Re: [UC] They're B-a-a-c-k [Was] Penn and the community

[Glenn moyer]

Title: Re: [UC] They're B-a-a-c-k [Was] Penn and the community

Like Al mentioned, no one knew about a panel discussion with this sneaky "community" for an audience.. I was on campus a good part of the day and saw no announcements for the Penn community. (I went to the well publisized panel discussion on Romanticism which introduced a new anthology--much better than a room full of the anointed!)     Community panelist, Barry, explained these types of community/university gatherings during the push for the hotel.  The meetings are "open and public,"  but they aren't announced.  It makes perfect sence to the anointed!   But others might think of the body functions of the male bovine.      The bit about the half empty seats was nice propaganda reinforcing what Karen noticed.  The U. business geniuses portray Philadelphians as helpless cretins always asking for Penn's charity.  By claiming that the audience was made of community members, who didn't bother to show up, we are also portrayed as ungrateful, uncaring, helpless cretins!    DP readers have no way to know that the panel discussion was never announced to the community.  (The Arthur Ross gallery would have had a packed room full of our neighbors willing to expose the truth about Penn/community partnerships!)  Today's, propaganda nicely dovetailed with the image of ungrateful cretins.  (We pigs won't let the families of sick children into the neighorhood while Tom and Ed are too sweet to comment.)  This was a nice one two propaganda punch!  These "journalists" have been shamlessly used, and they should be ashamed of their "articles."  But I believe there is more than the hotel on the horizon.       When you look at Ira Harkavy's work and hear him speak, he lays out the correct methods for creating good community partnerships.  At a talk about the time of the first master plan steering committee for Clark Park, 2002, I explained to him that the Penn neo-colonialists unleashed on West Philly did the opposite of the methods he eloquenly described!  In the answer to the question I posed he also gave a great answer.  (Using secrecy and trickery while excluding community stakeholders will lead to bad plans and community divisiveness.  By keeping an open discussion table for stakeholders and being honest, inclusive, and transparent; you can get good plans and partnerships.  Even those stakeholders, who do not prevail on points during the discussions, will approve a plan they know was arrived at fairly and democratically with their participation.)   I want to see what Harkavy will say publicly when presented with the real stories from the real community!   I'm sure the panel discussion with Barry, Harkavy, and this hidden community was inspiring and uplifting!   (They used a tutoring program between students and school kids as the example of Penn's charititable partnerships.)   I think this is only the beginning of a new rampage by the Penn spin machine.  There is something bigger than the 10 story hotel coming our way.  As Harkavy alluded, these Penn parnerships over top of West Philly are very important to the university!   Glenn PS:  For years I went into the Philadelphia community as a representative from Penn.  Like the grad student said, the population and professionals were suspicious of Penn people, often for good reason.  But those barriers came down easily for me.  People have good instincts, and the students need to consider what baggage they bring with them from the elite campus instead of attributing the suspicions all to prejudice.           -----Original Message----- From: Wilma de Soto Sent: Oct 9, 2009 6:28 PM To: Karen Allen , UnivCity listserv Subject: Re: [UC] They're B-a-a-c-k [Was] Penn and the community Karen, I love your filling in the spaces with relevant community commentary. On 10/9/09 1:42 PM, "Karen Allen" <kallena...@msn.com> wrote: 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: krf...@aol.com 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: UnivCity@list.purple.com 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         ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see .