What philanthropist and chemical company magnate Jon M. Huntsman intended as a private party to christen the Wharton building that bears his name has become a lightning rod for student activists opposed to a possible war with Iraq, because of a party guest list headlined by Vice President Cheney.

A cadre of student activists at Penn are hoping a few cardboard-cutout skulls and three well-placed tents can prod their peers to protest when Cheney visits campus tomorrow.

The activists set up the small tent city on the University of Pennsylvania's College Green yesterday, along with signs declaring "War = Terrorism" and "Iraqi children are beautiful."

Huntsman, a Wharton graduate who has given $50 million to Penn and $250 million to start a cancer institute at the University of Utah, founded a Utah-based container and chemical company that has annual sales of $8 billion.

He invited Cheney, a personal friend, to a private celebration of the new, $140-million Huntsman Hall, Wharton's imposing stone and brick building that houses 48 classrooms and 57 group study rooms at the corner of 38th and Walnut Streets.

The Penn activists are also miffed that Cheney was invited to the business school.

"Wharton is making great progress promoting socially responsible business practices in its curriculum, and I'm appalled that they would open this great building by inviting Cheney," said Penn student Melissa Byrne.

The students handed out flyers that summarize Cheney's links to Enron and that argue that tax cuts initiated by the Bush administration benefitted corporate executives even as corporate scandals at Enron and other companies helped fuel an economic downturn that led to job cuts and the loss of 401(k) retirement savings for many Americans. "The Bush-Cheney administration has violated economic human rights considerably," one flyer concludes.

This new generation of student activists is clean-cut, polite and well-spoken. "This protest is to build a movement as much as it is for Cheney to see," said organizer Lincoln Ellis, who briefly left the mini-encampment to attend class.

Some students are veterans of the anti-sweatshop movement that swept campuses in early 2000, but they are also starting to attract the previously noninvolved.

"This campus is generally apathetic," said senior Dan Fishback, who was finally driven to activism after hearing New York University media professor Mark Crispin Miller's critical look at media coverage of the Sept. 11 anniversary during a recent Penn lecture. "We're not trying to win people over. The tent city is here to energize an anti-war opinion that's already there."

Senior Jesse Tendler said he used to limit his involvement to community service. "I've come to realize that while service is important, activism gets things done," he said. "So many students are against the war, but they don't know what to do about it. We've been conditioned to be apathetic."

The Penn students have been reaching out to like-minded peers on other area campuses, and hope to lure a large crowd to campus tomorrow at 8 a.m. for Cheney's visit.

Wharton has also scheduled public events through the weekend to note the building's opening.