LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: New modem policy draws ire

To the Editor: Many of us access the Web to learn, not just to surf aimlessly. One hour on line at 28.8k is a joke; what can you achieve? What about large downloads that require more than an hour? Web browsers don't have the capability to do segmented downloads, so does this mean we will never be able to get some files? Where's the justice when students with ResNet access can remain on line indefinitely? I'm not going to have my access to education be curtailed just because the University is too cheap to expand its modem pool. No matter what lies they spew out, the fact is that dial-up capacity can be greatly increased at minimal cost; this is how small, local Internet Service Providers are able to serve tens of thousands of people. Even if students were to get a discount with an ISP, there would still be at least two problems. First, we'd have to pay for our service. More importantly, some Internet resources require that we dial in through the University's lines, for authentication purposes, like most of the library's resources. My software doesn't support multiple accounts for different name-server addresses; it's either the ISP's or the University's. So now I can't access University resources?!? Given a choice, I would stick with the status quo. No time limitation is worth the small price of a few busy tones. What a bunch of cheap bureaucratic crap! Duc Nguyen Wharton '98 Grads praise renovation To the Editor: We would like to clarify the role the Graduate And Professional Student Association (GAPSA) has played in the renovation of the basement lounge in Grad Tower A "Grad Tower Lounge Causes Confusion" (DP, 9/16/96). For a number of years, GAPSA has made the creation of a common graduate and professional student meeting area one of its highest priorities. Aside from the GAPSA happy hours, there are presently no forums on campus in which Penn's 10,000-member graduate and professional student population can interact casually. The creation of a space that graduate and professional students can call their own, where they can meet for lunch or in the evenings, will enhance both the social and intellectual lives of the graduate and professional student body. With the encouragement of University President Judith Rodin and Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, the University is now taking a small step toward this goal in Grad Towers. Grad Towers was not GAPSA's first choice as a location for a graduate student meeting space. However, as every Penn organization knows, space is tight on this campus, and everyone has to do the best they can with what they are given. GAPSA is not "taking over" the lounge space in Grad Towers. We have no plans set in stone the permitted uses of the space, and we hope to work with Grad Towers residents to make sure they benefit from the changes as much as the rest of the graduate student community. Dan Reynolds Philosophy Graduate Student Co-chair, GAPSA Cafe Committee Steve Parikh Wharton Graduate Student Co-chair, GAPSA Cafe Committee New major on firm footing To the Editor: As members of the faculty executive committee responsible for overseeing the Latin American Cultures Program (LACP) at Penn, we wish to make several corrections to your story "Latin Amer. major wins approval" (DP, 9/17/96). We wish to reassure prospective majors and other interested students that the LACP has not been under fire for a year. Negotiations with the School of Arts and Sciences administration concerning the future of the LACP -- which we conducted -- began at the end of the spring semester and successfully concluded prior to the appearance of your article. No party to the negotiations wished to eliminate the program at any time. Our discussions concerned the level of support the SAS administration was able to provide the program, in view of current financial pressures the entire school is experiencing, and whether, given the cutbacks, we could continue to carry out the program's activities. Everyone in SAS, from top to bottom, is feeling the effects of belt-tightening. It does not make anyone's job easier to present the situation as more dire than it actually is. Nancy Farriss History Professor Douglas Massey Sociology Professor Greg Urban Anthropology Professor Addressing porn addiction To the Editor: I cannot thank Kristopher Couch enough for his courageous column on Internet pornography ("The mind gamble," DP, 9/27/96). I have been struggling with an Internet porn addiction for about two years, since my senior year of high school, and I know as well as anyone how desensitization to nude images can lead a porn addict to "harder" erotic stimuli. Furthermore, I was happy to see someone speaking out against pornography on humanistic grounds. For the past couple of years, anti-porn sentiment has been associated with puritanism, censorship and right-wing extremism. But there is nothing puritanical about Couch's position. He is not criticizing the sex act itself, or even masturbation; he is criticizing the depiction of the sex act by the porn industry, whose dehumanized images of women amount to a crime against humanity. Too often, pornography has been categorized as a "victimless crime," one of those things arbitrarily condemned by our culture even though it hurts nobody. In fact, the presence of pornography is hurtful to everyone in our society: It is hurtful to women, whom it reduces to commodities to be bought and sold, and it is hurtful to men, whom it trains to think in this way. I am glad Couch had the courage to speak about such a sensitive and personal issue. Daniel Pitt Stoller College '99 Insensitive art To the Editor: I was appalled to see the sketch accompanying Lee Bailey's column "A WASP leaves the nest" (DP, 9/20/96). The Jew is clearly identified in the sketch with a stereotypical "Jewish Nose," long and downward sloping, while the gentile's nose is sketched with a small upward slopping nose. The sketch first reminded me of anti-semitic caricatures dating from 1930s Europe. The Daily Pennsylvanian needs to provide an explanation for this sketch and in the future, hire more sensitive people who can sketch. Dan Mintz Wharton Graduate Student