1994: The Year in Review: january

Students were given an extra winter break in January as the University was closed for an unprecedented three days because of snow, ice and power outages. Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey declared a state of emergency and asked businesses to close early. Many businesses and government offices, including the University, remained closed for two days in a row. In a related story, College sophomore Paulina Alberto said she received more than 100 calls from students trying to call 898-MELT, the University's emergency information line, to find out if the University was closed. Students confused Alberto's number, 573-MELT, with the University emergency line. Students could again satisfy their late-night hunger and thirst as WaWa Food Market reopened at 38th and Spruce streets. Pizza Hut Express opened inside of the WaWa. The Book Store found itself in competition with Penn Text, a new student-run sidewalk bookstore that sold textbooks out of a lone yellow Ryder Truck in front of the store on 38th Street. Penn Text claimed they saved students five to 12 dollars on brand new textbooks. Within a few days of its opening, the University threatened Penn Text with a lawsuit if it did not change take the word "Penn" out of its name. College and Wharton senior Doug Levy later changed the name of the store to "Campus Text" in order to avoid litigation. "Students are sick of being abused by The Book Store," Levy said. "[The Book Store] has a compete monopoly on text sales on this campus, so they charge whatever they want." The University Board of Trustees unanimously voted to eliminate the American Civilization and Regional Science Department and officially removed restrictions on investment in South Africa. The decision to remove the departments was proposed by School of Arts and Sciences Dean Rosemary Stevens and the Trustees Academic Policy Committee. The proposal was met with staunch opposition from faculty members in the departments to be cut. The number of regular decision applications reached an all-time high of 13,700. According to Admissions Dean Lee Stetson this year's total surpassed last year's total by approximately 10.5 percent. Billionaire philanthropist and University graduate Walter Annenberg donated a $500 million gift to help reform and improve public schooling and education in America. In other financial matters, the University spent $24,000 for the Penn Student Summit on Race Relations held at the Sugarloaf Executive Center. The summit was held to discuss race relations on campus.

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