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DEPARTURES
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Rodin
To Step Down
Next Year
On
the rainy afternoon of June 20, a
few days after we had completed work
on this issue of the Gazette,
a bombshell arrived in the form of
an e-mail. It came from Dr. Judith
Rodin CW’66, and was addressed to
the University community.
“This
morning I informed the Board of Trustees,
together in Philadelphia for their
June meeting, of my intention to step
down from the presidency of Penn at
the end of June 2004,” the e-mail
began. By then she will have served
as president for 10 years, she noted,
and she described her service to the
University as “an extraordinary privilege
and an exhilarating experience.”
By just about any measure, it has
been a remarkably successful tenure,
a subject we will address more in
future issues.
“Through
her vision, creativity, and boundless
energy,” said James Riepe W’65 WG’67,
chairman of Penn’s trustees, “Judy
has provided extraordinary leadership
to Penn over these past nine years—strengthening
undergraduate, graduate, and professional
education; revitalizing the campus
and community; increasing fundraising;
and dramatically enhancing the University’s
national reputation. Penn today is
a stronger and more vibrant institution
than at any time in our history.”
“The
decision to step down has been an
extremely difficult one for me to
make,” Rodin acknowledged, “but I
believe it is the right time for Penn.
We have successfully fulfilled our
first bold strategic plan, “Agenda
for Excellence,” and with the next
plan conceived and ready to launch,
it is a perfect time for new leadership.
I love this institution and will always
remain a part of it.”
Tangible steps have already been taken
to make sure she does indeed remain
a part of Penn. Not only have the
trustees asked her to assume a “newly
created part-time position as Chancellor
to remain actively engaged in fundraising,”
but she will remain on the faculty
as well. She is currently professor
of psychology and professor of medicine
and psychiatry.
“I
look back with great pride at all
that our faculty, staff, students,
alumni, and community partners have
together enabled Penn to accomplish
these past nine years,” she said,
“and I know that the years ahead will
be full of successes as well.”
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COMMENCEMENT
All,
All in the Family 
“I
hear the bagpipes, Kate!” called
out a gray-bearded man standing near Oldenberg’s “Split Button.”
Continued...
RESEARCH
Something
in the Armpits
A
dab of extract of male
underarm perspiration
is applied to the upper lip of an ovulating woman. 1. Does she
become a) nauseated, b) more tense, c) more relaxed, or d) apoplectic?
Continued...
APPOINTMENTS
Delli
Carpini Chosen to Lead Annenberg School
The
University has selected
a new Walter H. Annenberg Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication:
Dr. Michael Delli Carpini C’75 G’75 … Continued...
ARCHAEOLOGY
AND WAR Operation
Iraqi Heritage
When
the University Museum began
its archaeological relationship with what is now called Iraq,
the region was part of the Ottoman Empire. Continued...
RESEARCH
Bittersweet
Vindication for Atkins Diet
After
decades of ridicule by the American medical establishment, it’s
fittingly ironic that Dr. Robert Atkins had his epitaph published
in the New England Journal of Medicine. Continued...
SYMPOSIUM
Parsing
the Influence
of Zellig Harris
“As
you honor Zellig Harris today, and celebrate the publication of
this new collection of writings, pause a moment to think about
what would be missing if Harris had never explored the world of
linguistics,” said Provost Robert Barchi at the outset of a January
symposium dedicated to the legacy of the late Dr. Zellig Harris
G’32 Gr’34. Continued...
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EXHIBITIONS
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A
Moveable Feast for the Eyes
On
July 10 an exhibition of rare books and manuscripts
titled Literae Humaniores in the University of
Pennsylvania Library (including a 15th-century
German translation of Boccaccio’s De claris mulieribus,
above, and an 18th-century copy of Cicero’s Cato
Major, printed and sold by Benjamin Franklin,
below) will open at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
in Belgium and run through October 15. The opening
celebration will include remarks by the Hon. Stephen
Brauer, the United States Ambassador to Belgium, as
well as administrators from Penn’s library system
and from Leuven, the oldest university in the Low
Countries. It marks the 75th anniversary of the reopening
of the Central Library, which had been destroyed in
World War I and was rebuilt with contributions from
American donors, including Penn.
In 1999 the KU Leuven Library mounted a major exhibition
of books and manuscripts at Penn, titled Books
in Leuven, Leuven in Books.
“In
the turmoil of the present, it seems not only fitting
but necessary to remind ourselves of the deeper connections
between Old World and New and to underscore the common
patrimony of both,” says Dr. Michael Ryan, director
of the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
The Penn Library, he adds, is “proud to be able to
share with our European friends and colleagues a selection
of books and manuscripts from an institution in which
the traditions of Humanism have remained alive and
well.”
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©
2003 The Pennsylvania Gazette Last
modified 04/28/03
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AROUND
CAMPUS
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Wrongful
Death
Lawsuit Settled
The family of the late Michael
Tobin C’94 has settled its wrongful-death
lawsuit against the University,
Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and
the real-estate management firm
of Trammell Crow for an undisclosed
amount of money. Tobin died from
a fall behind the Penn-owned FIJI
fraternity house at 3619 Locust
Walk in March, 1999, after an
alumni dinner at which he had
been drinking heavily. His family
had charged that it was the University’s
failure to maintain the stairs
behind the fraternity house that
had caused Tobin’s death. Since
then the fraternity has been disbanded
and the University has revamped
its alcohol policy.
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DEPARTURES
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Vice
Provost for Libraries
Resigns After Investigation
Dr. Paul Mosher, vice provost
and director of libraries, resigned
from the University in April following
an eight-month investigation by
the Philadelphia Police Department’s
special victims unit. He had allegedly
downloaded more than 2,000 images
of child pornography from Internet
sources onto his laptop computer
and paid for them with a credit
card. A preliminary hearing in
April was postponed until June
26, after the Gazette went
to press.
The investigation began last August,
when Mosher reportedly took his
broken laptop to a repair shop,
where employees found the images
in his files. They reported the
finding to University Police,
who then turned the information
over to Philadelphia Police, as
required by law.
“The
Philadelphia Police conducted
a careful investigation over an
extended period and the University
was not involved in the investigation,”
said Lori Doyle, vice president
for University communications.
The special victims unit seized
Mosher’s computer from his office
in Van Pelt Library on April 11,
and Penn quickly placed him on
administrative leave. By April
17, he had resigned from his post,
and on April 21, he turned himself
in to Philadelphia Police. Bail
was set at $15,000.
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