>From today's DP. Emphasis (color) and snide remarks (parentheses) added
You read it here, first, on the ever-popular Popu-List Courtesy of Al Krigman ____________________________________ University seeks to build more bridges with community partnerships Maanvi Singh While Penn's relationship with the West Philadelphia community has been tumultuous in the past, last night a group of community leaders and educators discussed Penn's recent focus on interacting positively with its neighbor. (Recent focus? Maybe they mean dumping Lewis Wendell.) The audience of community members, who filled a little over half the chairs (nobody I know was aware of this... so -- little wonder that only half the chairs were filled and I can only imagine who from "the community" was there) set up in the Arthur Ross Gallery, listened as the panel recounted Penn's historical interactions with West Philadelphia, as well as the University's current programs for community involvement. Ira Harkavy, associate vice president of Penn's Netter Center for Community Partnerships, moderated the discussion on what he said was "the single most important issue that the University is focusing on" - helping to develop neighboring West Philadelphia. (This is the "single most important issue that the University is focusing on" ??? I would have thought that a world class research university would be focusing on less important things like education, research, bringing their endowment back up to the point where they don't have to fire people or raise fees to give it's president a big raise and otherwise stay afloat, etc.) West Philadelphia has come a long way since the 1990s, when crime was on a major upspring, said panelist and member of the Spruce Hill Community Trust Board of Directors Barry Grossbach. (See. Someone still thinks Barry is a community "leader." Maybe they don't know about the sad fall from grace and standing of the Spruce Hill Community Association.) Penn faculty and students, as well as West Philadelphia community members, have many more opportunities today to help ameliorate their neighborhoods, he added, citing the recent success of tutoring endeavors in the community and the Penn Alexander Elementary School. (Well, we can give them that one, anyway -- ignoring the real reason for Penn's involvement with the school.) According to Grossbach, these outreach programs have been so successful that outside organizations have started to follow Penn's footsteps. For instance, the Teacher's College of Columbia University wants to create a program similar to that of Alexander Elementary School. (Do you think they hired Omar Blaik as a consultant?) "I've seen the change," Leslie Rogers, a Penn doctoral candidate, said. As a Penn undergraduate and graduate student, she said, she felt that West Philadelphia community members were very skeptical of her intentions when she went to volunteer and later teach there. Now, Penn faculty and students are more warmly welcomed, she said. Rogers said Penn undergraduates getting involved in West Philadelphia is a key to community-building. Thanks to an array of recently established programs, these students now "get to actually problem-solve in the community," she said. (These students are like the bright-eyed busy-tailed types that get hired at UCD. They are enthusiastic and well meaning -- but naive as newborn lambs and haven't a clue about the "problems" faced by people from a side of the tracks other than where they, themselves, were born and raised.) Still, attendee Glenwood Charles, a Penn graduate who now oversees the Netter Center's tutoring program and reading initiative, argued that there is still more to be done. (Yes, but how can they raise the probability of doing more good than harm? Is there anything in the Penn curriculum that teaches the facts of life? ... no, not "those" facts; the other facts.) "Get more involved," he told students. "There are a lot of opportunities." (As above... to do harm unless they somehow are brought to understand the situations in which they are getting involved.) ------------ _plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_French_phrases_used_by_English_speakers#P) ----- Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
