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(03/28/00 10:00am)
Some students expressed surprise at Penn's choice of Heaney as speaker. Yesterday's announcement that Irish poet Seamus Heaney will deliver this year's Commencement address met with mixed reactions from the University community. The choice of Heaney, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, is something of a departure from previous years, in which political figures and celebrities have been typical choices. And while English students and faculty members praised the selection, the greater University community expressed surprise or apathy with regards to the choice. English Professor Al Filreis, the faculty director of the Kelly Writers House, commented on Heaney's international renown. "Seamus Heaney is one of the two or three most important living poets writing in the English language today," Filreis said. "This is a huge coup." "That's great," said Ann Gallagher, a College senior and English major. "It gets me excited to go to graduation." And College senior Jen McKenna, another English major, said she was especially pleased with the selection. "It's nice that they're choosing someone from the liberal arts side of Penn," she said. However, many seniors expressed disappointment that they will not be addressed by a political leader at their graduation. "I prefer it to be someone more like Robert Rubin," Wharton senior Benjamin Shoval said, referring to the former Treasury secretary who spoke at last year's Commencement. "I guess it's nice," Engineering senior Matthew Morrow said, "but it's kind of far from my studies." Gallagher, however, pointed out that some of the most noteworthy speakers are not always the best. In fact, many of the big-name guests of the past have been criticized for delivering uninteresting speeches at graduation. "Fame does not necessarily make a good speaker," she said. But Morrow noted many students might not even know who Heaney is, due to his lack of mainstream fame. "I wish it was someone with more name recognition," he said. "A lot of students might not be able to relate to him." Still, English Professor Bob Perelman did not foresee any problems with Heaney's name recognition. "He's not a $250,000 question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, he's a $1,000 question," Perelman said. "If Penn students don't know him, I'd be surprised."
(03/28/00 10:00am)
The FDA charged Penn's gene therapy program with violating several federal regulations. In a conciliatory letter to federal regulators on Friday, the embattled director of Penn's gene therapy program laid out the corrective steps his institute is taking to comply with federal research protocol that it allegedly violated. Most of the steps outlined in the letter from James M. Wilson, director of the Institute for Human Gene Therapy, deal with proper oversight for gene therapy clinical trials. Two major changes, both scheduled to begin in April, include hiring an outside consultant for IHGT researchers and implementing formal standard operating procedures. Wilson also announced the creation of a new IHGT position -- a scientific chief operating officer -- responsible for overseeing several aspects of research, including clinical trials. The letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which was made public yesterday, came in response to the FDA's scathing March 3 warning letter upholding its January decision to suspend all gene therapy experiments at Penn. In that letter, FDA officials criticized Wilson's monitoring of clinical trials at IHGT and accused him of violating research protocol while conducting the trial that cost 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger his life last September. Wilson's latest letter did not attempt to dispute the accusations made in the warning letter. "IHGT does not agree with all those statements," Wilson wrote, "but it will not enumerate areas of disagreement in this response." Meanwhile, a committee of external scientists appointed by the University to review the institute's monitoring systems has already visited campus and is expected to release its findings in April. The charges levied against IHGT include that subjects were not properly informed about the dangers posed by the study, that the FDA was not notified of the deaths of lab animals undergoing treatment regimens similar to the human trial and that many patients were ineligible to participate. FDA spokesman Lawrence Bachorik would not comment yesterday on what the agency's next step would be. "The FDA will pay careful attention to the response and will factor it into our overall evaluation of the situation there," he said. Wilson was not available for comment yesterday. University spokesman Ken Wildes said IHGT is planning to hire Parexel International Corporation -- a consulting firm specializing in providing compliance services -- as a contract research organization to advise researchers on following regulations. "It just helps you maintain your perspective," he explained. "If you're so close to the research? sometimes it's hard to do some of the administrative work." Wildes said IHGT hopes to sign a contract with Parexel in April. But Arthur Caplan, the director of Penn's Center for Bioethics, emphasized that companies like Parexel act purely as consultants and do not assume responsibility for their client's studies. "Principal investigators are responsible for their research," he noted. "It's your study at the end of the day." Another major emphasis of Wilson's letter was the implementation of standard operating procedures -- sets of guidelines all researchers would follow. The new regulations are expected to go into effect on April 6. Among those being developed are guidelines for submitting information and possible study changes to the FDA, the National Institutes of Health and Penn's Institutional Review Board, which must approve all research studies. Other areas that will receive particular attention in the procedures are confirming patient eligibility and obtaining informed consent -- both of which were questioned by the FDA in Wilson's study. Under the new procedures, informed consent forms must be submitted in advance to the IRB. In addition, patient eligibility must be confirmed by the investigators as well as the quality assurance unit at IHGT -- the division that monitors protocol compliance. None of the procedures outlined in the letter are uncommon to an academic research institution, Caplan said.
(03/28/00 10:00am)
In the six weeks since members of Penn Students Against Sweatshops ended their 10-day sit-in at University President Judith Rodin's office, Penn has continued -- in quieter fashion -- to consider which of two major factory-monitoring organizations best meets the University's needs. Penn withdrew from the Fair Labor Association last month in response to PSAS's sit-in demands and is currently a member of neither the FLA nor the rival Worker Rights Consortium, the group favored by PSAS. At the sit-in's close, Rodin promised to re-evaluate the merits of both organizations. She also said she would withhold a final decision about membership pending recommendations from the Ad Hoc Committee on Sweatshop Labor. In a report released on February 29, the sweatshop committee recommended to Rodin that the University not sign on to either of the groups until they both responded to requests for greater representation for colleges and universities on their governing boards. Rodin has received responses from the FLA and WRC to letters she sent earlier this month asking that both organizations provide greater representation. The committee met yesterday to discuss the responses. It plans to issue recommendations later this week on how the University should proceed. Wharton sophomore Brian Kelly, a PSAS member who serves on the sweatshop labor committee, said both the FLA and WRC offered "very political responses." "The organizations, especially the FLA, are proving what we have been complaining about," Kelly said, adding that the responses were indicative of the groups' bureaucratic natures. In an effort to keep their cause in the public eye, PSAS members have been distributing information on Locust Walk since last Thursday. PSAS members have passed out fliers headlined, "It's not over yet!" that say that the sweatshop task force agreed with several of the group's criticisms of the FLA. The flier accuses Penn's administration of "trying to rejoin the FLA before these problems are resolved" and urges students to e-mail Rodin and demand that the University join only the WRC. Kelly said many PSAS members received inquiries from students after last month's sit-in ended asking whether the group had stopped its work, so PSAS decided to set up a table on the Walk. The group will also be holding a "sew-out," featuring a mock sweatshop, on College Green Thursday night to protest in solidarity with demonstrators at other universities. Kelly also said that the WRC -- which had four member schools when PSAS began its sit-in at Rodin's office on February 7 -- now has more than 20 members.
(03/28/00 10:00am)
Professor Michael Awkward's new book chronicles his experiences growing up in South Philadelphia. In person, the often reserved and always humble Michael Awkward hardly seems like the type of person who would write a memoir chronicling his childhood in a poor South Philadelphia neighborhood. Nonetheless, the Penn English professor has authored a detailed personal account of his troubled home life that is currently attracting the attention of his students, colleagues and numerous book critics. In the memoir, titled Scenes of Instruction: A Memoir, Awkward, 40, focuses on his relationship with his mother, who inspired his love for reading but also suffered from alcoholism and was a victim of domestic violence. "I don't know what I would have been had it not been for my mother. But I know a lot of what I am is because of her," Awkward wrote. Awkward, who spent 10 years at the University of Michigan before coming to Penn in 1996, placed his mother at the center of his memoir because she inspired his interest in the lives of African-American women. For Awkward, providing a personal account of his mother's struggles was, in some ways, a source of concern. Through the writing process, though, Awkward says he recognized that the act of memoir-writing is inherently personal -- and even risky. "If you are going to write a memoir and you don't expose things about yourself, then you shouldn't write it. You have to be prepared for exposure," says Awkward, who received his doctoral degree in English from Penn in 1986. Awkward is, his colleagues say, somewhat unique in his willingness to present his personal life to students, let alone to countless strangers. "Most professors reveal nothing of themselves," says English Professor Farah Griffin, the undergraduate chairwoman of the English Department. "It is incredibly courageous." Awkward, who also directs the Center for the Study of Black Literature and Culture, insists that he wanted to write about how the literature he studies has affected him as a person and as a scholar. Increasingly, he says, the work done by literary scholars "isn't and doesn't pretend to be totally objective anymore." Indeed, Awkward readily acknowledges that contemporary classics like Richard Wright's Black Boy and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye influenced his memoir in their depictions of black youths struggling to come of age in a mainstream white society. "We all struggle to figure out who we are in society. We struggle in ways that we understand and sometimes don't understand," he says. "It is not an easy thing for anybody to define themselves." Struggling to find one's identity is an important part of the African-American literary tradition, Awkward explains, and it has been equally important to him in his own life. "If you are going to participate in that tradition, you've got to say something," Awkward says. "You have got to talk about the pain of growing up. I don't know too many people for whom growing up hasn't been painful." His memoir contains detailed descriptions of Awkward's life as a young black man who "took solace in reading" in the poor housing project in which he was raised -- a place, he says, that did not celebrate his intellectual abilities. "When I grew up, I had a very clear sense that being a man had very little to do with the things that I was capable of doing," he says. This realization, that the stereotypical definition of "manhood" contradicted the pursuit of education in his neighborhood, now hinders his optimism that this same attitude can be altered in areas similar to the one in which he grew up. "It's hard to imagine the social structure changing," he says. "The only way that the society can change significantly is to have different kinds of notions of what it means to be male and female." He also wanted to examine his own scholarship -- as a cultural critic, particularly of African-American female literature -- over the past two decades. College junior Nina Harris, a member of Awkward's "Filming Black Words: Hollywood Adaptations of Afro-American Narratives" seminar, said that while Awkward does not overtly express his feminist beliefs in class, he places a great emphasis on women in literature. "I like the fact that the literature is not male-centered. Academia is so male-dominated and women sometimes get lost," Harris says. "There are very few professors who work to get women actively involved." Awkward noted that he is grateful for the transformation of the academy over the past several years, which now accepts African-American literature as a valid genre in the literary canon. He noted that he rarely read African-American literary texts in class as an undergraduate. "If my book informs the tradition at all, it may be in legitimizing more creative forms of black autobiography," Awkward says.
(03/28/00 10:00am)
While effective political leadership may seem rare to many, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ed Rendell says the key is to focus on relevant things that politicians can actually change. The 1965 Penn graduate and former Philadelphia mayor discussed his political experiences with the Undergraduate Assembly last night, providing the student leaders with advice on how to be effective political leaders. Rendell -- who served as the vice president of men's student government in the 1960s and is currently teaching two Urban Studies courses at Penn -- spoke at the final meeting of the current UA's term. "I've always believed that the efforts of any governmental body [are to] focus on things they can change," he said. Rendell illustrated this by describing his own experiences in student politics. "Student government wasn't very relevant in the '60s," he said. "We got up debating about side issues," he later added, explaining that the student governing body spent time debating national and international issues at the time rather than focus on Penn issues. Rendell also added that leadership experience in student government is valuable for anyone -- whether they wish to pursue a political career or not. "Political skills are involved in literally all careers -- this is a great learning process for anything you do," he said. He added that, among these skills, compromise and communication are especially important in all sectors of society. "It's important to have your eye on the big picture [and] learn to compromise on the way," Rendell added. Rendell also commented on the campus changes since his Penn days. He said he was impressed with students' increased involvement with the West Philadelphia community. "In the '60s, Penn was doing a bad job of involving students in the urban experience -- [there was] no relationship with West Philly," Rendell said. He added that Penn's involvement with its neighbors today hardly resembles what it was 40 years ago. While Rendell concluded his informal talk by encouraging some of the current leaders to pursue political careers, he also had advice for those who would pursue other interests. "I hope you will bring an understanding of government to [the career] you choose," Rendell said, "and that you participate and be a giver." UA Chairman Michael Silver said he was very moved by Rendell's words. "He was very engaging," the College senior said, adding that it was great to hear Rendell speak outside of a classroom and political setting. The assembly also discussed budget requests and ongoing projects, including meeting Provost Robert Barchi tomorrow to discuss further developments in the UA's financial aid agenda, basketball courts and Rosengarten Reserve renovations.
(03/28/00 10:00am)
For women to be considered acceptable in the 1950s, they were expected to be virgins until marriage. Today, though, there is something valued even more: a slender figure. "Thinness has replaced virginity as the key to a good life," explained Catherine Steiner-Adair to a standing room-only crowd during her talk, entitled "Body Politics: Women, Eating Disorders, and Prevention," at the Annenberg School for Communication last night. Steiner-Adair, a Harvard clinical psychologist whose research focuses on the healthy development of girls and boys, the prevention of eating disorders and gender equity issues, spoke to an audience of more than 100 students. She discussed her findings -- that poor body image stems from a culture obsessed with thinness -- with the mostly female audience. "For 80 percent of women in the USA, being female means waking up and having a negative check-in with themselves, saying mean things about their bodies," Steiner-Adair said. She said she believes that this negative body image is ultimately a result of prejudice, which, she maintains, results when an oppressed group wants equality. Specifically, she pointed to the fact that an unrealistically thin body -- like the one possessed by the model Twiggy, for instance -- was embraced by females during the women's rights movement in the 1960s. Eating disorders, under Steiner-Adair's definition, would then be a result of the prejudice displayed toward those who do not conform to the ideal. "You judge the moral content of one's character based on what extent they approximate the ideal [body] image," Steiner-Adair explained. After the talk, Steiner-Adair said she hoped the discussion alleviated misconceptions surrounding body image and eating disorders, particularly the notion that eating disorders are attributed solely to personal problems. Susan Villari, Penn's director of health education, commended Steiner-Adair for her stance on body image. "Body image needs to be viewed as a social justice issue," she said. College senior -- and Guidance for Understanding Image, Dieting and Eating member -- Rebecca Bauer said she was impressed with Steiner-Adair's words, as well. "I like how she said that you don't need to judge yourself by your body, that you should instead focus on your achievements and who you are as a person." And College junior Miriam Kiss, a GUIDE executive board member, praised Steiner-Adair for teaching "women that negative thoughts about their bodies are normal. She showed what causes [negative body images] and how women can work together to prevent them." Steiner-Adair's talk marked the second event of Penn's Body Image Awareness Week 2000, a series of discussions and workshops sponsored by GUIDE to promote awareness and discussion on the topic of body images. The event was co-sponsored by Connaissance, the Graduate School of Education and the Panhellenic Council.
(03/28/00 10:00am)
Perspective: Searching for Diversity As a top-ranked Ivy League university, Penn prides itself on offering an enormous range of classes, an eclectic mixture of activities and a unique learning experience. Yet despite its multi-faceted appeal, one area in which Penn struggles is ensuring that there is diversity among its professors. Penn, like its peer institutions, has been trying for years to recruit minority faculty and retain those that it has. But it faces many challenges, including stiff competition among other universities for highly qualified candidates. In 1996, University President Judith Rodin unveiled a plan allocating $5 million to increase the number of minority students and professors at Penn. But today, as nearly four years of the five-year Minority Permanence Plan have elapsed, the plan's efficacy seems debatable. While significant funding has been provided to schools and departments for minority appointments, the actual increases in African-American and Latino faculty are limited. In 1996, Penn had 25 African-American and Latino professors out of 762 total undergraduate faculty members. And today, the number has increased by a total of five professors. Janiece Primus, a Wharton senior who is African American, said, "I've only had one minority professor in all my time here. I don't think I've ever had a Latino professor." "Education is supposed to be a reflection of a wider world," she continued. "If you look around, America is not a society of older white males." United Minorities Council Chairman Jerome Byam agreed that the lack of minority professors at Penn has had a negative impact on his Penn career. "I can say that it would definitely have been a more positive experience if I had been exposed to more minorities here," the College junior said. · When it debuted in 1996, the plan was designed to promote minority awareness and increase minority presence across the University. Provisions of the plan included funding to supplement different schools and departments to assist them in making minority appointments. The money was also used towards minority programs, student recruitment and graduate fellowships. "Substantial central funds have gone to support the DuBois Collective, La Casa Latina, minority student recruitment, graduate student fellowships and a variety of faculty and student projects sponsored by the Provost's Diversity Fund," said Jennifer Baldino, a top aide to Rodin. Since 1996, the University has sought $20 million through fundraising in addition to the $5 million fund to create a permanent endowment specifically for minority permanence. Baldino said the $20 million goal had not yet been achieved, "but we are actively pursuing potential contributors." Individual departments can apply through school deans for funding for minority appointments and are also expected to match every dollar received from the University with department finances. Sociology Department Chairman Douglas Massey said the $5 million minority permanence fund has made it a little less difficult to go about recruiting minority faculty. "It made it easier for the dean to give us a line for recruiting knowing that the provost of the University was willing to underwrite the cost for some of that," he said. And English Department Chairman John Richetti agreed, saying that "it has always been easy to get funds to hire minority candidates. We've done a good job over the year, and the deans are definitely eager to help us do that." But the permanence plan clearly has not helped much to actually increase the number of minority faculty members. Since 1996, the total number of African-American faculty in the undergraduate schools has changed from 19 to 20. And the number of Latino professors has gone from 13 to 17. Some schools, like Engingeering, have not utilized the minority permanence fund at all yet. But Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt said, "we are cognizant of the fund" and that the school would use it if it had "retention battles to fight." · While acknowledging the progress Penn has made in increasing minority permanence, English Professor Herman Beavers, the director of African American Studies and chairman of the Affirmative Action Council, said that universities like Penn could look harder for minority candidates than they are looking now. "The argument that there are not enough minorities in the pipeline is ridiculous. There are a lot of minority faculty in institutions that are not peer institutions who would do excellent work if they came to Penn," he said. "We don't even consider them." And History Professor Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, who is Latino, said she thought there wasn't a "substantial interest across departments in recruiting and retaining Latino faculty." "My impression is that there has not been any effective change," she said. "I think there should be a discussion across campus that this should be a priority." College senior Leslie Heredia, president of La Asociacion Cultural de Estudiantes Latino Americanos, said she felt there was a lack of Latino professors at Penn and also of professors of color in general. She said having minority professors is particularly important for minority students because it "gives you something to aspire to be." "It's more than just teaching the material," she said. "They are role models and mentors. You can't duplicate that." Yet Beavers conceded that Penn does try to make strong recruitment efforts. "I think we actually do pretty well. We have at least two faculty of color coming this fall from Rutgers and Johns Hopkins," he said, referring to two new Ph.Ds recently hired by the English department for Afro-Caribbean and Afro-American Studies. And Massey said he is looking to bring a Latino professor to his department. He added that his department put a strong emphasis on minority recruitment. "My faculty feels that you can't be a world-ranked department of sociology unless you reflect the diversity of the society you seek to study," he said. Rodin also expressed her vested interest in having minority faculty. "It is crucial to have minority faculty not only as role models for our minority students, but because the value of diversity in education is so significant and minority faculty are extremely important for our non-minority students as well," Rodin said. · Although the actual numbers show scant increases, administrators are quick to point out that minority recruitment is a constant challenge. Many say one major obstacle in recruiting is that there is a small pool of candidates who are sought after by many institutions. Rodin expressed her commitment to the plan while noting, "It continues to be a significant challenge as the pool is thin and our peer institutions are equally committed to recruiting minority faculty." Penn falls roughly in the middle of its peer institutions in terms of minority faculty. Harvard University has 10 African-American and 13 Latino professors out of a total 613 undergraduate faculty members. And Columbia University has higher numbers with 17 African-American and 21 Latino professors from 632 undergraduate faculty members. Harvard Assistant Dean for Academic Advising Elizabeth Doherty said that while the school does not have a minority permanence plan in place like Penn, it does offer funding to departments for minority hires. "In cases where the department lacks the resources to do [recruiting], there is funding available at the president's office," she said. With top-ranked universities all battling for the same scholars, Penn can't always snag the professors it wants. And it sometimes loses the professors it has. Bernard Lentz, director of Institutional Research and Analysis, noted that minority faculty are in high demand. "A person gets an offer from another university, and we try to go out and counter that offer," he said. But he added that "people who are highly sought after -- they are the stars who can move and go as they want to." Beavers cited Houston Baker, a former Penn English professor, as an example of a prestigious African-American scholar who left the University. Baker accepted an offer at Duke University because his wife was also offered a position there. Yet Richetti said that Penn was not to blame for Baker's leaving. "I don't think he left because of any lack of resources," he said. "He had been here 25 years. It was time for a change." Beavers said he himself had also received an attractive offer by another university, but decided against it. "The University responded quickly to my offer," he said, "and they showed clearly that they wanted me to stay."
(03/27/00 10:00am)
The Bisexual Gay Lesbian Transgender Awareness Days are being held throughout this week. B-GLAD 2000 kicked off Friday night in the Veranda with a "Get Down and B-Glad Dance." The dance was the first in a series of events scheduled for the annual Bisexual Gay Lesbian Transgender Awareness Days, which will continue all this week. College sophomore Heather Lochridge, co-chair of Allies, a student group of straight students who are dedicated to increasing gay awareness, pointed to two goals of the B-GLAD events. "One is to celebrate LGBT culture and the other is to educate others on LGBT culture," she said. Allies is co-sponsoring B-GLAD along with the Queer Students Association. Andy Byala, a College senior and member of QSA, said, "I love B-GLAD because it creates an atmosphere in which so many conversations can take place. I enjoy having friends ask questions about what it's like to be gay and what it may have to do with them." Events include a "Qabaret," held last Saturday, which showcased the talents of queer and queer-friendly members of the Penn community. Also, today at noon, an event entitled "Celebrating Queer Writers of Color" will be held at the Greenfield Intercultural Center. Local queer writers of color will read from their works as guests enjoy their lunches. A rally will be held Wednesday on College Green at 12:30 p.m. in which all participants can voice their opinions on LGBT issues and awareness. And a free screening of the Academy Award nominated movie Boys Don't Cry, which portrays the true story of Brandon Teena, a transgender woman, will take place at International House that evening at 7 p.m. Keynote speaker Urvashi Vaid, an Indian-American writer and activist, will speak Thursday evening at 7 p.m. in room 110 of the Annenberg School. "She's amazing," Lochridge said of Vaid. "She's an LGBT activist who stands for the equal rights of all people." Lochridge also said that Allies is sponsoring events of its own. "Allies is doing a program in the college houses in which we show mainstream movies with LGBT sub-themes, like My Best Friend's Wedding, and we have a discussion about it afterwards," she said. On Friday, the last day of B-GLAD, students are encouraged to wear jeans in support of the gay community. A party will also be held in a yet to be announced location. Several of the events are being co-sponsored by other campus organizations, including the LGBT Center, Sangam, the Women's Studies Department, Hillel, SPEC, Take Back the Night, the Asian-American Studies program, Connaissance and PennGALA, the gay and lesbian alumni organization.
(03/27/00 10:00am)
The sophomore class is sponsorin the annual day on the Schuylkill River, back for a third year in a row. The band and a cappella groups are ready, the food is ordered, the dunk tank is reserved -- all that's left for this year's Skimmer organizers to do is to pray for sun. Skimmer, an annual spring event that occurs off the banks of the Schuylkill River, will take place on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. on West River Drive. The attendance rate for Skimmer has varied over the last two years, since it was reinstated on campus after a 20-year hiatus. But this year's sponsor, the Sophomore Class Board, is determined to attract a large but manageable number of students to the event. "We're hoping for about 1,500 to 2,000 people," said Sophomore Class President Alex Tolbert. Although Penn's crew team will not be having a regatta on Saturday, Skimmer will boast a series of concerts, free food and even Brother Stephen White -- a widely known campus evangelist -- in a dunk tank, said Tolbert, a Wharton sophomore. "I think the focus of this year's Skimmer is to have a lot of entertainment there," said Wharton sophomore Dana Becker, secretary for the Sophomore Class Board. "We want to make it a fun afternoon that will engage a lot of the population." The headlining band will be the Philadelphia-based group Burnt Sienna, who will play a "wide range of popular covers," according to Tolbert. In addition, other performers for Skimmer will include Penn a cappella groups Counterparts, Penny Loafers and Dischord. Buses will be leaving the Upper Quad Gate every 15-to-20 minutes to transport Penn students to Skimmer. Skimmer was wildly popular among Penn students until 1972, when the University and the City of Philadelphia banned the event due to reckless, alcohol-related behavior. But two years ago, the Senior Class Board decided to bring Skimmer back as part of the Penn experience and, so far, the results have been mixed. In 1998, the 5,000 students that came to the banks of the river devoured the free food and pushed and shoved their way onto a limited number of buses. But last year, Skimmer's turnout dropped significantly to only about 650 students. Many of the Junior Class Board organizers attributed the decrease in attendance to the University's stricter alcohol policy that was enforced that spring. The 10 members of the Sophomore Class Board who have worked to put this year's Skimmer into action are optimistic. "I think last year, the whole campus was depressed," Tolbert said. "We're thinking it will be better this year." She added that there would be no alcohol served at Skimmer. Another difficulty in past years was persuading the City of Philadelphia to grant a permit for Skimmer -- because of its history of chaotic behavior. In response, a Skimmer Committee was created that successfully secured a permit for Saturday's event. Skimmer is also funded by the Junior Class Board, the Undergraduate Assembly and the Tangible Change Committee.
(03/27/00 10:00am)
Only two weeks into the season, the Penn baseball team is in unchartered waters -- .500. A pair of split doubleheaders with Mount St. Mary's (9-12) this weekend left the Quakers at 7-7, while the '99 squad went 9-28 for its entire campaign and was 4-10 at this point in the season. Penn relied heavily on the strength of its freshman class, winning the first and last games of a four-game series, 8-7 and 18-6, respectively. Paul Grumet (1-0) and Andrew McCreery (3-0) picked up the wins for the Quakers. Grumet now leads the Quakers with a 1.50 earned run average, and McCreery has the most wins on Penn's staff. Freshman Ben Otero chipped in five innings of work in the second game Saturday, but was outdueled by another freshman -- hard-throwing Brian Santo, who pitched a complete game for the Mountaineers, giving up just three hits and one unearned run, handing the Quakers a 6-1 loss. Penn freshmen also saw plenty of action on the field. Zach Hanan started three of the four games at third base, and Nick Italiano got in time at second base at the end of two games. Fittingly, it was freshman McCreery's walk in the bottom of the eighth that drove in the winning run to start Penn's weekend off with a win. The Quakers rallied to score four runs in the bottom of the third inning to tie the game at six. Then Penn went up 7-6 the next inning on McCreery's ground out. But the Mountaineers tied the game back up in the fifth when Quakers sophomore Matt Hepler walked in a run. After Hepler ran into trouble, Grumet came in and slammed the door on Mount St. Mary's, throwing 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, Mountaineers freshman Blake Smith walked McCreery on four pitches to give the decision to Penn. In the nightcap, Penn's bats went dry, held at bay by fireballer Santo and his low-90s fastball. But the Quakers did have their opportunities -- three times they left two runners on base in an inning. Otero was matching Santo, allowing just two hits and a run through four, but the Mountaineers caught up with him in the fifth, tagging him for four runs. "They're an aggressive hitting team, and I left a couple changeups up. They hit some good pitches," Otero said. "But we left too many people on base. He's a good pitcher -- he threw hard, and his off-speed stuff was working. We didn't come out offensively enough." Yesterday's twin bill began with a 7-6 loss for the Quakers. Mount St. Mary's sophomore Brandon Woodward pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up five runs on seven hits, but was good enough to get the win. Sophomore Mark Lacerenza (0-2) picked up his second loss of the season, going 3 1/3 and getting tagged for six runs, including a five-run fourth that did the Quakers in. Brian Burket pitched the final 3 2/3, allowing a run on two hits. Lacerenza ran into trouble with runners on second and third with one out. He issued four straight walks, bringing in three runs. Then, left fielder Tommy Merical doubled to drive in two more. Penn bounced back with three in the bottom of the fifth. The Quakers scored three after back-to-back doubles by Kevin McCabe and Oliver Hahl, an RBI single by Jeff Gregorio and a wild pitch. But although the Red and Blue had runners on second and third with one out, Ron Rolph struck out and Chris May flied to right to end the inning. Penn finished the weekend off strong, with an 18-6 pounding in yesterday's second game. Penn jumped on Mount St. Mary's starter Adam Byer early and often, building a 6-0 lead by the third inning. Designated hitter Jeff Gregorio, who had five home runs for the Quakers last year, got his first homer of the year the next inning. Gregorio, who bats cleanup, said he was relieved when he hit the three-run blast. "It felt good to get that one out of the way," said Gregorio, who leads the Quakers with 15 RBI. "I've been hitting the ball OK, but I really haven't been driving the ball that much." Mount St. Mary's first baseman Brian Thomas, who had two dingers of his own in the series finale, said Penn's six-run fourth took the wind out of the Mountaineers' sails. "The first three games we played real well, and then the last game I think we basically kind of quit," Thomas said. "A couple of errors and people just hung their heads." McCreery capped a great weekend with 5 1/3 innings of work to pick up his third win of the year. "He seems to have pretty good outings every time he goes out," Gregorio said. "I think it was 13-5 when he came out of the game, and he was still pissed off that he was not able to finish off the game. It's good to see that intensity. He wants the ball all the time." Penn coach Bob Seddon was pleased with the standout performances from his freshmen, but said that the few veterans on his young ballclub need to pick up their games. "You didn't count on those guys [the freshmen], and they're the ones who are really holding us [up]," Seddon said. "If we get the contribution from the other upperclassmen like we expect, if we get some pitching, we'll be a very good team. But until then, we're going to be back and forth."
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Last March, the Penn women's tennis team edged Boston College, 5-4, in a tight battle in California that came down to the final doubles match. On Saturday, however, the Quakers had little trouble beating the Eagles, 7-2, at Penn's Lott Courts. That isn't to say the Eagles aren't formidable opponents -- their top player, Cynthia Tow, is nationally ranked and won the Harvard Invitational championship in singles last spring. But on Saturday, the Quakers did not seem to care about Boston College's past accolades in brushing the Eagles aside. "We played a great match," Penn senior co-captain Elana Gold said. "They're a tough team, but today we didn't make them look very tough." Though Tow had little trouble beating Penn junior Lenka Beranova, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 1 singles, the Quakers were undefeated in the remaining five singles matches. When the match score was 4-1, it was Jolene Sloat's three-set win at No. 6 singles over the Eagles' Ruitas Veitas that sealed the victory for the Red and Blue. After Sloat easily won the first set, 6-1, Veitas adjusted to the Penn sophomore's heavy topspin and deep shots by coming into the net and lobbing the ball. "I lost the second set [6-1] because I started playing to her game," Sloat said. "I wasn't playing the way I usually do." Sloat, who was unaware that her match would guarantee the victory, returned to her deep hitting style for the third set and made a few shots that almost sent Veitas running into the surrounding fence. Playing the decisive set on her own terms, Sloat took the match, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. Though they didn't have much luck in singles, the Eagles proved themselves worthy doubles opponents. At No. 1 doubles, Tow and Karen Fernando held off the Penn duo of Beranova and sophomore Rochelle Raiss, 8-4. Quakers senior co-captain Anastasia Pozdniakova and sophomore Louani Bascara faced the Eagles' Barbara Privell and Mercedes Del Valle at No. 2 doubles. The Penn duo won the see-saw battle, 8-6. "They were a talented doubles team, and they were good at net," Bascara said. While the first two doubles matches were tough battles for both sides, Penn's Gold and Shubha Srinivasan expended little energy in thrashing Fernando and Veitas, 8-2. Though the score was rather unimpressive, Boston College assistant coach Bruce Pierce thought his team did very well, considering they have traveled extensively recently and were fatigued on Saturday. The Eagles' most recent trip was to Las Vegas last week, where Penn also went over spring break before it traveled to California to play Stanford and Fresno State. On their trip, the Eagles took a tough 9-0 loss to UNLV -- a team the Quakers had beaten 5-4 a few days earlier. While Pierce emphasized that his team was tired from traveling, the Quakers felt that the tough schedule they faced on the trip was helpful to them in facing the Eagles. "Boston College is good on the top of their lineup, whereas Stanford's No. 6 player is nationally ranked," Gold said. "The high level of competition we saw [over break] definitely helped us today." The Eagles are nearly the last non-Ivy competition the Quakers will face this season. Penn will face Rutgers tomorrow at 2 p.m. before meeting Princeton on April 1.
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An absolutely gorgeous spring day welcomed the Penn men's track team back to the outdoor stage -- and back home for yesterday's Quaker Invitational. Since Penn doesn't have an indoor facility to accommodate track events, the Quakers spent their winter season criss-crossing the eastern half of the nation. But competing under an almost cloudless sky and in mild temperatures for most of the day, the Quakers were appreciative to be back on the familiar turf of Franklin Field. And they began their spring season on a solid note. The meet, which included city rivals Temple, St. Joe's and La Salle in addition to out-of-state contenders Army and Delaware State among others, was not scored. But that did not mean that the Red and Blue were without tremendous individual successes, especially from one group in particular. While all of the running and most of the field events took place at Franklin Field, Penn's most notable performances came outside of the venerable stadium. On a narrow strip of land crammed between Bower Field, railroad tracks and the raging Schuylkill Expressway lay the jewel of the Quakers' efforts yesterday. That is where the Penn throwers competed -- and excelled. Penn's usual standout performers -- Matt Pagliasotti and Brent Stiles -- lived up to and exceeded expectations in their events, but it was a freshman who stole the show. Brian Chaput, a native of East Haven, Conn., threw the javelin farther than all but one other Penn thrower ever has. In his first-ever collegiate meet, he reached an incredible distance of 67.70 meters, not only qualifying him for IC4As, but already clinching an automatic berth at the NCAA Championships. And Chaput was not a one-man show. The Quakers swept first through fourth place in the javelin. Fellow throwers Charlie O'Connell, Seth Beaver and Chris Crisman also surpassed the requisite distance yesterday to participate in IC4As at season's end. "If everyone stays on track, we should have two or three more national qualifiers in the javelin and maybe one in the hammer," Pagliasotti said. Pagliasotti, who barely missed qualifying for nationals in his own right over the winter, was his usual stellar self. He took first in the discus with a throw of 46.08 meters and set a personal record in the hammer throw with a distance of 59.66. To illustrate the magnitude of this latter accomplishment, consider that the runner-up in the event was his Penn teammate Ben Williams, who threw a still very respectable 43.70, which was a personal record for the junior. Both men have tremendous potential for this season but understand that the Quaker Invitational didn't provide the most grueling test for them. "The field wasn't that good, so there wasn't a lot of competition for [Williams] and I," Pagliasotti said. That said, the Quakers throwers are still very excited about their prospects. "It's good to see that we're getting off on the right foot," said Williams, a native of Noank, Conn. It could easily be the strength of this specific group that will determine just how successful the Quakers can be in the spring season.
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After scoring the game's first goal, the Quakers struggled mightily. Tell any member of the Penn women's lacrosse team that spring is in the air, and she might argue with you. Despite the near-spring temperatures, the Quakers succumbed to a snowball effect over the weekend. After Brooke Jenkins' goal eight minutes and eight seconds into the first half gave Penn a 1-0 lead over Cornell, the Quakers held the Big Red scoreless for another six minutes until Ginny Miles put their first goal on the board to tie the game. That goal started an onslaught of seven straight goals for Cornell before the halftime buzzer finally stopped the Big Red attack. Well, stalled it anyway. Even though Penn came out of the locker room and quadrupled its first half production with another goal by Jenkins and one each from Christy Bennett, Traci Marabella and Jayme Munnelly, Cornell doubled that number and scored eight more goals en route to a 15-5 victory. Jaimee Reynolds scored four Big Red goals while Miles, Erica Holveck and Katie McCorry each chipped in three apiece. "We couldn't get ourselves out of the hole," Penn coach Karin Brower said. "There was no leadership to calm the attack or make the defense pressure hard." One person Brower normally looks to when her young team needs direction is Jenkins, who captains the Quakers. "It was definitely frustrating because [Brower] expects us to be leaders and tell the freshmen what to do, but everyone got so down and stopped playing hard," Jenkins said. "We just kept making the same mistakes over and over." According to Munnelly, impatience and poor decision-making plagued the Quakers' offense all afternoon. "I was rushed and nervous," Munnelly said. "I felt like my head wasn't there." Brower said that much of her squad suffered from the same ailment. Instead of executing set plays and passing through Cornell's trapping defense, Penn (2-2, 0-2 Ivy League) tried to run with the ball, which resulted in many turnovers and dropped balls. "After the first five minutes we didn't run a play the entire game," Brower said. "We weren't working as a team. Instead of helping each other get into the open space, we would stand there thinking, 'I'll watch her go to goal and see if she can get through three people.'" But Brower said she understood where many of these tendencies might have started. Penn's attackers have been successful in running through double teams during previous wins over slower opponents American and Villanova. "The fast midfielders are used to being able to run down the field and beat their opponents," Jenkins said. "They weren't able to adjust to Cornell's quickness." When Brower felt the game slipping out of reach, she called a timeout and encouraged her team to pass in the midfield and run the plays correctly. But when play resumed, the Quakers continued to make the same mistakes, despite her instructions. "Karin is really good under pressure," Munnelly said. "She told us to stay calm and control the ball, but we did the opposite." The Quakers' determination to run the ball was not the only deviation from Brower's game plan. After watching Cornell (5-0, 1-0) play Rutgers on film, she noticed the Scarlet Knights had better luck against goalkeeper Carrie Giancola when they shot the ball high. But after Brower shared her knowledge with the Quakers, they still shot the ball low, giving Giancola an easier time. Brower tried to frame the loss positively, calling it an eye-opener for her young team. It definitely made an impression on Munnelly. "We're going to use it as a stepping stone," Munnelly said. "We didn't play our game. That's not what we're going to be this year."
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The Quakers cruised to four straight wins before Rider swept them. So far this season, the Penn softball team has been a team of streaks. After dropping the last seven games at the end of their road trip in Florida, Penn came home to win four in a row this weekend before losing the final two games in its three-day homestand. The Quakers (8-12) came into their six-game homestand with the intention of evening their record at 10 wins and losses, and they were able to sweep both Lafayette and La Salle in consecutive doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday at Warren Field. However, Penn was unable to keep the winning streak going as they fell to Rider's strong pitching, 2-1 and 2-0 yesterday afternoon. Penn's bats, which were potent in 8-0 and 4-1 victories against Lafayette and 5-4 and 9-3 wins over La Salle, were stymied by Rider's pitching tandem of Danielle Lake and Becky Fegely, who combined to give up only one run off 12 hits. However, the Quakers blamed themselves for the sweep, rather than the Broncs' pitching. "We could have easily won both games -- especially the first game because we had more hits and base-runners," sophomore third-baseman Jen Moore said. In the first game against the Broncs, the Quakers proved unable to capitalize on opportunities. The Red and Blue left eight runners on base, wasting a solid pitching effort by freshman Becky Ranta, who gave up only five hits in a complete-game. Ranta, who pitched in three of the six games for the Quakers this weekend, has been a valuable asset to the club in just her first year of collegiate athletics. "[Ranta] was nervous at the start of the year, but she has really settled down," Moore said. "Her curveball is working great and really fooling batters? and sometimes even the fielders." In the second game against Rider, the Quakers' bats just never got going. They were able to produce only three hits as Suzanne Arbogast, who gave up only two runs off four hits, was the hard-luck loser. Penn put together a late rally in the bottom of the seventh as senior first baseman Kari Dennis worked a one-out walk after falling behind 1-2 in the count. Danielle Landolt then ripped a line drive to center, but sophomore Molly Meehan, pinch-running for Dennis, could not get to second before the throw from the center. Pinch-hitter Lisa McNeeley kept the rally alive with a base-hit to left, but freshman shortstop Crista Farrel struck out to end the game. Despite the final result, Penn coach Carol Kashow took something positive out of the close defeat. "We showed a lot of character in the last inning," Kashow said. "The lesson we'll take from today is that we're never out of any game." Kashow and her team knew there was something missing from yesterday's games. After four straight inspired victories, the Red and Blue lost their sharpness. "I think we were the better team, but there was just something missing today," sophomore left fielder Clarisa Apostol said. "On any other day, we could have taken Rider." Despite ending their homestand with two straight losses, the Quakers found reason for optimism in their first four victories. Against Lafayette on Friday, Penn won a pair of five-inning games, 8-0 and 4-1. Two freshmen led the way for the Quakers in the opener. Ranta tossed a three-hit shutout, and fellow newcomer Farrel went 3-3 with two runs and two RBI. Penn had a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second and added two runs in the fifth and the sixth innings before the game was called due to the eight-run mercy rule. In the second game, Penn had a 4-1 lead through five innings behind the powerful hitting of Moore. The third baseman scored the first run of the game for Penn in the first inning before connecting on a two-run homer in the bottom of the third, giving the Quakers a lead they would never relinquish. The game was called after five innings due to darkness. On Saturday, the Red and Blue continued their winning ways with a sweep of La Salle. In the opener, Penn rallied to score two runs in the bottom of the 11th to come away with a 5-4 win. With the score knotted at two through the first 10 innings, the international tiebreaker came into play -- each team would begin the inning with a runner at second base. The Explorers broke the tie with a run in the 10th on a sacrifice fly, but Penn answered right back in the bottom of the inning with an RBI from freshman center fielder Deb Kowalchuk, who went 3-for-5 with two RBI in the game. An Explorers run in the top of the 11th set the stage for Penn's last-inning heroics. Sophomore second baseman Jamie Pallas singled home the tying run with the bases loaded before Dennis crossed the plate for the winning run after a wild pitch. Ranta, who gave up two runs in 11 innings, got her second win in as many days behind a strong, one-error Penn defensive effort. Penn concluded the sweep with a 9-3 trouncing in the finale. Moore and Kowalchuk went yard for the Quakers, while senior captain Michelle Zaptin and freshman Dina Parise combined for the five-hit victory. However, while Penn's offense was strong in its first four wins, it simply was not there in the Rider sweep. "We had a strong pitching effort. The defense was solid -- the only thing that wasn't there was the offense," Kashow said. "If we brought the offense, we'd be looking at six straight wins."
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Instead of showing off their tans on College Green on Friday afternoon, about 25 Penn students got to show off their brains as they vied for the chance to qualify as a contestant on a popular TV game show. At 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., auditions for Fox's new game show, Greed, were held at Cavanaugh's. The contestant coordinators of Greed, Fox's answer of ABC's television phenomenon Who Wants to be a Millionaire, stopped at Penn as part of their month-long tour of various universities in order to find contestants for a special college edition of the show, expected to air during the May sweeps period. The goal of the tournament is to play-up the rivalries between certain schools, such as Big Ten, Pac-10 and Ivy League universities. Contestants were given a short written exam to test their ability to answer questions similar to those asked on the show. Students who passed the exam were then briefly interviewed in front of the contestant coordinators and other finalists to show off their personality and poise. Around 15 of the student finalists were then photographed and the results will be taken back to Hollywood, where the contestants will be chosen. "All types of students will be represented," said Casey Slade, one of the show's contestant coordinators. "Fox prides itself on equality, fairness and diversity." Specifically, coordinators said they were looking for intellectual ability, an outgoing personality and the ability to temper nervousness. The turnout for the audition was smaller than the coordinators anticipated. In fact, Penn's showing was the smallest turnout yet of the dozen or so schools the game show has visited. Organizers attributed the low turnout to the fact that a Fox-run newspaper advertisement, intended to notify students of the event, was not sent out. Nonetheless, the students that did show up said they came for good fun, healthy competition and the chance to win a whole lot of money. Few, however, said they thought they had what it took to make it to the final rounds. "I came to audition today just for the hell of it," explained College sophomore Grace Lee, who was later named as one of the few finalists. "My chances are slim to none, but I thought this would be a good activity for a Friday afternoon." Lee and the other contestants had to answer questions in topics ranging from sports to music to art, with some as seemingly bizarre as, "Of the following, list four products that are manufactured by Hostess." The scores are graded on a curve and those students who are at the far end of the curve -- which is higher for college students -- were the ones selected. "I like game shows and thought it was worth giving it a try," said Wharton sophomore Alan Bell, another one of the finalists. "My chances are probably not great, but this is better than writing a paper." The Greed crew has already visited the University of Michigan, Ohio State, Brown, Yale and Harvard universities and will continue on to other universities like Stanford and Columbia. Finalists will be notified on April 10 if selected and will be flown to California on April 13, 14 and 15 for the taping.
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Brown led the Ivy League with a 14 percent increase, while Penn was second with a 6.6 percent rise. Admissions applications in the Ivy League are up almost across the board, with most of the eight institutions showing increases in the number of applications received for the Class of 2004. Brown University had by far the largest gain in the number of applications received, with a 14 percent rise from last year. The Providence, R.I., school received a total of 16,784 applications this year. Penn, whose number of applications increased by 6.6 percent to a total of 18,803 applications, saw the second-greatest increase among the Ivy schools, followed by Harvard, Columbia and Cornell universities. Dartmouth College and Yale University received slightly fewer applications this year, seeing 0.9 and 3.2 percent drops, respectively. Statistics for Princeton University were unavailable. Marlyn McGrath Lewis, director of admissions at Harvard, attributed the school's 2.9 percent increase partly to the growing role of technology in the admissions process. "With the availability of information on the Web, there is some inevitability that people will find out [more] about us," she said. "And it has become more and more easy to apply [with online applications]." Mark Cannon, deputy executive director of the National Association for College Admission Counseling -- a group of admissions officers and high school guidance counselors -- said the increased use of technology contributed significantly to the rising number of applications. "Technology is improving the students' ability to search for compatible institutions," Cannon said. "Technology has enhanced communication -- college admissions officers use e-mail to communicate with applicants." Cannon said having application forms online has also played a role in the rise, adding that students who in past years would have applied to only five schools are now applying to as many as 15 to 20. Columbia reported a similar increase of 2.7 percent, seeing about 15,650 applicants for its Class of 2004. And applications rose by about 1.5 percent at Cornell University, going from 19,934 applications last year to a total of 20,200 this year. According to Cornell Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Donald Saleh, the school will likely admit about 30 percent of the applicants -- 400 fewer students than last year. Both Penn and Cornell's yield rates -- the number of students admitted who choose to matriculate -- last year were higher than expected. At Penn, this overflow led to an on-campus housing shortage last fall. In response, both schools anticipate lower acceptance rates this year. "We over-enrolled the freshman class," Saleh said. "We're making a dramatic step this year to make sure that we don't bring in a class larger than our target." Penn Admissions Dean Lee Stetson said Penn will rely on the wait-list more heavily this year to control the size of the Class of 2004. Meanwhile, Dartmouth reported 10,165 applications this year, just slightly lower than the 10,260 received last year. And Yale University received 12,809 applications, 3.2 percent fewer than last year. Yale Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Richard Shaw said in an interview with The Harvard Crimson this month that publicity from the high-profile murder of senior Suzanne Jovin in December 1998 might account for the smaller applicant pool this year. The Ivy schools will all be sending out their letters of acceptance to high school seniors in early April.
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Future rock stars, record producers and big-shot lawyers got some helpful advice last Thursday night in the Hill College House Library. Lawrence Gelburd, a record producer and co-faculty fellow of Hill, Graduate School of Education student Greg Dubrow and third-year Law student Kathy Liu -- both Graduate Associates in Hill -- spoke to a group of about 30 students interested in careers in entertainment. "Not only have I played in bands, but I've worked for record companies," said Dubrow, beginning the discussion. Dubrow, who has been playing with folk rock-style bands since his undergraduate years, worked for A&M; Records and played bass on Dumb, Gifted and Beautiful, the 1995 release of the Idle Wilds. Dubrow warned that the road to fame is often a long and arduous process. "People will tell you, 'Wow, signing a record deal is like the best thing that could ever happen.' It's the first step." Continuing with the talk, Liu, who will pursue a career in entertainment law, gave a legal perspective of the entertainment industry. Liu has already been hired by the New York City law firm Lobe & Lobe, which she will begin working for after she graduates. The fact that Lobe & Lobe's entertainment department handles Internet companies, music groups, movies, television and theater interested Liu. "I looked for the law firms that had entertainment departments and put them down as first choices," she explained. Finally, Gelburd presented the audience with the production end of the business. Gelburd, who graduated from Brown University with a degree in electrical engineering, found that he was much more interested in entertainment. "I decided that what I really wanted to do was make the records," Gelburd said. Gelburd then offered various strategies on breaking into the record business. "For those of you who are from big names in the entertainment business, you are probably not here because you don't need to be," he joked. Continuing on a more serious note, he gave advice to students not privileged to have a family already in the business. Gelburd stressed that budding entertainers should never be disappointed by hearing 'no,' which, he noted, is heard all too common in the process of finding work. "The Beatles were originally turned down by every major record label in Britain," he said. The discussion attracted students interested in a variety of aspects of the industry. "I have a strong interest in music and I'm at a point right now where I'm just looking for future jobs," College sophomore Adam Toro said. Regardless of how applicable the information will be in the careers the students plan to pursue, audience members said they still enjoyed receiving inside information from those who have been there. "I don't know if it's good advice or not," College freshman Scott Greenwald said. "Hopefully one day I'll find out."
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Penn cut a five-goal Harvard lead to one in the final quarter but wound up losing by three. It was a typical Saturday for the Penn men's lacrosse team -- another Ivy League game, another late comeback that fell just short. "It's getting to be a little bit of an old mantra, coming out slow and playing the last 15 [minutes] the way we should the first 15," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said after the Quakers, ranked 19th in the country, lost to No. 18 Harvard 15-12 at Franklin Field. "Ideally, we don't dig ourselves that kind of a hole." Five minutes into the game, the Quakers found themselves down, 3-1. Junior midfielder Kevin Cadin scored at the 3:54 mark to tie the game at three; but the Crimson scored two goals in five seconds inside the last two minutes to take a 5-3 lead after the opening frame. Junior attacker Todd Minerley netted the first of his three goals -- which tied him with freshman Alex Kopicki for the Quakers' high on the day -- to open the second-quarter scoring. Harvard, however, answered twice before Quakers sophomore Mike Iannacone scored with seven seconds left to bring the Quakers back within two before heading to the locker room. The Quakers went down early because they could not beat the Crimson on the faceoff. The Quakers lost the first-half faceoff battle, 10-4, and were shutout on second-half draws. That figure is surprising because the Quakers boast one of the top faceoff specialists in the country in junior Bill Sofield, who was fifth in the nation last year in faceoff winning percentage. "[Harvard's] kid is good too," Van Arsdale said. "Sometimes somebody gets on a streak, and Harvard got hot. If you're winning the ball you can get on a roll in this game." After the break, the Crimson outscored the Quakers 4-1 through the third quarter and the opening moments of the fourth to take an 11-6 lead with 12:51 remaining. Then, the Red and Blue started to mount their comeback. "We didn't really put together a solid effort through the whole game, [but] in the second half, we just played better lacrosse," Kopicki said. "We got some big hits from different people and some big saves from [goalie] John Carroll, which gave us some momentum." Over the next eight minutes, the Quakers scored six goals to the Crimson's two, making the score 13-12 with 3:16 to go. The comeback -- during which Penn scored half of its 12 goals -- was led by two players. One is in the midst of the initial campaign of a promising career, while the other is in the midst of his final one. Senior captain Pete Janney -- an attacker who is steadily climbing the Penn record books -- and the highly-touted freshman Kopicki scored five of the Quakers' six fourth-quarter goals. Janney, who was closely guarded by Harvard All-American defenseman Jeff Psaki all afternoon, was held without a point until 11:33 remained in the fourth, when he redirected senior Mike Kehoe's pass into the back of the net. Janney got his next point when he fed Minerley, who beat Harvard goalie Keith Cynar, to make the score 11-8. Less than a minute after Harvard freshman Matt Primm scored his third goal of the day, Janney sent a rocket past Cynar and pulled the Quakers back within three. Then, Kopicki tried to bring the Quakers the rest of the way back singlehandedly as he scored the last three Quakers goals of the afternoon over a two-minute span. Coincidentally, they were the first three goals of his career. Kopicki took a feed from Janney at 5:28 and narrowed the gap to two with his first collegiate goal. Just over one minute later, after Harvard had scored again, Kopicki barreled over a Crimson defenseman and sent the ball home yet again. He scored for the final time with three and a half minutes left, making the score 13-12 and bringing the Quakers as close as they'd been to the Crimson since the 7:07 mark in the second quarter. "Those were the first goals I've scored all season," Kopicki said. "I just kept telling myself, after I put the first one in I'd be OK, and I'd be able to relax and just play." Kopicki had actually found the back of the net earlier in the day, but the goal was disallowed because Minerley had been in the crease. Even though it didn't count, it helped Kopicki to relax. "That let all the pressure off," he said. "I gained some momentum from that and just started having fun on the field." After Kopicki's last goal, the crowd of 400 stood in anticipation of the spectacular comeback that was brewing. But the Penn fans sat as quickly as they had risen when Harvard defenseman Pete Zaremba scored a mere 12 seconds later. Primm scored again with 30 seconds left to cement the Harvard victory. "You spend a lot of energy when you're coming back," Van Arsdale said. "And [the Crimson] were able to answer when they needed to. We started chasing them and they got a couple of key goals, some of their better players made good plays at the end to do it."
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Only 25 percent of top penn administrators are female. The percentage at other Ivy schools is comparable. Each day, Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Virginia Clark checks her numbers. With the University typically slated to take in $300 million a year in donations and gifts, Clark and her staff are responsible for a guarantee: that Penn can absorb $850,000 a day for 365 days. For Clark, the high-ranking job has meant weekly traveling, speaking at functions and meeting with a hefty pool of Penn's 225,000 alumni around the world. It may seem taxing, but Clark is just doing her job, one that has secured her a top spot in the University's senior planning committee. Together with only five other senior-ranking females at the University, Clark is one of the most powerful women at Penn. Currently, women like Clark fill a quarter percent of the top-ranking posts in the Penn administration -- a statistic similar to that of the other Ivy League schools. But none of the other schools has taken on the number of search committees Penn has in recent years, where opportunities may have arisen to bring more women to top posts. Despite seven major searches for top administrative positions, the number of female administrators at the University has remained relatively stagnant over the past three years. Standing alongside Clark at the top are University Secretary Rose McManus; Affirmative Action Executive Director Valerie Hayes; Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Carol Scheman; Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum; and University President Judith Rodin. The other top-flight women at the University include three of the 12 University deans: Annenberg School for Communication Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Graduate School of Education Dean Susan Fuhrman and Nursing School Dean Norma Lang. That leaves Penn with six women on its 20-member senior planning committee and three female deans out of 12. With few notable exceptions, the majority of the women are in posts that do not receive much on-campus attention from students. Though the numbers and visibility seem low, Penn isn't alone -- the percentages of top women are small at most major colleges and universities. "We do an awfully good job of looking for women, but we and everyone else needs to do better," McManus said. At Princeton University, five out of that school's 24 officers are women. At Cornell University, six of the 23 executives are women, while at Dartmouth College, only one of the 10 senior officers is a woman. And Penn is the only Ivy with a woman as the school's permanent president. During the past three years, the University has searched for seven major administrative positions: a Law School dean, Wharton School dean, Engineering School dean, School of Arts and Sciences dean, College of Arts and Sciences dean, University secretary and provost. Though all of those committees interviewed women for the job, only one position -- University secretary -- was given to a woman. According to the final reports last year, the search committee for the provost considered 165 candidates, 37 of whom were women. The Wharton dean search committee of last year reviewed 213 candidates and 18 women. The Engineering dean search committee came up with similar numbers, reviewing the credentials of 211 candidates, 19 of whom were women. And the most recent Law dean search committee considered 99 candidates, including 23 women. Despite the low numbers, administrators and University Trustees stress that Penn is gender-blind in its search process, pointing to other reasons why the number of women interviewed by Penn is, in all cases, paltry. Elsie Sterling Howard, the outgoing president of Penn's General Alumni Society, suggested that the current pool of women is low both in academia and Fortune 500 companies, areas from which deans and administrators are often selected. At Penn, she said, "If there were a woman as good as or better than the other male candidates, I would think the woman would get the position without a doubt." Women today represent 11.9 percent of corporate officers in America's 500 largest companies, according to an annual census published by Catalyst, a non-profit research organization that aims to advance women in the workplace. "Higher education, in my experience, hasn't been particularly enlightened by women," Scheman noted. "When I look at my colleagues in other institutions, the vast majority of people with my title are men." Added McManus: "I think the net has been cast as wide as possible -- Penn's outreach for female candidates is definitely there." Others point to the historic differences in opportunity among men and women in the top ranks. "In leadership positions there have always been more men," Fuhrman said. "For most of us, that's the way life has always been." NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, a 1967 College of Women graduate and University Trustee, added, "I think it's always difficult with these search committees for new deans because most often it's men doing the selecting." One top member of the administration, who wished to remain anonymous, said many candidates for deanships -- both men and women -- refuse the offer because "being a dean is not always an attractive position. Many turn it down because it forces you to let go of your research, writing and teaching." While Rodin may be known to publicly push for the advancement of women, the rules of the search process preclude her from playing an active role. Though she says she pushes committees to specifically consider women for the job, Rodin does not participate directly in the search process. "When it's a formal search committee, I always strenuously ask the committee to search all over the country particularly for women or members of minority groups," Rodin said. "I think this is a particularly gender-friendly administration that tries to get it right more often than not," she added. Indeed, Penn has established a number of organizations dedicated to the advancement of women at the top, including the Association of Women Faculty and Administrators, the Trustees Council of Penn Women and, here on campus, the Women in Leadership Series. And for now, the women who do sit at the top say they are proud to be where they are. "[The female deans] haven't even talked much about being women here because we aren't uncomfortable in the slightest," Fuhrman said. "We certainly do not feel isolated."
(03/27/00 10:00am)
When looking at that warm, moist, frosting-covered piece of chocolate cake, stop deciding and go for it. Give in to your hunger. That was part of the message delivered yesterday morning at a conference entitled "Body Image and Judaism: Accepting Ourselves, Body and Soul." Drawing a crowd of more than 50 female students, almost all of whom were Jewish, the program kicked off Body Image Awareness Week, a five-day series of events designed to bring awareness to self-esteem issues as they relate to body image. Sponsored by groups like Guidance for Understanding Image, Dieting and Eating, the Jewish Renaissance Project, Connaissance and Penn Hillel, the conference attempted to debunk the myths of what it takes to be a successful woman in today's world. "To look at eating disorders is to look at the state of gender politics in this country," said keynote speaker Karen Smith, who told the audience that 95 percent of all people diagnosed with anorexia and bulimia are women. "Whereas the feminism of 30 years ago said, 'We're hungry, and we will be satiated,' we now have women saying, 'We need nothing,'" said Smith, who is a clinical social worker at the Renfrew Center, an organization that offers in-patient and out-patient treatment to women suffering from eating disorders. Smith argued that the self-sacrificial woman has become the icon of the modern world, a phenomenon that has proved detrimental. Today's woman, Smith said, should hunger for and go after her rights -- and her piece of cake. Smith, who will be releasing a new book entitled, From Chicken Soup to Going Nuts: Hungry Jewish Women and the Body of Our Tradition, offered an interpretation of eating disorders from a uniquely Jewish perspective. In Judaism, "Food is the transmission from mother to daughter," Smith said. It is only fitting then that young Jewish women would choose eating disorders as an expression of their conflicts, she said. And when compounded with the pressures successful women encounter in what Smith called the "Barbie Doll World," many women develop eating disorders because "the emaciated woman is the sexy woman." "Women think that they're not supposed to need," College senior Helisa Katz said in agreement. "I really liked the idea of giving permission to women to want." College sophomore Wendy Shiekman added, "I loved how Karen related the good versus the bad, and how hunger in life is actually a good thing." While the discussion was geared toward Jewish women on campus, the program was intended to appeal to all women who are struggling with eating disorders. College junior Miriam Kiss, one of the organizers of yesterday's conference, said the goal was to "educate students and let them know that people are talking about the issue." "We are kind of tying the problem in with Judaism, but I think you would enjoy the conference if you weren't Jewish," College senior Jordana Riklis said. The program also highlighted a number of resources open to Penn students. Counseling and Psychological Services, Student Health Services, the Women's Center and GUIDE all offer free and confidential services ranging from counseling and treatment to nutrition guidance and information.