LETTER: Still the Same

Reading Bruce Forman's last column (Rolling the Dice : Fraternity Justice and Tricia Phaup),I was displeased to discover that the judicial system at Penn has not changed much since I was a student there. Forman makes the point that the system is only fair if the primary decision maker,in this case of Tricia Phaup,is fair. But how can any administrator make an equitable decision when his or her career can be damaged by a decision unpopular with the Penn administration? The only equitable system is a peer trial system. Some people may argue that, once out of college, former students will be subject to the decisions of partners, office managers, and personnel directors who also have pressures to make decisions that will help their careers. These people may argue that the present judicial system at Penn is just a taste of the real world. And in the real world, sadly, unfair decisions are often handed down. to change the present system at Penn would simply be sheltering students from reality. But I never saw college as a shelter from reality. I saw it as an incubator for a better society. If these administrators who oversee Penn have no desire to change the status quo of the world, then so be it. But if someone does want to improve the judicial ssystem in a firm or corporation or school board, where would they look for a better decision-making process? Certainly not to Penn. JOEL NIED College '90