I’m surprised at the number of bumper stickers for the Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul stuck to lamp posts and electrical boxes around campus. Paul is a Texas congressman, and ran for president on the Libertarian ticket in 1988.

If Paul wants any success on Penn’s campus, he is going to have to be a little more creative, especially when the word ‘Republican’ turns off over half of the student body.

I now officially suggest that Ron Paul should prematurely announce a running mate to reach out to Penn’s campus. She should be none other than the pop-artist and drag queen RuPaul.

First off: Ron and Ru, White House ‘08! Vote Paul and Paul for a better America! Forget Barack the Vote, the creative possibilities here are endless.

Second, what better way for Ronny to soften that cold, heartless, libertarian image than to team up with someone a little more fabulous than him. I mean, she’s lookin’ good and feelin’ gorgeous!

Third, Ron Paul has a problem with the press. Ru Paul does not. He has been on MTV Video Music Awards, on cosmetic commercials, on New York City radio stations, and all the way up to number seven on the UK Singles Chart.

Fourthly, RuPaul once said, “You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee; I don’t care!” What better way to tell the government to keep its grubby little hands off us. We don’t want the feds taking care of us from cradle to grave. We just want to be. Like Regis and Kathie Lee…

It’s a match made in heaven. The only problem I see is that RuPaul is 6′7″; leading to the question, who is the bigger man?

Ron Paul.

Ru Paul.

Dear Danny

Meet Professor Newbie, on a tenure track and ready to teach. Two weeks later, the demands of research and teaching begin to take a toll. After a month, she’s gone. Her classes are taught by several substitutes with no coherent understanding of the material.

It may sound crazy in college, but it happens all the time in urban schools. New educators, fresh out of teacher training, take available jobs in urban areas. But the conditions and bureaucracy shuttle them to easier, higher-paying jobs in the suburbs.

For an organization like Teach for America (TFA), filling these empty spaces is a high priority. Dina Portnoy, Penn’s liaison between TFA and GSE, who I spoke with for my last blog, agreed that Philadelphia needs TFA.

“The school district has historically had quite a few vacancies,” she said. “It’s a real issue with the retention of new teachers. They don’t all stay.”

But critics of TFA say they just make the problem worse. TFA was not designed to draw people into the education profession. It gives people the opportunity to serve in a poor school, yes, but only before moving on to law school, Wall Street, or medicine. While some corps members do stay in education, the majority move on.

2006 College Alum and TFA Miami member, Stefanie Williams, can, once again, give a real world example. “I know I want to go back to school,” she said in an e-mail. But becoming a teacher isn’t part of her plan.

Portnoy doesn’t see this as a major problem. “The fact is, we’re living in a context in which nobody stays in the same job…we have to find ways to keep people engaged in teaching…and face up to reality.”

And the experiences of TFA may stick with corps members longer than their stay in the classroom.

“I think that we can play a role in helping TFA corps members develop a much deeper and richer understanding of the needs of urban education,” Portnoy elaborated. “Hopefully they will be people who will help to change this society.”

Just as the urban classroom needs teachers who understand the needs of the urban classroom, the legislatures, hospitals, and banks need politicians, doctors, and investors who understand the needs of the urban classroom.

One of TFA’s most laudable goals may be to fill vacancies in poor schools, but filling vacancies of understanding in the wider world is just as important.

Editor’s Note: this is the final installment of Dan Brickley’s Teach For America series.

Dear Danny appears every Monday and Wednesday.

Dear Danny

Dina Portnoy can easily rattle off her opinion about tension between Teach for America (TFA) and the traditional education establishment.

“The implicit tension is connected to the fact that TFA puts people in the classroom for two years. In schools of education, learning how to teach is a long term professional activity,” she says.

But Portnoy is in a unique position. Despite receiving formal teacher training at Penn and Temple, and spending 29 years as a teacher in Philadelphia, she now works as the director of Penn’s GSE/TFA Urban Teacher Masters’ and Certification Program.

When TFA began sending teachers to Philadelphia in 2003, it made a deal with Penn’s Graduate School of Education (GSE) to set up a two year teacher certification program designed specifically for TFA. Complicated? Yes. Controversial? Somewhat.

“There are other universities…who are also partnering with TFA, although what one might call the ‘top tier’ is not,” Portnoy explained. “The choice that GSE made was a difficult one.”

While TFA corps members receive limited training before heading into some of the country’s toughest classrooms, the support systems surrounding traditional teachers may not be there for them.

“The truth is that you [as a member of TFA] are not welcomed with open arms, not by kids or the school community,” Portnoy elaborated. “[The students] have been given up on over and over again. They’re not going welcome anybody until it’s been proven that these people are going to stick it out and work hard to teach them.”

The experiences of 2006 College Alum, Stefanie Williams, in her Miami classroom, once again vividly illustrate the point. “I invest a lot of time in my school’s community. It is a vital part of the experience,” she said in an e-mail interview. “If you go to the football games, or coach (I coach volleyball), your students really see that you are there for them, not the paycheck.”

While TFA may not be the pet child of the educational establishment, Penn’s choice to give support and training to TFA corps members is honorable. In a tough environment like the urban classroom, people promoting positive change need all the help they can get.

“[TFA] knows we don’t agree about everything,” Portnoy told me, “but there’s enough work to be done.”

Editor’s Note: This blog is party two in a series featuring Teach for America. Part one of the series can be found here.

Dear Danny appears every Monday and Wednesday.

Dear Danny

“Only 1 in 10 low income students will graduate from college. You can change this.”

So say the powerful signs planted in gardens across Penn’s campus. Teach for America (TFA) is recruiting corps members to lead the fight against poor education in many American communities. And their efforts are paying off. In this first round of applications, 47 Penn students applied.

Teach for America is pretty simple: get graduates of elite colleges and universities into under-funded urban and rural classrooms. While the corps members inspire and motivate their students, their subject knowledge will help them to teach, and their enthusiasm will propel their classroom forward.

It’s a great idea, with plenty of critics. While teachers from traditional backgrounds spend a year or more doing specific training, TFA graduates have one summer to prepare before entering the country’s most difficult classrooms. The diversity, the bureaucracy, and the attitudes may be too much for fresh, idealistic Ivy Leaguers to handle.

Even 2006 College alum Stefanie Williams told me in an e-mail interview that at first she felt like she had no idea what she was doing in her Miami classroom. But TFA “really supported me as a teacher, constantly having me reevaluate my methods in order to best help my students succeed.”

Nancy Lee Bergey is the coordinator for Penn’s undergraduate Urban Education minor, which can lead to teaching certification. “The first year of teaching,” she told me, “no matter what your background, is really hard…being fresh is important.”

And Matt Reamy, recruitment director for TFA Philadelphia, agreed. “Teaching is an art that you learn by doing,” he said. “We train more people to teach in low-income areas than anyone else. We’re very skill and tool-based, very practical. I think that is an important distinction.”

And when Reamy taught in north Philadelphia, he found the diversity of his fellow corps members to be an outstanding resource. “We are speaking with the leaders of the minority community [at Penn],” he said. “[Many] have become invested.”

Even so, he doesn’t push his applicants to take education courses while still at Penn. “Every time I see the TFA lawn signs,” said Nancy Lee, “I want to put one right behind it that says, ‘Take an education class while you’re still here!’”

Any TFA applicant should seriously consider the effect an education class or two would have on their students. TFA is unique and revolutionary - its effects shouldn’t be hindered by too harsh a learning curve.

Dear Danny appears every Monday and Wednesday.

Dear Danny

The extent of Penn’s help to students (Photo by Dan Brickley, of a poster in Harnwell College House)

The RIAA is at it again. They sent 403 “pre-litigation” letters to students who used university networks to download music illegally. The letters offer students the “opportunity” to settle before an official lawsuit is filed against them. The options are stark: thousands of dollars in “settlement” or protracted court battles, legal fees, and uncertain outcomes.

The students come from schools across the country. MIT has 30. UC-Santa Barbara, 13. The University of Wisconsin system has 62. And, unfortunately, our very own University of Pennsylvania will receive 31 letters to deliver to students.

But with so many prestigious schools being targeted, many industry observers wonder why Harvard University avoids conflict. From eight waves of these letters, Penn received 48 (at my count), while Harvard received only one, in 2005.

However, since Harvard Law professors stood up to the RIAA in the form of an op-ed in the Harvard Crimson, the RIAA conspicuously avoids this Ivy League institution. The op-ed didn’t condone illegal file sharing, but it did call on the RIAA to, essentially, pick on someone their own size. The authors, Charles Nesson and Wendy Selzer, also call out the RIAA, saying “it is easier to litigate against change than change with it.”

While some affected schools refuse to deliver the letters, none have spoken the progressive words that Harvard has. And none have received a respite from the RIAA.

Although I do not condone peer-to-peer file sharing of copyrighted material (did you hear that, RIAA?), I do call on Penn and others to follow Harvard’s lead. The RIAA’s (and, coincidentally, Congress’s) support of outdated copyright laws should not prevent Penn and other like-minded institutions from standing up for change.

Penn can always refuse to deliver the letters, but demanding change in the letter of the law would be more effective.

Dear Danny appears every Monday and Wednesday.

Dear Danny

I mean, they look cute enough.

Last week, Philadelphia Media Holdings (PMH), the company that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer, announced that it planned to cover Inquirer’s building with an ad and an inflatable bee for Jerry Seinfeld’s, Bee Movie. On Friday, PMH withdrew their proposal.

I couldn’t bee happier.

Now on first glance, this proposal, and all forms of outdoor advertising in the city, might not look too bad. The historical Philadelphia Inquirer building is up for sale, and who knows? Added revenue might help keep this building preserved. Brian Tierney, PMH’s CEO, called the proposal “fun” and told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he wanted to attract “national attention” towards Center City.

But in 1991, Philadelphia passed extensive outdoor advertising regulations. Large signs on buildings or near neighborhoods were banned. But advertisers can always go to the Philadelphia Zoning Board to ask for a “variance.” With variance after variance approved in recent years, the rule of law in Philadelphia isn’t looking too hot.

Mary Tracy, executive director of SCRUB (Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight), brought up another reason. “It adds to the vitality of the cityscape to see all these types of architecture. Then we put up wall wraps…it all starts to look the same,” she explained. “This city is very rich in architectural assets. That character of our city is so beautiful when you just stop and look up.”

And then the whole issue of redevelopment crops up. Take, for example, Mr. Real Estate and his vacant building on the outskirts of Northern Liberties. The area is starting to come back to life; it might be time to go from vacant to vibrant. But then Mr. Real Estate gets an offer from Mr. Marketing. The vacant building is draped in advertisements, and Mr. Marketing pays $30,000 a month. Suddenly, redevelopment looks like too much effort for Mr. Real Estate. A vacant building continues to go unoccupied.

And Mr. Marketing doesn’t sell building wraps in Mt. Airy or other ritzy areas of the city. They’re sold in the poor neighborhoods and their presence just perpetuates the neighborhood’s poor image.

The reasons are endless, but Mary Tracy and her group are staying vigilant. “The outdoor advertising industry is so anxious to get a foothold, a toehold in our city. [They say] we’ll go after SEPTA or the Inquirer, they’re not doing as well…but it’s the law.”

This whole Bee Movie fiasco should serve as a warning to future attempts at outdoor advertising: buzz off!

Dear Danny appears ever Monday and Wednesday.

Dear Danny

Mm mm good.

I’m not the only one who saw it. People swarmed to it. The palpable air of intrigue hung around it, accentuated by gasps of excitement. Some students were unsure at first, but they quickly figured out how it worked.

The farmers’ market is here.

Every Wednesday from now on, Penn Diningwill sponsor afarmers’ market in between Harnwell College House and 1920 Commons on Locust Walk from 3 to 7 p.m. Now, all the students who live in the high rises can walk right past fresh, local food on their way back from classes. If any one else is like me, they took a second look at some freshly baked pies, stopped to buy some delicious red bell peppers, or put off that trip to Fresh Grocer.

Everyone has heard about the benefits of eating local. The shorter the distance between farm and market, the less (carbon based) energy expended to move the food. Supporting nearby agriculture means supporting the local economy. And smaller, locally focused farms use far fewer pesticides and wreak less havoc on the natural environment than the factory farms Fresh Grocer buys most of their produce from.

“Penn Dining and Aramark have been interested in bringing some form of
produce market into the core of campus for quite some time,” said Barbara Lea-Kruger, Director of Communications and Project Management at Penn Dining in an e-mail interview. “We worked with an organization called Farm to City to extend the operating hours of the farmers market that was already located at 36th and Walnut [streets] and have the farmers move onto the Locust Walk location at mid-afternoon.

But here’s the kicker - students can buy the goods with dining dollars.

Penn Dining deserves major props for this decision. Not only did they bring this local food to campus, but they made it very accessible to their customers. Hopefully this commitment to sustainability and fresh produce continues to find its way into the dining halls as well.

As long as this farmers market keeps going strong, I just might be able to forgive Penn Dining for putting salt instead of sugar in their apple pie last week.

Dear Danny appears every Monday and Wednesday.

Dear Danny

And you thought I was exaggerating (Photo by Dan Brickley)

Six days since the start of school, and my walls are still pretty bare. A Panic! At the Disco poster hangs on one; another remains completely empty. My sheets don’t match my roommate’s and we never really got around to buying a bigger rug.

Dorm decor emergency!

When I read this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer (now archived, you’ll have to read it here), I couldn’t help but laugh. Communicating, months before college even begins, to compare color swatches and room themes seems a little ridiculous to me.

I can imagine the conversation going somewhere along these lines.

“Ohmigawd, Becca, we are going to have, like, the sweetest dorm on campus!”

“Ohmigawd, Suzie, I, like, totally agree!! Should we go with Moroccan Desert Island or Bohemian Paris of the 19th Century?”

“Ohmigawd, Becca, you are, like, a total genius. Let’s do both!!!”

“Ohmigawd, Suzie, you are the genius. Let’s go buy shoes!!!!”

…

Or you could decorate the way my roommate and I did.

“I have these posters from last year.”

“Oh.”

“Do you want one on your side of the room?”

“Sure.”

“Which one do you like?”

“I really don’t care.”

“Ok, take this one. Let’s go play Ultimate.”

Now, our dorm may not look as homey as Becca’s and Suzie’s, but we didn’t waste cell phone minutes talking about it, and we didn’t spend money buying potted plants that could conceivably be found on a Moroccan Desert Island. And that has made all the difference.

Dear Danny appears every Monday and Wednesday.

Dear Danny

I mean, she does appear to be sweating (Media Credit: Creative Commons).

When going to the gym, everyone expects to see some hot and sweaty people. Especially when that gym is known as “Hottruck”.

But not many gym-goers expect those hot and sweaty people to be having sex.

Head to Pottruck at noon today, and you’ll be treated to a full show. Run on the treadmills, pump some iron, and glance up at the TV, as I did last week, and you may see a woman, to put it lightly, performing fellatio. Or if you’re lucky, you’ll catch the scene involving tongues and stilettos.

Kinky.

As fun as all that can be, I was at the gym to work out, not watch 9 Songs, the most sexually explicit, movie ever to be shown in mainstream British cinema. Although the movie wasn’t rated in the US, it initially received an X rating in Australia. And it’s not porn; it’s “art”.

And this is shown on the TVs in Pottruck. Pottruck receives its programming from standard Penn cable, and channel 11, the Penn Video Network (PVN), shows a selection of new releases. 9 Songs will play for the first half of September.

Associate Director of Facilities at Pottruck Bryan Haunert knew of the explicit content on Pottruck’s TVs. “Our supervisor received a complaint and took care of it last night,” he told me. “We’ll do what we need to do keep [9 Songs] off.”

Mayumi Hirtzel, an employee with Penn Video Network, said, “We can’t really preview what we show. If a student or anyone else happens to take offense, they’re more than welcome to talk to us. We haven’t gotten any complaints about 9 Songs. Maybe people aren’t watching.”

But people are watching - at the gym, no less. “Pottruck isn’t exactly public,” Mayumi told me. “It’s generally our stance, that, even with incoming freshman or first year students, we like to treat our residents as adults.”

But with movies such as 9 Songs that push the envelope, PVN really needs to be more careful. Penn students may be adults, but does any adult really want to watch actual sex while working out? PVN needs to take into account its various audiences, whether they are alone in a dorm room or doing pushups with friends.

On the other hand, maybe 9 Songs is appropriate for the gym. The lead actor’s six-pack could certainly motivate me to do a few extra crunches.

Dear Danny appears every Monday and Wednesday

Dear Danny

Take pity on me

The last week of summer finally caught up to me. My return to the hallowed ground of the Red and the Blue approached quickly, and I quit my summer job to enjoy one last week of sanity. I just wanted to pack and relax…

…until I got an e-mail from a professor of mine. Warm and friendly, the e-mail attempted to excite us for another semester of learning. The standard welcome reminded us to bring our books to class, download the syllabus, write an essay, be punct…hold on, what?!?! Write an essay? I’m not even on campus yet!

Granted, the essay isn’t hard, and it won’t make or break my grade in the class, but there must be something wrong with assigning essays before class begins. Being prepared for class is commendable, and professors (or TAs) who post syllabi on Blackboard early do a great service to students who would like to schedule out their semesters. Even buying books before classes start can allow students to hit the ground running (and get the best prices).

But summer is a break from classes, and until September 5, I’d really rather not think about schoolwork, readings, and quizzes. This semester promises to be hard enough, and squeezing every ounce of mental relaxation from summer could save me from mental breakdown later on.

Plus, I don’t have time to write an essay; I have to steal dessert from the Freshman Welcome Convocation.

Dear Danny appears every Monday and Wednesday