Ross Bender wrote:
I was just reading an article in the New York Review of Books titled
"The Women and the Gods", a review of "Portrait of a Priestess: Women
and Ritual in Ancient Greece" when an ad for books on "Urban Studies
from Penn Press" caught my eye. First item on the list was a book by our
own Judy Rodin titled "The University and Urban Revival: Out of the
Ivory Tower and Into the Streets." I hurried to Amazon.com
<http://Amazon.com> and found this "synopsis":
"In the last quarter of the twentieth century, urban colleges and
universities found themselves enveloped by the poverty, crime, and
physical decline that afflicted American cities. Some institutions
turned inward, trying to insulate themselves rather than address the
problems in their own backyards. Others attempted to develop better
community relations, though changes were hard to sustain. Spurred by an
unprecedented crime wave in 1996, University of Pennsylvania President
Judith Rodin knew that the time for urgent action had arrived, and she
set a new course of proactive community engagement for her university.
Her dedication to the revitalization of West Philadelphia was guided by
her role not only as president but also as a woman and a mother with a
deep affection for her hometown. The goal was to build capacity back
into a severely distressed inner-city neighborhood - educational
capacity, retail capacity, quality-of-life capacity, and especially
economic capacity - guided by the belief that "town and gown" could
unite as one richly diverse community. Cities rely on their academic
institutions as stable places of employment, cultural centers, civic
partners, and concentrated populations of consumers for local business
and services. And a competitive university demands a vibrant
neighborhood to meet the needs of its faculty, staff, and students. In
keeping with their mission, urban universities are uniquely positioned
to lead their communities in revitalization efforts, yet this effort
requires resolute persistence. During Rodin's administration
(1994-2004), the Chronicle of Higher Education referred to Penn's
progress as a "national model of constructive town-gown interaction and
partnership." This book narrates the challenges, frustrations, and
successes of Penn's campaign, and its prospects for long-term change."
Apart from the fact that Judy blatantly ripped off the slogan "Out of
the closet and into the streets", I was shocked and appalled that the
myth of Judy as the savior of West Philly has now been packaged in a 224
page, cloth-bound book, only $34.95.
Anybody want to go in with me to buy the book so we can have a public
burning at the Turtle in Clark Park? If ten of us chip in, that'll only
be about 3 and a half bucks apiece. If twenty of us chip in, even less.
So now Judy is enshrined as a goddess, who rode the winged horse "Market
Forces" into our nasty ghetto hood and and "built capacity back into a
severely distressed inner-city neighborhood". Makes me wanna hurl chunks.
some articles have just appeared that relate to all this:
http://gothamist.com/2007/08/01/columbia_may_ta.php
> Columbia May Take Some Expansion Cues From Penn
http://www.observer.com/2007/can-t-we-all-just-get-along?page=0%2C1
> Can't We All Just Get Along?
>
> Judith Rodin transformed the relationship between the
> University of Pennsylvania and its Philadelphia
> neighborhood. What can she teach Lee Bollinger about
> Columbia and Harlem?
..................
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN
[aka laserbeam®]
[aka ray]
SERIAL LIAR. CALL FOR RATES.
"It is very clear on this listserve who
these people are. Ray has admitted being
connected to this forger." -- Tony West
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