COLUMN: Ivy Champs! Ivy Champs!

From Jordana Horn's "in Possibility," Fall '94 Before them, the mass of students swayed back and forth as if it was one person, as though dizzy and overwhelmed with its own power. The students had already burst through the barricades and now stood poised on the edge of confrontation. They knew what they had come for, and they had already sworn -- to their friends, to themselves, to their honor -- that they would do anything to get it. This is not a scene from Les Miserables. Nor is it a montage from Berkeley or Kent State in those crazy, substance-laden, ideology-sated 1960s. No cries of "Vive la France!" or "No Justice, No Peace!" are heard on this occasion -- just the monotonous and comparatively uninspiring "Ivy Champs! Ivy Champs!" Yes, this scene is none other than Franklin Field this past Saturday, when the usually dormant Penn student body suddenly and collectively realized that nothing was more important -- no, nothing more worthwhile to achieve, whatever the cost -- than ripping down twenty-some thousand dollars worth of goalposts. And who could blame them? What could be more meaningful and gratifying than chucking big white pieces of metal (and a few benches and garbage cans) onto the Schuylkill Expressway ? excuse me, I mean into the Schuylkill River? Answer: there's a lot that could be more gratifying. But one of the few times I have ever seen Penn's student body get up and do something was at that football game. Great -- rah, rah. It seems that our enthusiasm and vigor seems to be incredibly misdirected. What's more, we apparently revel in it. A few questions might address my point better than attempts at answers: ·The recent congressional elections created a tremendous turnover in our government. Many of us seem to believe that we have some vested interest in the future of the country. Many of us didn't vote, didn't know it was Election Day and didn't care. Others complained, "I can't believe the Republicans are in power" -- and then went back to Smoke's. After all, what can one person do? ·In response to a terrifying outbreak of violence on campus, students decried the University's security forces and demanded that action be taken to make the campus and areas around it safer. University Police decided to hold an open forum where students could talk about their concerns, so that the officers could better address them. Twenty-five people showed up. ·In response to charges of UA inaction, every student was invited to a meeting of the Program for Student Advocacy last night -- posters were put all over campus, and slipped under doors of residences. "Do you have a problem with how the University is doing something?" the fliers asked, inviting students to HRE rooftop lounge to talk. Zero students showed, leaving UA Chairperson Dan Debicella plenty of time to do his homework. ·The DP crusades to keep UA meetings open to the student body -- but why does it matter when no one goes? We're very good at complaining -- some have even raised it to an art form -- but what about the next step? If we really attend the institution that prides itself on combining the theoretical with the practical, then why can't we take our frustrations with the way things are and change them? Students can in fact do something: what if all the people who pulled out the goalposts had sat in on College Hall until they heard something conclusive about Revlon, or Rodin's undergraduate education plan, or something concrete this University intends to do for undergraduates? Unfortunately, our only activism comes out in finding time to get up early and stake out that Good Morning America prime spot on the Walk or front-row basketball seats, rather than demanding our full education and safety for our $100,000 tuition fee. Our supposedly "fed up" student body isn't proactive where it matters. Just think -- that $20,000+ now rotting at the bottom of the Schuylkill could have at least gone toward fixing the Hutch weight room. Oh well. I know, I know -- who cares about apathy? We're on Good Morning America! Ivy Champs, Ivy Champs? Jordana Horn is a senior Communications and English major from Short Hills, New Jersey, and Executive Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. in Possibility appears alternate Tuesdays.