Letters to the Editor

Cover crime

To the Editor:

Please cover the increasing violence over the past year in an in-depth way, which will get people more seriously debating on-campus safety.

I suggest a series of front page articles or a magazine piece. The violence is out of hand, and we need better awareness, reporting, and ultimately action.

Penn has been fortunate enough to climb high in the rankings, but such a position will not be stable unless this crime is controlled.

Michael Krathen

Quaker name offensive to some

To the Editor:

I was googling on the Internet this afternoon, and was surprised to learn that the name of the University of Pennsylvania's basketball team is the Quakers.

I'm an older lady with little interest in basketball. But as a devout Quaker, I was dismayed to see the name of a serious religion used so inappropriately.

It is a discourtesy to a serious religious denomination. While our name is often misused -- think cereal -- that doesn't make it any more pleasant.

If you substitute some other denomination -- e.g., Baptists or Presbyterians -- you'll see how odd it sounds.

While it is legal to use our name, I see it as uncivil and disrespectful.

May I gently suggest that you find another peppier, non-religious name for your basketball team? Why not make a link to Benjamin Franklin and call your team the Lightning Rods? Have fun with it -- just leave us Quakers out of it, please!

Susan Meehan

What a glorious world it would be

To the Editor:

Cezary Podkul is the smartest man alive. He gets it. He understands how it's selfish for the University to not want to subsidize and endorse the students' good time.

He fathoms that there isn't anything more important to be done at Penn.

He's got the fortitude to say that the hundreds upon hundreds of researchers, scientists and scholars that are not employed here for any particular purpose, and that the University administration is not there to cater to that purpose.

Cezary is quite right in his assertion that the University should be going out of its way to ensure that its undergraduate students can enjoy the most kick-ass parties this side of the Mississippi.

And it is by no means childish, juvenile or immature (as his detractors would have you believe) to expect to come to one of the finest universities in the United States and do nothing other than enjoy a continuous stream of revelry all week long, interrupted only slightly by a arcane but otherwise useless tradition once referred to as "study."

In fact, this kind of thinking is good for America.

It's good for the world. If everyone had this attitude, there would be absolutely no problems.

Ever.

Factories would still work, food would still appear on our tables and magical elves would clean up our messes, make our beds and do our thinking for us because we're to hung-over to string two words together.

Oh, what a glorious world it would be.

Roman GeykhmanEngineering junior

Win-win situation for everyone

To the Editor:

I am among the many people who are concerned that the powers granted to the government via the PATRIOT Act could be abused, and I'm happy to see that Penn has adopted a policy of not holding records once an item is returned.

However, it occurs to me that the libraries now have "nuclear option" in that those who hold books past due could be reported to the CIA.

This would probably get people's attention with far more certainty than the threat of a charge appearing on their bursar bill.

It's a win--win situation.

The CIA gets practice tracking people down (if they can't track down an overdue book, why would we trust them to track down people for more serious matters?) and the library can remove the cost of tracking down overdue borrowers from its budget.

I have every confidence that such a policy would be of general utility and should be implemented without delay.

Mike AlbertPh.D. Physics 1995

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