U. grads relive romance in Furness

On Friday evening in the quiet of the closed Fisher Fine Arts Library, Dental School alumnus Tony Saito proposed to Wharton School graduate Margaret Wu. With a smile, Wu accepted. The two met in the Furness Building exactly three years ago while studying for midterms. Thinking that Saito, 25, merely wanted to take a picture to commemorate the anniversary, the 23 year old Wu agreed to make the drive from the couple's New York City apartment. She had no idea that Saito had called ahead to arrange for Furness employees to remain in the library after hours -- so he could propose to his sweetheart in private. While they finally did meet face-to-face three years ago, Wu admitted she had wanted to meet Saito for a month before their first encounter. Saito was a second-year Dental School student whose brother John had been shot while waiting for the trolley at 36th and Sansom streets in February 1993. Tony was pictured on the front page of The Daily Pennsylvanian, comforting his brother in the hospital. Wu said when she saw Saito's picture in the paper, she thought he was "kind of cute." "She wanted to meet me," Saito said. "But no one wanted to help her meet me." A month went by, and the pair never crossed paths. But one evening in early March, Cupid decided to do a little out-of-season work. Saito said he always came to Furness to study -- but Wu preferred to hit the books in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. By chance, Wu and a friend decided to go to Furness one night to study for midterms. When the pair arrived at the crowded library, the table they happened to choose was none other than Saito's. "We sat at his table when he and his friend were on a break," Wu explained. "When he came back, he was wearing the hat with the split 'P' that he had been wearing in the DP picture." Wu's friend, Susan So, was in the process of applying to dental school at the time, Wu said. She was asking Saito and his friend Meka Zuckerman questions about the process when Saito, Wu and So decided to continue their conversation at the Food Court at 3401 Walnut Street. "Margaret was really quiet and shy," Saito said. "I had to ask Susan, 'Who's your friend?' "Since that night, we saw each other every day studying," he added. On Friday night of that week, the pair decided to go to Boccie's and then to the Penn-Princeton basketball game to celebrate finishing the midterm week. Currently a resident at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, Saito said the pair does not plan to get married for another two years, when he will receive his degree in Pediatric Dentistry from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Wu, who works at Goldman Sachs in New York, said the couple always knew they were going to tie the knot someday. "Ever since I graduated, all of my friends have been asking when we were going to get married," she said. For Saito, meeting Wu was more than a chance encounter. He said it was "fate" that brought the couple together. "I always studied here, but she never did," he said. "But when I saw her, I just kind of knew she was the right person." Wu was more pragmatic about meeting her husband-to-be. "I was just trying to get through midterms," she explained.