Letters to the Editor

In the name of chutzpah

To the Editor:

It takes more than a dollop of chutzpah for an undergrad to offer an incoming president advice ("Advice for the new president's first few days," The Daily Pennsylvanian, 02/04/04) as Steve Brauntuch did.

And yet when I read it, I concluded that Mr. Brauntuch knows what he's talking about.

He swiftly got down to immediate issues specific to the University and to the West Philadelphia community. He presented his views from an impressive knowledge base that spanned the basic needs of both the administration and the student body in order to continue the productive legacy of Dr. Judith Rodin.

And when he closed with, "If you need anything, I'm here to help," I no longer felt that it was chutzpah. Indeed, Dr. Gutmann would do well to appoint Mr. Brauntuch to her advisory committee.

Charles DeMirjian

Senior Associate, CGS

A new priority

To the Editor:

I am hopeful that the incoming president of the University will address the issues of the University of Pennsylvania Police Department. Those issues include racial profiling, police brutality and a lack of cultural sensitivity training. Dr Gutmann appears to have made significant strides to promote diversity during her tenure at Princeton. We are desperately in need of an overhall in that area here at Penn. Black males especially have been accosted, insulted and assaulted by the UPPD, and it is time for new leadership to ameliorate these egregious conditions and lead Penn to the greatness it rightfully deserves.

Eber Devine

SAS

Protecting free speech

To the Editor:

President Judith Rodin, in a welcome back message in the University of Pennsylvania Almanac on Jan. 17, 1995, wrote the following about the importance of freedom of speech on campus: "Tolerating the intolerable idea is the price of the freedom of expression without which we cannot survive as an academic institution. Universities are places in our society where freedom of expression serves the search for truth and justice. By mission and by tradition, universities are open forums in which competing beliefs, philosophies and values contend. The University administration's job is to support ... dialogue and debate, not to cut it off; to create an environment in which we can educate each other, not one in which doctrine or orthodoxy are legislated from on high."

Apparently, other members of the University of Pennsylvania who seek to dismiss professor Francisco Gil-White because of his political views do not share President Rodin's concern for free speech.

What is happening to Dr. Gil-White is probably just the tip of the iceberg. We'll never know how many applicants with superior credentials to those faculty currently employed by the University were turned down because of their political views. The only reason we know about Dr. Gil-White is because he was hired when he had political views of which the University approved.

Free speech on campuses throughout the United States is under attack, as has been documented on Web sites such as www.speechcodes.org and www.campus-watch.org. Academic institutions are becoming propaganda institutions instead of educational ones. We must not let this happen at Penn.

Gamaliel Isaac

Biomedical '92

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