LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Different takes on Title IX

To the Editor: Beyond the turnstiles, there lies an experience I can only possibly compare to a Penn-Princeton basketball game. The bands, the crowds, the glamour and the spirit go unmatched anywhere else in athletics. College hockey is one of the only pure sports left, and the administration cannot point to the savageness of the sport as an excuse for not having a team, because that style of hockey departed soon after Slapshot left the theaters. Also, unlike the administration assumes, the University would not have to sacrifice academic standards to field a team any more than it already does in any other sport. The best high school hockey in the United States is played right in Philadelphia's backyard in the Northeast, in prep schools where kids learn to be student-athletes before they come to college. It is a shame that we have to share with Columbia the distinction of being the only Ivy League schools without varsity ice hockey programs.? All of the other Ivy League schools have found ways to fit men's and women's ice hockey into their varsity athletics budgets, and not every school has as modern a rink as we do. Penn's endowment is as high as almost all of the other Ivies' -- and it is higher than most of the schools that boast varsity programs. Michael Grossman Penn Club Ice Hockey Member College '99 n To the Editor: I was a bit disturbed by Nick Hut's column "Title IX has cost baseball locker room" (DP, 2/29/96). While I understand his point, I think it is absolutely untrue to say that Title IX has gone too far. Hut has valid points regarding the baseball team's locker room, but he misses the point of having Title IX on a wider scale. Title IX was not created so that there would be competition over locker room space, but rather so that there would be opportunities for women to compete in athletics at the same level as the men. Yes, a locker room can make a difference, but the overall picture of women's sports at Penn at the time the locker room incident occurred was reprehensible. As filed in the complaint of the Penn women's coaches, the statistics of inequity were significant. As of 1994, there were serious inequities in almost all sports. The University supported 24 men's basketball players while only supporting 12 women. The women's crew team had only eight shells and the men were supplied with 22. The women's lacrosse team had to share uniforms with the field hockey team.? The disparities that existed outside of the locker room were much more significant than the differences between the rooms themselves. Regarding the private donations, there is a reason why they need to be distributed. Using basketball as an example, if you look at the history of the University, there has been a men's basketball program for a very long time. The women's program has been in existence only since the '70s, so it obviously doesn't have as many alumni as does the men's team. This creates a disparity in how much money a team can receive from former players. Once women's teams have been around long enough to create a pool of alumni as large as that which the men's teams have, distribution of private donations will no longer be needed. Hadley Perkins College '99 Chi Omega wrongly cited To the Editor: This letter is in response to the DP's February 27 editorial directed at the Penn Greek community, entitled "Clean up your act." To make your point you used Chi Omega as an example of "unethical, improper conduct that reflects poorly on all students." My point in writing is to clarify to the community and the DP Editorial Board why Chi Omega should not have been used to illustrate your point. Yes, Chi Omega and Alpha Epsilon Pi held an unregistered mixer on February 8. However, this was entirely the result of an unfortunate miscommunication between our two organizations as to who was responsible for registering the event. This violation was by no means an intentional breach of University policy. In fact, we welcomed the monitors into the mixer when they arrived, expecting that they were there to survey the party. I fond it unfortunate and infuriating that I was never contacted by a member of the DP staff to comment on my sorority's involvement in this incident. The fact that both Chi Omega and Alpha Epsilon Pi were lumped in the same paragraph with examples of unfortunate incidents of another kind assumes that Chi Omega willfully violated the policies established by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs and the University. This, as I've stated, was not the truth, and therefore forces me to question whether the DP routinely checks with the appropriate sources for its information.? I would like to think that the DP is an ally of the Greek system, not an opposing force, especially as our role in the Penn community is questioned and debated. It might be a better idea to use your reporting space to stress the real facts: that the average GPA for Greek males and females is higher than the all-male or all-female average GPA at Penn, that the Greek community at Penn logs more community service hours than any other Greek system on the East Coast and that in one year, the Greek system at Penn raised over $38,000 for charity. These are facts worth reporting, which might save the Greek system, unlike errors of the kind that were made in last Tuesday's editorial. Katie Leeson Chi Omega President College '97 Conclusions were 'way off' To the Editor: In his column, Dave Crystal brought up a very pertinent topic in light of the recent events in Israel: Whether or not American Jews should have an influence on internal Israeli affairs ("It's our country, too," DP, 2/29/96). Unfortunately, his conclusion is way off -- about 6,000 miles off, to be exact. From a picturesque perch in West Philadelphia, it is quite easy to recommend to the Israeli government the proper course of action to take. Yes, I am a Jew, and yes, Israelis are Jews, but there is one thing that separates me from Israelis and that is service to the state of Israel. If Crystal feels so strongly about the situation and wants his voice to be heard, why not live in Israel and serve in the military? All of the major players in Israeli politics have fulfilled this prerequisite, whether their opinions will ultimately be proved right or wrong. We are one people, but while my tax dollars go to Washington, Israelis' go to Jerusalem. In a military draft, I would serve under an American flag and that earns me the right to have a creditable voice in American politics. However, my voice in Israeli politics, along with Crystal's, is merely an opinion, which cannot receive the same weight as those who reside in and serve the State of Israel. Jared Minsk College of General Studies '97