LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Students on Rodin's Mind

To the Editor: It is neither my desire nor my style to be a "distant" president. To the contrary, I yearn for more time to attend student gatherings, to stroll through our campus, to have lunch with students in our dining halls or local restaurants. I am grateful every time I have a chance to do one of these things. The unfortunate reality is that the demands on my time continually seem to grow; they rarely seem to shrink. This fall, in particular, I have had a very heavy development schedule that has required me to travel all too frequently away from Philadelphia. The results of my travel have been very positive and important for the University, but the fact remains that I have been away much more than I would like. And I have had to cram even more into the days when I have been on campus. To some degree, this is a cyclical issue. I was on campus interacting with students more last fall than this fall; conversely, I will be on campus more this spring than I was last spring. In the end, I am eager to carve out more time to be with students. You are right to make a point of my need to do this. But please don't believe I have "forgotten my constituents," to use your words. Penn's wonderful students are very much on my mind and in my heart, and I will do my best to show that clearly in the days and months ahead. Judith Rodin University President A Thanksgiving Thank You To the Editor: I wish to publicly thank the many people who were instrumental in making the Interfaith Celebration of Thanksgiving on Tuesday, November 21 such a success. The idea for this service came from Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, vice provost for university life, and I want to thank her and Assistant Vice Provost Barbara Cassel for their support. The members of the Interfaith Council who assisted in the planning were the Rev. Mark Hunt and Robert Cardie from the Newman Center; Rabbi Howard Alpert, Jeremy Brochin and Rabbi Marsha Pik-Nathan from Hillel and the Rev. Beverly Dale from the Christian Association. Thanks also to the seven members of the Penn Glee Club and their Director, Bruce Montgomery, who provided some wonderful musical selections on very short notice. The highlight of the service was the sharing by seven members of the University community of what Thanksgiving means to them in the context of their own religious and national backgrounds. We had about 45 people and it was a marvelous representations of the vitality and diversity which makes this University special. Congratulations and thanks to all those who planned, supported, participated in, and attended this event. Fred Guyott Interim Chaplain A New Fan of 'Locust Walk' To the Editor: I just wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate all the students involved with UTV13's Locust Walk. I had never had the pleasure of watching the show before, but Tuesday night's episode was the funniest TV show I have seen in a long time. In particular, the savage beating of a character with an Everclear bottle had me rolling. Especially funny was when the assailant lit the victim on fire and threw her over the bridge into the river. UTV13 and the Locust Walk cast have made a fan out of me. To them, keep up the good work! Grant Bronk College '98 Workers 'Laid-off' Not 'Fired' To the Editor: Last Tuesday's Daily Pennsylvanian, for the second time in a few weeks, refers to laid-off University employees as "fired." ("U. to find new jobs for fired employees," DP 11/28/95) This is inaccurate, as the words "fired" and "laid-off" have entirely different implications. While the end result is the same, "fired" implies some level of incompetence. The employees mentioned were laid-off, not due to incompetence, but instead as a result of the University's cost-saving initiative we know as "restructuring." It's difficult enough for Penn employees to face the worries involved in potentially being laid-off; it is adding insult to injury to imply that they were "fired." Gene Haldeman Undergraduate Admissions data control technician More Response From the IAA To the Editor: As a freshman, I watched with bemusement as some of the student powers-that-be embarrassed themselves through the initial auditing process of the IAA. The UA, obviously seeking to increase its sphere of influence in student government, was eventually proven by the SAC to be in the wrong. In the wake of these events, I joined the IAA, and in my time in the club I have found that the SAC's judgement was indeed correct. The dedicated people on the executive board of the IAA have shown themselves to be honest and hard-working. With that in mind, I found the article in Wednesday's DP ("IAA may have misused $3,492 in funds," DP 11/29/95) very disconcerting. The writers, without giving any credentials as to why they would be a better authority than the SAC, discount that body's findings and pass judgement on a number of individuals within the club. I would like to say that I observed all of these individuals at the recently completed University of Pennsylvania Model U.N. Conference. They proved to be an incredibly dedicated and well-prepared group, as the conference ran perfectly, right down to the level of the name tags and placards given to the delegates. These items were prepared over many hours this past summer by Secretary-General Tony Huang and his family. This is a fact overlooked by the DP in its criticism of Tony for calling home. The Huang family volunteered much of its time to the IAA and the University of Pennsylvania. For them to be rewarded with slander of their son is unacceptable. The IAA board members have done more to promote the image of Penn as a strong academic institution than the vast majority of the student body, including the UA and DP. To ignore the ruling of the expert SAC body and again drag the club through the mud without finding out the whole story is, to me, the worst kind of ignorance. Chad Pimentel College '99