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(09/08/97 9:00am)
The University admitted no wrongdoing and paid the 1996 College graduate nothing in ending a five-year legal battle. The "water buffalo" saga is finally over. Eden Jacobowitz, who garnered national attention in 1993 when he faced racial-harassment charges for yelling, "Shut up, you water buffalo," to a group of African American women outside his high-rise window, has settled his 1996 lawsuit against the University. The University admitted no wrongdoing and paid Jacobowitz nothing in settling the lawsuit, according to General Counsel Shelley Green. She said the University did pay Jacobowitz's attorney, Edward Rubenstone, "under $10,000" to cover part of Jacobowitz's fees and expenses. "He dropped [the suit]," Green said. Rubenstone said that he was "not particularly" satisfied with the settlement, but Jacobowitz --Ewho has just begun his first year at the Fordham University Law School in Lincoln Center in New York -- stressed that "it's very nice to know it's over." "It was an incredibly annoying, nagging incident that shouldn't have lasted longer than an hour. Instead, it took four or five years," the 23-year-old added. Jacobowitz sued the University in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court in February 1996 for $50,000, alleging that the University inflicted emotional distress and violated its contract with him. Jacobowitz, a 1996 College graduate, was a freshman in January 1993 when a group of African American women performed a sorority ritual that involved singing songs late at night in Superblock. From his sixth-floor High Rise East room, he shouted what five of the women -- all members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. -- perceived to be a racial epithet, and they filed harassment charges against him in the student judicial system. After The Wall Street Journal, conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh and the American Civil Liberties Union -- among others -- took up Jacobowitz's cause, the women dropped the charges in May 1993 because they didn't think they could get a fair hearing. "I think the case exposed Penn's hypocrisy, its repression, its double standards and the nightmare of a speech code at a major university," said History Professor Alan Kors, a free-speech advocate who advised Jacobowitz in the judicial proceedings. "It led to profound and, I hope, permanent changes at the University." Jacobowitz's case led to the dissolution of Penn's racial harassment policy, a part of which was known as the "speech code." The women -- Colleen Bonnicklewis, Suzanne Jenkins, Ayanna Taylor, Nikki Taylor and Denita Thomas -- charged Jacobowitz with violating the code, which broadly bans racist behavior. The phrase "water buffalo" is a rough translation of a Hebrew word meaning a foolish person, maintained Jacobowitz, who was born in Israel and whose native language is Hebrew. In 1994, an internal University investigation into the incident, as well its handling by the Judicial Inquiry Office, said Penn treated the women unfairly. But the ACLU said at the time that the report displayed ignorance of due process and law. Then-College freshman Christopher Pryor, Jacobowitz's roommate, was also investigated by the JIO for telling the same women to "get your fat asses out of here." Sheldon Hackney, who was University president at the time of the incident, said yesterday that he was unfairly criticized for not stepping in to defend Jacobowitz during the judicial proceedings. "The way that the disciplinary system was set up then, neither the president nor the provost had any role in it," said Hackney, who returned this semester to teach in the University's History Department after a four-year stint heading the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington. "Looking back, I don't see that I could have done anything differently." At his NEH confirmation hearings before a U.S. Senate panel, Hackney admitted that the charges against Jacobowitz were an "error". "It was absurd," Kors said. "[Jacobowitz] shouted a word that had no racial connotations, and he did it to express his disapproval of noise, and the already horrible speech code didn't criminalize any of that." The "water buffalo" case -- which brought Penn national infamy -- wasn't the only one in the 1993 spring semester that exacerbated racial tensions around campus. On April 15, a group of African American students stole The Daily Pennsylvanian's almost entire press run of 14,000 copies to protest alleged racism by the DP and the University. Hackney -- a reputed free speech advocate -- criticized the students' actions at the time but didn't label them a crime or theft. Jacobowitz's lawsuit was dismissed on August 19 with prejudice -- which means neither Jacobowitz nor the University can file another suit in the case. "It was time to move on, because this whole thing was just making me sick," Jacobowitz said. "The money paled in comparison to the emotional distress that this case caused over the last five years." Jacobowitz said he'll "definitely consider" practicing First Amendment law as a result of his experience with the case and dealing with Kors and the ACLU. None of the five women -- who graduated in 1993 and 1994 -- could be reached for comment last night. Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer Randi Rothberg contributed to this report.
(09/05/97 9:00am)
Will closing University Pinball really help prevent crime at 40th and Spruce? It's practically on campus. It boasts a selection of some of the latest high-tech games. And it's one of the few establishments around campus that stays open late. But most of the game players who frequent University Pinball at 4008 Spruce Street aren't Penn students. Instead, in the words of a recent University lawsuit seeking to shut the arcade down at night, its customers are "involved in or appear likely to become involved in disorderly and/or criminal activity." Indeed, the fact that most of those customers are African Americans from local neighborhoods instead of students raises questions about exactly what the University is trying to accomplish in its legal battles with the arcade. School administrators insist the lawsuits are part of a concerted attempt to reduce crime. But the Schoepe family -- which owns the establishment, as well as the adjacent University Laundry -- wonders whether Penn is just trying to bolster its crime-fighting image. "Several recent high-profile crimes in the area put pressure on the University and its campus police to make it appear that they were doing something to combat crime," stated a document filed by Schoepe attorneys in the civil suit. "The University told plaintiffs that they did not like the 'type of people' who patronized plaintiffs' arcade and laundromat." Many game room patrons said the University and city are wasting quarters in their efforts to close the arcade, because shutting it down would do little or nothing to reduce crime in the area around 40th and Spruce streets. "If they closed it down, you would see that I'm not lying [that the game room does not attract crime]," said West Philadelphia resident Ronnie Rogers, 43, who added that he would rather see local teenagers playing video games than dealing drugs and getting into trouble. The dispute between the Penn officials and the owners of University Pinball and University Laundry has spilled into federal court, with the owners charging that Penn and the city illegally shut down the businesses April 18. The University is countersuing, claiming that the establishments attract criminals and threaten public safety, particularly after nightfall. The businesses were open 24 hours a day until May, when attorneys for the Schoepe family agreed with University and Philadelphia attorneys to close the arcade and coin-operated laundry between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. daily. The Schoepes are also suing the University and its chief spokesperson, Ken Wildes, in Philadelphia court for libel and slander over comments Wildes made in the May 8 issue of the weekly University City Review. Customers at University Pinball yesterday afternoon, most of whom were African American, said they felt safe in the arcade. "People only come here to play games," said local resident Kevin Harris, 20. "They don't come here to start trouble or nothing." If the game room closed, "a lot of people would be mad," Harris said. But closing the arcade, at least at night, is just what University officials want. Its customers urinate in the streets, smoke marijuana, steal cars, deal drugs and beat up Penn students, the University claims. Glenn Bryan, director of the University's Office of Community Relations, said the only issue in the game room fight is reducing crime -- and that keeping local residents away from campus has nothing to do with it. "I don't know where that came from," Bryan said. "If the insinuation is that? we don't want people from the community on our campus, that's absolutely wrong." History Department Chairperson Lynn Lees, a longtime West Philadelphia resident, said the game room's late hours and general lack of student customers pose some problems for the area, but stressed that "the difficulty is that almost nothing is open late at night except the game room."
(09/04/97 9:00am)
The owners of a local video arcade and coin-operated laundry have sued the University and its chief spokesperson, Ken Wildes, for libel and slander over comments Wildes made in the weekly University City Review in May. The owners of University Pinball and University Laundry at 4006-4008 Spruce Street had already sued Penn and the city in federal court in April, accusing them of illegally shutting down the businesses. The libel suit was filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court on May 23, about two weeks after the local newspaper printed the comments in a story about the first lawsuit. In the libel case, William Schoepe and his sons William Jr. and Robert argue that Wildes "made numerous false and defamatory statements concerning the Schoepes" in the Review, including the following one quoted in the suit: "I think it's obvious to everyone that [University Pinball] has been a safe harbor in attracting criminal elements," Wildes told the Review. "Students have been beaten up and criminals found there either before or after they commit crimes. We just can't be supportive of any business whose customers are felons or potential felons." The quote, and others from Wildes, appeared in a May 8 article headlined "University Pinball files suit against Penn, City." The libel suit seeks more than $50,000 in damages in addition to punitive damages. University attorneys, in their request to dismiss the libel suit, don't dispute that Wildes made the comments. Instead, they sought unsuccessfully to have the suit dismissed because the statements are "pure opinion" and refer to the customers of the businesses -- not to the Schoepes. Many of the game room's customers are not Penn students, and when discussing the establishment, University officials have suggested the non-student customers pose a security threat to students in the area. In their suits, the Schoepes have disputed those claims and charged that the University has no basis to assume game room customers will commit crimes. In his comments in the Review, Wildes was referring to a February incident in which two men assaulted a student in the arcade, giving him a concussion, and a March incident in which University Police arrested a robbery suspect inside University Pinball. The male suspect was carrying 16 packets of cocaine. The Schoepes claim that Wildes' statements damaged their reputation and "brought [them] into disgrace and disrepute among their customers, neighbors and diverse other persons." The family owns numerous properties on the 4000 block of Spruce Street, some of which it rents to students. The University's Office of Off-Campus Living rated the Schoepes as one of the best landlords in the area, and they've "established good names? in the community" over the past 44 years, the complaint states. Wildes declined to comment on the suit, and University attorney Roger Cox wasn't available for comment last night. Schoepe attorney Ron Shaffer also declined to comment on the lawsuits. Wildes, formerly Northwestern University's vice president for community relations, has been Penn's director of University communications since July 1996. University attorneys recently filed a counterclaim in the federal suit charging the Schoepe family with bringing criminal activity to the area. A trial date has not yet been set in the libel case. The federal suit, which alleges that the University and city violated the owners' due-process rights by not giving them notice or a hearing before closing the establishments, will not get a trial date until November 3. The game room and laundry reopened on April 25, one week after it was shut down by the city.
(09/03/97 9:00am)
University officials and the game room owners have sued each other over the crime near the property. University attorneys have accused the owners of a local video arcade and coin-operated laundry of bringing criminal activity to the area, as part of a response to the owners' lawsuit charging Penn and the city with illegally shutting down the businesses. Billy and Bob Schoepe, owners of the University Pinball and University Laundry establishments at 4006-4008 Spruce Street, sued the University and the city of Philadelphia in April after city regulators -- working closely with University officials -- shut the businesses down and accused them of being a public nuisance. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, alleges that the University and city violated the owners' due-process rights by not giving them notice or a hearing before closing the establishments. But the University's counterclaim charges that the establishments "create a carnival atmosphere that attracts persons who are involved in or appear likely to become involved in disorderly and/or criminal activity" such as public urination, marijuana smoking and auto theft. University officials, including Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush, made similar statements earlier this year about the game room and laundry. The original complaint, filed by the Schoepe family and its property-owning company We Inc., names the University, Rush, the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections and L & I Director of Business Regulatory Enforcement Rudolph Paliaga as defendants. The University's counterclaim seeks to close the establishments during late-night curfew hours, in addition to unspecified damages, citing several incidents supporting its claim that the game room and laundry threaten public safety. In February, two men assaulted a University student inside the game room, giving him a concussion. One of the suspects allegedly kicked a University Police officer in the head, also giving him a concussion. Last March, University Police arrested a suspect in the game room in connection with an armed robbery that night. The suspect was carrying 16 packets of cocaine. And the University charges that the businesses violate Philadelphia code by being open or having lights on during late-night hours. In a separate development in the case, Judge Marvin Katz ordered University President Judith Rodin to give a deposition in the suit, over strenuous objections by University lawyers. When attorneys for the plaintiffs notified the opposition that they would take Rodin's deposition July 25, University attorneys filed a memorandum saying Rodin didn't know anything about the matter except what Executive Vice President John Fry told her. In addition, Rodin filed a sworn affidavit dated July 15 saying she was too busy to give a deposition, claiming "it will impose severe hardship upon me because it will disrupt and force me to cancel or postpone planned activities on behalf of the University." Instead, University attorneys argued, Fry is responsible for the situation and should give the deposition. Rodin's deposition date hasn't been set yet, according to Roger Cox of the Philadelphia law firm of Blank Rome Comisky & McCauley, who are representing the University and Rush. Cox declined to comment on specific charges in the suits, including the plaintiffs' claim that the University singled out the businesses "because their customers are primarily minorities from the surrounding West Philadelphia neighborhoods and not primarily University students." And in their answer to the original complaint, attorneys for the city of Philadelphia and Paliaga denied almost all of the Schoepes' allegations, admitting only that L & I inspected the businesses Dec. 11, 1996, and posted a "Cease Operations" notice April 18. The December inspection found University Pinball and University Laundry to be "in compliance" with regulations, but the business was closed in April anyway. Schoepe attorney Ron Shaffer did not return telephone calls for comment yesterday. Katz ordered the lawyers to complete discovery, in which attorneys exchange information relevant to the case, by Sept. 26. The Schoepe family owns the business as well as numerous other properties in the area of 40th and Spruce Street, some of which it rents to students.
(08/29/97 9:00am)
University President Judith Rodin's former driver and bodyguard, who was fired last year after police found a gun and marijuana in his car, filed a $3 million lawsuit in May accusing the University of unlawfully searching his car and causing him emotional and financial distress. Donald Gaines was fired in March 1996, three weeks after a University Police officer discovered the firearm and drugs --Eas well as ammunition and empty beer cans -- in the car, which was parked in the University-owned garage at 38th and Walnut streets. Gaines was never charged with a crime. He had a concealed-weapons permit to carry his registered .22-caliber revolver. "This case is going to boil down to the Fourth Amendment," said Marc Perry, the Gaineses' attorney. "My client's rights were clearly violated, and he's prepared to take this as far as he has to to get his name cleared." The Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights protects citizens from "unreasonable searches and seizures." Gaines and his wife, Joyce, who are in their early 40s, seek $1 million in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages in the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. Judge Clarence Newcomer is presiding over the case. The complaint names the University, the University Police Department, Rodin, her chief of staff, Steve Schutt and the officer who searched the car as defendants in the suit. Attorneys William O'Brien and Nancy Gellman of the Philadelphia firm Conrad O'Brien Gellman & Rohn P.C. are representing all the defendants except Officer John Washington. Philadelphia lawyer Howard Bruce Klein is representing Washington. Washington was promoted to sergeant in May. O'Brien and Gellman didn't return telephone calls August 27 seeking comment, and Klein was on vacation that week and wasn't available for comment. On July 7, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss most of the charges in the complaint. That motion is still unresolved, and both sides have filed additional memoranda defending their positions. Gaines was a 23-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department until April 1995, when the Office of the President hired him to be Rodin's "personal security guard and driver for as long as she was" president, according to the complaint. After Gaines parked his car on Feb. 26, 1995, Washington searched the vehicle and its trunk "without probable cause" and discovered Gaines' unloaded weapon and allegedly "three hand-rolled cigarettes containing a 'leafy substance'," according to the complaint. The District Attorney's Office declined to press charges against Gaines, saying the search was illegal. Public Safety Managing Director Thomas Seamon wrote in a March 6, 1996, DP letter to the editor that the investigation was "standard and routine" and that the car door was open. Seamon said August 27 that he stands by that account. Gaines also accused the defendants of invading his privacy and conspiring to violate his civil rights. University Police officers didn't like Donald Gaines because they wanted Rodin to hire a guard from within the department, and that bias may have prompted Washington to search the car, Perry charged. In addition to driving Rodin, Donald Gaines performed other tasks including driving to pick up wine "in a northeastern state" and driving to Maryland or Washington to pick up the family dog, Perry added. In the complaint, Joyce Gaines said she "sustained loss of life's pleasures with her husband and also sustained loss of financial security [and] peace of mind?." The case is still in the early stages, Perry said. The deadline for the end of discovery, in which attorneys exchange information relevant to the case, has not yet been set, and no trial date has been assigned. The Gaineses have demanded a jury trial in the case.
(08/29/97 9:00am)
The University's new vice president for finance is no stranger to Penn business, having once had the honor of being the only Wharton student to ever serve as city treasurer while still in school for her doctorate. And Kathy Engebretson comes from a money-management firm that manages about one-third of the University's $2.5 billion endowment, according to Lucy Momjian, the University's associate treasurer for investments. Engebretson, a former Philadelphia treasurer, assumed her new position August 25. She replaces Steve Golding, who left earlier this summer after six years at the University to join Engebretson's previous employer. "It feels great to be back at Penn," said Engebretson, 40, who was once a teaching assistant for undergraduate Statistics classes. The vice president for finance oversees a wide range of financial activities, including the offices of the comptroller and treasurer as well as Student Financial Services, investments and risk management. The office reports to Executive Vice President John Fry. Engebretson, a Minneapolis native, said she thinks the University will benefit from her experience in the private sector and her time spent at the University. She was most recently a client-relationship manager at Miller Anderson & Sherrerd, an investment-management firm in West Conshohocken, Pa., with close ties to the University. In addition to the fact that Miller Anderson manages about $850 million of Penn's endowment, Richard Worley, a partner in Miller Anderson, is a University trustee. But Engebretson stressed that she didn't handle any University business while at Miller Anderson. In her two-year term as treasurer, Engebretson improved Philadelphia's debt ratings and refinanced much of its debt. She started in that position in January 1992, while she worked on her dissertation at Wharton. She obtained her master's degree in business administration in 1983. Engebretson received her doctorate last December. Golding, 49, notified University officials in April that he was joining Miller Anderson to oversee marketing for higher-education endowments and foundations, said Phyllis Holtzman, a University spokesperson.
(07/10/97 9:00am)
On one hand, some were relieved that the First Daughter didn't boost the egos of any of those schools -- she sure dealt them a blow. On the other hand, football and basketball fans might have to throw out those presidential insults they were preparing to use against whichever Ivy school Chelsea chose. No matter which school she decided to attend, however, Chelsea will have a college experience different from that of the average student. Not only do her parents have slightly more clout than just about everyone else's -- the little things in Chelsea's college life will invariably be, well, a bit unrecognizable to Joe or Jane Penn. This is how the average day of a Penn student will differ from Chelsea Clinton's typical day: Morning blues: Penn student: Wakes up at 9:15 a.m. for 9 a.m. class after hitting snooze button four times. Chelsea: Dad wakes her up with 8 a.m. telephone call for her "daily briefing." Classroom hijinks: Penn student: Nearly falls asleep in history class, daydreaming that professor is going to reveal that he has a bomb strapped to his chest. Chelsea: Before class, Secret Service agents check professor to make sure he doesn't have a bomb, firearm or any other type of weapon. Check driver's license to make sure he really is the professor. At the bookstore: Penn student: Charges $400 worth of new textbooks to parents' Citibank credit card. Chelsea: Charges $400 worth of new textbooks to parents' Bank of Indonesia credit card. Food, glorious food: Penn student: Faces dinner choice of curried chicken and white rice or cheese pizza. Chelsea: White House chef commutes each evening on Air Force One to cook fabulous dinners for Chelsea and friends. Parents' weekend: Penn student: Parents take him or her out to mid-priced restaurant downtown after a big football game and a campus tour. Chelsea: Dinner at McDonald's follows the big game. The campus tour is canceled because too many other parents are demanding to know if taxpayers are funding Chelsea's education. McDonald's runs out of french fries. Greek rush: Penn student: Rushes every sorority as required by the rules. After much anticipation and anxiety, finally receives a bid from one of her top choices. Chelsea: Is currently deciding which sorority to join after every single one sent her a bid last month. Campus safety: Penn student: Carry a fake wallet to toss to robber. Walk in groups of three or more and in well lit areas. Chelsea: What the heck do you have to worry about when a horde of Secret Service agents is trailing you wherever you go? Anyway, that Stanford campus sure is dangerous. Okay, you can stop laughing now. Really. Seriously, everyone has his own one-of-a-kind college experience. But Chelsea Clinton's four years on the West Coast will be truly unique. Unfortunately, it will prove more difficult to shelter Chelsea from the media and the outside world at Stanford as it was at the exclusive Sidwell Friends school and in the White House. Will students just leave her alone and let her have her own life? Probably not -- she will undoubtedly attract a large following as students left and right try to earn her friendship, more for the chance to meet her father than to get to know Chelsea. Even if she gets straight A's and becomes a campus leader, she may struggle to maintain her dignity because of the constant hubbub that's bound to surround her 24 hours a day at Stanford. This is Donald Trump Jr. times 100. What's the biggest difference, then, between Chelsea Clinton's college experience and that of the average Penn student? Anonymity. And power. And money. And so on.
(06/19/97 9:00am)
The phrase "Wharton School" has appeared this year in about 760 articles culled from Nexis. But eliminate any stories that don't contain "University of Pennsylvania" or "Penn" and that number drops to about 540. That means the Wharton name appeared alone nearly 30 percent of the time. I became curious about this subject when I recently watched a biography of Wharton graduate Donald Trump -- the real-estate and casino mogul whose son now is following in his father's footsteps at Wharton -- on the Arts & Entertainment cable-television network. While delving into the Donald's formative years, the program's narrator mentioned that he attended Wharton. A black-and-white still photograph of the old Dietrich Hall, before the Steinberg shell was slapped on in 1983, filled the screen. But the narrator didn't mention the words "Penn" or "Pennsylvania." And a couple of minutes later, the gossip columnist Cindy Adams talked glowingly of Trump as a Wharton graduate without letting the P-word cross her mouth. Does it matter where Wharton is, anyway? Of course it does. Wharton and Penn are joined at the hip -- historically, financially (to a degree) and just by the fact that they share several acres of prime West Philadelphia real estate. Wharton was not founded separately from Penn; businessman Joseph Wharton in 1881 gave the University $100,000 to establish a "School of Finance and Economy," according to the University Archives World Wide Web page. And Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity reports directly to Provost Stanley Chodorow, just as the deans of Penn's other 11 schools do. To be fair, Wharton deserves its reputation as the top (or one of the top) business schools in the country, as magazines and guides have consistently rated it. It has a first-class faculty and attracts the top high-school students and MBA candidates from around the world. Its rigorous academic program is almost unparalleled, and its graduates tend to earn larger salaries than those from other business schools. Wharton is undeniably one of Penn's crown jewels, and the University would do well to promote Wharton while using its reputation as a springboard to showcase other divisions that don't quite get all the attention they deserve. Wharton isn't the only prestigious business school named after an individual. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has the Sloan School of Management. Northwestern University has the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. And the University of Virginia weighs in with the Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, or Darden for short. But Nexis says these schools, despite their reputations within the business world, rarely stand alone in name. Out of 103 articles mentioning "Kellogg School," 95 contain "Northwestern University." Of the 159 stories containing "Sloan School," almost all have the full name of its parent institute or its ubiquitous abbreviation. Darden got into just 34 articles this year on the Nexis database, but 30 of them also mention the University of Virginia. Wharton's public-affairs director, Chris Hardwick, is quick to point out instances in which Wharton just doesn't get a fair shake or plays second fiddle to Penn. All Wharton press releases say "The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania," the school's official name since the 1970s, he reminds me. And the Business Week and U.S. News & World Report rankings have "Pennsylvania" followed by "Wharton" in parentheses (the same goes for the other business schools). The October 21, 1996 Business Week article calls it "the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School." But for ranking Wharton best, they can get away with that. Hardwick says also that my search doesn't catch instances in which a Wharton professor or department is mentioned but with only a Penn citation -- no Wharton mention. "It is not uncommon for our faculty to be identified as 'of the University of Pennsylvania' or for one of our programs to be referred to as 'Penn,' " he says. "All, of course, are part of Wharton, yet no mention of 'Wharton' may be given." Wharton gets credit, then, for trying to make the point that it's actually a part of Penn and not an independent entity. In any case, the school's World Wide Web site (at www.wharton.upenn.edu, its address is inextricably connected to Penn, and www.wharton.com is already taken) clearly states that it's the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Yet that 70 percent "Penn mention rate" still has me scratching my head. What about Penn's other, much smaller, school named after its chief benefactor? A search for "Annenberg School" turns up 111 articles in 1997. "University of Pennsylvania" and "Penn" appear in approximately half of those. Maybe that's why everyone confuses Penn with Penn State.
(06/15/97 9:00am)
and Tammy Reiss Unusually heavy criticism from students and local vendors over the past two weeks delayed City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell's introduction of an ordinance that would limit and reorganize street and sidewalk vending around campus. Blackwell, who represents West Philadelphia on City Council, said she met Wednesday with University officials and with vendors after receiving "several hundred calls" from individuals opposed to the measure, and added that she hopes to hold an open "community meeting" to discuss possible changes before introducing the bill at City Council's May 28 meeting. The ordinance proposes to prohibit vending on certain University streets, but it would also create at least two campus areas designated for vending. Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Carol Scheman, who led the team that wrote the ordinance, originally expected Blackwell to introduce it May 7. But after a strong initial response from students pushed that date back to yesterday, Blackwell decided to hold off on proposing the ordinance for two more weeks. "The ordinance is an attempt to address a chaotic and unsafe situation on campus," Scheman said last week, noting that the current situation creates problems for both vendors and University affiliates. "This is an ordinance that provides order and sense and reduces chaos." Among many other restrictions, the proposal would prohibit food trucks on both sides of Spruce and Walnut streets, from 33rd to 41st streets. Food vendors of any type would be banned on Spruce between 33rd and 36th streets and Walnut between 34th and 38th streets. Trucks would be allowed on the west side of 38th Street between Spruce and Walnut streets, Scheman said. Administrators worked with Blackwell to draft the ordinance, which they hope will "severely restrict" the number of food trucks on campus, and limit vending to designated areas. But they did not invite student input about the details of the ordinance. Scheman explained that although students "had feelings, they have no expertise" in negotiating and resolving such matters. A "food truck task force" met only once this year, and the administration did not inform the committee's members -- approximately 20 students, faculty members and staff -- of the ordinance before its introduction, according to College senior Jared Danziger, a member of the task force. "I think everyone is outraged at the underhanded manner that the University conducted itself in," Danziger said, adding that the Graduate and Professional Students Assembly played a considerable part in delaying the proposal. But Scheman insisted that she has invited feedback on the vending situation since officials began discussions 1 1/2 years ago on an ordinance. "I don't think anyone can say legitimately that this was held in secret, because it wasn't," Scheman said yesterday. Administrators have pushed for the ordinance to stem the safety threat vending trucks pose to students, she said, adding that because lined-up trucks "form an alleyway," students are at risk for being mugged behind them. Additionally, University officials contend that the trucks block the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania's Spruce Street emergency exit. Other concerns are that vendors take up parking places and violate parking regulations, by "feeding" parking meters and leaving their trucks in the same place all day. Food trucks on Walnut and Spruce streets block storefronts and have impaired University efforts to attract restaurants and retail to the area, Scheman said. But vendors said they believe University administrators are trying to force trucks out of business in order to increase the success of University-owned retail. Scheman maintained that the ordinance does not reduce the number of vendors or pose an inconvenience to students because "no one would have to walk more than a block" to purchase food from a vendor, she said. And the University would establish special vendor sites outside Van Pelt Library and near HUP so vendors "don't have to get up at three o'clock in the morning and defend their spaces to the death," she said.
(06/01/97 9:00am)
Last fall, a University biochemist was fatally stabbed, and a student was shot in an attempted robbery. East Brunswick, N.J. A researcher was stabbed to death and a gunman shot and wounded a student last fall in unrelated incidents amid a crime wave that saw more than 30 robberies on and around campus in the month of September alone. University biochemist Vladimir Sled, 38, was stabbed to death Halloween night as he walked home from work with his fiancee, University researcher Cecelia Hagerhall, near 43rd Street and Larchwood Avenue, a few blocks from campus. Eugene "Sultan" Harrison and Bridget Black allegedly attempted to rob Hagerhall of her purse while a third suspect, Yvette Stewart, waited in a get-away car. According to a statement Stewart gave to police several weeks after the robbery, the three were high on crack cocaine and were driving to Billybob's restaurant at 40th and Spruce streets when they began searching for someone to rob in the University City area. Black allegedly stabbed Sled in the back five times when he tried to prevent Harrison from stealing Hagerhall's purse. Philadelphia Police arrested the suspects after obtaining photographs taken by automated-teller-machine security cameras when Harrison and Stewart allegedly attempted to use, without success, Hagerhall's ATM and credit cards. Sled, a well-respected researcher in the University's biochemistry and biophysics departments, turned 38 just days before his murder and left behind a 12-year-old son. In a bitter irony, when the elder Sled was 12 years old, his father died of a serious illness. In an unrelated incident, Christopher Crawford, 20, of Wilmington, Del., pleaded guilty to attempted murder, robbery and criminal conspiracy in connection with the September 25 shooting of College senior Patrick Leroy -- in a robbery attempt -- and five other armed robberies. Crawford and Albert Bandy, an accomplice, have appealed their April sentences for 20 to 40 years in prison, while the third person involved in the crime, Christopher "Big Boy" Jones, was sentenced to 20 to 60 years in jail for driving the get-away car and participating in several other armed robberies. Attorneys for Crawford and Bandy said the two were under the influence of drugs during the robberies and the shooting, which occurred on the edge of campus at 40th and Locust streets. As Leroy, College senior Leonard Dunn and Wharton senior Cameron Reilly walked north on 40th Street from Smokey Joe's Tavern, Crawford and Bandy approached them and warned them not to run. When Bandy told Leroy not to flee, Leroy -- a Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity brother -- retorted "don't tell me what to do." Bandy then told Crawford to "shoot that motherfucking pussy." Leroy fled south from the scene and Crawford shot him in the lower back. Leroy's shooting was one of more than 30 robberies and attempted robberies in September 1996. Managing Director of Public Safety Thomas Seamon said in late September that police arrested suspects in connection with two-thirds of the robberies. The crime wave sparked outcries from students for improved safety and security measures. And more than 500 parents attended a safety forum last November, with many of them yelling at and booing University President Judith Rodin and Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell when the officials tried to discuss possible solutions to crime besides a heightened police presence. The Division of Public Safety hired 14 new University Police officers in March and is slated to hire five more after their graduation from the Philadelphia Police Academy this summer, bringing the total number of officers to approximately 100. But sources said only six University Police officers were on patrol when Leroy was shot. In an unusual incident last November, a Drexel University student was critically injured after she fell 13 stories while attempting to rappel out of a window down Graduate Tower B on the Penn campus. The woman and another classmate were visiting another Drexel student who lived in the dormitory with 20 other Drexel students as part of a pilot housing program between the neighboring universities. Penn officials said after the incident that they would reconsider the program.
(06/01/97 9:00am)
Last fall, a University biochemist was fatally stabbed, and a student was shot in an attempted robbery. East Brunswick, N.J. A researcher was stabbed to death and a gunman shot and wounded a student last fall in unrelated incidents amid a crime wave that saw more than 30 robberies on and around campus in the month of September alone. University biochemist Vladimir Sled, 38, was stabbed to death Halloween night as he walked home from work with his fiancee, University researcher Cecelia Hagerhall, near 43rd Street and Larchwood Avenue, a few blocks from campus. Eugene "Sultan" Harrison and Bridget Black allegedly attempted to rob Hagerhall of her purse while a third suspect, Yvette Stewart, waited in a get-away car. According to a statement Stewart gave to police several weeks after the robbery, the three were high on crack cocaine and were driving to Billybob's restaurant at 40th and Spruce streets when they began searching for someone to rob in the University City area. Black allegedly stabbed Sled in the back five times when he tried to prevent Harrison from stealing Hagerhall's purse. Philadelphia Police arrested the suspects after obtaining photographs taken by automated-teller-machine security cameras when Harrison and Stewart allegedly attempted to use, without success, Hagerhall's ATM and credit cards. Sled, a well-respected researcher in the University's biochemistry and biophysics departments, turned 38 just days before his murder and left behind a 12-year-old son. In a bitter irony, when the elder Sled was 12 years old, his father died of a serious illness. In an unrelated incident, Christopher Crawford, 20, of Wilmington, Del., pleaded guilty to attempted murder, robbery and criminal conspiracy in connection with the September 25 shooting of College senior Patrick Leroy -- in a robbery attempt -- and five other armed robberies. Crawford and Albert Bandy, an accomplice, have appealed their April sentences for 20 to 40 years in prison, while the third person involved in the crime, Christopher "Big Boy" Jones, was sentenced to 20 to 60 years in jail for driving the get-away car and participating in several other armed robberies. Attorneys for Crawford and Bandy said the two were under the influence of drugs during the robberies and the shooting, which occurred on the edge of campus at 40th and Locust streets. As Leroy, College senior Leonard Dunn and Wharton senior Cameron Reilly walked north on 40th Street from Smokey Joe's Tavern, Crawford and Bandy approached them and warned them not to run. When Bandy told Leroy not to flee, Leroy -- a Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity brother -- retorted "don't tell me what to do." Bandy then told Crawford to "shoot that motherfucking pussy." Leroy fled south from the scene and Crawford shot him in the lower back. Leroy's shooting was one of more than 30 robberies and attempted robberies in September 1996. Managing Director of Public Safety Thomas Seamon said in late September that police arrested suspects in connection with two-thirds of the robberies. The crime wave sparked outcries from students for improved safety and security measures. And more than 500 parents attended a safety forum last November, with many of them yelling at and booing University President Judith Rodin and Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell when the officials tried to discuss possible solutions to crime besides a heightened police presence. The Division of Public Safety hired 14 new University Police officers in March and is slated to hire five more after their graduation from the Philadelphia Police Academy this summer, bringing the total number of officers to approximately 100. But sources said only six University Police officers were on patrol when Leroy was shot. In an unusual incident last November, a Drexel University student was critically injured after she fell 13 stories while attempting to rappel out of a window down Graduate Tower B on the Penn campus. The woman and another classmate were visiting another Drexel student who lived in the dormitory with 20 other Drexel students as part of a pilot housing program between the neighboring universities. Penn officials said after the incident that they would reconsider the program.
(06/01/97 9:00am)
East Brunswick, N.J. More than a year after Managing Director of Public Safety Thomas Seamon released his master plan for campus security in March 1996, the department has accomplished or begun work on several of the 40-page document's proposals for improving policing and security issues, as well as town-gown relations. But many of the department's most highly publicized recent initiatives -- increasing the total number of University Police officers and the number of security guards operating west of 40th Street, opening a temporary Public Safety mini-station on 40th Street last January, and the creation of the 40th Street Action Team to improve the corridor's aesthetics -- were not even mentioned in the original plan. The University has focused much of its safety efforts on 40th Street, the road more or less constituting a campus border where College senior Patrick Leroy was shot September 25 after a wave of robberies in that area. And although officials have maintained that the shooting merely expedited the hiring of 19 new patrol officers which had been in the works for some time, the other major security initiatives not mentioned in Seamon's plan are clearly attributable to the fall-semester crime wave and Halloween night murder of University biochemist Vladimir Sled near 43rd Street and Larchwood Avenue. While praising the strategic plan and some of its specific goals, critics have chided Seamon for leaving out timetables or details on many of the initiatives -- hinting that the lack of particulars might produce a corresponding lack of enthusiasm in the department's pursuit of the goals. "One of the reasons specifically that I did not put dates in the strategic plan is because when we put it together we didn't know how long many of these things would take," he said. Seamon's plan is the third such proposal released in as many years, including a 1994 plan released by then-University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich, whom Seamon replaced in 1994. But despite the quantity of impromptu initiatives, many of the plan's approximately 27 separate objectives have already been accomplished or are works in progress: · Seamon announced a $3 million contract with the Sensormatic Electronics Corporation to provide a state-of-the-art campus security system. · The University purchased properties on the 4000 block of Chestnut Street that will house the entire Division of Public Safety starting next year. · In addition to the 40th Street improvements, plans are in the works for a University City Special Services district similar to one in Center City. · The University contracted with Spectaguard to consolidate security guard operations on campus. · The University Police command structure was overhauled in January 1996. · University Police doubled their investigative staff by hiring four former Philadelphia Police detectives. · Many officers have been certified to use new semiautomatic handguns. But the department has run into some delays and difficulties with other parts of the strategic plan, often due to unforeseeable circumstances. For instance, Seamon explained that bureaucratic red tape, factory shortages and community opposition have delayed the installment of 61 new emergency blue-light telephones on and around campus. The first new blue-light phone was installed on campus in late March, five months after officials first announced plans to install additional phones and three months after all 61 phones were originally slated to be installed. The new phones run on solar power and use cellular technology to test themselves for defects. In addition, the Sensormatic contract announcement led many students to expect exotic biometric devices -- such as palm readers and iris scanners -- around campus in the near future, but Public Safety officials are waiting for student feedback before they finalize plans for the new equipment. And the transition from five separate security guard companies to Spectaguard has "had its growing pains," Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush acknowledged recently. But she added that the visibility of Spectaguard officers patrolling around campus contributed to the decreased number of crimes in the three-month period last November through January. There were initial communication problems between police and the security personnel because the Spectaguard officers were not on the same radio frequency as University Police, making direct communication impossible, Rush said. The lack of adequate communication prevented Spectaguard officers from being able to inform police immediately of suspicious situations or individuals and often left them unaware of police activities.
(06/01/97 9:00am)
East Brunswick, N.J. Approximately 50 people witnessed Change douse her body with gasoline and ignite herself outside Van Pelt Library the morning of October 22. Change's suicide shocked students, faculty and staff, and made headlines across the country. The 46-year-old woman, a University City resident, was the founder and leader of the Transformation Party, which advocated the complete overhaul of the current political system. Before killing herself, Change delivered packages of her writings, including a dialogue explaining why she chose to commit suicide, to six students and two local residents with whom she had previously discussed her beliefs, in addition to The Daily Pennsylvanian and other news organizations. Several students said Change left the packages for them at their residences at approximately 9 a.m. the day before the suicide. "The government must be replaced by a truly democratic self-government of, for and by the people," she wrote in a letter dated October 7. Change wrote that the entire country's population should convene to plan and form an ideal government. For this to occur, she said, workers in essential industries would form an "emergency economy," temporarily freeing everyone else to discuss the new political system. She labeled the switch to her ideal government as "the transformation." The package included a written dialogue entitled "To be or not to be," in which Change wrote that she hoped her suicide would help promote her ideas on government, the economy, law and morality. "I want to give my message as much impact as possible," she wrote. "I truly believe that my death will make people more sympathetic towards me and interested in my work and ideas." The dialogue also indicates that she had previously attempted suicide several times. The package also included a final statement and a letter to The Philadelphia Inquirer asking the newspaper to print her written works. In her typed, three-page statement, Change railed against the U.S. government, the economy and the political inaction of the public. "I want to protest this entirely shameful state of affairs as emphatically as I can," she wrote. "I want to get publicity in order to draw attention to my proposal for immediate social transformation." She also recalled the press coverage of a woman who set herself on fire in Boston more than 10 years ago and said that she first planned to do the same last year. "My real intention is to spark a discussion of how we can peacefully transform our world," she wrote in the manifesto's final paragraph. "I offer myself as an alarm against Armageddon and a torch for liberty."
(05/22/97 9:00am)
Loews Corporation Co-chairman and Co-CEO Laurence Tisch's Russian immigrant parents didn't have much -- 30 cents, to be exact -- when they arrived in America around the turn of the century. But Tisch -- whose company has annual revenues of more than $20 billion -- learned from the example his hardworking parents set. At the precocious age of 19, he became one of the youngest students in the University's history to earn a master's degree in business administration from the Wharton School. Fifty-five years after leaving Penn, Tisch -- who serves as chairperson of New York University's board of trustees -- returned to address the 765 students receiving MBAs and executive MBAs from Wharton during Sunday's graduation ceremony at Franklin Field. "The simple truths first became evident to me here at Wharton and were honed and ratified throughout my career," he said. Tisch described principles of partnership, judgment and management skills that are as relevant to life as they are to business. Tisch, who is probably best known for his controversial tenure at the helm of CBS, also criticized the rapidly rising salaries of chief executives compared with those of the average worker. "This constantly enlarging gulf, which is lionized by extravagant and flagrant lifestyles, does not bode well for the social and economic stability of this great country," said Tisch -- a billionaire who has contributed to various funds and charities. Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity praised Tisch, calling him an "astute investor" who has a "hands-on management style that gets results." -- Scott Lanman
(05/22/97 9:00am)
At 8:10 p.m., University Police Sgt. Tom Rambo lays down the rules: No photos of officers on the force's Special Response Team, which Rambo heads, because they work both undercover and in uniform. Stay in the car at all times unless he gives the word. That's all. The move was one of several made by officials to attempt to stem crime in the wake of last fall's mugging wave, which was capped with Patrick Leroy's shooting. "Our assignment with the SRT is to prevent crime by being visible and preventing people from committing crime," he says. Because the patrolmen only respond to high-priority reports of crime over the police radio, Rambo adds, you won't see the SRT "trying to get keys out of the car with a slim jim for a half hour." It becomes clear as we zip around University City that the team's officers have few rules; they can do whatever they want, wherever they want. And the lack of boundaries -- the SRT guys aren't confined to a small patrol area or even the University Police jurisdiction (bounded by the Schuylkill to the east, Market Street to the north, 43rd Street to the west and roughly Baltimore and University avenues to the south) -- helps explain precisely why these officers are involved in many of the arrests University Police make. Among the unit's 60-plus arrests and other feats since its inception seven months ago are the following: · February 4 -- Officer Len Harrison takes it on the chin? literally. As he tries to stick an assault suspect into a police van, the suspect kicks Harrison in the face, giving him a concussion, while another suspect escapes on foot. Fortunately, University Police rearrest both suspects minutes later. · February 25 -- Harrison and Officer Mike Sylvester prevent any serious damage or injury when they get to the Tabard Society house fire before it gets out of hand. · March 24 -- Harrison and Sylvester apprehend two suspects -- one carrying 16 packets of crack cocaine -- shortly after they allegedly rob a professor at gunpoint near campus. Our first taste of action tonight happens in front of Chestnut Hall, where a blue Pontiac 6000SE idles with its hazard lights flashing but no one in the car. Rambo gets out and writes a $25 double-parking ticket, to the dismay of the middle-aged driver who shakes his head, maintaining he was making a quick delivery. You were backing up traffic throughout 39th Street, Rambo retorts as he returns to the wheel, three minutes lost. End of argument. We crisscoss nearly every street within the University Police jurisdiction, including several I never previously walked down, but nothing seems to happen. At the night's start, another officer told us to "get ready to get bored," and after several futile hours of searching for crime, it appears that the SRT has accomplished its crime-prevention goal -- at least for a few hours.
(05/16/97 9:00am)
Describing the gift as an example of the University's "strong commitment" to the surrounding community, the Division of Public Safety donated 16 new two-way radios to local town watch groups at a Tuesday ceremony at the division's 40th Street mini-station. University officials and community leaders hailed the event as representative of a renewed town-gown partnership three months after several community leaders had blasted Penn for the February reassignment of University Police Lt. Sue Holmes. Until the transfer, Holmes had worked in Public Safety's Special Services division during the day and worked closely with the town watch organizations at night for several years. But many community leaders complained after Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush tapped Holmes to supervise University Police's late-night patrol shift, where they said she would not have as much opportunity to interact with the community. This week, however, members of the West Philadelphia Partnership Town Watch Network were all smiles during the ceremony as they received the radios, valued at approximately $15,000, which they said will improve communication among their patrols. And University and community officials stressed that the controversy over Holmes' reassignment has long since subsided. WPP President Larry Bell added that Holmes serves as the Town Watch Network's secretary and remains "involved" with the organization. Marty Cabry, the network president and a Clark Park West Town Watch volunteer, said the relationship between the University and the community groups "has gotten a lot better" recently. "Penn can't solve the problems of West Philadelphia," Cabry said. "They can help, though. They can be part of a partnership." Cabry said the radios will be shared among the partnership's 19 town watch groups, primarily in the city's 18th Police District, which encompasses the University and the area directly west of campus. During Tuesday's ceremony, Executive Vice President John Fry told the crowd of approximately 40 that the University has budgeted $4.5 million this year to community projects such as the nascent University City Special Services District, the UC Brite lighting program, and an organization geared toward street cleaning and graffiti removal. "Penn is very, very committed to economic development in West Philadelphia," Fry said. "The neighborhood has to be clean and it has to be safe, and I think all our initial efforts have to be focused on this." And City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, whose district includes Penn's campus and the surrounding area, added that she is "always proud" of the volunteer organizations.
(05/16/97 9:00am)
The lawsuits charge the University with not reporting an alleged rape and misrepresenting crime statistics. Two lawsuits filed by a former student accusing the University of failing to report an alleged 1994 rape should go to trial this summer, according to an attorney involved in the case. The suits also charge Penn with conspiring to misrepresent crime statistics in reports mandated by state and federal law. While a U.S. District Court jury will decide the case on its individual facts and merits, similar cases involving colleges and universities in the past indicate a mixed record for plaintiffs. The lawsuits against the University and the alleged assailant, as well as against Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush, charge the University with failing to protect the plaintiff and not reporting the incident to government authorities. The woman alleges that the male student raped her in his High Rise South room after they returned from Murphy's Tavern, and that Rush, then director of Victim Support and Special Services, contacted the plaintiff but did not offer any support or advice. The University, Rush and the male student have denied all the charges in the lawsuits -- including the allegation that the University did not include the incident in its annual campus crime report. The woman, who transferred out of the University last fall as a result of ongoing emotional and physical trauma her attorneys say she suffered because of the alleged rape, seeks an excess of $100,000 in damages. Both suits should go to trial together this summer, said Arthur Marion, an attorney representing the student accused of rape. The plaintiff's attorney, Jack Feinberg, explained that it is often difficult to convince juries that a rape occurred "unless there is some independent corroborate proof." "Usually the juries will accept the words of the rapist," he said, because such cases pit "one's word against the other." According to Marion, the jury will have to decide the case based on the testimony and facts presented. "The whole thing really is a matter of credibility -- who do you believe in this thing?" Marion said. "[Feinberg's] version of what occurred is so diametrically opposed to what our client says, so it's going to have to be sorted out." While Marion said he has "not looked at other cases" similar to these lawsuits, Feinberg explained that he has been consulting an inch-thick stack of paperwork dealing with other court cases involving allegations of student rape. Security on Campus, Inc., a King of Prussia, Pa.-based non-profit organization dedicated to preventing campus violence and crime and helping campus crime victims, provided much of the information, Feinberg said. A spokesperson said the organization was well aware of Feinberg's lawsuits and pointed to two recent cases -- Brzonkala v. Virginia Tech and Thorpe v. Virginia State University -- as possible precedents. In Brzonkala v. Virginia Tech, a student claiming she was raped by two male students in her dormitory room sued the university and her alleged attackers under the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which addresses gender-motivated violent crimes. After a U.S. District Court ruled a crucial provision of the law unconstitutional and dismissed Brzonkala, the U.S. Justice Department intervened, maintaining that "Congress expressly limited the civil rights provision [of the law] to encompass only violent crimes 'due, at least in part, to an animus based on the victim's gender," according to the court brief posted on Security on Campus's World Wide Web site at www.soconline.org. Brzonkala has appealed the court's July 1996 decision. In the second Virginia case, Sheronne Thorpe, a student at Virginia State University, filed a lawsuit against her school and her two alleged rapists, claiming the defendants violated her civil rights under Title IX -- the 1972 gender-equity law -- and the Violence Against Women Act, in addition to arguing that the school did not sufficiently punish the male students involved in the alleged gang rape.
(05/16/97 9:00am)
A federal jury will decide later this year whether the University and the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections violated University Pinball's and University Coin Laundry's constitutional rights in shutting down the businesses last month after accusing them of creating a public and private nuisance. The owners of the establishments filed a lawsuit April 24 in U.S. District Court claiming that the defendants had no just cause for the closing and never notified the plaintiffs before revoking their operating licenses, actions the plaintiffs say violated their due-process rights under the 14th Amendment. The suit -- which names L & I, L & I Director of Business Regulatory Enforcement Rudolph Paliaga, the University and Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush as defendants -- seeks in excess of $100,000 in damages in addition to punitive damages. Although a temporary agreement between the parties reopened the laundromat and game room at 40th and Spruce streets April 25, U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Katz ordered the city to conditionally restore the owners' business privilege licenses last week. When the city closed the game room several weeks ago, Penn officials said they had worked closely with the District Attorney's office to close the business, which they said brought criminal activity to the area. Ron Shaffer, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, William Schoepe, Sr. and his sons William Schoepe, Jr. and Robert Schoepe -- who own the game room and laundromat, as well as several other properties in the vicinity of 40th and Spruce streets -- declined to comment on the lawsuit, explaining that "the complaint speaks for itself." University officials and attorneys also generally refused comment on the lawsuit's charges, but they said they were eager to resolve the problems with the businesses. The lawsuit alleges that the University wished to "coerce plaintiffs to sell their property" in working with the city to shut down the establishments. According to the suit, the troubles began last fall when Rush threatened Robert Schoepe with having the city revoke the Schoepes' operating licenses for the businesses if the plaintiffs did not act on alleged curfew violations occurring in the arcade. The lawsuit maintains that the businesses regularly notify patrons 30 minutes before the 10:30 p.m. curfew that they must show proper identification or leave at that time. Rush, Fry and other University officials met with Robert Schoepe in October 1996 and again threatened him with L & I action unless he "voluntarily closed the arcade and laundromat and put other businesses in the properties," the suit states. In a letter to the Schoepes' attorney dated Nov. 14, 1996, Penn Associate General Counsel Roman Petyk apologizes for "any misunderstandings" resulting from that meeting but argues that the University will not "shirk [its] responsibilities" to students and the community. The letter is one of the exhibits plaintiffs' attorneys included with the complaint. The lawsuit further alleges that the University in January expressed interest in purchasing "all of the Schoepe family properties located on the 4000 block of Spruce Street," but after "discussions concerning the price," the University did not make an offer. Under the terms of Katz's order, the arcade will close between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. each day, and the plaintiffs will "have a responsible adult present" to enforce the city's curfew law. In addition, L & I cannot take further action against the plaintiffs "without prior notification in writing and a reasonable opportunity for plaintiffs to respond in accordance with applicable procedures," Katz's order states.
(04/30/97 9:00am)
The Spectaguard security company -- which has handled all campus security services since January -- will take over the Division of Public Safety's Walking Escort Service effective July 1, Special Services Director Susan Hawkins said yesterday. Although Hawkins stressed that the overhaul will save costs and eliminate some thorny legal issues associated with hourly employees, several students who work for Walking Escort were frustrated at the prospect of losing their jobs and angry at administrators for not considering their concerns in making the decision to switch to Spectaguard. And even though students said rumors were swirling for months that a transition was imminent, University officials first broke the news to Walking Escort employees at a meeting yesterday afternoon -- two months before the proposed change is scheduled to take effect. But Hawkins maintained that the fate of Walking Escort "has been an open question for quite a while" and "like everything else, [Walking Escort] gets reevaluated" to identify possible opportunities for improvement. "Ultimately, it's a winning decision for the University," she said. "In the short run, there are students who thought they would work this summer or another semester who would probably be disappointed." Hawkins added that the University is "upgrading the service" through this change, which she called "fiscally sound." And she said the switch will eliminate "questionable" legal issues surrounding the annual re-hiring of employees who may work only 1,000 hours each year. But College junior Kenitra Carby -- who has worked for Walking Escort for 1 1/2 years -- claimed that administrators did not sufficiently consider student input in opting for Spectaguard. "We were just basically told, 'Too bad'," she said, noting that administrators instead asked for input on "how to help Spectaguard." Carby, who expected to work for Walking Escort this summer while she remained on campus, now hopes to land a job driving a van for the Penn Escort Service. "I don't appreciate losing my job, particularly when there are so few jobs on campus that you can do at night that have really flexible hours," she said. According to the Walking Escort World Wide Web page, the service is available seven days per week from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. Hawkins said Walking Escort teams performed 281 walks in March 1997. But Walking Escort employee and College senior Steve Caputo noted that the service -- founded by students in 1985 -- handled 1,142 walks in October 1996, the month following a robbery surge that culminated in the shooting of a student. And approximately two-thirds of Walking Escort's employees are Penn students, according to Caputo, a 34th Street writer. Carby maintained that Spectaguard employees lack the knowledge of campus that students bring to the job, adding that the transition could be rough when droves of new students, unfamiliar with the campus, arrive. "I also don't like the way they make it seem like it's kind of an easy job," she said. Hawkins said, however, that the University is making the right move with this decision. "I think any change that happens has an element of sadness and loss," she said. "At the same time, I think this is an appropriate administrative and management decision that's going to improve [Walking Escort]."
(04/30/97 9:00am)
University Police last Thursday arrested a man believed to be responsible for more than 50 recent on-campus backpack and wallet thefts, as well as numerous other thefts over the past 10 years, police said. Police arrested Ryan Elam, 27, of the 5900 block of Chester Avenue shortly after noon last Thursday when a student working in Vance Hall's second-floor computer lab noticed that the suspect was carrying nothing when he entered but toted a backpack as he left, University Police Detective Gary Heller explained. While the student confronted Elam -- who allegedly told the student to mind his own business -- others notified security guards, who in turn called police. Officer Marvin Jones arrested Elam on the scene, Heller said. Elam is currently in custody at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Northeast Philadelphia, Detective Jane Curry said. Philadelphia Police would not release Elam's bail, and University Police detectives did not know the results of a court hearing yesterday, when a judge should have set the suspect's bail. "[Elam] has a history with our department going back about 10 years," Heller said, noting that the suspect "specializes" in pickpocketing and swiping unattended backpacks. "We believe he's responsible for the majority of thefts that occur in computer labs and in Van Pelt Library." Heller called Elam a "professional" thief who often took advantage of the moments when students left backpacks unattended or in a place where they were not visible, such as behind a chair. "He knows what students' habits are," Heller said. "He goes out and actively seeks out people who aren't paying attention to where their property is located." Heller added that University Police issued Elam a citation in February for trespassing inside a University building. Because Elam was not carrying any property that could be identified as stolen, police could not make an arrest, even though he had "several prior arrests for this type of behavior." Van Pelt Library Operational Services Manager Charles Jenkins, who oversees library security, said he was pleased with the arrest but cautioned students against letting down their guard. "If he's the one who's doing it, it will be a plus for our security, because we definitely don't want this guy around if he's stealing," he said. Jenkins added that students should take their belongings or enlist a trusted friend to watch their property if they leave the area where they are working. Heller voiced similar concerns, noting that security at many University buildings -- including Van Pelt Library -- is lax during the day. "If you walked [into Van Pelt Library] with a photo license that said, 'Yogi Bear', they would take it," he said. Several students working yesterday in the Towne Building's mezzanine and basement computer labs said they felt safe leaving their belongings unattended, while others said students should be more careful. "They tell you to watch your stuff, but I guess most people don't," Engineering sophomore Vesal Dini said. And a first-year Wharton graduate student working in the Vance Hall computer lab said she takes precautions to ensure that no one steals her property. "I've heard of this problem, and that's why my bag is wedged between my feet," said the student, who asked to remain anonymous.
