Staff Editorial: Where's the apathy?

There's an old stereotype still floating around this campus that Penn students, put simply, are apathetic.

The proponents of this flawed idea point to our university's decidedly pre-professional orientation. They note the lack of regular on-campus political protests; the tendency of undergraduates to abstain from president's office sit-ins; and the generally cordial relationship that the student body shares with both professors and administrators.

It's an unfortunate mischaracterization, and one that seems to follow the wearers of the red and the blue around wherever they go.

But over the past week, as both students and staff alike began adjusting to a very new world -- a world in which the threat of terrorism has assumed a frighteningly new reality -- Penn students once and for all disproved all those who would cast us aside in favor of our (perhaps more visible) contemporaries.

The movement started, for example, when students turned out in droves for the many vigils, memorials and support sessions that immediately followed last Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

It continued into the weekend, as well. On Thursday night, the Sigma Delta Tau and Alpha Chi Omega sororities raised $5,000 for relief efforts during their joint fundraising event; that accomplishment was followed up by a $1,600 effort by the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity on Sunday.

These efforts -- as well as those ongoing through Change for Change, an umbrella group funneling money from the University community to the American Red Cross -- differentiate students here at Penn from the "apathetic" types that many associate with our university.

Clearly, the Penn community has responded with overwhelming support and compassion to the tragedies which have befallen our nation. And students -- as well as faculty and administrators, who have provided much of the support for these endeavors -- deserve congratulations for a job well done.

The fight, however, is far from over. The tense political climate may escalate in the coming days, plunging our nation into even greater chaos at any time. And the needs of this week's victims will be far from satisfied when the rubble of the World Trade Center and Pentagon is finally cleared.

That, though, is the challenge that awaits. It is a challenge -- to reach out to our neighbors in need, and to support one another both here in our own community -- that we are confident Penn students will once again conquer.

After all, whoever said that Penn students were apathetic?

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