Staff Editorial: Visible Inconvenience

Since the calamitous terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Americans have come to understand that security is no longer an issue to be brushed aside.

We now recognize -- and welcome, even -- the fact that airport screening will likely become a more thorough and time-consuming process. We expect metal detectors and X-ray machines to pop up in more places of assembly. And many of us have even voiced our support for increased law enforcement surveillance to watch for possible terrorist threats.

Certainly, these inconveniences would not have even been conceivable until terrorists took advantage of America's freedom to launch their campaign of destruction. And what's more, our collective willingness to accept these kinds of sacrifices is particularly remarkable, considering Americans' tendency to ferociously protect the right to privacy.

But in the midst of such tremendous change, some proposed security measures may have already gone too far. One of them is right on this campus.

This week, University officials announced that they are close to implementing a plan that would require all Penn students, staff and faculty to visibly display their PennCards while on campus. The rule extends an existing regulation which requires the wearing of the IDs in academic buildings during the late-night hours.

Penn officials, including University President Judith Rodin, say that we need such a policy so that members of the community will be able to easily identify one another, thus making unwanted intruders more obvious. They claim, further, that it would narrow the gap between the "outlier" institutions in the U.S. -- those that have not yet instituted universal identification procedures -- and those overseas that have.

But on a campus guided by the principle of openness, it's clear that mandating visible IDs skirts the line between reasonable security and needless and ineffective inconvenience.

The wearing of PennCards sends a signal to outsiders that Penn is a campus that welcomes only its own. By its very nature, the practice singles out visitors -- academics, prospective students, even neighborhood residents -- for unfounded suspicion.

Even more importantly, it's a policy that just wouldn't work. Students already demonstrate a reluctance to show PennCards under "normal" circumstances; enforcing their display under these extreme conditions would be even more difficult. The policy also makes little sense on a campus as big as Penn's, where the open, park-like atmosphere attracts both neighbors and academic guests alike.

Rather than searching for quick solutions to this issue, Penn should pursue a reasonable safety policy that takes into account the changing environment and the growing possibility of danger -- but also protects the principles of openness, community and freedom which this university has so long upheld.

Personal freedom, after all, is the principle by which this nation has grown and prospered. To begin dismantling it in the face of a tragedy would be an insult to the legacy of those who perished, and an abandonment of all that our nation represents.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.