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(07/01/99 9:00am)
Women's lacrosse coach anne Sage has been on leave since early March. The 22 members of the women's lacrosse team forced coach Anne Sage into taking a leave of absence last March. Now, more than three-and-a-half months later, Sage is still on leave. And there is no end in sight to her status in limbo. The Athletic Department and Sage have been negotiating since mid-March, yet the women's lacrosse situation remains the same. Alanna Wren, an assistant under Sage, is acting head coach, while Sage still owns the title of head coach. Sage was in the first year of a two-year contract when the team petitioned the first and only head coach in the history of Penn's women's lacrosse program to step down. Still, little is known about the progress of the negotiations, as Athletic Director Steve Bilsky and Associate Athletic Director Earl Cleghorn declined to comment, and Sage, who has switched lawyers since the start of negotiations, was not available for comment. Wren and the team's players have been kept in the dark about the proceedings, as well. "Both parties -- the administration and Sage -- have done a good job of keeping me out of it," Wren said. "It's a sticky situation, so no one really enlightens me to any details about what they're actually not agreed upon." Without the support of the team, it is unlikely that Sage will return as a coach. But Penn is prohibited to search for another coach while Sage is still under contract. The effects of a vacant head coaching position have not been strongly felt by the Quakers yet, however. As is customary, Wren sent out a packet in early June detailing summer workouts. "Alanna's probably done more this year in trying to get people involved in summer leagues and to make sure that people do the workouts," Penn senior attacker Joanna Lopinto said. "She's having us send her the results at the end of July to see how we're doing and to make sure that we are doing the work." Yet, even Wren admits that there might be a negative effect on recruiting if the coaching situation remains muddled. "At some point I'm sure players are going to ask questions about the head coaching position," Wren said. "But it's still pretty early in the recruiting cycle. I think most seniors understand that there's going to be a coach in place before they would have to make any serious decisions or come in for visits or anything like that." Although she has taken on the head coaching responsibilities in Sage's absence, Wren does not intend to pursue the full-time position if it becomes vacant. "With all that's happened this year, I'm not sure I'm prepared to step into those shoes," Wren said. It is rumored that interest in the head coaching position has already been shown, but Penn can not accept applications or conduct interviews until negotiations with Sage are finalized. And the search for a new coach will take at least several weeks. Lopinto is not worried about finding a new coach, however. "This area is such a hotbed for lacrosse that it's not going to be a problem finding a replacement," Lopinto said. Athletic officials say there is no timetable as to when Sage's status will be resolved, but it is unlikely that the situation will extend into the fall semester, cutting into the beginning of preseason workouts in the third week of September. "I think everyone believes that something will happen before the beginning of the school year," Wren said. Sage compiled a 151-155-9 record in her 26 years as Penn's women's lacrosse coach and led the team to an NCAA Final Four. But most of Sage's success was enjoyed early in her coaching career; she has had only one winning season since 1986.
(07/01/99 9:00am)
Vice President Al gore spoke at a $1,000-per-person dinner in Center City earlier this week. Before a crowd of approximately 500 ardent supporters and local politicians, Vice President Al Gore readily confessed his two main concerns on Monday evening. The first, as a politician, is to win the presidential election in 2000. The second, as a father, is to see his soon-to-be born first grandchild. But first things first. As part of his current presidential campaign -- aptly-titled Gore 2000 -- the vice president spoke Monday at a $1,000-per-person fundraising dinner, held at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel at 17th and Race streets. The event, which brought together hordes of prominent local Democrats, featured several buffet tables, a live band and a short video that chronicled Gore's life and achievements. Gore 2000 officials expected to raise about $500,000. Gore was joined on stage by Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell -- whom the vice president himself once dubbed "America's Mayor" -- and former City Council President and Democratic mayoral nominee John Street, as well as others local politicians and prominent donors. Rendell -- whom one playful poster suggested could be the vice president's running mate in 2000 -- introduced Gore as a "man of vision" and a "man of integrity," lauding him for his personal attributes and praising the current White House administration for its role in drastically reducing the deficit and reshaping the federal economy. "What Bill Clinton and Al Gore have done for this country has been nothing short of spectacular," Rendell said. Gore then stepped to the podium, delivering a 25-minute speech that emphasized the importance of economic stability, a strong public education system and stable lives for American families in the 21st century. Gore briefly discussed the nation's economy, explaining that the policies enacted under the Clinton administration have helped the "biggest deficit in history turn into the biggest surplus in history." "Our first priority must be to keep our prosperity going. I know how to do that," Gore said. But while the economic deficit has surely decreased, Gore noted, a new "family crisis" -- one in which the number of single parent families has quadrupled and parents are reportedly spending less time with their children -- is currently plaguing the nation. Gore then pledged an increased emphasis on education, stressing the need for smaller classes and a more modern curriculum. "We have textbooks all over the country today saying, 'Someday, Man will land on the moon,'" Gore said. "History's moving too fast for that. We can't afford that kind of sluggishness." And, as expected, the vice president's address occasionally alluded to various controversial topics, which are undoubtedly expected to factor heavily in the presidential race. He called for easier access to "high-quality health care" and criticized other politicians for failing to take a more adversarial approach to gun manufacturers. "While some are out there actually working to shield gun manufacturers from their actions, my priority is to shield American children from gun violence," Gore said. During the event, approximately 300 demonstrators protested outside the hotel in response to Gore's controversial stance in the AIDS drugs debate. Earlier in the day, at a campaign stop at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Gore outlined a proposal to increase federally funded cancer research and vowed to spend $200 million on an anti-smoking campaign. Other presidential candidates -- including Republicans Elizabeth Dole and George W. Bush and Democrat Bill Bradley -- have all visited Philadelphia over the past week to raise money.
(07/01/99 9:00am)
The quakers are a few minor scheduling changes away from a date with last year's SEC Champions. Last March, Penn lost to a Southeastern Conference opponent in the NCAA Tournament, as Florida knocked off the Quakers, 75-61. But this December, Penn might tip off against an even tougher SEC foe -- 1998-99 SEC Champions Auburn. Scheduling conflicts may prevent a matchup of the Tigers and Quakers, but, according to Penn coach Fran Dunphy, there is a very real possibility that Penn will face the Tigers in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum on December 11. In addition, a tentative schedule released by Auburn last Thursday includes a game at 1 p.m. on December 11, with the opponent to be announced. Auburn assistant coach Shannon Weaver is less convinced of a meeting between the Tigers and Quakers, however. "[Penn's] name has been thrown out in a game we've been planning," Weaver said. "But nothing is set yet." A date with Auburn was made possible by an Ivy League ruling last week that allowed Ivy men's basketball teams to add a 27th game to their schedules. Previously, the league had restricted its members to 26 games. Instead of trying to schedule a lesser opponent to pad its victory total, Dunphy is trying to fill the spot on Penn's schedule with a quality opponent. "Everybody's philosophy on scheduling is so different," Dunphy said. "I think ours is to try to make our non-conference schedule as interesting as we possibly can. Obviously this would be something very interesting and very rewarding, to play Auburn on some national TV scale." If Penn and Auburn did meet, it is likely that the game would be broadcast regionally, although there is a possibility for national coverage on ESPN or ESPN2. It would also mark the first time in history that the two schools have faced each other in basketball. Auburn compiled a 29-4 record last season, earning the No. 1 seed in the South Bracket of the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers defeated Winthrop and Oklahoma State before losing in the Regional semifinals to Ohio State, 72-64. But Auburn will return four of its five starters for the 1999-2000 season, led by forward Chris Porter. The Tigers' senior led the team with 16.0 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. Guards Scott Pohlman and Doc Robinson will also be back for Auburn this season. The two combined for 23.3 points per game, and Robinson dished out more than five assists per contest. But the Quakers might have most difficulty with Tigers' seven-footer Mamadou N'Diaye. The senior center, who will likely match up with Geoff Owens, averaged 7.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game. Auburn last faced an Ivy League team in 1981, when they defeated Columbia, 63-55. Overall, the Tigers are 3-0 against Ivy opponents, with two wins against Columbia and one against Dartmouth. Penn, meanwhile, has a 6-12 record against SEC opponents. The Quakers have lost to Alabama and Florida in the NCAA tournament, but defeated the Gators in the Fiesta Bowl Classic in December of 1996.
(07/01/99 9:00am)
Basketball recruit Harold Bailey was also a star high jumper. Moments after the Quakers' Ivy League title-clinching victory at Princeton in March, hundreds of Penn fans stood on the Jadwin Gym floor to watch the members of the Penn men's basketball team cut down the net. Harold Bailey was among those spectators, but he had a perspective that was different from that of most fans. "I was psyched," Bailey said. "I was thinking, "That will be me next year." Bailey, along with five other members of the Class of 2003, will be on the receiving end of those cheers next season, and he hopes to play a significant role for the Quakers during the next four years. However, Bailey, who scored more than 1,200 career points as a 6'2" swingman for the Choate School in Wallingford, Conn., will face tough competition to earn minutes next season. "He's athletic. He can shoot the ball," Penn assistant coach Steve Donahue said. "He's going to have to learn that he has to play every possession hard." Bailey is an extremely athletic player, but he will most likely need to improve several aspects of his game before making an impact with the Quakers. "I think Harold could be anything from a role player at Penn to a star in the Ivy League," said Choate coach Chuck Timlin, who believes Bailey will be among the 10 best athletes in the Ivy League next season. Bailey's athleticism was evident in his high school track and field career, where he recorded the second-best high jump in Choate history at 6'4.5". While his jumping ability will definitely help him on the court, his basketball skills still need some fine-tuning. Bailey, who often scored at will for Choate by making slashing drives to the basket, currently works out everyday and will participate in the Sonny Hill League later this summer. Timlin cites several facets of Bailey's game which need improvement, including handling the ball with his left hand, shooting from the perimeter, playing more intense defense and moving without the ball on offense. "I told Harold, 'If you would move without the ball, you would be unstoppable,'" Timlin said. At times during his high school career, Bailey had been unstoppable. One such time was during his junior season when he scored 32 points against Northfield Mount Herman. It was this performance which prompted Timlin to make a phone call to the Penn basketball office. He knew Bailey was interested in Penn, and he thought the Ivy League would be a good level for him. "Next thing I knew, they had Harold down for the Penn-Princeton game last year," Timlin said. Penn was Bailey's top choice throughout the recruiting process, and his excellent senior season at Choate helped him secure a spot in Penn's recruiting class. Highlights included a 36-point effort against Northfield Mount Herman and a 38-point explosion when Choate took on Exeter. Choate plays in the New England Class A Prep School League, which also accepts post-graduate players. While the teams are not always top-notch, several Division I prospects do spend post-graduate seasons with New England prep school teams. In recent years, players like Kentucky's Heshimu Evans and North Carolina's Ed Cota have played in this league. While Bailey may not be on the same level as Cota and Evans, Timlin says that he is the best non-post-graduate player he has ever coached at Choate. Playing at the Division I level next season, however, may be a big adjustment. "Harold hasn't played great competition throughout his high school career," Donahue said. "He's athletic. He does a lot of things well. It's just hard to judge right now where he'll fit in." Bailey hopes to fit in right away. Although he will have to compete for minutes with fellow freshman Duane King and veterans like Matt Langel, Frank Brown and Lamar Plummer, Bailey hopes to make his presence felt on next season's Quakers. "I know I'll definitely get minutes," Bailey said. "I'll look to help out offensively and defensively. I want to be an impact player." If he succeeds with that goal, he will not be the first impact player Choate has given Penn. When speaking with the Penn coaches, Timlin made it a point to remind them that former Penn center Matt White is a Choate alumnus. White was an integral part of Penn's 1979 team, the last Ivy team to reach the Final Four. Bailey has equally lofty goals for the Red and Blue next season. "We'll be playing until April," he said. "Or at least late March."
(07/01/99 9:00am)
The Palestra is the place to be for Pennsylvania wrestling fans on December 11. On that date, Penn and Penn State will wrestle for Keystone State supremacy on the mats of Penn's historic arena. The Quakers and Nittany Lions have reached a verbal agreement on a two-year home-and-home series. This December, Penn State will visit the Palestra, and Penn will return the favor with a date at the Nittany Lions' Bryce Jordan Center in 2000. "At this point we've got a two-year verbal agreement," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "I would hope that we'll establish a traditional competition and I believe the competition will be very intense -- state bragging rights." The last time Penn wrestled against Penn State was in 1997, when the Nittany Lions mauled the Quakers, 28-6, at the National Wrestling Coaches Association National Team Dual Meet Championships. · The Quakers will return to the National Duals for the third time in four years at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center on January 22-23. Penn received an at-large bid to the elite 16-team field. The top six teams from the 1999 National Duals automatically qualified, as did Division II Champion Pittsburgh-Johnston, Division III Champion Wartburg and NAIA Champion Northern Montana. Penn was given the first of the remaining seven at-large bids based on the strength of its returning lineup. "Being selected number one out of the remaining teams at-large was quite an honor," Quakers senior Mike Fickell said. "Again, this gives us another opportunity to be in the spotlight and for Penn wrestling to be more nationally recognized." Penn State, Cornell, 1999 National Duals Champion Oklahoma State and Iowa are among the other teams that will compete in the 16-team tournament at University Park, Pa. · The Quakers are looking for a new assistant wrestling coach this summer to replace Jon McGovern. McGovern joined Brian Dolph and Mike Friedman as assistants to Reina last season, but the Central College graduate will be focusing on training for the 2000 Summer Olympics this season. Reina expects a new coach to be hired later this summer. · With the addition of Penn State and a return to the National Duals, Penn's schedule looks especially challenging for the 1999-2000 season. The Quakers, who finished last season ranked 12th in the NWCA poll, will face five top-twenty teams. Aside from No. 10 Penn State and EIWA rivals No. 15 Cornell and No. 17 Lehigh, Big Ten heavyweights No. 9 Michigan and No. 14 Purdue are the top teams on Penn's full slate. The Quakers finished 10-0-2 last season, earning ties with Cornell and No. 8 Central Michigan in the process.
(07/01/99 9:00am)
Eight of coach Roger Reina's eleven incoming freshmen wrestlers are New Jersey natives. Eight of coach Roger Reina's 38 wrestlers for the 1998-99 season were from New Jersey. This season there will be eight New Jersey wrestlers in Penn's freshmen class alone. Reina secured a recruiting class of 11 for the 1999-2000 season -- of which nearly three-quarters graduated from high school in the Garden State. "There wasn't any particular design," Reina said of the geographic distribution of the Class of 2003. "Basically, in our recruiting, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio are the prime three states we've focused on in the last five years or so and they seem to produce the best prospects for our program." This recruiting class is led by lighter wrestlers, as only two of the recruits are expected to wrestle in the four heaviest weight classes. Heavyweight Caleb Race alone might make up for Penn's lack of quantity in the upper weights, however. Race, who lives in North Carolina but attended high school at The Miller School in Virginia, was honored as an All-American in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman categories. "It's difficult enough to place in either one of those events, but to place in both of those events -- and they both transpire in the same week -- it's physically very grueling," Reina said. "I was really impressed with him." Race is not expected to crack Penn's lineup this season, but is the top candidate to replace senior Bandele Adeniyi-Bada as the Quakers' heavyweight in the fall of 2000. The new wrestling recruits can make an immediate impact in the 141-pound weight class,however; the graduation of Mark Piotrowsky leaves a huge hole for the Quakers. Senior James Brennan and Junior Martine Apodaca both may be certified at 141, but Reina does not rule out the possibility of starting a freshman. "The vacated weight class by Piotrowsky is one that is going to be up for grabs," Reina said. "We're going to have some freshmen vie for that spot." New Jerseyans Chris Brizzi and Joey Giuricich, as well as Tinley Park, Ill., native Kyle O'Neil, are expected to compete at 141 pounds. Brizzi finished second in the Freestyle division at Junior Nationals in the summer after his sophomore year in high school, but suffered a series of injuries that prevented him from continued dominance his junior year. The Ramsey, N.J., native returned to form last season, finishing third in the state tournament. Giuricich, meanwhile, has been a National Prep Champion and two-time runner-up in the National Prep tournament. He was also a National High School Championship finalist and New Jersey Junior National Team member. Ranked 10th nationally among high schoolers in his weight class by Intermat, Giuricich will be competing in the Junior Nationals this summer. O'Neil lost just seven of his 127 matches at Victor J. Andrew High School in Illinois. He finished in the top five in the state tournament in three years, including a second-place finish last season. The Illinois Junior National Team member has intensified his training this summer in preparation for both Junior Nationals and collegiate wrestling. "Unlike in high school where some good kids are wrestling with some average kids, everyone in the college wrestling room is really good," O'Neil said. Among the other incoming freshmen wrestlers is Governor Livingston High School graduate Brett Vanderveer, whom Reina considers a sleeper. The Berkeley Heights native was undefeated last year until losing in the semifinals of the state tournament, but lost three straight to end up in sixth place. "I didn't wrestle well in the semifinal match and gotten taken out a little mentally after losing a tough match," Vanderveer said. Vanderveer did recover to place second in the state freestyle tournament, qualifying for Junior Nationals this summer. Rounding out the list of recruits are New Jerseyans Ryan Anderson, Ethan Bullock, Patrick Hu, Matt Koppenheffer and John McRoberts, as well as Hanover, Pa., native Chris Hanlon. Anderson, a projected 149-pounder, won 100 matches in his high school and placed third at the Mid-Atlantic Championships. Hu wrestled at Parsippany High School, where Piotrowsky's father Fred is wrestling coach. Koppenheffer, McRoberts and Bullock are expected to wrestle in the middle weight classes, while Hanlon will wrestle at either 125 or 133 pounds. Overall, while solid, this recruiting class does not have the fanfare of the freshmen of 1997. That class, which included Justin Bravo, Yoshi Nakamura and Rick Springman, was ranked 11th nationally. "I'm not sure that they're going to be rated all that high nationally," Reina said. "But I think that their results by the time they're juniors or seniors will be every bit as high as any recruiting class that we've had coming in."
(07/01/99 9:00am)
Six architecture firms recently submitted their plans for a new design of Hamilton Village, formerly known as Superblock. The six architectural firms that are competing to design the new look of the Hamilton Village area of campus submitted their plans last week to the University for inspection, according to University officials. The project is part of Penn's 10-year, $300 million dormitory and dining overhaul and includes extensive renovations to each of the high rises and low rises. The six firms, based as close as Philadelphia and as far away as Vancouver, British Columbia, visited campus this past April to get a feel for the University's needs before creating and submitting their designs for the project. The renovations will include the addition of 1,000 new beds in Hamilton Village -- formerly known as Superblock -- and each of the high rises will be reconfigured to give them a stronger college house atmosphere. University officials stressed that the final design for the project will likely incorporate different elements from each of the proposals, and officials expect to hire more than one firm to complete the project. According to David Brownlee, director of college houses and academic services, the designs submitted by the firms are all impressive and present many different possibilities for the job. "This is a very exciting demonstration of some of the greatest architectural talent in the world today," Brownlee said. While the University did give the firms a limited number of restrictions, Brownlee said the contest was very much a "brainstorming session" for both the potential architects and Penn officials. "These are very conceptual designs," Brownlee said. "We're really just looking for ideas." The decision to hold the design contest was reached in part by a consultative committee of students, faculty and staff. The same group -- with the addition of community members -- will participate in selecting one or more of the firms. "Personally, I would like to hire more than one of them," Brownlee said. The designs will be made public by the end of the summer so University officials can get feedback from the Penn community and "share the excitement" of the project, Brownlee said. "Our goal is to get perspective," said Larry Moneta, associate vice president for campus services. After they've obtained their share of that perspective, University officials will work with the winning firms to complete the final design of Hamilton Village, which must be approved by the University Trustees before construction can begin. While University officials said they are trying to get as much diversity in the designs as possible by laying few guidelines or restrictions on the firms, they did specifically ask each architect to design one new building and propose renovations for one high rise and one low rise. Penn administrators have not yet determined the extent of the renovations, which depends upon funding, and have not ruled out the possibility of gutting the existing buildings from the inside out. Seven hundred of the new beds will come from a series of low-rise buildings situated throughout the Hamilton Village area. Project coordinators expect to add another 300 beds to the existing residences, which include the three high rises and the Gregory and DuBois college houses. University officials have outlined three clear objectives for the project: to provide additional bed space and upgrade existing facilities; to create a more attractive visual and physical environment; and to integrate Hamilton Village with the surrounding neighborhood. University officials expect the winning firm or firms to complete final designs -- under University supervision -- by early 2000, with groundbreaking scheduled early in the fall of 2000.
(07/01/99 9:00am)
The School of Arts and Sciences will not be in debt in Fiscal Year 2000. The School of Arts and Sciences is projecting a balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2000, marking the first time in five years that the largest of the University's 12 schools will not be running a deficit, according to University officials. SAS has long been plagued by budgetary problems, with large deficits and a high rate of administrative turnover leading to the closure of two academic departments and the elimination of several temporary faculty positions in recent years. According to SAS Vice Dean for Finance and Administration Michael Mandl, most of the school's budget cuts came "in areas that had a low return for the school," including certain academic centers and costly research facilities. The school's budget problems date back to 1996 when it faced a $1.9 million deficit. SAS ended FY 1997 only $700,000 in the hole, but larger debts -- caused in part by the school's large share of the funding for the $80 million Roy and Diana Vagelos Laboratories of the Institute for Advanced Science and Technology -- hit the following two years, as the school ran up deficits of approximately $3 million in fiscal years 1998 and 1999. But now, a significant increase in revenues, coupled with a steep reduction in expenditures and additional financial help from University administrators, has the school seeing black ink instead of red for the first time in recent memory. According to SAS Dean Samuel Preston, who took office in January 1998, a balanced budget will have far-reaching ramifications, enabling the school to step up its recruitment efforts and ostensibly increase faculty salaries. "It's very difficult to plan for a situation when you can't pay for the things you're already doing," Preston said last week. Included in the cuts, for example, is the Physics Department's Tandem Accelerator Laboratory, a building that was recently vacated in an attempt to streamline the budget. SAS administrators say the move will save the school an estimated $2,000 per year. SAS will also cut funding for certain research centers -- the Center for the Advanced Study of India and the Middle East Center are two examples -- who will be expected to raise external funds on their own. And various department-based business offices have been combined into regional business service centers, providing both "cost savings" and "improved services," according to Preston. University administrators maintain that the budget cuts were made with careful consideration to both academic departments and their personnel. "I think [SAS] has left no stone unturned in terms of looking for ways to be more efficient without hurting academic programs," University Budget Director Michael Masch said. Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Professor Roger Allen said that while a balanced budget puts SAS in a "stronger position" and out of "budget crises," it also raises a potential "question of emphases," in terms of which disciplines are more highly valued and prioritized. "When push comes to shove, what wins are market forces," Allen said, adding that the subjects which the "American public" most want to study are often considered indispensable by universities. Preston's Strategic Plan, a series of initiatives released in April, calls for increased funding for six traditionally popular academic departments -- Biology, Economics, English, History, Political Science and Psychology. "The plan would have seemed like it was written in invisible ink if we didn't have a means of paying for it," Preston said. In addition, SAS will increase its revenue through the creation of several new master's programs -- in Biotechnology, Environmental Studies and Bioethics -- as well as through the hiring of new Chemistry professors, many of whom bring with them federally funded research grants that will help cover the costs of the IAST laboratories. SAS administrators also credit an increase in financial support from University President Judith Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi as instrumental in helping the school's economic status. The projections for a balanced budget are more than purely speculative, according to Mandl, who said the administration's "assumptions for next year are reasonably robust."
(06/24/99 9:00am)
Wharton alumnus James Riepe will succeed former chairperson Roy Vagelos. The University Board of Trustees named James Riepe, vice chairperson of the Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price investment firm and former head of the Trustees' Investment Board, as its new chairperson this past Friday at its annual summer meeting. Riepe, who will turn 56 tomorrow, graduated from the Wharton School in 1965 and earned a degree from the school's MBA program two years later. He was first elected to a five-year term as Alumni Trustee in 1990 and began serving another five-year term as a Term Trustee in 1995. The newly-elected Riepe replaces Roy Vagelos, former chief executive officer of the New Jersey-based Merck pharmaceutical and health care company, as chairperson of the Trustees. Vagelos, who had held the position since October 1994, stepped down several months shy of age 70, the required age of retirement for all Trustees. He was also named Emeritus Trustee at Friday's meeting. Riepe was both a member of the Trustees' Executive Committee and the chairperson of the Trustees' Audit and Compliance Committee at the time of his election. He previously had served as chairperson of the Alumni Council on Admissions and is currently a member of the Undergraduate Financial Aid Committee and the Agenda for Excellence Council. He was appointed last summer to head the Investment Board, which manages the University's endowment. He and his family have involved themselves in the University financially as well. In 1989, the James and Gail Riepe Scholarship Fund was created to assist undergraduate students in the Baltimore area. Trustee Richard Worley, a member of the Investment Board and the Audit and Finance Committee, was named Riepe's replacement as head of the Investment Board. Shortly before adjourning Friday's stated meeting of the Trustees, Riepe briefly addressed the other Trustees and University administrators in attendance, calling his election a "very humbling appointment." During his nearly five years as head of the Trustees, Vagelos has aggressively campaigned to increase the endowment for undergraduate financial aid, and, as evidence of his commitment to increasing research opportunities, pledged two $10 million donations to the University -- one to the creation of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Laboratories of the Institute for the Advancement of Science and Technology and the other to fund an undergraduate program in the molecular life sciences. University President Judith Rodin lauded Vagelos' accomplishments and noted that the former chairperson will not soon be forgotten. "Everywhere is your imprint and your legacy," Rodin told Vagelos at the meeting. And Rodin said Monday that it had been her "privilege to work side-by-side with Roy Vagelos these past five years." Trustee Gloria Chisum, who was re-elected Friday as the board's co-vice chairperson, told her fellow board members that she had "mixed emotions" while reading a resolution recognizing Vagelos' accomplishments and appointing him Emeritus Trustee. The resolution itself praised Vagelos for his "eagerness to ignite the spark of enthusiasm in others" and saluted him for his "legendary energy." "We know that it gives him genuine joy to walk around campus and know that what is going on in the classrooms, laboratories and libraries is improving both individual lives and society," the resolution reads. But Vagelos -- who called the meeting to order and addressed the board members and administrators first -- would not take credit for the University's recent success. "The University has done exceedingly well and the progress that it has made has made the rest of us look good," Vagelos said. In the ceremonial passing of the gavel, Vagelos and Riepe embraced before an approximately 20-second standing ovation. Other notable appointments finalized Friday include the recognition of former University President and current History Professor Sheldon Hackney -- whose portrait was also unveiled Friday in College Hall -- as President Emeritus. Hackney served as president of the University from 1981 to 1994 before leaving to head the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C. U.S. Circuit Court Judge Marjorie Rendell was appointed chairperson of the Board of Overseers of the Nursing School; Jon Huntsman, a 1959 Wharton graduate and chief executive office of Huntsman Chemical Corporation, was named chairperson of the Board of Overseers of the Wharton School; and Christopher Browne, a general partner of the Tweedy, Browne Company investment firm, will act as chairperson of the Board of Overseers of the School of Arts and Sciences. In addition, Natalie Koether, a 1961 College and Wharton graduate, was elected Charter Trustee while Stephen Wynn, a 1963 College graduate, was re-elected a Term Trustee.
(06/24/99 9:00am)
The University's expenditures will pass the $3 billion mark for the first time ever next year, as the University Trustees approved an operating budget of $3.048 billion for Fiscal Year 2000 at last week's annual summer meeting. The figure marks a 6.2 percent increase from last year's operating budget of $2.871 billion. Of that amount, $1.329 billion -- up from last year's $1.284 billion -- is allotted for the academic budget and will be divided among Penn's 12 schools. Still, the academic budget for the upcoming fiscal year -- which begins July 1, 1999 -- constitutes only 44 percent of the University's total operating budget. The Health System was allotted 56 percent, or $1.908 billion, of the University's budget. The operating budget is calculated separately from the University's capital budget which, with a total of $173.6 million, will help fund projects like the upcoming renovations to Gimbel Gymnasium and the construction of a new, state-of-the-art biology facility. Although undergraduate tuition and room and board charges will hit an all-time high of $31,592 in the upcoming fiscal year, the 3.7 percent increase in total student charges is the lowest to date, as the University continues to provide the least expensive education in the Ivy League. "The trend for us, like our peer institutions, is to restrain the rate of increase," University Budget Director Mike Masch told the members of the Budget and Finance Committee at last Thursday's meeting. According to Masch, the 6.2 percent increase in the operating budget is largely attributed to the "growth of research funding." Included in the list of organizations that provide funding for University research is the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation. The University is expecting research funding to account for 25 percent, or $332 million, of the academic budget's total revenue. An additional 35 percent of the entire academic budget will be provided by tuition and fees. The government will reimburse the University at a rate of 58.5 cents per research dollar granted, a small decrease from last year's rate of 59 percent. The rate was once as high as 65 percent in 1990, but Masch attributed its recent decline to increasingly stringent governmental regulations about which costs are reimbursable. Academically, 71 percent of the entire academic budget will be spent on the programs of the University's 12 schools. Another 11 percent of the budget will provide for other administrative service centers such as Human Resources, Public Safety and Computing. The Medical School will receive approximately $312 million, or 33 percent, of the $944 million allotted to the academic schools. The School of Arts and Sciences, meanwhile, will receive $208 million, or 22 percent, of that amount. And the capital budget, as always, has significantly more money set aside than the University actually plans to spend. According to Vice President for Finance Kathy Engebretson, the capital plan for the upcoming fiscal year includes $64 million for projects that are just now seeking approval and an approximate $230 million for projects that had been approved in previous year's plans. Only $212 million is likely to be spent this fiscal year on capital projects. The new biology facility -- which is expected to use $45 million of the capital budget -- is one such example of new projects that have not been factored into previous budget expenditures. An additional $20 million will be appropriated to the Gimbel Gymnasium renovations and another $12,950 will go to the renovation of the Johnson Pavilion. Engebretson attributed last year's significantly larger capital budget of $308 million to the "double-counting" of certain projects. She said that in the past, many individual proposals and developments were repeatedly accounted for in consecutive budgets.
(06/24/99 9:00am)
Brandon Slay is a former Penn All-American. Trevor Lewis is a former Penn assistant coach and current Wharton associate director of finance and administration. And Brian Dolph has been a Penn assistant coach for five years. All three wrestlers competed in the Freestyle World Team Trials last weekend in Seattle's Mercer Arena. Dolph finished fifth and Slay took home sixth place, but none of the three grapplers will represent the United States in the World Championships in Turkey. Coincidentally, however, all three wrestlers with Penn connections competed in the same 167.5-pound weight class. So, obviously, there was a chance that two of them might have to wrestle each other. And that's exactly what happened on Saturday when Dolph and Slay squared off in the mini-tournament semifinals. Slay had defeated his former wrestling partner, 3-2, earlier in the year, but Dolph avenged the loss with a nail-biting 1-0 overtime victory. Dolph scored on Slay early with one of his signature moves, an inside trip. "I definitely knew that he had that [move] and he's tried to hit that on me many, many times," Slay said. "I knew he was gonna do it. He just set it up real well. I even felt it coming and he did it so well that I couldn't stop it." Both Dolph and Slay wrestled conservatively after Dolph's early takedown, and the score was still 1-0 after the the end of regulation. "I had to stay patient and control position and [Slay] was kind of doing the same thing -- waiting for an opportunity to score," Dolph said. "It ended up a stalemate situation the rest of the match." Neither wrestler scored the requisite three points in the two standard three-minute periods, so a sudden death three-minute overtime had to be contested. Dolph and Slay both failed to score in the overtime period as well, so the final score ended up 1-0 in favor of Dolph. "I just kept trying to score on him," Slay said. "I tried to open some attacks, but I really didn't set my shots up well enough and I didn't wrestle hard enough in the overtime period to get the point that I needed." After defeating Slay, Dolph faced Steve Marianetti in the mini-tournament semifinals. Marianetti took a 3-1 lead deep into the match, but Dolph scored a takedown late in the match to cut the lead to one. The Indiana graduate could not manage to knot the score, however. "I had probably 10 seconds to try to turn him over and score another point to try to tie it or go ahead and I ran out of time," Dolph said. Dolph then lost 9-0 in the battle for fifth place to Dan St. John, who, like Slay, is a United States Olympic Training Center resident. St. John had moved down a weight class prior to the match, so he had an edge on the Ridley Park, Pa., native in size. "I ate breakfast at seven [a.m.]," Dolph said. "And the rest of the day I only ate a power bar, so my intensity was terrible that match [against St. John]. He was big and strong and I needed some energy and strength to overcome his size and it just wasn't there." Slay and Lewis were also defeated by St. John on Saturday. St. John downed Lewis, 5-3, in the quarterfinals and Slay, 4-1, in the consolation semifinals. "The move he caught me on, he turned me," Slay said. "He didn't take me down, he turned me. I know that was the type of technique he was looking for and I just didn't defend it well enough." Slay defeated another U.S. Olympic Training Center Resident, Jason Kraft, 6-0, to finish sixth in the tournament after winning three of his five matches. Kraft had knocked Lewis out of the tournament with a 4-0 victory over the former Penn assistant in the consolation quarterfinals. Lewis and Dolph train together in West Philadephia. But although they wrestle against each other often on Penn's mats, they did not want to face each other in Seattle. "Did I want to wrestle Trevor?" Dolph said. "No, I'd like to avoid that if possible. If anything, I'd like us to be both in the finals." Joe Williams, a former Iowa All-American, was the champion in the 167.5-pound weight class. Slay was defeated by Williams, 7-4, in the 1998 NCAA Finals.
(06/24/99 9:00am)
Brandon Slay is a former Penn All-American. Trevor Lewis is a former Penn assistant coach and current Wharton associate director of finance and administration. And Brian Dolph has been a Penn assistant coach for five years. All three wrestlers competed in the Freestyle World Team Trials last weekend in Seattle's Mercer Arena. Dolph finished fifth and Slay took home sixth place, but none of the three grapplers will represent the United States in the World Championships in Turkey. Coincidentally, however, all three wrestlers with Penn connections competed in the same 167.5-pound weight class. So, obviously, there was a chance that two of them might have to wrestle each other. And that's exactly what happened on Saturday when Dolph and Slay squared off in the mini-tournament semifinals. Slay had defeated his former wrestling partner, 3-2, earlier in the year, but Dolph avenged the loss with a nail-biting 1-0 overtime victory. Dolph scored on Slay early with one of his signature moves, an inside trip. "I definitely knew that he had that [move] and he's tried to hit that on me many, many times," Slay said. "I knew he was gonna do it. He just set it up real well. I even felt it coming and he did it so well that I couldn't stop it." Both Dolph and Slay wrestled conservatively after Dolph's early takedown, and the score was still 1-0 after the the end of regulation. "I had to stay patient and control position and [Slay] was kind of doing the same thing -- waiting for an opportunity to score," Dolph said. "It ended up a stalemate situation the rest of the match." Neither wrestler scored the requisite three points in the two standard three-minute periods, so a sudden death three-minute overtime had to be contested. Dolph and Slay both failed to score in the overtime period as well, so the final score ended up 1-0 in favor of Dolph. "I just kept trying to score on him," Slay said. "I tried to open some attacks, but I really didn't set my shots up well enough and I didn't wrestle hard enough in the overtime period to get the point that I needed." After defeating Slay, Dolph faced Steve Marianetti in the mini-tournament semifinals. Marianetti took a 3-1 lead deep into the match, but Dolph scored a takedown late in the match to cut the lead to one. The Indiana graduate could not manage to knot the score, however. "I had probably 10 seconds to try to turn him over and score another point to try to tie it or go ahead and I ran out of time," Dolph said. Dolph then lost 9-0 in the battle for fifth place to Dan St. John, who, like Slay, is a United States Olympic Training Center resident. St. John had moved down a weight class prior to the match, so he had an edge on the Ridley Park, Pa., native in size. "I ate breakfast at seven [a.m.]," Dolph said. "And the rest of the day I only ate a power bar, so my intensity was terrible that match [against St. John]. He was big and strong and I needed some energy and strength to overcome his size and it just wasn't there." Slay and Lewis were also defeated by St. John on Saturday. St. John downed Lewis, 5-3, in the quarterfinals and Slay, 4-1, in the consolation semifinals. "The move he caught me on, he turned me," Slay said. "He didn't take me down, he turned me. I know that was the type of technique he was looking for and I just didn't defend it well enough." Slay defeated another U.S. Olympic Training Center Resident, Jason Kraft, 6-0, to finish sixth in the tournament after winning three of his five matches. Kraft had knocked Lewis out of the tournament with a 4-0 victory over the former Penn assistant in the consolation quarterfinals. Lewis and Dolph train together in West Philadephia. But although they wrestle against each other often on Penn's mats, they did not want to face each other in Seattle. "Did I want to wrestle Trevor?" Dolph said. "No, I'd like to avoid that if possible. If anything, I'd like us to be both in the finals." Joe Williams, a former Iowa All-American, was the champion in the 167.5-pound weight class. Slay was defeated by Williams, 7-4, in the 1998 NCAA Finals.
(06/24/99 9:00am)
Penn expects to build several facilities in the next several years on the current Civic Center site. The University Trustees last week passed three resolutions supporting the acquisition and development of land formerly occupied by the Philadelphia Civic Center to make way for a parking garage and a state-of-the-art cancer-research and -treatment center. Penn officials have long coveted the enormous property on the southeastern edge of campus. City officials, though, had rejected all of the University's past offers to buy the site. But Philadelphia City Council's December approval of a bill introduced in October by City Council member Jannie Blackwell secured a large portion of the site for use by Penn and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in founding a world-class cancer-research and -treatment center and a 2.2 acre parking garage. This past Friday, the Trustees approved a resolution calling for the creation of the Civic Center Development Corporation, a non-profit corporation led by the University and CHOP. According to the resolution, the CCDC will "oversee, finance, facilitate and govern the development of the parking garage." The garage will occupy an approximately 2.2 acre piece of the former Civic Center site and will supply the University and the University of Pennsylvania Health System with up to 1,000 new parking spaces. The project will cost about $26 million and will be funded equally by the University and CHOP. The land itself will be purchased from the city of Philadelphia for $5 million, of which the University will front $2.5 million through an internal loan to be repaid with the revenues created by the garage. The CCDC will then acquire a $21 million loan on behalf of the University and CHOP to fund the development of the garage. Both institutions will repay the CCDC through the garage's revenues. According to Penn Vice President for Finance Kathy Engebretson, the creation of the CCDC will allow the University to pay its share of the garage's development without incurring debt that may decrease the University's bond rating. "The debt would be in the name of the CCDC, not in the name of the University," Engebretson said. The Trustees also passed a resolution in support of the demolition of two structures on a six-acre portion of the site where the cancer center will likely be built. According to Health System officials, the new site would consolidate Penn's prestigious 25-year-old Cancer Center, currently spread throughout 41 departments in eight University schools, into a single, world-class facility. The University will buy the property for $1 and spend $13.5 million -- funded by another internal loan budgeted by the University and repaid over time through University revenues -- in the demolition of and asbestos removal from the Civic Center's Exhibition Hall and Center Hall. The famed Convention Hall -- where rock legends the Beatles played in the 1960s -- will not be touched. Penn Executive Vice President John Fry said he believes the developments will be extremely successful, with multiple benefits for each party involved. "Everyone was a winner here," Fry said. "We got what we think is a very fair price for the six acres. CHOP gets the parcel it needed and the city has value created where there was no value before. That was sort of the genius behind the whole thing." Exactly what the University plans to do with the six-acre parcel is not yet clear, although administrators did say that the site will likely include the new cancer center. "I think we're still looking at our options relative to what we want to do there," Fry said. CHOP will also secure a 2.5 acre portion of the site, where it plans to build a separate research facility to further its own projects in pediatrics. While more specific details about the cancer center and other possible lands uses are not yet available, University officials estimate that the development of the entire 10.7 acre parcel will cost about $450 million, with the University contributing $350 million and CHOP throwing in the other $100 million. "It's a collaborative model. It takes into account the fact that CHOP needs space, we need space -- the city is still the owner of many of those buildings," Fry said. The University had expressed interest in acquiring at least parts of the Civic Center for nearly a decade, but administrators feel that they have made dramatic breakthroughs throughout this past year. "We went to the city and we said that we really think over time a huge amount of activity could occur, if we could just unlock the first couple parcels," Fry said. The entire project -- including the parking garage and the CHOP research facility -- is slated for completion in five years.
(06/24/99 9:00am)
From former rivals to newfound friends, Democratic mayoral nominee John Street and former contender Marty Weinberg have captured the spotlight of the Philadelphia mayoral race since day one. Continuing that tradition, the two politicians held a news conference last week to announce that Weinberg will support Street in his campaign to become the next mayor of Philadelphia. The endorsement came more than a month after Street cinched the Democratic nomination in the May 18 primary, beating Weinberg by a mere four percentage points of the vote. "I was gratified to receive the enthusiastic endorsement of Marty Weinberg last week," Street said in a statement released yesterday. "Since the primary, it has been my goal to unify the Democratic party and his support is meaningful and significant." In a bitter campaign frequently marred by record levels of negative advertising, Street saw himself as the target of several Weinberg attack commercials. But their former rivalry seems to have been quelled by their drive to defeat Republican opponent Sam Katz in the November 5 election. "I wanted to make sure that John's goal, as mine, was to bring together all the people of the city," Weinberg said at Friday's conference. After winning the May 18 primary, Street offered a would-be olive branch to his opponents, asking them to join him for a "unity lunch" at The Palm restaurant the following day. Only Dwight Evans, who garnered just 4.7 percent of the vote, attended the lunch. But neither Evans nor any of Street's former Democratic rivals have yet followed in Weinberg's footsteps and endorsed Street. According to an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, White met privately with a group of 50 supporters last week to discuss the race, but decided to withhold any potential endorsements for the time being. Street said that he and Weinberg were able to "unite together under a common vision for the future of Philadelphia," thanks to the help of U.S. Rep. Robert Brady. With Weinberg's help, Street is now squaring up against Katz, who ran unopposed in May. Katz is looking to become Philadelphia's first Republican mayor since the early 1950s. Katz said earlier this month that he did not feel a united Democratic party will in any way injure his campaign. Reducing crime and improving public education "are the things that people care about, not who's having lunch with whom," Katz said. Katz Campaign Director Director Bob Barnett had echoed Katz' sentiment, saying that "voters are going to have to chose between Sam Katz and John Street -- not the other candidates."
(06/24/99 9:00am)
Recruit Jonathan Searles will not play football or baseball for the Quakers. Professional baseball or college? Jonathan Searles will do both. On Friday, the incoming freshman signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates that will allow him to attend Penn full-time for two years and play professional baseball in the summer. Under this contract, Searles will report to the Pirates on or around May 15 in each of the next two years, allowing him to finish both his fall and spring semesters at Penn each year. Searles must report to Spring Training on time starting in 2002, however -- meaning he will not be able to attend Penn in the spring. "It's pretty unusual," Pirates scout Dana Brown said. "When you get a kid, draft him and sign him and he's going to go to college, normally he goes to college in the fall only. But because he's an Ivy League student and he's been accepted into the Wharton School of Business, we decided to go ahead and let him go to school as a full-time student." As part of the contract, Searles will receive a $130,000 signing bonus and the Pirates will contribute $140,000 for his education. The total of $270,000 is equivalent to the typical signing bonus for a fourth-round draft pick. Searles was chosen by the Pirates in the eight round. "The Pirates will do anything to sign their first eight or 10 draft choices because they don't have money for free agency," Penn baseball coach Bob Seddon said. "Unfortunately for us, he was drafted by the wrong organization." Searles was originally recruited to play football exclusively for the Quakers, but the Huntington, N.Y., native reconsidered his future in baseball after being discovered by Major League scouts. On April 19, former scout Larry Izzo saw Searles pitch. Three weeks later, Major League Scouting Bureau's Pat Shortt officially scouted the Huntington High School pitcher. And one week after that, 10 major league scouts -- as well as Seddon -- paid Searles a visit. Because the Major League First Year Player Draft was fast approaching and Searles had planned to play football at an Ivy League school, most clubs assumed they could not sign the 6'3'', 195-pound pitcher. "I was aware of his situation," Brown said. "Some of the other scouts sort of backed off because of it, but what I tried to do was get a feel for what the kid wanted to do, and when I talked to Jonathan, it sounded to me like he really wanted to play baseball." And Searles decided that if baseball was the direction he was going to move in, he would play for the Pirates-- not Penn. "If I'm going to play baseball," Searles said. "I'm going to play at the highest level possible." Searles and his uncle Joe Carrizzo put in an estimated 100 hours of research to determine whether the Huntington High School pitcher should sign with the Pirates. "This was well-researched," Carrizzo said. "This was not a rash decision." The decision does not just affect Searles with regard to baseball, however. Under Ivy League rules, if an athlete signs a professional contract in one sport, he is declared ineligible in every other collegiate sport. So, unlike Texas' Ricky Williams -- who played baseball in the Phillies' minor league system -- Searles will not be able to play football at Penn and baseball with the Pirates. "I'm sure I'll miss football when I'm watching the games," Searles said. "But, obviously, some people say I have a future in baseball." None of the Penn football coaches were available for comment, but Carrizzo says they have been supportive of Searles' decision. Searles will report to the Pirates' Rookie League team in Bradenton, Fla., on Wednesday. He is expected to be brought along slowly, progressing from throwing one inning at a time to a ceiling of probably 90 pitches per start. The right-handed pitcher will likely report to Bradenton again next May, possibly moving up to A- or AA-ball by 2001. Brown, who has been a major league scout for six years, believes Searles has a bright major league future ahead of him with three quality pitches. "I think he's probably going to end up with a plus breaking ball, an above-average changeup and at least an average to above-average fastball," Brown said. Athletically, Seddon believes in the pitcher's future -- he actively tried to get Searles to play baseball at Penn after he saw him pitch this spring -- but the Penn coach is not convinced that the contract Searles signed will be as beneficial academically as hoped. "He'll get four semesters, five semesters, but then what?," Seddon said. "When is he ever going to get back again because at that point he has to go to winter ball, he has to go to full summer ball, he may have to go to fall ball. If he does well, he'll never make it back unless he gets cut." His next two years are pretty well scripted, but Searles is still uncertain whether he will play winter baseball or attend school during the fall of 2001. "I'll have three summers of baseball under my belt," Searles said. "Maybe then I'll know where I stand." But Searles knows where he stands for the now -- a pitcher in the summer, a student the rest of the year.
(06/24/99 9:00am)
the University repurchased the Hojoka building at 3025 Walnut Street last week. and Eric Tucker The University last week reacquired the Hojoka building, a 36,000 square-foot property located at 3025 Walnut Street, from the gene-therapy company Genovo for $1.425 million. The purchase of the building, owned by Penn until fall 1996, will serve to further Penn's goal of eastern expansion and officials speculate that the property will become an asset to the University upon the fall 2000 opening of the neighboring General Electric building. Penn had initially sold the building to Genovo -- co-founded by Penn Molecular and Cellular Engineering Professor James Wilson in 1992 -- in the fall of 1996 for $1.45 million, with the hopes that it could supply job opportunities and provide greater scientific research opportunities on campus. Upon purchasing the building several years ago, Genovo officials announced their expectation to create nearly 200 jobs. But the building had since remained vacant, as Genovo quickly found an additional facility in nearby Sharon Hill that ultimately served as its primary headquarters, according to Genovo officials. "We just didn't need two pieces of real estate," said Genovo chief executive officer Eric Aguiar, adding that the "short term need for a second facility" did not warrant the use of the Hojoka building. When Penn sold the facility, it did so with an added stipulation that it could match any external bid placed on the building if and when the company decided to sell Hojoka. Two offers were placed -- though neither the University nor the company could reveal from whom -- and Penn ultimately matched the bid, earning rights to the building once again. "We saw from day one? that if for some reason Genovo was going to leave and move on to bigger headquarters, we would want the opportunity to take the building back," Penn Executive Vice President John Fry said Monday. Although Fry acknowledged that the University was pleased to once again have control of the facility -- especially given its location -- he expressed disappointment that the actual venture did not succeed in the Hojoka building. According to University officials, the company experienced financial difficulties that led to the abandonment of the project in the Hojoka building. "They basically stopped the project and just sort of sat there," Fry said. But Aguiar denied any claims that the company experienced economic trouble. Wilson, who still oversees the research, said the company did not want to reject the "long-term lease and the "very good rate" that the Sharon Hill site offered and therefore intentionally chose not to operate out of the Hojoka building. Located next to the GE building -- the site of a new University-owned luxury apartment building scheduled to open in fall 2000 -- the Hojoka building purchase comes almost on the heels of a University proposal released earlier this month to build new residential, parking and academic facilities in a parking lot at 34th and Chestnut streets. Although University officials say they do not yet have specific plans for the Hojoka site, they believe the property will become a valuable commodity when the 285-unit GE building opens its doors. "The GE there really gives that whole area sort of a new lease on life," Fry said.
(06/24/99 9:00am)
University Police earlier this month arrested a Philadelphia man in connection with at least 10 burglaries of off-campus houses primarily occupied by Penn students, according to Penn Police Detective Supervisor Bill Danks. Casey Brunson, a resident of the 300 block of Sloan Street, confessed to burglarizing homes on 41st Street between mid-May and his arrest on June 9, according to police officials. While the University Police have connected him to at least 19 burglaries concentrated around the area of 41st Street between Spruce Street and Baltimore Avenue, Danks said that only enough evidence exists to charge Brunson on 10 of the burglaries. Brunson, 29, either entered houses through open second floor windows or during student parties where he moved around the house unnoticed and removed possessions ranging from money and jewelry to computers, televisions and bicycles, Danks said. All of the burglaries occurred after dark. "We don't even know if the people realized that things were taken," Danks said, referring to the instances in which Brunson entered the residences during student parties. Brunson, who is on probation after spending approximately 11 months in prison for a robbery in committed in the area last year, confessed to many of the burglaries after police apprehended him, Danks said. Danks said that when Penn police noticed the rash of burglaries -- almost one a night and almost all on 41st Street -- they teamed up with Philadelphia Police to form a plan for apprehending the culprit. "We saw that there was a pattern," Danks said. "We got together with the 18th District and we put plainclothes police out there in the middle of the night." Brunson was apprehended by two plainclothes Penn police officers early in the morning of July 9 while he was in the process of removing a television from a house in the area, Danks said. Police officials believe Brunson likely sold the items he removed from the homes he burglarized. "I think the most telling thing is that since June 9, there have been no burglaries on 41st Street," Danks said. Philadelphia Police Lt. Gerard McShea applauded the cooperation of the two police forces and the hard work of Penn police in making an arrest. Brunson is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in a few weeks.
(06/24/99 9:00am)
To future generations, Penn's Folklore Department may be little more than, well, its own piece of folklore. The beleaguered Folklore and Folklife Department will close July 1 but will maintain its currently existing graduate group and will continue to offer a minor for undergraduates, according to a resolution passed Friday by the University Trustees. In addition, the School of Arts and Sciences will establish a Center for Folklore and Ethnography, SAS Dean Samuel Preston told the Trustees' Academic Policy Committee Friday. Although the department will no longer offer an undergraduate major, very few students or faculty members are likely to be directly affected. The department has long struggled to maintain a sizeable number of faculty members and student majors. Only 10 students between the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of General Studies have selected Folklore as their major and the number of standing faculty members -- only four -- is "not sufficient" for the maintenance of a successful academic department, Preston said. "Through retirement, deaths and attrition, the faculty size of the Department has declined in recent years, and the number of undergraduate majors has diminished dramatically," according to the resolution suggesting the department's termination. The department's four professors -- Chairperson Roger Abrahams, Regina Bendix, Robert St. George and Dan Ben-Amos -- will join the English, Anthropology, History and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies departments, respectively. And undergraduate Folklore courses will continue to be offered through cross-listings -- though a Freshman Seminar will be offered in lieu of the popular Folklore 101 course this fall. Those students who have already declared Folklore as their major will be able to fulfill their curriculum as planned. Preston claimed in March that the decision to close the department was largely motivated by undergraduates' traditional lack of interest in pursuing a Folklore degree. He expressed similar sentiments Friday, explaining to the members of the Academic Policy Committee that the department has "never really found much of a mission at an undergraduate level." Preston released a strategic plan for SAS in early April that called for increased investment in departments and programs that provide strong academics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as offer ample research opportunity "I think it is the case that departments recognize that their welfare is in part a function of how effectively they are serving our undergraduate community," Preston said. But that's easier said than done for small departments like Folklore, Abrahams claims. "Small departments are having ever-greater problems in actually servicing the needs of majors vis-a-vis the kind of career counseling that ought to be offered at a major undergraduate institution," Abrahams said. Still, he stressed that the closing of the department brings with it the opening of even more Folklore research opportunities throughout the University. He cited the graduate program -- chaired by Bendix and offering master's and doctoral degrees -- and the Folklore Center, a research institute slated to operate out of Logan Hall this Fall, as examples of ways in which the University will continue to provide a Folklore education. In addition, the newly developed MidStates Regional Studies Center -- a venture jointly formed by SAS Associate Dean for Arts and Letters Rebecca Bushnell, English Department Chairperson and Humanities Forum Director Wendy Steiner and Richard Dunn, the director of the McNeil Center for Early American Study -- will "encourage work that we have been sponsoring as a department and graduate program for many years," Abrahams said. The MidStates Research Consortium, which will also host visiting scholars and work collaboratively with local humanities and arts organizations, will operate out of Preston's office and is currently in search of a permanent location.
(06/24/99 9:00am)
In an effort to maximize safety and security on and around campus, the University City District announced last week the formation of a community-based task force charged with discussing public safety issues and developing coordinated responses to area security problems. The University City Community Public Safety Task Force -- a collaboration between the UCD's safety ambassadors, the Philadelphia Police Department and local town watch organizations -- is "charged with reviewing crime patterns, identifying problem areas and developing coordinated responses," UCD Executive Director Paul Steinke said Monday. Through monthly or bi-monthly meetings, the task force will put University City's seven town watch organizations -- the eyes and ears of area neighborhoods -- in formal communication with public safety and security officials so that the two entities can pool information to help reduce and prevent crime, Steinke said. "The task force is a way to engage the town watches in planning and implementation of improved public safety programs," Steinke said. The group will likely be composed of 12 to 20 representatives from the town watches, the UCD, the Penn Police and the Philadelphia Police, as well as SpectraGuard, Drexel University, Amtrak and other area institutions. According to Philadelphia Police Lt. Gerard McShea, one of the group's chairpersons, the police will "try to direct the local town watches in the areas they should be concerned with" and "make them feel a little more empowered" in the fight against crime. While the idea behind the task force has been in the works for some time, its formation was facilitated by the recent partnership between the UCD and the Philadelphia Police manifest in last week's opening of the new UCD operations center. The operations center, located at 3940-42 Chestnut Street, will house the UCD's 40 safety ambassadors -- unarmed officers who patrol University City and assist pedestrians -- as well as a police substation where 25 officers from the 16th and 18th Districts will report. "It's really an opportunity to put all the different elements of crime fighting on the same page," task force co-chairperson Marty Cabry said. "Every player that comes to the table brings something to it and adds strength to it." Cabry, who heads University City's seven town watch organizations, said that in addition to patrolling the areas in which they live, town watch members also specialize in educating area residents on ways to protect themselves and their homes against crime. "I think [the task force] makes town watch members feel they're really part of things now," Cabry said. Steinke cited recent statistics released by the Penn Police that show a 32 percent decrease in crime as a reason for more -- not less -- community involvement and cooperation. "Clearly all the efforts to improve public safety have succeeded," Steinke said, stressing that more cooperation can only result in even larger decreases in crime. And UCD Operations Director John Conlow, who supervises the UCD's 40 safety ambassadors, said the town watch organizations often assist public safety officials by providing information about crime patterns they have observed near their homes. "People who know the neighborhood best are people who live here every day," Conlow said. "They have the biggest stake in the neighborhood because they're all homeowners," McShea added.
(06/24/99 9:00am)
Renowned criminologist Lawrence Sherman was named the new head of the Fels Center of Government. School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston last week named renowned criminologist Lawrence Sherman as the new director of the Fels Center of Government, ending a nearly six month search and leaving the public management program with its first permanent head since 1996. Sherman, who will be appointed the Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations in the Sociology Department, is currently the chair of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. He will arrive at Penn next month and may teach an undergraduate course in criminology as early as this fall, Sociology Department Chairperson Douglas Massey said Tuesday. Sherman is currently out of the country and was unavailable for comment this week. Since Sherman will be a Sociology professor, Fels will now fall under SAS jurisdiction, after having previously operated out of both the Graduate School of Fine Arts and the Office of the Provost. This classification means that Preston bears responsibility for Fels' budget as well as mounting courses and hiring additional professors. Expectations run high for Sherman -- the department's lone criminology expert -- who administrators hope will turn the institute into one of the nation's leading public policy research centers. "He is an extremely gifted administrator as well as a wonderful scholar," Preston said. "He has built the best and largest program in criminology in the country at Maryland." And Political Science Professor Jack Nagel, who headed the search committee charged with finding a new director, commended Sherman for his "outstanding record of scholarship" and his "superlative record of entrepreneurial leadership in an academic setting." Preston said he is particularly impressed with Sherman's "experimental approach to public policy," referring to Sherman's controlled experiments of different administrative structures -- including one study that compared the effects of various response times to 911 calls. The Fels Center is a public management program that primarily caters to graduate students interested in pursuing careers in public service, allowing them to earn master's degrees in governmental administration. In recent years, however, Fels has experienced its share of turmoil and controversy, as former director James Spady resigned in late 1996 after having heated disputes with the program's administrators regarding the direction of the program. Then, with Fels mired in what Nagel called a "holding pattern," a panel of University administrators debated Fels' future and ultimately decided against its abolition. And last summer, Paul Light, the University's top candidate for the job and a director at the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts, rejected an offer to head up the Fels Center. Last fall, a search committee convened and, after reviewing several dozen applications, brought three potential candidates to Penn, one of which was Sherman.
