Garrett Young: The value of criticism

I have a confession to make, one that might take a few administrators by surprise: I think Penn is great.

I could fill an entire column with the reasons. They range from getting a chance to live with some of smartest young people in the world to watching people read The Daily Pennsylvanian each morning after a long night in the office.

My confession may not seem like much of a revelation. In fact, I would bet that most of us really like Penn. Most of us have had similar experiences here, meeting great people and doing the things we love.

But it is, undoubtedly, a confession. It might be the first time I've ever said it out loud. My feeling is that Penn pays people a lot of money to talk about how great this place is, and I generally don't need to offer my cliches to the mix.

Because Penn can be so much better.

As a writer-turned-editor at this newspaper, I have learned that even in the best of times -- and these might be the best of times for Penn -- it's important to remember that nothing is perfect and nobody is perfect.

And it's everyone's responsibility to be critical.

Events of the past year remind us why we have to stay vigilant. We saw the Office of Student Conduct attempt to prosecute a student for taking pictures of a naked couple in a high-rise window. We saw the University police deal with charges of racial profiling and an increase in neighborhood crime.

It's really been a two-way street, though. For every criticism we've levied against the University, we've gotten one in return. I can't count the number of times I was roused from sleep early in the morning to an angry voice on the phone or the number of meetings I attended in order to assure someone that we had just made an honest mistake.

It's a humbling experience to be dressed down by the dean of admissions or the vice president for public safety, but it's also an enlightening one. I learned from the criticism.

Stories can sometimes be misstated or overblown. People are occasionally misquoted. Articles are occasionally biased. Reporters and editors -- myself included -- can get caught up in the hype.

But I disagree when people say that The Daily Pennsylvanian does Penn a disservice by working to shed daylight on the issues that still face the University. People say these things are better left alone, lest they damage the school's burgeoning global reputation and have a negative effect on future admissions and donations. But these issues, like many we all face every day, deserve a consistent, hard look.

And that's what criticism is for. To correct honest mistakes and learn from them so they don't happen again.

It's not quite so simple, though. Some criticism is easy. It's easy, for instance, to complain about the ongoing construction project outside your window that never seems to be finished. It's easy to pick up the newspaper and criticize a particular headline or story.

But thinking critically about more sensitive issues isn't always easy. And that's frequently when it's most important -- when things have potential to be so much better.

It's hard to sit in class with a world-renowned professor and challenge the conclusions he or she has reached after decades of research.

It's hard to tell a close friend that his personal hygiene is driving others away.

It's hard to send your staff's best writers and editors back to the drawing board when their stories need more work.

But countless hours at the DP and countless more in class have taught me the importance of being critical of myself, of my peers and of my school.

Fifty years from now, when we return to campus for our gold reunion, I'll be the guy who told every college-age student he ever came in contact with that Penn is a great place to go to school. But I'll also be the guy writing letters to the administration, reminding it about the importance of paying attention to the school's imperfections.

Like I said, I think Penn is great. But we can do better.

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