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(10/10/97 9:00am)
A mistake by the group that runs elections biased the voting for Undergraduate Assembly and class of 2001 vice president. Election results for freshman Undergraduate Assembly representatives and the freshman class vice president were thrown out last night because of a mistake by the group that supervised the voting. Pandemonium rang through Houston Hall last night as the Nominations and Elections Committee announced that the elections would be conducted again next week. Two candidates -- one running for the UA and one running for the UA and the vice presidency -- filed charges against the NEC last night, accusing the committee of violating its Fair Practices Code by failing to include the candidates' statements in an advertisement in last Tuesday's Daily Pennsylvanian. "The fact is, it was a biased election," NEC Chairperson and College senior Chris LaVigne told the freshmen candidates crowded into the Ben Franklin Room. "There needs to be a new election." Many candidates greeted the NEC's announcement by yelling and cursing, with most complaining that the many days and nights they had spent campaigning had been wasted. Winners of the other class board offices, however, were tallied and announced as final. They are: College freshman Cameron Winton as class president, Wharton freshman David Peretz as treasurer, College freshmen Vanessa Freeman and Christopher Rooney as College representatives and Wharton freshman Nikhil Da Victoria Lobo as Wharton representative. The NEC also presented charges against three candidates who missed the deadline for submitting their expense forms outlining the money they spent on their campaigns. The committee voted to disqualify College freshmen Scott Case, Elizabeth Glazer and Kelly Tishler. "[The NEC] disqualified candidates for not abiding by the FPC," LaVigne said. "We have to hold ourselves to that exact same standard. When there's a biased election, we have to remedy it." Dates for the second round of elections have not yet been decided, but the NEC told the candidates they may take place next Friday. Candidates vehemently contested going through the campaign process again, with many saying they feared the freshman class would "take this as a joke" and fail to cast votes in the new election. Turn-out for the elections was "a little higher" than last year's, according to NEC Vice Chairperson for Elections Diane Casteel, a College senior. More than 30 percent of the freshman class showed up at the polls this week, as compared to the 20-25 percent who had voted in recent years. The two students whose candidates' statements were left out of the NEC's elections insert did not directly ask the NEC to rerun the election. Engineering freshman Theo LeCompte, who was running for the UA, asked the NEC to amend its policy next year and add a system that would ensure no candidates' statements are forgotten. "14,000 copies of The Daily Pennsylvanian were printed with the words 'No Statement' under my name," LeCompte said at the FPC hearing. College freshman Shirin Ghadessy, who was running for both the UA and Vice President, told the NEC she was "torn" about what the committee should do to remedy its mistake. "Part of me thinks it would be justified to re-elect the offices I was running for," Ghadessy said. "But I don't think it's fair to put everybody through that." One additional student filed a charge against the NEC that was later dropped. College freshman Eileen Munoz said her first name appeared as "Eilenn" on Tuesday's ballots, causing "people not to recognize it." The NEC rejected her charge. Several vocal students were frustrated at the length of the FPC hearing, which lasted about two hours. "We all have things to do, especially now -- campaigning again," one candidate complained.
(10/09/97 9:00am)
The University has not given the Student Activities Council the information it demanded. The deadline for University administrators to respond to the Student Activities Council's request for information on the allocation of funds from the General Fee passed last night with no new information given to the body. Although SAC now plans to go ahead in soliciting help from the federal government to procure information on the University budget, administrators said they aren't concerned about the possibility of such a probe. Two weeks ago, SAC gave the administrators an ultimatum: either supply a line-by-line breakdown of where the fee that students pay with their tuition goes, or SAC will pay the government to conduct a Freedom of Information Act search of the University budget. But Rodin said yesterday she couldn't recall the exact deadline SAC had set for a response, adding that she doesn't "feel threatened by the Freedom of Information Act." Under the act, every federal government department has an office that filters requests from the public for information about federal agencies. That office will release any public records it can procure, unless the information is forbidden by law or would compromise personnel privacy -- such as salaries. Although the University is not a federal agency, it appeals to the federal government for money to fund research grants and student financial aid, in the process revealing many of its financial records to the government. The Department of Health and Human Services is processing SAC's FOIA request, which should produce some budgetary figures later this month. The search will cost the group up to $500. SAC Chairperson Steve Schorr, a Wharton senior, first made a request for a breakdown of the General Fee two years ago while serving as Undergraduate Assembly treasurer. Less than $1 million of the $26.5 million of General Fee revenue goes to fund student groups such as the UA, Connaissance, the class boards and all SAC-funded groups -- leaving $25.5 million that students cannot account for. Two years ago, the administration responded with a very broad outline, claiming that a more specific budget was not available, Schorr said. But this time around, Rodin said the administration is trying to be more responsive to the request. "I can give assurance that we will provide more information," she said. University Budget Director Mike Masch is currently searching through the University's financial records for "the most detailed material possible" without violating any University policies, such as that which prohibits the release of employee salary figures. Masch said Rodin's office asked him "on the part of some of the student government leaders" for more detailed information on how income generated by the General Fee is "allocated budgetarily." "I'm not operating off of a deadline," he added. "I've been asked to prepare information that's accurate and informative, and I'll do that as quickly as I can." He noted that the task is "labor-intensive," because the information is not immediately available in a format that isolates the General Fee revenue. Once Masch compiles the material, the president's office will decide how much of the budgetary information to release. Schorr said that although he is pleased that the administration is finally responding to SAC's request, the move is long overdue.
(10/06/97 9:00am)
Some brighter, flashier colors have joined the early autumn foliage around campus this week: hot pink, neon green and fluorescent yellow, among others. With polls for freshmen elections opening tomorrow, many dormitories are filled with colorful campaign posters publicizing the names of the 51 freshmen running for positions on the Undergraduate Assembly and the Freshman Class Board. Many of these posters feature the faces of cartoon characters, film actors and sports celebrities, in addition to such catchy slogans as: "Alex Abrams wears khakis: Vote Alex Abrams for Undergraduate Assembly." "Vote Rishi for UA: He won't go to meetings drunk? often." "Coed-Naked Voting? It's Better in Meghan's Box." But the posters have left many freshmen wondering what exactly the candidates stand for. College freshman Alex Petrovitch said he is basing his vote on "the creativity" in all the campaign posters. "You only know so many of the people running," he said. "I guess you vote for who you know, and the rest are all [based] just on the campaign posters." Lisa Krantz, a College freshman running for the UA, hopes to "catch people's eyes" with her campaign's Trainspotting theme. "As far as I saw, people weren't really concerned with what your platform is," Krantz said. "I don't see a way that all the candidates could develop a really set platform, because they don't know what's really expected from them on the UA." Other freshmen echoed her views. "We're just freshmen. We just got here," College freshman Mohammed Naqvi said. "We don't really know what the issues are." Chris LaVigne, chairperson of the Nominations and Elections Committee, said he believes candidates are only aware of the more superficial campus issues. "I don't think they've been here long enough to really get a handle on the more kind of complex issues affecting the University, the less obvious -- for example, construction of the Perelman Quadrangle, construction of Sansom Common or funding for fraternity parties," the College senior said. But many candidates stressed that they are very aware of the issues affecting their classmates and the University. "I think a big issue is the frat party funding," said Wharton freshman Michael Germano IV -- whose campaign for the UA is being endorsed by the Stouffer Dining Commons employee known as "the Fly Man." Germano said he favors a GreekCard -- which would entitle anyone who buys the card to enter fraternity parties -- over the alternative idea of raising the General Fee to support parties. He also wants to provide students with more opportunities to contact their UA representatives throughout the year by means of a newsletter or an interactive World Wide Web site. "I'm asking for some suggestions," Germano said. "I have a few ideas of my own. When I'm going around I'm trying to ask people what are their ideas, what are their concerns, what suggestions would they make." Germano has been hanging posters up around the Quad and leaving flyers on the tables at Stouffer. Wharton freshman Nicole Davison, who is also running for the UA, has been going door to door for her campaign. "I tell them who I am and why I'm running and ask them what they'd be looking for in a candidate, what kind of concerns they have," she said. Her platform is based on increasing research opportunities for underclassmen, developing a meal redemption system, improving recreational facilities and increasing communication between students and their UA representatives. She says her campaign -- playing on her ballot No. 6 -- is based on both using gimmicks and building awareness of the issues. "[The] platform is definitely the most important part of campaigning," Davison said. "But since so many people are running and since the freshmen class is so big, it's also important to have an interesting way of getting people's attention." Maria McClay, a College freshman running for class president, already has several potential class events in mind, in addition to ideas for improving facilities and increasing outreach into West Philadelphia. McClay has also been campaigning door to door and hanging posters in freshman dorms, but she has chosen not to describe her plans on her posters. "In a way you can't, because of the fact that? there's not enough room [on the poster] to write them all down," she explained, adding that her favorite campaign slogan quotes the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. "When you go to the polls you're going to remember a Ferris Bueller poster, you're going to remember a catchy slogan like 'Help pave the way with Maria McClay'," she explained. "You're not going to remember a long list with things they're going to accomplish." The NEC sponsored a forum to meet the candidates last night in Houston Hall. Over two dozen freshmen attended and were able to mingle informally with the candidates. But for those who didn't attend, there are always the campaign posters which -- as Petrovitch insisted -- are sometimes "pretty good."
(09/30/97 9:00am)
A post on upenn.forsale, intended as a joke, caught the attention of the UA and the Latino community. A racist remark posted on a student newsgroup last weekend prompted the Undergraduate Assembly to question its own role in campus race relations. At Sunday's meeting, UA Secretary Olivia Troye, a College junior, informed the body that a "blatant racist remark" was made Friday on the upenn.forsale newsgroup. The message read: "Want To Buy: young mexican slave? I need someone to do my laundry, clean my room and bath room, wipe my ass, and make me breakfast, and perform various other acts." It was signed "Goat Grabber." Troye, who is also a member of the United Minorities Council, asked the UA to issue a formal comment encouraging the administration to take action on race issues. UA members argued over whether their next step should be to make a plea to the administration to act on the incident, to use the incident to address racism in general or to join minority groups in their efforts. "I don't know if it's our place as the UA to take a stand, although it may be a nice gesture," said UA member Charles Margosian, a Wharton senior. The body ultimately voted to issue a public statement: "We as a student government body believe the incident regarding offensive comments on news groups reveals underlying currents of racism. Therefore, we resolve to make race relations at Penn a top priority." The author of the newsgroup message, College junior Ernest McMeans, told The Daily Pennsylvanian yesterday that the whole incident was a joke that got out of hand. "It was meant to be just a joke between me and my friend," McMeans said. "He's a Mexican guy. We were just playing around." "A lot of people have been writing me harassing e-mails, and I totally deserve it," he added. "No one wants to be thought of this way." McMeans said he wrote an e-mail apology to a Latino friend of his and asked him to forward it to the listserv of his Latin-American group. "I know what it feels like to be on the other end of harassment," he explained. "And I just want to apologize." UA members at Sunday's meeting were also encouraged to attend student minority groups' meetings over the offensive posting.
(09/30/97 9:00am)
A SAC request may lead to more details on the $26.5 million budget. Two years ago, when then-Undergraduate Assembly Treasurer Steve Schorr first asked University administrators to explain how the school allocates revenue from the General Fee, he had no idea a response would take so long. Still without an answer last Wednesday, the Student Activities Council voted to give the administration an ultimatum: either submit the requested information on the General Fee to the student body by October 8, or SAC will pay for a federal government agency to search through University fund data. Schorr, now a Wharton senior and SAC chairperson, submitted the request for information to University President Judith Rodin's office last week. "Unfortunately, I am yet to receive an official response, and I hope that I do before the two-week period ends," he said. But University administrators said they are reviewing the General Fee budget to determine how much information they can disclose to students. Officials from the federal Department of Health and Human Services told The Daily Pennsylvanian that if SAC continues with its request, the agency may be able to release all information, with the possible exception of confidential figures such as personnel salaries. At last week's SAC meeting, Schorr told the body that the General Fee, which every student pays as part of the University tuition, adds up to a total revenue of approximately $26.5 million dollars. This year, undergraduates paid a General Fee of $1,766, while graduate and professional students paid slightly less. Less than $1 million of that money goes to fund student organizations such as the UA, the Social Planning and Events Committee, Connaissance and all SAC-funded groups. That leaves $25.5 million unaccounted for. "I don't know where the money goes," Schorr told SAC. Last week, SAC allocated $500 to pay for a Freedom of Information Act search -- which would be conducted by HHS' FOIA office -- if the administration does not respond with information on the University budget. Time magazine reporter and 1976 College graduate Erik Larson used similar methods to gather information for a story last spring on Penn's tuition. "In the federal government, HHS is the biggest granting agency," he said yesterday. "It provides money and grants to universities." Schorr said that when he first approached then-Budget Director Ben Hoyle two years ago with a request for information on the General Fee, Hoyle gave him an "extremely broad outline" of where the fee goes. "When I asked him for a more specific breakdown, he said a budget didn't exist that was more specific," Schorr recalled. In February 1996, Rodin provided the DP with a very general breakdown of the General Fee, broadly outlining allocations to various campus offices. Budget Director Mike Masch is reviewing General Fee allocations this week to see whether more detail can be provided without revealing individual employee salaries, according to Rodin's chief-of-staff, Steve Schutt. "As soon as he is finished, we will provide more information if we can," Schutt said. HHS officials said it may be illegal to disclose confidential information such as personnel salaries. "It may be something that we would look closely at, and we would determine whether release of it would be an invasion of privacy," FOIA Officer for Public Health Services Darlene Christian said. Every federal government agency has a FOIA office responsible for sorting out public requests for information on its funding, personnel or operations. Although Penn is not a federal agency, Christian explained that "any information that the University submits to the government becomes within the custody and control of the federal government." Any information, therefore, that the University submits as part of requests for research grants, student financial aid grants or scholarships can be released to the public. FOIA can withhold records if they meet any of nine exemptions, such as including national security data, information that is already prohibited by law or information that would compromise personnel privacy. Although her office has yet to review the University's records, Christian predicts it would be able to release the records in full. "I believe we have reviewed data similar to [SAC's request in the past], and we see no exemptions to withhold it," she said. Christian said she received SAC's request for a FOIA search September 25. By law, her office has 20 working days to respond to SAC with any records it can access that do not violate the nine exemptions. Schorr said, however, that he hopes the administration will release budget information before then, enabling SAC to cancel its FOIA request.
(09/25/97 9:00am)
Penn's student government may be calling in the feds. Hoping to end an ongoing battle between students and University officials over access to information about the General Fee, the Student Activities Council voted last night to give administrators two weeks to release the information before SAC turns to the federal government for help. For more than two years, the Undergraduate Assembly, the Graduate and Professional Student Association and SAC have been appealing to University administrators for access to line-by-line allocations of student General Fees revenue. The General Fee, paid as part of tuition by all University students, costs undergraduates $1,766 annually, and slightly less for graduate and professional students. The total yearly revenue of $26.5 million goes in part to finance student activities. SAC Chairperson Steve Schorr said the UA received $922,000 of this year's total General Fees revenue, which it then distributed to fund the Social Planning and Events Committee, Connaissance, class boards and SAC -- which gets an estimated $450,000 to fund all student groups under its umbrella. Schorr said he wants to know, "Where does the other $25.5 million go?" "I've spoken to pretty much every administrator and they've been unwilling to tell me," he told SAC members last night at the group's first meeting of the year. The Wharton senior said that over the last two years, he has tried to obtain the information from the University's budget director, the University treasurer, the vice president of finance, the provost and the offices of the vice provost of university life and the president. Last night SAC issued an ultimatum: if the administration does not give the group access to budget allocations by October 8, SAC will pay for a Freedom of Information Act request asking a federal agency to examine the University's budget. SAC voted to set aside $500 for the investigation. "I think that it's unfortunate that the administration is forcing students to go to the federal government and pay hundreds of dollars to get information," Schorr said. SAC anticipates having information on the budget to offer students by its next monthly meeting. "If anyone now or in the future wants to make a proposal for more funding, they know what their options are," Schorr said, adding that he does not know yet whether his own organization will request more money to allocate to student groups. Last night, SAC also took up appeals from two student organizations that lost their budgets in the spring because SAC said they duplicated other groups' activities or violated funding regulations. Last night, Circle K -- which SAC termed "too similar" to Kite and Key -- returned before the body to ask for renewed support. Circle K representatives appealed for only one-third of the amount they requested last year. They argued that the group does not resemble Kite and Key enough to be considered a "duplicate" of the group. "We help different organizations, we help different people, we help the community in different ways," said Circle K representative Usec Rho, a College sophomore. College sophomore Jason Ackerman, another Kite and Key representative, supported Circle K's claim. "Why not give the community more service?" he asked the body. Another non-funded group, the Free Burma Coalition, tried to appeal SAC for money to support its campaign to educate students about the political unrest in Burma and encourage them to take part in boycotting corporations that do business there. SAC had refused to grant the group money last year, saying that it does not fund any student organization designed to support or oppose a political party or influence legislation. "I don't see how they can call us political when we're not influencing any legislation," said the group's founder and chairperson, Peter Chowla, a Wharton and Engineering senior. But in a close vote, SAC voted to deny Free Burma Coalition the $276 it had requested.
(09/24/97 9:00am)
Freshmen planning to run for the Undergraduate Assembly or the Freshman Class Board have until 6 p.m. today to submit their signed petitions and certificates of candidacy to the Nominations and Elections Committee. In preparation for the October 7 and 8 elections, the NEC will hold a meeting for candidates tomorrow to give an overview of the election regulations under the Fair Practices Code. Campaigning begins Friday. The NEC is taking on a larger role in the election process than in previous years, taking complete control of both campaigns. While the committee has traditionally run all UA elections, class boards have previously overseen their own elections. NEC Chairperson Chris LaVigne said bringing the class board elections under NEC jurisdiction was his "main focal point" when he ran for his position last spring. "Running elections is not what the class boards do," the College senior said. "That's what the NEC is here for." "We spoke with several administrators in the Office of Student Life, and they were drastically in favor of it," he added. Junior Class President Sarah Gleit said handing over responsibility for the elections to the NEC will make the entire election process run more smoothly. "When you're running [for office], it's very difficult to be both campaigning and running the election booth," the College junior said. Gleit added that the NEC has a "more extensive" budget for advertising elections than the class boards, allowing it to provide "more publicity for both the candidates and for voters." The class boards did not publicize elections heavily enough in past years, LaVigne said. "This year, [the NEC] definitely did a really good job of publicity," he said. "Not only did we have a print-out in the DP, but we also sent out mass e-mails to people that stopped by our table at the Center for University of Pennsylvania Identification." But Wharton freshman Michael Germano IV -- who hopes to run for the UA -- said he thinks the elections could have been better publicized to attract potential candidates. "Basically, the only advertisements that I saw were in Dining Services on the tables," he said. Germano -- who was student council president of his high school -- said he found out about the UA by reading the Practical Penn handbook and by attending two UA meetings as a pre-frosh. "I was impressed with many of the members, but I was a little disappointed that a lot of the members didn't show up for the meetings," he said. Although its bylaws stipulate that members can't miss more than three meetings, the UA has suffered from poor attendance in the past few years, and several votes were invalidated when the body failed to meet quorum. Wharton freshman Nicole Davison -- also a potential candidate for the UA -- contacted UA Chairperson Noah Bilenker, a College junior, for information about running for the organization as soon as she moved on campus. "I also saw a lot of literature about it in the Quadrangle and around the dining halls," Davison said. But she stressed that some freshmen not intending to run for the UA seemed less informed about the upcoming elections. "There's been a lot of people who I've asked to sign the petition, and they didn't know what the UA was," she said. "But there's also been plenty of people who did know." LaVigne said the NEC already has more prospective candidates for next month's elections than it has had in previous years, adding that "by publicizing heavily and getting more students as candidates we hope to increase voter turnout, because it hasn't been good in the past."
(09/23/97 9:00am)
Undergraduate Assembly members at the body's weekly meeting Sunday night focused on reaffirming their goals for the coming year and attempted to reach a consensus on the University City vending issue. UA Vice Chairperson Samara Barend began the meeting by defending the UA from recent accusations that it is "directionless." The College junior restated the goals that members outlined during their September 7 retreat -- increasing visibility, becoming more inclusive and working on concrete objectives. Barend said the UA's visibility increased with the recent "There's No Place Like Penn" weekend, a project initiated by the body's Tangible Change committee. The UA contributed $500 for the event's Thursday night movies on College Green, which attracted an estimated 2,000 students. The UA is working towards being more inclusive of the University community by inviting student groups and administrators to meetings, Barend said. "We're trying to bridge the gap," Barend said, explaining that the group doesn't want to function alone. As far as working toward concrete objectives, the UA is creating a checks and balances system between the committees and the entire body. Each of the five committees will work on specific projects and present proposals at the weekly meetings. At Sunday's meeting, the West Philadelphia committee reported continued progress on a handbook to help students living off campus work with their landlords. The Student Life committee announced plans to capitalize on the success of "There's No Place Like Penn" with a Winter Fest at the end of the semester. And College junior and Greek Issues committee member Jeremy Katz said he will attend the next InterFraternity Council meeting in an attempt to build better ties between the UA and the IFC. As the meeting continued onto new business, UA Chairperson and College junior Noah Bilenker opened the floor for discussion of the University's plans to create an open-air foodcourt for many of the food trucks and vendors currently parked around University City. Bilenker said he wanted opinions on the project from other UA members in preparation for upcoming meetings with Jack Shannon, the University's top economic development official. UA member and College senior Mike Steib requested that the issue be discussed at a later time, since there isn't yet a "resolution on the table." Other members expressed concern about the exchange being quoted in The Daily Pennsylvanian, and a compromise was made to limit discussion to five minutes. Several members spoke in favor of reducing the dirty appearance of the food trucks by organizing them into a fresh air food plaza, while others feared the move would inconvenience students and West Philadelphia residents. "I think the UA likes the idea, but there are concerns we have to keep the administration up on," Bilenker said after the meeting. Twenty-one out of 25 members attended Sunday's meeting. The UA's new attendance policy prohibits members from missing more than three meetings.
(09/17/97 9:00am)
Using WATU as a model, SCUE hopes to integrate the program throughout the four undergraduate schools. Students currently registered for COMM 75, "Rhetoric and Public Presentation," are getting a taste of what some student leaders hope will be a new wave of public speaking-based courses at the University. Two years ago, the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education released plans for "Speaking Across the University" -- a program to bring speaking advisors into certain classes to help students with presentations and debates. This fall, with the formation of COMM 75, SATU is off to a test start. The pilot course introduces students to the theory and practice of public speaking and teaches them how to pass those skills along to their peers. SCUE hopes to choose eight of the students that complete the course to become SATU advisors for future courses involving public speaking. In organizing the program, SCUE was inspired by the Writing Across the University initiative which brings writing advisors into writing-intensive classes to help students enhance their composition skills and fulfill the writing requirement. "WATU began the writing fever at this university," said SCUE Chairperson Ari Silverman, a College senior. "We want SATU to be a catalyst for speaking at the University. "A university's role is to create leaders for the future," he added. "A very important component of that role is instilling effective rhetoric and oratory skills in all its students." The idea of rhetoric was incorporated into University President Judith Rodin's strategic plan, the Agenda for Excellence. "It's something she supports, and we support too," said Silverman. SCUE is currently soliciting professors in all four undergraduate schools to designate their classes as SATU courses next term in order to have a trial run of the program with the new speaking advisors. "First, we want to get a set program of training SATU advisors, find a large number of participating classes interested in taking advantage of advisors and build a new emphasis in this school on rhetoric skills," Silverman explained. "After that we'll see what happens next." The SATU advisor would be an added resource to an existing course, Silverman said, but there would not be a separate SATU grade for the course and there has been "no talk of a requirement just yet." SCUE member Aaron Fidler, a Wharton sophomore, said the general response to the SATU proposal has been positive. "It's important that people feel comfortable with their speaking abilities, feel comfortable speaking among their peers and people they don't know," Fidler said. "People I've talked to -- both students and faculty -- seem to be very excited about it." Fidler added that he doesn't believe a SATU requirement would be necessary to attract students to the program. "Now that people are going to be speaking through a global audience and have more people to reach, they will have to learn how to do that," he said. Todd Bonin, a College senior who is currently enrolled in COMM 75, disagrees. "For some people, they definitely need that incentive," he said. "A lot of people leave here without knowing how to speak in front of people." Bonin said he enrolled in the class as an elective because "it seemed like something totally out of the ordinary for Penn." Communications Professor Kevin Dean -- a visiting professor from West Chester University in West Chester, Pa. -- is teaching the SATU training course this semester. "Professor Dean is so funny -- he's a riot and a very good teacher," College senior Annie Fu said. She added that the speech and debate team, which she heads, tried to initiate the SATU program last year, but handed it over to SCUE because it had the resources to make the program campus-wide. The trial run of the SATU program is the culmination of SCUE's Experimental Education Project released last fall. The project was the initiative that began preceptorials last fall and led to the opening of the SCUE Lounge in the Faculty Club last week. "[Dean] has instilled this confidence in us that, by the end of the class, we'll all walk away with a skill that we wouldn't have had otherwise," Bonin said. "The course is a breath of fresh air," he added. "It's different and it's useful."
(09/16/97 9:00am)
Bringing administrators to meetings and facilitating interaction among student organizations topped the agenda at the first Undergraduate Assembly meeting of the semester on Sunday. The group gathered at Chats to discuss the goals of each of the assembly's five committees and share overall visions for the UA. Twenty-two out of 25 members attended -- a relatively high turnout for the group, according to UA Secretary and College junior Olivia Troye. UA Chairperson Noah Bilenker said the Executive Board is working as a whole to bring University administrators to meetings in order to "avoid bureaucracy." The UA also plans to utilize the expertise of various campus organizations in implementing its projects aimed at connecting student groups with one another. "We're an advocacy group, yes," Bilenker said. "But we have to make sure that we take a leadership role and facilitate other groups meeting with each other." The College junior added that the UA will try to put its committee system to greater use this year "to get more done efficiently." Each of the UA's committees meets separately during the week before joining with the entire body on Sunday nights to share ideas. At Sunday's meeting, committees submitted their goals for the year. UA member and Wharton senior Charley Margosian said the facilities committee plans to keep a close watch on the University's building plans -- especially renovations of the high rises and the construction of the Perelman Quadrangle. "We're going to try to keep a finger on what they're doing and what their plans are," he said. The committee also plans to help student groups find rehearsal and meeting space during the Perelman Quad's construction. Among the ideas proposed by the West Philadelphia committee is a plan to work closely with faculty who live in the neighborhood in order to improve the area. "If the students and faculty both have the same concerns, then we can work together and get things done," UA member and College sophomore Seth Kruglak said. The committee also plans to organize the distribution of a brochure to students living off campus with information on who to contact with questions about rent or landlords. Local residents will hand out the brochures door to door, another opportunity to get to know students better. "A safe community is one where you? know who your neighbors are and feel comfortable in your environment," UA member and College sophomore Sara Shenkan said. The UA's student life committee suggested creating a space for pre-game events, such as tailgate parties. The committee also plans to help students work around the elimination of meal redemptions and other recent Dining Services changes. The academics committee plans to continue implementing the advising initiatives proposed last year by the UA's advising report. These include improving peer advising and providing Wharton students with advisors. And the Greek issues committee will continue to work with the Office of the Vice Provost of University Life to help fraternities solve the problem of funding parties.
(09/15/97 9:00am)
With a budget too limited to support the influx of new groups falling under its umbrella, the Student Activities Council plans to carefully monitor new groups this year so that they do not overlap with the agendas of established organizations. "There are a lot of groups in SAC, and there isn't enough money to go around, so it's important for the spending to be as efficient as possible," SAC Chairperson Steve Schorr said. "Every time you have another group, there are a lot of overhead costs involved," the Wharton senior added. "So if you can combine two groups into one, that could save a lot of money." At SAC's annual allocations meeting last April, both Circle K and Global Village suffered from a SAC bylaw barring the council from funding groups that duplicate another's purpose. Although SAC continues to recognize the groups, it cut funding for Circle K -- saying the service organization was too similar to Kite and Key -- and for Global Village, which it said resembled the United Minorities Council. SAC cited Circle K's use of its funds for annual national conferences and for dues to the umbrella organization Kiwanis International as unnecessary expenses, since Kite and Key provides its members with similar service activities without resorting to outside sources. "SAC examined everything case by case, and the kind of activities that [Circle K and Kite and Key] have done over the last couple of years have been very similar -- both do tutoring, both have gone to Ralston House to help out and both do general community service activities," Schorr said. "They don't have different missions." But Circle K leaders cited a broader agenda than Kite and Key. "Our services extend beyond West Philadelphia and the Penn community to outside, bigger causes," said Circle K President Helen Cheung. Cheung, a College junior, said the group's recent projects include tutoring at the Free Library of Philadelphia and raising money to fight Iodine Deficiency Disorder. "We're similar in the sense that we're both community service groups, but in terms of structure we're very different," she said, explaining that Circle K is run by individual committees which give members the opportunity to train as committee chairs, while Kite and Key is led by a board. College junior Vishal Savani -- who founded Global Village in spring 1996 -- said his group is also unique from other University organizations. "We're trying to bring about unity and diversity of all people and backgrounds? people of different sexualities, different walks of life, while the UMC tries more to promote the advancement of minorities on campus," Savani said. Global Village organized the Creating Unity Forum last March -- where 100 students representing different cultures and organizations met for three days to discuss University issues. Because they lacked funding this year, the group had to cancel diversity workshops planned for freshmen. "At this point, we feel paralyzed because we lack the funding to bring the speakers and plan the events that we had wanted to put together," Savani said. He added that although the group is willing to work with the UMC on achieving their similar goals, it may appeal to SAC to regain monetary support. In the meantime, it plans to find other sources of funding through corporate sponsorships, private philanthropists or other local community organizations. Circle K also plans to appeal for money at the first SAC meeting later this month. Its leaders said the group is willing to compromise by asking SAC only to pay for program and administrative expenses. "It will be tougher because we'll have to fundraise for ourselves rather than fundraise for the causes that we're working for," Cheung said. Schorr added that in the future, while SAC will closely examine new groups, it is unlikely to cut funds from other existing groups. "I don't think there are any other groups as obvious as Global Village and Circle K," he said. "I don't think that's going to happen again."
(09/11/97 9:00am)
For students hoping to evade crowded classrooms and grade grubbing this semester, the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education is offering an alternative. After overseeing the program successfully for two semesters, SCUE is gearing up for the fall term with a fresh line-up of preceptorials. These mini-courses -- taught by some of the University's top professors -- are offered each semester for no credit. "It's learning for learning's sake," explained SCUE Chairperson Ari Silverman, a College senior. This fall, University President Judith Rodin will be joining the list of scholars teaching the preceptorials. Her course, "Profiles in Leadership," will allow several students to meet with Rodin and guest lecturers to discuss issues relating to local government and business management. "It's not just a chance to listen to Dr. Rodin," Silverman said. "It's an opportunity to have discussions -- with her participating." SCUE members coordinate registration for the courses and randomly select 10 to 15 students for each. Approximately 256 students attempted to register for this fall's preceptorials. Sixty-two students were turned away from the most popular course -- Urban Studies Professor George Thomas' "A Day on the Beach," a class centered around fly fishing. And 36 students were rejected from Associate Vice President for Campus Services Larry Moneta's "Road Rules," designed to expose students to life on other campuses. College junior Sarah Federman, who oversees SCUE's preceptorial program, explained that the committee takes care of any scheduling or costs that are involved in the courses. "The professor has to do pretty much nothing except come in and teach what they want to teach," she said. Religious Studies Professor Robert Kraft said he is not planning to lecture at all in his preceptorial, "The Jesus Tradition." Rather, he wants to coordinate his ideas with his students' to create the curriculum. "What's going to be discussed will not be programmed in advance," he said. "I'm not going in with a syllabus in hand." SCUE member Aaron Levy took a preceptorial with Anthropology Professor Janet Monge called "What Is a Museum and Museum Work Really Like?" last spring. "She's a great professor that I would not have had the opportunity to take a class with or spend time with otherwise, which is precisely one of the great aspects of the preceptorials," the College junior said. Other courses offered this term are "The Artist and Literature" with German Professor Horst Daemmrich and "Statistics and Literature" with Statistics Professor Ed Lusk. Most of the preceptorials, including Rodin's, will begin meeting later this month. SCUE will accept applications for Rodin's preceptorial starting September 18.
(09/09/97 9:00am)
The group designed the room to encourage student-faculty interaction over meals. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday, the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education celebrated the opening of a new lunchroom where students and faculty can make breakthroughs and break bread at the same time. In the works for over a year, the SCUE Lounge at the Hourglass Grille Room -- located in the Faculty Club at 36th and Walnut streets -- is designed to encourage student-faculty collaboration outside the classroom on a daily basis. "We thought it would be great to have students and faculty come as friends, each paying for himself," explained SCUE Chairperson Ari Silverman, a College senior. To dine in the lounge, students and professors must make joint reservations. A waitered lunch -- which includes an entree, soup, dessert and a beverage -- costs $7 a person and can be paid using cash or through meal plan. The lounge -- which will be open Monday through Friday year-round -- is set in what was formally the bar and grill room of the Faculty Club. Dark wooden tables, a marble fireplace and a grand piano give the room an aura of elegance. Several University administrators, including University President Judith Rodin, Provost Stanley Chodorow, Executive Vice President John Fry and Annenberg School for Communication Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson, attended the ribbon-cutting. Rodin said she has already made reservations at the lounge to meet with students later this week. "What universities are all about is not only what goes on in the classroom, but what goes on beyond," she said. After Silverman and Rodin cut a blue ribbon officially opening the Lounge, SCUE members surprised Rodin with a two-tiered birthday cake. "I'm glad you didn't bother to put all those candles on there," joked Rodin, whose 53rd birthday is today. SCUE Secretary Jason Marbutt noted that student-faculty interaction has been a running theme within his organization's programming. "It's something we always try to improve upon," the College senior said. The new lunchroom expands upon "Take a Professor to Lunch Week," a program SCUE has sponsored every semester for the past 10 years. "Why have only one week a semester where you take a professor out to lunch?" asked SCUE member Aaron Fidler, a Wharton sophomore. To promote its new facility, SCUE will cover the cost of faculty lunches every Friday for the remainder of September, although students will still have to pay. "I think we really have a great opportunity here," Silverman said. "I'd like to see this room packed." The lounge is a product of SCUE's experimental education package, which has sponsored other initiatives such as student preceptorials and the Undergraduate Advisory Board.
(09/04/97 9:00am)
While individual students are busy arranging their schedules for the fall semester, several campus organizations have been working to arrange a four-day University-wide extravaganza to welcome students back. On September 18-21, the Office of Student Life will join with student government and alumni groups to sponsor the "There's No Place Like Penn" weekend, complete with concerts, movies and other activities. The Undergraduate Assembly's Committee for Tangible Change initiated the project last spring as a means to kick off the year and unite campus groups, UA Vice Chairperson Samara Barend said. "There aren't many activities that bring all the students of Penn together," the College junior explained. "Spring Fling is once a year." Organizers, however, say the new weekend is not an attempt to duplicate Spring Fling. The event should be on a much smaller scale and less centralized than the Quadrangle-based Fling. The festivities begin Thursday night with a double feature movie on College Green. And Friday night, a concert in the Quad will feature the band Fathead and possibly other local acts. "I like to bring new music to the school -- bands that people wouldn't normally see," said Wharton senior Allison Rosen, director of the Student Planning and Events Committee's concert committee. Saturday, the Department of Recreation will sponsor a bed race in Superblock, the Residential Advisory Board and Chats will host a brunch on Locust Walk, and the General Alumni Society will organize a post-game Grill n' Chill on Saturday after the Penn-Dartmouth football game. And to conclude the weekend, the Class Boards will sponsor excursions for each class Sunday. "It's such a varied weekend," Rosen said. "I'm sure something will appeal to everyone." The security for this event will not reach the proportions of Fling, and the University will "just take the normal precautions for special events," according to Kim Allen of the Office of Student Life. There will, however, be one or two additional Spectaguards available at the Quad to check bags for alcohol. No containers will be allowed inside. The Committee for Tangible Change and the office of the Vice Provost for University Life will take charge of advertising the weekend. A World Wide Web site with a schedule of events can be accessed at http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~oslaf/like- penn.html. "It's the first of a big tradition," Barend said. "This is something we could carry on and could last."
(04/10/97 9:00am)
Knowing about the brain and knowing about knowing about the brain are two very different things, according to Floyd Bloom. Bloom -- editor of Science magazine -- spoke yesterday at the School of Arts and Sciences' 13th Annual Dean's Forum. The forum, which began with the presentation of the 1997 Dean's Scholars Awards, took place in the University Museum's Rainey Auditorium. Bloom's lecture, entitled "Knowing About Knowing About the Brain," introduced the audience to neuroscience as a developing interdisciplinary field. "I want to increase your awareness of [the brain] so that you can not only say that you know about the brain, but that you know about knowing about the brain," said Bloom, who also serves as chairperson of the Neuropharmacology Department at the Scripps Research Institute in California. During his brief lesson on the structure of the brain and the processes of neurotransmission, Bloom noted that neuroscience has only become a field of research in the last few decades. Scientists interested in the biology of the brain had been previously restricted to the fields of biochemistry, anatomy, physiology and psychology, and each scientist worked only within his respective field. "Now [all these scientists] speak a common language," Bloom said. "Because of this interdisciplinary research, it is now possible to make progress." Such progress, according to Bloom, results from scientists sharing data from their research. In order to facilitate such communication, Bloom and his team of scientists recently completed the Human Brain Mapping Project -- a computer program that allows scientists not only to "collect and analyze the data in a reproducible and verifiable manner but also to be able to share it." Bloom, who has authored or co-authored 18 books, said he majored in German literature in college, hoping to become a journalist. He went on to study medicine because his father told him that he could "do anything" so long as he finished medical school first. The diversity of his interests fits in with the mission of the forum, which Interim SAS Dean Walter Wales said is designed to celebrate the richness of the arts and sciences. The forum also allows the University to honor some of its finest. Several undergraduate and graduate students received the Dean's Scholar Awards for academic excellence. The awards -- presented by Wales -- are based on students' course-load and overall academic performance. Honorees from the College are: seniors Boon Lian Chan, Sarah Cookinham, Nicholas Picardo and Lucy Shanno; juniors Adina Alpert, Daniel Chen and Bethany Rubin; sophomores Ariella Poncz and Benjamin Souede; and Megan Phelan from the College of General Studies. Honorees from the Graduate Division are Rebecca Frost, Patrick Heuveline, Russell Kazal, Holly Rogers-Dillon, Sven-Erik Rose, Derek Schilling and Jesse Snedeker.
(03/04/97 10:00am)
The arrival of Peter Dodson and his dinosaur bones at the University in 1974 put the institution back on the map as a source for paleontology research -- and yesterday Dodson held a book-signing and discussion to announce his new book. Dodson, a professor of Veterinary Anatomy and Geology, published his latest book, The Horned Dinosaurs: A Natural History, to relate his own research to the history of these four-legged plant-eaters -- the last dinosaurs to exist in North America. Dodson shared his recent experiences in writing the book and recounted old stories of research expeditions to an informal audience of students and faculty members yesterday at King's Court/English House. "I found [writing the book] a wonderfully self-indulging exercise," joked Dodson, who added that he wrote the book out of "pure unadulterated ego." The presentation -- which drew more than 40 students and professors to the the dorm's Class of 1938 Lounge -- is the second in the Forum for Penn Authors series hosted by the KC/EH Perspectives in Humanities Program. The series is a student-run program created last semester to introduce students to different means of presenting scholarly writing. Like KC/EH, which houses a diverse variety of programs -- from Perspectives in Humanities to the Science and Technology Wing -- the Forum seeks to embody this diversity of disciplines in its speakers, according to College freshman Michelle Tucker. "With Dr. Dodson, we have a science scholar who presented some very technical material in an accessible manner," said Tucker, the student coordinator for the Forum. The moment he rose to speak, Dodson remarked on the irony of being hosted by a humanities program. "I'm a scientist," he said. "I'm surprised to find myself in English House." Dodson explained that his undergraduate education in Canada -- while "superb in the sciences" -- was far from a liberal arts education. "Scientists in Canada at that time were not expected to take English with English students or history with history students," Dodson said. "A liberal education was self-enforced." Although his new book may be used as a science reference, Dodson did not write The Horned Dinosaurs for the science community alone. "The book is a bit on the high end," Dodson said. "But I also tried to make it accessible." In writing a book that would appeal to the public at large, Dodson said he was aware of the negative stigma associated with the popularization of science, which he said is perpetuated by many science scholars today. According to Dodson, some science institutions -- such as the American Museum of Natural History in New York -- frown upon dinosaur paleontologists who become too focused on the media to be considered "serious scientists." Dodson, however, acknowledged that scientific research depends upon taxpayers' dollars. And he claimed that although "too much popularity is not a good thing in science," the public "deserves an explanation of their expenditures." He also emphasized that science writers need to continue to appeal to the curiosity of their younger readers in order to "inspire the future generation of scientists."
(02/04/97 10:00am)
Over 1,300 high school students from across the United States gathered in Philadelphia this weekend to discuss economic development, world health and the environment as part of the University's 13th-annual Ivy League Model United Nations Conference. The conference -- hosted by the University's International Affairs Association -- lasted Thursday through Sunday in the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel. The conference drew more participants than any previous ILMUNC, placing Penn alongside Harvard and Georgetown as host of one of the three largest model UN conferences in the nation. The annual conference is organized and run entirely by Penn students. Conferences such as ILMUNC simulate the workings of the real UN and give high school students an inside look at the proceedings and policies of the international affairs organization. And while this year's conference participants came from as far away as California and Michigan to learn first-hand about international policy-making, they also used the event to learn about the University. Conference organizers seized the opportunity of having some of the nation's brightest high school students in one hotel by working with the University's Admissions Office to create the Penn Program. Throughout the weekend, University students distributed admissions information and conducted campus tours for the participants. "[The conference] was absolutely a great promo for the school," said College junior Ned Nurick, an ILMUNC staff member. A new Distinguished Scholars Program also brought several prominent University professors to the conference to address the participants on various issues of international world order. "The kids loved them," College sophomore Melissa James said. "I think some of the professors may have convinced them to apply to Penn." James -- who interacted with many of the young delegates in the sessions she chaired -- also noted that Penn's crime problems were not on anyone's mind that weekend. The participants she spoke with said they loved the campus, the atmosphere and being in a city. "The students didn't seem to know about the crime problem," James said. "It is known that in a big city there will be crime. None of the people who talked about wanting to go to Penn seemed to care about crime as an issue at all." Members of the International Affairs Association said they hope many of the young delegates will one day end up at Penn and in the Association. Engineering and Wharton senior Saikat Chaudhuri, chief of staff for the conference, said overall the participants had a "sincere interest" in international relations. "They are part of a group that does not just believe in the news anymore," Chaudhuri said. "They want to know how things actually work." Each high school taking part in the conference is assigned a country several months beforehand and each student acts as a delegate of that country. Those students are then responsible for researching the current issues of their given country so they are prepared to defend their stance on issues at the conference. As in the real UN, the conference is divided into several issue-based committees, each of which produces resolutions written, negotiated and passed by the delegates. The committees focus on such topics as economics and justice. The event's staff of 165 Penn students -- which ran the conference and chaired the committees -- was led by a Secretariat comprised of College juniors Jamie Hine, Vicki Hooper and Chaudhuri. James and College juniors Shalini Ramasunder, Robin Kawakami, Jennifer Taylor and Allan Alicuben also held positions resembling those of the real UN Secretariat. Members of the International Affairs Association could relate to the enthusiasm and accomplishments of the ILMUNC participants. Penn's ILMUNC was rated Top Model UN Conference in 1996 by the faculty advisors of the high schools involved -- and sends an award-winning delegation to college-level Model UN conferences across the world itself. The University's delegation has won the title of Best Delegation in most of the conferences it attended in recent years, according to Chaudhuri, and last spring it beat out the world's best universities at an international conference held in Amsterdam.
