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(08/31/00 9:00am)
"It's good for the organization to have permanent leadership to move forward."
Peter Traber said those words in March, just after the "interim" was dropped from his title as interim CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. And we couldn't agree more.
That is why it's all the more disheartening and disappointing that only four months later, Traber abruptly left the position he seemed poised to tackle.
University President Judith Rodin appointed Traber to replace the beleaguered William Kelley as the Health System confronted mounting budget deficits approaching $300 million. Traber made a commitment -- indeed, he said he relished the opportunity -- to see the system through its remediation strategy. His personal manner and sense of purpose buoyed the morale of a staff that had suffered under Kelley.
In that light, his decision to leave -- albeit for untold fortunes and professional opportunities at pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline -- was irresponsible.
We don't know what other motivations led Traber to pack up his office in the Penn Tower Hotel. He was a shoo-in to be named dean of the Medical School, a position he had on an interim basis, and the Health System's finances were improving under his watch.
But those forces could not have been so great as to lead him to sacrifice his personal credibility by abandoning a job he had sought for so long and held for so short a time
(08/31/00 9:00am)
Some things, it seems, will never change.
Every year, a new freshman class arrives to the plaudits of administrators -- once again, it is the most accomplished class ever to enter the University -- and the amusement of upperclassmen seeing images of their former selves.
Every year, we marvel at the progress made to the campus' physical and intellectual infrastructure over the summer and lament those areas where the University has fallen short.
And every year, this being no exception, we welcome you -- back or for the first time -- to a campus in transition.
As in each of the last several years, construction dominates the headlines -- and sidewalks -- at the University of Pennsylvania.
At the very least, the oft-delayed Sundance Cinemas and Freshgrocer.com projects on 40th Street promise new entertainment and nourishment options for students before the end of the academic year. And at most, they may spur the revitalization of the corridor that historically has served as the dividing line between campus and community.
In the heart of campus, work is progressing on Huntsman Hall, the state-of-the-art academic center that will house much of the Wharton School upon completion in 2002. Meanwhile, work winds down on the Perelman Quadrangle and the newly opened Houston Hall is poised to reclaim its role as the center of student life.
Academic life at Penn will also undergo its own renovations this year. Two hundred students will test the first revision of the College's general education requirement in more than a decade, while at the same time Penn's largest undergraduate school experiments with an overhaul of its notoriously dysfunctional advising system.
Two deanships -- Nursing and Medicine -- remain vacant, and committees are or will soon be in place to plug those holes. The added catch is that with the resignation of Peter Traber, Penn is looking for a single candidate to head both the Medical School and the Health System, whose beleaguered finances should concern all members of the school community.
Other issues that will earn attention this year include the state of Penn's alcohol policy, the travails of the Political Science Department and the deliberations over the faculty's intellectual-property rights.
And of course, our men's basketball team has an Ivy title to defend.
We hope this issue serves as an introduction to Penn for new students and a catalog of the summer's changes for those returning.
For our part, we'll strive to uphold the highest standards of fairness and accuracy in everything we print.
Over the course of the year, we hope that you'll continue to turn to The Daily Pennsylvanian for news that matters to you, and to this page for editorials and columns that shed new light on the issues.
Every day, you'll see the editors of the DP take a stance in the staff editorial appearing at the top of this page, and weekly columnists will give their views on life and events at the University.
But this page is also for you -- for you to share your views on major issues, to offer praise and level criticism, to offer wisdom that we may not be privy to inside these walls.
Let us know when you think we've done something well or when we can be doing our jobs better.
Welcome, and we wish you a successful year
(03/10/00 10:00am)
The new six-year agreement with Trammell Crow, announced last week, will allow us to build on that feedback and our experience, and will facilitate an even more productive relationship. Trammell Crow will continue to provide us with construction management services for the University's more than $700 million program. In addition, Trammell Crow will provide us with portfolio management services (i.e., property leasing, acquisitions and dispositions), and under a separate 10-year agreement with University City Associates, Trammell Crow will manage our off-campus facilities. Facilities operations will be managed directly by the University, and we are better informed and better prepared to accept those responsibilities. The decision to "extend and restructure" Penn's relationship with Trammell Crow is a natural evolution of our original core working agreement. It is not an indication that the original arrangement failed. Remember, ours was a unique model, the first between an educational institution and the private sector, and we were in uncharted waters. Much in the original agreement made very good sense, and we actively sought IRS approval to extend it for a nine-year term. In the final analysis, however, it simply wasn't feasible, in our opinion, to do so. The original agreement was grounded in three core principles; we continue to believe in them: · First and foremost, that an effective mix of private sector discipline and higher education knowledge could and should produce better and more efficient delivery of basic facilities services. Clearly, Trammell Crow brought to Penn a high level of professionalism, intensity, commitment and work ethic that is very attractive in the workplace. Trammell Crow also helped us increase financial discipline, and we use rigorous budgeting and financial analysis as a matter of course to manage our costs better. · Second, that the consolidation of three distinct organizational units -- Facilities Services, Residential Maintenance and University City Associates -- responsible for delivering those services would produce a more efficient organization, enabling us to make great strides toward providing the best service for the best possible price. Our organization is now consolidated, streamlined and re-engineered; the current model allows for both the Trammell Crow and in-house employees to work together toward a common goal, and we have accomplished an important reorganization of facilities services on campus. · Third, and perhaps most importantly, that restructuring service delivery would make it more responsive and focused on our customers. Are we where we want to be? Clearly, we have made considerable progress toward achieving our goal of better service at a lower cost. Can we improve? Yes! Will we improve? Absolutely. We believe that outsourcing allowed us to analyze and change almost every service delivery model. We attracted new talent to the organization, and we are very, very pleased with the quality of the people in our organization today, both those who will remain with Trammell Crow and those we will welcome back to the University. And we learned a great deal through the discipline of self-examination and solicitation of feedback from our customer base. There are those in higher education who have suggested that the Penn-Trammell Crow partnership is a model that demonstrates that educational institutions and the private sector can, in fact, work together. This relationship is for the benefit of both parties, providing essential services to support the educational teaching and research mission of America's colleges and universities. We're very pleased about that.
(02/29/00 10:00am)
But I would also like to comment on the issue of Black History Month. February is the only time when institutions feel obligated to recognize -- or make some attempt at recognizing -- the great things that black people have done. We have all learned about Dr. King and his dream. We may have learned about Harriet Tubman andESojourner Truth as well as many other great mothers.ESomewhere along the lineEyou may have learned aboutEW.E.B.EDuBois orEBooker T. Washington and felt that youEhad a solid understanding of black history. IEmust say that I am not satisfied with this. As a descendent of the people on whose backs this country was built, I am not allowed to be satisfied with this. I feel personally responsible for keeping the truth of my history alive by telling the stories over and over.EBlack history is not only what is written in the textbooks and taught duringEFebruary. It isEa rich history deeply rooted in oral tradition. Listening to stories told by our grandparents is more valuable than any school textbooks could ever be. Because we often rely solely on what we have been taught,Eit is no wonder that many of us do not know that the first female millionaire was a black woman, or that it was a black man who invented the process of manufacturing paper.EMany of usEdo not know that a black man created theEspark plug and that others created the fire extinguisher, the gas mask, the fountain pen, the traffic light and the refrigerator. We take for granted the contributions that black people have made to our society and our everyday life.EWe should not have to wait until February to acknowledge everything that black people have done for this country. Have we ever been formally thanked for creating the foundation of this country and for laboring on its land for centuries, against our will?EHas anyone taken the time to apologize for everythingEour ancestors were put through so that America could be what it is today? Yes, we have been thanked.ESociety has thanked us by way of disparate treatment in education, employment and housing. We are thanked when we get pulled over on highways for Driving While Black. What better way to thank someone than to frisk him on the side of the road because his tail light is out? People continually second-guess our intelligence, they second-guess our mere presence at such institutions as Penn and, worst of all, they fear us. I have been at Penn almost two years now and before that I was in a prestigious boarding school. One thing IEhave learned is that the amount of educationEyou have does not matter at all because when you walk down the street, there will still beEpeople who will clutch their bags a little tighter or feel for their wallets after you accidentally bump into them, even if you are wearing a Penn sweatshirt. Mr. Lowinger is correct inEsaying that no one will ever understand the struggles of black people in this country. No matter how anti-racism you are, how pro-affirmativeEaction and pro-diversityEyouEare, you will never understand what it is like to be repeatedly denied, doubted, misunderstood, suspected, accused, underestimated and rejected simply because you are a black person.ENor will you ever understand what it means to beEa member of a race of people who -- despite everything to which it has been continually subjected -- has remained strong and has persevered. I can only ask that you take the time to think when you move through your day-to-day actions. When you see a black man on campus and you feel yourself getting anxious, stop and think, "Has this man ever done anything to me?" When you open the doors to your classes, remember that it was one of us who created the doorknob. Take the time to give credit where credit is due, andEtry to acknowledge the historical and present contributions that black peopleEmake and have made to society. February is not the only month that you reap the benefits of our contributions, so don't limit appreciation to this one month.
(11/09/98 10:00am)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (U-WIRE) -- Forty-four years after the infamous suspension of three university professors surrounded by speculation about their Communist sympathies, university President Lee Bollinger, endorsed by the University Board of Regents, has finally offered financial support to the annual Davis, Markert and Nickerson Lecture Series on Academic and Intellectual Freedom. While this sort acknowledgement of prior bad practice is good, the university still has many amends to make for ignoring the issue for decades. In 1954, former university professors Chandler Davis, Clement Markert and Mark Nickerson refused to testify about their political beliefs before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. As a result, the university suspended all three and eventually fired two of them. Former U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy led the infamous Communist witch hunt at the height of the Red Scare in the 1950s, unjustly misleading a fearful and threatened American public. While the ethos and events of the time made such fear common, it does not excuse the administration's suspension and dismissal of the professors. The university must maintain a strong sense of individual academic freedom and prevent contemporary political beliefs from throwing its integrity to the wind. In 1989, the Senate Assembly and the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, the faculty's chief governmental bodies, passed resolutions pushing to maintain academic freedom through a lecture series. In 1990, the Academic Freedom Lecture Fund asked the regents for financial support, but was rebuked by administrators. SACUA made it possible for the AFLF to receive contributions from various university-related sources, heroically keeping the lecture series afloat. At a recent SACUA meeting, members of the Lecture Fund's Board of Directors finally began to discuss reconciliation with the university. By becoming affiliated with the university, the fund will be preserved, but the fund's leaders remain skeptical of the university's newfound support. Such skepticism is reasonable considering the past actions of the administration on this matter -- since the university evidently does not feel that this issue is a current problem, it has failed to even give it much notice. While the proposed financial support of the fund is commendable, SACUA and AFLF are still waiting for an official apology from the university, which would signify acknowledgment of the embarrassment endured by the three professors as well as show that the university is capable of learning from its mistakes. The university's attempt to amend its past mistakes is a step in the right direction, but it will take more than a simple monetary offer to gain the trust of the fund's leadership. In addition, a written apology and statement acknowledging the error should be issued by the administration and the regents. This is a good time for SACUA and AFLF due to the administration's apparent change of heart. The recent prospects for support and communication will open many doors for the fund and its goal of academic freedom. But this remains but a first step -- the administration should continue to show that it realizes its prior bad acts and make amends for four decades worth of ignorance.
(09/29/98 9:00am)
It sounds like such a great idea. At a time when the public has lost its faith in the mainstream media and is beginning to turn its attention to the wonders of the Internet, a guy named Matt Drudge comes along, rejecting all of the traditional journalistic presuppositions. He gives us, the public, free access to any and all news, rumors and allegations that come along the line. Almost immediately, Drudge comes under fire from the mainstream media, probably partially out of fear. The news cycle has been disrupted; and reporters, editors and anchors everywhere begin spewing venom at this roguish freelancer. Yet that is what scares me the most. The fact that people lend credibility to a man who publishes, for all to see, what Mugmon himself calls "information and rumors, truth and allegations." In essence, Drudge takes any story or accusation and, without thoroughly checking its credibility, places it on the Internet for all to see. Those who call this irresponsible journalism are exactly right. Drudge's type of work panders to any and all persons with a story to tell, a rumor to spread, an untruth to disseminate. The Drudge Report emphasizes speed over accuracy -- getting the story out first is more important than getting the story out right. This mentality is a large part of the problem with today's media. As CNN and Time reeled from their retraction from their infamous "Operation Tailwind" story alleging the use of nerve gas on American soldiers who defected, they probably wished that they had been more concerned with checking the facts of the story than with getting it out before their competitors did. According to a New York Times Magazine article from February, a local news broadcast on Channel 6 in Orlando, Fla., began one night with a story of a 400-lb. man sitting on a 22-month-old toddler. "The accusations are shocking, jarring," cried the anchors. Yet had they waited a day or so, they would have heard that the state prosecutor thought that the charges were too ridiculous to prosecute. Clearly that was irresponsible journalism. A family that had committed no crime was subject to humiliation and embarrassment in front of a large evening television audience, simply because a TV station was too anxious to find out the facts and emphasized speed over accuracy. The same holds true for the Drudge Report. Only here the stakes are greater. In this arena, the accusers and the victims may be national political figures and the is audience enormous. Even worse, many news organizations feel it necessary to report that, "According to the Drudge Report" -- thinking that they have done no wrong, just reported what someone else said. Yet that sort of action perpetuates rumors and allegations that may be horribly damaging to careers and even the fate of the nation. True, the mainstream media does tend to withhold news from the public for varying amounts of time. But unlike Drudge, they (usually) check facts and allegations before spreading them to the public. If the mainstream media behaved like the Drudge Report, the public would be flooded with rumors, allegations and accusations nonstop. Most people do not have the time or the resources to check the accuracy and legitimacy of these reports and would be unable to distinguish reliable sources from the latest Washington rumor. Verifying and explaining the truth behind allegations is (in theory) the job of the media. Their responsibility is to report the truth and enlighten the public as to the latest happenings in the country and around the world. And to do so in a manner that separates lies and half-truths from stories with legitimate facts behind them, unlike Drudge, who recklessly passes on anything that comes his way. Drudge fans seemed to be vilified when the Lewinsky-Clinton scandal, which Drudge had been reporting before every other news organization, turned out to be true. Yet this one atypical example, which incidentally incriminated Clinton before there was any actual evidence of wrongdoing, does in no way make Drudge any more legitimate. If Drudge insists on irresponsible journalism, people must learn not take him seriously. Respectable news organizations should not report the rumors and half-truths that appear on his Web site. For those who support and quote Drudge undermine their own credibility.
(05/15/98 9:00am)
SANTIAGO, Chile -- I have had the occasion to write several hundred articles and edit thousands more since that afternoon in September 1995 when I first entered the office that was really my home for 2 1/2 years. But in all the work I did for the DP, I always kept one thing out: myself. For my last appearance, I am going to be indulgent. I think I deserve that just one time. I don't remember what I was expecting or even doing when I got my first beat and began work for DPOSTM. What I got was countless sleepless nights, alarm clocks set at 5:30 in order to do some early work on the Weekly, as well as a laundry list of people I offended in some way or another. I wouldn't change a thing. Why I, why anyone, would love working on the DP as much as I did is a difficult question. There isn't any glory and precious little money. God knows the quality of the beer is low. For me, I think the answer lies in the relationships I created with certain people. Not lifelong friends. I haven't spoken to many of the most influential people in my development as a DPOSTMite in years. Perhaps that is the key. These people, my ex-editors Jed Walentas and Nick Hut and senior staffers like Jeff Wieland and Luke DeCock did not encourage me, help me, yell at me -- whatever was necessary -- because I was their friend. They didn't allow me to go on road trips to the Poultry Palestra (Chicken Hutch, N.H.) because they had something to gain. They did it because this institution of DPOSTM is a band that ties everyone who truly understands why sports at the DP is special. When Scott Miller and I were elected sports editors for 1997, we tried to foster that sense. Although we were responsible for assigning, editing -- a million different tasks -- this was probably our most important. DPOSTM has tradition. That makes it unique from all other staffs at the DP. So young writers, some of whom I have never met, think about what you are doing as you sit in the windowless office on the campus' western edge. If you think you are just plugging away, "filling space," you are in the wrong place, because I and 100 years of DP Sports are out there somewhere, counting on you to do better.
(04/23/98 9:00am)
We write as two faculty masters, one outgoing and one incoming, who are proud of two closely related achievements of Penn's college houses: first, that faculty are specifically empowered to lead and to take responsibility for building and sustaining these remarkable communities; second, that students are everywhere being called upon to step up and participate in key decision-making. The combination works powerfully -- and has produced tangible results. At Modern Languages College House, which will become part of Gregory College House next year, students and house staff teamed up to create an unprecedented recruiting drive for new residents of the "language floors." Retention of current students set a record. The Modern Languages program within Gregory thrives because students cared about it passionately and, with Peter Steiner of the faculty, were empowered to do something to help the house. Meantime, Kendrick Li of the King's Court/English House ITA team is so convinced that residential computing support works that he is speaking this month at a number of "Penn Previews" for prospective students and their parents. Kendrick's persuasive talk for the class of '02 is about how Wheel Project initiatives empower students in the College Houses to exercise real, meaningful leadership. Hill has needed new furniture for some time. But in college houses that work by consensus, as Hill traditionally does, ordering furniture over the summer as a September surprise won't do. So Jim O'Donnell, the faculty master of Hill College House, acting as a liaison between Hill students and the facilities departments, arranged for several "show" rooms. Hill residents spent the year visiting these rooms, trying out the furniture, and perfecting the balance between comfort and efficient use of the small spaces. In the fall Hill will have all new furniture -- designed, in effect, by the people of Hill. Last week, plans were completed to upgrade Harnwell's classroom with new technology and furniture. And by next fall, at the students' request, there will be reading lamps on the tables in the rooftop lounge. Ivar Berg is a faculty master who provides his house a clear sense of academic leadership -- bringing the essence of teaching home, as it were. Cindy Mullock, a Quad resident for four years, is one of many students who enjoyed taking a for-credit course in Ivar and Calli Berg's living room, and she's joined Kendrick in sharing her experience with those who come to Penn Previews. Ivar attracts distinguished Penn faculty to present one seminar session each week; a lively discussion ensues over a home-cooked supper. Two years ago, in Van Pelt College House, the students and staff intensively interviewed a number of candidates for the position of faculty fellow. This is an appointment, as in all 12 college houses, made by the faculty master -- but always in consultation with the students (usually the house council) and graduate associates. That year, John Richetti was appointed, among others; he and his wife, Temple English Professor Deirdre David, moved into the house. Richetti was so effective in this role that a committee of students and faculty recommended to the provost that he be appointed the first faculty master of Harrison College House. Since that announcement was made, the folks at Van Pelt have been vigorously looking for a new faculty fellow. On Tuesday night they decided, after a month of interviews, discussions and consensus-building, to appoint Professor Lori Rosenkopf of Wharton's Management Department. Lori, her attorney husband Kevin, and their children Taylor and a new-born, will move on campus in July. Lori is delighted to have been chosen through such a truly collegial process. She is right to conclude that the students who participated in this process have learned some significant lessons by having participated in this decision. Hamilton College House is now appointing its last graduate associates, and the final openings all across the system are being filled -- by virtue of the hard work of student-faculty committees in each house. All the houses have had four or more applications for every GA vacancy, disproving the early doubters, and applications are still coming in. The exciting news about Penn's college houses is being carried nationwide by alumni organizations, the Penn Parents Program and admissions officers, all of whom have asked the faculty, staff and students who live in the houses to share their college house experiences and expectations. The message is being received with great enthusiasm, as Penn once again shows how a great institution can re-invent itself, working upward from the small centers -- like the college houses -- that are its foundation. Strong leadership begins at home.
(11/18/96 10:00am)
To the Editor: In recent years, several other student newspapers have adopted similar strategies. When I was an editor of The Chronicle, the daily student paper at Duke University, we developed a monthly "In this corner? In that corner" section that served the same function. Implicit in these types of editorial presentations, however, is a responsibility on the part of the editorial staff not normally present for regular columns. Regular columns merely represent the opinions of their authors, who are typically given the freedom to write on any topic they choose -- and, of course, to argue any side of a story. While Stephen Thompson's piece, "Always spare the chair," represented a thoughtful discussion of one side of the issue, the community was done little service by College sophomore John Mamoun's truly sophomoric judgements as to who is and is not a "high-quality human being." Hopefully future editions of "Both Sides" will be better paired in terms of the quality of insight. Scott Halpern Medicine '00 To the Editor: In his guest column "Execute Sled's murderers," John Mamoun claimed execution is the best punishment for those who kill someone of significantly more societal worth ("Execute Sled's murderers," DP, 11/14/96). Mamoun attached "worth to society" to "quality as a human being." In judging quality as a human being, he appears to disregard someone's willingness to kill another person, while considering level of education as definitively good. This view not only makes acceptable an educated person's murder of an uneducated person of high moral fiber, but seems to encourage it. Mamoun then asks "What if a high-quality human being destroys another high-quality human being?" A high-quality human being does not destroy another human being. Doesn't Mamoun know his commandments? Paul Smith College '99
(03/21/96 10:00am)
The resignation of AlumniThe resignation of AlumniPublications CommitteeThe resignation of AlumniPublications CommitteeChairperson Sam MaitinThe resignation of AlumniPublications CommitteeChairperson Sam Maitinspeaks volumes aboutThe resignation of AlumniPublications CommitteeChairperson Sam Maitinspeaks volumes abouteditorial independence forThe resignation of AlumniPublications CommitteeChairperson Sam Maitinspeaks volumes abouteditorial independence forcampus publications.The resignation of AlumniPublications CommitteeChairperson Sam Maitinspeaks volumes abouteditorial independence forcampus publications.___________________________ The whispers have gotten louder since Lyle's departure, and may have come to a crescendo this month, with the resignation of Sam Maitin, chairperson of the Alumni Publications Committee. Maitin's announcement follows resignations by History Professor Michael Zuckerman and Communications Professor Emeritus Robert Shayon, similarly influential committee members. All three men, respected for their contributions to their fields and knowledgeable about journalism, pleaded with University President Judith Rodin and General Alumni Society President Elsie Sterling Howard to allow a group of alumni who are professional journalists to share oversight of the Gazette with administrators. But the same administrators, unwilling to risk offending wealthy alumni by letting the magazine's staff continue to have free rein over what is printed, refused the committee's offer. Undoubtedly, Shayon, Zuckerman and Maitin felt they had to do something -- anything -- to show the University community what's really going on in Development and Alumni Relations. We applaud their decisions, and hope they will not be silent if prior review continues, despite a lack of official involvement in the governing of campus publications.
(12/14/95 10:00am)
But to this member of The Pennsylvania Gazette's outside board of professional advisors for over 20 years, Tony Lyle was a close incarnation of of Josiah Bounderby, the prosperous manufacturer in Hard Times. He was, as Dickens described him, a "bully of humility," who intimidated his acquaintances by claiming he came from such base stock and unspeakable poverty that it was a mark of his achievement that he had climbed so high in life.(It turned out he actually had impeccable middle-class roots.) Tony was a certifiable "bully of integrity," who intimidated his colleagues by his unwillingness to compromise his principles in the interest of getting along. His fixation was that The Pennsylvania Gazette was, first and foremost, a quality magazine -- to be judged by the same standards as, say, The New Yorker or Harper's -- and not as the neutered, neutral puff sheet that many in the University administration wished the magazine to be. The mission of the magazine as Lyle saw it (and as the many administrations he served for over 30 years also put it) was to be "an objective reporter on the University of Pennsylvania." Tony took that charge quite literally, but it turned out that successive Penn administrations thought the magazine was really only another instrument to raise enough big bucks from the alumni so that Penn officials (with the exception of its magazine editors) could be the highest paid in the United States. Indeed, the administrations almost invariably wanted the magazine to include a column from the then-current Penn president in every issue -- a potential avenue for self-aggrandizement and puffery which Tony resisted as best he could, on the grounds that the inclusion of such an official voice (and undoubtedly a ghost written one at that) would turn the magazine into a house organ. Penn presidents like Sheldon Hackney reluctantly backed off when the "bully of integrity" refused to cave in and run their columns. Current president Judith Rodin, though, was more successful. By this time, the "bully" was approaching his 60th year. His resolution had been ground down by an unfavorable performance report from an alumni relations poohbah which came, ironically, in 1995 -- the same year his magazine had been chosen by the editors of Newsweek and collegial publications as the winner of the Sibley Award, given to honor the best alumni magazine in the country! Penn's Gazette better than Harvard's? Better than Princeton's? Unthinkable. Penn is rarely voted best of anything. But this encomium, unfortunately, did not ameliorate Tony's unfavorable performance rating. Tony, in short. was being shown the door. The "bully of integrity" had run into the bullies of bureaucracy. Perhaps the flunking grade was awarded because of Tony Lyle's many other integrity hang-ups. He believed, for example, that any reader who sent the Gazette a letter deserved to have it published -- no matter how crackpot that letter was. As a consequence, the magazine's Letters column was one of its liveliest features -- Trustees were attacked, "water buffaloes" celebrated, politically incorrect opinions aired. In short, no view, no matter how provocative, went unpublished. Tony even ran letters from indignant alumni who threatened to write the University out of their wills because some article or letter had aroused their ire. The Serrano exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art -- with its "Piss Christ" photograph --was a particular b_te noir. Of course, despite the irate ranter or two, most of recipients loved the Gazette -- and the university that sponsored it -- precisely for its candor. Constantly short-funded by the administration, the magazine had to appeal to its 80,000 alumni readers (who get the Gazette for free) for donations to keep its quality up. And the alumni mailed in as much as $200,000 after each appeal to show their support for the magazine whose undeniable integrity reminded them of the best things about their Penn experience. But that is all history. The bad news is that the Gazette has now embarked on a search for another editor, preferably tamer than the last one. The good news is that the "bully of integrity" has parachuted safely back to Earth.
(10/13/95 9:00am)
Guide Misses Local Favorites
(04/14/95 9:00am)
Last spring, the Penn men's tennis teams lost to both Brown and Yale 5-2. This weekend the Red and Blue hope to avenge the defeat as they prepare to host the Elis and Bears at Lott Tennis Courts. Both Brown and Yale finished ahead of Penn last year in the Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis Association standings. This year, Brown has earned a reputation for being talented, but spotty. "They're going to try and overpower us," Penn coach Gene Miller said. "They try to put you away quickly, so they can be dangerous." Penn has already beaten Yale this year, squeaking by with a 4-3 victory in the fall. That contest was a dogfight, with Penn down 3-2 at one point and freshman David Graziani locked in a third-set tiebreaker. Graziani outlasted his opponent, and the Quakers won the next match to seal the victory. There is no love lost between the two teams. Yale has a tendency to take a hard-nosed approach to competition. "When you play against Ivies, the teams are usually courteous," captain Neil Aaronson said. "Not Yale." The Quakers intend to play solid tennis and concentrate on putting away their opponents quickly and quietly. Taking care of business is the priority for Penn, not maintaining a rivalry. "We have to do our talking with our rackets," Miller said. It is a particularly critical point in the season for Penn. After succumbing last weekend to Eastern powerhouses Dartmouth and Harvard, the Quakers needs to win their remaining contests to keep their hopes of qualifying for the NCAA tournament alive.
(04/12/95 9:00am)
As the last glimpse of sunlight slipped behind the West Philadelphia horizon yesterday, Mike Shannon fired his helmet across Bower Field. Meanwhile, the expletives muttered under Tim Henwood's breath echoed through the blustery April air. Frustration abounded for the Penn baseball team. And rightly so. The Quakers had just been swept by lowly Lehigh on their home field. They have now lost five in a row and six of their last seven, dropping their record to a measly 11-15. Ah, just weeks ago this was a season with such promise. Penn lost just two every-day starters and has its entire starting rotation back from the 1994 squad that was one game away from winning the Ivy League championship. This 1995 season was going to be a celebration of coach Bob Seddon's 25th anniversary at the Quakers' helm. This 1995 season was going to cap Penn's dominance in the major sports, possibly making the Quakers the first Ivy school in history to sweep the football, basketball and baseball crowns in the same academic year. The expectations have not been met. Not even close. Thus far, the Quakers have resembled the keystone cops more than Ivy League champions. In their last four contests, the Red and Blue have committed a whopping 13 errors. There was the booted ground ball with two out in the seventh inning and the game knotted at 2 that cost Penn the first game at Yale this past weekend. Three more miscues helped eradicate a 4-1 Penn lead in the nightcap. Yesterday, it was a ground ball between the legs that sparked a Lehigh rally in game one, giving the Engineers a 3-2 win. That error was one of three in the game, to only four Quakers hits. That's one way to neutralize solid veteran pitching. Don't worry, though. Physical miscues are not the only faux pas made by the Quakers. Penn has not played heads-up baseball of late, either. In yesterday's second game, Lehigh took control of a tied game in the top of the seventh without getting a hit. After a leadoff walk, the Penn catcher instructed his pitcher to try to make a play at second on a sacrifice bunt. Everybody was safe. With runners on first and second with nobody out, a pickoff attempt at second base sailed into center field. A sacrifice fly and suicide squeeze later, and the Quakers trailed 5-3, a lead they would never make up. But they could have. Stupidity erased a rare piece of good fortune for the Quakers. Penn's leadoff batter in the bottom of the seventh flared a single into right field. After reaching first base, he rounded the bag (possibly hoping to get a better view of the lovely AT & T building across the Schuylkill) and, believe it or not, the throw from the Lehigh right fielder nabbed him while he was trying to scurry back to first. So much for that all-important leadoff man. A baserunning mistake had cost Penn a run in the bottom of the sixth as well. Miscues like these have cost Penn almost all 15 games it has lost this season. Make no mistake about it though, this ball club does have talent. Right now, the team is lacking something else. What that is -- whether it's confidence, chemistry, desire or heart -- is hard to tell. That is not my judgement to make. The Quakers will make that judgement for themselves and everybody else when they travel to Ithaca for four games against Gehrig Division-rival Cornell this weekend. Penn trails the Big Red and Princeton by only one game in the standings. So, despite all the troubles and unfulfilled expectations, the sun has not entirely set on Penn's season. But shadows are lurking. Jed Walentas is a College junior from New York and Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian.
(04/06/95 9:00am)
Guest Column At Penn, a staggering percentage of the campus population is Asian American; undoubtedly, our presence is both substantial and diverse. We occupy all facets of the University -- from the English seminars to the Biology lecture halls, from the dance troupes to the cultural groups. Implicit in our diversity is the belief in choice -- that is, we regard choice as imperative to the shaping of our identity; we can choose to live on the (Asian Hall) in the high rises or the fraternity houses, choose to write for the Penn Review or Mosaic. This is essential to both our identities as individuals and as Asian Americans. However, choice implies freedom, a freedom to shape our identity and in many ways, control it. But the irony to all this is that our identities are not a product of choices but of non-choices; that our identities evolved from a continual process of negating, not affirming the issues that surround us. What is Asian American? In playwright Frank Chin's words, Asian American is not Asian nor white American, but distinctly (and uniquely) Asian American. But for Chin and many like him, Asian American is a result of denying what you are, or more accurately, what you are presumed to be -- neither a "yellow white" nor a foreigner, neither half of each nor more of one. And being Asian American is a product of non-choices -- the non-choice of being the model minority, the non-choice of being obscured in the analects of American history, the non-choice of being seen by many as possessing an Asian sensibility that denies me the absolute right to claim myself a red-blooded American. Asian Americans, our choices are not choices; they are a result of the processes that have made us invisible, that have made us turn away from truly defining ourselves. There is nothing profitable in holding on to a sensibility that has yet to be truly created; right now it is only profitable to reject what it is not. Understand the power of this negation -- that we have all but denied ourselves out of existence. Understand, too, that the non-choices make us react, but not create. We are invisible on our classroom syllabuses, invisible when we stroll down Locust Walk, invisible in our school paper because, from the moment we where born,we're given non-choices that were said to define us. We say we are neither Bruce Lee nor Charlie Chan, neither assimilated Americans nor foreign sojourners. But then, who are we? The power of non-choice was never felt more harshly for me than this past summer. Working as a reporter intern for the New York Daily News, I was given the assignment of the Chinatown serial rapist. The victim was a six-year old child of Cantonese immigrants and my editor sent me out everyday for five days after the rape to talk to the family. They where hoping I might get the girl to speak about the experience and recount her side of the story. On my last day, I rode the dimly-lit graffitied elevator up eleven flights and knocked on the same gray-blue metal door of the victim's apartment. Not surprisingly, no one answered. But standing in that hallway I noticed something for the first time -- there was not another reporter in sight since the story died down a week ago. And here I has, knocking tirelessly at a door I knew would never open. The realization hit me. It didn't make sense but then again, it made all the sense in the world. It was because I was Chinese American and, to my editors, if being Chinese meant anything in the Chinatown community, it meant I could get my foot in the door and have the family do for me what no white, black or Latino reporter could. Because of the color of my skin and the shape of my eyes I was given the non-choice of possessing some continuous link with Asian-ness -- that their faith in my success was somehow linked to my "foreignness." Never mind that I barely spoke Mandarin and the family spoke Cantonese -- I had been all but erased in my editor's desire for a "scoop." My reaction, of course, was to reject this provincialism -- in my repudiation, I affirmed my Asian- American identity. In the course of this, however, I realized that my Asian-American identity was constantly a product of my rejections; it didn't work the other way around. My Asian-American identity was a result of what I was not -- not what I am. There are those of you who will disagree with me, who say they know and understand what Asian American is, who have worked hard at defining and shaping it. To you I ask, "How do you account for our asymtotic existence inherent in our cultural groupings, always touching but never blending into each other? How do you account for the need of sovereignty within Korean-American, Chinese-American, Filipino- American communities and so forth if our greater identity is to be Asian American?" Why is the word "Asian American," so problematic to define? In my last few weeks at Penn, I am left to wonder what will happens upon graduation, when large percentage on campus suddenly find themselves reduced to three percent -- just three percent of the entire population in the U.S. What power do we have to transcend these diffused numbers? In our quest to stop others from defining us, will we continually forget to define ourselves?
(12/15/94 10:00am)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Even Fran Dunphy, the reserved Quakers coach with a temperament as steady as his star guard's poise, was blunt after the Penn men's basketball team went to Crisler Arena and beat No. 25 Michigan 62-60 Tuesday night. Not that Dunphy wasn't entitled. After all, Jerome Allen's leaner on national television with 4.4 seconds left may have an impact on the program well beyond Allen's Penn career. "This is as good as it gets, quite honestly. It's a name team, a nationally recognized team with some very good players. A team that will get better as the years go on, with a terrific coach, and a real class act," Dunphy said. "I'm happy to have come here and to have come away with a victory. It means a great deal to our program." With five seniors on the Penn roster, all starters, the exposure was critical to getting a new top-notch recruiting class. Requests for admissions applications likely exploded yesterday. And when Dunphy goes on his recruiting trip this weekend, Penn may just have some name recognition. Allen's shot was "a 10-foot, one-handed, hook-shot leaner," according to teammate Tim Krug. Nothing special, other than it saved a game Michigan had stormed back to tie at 60 on a Jimmy King layup with 15 seconds left. Penn had led by 21 points in the first half. King, one of the original Fab Five members, scored 12 points, while the other remaining member, Ray Jackson, got into foul trouble and scored only six points in 32 minutes. Michigan coach Steve Fisher benched King for the first five minutes of the second half out of frustration with the Wolverines' play, which resulted in a Penn 41-28 halftime lead. "It wasn't just Jimmy, but Jimmy is a senior and he's been here for a long time," Fisher said. "I didn't think several of them were giving the type of effort that you have to have if you're going to win." Fisher said he is still searching for a clutch shooter to replace former Fab Fivers Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose, who have left for the NBA. Penn (4-1) stormed out to a 24-5 lead behind a shooting clinic from its guards. While Allen (3-for-11 shooting, 6 points) struggled from the field for most of the night, Scott Kegler and Matt Maloney canned three-pointers repeatedly with wide open looks at the basket. Maloney shot 6 for 12 from the field, including four three-pointers. He and forward Eric Moore were the game's leading scorers with 18 points each. Moore was a perfect 10 for 10 from the charity stripe. Kegler was 5 of 12 from behind the three-point line, scoring 15 points. The other senior starter, Shawn Trice, returned to his native Michigan and had 11 rebounds. His clutch steal late in the game, when each possession swung the emotion like a pendulum, was crucial. During its afternoon walk-through, the Michigan coaching staff expressed concern about giving Penn's perimeter players open looks at the basket. The Quakers took advantage. The only other time Allen had seen Penn shoot this well was in practice, he said. Meanwhile, the shooting woes that have plagued the Wolverines all season haunted them again. Michigan (4-4) shot 1 for 11 from three-point range in the first half, and shot just 22 of 61 from the field in the game. "We became disjointed, tried too hard one-on-one to get it back, and you can't do that. Frustration set in big time," Fisher said. As the time ticked away, the Penn bench was celebrating. Cedric Laster and Jamie Lyren, two players who figure to receive playing time next year, joined in the cheerleading. The Quaker mascot danced to the Michigan band, and then was taunted by a student section that came alive late after being silenced for much of the contest. Michigan had not lost to an Ivy team since a 91-82 setback to Princeton 23 seasons ago. When time expired, after a last-second shot by Maurice Taylor missed its mark, the Quakers stormed the court. Allen walked over to Dick Vitale, the loud ESPN broadcaster with the huge assortment of cliches. A few feet away, Jackson had collapsed and was rolling face down on the floor by the ESPN courtside booth in disbelief. Vitale had visited Penn's shoot-around earlier in the day to give the Quakers inspiration. "One of the things he talked about was don't let anybody ever talk you out of your dreams," Kegler said. "And if you believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything. And I think that was our whole mentality during the game."
(12/15/94 10:00am)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Penn runs the play countless times in practice. When the Quakers reach game time, it seems like an everyday routine. Jerome Allen lifts a closed fist at halfcourt. He penetrates, the defense collapses, then Allen finds fellow guards Matt Maloney or Scott Kegler spotting up for an open three-pointer. But after Penn had burned Michigan all night with that same play, the Wolverines were not going to let it happen with the game on the line. With the game tied at 60 and 15.3 seconds remaining, Allen brought the ball to midcourt. He didn't have to raise a closed fist -- everyone in Crisler Arena already knew what was coming. But this time, when Allen drove into the lane, the Michigan defenders stayed close to their men. So Allen took the shot himself. After struggling all night, Allen made the game winner. The eight-foot leaner over Jimmy King with 4.4 seconds left gave Penn the 62-60 victory. "I was struggling all night," Allen said. "To actually do something that was positive gave me a good feeling inside. I persevered through tough times." Those tough times almost cost Penn the game. Allen, the Quakers' leading scorer entering Tuesday night, connected on just two of his 10 prior shots. The 80-percent free-throw shooter also missed his one attempt from the charity stripe. His inbounds passes were stolen. He got called for a charging foul. To make matters worse, Allen also turned the ball over five times. The senior captain's troubles did not take place only on the offensive end of the floor. With Penn clinging to a four-point lead with just 55.5 seconds remaining, King took a long three-point attempt. The shot hit the rim and bounced out of the basket. But Allen had fouled King, who went to the line for three shots. After King hit two free throws, Michigan still trailed by two points. The Wolverines again called King's number. He penetrated past Allen and hit the tying layup high off the glass to tie the game at 60. Every mistake Allen made during the first 39 minutes, 55.6 seconds of the game was forgotten with his final shot. "He didn't have a particularly good game," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "But as usual, when those kinds of big shots needed to be taken and made, a kid like him will do it. I'm very thankful that he did." But Allen almost didn't make the shot. As he twisted and turned through the lane and guided the ball toward the basket, not everyone was convinced it was going in. "I didn't think it had a chance of going in," Kegler said. "He turned around, and I didn't think he thought it was going in." Even Allen couldn't explain what he did. "I really can't say what kind of shot it was," he said. "Jump shot? Half hook? Did I throw it up behind my head?" In the end, it doesn't really matter how it went in. All that counts is that it did go in.
(12/01/94 10:00am)
Last season, for the first time in coach Randy Ayers' four years at the helm of the Ohio State men's basketball team, the Buckeyes did not qualify for a postseason tournament. And that was the good news for Ayers, whose squad plays Penn Saturday at the Palestra. Bigger problems loomed in the immediate future of this once proud basketball institution. In May, Ayers' prized incoming freshman, Damon Flint, was ruled ineligible to play for the Buckeyes after at least 17 NCAA violations were tied to his recruitment. The 6-foot-5 swingman has since enrolled at Cincinnati and OSU has been placed on probation. From there, the trouble just got worse. After two transfers and three dismissals, the Buckeyes will now have to struggle to repeat last season's success. And last season did not exactly go OSU's way, as the Buckeyes finished with a 13-16 record, their first losing season in 17 years. While other teams were dancing in the NCAA tournament, OSU received its second major blow. Charles Macon, a 6-7 forward and former Indiana Mr. Basketball, pleaded guilty to theft, drunken driving and marijuana possession. While serving a one-year suspension from the team, Macon failed out of the university. In April, Gerald Eaker, who led the team with 36 blocked shots last season, got in trouble with his teammates. His scholarship was lifted after he shot out the tire of a car owned by Antonio Watson. He left OSU after this incident. The month for Ayers, however, was just beginning. Rickey Dudley, one of the few big men on the Buckeyes was charged with drunken driving. After he failed to pay his $300 in fines and $69 in court costs, a warrant was issued for his arrest. Dudley paid these dues and returned to play tight end for the football team, and should be joining the hoops squad in the near future. Throughout these months, junior guard Greg Simpson was involved with an array of incidents. First he was arrested for drunken driving, then an assault charge was dropped and finally he was the get-away driver involved in the team shooting incident. As if these charges and problems were not enough, he was recently involved in a fight with a former girlfriend. And as the Buckeyes' days in courts mounted, the few remaining stars fled before the situation got worse. Derek Anderson, who led Ohio State against Penn last season with 23 points and some amazing heroics, transferred to Kentucky. Following this lead, Nate Wilbourne left for South Carolina. After all these defections and dismissals, OSU returns only 10 percent of its scoring, 11 percent of its rebounding and 12 percent of its assists. Last year's success may be hard for the Buckeyes to repeat
(11/21/94 10:00am)
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Mark DeRosa was in pain all week. After tearing ligaments in his thumb on his throwing hand, he was unable to throw a football until Thursday. But even after that carefully guarded performance, the coaches were not sure he was ready for Saturday. He didn't have the zip he usually has on his passes. He couldn't throw a tight spiral. And he was in extreme pain. He just wasn't himself. But Saturday meant too much. It was for a second consecutive perfect season. It was a Division I-AA record 21 straight wins. It was the last game in the seniors' careers. "It hurt," DeRosa admitted after the Quakers' 18-14 win Saturday over Cornell. "The decision was up to me of whether I could throw the ball, and I figured I had to at least go and find out. You're so caught up in the emotion of the game, you don't have time to let things bother you." DeRosa refused to let his thumb or the cast bother him Saturday. Even though he is having his right thumb operated on 8 a.m. today, he just wouldn't give in to the pain. Every time he went to the sideline, coach Al Bagnoli asked him about his thumb, but DeRosa would not come out of this game. "He's a tough kid to get a straight answer out of," Bagnoli said. "He kept saying, 'Feels great.' " Bagnoli made sure backup Steve Teodecki stayed ready on the sideline. And as Teodecki watched, DeRosa stenciled his name into the annals of Penn history as he threw for 360 yards, the most ever for a Red and Blue passer. DeRosa took every blitz, every knockdown and every sack Cornell could muster. And for more than 45 minutes, it appeared as if Bagnoli was making a mistake. In Penn's first series, DeRosa threw a slow pass behind Leo Congeni that was intercepted by Chris Hanson. His passes were continually batted down on the line. He missed Miles Macik open in the end zone. The passes were overthrown, underthrown and intercepted. And when he did complete passes, it just wasn't the same. DeRosa lofted passes he used to be able to bullet into his receivers. He found Felix Rouse behind the Big Red defense, but Rouse had to stop and wait for the ball -- a sure touchdown was turned into just a long completion. But DeRosa just kept coming. Regardless of the hits, he stayed in the pocket as long as he could. And finally, in that final period, he found his old high school teammate. Mark Fabish ran a post pattern, beat Andrew Slocum, and high-stepped into the end zone. "In high school, we always ran the post route," DeRosa said. "He's probably the fastest kid on the team. He can get behind anyone. We needed a big play to ignite us." And after DeRosa found Congeni to convert the the extra point, Penn found itself down by just three points with 14 minutes, 17 seconds remaining. After stalling six times in Cornell territory, the Quakers finally put an end to the drought. But the high-school connection was not done. With 4:20 left, Penn got the ball back with one last chance to win the game. After DeRosa was sacked, the Quakers faced a seemingly impossible third and 19. Fabish was supposed to cut across the middle. He was supposed to set up a short fourth-down play. But when Fabish saw the middle was clogged, he decided to run deep. "He made a beautiful read," DeRosa said. "I was looking for him across the middle. When I saw him take off, there was no hesitation. I had to go to him." After holding the ball for as long as he could, DeRosa finally let it go. As Fabish tucked it away, he landed on the one-yard line. The pain it took DeRosa to throw that pass wasn't even noticeable. The memory of the crushing blow delivered just one play earlier was forgotten. For a moment, DeRosa forgot he was wearing a cast on his hand. He ran down the field, and was too winded even to call the next play. Nothing was going to stop DeRosa. He called the play. The Quakers eventually fought their way into the end zone to take the lead for good. And Mark DeRosa didn't feel the pain.
(11/16/94 10:00am)
When he came into football camp this fall, Dana Lyons didn't know if he would play. He hoped he could fit into the defensive backfield somewhere, but with three starters returning, there was not much room. The only opening was at free safety, where all-Ivy player Jim Magallanes used to reside. But at a mere 160 pounds and a natural cornerback, Lyons does not appear big enough to play safety. How is a 160-pound defensive back supposed to tackle 200-pound fullbacks? How is he supposed to knock down mammoth tight ends? "That was the thing everybody was concerned about," Penn coach Al Bagnoli recalls. "At 160 pounds, was he going to be that consummate safety who comes in there and knocks down the 210-pound halfback? Could he run the alley and make a play?" Lyons has heard this before. His size kept major colleges away when he was in high school. But he always believed in himself. Even after sitting on the bench nearly the entire 1993 campaign, he knew he was good enough to play. He never had a doubt. "Even though I am undersized, I always had confidence in my abilities," he says. "I'm not afraid to stick my head in there, even though I'm a little bit overmatched sometimes." Lyons has rarely been overmatched this year. Bagnoli knows he is not going to deliver devastating tackles like all-Ivy sensations Michael Turner and Pat Goodwillie. But when a tackle has to be made, Lyons will be there. It is his responsibility to stop big plays. But more importantly, it is his responsibility to make defensive adjustments on the field. "He's done a great job," Turner says. "He stepped into the position and has done a great job making the calls. That's really important because he's running the show on the field. He's basically the coach in the backfield." This success does not come easy. Lyons spends hours watching films, making sure he knows everything the opposition might throw at the nation's top-ranked defense. "Once I get the field, I don't want anything to surprise me, to shock me. I don't think you can ever be too prepared," he says. That preparation has paid off. In the season-opener against Lafayette, however, he still felt nervous. He never really felt comfortable in Penn's star-studded defense. But then with Dartmouth on the Penn 14-yard line and marching late in the first half of the first league contest, Lyons intercepted Ren Riley's pass. After that play, he finally felt like he belonged. "I didn't feel like I had an identity with the defense," Lyons says. "After the interception, I really felt like I could make an impact. I just finally felt comfortable out there." And as he grew into his new position, Lyons began to get noticed. Against Brown, he made a diving interception grab on the Brown 23-yard line to set up a Penn score. Then at Franklin Field the following week, he upended Yale's 6-foot-3, 220-pound running back, Keith Price, on a key third-and-one play. "A couple of our guys bounced off Price and pushed him back a little bit," defensive coordinator Mike Toop remembers. "Dana was the one who came up and took him down for a two-yard loss." "He broke a few tackles," Lyons says. "I was there. It was the play I had to make." That's what makes Lyons the ultimate safety. He possesses the speed and coverage ability of a top cornerback, but is still strong enough to make the big tackles. Beyond the physical tools, Lyons has proven he has mastered the mental aspect of playing the most important position in Penn's top-ranked 5-2 defense. "He's done a great job," strong safety Nick Morris says. "He doesn't get caught up in the game and he doesn't bite on fakes. Nobody's hit a big play on us, and a lot of that is a tribute to his play." And as the Quakers prepare for their final game of 1994, Lyons has found a home at free safety.
