Letters to the Editor

Bad assumptions

To the Editor:

Alex Weinstein's column ("Taking the fun out of Fling," DP, 3/29/06), was an insult to the level of discourse appropriate to Penn's campus and an embarrassing display of poorly researched, factually incorrect ranting that managed to pointlessly insult virtually every potential reader.

Weinstein does ask a good question: "Why Penn instituted such a policy, and who's responsible for it?" and yet offers no coherent or factually grounded answer. I will try and correct some of his mistakes and simultaneously address this crucially important question.

I have yet to encounter a member of the administration whose honest goal is to end alcohol use on campus. These individuals work hard to try and curb the worst excesses of self-destructive behavior so that students can enjoy their time at Penn safely, not because they fantasize about a dry campus.

Weinstein is apparently incapable of understanding that fun and safe moderation are not mutually exclusive; I believe that the average Penn student is responsible enough to make such a distinction.

Weinstein suggests that administrators, graduate advisers and parents are to blame for Penn's concern. It couldn't possibly be the arrests and hospitalizations, or the thousands of dollars spent on repairing property damage to the Quadrangle or the large-scale and excessive abuse of dangerous substances. Clearly, it's your dad's fault.

In fact, many of this year's initiatives have been advocated for and proposed by student leaders on campus. These students love fun, Spring Fling and Penn traditions as much as anyone else.

We have simply dared to hope that our peers can step it up and party responsibly. So work hard, play smart, and have a great Fling!

Josh Matz

College junior

The author is the vice president of Penn's Drug and Alcohol Resource Team

Always a slumlord

To the Editor:

I read Cezary Podkul's column ("Landlords ignore tenant concerns," DP, 3/28/06), with some interest because about 20 years ago I lived in a University City Housing apartment.

My bathroom ceiling fell down three times because of plumbing leaks that they refused to fix, and that was just the top item on a long list of horror stories. Obviously, University City's most notorious slumlord, UCH, or its president, Michael Karp, has not changed.

One could just say, "Once a slumlord, always a slumlord -- let the lessee beware."

However, there is one appalling little fact that wasn't in the picture 20 years ago and that most UCH tenants are probably not aware of: Michael Karp is a member of the University Board of Trustees! Don't believe it? Just look on page one of the blue section in the print version of the campus phone directory. Go figure. And then start raising some long-overdue hell about it.

Ellen Slack

The author works in the Lippincott Library

Gun control

To the Editor:

Why should the gun control law in Philadelphia ("Gun control will stem homicide uptick," DP, 3/28/06) be different than everywhere else in Pennsylvania? Check the murder rate in Allegheny County (85 in 2004, for example), and note the difference.

As to firearms' immediate availability, there are about 45,000 concealed carry permits in Allegheny County and 35,000 in Philadelphia County. But the people doing the murdering in Philadelphia are not the people who can pass the background checks to either purchase and/or carry; it is the criminals who prey on their neighbors.

One gun a month is irrelevant to that situation. One gun can be passed from hand to hand for that.

George Foster

1967 Law alumnus

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