What's in a name?

Diversity & Equity, Affirmative Action, Pluralism?

All three have been the names of official committees set up at the University of Pennsylvania to address issues of diversity, inclusiveness and affirmative action.

Last year, the University Council adopted a bylaw change that merged the President’s Affirmative Action Council and the University Council Committee on Pluralism into a single advisory body whose work would be reflective of the charges of both Committees. The new advisory body, the Committee on Diversity & Equity, was established with Dr. Bernett Johnson as its Chair and Dr. Judy Shea as its Interim Chair. You can view their annual report here.

So, how is our new committee doing this year?

Unfortunately, the new Diversity & Equity committee has not met yet, although I am told an email was recently sent out to try and schedule the first meeting. There is also a new chair, John Jackon, the new Penn Integrates Knowledge professor. Like he isn't busy enough trying to get acquainted to Penn! In addition to having a chair that is brand new to Penn, almost the entire committee is made up of new members to Diversity & Equity. Only one member of last year's committee has returned.

2007-08 Diversity & Equity Members

2006-07 Members:
Bernett Johnson, Chair
Camille Charles - Faculty
Judy Shea - Faculty, Interim Chair
Howard Stevenson - Faculty
Rosalyn Watts - Faculty
Irene Wong -Faculty
Shakirah Simley - Undergraduate Student
Jerome Wright - Undergraduate Student
Mahlet Mesfin - Graduate Student
Susana Ramirez - Graduate Student
Marina DeScenza Walker -PPSA
Karen Ringlaben - PPSA
Karima Williams - WPSA
Mary Jones-Parker -WPSA

Where does it leave all the important issues that were on the agenda last year? To refresh our memories here is a brief list:

• Implementing a campus climate survey
• Diversity in the curriculum
• Follow-up and evaluation of revision of Penn's Affirmative Action Statement to include gender identity
  
• Revising the Equal Opportunity Policy
  

It looks like the committee will start from scratch this year and that's a real shame!

I hope it isn't the case and that current members of the committee do their homework and take a look at last year's annual report and begin making recommendations to University Council. But, I'm not going to hold my breadth.

It's time for the University to start explaining what's going on.

~BT

Biden: Giuliani not qualified to be president

In the democratic debate tonight in Philadelphia, Biden said the following:

Rudy Giuliani is probably the most underqualified person since George Bush to run for president. He can only say 3 things in a sentence: a noun, a verb, and 9/11. "This man is truly not qualified to be president. I'm looking forward to running against Rudy Giuliani."

I couldn't agree more!

~BT

Late-night Tunes (10-28-07)

Justice - D.A.N.C.E

Enjoy!

~BT

The Intersection of Politics, Religion and Stupidity

A wonderful graphical representation of our current state of affairs.


~BT

STUDENTS: A CHALLENGE FOR US

This Youtube video is poignant given the anti-war mobilization today. It has close to 2 million views so far. Check it out.


~BT

The fin-de-siecle Flaneur

From the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary,

fla·neur

Variant(s):

also flâ·neur \flä-ˈnər\

Function: noun

Etymology: French flâneur

Date: 1854

: an idle man-about-town

From the editor's introduction to Georg Simmel's The Metropolis and Mental Life,

Simmel's detached and capricious urban cosmpolitan is much similar to the "flaneur" of philospher Walter Benjamen ("Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century,") and poet Charles Baudelaire, the Parisian pedestrian dandy, the bourgeois shopper, or the urban commuter. The barrage of lures, stimulations, and choices in the modern city of commerce has induced a kind of monkish self-reflection that can be seen as trascendence as much as retreat. Freed from the prejudices and obligations of family and community, the bourgeois urbanist experiences the restlessness of liberation, a new condition of self-consciousness and inner emotional development. For all his liberation from the communal society, the urban modernist is now embedded in the iron cage of a world of work and bureaucracy, and the consumer's dilemma of a search for identity in a soulless mass society.

-The Urban Sociology Reader by Jan Lin and ChristopherMele

It makes one wonder, who are the flaneurs of our time? Does contemporary culture suppress them or allow them to flourish?

B-squared

National Rally to End the War

Saturday October 27th, United for Peace & Justice is organizing 11 regional rallies to protest the war and occupation in Iraq. Philadelphia is one of cities and is having a Human Chain for Peace which will begin assembling at noon and stretch across the city, right through Penn's campus. At 1pm, the march will begin to Independence Mall for the rally at 2pm.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast for Saturday is heavy rain. Regardless, I'm really looking forward to attending the day's events and hope that it rejuvenates the fledgling anti-war movement. Penn Against War is organizing the 36th to 37th block of Locust and hopefully there will be a good presence of students.

~BT

Should Congress Impeach?

Saturday night I had the incredible opportunity to ask Whoopi Goldberg a question that I have been pondering for quite awhile. (thanks SPEC!!).

In her lecture, at Irvine Auditorium, Whoopi talked about a whole range of topics but the thing that resonated the most was when she talked about the need to hold people accountable in our society. My question was whether the impeachment of Bush and Cheney was the way to truly hold them accountable for their lies and plundering of this country.

Her answer in a nutshell was that it's too late. She encouraged me to look to the future and the 08 candidates. (at least that was my recollection, granted I was a little nervous standing at the mic). This is the same response I hear from the establishment democrats that I have often read and hear on television. They say that it is either a distraction from accomplishing a progressive legislative agenda, or that it will jeopardize the democrats' chances in 08. Moreover, some claim that the American people won't support it, worried that if the Democratic Congress pursues Impeachment, that they will experience a backlash similar to what the Republicans felt after the Clinton Impeachment.

I disagree and was frustrated by Nancy Pelosi's assertion in the 2006 mid-term election campaign that impeachment was off the table. Why should I be looking to the 08 cycle? There is over a year left and Bush is still doing damage. Bush is actively stopping progressive legislation, most recently his veto of SCHIP (Colbert segment on SCHIP).

I hope to talk about this a lot more on this blog. What do you think? Should Congress impeach Bush and/or Cheney?

~BT

Update on Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week at Penn

Following up on my previous posts about Islamo-Facism Awareness Week (IFAW), here is a brief update:

• There are ongoing negotiations between Programs in Religion, Interfaith, and Spirituality Matters (PRISM), MSA and the leadership of College Republicans, the group that is spearheading the event at Penn.
  
• Last week, the Undergraduate Assembly Steering committee discussed Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week and student leaders aired their initial concerns.
  
• There is a University Council meeting during the week, on Wednesday October 24th. At every Council meeting there is an open forum, which typically isn't used. I submitted a request to speak about the awareness week which if granted will mean I have 3 minutes and time for question/comments.
  
• This Wednesday, October 10th, the University Council steering committee is meeting and will discuss which open forum items will be on the agenda (the deadline to submit items was last week).

More to come after I get a response. I also still need to get the calendar of events for IFAW.

~BT

Campus Progress at Penn Presents: Iraq Film Project

Here are the details for the Iraq Film Project sponsored by the newly founded Campus Progress Penn chapter and the Law & Society program of Harrison College House.


- No End in Sight

Thursday October 11^th, 7:00pm

Harrison College House, rooftop lounge

"No End in Sight" examines the manner in which the principal errors of U.S. policy - the use of insufficient troop levels, allowing the looting of Baghdad, the purging of professionals from the Iraqi government, and the disbanding of the Iraqi military - largely created the insurgency and chaos that engulf Iraq today.

- Iraq for Sale

Thursday October 18^th, 7:30pm

Harrison College House, rooftop lounge

Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

Pizza and refreshments will be served at both film screenings. Please RSVP for the No End in Sight film screening so that we have an idea of how much pizza to order:

http://www2.americanprogress.org/t/8/event/index.jsp?event_KEY=20250

If you have any questions, feel free to contact pennprogress@gmail.com

~BT

PennSTART for all

In today's DP, Ernest Gomez discusses a new pilot project for Wharton and Engineering freshmen that hopes to help students better handle mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression both of which are highly prevalent among college students.

According to a national survey of 13,500 college students published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2005, 45 percent of undergraduates reported experiencing depression severe enough to prevent them from functioning day to day.

According to Counseling and Psychiatric Services, more than 10 percent of Penn students meet with a counselor at CAPS each year. You do the math: Either Penn students are less prone to depression than the average college student, or many cases go unreported every year.

I definitely agree with the columnist in encouraging freshmen in Wharton and Engineering to take this seriously and to not simply disregard the program thinking that they don't need help.

I could've benefited from PennSTART, but I probably would have cast it aside as a crutch for the weak-willed.

This is why I have a message for Wharton and Engineering freshmen: Get over yourselves - you're not the best, nor do you have to be. It's great that you're raising the bar of collegiate success, but you're not invincible. Give PennSTART a chance.

I also have a message for the administration: If the program proves initially successful, make it mandatory for incoming students a la AlcoholEDU. Distant rewards and raffle prizes will not motivate busy students to take the program, but an ounce of PennSTART is worth a pound of CAPS.

PennSTART is a great compliment to the work being done by student groups, such as the Mental Health Coalition, to better educate students about mental health issues and dispel the many myths about CAPS.

But, what about College and Nursing students? I understand that this is a pilot program and that the administrators and professors spearheading this effort want to determine its efficacy but College students deserve the chance to participate if they want. Why not just open it up to all Penn students as well?

~BT

Naomi Klein's latest: The Shock Doctrine

The Shock Doctrine by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein

From The Thought Kitchen,

Naomi Klein has just published a controversial best seller entitled The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism In it she defines shock doctrine as “the use of public disorientation following massive collective shocks—wars, terrorist attacks, natural disasters—to push through highly unpopular economic shock therapy.”

The metaphor of “shock” is important because her thesis stems from a contention that what works on a person also works on a nation. Think 9/11 and fear-induced politics that have eroded some of the fundamentals of what we knew as American democracy. To peer into her thinking, check out the short film by Alfonso Cuaron, who made Y Tu Mama Tambien and Children of Men. Klein was hoping he’d send her a quote for the book jacket, but instead he assembled a team of artists and this short film. Sweet indeed.

Read more about the book and film at her website.

~BT

Update: Joseph Stiglitz is fairly sympathetic to Klein in his recent New York Times review of the book, which isn't so surprising given his place within the anti-globalization movement. Definitely looks like a great read.

Update 2: Naomi Klein speaking to the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives.

Blackwater, Rush Limbaugh and more

Olbermann had a great interview with John Edwards tonight in which he says in reference to ending the Iraq war, "what we need is a surge in New Orleans."

From The Newsole, the blog from the staff of Countdown,

The Blackwater Hearings: Somebody has some shame. The team of F-B-I agents heading to Baghdad this week to investigate Blackwater security contractors for possible murder... were to be protected by bodyguards from Blackwater. Tonight, breaking news in our fifth story on the Countdown: assistant F-B-I director John Miller issuing a statement tonight reading "to avoid even the appearance of any conflict, the FBI team deployed from Washington to assist the State Department in the events of Septembr 16th, will have any additional security needs provided by U.S. Government personnel." Nobody's saying additional to what? The presumption is, no Blackwater Guards trailing along as the FBI investigates alleged Blackwater murders...But that is not made explicit.

Olberman also covers the latest from Rush Limbaugh where he called anti-war soldiers "phony soldiers". A great interview with a soldier featured in this great VoteVets.org ad.

Also tonight, Dan Savage was a guest on the Colbert Report The Daily Show also had a great night with a good segment on Blackwater.



More info on Blackwater from Sidney Blumenthal at Salon.com,

On June 27, 2004, the day before the United States was to grant sovereignty to a new Iraqi government and disband the Coalition Provisional Authority, L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. proconsul, issued a stunning new order. One of the final acts of the CPA, Order 17 declared that foreign contractors within Iraq, including private military firms, would not be subject to any Iraqi laws -- "all International Consultants shall be immune from Iraqi legal process," it read. "Congratulations to the new Iraq!" Bremer said moments before flying out. His memoir, "My Year in Iraq," neglects to mention Order 17.

~BT

Olbermann: The Iran drumbeat gets louder

Keith Olbermann's lead story yesterday,

Target Iran: Disproving the theory that President Bush never learns...A report tonight that after the enduring debacle of war against Iraq because of Weapons of Mass Destruction which did not exist...Somebody has convinced him that war against Iran because of the imminent nuclear threat it presents, will not fly...So instead it would be war against Irahn because of terrorist activities by part of that country's military. Our fifth story on the Countdown: more saber-rattling...different sabers.

The Iran drumbeat gets louder

~BT

The plot thickens

It turns out that Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, is the same week that Penn's Muslim Student Association is planning their annual Islam Awareness Week (add google event).Talk about bad luck with scheduling.

There have been discussions about Rev. William C. Gipson, Penn's Chaplain organizing a forum or discussion during the week. I think that would be a great idea.

I also would like to find out which organizations at Penn are helping to organize David Horowitz's latest campaign. The College Republicans are the likely candidates. Also, I haven't heard anything on the Penn Israel Coalition listserve about it.

stay tuned...

~BT

Drumbeat for War Continues

Quietly, on 150 college campuses across the country, including Penn, conservative students are getting ready to organize what is being billed as "the biggest conservative campus protest ever", Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.

Organized and coordinated by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, this awareness week's goal is to "to confront the two Big Lies of the political left: that George Bush created the war on terror and that Global Warming is a greater danger to Americans than the terrorist threat." Yes, these people are serious!

Keith Olbermann named David Horowitz the worst person in the world on September 28th, for the ridiculous poster which is a photo with “a girl being buried before being stoned to death.” The image was actually from a film and the girl is ok, appearing in various shows since then. The poster has since been taken down from Horowitz's website.

Islamo-Facism week is scheduled for October 22-26 and rumor has it that Rick Santorum is the keynote at Penn. If you know any details about what is planned at Penn please email them to pennprogress [at] gmail.com.

More to come...

~BT

Update: Students at UC Berkeley are planning to resist Islamo-Fascism week. An idea for us Penn students.

Update 2: The plot thickens.

Update 3: Student government gets involved.