AARC's Tenth Anniversary:
A Party on the Green
Ten years ago a small group of faculty, staff and students approached
the administration with an idea for a center that would cut across all inner
boundaries to "enhance the quality of campus life for African American
faculty, staff, administrative employees, and students." They emerged
with a commitment that set up the African American Resource Center, which
from its small office at 3537 Locust Walk dispenses advocacy and advising
to address issues in harassment (whether for race or for gender), discrimination,
and grievances as well as consulting to those who would study the workplace
with a view to preventing maltreatment.
As part of its mission to build a community of harmonious diversity that
will be "a model for academia and society at large," the Center
holds information events year-round, some coping with the fallout of restructuring
and other workplace issues at Penn. There are sessions on career development
in a changing society, communications with supervisors and working parent
issues, to name a few (for more: www.upenn.edu/aarc).
Wednesday on College Green, over a hundred friends of the Center gathered
to celebrate its tenth anniversary with speeches, song and poetry. There
was remembrance--of Dr. Allen Green, the Center's first director, who sent
greetings from his current post as dean of the college at Wesleyan, and
of Isabel Sampson-Mapp, who received a standing ovation for her service
as acting director during the search that led to to the appointment of alumna
Jeanne Arnold as director in 1995. Another ovation greeted Ms. Arnold, who
operates the center with Assistant Director Jack Lewis and Staff Assistant
Afi Roberson. |
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Brother Kenyatta, left, with Penn poet Tanji Gilliam, C '02. |
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