Looking out for Penn's image

"Okay, so I am going to send one AP score report to Penn State, University Park Campus," the official from the College Board said last week.

"No. Philadelphia. I go to the University of Pennsylvania. It's in Philadelphia."

There was an awkward pause on the other end of the phone.

"Oh, right! Penn! I got confused for a second," said the man, whose job revolves around entering college codes into a computer.

Suddenly, I realized why Penn never received my AP scores last year. The College Board sent them to Penn State.

We've all had the experience of being confused with our state-funded peers to the west.

Whether it's your neighbors, your friends or your parents, there are some people you meet who just don't know that you go to the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school in Philadelphia.

Fortunately, the tide is turning. A decade of productive leadership, hefty alumni funding and the slow recovery of Philadelphia has thrown us a bone.

A big bone.

Last week, a stunned Admissions Office revealed that early decision applications had skyrocketed by 21 percent.

Admissions Dean Lee Stetson suggested that this increase is due to the improvement of Penn's national reputation.

Still, Penn's improving image is subject to hiccups. Just as we have become a hot school in the past few years, things can also fall apart just as quickly.

Every random story that makes it to a blog or The Daily Pennsylvanian can spread across the Internet like wildfire and hurt Penn's image.

Last week, for example, the news networks were on campus talking about the "sex scandal" that had rocked our "prestigious, Ivy League campus."

At least they didn't confuse us with Penn State this time.

Despite the pretty television shots of Locust Walk and the Tampons, the national media attention on the high rise photo investigation scandal was bad.

When NBC sends a camera truck to cover naked Penn butts in the high-rises, it's bad.

When the Philadelphia Daily News features a blow-up picture of naked Penn butts on their front page, it's bad.

When my friends from other colleges send me half-a-dozen instant messages about the photos, saying they didn't realize that Penn State was in Philadelphia, it's bad.

As the "water buffalo" incident showed 12 years ago, not all press is good press.

The Office of Student Conduct should not have tried to charge someone with sexual harassment when -- at most -- their offense was violating university computing policies.

The only reason the University's disciplinary office backed-off was because of the massive wave of bad publicity that the affair was bringing upon the university.

The OSC's overzealous desire to put a sexual harassment complaint on someone's record is disturbing.

However, the OSC should also consider how its actions have harmed Penn's reputation. It is Penn's image that will continue to bring funding and smart applicants to the University.

Every department should be trying to enhance our reputation and attract bright students.

In its own way, the Admissions Office is also not helping in keeping those students coming.

A particular question on this year's Class of 2010 application has aroused frustration among high school seniors across the nation: "Name a Penn professor with whom you would like to study or conduct research and explain why."

Applicants are asked to answer in no more than four lines.

At best, the question asks applicants to prematurely decide what they want to major in. At worst, the question demands that they find a random professor on the Penn Web site and lie on their application.

Given the competitiveness of the college process, I'm guessing that many applicants this year will be lying on their application.

A New Jersey high school senior I met on a tour a few Sundays ago said that the question made him feel "uncomfortable" with Penn because it put him in a "Catch-22."

Students will either lie and get in or write a bad response.

The question leads applicants to believe a Penn education demands that students answer bizarre questions and make ethically questionable decisions.

At this crucial juncture in Penn's development, it's important that every administrative department think about how its decisions affect the reputation of the University.

The fewer embarrassments Penn suffers, the better. Otherwise, people will keep associating us with a state school and naked butts.

Eric Obenzinger is a junior history major from New York. Quaker Shaker appears on Wednesdays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.