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(03/23/98 10:00am)
Saxophonist Maceo Parker will headline the concert, which includes three other groups. Ending months of rumors and speculation, the Social Planning and Events Committee announced Friday a jazz and funk-filled concert line-up for this year's Spring Fling, headlined by acid-jazz saxophonist Maceo Parker. The show -- billed by SPEC as a "Funk Music Festival" -- brings Parker together with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, ska-funk-rock mainstay Fishbone and the Five Fingers of Funk, a large ensemble combining aspects of hip hop and funk. Last month, SPEC and Fling organizers confirmed that they tried to secure the Mighty Mighty Bosstones to headline the annual concert, which will be held April 17 on Hill Field. The Bosstones, however, rejected Penn's offer, and instead chose to play at Princeton University and Skidmore College that weekend. Over the last several months, the campus had been abuzz with rumors about who would headline Fling, with students guessing top-40 acts such as the Barenaked Ladies, Third Eye Blind and the Wallflowers, who played at Drexel University last semester. While bigger names -- including Cypress Hill, A Tribe Called Quest and the Violent Femmes -- have headlined Fling in the past several years, SPEC officials defended their choices of smaller, lesser-known acts. "It gives people who haven't heard of them a chance to experience something really great," said Spring Fling Committee Tri-Chairperson Bruce Frey, a College junior. Parker is not as well known as many of the acts that have headlined Fling in the past. But he has had a long career of playing with the likes of James Brown and 1995 Fling headliner George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars. The North Carolina native fronted several groups before releasing his first solo record, Roots Revisited, in 1990. The New York-based Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, which combines blues with elements of rock, punk and soul, was formed in 1990 by Spencer, the founding guitarist and vocalist for the influential 1980s band Pussy Galore. Spencer, joined by guitarist Judah Bauer and drummer Russell Simins -- but no bass player -- found commercial and critical success with the band's 1996 release Now I Got Worry. Fishbone has been a popular funk-punk group since its inception in 1984. Known for its high-energy live performances, the six-person band adds lively stage antics -- including back flips and stage leaps -- to its rock and ska-influenced rhythms. The Five Fingers of Funk, the concert's opening act, was founded in 1992 by drummer Talbott Guthrie. A product of the burgeoning Portland, Ore., hip hop scene, the band is the newest of this year's Fling acts. Its 10-person ensemble includes a rap vocalist, turntables and brass and percussion instruments. Tickets for the event will be $12 for Penn students and faculty and $15 for students from other schools. Although Hill Field has a capacity of about 8,000 people, Fling organizers said the concert regularly draws only 4,000 ticket holders. The Palestra will host the concert if bad weather ensues. The number of ticket buyers may be further reduced this year. In an unusual move, Parker and Fishbone will appear at Penn just a week after playing at the Electric Factory, a major Philadelphia concert venue. Normally, in order to protect revenues, concert contracts include a blackout clause that prohibit acts from appearing at another open venue in the same market for several weeks. To get around the problem, Concerts Committee co-chairperson Allison Rosen said SPEC decided to only sell tickets to people with valid student identification. The move may eliminate a pool of potential concertgoers. Trying to get bigger-name acts for Fling is not as easy as it may appear, said Rosen, citing difficulties such as Penn's need to compete with other area venues. "Certain acts like to tour at schools and some don't," the Wharton senior said. "The next time you see Pearl Jam or Dave Matthews it won't be at a college." Frey explained that most bands prefer to play colleges located outside of major urban markets -- such as Princeton, for example -- so as not to jeopardize dates at other area venues. "It's not like they say that one school is cooler than the other," he said. Rosen added that she thought that Fling's funk motif would prove to be very popular with students. "A lot of people said that P-Funk was their favorite show from the last few years," she said. "All of these artists really bring high energy to the show." In general, Rosen said she was pleased with how the students she has spoken to reacted to SPEC's announcement of the show's bill. "The only negative comments I've heard are from people who are really clueless," she said. Many students, however, have expressed disappointment in the lineup, stressing that they had never heard of the bands and citing the need for a more diverse bill.
(03/19/98 10:00am)
Facing an audience of administrators, faculty and some of the University's best and brightest students, historian Garry Wills presented the 15th annual School of Arts and Sciences Dean's Forum Lecture Tuesday afternoon in the University Museum. Wills, 63, followed the likes of author Toni Morrison, playwright Arthur Miller and historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., in delivering the annual address as part of a ceremony presenting awards to the 20 SAS Dean's Scholars. Wills -- praised by SAS Dean Samuel Preston as "one of America's most distinguished intellectual figures" -- spoke for 40 minutes on "Public Support for the Humanities." He is the author of more than 20 books on subjects including the Civil War, the civil rights movement and public figures from Jack Ruby to Ronald Reagan. He is also a nationally syndicated columnist and a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. Before his speech, Wills sat down with The Daily Pennsylvanian for a 30-minute interview to discuss politics, the humanities, the state of American society and his Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg -- this year's text for the Penn Reading Project. Lincoln at Gettysburg DP: Most people at Penn know you as the author of Lincoln at Gettysburg, the text for this year's Penn Reading Project. How did you come to write a 300-page book about a 272-word speech? Wills: I had written a book about the Declaration of Independence and there I had talked a little bit about the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address. I am also an admirer of Lincoln as a rhetorician. I was trained as a classical rhetorician; my doctorate is in classical studies. The address has always been something that I admired and wanted to analyze a bit more. So I put those two together -- the ideological content and the rhetorical structure -- and it finally occurred to me that this is a kind of funeral oration of the sort that Thucydides gave. And it reflected its culture, especially the cemetery movement of that time -- how charged up it was, how important cemetery dedications were -- and transcendentalist values about judging one's own life by the testimony of the dead. So even though it's a short speech, it's kind of a keyhole into a whole culture. What surprises is not that it took 300 pages but that I stopped then. There are some things now I wish I had put in -- it would have been a longer book. DP: How relevant is this to students today? Why should we be studying this? Wills: Because Lincoln, more than anybody else, committed the nation to the proposition that all men are created equal. That's a challenge we still have to live up to. DP: This book was distributed to nearly 2,400 freshman here at Penn. What do you hope that the students who read it acquired from it? Wills: Well, it would depend on what they're interested in. It has been taught in rhetoric courses and in English courses for an interest in Lincoln as a master stylist, which is an important thing. Words do matter -- saying things well can affect history. That's an important thing to take from it. An admiration for Lincoln himself is an important thing to take from it. In the confusion of war, he had the mental discipline to sort issues out and define why people were fighting. The meaning of the Civil War is the meaning he imposed on it, by his whole presidency but especially by that one speech. I've been asked by students if Lincoln realized he was going to present this momentous speech, and I said, "No," because he thought he was going to live, that he would have many speeches to deliver. The fact that he was cut off made this in a way a kind of dying request. It certainly added to the power of the speech through our subsequent history. The Clinton Saga DP: You've also been an outspoken critic of contemporary American politics, including the current President Clinton scandals and congressional politics. How do you think this is affecting people's faith in government? Wills: I think people have a much more resilient faith in government than they are often given credit for. It's a very unfortunate time -- I think it's going to be seen as that in retrospect. At the time of Watergate, people said, "Everyone's going to be disillusioned in politics now." That passes. What's happening now, that's interesting. I think everyone will come out of this thing regretting it. The Supreme Court decision [to allow the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton to proceed while he remains in office] was probably a bad one that will distract from his presidency. I think Kenneth Starr himself is going to regret that he ever got into this. I think Linda Tripp is. I think Monica Lewinsky is. I think everybody is going to go away saying, "This is not what I wanted. It's hurt me and it's diminished me." In that way it will be a sort of mutual cancelling out. DP: A lot has been made in the press of President Clinton's seeming obsession with his place in history. How will history look back on the Clinton presidency? Wills: I don't know. It is so hard to predict. One of the advantages of history is to be able to see the lack of "fit" between what people thought at the time and what turned out to be the case. People thought during Eisenhower's presidency that he was not much of a president. They thought that about Truman. It turns out in retrospect a lot of people have a very high regard for both men. We are in a time of tremendous transition. The end of the Cold War, the eruption of a lot of domestic concerns that have been delayed or suppressed -- gay rights, women's rights, affirmative action, drugs -- when you look at it, every president up to Bill Clinton had been a World War II veteran. A whole world disappeared when Clinton became the first Baby Boomer president -- the first one who was not a World War II veteran, the first one who grew up with a lot of his formation in the '60s. A whole new generation has come along. Most of the politicians coming into prominence now on both sides, Republican and Democrat, had trouble with the draft or experimented with drugs. This is a hinge in which one world rapidly dropped out of being and a whole new world has come before us with a very confusing complex, new moral orientations. In that sense it will be a social-transition presidency. Whether we look on that as happy or disastrous or perhaps just necessary, who knows? Historians should never predict. Historians know enough history to know that predictions are always wrong. DP: You've written that you were on Nixon's "enemies list" in the 1970s and you've described Kenneth Starr's probe as "inquisitorial." Is this an example of history repeating itself? Wills: Well, the enemies list is all not that big a deal, I must say. I think I was on the enemies list because Pat Buchanan resented very much all the things I wrote about Nixon. But that was a secret list for social exclusion -- "don't have anything to do with these guys." And that's quite different from having the subpoena power of a Kenneth Starr and saying things like "The First Amendment is about truth, it doesn't allow distortion." Any first-year law student knows that that's horrible constitutional doctrine. To have the subpoena power behind doctrines like that, there is no comparison. DP: Do you think that the current independent investigations are a corruption of the Constitution? Wills: Well, I would say it's a mistake. What do we got now, six independent counsels out there? And they're all fishing. The idea of giving a man an indefinite mandate to use any amount of money to investigate anything, which is essentially what it is, has really become ridiculous and I believe most people are beginning to realize that. We are not more noticeably more corrupt than the Grant administration or the Teapot Dome period. So to have an investigation into a person going into subpoenaing and prosecuting people in entirely unrelated cases, which has happened with the independent counsels, is absurd. Now and Then DP: With conflicting moral values, political strife and basic uncertainty, how does this time in history compare with Lincoln's? Wills: Lincoln's was much worse, of course. We're not on the verge of civil war. There was at that time. We don't have slavery. What we had in his time was an institution rooted in our history, rooted in our Constitution, which was immensely evil, which had posed tremendous problems up to that point, and debating over whether slavery would be extended in the West had broken compromise after compromise after compromise. And so you had seven states declaring war on the government and waging war and killing people. We don't have anything like that today.
(03/19/98 10:00am)
American Politics Professor Marissa Golden will leave the University to teach at Bryn Mawr College. The troubled Political Science Department has taken another hit. Professor Marissa Golden, one of the few full-time American Politics professors in the department, has accepted an offer to teach at nearby Bryn Mawr College, the school where she spent her undergraduate years. Yesterday's announcement comes on the heels of Political Science Professor Daniel Deudney's decision to accept a teaching offer from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore for next year. Unlike Golden, Deudney -- who teaches popular lecture courses on international relations theory and environmental politics -- was forced to leave after finishing his seventh year at Penn without receiving tenure. Golden came to the University in 1993 shortly after receiving her doctorate in political science from the University of California at Berkeley. In her time at Penn, she has been responsible for introducing several new classes to the curriculum and teaching the large introductory lecture course in American Politics. "In my view it's a terrific opportunity for her," Political Science Department Chairperson Ian Lustick said. "She'll be able to use her position at Bryn Mawr as a terrific platform for boosting her career." He added that he is "delighted she will be in the Philadelphia area." He hopes that the two schools can pursue "cooperative programs" in political science. Golden was unavailable for comment last night. Golden's departure leaves a large void in the department. Currently, only five professors -- Henry Teune, Karl von Vorys, Marie Gottschalk, Will Harris and Jack Nagel -- are slated to teach courses in American Politics in the fall. According to Lustick, Teune will take over Golden's honors seminar class scheduled for the fall, but no replacement has yet been identified for her introductory class, which is supposed to be offered next spring. "We are in the midst of recruiting a whole raft of professors," Lustick said. He added that the department is "actively working on" four professors for senior faculty appointments, and that several new professors could be on campus by the fall. The one new faculty member confirmed to arrive in the fall is David Rousseau, an international relations scholar from the State University of New York at Buffalo. The department obtained authorization for his appointment last summer at the same time that the School of Arts and Sciences turned down two other appointment requests -- including one in American Politics.
(03/17/98 10:00am)
Political Science Professor Daniel Deudney was forced to find a new job after being denied tenure. Even though he will be forced to leave the University after this semester, popular Political Science Professor Daniel Deudney has already landed on his feet with a new position -- at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Deudney was denied tenure last year by the Provost's Staff Conference despite being endorsed by the Political Science Department and the School of Arts and Sciences Personnel Committee. Deudney did not file an appeal this year -- his seventh at the University -- because his tenure file did not change since last year. Three schools -- Hopkins, the University of Toronto and the University of Southern California -- extended job offers to Deudney, who teaches international relations theory and environmental politics. Deudney explained that his decision to accept Hopkins' offer above the others was based on the school's academic quality in political science and geographic location. "It's a much stronger department [at Hopkins]," he said. "But the ultimate reason why I went to Hopkins is its proximity to Washington." Deudney said that he plans to commute to Hopkins from Washington, where he has worked for the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental policy organization, and served as a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill. Location was not the only perk of Hopkins' offer, according to Deudney. It also includes a promotion to an associate professorship -- up from his current position of assistant professor -- a 10 percent salary increase, a bigger office and a 50 percent increase in his research budget. He will also only have to teach three courses each year, down from the four he had to teach currently. Faculty members and administrators said Deudney's bid for tenure failed because of his inability to complete a book during his time at Penn, although he is currently working on six nearly-complete manuscripts. All three schools extended offers to him that would have "fast-tracked" him through the lengthy tenure application process. "Tenure doesn't matter that much to me," Deudney said. "I'm just interested in getting into a better department and continuing my research and teaching." He added that "even if I were promoted here, the probability that I would have left still would have been very high." Ian Lustick, the chairperson of Penn's Political Science Department, said Deudney deserves the position in Hopkins' "outstanding" political science department. "It's a credit to the profession's belief in his future," he said. "I don't know if it's shared by everyone on the Provost's Staff Conference but I know it's shared by everyone I've talked to." Deudney's teaching duties in international relations theory will be taken over by David Rousseau, an assistant professor hired away from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Rousseau received his doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1996 and will come to Penn in the fall. "He's an excellent lecturer, a multimedia kind of speaker," Lustick said, adding that Rousseau is "by no means a replacement" for Deudney. "Deudney's a rare person," said Steven Cook, a graduate student in Political Science. "I don't think anyone can fill his shoes." Cook lamented the University's loss of an "academic star." "I just think it's wrong," he said. "It's not wrong for him to accept the offer but it's wrong of the University of Pennsylvania to let this guy go." Lustick noted that Deudney was not the first Political Science professor in recent years to leave Penn. Professors Fritz Kratochwil and Steven Fish were lost to offers from universities in Germany and California, respectively, this decade. Rousseau was brought to Penn as part of the department's drive to increase the size of its faculty, which is about half that of peer institutions. The University's Agenda for Excellence called for the hiring of several new political science professors in the field of American and Comparative Legal and Democratic Institutions, some at the senior level. Despite the tenure issue, Deudney said that he will be leaving the University on good terms, though he described his years here as "a mixture of good and bad." "I enjoyed teaching, particularly the undergraduates," he said. "[But] the primary drawback was the weak and unsettled state of the Political Science Department." "I wish them well in their long-standing effort to upgrade the department," he added. William Connolly, the chairperson of Hopkins' political science department, was unavailable for comment.
(03/06/98 10:00am)
English Professor Peshe Kuriloff plans to leave the University's writing program after 15 years to write a book and do consulting. After 15 years as director of the Writing Across the University Program, English Professor Peshe Kuriloff is stepping down as head of the University-wide program. Kuriloff, who took over the "fledgling" WATU program in 1983, said the responsibility of overseeing the initiative distracted her from pursuing other interests. WATU sponsors a number of the seminars used to satisfy the writing requirements in the undergraduate schools. It recently grew to encompass residential-based and 24-hour electronic writing advising as part of the student-run Wheel program, which aims to provide academic support services in dormitories. "It is time to move on," she said. "As the program has become more complicated and more and more demanding, I've had less time to do my own writing." With more time to pursue her own interests, Kuriloff -- who is very active in local Democratic party politics -- said she plans to do "a fair amount of work" as a freelance consultant for public officials and businesses. She also plans to work on a new book on women in politics. But Kuriloff stressed that she will stay affiliated the University, where her husband, Peter Kuriloff, is a professor in the Graduate School of Education. She plans to continue to teach a class intended to train student writing advisers. Kuriloff said she was pleased with WATU's growth, noting its tenfold budget increase since 1983. She praised WATU as a "successful model of how different departments and different schools can cooperate" and predicts a "very bright" future for the program. The University began a "national search" for her replacement this week, including running an advertisement in Almanac, Kuriloff said. She officially leaves office in June. Kuriloff has authored numerous academic essays and is a frequently contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer. She has written one textbook, Rethinking Writing, published in 1989. English Professor Al Filreis, the director of the University's Writing Program -- which includes WATU and the English Writing Program -- praised Kuriloff's long service with WATU. "She's been one of the most innovative people here at Penn," he said, adding that the program has benefited both the undergraduate advisees and the graduate students who receive teacher training to work with undergraduates. Filreis and Kuriloff have applied jointly for a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to create "electronically-based collaborative writing groups" at the University. Filreis said participating students would bring regular coursework for evaluation in non-credit writing seminars conducted in small groups and over e-mail. A decision on the funding request is expected within two weeks.
(03/03/98 10:00am)
The building, which is still in the planning stages, will offer increased lab space. Leaky ceilings, cramped work space and impure air are hardly the most conducive conditions for cutting-edge biological research. But faculty members and students in the Biology Department will get a reprieve from such negative conditions within the next few years with the construction of a new, top-quality facility. Plans for a new biology research building are "moving ahead smartly," according to Samuel Preston, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. He added that final-cost figures for the building -- expected to be between $40 million and $45 million -- should be determined later this month, although funding sources have not yet been identified. Preston could not estimate when construction on the building would begin. The new facility will be located off of Hamilton Walk between 37th and 38th streets at the current site of either the Kaplan Wing of Leidy Laboratories or one of the nearby greenhouses, although Director of Facilities Planning Titus Hewryk maintained that facilities planners are still "studying various options." Hewryk said the University hired Ellenzweig Associates, a "well-known," Boston-based architectural firm, to oversee the planning of the project. Ellenzweig recently supervised the construction of the new high-rise research facility at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Biology Department Chairperson Andy Binns said the construction of a new building to replace current facilities is long overdue. "It started with bad design," he said of the current buildings. "It finished with the fact that renovating the space would be so expensive and not worth the dollar." Binns cited the poor conditions of the department's current facilities as the impetus for the proposed construction, identifying poor lighting, leaky floors and ceilings and faulty temperature control systems as some of the problems in the laboratories in Kaplan and the Goddard Laboratories building. Binns explained that other factors, including the need to completely replace air-purification systems to conform with new University regulations, make it too expensive to renovate the existing buildings. He added that the wood roofing in Kaplan would not be able to support any additional weight, which would also make renovations "more expensive than building new space." "I want good labs," Binns said. "Forty or 50 percent of the lab space available is not going to be feasible for the next 10 years." Biology Professor Nancy Bonini, who conducts genetic research in a renovated lab in Leidy, said a lack of quality laboratory space impacts heavily on research. "In our department, there are a number of people who have severe facilities problems," she said. "[Leaky ceilings] have destroyed computers and equipment and experiments in progress." Of the department's 30 full-time faculty members and 130 undergraduate majors who graduate each year, most conduct research in the University's facilities, Binns said. "I've got two people cloning things in there as we speak," Binns said, pointing from his office to an adjacent lab. Both Bonini and Binns said they believe the new research space will enhance the University's reputation in the sciences. "I think it will not only allow the department to be more productive, but it will allow us to attract new top-rate scientists," Bonini said. According to Hewryk, the research building is still in the "concept" stage, meaning the faculty and architects are still evaluating the needs of the department to conclude what facilities to include in the new structure. "My job is to come up with the best plan in terms of building and programs -- what's good in biology these days," Binns said. He added that he hopes to see four new floors of space devoted to research labs, with many current facilities being converted to classroom and office space. Jean-Marie Kneeley, the SAS vice dean for external affairs, said the long fund raising process will begin after architectural plans are finalized in the fall. "We have not yet begun to actively solicit funds," she said, though she said many potential donors have been identified. Kneeley cited a number of difficulties in funding a project of this size and purpose. "We have to identify people capable of making large donations," she said, referring to the building's multi-million-dollar price tag. "We're not going to make that kind of money with $25,000 donations." She also said that as opposed to general interest projects like the Perelman Quadrangle -- in which fund raising went "very quickly" -- a building for use by the Biology Department has a "smaller donor pool." As for the name of the facility, Kneeley said that "named gift opportunities" have not yet been determined. "We haven't determined how much it would cost to name the building," she said.
(03/03/98 10:00am)
Because his bid for tenure was rejected, the popular Political Science professor will teach elsewhere. Nearly a year after the University rejected his first bid for tenure, popular Political Science Professor Daniel Deudney confirmed yesterday that he will leave Penn after this semester. Deudney said he was offered associate professor positions -- a promotion from his current status as an assistant professor -- at the University of Toronto, the University of Southern California and Johns Hopkins University. Penn's Political Science Department-- which employs 21 professors -- is significantly smaller than the 42-person average at the top 10 departments across the country, and is currently in the process of trying to hire new faculty members. Deudney, a well-known authority in the field of international relations, will not be granted tenure this year, his seventh at Penn. University guidelines stipulate that a professor who is not tenured after seven years on the faculty must leave the school. Although Deudney's tenure bid was unanimously endorsed by the Political Science Department and he was recommended by the School of Arts and Sciences Personnel Committee, the Provost's Staff Conference -- the highest body to consider an application for tenure -- rejected the bid in a closed-door session last May. For Deudney to stay at the University, the department would have to file an appeal of last year's decision with the Conference. Political Science Department Chairperson Ian Lustick said the department will not file such an appeal. "We are about to lose one of the most spectacularly successful teachers at the University," Lustick said. "I'm in agony about this." Lustick said that although Deudney had the support of both the department and SAS throughout the entire process, his tenure file has not changed significantly since last year, a requirement for an appeal. "Dan knows that the leadership in this department has done everything it could to try to avoid this tragic situation," Lustick said. "At least I hope he feels that way." According to Deudney, the Provost's Staff Conference -- composed of the deans of all of the University's schools -- denied him tenure last year because he failed to publish a book during his time at Penn. Deudney co-authored one book, Renewable Energy, when he worked at the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental policy organization. Deudney said he is currently working on six manuscripts for books, but none are yet ready to go to a publisher. He expects them to be ready within one or two years, but added that Penn's "rigid" tenure system would not allow him extra time to satisfy the publishing expectations of the tenure committee. Interim Provost Michael Wachter was unable to comment on Deudney's situation specifically, citing a lack of familiarity with the case. He did say, however, that in the decision of whether to grant tenure to a professor, "often one book wouldn't do it." College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman, who is chairing a task force to recruit new Political Science professors, stressed that "in the College of Arts and Sciences, one cannot expect to get tenure unless you are an excellent scholar and teacher." "It does mean that occasionally some wonderful teachers don't get tenure," he added. Deudney won Penn's Lindback Award for excellence in teaching in 1996 and the American Political Science Association's Best Article in History and Politics award in 1995. Beeman admitted that he was "confounded" by Deudney's refusal to publish his manuscripts, joking that he wanted to "sneak into his house at night" to bring some of Deudney's unpublished writings to a publisher. "His reputation is almost bigger than what he's published," Beeman said. Lustick said he is confident that these books, when published, will be "path-breaking" works. Still, Lustick admitted that "it is very difficult to give tenure to someone based on his potential, no matter how clear it is." Deudney said he expects to decide later this week which job offer he will take. He indicated that all three offer a "substantial raise" and a "fast-track tenure" option that could give him complete job security within one to two years. Jonathan Aronson, the director of USC's School of International Relations, and William Connolly, the chairperson of the political science department at Johns Hopkins, refused to comment. Robert Vipond, the chairperson of Toronto's Political Science Department, did not return repeated calls for comment. And although he could not comment officially, Sheldon Kamieniecki, the chairperson of the Political Science Department at USC, was hopeful that Deudney would accept the Los Angeles school's offer. Deudney said the schools he was considering might be better matches for him than Penn. "There is a much stronger fit between the departments [at the other schools] and my interests," he said, adding that he would continue to study international relations theory and environmental politics -- the subjects of the two large lecture courses he teaches at Penn. Students who have taken Deudney's courses were upset to hear of his departure. "I'm sure I'm not alone on this, that the University made a mistake in not holding onto him," College junior Amy Raphael said. "He's going to go to another school and publish like crazy, and the University's going to regret it." Student Committee on Undergraduate Education Chairperson and College junior Rachael Goldfarb added that she was upset that students do not have more of an official role in tenure decisions. Deudney, considered one of the department's most popular professors, received a 3.9 rating out of 4.0 from his students in the 1997 edition of the Penn Course Review's Undergraduate Course Guide. Before coming to Penn, Deudney spent three years as a legislative director for former U.S. Sen. John Durkin (D-N.H.) and consulted for the State and Defense departments. He received his doctorate from Princeton University in 1989 and joined Penn in 1991 to replace another noted international relations scholar.
(02/25/98 10:00am)
The Student Activities Council will invest $200,000 of reserve funds to boost future spending. Instead of relying completely on the University for its funding, the Student Activities Council is beginning to take matters into its own hands. At its meeting last night, SAC voted to take the approximately $200,000 it has sitting in a "reserve fund" and invest it through the University. SAC officials estimated they would get a 7 percent to 10 percent annual rate of return on their investment. SAC members also elected five members to the body's executive board in its semi-annual elections. The origins of the reserve fund are "unclear," according to outgoing SAC Executive Board Chairperson Steve Schorr, a Wharton senior. It contains funds allocated to SAC groups that were not spent during the academic year. Investing the fund will let SAC earn a return on the money, Schorr said. "We'll have an extra $15,000-20,000 a year on top of what the [Undergraduate Assembly] gives us, essentially for forever," said Schorr, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist. He indicated that the money will be invested with the more than $2 billion in liquid assets in the University's endowment. While the interest every year will be spent on student activities, he said that "the principal will not be touched" to ensure a consistent supply of funding. Schorr maintained that the investment would be completely safe. Last Friday, however, the University announced a loss of $40 million on its investments during the first five months of the 1998 fiscal year, which extends from July 1, 1997, to June 30, 1998. The University recouped its losses during the month of December. Despite the fluctuations, Schorr expressed confidence in the University's investment success. "I believe it would be risk-free because the University doesn't want us to lose it," he said. However, not all SAC members were sure that the plan is fiscally sound. "When you find me a risk-free investment that pays 10 percent a year, call me," said first-year Wharton graduate student Alex Evis, the SAC representative from Arts House. Nevertheless, SAC passed the plan with only two dissenting votes. William Turner, the director of financial services in the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life, said the VPUL and SAC were still weighing the "advantages and disadvantages" of their options. He added that the terms of the SAC plan -- which would make the reserve fund into a "quasi-endowment" -- should be finalized next week. Turner also said that the investment should be safe given the "diverse pool of investments" in the endowment. Schorr also noted that there were still some unresolved issues dealing with how quickly SAC could draw on the reserve fund if it needed to during the year. Also at last night's meeting, SAC elected five members to its nine-member executive board. SAC bylaws call for four members to be elected to year-long terms in October and February. One additional seat was open for a half-year term due to the resignation of College junior Vanessa Moses. College junior Olivia Troye of Arts House and College sophomore Chaz Howard, a member of the a cappella group The Inspiration, were re-elected to the board. They will be joined by three College juniors -- Katie Cooper of the Penn Environmental Group, Cathy Hwang of TEACH West Philadelphia and the International Relations Undergraduate Student Association's Amy Raphael, who will serve the rest of Moses' term. All three are juniors in the College. The new board will elect its chairperson Monday.
(02/20/98 10:00am)
Spring Fling organizers asked the group to come to Penn, but the band is likely to go to Princeton and Skidmore instead. Princeton University did not just beat Penn on the basketball court this week -- it also won out over Penn in a bid to secure the Mighty Mighty Bosstones for a spring concert. The Social Planning and Events Committee had tried to secure the Bosstones -- a high-profile ska-core band whose hits include "The Impression That I Get" -- as the headliners for this year's Spring Fling, according to SPEC Concerts Committee Co-Director Allison Rosen, a Wharton senior. But the Bosstones have agreed to play at Princeton April 17, Rosen said. Additionally, the band has given a "verbal commitment" to play at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., the very next day, according to the school's student activities coordinator, Barbara Schallehn. Rosen confirmed that "we were interested in having [the Bosstones] for Fling." "They just didn't pick our school," she added. On Tuesday, Drew Pompilio, a "talent buyer" at Electric Factory Concerts working with SPEC, said he was negotiating with the Bosstones for them to play the April 17 Fling concert on Hill Field, although he had stressed the deal was not finalized. He had added that a final deal with the bands that are coming could be reached as early as next week. Pompilio refused to comment yesterday to The Daily Pennsylvanian. Rosen stressed that the process of bringing a major act to like the Bosstones to Penn is difficult and competitive. "We were in the fray with a lot of other schools and a lot of different venues," she said, noting that the band's agents typically make the final decision over which bids are accepted. She said it is rare for the student planners, such as those on SPEC, to work directly with the band's management in trying to book a concert date. Although she did try to keep in contact with the Bosstones' agent, Rosen said a professional middle agent -- in this case Pompilio -- handled most of the negotiations with the group. Although she would not divulge the terms of SPEC's offer to the Bosstones, Rosen indicated that the band's agent never told her why Penn lost out to Princeton and Skidmore. "They don't give you explanations," she said. "Obviously it wasn't our fault." Rosen added that Penn was not given the opportunity to match or exceed the offers the Bosstones' management accepted from the other schools. "It's up to the agents to route the tour," she said, noting that the process often seemed "arbitrary." Rosen stressed that members of SPEC "put more effort into it than most schools do" in trying to secure a band for Fling. SPEC's Concerts and Spring Fling committees have been working to find bands for this year's show since the summer, she said. Rosen added that Penn is at a disadvantage when competing with other schools because it is located in Philadelphia, the nation's fourth-largest concert market and a home to several well-known concert venues, including the Electric Factory and the large CoreStates Center. "[Bands] won't want to play the same market twice," she said, noting that "remote, rural" locations -- like Princeton and Skidmore -- often have an easier time getting top acts. She explained that because of the large size of the Philadelphia concert market, a big act might have already been booked to play another venue in the city at or around the same time as Fling. In such a case, the band might not want to play another concert in Philadelphia, or may be prohibited from doing so by their contracts with the other venues. On Tuesday, Pompilio noted that such "exclusivity" clauses are standard in most contracts drawn up by promoters, including those planning Fling. "From the universities to the casinos, everyone puts these into their contracts to protect their acts," he said. "U. Penn puts in an offer, you want to protect your butt from Drexel coming in." Pompilio also emphasized that Spring Fling might not be able to attract as high quality a band as other colleges because, unlike the concerts given by Rusted Root and the Wallflowers at Drexel University last semester, Fling is a highly publicized event open to more than just college students. "They'd be more likely to sign with a closed show, private to the campus," he said. "The band won't jeopardize year-round play in Philadelphia for a one-time show at a college." And he explained that booking spring concerts is complicated by most bands' desire to begin finalizing their summer touring plans. Despite the Bosstones' tour schedule, Rosen still promises an "upbeat" show and is confident that a formal announcement will be made soon, perhaps as early as next week.
(02/19/98 10:00am)
Sources said a deal with some band could come as early as next week. If you "have never had to knock on wood," now might be the time. A professional concert organizer working with Penn's Social Planning and Events Committee said the group is currently talking to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones about the possibility of headlining the Friday, April 17 Spring Fling concert on Hill Field. The Bosstones -- who combine ska and punk beats on such hits as "The Impression That I Get," quoted above, and "The Rascal King" -- would follow Cypress Hill, the Violent Femmes and A Tribe Called Quest as recent headliners for the annual concert, which usually brings together more than 10,000 area students and residents. Drew Pompilio, a "talent buyer" for Electric Factory Concerts of Philadelphia who is working with SPEC to fill this year's concert schedule, said "we are beating up the Bosstones" to get them to play this year's Fling. "They are being entertained," he said, adding that no arrangements have been finalized. Reached by phone, several members of SPEC's Concerts and Spring Fling committees refused to comment on whether or not the Bosstones were being pursued for the concert. But they did indicate that SPEC may strike final deals with bands as early as next week. One committee member, however, denied that they were in talks with the Bosstones. This would not be the first time that the Bosstones have been invited to play at Penn. According to several student leaders, the group was committed to play on campus last September, but did not come because not enough money could be raised to fund their appearance. As in the fall, money is still a primary issue surrounding the quest to secure a top band for Fling. Pompilio explained that the complicated process of securing a major national act revolves around how much money is available. "It goes by who makes the biggest offer," he said. "[The bands] go after the money." He added that the cost for a band to play on a college campus ranges from $1,000 to $50,000, with most major acts hovering in the $15,000-$25,000 range. He named the Bosstones, pop acts Matchbox 20, Smashmouth and Third Eye Blind, hip-hop artist Busta Rhymes and singer Erykah Badu as some of the current top college acts. "There are no charity cases," he said. "You'll never get Eddie Vedder to play with Pearl Jam because you want to save the rain forest." Pompilio also attributed Penn's inability to secure major national acts over the last several years to its lack of a suitable facility and logistical difficulties. "You didn't have the date. You didn't have the venue. You didn't have the money," he said. He added that Penn is restricted in its options because of a limited student activities budget. Meanwhile, Drexel University -- for whom Pompilio also books acts -- featured Rusted Root and the Wallflowers at separate shows last semester. Pompilio could not cite a specific cost, but did say that the Wallflowers show was "very expensive" for Drexel due to the band's increase in popularity in 1997. "[Some schools] have more money than God," he said. "They will outbid you." Stressing that the problems with securing a strong band are due to funding and venue issues, Pompilio credited the work being done by this year's Concert Committee. "I'm telling you now as a professional with 12 years of experience, they're doing it right," he said. "They're not pissing the money away." But Wharton senior Allison Rosen, co-director of the Concerts Committee, said talent, not money, is the prime consideration for the committee. "We don't look at price tag as the determinant," she said. "If we could get Phish for $200,000, we'd do it." And the Bosstones were far from the only band under consideration by SPEC. Pompilio said he discussed 10 to 20 bands with the committee -- including the Allman Brothers Band, which SPEC was unable to sign for the concert. Rosen said the committee makes an effort to survey student preferences before extending offers. Barenaked Ladies and Dave Matthews Band were favorites she mentioned. Last fall's attempt to bring the Bosstones to campus -- organized by a coalition of the Undergraduate Assembly, class boards, InterFraternity Council and the Panhellenic Council -- would also have been staged on Hill Field during the "There's No Place Like Penn" weekend last semester. Students who worked on the concert said the band was set to perform before the funding fell through. "We definitely could have had them," said UA Vice Chairperson Samara Barend, a College junior. "We ended up not being able to do it because we were short about $10,000." Barend, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, added that the University administration had originally promised to contribute several thousand dollars, but pulled out shortly before the concert. Wharton junior and UA member Clive Correia, who said he worked from December 1996 until March 1997 to bring the band to Penn, had hoped to bring a national act to campus for "kind of like a Fall Fling." According to Correia, the office of University President Judith Rodin had agreed to help fund the concert on top of the money already given by the UA, IFC, Panhel and junior class board, but pulled its financial support at the last minute. "It was ready to go," Correia said. "[Then] they said, 'Oh, I'm sorry, we don't have any money for this'." A source in the administration familiar with the plans to bring the Bosstones to campus, however, indicated that the administration had never committed any funding to the project. Correia said that when negotiations with the Bosstones' agent began in 1996, Penn could have had the band for between $20,000 and $25,000. He added that with the group's rise in popularity in 1997 due to its album Let's Face It, the band's current asking price would be "probably $50,000 or $60,000, if not more."
(02/17/98 10:00am)
Recent donations will go to facilities, research and the school's financial aid endowment. Beset by budgetary problems and a small endowment, the School of Arts and Sciences has tried to boost its funds for financial aid, new buildings and programs through increased fund-raising. And as SAS Dean Samuel Preston announced yesterday, recent efforts have met with some success. A number of new donations will be used to improve facilities, increase the school's endowment and provide undergraduates with increased research opportunities on campus. The largest single donation was an anonymous contribution of $3 million for "historical studies." Vice President for Development Virginia Clark said that due to the donor's wishes, she could not be more specific as to where the money will be directed. Jean-Marie Kneeley, the SAS vice-dean for external affairs, added that she hopes to be able to identify the benefactor later in the semester. SAS was projected to end fiscal year 1997 with a $1 million budget deficit. The second-largest donation to fall into SAS's coffers recently was a $1.5 million gift from Irwin and Lena Pincus, both of whom graduated from the College in the 1930s. Though final numbers have not been set, Kneeley expects about $1.2 million of the donation to go toward undergraduate financial aid, with the remainder allocated to undergraduate research for Biology and Biological Basis of Behavior majors. The portion of the gift earmarked for undergraduate financial aid comes in the wake of a larger University-wide initiative to increase the raise money toward increasing the school's financial aid endowment, according to Clark. Spearheaded by a $6 million gift from University Board of Trustees Chairperson Roy Vagelos and his wife Diana -- part of a larger $10 million contribution to the University -- the endowment drive has raised more than $35 million in new money over the last 2 1/2 years, she said. University Trustee Paul Kelly -- who previously gave $1.1 million to renovate the Kelly Writers House at 3805 Locust Walk -- has contributed another $1 million in matching funds for the financial aid initiative. Rather than giving the $1 million outright, Kelly will match every $2 raised toward the endowment with $1 of his own money, up to the $1 million total. Since the University has already raised $1.1 million, Kelly has given $550,000, but Clark said the University has also received commitments for an additional $900,000, which will entitle Penn to the remaining $450,000 Kelly pledged. Of the $900,000, the largest single donation will come from Bernard and Jay Axelrod -- father-and-son University graduates -- who lead the pack of "12 or 13 donors" with a $250,000 donation. A large six-figure donation was also made by Vice Provost for Research Ralph Amado to support the construction of a new concert hall within Irvine Auditorium, which is currently being renovated. The exact amount of the gift was not publicized, according to the donor's wishes.
(02/13/98 10:00am)
Wednesday's University Council meeting was notable not only for the introduction of an Undergraduate Assembly initiative for greater police-student interaction, but for the lack of people present to hear about it. Although Council is composed of more than 90 students, faculty members, staff and administrators, Council members estimated that no more than 30 showed up to the meeting in McClelland Hall in the Quadrangle. Official numbers were unavailable because Council Secretary Constance Goodman did not return several calls for comment. After several key votes were postponed due to a lack of quorum -- the minimum number of members necessary to conduct official business --Council voted last semester to lower the quorum requirement from 50 percent of its members to 40 percent. Only 37 members are now necessary, as opposed to the old number of 46. "It's a joke," said College junior and Council member Jeremy Katz. "They lowered the quorum because no one was showing up." In past years, the UA -- of which Katz is a member -- has had difficulty meeting quorum, a problem which frequently occurs at Council meetings. Only five of the UA's 15 representatives came to this week's Council meeting. "The problem with University Council is that it's not only UA members who don't show up," he said. "Instead of forcing people to go, they gave into the apathy." But City and Regional Planning Professor John Keene, the chairperson-elect of the Faculty Senate, said there is no way to make attendance compulsory. He added that "moral suasion" and pressure from constituents were enough to keep most members coming to the monthly meetings. Education Professor Peter Kuriloff, the past chairperson of the Faculty Senate, attributed the low attendance at the week's meeting to a lack of contentious issues. "[The attendance] really depends on what's on the agenda," he said. Kuriloff cited last semester's crowded special Council session on the Trammell Crow Co. outsourcing plan as a meeting "worthy of an Ivy League institution." However, Graduate and Professional Student Assembly member Matthew Ruben, an English graduate student, maintained that it was precisely the low attendance that prevented important issues from reaching Council's agenda in the first place. For an item to be added to Council's agenda on the day of a meeting, it must receive the support of a majority of a quorum of Council's membership. On Wednesday, Ruben planned to introduce a late resolution "urging the University to act in an open and democratic matter with the vending ordinance," but the meeting lacked the necessary quorum to decide. "It's a shame," Ruben said. "Council has to be responsive to these issues." Many student leaders on Council admitted that logistical difficulties, such as classes and tests, often prevent them from bringing their voices to the table. Reacting to this week's poor turnout, College senior Meredith Hertz, the UA's liaison to Council, cited time conflicts between midterm examinations and Council meetings. But Engineering graduate student Sanjay Udani, chairperson of GAPSA -- which holds 15 seats on Council -- sees a more underlying reason for the lack of attendance. "In general, there are more seats than people who want them," he said. "[However], the people who attend are good enough to bring out the relevant issues." Udani added that "six or seven" of GAPSA's representatives to Council are being replaced due to poor attendance. Faculty members and students alike proposed changes that would increase both Council's attendance and its effectiveness. "The real issue is how to structure those meetings to make them more interesting," Kuriloff said. "When issues of import come up in the community, you need the Council to get involved." "They have to have issues that would draw the interest of faculty members," UA Vice-Chairperson and College junior Samara Barend said. Barend, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, also found fault with the advisory role of the Council. "There is no direct correlation between what happens at University Council and what happens in the administration," she said. Barend added that the "decision-making structures" of Council should be changed so that authority is not "concentrated in the hands of a few top executives." She cited Trammell Crow and the college house system as examples of initiatives over which the Council should have had decision-making power. Udani said students should have greater input in the final policy decisions. "Effectively, there is no student voice," he said. "There are student ears, but no voice." Electrical Engineering Professor Jorge Santiago-Aviles blamed poor faculty attendance on the low incentive for Council membership. "We are evaluated on research and teaching," he said. "Committee membership adds very little to our brownie points."
(02/10/98 10:00am)
After weeks of crunching numbers and hearing appeals, the Student Activities Council yesterday finally removed $17,381 from student group accounts this week in accordance with its recently enforced debt policy. Sixty-three student groups lost an average of $275 each under the policy, with individual levies ranging from $2 for the Artists Guild to $1,621 for Alternate Spring Break. SAC bylaws prescribe that each group in debt will lose a percentage of their annual grant or the amount of their debt -- whichever is less -- in order to begin payments. Although the Student Activities Manual calls for a 50 percent loss in funding, the penalty this year was set at only 30 percent. "We didn't want to do anything too drastic the first year," said SAC Executive Board Chairperson and Wharton senior Steve Schorr. He added that over the next three years, penalties will increase incrementally to 50 percent of group debt, 100 percent of group debt and a complete loss of funding for groups with chronic debt problems. According to the SAC guidelines, the money taken from the accounts will be used to pay off the groups' outstanding debts, which range from less than $10 to more than $10,000. Two weeks ago, preliminary numbers indicated that as much as $19,787 might have been assessed. "It's never easy when a debt policy first gets enforced," said Schorr, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist. "For the first time, there will be disincentive for groups going into further debt." But Undergraduate Assembly Treasurer Bill Conway, a member of the SAC Executive Board, said he was not so sure the rules would be enforced as written. "We had to go around [the policy] this year," the College sophomore said. "I don't think we'd be precluded from doing it again." SAC revised some of the figures it initially released at its January 29 meeting. Mask and Wig will lose only $1,282, instead of the $1,598 SAC initially estimated. The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alliance will lose $320 less than the previously stated $1,532. And the Glee Club will see a reduction of $750, not $898. The only other groups losing more than $500 from their accounts are Alternate Spring Break, WQHS Radio, Punch Bowl and the Reach-A-Peer Helpline. While Schorr admitted that "some groups may be inconvenienced," Conway said the punishments were justified. "Part of the impairment will come as a result of what they gained as a result of their misspending," he said. "If you take advantage of the system, you're going to pay for your crimes." The money taken from the student group accounts was deposited into the SAC Reserve Fund, the account from which SAC lends money to its member groups. The fund currently has "at least a couple hundred thousand dollars" in it, according to Schorr. Schorr indicated that SAC officials hoped to invest the money in the reserve fund to provide the group with a continual funding stream. A decision may be made this month.
(02/06/98 10:00am)
Two plans may be offered next year to students who buy insurance from Penn. Last year, students buying health insurance through the University had to purchase coverage from Mega Life and Health Insurance Co. This year, they were covered by Aetna U.S. Healthcare. Next year, they may have a choice between the two. Spurred by recommendations from the newly created Provost's Student Health Insurance Advisory Board, University Health System administrators are currently negotiating with Mega Life -- the fee-for-service insurance provider dropped last summer by the University -- to offer students an alternative to Aetna U.S. Healthcare, the country's largest operator of managed-care plans. The University replaced Mega Life -- now renamed the Educational Finance Group -- in order to provide students with less expensive Aetna U.S. Healthcare coverage. But students on the board wanted the option to buy Mega Life's form of coverage, a choice Student Health officials said they will offer next year. "We pretty much made a decision to do that," said Marjeanne Collins, director of Student Health Services. "This is what the students want." About 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students purchase insurance through the University. In years past, Penn has offered only one type of insurance -- either Mega Life or Aetna U.S. Healthcare -- but the differences between the two plans are significant. Aetna U.S. Healthcare pays the University Health System a lump sum of $144 per student out of the insured students' premiums. Student Health Services received $170,000 in payments last year, while nearly $650,000 was paid to other campus health care providers, including the office of Counseling and Psychological Services. These lump-sum payments -- known as capitation fees -- replaced the indemnity system used by Mega Life, whereby payments were made to Student Health for each service rendered. All students already pay money to Student Health through the General Fee to allow them access to basic services. About 8.35 percent of the $28 million General Fee -- or $2.34 million -- goes to Student Health. Members of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly were displeased with Aetna U.S. Healthcare's method of reimbursing Student Health, claiming that payment of the capitation fee and the General Fee constituted "double billing." GAPSA Chairperson and Engineering graduate student Sanjay Udani explained that there was a misunderstanding regarding how Student Health was compensated. In response to the capitation fee charged by Aetna U.S. Healthcare, GAPSA opened negotiations last semester to become a policyholder with Mega Life -- then without any relationship with the University -- to provide coverage to however many of the more than 10,000 graduate students wished to buy into the plan. But Janice Madden, the vice provost for graduate education and chairperson of the Student Health Insurance Advisory Board, thinks that GAPSA was getting in over its head. "It would have been a tremendous effort for people who are full-time students to also run an insurance program," she said. "This is a major administrative burden." Student Health spends $200,000 a year to manage its financial dealings with its health insurance provider, she added. But Udani stressed that he finds it "kind of amusing that they think we can't handle it," adding that "I guess we won't find out." And even with the new choice of plans, many graduate student leaders say they remain suspicious. "I find it kind of interesting that only after GAPSA is talking to Mega Life does the University talk to them," Udani said, adding that he would not be surprised if "hidden fees" showed up in the University-negotiated plan. But Collins defended the University's actions. "There is no plot involved, there's no hidden agenda," she said. "This is about health care." Collins said she expects that both plans will allow students to go outside the University Health System if they pay 20 percent of all costs over a $250 deductible. She added that the Mega Life plan would likely be more expensive, but would provide a wider range of psychiatric benefits. The final bids from Mega Life and Aetna U.S. Healthcare are due later this month. After the bids are received, a decision on the insurance will be made next month, and letters explaining the options will be sent to current and prospective students.
(02/03/98 10:00am)
The Undergraduate Assembly's leadership is divided over how to deal with absentee members. While attendance at this week's Undergraduate Assembly was higher than in the past two weeks, UA leaders are still considering asking some members to resign for missing too many meetings. The first two meetings of the semester -- on January 18 and January 26 -- suffered from year-low attendance levels, with only 20 of the UA's 33 members attending each meeting. But 26 members attended the last meeting, which took place Sunday night. After low attendance figures all of last year -- the UA often had trouble even getting the 17 members necessary to call the meeting to order -- strict new bylaws were passed last April to punish frequent absentees. As a result, attendance improved significantly last semester, with no more than eight members missing any one meeting. But after 13 members missed each of the first two meetings this semester, the UA leadership began expressing its concern. According to the UA bylaws, if a member misses three meetings in a semester without first notifying the Executive Board, the body could vote for the member's resignation. So far, only two UA members -- Wharton junior Neilesh Sikder and College senior Mike Steib -- have missed all three meetings this semester. "I'm going to find a way to kick people off the UA," College junior and UA Chairperson Noah Bilenker said after the second meeting of the semester. He later described the low attendance as "kind of unnerving." Bilenker indicated that Sikder and Steib were excused from the first meeting because of travel difficulties, to the surprise of UA Secretary and College junior Olivia Troye. Members who need to miss a meeting are supposed to report to Troye. Troye herself, however, missed the first meeting of the semester. Steib, chairperson of the UA's Greek Issues Committee, explained his absences as a matter of giving priority to fraternity activities and the post-graduation job search. "It's an important time for anyone in a fraternity," the Delta Kappa Epsilon brother said. He went on to say that it's "a thick time for seniors looking for jobs" and that "I'm not going to give up a job for next year for a meeting." The members of the UA Executive Board were ambivalent about whether to take action against frequent absentees. "There is a likelihood that they could be asked to resign," said UA Vice Chairperson and College junior Samara Barend, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist. "I would definitely push for [disciplinary action]," she said. "The whole body voted for it unanimously? that we have this attendance policy." But UA Treasurer Bill Conway was not so sure, noting that "the bylaws are a little hazy about what the exact procedure is." "To some extent you have to see if it's worth the public embarrassment? and the time it takes to do it," the College sophomore added. Bilenker blamed the low attendance at the first meeting of the semester on rush events that prevented some members of the primarily-Greek body from attending. The second meeting was plagued by confusion as to when the week's meeting would be rescheduled to in order to avoid conflict with Super Bowl XXXII. An e-mail sent on the UA listserv announced the meeting was to be held Monday at 8 p.m. -- not at the correct 10 p.m. meeting time. The error was corrected by a later message and members said it was probably not to blame for the absences. With rush over and the weekly meeting back at its normal time, 26 members attended the last UA meeting. This was the highest total of the semester, but still down from last semester, which boasted several meetings where more than 30 of the body's members showed up.
(01/30/98 10:00am)
Alternate Spring Break will lose $1,621.94. Mask and Wig will see $1,597.80 vanish from its accounts. And the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Alliance will have $1,532.40 less in its budget than it did a week ago. Those three student groups top the list of more than 60 organizations funded by the Student Activities Council that lost part of their 1997-98 budgets in accordance with SAC's newly enforced debt policy. According to SAC Executive Board member Bill Conway, a College junior, SAC announced its policy a few years ago when it wiped out all student group debt. This is the first year the group is enforcing the policy. "They don't realize they're actually going to lose the money now," said SAC Chairperson Steve Schorr, a Wharton senior. "Something's got to be done to get rid of [the debt]." According to the Student Activities Manual, a student group in debt is supposed to lose 50 percent of its SAC grant or 50 percent of the value of its debt -- whichever is less -- with the levy going to debt reduction. But SAC chose to lessen the severity of its policy by only assessing 30 percent of the grant or debt in the first year the policy will be enforced. While Schorr, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, said organizations with outstanding debts were treated "a little more moderately" this year, he noted the penalty will increase to 50 percent next year. Even with the lenient policy, several groups will lose a significant amount of funding this year. Five SAC groups -- Alternative Spring Break, Mask and Wig, the LGBA, the Choral Society and Choir and the WQHS-AM student-run radio station -- are each slated to lose more than $1,000 in funding. Seven more groups -- including the Glee Club, American Marketing Association and Poor Richard's Record -- are losing more than $500 each from their budget. However, student groups did not react as negatively to the enforced policy as SAC had expected. College senior Heath Mackley, station manager for WQHS, was ambivalent about the penalty. "I think it will affect the operation of my station," he said. "If you take away our funding it hampers us in our ability to earn our money back." Mackley did concede, however, that with the money going towards the station's debt, he was "not really pissed off about it." Gordon Gochenauer, treasurer for Alternative Spring Break -- the group facing the largest single levy -- sees the greater good in the plan. "I think this policy is pretty lenient," the College senior said. "The SAC Exec Board is doing it for the good of SAC." Gochenauer added that with more participants this year, enough money may be raised to completely pay off his organization's debt. However, for many organizations -- particularly some performing arts groups -- the situation is more complicated. Groups such as Chord on Blues and Counterparts have high debts but receive no grants from SAC that can be assessed. Instead, they receive loans that, according to Schorr, "don't always get paid back." "The a cappella groups will have to be dealt with in a separate way," Schorr said. "[We have to] make sure revenue goes to paying down debt." Some student groups used the occasion of the enforcement of SAC's debt policy to make their own cases for additional funding. "It's a farce that clubs are getting turned down when there are clubs that are in debt thousands of dollars," said College senior Stuart Smalheiser, a member of the Sports Club Council. "Clubs in good standing are getting hurt by clubs that abuse the system." SAC ultimately voted to allocate the $548 requested by Smalheiser and the Sports Club Council against the recommendation of the Executive Board.
(01/28/98 10:00am)
The group supported an independent report that said Penn needs to expand Gimbel Gymnasium and build a field house. Although a consulting firm's audit of Penn's recreational facilities has not yet been released, the Undergraduate Assembly has already begun to call for the implementation of the changes the report recommends -- including what one student leader described as plans to double the size of the Gimbel Gymnasium. In 1996, the University hired the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm of Brailsford & Dunlavey to study how Penn's inadequate student athletic facilities could be improved. The contract was for about $100,000. Monday night, the UA demanded that Penn officials heed the recommendations in Brailsford's report, which still sits in the hands of the administration. The report, which has not yet been made public, was leaked to several student leaders last week, allowing the UA access to its contents. According to a student leader who saw the report, the report calls for doubling the size of Gimbel Gymnasium and the construction of a $32 million center for intramural and club sports behind Hutchinson Gymnasium. Yesterday, administrators gave cautious support to the idea of expanding Gimbel. The UA resolution echoes the report, calling for a $40 million expansion of Gimbel over a 1 1/2-year period. The renovated facility would be five floors and have 130,000 square feet of recreation space, up from the current 60,000. Recreation Director Mike Diorka expressed reservations about the UA's proposal to expand Gimbel, saying that the figures cited were not those contained in the Brailsford report. "I think they're very random," he said. "I don't know where they come from." Diorka would not comment on the details of the Brailsford report but did indicate that changes might be in store for Gimbel. "The recommendations of the report say that the indoor recreation facilities are inadequate for a university our size," he said. "The report says there are available options with existing facilities." Another UA resolution -- also passed by a consensus voice vote -- calls for improved playing surfaces and the addition of lights to Hill and Murphy fields to allow for nighttime play. Diorka said outdoor sports facilities were also addressed in the consulting report, though there was "not as much need as the indoor problems." Both resolutions are worded fairly strongly, stating that the UA "demand[s] a $40 million expansion of Gimbel Gym." UA Chairperson Noah Bilenker explained that the body had intentionally chosen strong language. "If we advise or recommend or [say] mother-may-I, they're not going to do it," the College junior said. Bilenker stressed that the proposed recreation improvements are one of the most important issues for the UA. "What we're saying here is, 'This is our priority,' " he said. "If you're going to fund-raise, this is what we want to fund-raise for." UA Vice Chairperson Samara Barend, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, said she is optimistic that this issue might succeed in unifying the student body behind a single cause. "This is an issue we can really take on together," she said. "We can really make a difference with this." The Student Activities Council, Nominations and Elections Committee, InterFraternity Council, Panhellenic Council and the Club Sports Council have already endorsed the UA's demands, Bilenker said. Through e-mail surveys and focus groups, Brailsford asked about 2,000 students what changes they would like to see in campus facilities. Many students replied that they wanted a more centrally located gym, a better weight room and an indoor track. Bilenker is upset that the report has not been officially released to the University community or the UA. He maintained that he had no qualms about proposing a resolution based on a report that has not been released to the public. "If they're not going to show it to me, then it's not confidential to me," he said. "I have no allegiance to its confidentiality." Executive Vice President John Fry said he was cautiously in support of expanding Gimbel and improving the University's recreational facilities. "As a general principle, this is something we are in support of," he said. But he added that "the devil is in the details" and that he could not commit himself to the size and cost estimates proposed by the UA. Yet Diorka -- who presided over the construction of the $11 million Reily Student Recreation Center during his eight years at New Orleans' Tulane University -- noted that the Brailsford report consists of advice and not concrete demands. "This report and recommendations to the University are not set in stone and [are] not yet embraced by the University," he said. "[We] can't do too much to meet people's needs because of different expectations." However, the UA and the administration are in agreement on one point -- that the new facilities, when built, would have a positive effect on student life. The UA resolution noted that "fitness and recreation are healthy alternatives to binge drinking and pre-partying." Diorka added that "facilities like this can alleviate bad behavior on this campus."
(01/20/98 10:00am)
Thirteen of the Undergraduate Assembly's 33 members failed to attend its Sunday night meeting. Beleaguered by chronic low attendance at its meetings, the Undergraduate Assembly passed a resolution last April to punish frequently absent members. As a result, last semester's meetings typically had fewer than eight absentees. But the semester started off on the wrong foot Sunday night, as 13 of the UA's 33 members failed to show up for the body's first meeting. UA Chairperson and College junior Noah Bilenker called the meeting to order with only a simple majority -- 17 members -- present. Three more joined the meeting midway through the proceedings. The 20 members in attendance represented the lowest figure since last April, when the UA passed a bylaw that allowed the body to force any member to resign if that member missed three of the weekly meetings in any one term without notifying the Executive Board. Bilenker cited spring rush for fraternities and sororities as the cause of the "notoriously low" attendance. Eighteen of the body's 25 upperclass members are Greek, and nine of them missed the meeting Sunday for rush events. Bilenker added that low attendance at the first meeting of the spring semester is not uncommon because of rush, noting that both he and UA Treasurer and College sophomore Bill Conway missed the body's first meeting of 1997 for that reason. Also, Bilenker said the UA might change the date and time of next week's meeting -- currently scheduled opposite the Super Bowl -- to prevent this week's attendance problems from reoccurring. Bilenker stressed to those in attendance that the UA would have to conduct itself with a sense of urgency this semester because of the number of projects it needs to accomplish before holding elections in late March. "I'd like to reiterate this is a short semester," he said. "There's a lot for us to get accomplished." "We want the next UA to be able to hit the ground running," he added. He explained that the UA's West Philadelphia Committee plans to hold a fair on Locust Walk later this semester to showcase many of the restaurants and other activities available to students outside the confines of the Penn campus. Bilenker also announced the long-awaited re-location of the UA's offices. The body will be forced to close its office in Houston Hall when the facility closes for renovations as part of the Perelman Quadrangle project May 28. The UA will relocate to second-floor offices in the former University Police annex on the 3900 block of Irving Street, next to High Rise South. The building will also house the other branches of undergraduate student government -- the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, the Nominations and Elections Committee, the Student Activities Council and the Social Planning and Events Committee. Bilenker chose to look at the bright side of an otherwise difficult situation, stressing the possible benefits from the consolidation of the various branches of student government. "It will be an opportunity for a lot of collaboration with other branches of student government" that might not have otherwise occurred, he said. The respective branches of student government had another reason to be enthusiastic at the meeting, as Conway announced a higher budget for the next school year. The UA will receive $1,015,000 from the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life in 1998-99, a 5 percent increase from the $967,000 it received this year. The funding is distributed among the UA, the NEC, SPEC, SCUE, SAC and their beneficiary student groups.
(01/19/98 10:00am)
College junior Rachael Goldfarb replaces former chair Ari Silverman. With the opening of the SCUE Lounge in the Faculty Club and increasing interest in the organization's preceptorials, 1997 was a banner year for the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education and its chairperson, College senior Ari Silverman. But all good things must come to an end, and so too did Silverman's tenure as the head of SCUE last night with the election of a new chairperson. SCUE's approximately 40 members elected College junior Rachael Goldfarb to succeed Silverman as head of SCUE's Steering Committee. She officially assumed the post immediately after last night's elections. "I think Rachael's great," Silverman said of his successor, adding that he expects her to "produce new ideas" and "continue implementing new programs" in her role as head of the body. Goldfarb -- SCUE's first female chairperson since 1992 -- served last year as one of the two members-at-large on SCUE's Steering Committee, the organization's main administrative body. Goldfarb is also the chairperson of the 21st Century Project Undergraduate Advisory Board and one of the two undergraduate students serving on the search committee charged with finding a successor to former Provost Stanley Chodorow. For next year, the 20-year-old American History major from Bryn Mawr, Pa., said she hopes to build on the body's past successes while implementing new programs. Goldfarb said that she would like to increase the number of preceptorials -- mini-courses taught by some of the University's top professors for no credit -- that SCUE offers to undergraduates. While only 256 students attempted to register for last fall's preceptorials, an unanticipated 1,475 registration requests were received in the first few days for the slate of courses offered this spring. "They have been seen as a success by SCUE and the undergraduate population at Penn," Goldfarb said. The organization will also continue to sponsor the SCUE Lounge in the Faculty Club this year, although SCUE may have to find a new location for the lounge next year when the club relocates to the Inn at Penn, which is being built as part of the Sansom Common project. Goldfarb stated that "droves of students" have come to dine with their professors in the Lounge in its first semester of operation. The one new initiative that Goldfarb outlined for her term would be to see advisors appointed in all four undergraduate schools for SCUE's "Speaking About the University" program. First announced in SCUE's 1995 White Paper, SATU has not yet reached the official status of the University's "Writing Across the University" program. Silverman added he was "very, very satisfied" with the group's progress last year. As its chairperson, Goldfarb will replace Silverman as the only member of SCUE allowed to speak to the public about its activities. "I'm quite happy to go off the record," Silverman joked. He will stay at SCUE as one of its general members. Joining Goldfarb on the new Steering Committee will be Wharton sophomore Aaron Fidler as vice-chairperson, Wharton sophomore Joel Susal as treasurer and College sophomore Debra Kurshen as secretary. College sophomore Loren Berman and College junior Andrew Rhim will be the new members-at-large.
(01/16/98 10:00am)
For nearly two years, University officials and undergraduate student groups have been wrangling over the University's disclosure policy for the $28 million gathered through the General Fee, a fee paid along with tuition to cover student activities. But Penn's 10,000-plus graduate students are only beginning to voice their complaints in earnest, demanding what they consider to be their fair share of the funds. "Each grad student is paying a couple hundred dollars or more to fund undergraduate activities," Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Chairperson Sanjay Udani said. But University Budget Director Mike Masch denied that the General Fee money was being unfairly distributed, adding that GAPSA has no evidence to support that claim. For the past two years, undergraduate from student groups -- primarily the Undergraduate Assembly and the Student Activities Council -- have demanded expenditure records for the revenues gathered from the nearly $2,000 paid by all undergraduate students. Graduate and professional students pay between $1,100 and $1,400 per year. In October, after a SAC-funded Freedom of Information Act request to the government designed to force the University to disclose the figures, Penn officials released to student groups a breakdown of how the General Fee is distributed among various University departments. But GAPSA was not satisfied with the broad outline of expenditures. "This is all we've gotten after two years," Udani said, holding up the figures given to him by the University. "Two pages." While SAC is concerned that they were not told where the money was spent, GAPSA members said that, based on the information they were given, they are upset with how the money is being spent -- primarily on undergraduate students. "If all of these things are only undergrad, then they're effectively using grad money for it," Udani said. "Don't use my money for things that don't matter to me." Udani blamed the situation on a lack of involvement by graduate students in the past. "Up until now there were no grad students active asking for money, " he said. "Money goes where the demand is." University Budget Director Mike Masch said he "respectfully disagreed" with Udani's claim. "I don't think they have analysis that would support that claim," he added. Masch stressed that once collected, there is no distinction made between the General Fee paid by undergraduate students and by graduate students, and that no attempt is made to fund programs based on the preferences of who contributed. "The approach of the Office of Student Life is that they are not funding undergraduate activities and graduate activities but student activities," he said. "There are no separate pots." Masch was also critical of what he deemed GAPSA's intentions to divide many services -- such as Career Planning and Placement Services and Counseling and Psychological Services -- into separate undergraduate and graduate divisions. Udani, however, said GAPSA does not support the idea of splitting these services, which he praised for being "shared by everyone." In addition, Udani said GAPSA members are upset by the lack of information provided by the University, adding that GAPSA cannot prove that they are being short-changed since the University has not provided them with a comprehensive breakdown of General Fee expenditures. "We are not 100 percent sure of what's going on and that's part of the problem," he said. "If we can't get information from the administrators, then we can't prove anything."