Search Results

Below are your search results. You can also try a Basic Search.

New theater will likely stray from original vision

(05/02/01 9:00am)

As Penn closes in on a possible movie theater deal, officials have acknowledged that the end result will not fully match the original vision of an arts house designed to anchor the 40th Street redevelopment. Dedham, Mass.-based National Amusements presented an offer to the University several weeks ago to occupy the site once intended to house independent film-oriented Sundance Theaters. "I'm glad we have anyone talking with us right now," Fry said, explaining that the theater industry "is a disaster." Last year the University was optimistic about Sundance, a venture run by actor and director Robert Redford and financed by Boston-based General Cinemas. The theater was intended to be the showpiece of the 40th Street corridor, complimented by new businesses such as El Diner and The Freshgrocer. In 1998, General Cinemas Chief Executive Officer Bill Doeren envisioned the theater as providing "amenities consistent with the community-based needs in the area, including stadium seating, digital sound, a restaurant and an outdoor garden cafe." But in October, General Cinemas declared bankruptcy and pulled out of the project in November. Sundance quickly followed General Cinemas' announcement by pulling out of the deal. Across the nation, movie theater chains have faced severe financial problems and bankruptcies, stemming mainly from overexpansion. The University has been negotiating with National Amusements since March to quickly develop the construction spot that many view as an eyesore. "We're very excited that we have a proposal," Fry said. "They're a great company." Both Fry and National Amusements spokeswoman Jennifer Maguire have refused to comment on specifics of the negotiations. Although National Amusements has tried to tap into the independent market with a new venture called Cinebridge, the new theater here will be anchored by its mainstream fare, a possibility which has worried some in University City. "Will this mirror what Redford had envisioned? No," Fry said. "But it's somewhere in the middle." "Somewhere in the middle" is a prospect that leaves Spruce Hill Community Association President Barry Grossbach and the residents he represents apprehensive. Grossbach pointed out that most University City residents go to the Ritz Theaters downtown to see independent films. "Now why shouldn't we be able to spend that kind of money here. in University City?" Grossbach asked. The original Sundance project was expected to draw people from Center City and the suburbs, much like the Ritz does now. But if the future theater offers little more than mainstream films, moviegoers are left with many similar options across the city, including Cinemagic 3 less than a block down Walnut Street. Alice Moyer, a community representative for the University City District, said Sundance's original plans would have been more appropriate. Sundance "would be the ideal," she said. "That type of theater would fit in very much with the student and faculty thinking." But for Moyer, "something is better than nothing" and any theater would have its positive aspects. Joan Bressler of the Philadelphia Film Office echoed Moyer's position. "We're delighted to have more screens in the University area and that the building will be put to good use," Bressler said. "Some positive activity is good, even if it's not as creative as was intended," Moyer said. Marty Cabry, another community representative for the UCD, pointed out that a mix of independent and mainstream films may be "the silver lining in this cloud." "If you look at the whole community, a nice mix would be better," Cabry said, explaining that the mostly blue-collar makeup of the western parts of the district would be served best by mainstream movies. In August 1994, the same debate ensued when the United Artists Campus theater -- which stood on the same spot where National Amusements might be -- shut down. That same year, Cinemagic 3's predecessor, the AMC Walnut Mall 3 theater at 39th and Walnut streets, also shut its doors. At the time, the University held discussions with Posel Management Company, the operator of the Ritz Theaters, in order to build a Ritz Theater in University City. Ultimately, Cinemagic bought the AMC theater and the Ritz deal fell through. Since then, Cinemagic's three screens have been showing mainstream movies. Grossbach questions whether another mainstream theater will bring in crowds from outside University City -- something the original Sundance project had intended. "Why would they come to a theater on 40th Street when they have their own theaters?" Grossbach asked. "Sundance would have put 40th Street on the map." According to Fry, those concerns are being addressed in the negotiations. "Lucky for us they're on to a concept that's partially sympathetic to what we want to do," Fry said of National Amusements. For Grossbach, he is waiting to see what comes out of a possible deal. "Only time will tell," he said. "The theater will be only as good as the product it serves."

https://www.thedp.com/article/2001/05/new_theater_will_likely_stray_from_original_vision

Perspective: Caretakers of souls<br>

(04/24/01 9:00am)

Perhaps it's the way Patrick Moran refers to his passengers as "souls" when he's speaking to his radio controllers, or maybe it's the red cross emblazoned on the side of his aircraft, but everything about Moran's job screams one vital truth -- he is in the business of saving lives. The reservist Marine Corps helicopter pilot is no stranger to the life-saving business, having flown many missions in the service of the United States. But now his home is at PennSTAR Flight, Penn's airborne ambulatory service. "It's all the things I like about the Marine Corps without the frustrations," Moran said. "It's a real team organization [and] a great bunch of people." For most of those people, flying is not only a career, but a passion. "Flying is the second greatest thrill to man," heralds a sign in a small office on the 10th floor of the Ravdin Building at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. "Landing is the first." For the 12 pilots, 15 nurses and 15 paramedics that make up the PennSTAR flight crews, landing quite often means access to one of the nation's best health care facilities. Moran's helicopter -- an MBB-BK-117 "Space Ship" known as PennSTAR II -- is not roomy by any stretch of the imagination. It could be, were it not for the gurney, the heart monitors, the oxygen tanks, the intubation kits and the pumps, switches and tubing that occupy every nook and cranny in the rear of the aircraft. But the helicopter, like the other two that PennSTAR operates 24 hours a day, has been transformed into a flying ambulance. Like all of PennSTAR's pilots, Moran flies two medical professionals employed by the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, but is not an employee himself. The pilots and maintenance crew of PennSTAR work for Allegheny, Pa.-based Corporate Jets, Inc. The company also owns two of PennSTAR's three helicopters. Its service area -- a circular patch of land and sea 100 nautical miles in radius around Penn that includes two other bases besides the heliport at HUP -- covers the states of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and the eastern half of Pennsylvania. Explaining its usefulness to the dozens of communities PennSTAR serves, crew coordinator Kevin Thomas points out that without his crews, the vital link between a trauma patient and a trauma center would be lost. "We are keeping them inside an intensive care atmosphere," Thomas said. As Penn's link to trauma cases all over the region, PennSTAR's flight crews have logged thousands of hours transporting patients. They can and have transported every type of patient imaginable, from cardiac cases to crash victims. "We usually see the worst of the worst," said George Bevilacqua, a flight paramedic who has been with PennSTAR since the program's inception. On one recent run, flight nurse Nancy Scanzello and Bevilacqua served as Moran's crew as the three embarked on an inter-facility transfer of a patient from Atlantic City to Presbyterian Medical Center. According to Thomas, of the nearly 1,500 missions flown a year, around 40 percent are devoted to inter-facility transfers. But the rest of its missions are what make PennSTAR famous. From the heliport at the top of HUP, the PENNCOM communications station is on constant alert, waiting for a call from a county supervisor or fire chief to come and airlift a badly injured patient to one of the Philadelphia area's world-class trauma centers. Like when Bevilacqua and his crew transported a victim with multiple stab wounds on June 20, 1988. Although Bevilacqua already was a veteran paramedic with 11 years experience at the time, that case was his first flight and the blood and gore was a little hard to handle at 500 feet in the air. But Bevilacqua cannot imagine a better job. "For me, it's a personal challenge," he said. "When you get calls, you play detective. You try to figure out what's wrong." Figuring out what's wrong is what Bevilacqua does best. "I've been doing this a long time," said Bevilacqua, who is also a paramedic supervisor in Chester County. "You get a lot of personal satisfaction out of it." For each PennSTAR crew, professionalism is the order of the day. Their primary responsibility is to maintain the welfare of the life they have been entrusted. "You have to be able to do what you can in the short amount of time you have," Bevilacqua said. But, in a helicopter, time has been sacrificed in order to deliver a patient to a facility in the shortest amount of time possible. "We can pick up a patient much farther than an ambulance can and bring them back faster," Thomas said. A trip that might take an ambulance two hours to travel from Atlantic City to Philadelphia would take only a half an hour for one of PennSTAR's helicopters. "That's where the golden hour comes in," Thomas said, explaining that so long as a patient with trauma sees a doctor in under an hour, the chance of serious damage is minimal. "That's where you save lives," he added. In that period, a patient might have to be stabilized, given drug treatment, have an IV opened or have his heart started. "There's a lot we can do on the way in," Scanzello added. As flight nurse, Scanzello sits in the rear of the aircraft and monitors every indicator of a patient's welfare. "I'm very comfortable working in the back," Scanzello said. "I know where everything is, I know how I'm going to have to move around to get to do the things I want to do, like start an IV." For some of PennSTAR's medical team, the paramedics are pilots themselves. Just this year, Bevilacqua earned his private pilot license, in part because of the love of flying he developed while working for PennSTAR. "I'm not doing [this] because I need to do this," Bevilacqua said. "We come in, we laugh, we have fun." Sometimes, however -- as in the emergency room or the intensive care unit of a hospital -- a patient cannot be saved, and the joy of flying is eclipsed by a feeling of loss. For Scanzello, her 32 years experience has reinforced the reality that death is a part of the job. "Sometimes, people get sick and they die," Scanzello said. "It's very frustrating...it happens, but very rarely." According to flight paramedic Jim McCans, death is the one part of the job that takes a lot of getting used to. "I think everybody has their own way of trying to deal with that," McCans said. "I've been flying here for 13 years.... To tell you the truth, I don't know how we handle it." Whatever the case, whether the patient has no chance of living, "I'm going to give them my best shot," Scanzello added. "You realize that you got to turn to your partner, good or bad, and say you did a hell of a job," McCans said. But when patients do pull through, PennSTAR's crews reward themselves by visiting the people they helped save. "Visiting people that we picked up as they're going home is one of the more rewarding parts of the job," Scanzello said. "They'll say, 'You know, I don't remember that helicopter. Can I take a look?'" "We really try to do follow ups, because a lot of [the patients] have questions," McCans said. "It is their way of understanding the event they've been through." And when the mix of art and science that is medicine cannot guarantee a favorable recovery, a miracle may occur. Scanzello will not attribute medical success to divine providence, but he also won't dismiss the occasional miracle. "I'm sure it certainly contributes."

https://www.thedp.com/article/2001/04/perspective_caretakers_of_soulsltbrgt

U. Council addresses student identity theft

(04/23/01 9:00am)

Acknowledging the rising threat that identity theft poses to Penn students and faculty, University Council agreed Wednesday to make the issue a part of the agenda at its meeting this week. The group met Wednesday for two hours in the Bodek Lounge of Houston Hall. "The University has taken many steps in the past decade to protect the safety of its students," Mathematics Professor Gerald Porter said. "Protection against identity theft is equally important." Porter, chairman of Council's Task Force on Privacy of Personal Information, explained how easy it is to obtain a student's social security number and then use that information to open up a credit card account. "If your wallet is stolen, and you carry a social security card, it's relatively easy for someone to get information about you through your social security number," Porter said. "Armed with that number and the address off of your driver's license a person can steal your identity." But, according to Porter, one need not steal a wallet to obtain another social security number. "There are scores, probably hundreds of databases around campus where that information is available," Porter said. Recent history lends credibility to the task force's concerns. Last month, a University employee was arrested for using student social security numbers -- obtained from Penn computer systems -- to open credit card accounts. Penn uses students' social security numbers to access grade reports and billing information. The same used to be true for PennCard accounts. But five years ago, the University switched to printing a different number on PennCards. The task force is recommending that what was done with the PennCard system be applied to all University databases. It also is recommending the appointment of a chief privacy officer to investigate breaches of security regarding student's private information. "There is a need for a new student record system that will use PennCard numbers instead of social security numbers," Porter said, estimating the cost to "range from $5 million and up." Council decided by voice vote to evaluate the task force's recommendations next week. "I think its very easy for someone to not realize how awash this University is with social security numbers," Wharton senior Jesse Cohn, a member of the task force, said. "We need to find some way to stop identifying students by social security numbers, unless when absolutely necessary." Former Undergraduate Assembly Chairman Michael Bassik, a College senior, questioned whether the cost of converting Penn's databases should be as high as the task force predicted. "The UA got students concerned about this," Bassik said. "We e-mailed the student body to let them know that they could go to the Registrar's office to change their ID numbers." "It seems relatively easy," Bassik added. But the University's Information Security Officer, David Millar, emphasized that an analysis of cost should be completed first. "If we're serious about this, we probably want to do an audit and estimate a cost," Millar said. At Wednesday's meeting, Council also recognized the new UA chairwoman, College junior Dana Hork, and heard interim reports from its standing committees.

https://www.thedp.com/article/2001/04/u-council-addresses-student-identity-theft

Gelsinger case may spark new regulations

(04/13/01 9:00am)

A proposed Food and Drug Administration "sunshine rule" has resurrected the spectre of the Jesse Gelsinger tragedy, while forcing the biotechnology industry to mobilize for a regulatory war. Next Wednesday -- the close of a federally-mandated public comment period on the new rule -- marks the next major step toward greater federal oversight of gene therapy trials, an effort spurred on largely by the 1999 death of 18-year-old Gelsinger in a Penn-sponsored study. Some involved in the Gelsinger case believe the regulation would prevent such tragedies from happening again, and they have expressed their views to the FDA. "If this regulation is quashed, as a similar effort was in 1995, then we will have more innocents like my son dying needlessly," Paul Gelsinger, Jesse's father, wrote in a letter to the FDA. The Tucson, Ariz., native claimed that the FDA's proposed "Disclosure Rule for Gene Therapy and Xenotransplantion Clinical Trials" would have prevented Penn researcher James M. Wilson from continuing the research that led to Jesse's death. The proposed FDA regulation, announced on January 17, "would provide public access to most of the study design and safety information about" gene therapy trials and interspecies organ transplants, according to an FDA press release. "Both of these technologies hold great promise, but they may also pose a remote, but unique risk to the individuals who have volunteered to participate in these types of studies," Jane Henney, then-FDA commissioner, said in January. In September 1999, Jesse volunteered to participate in Wilson's study at Penn's Institute for Human Gene Therapy. Wilson, director of the IHGT, was testing a new therapy which had patents held by Genovo, Inc., a company in which Wilson had a financial stake. On September 17, Jesse died suddenly after his body reacted to a protein on the surface of a virus he was given as part of the therapy. In the ensuing investigation, Wilson's team was implicated in a series of mishaps, most notably failing to adequately inform the FDA of the death of primates who had been given a similar treatment. Wilson, who was one of the most respected gene therapy researchers in the nation prior to the Gelsinger case, is currently the target of FDA proceedings aimed at disqualifying him from ever again participating in human drug trials of any kind. "In my personal experience, the researchers who advised my son and me unwittingly misled us into believing that gene transfer was working and safe," Gelsinger wrote. According to Alan Milstein, attorney for the Gelsinger family, the biotechnology industry has hired a team of professional lobbyists to stop the proposed FDA rule. "The industry is still attempting to keep material closer to the vest," Milstein said, explaining that, in his view, biotechnology companies want to keep adverse events quiet so as not to give an advantage to another company. "If one entity spends $10 million along a certain path and fails, the industry doesn't want the next company to skip that [step]," Milstein said. "The industry says in essence that Penn or Genovo would have a proprietary interest in the facts surrounding Jesse Gelsinger's death." But Mike Warner, a board member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization -- which is lobbying for nearly 850 companies and academic institutions -- denied any attempt to defeat the FDA rule. "We have no intention of derailing anything," Warner said. "It is critically important to balance the need for public disclosure and the need for information with a [research] sponsor's need to maintain its commercial confidentiality and trade-secret advantage." Despite Warner's denial of a defensive stance on the part of BIO toward the new FDA rule, a statement from the Seattle-based Targeted Genetics, indicates their displeasure with the regulation. "We believe that the release of raw data to the public in real-time, as proposed by this new rule, will hinder rather than enhance public understanding of the potential benefits and risks of participating in gene transfer clinical trials," the statement read. Targeted Genetics bought out Genovo last year. Its CEO, Stewart Parker, is a board member of BIO. In opposition to the biotech industry, there are some -- such as Milstein -- who believe Jesse Gelsinger's death could have been prevented by the FDA rule. According to Milstein, a top FDA official has told his client that Jesse Gelsinger would be alive today had the regulation been in place a decade ago. "That's a pretty horrific thought," Milstein said.

https://www.thedp.com/article/2001/04/gelsinger_case_may_spark_new_regulations

PennConnects