This past month has been an exciting time for both the University and the DP. From the announcement of James Baker as our commencement speaker to potential allegations of racial profiling on campus, the DP has had no shortage of material to report on.
In particular though, after holding the DP's third and final Open Forum of the semester, it was with a great sigh of relief that I learned that members of the Penn community from across the political spectrum were very pleased with our coverage of the issues surrounding Norman Finkelstein's speech on campus two weeks ago.
Now, I must admit, when I first heard that Norman Finkelstein was coming to campus, I wanted to hide under my desk. I was unconcerned with the actual issue of whether he should have been co-sponsored by the Political Science department. Instead, I was more worried about the public relations nightmare that could follow when covering such a controversial speaker.
The DP is here to provide the Penn community with fair, accurate and objective coverage that will allow readers to reach their own conclusions, and that is precisely what we set out to do. I want to let all of the staff know how proud I am of how they handled a very sensitive situation.
But, more importantly, I would like to thank our readers who provided us with valuable input on this issue. We received dozens of letters from all of you voicing your opinions, and that's exactly what we are here for.
I was also very pleased to see voices from all sides of the debate represented in the form of letters to the editor, columns and blog entries. We made every effort to keep our coverage balanced. We invited the chair of the Political Science department to explain his reasoning for co-sponsorship in response to Alan Dershowitz's column written earlier the same week. We even had two guest bloggers give their opposing thoughts on how the Undergraduate Assembly handled the Finkelstein issue.
Regardless of what your personal opinions are, it is important that our campus is engaged with the important issues that affect our University. And at the center of any campus debate, you can count on the DP to be your forum for unbiased discussion.
Shawn Safvi is a Wharton junior from Chapel Hill, N.C. His e-mail is safvi@dailypennsylvanian.com.
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