Articles by Ryan Benjamin
05/04/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | What really mattered
Picture this: The University of Pennsylvania, fall 1951. Harry Truman is the president of the United States, we are in the midst of war with Korea and women are not allowed to sit on chairs in Houston Hall. Also that fall, my grandfather entered Penn as a freshman, just shortly after the University stopped using informal quotas to limit the number of Jews who were accepted. 04/24/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | This lesson brought to you by YouTube
The first time Susan Boyle popped onto my computer screen, I had no clue she would become a phenomenon within days, shocking the world with her unbelievable singing talents despite extremely low expectations. "Susan really makes you wonder how much undiscovered and unharnessed talent there is in the world," Engineering senior Mike Abuschinow said. 04/17/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | Going beyond the classroom
We entered the room ready to learn, as we always do. But this was no ordinary class, you see. As the sun began to set on the chilly Sunday evening, the group - half Penn students, half Dalits, or India's "untouchables" - carried flowers and refreshments. Then class began. 04/10/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | When numbers really don't matter
This year, Penn sent congratulatory letters to 3,926 students out of the 22,939 that applied - an acceptance rate of 17.11 percent. But last year, the acceptance rate was (gasp!) 0.10 percent lower. A minute fraction of a percent, but unfortunately many students - and this newspaper - seem to think such an increase in acceptance is a "situation. 03/27/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | Looking beyond the numbers
Last Sunday's Undergraduate Assembly meeting confirmed that we live in an age in which we must please everyone. And by everyone, I mean "minorities." This week it got so bad that the UA's Working Group on Minorities in Undergraduate Education introduced several proposals to "stand up for these gender and ethnic minorities and say that they are an important part of the University," as volunteer member and Wharton and Nursing sophomore G. 03/20/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | Saving a city, despite the setbacks
Imagine this: One day, Philadelphia has 1.5 million people in it. The next, most of the population disappears, and nearly four years later, only half has returned. The city would be desolate, its institutions destroyed, its buildings abandoned. This is reality for people in St. 03/06/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | Columnist Quizzo: Travel Game
Diehard DP fans, come on down for a DP Columnist Quiz! (sort of) Your ideal spring break activity come true, I know. We as DP columnists simply scratch the surface, so this goes a little beyond in keeping you informed. I will attempt to prove that we actually cover a broad spectrum of issues - even though you might say we only write about course requirements and Facebook - and that we use facts to contextualize our arguments. 02/27/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | Helping those who help the homeless
How many times have you been accosted by a panhandler, who you think is homeless, outside of Wawa? The attitude among students is overwhelmingly "not in our backyard." So I recently asked a random sample of Penn students what their first reaction would be if a student group planned to operate a homeless shelter on campus. 02/20/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin |Being OK with Big Brother
Forget the fine print. Anyone who's been paying attention to the latest Facebook "crisis" - in which the site's terms of service removed the users' right to their own content after deleting their accounts, and then reneged - must realize that no matter what the words say, Facebook will always have access to our content. 02/13/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | The inspiration in the every day
When it comes down to it, we respect and follow the leaders we feel we personally know best. So really, that's rarely Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or Tiger Woods. Instead, the leaders we tend to emulate are those we directly interact with. One of those leaders is Nicholas Kristof, the New York Times columnist who travels all over the world to report on the world's most heinous crimes against humanity. 02/06/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | A tough lesson in economics
It was Joni Mitchell and later Coldplay who sang, "You don't know what you have till it's gone." That couldn't be truer now as we enter the season of state-budget addresses. This year, in these economic times, a lot of people are understandably upset as jobs are lost and programs are cut. 01/30/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | Deliberating on the deliberations
Rush just ended, which, though a relief (or disappointment) for many, also means for the time being we won't be judging people as much, at least formally. Throughout history, in admitting people to various clubs, we often judged them on their origins - race, gender, religion, wealth: largely superficial ideals about who we wanted to belong. 01/23/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | It's all about the attitude
This Tuesday I woke up in D.C. at the crack of dawn to watch Barack Obama say the words, "I will execute the office of president of the United States faithfully." Or was it faithfully execute? Whatever it was, I was there to see it happen - well, sort of. My brother, cousin and I were fortunate enough to score some "blue" tickets to the inauguration - three of over 250,000 total tickets, of the millions who wanted them. 01/16/09 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | Leaving a note, at the Facebook wall
The information age has brought new technologies that enrich our lives, but with it comes a series of ethical questions, none more avoidable than the issue of how to deal with death. Penn has experienced the deaths of three students this school year, a bit more than usual perhaps. 12/09/08 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | Perfectly perfect in every way
11/24/08 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | Learning for learning's sake?
The time has come when I've begun to think about my post-collegiate future. I'm not talking about a career. Instead, I'm wondering about what to do with all the extra knowledge we've acquired over the last four years. In my case at least, as an Urban Studies major, I'm writing a thesis because I have to. 11/10/08 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | Proud to participate
Human beings across the globe rejoiced on Tuesday as the first black man was elected president of the United States. My friend Alba Martinez Muelas, a student at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, told me last week that for the first time in a while, Spaniards are beginning to trust and "love" America. 10/27/08 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | Lend them your ears
When was the last time you Democrats listened to Sean Hannity? Pat Buchanan? Anything you disagreed with? Shame on the politicians and shame on us for exacerbating a culture of intellectual self-appeasement. It's abundantly simple to believe what you hear and in turn seek out more sources - and more people - who confirm your beliefs. 10/06/08 5:00am
Ryan Benjamin | Financially illiterate
Have you noticed the financial crisis developing right before our eyes - this country's worst since the Great Depression? Most of us know it exists but don't understand it to the extent we should. I randomly surveyed over 120 Penn students, and only 31 percent reported that they were "extremely confident" or "pretty confident" in their ability to understand the current financial dilemma. 09/22/08 5:00am