Penn Under Construction: New quad readies for fall debut
Taylor Allderdice High School '98
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Taylor Allderdice High School '98
Taylor Allerdice High School '98
According to a DP survey, most students support President Rodin, but few could evern identify Provost Barchi. Although the vast majority of Penn students approve of the job University President Judith Rodin is doing, most still don't think she makes herself accessible enough on campus, according to a recent survey conducted by The Daily Pennsylvanian. The survey of 290 Penn undergraduates showed that 87 percent of Penn students approve of the job Rodin is doing, but less than 19 percent of students have ever met her. The survey -- which has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.9 percent -- evaluated the accessibility and visibility of Penn's top administrators. More than 81 percent think that Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi could make themselves more available to students. And although Rodin's name is well known across campus, only 32 percent of Penn students could identify Barchi and just a little over 1 percent have ever met the University's chief academic officer. Still, Barchi and Rodin say they are far from huddled up in College Hall's Ivory Tower. "I spend a lot of time with students at meetings, at events and in informal conversations throughout the year," Rodin said in an e-mail statement. "It is often the best part of my day." "I frequently meet with a number of individual students and even entire classes to help sort out academic life and student-life issues," Barchi added in an e-mail. But students indicated that when Barchi and Rodin attend events, they are often formal meetings rather than broad-based discussions or staged visits to a college house rather than a spontaneous walk through campus. "I am sure they could be more accessible, but then again I haven't gone out of my way to meet them," College senior Janpaul Guzman. "But then again, I shouldn't have to go out of my way." But with more than 18,000 Penn students, Rodin said that when she is unable to meet with students, it's due to her busy schedule. "Time constraints are perhaps the most difficult part of my job," Rodin explained. "I spend a significant amount of time with students, and I always wish I could spend even more." And she added that "even at times when I am not spending time specifically with students, I am working to ensure that their interests and needs are met." Barchi also pointed out in his statement that besides his personally meeting with students, other administrators who report to him also have "solid working relations with undergraduates," such as officials in the Office of University Life and college house system. Still, more than 81 percent of the Penn students surveyed said meeting the provost or president is an important part of the Penn experience, and some students suggested that that Rodin and Barchi make themselves more available on a more informal basis. United Minorities Council Chairman Jerome Byam said, "[The administration's approach] is a top-down approach. Perhaps it should be a more bottom-up approach so that all students can feel connected -- not just student leaders." The College junior added that though "it's kind of fashionable to say that administrators don't care about student opinion, they showed they share that concern." And Penn Students Against Sweatshops member Miriam Joffe-Block, who claimed her group was repeatedly denied a meeting with Rodin last fall, criticized the president for not being easily accessible -- a charge which Rodin disputes. "At Michigan, for example, where they had similar sweatshop protests, the students' relationship with President [Lee] Bollinger was more collaborative," Joffe-Block, a College senior, said. "He seemed more responsive to their concerns from the beginning of their campaign." But Undergraduate Assembly Chairman Michael Bassik said that in his opinion, it is "the role of the UA to serve as that vital link between the student body and the administration." He said he has been pleased with the way that Barchi and Rodin have have made themselves extremely accessible to the UA.
To replace them, four new Law School faculty members have already been hired. With the announcement that three senior professors will no longer teach at Penn this fall, Dean Michael Fitts is bracing the Law School to cope with the losses. Law Professors Heidi Hurd and husband Michael Moore, who each taught here for 11 years, said they will leave Penn to teach at the University of San Diego next fall. And Law School Professor Robert Gorman announced that he will be retiring after more than 35 years at the University. After such a significant blow to the faculty, Fitts will have to work even harder to develop and expand the Law School faculty -- already a critical part of his current plans for the school. "All top law schools are always in the process of recruiting faculty, and are also in the process of having their faculty sought by other institutions," Fitts said, noting the revolving door of modern academia. But Fitts, who took the helm of the Law School earlier this semester, said the recent hirings of four junior Law professors will help compensate for the loss of those three senior faculty members. "Four new hires in one year is about as many as we have had since I had come to Penn," Fitts said, noting that the new recruits will pump fresh, young blood into the faculty, while filling much-needed positions in key academic fields such as technology, copyright and corporate law. The group of young faculty comes from both academia and the private sector, including former judicial clerks and members of top law firms. Polk Wagner, who specializes in the copyright and technology law fields --both of which Gorman previously taught -- will come to Penn next year after clerking for Raymond Clevienger, a judge on the U.S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Wagner will be joined by Michael Knoll, a tax and corporate law expert from the University of Southern California, and Catherine Struve, a civil procedure specialist who will come from the New York law firm Cravath, Swaine and Moore. In addition, Kim Roosevelt, a constitutional law scholar who is clerking for Supreme Court Justice David Souter, will also join the Law School faculty. Since being named dean in March, Fitts has said that expanding the Law School faculty is a top priority of his "institution building" campaign, which also includes increasing the endowment and improving relations with Penn's other professional schools. University President Judith Rodin said she authorized the hiring of 10 new Law professors over the next few years. Still, the loss of three top professors in Hurd, Gorman and Moore is significant -- although not unexpected. "I am saddened that they are leaving," Fitts said. "But this has been in the works since before I became dean." Although all three have been productive scholars, each had previously said their time at Penn was winding down. Hurd, who was rumored to be a leading candidate for the Law School deanship herself, said that she and Moore wanted to move back to their home on the West Coast. "We're westerners at heart and we wanted to go west," she said. And Gorman said that after 35 years of teaching full-time, he decided last year that he wanted more time to pursue a wide range of activities. Although he still plans to occasionally teach and will continue to update some of his course books, Gorman said he also plans to take college courses and wants to resume playing the piano.
NBX News' Andrea Mitchell will speak at the College graduation. University officials announced a star-studded cast of national figures to top this year's list of speakers for the individual school graduation ceremonies next month. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, journalist Andrea Mitchell, prize-winning moviemaker Michael Moore and former National Football League star Lynn Swann will be among the speakers coming to each of Penn's 12 schools. "One of the features of having a major graduation ceremony and individual school ceremonies is that each school can attract a speaker that will resonate with graduates, their families and friends," University spokesman Ken Wildes said. "They can all bring background, expertise and a message that are pertinent to a particular school." In stark contrast to the celebrities and political figures on hand for the school ceremonies, the University's 244th Commencement will feature an academic. Seamus Heaney, the 1995 Nobel Laureate in Literature, will address all of Penn's graduates at the Franklin Field ceremony. Heamey's speech is scheduled for Monday, May 22 at 9:30 a.m. Meanwhile, a range of academic, political and entertainment figures will make appearances at the individual school graduations. Mitchell, NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent and a University Trustee, will speak to the College of Arts and Sciences graduates at a ceremony to take place on Saturday, May 21 at 7 p.m. at Franklin Field. "[Mitchell] is a wonderful speaker and a prominent person who has also been very loyal to the University of Pennsylvania," School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston said. A 1967 College alumna, Mitchell has made repeated visits to speak at her alma mater. She gave the Baccalaureate address in 1998 when her husband, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, was awarded an honorary degree from Penn and spoke to College undergraduates earlier this year as part of the Robert A. Fox Leadership Lecture series. Summers -- whose predecessor, Robert Rubin, was the Commencement speaker last year -- is the son of Penn professors emeriti Robert and Anita Summers. He will address members of this year's Wharton MBA graduating class. The ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 21 at 1 p.m on Franklin Field. Moore, who is best known for the highly acclaimed documentary Roger and Me, will be the graduation speaker at the Annenberg School for Communication's ceremony. That event will be held in the Annenberg School's lobby on Monday, May 22 at 2:30 p.m. And Swann, the former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver and current Big Brother and Big Sisters of America national spokesman, will address the School of Social Work graduates in the University Museum's Harrison Auditorium on Monday, May 22 at 2 p.m. University officials also released the names of speakers for the University's three other undergraduate schools. The Wharton undergraduate division's ceremony selects two student speakers instead of a prominent figure. It was not known last night whether those students had been selected. The Wharton ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 21 at 9 a.m. on Franklin Field. The School of Nursing's ceremony will take place on Monday, May 22 at 7 p.m.in the First District Plaza at 38th and Market streets. Pew Charitable Trust President and CEO Rebecca Rimel will give the keynote address. The Engineering School, which has yet to schedule a speaker, will hold its ceremony in the Palestra on Monday, May 22 at 1 p.m. Other speakers taking part in individual school closing exercises include Penn Center for Bioethics Director Arthur Caplan, who will address the School of Veterinary Medicine. American Association of Medical Colleges President Jordan Cohen, will speak to Medical School graduates, and the Law School's ceremony will have two featured guests. U.S. Solicitor General Seth Waxman and Education Law Center member Janet Stotland will each deliver a speech at the Law School's ceremony.
Starting next year, Penn will observe MLK Day as a University holiday. Mark your calendars. University President Judith Rodin announced yesterday that Penn will officially observe Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday starting next January. To celebrate the legacy of the slain civil rights leader, all classes will be canceled for students and faculty and staff will be given the day off. The holiday is observed on the third Monday of January, which next year falls on January 15. The change means that the spring 2001 semester will begin on Tuesday, January 16. "Many members of our University community have strongly felt that Penn could not fully pay its respect to Dr. King's memory and legacy as long as it failed to observe his birthday as a holiday," Rodin said in a statement. "I hope this will encourage the creation and expansion of more events and enkindle even greater participation from all of us." While they were pleased with Rodin's announcement, some members of the Penn community said the University was slow to act. "I am very grateful. It has been a long time coming," said A-3 Assembly Chairwoman Debra Smiley-Koita. "The African-American community has asked for this day off for many years." Peer institutions like Harvard, Columbia and Brown universities remained closed for the day this year. Rodin had initially proposed that Penn observe the holiday this year, on the condition that it had the approval of the Council of Deans. Over the past few months, University administrators discussed her recommendation and unanimously agreed to add the holiday to Penn's academic calendar. The decision means that Penn will lose one teaching day during the spring semester. It remains to be determined how and if that day will be made up. Rodin's announcement has drawn praise from students, faculty and staff who say that the new policy will allow them to attend memorial celebrations without getting behind in work. "It is such an important day about such an important man," former United Minorities Chairman Chaz Howard said. "It's totally positive and I'm thrilled to hear Dr. Rodin felt that way." Undergraduate Assembly Chairman Michael Bassik echoed Howard's statement. "We're excited that the administration has decided to afford the students the opportunity to commemorate the legacy of MLK," the College junior said. "This will give students the chance to attend MLK events." The decision to have the University officially observe MLK marks a significant shift in Penn's official attitude toward the holiday. In the past, students were allowed to miss class to observe without academic penalty, but the University officially remained open. Sponsoring a series of events and engaging in meaningful discussion, University officials argued, was the appropriate way to honor an ardent supporter of education like King. But times have changed, and Provost Robert Barchi said he hoped that by having the University observe MLK Day, it would encourage students and faculty to celebrate King's legacy. "This shouldn't be looked at as a day off where everybody takes a long weekend," he said. "What we are hoping is that this will be a day for people to participate." In the past, minority leaders have said that attendance at many campus events was hurt by the absence of students concerned about missing class.
Researchers working with human subjects are affected by the preliminary recommendations. Midway through its ongoing review process, a provost-led committee investigating Penn's human research protocols will submit to University President Judith Rodin today a list of procedural, interim recommendations aimed at more closely monitoring Penn's human research. In addition, the committee requested that a group from Penn's Center for Bioethics do a closer review of the University's Institutional Review Board system and that current Penn researchers be surveyed to provide the committee with feedback on the current review systems. The five recommendations include implementing external reviews of independent clinical research trials and the creation of an overarching formal code of standard operating procedures for all human research at the University. "I see these as mainly recommendations that will help us get to our conclusions," said Provost Robert Barchi, who chairs the 10-member internal committee of top administrators and faculty. "We are looking to receive the highest standards anywhere." Rodin, who is expected to approve the recommendations, charged the committee in January with reviewing Penn's procedures for using human test subjects as the scandal surrounding a controversial death in Penn's gene therapy program began to mushroom. The committee, which has been meeting regularly over the past few months, initially anticipated submitting its final recommendations by the end of this semester. But Barchi now says the committee needs more time to complete its investigation before releasing its findings, now slated to occur next fall. The internal University committee has been working in parallel with an external committee of experts charged with reviewing the research practices of Penn's Institute for Human Gene Therapy. That group was formed by Rodin after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration put on hold all Penn gene therapy experiments four months after the highly publicized death of 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger, who was participating in an IHGT clinical study. The FDA claims that IHGT researchers violated various research protocols during the trial. Penn officials said, however, that the internal committee was not formed as a direct result of Gelsinger's death but as part of a regular review of Penn's research practices. Of the committee's five recommendations, the most substantial one calls for providing an external review group to oversee the clinical drug trials that Penn sponsors independently. About 15 percent of Penn's clinical drug trials -- including the study in which Gelsinger participated -- are sponsored mainly by the University itself, leaving no formal external oversight. The remaining 85 percent of Penn's pharmaceutical research is sponsored by drug companies or the National Institutes of Health. NIH-funded studies require their own review committees to ensure that the investigators follow separate, strict protocols. The committee also recommended that members of the Center for Bioethics conduct a formal review of the University's Institutional Review Board system -- a series of internal committees that must approve all research involving human subjects before actual experiments start. Using a site-based benchmark study, developed by Penn's Center for Bioethics and used by large research organizations like the RAND Corporation, the group will compare how Penn's research procedures stack up to peer institutions. The committee also called for Penn to develop a code of standard operating procedures, formally stating protocol that University investigators have traditionally followed. The procedures will provide general guidelines for human research, such as rules for obtaining informed consent. It also recommended that Penn investigators be required to formally disclose any proprietary interest in a product or procedure on all research proposals to the IRB. This would serve as an extension of the practice currently overseen by University department chairmen and deans. The final recommendation will primarily serve to aid the internal committee in its investigation. A Web-based survey will be conducted among all Penn investigators involved in human research, providing the committee with feedback about how to improve the IRB and the human-subject protocol review process. "The committee has decided that it better get more information from the investigator's point-of-view," said School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston, a member of the committee. The external review committee investigating the IHGT -- headed by William Danforth, chancellor emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis -- has come to campus several times to interview administrators and researchers. It is expected to submit a final report within the next month.
Stabilizing UPHS is among the priorities for Penn's next fiscal year. At a special additional University Council meeting yesterday afternoon, University President Judith Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi reviewed Penn's budget and listened to a number of committee reports. The session brought about 30 of the advisory group's 92 members to McClelland Hall for the last regular meeting of the academic year. In a joint presentation, Rodin and Barchi gave a broad overview of the University's next fiscal year's budget and explained a number of the financial issues that Penn faces. According to Rodin, around 44 percent, or $1.3 billion, of the University's $3 billion budget goes to Penn's 12 academic schools and resource centers. The remaining funds are used to support the non-academic part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. But she said the University faces the significant challenges of stabilizing the Health System -- which has lost nearly $300 million over the past two years -- and finding more money to support facility maintenance costs and construction projects such as the $137 million Huntsman Hall and a proposed $90 million life sciences building. Both Barchi and Rodin said the University must increase the undergraduate and graduate financial aid budget by about $100 million to stay competitive with peer institutions. "We are trying to increase the size of the awards and decrease the loan component," Rodin said. But unless the University receives more donations, that increase will add pressure to Penn's operating budget, where financial aid already consumes 11 percent of the total. "We take 6.7 percent of financial aid from our endowment and 93.3 percent from the operating budget," Barchi said, noting that peer institutions use a greater portion of their endowments for financial aid. Besides making the budget presentation, Rodin and Barchi used the meeting to announce the contract extensions of Dental School Dean Raymond Fonseca and Annenberg School for Communications Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who both agreed to remain in their current positions until 2003. The Council also heard reports from the Bookstore, International Programs, Communications and Personal Benefits committees. Bookstore Committee Chairman Daniel Raff, a Management professor, suggested that the Council recommend ways to encourage more faculty to submit book orders earlier in order to avoid the "perennial problem of getting the books on shelves for students at the beginning of the semester." He also said the Bookstore Committee had received requests asking that the Barnes and Noble University Bookstore not sell Playboy and Penthouse magazines, but the committee concluded not to act on it. International Programs Committee Chairman and Biology Professor Eric Weinberg recommended a new international center on Locust Walk. The facility would house internationally focused academic and social campus groups, provide areas for international scholars and students and be a resource for study-abroad programs. And Communications Committee Chairman and Physiology Professor Martin Pring reported on his group's recent work, which included examining the modem pool policy, making the PennCard easier to use and reducing the amount of mail incoming freshmen receive. The Communications Committee has also spent much of the year formulating the University's electronic privacy policy, which Council plans to debate further next fall. Council will convene again next Wednesday for its annual transition meeting, when its new members will hear year-end committee reports to familiarize them with the issues they will face next year.
The plan calls for one basketball court to be built atop the parking garage at 38th and Spruce streets. After months of one-on-one discussions with the Undergraduate Assembly, Provost Robert Barchi announced yesterday that the two sides have reached an agreement to build one outdoor basketball court on top of the parking garage at 38th and Spruce streets by early this fall. "We have made enough progress to get construction underway for this summer," Barchi said. "We think we can practically make it happen." Construction of the court will begin late this summer and will cost between $80,000 and $100,000. The UA will fund about $30,000 of the total cost from its budget and a fundraising campaign it will hold next fall, with the provost kicking in the rest of the money out of University funds. The project marks a crowning achievement for this year's UA, which has been working with the administration to build outdoor courts since last summer. "The entire Penn community plays basketball -- undergraduate and graduate students and faculty can be found at Hutchinson and Gimbel every day," said newly-elected University Council representative Jonathan Glick, a Wharton junior who was chairman of the UA's Facilities Committee last year. "Given that there are not a lot of outdoor recreational options, by building the basketball courts we can create another opportunity for the Penn community," he said. A rooftop basketball court was first proposed last summer, and Glick and UA Chairman Michael Silver began working to put together a formal proposal last fall. "We looked into cost issues, security issues as well as the overall feasibility of the project," Glick said. "It's been a very complex project." The UA collected over 1,100 signatures last fall from students who supported the project. They also provided documented evidence showing the facilities in Hutchinson Gymnasium were overcrowded, and in November, voted to officially propose the project to the administration. After meeting several times with Barchi, they won the administration's approval. "The UA did a terrific job demonstrating wide student interest and identifying the need," Barchi said. "We were convinced that Penn needed to do this by the evidence the UA brought to us." But questions remained over where to build the facility and how to pay for it. The original proposal called for two rooftop basketball courts to be built on top of either the parking garage or Mayer Hall, but cost concerns scaled the project down to just one. "We initially hoped to have two courts, but realistically, we knew we would probably get one," said Glick, noting that the UA will likely push for another court again next fall. In January, the UA began working with the University's fundraising office to identify sources of funding, and raised $500 for the project from a fundraiser at a Penn basketball game. And with another $10,000 from its own budget and an additional $20,000 from the Development office, the group convinced Barchi it was far enough along to go ahead with the plan. Barchi said the timing was right for the project, which fulfills longstanding University recreational needs, and the centrally located site was ideal.
In the final meeting of University Council this spring, University President Judith Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi will report on the status of Penn's budget and academic priorities for next year and receive a report calling for a new International Center on Locust Walk. The session, which is open to all members of the Penn community, will begin today at 3 p.m. in McClelland Hall. In addition to the reports on the University's financial and academic plans, there will also be brief status reports by the leaders of many of Penn's other governing bodies, such as the University Assembly, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly and the A-3. Council will also be updated on the progress of four of its standing committees, with year-end reports by the Bookstore, Communications, International Programs and Personal Benefits committees. According to International Programs Committee chairman Eric Weinberg, the committee will recommend that the University create an International Center on Locust Walk. The center would house a number of internationally oriented campus groups, provide meeting areas for international scholars and students, house new interdisciplinary academic programs and alleviate the Office of International Programs' space crunch. "We had informal discussions with the provost's office and I know that they were considering this as one of the groups that would go into Locust Walk," said Weinberg, a Biology professor. But when Rodin and Barchi released their plans for the future of Locust Walk two weeks ago, the International Center was not on the list of programs to receive space, and Weinberg said he now wants to make it a priority. Weinberg said the International Center could be incorporated into existing plans for other campus groups such as the proposed graduate student center, which will be housed in the top floors of the Veranda. The International Programs Committee will also take issue with the lack of short-term housing on campus for visiting researchers and provide updates on the state of study abroad programs. The Bookstore Committee, chaired by Management Professor Daniel Raff, will make suggestions for improving the availability of textbooks and briefly discuss the state of independent bookstores and online booksellers on the textbook trade. Communications Committee Chairman Martin Pring said he will discuss the group's progress on a number of issues including PennTrex, the modem pool and the University Web site. "I don't expect to say much about electronic privacy, but there are a number of other issues that the committee addressed such as PennTrex, the modem pool," said Pring, who is the director of Residential Computing and Information Technology for the School of Medicine. Council's annual transitional meeting will be held next Wednesday, when a number of year-end committee reports will be given so that new Council members will be familiar with the issues they will face in the coming year. University Council is an advisory group comprised of 92 students, staff and faculty members that meets monthly to discuss issues of relevance to the Penn community.
Jordan's Queen Noor will visit campus to accept an award for promoting peace. The Wharton School has often been hailed as the crown jewel of the Penn empire. Now, the prestigious business school will play host to actual royalty when Queen Noor of Jordan visits campus on May 8. Noor, 48, is the wife of the late King Hussein I. She will be on campus to receive HOPE Worldwide's Unity Award for the work she and her late husband have done to bring peace to the Middle East. Each year, the Philadelphia-based HOPE Worldwide humanitarian organization presents its Unity Award to a person or couple "who has sacrificed personal liberties for the sake of uniting many in peace." The ceremony will take place at 12:30 p.m. at an invitation-only luncheon at the Inn at Penn. The award is accompanied by a two-year, $50,000 Wharton scholarship given to an admitted MBA student of the recipient's choice. Past Unity Award winners include former South African President Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn. Noor is the first world leader to accept the award on Penn's campus. According to Penn officials, plans for the visit include an afternoon tea with University President Judith Rodin and a private meeting with Wharton Dean Patrick Harker. While security plans have not been finalized, University Police officials said that they did not anticipate any problems in providing the Queen with appropriate security. "Dignitary protection is one of those things we get a lot of practice with around here, so we'll certainly have the appropriate level of protection," Deputy Chief of Investigations Tom King said. "Some of that will probably come from outside agencies, and we fill in those areas that they don't cover." Noor, a Princeton University graduate whose original name was Lisa Halaby, became the first American-born queen of an Arab country when she married Hussein in 1978. Despite her status as a foreigner coming from an extremely liberal background, the Jordanian people soon warmed to the union as they saw her commitment to the royal household -- including raising four children -- and concern for improving Jordan's educational resources. Although Noor's political involvement has been decidedly behind the scenes, she's been an advocate for increased educational and employment opportunities for Arab women and a leader on several international boards devoted to peace. She stood by her husband until his death in February 1999, supporting his work toward creating a lasting peace in the Middle East -- including the 1994 peace treaty he signed with former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, which ended 46 years of war between the nations. Noor will join a long list of world leaders who have visited Penn's campus in recent years. In February, President Clinton was the inaugural speaker of the School of Arts and Sciences' Granoff Forum on the New Economy. Former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed students about world politics at last September's Connaissance lecture; President Carter gave the 1998 Commencement speech; and First Lady Hillary Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin came to campus in 1997.
A former professor's portrait was recently stolen from Leidy Labs. Edward Drinker Cope taught at Penn from 1887 to 1897. Former Penn Paleobiology Professor Edward Drinker Cope is missing from Leidy Laboratories -- or at least a picture of him is. According to members of the Penn Biology Department, a 27 1/4" x 22" portrait of the professor was stolen during the weekend of March 25 from above the first-floor staircase of Leidy Labs, where it had hung for more than 20 years. Cope, who served as a professor of Geology and Paleobiology at Penn from 1887 until his death in 1897, was part of the Penn-based explosion of knowledge about the physical world and human form. The portrait of Cope was painted in 1897. "It was there on Saturday, but when we came in on Monday it was gone," Biology Lab Coordinator Bob Kuniewicz said. "Someone stole it." Penn Police have been conducting an ongoing investigation since the portrait was reported missing three weeks ago. A story about a new Cope biography appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer around the same time, leading some to suggest that the picture was taken as a keepsake or prank. Although the portrait has little resale value, it does have historical significance to the Biology Department -- especially to faculty who are members of the quasi-secret Edward Drinker Cope Society, which is offering a $100 no-questions-asked reward for the portrait's safe return. "It's not like a million-dollar microscope was stolen," Biology Department Chairman Andrew Binns said. "It's like a picture of your great-grandfather. You don't really know who it is, but if someone came to your home and stole it off your living room wall, you would be a little miffed." A member of the American Academy of Science, Cope discovered more than 1,200 species of extinct vertebrates. But he was best-known for head-on "fossil feuds" with his one-time Penn mentor Joseph Leidy and Yale University paleontologist O.C. Marsh. It seems, however, that Cope's legacy is rather bone-chilling. Legend has it that when Cope worked at Penn in the late 19th century, he made an agreement with a group of Paleobiology colleagues that would allow the other scientists to do a post-mortem on the person who died first. Cope passed away in 1897, and his skeleton wound up on the shelves of the University's Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology. And besides the recent theft of his portrait, a bronze bust of Cope was stolen from Leidy Laboratories in 1996. It was subsequently found in a Pennsylvania State University dormitory room among memorabilia stolen from other colleges and universities. So does a "Curse of Cope" actually exist? "I don't think so," Binns said, "but we should do some forensic analysis."
Officials discussed three possible sites for a baseball stadium. They say you can't please all of the people all of the time. But in the ongoing deliberations over where to build the new stadium for the Phillies baseball team, it seems that no one will ever be pleased with a location. In a town hall meeting last night in City Hall, Mayor John Street joined City Council members, team representatives and about 200 community members to debate the merits of three proposed Center City sites for the future baseball stadium. Council has pledged to approve a stadium deal by the fall so that the Phillies will be in a new home by April 2003. For nearly three hours the recommendations released yesterday morning by the Stadium Subcommittee were discussed. The committee recommended three downtown locations for the stadium -- on the eastern and western ends of Broad and Spring Garden streets or on 12th and Vine streets. According to committee members, a downtown location would have a greater economic impact on the city -- an argument that former Mayor Ed Rendell had supported. "You can get a better return on dollars by having it closer to Center City," said committee co-chairman Kenneth Shropshire, a Penn Legal Studies professor. The 12th and Vine site was preferred by the committee, which said it posed the fewest logistical problems. But many community members, and indeed the Phillies themselves, said they do not agree. Team representatives yesterday said they want to construct the new stadium in South Philadelphia at the Sports Complex -- which includes the 29-year-old Veterans Stadium, the First Union Center and the Spectrum -- where the Philadelphia Eagles have long since committed to build. "We do not believe there is a viable site in Center City, with the amenities available, at this time," Phillies President Dave Montgomery said. Phillies management has said they believe that a downtown location will never be accepted by the surrounding communities, and they want to finalize plans to get the stadium built quickly. The downtown site up for consideration last fall -- at Broad and Spring Garden streets -- met with huge community outrage. The same fervor is in danger of killing the new plans. "I was shocked and appalled that 11th and Vine was chosen as a site of the new stadium," said Jennie Wang, a Chinatown community leader. "We oppose, we oppose, we oppose and we will lay our bodies down in front of the steamrollers if we have to." And backed by about 45 students and teachers, Lisa Cancelliere, the principal of Holy Redeemer School at 915 Vine Street, said that having a stadium nearby would threaten student safety and bring traffic problems to the area. "This is a neighborhood," she said. "Nobody would put a stadium in a neighborhood. It just doesn't belong." Although less vocal, residents from other areas under consideration also voiced their concerns. "I understand the appeal of Center City, where time and money can be spent before and after games," said Joan Marniman, a Spring Garden resident. "But it is important to consider at what cost." A Broad and Spring Garden site has been up for debate before. Last year, it was Rendell's favored location, but community outrage and disgust stalled those plans as they were debated into oblivion. The stadium plans were tabled last November when City Council ran out of time, and for the past several months the Street administration has been trying to bring them swiftly to a decision. Street has promised to decide on a location by June 30, with legislation following in September. University President Judith Rodin was also present at the meeting to protect Penn's interests in the ongoing debate. The postal lands at 30th and Walnut streets have been considered on and off for some time. Rodin said building a stadium at that location would ruin Penn's plans to build a high technology corridor in the space. Besides the postal lands, several other locations on the outskirts of Center City were considered by the committee, including Port Richmond and the city incinerator at Columbus Boulevard and Spring Garden. But the committee ultimately decided on a more central location.
[NOTE: This article appeared in the annual joke issue.] For the third time in the past year, University President Judith Rodin has charged a committee to conduct a worldwide search to fill a top administrative post. Rodin announced yesterday that a 12-person committee will begin considering candidates to become Penn's first dean of search committees. The new dean will oversee the selection process of top administrators and leading faculty members across the University. The search committee dean -- who will report jointly to Provost Robert Barchi and University Secretary Rose McManus -- will also serve as permanent chair of Penn's Committee on Committees. Among the dean of search committee's first tasks will be appointing members to serve on the committees seeking a "Sweatshop Czar" and the director of facilitator recruitment for the beleaguered PennTalks program. According to Rodin, the new position was created in an attempt to expedite the search process at Penn, which for recent high-level administrative searches has dragged on for up to 16 months. "It has been taking far too long for search committees to find candidates I get along with," Rodin said. "This person will have the solemn challenge of quickly identifying candidates I like." In accordance with Penn's strict bylaws which call for a diversity of opinions, Rodin stacked the committee with loyal administrators, faculty sycophants and the same three student leaders who are selected to serve on every University committee. Barchi will chair the search committee for the dean of search committees. In a carefully worded statement, Barchi said the committee will look for candidates from a broad range of disciplines -- including government bureaucrats, corporate executives, academics and pimps -- who have excellent organizational skills. "We will look far and wide for the most qualified and exceptional candidates, fielding outstanding leaders from all over the world," Barchi proclaimed. "And then we will just settle for a lowly Penn professor." Several recent searches for top administrative positions have yielded internal candidates after exhaustive national searches. "It's not that we can't find better candidates," Rodin rationalized. "Well, maybe it is." Although there is no specific timetable for the process, a top College Hall source said that the committee hopes that an announcement of their final selections would be "imminent," which means an announcement could be made before the current freshman class graduates. And Rodin said that there is always the possibility that she will just appoint an interim dean of search committees -- for life. Penn Students Against Search Committees will be protesting the administration's decision tomorrow. They plan to hold a mock scavenger hunt in College Hall.
Graduate students and minority groups were given space on the Walk. University President Judith Rodin announced plans yesterday to reinvigorate Locust Walk starting next fall, providing new spaces for academic, social and cultural programming in the heart of campus. The plans call for about a dozen campus organizations to get new homes and will spawn the creation of a cultural and performing arts center, a research hub for undergraduates, a graduate student center and common space for student religious groups. The proposal also includes a recommendation for a sorority house to be relocated to Locust Walk sometime in the near future. "This is a very student-centered outcome," Rodin said. "It has achieved my strong aspirations for animating Locust Walk, day and night and on weekends." But the plans do more than just concretely define the University's plans for developing Locust Walk as the academic and social heart of campus. They also resolve, in part, long-standing concerns regarding the allocation of a limited amount of space to a growing number of student groups. The plans also bring to an end months of debate as to what should be done with the former Phi Gamma Delta and Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity houses and the recently purchased Christian Association building. "Having a number of spaces come available all at once, we suddenly realized we had the chance to change the dynamic of part of Locust Walk," Provost Robert Barchi said. The release of the plan culminates most of the work for the Locust Walk Advisory Committee -- a 12-person task force of students, faculty and staff chaired by Barchi -- that Rodin charged in February with determining how to best fill a number of recently vacated properties along the Walk. After narrowing a long list down to about 12 campus groups that needed centrally located space, the committee assigned locations based on shared interests and specific needs so that groups could take advantage of common resources and proximity. The committee submitted its final recommendations earlier this week to Rodin, who accepted all of the proposals in the plan. "It's a crazy-good mix of allocations," said UA Chairman Michael Silver, who sat on the committee. "It pleases so many disparate constituencies." Most of the spaces are expected to be ready in the fall. Renovations will begin over the summer to turn the CA building -- located at the corner of 36th Street and Locust Walk -- into a center for academic and cultural groups and a performing arts hub. The first floor will house La Casa Latina, the Pan-Asian American Community House and UMOJA, an umbrella organization for several African-American student groups. There are also plans to eventually house a performing arts hub in the building's ground floor, currently occupied by the Gold Standard restaurant. In addition to the space on the first floor, the organizations will share five new large conference rooms throughout the building, which will be assigned based on need. Representatives from all three of the minority student groups had independently lobbied the administration for space to establish their own cultural resource centers. But the decision to place such diverse groups under one roof has most of the leaders pleased with the outcome. "Being able to be with these different groups will facilitate interchange of ideas and dialogue," said College junior John Lin, who was part of a group of students that lobbied Rodin last fall for an Asian-American resource center. "This will not only serve Asian Americans, but the entire Penn community." Besides allocating space to UMOJA, the plan finally grants a permanent home for La Casa Latina, which is essentially swapping buildings with the Christian Association. Although La Casa Latina opened this September in the Westminster House at 3700 Chestnut Street, it was slated to be displaced by the CA at the end of the year. Penn granted the CA the space in the Westminster House in November for an undisclosed sum. At the time, Rodin promised La Casa Latina officials that they would receive equal or better space. "Most of the student leaders are happy," said Electrical Engineering Professor and La Casa Latina co-founder Jorge Santiago-Aviles, who also served on the Locust Walk committee. "They see that we might have traded a little bit of space for more accessibility and presence on campus." The available space on the ground floor will house additional rehearsal rooms and a new black-box theater. It will also hold offices for many campus performing arts groups, which will have access to a small auditorium on the second floor of the facility. More performing arts space will free up when the leases for the Gold Standard and the Palladium expire in 2002. Barchi indicated yesterday that Penn would reclaim much of the space the two restaurants currently use, though he said the committee wanted to keep some sort of food services operation in the building. "Now that the material arts are going into the Faculty Club, the thought of the performing arts going next door was very attractive," Rodin said. The second floor of the former CA building will also house a newly created Center for Academic Research and Fellowships. The center will advise students of undergraduate research opportunities, help with grant-writing and provide information and support for students interested in applying for post-graduate fellowships. Opening up a hub for undergraduate research has long been one of Barchi's goals as provost. The plans for Locust Walk also call for converting the first two floors of the Veranda -- the student center formed when Phi Sig vacated the house in the spring of 1998 -- into a graduate student center. Penn had previously been one of only two Ivy League schools without such a center for its 10,000 graduate students. The new building will provide meeting rooms for between 20 and 30 graduate academic groups, giving space for students to plan and host small colloquia and faculty seminars. But it will also be a center for graduate student social life. During the day, the building will have lounge space for graduate students to talk and do homework, and at night, it will be host to parties and other social activities. "It's a place for graduate students to hang out with each other, get to know one another," said Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Chairwoman Kendra Nicholson, another committee member. "That's the problem that we noted -- that there are 12 graduate schools and very rarely do we have the chance to interact." The ground floor of the facility, however, will provide shared space for student religious groups that do not have space, such as Muslims, and who congregate for daily prayer services. The Office of the Chaplain will coordinate the sessions. Finally, the plan officially confirmed what administrators had said before, that space in the former FIJI house at 3619 Locust Walk will be used for the Humanities Forum and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies. Rodin also said that down the road, she would seriously consider the recommendations calling for a sorority to move into the house currently occupied by the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life. There has not been a sorority on the Walk since Delta Delta Delta moved out of the Phi Kappa Sigma house in 1998. Rodin said she expects the VPUL's office to move into College Hall at some point in the future, though she would not provide any timetable.
Officials are planning a more aggressive strategy to combat low returns. Although the University's $3.19 billion endowment still ranks 12th in the country, Penn's investment portfolio has significantly lagged the market averages for the past two years, raising concern among the University's top financial officials. "No one is satisfied with the performance," said University Trustee Richard Worley, who chairs the committee that oversees management of the endowment. "This is a major setback -- a very disappointing result." In response to the weak performance, officials say they are planning a more aggressive growth strategy for Penn's investment portfolio -- a dramatic change from the conservative deep value orientation that Penn has held for more than 20 years. The endowment's poor performance -- including losses over the past six months totaling almost $80 million -- could have significant consequences for Penn's budgets over the next several years, University President Judith Rodin said. Over the past year, the total value of the University's investments has grown just 9.8 percent, while the S&P; 500 and other broad market indexes have been averaging increases of between 17 and 20 percent. According to figures from The Chronicle of Higher Education, the average college endowment grew by 11.6 percent last year. Harvard University has by far the largest university endowment at more than $14 billion, followed by the University of Texas system and Yale University. While Penn's has a 12th place ranking, it masks a low per capita ranking on account of the University's large student body. Penn now has about 50 percent of its portfolio in stocks, about 20 percent in bonds and about 15 percent in private equity and venture capital. Another 15 percent is invested in diversifying assets, such as real estate. "We don't have our heads in the sand," Chief Investment Officer Landis Zimmerman said. "There is a movement to the broad market and a shift away from our deep value bias." Despite the recent trend to invest in dot-com and Internet firms, Penn has eschewed investment in the high-flying technology sector, instead choosing to invest in more stable value stocks, blue chip companies such as Walmart or IBM. A policy of more aggressive growth could yield higher returns, but it brings with it greater risk. According to Zimmerman, in the past few months the University has increased its previously limited broad market holdings -- such as Wilshire 5000 index funds -- so that Penn now owns more small and mid-cap stocks, which have performed better this year. Broad market funds now account for about $400 million, or approximately one third of Penn's domestic stock holdings. Over the past several months, Penn has also reduced its portfolio of value stocks -- heavily weighted in the U.S. market -- by around $567 million. Investments in growth and international stocks have increased by $193 million during the same time period. And following a nationwide trend for colleges and universities, Penn has begun to move away from the safety of bonds and into the riskier private equity and venture capital markets, which typically offer higher investment returns. But perhaps the most significant change has been the replacement of two of its six independent investment managers with new ones who are more growth-oriented. "We picked a number of managers based on past prior performance and some of those managers underperformed," Rodin said. Still, many of Penn's current problems are as much rooted in policies institutionalized by Penn's former endowment manager John Neff as they are in the present. Widely regarded as one of the greatest investors of all time, Neff chaired the Trustee's Investment Board from 1979 to 1998. He volunteered to single-handedly manage the University's entire endowment, free of charge, and did so for all but the last few years of his tenure. In nearly 16 years, he took the fund from a paltry $200 million to more than $1.7 billion. Outside managers were brought in 1995, but they largely shared Neff's long-term, value orientation. Over the last few years, however, that approach has been less successful. As high-technology and Internet stock prices soared over the last two years, the value stocks which Neff championed trailed the market. "Value investing goes in cycles," Zimmerman said. "Sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's less good." Penn's historically deep value-bias has also hindered its involvement in private equity, venture capital and buy-out investments. Schools from Stanford University to Williams College have boosted their returns by entering these newer, riskier investment markets. But Penn has remained relatively underexposed, Worley said. And according to University Vice President for Finance Craig Carnaroli, Penn's limited involvement has caused it to miss out on a number of highly successful ventures and get locked out of others. "When you look at the the high returns our peer institutions are earning over the past few years, it is probably due to their early entry into the private capital markets," Carnaroli said, noting that there are now more institutional dollars chasing those investments than ever before. "A lot of [venture-capital] funds are now closed off," he added. Others now, he said, are restricting the amount of capital Penn can invest.
History Professor Drew Faust will head the new Radc liffe Institute. For years, Penn's History Department had been bedeviled with offers attempting to lure renowned Professor Drew Faust elsewhere. But it wasn't until yesterday that Faust signed a pact with another institution, agreeing to become the first dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. "This is what seems to me the best job in higher education," Faust said. "It's not just moving from one professorship at one institution to a professorship at another." As founding dean, Faust will hold a tenured position in the Harvard History Department. However, her primary responsibility will be overseeing the Institute's $350 million endowment and shaping its interdisciplinary focus on the study of women, gender and society. The newly established research center was created last October as an outgrowth of the controversial merger between Harvard and its sister school Radcliffe College, which historically had been independent. According to Harvard President Neil Rudenstine, Faust emerged as his first choice to head the new institute, culminating a worldwide search that began last summer. "Drew has exceptional intellectual and academic qualities, wonderful personal qualities and excellent leadership capacity," Rudenstine said."I couldn't be more pleased by the outcome." Faust, a recipient of the prestigious Francis Parkman Prize, has long been one of Penn's most distinguished scholars and one of the nation's leading historians of the Civil War and American South. She has also served as director of the Women's Studies Program at Penn since 1996 and holds the endowed Annenberg Professor of History chair. However, her national reputation also made her one of the University's most fiercely recruited faculty members, as she frequently received offers from other top-ranked History departments -- including those at Harvard and Yale University. But each time she turned them down to stay at Penn -- until now. "The last offer was three years ago, and it was a professorship like she had at Penn," School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston said, referring to a job offer by Yale that Penn was able to match. "But this current offer is a one-of-a-kind position that it was clear we couldn't replicate at Penn." According to Preston, Faust told him that she was a candidate for the Radcliffe position about three months ago. But despite Preston working closely with University President Judith Rodin, this time Penn was unable to come up with a comparable package. "It wasn't the salary and benefits," Preston said, noting the prestige of the job. "It was a matter of Drew choosing whether she wanted to be a scholar and teacher or move into an administrative role." Joining her at Harvard will be husband Charles Rosenberg, who is a History and Sociology of Science professor at Penn and will receive a tenured appointment at Harvard. Faust's departure marks the first time that a tenured professor has resigned from Penn this year. "Drew is a superb scholar and teacher, and we will miss her terribly," Rodin said in a statement. "Her going is not only bad for American History [at Penn], it is bad for the whole of the History Department," History Professor Bruce Kuklick said. Preston pointed out the short-term impact of her loss, noting that it will make it harder for the department to recruit other top faculty. Faust will remain teaching at Penn next fall, but will leave at the beginning of the spring semester to start at Radcliffe.
A Bell Atlantic circuiting problem caused service to shut down for over four hours early yesterday. The University's PennNet system was once again plagued with trouble early yesterday morning when a connection glitch with third-party network carrier Bell Atlantic brought service to a halt for more than four hours. The shut-down -- which occurred between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. -- marked the second consecutive day that PennNet service was disrupted, although the incidents were unrelated. On Wednesday, PennNet users experienced difficulty using many applications, such as the ICQ instant messenger, when University officials responded to security problems by restricting network access. But according to Executive Director for Networking Michael Palladino, yesterday's troubles were purely technical. He said that a circuiting problem caused by Bell Atlantic -- which provides a local-loop connection linking the University's local network to the national Internet service provider UUNet -- was the culprit. "The circuit was upgraded and wasn't fine-tuned properly," Palladino said. "In the process of upgrading to make it better, [Bell Atlantic] made it temporarily worse." According to Palladino, PennNet circuit monitoring devices detected problems with the network at around 4 a.m. and automatically paged an on-call University technician. Penn officials then contacted Bell Atlantic, which was able to bring its system back online by 8:30 a.m. But for more than four hours, PennNet users were unable to connect with networked computers outside the University. The problems meant that users could not send or receive e-mail from outside of Penn, or access Web sites not part of the www.upenn.edu domain. "Given the time, it didn't affect students too much," Palladino said. "But administrators who came into work early were antsy." According to University information systems officials, PennNet has been shut down due to technical difficulties five times in the past 11 months, resulting in about 20 hours of lost service. Although University officials said they have been pleased with PennNet's operation, they admit that the network would work better if they purchased a redundant Internet connection -- a backup system that many large institutions already have. But with costs for an independent backup connection adding more than $200,000 to the current $400,000 that was spent for UUNet, University officials have been reluctant to pay for additional bandwidth. Palladino, however, said that plans are in the works to have a redundant connection system in place by the fall semester, and perhaps as early as July. On the other hand, Penn officials said that security problems earlier this week may be more difficult to resolve. "The threat is always out there," Palladino said, pointing out the increasing risk of hacker attacks. "Even non-profits aren't safe from this stuff." Palladino explained that earlier this week, hackers launched a series of "flood-attacks" on PennNet. By using several automated computers, the hackers sent billions of data packets to Penn's intranet, clogging the system by overloading it with information. In response, the University put in place temporary filters to weed out some of the outside traffic, which caused some popular applications to malfunction. Penn officials eased up those restrictions, though, once the attacks seemed to stop. Palladino said that Penn officials are still investigating the recent attacks and the source remains unknown. However, he warned that if they continue or increase in intensity, the University may be forced to consider placing permanent filters on its network as well as other security measures.
A new life sciences building would house the Biology and Psychology departments. University administrators are planning to breathe new life into Penn's natural science departments and programs with the construction of a $90 million life sciences building, to be located at 38th Street and University Avenue alongside Hamilton Walk. Although the project is still in its preliminary stages and has yet to be submitted to the University Trustees for approval, the proposed 95,000-square-foot facility would provide new homes for the Psychology and Biology departments. It will create new and vastly improved wet and dry research laboratories and increase classroom and office space to accommodate faculty enlargement in both departments. The life sciences building will also house interdisciplinary programs in fields such as genomics and cognitive neuroscience, which draw upon faculty from the Biology and Psychology departments, as well as from the Medical School and Veterinary School. "There is a huge evolution -- if not revolution -- going on in the life sciences," University President Judith Rodin said. "We need the type of facilities that will allow us to push the frontiers, and right now we don't have the facilities to do it." The building is currently being designed by Boston-based architect Ellen Zweig, who also did the feasibility studies when administrators began developing the project. There is no timetable for the project, but preliminary plans call for the building to be constructed in two phases. According to Provost Robert Barchi, the first phase -- which should take about 18 months to complete -- will provide approximately 55,000 square feet of space for Biology Department laboratories and animal research labs for the Psychology Department. The Biology Department's current lab facilities in the Kaplan Wing of the Leidy Laboratories and the Mudd Biology Research Laboratory would then be demolished to make room for the second construction phase, an adjacent building housing primarily Psychology Department laboratories and offices, Barchi added. As part of the plan, the Goddard Laboratories building would also be vacated, although that building would remain in use for administrative purposes. According to administrators, the new life sciences building would help enliven the back end of campus along Hamilton Walk, serving as the focal point of a "Life Sciences Quadrangle" that would encompass Medical School and Veterinary School buildings and the Bio Pond. And construction of the new building would free up much-needed expansion space near Locust Walk for the Graduate School of Education and the School of Social Work, both of which currently do more than 40 percent of their research in rented facilities. Administrators plan for those schools to use the Psychology Laboratories Building on 3720 Walnut Street once the Psychology Department moves into the life sciences facility. Still, the project remains focused on vastly improving laboratory space for the Biology and Psychology departments. "In terms of facilities, it is our No. 1 priority," School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston said. Penn faculty and administrators have long complained that current research laboratories for the natural sciences are too small, too old and downright depressing. "They are really outdated facilities and that has really hurt us in our ability to attract and retain the best faculty," Psychology Department Chairman Robert Seyfarth said. "It is a problem when your facilities are not on par with those institutions you are competing with," Preston added. Many of Penn's peer institutions have announced that they will make major investments in their sciences programs. Most notably, Yale University recently announced it would spend $500 million to overhaul its natural sciences program. But like all University construction projects, the challenge remains in finding funding for them -- although administrators have been pitching the project for a number of years. "A lot of people want to give money to people -- not bricks and mortar," SAS Vice Dean of External Affairs Jean-Marie Kneeley said. And Rodin said that the absence of formal plans has made it difficult to fundraise. Still, Preston and Rodin have met with a number of potential donors -- including many from the biotechnology sector -- and have already secured a number of private donations. According to Preston, they have already received pledges for almost $3 million in dedicated stock and a total of $4 million from individual Trustee donors. "At this point, we feel the funding is identified," Preston said. "There is an understanding that if we raise our target of $15 million to fund [Phase I construction], we can sustain debt service on the rest of the building."
Justin Finalle, 22, killed himself on Saturday at his home in western Pa. College junior Justin Finalle, who friends remember as a talented athlete and sympathetic listener, was found dead in an apparent suicide Saturday at his home in DuBois, Pa. He was 22. Finalle, a Sigma Nu brother, transferred to Penn last year from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and participated in the Washington Semester program for five weeks this spring. He dropped out of the program to work as a sportswriter for his hometown newspaper. A small, private funeral is scheduled for this afternoon in DuBois, a small town in western Pennsylvania. Many of his Penn friends and Sigma Nu fraternity brothers said they plan to attend. According to Vice Provost of University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, Finalle's parents contacted Justin's two Washington Semester roomates to inform them of Justin's death. The roommates -- both Penn students -- informed Washington Semester Program Director Katie Tenpas, who notified administrators and University Chaplain William Gipson. VPUL Counseling and Psychological Services staff have been in Washington this week to provide support for Penn students in the Washington Semester program and have also been meeting with Finalle's friends on campus. "We are terribly saddened by the untimely death of this young man," University President Judith Rodin said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are most certainly with Justin's family and friends." Finalle's death came as a shock to many of his fraternity brothers and friends. "We looked to [Justin] for support in so many instances that it is tough for us to conceptualize that he could have problems of his own," said Sigma Nu brother Andrew Exum, a College senior and Daily Pennsylvanian columnist. "He was such a stand-up guy and positive influence that this is a time of mourning for the entire brotherhood." Finalle was highly regarded by all those who knew him. He was a talented athlete who walked on to the Penn football team last year, an avid country music fan and a political junkie who wanted to make a difference in his community. But most of all, he was remembered as a genuinely nice guy and caring friend. "I never had an encounter with Justin where I didn't leave without a smile," recalled Wharton sophomore Paul Sacchetti, who was Finalle's roommate at Penn last fall. "He was the most polite, nicest guy you would ever want to meet." "Justin had the biggest heart of anyone," added College sophomore Tyler Mullins, who was Finalle's hallmate for the past two years. "You could always go to him and he'd cheer you up." The University offers a number of resources to students who may be depressed and considering suicide, including the student-run Reach-A-Peer Helpline (573-2RAP), support groups facilitated by the University Counseling Service and psychotherapy groups through CAPS. When students or former students commit suicide, the University conducts various intervention programs for anyone connected with the victim, whether through residential programs, academic departments or extracurricular activities. It is difficult to pinpoint what can lead to suicide, according to the University Counseling Service. Loss, pressure and depression may combine to create a sense of helplessness or hopelessness, causing students to believe that killing themselves represents the only way out of a difficult situation.