COLUMN: Depressing facts of urban life

From Adam Mark's, "Mark My Words," Fall '96 From Adam Mark's, "Mark My Words," Fall '96 Pity the tour guides. They've got to explain to nervous pre-frosh and parents the recent shootings, stabbing and self-immolation. "Really, Mrs. Schwartz, it's not as bad as you think? Only 30 students were mugged last month. Me? Yeah, just once, but it was a learning experience." I don't mean to make light of these recent tragedies. But the rate at which members of the University community are being robbed, shot and stabbed warrants discussion. We've witnessed such an obscene amount of violence this semester that we've become rather numb. University President Judith Rodin's press statements -- cranked out with frightening regularity -- read like Mad Libs: "The University is [adjective] by this senseless [noun]. Our thoughts and prayers are with [name of victim]." I'm afraid of becoming resigned to this nonsense. I wonder if we've reached that point already. I haven't discussed Sled's murder with my friends and housemates, nor have they picked my brain on the subject, as they usually do on big news days. The campus, it seems, has been rather mum about this absolutely horrific murder. Even the upenn.talkers have kept quiet. Perhaps if Sled had been murdered a few hours earlier, we could have splashed the story across the top of Friday's front page and generated more alarm. Perhaps if the murder had occurred closer to Superblock or had been more dramatic than a stabbing on Halloween night, we'd have been more shocked. After all, Sled wasn't a fraternity brother -- or even a student. He didn't live on campus. His attempt to thwart a robbery was stupid. But must we hold all this against him? I find myself asking, in the words of a defeated Bob Dole, "Where's the outrage?" Where are the student leaders who grandstanded after Pat Leroy was shot? Where are the petitions and letters to the editor? Where are the mass e-mails from administrators? Not surprisingly, the administration has been silent in the absence of student outrage. From a public relations standpoint, this is a clever tactic. Why acknowledge the tragedy of Sled's death, why talk it out with students if they're not banging down the doors of College Hall? I suspect most students -- myself included -- are scared to death and have just run out of ways to express fear and frustration. Excuse the psychobabble, but we're bottling up our emotions. Either the administration didn't learn how to manage a crisis in the wake of Leroy's shooting, or it doesn't consider this latest murder a crisis at all. I suspect the latter. Parents and alumni who didn't pick up The Philadelphia Inquirer on Saturday and read the Page One headline "Halloween homicide jolts a reeling Penn" probably had no idea a Penn employee had been slaughtered two nights before. Since students made little noise about it, so did the administration. Our collective silence seemed nothing less than surrender. According to administrators, Leroy's shooting last month exposed weaknesses in and forced us to reevaluate our security strategies. That last week's murder hasn't generated further discussion or self-examination suggests we're either out of ideas or we're already doing as much as humanly possible to strengthen the neighborhood and prevent these sorts of tragedies. I don't believe we're out of ideas, and I don't think anyone believes we can't do more. Students are simply, unfortunately, tongue-tied -- and administrators have tabled the issue as a result. Maybe Homecoming's to blame for the eerie silence. Murder and mayhem aren't exactly hot topics of conversation at Franklin Field or Smokey Joe's. And administrators probably didn't have time to breathe between receptions. But now that the weekend's behind us, I wonder if we'll reflect on the events of last Thursday night, when Vladimir Sled was murdered only blocks away from where most of us live and only seconds away from his waiting 12-year-old son. I wonder if Rodin will continue to address issues of safety when the press dies down. I wonder if we'll see another candlelight vigil. Or have those become passZ?