Student reputation needs some work

Over the summer, when I'm not frolicking around in cashmere sweaters on fancy European vacations, I slave away for long hours working at a bank.

Not an I-bank -- a regular bank. In New Jersey. Cashing checks for people who make more money than I do.

When a young man came in to withdraw $9,000 cash from his daddy's checking account to go to Las Vegas for his 21st birthday, I didn't need to consult Facebook.com to garner that he was a Penn student. The $9,000 (and the Penn flip-flops) gave it away.

My complete lack of surprise and my co-workers' disgust only affirmed what I already feared.

To employers, Penn is an institution of the highest repute, turning out intelligent, worldly men and women.

Yet to the rest of the world, Penn is the East Egg of West Philly, full of popped collars, expensive architecture and careless Ivy League trust-funders spending their parents' money on designer clothing and Jimmy Buffet CDs.

And from their position below the Ivy League monolith, the rest of the city is waiting for us to fall.

Last semester, when the High Rise "sex scandal" broke out, the Philadelphia news sources were thrilled. Rich kids having sex in public! What could be more detrimental to one's future congressional career!

The licentious photo was reprinted everywhere, and snarky comments abounded as The Philadelphia Daily News crowned the event a "free-speech brouhaha."

These two frisky fledglings received oodles of media attention, making me wonder if the rest of the city was enjoying our embarrassment a little too much.

Of course, it's easy to blame such blind hatred on a liberal news media that snuff their muckraking noses at the very mention of an Ivy League university -- except for the fact that other college students seem to agree.

Eric Olson, a student at the University of the Arts in Center City, is no exception. "Penn kids get into college and think they've made it," he said. "They ego-trip and slack off and party."

Drexel University graduate and Philadelphia resident Mike Pakradooni is none too enamored either.

"Penn students in general are narcissistic," he said. "They have a feeling that Drexel is a collection of Penn wannabes. That certainly is not the case."

Yet as admissions numbers rise and Penn remains high in national rankings, does any of this actually matter?

Well ... yes. The University's relationship with the city affects every student's daily interactions -- and anyone who has witnessed a Subway employee take out their resentment toward Penn on a cold-cut combo knows what I'm referring to.

These negative assumptions automatically cast all Penn students under a veil of aristocratic arrogance, which means that even though I would rather live off nasty cold-cut combos than sell my soul to a sorority, local residents still sneer when I saunter around Philly in big sunglasses.

"I bought these at a thrift store with my own money!" I want to shout.

Furthermore, such circumstances complicate community relations, making positive contributions an impossibility and leaving Penn students subject to hostility.

But if everyone hates Penn students, why aren't we doing anything to fix it?

Desperate, I turned to Van McMurtry, Penn's vice president for government and community affairs, for answers. Yet McMurty seemed shocked by my findings.

"I've spent a lot of the past four months talking to community leaders on all levels," he recalled. "And I have not heard a single disparaging remark [directed] toward Penn students."

Clearly, McMurtry has never journeyed to the large dietary abyss below 1920s Commons.

So how can Penn students alter these soiled images to reveal themselves as the reasonable people that they are?

Like depilatory cream applied to a mustache, a little awareness goes along way.

Obviously, images do not change overnight. But it is important for Penn students to realize how the rest of the city views them and to work to combat negative stereotypes.

By acting as the respectable, responsible men and women that they are, hopefully, the rest of the community will slowly learn the truth.

And the truth is: while a glance around campus might reveal a striking number of monogrammed sweaters and pleated pants, Penn students are a diverse group of people from a variety of different backgrounds. And the reason they pop their collars is because they can no longer afford scarves. After all, gambling in Vegas gets expensive.

Did I say gambling? I meant textbooks.

Kate Bracaglia is a junior English major from Basking Ridge, N.J. e-mail is . Static Quo appears on Wednesdays.

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