Amy Gutmann: Picking up the pieces

When I began contemplating this column a couple of weeks ago, I had planned to reflect on my first year at Penn and to present my aspirations for the new academic year.

Then Hurricane Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast, leaving a trail of devastation and misery almost beyond our comprehension. Saddened by the shocking images of suffering and mayhem that daily grew more alarming, I turned my immediate attention toward how we could help our sister campuses to recover and survivors of this catastrophe to rebuild their shattered lives.

Last week, I announced that Penn would enroll in our fall semester classes 100 Philadelphia students who were attending colleges and universities in hurricane-stricken areas. We also arranged for Penn faculty and staff who contribute their time to hurricane relief efforts to receive up to three weeks of paid time off.

Based on the response of so many Penn students to last December's tsunami in Asia, I knew that our student community would waste no time coming through magnificently for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. And true to form, our students already have begun raising funds, planning their own relief efforts and making sure our guests feel most welcome on our Penn campus. (We have set up a web site at www.upenn.edu/pennnews/hurricane.php, which offers direct links to relief organizations and initiatives to which students can contribute their time.)

Creating a national network of trauma units and sanctuaries for the refugees of Katrina has put our individual and institutional character to the test. Our faculty, students, staff, and alumni have risen to that test, and I could not be more proud. I also want to thank Penn's senior administrators for coming together as a team and springing right into action.

Meanwhile, Katrina's horrifying aftermath raises profoundly disturbing challenges and questions that our society clearly has yet to confront fully, including poverty, race, inequality, public health crises, inadequate emergency preparedness and antiquated urban infrastructures.

Therefore, it is up to us, as members of a great university, to seize this most teachable of moments to examine these questions in greater depth. Let us lead a discussion that not only will raise greater public awareness about these issues, but that also challenges society to meet its obligations to promote life, liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness for all its citizens.

I look forward to presenting my priorities for Penn in an upcoming issue of the Daily Pennsylvanian. But for now, I think it is best that we direct as much attention as possible toward aiding the victims of America's worst natural disaster in living memory.

Amy Gutmann is the president of the University of Pennsylvania.

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