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(03/23/00 10:00am)
Most Penn students are still asleep when the women's crew team practices. Starting at 5:30 nearly every morning, the Quakers have been busy dedicating themselves to a winter of intense training to build up their strength and endurance for the spring season. The intense offseason training regimen included lifting, working out on the ergometer and running stairs five days a week. Saturday mornings were spent running Manayunk Wall -- a half-mile hill that basically climbs straight up. Even so, the Quakers conquered the wall, five times. "When you look at it, running it just feels impossible, but when you finish, it's the most incredible rush and feeling of accomplishment, and you know it was worth it," Penn co-captain Kealy O'Connor said. Even winter break was spent in training, including 10 days in Tampa, Fla. There, the team could train in the water, something that chilly weather just does not allow in December. "It's a team tradition every year, and it definitely helps us to do that in the winter because it allows us to get a feel for the water," freshman Claire Manske said. The varsity eight is coming into the spring season with a win at the Head of the Schuylkill, their last competition in the fall, capping off what was one of the best fall seasons in recent memory. "We had our most successful fall season to date. We want to carry that momentum of aggressive racing into each and every race this spring," O'Connor said. For the freshmen, valuable racing experience gained in the fall is something that they hope will give them a competitive edge this spring. "There's a difference between just rowing and racing," Manske said. "Now that the unexperienced rowers have that race experience [from the fall], it will only make us better." This Saturday, the Quakers will host Navy and Georgetown at home, with the Red and Blue currently holding a nine-year winning streak over Navy. "[We're looking forward to] seeing where we stand against Navy and Georgetown. This weekend will help to set the tone for the rest of the spring races," O'Connor said. The format of the spring races is different than the head races of the fall, with each race being shorter and faster. In addition, the teams now race head to head instead of the staggered-style in the fall, where crews began 10 seconds after one another. However, the Quakers are more focused on beginning their season strongly, and then building from there. "The first race is always important because it serves as a jumping off point for the rest of the season. We're looking forward to racing well," Manske said. The Quakers will be racing first and second varsity eights, first and second freshman eights, varsity four and freshman four in their first race on the Schuylkill this season. Adjustments and changes in the lineups are more than likely as the Quakers work to create their best boats.
(03/23/00 10:00am)
The CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America spoke at Penn last night. Judith Vredenburgh isn't exactly a model of career stability. The current president and chief executive officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has worked, among other jobs, as a buyer for a major department clothing store and as a top executive at the March of Dimes Birth Defect Foundation. As part of the Fox Lessons in Leadership series, Vredenburgh, who today runs the nation's largest and oldest mentoring company, discussed her personal and professional experiences in Logan Hall yesterday afternoon. Vredenburgh's non-profit organization pairs adolescents with adult mentors and provides teenage companions for young children. But the focus of the 1970 College and Wharton alumna's talk was more on what makes a good leader than on the network itself. Vredenburgh discussed various ways in which the approximately 40 audience members, most of whom were female students, can assert themselves as good leaders. Specifically, she said her Penn education paved the way for good management skills. She lauded the liberal arts education system as one that fosters indispensable writing and communication skills. "It was pure liberal arts that I attribute [to my success]," said Vredenburgh, who majored in Economics. "That experience, I think, was absolutely instrumental in making me a more open person. But for Vredenburgh, who has worked in both the private and public sector for the better part of three decades, the top draw to her position -- indeed, the very reason why she decided to abandon work in for-profit companies -- was the opportunity to work with children. Since it serves 139,000 children in all 50 states and in 5,000 different communities, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has provided her with precisely that opportunity. "I realize that many wonderfully talented people are attracted to the non-profit sector," Vredenburgh said. "All of the sudden my mind opened up, and I was learning and contributing at the same time. And I thought, 'Why didn't I do this before? Where was I?'" So it is not surprising that Vredenburgh came to Penn hoping to share some of her idealism and passion for serving with students. "I really think that if I could help kids stay true to what they care about, then that would be worth while," she said, when asked what she hoped students got out of her talk. Joining BBBSA last summer, Vredenburgh was hired with the goal of meeting the demands of the increasingly competitive nature of the non-profit market. With a plan to increase both revenue and the number of volunteers by June 2004, Vredenburgh succeeded in impressing the audience with her driven and ambitious personality. "To have her describe her experiences first-hand and her struggles that she faced being a woman, it was valuable to me as an up-and-coming leader," College sophomore Alex Pruner said. Although she may now be an inspiration for women at Penn, during her talk Vredenburgh noted that, though she was able to find her identity as a student at Penn, she had very few female role models on campus. College sophomore Alison O'Donnell said, "I think that she is definitely someone who has been able to be very successful in both the non-profit sector and the business sector."
(03/23/00 10:00am)
Penn Police and the Office of Student Conduct are looking into the e-mail sent to the Queer Student Alliance on Tuesday. On the verge of B-GLAD 2000, the annual Bisexual Gay Lesbian Transgender Awareness Days, a hate letter is a not-too-subtle reminder that intolerance still lives. A derogatory e-mail was sent out Tuesday night to the Queer Students Alliance listserv. The strong and offensive language in the e-mail incited immediate response from members of the QSA and is being investigated by the University Police. The offensive e-mail was in reference to a QSA banner hanging on Locust Walk. "So, I was walking along Locust Walk and I noticed a banner for the 'Queer Students Alliance' or whatever," the e-mail said. "Damn, I didn't know there were so many dykes and faggots on campus." The letter continued: "I just want to thank you for helping me target your kind." The writer also used several expletives and said they would avoid members of the queer community. College senior Andy Byala, a QSA member, said he was surprised by the letter. "I think we'd all like to believe that we Penn students are intellectuals who can see past bigotry," he said. "It's easy to think we're all safe and accepted for who we are, and every situation like this is shocking in its own way." The Penn Police, the Office of Student Conduct and the Information Systems and Computing Office are investigating the e-mail to determine the identity of the sender, whether the e-mail is a breach of law and if it implies any threat. But University Police Chief Maureen Rush, said last night, "Quite frankly, we don't have a criminal act. We have an open expression act that's quite offensive." But she also said, "I've never seen anything like this -- especially using the Internet to target a specific group like this. We aren't ruling anything out at this point." University Police Detective Frank DeMeo, a member of some law enforcement agencies that deal specifically with Internet-type crimes, has been assigned to the investigation. Erin Cross, assistant director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center, said some members of the QSA listserv thought the hate letter was in reaction to QSA's name. Previously known as the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alliance, the group chose to change its name just before spring break because members found it more inclusive of all non-heterosexuals. However, the term queer was once used as a derogatory term and still holds negative connotations for some people. "I think to a certain extent this kind of behavior is an unfortunate but sort of predictable event," LGBT Center Director Bob Schoenberg said. He added, "It's always a judgement call as to whether to really pay attention to comments such as these?. I would really hate to see a lot of time and energy expended on someone's ignorant remarks." However, Schoenberg did not think the e-mail had anything to do with the QSA's name change. He also said that the LGBT Center and the QSA have received hate e-mail and voicemail messages before, but not recently. Another e-mail was sent out Tuesday from a University e-mail address to the QSA listserv about the group's name change. The e-mail was from a bisexual sophomore who was considering joining the former LGBA until the group changed its name. The sender stated that she was offended by the word queer and would no longer consider joining the group. "I have since decided that I will not join your organization since next year you will probably change the name to the 'Dykes and Faggots Alliance,'" she said. Along with a poster campaign, the QSA will be writing a guest column and submitting letters to the editor for The Daily Pennsylvanian to explain the group's name change and react to the hate mail. "[The e-mail] actually came at a good time," QSA Chairman and Engineering junior Kurt Klinger said. "It sparked a huge response from people on the listserv. Obviously, because of things like this there is a need for B-GLAD and the QSA." B-GLAD will start this Friday with a dance at the Veranda and a rally on Wednesday, among other events. Klinger said the hate mail served not to dampen the enthusiasm of the participants but rather to make them "more active and energetic."
(03/23/00 10:00am)
The Quakers went 2-3 in the Aloha State over spring break, but they had their chances. For the Penn men's tennis team, the story of its spring break in Hawaii is like that of the Buffalo Bills' bid for a Super Bowl ring -- a tale of near-misses. Penn (5-5) won two of five matches in the Aloha State. But the Quakers could very well have come home 4-1, as they lost one-point matches to both Hawaii and BYU-Hawaii. "We just didn't come up with clutch wins," Penn coach Gordie Ernst said. The Quakers were up 3-2 against BYU-Hawaii last Thursday and needed just two wins in the four matches left for a victory. All four matches went into three sets, but only No. 6 singles player Rob Pringle was victorious. Joey Zupan nearly sealed that key second victory for Penn at No. 4 singles, but the Quakers junior could not hold a 3-1 third-set lead over BYU-Hawaii's Logan Woolley and fell, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4. Penn played its last three matches in Hawaii -- including the BYU-Hawaii contest -- without its No. 1 singles player, sophomore Fanda Stejskal. Stejskal, who had surgery on his elbow in November, reinjured the joint following the Hawaii match. In that match against the Rainbows, the Quakers again took an early lead by winning the doubles point, but Hawaii took home a 4-3 victory after winning four of the six singles matches. Stejskal's contest with the Rainbows' Antonio Garcia, like the Penn-Hawaii match as a whole, started out well for the Red and Blue, as Stejskal took an early 5-3 lead. But Garcia broke Stejskal's next serve and stormed back to capture the first set, 7-5. The second set proceeded in an eerily similar fashion, as Garcia again broke a Stejskal serve to cut into a 5-3 lead. But this time the Penn sophomore did not fold, winning the next point to take the second set. Garcia was too much for Stejskal in the end, though, as the Hawaii No. 1 took the last set, 6-4, for the victory. "[Stejskal] shows flashes of brilliance," Ernst said. "They're like falling stars -- you see them only very rarely because of his injuries." Stejskal, who could not even hold a water bottle the day after his match against Garcia, has been practicing for several days now and is expected to return tomorrow against Temple. Also missing from the Penn singles lineup in Hawaii was senior co-captain Brett Meringoff. Meringoff also usually teams with freshman Ryan Harwood at No. 1 doubles, but Penn was able to overcome his loss at that position on the trip, as Pringle and junior co-captain Eric Sobotka teamed with Harwood to post a 5-0 record in Hawaii. Overall, Penn bested four of its five opponents in doubles on the trip. "Our doubles has improved drastically, which is huge," Harwood said. "The doubles point is what decides matches if it's 3-3 [in singles], and it also sets momentum for the match because that's how it starts off." The Quakers had singles success on two of last week's matches, as they bookended their Hawaii trip with a pair of 9-0 victories against Hawaii-Hilo and Chaminade. Only sophomore Brian Barki against the Vulcans and Zupan against the Silverswords dropped a set in the two matches. In between those victories, however, was a three-match losing streak, including a 7-0 loss to Hawaii-Pacific. Even in that match, though, there was another just-miss for the Quakers. The contest had already been decided, but that did not lessen the drama of the No. 3 singles match between Harwood and Filip Meijer. Harwood and Meijer split the first two sets and were knotted at two in the third set. But then Harwood was penalized a game after losing his temper and apparently swinging his racket against the fence. "It was questionable whether I should have gotten the game taken away from me," Harwood said. Nevertheless, Meijer went up 3-2 on the penalty. But Harwood won two of the next three games to knot the score. "By now, we're both dragging," Harwood said. "It was burning hot and everyone [else] was off the courts for two hours already." Even though it technically meant nothing, the three and a half hour match certainly did not mean nothing to Harwood and Meijer. But like the Quakers had throughout their trip in Hawaii, Harwood fell just short. The Penn freshman lost 7-6 in the final set.
(03/23/00 10:00am)
The screening was part of a series of programs on human rights issues. Last year's Academy Award-winning Italian film Life Is Beautiful simultaneously generated as much international acclaim as critical controversy for its unique and innovative exploration of the horrors of the Holocaust. Last night, as part of the Penn Humanities Forum's week-long series "Human Nature-Human Rights: A Civic Dialogue on Unfinished Revolutions," a small crowd of students, professors and Philadelphia residents gathered together to discuss some less publicized but equally controversial Holocaust films of the last half century. The series explores the struggle for human rights in recent history. Monday night, for instance, the Humanities Forum featured a screening of three episodes of the acclaimed civil rights movement documentary, Eyes on the Prize. Last night's event, held in Meyerson Hall, showcased presentations from Penn professors and screenings of two Holocaust film classics: Alain Resnais' Night and Fog, a documentary filmed in 1955 at Auschwitz, and Vittorio De Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1971. Due to what event organizers described as a publicity failure, about 20 people -- only several of whom were students -- attended the program. English Professor Wendy Steiner, the founding director of the Humanities Forum, emphasized the educational value of the event and expressed regret that more students could not benefit from the discussion provoked by these influential films. In his opening remarks, Penn Law Professor Harry Reicher called the Holocaust "a catalyst for the human rights movement." Reicher teaches a course here, "Law and the Holocaust," which is the first of its kind to be offered at any Law school. "One can say in a few words the effect of the Holocaust on international human rights law in the post-World War II era has been dramatic and indeed revolutionary," he said. Communications Professor Barbie Zelizer, an expert on collective memory and visual representation, introduced the first film, Night and Fog, and participated in a panel discussion following the film. "One of the most difficult things about watching [Night and Fog] is to be able to separate oneself from a lifetime of seeing Holocaust imagery," she said. The other professors who participated in the discussion panel were Al Filreis, the faculty director of the Kelly Writers House and Holocaust literature expert Millicent Marcus, director of the Film Studies Program and an authority on the Holocaust in Italian literature and film. The experts identified stylistic elements of the film, presented their own impressions as both scholars and educators on this particular topic and then opened the discussion up to the audience. This discourse, coupled with an introduction from Marcus, provided the context for the second film, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, which concluded the event. "I am quite interested in various studies of the Holocaust, and this program presented valuable insights regarding representations of the Holocaust in film," College freshman David Price said after the event.
(03/23/00 10:00am)
The Penn baseball team will host St. Joe's at Murphy Field today. Despite the familiar drone of cars emanating from the Schuylkill Expressway, the Penn baseball team will feel strangely like a visitor in its own backyard today when it hosts St. Joseph's in the Quakers' home opener. Instead of returning to the friendly confines of Bower Field to kick off the home season, where they have hosted teams for the past 20 years, the Red and Blue (5-5) will christen the newly built stadium at Murphy Field at 3:00 p.m. when they take on the Hawks (5-14). Because they haven't even had a chance to practice in the multi-million-dollar facility before this afternoon's opening pitch, the Quakers are just as unsure about the quirks of their own field as they are about the parks they encounter on the road. "I have no idea how this field's going to be," Penn outfielder and leadoff hitter Kevin McCabe said. "Sometimes you know what the infield's going to be like -- if it's going to be slow, if it's going to be a good field to bunt on or something like that. This will almost be like an away game for us." After spending the entire spring break in central Florida, where Penn split its 10 games while feeling out its new roster, the team is relieved to be back home to play. The Quakers, however, know that they will have to adjust their style of play to compensate for the slower infields found here in the damp Northeast, as opposed to the dry, fast fields they played on in the Sunshine State. "The difference in the way the ball comes up is a totally different game," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "In Florida? every ball that went through the infield was like a rocket. It won't be that way here. It's a whole different game, and our infielders will have to be aware of that." One of the major changes Penn's fielders will have to make today is in their movement toward ground balls hit into the slow infield grass. "[We] have to be aggressive in getting to the ball," McCabe said. "In Florida, a lot of times you can afford to sit back a little bit because the ball is a lot of times coming so fast. On this field, you've got to be a little more aggressive in coming to the ball and just staying in front of it." The Quakers pitchers, including probable starter Greg Lee, will also have to come out aggressively against the solid St. Joe's batting order. The Hawks have managed to uphold a team batting average of .286 while facing several top NCAA contenders -- including Florida State and Stetson -- in the preseason, and will surely try to rattle the Quakers' younger pitching staff while at the plate this afternoon. But Penn won't need to worry if Lee, a sophomore transfer from William and Mary who is slated to throw the first pitch in the Quakers' new park while Penn ace Mike Mattern battles the flu, continues to pitch like he did in Florida. In his first collegiate start against Northern Illinois in Daytona midway through the spring break trip, Lee struck out 12 batters in an eight-inning night that helped give the Quakers an 8-4 win. Lee's dominant showing in that game, as well as daily in practice, has made many of his teammates confident in the new addition to the Penn rotation. "You just can't give guys free passes -- you've got to make them hit the ball," McCabe said. "[Lee] goes right after hitters, and that's what you need to do. I think he'll have a real good outing [today]." Of course, the Quakers will also have to contribute offensively if they hope to beat the Hawks -- but lately, that hasn't been a problem for the Red and Blue. Penn has an impressive .324 batting average on the season and has sent seven balls over the fence in 10 games. "It'll take a pretty good pitcher to stop our bats," Seddon said. "We will hit the ball. All the way down the lineup we can hit." And the Quakers are anxious to finally get out and hit on their new field after spending the last couple of practice days under shelter due to rain. "Everybody's kind of itching to get back outside," McCabe said. "When you play 10 straight days in Florida and you have to come back inside, it sucks. I mean, it's not baseball."
(03/23/00 10:00am)
The Supreme Court ruled using student fees to fund campus grps. doesn't violate student rights. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday that public universities may use mandatory fees to fund controversial student groups, deciding against several University of Wisconsin students who had charged that their First Amendment rights were violated when their fees funded groups they did not support. The case -- Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin v. Scott Harold Southworth et al. -- has been moving through the courts since 1996. This final ruling sets a precedent for public universities across the country. "We're very pleased, of course, with the ruling that came down, which basically said that public universities can use fees to fund the groups of their choosing," University of Wisconsin system spokeswoman Sharyn Wisniewski said yesterday. "We know that the position has broad implications for universities across the nation and we're glad that we could be the national testing ground for this important issue." The case does not affect Penn, since it is a private institution. The students who brought the suit against the university named 18 student groups to which they objected, including the Campus Women's Center, the Progressive Student Network and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Campus Center. "As a conservative and a Christian, it was frustrating to me to see the money going to organizations I personally disagree with," said Scott Southworth, one of the students who brought the case against the university. The University of Wisconsin requires students to pay a "segregated fee" each semester. Students who do not pay the fees are not allowed to view their grades or graduate. The fees -- which totaled $445 per student for the 1999-2000 academic year -- are used both for student services such as health care and recreation and for funding of student groups. Approximately 15 percent of the fee is available for student groups who apply for funding. The court ruled that because groups representing all viewpoints had equal opportunity to obtain funding -- making the funding process "viewpoint neutral," in the court's words -- the fees did not violate the First Amendment. "If the challenged speech here were financed by tuition dollars and the University and its officials were responsible for its content, the case might be evaluated on the premise that the government itself is the speaker. That is not the case before us," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the court's majority opinion. The court's ruling overturned a decision against the university made by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1998 which had upheld a summary judgement by a lower court judge in 1996 that the fee was in fact a violation of the students' First Amendment rights. While the Supreme Court's decision supported the university, it questioned the school's use of referenda as one of the various methods used to distribute funds to student groups. The Supreme Court remanded that issue to a lower court, which will investigate whether the process violates the principle of viewpoint neutrality. Adam Klaus, chairman of the Associated Students of Madison, the group that allocates funds from the student fees, said the Supreme Court had not been presented with enough information concerning the use of referenda. Klaus said that the votes were non-binding and that groups that were included in referendum were subject to the same limitations as other student groups. "I don't think it's going to be a problem," he added. "I think we'll address it when we come to it." The case against Wisconsin was one of several suits challenging the legality of mandatory student fees at universities. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
(03/23/00 10:00am)
Alcohol-related deaths of students have brought drinking to the forefront. Part three of four The alarming headline swept across colleges and universities throughout the country one November morning in 1997 -- a Massachusetts Institute of Technology freshman had died from alcohol poisoning. Eighteen-year-old Scott Krueger, who died after spending three days in an alcohol-induced coma, had a blood alcohol level about five times higher than the state's legal limit for drivers while drinking heavily at a fraternity pledge event. Krueger's death was just one in a string of high-profile alcohol-related incidents that have struck colleges nationwide over the past few years -- incidents that have pushed the issue of alcohol abuse to the forefront at hundreds of schools. At Penn, the death a year ago this week of 1994 Penn alumnus Michael Tobin after a night of drinking at a Phi Gamma Delta annual reunion weekend hit close to home. The incident prompted officials to re-examine the University's social climate -- temporarily enforcing a mostly dry campus and ultimately overhauling the policy altogether. Many institutions are engaged in similar ongoing battles against excessive drinking, and even schools untouched by alcohol-related catastrophes are, like Penn, examining and revamping their alcohol policies and beefing up non-alcoholic social options. Yet administrators agree that the problem of alcohol abuse among college students cannot be solved easily. "As much as we're doing, it's conceivable that another tragedy could happen, if not here, then somewhere else," said Noah Bartolucci, a spokesman for Duke University, which saw an alcohol-related student death last fall. MIT spokesman Robert Sales agreed. "Binge drinking is a societal problem. I think MIT is doing as much as you can do as an institution." Following Krueger's death, MIT expelled the fraternity he was pledging and established a system of progressive sanctions on alcohol violations, ranging from calling a student into the dean's office about a minor first infraction to fines of up to $1,500 and expulsion. The Cambridge, Mass., school is also revamping its undergraduate housing system by discouraging freshmen from living in fraternity houses, as was the custom before Krueger's death. Last fall, student alcohol abuse made headlines once again when a Duke junior died from alcohol poisoning. Raheem Bath died of aspiration pneumonia in November several days after he consumed large quantities of alcohol, passed out and inhaled his own vomit -- which caused the fatal bacterial infection to form in his lungs. Duke initially did not disclose the involvement of alcohol in Bath's death due to privacy concerns of his family. However, after Bath's mother mentioned at a December memorial service that her son's death involved alcohol, administrators began to discuss the issue with student leaders and trustees. And officials have since appointed a task force of administrators, faculty and students to explore ways to improve Duke's alcohol policy. Tragedy also struck Michigan State University when a student there died after excessive drinking in 1998. Bradley McCue died on his 21st birthday when he participated in a school tradition by trying to drink 21 shots of alcohol to celebrate his birthday. He consumed 23 and subsequently died. With the assistance of McCue's parents, MSU now shows two videos on the dangers of excessive drinking during freshman orientation to both the students and their parents. According to MSU's Associate Director of Student Life Marie Hansen, the vignettes have given rise to discussions on alcohol between parents and their children. "For the first time, they're talking about the issue in a manner that is more forthright and less parental," Hansen said. Still, the reality of alcohol abuse again echoed throughout the MSU campus last spring when nearly 100 students were arrested for alcohol possession and disruptive behavior after a riot broke out when the school's basketball team made the Final Four. In response to this incident and to a similar riot that took place the previous spring, MSU President Peter McPherson brought city officials and residents together with MSU administrators and students to find ways to curb excessive drinking. According to Hansen, MSU officials are aiming "to eliminate high-risk drinking rather than prevent all drinking." She added that according to a recent school survey, 71 percent of MSU students have zero to five drinks per week, an amount she said is reasonable. Dartmouth College is also revamping its alcohol policy since incidents of overconsumption of alcohol -- especially in the Greek community -- surfaced on its campus. Dartmouth's Student Life Committee recommended revisions to the alcohol policy, and the suggestions, which include a mandatory education program during freshman orientation, are currently being reviewed. The small Hanover, N.H., is also close to eliminating its Greek system altogether. Margaret Smith, the coordinator of alcohol and other drug education at Dartmouth, said the changes have been in the making for at least 30 years. "[Dartmouth] is trying to be proactive," Smith said. "Alcohol abuse has become an issue on many campuses? and it can't be side-stepped." Smith added that administrators, faculty and students alike agree that amendments to the alcohol policy are necessary. "The change is what's being debated," she said. "We're going to try to make our policies very developmental? something to grow from and not to be taken lightly." Though free from high-profile alcohol-related incidents in recent years, Brown University has had a group in place to review its alcohol policy since 1996. "No particular incidents, no catastrophe prompted the review [of the alcohol policy]," Brown spokeswoman Tracie Sweeney said. But she added that an incident in 1998 emphasized the need to curb alcohol abuse. An undercover reporter for The Providence Journal went drinking with a group of students at a gathering at a student social center on campus and then wrote an article about the high level of underage drinking at the event. In response, police entered the center one night and found the reporter's story to be true. Brown temporarily closed the center, where students must now scan ID cards that identify minors.
(03/23/00 10:00am)
The position, as advertised, would involve coordinating advising and programs for first-year students. The College of Arts and Sciences will soon hire a new staff member to serve as the "dean of freshmen," a position created as part of the College's ongoing advising overhaul. The post will involve coordinating advising efforts, the expanded New Student Orientation and many other programs for the benefit of first-year students, School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston said yesterday. The dean of freshmen will "serve as an advocate for freshmen in the College office," Preston said and will organize freshmen advising and academic-development programs. The position was created as a result of a reorganization of the current College advising staff, he said, which is part of the College's efforts to integrate the many parts of its now-fragmented advising system. Preston noted that all freshmen will remain within the College's regular advising system, though their activities will be coordinated by the new dean. "There will not be a separate staff of advisors for freshmen," he said. The dean of freshmen will also be responsible for organizing NSO in the College and for overseeing the creation of handbooks for incoming freshmen and their parents. The Council of Undergraduate Deans voted earlier this semester to expand NSO from four days to seven, allowing an expanded academic advising component to be added. The dean of freshmen will only be responsible for coordinating academic and advising programs for first-year students, Preston said, after which responsibility for the students will fall under the regular advising coordinators. Preston said the deanship is similar to ones that exist at undergraduate colleges in several other universities. The new dean of freshmen will report to College Dean Richard Beeman and Deputy Provost Peter Conn, according to an advertisement placed in The Chronicle of Higher Education announcing the position. Preston said that although a national search is being conducted to fill the position, both internal and external candidates are being considered. He expects the position to be filled within the next month, allowing the new dean to have time to prepare plans for the fall semester. Applications for the job will be accepted until April 15. According to the advertisement for the position, candidates must have at least a master's degree in a field that is taught in the College and a minimum of five years of "significant and progressively responsible experience in an undergraduate college program."
(03/22/00 10:00am)
Spring break might be over, but five members of the Penn men's fencing team are heading to sunny California this Friday. It will not, however, be a pleasure trip, as these Quakers are competing in the NCAA Championships at Stanford. Qualification for the NCAAs is based upon a fencer's season evaluation -- which consists of the number of bouts won and the strength of his team's schedule -- and his placement at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/ South Region Championships, which were held March 12 at Penn State. At State College, Pa., Penn freshman Yale Cohen won the foil event and recorded an impressive 23-1 finish for the day. He went undefeated in the final 12-person round robin. Before the tournament, Cohen was upset to see that his name was not on a list of fencers to watch in the program. He decided to prove the listmakers wrong. "I told my brother [Penn foilist David Cohen] that I was going to win the tournament," Yale said. "I really wanted to win, but I was surprised. Most of the people I beat I had lost to during the regular season." David Cohen almost ruined his brother's winning streak when the two faced each other in the final round -- Yale was down 4-0 before making a comeback and winning the bout, 5-4. Though his brother is just a freshman, David was not surprised by Yale's final placement. "The people we fenced at regionals are the same people we've fenced for the last seven years," David said. "If [Yale] was better than them before college, he'll be better than them now." David Cohen finished sixth in the foil event, ensuring himself a spot in the NCAAs. Yale Cohen wasn't the only Quaker with a first-place finish -- junior sabre Michael Golia tied with Penn State's Aaron Stuewe and Michael Stahlhut for first. A fencer must finish in the top six of his weapon to qualify for NCAAs, so rather than fencing for first place, the sabres flipped a coin to determine placement. Golia was given third place, even though he beat both Stuewe and Stahlhut. "They're very slippery," Golia said of his opponents from Happy Valley. "But I fenced well enough to qualify for NCAAs, and that's all that matters." In the epee event, Penn's Charles Hamann and Javier Garcia-Albea finished fifth and sixth respectively, earning themselves bids to the NCAAs. Despite his strong finish, Hamann's performance was shaky in the first two rounds. Though he made it to the finals, he had to win five out of six bouts in the second half of the final round to finish in the top six. Hamann did what he needed to do and pulled off five nearly consecutive victories against fencers from Princeton and Penn State. "It was a home stretch sort of thing," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said of Hamann's performance. "He started to put his game together and he won key bouts." Garcia-Albea won five bouts against fencers from Rutgers, Princeton and Penn State to secure his sixth-place finish. The Quakers qualified five men out of a possible six for the NCAAs -- a team can send two fencers from each weapon. A school's final placement at the championships depends on the total number of points scored by both the men's and women's teams, and since the Penn women are only sending two fencers to the NCAAs, Micahnik is understandably disappointed that the men did not qualify another sabre. "We'll do our best, of course, but any school with 10 or 12 fencers has an advantage," Micahnik said. "If everyone does wonderfully, we'll have a chance for the trophy."
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Though their terms will officially end in less than a month, the members of the Undergraduate Assembly are still actively pursuing projects they hope will make student life better on campus. At last night's meeting, the UA discussed many of their ongoing projects, including community service events with other student organizations and campus security. College senior and UA chairman Michael Silver emphasized that the UA would have to stay active in order to meet the needs of the student body until the end of their terms. "In the past years it's been implied that [the time between] spring break and the transition period is a 'dead period' for the UA," Silver said after the meeting. He added, however, that this year is different, since the UA is still working on several ongoing projects. For the next three weekends, the UA will be coordinating Quaker Corps -- a tree-planting community service event that will include participants from other student government groups on campus. Quaker Corps will include tree planting by the Health Center on 43rd and Chester streets, and other nearby areas. The initiative is an extension of Ivy Corps, a community service day planned for all Ivy league schools on April 8. The UA decided that instead of choosing one day for community service, they would devote three -- this Saturday, as well as April 2 and April 8. "[We] hope to get everyone out there and bridge the gap between Penn and the surrounding community," UA member and College freshman David Levin said after the meeting. Levin added that PennPals, Habitat for Humanity and various Greek organizations will be participating in the event. The United Minorities Council has also been invited to participate this Saturday. Safety issues, which have not been at the forefront of the UA's agenda this year, were also discussed last night. "We haven't paid attention to safety at all this year," Silver said. Several UA members met with University Police Chief Maureen Rush and Interim Special Services Director Patricia Brennan before spring break to discuss campus safety issues. The UA expressed student concerns about the lack of Spectaguard patrols on 39th and Sansom streets, as well as the frequency of bike thefts. The UA plans to work with University Police to encourage bike registration and on other security issues on campus. Silver also mentioned that next week's meeting has been moved to Monday in order to accommodate a special guest -- former mayor and current Democratic National Committee chairman Ed Rendell. Rendell, a Penn alum who is teaching two Urban Studies courses this semester, will attend the meeting to informally share his experiences in student government -- he was vice-chairman of the men's student government as a student at Penn in the 1960s-- and observe the UA's activities. With campaigning and elections just around the corner, a majority of UA members -- about 50 to 60 percent -- say they plan to run for re-election in the upcoming weeks.
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Art Casciato knows his fair share of Philadelphia boxers, ranging from the Joe Fraziers to the Rocky Balboas and all the contenders and pretenders in between. Hoping to expose some of the city's storied boxing history to Penn students, the Harrison College House dean organized a trip for seven residents to visit the gymnasiums where many of Philadelphia's famed boxers got their start. The program was part of the house's "Finding Philly" series, which takes students to some of the less traditional but perhaps more fascinating places in the city. And yesterday, in between the sweat, punching bags and headgear, students got to see a side of Philadelphia far away from Locust Walk. The mood was set the moment local boxing instructor Ron Aurit arrived in the Harrison lobby to join Casciato and the students. Aurit, who led the tour of the gyms, offered hearty greetings of, "Where are you from?" to each of the students. No matter the city, Aurit replied with a five-minute anecdote about anything from a championship fight that took place in the particular town to a favorite hotel bar located there. En route to the first stop -- the Front Street Gym -- the stories flew like punches from Aurit's past. Aurit told the students that he is actually the answer to the Trivial Pursuit question, "Who is the only Jewish boxer to have fought Sugar Ray Leonard?" The self-proclaimed "Yid Kid" laughed as he recalled taunting the former champion, "Is that all you got, Sugar?" when he was unable to knock him out. At the Front Street Gym, the entrance is an unmarked door that opens to a narrow staircase and leads up to a boxer's haven, complete with a trainer named Angel, walls plastered in posters of previous fights and an obstacle course of punching bags. "The gym is so different from what you picture it as being," said College senior Ada Stein, referring to the fact that the gym seemed to lack the glitz and glamour so often seen on television. The next stop was the Joe Frazier Gym. The limousine parked out front seemed to indicate that the owner and namesake of the place -- the former heavyweight slugger -- was in. His son Marvis greeted the group and stuck around to sign autographs. In Frazier's office hung what Aurit described as "the best photo ever taken" of Frazier knocking out none other than Muhammad Ali. The final stop was Champs, a North Philadelphia gym. Located right across from Bill Cosby's former elementary school, the gym is touted as the home of some of Philadelphia's finest boxers. Currently training at the gym is middleweight champion Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins and welterweight champion Tony Martin. Champs also claims John Prin, Penn's own boxing club president. Finally, the knockout tour of Philadelphia's boxing world was complete with a visit to Nick's sandwich shop in South Philadelphia. Aurit, who has been teaching boxing skills to Penn students since 1976, then took the opportunity to pass out flyers for those interested in his boxing scholarships. He said part of his mission is to help adolescents make it to college, and he touts the benefits of boxing for many kids who might otherwise be left to the streets. "We all agreed we learned about the sport, and the people and culture of boxing," Casciato said. "The tour Ron gave wasn't sugar-coated."
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There was some sun but not much fun for the Penn men's golf team on its spring break trip to the South. The Quakers first traveled to West Palm Beach, Fla., where they played four consecutive days under friendly blue skies. Penn capped off its vacation in Greenville, N.C., where the Quakers encountered some rough times in some nasty weather at the East Carolina Invitational. "As a whole, we played pretty terribly," junior Todd Golditch said. On the first day of competition, the Quakers fared pretty well with a four-man total of 306. Kyle Moran fired the low round of two-over-par 74. Rising freshman star Chad Perman posted a 77, as did sophomore Trey Best. Mike Russell shot six-over 78, and Golditch posted a 79. There were certainly signs of rust as the Quakers played their first tournament since the fall. "It takes a while to get back into it," Golditch said. "I haven't played [competitively] since October. I played maybe once or twice over winter break." The tourney was supposed to be a 54-hole event, but Friday's morning 18 was canceled due to rain. On the final 18 holes on Saturday, Mother Nature showed her might by inflating the Quakers' scores. "It was 40 degrees and very windy," Golditch said. "It's hard to do well when your hands are red. You can't feel a thing, and you are wearing five layers of clothes." Golditch was right. His team shot a 322 on Saturday, 18 strokes worse than Friday. Perman shot the low round for the Quakers with a four-over 76. Moran posted a 78; Best and Golditch both shot 84; and Russell shot 85. Though Penn finished pretty far back in the field, the East Carolina Invitational is by no means a measuring stick for determining future performances. The Quakers were pitted against a very strong field with teams from different districts. Most of the teams from the South have played year-round and have already competed in several tournaments prior to the East Carolina Invitational. "It's difficult to compete against schools like Virginia Tech and Maryland," Golditch said. "The Southern schools are traditionally better golf schools." The Quakers will play next weekend at the George Washington Invitational in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Although Penn has never competed in this tournament, the Quakers' outlook is positive. "I think we can work out the kinks that haunted us at ECU," Moran said. "I think we will do really well this weekend. We will be competing against teams in our district who are in similar positions as we are." According to Moran, this spring break was important not only for gearing up for the season, but also for getting closer with his Penn teammates. "We had some strong new bonds develop between the upperclassmen and the freshmen," Moran said. "The team is all on the same page. We have the same goals for the season." Moran does believe that to some extent, golf is a team sport. He said he feels comfortable around his team and confident in its ability. "We can all go to each other for advice on our swing or course management," Moran said. "We are really all very good friends." The Quakers hope to ride their friendship and technical prowess to an Ivy League championship. This year marks the first year for the winner of the Ivies to continue on to the NCAA Championships.
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But Penn police attribute the increase to a growth in their patrol area. Campus crime statistics released this week by the Division of Public Safety show significant increases in several categories of crime over the past three years, including robbery, simple assaults and auto thefts. But according to University Police officials, the statistics -- the release of which is mandated by both federal and state law -- don't paint an accurate picture of the crime situation on campus. Specifically, they say, the increased number of 1999 incidents reflects the growth of police jurisdiction and several key changes in reporting procedures. "The reason for our increased numbers isn't an increase in crime," University Police Deputy Chief of Investigations Thomas King said. "It was just a matter of the change in [Department of Education] reporting requirements." Congress passed legislation in 1998 designed to close loopholes allowing colleges and universities to underreport campus crime by claiming that many incidents occurred in what is technically off campus. Penn was the subject of a year-long federal government investigation into its crime reporting procedures in 1997. That review found several minor violations into reporting procedures, but absolved the University of charges that it had systematically covered up campus crime. According to the statistics -- which count campus-wide crime according to the nature of the offense -- the number of on-campus incidents has increased in general over the past three years, with robberies rising by 29 occurrences since last year, thefts by 246 and simple assaults by 14. But officials said the higher statistics reflect an expansion of the University Police's patrol area as well as an increase in reports brought about by some ambiguities in new reporting terminology. "Most of the changes involved new federal definitions of what was campus and what was not," University Police Chief Maureen Rush said. "The changes in breakdown made things somewhat more complicated, but we still reported those crimes affecting the University covered by the Uniform Crime Report." "The numbers look deceptively higher," King added. "We're more inclusive about counting [crimes] inside our geographic area." He said the police are responding to the regulatory changes by cautiously reporting crimes previously considered out of jurisdiction. "We're absolutely going beyond the requirements to make sure we're in compliance," King said. "This is very much a transition for the DOE requirements as we all try to figure out the meaning of [geographic reporting guidelines] like 'adjacent' and 'reasonably contiguous.'" The numbers are especially misleading, officials say, because the crime rate in the campus neighborhood has actually been falling dramatically in recent months. "Major crime is definitely down," King said. "[The actual crime rate] is really impressive." Police are so pleased with the drop in violent crimes like homicide and aggravated assault, in fact, that they have been able to spend more resources in the fight against smaller, quality of life-related incidents. "We're at the point right now where we're really concentrating on thefts from inside buildings," King said. "Our robberies are way down, as are our aggravated assaults. Any student-related assaults are virtually non-existent, where we used to have a high percentage of alcohol-related incidents. Burglary has been on the decrease as well." Police further say one of the tools they plan to employ in the fight against minor crimes is education. "An obscenely high percentage of internal thefts, 95 percent or more, are the result of items left unattended," King said. "We're trying hard to increase awareness in that area."
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The Quakers pummeled Lafayette, 20-5, after going 1-2 during break. While most of the student body was either relaxing at home or on a tropical island over spring break, the Penn men's lacrosse team was hard at work on the field. The Quakers played three games during the week off and one more yesterday, going 2-2 in that span. Penn started off the week with an overtime win against Bucknell, but then dropped two to North Carolina and Yale, before winning yesterday in convincing fashion against Lafayette. "We're playing OK right now, not terrific," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "We have ups and downs within each game." With its record at 2-2, yesterday's contest against a weaker Lafayette squad was a crucial one, and Penn passed with flying colors, demolishing the Leopards, 20-5. "We had come out a little slow in past games, and we wanted to take [yesterday] to work on starting faster and we were able to accomplish that," co-captain Pete Janney said. The Quakers jumped out to a quick 9-0 advantage on the backs of the defense that held Lafayette scoreless throughout the first half. Along with the contribution from the backline, the entire team played well. Midfielder Billy Sofield won 80 percent of the face-offs, and goalie John Carroll regained the form that helped Penn win its first two games of the season. "Today, every ground ball was ours," senior co-captain Bill Fowler said. "The defense put pressure on the ball from the beginning. That caused a lot of turnovers, and the offense was able to run right through their defensive line." Scott Solow led the team with three goals, while junior Todd Minerley tallied six assists and a goal. Solow netted two of his goals early in the game during the 9-0 run. "It felt really good to beat up on somebody," freshman midfielder Alex Kopicki said. "We don't have too many easy wins on our schedule, and while we didn't take that attitude going into the game, once we got going, it was nice." The Quakers' first opponent of spring break was Bucknell, which Penn had beaten 11-8 when the teams met last spring. Playing the contest in a driving rain in Baltimore on March 11, the Red and Blue trailed from the start and were down 2-1 at halftime. The Quakers were also behind going into the fourth quarter, but rallied to tie the score at four and send the game into overtime. In the extra period, Kopicki took the ball from the top of the crease past his defender, forcing another defender to cover him. Kopicki passed the ball to a wide-open Solow, who scored the goal from 10 feet away to give Penn the win. "The Bucknell game was a good, physical game," Fowler said. "They felt like they could play with us, and we quietly fought back to take it." In the next game at UNC on March 14, the fourth quarter result was not as gratifying. The Quakers spotted the Tar Heels a 5-2 lead, but stormed back in the third quarter to take a 6-5 advantage. "The third quarter of the North Carolina game was the best 12 minutes of lacrosse this season," Van Arsdale said. "We had their frontline really struggling." The UNC offense wouldn't struggle for long, however. The Tar Heels bounced back, netting six goals in a row to eventually win, 13-7. The turning point seemed to come in the beginning of the fourth quarter. With the game knotted at six, UNC All-American Todd Maher took the ball from the midline all the way down the field and scored. "It was just a breakdown of team play," Fowler said of the fourth-quarter collapse. "The energy was there, and the teamwork was there. They just kept getting one goal after another, and we were unable to stop the momentum." While the UNC loss was discouraging, the loss to Yale on Saturday was more disappointing. "Against Yale we were overworked and were forced to play from behind," Van Arsdale said. "In this sport, play is determined when balls are on the ground, and they made plays on the 50-50 balls and we didn't." The Quakers went down 6-1 early on, but managed to claw back to tie the score, 8-8. Nevertheless, Penn never held a lead and lost, 11-10. "We came ready to play, but they seemed to have more effort and came ready to win," Fowler said. While Penn was happy with yesterday's win, it knows that it still has room to grow. "We didn't take full advantage of scoring opportunities," Janney said. "There were times during the game that we could have shot the ball on goal and didn't, and we need to work on that." With the win, Penn improves its record to 3-2. Yet with four out of the next five games against Ivy opponents, the Quakers know that wins are not going to come easily.
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Penn won four of its first eight, but lost six straight to close out their stay in Florida over break. The 2000 Penn softball season got off to a hectic start over spring break as the team traveled to Florida to compete in two tournaments and a total of 14 games. The break started well enough, with the Quakers winning four of their first eight games. After that, however, Penn faltered, losing six straight games to finish up the break at 4-10. On the first day of Penn's second tournament, the squad fell victim to a no-hitter in a 4-0 loss to Western Kentucky. The near-perfect game by Katie Swertfager was the first no-hitter in Lady Toppers history. Swertfager walked sophomore Clarisa Apostol to open the game and hit freshman Deb Kowalchuk before retiring the next 21 in a row. Penn freshman pitcher Becky Ranta had a strong outing but found herself a hard-luck loser, giving up three runs in six innings of work. "I think we have to put this into perspective because we have eight freshmen including four in the starting lineup," Penn sophomore Jen Moore said. "Our team is really young and we played some big teams." In the final game of the break, Penn lost 5-0 against Tennessee Tech. In that game, Penn senior co-captain Michelle Zaptin threw four scoreless innings but gave up one run in the fifth and struggled in the sixth, giving up four runs and eventually taking the loss. "It is never fun to lose, but we played some really tough teams and that should help us prepare for the rest of the season," Zaptin said. "Nobody likes a six-game losing streak, but we are confident that we can turn it around this weekend." Despite the 10 losses, the Quakers do have some reasons to be optimistic. Ranta had an excellent start to her collegiate career. She won her first three starts to account for three of the four total Penn victories. "To have a freshman come in and perform like that right away is very exciting," Penn coach Carol Kashow said. "I thought that overall the freshmen showed a lot of maturity and handled themselves well on defense against a lot of base-runners." Other strong performers for Penn were sophomore second baseman Jamie Pallas and senior first baseman Kari Dennis who were solid on defense and at the plate. "I'm taking a lot more good than bad out of these games," Kashow said. "The second tournament was very difficult and we knew that going in. We should play well this weekend and hopefully raise our record to .500." Penn's most consistent hitter over the break was returning first team All-Ivy selection Moore. She led the Quakers with a .500 batting average over the first week of the season. "I kind of felt like I wasn't always getting my hits when I should have, but I did get a couple of RBI," Moore said. "My defense wasn't the best, though, and that's what I pride my game on." With so many freshmen in the starting lineup, the Quakers' somewhat slow start in the Sunshine State is understandable. The hope for Penn is that, as the young players become more accustomed to the collegiate level, the team will drastically improve. "We definitely have a ton of freshmen starting at key positions like shortstop and catcher," Zaptin said. "I think they did a really good job overall and they didn't get discouraged when they would make mistakes." Penn's most daunting task of the break came against 20th-ranked Illinois-Chicago. The Quakers showed promise early on, taking a quick 2-0 lead. Unfortunately for Penn, the Flames turned up the heat after that and ended up clobbering the Quakers, 10-2. This weekend, Penn will play three doubleheaders, starting on Friday against Lafayette. The Quakers will then play doubleheaders against La Salle and Rider the next two days. "I think we're all planning on winning all six games this weekend and getting back on a high-note before the Ivy season starts," Zaptin said. "We need to get some of our confidence back and just continue to improve."
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Contributing to a women's cause at Penn, the Panhellenic Council presented the Penn Cancer Center with a check for $1,150 Monday, which will go toward the Rena Rowan Breast Health Center, slated to open in the fall. Panhel raised the money for the Breast Health Center -- Panhel's official philanthropic effort -- through an event called Panhel at the Palestra. Sorority sisters sold tickets to the March 3 Penn basketball game and donated $2 from every ticket to the center. Panhel also held a tug of war between the sororities during halftime. At the check presentation, Panhel President Jennifer Chanowitz, a Sigma Delta Tau sister, talked about why Panhel chose to become involved with the Breast Health Center. "As the largest women's organization on Penn's campus, we wanted to choose a cause for which women could not only donate money but also their time," Chanowitz, a College junior, said. Cancer Center Executive Director Beverly Ginsburg praised Panhel's choice of a charitable cause, stressing the need for student involvement with the Cancer Center. "The more the center integrates with the University community, the more it can serve that community," she said. Ginsburg also talked about the impact that breast cancer has on the sufferer's family. "[The woman is] the one who carries the weight, the burden of the family," she said. "So she's facing breast cancer, but she still has to tend to her children and her husband and her aging mother." The new center -- which will be located on the 14th floor of the Penn Tower Hotel -- will provide oncologists, a cancer rehabilitation team, a plastic surgeon, a nutritionist and psychological counselors. There will also be a boutique selling wigs, scarves, prostheses and medical books and journals. The Breast Health Center is named for Rena Rowan, one of the owners of the fashion designing company Jones New York. Rowan is a breast cancer survivor who was treated at Penn's Cancer Center. According to Ginsburg, the money donated by Panhel will go toward the purchase of CD players and CDs to be placed next to each chemotherapy chair in the Breast Health Center. Panhel plans to continue its fundraising efforts with the Dance for a Cure dance-a-thon on April 8, which will be cosponsored by the InterFraternity Council and the Bicultural InterGreek Council. And in the fall, Panhel will hold its second annual Pumpkin Chase 5k run, donating all proceeds to the center.
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Penn exceeded last season's win total in a 14-7 rout of Villanova yesterday afternoon. VILLANOVA, Pa. -- Amid a deluge of rain at Villanova Stadium yesterday afternoon, the Penn women's lacrosse team unleashed a flood of its own. On the strength of five unanswered goals to close out the first half, the Quakers recovered from an early deficit and downed the Wildcats, 14-7. Penn (2-1) was led by sophomore Traci Marabella and freshman Crissy Book, who each netted four goals. The pair combined to score three times in a critical two-minute stretch in the first half, as the Quakers came out of a timeout and quickly turned a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 lead. Penn never relinquished that advantage. "I told them that they had to do the easy things," Penn coach Karin Brower said of that timely timeout. "The passing and the catching. We've got to have the ground balls, and we've got to want the ground balls. And it shouldn't be a 3-2 game at that point -- that's basically what I said." Villanova (2-5), whose leading scorer, Cecily Pierce, was out with a pulled hamstring, was unable to generate any consistent offense. Wildcats freshman Meghan Carolan scored three goals, and senior Molly O'Conor added a pair, but the rest of the home squad could not break free of Penn's double-teaming on defense and put the ball in the net. "I think we got off to a very good start, but we let them come back on us," Villanova coach Joanie Milhous said. "There were a lot of turnovers in the midfield. And then I think we started playing very soft." With a sloppy game on both sides due to wet field conditions of near-biblical proportions, the speedy Quakers were able to come up with the majority of ground balls and turn them into attacking opportunities. Marabella and freshman Christy Bennett were two Penn players who excelled in this capacity. "The biggest thing with Traci that I liked is that today she really came back defensively, and so she came up with a lot of turnovers," Brower said. "And Christy Bennett had a great game. She pretty much dominated the turnovers. We got so many good turnovers because of her -- she came up with drops, double-teams, checks, interceptions." Marabella, who leads Penn with 10 goals on the season, almost did not make yesterday's game, showing up late for the team van due to a doctor's appointment. But Brower refused to leave West Philadelphia without the sophomore attacker -- a move that paid dividends early and often. Marabella scored 2:02 into the contest to put Penn up, 1-0, the first of her three first-half tallies. "For some reason, today was the first game that I wasn't nervous," Marabella said. With the temperature hovering around 40 degrees and wind-driven rain blowing in the players' faces, the conditions were less than ideal. "The weather sucked, but for some reason I like playing in the rain," Marabella said. "I don't know why, but I feel like I play better in the rain. Most people think of it as a disadvantage when it's raining and the conditions are horrible, but for some reason I like it." The Wildcats -- fresh off a 19-10 thrashing of La Salle on Sunday -- also came out hustling, scoring a pair of early goals to go up, 2-1. But Villanova struggled to clear the ball out of its end all day, and goalie Kelly O'Leary's 13 saves simply were not enough. Goalkeeper Christian Stover made nine big saves for the Quakers, none more important than one that came with 11 minutes left in the first half. With Penn up 5-3, a Wildcats attacker came in alone following a Penn turnover in their own end. But her shot was turned away by Stover, who held 'Nova scoreless for a 25-minute period. "Penn started to double-team us, and we just didn't respond to the double-team," Milhous said. "We didn't get it together in the midfield, and our attack didn't really go hard to goal." The Quakers' freshmen were a major part of the team's success. Midfielder Alison Polk-Williams notched one goal, attacker Kate Murray netted two and Bennett added another. Attacker Brooke Jenkins and midfielder Emily Foote, a DP sportswriter, also got into the scoring for the Quakers. Penn has now doubled its win total from a year ago with two victories.
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Undergraduates will provide nominations for the new award, which will provide $500 to 10 outstanding TAs. As the grunt workers at every university, teaching assistants do almost everything from holding recitations and labs to copying and grading exams. Now, the graduate students who especially shine in these duties can be recognized by the very people whom they teach and inspire: undergraduates. Following the success of an award to a TA last year, University President Judith Rodin decided to make $5,000 available to acknowledge not one, but 10 TAs with amounts of $500 each. Undergraduates can nominate their favorite TAs for the award through the next two weeks and the winners will be announced in late April. Organizers say the awards are especially significant because they come not from their departmental bosses, but from the efforts of the students whom the TAs directly affect. "It's an award established from below instead of initiated from the top," award committee chairperson and History Professor Walter Licht said. In order to win the prize, TAs have to be nominated by an undergraduate who must write a short recommendation commenting on how the TA has impacted their academic experience. As Licht noted, however, the impact need not be restricted to how they perform in the classroom. In fact, the committee will not only look at how a TA has been especially innovative in bringing the class material to life, but also how they might have moved their students toward pursuing further study in the field, Licht said. The deadline for submitting a nomination is April 4 and students can send in a letter, an e-mail or visit the Web site at http://pobox.upenn.edu/~taprize. "The whole idea is that it's nominated by and focused on undergraduates," Graduate Student Association Council President and Wharton doctoral candidate Eric Eisenstein said. Licht, a one-time graduate dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, said that he was inspired by a graduate student to pursue History. "I know when I ask my colleagues, 'Why did you decide to do this?' invariably there is a TA mentioned," Licht said. The award committee will represent all four undergraduate schools and will be composed of a faculty representative, two undergraduates and four representatives from GSAC. Eisenstein hopes that last year's recipient will sit on the committee and that winners will continue to be involved in future years. Following the undergraduate nomination, the committee will ask for a personal statement from the candidates and then request that a faculty member testify to their professional and personal qualities. "The undergraduates agree that this is important because these are their TAs and the graduate students believe that this is important because this is a big part of what we do and what we will be doing when we become professors," Eisenstein said.
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The number of registered fraternity parties has dropped dramatically since Michael Tobin's death last year. Just a few short years ago, Penn students could have their pick of at least three or four fraternity parties on any given Friday or Saturday night. Now, there are rarely more than a few fraternity parties in a weekend, much less in a single evening. Although the nature of Penn's Greek culture has been slowly evolving over the past few years, the alcohol-related death of 26-year-old Phi Gamma Delta alumnus Michael Tobin a year ago yesterday served as the catalyst for rapid changes to the Greek system. Tobin's death prompted a widespread evaluation of Penn's rules regarding drinking, resulting in a stricter alcohol policy that has changed the nature and frequency of fraternity parties on campus. Under the new rules, Greeks say large, blow-out parties are all but extinct due to the strict regulations. And many say that as the number of fraternity parties diminishes, the number of unregulated parties increases. Tobin was found dead during the early morning hours of March 21, 1999, following a FIJI alumni dinner. Four days later, University President Judith Rodin instituted a temporary ban on alcohol at all registered campus parties -- igniting campus-wide uproar, with students organizing a mass protest on College Green. During the five-week alcohol ban, Provost Robert Barchi led a committee of students, faculty and administrators that drafted recommendations for a new alcohol policy. While the policy applies to the entire campus, Greeks at the time voiced concerns that as the main organizers of on-campus parties they would be unfairly penalized for Tobin's death. InterFraternity Council leaders, who were a part of the Working Group on Alcohol Abuse, stressed throughout the process that fraternity parties were among the safer places for students to drink at Penn. Many expressed worries that under a new, stricter policy, parties would just be pushed to unsafe, off-campus locations. According to former IFC President Mark Metzl, a College senior, fraternity parties, "even in the old system, were the safest places to imbibe in the world." And former IFC Executive Vice President Andrew Exum, a College senior and Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, said students tend to drink more at private parties or in their dorm rooms than at fraternity parties. "From a practical standpoint, you run more of a risk binge drinking behind closed doors than fighting with 300 people for a beer at a crowded fraternity party," the Sigma Nu brother said. But those crowded fraternity parties have thinned out over the past semester as the new policy demands stricter carding rules and tighter enforcement. The new alcohol policy calls for a 1 a.m. serving deadline of alcohol at all undergraduate parties and a total ban on hard alcohol. The new policy also strengthened and expanded the existing monitoring system. Every registered party now has at least one of the University's approximately 30 trained monitors -- all of whom are Penn graduate students -- checking it during the course of the evening. Still, Alcohol Policy Coordinator Stephanie Ives stressed that the new policy was "very carefully worded," so as not to single out the Greeks as targets. But former Sigma Alpha Mu President Michael Kraver, who served on the WGAA, said that the correlation between the Greeks and alcohol could not be avoided. "The bottom line is, right or wrong, the Greeks are associated with the alcohol policy," said Kraver, now a first-year Penn Law student. Kraver did note, however, that the administration included Greek input as it reshaped the policy. Barchi said that the University does not want to get rid of the Greek system, explaining that the Tobin tragedy was only a sign of a larger campus-wide problem. "I think that Tobin's tragic death was just an indication of problems that were pervasive in the system as a whole," Barchi said. "It's not a question of suspending a fraternity -- it's a question of changing the culture." If the drinking culture has not changed, the Greek culture certainly has, with the numbers of on-campus parties down and the stringent rules, for the most part, being enforced. Wharton senior Martin Park, who was president of FIJI before the fraternity gave up its charter last spring, said he can see the changes on campus. Fraternities "don't want to have parties because they don't want to get in trouble," Park said. He also maintained that the new rules "don't let you have a fun party -- you can't have a real party." Many Greeks now say that drinking has been moved off campus to unmonitored locations, as they feared initially. As for the future of FIJI at Penn, the brothers agreed upon forfeiting their charter that the fraternity would not be allowed to recolonize until all current brothers had graduated. But Park believes that FIJI's national organization will try and bring the chapter back eventually, and that many men will be interested in joining. Park also emphasized that the death at FIJI was not the sole reason for the change in policy. "It was a whole string of events, not just what happened last year," he said. "People have to understand -- policies were changing from the day I got here four years ago." Ives agreed. "If you look at the national picture, at Greek life at campuses around the country, there are many similarities, although not all campuses have had a tragedy like we have," she said. And Metzl said he believes that the necessary reevaluation of the fraternity system has strengthened the Greeks and improved their prospects for the future. "We stand on much more solid ground than we did in February of last year," he said.
