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Although Vice President Dick Cheney will no doubt be welcomed warmly by University officials when he visits campus next Friday, several student and local groups plan to give him a cooler reception.

Cheney will come to campus on the morning of Oct. 25 to help dedicate the new Wharton building, Huntsman Hall. The vice president, a close friend of Jon Huntsman's, will deliver a tribute to the Wharton alumnus, who contributed $40 million for the new building.

Campus and neighborhood groups say they plan to protest President Bush's proposed war in Iraq by holding a demonstration to coincide with Cheney's visit.

"We all pretty much agree that we don't think the United States should go to war right now," said College senior Lincoln Ellis, who is on the coordinating committee of Penn for Peace, one of the groups organizing the protest.

The other campus groups involved in the demonstration are the College Democrats, PennACLU, Muslim Students Association and Empty the Shelters, an advocacy group for the homeless.

Wharton spokeswoman Meghan Laska said she was aware that "there might be protests" but declined to comment further.

Cheney will speak next Friday morning in Huntsman Hall to Jon Huntsman, his family and friends and a select group of Penn administrators. Students will not be admitted to the event.

The demonstrators plan to meet at 8:15 a.m. on College Green and march down Locust Walk to Huntsman Hall. Several speakers will address the crowd, but they have not yet been selected.

Ellis would not give an estimate for the turnout but said he expected a lot of people to show up because of "the urgency of the situation."

He also said the protesters hope to use next Friday's demonstrations to get more people involved in anti-war activities on campus.

"The ideal result is that Cheney reconsider his pre-election war cries and also that people who have felt that they're alone in their opposition to a march to war feel emboldened to speak out," Ellis said.

College Republicans President David Copley, a Wharton sophomore, said that though he respects the protesters' free speech rights, they do not speak for the majority of Penn students.

"I just think their views are a little bit extreme, particularly Penn for Peace," Copley said. "Luckily, I don't think the vice president is going to pay one bit of attention to it."

Copley also said he and several other College Republicans plan to stand outside of Huntsman Hall as Cheney arrives, along with the protesters, to "show him that some Penn students do support him."

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