Misleading rhetoric
To the Editor:
Sarah Rothman's recent opinion piece on the current administration's "war on science" was misleading. After 9/11, George Bush described a war against freedom being waged by the terrorists and suggested that they are against all forms of freedom since they attacked the U.S. Presumably, however, the terrorists do support freedom, at least at some level.
Likewise, Bush's war on science is supposedly against all scientific research and progress. But, things are not that simple.
He, in fact, increased funding to both the NIH and the NSF during his first years in office. Funding decreased as a result of the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (both of which Senator Clinton voted in favor of).
Even still, Penn's Engineering School's largest grant in its history (announced March 2008) came for the scientific development of robots, funded by the Bush administration.
Whether or not we like Bush's ethical choices for the apportioning of government funds, we must realize that it is not that he is against science. Calling Bush's policies a "war on science" is worthless political spin which creates a sense of fear similar to the atmosphere Bush created after the 9/11 attacks.
John Fraize The author is a staff member at Penn Unionization helps graduate students
To the Editor:
Graduate students have benefited enormously from the opportunity to form a union.
Before GET-UP, in academic year 2000-2001, the University's minimum stipend was just $12,000, without health insurance for most graduate students.
In 2008-2009, the minimum will be $19,200, plus University-funded basic health insurance for three to five years for most students, a $2,400/year benefit.
While tremendous growth in the endowment has helped finance these improvements, it was the prospect of unionization that pushed Penn and the rest of the Ivy League to improve their treatment of graduate students.
There are still many problems that face us: Health insurance for our spouses and children is unaffordable; we don't have adequate protections for resolving workplace grievances; and three-to-five-year funding packages don't match the time it takes to complete a Ph.D. in many programs.
We need the leverage that only a legally recognized union will provide.
All of Penn's graduate students have benefited from the hard work of GET-UP members over the last eight years.
We owe them not just our support but nearly half of next year's salary and benefits. Roger Turner The author is a fifth year Ph.D. Student in the School of Arts and Sciences Cover the good news with the bad
To the Editor:
Where was your investigative journalism when a member of the Penn men's swim team was diagnosed with cancer, conquered it, returned to the team after nearly 6 months of being unable to complete a lap, was elected captain for his senior year, qualified for his first Easterns team as a senior, and swam lifetime bests?
That seems like an objective article that shows Penn's men's swimming in a positive light that was completely overlooked.
Patrick Maloney College '06 alumnus
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