Well, Al, looks like they're "gettin' the band back together", and today's
Daily Pennsylvanian report about the Campus Inn puts yesterday's post into
context.
It's the same old bullshit: West Philadelphia is a hellhole that we need
Penn/UCD/Tom Lussenhop to rescue us from; unannounced closed-door astroturf
presentations in front of a handful of handpicked so-called "community leaders"
ready to regurgitate Penn's lies and to rubberstamp whatever Penn shoves in
front of them. I guess next the propaganda machine will kick into gear again to
explain to us igoramuses why it's so important that Penn should be able to do
whatever they want.
Regarding certain "panelists", this just proves that there are some people who
are incapable of embarassment or shame...Even Professor Marvel gave up the
smoke and mirrors once his "Wizard of Oz" persona ("Pay no attention to the man
behind the curtain!") was exposed as a sham.
See ya at the Zoning Board hearings, folks... luckily I saved my "No Hotel In
the Hood" posters!
From: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2009 08:55:59 -0400
Subject: [UC] Penn and the community -- take, er, I lost count when it hit six
digits
To: [email protected]
>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.)
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plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
----- Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
