Letters to the Editor

Beyond Jesus Week To the Editor:

There was reference in Thursday's Daily Pennsylvanian to "the nine Christian groups on campus..." collaborating on a coffeehouse event ("Coffee and prayer highlight Jesus Week," DP, 3/28/02). There is an inference that all Christians and Christian groups ("the nine") at Penn are part of Jesus Week.

Not so. There are at least seven campus-related churches and Christian groups with active student participation that have no relation to Jesus Week, including the Christian Association.

While we hope all of the messages of this year's Jesus Week are and have been positive, we know that this has not always been the case. Contrary to past Jesus Week words and actions that have caused a number of students, Christian and non-Christian alike, to indicate to us their distress, we hold that Christianity is a faith of openness seeking social justice for the oppressed, marginalized and outcast, and celebrating diversity, including different faith understandings.

We hope that, by our presence, students ashamed of exclusive or pithy expressions of Christianity can reclaim their faith as humane and meaningful, both personally and in community with others.

Rev. Douglas Fauth Associate Director, Christian Association

Rev. Beverly Dale Executive Director, Christian Association

Not the whole story To the Editor:

In response to the article about prescription drug use and abuse at Penn ("Study: Prescription drug use a problem at Penn," DP, 3/28/02), I would like to provide some clarifications.

It is important to note that the Office of Health Education conducts an annual anonymous, Web-based survey of Penn undergraduate students to collect data on alcohol and other drug behaviors, including a variety of prescription drugs. A professional evaluator develops and administers the survey, ensuring internal and external validity, and analyzes the data. The respondent pool is very large and demographically representative of the entire undergraduate population on almost every measure (gender, academic class, living arrangement, Greek membership, athletic membership, ethnicity, etc.).

The results are statistically significant at p

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