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(10/02/95 9:00am)
and Robert Lucid The article "College house plan to begin next fall" (DP 9/19/95) contains so many factual and interpretative inaccuracies that we feel it is important to set the record straight about at least one part of the article's concern: The collegiate planning work that is being undertaken this year. In its report of last spring, the Provost's Council on Undergraduate Education recommended the development of a series of pilots to test the feasibility of moving toward a full-fledged collegiate system. The four pilots include: The development of a Civic College House, which contrary to what was reported in the above article, is not to be located in or to subsume the Castle. This effort, which began to be conceptualized by a faculty/student committee last year and is being developed by another such group under the chairmanship of Professor Peter Conn this year, envisions a residentially-based academic center which offers courses as well as a residential framework for students of all disciplines interested in service learning. The development of a residentially based program for upperclass students who are interested in research in any discipline. The issues to be considered in the development of this pilot involve identifying the services, facilities and structures that are needed to support students who undertake research. What kind of program can best facilitate their efforts? The development of a non-residential collegiate hub for students who live off-campus. This is not a college house or any sort of residential program, but is rather to be considered a service and activity center. The pilot will test what kinds of services can effectively support an off-campus population so that they do not feel distant from the university. The development of an electronic community which has a residential core that reaches out to connect with students who are no longer residents. Such a community already exists within the Science and Technology Wing of Kings Court/English House. The pilot planning group, to be chaired by Kings Court/English House Senior Faculty Resident Professor Jorge Santiago-Aviles, will study how this electronic community, based in residence, can cultivate a relationship with an off-campus, non-residential population whose members can make use of the on-campus resources. Bridging campus and non-campus communities is the essential effort undertaken here. These pilots are intended to help us answer an important set of questions about what parts of a collegiate system can work effectively. Such a system is larger than the current residential college house system, which would become part of it. Thus the term "collegiate system" is far broader than "college house" and specifically rejects the idea of making people live on campus in order to draw upon the resources located there. Last spring, PCUE recognized that we had in place successful college house and first year house programs which are residentially based. It also recognized that we have many students who choose not to live in university-owned residences. Of the four pilots to be tested, only two are residentially based, and they grow out of particular faculty-student interests which are academic but not discipline-based. It would therefore be wrong to conclude, as the editorial "True Intellectualism" asserts (DP 9/20/95), that such a system would force students by discipline into narrow intellectual paths. To the contrary, these efforts have as their goal opening up opportunities for student choice, leadership, governance, active learning and intellectual exploration -- precisely the kinds of experiences that so many students interviewed told us last spring that they wanted. Faculty and student planners hope finally, after more of the trial and error that we have already gone through on earlier projects, to discover a system of collegiate opportunity in which the concept of the college house itself represents only one kind of affiliation among a significant range of others. But people trying to imagine how to design for the future are going to begin by having reference to what has already been imagined in the present, and the college house system, the living-learning programs, and the first-year house communities represent concrete accomplishments which are an earnest of our ability to do new things. With good luck, our new things in the future will go far beyond the limits of what has been done so far. Indeed, if they are to work they must do so.
(04/27/95 9:00am)
The recent complaints I have read and heard about the University's tenure process deserve a response. While I responded to several statements and questions from students at the English department forum a few weeks ago, it is important that all students understand the values that determine the outcome of this process in a research university. The more excellent the university, the higher the standard -- both in quantity and in quality -- for the work its faculty members do. Penn is among the best research universities in the world, and true excellence in research must be regarded as the sine qua non for promotion to a tenured position in its faculty. Only the faculty can judge excellence in research. Those at the forefront of their fields are best able to assess the quality of contributions to their subjects. Moreover, the faculty of a research university are required to train graduate students as well as to teach undergraduates. There are many undergraduate teachers in the world who do scholarly work of sufficient quantity and quality to make their undergraduate teaching superb, but who do not meet the scholarly standard required for graduate teaching at the highest level. In an institution like Penn, the faculty occasionally may support the promotion to tenure of a merely acceptable undergraduate teacher because he or she is a stellar teacher of graduate students, which is an important value in a research university. Service, frequently service to the University itself, is secondary in tenure decisions. We do want to encourage faculty to commit themselves to the institution and to serve in its governance structures and other activities, but in the tenure decision we are most concerned with their contributions to the basic functions of teaching and research. Many members of the university and scholarly community participate in the measurement of quality that leads to the decision to promote or not promote a faculty members to tenure. The voices of all of these people -- students, faculty, external referees and administrators -- are "heard" in the decision-making process. The department puts the file together, gathering reviews of the candidate's teaching activity from undergraduate and graduate students, collecting the published and unpublished research work, and seeking the opinions of leading scholars in the field from other universities-- American and foreign. The department then reviews and assesses this material and makes its own judgment. The next level of review is the school's personnel committee, which reviews the file in depth and makes a recommendation to the dean. The dean then does his or her own review and sends the case forward to the provost, who consults with a committee of senior academic administrators before making a decision. Promotion to tenure requires final action by the Board of Trustees. The case can be stopped by a negative decision at the departmental, school, or provostial level. Only in rare cases will a negative decision be reviewed at a higher level. The outcome of this multi-layered process is determined by a balancing of the performance in all areas. Students and faculty often say that the tenure process must or can be unfair because it is confidential. In fact, there are many checks in the process that make the process as fair as a human judgment can be. And confidentiality makes it better rather than worse. First, confidentiality permits the contributors to speak frankly, which is a necessary condition of good judgments. Assessments hampered by the fear of reprisal (for students and close colleagues) or of enmity, revenge and badgering (for external reviewers and colleagues in other departments or schools) are not likely to be good assessments. Second, confidentiality protects the candidate. Think of how you would feel if your performance in your courses -- minutely analyzed and frankly judged as it would be in a tenure file -- were to be discussed publicly in class or in the DP. Most of the time the many voices heard in tenure files sing a harmonious chorus that makes the decision relatively easy -- positive or negative. Sometimes, however, the voices are discordant, and the departments, personnel committees and administrators have to weigh and balance them to judge the case. Given the weightiness of the decision for the University, which must plan on having a tenured faculty member remain in its service for 25 to 35 years, the process should err on the side of caution. Having said that, I want to acknowledge how incomprehensible it must seem to students when the University refuses to grant tenure to a superb teacher and mentor. We who make such decisions do not do so lightly or happily. We are making a difficult judgment of the whole, complicated record of the faculty member's performance and promise for the future. For the tenure decision is about the future, not the past.
(02/09/95 10:00am)
From Jeff Wieland's, "Peanuts and Cracker Jacks," Fall '95 But a Penn fan perched in the front row of Yale's Payne-Whitney Gym felt the need to say a little bit more. A split second of disbelief dissolved into anger and frustration. He exploded from the bleachers and chased the official 20 feet up the sidelines, bouncing insults off the striped shirt like he was dribbling a basketball. "Ref, that sucks!" he screamed. "Who gained an advantage? Who gained a [expletive] advantage? Was that professional? You're doing a helluva job tonight, zebra! A fine job!" The incident might have passed quietly, but on this occasion, the official turned his head to acknowledge his heckler. Poised at the point of no return, the fan powdered him with a few more choice words. Was the Penn fan wrong? But the sports world is not the real world. Rather, it is a fantasyland created by men and women to untie those knots of conflicting emotions tangled by the complexities of the real world. Or can you? What about the Quakers fan who abused the referee? Was that any different from Yale fans who chanted "C.B.A." at Jerome Allen as he shot free throws? What authority governs a person's actions in the sports world? Just as baseball in its romantic role as America's national pastime is specially exempted from our antitrust laws, so America's stadiums and ballparks have de facto become vacuums in our civil code. When you step through the Palestra turnstile before a Penn basketball game, you might as well be Alice stepping through the looking glass, because the world beyond is a similar but twisted version of the one outside. At the Palestra, you can spit. You can scream like a banshee if you like. You sprinkle your dialogue with a healthy dose of profanity during anxious moments. When you don't like the ruling, you can ridicule the judge. You can even taunt the poor sap in orange and black three rows down, and safely pelt him with a kernel or two of popcorn from time to time. Sports fans have collectively established their own unwritten code of conduct as simple as the sports world itself. When have you gone too far? It's when the guy next to you says, "Shut up, you're being an ass," or an usher paraphrases it more politely. The consequences of those actions are neatly uniform -- you break the code, you leave the building. It is understandable that people who treat a trip to the Palestra as casually as a trip to the circus might be disinterested or offended by the vulgarity they find there. It's not always easy for someone to suspend his carefully contrived sense of morality as quickly as he can find section 215. In the sports world, right and wrong are stripped of their trivial nuances and applied in broad strokes, allowing the grey area to fade into right. A certain degree of verbal abuse becomes a legitimate part of that simplified world. Fans understand it, players understand it and officials understand it. And as often as they bleat about cleaning things up, they all have come to accept it. At what point was the Penn fan wrong? He was only wrong after his final string of profanity, when the usher finally came over and politely asked him to stop while the referee returned to the game. Or as the guy two rows behind him paraphrased, "Shut up, you're being an ass." Jeff Wieland is a College sophomore from Aptos, Calif., and a sports writer for The Daily Pennsylvanian. Peanuts and Cracker Jacks appears alternate Thursdays.
(09/13/94 9:00am)
AD Bilsky put hoops on map Wideman is quiet, sincere and a close friend of Bill Bradley and what he said was, "It's a simple story, the better team won." Over in another corner Steve Bilsky, soon to be christened Broadway Bilko, by Pete Andrews, stood as the center of attention. "Listen to him talk over there," Dave Wohl kidded. "Tomorrow morning's paper is going to be a Bilsky monologue." The scene was vaguely reminiscent of Penn State's locker room after the Orange Bowl. The main conversation was, "I can't believe it," and "this is the greatest thing that ever happened to me." Of course, it was Bilsky's night because the finger of fate had pointed at him and the ball fell through the hoop. "The shot was supposed to be mine or Dave's," the hustling sophomore said. "We had trouble recognizing whether they were in a zone or man-to-man. I knew time was running out and that even if I missed, we still had the tie. It felt good off my fingers and I just stood there and watched it. It took ten seconds to get there?" · Dick Harter sat in his chair a few weeks back, before the Princeton game, bemoaning his luck. It wasn't enough that Ken Cohen had been sidelined for a couple months on a bum knee, or Pete Andrews missing a couple of games with a sore back, but now the team had some momentum after the win in the Kodak Classic and Pete had come down with a bad cold for the Princeton game. "You know," he said with a serious look on his face, "you can't have a week go by that something doesn't go wrong," and then he broke out into a big smile. It has been a troublesome three years for Dick Harter since he returned to Penn and tried to pick up the pieces that Jack McCloskey left him. The young coach has been criticized a lot, by many, but most are willing to give him the time to gather his kind of talent before judging. But Dick Harter is being recognized as one of the finest recruiters on the eastern seaboard, and in fact, could barely stay around to savor his greatest win. He was off Thursday morning to Chicago to look at some prospects. You could feel, Wednesday night, the competition between two basketball minds, as if they were only chessmen. It was Jack Kraft, called the best around by many people, and Dick Harter, whose biggest fault may be a tendency to overcoach sometimes. Harter guessed right, Kraft wrong. · There was more hugging going on in the Quaker dressing room than at a Kappa Sig party. Wohl and Bilsky stood together for a while with Dave answering for his backcourt mate and giving him encouragement. He leaned over and said, "Steve, that shot is going to go down in Pennsylvania basketball history. Even Ernie Beck couldn't have put it in better." Decker Ulhorn was standing on the bench in front of his locker saying, "I just want to go out there and shake Gillen's hand." But really nobody wanted to leave. "I just want to stay here," Bilsky said. "I wouldn't go to class for anything tomorrow." But Wohl retorted, "I would." Dick Phelps was caught by the TV cameras dancing at about midcourt with Harter punching him in the ribs. It wasn't until later that he noticed the ache in his back. "Did I go up high enough to block a Howard Porter shot?" he asked. "I'm going to feel it tomorrow, but give me a couple like that after La Salle Dick." · It was difficult to tell who was more shocked. The Villanova players couldn't find the coordination to call time out, even though they could have with two seconds left, and Bilsky as he sat in front of his locker mumbled, "I didn't know what to do, or where I was?" But maybe the most stunned were the Harter critics.
(09/15/92 9:00am)
From Paul LaMonica's "A Room With A View," Fall '92 My roommate chooses to play blackjack since he is dealing first. After dealing, he announces," It's time to take this Jew boy's and this guinea's money." My friend and I laugh and reply," Don't worry because the chink is going to get cleaned out tonight." The three of us play cards on many occasions and not onjce do we worry about what Penn's PC Thought Police might do if they overheard us joking about each other's ethnic background. To us the idea of having to walk a tightrope when speaking about other groups is absurd. I undersrtand that many words used to describe certain groups can be very offensive, especially when the person who is using the words intends to harm the group with them. However, telling people what to say and how to say it is not an answer to racism, discrimination and bigotry. As a newspaper editor in high school, I was confronted by people who objected to the usage of certain words and terms. One article that was printed spoke of a group of students known as the "guidos." The Board of Education, composed of four Italian-Americans, wrote a letter to me and the other editors of the newspaper. In this letter, the Board expressed its collective opinion that we should be damned to Hell for offending the members of the Italian community. These people failed to notice two key things. First of all, we were not offending anyone, let alone Italians. The article merely referred to a high school clique, not an ethnic group. Second of all, four out of the five editors of the newspaper were Italian-American, myself included. Would we print something that we found to be personally offensive without voicing our own opinions as a response? I think not. Examples of narrowmindedness such as this undermine the PC movement and turn people like myself away from it. I'm not sure if these people truly believe that they can change the way people think by "correcting" what others say or if they just want to control others by putting their words in our mouths. I, for one, don't like other people telling me what the new word of the day for a certain group is. Furthermore, I don't want to be chastised for mistakenly using yesterday's word to describe that group. My mother, a child of the 1950's, still uses the word "colored". In a multicultural community such as this, she would be crucified for uttering such an anachronism. However, my mother has many friends of all different races and creeds. She does not hold any bigoted or racist views, so what's the big deal? In this day and age, it seems to me that too much importance is placed on what people say about other groups instead of how they act towards other groups. Why do PC advocates waste their time attempting to conjure up some ideal lexicon of non-offensive terms to describe people? Forcing people to be politically correct won't prevent further racial and ethnic violence. To do that, you'd have to bring all types of people together and show them that we all belong to one race, the human race. I don't profess to have a sure-fire way to solve this problem but a start would be to stop telling ourselves that there are thousands of different races instead of just one common group. However, it seems that the PCers will be content to just look for cute new ways to categorize people into different groups. Let's stop putting so much emphasis on what people say or how they say it? Wouldn't it be better to strive towards living in a world in which people can harmlessly joke around with each other as my friends and I do in our card games? One more thought.... If a white man goes out and kills a black man merely because of the color of his skin but calls him a PC approved word for blacks before he puuls the trigger, does that make the murder politically correct? Will the victim's family be consoled by the fact that this bigot used the right terminology to describe the man he killed? Of course not! Actions speak louder than words! Paul LaMonica is a sophomore Psychology major from North Babylon, New York. "A Room With A View" will appear alternate Tuesdays.
(04/22/92 9:00am)
I would like to discuss a recent Daily Pennsylvanian article about the admission rate for undergraduate applicants to Penn. I think your emphasis on this issue alone is limiting with regard to the quality of the University and its students. While the admission rate is certainly an acceptable indication of the level of selectivity of a university, it is far from being the best indicator of the quality of a university, of the education it offers its students or of the quality of the students attending that university. It is this last point that many people most often neglect. What does this mean? It means that the students we accept choose Penn as often as they choose other colleges, and that in attracting admitted students we do better than many of our peer institutions. And what better measure of students' interest in us than the school they finally choose to attend? Our competition for admitted students is predominantly other Ivy League schools, plus universities such as M.I.T., Northwestern, Michigan, Duke and Stanford. In an environment where most colleges across the country matriculate about a third of their admitted students, a matriculant yield of 50 percent is excellent. It is even more so considering the quality of our competition. Even within the Ivy League, only Harvard and Yale consistently matriculate over 55 percent of their admitted students. And yes, it is a challenge to have students attend Penn when Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford has admitted them. But students do make that choice, if not as often as we would like. Given the size of the entering class at Penn, it is safe to assume that we will have the highest admit rate of Ivy League schools in the foreseeable future. It would be unfortunate if this one statistic becomes the only one used to measure the quality of the student body and the University. I feel it is an inappropriate approach, often used by college guides, to rank institutions by simple, apparently objective criteria. This neglects the fact that one cannot measure the quality of a student's education by such simplistic methods, and ignores the notion of "fit." We hope that students come to Penn because they believe that they will get the best education for themselves here, because it is "right" for them, not simply because it was higher on someone's list of colleges. I hope you will be able to take a broader view of what makes Penn the outstanding institution it is. Does this mean that we are satisfied with our position? Of course not. The admissions office will continue to work with faculty, students and alumni to find the most talented and diverse possible student body for Penn. We realize that we can never rest on past successes, especially considering our competition. And we expect to make further progress. But the mere fact that there is progress to be made does not mean that Penn is not an excellent institution with exceptional students. And overemphasizing the admit rate keeps us from focusing on what is really important. WILLIS STETSON Dean of Admissions
(11/01/91 10:00am)
The University has not decided whether it will support a state Senate bill requiring campus police departments to open their crime records to the public, Assistant Vice President for Commonwealth Relations James Shada said Wednesday. In addition, the executive director of the Senate Education Committee said she is not sure how quickly the bill will progress through the committee. "It's a little early for us to take a position," said Shada, who lobbies in Harrisburg on the University's behalf. State Sen. Richard Tilghman (R-Bryn Mawr) and several other senators introduced a bill last Monday requiring colleges and universities to prepare a daily log of campus crime and to open the log and related records to the public. Shada said he is awaiting the opinions from the General Counsel and University Police about the bill. He added that his office is following the same procedure as it did when a bill was introduced requiring colleges and universities to provide annual statistics on campus crime. The bill was passed in 1987. Helen Cafrey, executive director of the Senate Education Committee, said Wednesday she did not know when the bill would leave the committee. She said that the committee would research how colleges and universities across the state inform the public about campus crime and that they would speak to Tilghman about what likely effects the legislation would have. Cafrey said she is not sure whether the committee will hold a public hearing on the bill, saying "this seems like a straightforward bill." Rather, she said, a staff member would write a "good piece of analysis" on the bill which would be circulated to members of the Education Committee.
(10/17/91 9:00am)
When Ilicia Stangle was applying to college last fall, she really wanted to be a Quaker. But simply applying to the University as her first choice under the early decision program wasn't enough for the Albuquerque, N.M. native to show her love for the school and her desire to go there. So she took out an ad in the paper. Sure enough, she got in. And now she lives in the Quad. Stangle's ad in the DP did get the attention of the admissions department, officials say, but they also said that it did not affect their decision to accept her in any way. According to Director of Admissions Planning Cristoph Guttentag, Stangle's ad was not an empty gesture, but rather an extension of the portrait of herself she painted in her regular application. "We find that when we evaluate an application, the different parts, such as the transcript, the activities and recommendations come together fairly consistently to create an image of an applicant," said Guttentag. "Like everything students do, [the ad] was in some way reflective of their personality . . . It was not perceived negatively." Stangle, now a College freshman, said that she ran the ad in the DP because a friend of hers who was a University alumni recommended that she "do something out of the ordinary." Stangle said that she and her father thought of the idea of the ad, adding that "it got [the admission office's] attention." But she insists that she was a fully qualified applicant. "I would have been accepted anyway," Stangle said. Stangle said that she recommended pulling a stunt, such as her ad in the DP, to other applicants. "Many people who are applying [to the University] are all equally qualified," Stangle said. "You need something to make you stand out." Guttentag said that occasionally, students will do extraordinary things to get the attention of the admission officers, but generally they are more conservative. "Generally people don't do outrageous things," Guttentag said. "They take the process seriously, they tend to hesitate during anything that involves a risk of being misinterpreted or having a negative judgement." He added, however, that in exception to the general trend, some applicants have done some "interesting" things over the years. He said that the admissions office has received a life preserver with the letters "USS Penn" on it, a stained glass window with the University insignia, a photo of an applicant with his face painted red and blue and a three-foot greeting card. And one "clever" prospective Quaker filled out an application for his dog as well as himself. "The cover letter, talked about how his dog had told him she wanted to go to Penn too, and he signed it with a paw print" Guttentag said. "It was really humorous" "People will do things to try to make an impression," Guttentag said. "Generally it is in good taste and humorous, but alone they don't change an admissions decision and don't have a real impact."
(09/11/91 9:00am)
The University will be hard-pressed to find money to pay the city "user fees" if a plan proposed by Mayor Wilson Goode is approved, Senior Vice President Marna Whittington said yesterday. The Goode administration has proposed the University and other non-profit institutions pay a combined $20 million in user fees -- money to support fire, police, sanitation and other basic services -- to help bail the city out of its current fiscal mess. Whittington said despite the restoration of $37 million state funds last month, the University's budget is "quite tight." Administrators did not plan for the city to assess user fees this fiscal year ending next June, she added. Whittington, the University's chief financial officer, said although she would have preferred that city administrators discussed their plans with the University before they wrote the draft, she hopes the University and the city will be able to work together to help forge an appropriate solution to the city's financial troubles. Currently, the city does not levy several taxes on the University that for-profit organizations must pay, although the University contends it deserves reduced tax rates because of the medical care, volunteer time and prestige the University offers the city. The suggested user fee hike is part of a proposed five-year plan the city must submit to its financial oversight board. The oversight board must approve the plan before it will borrow money on the city's behalf and before the city receives approval to charge a regional sales tax. It is not yet certain how much the city intends to charge the University under Mayor Goode's plan. The report has not yet been released to the public, and details of the plan were not available. Whittington said she has not seen a copy of the proposal, adding the University is trying to obtain one so they can analyze what the city wants the University to pay. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
(04/17/91 9:00am)
The University has agreed to allow juniors to congregate at the Quadrangle's Junior Balcony before next week's traditional Hey Day march to College Hall, but only long enough to assemble and march out the gate. As part of what Director of the Office of Student Life Fran Walker last night called "a compromise that would address everybody's needs," the University has backed off from a proposal to begin the march at Superblock on the condition that the incoming senior class board assume responsibility for maintaining control of students participating in the event. Last year, juniors picked up and then dropped President Sheldon Hackney and poured beer on him during the event. Walker said that if problems continue to plague Hey Day, it is a "distinct possibility" that the traditional start will be moved permanently to Superblock next year. In past years, juniors were allowed into the Quad before noon, where celebrations lasted for several hours before the incoming senior class reassembled at Superblock around 3:00 p.m. Moore said juniors arriving at the Quad before 2:15 p.m. will not be turned away, but he stressed the University has "made clear to the new [senior class board] officers that they are responsible if people do what they're not supposed to do." Senior Class Board President Brandt McKee said yesterday the board "has accepted the responsibility." McKee added that five security guards will be posted at the Quad's two gates to ensure that no students bring alcohol into the Quad and to help maintain order. Moore explained a concern for student safety motivated the proposed site change, saying "the Quad portion of the event has gotten so out of control in years past." Moore said that many juniors who drank excessively in the Quad endangered themselves and others during past marches by stopping traffic on Spruce Street and climbing onto cars. "I'm not here to prevent people from having a good time," Moore said. "It's a fine tradition, but not at the risk of people's lives and their health and property damage." Moore claimed that shortening the length of time juniors spend in the Quad will not damage the tradition of Hey Day, saying the real tradition lies in the hats and canes and the official declaration by President Sheldon Hackney of their rise to senior status. Moore suggested the site change in a meeting with the senior class board Friday, but over the weekend the board received numerous complaints about the possible site change from students. McKee said after he expressed the board's disapproval of the change in a meeting with Walker on Monday, Walker checked with both Residential Living and the Office of University Life officials about moving the start back to the Quad. He added Moore presented him with the modified plan late yesterday morning.
(03/07/91 10:00am)
But Goodman said she could not give details of the settlement because the students involved -- co-hosts Richard Rothstein and Vincent Fumo -- would not give her permission to discuss details of the case. College senior Rothstein refused to comment on the case last night, and Wharton senior Fumo's phone number has been unlisted since the show aired. UTV Station Manager Kirk Marcolina said Monday their settlement would likely include a broadcast apology on UTV, adding he would receive a letter of reprimand from the JIO that would not appear on his permanent record. Marcolina, a College junior, did not comment further on the settlement on Monday. President Sheldon Hackney called for a JIO investigation of Pig Penn one week after its October 2 airing, asking Goodman to concentrate on one part of the 45-minute show where the hosts identify freshman women by their name and Freshman Record pictures. During the show, the hosts also traded shots of tequila, discussed oral sex in graphic detail and showed pictures of nude men and women. Staff writer Kenneth Baer contributed to this story.
(02/27/91 10:00am)
Mayoral candidate George Burrell's office looks like a traditional family's Fourth of July party. Red, white and blue stars hang from the ceiling and hundreds of pamphlets proclaiming "Victory '91" adorn the walls of the Democratic candidate's office. A serious image of the 42-year-old University graduate stares out from posters on the wall. (Section omitted) Politicians can take several years to become accustomed to a new situation. "[The crisis] is not going to be solved by someone who has to figure out what it means to be a politicians in a political arena," he said. The University, Burrell has said, will have to be somewhat responsible for helping Philadelphia out with the financial problems. Asking non-profit, tax-exempt institutions for user fees is one of the four measures he has said he would use to solve the city's financial problems. The other three things Burrell said he will propose are cutting $30 to $40 million, improving labor relations and negotiations, asking for more state aid and adding a city sales tax. Burrell's ideas would obviously be for naught, though, if he is sharply hampered by continuing bad press as he has recently received. Local media reported last month that he defaulted on several school loans, but has since repaid them. And Burrell said the fact that he has repaid the loans is the key point. He emphasized that people get into difficult situations sometimes and said he feels sure the voters will understand his plight when they go to the polls in the May 21 primary. Burrell, a 1969 Wharton alum and a 1974 Law School graduate, said the University drew him from his home state of New Jersey to the city, and has kept him here since. At the University, Burrell was active as a football player and in several honor societies. (CUT LINE) Please see BURRELL, page 5 BURRELL, from page 1
(02/21/91 10:00am)
If Bloomers, the only all-female comedy group at the University, was categorized as feminist once upon a time, it might have been an accurate description. But it certainly is not now. The group opens its 14th annual show tonight, and in this time of war and fast changes in the world, the women of Bloomers have decided to avoid the stereotypes of female comedians as well as the complexities of the unpredictable and explosive world situation. "It's hard to make fun of the world [in these times]," said College senior Nani Coloretti, the show's director. So Bloomers decided that they would stay with topics that, although contemporary and identifiable, stay away from touchy subjects. At the time Bloomers was formed, Coloretti said, "there was no outlet for female comedy." And although she conceded that years ago the show might have had a feminist agenda, she said today it is different. "We have stuff dealing with things not done in other [Bloomers] shows," Coloretti said. But, she added, "[although] we do deal with female issues . . . we leave no stone unturned." And all of the show's material was approved by the 12 performers, since they, along with some other writers, created the skits. "If you can't write a funny show, it doesn't matter how many funny faces you can make," said Lesley Wolff, a College sophomore. The performers-writers are concerned not only about the show's execution, but also the content itself. "I really hope that the audience will be able to sense the wit and the effort that went [into the show]," added College sophomore Deborah Brown. Coloretti's attempt to leave no stone unturned seems to be a major part of the show. Good to the last drop . . . dead! satirizes almost everything from movies such as Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure PARIS, the Penn Automated Registration Information System. Coloretti said that despite the show's morbid jokes, people will still enjoy it. "I try to give the audience a feeling of fun and irony about the world," said Coloretti. "To get people to laugh . . . laughter is a good release." Good to the last drop . . . dead!, opens tonight at 8 p.m. in Houston Hall Auditorium. Tickets are $5 and will be on sale today and tomorrow on Locust Walk and at the door. On Friday and Saturday, shows will be at both 7 and 9:30 p.m.
(02/06/91 10:00am)
Quick -- what is a tri-indentured 7.264 kilogram deka-pin dispersal system? The answer, for those who have not figured it out yet, is a bowling ball. Much like a television quiz show, four-player teams of students raced against time to answer the questions on everything from German monarchs to cooking to Corvettes. After a few seconds of conferring, the first team to hit the buzzer would give the judge its answer. Each team competed in two eight-minutes quiz sessions, with a brief interlude in between for players to rest their frazzled brains. Many of the questions stumped all of the participants, going unanswered. The contest, held Friday and Saturday, brought 128 students from 31 colleges around the country to Steinberg-Dietrich Hall and Vance Hall. According to graduate student Joel Goldberg, one of the organizers, the results from the Penn Bowl tournament will not count toward the national College Bowl competition, which is scheduled to begin in March. The tournament consists of two four-player teams that compete in eight-minute halves. Goldberg said that last weekend's event was the first intercollegiate academic tournament of its kind ever held at the University. "It was twice as big as any other tournament I've been to in the three or three-and-a-half years I've been involved with this," said Randy Rethmeyer, a Wharton and College senior and one of the event's organizers. Rethmeyer said that organizers started mailing out invitations to the event last July, as opposed the usual month's notice. He also said that "the location was a good one, there are many active teams up and down the East Coast." Wharton freshman Chris Stevo called the whole competition "a wonderful success" and said that it "went far beyond our wildest expectations." Rethmeyer said that he was especially pleased with the results due to the fact that just two years ago, when he first became the team captain, SAC had denied the team any money because of the poor planning and organization that the previous team leaders had shown.
(01/17/91 10:00am)
While no one knows what war with Iraq will bring, Darryl Northington is content not to find out. Northington, an officer with the University Police Department, is a reserve senior airman in the United States Air National Guard stationed at the Willow Grove Naval Base. As with many reservists, he is presently on alert status, waiting to find out whether he will become personally involved in Operation Desert Storm. Alert status normally means 72 hours prior notice before moving out but, Northington says, if war breaks out, he may get even less time to prepare. Northington is a jet-engine mechanic and spends his time in the National Guard working on A-10 anti-tank aircraft. The University Police Department has already lost one officer to the army. Officer Martin Turofski was supposed to graduate from the Police Academy on January 30th, but when he received his orders to report for duty, his graduation plans were postponed. There are also many University graduate students who are members of reserve forces. Jess Posey, a first-year Wharton graduate student and a resident advisor in Community House, joined the naval reserves in September last year after graduating the U.S. Naval Academy and serving eight years in the Navy. Posey said that since he is a ship engineer, it is doubtful that he will be called up "unless the actual ship is activated." Another Wharton MBA student, Brent Cavan, said he will probably not get called up for active duty either because he is primarily trained in the type of woodland and city fighting found in Europe. Air Force Academy graduate and Wharton graduate student Matt Johnson is technically in the inactive reserves since he left acctive duty in September of 1989. Like his classmates, Johnson described his chances of being called up "pretty slim." Even though there is no imminent chance of these men being called up, they are all watching the situation closely since they have ex-classmates and friends stationed in the Persian Gulf. In addition, Johnson is President of the Veterans Club at Wharton which has already sent care packages to two men who were supposed to be members of their class but were called up to active duty. All three reservists have much confidence in the troops stationed in the Arabian desert. Cavan said that Saddam Hussein is "in for a rude surprise", and "he will not know what hit him." Johnson added, "you will not see a waning resolve of American troops." Each of these graduate students has observed what Posey described as "intelligent commentary" on both sides of the issue at the University. Cavan said that he hopes this type of dialogue continues and that there will be no resurgence of "abhorrent" attacks on soldiers as seen during the Vietnam War. The reservists were not able to give their own opinions on the war because in their earliest days of training they are told not to give their feelings on military action to the press. This policy also applies to ROTC students, many of who refused to comment on the conflict last night because of the orders they received. But Midshipman Commander Doug Pfeifle, battalion commander of the Naval ROTC unit at the University and a Wharton senior, was given permission to give his own personal opinions on the conflict and information about the ROTC unit's status. Pfeifle said that the midshipmen "are not allowed to answer any policy questions" because as part of the Department of Defense their "job is not to dictate policy but to act when asked." ROTC members will not be called to active duty because they are considered civilians until they accept commissions from the Navy upon graduation. Pfeifle added that the general feeling among the ROTC ranks is "one of empathy" because the training they have had makes them feel like the soldiers' peers. In addition, Pfeifle said that he is personally concerned about the situation because of the people he knows serving in the Gulf, and that ROTC "will be giving them all the support we can give them." University Police Officer and active reservist Northington also was willing to support the war effort. He said he believes President Bush's choice to fight might have been the only one. "We have to quell this threat," he said. "If he is not stopped now, it could get much worse. If he can muster large support from the Arabs, it could get to be an even bigger problem." However, Northington still hopes that fighting will be limited. "War, in general, is not constructive," he added. "It's destructive and foolish."
(10/18/90 9:00am)
After months of extensive planning and comprehensive preparation, the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness will begin its four-day conference here tonight with the hope of empowering students in the fight against poverty. The conference represents the crown jewel in the University's attempts to increase student participation in volunteer programs and to bring recognition to its efforts to improve community relations. The fourth-annual conference -- hosted in the past by Harvard, Northwestern, and American universities -- is expected to draw over 500 student representatives from universities nationwide. The weekend-long conference will include speeches, panel discussions and workshops that will center around possible solutions to homelessness, illiteracy, hunger, and poverty. Since early this year, over 70 students have worked tediously organizing everything from Dining Service meals to a speech by a U.S. Congressman. The National Campaign along with various University student organizations has been making preparations during the last nine months, including Kite and Key Society, Penn Volunteer Network, and University City Hospitality Coalition. The conference, financed by the Office of the President, Office of the Vice Provost for University Life, and the Student 250th organization, will cost several thousand dollars. But Horwitz said the event will bring innumerable benefits to the University community. She said that the conference should bring an increased awareness among University students about the problems of the homeless, adding that she hopes there will be an revival of student activism. The National Campaign has been working in concert with various Philadelphia community groups, including the Mayor's Commission on Literacy. The groups are expected to send representatives to the conference this weekend. Thelma Reese, director of the Mayor's Commission on Literacy, said yesterday that she hopes students use the conference as a stepping stone to undertaking further volunteer projects. "[Students should] become aware enough about the problems. . . [to] make some kind of commitment toward solving those problems," said Reese, who will be a panel member for one discussion. "The conference should make people aware of the high level of illeteracy which contributes to economic problems of society." According to Colleen McCauley, chairperson of the Penn Volunteer Network, the goal of the conference is to allow "students to sit at the table with people working in the community to see if and how students can get involved." She added that students "will be able to talk to a wide variety of people from the community." The conference will begin tonight with a keynote speech by Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund at room B-1 of Meyerson Hall at 7 p.m. It will conclude on Sunday afternoon with a speech by U.S. Representative Tony Hall, also to be held in Meyerson Hall.
(09/12/90 9:00am)
Casual strolls across a nearly-deserted Walnut Street near Hill House will become ill-advised within the next few months, when thousands of motorists reclaim the Walnut Street Bridge. The 94-year-old bridge, which spans the Schuylkill River from 24th to 32nd streets, was closed in January 1988 so that it could be rebuilt. "We recognize that it would be a great relief to that entire area," Morasco said. It will also make it easier for students to walk to Center City. The new bridge is two feet wider, with four 11-foot travel lanes and two eight-foot sidewalks. The ornate wrought-iron pedestrian guardrail has been replaced with concrete walls. The project cost about $28 million, and was both federal- and state-funded. Its opening awaits final work on traffic signals and protective barriers. Unanticipated problems discovered during the final inspection could cause delays, Morasco said. While Walnut Street near 33rd and 34th streets will be busier after the opening, Morasco said she does not expect large increases in traffic further west on Walnut Street. While the bridge was closed, motorists were re-routed to open bridges, such as the South Street bridge next to Franklin Field, and returned to Walnut to continue westbound. Morasco said that throughout the project, the contractor has been ahead of schedule. Rob Buckley, the project superintendent, called the reconstruction "difficult," but added that it went smoothly. Buckley said that hundreds of workers participated in the project. He said that for every one worker on the project site, there were eight in architects' offices, manufacturing plants and other project-related work.
(04/17/90 9:00am)
According to fellow faculty members, Senate Executive Committee Chairperson-elect Louise Shoemaker is a strong, caring and no-nonsense educator. But above all, her colleages say she is capable. Since she was nominated to the post without opposition last month, Shoemaker has received staunch support and virtually no criticism. "She has certain causes which concern her, and she stands by them strongly," Emeritus Biochemistry Professor Adelaide Delluva said this week. Shoemaker, who has worked at the University for 25 years, will begin her three-year stint in the fall, learning SEC operations and advising committees as chairperson-elect. She will head the committee the following year, and will advise the incoming officers during the 1992-93 academic year. Shoemaker served as Social Work dean from 1971 to 1985 and has been in the forefront of the fight for civil rights at the University for most of her years here. During her tenure as dean, the School of Social Work hired four black professors, and the school still has the University's highest percentage of black faculty members. "I feel that there should be a faculty diversity here because we are an American faculty," Shoemaker said. "I'd like to see the University become a more humane place for people to study and work." The clinal social work professor has served as chairperson of the Association of Women Faculty and Administrators at the University for the past year. She said that the group's greatest work during the year has been "taking a proactive stance about women's issues on campus." Under her leadership, the association signed an amicus curiae brief supporting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commmission in the recent Supreme Court case against the University, in which the justices ruled that the University must give documents for government investigations into charges of discrimination. Social Work Professor Mark Stern said yesterday that Shoemaker will be a "strong spokesperson for the faculty." He added that he expects her to focus her efforts on combatting racism and sexism on campus. "She is a no-nonsense person who has a clear notion about what is important, and she works on those issues," Stern said. Shoemaker also serves on several academic committees and currently heads the Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Resposibility. Delluva, a member of the academic freedom committee, said that Shoemaker has been a fair and capable committee chairperson who "always stands by her principles." Delluva added that she expects Shoemaker to carry these traits with her to the SEC leadership. While Shoemaker will not be a SEC member until the fall, she said that her experience as Academic Freedom and Resposibilty chairperson has helped her to understand faculty issues at the University. "There seems to be a lot of ignorance about what it means to be a faculty member at the University in regards to academic freedom," the Social Work professor said. She added that she hopes to educate faculty about their rights and responsibilities during the next three years. Shoemaker also said that her experience as dean and professor will enable her to be an intermediary between the administration and the faculty. "Being dean, I had to know how the University operates and the kinds of issues it deals with," she said. "The administration knows I am persistent, and I have a very good relationship with the deans." Colleagues have praised Shoemaker's professional work as well, saying that she is well known in her field of clinical social work. According to Social Work Professor June Axinn, Shoemaker is a "leader in social work in the United States," who has written extensively and given many speeches about her area of expertise. But Shoemaker's social work fame is not limited to this country. Shoemaker's love of travel has taken her to the ends of the Earth where she has taught and studied the social work practices of people worldwide. She has been involved in a student exchange program to the University of Ibadan in Nigeria for the past five years, and said she plans to travel to India in the near future. While Shoemaker said she loves to experience foreign cultures, she added that she seldom travels just for fun. Her trips include visits to prisons, institutions and hospitals which "tell a lot about the people." Axinn said she thinks Shoemaker's travel experience will help her in her new position. "She has a lot of interest in international affairs," Axinn said yesterday. "She will give a broad perspective to University life." Shoemaker also paints, and her artistic works include oil landscapes and other subjects which she said are "restful to the soul." But according to Shoemaker, all these accomplishments are little next to her lifetime greatest accomplishment: the successful raising of her three children and one Vietnamese foster child.
