Letters to the Editor

Real violations To the Editor: I was walking to campus and I happened to see one of those sticky mouse traps that a Penn kid had let lay by his trashcan. I wouldn't have thought twice about it, but the mouse was moving. It had its face ripped off and was in extreme pain, and some Penn student had left it there to die a very slow death (it takes them days to starve, and they're known to chew through their feet to try to escape). I had to beg someone off the street to step on it. The poor thing was so scared and in so much pain and I can't get its writhing body or its eyes out of my mind. I just can't believe that students from Penn, supposedly some of the most enlightened minds from across the country and the world, can't take 20 seconds to do the right thing and step on a mouse or drop a book on one.

Ingrid Pimsner College junior

University support To the Editor: Finals are more than a month away, but it feels as though reading days have already arrived. This weekend, Penn students will be studying like their grades depend on it; and they probably do. My informal conversations with classmates suggest that most of my peers have at least two exams in the short week following fall break. So I ask: Why does the administration give us these four days off, when in actuality the term "fall break" is a misnomer? If the University wants to give the students a rest from classes, it should implement a policy prohibiting exams in the week following breaks. Otherwise, students like my peers end up with multiple exams in the three days following the break, negating any benefits we would receive from a long weekend. Without a policy regulating examinations, removing the four-day weekend can arguably benefit a good proportion of the student body. Nobody is kidding anyone here; Penn is an intense place to go to school at. The administration and professors should give students a time to recharge and refocus. They need to replace these phantom "days off" with a substantial period of recuperation. They need to pay student needs more than lip service on the academic calendar because we need rest and we want our break back.

Steve Nagy Engineering junior

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