Staff Editorial: Cheers and Jeers from fall 2003

CHEERS

To the University, for finally committing the funds necessary to repair and upgrade Bennett Hall and the Music Building. While some will say that this money is long overdue, the bottom line is that these renovations will finally be made.

To the University, for not bowing to pressure from the Recording Industry Association of America to cut off students' access to file-sharing programs.

To the University, for the purchase of the postal lands and for the eventual expansion of facilities and dormitories that it entails. Hopefully, this will help to alleviate the regular crunch for space in housing and academic departments.

To Wharton, for completing its seven-year fundraising plan and totalling $445 million in donations. This effort sets a good example for Penn's other schools to follow.

To every Penn student who managed to find the time -- in the midst of midterms -- to vote, either here in Philadelphia or by absentee ballot. While our generation still has a ways to go, your vote is a step in the right direction.

To the football and volleyball teams, for their dominant performances throughout the season culminating in the Ivy League championship.

To the Undergraduate Assembly, Student Committee for Undergraduate Education and Student Activities Council, for the role they played in bringing back the Penn Course Review.

JEERS

To the University, for forcing food trucks to close at 6 p.m. in a futile attempt to impose the Penn meal plan on students. Not only will it not entice students into the arms of Penn Dining, it will significantly hurt the business of many vendors.

To the University, for its continuing inability to resolve the goal post situation, despite the formation of a task force to do just that. The fact that students cannot engage in this celebratory tradition remains an embarassment.

To the University, for failing to find a long-term replacement for top fundraising official Virginia Clark -- who left over a year ago -- and passing that responsibility on to the next administration. To the Athletic Department, for refusing to accept responsibility for their gender discrimination in the 1997 hiring of a new women's crew coach. Their continued appeals in the case should have been dropped long before this past August.

To Facilities, who still have a ways to go. Flooding, mice, roaches, room damage and other unpleasantness continue to befall the residents of Penn's college houses.

To the Council of Ivy Group Presidents, for continuing to ban the Ivy League football champions from competing in the divisional playoffs.

To the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, for their decidedly light punishment of the fraternities and sororities that violated their rules. If the repercussions are going to be this light, what's the point of having rules in the first place?

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