," Brower said. "Monmouth stepped up the pressure in the second half, and Lafayette kind of fell apart a little bit, but they never lost the lead." One reason why the Leopards did not fall apart was the offensive leadership of sophomore Heather McLelland and senior Olivia Long. McLelland, the 1999 Patriot League Rookie of the Year, netted five goals against Monmouth and has nine on the season. Long, a second team All-Patriot selection last year, has added nine goals of her own. According to Brower, the Leopards offense utilizes speed in much the same way as Cornell did. And while Brower also describes her own squad as "very fast," containing opposing speedsters is something Penn needs to be concerned with. The last time the Quakers defeated the Leopards was at Franklin Field in 1997, by a score of 16-11. Only three current Penn players, senior tri-captains Jenkins, Sechovicz and Bethany Stafford, remain from that squad. But Sechovicz is confident Penn can do it once again on its home turf. "There's something about playing on Franklin Field," Sechovicz said. "And we only have five home games, so we're psyched -- hopefully we'll have a good crowd. "All I know is that we can beat them, and we are going to beat them."
(03/28/00 10:00am)
The Quakers retained possession of the Class of '91 Plate by sweeping the Mids and the Hoyas. The Navy women's crew team hasn't held the Class of '91 Plate -- the prize awarded to the winner of each Penn-Navy race -- for a decade now. On Saturday, the Penn women's crew team completed a sweep of all its races against Navy and Georgetown to retain the plate and, in the process, to jumpstart its spring season, thereby continuing a tradition that predates anyone-- including the coaches-- on the team. "Penn traditionally beats Navy," Penn freshman Claire Manske said. "Historically speaking, to win this weekend shows that we are just as good as the teams of the past." To the team, the victory provided strong evidence that they are physically and mentally ready for the challenges of the season that lay ahead, including reaching the NCAA Championships in May. "All the training [during the fall and winter] is certainly paying off, but we still have room for improvement. As a team, we are already looking forward to getting closer to NCAAs," Penn co-captain Kealy O'Connor said. Perhaps most encouraging was the fact that all of the crews seemed to have effectively mentally prepared themselves. "We had a really professional approach to this weekend," junior Ursula Ahrens said. "We went in with a race plan and not only executed it, but executed it well." Penn coach Barb Kirch was most impressed by the synchronicity of her rowers, which led to the solid margins of victory, ranging from four seconds for second varsity to more than 12 seconds for first varsity. "[Going into the regatta] I wanted them to find their own rhythms, and they obviously did," Kirch said. "The margin of victory was important for us as a team." Racing at home may have provided a competitive edge for the Quakers, especially since the racing conditions were less than ideal with choppy water caused by a difficult tail wind. "It was really to our advantage to know the water. There were rough waters, but we knew what to expect in terms of the course," Manske said. In addition, the fans provided a home base of support that helped fuel the Quakers. "We had people follow us down on bikes [during the race], cheering us on. It made for a great atmosphere," O'Connor said. However, the Quakers know that they must continue to work to improve as a team if their season is to continue as successfully as it has started. "We can muscle through races, but we're going to have to race well on top of just being physically strong," Manske said. The team is already looking forward to this weekend's regatta against Ivy rivals Yale and Columbia on the Harlem River. "It's nice to have won the first race of the season, but we're looking to the future. Each race is a new race, so we have to keep on our toes," Ahrens said. Penn has only beaten Yale three times in the past 20 years, but on top of heading into competition with two consecutive first-place finishes dating back to the fall, the Quakers defeated the Elis last year to bring home the Connell Cup for the first time in nine years. "This weekend was great because it gets us pumped up for the upcoming races this weekend [at Columbia], which are really important in terms of the season," O'Connor said. Despite having to already think past their victory over Navy, knowing that the Class of '91 Plate is still in Quakers territory for another year won't be forgotten any time soon.
(03/28/00 10:00am)
Despite sending only seven fencers out of a possible 12, the Quakers had a strong showing at Stanford. Even though the Penn men's and women's fencing teams only qualified a combined seven fencers for the NCAA Championships, the Quakers pulled off an impressive eighth-place finish out of 28 schools at the nationals, held at Stanford this past Thursday through Sunday. This performance marks the Quakers' third consecutive top-10 placement. With 79 total victories, the Red and Blue trailed Yale and Columbia by 22- and 30-point gaps, respectively. With 175 total victories, Penn State took the championship for the sixth year in a row. Notre Dame and St. John's tied for second place, each earning 171 points. Many schools that finished ahead of Penn qualified more fencers for the competition. A school can send a maximum of 12 fencers to NCAAs -- two fencers per weapon for both its men's and women's teams. Because a team's final placement depends on the total number of victories from both the men's and women's teams, Penn was at a disadvantage having only seven fencers in the mix. Penn junior David Cohen recorded the Quakers' highest finish, taking sixth place in the foil event out of 24 fencers. Though Cohen believes he fenced well, he is disappointed that he did not become a first team All-American -- an honor awarded to fencers who finish in the top four of their weapon. Because of the scoring system --which first takes into account the number of bouts won and then the number of touches both made and received -- if Cohen had won just one more bout, he would have recorded a top-four finish. Hindering Cohen, however, was that he was not fencing under ideal conditions. In addition to going into the championships with a hamstring injury, Cohen took a blow in the head on Saturday from the foil of Stanford's Felix Reichling -- who ended up winning the championship -- and had to get stitches. "It didn't hurt," Cohen said. "But it was a pain because my eyebrows were taped up and I couldn't blink easily." To make matters worse, Cohen became ill later that night and returned to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with esophagitis. Despite all this, Cohen managed to go 7-2 in his bouts on Sunday. Cohen's brother, Penn freshman foilist Yale Cohen, recorded a ninth-place finish. Also placing ninth was junior sabre Mike Golia. Last year, Golia had the highest Penn finish, coming in fourth. "He lost a couple of close bouts," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "He wasn't at the top of his game." In the epee event, Penn freshman Javier Garcia-Albea finished 10th. "I lost a lot of bouts I should have won," he said. "I don't really care about placement. I care about winning bouts I can win. I had a lot of close bouts I just didn't clinch." Penn junior epeeist Charles Hamann finished 12th, slipping six places from his finish of a year ago. In the women's tournament, Penn freshman Kim Linton finished 18th. Though Linton feels she lost easy bouts she could have won, she did accomplish her season goal of qualifying for the NCAAs. She fell short on her NCAA goal of making All-American, though. "I didn't fence smart enough to do that," Linton said. "When that didn't happen, I just made that my goal for next year." Fellow freshman Lauren Staudinger, the only other female from Penn to qualify for NCAAs, finished 22nd. Micahnik notes that for freshmen who are new to the NCAA experience, the championships' atmosphere can be rather intimidating. "To have the best in one place, at one time, is pretty heavy," he said. "Less experienced fencers sometimes get tense and nervous and they over-try, but the experience will be good for the future because every time out you learn things." Micahnik predicts the Quakers will do better in the future. "We have a good history of coming away from this with trophies," he said. "The Penn standard is higher, so we want to get back up there. We have higher aspirations."
(03/28/00 10:00am)
Poet Seamus Heaney will address graduates on May 22. Seamus Heaney, the acclaimed poet and Nobel Laureate, will deliver the main address at the University's 244th Commencement ceremony on May 22. Heaney's visit will break Penn's recent string of big-name, politically oriented Commencement speakers. "Mr. Heaney is one of the world's most accomplished scholars and teachers," University President Judith Rodin said. "And we are very, very pleased that he has agreed to speak to our graduates and their guests and will accept our recognition for his enormously important contributions to literature." Rodin said the University plans to bestow upon Heaney an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree during the ceremony. Unlike speakers of the recent past, Heaney's name is not one that brings with it instant name recognition for many Penn students. "He is probably not as well known, in general," Senior Class President Lisa Marshall said. But Marshall noted that though Heaney's name may be unknown to students, he is reputed to be a "phenomenal speaker." "If he gives a good speech, I don't think [the students] will be disappointed," she said. And English Department Chairman John Richetti called Heaney "the most exciting Commencement speaker I've heard of, not only at Penn, but at other universities." "He's not some two-bit politician," Richetti added. "He's not Ted Koppel or Barbara Bush. They are not my idea of good Commencement speakers." Heaney, a native of Northern Ireland, was born in 1939 in County Derry. He earned a degree in English from Queens College in Belfast and went on to hold teaching positions at St. Joseph's College, Queens College and Oxford University. In 1966, he published his award-winning collection Death of a Naturalist and, in 1967, Door into the Dark. His compilation of poems entitled Wintering Out, published in 1972, won the Denis Devlin Award and Writer-in-Residence Award from the American Irish Foundation. The 1975 release North won Heaney both the E.M. Forster Award and the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize. Heaney received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995 and has most recently served as the Harvard University Bolyston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory as well as the Ralph Waldo Emerson poet in-residence. Heaney has also received enormous attention for his recent translation of the epic poem Beowulf, which was the best-selling book in Great Britain for a time. "Seamus Heaney truly is a literary giant," Rodin said. "He has not only earned critical acclaim, but is easily one of the most popular poets of our time." Marshall said she thought it was good that this year's speaker was selected "from the literary field as opposed to politics." Past Commencement speakers have included actor and comedian Bill Cosby in 1997, former President Jimmy Carter in 1998 and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin last year.
(03/28/00 10:00am)
A single photograph of the worn-down, abandoned grocery store in which Emmett Till allegedly "wolf-whistled" at a white woman 45 years ago set the tone for a Saturday morning breakfast and discussion, entitled "Mississippi Murder: A Fifty-Year Haunting," at the White Dog Cafe. As part of the Penn Humanities Forum's week-long "Human Nature-Human Rights" series of seminars and events, journalist Paul Hendrickson read excerpts from a book he is currently writing on seven Mississippi law enforcement officials of the 1950s and '60s. Hendrickson, who has been a staff writer for The Washington Post since 1977 and is currently teaching a writing course at Penn, addressed a crowd of about 30. He recalled the story of Till, a 14-year-old black teenager from Chicago who was brutally murdered during a visit to Mississippi for reputedly making advances at a white woman. The grocery store in which Till allegedly harassed Carolyn Bryant has long since been abandoned, but it still stands today in Money, Miss., a potent reminder of what Hendrickson referred to as "these five decades of change -- and lack of change -- in American race relations." Hendrickson began his account by pointing to the grocery store in the picture and stating that, "The civil rights movement in America, as we know it, began right there at that front door." He proceeded to paint a vivid picture of this politically and emotionally charged time in the deep South, bringing his audience back to an era often regarded as one of the most divisive and revolutionary in American history. The crowd at this event was comprised largely of Hendrickson's own relatives, as well as older Philadelphia residents and several of Hendrickson's students. While the event attracted a fairly small crowd, those in attendance were clearly not disappointed. "Hearing Professor Hendrickson read [his account] is riveting. You can feel his passion and his emotion so much," said College sophomore Susie Cook, one of Hendrickson's students. "He makes it come so alive, because it's real." As part of his research for the book, Hendrickson contacted people who were involved in the Emmett Till tragedy, including one of the policemen who fished Till's dead body out of the Tallahatchie River three days after the young man had been abducted. In addition to speaking directly to the people who played a role in the case, Hendrickson spent a considerable amount of time interviewing their descendants and seeing how their actions affected future generations. Referring to his encounters with the grandson of one of these policemen, Hendrickson said his book would be "about how the gene of bigotry mutated as it came to the year 2000." The racism and bigotry so pervasive throughout this time period, Hendrickson maintained, still exists today. At the same time, however, Hendrickson reminded his audience that not everyone living in Mississippi at the time of the trial was bigoted. "I'm not doing my moral job as a writer if I tell the story monolithically," Hendrickson said, giving some examples of people who spoke out against the actions of Till's murderers. A short question-and-answer period followed Hendrickson's talk, and many people in attendance went on to participate in a walking tour of Philadelphia, which was offered in conjunction with the morning's event.
(03/28/00 10:00am)
Even though Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List won the Academy Award for best picture in 1993 and is regarded as the pre-eminent film on the Holocaust, to English Professor Al Filreis it is still, without question, "a lousy movie." Filreis expressed his loathing for the 1993 film during an animated discussion, aptly titled "What's Wrong With Schindler's List?" at the Kelly Writers House on Friday night. Spielberg's Schindler's List traces the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who risked his life to save 1,000 Jews from death in perilous Nazi Germany during World War II. Supporting his claim, Filreis argued that Spielberg's film glosses over many of the complexities of the Holocaust by attempting to summarize the horrific event in one simplified feature-length Hollywood film. "It shows that one aspect [of Schindler] but it has truth claims that are very strong and powerful," Filreis said. "Its truth claims are that [it] is the film about the Holocaust. It's clearly made to be the final statement." Yet in the face of the tragedy of the Holocaust, Filreis added, such claims are absurd, as "closure [and] definiteness [are] not appropriate." Filreis voiced concern that many people, unfamiliar with the tragedies of the Holocaust, mistakingly view the film as an accurate historical summary of more than 15 years of terror. "Kids were interviewed in the Midwest who had never seen anything about the Holocaust and would never hear anything again," Filreis said. "This was it." "A good Austrian saves Jews. That's the story. Congratulations -- now you have the Holocaust," he added. Filreis pointed out that the story of Schindler is just one in a series of many different experiences. He also accused Spielberg of sentimentalizing Schindler's character and falsely attributing heroism to a man who was simply able to act upon injustice because he was in the right place at the right time. "Spielberg forgot that this was a pragmatic triumph of good over evil. [And that] you have to treat the story with modesty," Filreis said. He went on to suggest that to neatly package thousands of experiences into one film wrongfully represents the different stories of the Holocaust. College junior Liz Silver, a Jewish Renaissance Project fellow, organized the event, the first collaborative effort between the JRP and the Writers House. The evening's discussion was especially relevant to Silver, whose grandfather was rescued from death as a member on Schindler's now-famous list. The discussion, which packed students, a handful of Penn professors and Philadelphia residents into the Writers House dining room, followed a traditional Shabbat dinner. "It's important that we know that Schindler's List is not the only defining moment in Jewish history," College junior Dori Kamlet said in agreement with Filreis. "Everybody had a lot of great points and I am very pleased with tonight," Silver added. Filreis and Film Studies Progam Director Millicent Marcus will co-teach a freshman seminar in the fall entitled "Representations of the Holocaust in Literature and in Film." The course will be a part of the College of Arts and Sciences' pilot curriculum.
(03/28/00 10:00am)
Penn and Philadelphia are getting ready for this summer's Republican National Convention. As the Republican National Convention rapidly approaches, the City of Brotherly Love is getting ready to welcome an anticipated 45,000 visitors. With the convention scheduled to run from July 29 to August 4, GOP Convention Committee spokesman Tom Fitzpatrick said preparations for the event will soon kick into high gear. "We're really starting to branch out and expand," he explained. "Until now, our planning had really been based on working out the nuts and bolts." Hosting the convention, Fitzpatrick said, is expected to generate approximately $125 million in direct revenue for Philadelphia, and another $200 million in ancillary benefits. "But the biggest prize in bringing a national political convention to a city is the publicity and national media attention you get," he said. Penn officials said they too are excited about the national publicity the convention will bring to the University. "Because there's going to be so many media included, that's going to be a priority for the University," Executive Director of the Office of Government, Community and Public Affairs Carol de Fries explained. "This is a prime opportunity to showcase the University to these media." The University is offering dormitory and meeting facilities to the convention committee. According to de Fries, 1,500 Penn dorm rooms will be contracted for use by different groups attending the convention. Fitzpatrick said the planning committee's recent undertakings have largely focused on developing transportation for visitors and outfitting the First Union Center -- the site of this summer's convention -- for the 15,000 members of the media expected to arrive in July. The convention committee recently outlined plans for a shuttle service of 150 vehicles to transport visitors to dozens of destinations, including hotels and tourist sites along 21 routes. And with all the major news networks planning to attend, Fitzpatrick said the coordinating committee will build 350,000 square feet of temporary office space outside the First Union Center and convert about 60 of the building's skyboxes into broadcast studios. "We're basically creating a 26-story office building with furniture, air conditioning and wiring," he said. The convention committee will take full possession of the First Union Center on June 17 to start the construction necessary to prepare the facilities for the event. City officials estimated last fall that hosting the event will cost $50 million, a third of which will come from the local and state governments of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The remaining cost will be paid by private companies. But Philadelphia needs to be ready for more than Republican delegates and members of the national press. Already anticipating protests during the convention, police announced plans last Thursday to allocate areas of Roosevelt Park for demonstrators. Sue Schwenderman, spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, said approximately 18,000 volunteers are being recruited in a program called "Make the Convention Connection" to run errands, staff welcome booths and help the press during the event. "Within one month of announcing the volunteer jobs, we had 9,000 people signed up," Schwenderman said. "That's a strong indication of the high level of enthusiasm for the event." Penn students are among those being recruited to volunteer. De Fries said students will have access to "everything from the mundane to the very plush, sexy volunteer opportunities."
(03/28/00 10:00am)
Some students expressed surprise at Penn's choice of Heaney as speaker. Yesterday's announcement that Irish poet Seamus Heaney will deliver this year's Commencement address met with mixed reactions from the University community. The choice of Heaney, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, is something of a departure from previous years, in which political figures and celebrities have been typical choices. And while English students and faculty members praised the selection, the greater University community expressed surprise or apathy with regards to the choice. English Professor Al Filreis, the faculty director of the Kelly Writers House, commented on Heaney's international renown. "Seamus Heaney is one of the two or three most important living poets writing in the English language today," Filreis said. "This is a huge coup." "That's great," said Ann Gallagher, a College senior and English major. "It gets me excited to go to graduation." And College senior Jen McKenna, another English major, said she was especially pleased with the selection. "It's nice that they're choosing someone from the liberal arts side of Penn," she said. However, many seniors expressed disappointment that they will not be addressed by a political leader at their graduation. "I prefer it to be someone more like Robert Rubin," Wharton senior Benjamin Shoval said, referring to the former Treasury secretary who spoke at last year's Commencement. "I guess it's nice," Engineering senior Matthew Morrow said, "but it's kind of far from my studies." Gallagher, however, pointed out that some of the most noteworthy speakers are not always the best. In fact, many of the big-name guests of the past have been criticized for delivering uninteresting speeches at graduation. "Fame does not necessarily make a good speaker," she said. But Morrow noted many students might not even know who Heaney is, due to his lack of mainstream fame. "I wish it was someone with more name recognition," he said. "A lot of students might not be able to relate to him." Still, English Professor Bob Perelman did not foresee any problems with Heaney's name recognition. "He's not a $250,000 question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, he's a $1,000 question," Perelman said. "If Penn students don't know him, I'd be surprised."
(03/28/00 10:00am)
The FDA charged Penn's gene therapy program with violating several federal regulations. In a conciliatory letter to federal regulators on Friday, the embattled director of Penn's gene therapy program laid out the corrective steps his institute is taking to comply with federal research protocol that it allegedly violated. Most of the steps outlined in the letter from James M. Wilson, director of the Institute for Human Gene Therapy, deal with proper oversight for gene therapy clinical trials. Two major changes, both scheduled to begin in April, include hiring an outside consultant for IHGT researchers and implementing formal standard operating procedures. Wilson also announced the creation of a new IHGT position -- a scientific chief operating officer -- responsible for overseeing several aspects of research, including clinical trials. The letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which was made public yesterday, came in response to the FDA's scathing March 3 warning letter upholding its January decision to suspend all gene therapy experiments at Penn. In that letter, FDA officials criticized Wilson's monitoring of clinical trials at IHGT and accused him of violating research protocol while conducting the trial that cost 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger his life last September. Wilson's latest letter did not attempt to dispute the accusations made in the warning letter. "IHGT does not agree with all those statements," Wilson wrote, "but it will not enumerate areas of disagreement in this response." Meanwhile, a committee of external scientists appointed by the University to review the institute's monitoring systems has already visited campus and is expected to release its findings in April. The charges levied against IHGT include that subjects were not properly informed about the dangers posed by the study, that the FDA was not notified of the deaths of lab animals undergoing treatment regimens similar to the human trial and that many patients were ineligible to participate. FDA spokesman Lawrence Bachorik would not comment yesterday on what the agency's next step would be. "The FDA will pay careful attention to the response and will factor it into our overall evaluation of the situation there," he said. Wilson was not available for comment yesterday. University spokesman Ken Wildes said IHGT is planning to hire Parexel International Corporation -- a consulting firm specializing in providing compliance services -- as a contract research organization to advise researchers on following regulations. "It just helps you maintain your perspective," he explained. "If you're so close to the research? sometimes it's hard to do some of the administrative work." Wildes said IHGT hopes to sign a contract with Parexel in April. But Arthur Caplan, the director of Penn's Center for Bioethics, emphasized that companies like Parexel act purely as consultants and do not assume responsibility for their client's studies. "Principal investigators are responsible for their research," he noted. "It's your study at the end of the day." Another major emphasis of Wilson's letter was the implementation of standard operating procedures -- sets of guidelines all researchers would follow. The new regulations are expected to go into effect on April 6. Among those being developed are guidelines for submitting information and possible study changes to the FDA, the National Institutes of Health and Penn's Institutional Review Board, which must approve all research studies. Other areas that will receive particular attention in the procedures are confirming patient eligibility and obtaining informed consent -- both of which were questioned by the FDA in Wilson's study. Under the new procedures, informed consent forms must be submitted in advance to the IRB. In addition, patient eligibility must be confirmed by the investigators as well as the quality assurance unit at IHGT -- the division that monitors protocol compliance. None of the procedures outlined in the letter are uncommon to an academic research institution, Caplan said.
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In the six weeks since members of Penn Students Against Sweatshops ended their 10-day sit-in at University President Judith Rodin's office, Penn has continued -- in quieter fashion -- to consider which of two major factory-monitoring organizations best meets the University's needs. Penn withdrew from the Fair Labor Association last month in response to PSAS's sit-in demands and is currently a member of neither the FLA nor the rival Worker Rights Consortium, the group favored by PSAS. At the sit-in's close, Rodin promised to re-evaluate the merits of both organizations. She also said she would withhold a final decision about membership pending recommendations from the Ad Hoc Committee on Sweatshop Labor. In a report released on February 29, the sweatshop committee recommended to Rodin that the University not sign on to either of the groups until they both responded to requests for greater representation for colleges and universities on their governing boards. Rodin has received responses from the FLA and WRC to letters she sent earlier this month asking that both organizations provide greater representation. The committee met yesterday to discuss the responses. It plans to issue recommendations later this week on how the University should proceed. Wharton sophomore Brian Kelly, a PSAS member who serves on the sweatshop labor committee, said both the FLA and WRC offered "very political responses." "The organizations, especially the FLA, are proving what we have been complaining about," Kelly said, adding that the responses were indicative of the groups' bureaucratic natures. In an effort to keep their cause in the public eye, PSAS members have been distributing information on Locust Walk since last Thursday. PSAS members have passed out fliers headlined, "It's not over yet!" that say that the sweatshop task force agreed with several of the group's criticisms of the FLA. The flier accuses Penn's administration of "trying to rejoin the FLA before these problems are resolved" and urges students to e-mail Rodin and demand that the University join only the WRC. Kelly said many PSAS members received inquiries from students after last month's sit-in ended asking whether the group had stopped its work, so PSAS decided to set up a table on the Walk. The group will also be holding a "sew-out," featuring a mock sweatshop, on College Green Thursday night to protest in solidarity with demonstrators at other universities. Kelly also said that the WRC -- which had four member schools when PSAS began its sit-in at Rodin's office on February 7 -- now has more than 20 members.
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Professor Michael Awkward's new book chronicles his experiences growing up in South Philadelphia. In person, the often reserved and always humble Michael Awkward hardly seems like the type of person who would write a memoir chronicling his childhood in a poor South Philadelphia neighborhood. Nonetheless, the Penn English professor has authored a detailed personal account of his troubled home life that is currently attracting the attention of his students, colleagues and numerous book critics. In the memoir, titled Scenes of Instruction: A Memoir, Awkward, 40, focuses on his relationship with his mother, who inspired his love for reading but also suffered from alcoholism and was a victim of domestic violence. "I don't know what I would have been had it not been for my mother. But I know a lot of what I am is because of her," Awkward wrote. Awkward, who spent 10 years at the University of Michigan before coming to Penn in 1996, placed his mother at the center of his memoir because she inspired his interest in the lives of African-American women. For Awkward, providing a personal account of his mother's struggles was, in some ways, a source of concern. Through the writing process, though, Awkward says he recognized that the act of memoir-writing is inherently personal -- and even risky. "If you are going to write a memoir and you don't expose things about yourself, then you shouldn't write it. You have to be prepared for exposure," says Awkward, who received his doctoral degree in English from Penn in 1986. Awkward is, his colleagues say, somewhat unique in his willingness to present his personal life to students, let alone to countless strangers. "Most professors reveal nothing of themselves," says English Professor Farah Griffin, the undergraduate chairwoman of the English Department. "It is incredibly courageous." Awkward, who also directs the Center for the Study of Black Literature and Culture, insists that he wanted to write about how the literature he studies has affected him as a person and as a scholar. Increasingly, he says, the work done by literary scholars "isn't and doesn't pretend to be totally objective anymore." Indeed, Awkward readily acknowledges that contemporary classics like Richard Wright's Black Boy and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye influenced his memoir in their depictions of black youths struggling to come of age in a mainstream white society. "We all struggle to figure out who we are in society. We struggle in ways that we understand and sometimes don't understand," he says. "It is not an easy thing for anybody to define themselves." Struggling to find one's identity is an important part of the African-American literary tradition, Awkward explains, and it has been equally important to him in his own life. "If you are going to participate in that tradition, you've got to say something," Awkward says. "You have got to talk about the pain of growing up. I don't know too many people for whom growing up hasn't been painful." His memoir contains detailed descriptions of Awkward's life as a young black man who "took solace in reading" in the poor housing project in which he was raised -- a place, he says, that did not celebrate his intellectual abilities. "When I grew up, I had a very clear sense that being a man had very little to do with the things that I was capable of doing," he says. This realization, that the stereotypical definition of "manhood" contradicted the pursuit of education in his neighborhood, now hinders his optimism that this same attitude can be altered in areas similar to the one in which he grew up. "It's hard to imagine the social structure changing," he says. "The only way that the society can change significantly is to have different kinds of notions of what it means to be male and female." He also wanted to examine his own scholarship -- as a cultural critic, particularly of African-American female literature -- over the past two decades. College junior Nina Harris, a member of Awkward's "Filming Black Words: Hollywood Adaptations of Afro-American Narratives" seminar, said that while Awkward does not overtly express his feminist beliefs in class, he places a great emphasis on women in literature. "I like the fact that the literature is not male-centered. Academia is so male-dominated and women sometimes get lost," Harris says. "There are very few professors who work to get women actively involved." Awkward noted that he is grateful for the transformation of the academy over the past several years, which now accepts African-American literature as a valid genre in the literary canon. He noted that he rarely read African-American literary texts in class as an undergraduate. "If my book informs the tradition at all, it may be in legitimizing more creative forms of black autobiography," Awkward says.
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While effective political leadership may seem rare to many, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ed Rendell says the key is to focus on relevant things that politicians can actually change. The 1965 Penn graduate and former Philadelphia mayor discussed his political experiences with the Undergraduate Assembly last night, providing the student leaders with advice on how to be effective political leaders. Rendell -- who served as the vice president of men's student government in the 1960s and is currently teaching two Urban Studies courses at Penn -- spoke at the final meeting of the current UA's term. "I've always believed that the efforts of any governmental body [are to] focus on things they can change," he said. Rendell illustrated this by describing his own experiences in student politics. "Student government wasn't very relevant in the '60s," he said. "We got up debating about side issues," he later added, explaining that the student governing body spent time debating national and international issues at the time rather than focus on Penn issues. Rendell also added that leadership experience in student government is valuable for anyone -- whether they wish to pursue a political career or not. "Political skills are involved in literally all careers -- this is a great learning process for anything you do," he said. He added that, among these skills, compromise and communication are especially important in all sectors of society. "It's important to have your eye on the big picture [and] learn to compromise on the way," Rendell added. Rendell also commented on the campus changes since his Penn days. He said he was impressed with students' increased involvement with the West Philadelphia community. "In the '60s, Penn was doing a bad job of involving students in the urban experience -- [there was] no relationship with West Philly," Rendell said. He added that Penn's involvement with its neighbors today hardly resembles what it was 40 years ago. While Rendell concluded his informal talk by encouraging some of the current leaders to pursue political careers, he also had advice for those who would pursue other interests. "I hope you will bring an understanding of government to [the career] you choose," Rendell said, "and that you participate and be a giver." UA Chairman Michael Silver said he was very moved by Rendell's words. "He was very engaging," the College senior said, adding that it was great to hear Rendell speak outside of a classroom and political setting. The assembly also discussed budget requests and ongoing projects, including meeting Provost Robert Barchi tomorrow to discuss further developments in the UA's financial aid agenda, basketball courts and Rosengarten Reserve renovations.
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For women to be considered acceptable in the 1950s, they were expected to be virgins until marriage. Today, though, there is something valued even more: a slender figure. "Thinness has replaced virginity as the key to a good life," explained Catherine Steiner-Adair to a standing room-only crowd during her talk, entitled "Body Politics: Women, Eating Disorders, and Prevention," at the Annenberg School for Communication last night. Steiner-Adair, a Harvard clinical psychologist whose research focuses on the healthy development of girls and boys, the prevention of eating disorders and gender equity issues, spoke to an audience of more than 100 students. She discussed her findings -- that poor body image stems from a culture obsessed with thinness -- with the mostly female audience. "For 80 percent of women in the USA, being female means waking up and having a negative check-in with themselves, saying mean things about their bodies," Steiner-Adair said. She said she believes that this negative body image is ultimately a result of prejudice, which, she maintains, results when an oppressed group wants equality. Specifically, she pointed to the fact that an unrealistically thin body -- like the one possessed by the model Twiggy, for instance -- was embraced by females during the women's rights movement in the 1960s. Eating disorders, under Steiner-Adair's definition, would then be a result of the prejudice displayed toward those who do not conform to the ideal. "You judge the moral content of one's character based on what extent they approximate the ideal [body] image," Steiner-Adair explained. After the talk, Steiner-Adair said she hoped the discussion alleviated misconceptions surrounding body image and eating disorders, particularly the notion that eating disorders are attributed solely to personal problems. Susan Villari, Penn's director of health education, commended Steiner-Adair for her stance on body image. "Body image needs to be viewed as a social justice issue," she said. College senior -- and Guidance for Understanding Image, Dieting and Eating member -- Rebecca Bauer said she was impressed with Steiner-Adair's words, as well. "I like how she said that you don't need to judge yourself by your body, that you should instead focus on your achievements and who you are as a person." And College junior Miriam Kiss, a GUIDE executive board member, praised Steiner-Adair for teaching "women that negative thoughts about their bodies are normal. She showed what causes [negative body images] and how women can work together to prevent them." Steiner-Adair's talk marked the second event of Penn's Body Image Awareness Week 2000, a series of discussions and workshops sponsored by GUIDE to promote awareness and discussion on the topic of body images. The event was co-sponsored by Connaissance, the Graduate School of Education and the Panhellenic Council.
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Perspective: Searching for Diversity As a top-ranked Ivy League university, Penn prides itself on offering an enormous range of classes, an eclectic mixture of activities and a unique learning experience. Yet despite its multi-faceted appeal, one area in which Penn struggles is ensuring that there is diversity among its professors. Penn, like its peer institutions, has been trying for years to recruit minority faculty and retain those that it has. But it faces many challenges, including stiff competition among other universities for highly qualified candidates. In 1996, University President Judith Rodin unveiled a plan allocating $5 million to increase the number of minority students and professors at Penn. But today, as nearly four years of the five-year Minority Permanence Plan have elapsed, the plan's efficacy seems debatable. While significant funding has been provided to schools and departments for minority appointments, the actual increases in African-American and Latino faculty are limited. In 1996, Penn had 25 African-American and Latino professors out of 762 total undergraduate faculty members. And today, the number has increased by a total of five professors. Janiece Primus, a Wharton senior who is African American, said, "I've only had one minority professor in all my time here. I don't think I've ever had a Latino professor." "Education is supposed to be a reflection of a wider world," she continued. "If you look around, America is not a society of older white males." United Minorities Council Chairman Jerome Byam agreed that the lack of minority professors at Penn has had a negative impact on his Penn career. "I can say that it would definitely have been a more positive experience if I had been exposed to more minorities here," the College junior said. · When it debuted in 1996, the plan was designed to promote minority awareness and increase minority presence across the University. Provisions of the plan included funding to supplement different schools and departments to assist them in making minority appointments. The money was also used towards minority programs, student recruitment and graduate fellowships. "Substantial central funds have gone to support the DuBois Collective, La Casa Latina, minority student recruitment, graduate student fellowships and a variety of faculty and student projects sponsored by the Provost's Diversity Fund," said Jennifer Baldino, a top aide to Rodin. Since 1996, the University has sought $20 million through fundraising in addition to the $5 million fund to create a permanent endowment specifically for minority permanence. Baldino said the $20 million goal had not yet been achieved, "but we are actively pursuing potential contributors." Individual departments can apply through school deans for funding for minority appointments and are also expected to match every dollar received from the University with department finances. Sociology Department Chairman Douglas Massey said the $5 million minority permanence fund has made it a little less difficult to go about recruiting minority faculty. "It made it easier for the dean to give us a line for recruiting knowing that the provost of the University was willing to underwrite the cost for some of that," he said. And English Department Chairman John Richetti agreed, saying that "it has always been easy to get funds to hire minority candidates. We've done a good job over the year, and the deans are definitely eager to help us do that." But the permanence plan clearly has not helped much to actually increase the number of minority faculty members. Since 1996, the total number of African-American faculty in the undergraduate schools has changed from 19 to 20. And the number of Latino professors has gone from 13 to 17. Some schools, like Engingeering, have not utilized the minority permanence fund at all yet. But Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt said, "we are cognizant of the fund" and that the school would use it if it had "retention battles to fight." · While acknowledging the progress Penn has made in increasing minority permanence, English Professor Herman Beavers, the director of African American Studies and chairman of the Affirmative Action Council, said that universities like Penn could look harder for minority candidates than they are looking now. "The argument that there are not enough minorities in the pipeline is ridiculous. There are a lot of minority faculty in institutions that are not peer institutions who would do excellent work if they came to Penn," he said. "We don't even consider them." And History Professor Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, who is Latino, said she thought there wasn't a "substantial interest across departments in recruiting and retaining Latino faculty." "My impression is that there has not been any effective change," she said. "I think there should be a discussion across campus that this should be a priority." College senior Leslie Heredia, president of La Asociacion Cultural de Estudiantes Latino Americanos, said she felt there was a lack of Latino professors at Penn and also of professors of color in general. She said having minority professors is particularly important for minority students because it "gives you something to aspire to be." "It's more than just teaching the material," she said. "They are role models and mentors. You can't duplicate that." Yet Beavers conceded that Penn does try to make strong recruitment efforts. "I think we actually do pretty well. We have at least two faculty of color coming this fall from Rutgers and Johns Hopkins," he said, referring to two new Ph.Ds recently hired by the English department for Afro-Caribbean and Afro-American Studies. And Massey said he is looking to bring a Latino professor to his department. He added that his department put a strong emphasis on minority recruitment. "My faculty feels that you can't be a world-ranked department of sociology unless you reflect the diversity of the society you seek to study," he said. Rodin also expressed her vested interest in having minority faculty. "It is crucial to have minority faculty not only as role models for our minority students, but because the value of diversity in education is so significant and minority faculty are extremely important for our non-minority students as well," Rodin said. · Although the actual numbers show scant increases, administrators are quick to point out that minority recruitment is a constant challenge. Many say one major obstacle in recruiting is that there is a small pool of candidates who are sought after by many institutions. Rodin expressed her commitment to the plan while noting, "It continues to be a significant challenge as the pool is thin and our peer institutions are equally committed to recruiting minority faculty." Penn falls roughly in the middle of its peer institutions in terms of minority faculty. Harvard University has 10 African-American and 13 Latino professors out of a total 613 undergraduate faculty members. And Columbia University has higher numbers with 17 African-American and 21 Latino professors from 632 undergraduate faculty members. Harvard Assistant Dean for Academic Advising Elizabeth Doherty said that while the school does not have a minority permanence plan in place like Penn, it does offer funding to departments for minority hires. "In cases where the department lacks the resources to do [recruiting], there is funding available at the president's office," she said. With top-ranked universities all battling for the same scholars, Penn can't always snag the professors it wants. And it sometimes loses the professors it has. Bernard Lentz, director of Institutional Research and Analysis, noted that minority faculty are in high demand. "A person gets an offer from another university, and we try to go out and counter that offer," he said. But he added that "people who are highly sought after -- they are the stars who can move and go as they want to." Beavers cited Houston Baker, a former Penn English professor, as an example of a prestigious African-American scholar who left the University. Baker accepted an offer at Duke University because his wife was also offered a position there. Yet Richetti said that Penn was not to blame for Baker's leaving. "I don't think he left because of any lack of resources," he said. "He had been here 25 years. It was time for a change." Beavers said he himself had also received an attractive offer by another university, but decided against it. "The University responded quickly to my offer," he said, "and they showed clearly that they wanted me to stay."
(03/27/00 10:00am)
The Bisexual Gay Lesbian Transgender Awareness Days are being held throughout this week. B-GLAD 2000 kicked off Friday night in the Veranda with a "Get Down and B-Glad Dance." The dance was the first in a series of events scheduled for the annual Bisexual Gay Lesbian Transgender Awareness Days, which will continue all this week. College sophomore Heather Lochridge, co-chair of Allies, a student group of straight students who are dedicated to increasing gay awareness, pointed to two goals of the B-GLAD events. "One is to celebrate LGBT culture and the other is to educate others on LGBT culture," she said. Allies is co-sponsoring B-GLAD along with the Queer Students Association. Andy Byala, a College senior and member of QSA, said, "I love B-GLAD because it creates an atmosphere in which so many conversations can take place. I enjoy having friends ask questions about what it's like to be gay and what it may have to do with them." Events include a "Qabaret," held last Saturday, which showcased the talents of queer and queer-friendly members of the Penn community. Also, today at noon, an event entitled "Celebrating Queer Writers of Color" will be held at the Greenfield Intercultural Center. Local queer writers of color will read from their works as guests enjoy their lunches. A rally will be held Wednesday on College Green at 12:30 p.m. in which all participants can voice their opinions on LGBT issues and awareness. And a free screening of the Academy Award nominated movie Boys Don't Cry, which portrays the true story of Brandon Teena, a transgender woman, will take place at International House that evening at 7 p.m. Keynote speaker Urvashi Vaid, an Indian-American writer and activist, will speak Thursday evening at 7 p.m. in room 110 of the Annenberg School. "She's amazing," Lochridge said of Vaid. "She's an LGBT activist who stands for the equal rights of all people." Lochridge also said that Allies is sponsoring events of its own. "Allies is doing a program in the college houses in which we show mainstream movies with LGBT sub-themes, like My Best Friend's Wedding, and we have a discussion about it afterwards," she said. On Friday, the last day of B-GLAD, students are encouraged to wear jeans in support of the gay community. A party will also be held in a yet to be announced location. Several of the events are being co-sponsored by other campus organizations, including the LGBT Center, Sangam, the Women's Studies Department, Hillel, SPEC, Take Back the Night, the Asian-American Studies program, Connaissance and PennGALA, the gay and lesbian alumni organization.
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The sophomore class is sponsorin the annual day on the Schuylkill River, back for a third year in a row. The band and a cappella groups are ready, the food is ordered, the dunk tank is reserved -- all that's left for this year's Skimmer organizers to do is to pray for sun. Skimmer, an annual spring event that occurs off the banks of the Schuylkill River, will take place on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. on West River Drive. The attendance rate for Skimmer has varied over the last two years, since it was reinstated on campus after a 20-year hiatus. But this year's sponsor, the Sophomore Class Board, is determined to attract a large but manageable number of students to the event. "We're hoping for about 1,500 to 2,000 people," said Sophomore Class President Alex Tolbert. Although Penn's crew team will not be having a regatta on Saturday, Skimmer will boast a series of concerts, free food and even Brother Stephen White -- a widely known campus evangelist -- in a dunk tank, said Tolbert, a Wharton sophomore. "I think the focus of this year's Skimmer is to have a lot of entertainment there," said Wharton sophomore Dana Becker, secretary for the Sophomore Class Board. "We want to make it a fun afternoon that will engage a lot of the population." The headlining band will be the Philadelphia-based group Burnt Sienna, who will play a "wide range of popular covers," according to Tolbert. In addition, other performers for Skimmer will include Penn a cappella groups Counterparts, Penny Loafers and Dischord. Buses will be leaving the Upper Quad Gate every 15-to-20 minutes to transport Penn students to Skimmer. Skimmer was wildly popular among Penn students until 1972, when the University and the City of Philadelphia banned the event due to reckless, alcohol-related behavior. But two years ago, the Senior Class Board decided to bring Skimmer back as part of the Penn experience and, so far, the results have been mixed. In 1998, the 5,000 students that came to the banks of the river devoured the free food and pushed and shoved their way onto a limited number of buses. But last year, Skimmer's turnout dropped significantly to only about 650 students. Many of the Junior Class Board organizers attributed the decrease in attendance to the University's stricter alcohol policy that was enforced that spring. The 10 members of the Sophomore Class Board who have worked to put this year's Skimmer into action are optimistic. "I think last year, the whole campus was depressed," Tolbert said. "We're thinking it will be better this year." She added that there would be no alcohol served at Skimmer. Another difficulty in past years was persuading the City of Philadelphia to grant a permit for Skimmer -- because of its history of chaotic behavior. In response, a Skimmer Committee was created that successfully secured a permit for Saturday's event. Skimmer is also funded by the Junior Class Board, the Undergraduate Assembly and the Tangible Change Committee.
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Only two weeks into the season, the Penn baseball team is in unchartered waters -- .500. A pair of split doubleheaders with Mount St. Mary's (9-12) this weekend left the Quakers at 7-7, while the '99 squad went 9-28 for its entire campaign and was 4-10 at this point in the season. Penn relied heavily on the strength of its freshman class, winning the first and last games of a four-game series, 8-7 and 18-6, respectively. Paul Grumet (1-0) and Andrew McCreery (3-0) picked up the wins for the Quakers. Grumet now leads the Quakers with a 1.50 earned run average, and McCreery has the most wins on Penn's staff. Freshman Ben Otero chipped in five innings of work in the second game Saturday, but was outdueled by another freshman -- hard-throwing Brian Santo, who pitched a complete game for the Mountaineers, giving up just three hits and one unearned run, handing the Quakers a 6-1 loss. Penn freshmen also saw plenty of action on the field. Zach Hanan started three of the four games at third base, and Nick Italiano got in time at second base at the end of two games. Fittingly, it was freshman McCreery's walk in the bottom of the eighth that drove in the winning run to start Penn's weekend off with a win. The Quakers rallied to score four runs in the bottom of the third inning to tie the game at six. Then Penn went up 7-6 the next inning on McCreery's ground out. But the Mountaineers tied the game back up in the fifth when Quakers sophomore Matt Hepler walked in a run. After Hepler ran into trouble, Grumet came in and slammed the door on Mount St. Mary's, throwing 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, Mountaineers freshman Blake Smith walked McCreery on four pitches to give the decision to Penn. In the nightcap, Penn's bats went dry, held at bay by fireballer Santo and his low-90s fastball. But the Quakers did have their opportunities -- three times they left two runners on base in an inning. Otero was matching Santo, allowing just two hits and a run through four, but the Mountaineers caught up with him in the fifth, tagging him for four runs. "They're an aggressive hitting team, and I left a couple changeups up. They hit some good pitches," Otero said. "But we left too many people on base. He's a good pitcher -- he threw hard, and his off-speed stuff was working. We didn't come out offensively enough." Yesterday's twin bill began with a 7-6 loss for the Quakers. Mount St. Mary's sophomore Brandon Woodward pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up five runs on seven hits, but was good enough to get the win. Sophomore Mark Lacerenza (0-2) picked up his second loss of the season, going 3 1/3 and getting tagged for six runs, including a five-run fourth that did the Quakers in. Brian Burket pitched the final 3 2/3, allowing a run on two hits. Lacerenza ran into trouble with runners on second and third with one out. He issued four straight walks, bringing in three runs. Then, left fielder Tommy Merical doubled to drive in two more. Penn bounced back with three in the bottom of the fifth. The Quakers scored three after back-to-back doubles by Kevin McCabe and Oliver Hahl, an RBI single by Jeff Gregorio and a wild pitch. But although the Red and Blue had runners on second and third with one out, Ron Rolph struck out and Chris May flied to right to end the inning. Penn finished the weekend off strong, with an 18-6 pounding in yesterday's second game. Penn jumped on Mount St. Mary's starter Adam Byer early and often, building a 6-0 lead by the third inning. Designated hitter Jeff Gregorio, who had five home runs for the Quakers last year, got his first homer of the year the next inning. Gregorio, who bats cleanup, said he was relieved when he hit the three-run blast. "It felt good to get that one out of the way," said Gregorio, who leads the Quakers with 15 RBI. "I've been hitting the ball OK, but I really haven't been driving the ball that much." Mount St. Mary's first baseman Brian Thomas, who had two dingers of his own in the series finale, said Penn's six-run fourth took the wind out of the Mountaineers' sails. "The first three games we played real well, and then the last game I think we basically kind of quit," Thomas said. "A couple of errors and people just hung their heads." McCreery capped a great weekend with 5 1/3 innings of work to pick up his third win of the year. "He seems to have pretty good outings every time he goes out," Gregorio said. "I think it was 13-5 when he came out of the game, and he was still pissed off that he was not able to finish off the game. It's good to see that intensity. He wants the ball all the time." Penn coach Bob Seddon was pleased with the standout performances from his freshmen, but said that the few veterans on his young ballclub need to pick up their games. "You didn't count on those guys [the freshmen], and they're the ones who are really holding us [up]," Seddon said. "If we get the contribution from the other upperclassmen like we expect, if we get some pitching, we'll be a very good team. But until then, we're going to be back and forth."
(03/27/00 10:00am)
Last March, the Penn women's tennis team edged Boston College, 5-4, in a tight battle in California that came down to the final doubles match. On Saturday, however, the Quakers had little trouble beating the Eagles, 7-2, at Penn's Lott Courts. That isn't to say the Eagles aren't formidable opponents -- their top player, Cynthia Tow, is nationally ranked and won the Harvard Invitational championship in singles last spring. But on Saturday, the Quakers did not seem to care about Boston College's past accolades in brushing the Eagles aside. "We played a great match," Penn senior co-captain Elana Gold said. "They're a tough team, but today we didn't make them look very tough." Though Tow had little trouble beating Penn junior Lenka Beranova, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 1 singles, the Quakers were undefeated in the remaining five singles matches. When the match score was 4-1, it was Jolene Sloat's three-set win at No. 6 singles over the Eagles' Ruitas Veitas that sealed the victory for the Red and Blue. After Sloat easily won the first set, 6-1, Veitas adjusted to the Penn sophomore's heavy topspin and deep shots by coming into the net and lobbing the ball. "I lost the second set [6-1] because I started playing to her game," Sloat said. "I wasn't playing the way I usually do." Sloat, who was unaware that her match would guarantee the victory, returned to her deep hitting style for the third set and made a few shots that almost sent Veitas running into the surrounding fence. Playing the decisive set on her own terms, Sloat took the match, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. Though they didn't have much luck in singles, the Eagles proved themselves worthy doubles opponents. At No. 1 doubles, Tow and Karen Fernando held off the Penn duo of Beranova and sophomore Rochelle Raiss, 8-4. Quakers senior co-captain Anastasia Pozdniakova and sophomore Louani Bascara faced the Eagles' Barbara Privell and Mercedes Del Valle at No. 2 doubles. The Penn duo won the see-saw battle, 8-6. "They were a talented doubles team, and they were good at net," Bascara said. While the first two doubles matches were tough battles for both sides, Penn's Gold and Shubha Srinivasan expended little energy in thrashing Fernando and Veitas, 8-2. Though the score was rather unimpressive, Boston College assistant coach Bruce Pierce thought his team did very well, considering they have traveled extensively recently and were fatigued on Saturday. The Eagles' most recent trip was to Las Vegas last week, where Penn also went over spring break before it traveled to California to play Stanford and Fresno State. On their trip, the Eagles took a tough 9-0 loss to UNLV -- a team the Quakers had beaten 5-4 a few days earlier. While Pierce emphasized that his team was tired from traveling, the Quakers felt that the tough schedule they faced on the trip was helpful to them in facing the Eagles. "Boston College is good on the top of their lineup, whereas Stanford's No. 6 player is nationally ranked," Gold said. "The high level of competition we saw [over break] definitely helped us today." The Eagles are nearly the last non-Ivy competition the Quakers will face this season. Penn will face Rutgers tomorrow at 2 p.m. before meeting Princeton on April 1.