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(03/03/00 10:00am)
With the women's indoor track season all but over, a few talented Quakers will get an opportunity to go head to head against some of the nation's best college athletes at the ECAC Championships this weekend. For most of the team, last weekend's disappointing last-place finish at the Heptagonal Championships was the final meet of the season. However, four Penn athletes will compete in the prestigious tournament this weekend in Boston. Bassey Adjah, Ruthie Neuhaus, Liz Wittels and Ami Desai met the difficult qualifying standards in their events to earn the right to compete on Saturday and Sunday. With the abundance of talent that will be present in Boston, these skilled Quakers definitely have their work cut out for them. "It isn't easy to even qualify for this meet, so this is a very elite field," Penn assistant coach Tony Tenisci said. "It is a step above Heps, so it can be a little intimidating, but our girls are ready and thrilled to be a part of it." With more freshmen on the team than head coach Betty Costanza can shake a stick at, this Quakers squad has been plagued by a severe lack of experience and depth. For perhaps the first time all season, this shouldn't play a role in the upcoming meet. All four Quakers competing are upperclassmen, and only Wittels is a sophomore. "This is a great opportunity for us to shine against some awesome competition," Tenisci said. "We obviously didn't do as well as we had hoped at Heps, but we also had some girls perform well at Heps and throughout the season. The ones that are going to Boston deserve to be there and have a chance to be part of something special." This meet could be very challenging both mentally and physically for the Penn athletes. For those competing on Saturday, this will be the ninth straight weekend competition. Also, the grueling two-day format of Heps had to take a toll on the team. "They were all pretty exhausted after the weekend," Tenisci said. "So we've been doing our best to help them out and give them some down time. They only had one hard workout this past week, so we're confident that they're ready to go." One advantage the Penn athletes will have is that no Quaker is competing in more than one event. This not only means that fatigue will be less of a factor, but also that each Penn athlete's preparation can be more targeted. "I am definitely a bit fatigued after Heps and all the other meets we've had," Adjah said. "But I don't think that it will be too much of a factor because I can focus all my energy on the long jump." The Penn pole vaulters could provide some excitement this weekend. Desai placed second last year at the ECACs, and Wittels, who was seventh last season, has been on a tear of late, breaking the school record three times in the span of a month. If Penn is to be successful at ECACs, it is important that the team does not get caught up in the scenery. With so much talent in the field, the Penn athletes seem to understand the importance of focusing on their own performances. "It would obviously be great to place in this meet, but that isn't really my goal," Adjah said. "My goal is just to improve on my own jumping and not worry about everyone else." Some strong individual performances at ECACs may help the team to forget a less than memorable Heps.
(03/03/00 10:00am)
Huntsman Hall, the Wharton School's six-story, 320,000-square-foot business education complex, will finish on time but at a cost $9 million more than originally expected, officials said. University officials attributed the steep expense increase to a tight construction market across the region. The increase brings the total cost of the project to nearly $140 million. Vice President for Facilities Services Omar Blaik said the original estimates made over the summer were too low to cover construction expenses. "We went out to five construction companies to ask for five prices on construction costs -- all of the prices came in in a very close range and all were above the estimates for the project," Blaik said. The University Trustees approved the first estimates in the summer, but at their meeting last month, they approved the increased budget. The building -- named for Wharton alumnus Jon Huntsman, who donated $40 million to the project -- is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2002. It will house a 500-seat auditorium, classrooms for undergraduate and MBA students, administrative offices and four academic departments. Blaik said that the amount of construction going on across the region has resulted in heightened costs. Huntsman Hall was affected to a much greater degree than other campus construction because of the size of the project, he said. Craig Thomas, a senior economist with the economics research firm Dismal Science Inc., based in West Chester, Pa., said that a tight labor market has contributed to an increase in construction costs. "Skilled construction workers are particularly scarce and that's because we've had a booming construction market," he said. Thomas also indicated that costs of certain construction materials, such as drywall and steel, had recently increased. "After the Asian currency market [crisis], all commodities saw significant price drops," he said. "But now with the Asian economy [recovering]? you no longer have those very cheap commodities and steel is one of the commodities that has been affected." Scott Douglass, Wharton's senior vice president for administration and finance, said that despite the increased expenses, the project's costs would still be covered entirely by funds obtained by Wharton. "Several years ago, the school received a major gift that the donor has subsequently 'reallocated' to Huntsman Hall," Douglass wrote in an e-mail. "In addition the school has always known that a portion of the cost would be covered by operating surpluses in executive education, as well as discretionary funds available to the dean." Douglass said the project was a few days behind schedule due to snow earlier in the year, but is expected to be back on schedule by mid-April. "That sort of thing is to be expected in a project of this size," Douglass said. "[We are] very pleased with the status of the project."
(03/03/00 10:00am)
Penn outsourced management of its facilities to the Dallas-based firm just two years ago. Nearly two years after Penn entered into a groundbreaking but controversial outsourcing agreement, officials announced yesterday that the University will resume management its on-campus facilities -- abruptly restructuring a deal that had been touted as the first of its kind. As part of a new, six-year contract with Trammell Crow Co., both sides agreed to take away some of the responsibilities that the Dallas-based management firm assumed in a highly contentious 1997 move that drew fire from University faculty and staff. Under the terms of the restructured agreement, Trammell Crow will continue to manage Penn's for-profit real estate arm and focus on the management of large-scale construction projects -- which it had been doing before the 1998 deal. But while the deal includes a contract for Trammell Crow to manage University City Associates for the next 10 years, the firm will no longer be in charge of day-to-day operations, such as housekeeping and maintenance, for on-campus facilities. Penn will resume control over the management of its on-campus facilities and will rehire the 75 current Trammell Crow managers, offering them comparable positions, salaries and benefit packages. In financial terms, the restructured deal will reduce the cost of services that Trammell provides from about $18 million to $11 million, Vice President for Facilities Services and Contract Management Omar Blaik said. And the $26 million lump-sum payment that Penn was promised by Trammell Crow for taking part in its first attempt to outsource a higher-education institution will also be cut in half to about $13 million, according to Executive Vice President John Fry. Fry, who spearheaded the outsourcing deal more than two years ago, insisted that this latest development is not a total repudiation of the initial agreement. "It's a mid-course adjustment on ways we can improve things," said Fry, who earned the enmity of many in the Penn community for going forward with the plan without consulting those who were to be affected. Still, University President Judith Rodin acknowledged that poor performance on the part of Trammell Crow had caused the change. "We need to take responsibilities for maintenance," Rodin said. "Despite the fact that it is not our core strength, it is indeed our core responsibility. And when we don't see it going as well as we would like, of course the only default is to take it back ourselves." Trammell Crow Higher Education Services Executive Vice President Bob Chagres said the new agreement would only help Penn and Trammell Crow work together better. "Generally speaking, long-term contractual relationships go through modifications based on the practical realities of the day to day," he said. For the past two years, Trammell Crow has been providing the University with services under year-long agreements as they worked to get approval from the Internal Revenue Services for a 10-year contract. But with this year's contract set to expire in July, University officials decided to sit down at the bargaining table with Trammell Crow in confidential negotiations to hammer out a new contract that they hope will rectify the problems in housekeeping, maintenance response time and overall efficiency. According to Fry, University management of on-campus facilities will focus on making its employees more responsive to daily concerns. "Our work-orders will take place in 24 hours instead of 72 hours," Fry said. "The impact I am looking for is service." Although Fry said Penn will continue using Trammell Crow's decentralized, organizational structure, the new University management will concentrate on deploying staff more efficiently. "It's one thing to design an organization, and it is another thing to implement it," Fry said. "Direct management of University employees is the best way to go. Trammell Crow was seen as a layer between the University and University-managed, union employees." When the Trammell Crow outsourcing was first announced in the fall of 1997, members of the University community responded in outrage. A special session of University Council was called to discuss the situation, and the body passed a resolution asking the Board of Trustees to reject the deal. And nearly 200 staff members rallied on College Green in an unsuccessful 11th-hour attempt to persuade the Trustees to rethink the proposal. For the past 21 months, many Trammell Crow employees have voiced displeasure with the management, calling it inefficient and dysfunctional, and few students or faculty have seen any improvement in facilities services. Upon hearing yesterday's announcement, many said they believed outsourcing all of Penn's facilities to Trammell Crow was doomed from the start. "Contracting out institutional work is a delicate operation and three years ago, [Penn] was very anxious to start work and didn't have the experience," said City and Regional Planning Professor Anthony Tomazinis, who chaired the Council's facilities committee when Fry first proposed the deal. "I know they didn't do the homework they ought to have done and I am not surprised." Added a former Penn Physical Plant manager, "[Trammell Crow] was a real estate company and they never had experience with facilities. It is evident because they failed."
(03/03/00 10:00am)
Penn students may debate among themselves whether affirmative action is racial justice or reverse discrimination. But rarely do they get the chance to sit in a studio audience and listen to two experts express their views on national radio. Seven undergraduates, all Harrison College House residents, traveled to Center City Monday night to watch a taping of the public radio show Justice Talking. Inside Carpenters' Hall in Olde City, Law professors Frank Wu of Howard University and Gail Heriot of the University of San Diego argued for more than two hours on the effectiveness and legitimacy of affirmative action measures. The two constitutional law scholars focused on a recent court case brought several white students against the University of Michigan for using racial preferences in the admissions process. Wu, who has authored several books on the benefits of affirmative action programs, claimed that showing favor to minority applicants is a measure necessary to promote equality. "The question here is how we will remedy racial discrimination," Wu said. "We've seen that we can do some things about it." Heriot, however, said she believed that such programs have had largely negative effects on colleges due to the admission of students who she said are underqualified. "Preferences have tended to foster separatism," she said, "and the reason for it is this mismatch in academic credentials" that results from preferential admissions. The Penn students attended the taping as part of a house-sponsored series called "Finding Philly," which seeks to expose residents to a variety of cultural events in the city. Harrison House Dean Art Casciato, who created the series, said he thought Justice Talking was a perfect addition to it. "Nothing could be more Philadelphia than Carpenters' Hall," Casciato said, referring to the building's history as a meeting place for America's First Continental Congress. "If you're going to find Philadelphia, this is the place to do it -- around the historic district where it all started," Casciato said. Though the seven students said they enjoyed the show itself, not everyone was pleased with some of the answers given by the speakers during an audience question-and-answer session. "She didn't respond to my question," College sophomore Melissa Ganz said of Heriot. "I thought a lot of what she said was skirting the issue." Justice Talking, hosted by National Public Radio correspondent Margot Adler, is produced by Penn's Annenberg Public Policy Center. It is currently broadcast by more than 60 public radio stations around the country. The show aims to "enable the public to understand the issues and why our laws are the way they are," said Executive Producer Kathryn Kolbert, who is also a senior fellow at Annenberg. "Too often, these issues are cast in three-minute sound bites," she said. "We can provide depth to them in a better way than any other medium." Tapings for Justice Talking are held on Monday nights during the academic year. Topics for the rest of this season include hate speech, juvenile prosecution and gay rights.
(03/03/00 10:00am)
They won an Ivy League championship together. They won a national championship together. Now, the top five members of the Penn women's squash team will eschew team glory for the pursuit of the individual kind -- even if it's at the expense of a fellow Quaker. Today, 64 women's squash players from across the nation will begin the hunt for the individual national championship at the the Intercollegiate Championships at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. The tournament, which concludes Sunday, will feature competition from Penn senior Katie Patrick, who has played all season at the No. 1 position for the Quakers. Patrick -- who reached the semifinals of the Intercollegiate Championships last year when the event was held at Penn's Ringe Courts -- is the tournament's sixth seed and will face Dartmouth's Lindsey Bishop today at 9 a.m. Because of Patrick's ranking, her experience and her past success in the Intercollegiate Championships, some feel that she might come home with a title. "I think Katie [Patrick] has a chance of maybe winning it," said Penn junior Megan Fuller, who did not make the trip to the tournament. "If she plays well and stays focused, she has a very good chance of winning." The Quakers' other representatives are freshman Runa Reta -- who will compete as the championships' eighth seed -- and juniors Rina Borromeo, Helen Bamber and Lauren Patrizio, who will occupy the 13th, 14th and 26th rankings, respectively. "They might all be better than their rankings portray," Fuller said, referring to the Quakers who have enjoyed two weeks of rest since clinching the national title. "I think they're better players in terms of their rankings. I think Katie, for instance, should definitely be higher than sixth." In first-round action today, Reta will face off against Brown's Katherine Esselen at 10:30 a.m., while Borromeo will clash with Katharine Stickney of Trinity at 9:30 a.m. Bamber will face off against Harvard's Virginia Brown at 10 a.m., and Patrizio, who has battled knee problems all season, will face Abigail Drachman-Jones of Dartmouth at 11 a.m. The Intercollegiate Championships is not a team tournament but a tournament of individual competition, so the Quakers who made the trek to Massachusetts know that every woman is in it for herself -- even if two Quakers meet in battle at some point in the tournament. "They're competitors," Fuller said of such a scenario. "You kind of have to forget who you're playing and just play squash." The Quakers are no strangers to championship tournaments. It was two short weeks ago that the Quakers travelled to Yale to take part in the Howe Cup national championship tournament and returned to Philadelphia as owners of a perfect season record and a first-ever national crown.
(03/03/00 10:00am)
The Quakers will face stiff competition from Lehigh and Cornell at Navy. The 15th-ranked Penn wrestling team is traveling down to Annapolis, Md., in search of an unprecedented fifth consecutive title, as the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championship starts today. The Quakers (9-5, 5-1 EIWA) are in a position to become the only five-time repeat EIWA team champions in the modern wrestling era. In fact, you would have to go all the way back to before World War II to locate another dynasty that tallied four in a row. "[Winning at Easterns] has become a tradition for the last four years," Penn junior 197-pounder Mike Fickell said. Based on individual seedings, the teams to beat in the 14-team field look to be perennial EIWA powers No. 12 Lehigh, No. 17 Cornell and Penn. Harvard, meanwhile, has an outside chance to sneak into the top three. The Crimson are led by 2000 All-American contenders Ed Mosley and Joey Killar. The Quakers, though, like their chances of bringing home another EIWA title. "I think if we wrestle to our potential, it won't even be a close team race," Penn senior Brett Matter said. Lehigh -- the last team to capture a team title before Penn's current streak began -- leads all schools with seeded wrestlers in nine out of ten weight classes. Penn, Cornell and Harvard each look to field eight seeded competitors. Lehigh will have the top team seeding in the tournament, by virtue of narrowly defeating Penn earlier this season. The February 20 loss at the Palestra will no doubt be on the minds of the Quakers. "It stings to lose [to Lehigh]," Matter said. "We want to wrestle hard and prove that we're the best team in the EIWA by far." Besides crowning the overall team champion, the tournament also serves as a qualifier for the NCAA Championships. The top two wrestlers in each weight class, along with six wild cards, will head to the Kiel Center in St. Louis on March 16-18. "We should have the ability to have 10 semifinalists and send all ten guys to Nationals," Matter said. This weekend's action, to be held at Navy's Alumni Hall, kicks off at 11 a.m. today with the preliminaries. Here is what to expect in each weight class. 125 National No. 13 Jeremy Sluyter of East Stroudsburg looks to be the favorite again. Perhaps the most interesting match will be between Lehigh's Bruce Kelly and Cornell's Aaron Taylor in the semifinals, as this match could have big implications in the team race. Penn's Kevin Rucci, who may return to action for the Quakers, dropped from the EIWA rankings after he sustained a hand injury. 133 The action here looks to be relatively weak as none of the competitors are nationally ranked. Brown's Livio DiRubbo should be the top seed. His main competition will come from Penn senior Jason Nagle and Harvard's Matt Picarsic. 141 Lehigh's Matt Goldstein was a slight favorite to grab the top seed until Penn freshman Jody Giuricich knocked him off at the Palestra, 3-2. 149 Lehigh's Dave Esposito should be a lock at the No. 1 seed, but there is parity among the rest of the competitors. Penn's Jon Gough may be able to grab a No. 2 or 3 seed. 157 All-American and national No. 2 Matter has never lost a match in the EIWA tournament and looks to become the first Quakers four-time EIWA champion. Leo Urbinelli of Cornell is probably a lock at the second seed. With these two wrestlers hailing from two of the top three teams, this weight class is vital in the race for the team championship. 165 There will likely be a showdown between Lehigh's Travis Doto and All-American Joey Killar of Harvard. Penn senior Tim Ortman has been emerging of late. 174 National No. 2 Rick Springman of Penn is the favorite to beat No. 4 Ed Mosley of Harvard in the finals, but defending EIWA champion Joe Tucceri of Cornell could also be a factor at the three seed. 184 Lehigh's Rob Rohn and Cornell's Rost Aizenberg should vie for the title, but Penn's Mike Gadsby has the ability to be dangerous. 197 Fickell has held the highest national ranking, and he will be a lock to win if he is at his best this weekend. Heavyweight National No. 5 Bandele Adeniyi-Bada of Penn is a definite top seed. He has defeated last year's champion, Seth Charles of Cornell, in dual meets the last two years.
(03/03/00 10:00am)
Marie Howe's brother died of AIDS 10 years ago, a tragedy that grieved her to the point of inspiration and provided abundant material for her latest poetry anthology. Howe, a writing professor at Sarah Lawrence College, read passages from her book What the Living Do to a crowd of about 40 students, faculty members and area residents at the Kelly Writers House on Tuesday night. Howe's latest anthology is dedicated to her late brother, John. Most of the poems she read intimately depicted personal stories from her own life, including her troubled relationship with her father. Much of Howe's poetry, as indicated by titles like "Sixth Grade" and "The Grave," had a special meaning to her. Still, Howe was able to elicit chuckles and nods from audience members at various points during her reading. In "Practicing," Howe writes about a poem of young girls who kiss each other as practice for when they get older. And in "The Fort," she discusses the pride that her brother and his friend felt upon constructing a playhouse. Howe, who is also a fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, often stopped to add personal anecdotes related to a particular piece of poetry. After reading a poem that chronicled an intimate gift-giving between her brother and his lover, she looked up to the audience and said, "You know this is one of those moments. This really happened." English Professor Gregory Djanikian, the director of the Creative Writing program, introduced Howe to the audience. "To read her poems is to come away slightly undone and aware of the deep feelings in our lives as well as hers," Djanikian said. On Tuesday, Howe visited Djanikian's Advanced Poetry Writing class and talked with the students about the actual writing process. "My students and I have been pouring over her latest book," Djanikian said. "We have had marvelous discussion about her style, tone and subject matter." Several students attended the reading, including College freshman Omotara James, who said she appreciated the opportunity to work first-hand with an accomplished poet. "[We were] able to ask her questions on her present book and critique our own poetry," James said. "She talked about her methods of writing and the things to include and not to include when writing." Melissa Cahnmann, a third-year doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Education, described Howe as a "poetry mentor goddess." Cahnmann actually took a seminar with Howe in Mexico and described her as being "one of the best poetry teachers I have had." She called Howe's poetry "passionate, true and loving." College senior Laurie Kalb said that the work of Howe is "obviously autobiographical and that her greatest talent seems to be the ability to compel the reader to want to understand her experience."
(03/03/00 10:00am)
Police have been looking into a shooting and a robbery near campus. Just days after two gun-related crimes struck the area around Penn's campus, University Police detectives have significantly narrowed the list of suspects in each case -- and police officials say the resolution of both cases may be imminent. The two incidents -- an off-campus shooting on the 3800 block of Market Street and an armed robbery at Eat at Joe's Express, located inside the Moravian CafZs food court on the 3400 block of Walnut Street -- occurred only hours apart from one another during the late night and early morning hours of last Friday and Saturday. According to University Police Chief Maureen Rush, other law enforcement agencies have been brought in to help work on the cases because firearms were involved. "We have the lead on the investigations and we are working with [Philadelphia Police Department's] Southwest Detectives," Rush said. "We're also working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms regarding the issue of the guns." In the first incident, two men were shot early Saturday morning while riding in a car in a parking lot at the intersection of 38th and Market streets. Witnesses reported seeing a group of five men in dark clothing fleeing the scene shortly afterwards. Rush said the investigation has already yielded a potential suspect in this case, though closing the book on the matter may not do much to prevent future incidents of the type. "Unfortunately, this was a random act," Rush said. "The people involved -- the perpetrators and the victims -- were known to each other. These are the kinds of crimes that, no matter what you do, you can't prevent from happening." Police and officials from the Penn-owned Presbyterian Hospital, home of the parking lot where the shooting occurred, are taking steps to increase security in the area where the shooting took place. "We immediately got in touch with the hospital, as [the shooting] was in their parking lot, and they're now limiting the parking to Penn affiliates, which will effectively close that lot during the evening hours and secure the lot so that people cannot just drive up and park there," Rush said. And although police say they are confident that this case can soon be closed, Rush said bringing the alleged assailant to trial may be complicated by his relationship to the victims. "There will definitely be some resolution," Rush said. She added, however, that judicial prosecution may be hampered "because of the fact that these are people who are known to each other and there might have been other issues surrounding the event, there might not be ample cooperation to bring this to a full courtroom adjudication." The second investigation, surrounding the armed robbery of Eat at Joe's Express at about 10 p.m. last Friday evening, is also making progress. According to University Police, two Eat at Joe's employees were confronted at a rear service entrance by a pair of men in ski masks, one of whom carried a gun. The assailants made off with over $1,600 from the establishment. Rush said they have identified "a possible suspect or suspects." "We are not just centering our attentions on an outside perpetrator," Rush said. "We are looking broadly at who the perpetrators may be, though there has been no zeroing in on a particular person." She added that a full arrest and trial process in this matter may also be made difficult by certain complications. "We again expect to have an adjudication one way or another," Rush said. "It may not be a courtroom situation, but there will be a resolution." She added that the crimes could eventually be considered solved without the full prosecution of suspects. That would likely occur should witnesses prove uncooperative or victims refuse to press charges. The two incidents came less than a week after a man was shot in the stomach while standing outside the Pegasus Club at 3801 Chestnut Street. That early morning shooting is being investigated by Philadelphia Police detectives. Rush said that the three incidents were "absolutely not related."
(03/03/00 10:00am)
The Quakers need wins this weekend when they travel to Yale and Brown. Women's basketball in the Ivy League has become like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates over the last couple of weeks -- a team never knows what it's going to get. Just ask first-place Dartmouth, whose surprising 68-57 loss to Princeton last Saturday shrank the Big Green's lead to just one game ahead of Harvard and Penn, which are tied for second. Or talk with the Crimson themselves, or with Columbia and Cornell, which have all fallen victim to the last-place team in the Ancient Eight -- surging Brown -- in the past two weekends. These upsets, which have shaken up some of the top teams in the league, have Penn coach Kelly Greenberg cautious, especially as her title-seeking squad travels to Brown (8-18, 3-9 Ivy League) today for the first game in the Quakers' (17-8, 8-3) final road swing of the season. "This is the scariest type of game for a coach," Greenberg said. "I'd rather play a Dartmouth than a Brown any day, because emotionally your team understands that [Dartmouth's] the team you have to beat. With [Brown's] record, no one gets up for them, and that's the type of team that can beat you." Yale coach Amy Backus, whose Elis (10-15, 6-6) will host the Quakers in Penn's second game on the road, agrees that the Ivy League can be a very dangerous place if a team isn't fully into the game. "That's the nature of the beast in the Ivy League," Backus said. "Anybody on any given night can knock a team off. You can never let up." Unfortunately for Penn, letting up has been an occasional problem for the Red and Blue, who have found that a lack of emotional preparation against any team can spell disaster. Early last month, the Quakers came out flat against Brown in the teams' first meeting and found themselves down an unsettling 27-23 at halftime. But after a reality check in the locker room, Penn stormed back to win the game by 17 points. After the scare, the Quakers thought the lesson in mental readiness had been learned. Two weeks later, however, it became apparent that the wake-up call from the Bears wasn't quite loud enough, as the Quakers were handed a 70-67 loss by a mediocre Columbia squad in what could be Penn's worst showing of the season. With just one game remaining after this weekend, the Quakers know they have no more time to catch up in the title race if they fall to another Ivy team, whether that team is a league leader or a bottom dweller. But the Red and Blue are confident that being mentally ready for these remaining, lower-ranked teams will not be a problem. "I don't think there's going to be a letdown," Penn tri-captain Erin Ladley said. "We know that Yale and Brown are going to come out strong, and we just need to be prepared for that. We know that we have a chance [for a first-ever Ivy title], and we don't want to spoil it." Against both Brown and Yale this weekend, being prepared physically will be just as important as being ready mentally. The Bears were slowed with injuries to key guards in February, but with everyone now healthy for tonight, Brown's running game and scoring ability will be greatly increased. "They're putting up bigger numbers; they're scoring a lot more; and obviously they've won three of their last four games. So they're coming in with a lot of confidence," Greenberg said. To quell the Bears' offensive confidence, Penn will bring out its vaunted full-court press, which was instrumental in the Quakers' 79-66 victory over Harvard last weekend and played a big part in their last win over Brown. "When we ran [the press] in the second half of the Brown game, we took control," Ladley said. "We just have to come out and do that again." The Quakers will use the same high-pressure defense against the taller, slower Elis, but rebounding will be key in determining Saturday's winner. Yale used its skills in the paint to keep close to the Quakers in February, with the Elis' high offensive rebounding total giving them second-chance shots as well as taking away Penn's transition offense. Yale's Meg Simpson, who averages 7.0 rebounds per game, will try to shut down Penn's transition game on the boards again tonight, but will find it a tough task against Penn's leading rebounders Diana Caramanico (12.0 rebounds per game) and Julie Epton (5.8). Both games are going to be a test of the Quakers' physical and mental focus against two lesser-skilled teams. "It all comes down to what team is going to be tougher and what team makes the smarter plays," Greenberg said. "For us to go in thinking that these two games will be easy would be the craziest thing ever."
(03/03/00 10:00am)
Construction has begun on a new Asian-style eatery, scheduled to open late this summer, which will be operated by popular Philadelphia restaurateur Stephen Starr. Pod, previously slated for a spring opening, will showcase a $2.5 million retro-futuristic decor -- intended to conjure up a 1960s Japanese vision of the 21st century, according to Starr. "The design is always evolving," said the proprietor of the trendy Continental and Buddakan restaurants in Center City. As of this week, workers had installed the preliminary air conditioning and plumbing units, Starr said. Tom Lussenhop, the University's top real estate official, said the University is prepared for Pod's arrival. "We, the landlords, are ready to go," he said earlier this week, adding that Starr's "meticulous" attention to detail caused revisions to the construction schedule. Pod, to be located at 37th and Sansom streets next to the rear entrance of the Inn at Penn, will feature a conveyor-belt sushi bar -- one of only four in the country. The David Rockwell Design Group, the architectural firm which also designed the Nobu and Vong restaurants in Manhattan, will make its Philadelphia debut with the 7,500-square-foot restaurant. Designs include private seating areas, or "pods," where customers can alter their space's color with the press of a button. "This is a very complex [project]," Starr said, adding that a conveyor-belt sushi bar takes 14 weeks to build in Japan. According to Starr -- who recently opened the Moroccan-cuisine restaurant Tangerine at 232 Market Street and the French bistro Blue Angel at 706 Chestnut Street -- Pod's menu is not complete but will offer sushi and other Asian items. The 200-seat establishment, Sansom Common's second restaurant, will be less expensive than Starr's other creations. Meals and beverages will cost an average $35 per customer. Pod's lounge will provide continuous DJ entertainment. "We think it's going to be big," Starr said last month. The additions of Pod and a card and gift shop, slated for an opening later this spring, will mark the completion of Sansom Common's three years of construction, Lussenhop said. Philadelphia retailer Arnold Bank, who operates stores in the Gallery at Market East and the Shoppes at Liberty Place, will run the card shop. He will also operate a similar store in Houston Hall when it reopens later this year. Starr had also been asked to open a restaurant in Robert Redford's Sundance Cinemas complex, which is under construction at 40th and Walnut streets and scheduled to open this fall at the earliest. In recent months, Sundance ended the relationship after deciding to manage the restaurant itself, according to Senior Vice President of the Sundance Film Centers Scott Dickey. "We had some great conversations with Stephen," Dickey said yesterday. "If we need to, we will tap him."
(03/03/00 10:00am)
It was an unlikely setting for a shouting match. Tuesday evening, about 150 people -- many of them area medical students -- gathered in Stemmler Hall's Dunlop Auditorium for a heated debate on physician unionization. The fifth annual Thomas Langfitt Jr. Memorial Symposium brought four of the leading authorities on the controversial subject to Penn for a panel discussion and an open question-and-answer session. Arthur Caplan, the director of Penn's Center for Bioethics, served as the moderator. Much of the dialogue centered around the Campbell bill, a piece of legislation currently making its way through Congress that would give self-employed physicians the right to unionize. They are currently prevented from doing so by antitrust regulations. Doctors employed by hospitals can form unions, however. The experts who argued in favor of unions said they felt that the current system robbed them of critical decision-making power. Susan Adelman, the president of Physicians for Responsible Negotiations, began the forum by asserting that doctors were being taken advantage of by managed care organizations. "If [physicians] wish to be altruistic, they will be the altruistic recipients of crummy contracts," she said, referring to the terms many health maintenance organizations require doctors to comply with if they wish to treat their patients. Indeed, managed care often served as the focus of the evening's discussion. Panel member John Kelly, the director of Physician Relations for Aetna/U.S. Healthcare, wondered if unions for physicians would improve the quality of healthcare. "What impact would collective bargaining have? on patients?" he asked. However, Robert Weinmann, the president of the American Union of Physicians and Dentists, offered emphatic support for the Campbell bill "Health care dollars are being shuffled away from the doctors? to shareholders and executive pay packages," he said. Martin Gaynor, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, upheld the opposing view. "We're in very turbulent times in the healthcare system," he said, adding that he felt collective bargaining for individual physicians was not the solution. The event frequently became contentious as audience members asked questions of the panel. Caplan, for instance, asked how doctors could force HMOs to bargain if they themselves were not permitted to strike -- a question that sparked further debate between the panel and the audience. After the talk, Peter Traber, the interim chief executive officer of Penn's Health System, said he believes that patient care should always be the No. 1 priority of hospitals. "I think that I would come down on the side of professionalism and the integrity of the patient-physician relationship," he said. And James Wall, a first-year Medical student at Penn, said he felt that, "As a physician, [collective bargaining] would improve the state of physicians, not necessarily? society."
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With Palestra wins over Brown and Yale, penn can secure its second straight league crown. Michael Jordan has accomplished many things during his four years at Penn. He has been named first team All-Ivy for the past two seasons and is the heavy favorite to win this year's Ivy League Player of the Year award. He is leading the Quakers in scoring for the third straight year, and with 12 more points, he will pass Ron Haigler for third place on the all-time Penn scoring list. But there is one way in which the 6'0" point guard has never put the ball through the hoop during his Penn career. With three games remaining in his time at the Palestra, Michael Jordan would like to dunk. "If the score is well enough out of hand and I have a chance, I'll try," Jordan said. "I'm not as an accomplished dunker as Ugonna." If Jordan does successfully throw one down, it could serve as an exclamation point on what should be a very exciting weekend for the Penn men's basketball team (18-7, 11-0 Ivy League). Heading into this weekend's contests with Brown and Yale, the Quakers hold a two-game lead over Princeton in the Ivy standings. If they emerge victorious over both the Bears and the Elis, the Red and Blue will clinch the Ivy title before even stepping onto the Palestra floor to face the Tigers in Tuesday's season finale. But the Quakers are not getting ahead of themselves. "I'm quite sure that Brown and Yale this weekend are going to want to knock us off," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "It's up to us to make sure that doesn't happen by playing as hard as we can, as intelligently as we can and trying to execute our game plan as best we can." By winning the final three games on the schedule, the Quakers will finish undefeated in the Ivy League for the first time since the 1994-95 season. Last week, however, the Quakers almost faltered on their way to an unbeaten league season. Leading 62-61 with 1.9 seconds remaining in the game against Harvard at Lavietes Pavilion, Penn gave the Crimson a final chance to win. A three-point attempt by Dan Clemente, however, bounced off the rim, and the Quakers escaped with their closest win of the Ivy League season. Penn will make sure that it does not give the Bears (8-17, 4-8) a similar chance to pull off an upset tonight at the Palestra. "We're prepared for a fight both games, both nights," Quakers center Geoff Owens said. "I think if we play hard for 40 minutes, we have a good chance." To make sure they defeat the Bears, the Quakers will need to contain two freshmen stars. In fact, tonight's game could help determine the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award, as Penn forward Ugonna Onyekwe will go up against the Bears' Earl Hunt and Alaivaa Nuualiitia. Hunt is third in the league with 16.8 points per game, while Nuualiitia leads the Bears in rebounds with 6.7 boards per game and averages 14.2 points per contest. In the first meeting between the two teams on February 5 at the Pizzitola Sports Center, Hunt led the Bears with 13 points, while Nuualiitia scored eight and pulled down nine boards. Penn's star freshman, Onyekwe, only played 17 minutes in that game, as the Quakers routed the Bears, 83-48. All 14 Quakers scored against the Bears, and Matt Langel led the way with 24 points on eight three-pointers. The Red and Blue also had little trouble with the Elis (7-18, 5-7), when they met at the Lee Ampitheater in New Haven, Conn. Oggie Kapetanovic scored 12 points off the bench, and the Elis never really had a chance. Penn ran away with a 61-36 win, holding Yale to 23.7 percent shooting. Despite cruising to two easy victories when visiting these Ivy foes last month, Penn knows that it cannot feel comfortable just yet. "You can never get too comfortable, because that is when somebody sneaks up on you," Jordan said. And with three games remaining, the Quakers know there are still things they need to work on. "I think we're making a few mistakes," Owens said. "There are a couple turnovers here and there, a few needless ones. If we can [control] that, I think we'll be alright." The Quakers are currently turning the ball over 12.9 times per game, which is good for 13th best in the nation, but several turnovers last Saturday against Harvard allowed the Crimson to stay in the game. If the Quakers can keep the mistakes to a minimum and emerge with two wins this weekend, they will extend their winning streak to 15 games. Currently, Utah State, with 14 consecutive wins, is the only team in the nation with a longer streak than the Red and Blue. More importantly, though, two wins would clinch the Ivy title for Penn on Saturday night. And although Tuesday's game against the Tigers has been sold out for months, only about 4,500 people are expected for each of this weekend's games. "If we are fortunate enough to win both games, it would be nice to have as many people as we can here," Owens said. "Don't wait for Princeton to come out. You should come out to these games too." The people who do show up at the Palestra this weekend might even get a special treat if Jordan can indeed get the first dunk of his Penn career. "I've seen him dunk lots of times. This summer, he said everyday after we'd get done working out for a few hours, he'd dunk one just so he'd be ready for this year," Owens said. "If he gets an opportunity, there's no reason he can't throw down."
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An advocate of marijuana legalization spoke last night to a crowd of 300 students. Chances are you've been told your whole life to "Just say no." But Richard Cowan wants you to believe that you have been the victim of an insidious lie. Last night, Cowan, the former director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, argued that the information about marijuana presented by the government, the educational system and the mainstream media in this country is dangerously misleading. The Penn chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union brought Cowan to campus to deliver the talk, titled "Turning Over a New Leaf." Nearly 300 students packed Room 17 of Logan Hall to hear Cowan's opinions on the legalization of marijuana. In the United States, laws prohibiting the use or sale of marijuana -- or "cannabis," as it is more technically known -- have led to more than 12 million arrests since 1968, including medical patients who use the natural hallucinogen to alleviate the pain of treatment. "The state ideology of the United States is the repression of cannabis," Cowan said, adding that prohibitionists tend to dismiss the medical arguments for legalizing marijuana as a ploy to give drugs to young children. Recently, Cowan said, two quadriplegics in Arizona were imprisoned for using marijuana for medicinal purposes. He explained that their imprisonment costs taxpayers $600 a day. Cowan, who once told talk-show host Phil Donahue on live television that he has smoked pot every day for the last 27 years, used a combination of humor, statistics and argumentation to reveal what he called the "truth" about marijuana. Cheers of approval resonated when Cowan cited a study showing that "heavy [marijuana] smokers have a slower decline of mental cognition than non-smokers." Still, he stressed that the difficulty in his advocacy work is convincing people to take the issue seriously. Noting its racist origins and classist implications, Cowan suggested that marijuana laws represent "the corruption of the legal system in the United States" and should be of concern to "anyone who cares about individual freedoms." College sophomore and ACLU President Yoni Rosenzweig agreed that this "issue? strikes to the core of American liberties." Cowan cited the Netherlands as a model of a country that he said has a more honest and logical marijuana policy. "The Dutch system has a fundamental objective: the separation of markets," he explained. By legalizing a so-called "soft drug" such as marijuana, Cowan said, the Netherlands has successfully isolated it from more dangerous, "hard" drugs, such as heroine and cocaine. In defense of the Dutch laws, Cowan pointed to the fact that there are 160 heroin addicts per 100,000 in Holland compared with 430 in the United States. Incarceration rates in Holland are also a full 10 times lower than those in the United States. College sophomore Kim Litchfield, who said her uncle has multiple sclerosis and has used marijuana to relieve his pain, said she believes that the separation of markets "makes a lot of sense." And College junior Hank Wilson, who attended the lecture to gain information for an Urban Studies project, said he found Cowan "very intelligent and articulate." Michael Edwards, a College sophomore and member of the ACLU, said he will continue to raise awareness of drug laws as co-founder of a group called Penn Students for Sensible Drug Policies.
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The assailant remains at large after attacking the woman on Spruce Street. Philadelphia and University Police are currently on the hunt for a young man believed to be responsible for a sexual assault last Saturday on the 4300 block of Spruce Street. The assailant allegedly attempted to rape the victim, a young female with no affiliation to Penn. She was not harmed physically during the incident. Police were not able to release any additional information about the woman. The assailant allegedly followed the victim as she walked west on Spruce Street from 40th Street sometime around 2:45 p.m. last Saturday, University Police Chief Maureen Rush said. The alleged perpetrator began asking personal questions of the victim as she proceeded down the street, eventually asking to use a bathroom in her residence, Rush said. According to an e-mail sent by Penn Police as a safety alert to various members of the University community, it was then that the alleged attacker assaulted the young woman. "The male gave the impression that he was leaving, just before he attacked the victim in the vestibule of her apartment building," Penn Det. Larry Singer wrote in the e-mail. The victim fended off the attacker and avoided a potential rape by screaming loudly, Rush said. Following the attack, the victim immediately contacted the Philadelphia Police Department, which responded to the scene and is leading the investigation. The suspect is described as a clean-shaven 18-to-25-year-old black male, 5'10"-6' tall, with a thin build, bushy hair and medium complexion. He was wearing dark-colored clothing. University Police, who are now assisting in the investigation, were alerted about the incident late Wednesday evening when PPD officials asked to review the Penn Police's closed circuit television camera tapes from the area to identify potential suspects, Rush said. "We're working closely with the Philadelphia Police Department's Special Victims Unit to assist their investigation," she added. "We are just assisting them with any information we can provide, and certainly helping out with patrols in trying to track down a possible suspect." Rush said the traumatic experience was difficult for the victim to handle from an emotional standpoint. "She's certainly shaken," Rush said. University Police are now adding additional uniformed and plainclothes patrols in the area to increase the level of security in the wake of the attack. They're also taking additional care to review closed-circuit television video tapes of the neighborhood to identify potentially suspicious behavior, Rush added. And the e-mail sent by Singer is being distributed to members of the University community to heighten awareness of potential dangers and "make sure that the community is aware until [the perpetrator] is caught," Rush said. Special care is being paid to the case since the assault took place in an area where many University students live. "This could have very easily been a Penn person involved so our goal is to make an apprehension soon," Rush said.
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Ira Bowman, the 1996 Ivy League Player of the Year, scored his first two NBA points in Tuesday's win over Dallas. Forty minutes after the final buzzer sounds in the 76ers' 106-87 win over Dallas on Tuesday, the stands at the First Union Center are empty, save for a few soda cups and stray programs. Only the bravest of autograph seekers and would-be photographers huddle behind the fence outside the arena exit, hoping to catch a glimpse of Dennis Rodman or snap a photo of Toni Kukoc. Inside the Sixers locker room, Ira Bowman -- fresh from his third NBA post-game shower -- is getting dressed in front of Theo Ratliff's locker. Bowman's actual locker is adjacent to that of 76ers star Allen Iverson. And Iverson, who has just hit 15-of-18 from the floor, is holding court in front of almost three-dozen members of the media. But if Bowman minds that his locker is obstructed by the crowd -- or that Iverson had taken advantage of his relatively sparse locker to temporarily rest a pile of diamond-encrusted platinum jewelry while the newest Sixer was in the shower -- he doesn't show it. That's because with just over a minute remaining against the Mavericks, Bowman, a former Penn star, scored his first NBA basket. Last Thursday, Bowman signed a 10-day contract with the 76ers, becoming the third member of the Quakers' 1994-95 Ivy championship team to reach the NBA. "I was obviously really excited," Bowman said, reflecting on last week's good news. "It's something I've been working towards. I was happy the moment finally came." February was an auspicious month for Bowman. Three weeks ago, he was just an average sports fan, flipping through Sports Illustrated. Turning past the cover story, he opened to a feature on the CBA, where he discovered a picture of himself staring back from the page. "It was really surprising -- I was actually just looking at the Super Bowl wrap-up and turned the page and saw myself," Bowman said. The photo came from the CBA all-star game, where the then-Connecticut Pride guard helped secure a win for the East by posting downright Stockton-esque numbers -- 12 assists in just 21 minutes. On February 20, Bowman was in Sioux Falls, S.D., hitting 8-of-9 from the floor in a losing effort against the Skyforce. Three days later, he was back in Connecticut, dishing out eight assists in front of 2,417 fans at the Hartford Armory. The Pride dropped that game -- the second in a home-and-home series with Sioux Falls -- but Bowman hardly had time to ponder the losing streak. Two days later, the 26-year-old guard was in Milwaukee wearing No. 11 for the Sixers. In a 97-83 win over the Bucks, Bowman saw two minutes of action and did what he does best -- the Quakers' career picks-per-game leader notched a steal. "He's a great defender and he's real unselfish. He comes from a good program. He respects the game a lot," said Sixers coach Larry Brown, a self-proclaimed Penn fan. "We lost Bruce Bowen and we wanted a defensive kid, unselfish, to replace him. So that's why we picked [Ira] up." Bowman, who was averaging 12.4 points and 5.3 assists per game with the Pride, first caught Brown's attention when the current Philadelphia coach was the Indiana head man. Bowman saw action in six preseason Pacers games before being cut prior to the 1996-97 season. "I had him try out in Indiana, and I've always admired him," Brown said. "He's gotten better every year." For Bowman, the call-up to the NBA marks the end of a four-year climb. After playing his last game as a Quaker in a one-game playoff with Princeton for the Ivy title on March 9, 1996 -- he hit a late three to force overtime -- Bowman has plugged away at his dream of reaching the NBA. A veteran of several NBA training camps, Bowman first played professionally in Australia in '96 and became a mainstay with the CBA's Pride later that season. He has also played in the USBL. "I was sure [I would make the NBA eventually]," said Bowman, who is quick to give credit to his Penn experience for pointing him in the right direction. According to Bowman, transferring to Penn from Providence after the 1992-93 season was "the best decision I've made in my life." Bowman visited Penn practice twice this week, and on Tuesday Quakers coach Fran Dunphy took in the Sixers' shootaround at the First Union Center. "I met some quality people at Penn, friends who I'll have for a lifetime, and I was able to work with a great coaching staff," said Bowman, the '95-96 Ivy League Player of the Year. "People act surprised that the '95 team had three guys play in the NBA, with me being the last one, but I think it just says wonders for the coaching staff at Penn -- Fran Dunphy, Gil Jackson and my boy Stevie Donahue. It puts Penn on the map." Although the first of the three players from that squad to reach the NBA, Jerome Allen, is currently playing in Turkey, Bowman will be reunited with former Quakers teammate and current Chicago Bull Matt Maloney when the Sixers visit the United Center on Saturday. From the Hartford Armory to the United Center in little over a week. Needless to say, it has not taken Bowman long to notice the disparity between the CBA and the NBA. "It's a big difference in the caliber of play. People here are gifted at every position," Bowman said. "[In the CBA] we had bus rides, we used to fly commercial. That's the biggest difference." But that doesn't mean Bowman didn't enjoy his days as a star with the Pride. "Obviously, [in the CBA] we didn't get the same caliber crowds as here [in the NBA] but I mean, we played in some towns that were pretty basketball-crazy," Bowman said. "On a weekend game in the CBA, you get a pretty good crowd. It's not like the Palestra, but it'll do." If Bowman was nervous in his first game as a Sixer at home, he didn't show it in taking a feed from Aaron McKie and knocking down a 12-foot jumper for his first NBA points in the waning minutes against Dallas. "If you get an open shot at this level, most people expect you to make it," Bowman said. "Of course you have the butterflies at every level. Even at Penn, before every game I felt it a little. But once you get out there, I mean, basketball is basketball -- you're going to do what you've been doing for the longest time." For now, Bowman plans to just take it "a day at a time and see what happens." Brown couldn't predict what lies in Bowman's future when the contract runs out, saying that they would take it 10 days at a time. "All of us who know Ira and appreciate what he's about were extremely happy for his opportunity with the 76ers," Dunphy said. "He's worked very hard, paid a lot of dues and to see that pay off with an NBA chance is just great for him -- much deserved."
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The big Quakers had no trouble dispensing with the little Quakers yesterday afternoon at the Levy Tennis Pavilion. The Penn men's tennis team, which, of course, goes by the name of the Quakers, dispensed with Haverford and Swarthmore -- two colleges founded by the Society of Friends -- in dominating fashion, by 7-0 scores against each foe. The Red and Blue won 11-of-12 singles sets and bettered their season record to the .500 mark at 4-4. Given that both the Fords and the Garnet Tide are Division III programs, Penn coach Gordie Ernst made sure to impress upon his team the importance of not playing down to its competition. "I told them coming in that they needed to focus on every point, and I think they did a pretty good job of having concentration," Ernst said. Penn had yet another reason for distraction yesterday. In little more than a week, the Quakers will board a plane for the white sandy beaches of Hawaii and an action-packed week of competition with teams from the 50th state. "I've been looking forward to Hawaii ever since I left last year," Penn captain Eric Sobotka said. Sobotka, nicknamed "Chewie" by Ernst on account of his last name's resemblance to that of Star Wars' lovable and furry Chewbacca, may have had yukelelees and pineapples on his mind, but he was dedicated to the task at hand yesterday. Penn No. 1 Sobotka blanked his Haverford opponent, 6-0, 6-0, and then went on to best Swarthmore junior Peter Schilla in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1. "He's the captain and he led this team today," Ernst said. "He's like the little toe of this team." The Red and Blue decimated Haverford in the first match of the afternoon. Penn junior Rob Pringle was masterful at the No. 2 spot, shutting out Matt Bernhard, 6-0, 6-0. The Quakers did not lose a set to the Fords in singles competition, and George Bulman at the No. 6 position was the only Haverford player to even win two games in a set. Each of the three Penn doubles teams also beat the Fords in style. None of the three lost more than two games in the eight-game set. The Quakers were similarly impressive in the nightcap against the Garnet Tide. The singles matches were a little tighter, owing in part to Penn's fatigue. Penn's Tyler Anderson lost the only singles set of the afternoon for the Quakers, but the Red and Blue emerged unscathed. The final doubles match of the day was closer than all the others. The Penn team of sophomore Brian Barki and Anderson trailed Swarthmore's Schilla and Jon Temin 5-2 after seven games. The Quakers duo battled back from there and wound up winning, 9-7. It had been something of a battle, but Penn emerged as the clearly superior squad. "Earlier this season we played Colgate, a team that is probably on par with the two we faced today, but we lost a doubles match," Sobotka said. "Frankly, to do that in our place today would have been a little embarrassing."
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Until November rolls around, there will be no more meets or tournaments for the Penn women's swimming team -- the 1999-2000 season is in the books. Posterity will remember that the Quakers went 6-6 overall, with a 2-5 Ivy League record and a dead last eighth-place finish at the Ivy Championships. But make no mistake -- to a program that had long been wallowing in the deep end of Sheerr Pool, this season was a life buoy thrown just in time. Penn coach Mike Schnur knows which moment to point to as the one in which that buoy hit the water -- it is the one by which he will always remember the season. On November 20, the Quakers did something they had not done in 42 tries and nearly seven years -- they won an Ivy League meet, edging Cornell in their season opener by a score of 153-145. "The best moment was the 15 seconds right after we won the 400 medley relay against Cornell," Schnur said, referring to the meet's clinching event. "The reaction of the women, I think, is the epitome of the whole season. Just seeing them on the side so happy to win the meet was something I'll never forget." While it was only one win, the victory over the Big Red established that the Quakers' 1999-2000 record would be better than those in the putrid, winless Ivy seasons that were the norm for most of the 1990s. Penn knew that its season would be different than previous ones long before its demons were laid to rest. In September, longtime coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert shocked her team and the rest of the Penn athletic community when she announced her retirement and left the reins of the program in the hands of Schnur, one of her assistant coaches since the beginning of the 1992-93 season. Schnur, officially the interim head coach, put the team through an extremely rigorous training schedule, the peak of which was achieved over winter break. The expressed purpose of this intensive regimen was to prepare Penn to face Dartmouth, which was considered to be the Quakers' only other realistically beatable Ivy foe. Penn's preparation paid off. After falling behind by nearly 45 points, the Red and Blue rallied at Dartmouth to claim their second -- and final -- Ivy win of the season on January 29. Penn's penchant for making comebacks was but one of the positive things Schnur noticed in his team this season. "We improved a lot," he said. "We improved the work ethic of the team, I think we're in a lot better shape physically than we were last year. I think the women's team trained a lot harder than they did last year, and I think our talent level is better. The freshman class adds a lot to the team." The freshman class included Jessica Anders, who made it to the 50 freestyle finals last Thursday at the Ivy Championships -- the first Quaker to do so since 1997 -- and Kate Patrizzi, who quickly became one of the most valuable swimmers in Penn's arsenal alongside junior captain Cathy Holland. Schnur foresees an influx of similarly talented freshman classes in years to come, and he pointed out that five of his 10 early decision recruits swim regular times in certain events that are faster than current school records in those events. He also added that distance swimming and diving -- two areas in which Penn is weak -- would be future recruiting priorities. Although Schnur's position is precarious -- he is still interim head coach and the search for a permanent head coach will heat up now that the season has concluded -- he is excited about next year, especially since Columbia will be particularly weakened due to the loss of Olympian Christina Teuscher to graduation. "With a few breaks here and there, a few more recruits come, I think we're at the level where our goal for [next] year should be to focus on not just [beating] Dartmouth and Cornell, but to also add Columbia and possibly even Yale to that mix," Schnur said. "I can't wait."
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Faculty, like Bennett Hall, in need of extensive repairs Penn English professors talk of imagery, symbolism and personification all the time. But the examples they cite are usually found in books -- not their own surroundings. Yet perhaps there is no better metaphor for the Penn English Department than its home, Bennett Hall. Both are in desperate need of repair. A quick stroll through Bennett Hall reveals the wear-and-tear of the building's history. The hallways creek with every step, the white-washed classroom walls are chipped away and the heating system works so well that if the professors don't put students to sleep, the sheer temperature does. Within the classrooms, the situation is much the same. Although Penn's department has long been considered one of the best in the nation, recently English professors have peeled away like the paint on Bennett Hall's walls. Over the past 10 years, the number of professors has dropped from 42 faculty members in the early 1990s to just 36 today. And enrollment continues to put stress on one of the College of Arts and Sciences most popular departments. With over 500 undergraduate English majors, class sizes have increased while the number and variety of courses continue to shrink. "Penn has a strong English department, but we are limping along at the moment," said English professor Wendy Steiner, the former department chairwoman. Realism Certainly, resurrecting Penn's largest humanities department is no simple task. But according to most English professors, the repairs are necessary. "The English Department is to some extent depleted," Interim English Department Chairman John Richetti said. "Some faculty moved out, most have either retired, one or two died and a few didn't get tenure and moved on." Last year's loss of three senior faculty members -- who were all respected as top-notch scholars -- was particularly devastating. American Literature Professor Elisa New left Penn to teach at Harvard University. And in a much-hyped "raid" of Penn's English Department, Duke University recruited African-American Literature scholar Houston Baker and Renaissance literature expert Maureen Quilligan away from the department. The effects have trickled down to the classroom level, where undergraduates have noticed that more English courses are being taught by part-time faculty and there are fewer classes overall from which to choose. "I am considering graduate school in English and would like to take some classes on Spencer and Milton, but they aren't there," said College junior Katie Alex, an English major concentrating in Medieval and Renaissance Literature. College junior David Perelli, who is also an English major, said that he has experienced similar problems. "This year has been kind of crappy in terms of course offerings and many professors aren't there," he complained, noting that Penn's course offerings were more limited than those his friends are taking at peer institutions. In the fall of 1995, the Penn English Department offered 68 courses while this semester it offers 62. The Duke English Department, in contrast, has the same number of faculty, but offers around 80 courses to just 250 undergraduate majors -- about half as many as Penn. According to Richetti, the current shortage of Penn English professors is due to the large number of faculty who are on sabbatical, coupled with the recent losses. "We are still short-handed," he explained. "It's partly because our numbers are low but partly because of the number of faculty who are away doing research." The Reformation The current shortage is a problem that will likely be solved when those faculty return next fall. But the long-term health of the department ultimately requires hiring new faculty. This leaves School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston and Richetti with one big repair job on their hands. The SAS strategic plan -- released last April -- called for increasing the number of faculty in several departments, with English near the top of the list. Other departments singled out as needing more faculty and financial support were Biology, Chemistry, Economics, History, Political Science and Psychology. At a time when most humanities departments get starved of resources, Preston has authorized the English Department to hire four standing faculty members -- including at least one senior professor -- to help fill the void left by faculty departures. And a separate search for a senior Film Studies professor is being conducted by English in conjunction with several other departments. "We are doing very well," Richetti said, noting that the English Department is on track with the plan, having made offers for three assistant professors and one senior faculty member. Richetti also said the department could make offers this year to two additional professors, one junior and one senior. But while it is likely that the junior professors will accept Penn's offer, College Dean Richard Beeman is less confident that the department will fill all of its senior faculty slots by next fall, pointing out that "fewer than half of [senior searches] succeed in a given year." The Restoration While officials struggle to fix the faculty situation, they are also working to repair the department's long-standing home. Both faculty and administrators said the building is not on par with facilities at its Ivy League peers and is barely acceptable for teaching. And like the need to increase faculty, improving the English Department's facilities is also at the top of the SAS strategic plan. "Commitment is manifested in our classrooms and what they do to facilitate learning," Beeman said. "Plainly, Bennett Hall is in need of renovation." Despite persistent rumors about renovations to the building, no tangible steps have been taken. In fact, it was not until late last month that the English Department formed a committee to discuss improving Bennett Hall. "We plan to figure out what we want to do and how to pay for it," said English Professor Rebecca Bushnell, who is chairing the committee. "We really want to do this." But the reality of fixing and financing a building like Bennett Hall most likely means that construction will not take place for quite a while. According to Vice President for Facilities Services Omar Blaik, before the project can even enter the design stage, the University must first hire an architect to do a feasibility study and then get the approval of the Capital Council and the Board of Trustees. In addition, the department must find "swing space" that will house its offices and classes while Bennett Hall is being renovated -- hardly an easy task with the amount of construction taking place around campus. And the University also needs to secure donors to provide the financial backing for such a project. Although officials say there are a few prospective candidates in the pipeline, they acknowledge that most contributions flow in when actual plans are in place. "We have identified likely candidates and are having some preliminary discussions," SAS External Affairs Vice Dean Jean-Marie Kneeley said. The Renaissance Despite current challenges, SAS administrators are quick to point out that the English Department is not in complete disarray and most remain optimistic about its future. English remains SAS's largest department in the humanities and, with a top-10 national ranking, it is one of Penn's most respected disciplines. "This is a flourishing department that is improving itself more and more," Graduate Department Chairman Christopher Looby said. And students are quick to point out that most of the department faculty -- both standing and part-time professors -- are gifted and accessible teachers. "You get to work with some of the nation's top scholars as a freshman," Perelli said. But according to Bushnell, the department must acknowledge its current weaknesses and work with its strengths. "This is a department with a strong national reputation but also strong internal relationships," she said. "We want to build this department. It's the key part of our strategic plan."
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While the ongoing game of academic musical chairs has left the English Department standing up alone for the past year, four recent job offers should put Penn in a better position for the future. According to Interim Department Chairman John Richetti, 19th century American Literature scholar Jonathan Arac from the University of Pittsburgh was offered a position as a senior professor. And three other offers for assistant professorships were made to newly minted Ph.Ds, bringing in younger talent to replace the senior faculty who have left the English Department in recent years. "This is an expansionist moment for the English Department," Richetti said. "We are approaching full strength." In the past 10 years, the department has lost seven standing faculty members -- including three last year -- dropping from 42 standing professors to just 36 today. But since the School of Arts and Sciences' strategic plan called to increase the number of faculty in six key departments last April, the English Department has been actively working to recruit new professors. Although SAS Dean Samuel Preston authorized the department to make just four offers, Richetti said that it is currently looking for a fourth junior professor and there is an outside chance of bringing in another senior African-American Literature professor to Penn. The department is also interviewing candidates for a senior Film Studies professor as part of a joint search being conducted with the Fine Arts, German and Romance Languages departments. That position could be housed in the English Department. According to Richetti, this year's offers were made to help the English Department rebuild traditionally strong areas that were particularly hard-hit by faculty losses as well as to strengthen its national reputation. Should Arac -- who is currently on leave from the University of Pittsburgh to write a book on Mark Twain's classic novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- come to Penn this fall, he will replace Elisa New, an American Literature specialist who left Penn for Harvard University last year. Stanford doctoral candidate Sean Keilen -- an expert in English Renaissance literature -- was offered an assistant professorship at Penn next fall, which should soften the loss of scholar Maureen Quilligan, now the chairwoman of the Duke University English Department. Arac and Keilen will likely be joined by Marsha Fausti, a 19th century African-American scholar who is completing her doctoral work at Johns Hopkins University. As an assistant professor, she would help fill the void left by Houston Baker, another top senior professor who left for Duke last year. And with an assistant professor offer out to Joseph Clark -- a post-colonial, African and Carribean Literature specialist -- the department is bolstering its commitment to the emerging field of global English Literature. By replacing a number of senior faculty with junior professors, the offers are in line with the SAS strategic plan's recommendation to reduce Penn's high percentage of tenured faculty from 81 percent to 72 percent. "Younger people bring energy and a new perspective," Preston noted. "And to start with, their salaries are less." It is also easier to recruit younger professors than older, more settled academics. Fresh out of graduate school, recent Ph.Ds actively hunt for jobs -- especially those that provide good tenure opportunities -- and are more flexible about where they locate. "We often get our first-choice candidates because we are a friendly environment and because there is a good chance of getting tenure," Steiner said, explaining Penn's success in attracting assistant professors. The tenure requirements at Stanford and Harvard are so stringent that almost no junior faculty have been awarded the promotion, several Penn professors said. But the more difficult challenge lies ahead, as Richetti and other Penn faculty and administrators work to lure Arac, and perhaps other senior professors, away from various colleges and universities. Hiring senior professors is a much longer and more complicated process than getting their junior counterparts to sign on the dotted line. In fact, College Dean Richard Beeman said less than one out of three senior searches are successful in any given year. Penn's review process is extremely complex and time consuming for the candidate. And from the University's perspective, it is just plain difficult to attract top scholars away from comfortable positions at peer institutions. "Its hard to recruit full professors," Richetti said. "They have families and other personal obligations." Since universities often match salaries when their faculty are being lured away, other factors -- such as inter-department relations, jobs for spouses and partners, endowed professorships and the quality of facilities -- become influential. Penn has difficulty hanging on to senior faculty when other schools offer them money and resources that the University cannot match. Quilligan, for instance, now chairs Duke's English Department, and Baker said that a Duke faculty post for his wife contributed to his leaving Penn. Penn's smaller budget for SAS limits Preston's ability to award endowed professorships. In the past, only one member of the entire SAS faculty has received an endowed chair -- although Trustee Christopher Browne's recent donation will now permit the dean to name two more each year. And only recently did the University allocate funding to sponsor research by new hires. While a well-stacked library -- which Penn does have -- is at the top of any prospective English professor's list, facilities such as a faculty lounge and office space -- which Penn's English Department lacks in its current home of Bennett Hall -- are considered important extras. Beyond these tangible needs, most Penn professors say they like working in a friendly environment. "Some places are snake pits," Richetti said. "I'm not saying we don't have our eccentrics, but we are one big, happy family."
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After his team finished in the basement at the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming Championships last year, Penn men's swimming coach Mike Schnur was understandably disappointed. The Quakers were disqualified in the crucial 400-yard medley relay last year, a penalty which relegated them to last place at the meet. A false start and the bottom-of-the-barrel finish left a bad taste in the Quakers' mouths. Penn has a chance to wash the taste out today as the EISL Championships get underway at Princeton. "I think that we are going to finish in the six, seven, eight range," Schnur said of his team's chances in the 10-team field that includes Army and Navy as well as the eight Ivy League teams. The meet consists of preliminary heats that will be held in the morning, with the top 24 swimmers in each event advancing to one of three heats at night. The top eight swimmers from the morning heats will advance to the finals, the second eight will advance to a consolation final and the third eight will advance to a bonus final. "My expectations would be to beat the teams we beat in dual meets this year for sure," senior Matt Reilly said. Penn finished sixth in their EISL dual-meet season this year, with wins over Cornell, Columbia, Army and Dartmouth. It will be difficult for Penn to claim sixth at Princeton, however, since the meet is markedly different from dual meets. Easterns differs from the dual-meet season because it focuses more on individual swimmers than the overall team performance. Swimmers choose their fastest events to compete in at Easterns, as opposed to the dual-meet season where swimmers compete in events that may not be their fastest but that give the team the best shot at winning. The ultimate goal for swimmers at Easterns is to qualify for NCAA Championships. Although Penn's schedule lists NCAAs as the final meet, it is unlikely that any Quakers will be found in Minnesota on March 23 -- only two Penn swimmers have qualified for NCAAs in the last decade. Penn will need big performances from seniors Jon Maslow, Matt Reilly, Nick Sheremeta and Craig Nelson to enable the team to place highly this week. "Maslow is a former finalist. Reilly is a former finalist," Schnur said. "[The four seniors] are all very good, very experienced guys. This is their time to shine." Although only sophomore breaststroker Kenneth Goh made the final heat consisting of the top-eight swimmers last year, Penn is hoping that this season will see more Red and Blue suits in those crucial races. "If we get four or five guys in the top eight, that's great. I think besides Kenneth, Chris Miller can do it in breaststroke. Spencer Driscoll has a chance to make top eight in anything he swims," Schnur said. "Dave Hausladen has a shot in the 200 free. The seniors can all make top eight. Kevin Pope has a chance as a freshman in the 100 back." A large part of the Quakers' improvement in the dual-meet season this year can be attributed to the freshman class. Unfortunately for Penn, at Easterns it tends to be the upperclassmen who dominate the meet. "A lot of our high final guys are freshmen and sophomores, and that's something that's hard," Schnur said. The one area where Penn will compete as a team, and needs to do well, are the relay events. Schnur does not want a repeat of last year's relay false start. Relay events count for double the points of normal events. No matter how well the Quakers do this week, Penn will not be taking home the EISL title this year. Thus, the team's main focus is necessarily on scoring personal records with an eye toward building the team in future seasons. "Mostly, what I care about is the guys swimming faster than they have all year, swimming faster than they have in their lives," Schnur said. "We're looking for getting ourselves up for a good springboard for next year."
