Letters to the Editor

Penn is bad for West Philly

To the Editor:

Michelle Dubert's column on Penn's role in West Philadelphia and its corollary vis-a-vis the United States' role in the world ("Forging ahead despite the naysayers," The Daily Pennsylvanian, 9/16/04) is an excellent example of the ethnocentric paternalism and pervasive racism that has characterized Penn's relationship with its surrounding neighborhood for the past half century.

Ms. Dubert points to the "resuscitation" of 40th Street, the economic boom created by Penn students living off campus and the funding the University has given to create and support schools in West Philadelphia as ample evidence of Penn's good intentions. These assertions are at best woefully naive, and at worst downright spurious.

The shopping strip along 40th Street was made to cater to the pocketbooks of Penn students, not to those of West Philadelphia's less fortunate. Off-campus living sure has been a boon to the likes of my landlord, University City Housing Co. (based in Bryn Mawr, Pa., not on Osage Avenue, last time I checked), but it has also made rents unaffordable even for Penn's exploited graduate employee corps -- not to mention poorer West Philadelphians who will call this neighborhood home for more than the next four years. University City High School began as a Penn-funded project -- but when the University tried to reserve it primarily for the children of professors and administrators, West Philadelphia fought back, and Penn withdrew all funding.

Alfred Toynbee also once said, "America ... now stands for what Rome stood for. Rome consistently supported the rich against the poor in all foreign communities that fell under her sway; and, since the poor, so far, have alwaysand everywhere been far more numerous than the rich, Rome's policy made for inequality, for injustice and for the least happiness of the greatest number."

On second thought, by relating Penn's actions in West Philadelphia to those of the United States' actions abroad, perhaps Ms. Dubert is on to something after all.

Max Fraser

College '06 Disputing coverage of ZBT

To the Editor:

On Friday, Sept. 10, this newspaper published an article ("Suspicion over ZBT activities circulates," DP, 9/10/04) that should have never made it past the editor's desk, much less the fold on the very first page.

For starters, some of the information printed is blatantly false. One sentence reads, "Currently, many members of Penn's former ZBT chapter are living at 4036 Spruce St." There are absolutely no individuals leasing the aforementioned residence who were ever members of ZBT. It damages the DP's reputation as an independent newspaper to publicize the addresses of students who may have fallen out of favor with certain University officials. This lapse in judgment raises questions about whether this publication has a specific agenda in mind when it chooses what to report.

In fact, this article reports surprisingly little new information. The only evidence provided of circulating suspicion that former ZBT members may go underground is that some of them still list ZBT under "House in an online directory." These individuals did not list the name of a new organization, mind you (something like Theos or Owls, for example), but the old one, ZBT. That some former members may have forgotten to update their thefacebook.com profiles since the chapter shut down is hardly newsworthy.

While the DP should certainly report significant developments within the fraternity (or pseudo-fraternity) scene, this article hardly qualifies. Both this paper's legacy as a legitimate news organization and its readership deserve better.

Eli Kaplan

College '06

The writer is a member of ZBT who successfully appealed his expulsion.

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