34th Street Magazine's "Toast" is a semi-weekly newsletter with the latest on Penn's campus culture and arts scene. Delivered Monday-Wednesday-Friday.
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I am writing you this letter to thank you for all you have done for my teammates and me over the years. In light of John Phillips’s DP article, I thought it was an appropriate time to recognize you and your colleagues in the Athletic Department who put so many thankless hours into making the student athletes at Penn better students, athletes and people.
I think it’s really sad that of all the articles Mr. Phillips could have written about this team, full of interesting, talented, intelligent and unique women, he instead chose to focus on two of the small minority that have chosen to give up and walk away from this fantastic group.
If you read our paper yesterday, you might have seen a young President Gutmann gracing our front page and a letter by her on our opinion page, responding to a critique from Tuesday’s paper. Enough readers have expressed their suspicions about our paper’s objectivity that we want to clarify our position.
Although the article claims that we have lost 11 “rowers with pedigree” in the past two years, we have actually lost eight and only three of those were in one of the three boats eligible for NCAA championships.
First, there was no mention of the loss of revenue averaging over $100 million a year in exchange for a one-time cash windfall, the size of which pro-privatization interests have every reason in inflate.
If the Supreme Court upholds the Appellate Court’s ruling, it will restrict executive power and create a legal mess at the NLRB and most likely at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, whose director, Richard Corday, was also appointed during a pro forma session. The Supreme Court should, however, uphold the lower court’s decision.
Even in the midst of all the demand for compromise in recent years, rarely do we hear a call for voters to compromise their own political beliefs and expectations of the political system and politicians.
The DP “takes a chance” with the educational futures of countless West Philadelphia residents and risks the exclusion of children and families of lower socioeconomic backgrounds from the best elementary school in Philadelphia.
Last year, with input from the faculty, provost and president, Penn formulated plans for new initiatives to improve faculty diversity and enrich opportunities for faculty development under the auspices of Penn’s Diversity Action Plan.
Historically, the value America has placed on the elderly is abysmal. We commit 1.2 million over the age of 65 to nursing homes and countless studies have reported instances of abuse. Dealing with our elders has become just another chore.
Not only has President Gutmann failed to show leadership in diversifying the highest levels of University administration, those individuals appointed by President Gutmann have often modeled her example and made similarly nondiverse appointments of vice provosts, associate deans and other high-ranking administrative staff.
Sweden’s sexual laissez-faire is precisely what lured me into spending half my year in Stockholm. Throughout my semester abroad, I split my time sampling Sweden’s elite coffee scene and studying what Swedes know about sex.
I want to commend the Philadelphia Police Department, and specifically the Homicide Task Force, that so expertly and expeditiously investigated and charged the alleged perpetrator of the horrific homicide of Dr. Melissa Ketunuti.
In my personal version of Dante’s inferno, I imagine that this is the circle of hell that comes right after the dentist’s chair during a filling and just before the rat-infested alley behind Copa.
If I had been more diligent about checking the reviews on a hostel I stayed at briefly in Barcelona, I wouldn’t have my checking-out-at-4 a.m.-because-of-bed-bugs story.
Combining a wider catchment zone with a commitment to meritocracy would ensure that Penn Alexander is comprised of the most promising young minds and that the opportunities Penn Alexander provides are opened to more disadvantaged children as well.
While rolling from Trenton to 30th Street Station, I met a sophomore from another university who scarred me for life. She told me with arrogant confidence that she was going to Philly to spend time with a boyfriend that her parents didn’t know existed.
Last year, as part of the religious studies class “Living Deliberately,” I had to spend a month in silence. The experience made me realize how far I had slipped into the thoughtlessness of a busy life.