Cmte. blasts admin. response on pluralism

University Council's Pluralism Committee criticized Rodin for failing to address Asian-American issues. University Council's Committee on Pluralism criticized the Penn administration on Monday for a lack of response to the committee's April report on the issue of Asian American representation at the University. The report called for the University to hire five more Asian-American faculty members over the next five years. Another report, released on November 3 by the Asian Pacific American Student Affairs Committee -- known as APASAC -- called for two more hires. University President Judith Rodin responded to the APASAC report when it was released, but she has not yet replied to the Pluralism Committee's report. "In effect, our report wasn't mentioned in the Rodin response," Pluralism Committee Chairperson Eric Cheyfitz said. "It was simply a response to the [APASAC] report." During the meeting, Cheyfitz, a professor in Penn's English Department, invited several outsiders to give their perspective. The invitees included College senior Seung Lee, a member of APASAC and the chairperson of the Asian Pacific Student Coalition; English Professor Mark Chiang and South Asia Regional Studies Professor Rosane Rocher, both of whom are affiliated with the Asian-American Studies Program and members of APASAC; and College senior Andrea Cherng, a member of the undergraduate advisory board to the Asian-American Studies Program. Chiang said at the meeting that he agreed that Rodin should have responded to the Pluralism Committee's report. "The two reports could have been published together, but the APASAC report was held up," Chiang said. "The reports should have been dealt with together." But Jennifer Baldino, director of external affairs in the president's office, explained that "it is not the policy or practice of University Council to ask the president to respond individually to the reports of its committee." APASAC's report called for increased numbers of Asian-American faculty, as well as the hiring of a full-time staffer for the Greenfield Intercultural Center and a Counseling and Psychological Services counselor familiar with Asian-American issues. In her response, Rodin pointed out that the latter two positions had been filled. Everyone present said they were unimpressed with Rodin's response to the APASAC report. "The crux of Rodin's response was based on two hires that were promised to students before the APASAC report or the Pluralism Committee report," Lee said. Another concern of the Pluralism Committee was the low number of Asian-American faculty at Penn. "There is a discrepancy between numbers and student perception," Chiang said. "The University says that there are Asian Americans here, but when students are looking for mentors, they're having a difficult time finding people to help them." More than half of the Asian-American faculty teach in the Medical School and other graduate schools, meaning they have little, if any, contact with undergraduates, according to the APASAC report. "Its really easy to use words to gloss over the needs of students," Cherng said. "Even though the numbers might be there, I want to know where these people are and how to get to them." Committee members were also concerned that the Asian-American Studies Program wasn't fully staffed since the program only has two professors, Chiang and Rocher, both of whom are junior faculty members. "No program can be securely anchored without a senior, tenured, experienced professor," Rocher said. The committee resolved to send a letter to Interim Provost Michael Wachter asking him to meet with the Pluralism Committee, Rodin and possibly members of APASAC. They said they would ask if University administrators had any concrete solutions to the questions that the committee has already raised.

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