Amid controversy, Logan turns Cohen

The announcement that Logan Hall would be changing its name to Claudia Cohen Hall first appeared in The Daily Pennsylvanian on March 19.

Now almost four months later, the signs of the building have been changed to feature the name of the famous entertainment journalist, and they are attracting widespread media attention following a New York Times article on Sunday.

In 1995, Ron Perelman, a 1964 Wharton alumnus, University Trustee and Wharton School overseer, was offered the option to rename Logan Hall after donating $20 million toward the renovation of the Perelman Quadrangle, which includes Logan, College and Houston Halls. At the time, Perelman chose not to exercise his right.

Following the death of Cohen - his ex-wife, 1972 alumna of the College of Women and his "best friend" - from cancer in June 2007, Perelman decided that it would be fitting to rename the Hall in her honor.

"No one was more deserving than this alumna who was both an overseer of the University and the managing editor of the University's newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian," said Perelman.

In her time at Penn, the former overseer of the School of Arts and Sciences was one of the first female leaders of the paper and only the second female managing editor.

She went on to pursue a career in journalism and became the editor of "Page Six," a New York Post entertainment column, receiving credit for its success.

"We're very proud of her and of Mr. Perelman," said University spokesperson Ron Ozio. "They were both proud supporters of this University."

Since the Times article, media outlets all over the country - including NPR and "The Today Show" - are picking up the story. A "Page Six" column in The New York Post called it a "snarky story that questioned why the University of Pennsylvania renamed a building after the former 'Page Six' editor."

"If it were a unique circumstance I don't know that it would have caught my eye," said Philadelphia WPHT talk show host Michael Smerconish on his show on Tuesday morning. "But it seems there are more and more of these sort of controversies that take place."

Some professors have voiced dissatisfaction with the renaming, including Chemistry professor Ponzy Lu, who told the Times that "it strikes me as totally idiotic."

Student reactions, however, are not nearly as strong as the coverage might indicate.

"The media has latched onto this notion that this elite community thumbs its nose at having one of its buildings being named after a gossip columnist. That is simply not the case," said DP executive editor David Lei, who was interviewed for the Times article and is scheduled to be on NPR today to discuss the story.

Some students - most notably alumni - are not happy that the University is renaming the building, which has been Logan Hall since 1906. However, few seem to mind the new name in itself.

In fact, many students, like College sophomore Rico Moorer, don't know who Claudia Cohen is.

"Honestly, I don't care," he said of the name change. "I don't see anything wrong with it."

But the discussion is making many think about the practice of naming buildings after donors.

Though it is becoming more and more common, it's unusual to completely rename a building, history professor Richard Beeman told the DP in March. Instead, most buildings will take hyphenated names recognizing both the original and most recent donors, such as in the case of Steinberg-Dietrich Hall.

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