LETTERS: In the wake of four shootings

To the Editor: After shots were fired at the championship last year, one could have easily predicted that violence would again rear its head this time around. The one who should have predicted the violence and done something to prevent it -- or at least prevent its occurrence on Penn's campus -- is University President Judith Rodin. It shouldn't have taken a genius to figure out that the event was going to put both Philadelphia schoolchildren and Penn students in danger. It is a horrible tragedy that someone had to die at a sporting event; how would the administration have explained the death of a student to his or her parents? I know very little about how Rodin runs this University, but I can attest that among many students, including myself, there is the sentiment that she is more concerned with creating a genteel shopping mall in Sansom Common and with removing not-so-elegant food trucks from the streets than with maintaining and furthering academic integrity, an intellectual environment and the safety of the University community. The present tragedy serves to reinforce that impression. Ben Jackson Medicine '00 u To the Editor: Yesterday's editorial was not only short-sighted and immature but also horrifying in its hasty proposal to sweep the dilemmas of the University under the carpet rather than proffer a solution or even hazard an idea. The shootings at the Palestra are a chance for the University to promote and provide solutions for some of the ills of our society and finally break our cycle of sugar-coating and denying our problems. Contrary to popular belief, the University has more resources available to it than just Spectaguards and vending ordinances. Instead of balking in fear at the faintest sign of adversity and immediately suggesting that by pushing problems away we make them disappear, the DP should have consulted with the vast knowledge base literally around the corner. With the top-rated Psychology school in the country, why have we never seen an interview with one of its esteemed professors about why kids feel the need to shoot at each other and how they can be encouraged to focus their energy in more positive pursuits? With one of the most highly rated law schools in the country, why have we never seen an interview with one of its professors to ask how we can more effectively keep guns out of the hands of children? Why has the DP never suggested that the University offer incentives for professors to study the problems we face in our own community? Although it may initially seem like a good idea, putting your problems in someone else's lap does not make them go away. The University is one of the most powerful and influential institutions in the state. Since it has both the means and the opportunity to answer social dilemmas like the one posed Sunday, it has a moral responsibility to propose solutions and follow through with their implementation. The student newspaper (and students) can further these goals by promoting meaningful dialog and not by succumbing to the status quo. The members of the editorial board should be ashamed of themselves for their own fear tactics. Hopefully they'll soon realize that they're at a University to learn and solve and not to run and hide. Doug Haber Engineering '99 u To the Editor: It's 4 p.m. on a spring-like Sunday afternoon, and I step out of the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter to enjoy a bit of the nice weather. A huge crowd has gathered at the corner, presumably indicative of a recent event in the Palestra or the field house. Suddenly shots ring out -- lots of them. It sounds like the fourth of July, but people are running and shouting. I run too. Police converge on the scene, along with ambulances and TV crews. These were no fireworks. One man is taken out of the Blauhaus on a stretcher. Another lies in the crosswalk at 33rd and Walnut streets. Word on the street: 3 shot, 1 dead. Why this madness? I don't know why people shoot each other. But I do know that this kind of thing wouldn't have happened outside my lab if the University had not hosted the Philadelphia Public League boys high school basketball championship at the Palestra. I know that the University has decided that it is politically convenient to allow outside groups to use our athletic and academic facilities. When an event brings with it this kind of street violence, however, the risk to our own safety is too great to justify political concession. David Bergeron LRSM '99 u To the Editor: On Sunday, the University of Pennsylvania once again hosted the local high school basketball championship games. Once again, gunfire resounded in the air over 33rd and Walnut streets. A year ago, the day of the same event, I was a passenger in a cab at that intersection. Traffic was at a standstill; there were hundreds of people running and yelling, some banging on the taxi's windows and screaming at me. Next was the sound of popcorn popping -- or maybe firecrackers. People squatting behind the doors of cars on 33rd Street were shooting across the intersection at each other. Trapped in the gridlock of stationary vehicles and a riptide of panicking bodies, I ducked down close to the cab floor until the "mass disturbance," as campus security termed it, was over. Is this annual shooting spree to become a tradition at Penn? I would not like to see that happen. Whether the interest which prompted the University to host the games was financial, social or otherwise, it is in our best interest to just say no in the future. Community involvement can be highly beneficial to both the city and the University, but in this specific capacity, it is certainly not a public service by any stretch of PR. These high schools can find some other location for the expression of their essentially petty, yet deadly rivalries. The University's duty to its own students preempts any relationship with the local high schools. Next March, you can be sure I'll remain in my Center City apartment if the University should be so reckless as to once again provide the forum for this event. Niamh O'Leary Singh Law '99 u To the Editor: As a sophomore who lived in Hill College House last year, I clearly remember the day of the Philadelphia Public League boys basketball tournament. Walking to David Rittenhouse Laboratories to watch a movie for class, it felt like I was in an entirely different world. Empty alcohol bottles lined the street, people swarmed everywhere and trash was piled all over the place. And then there were the gunshots. Everyone living in Hill was well aware that there were shots fired. We all just thanked God that we hadn't been outside at the time. As a result of being a witness of all that went on last year, it astonishes me that University officials would agree to host this tournament again. It is absolutely absurd that they would disregard the safety of Penn students in this way. Administrators appear to be trying to make the University a safer place to call home, but when they make decisions like this, it is hard for me to take them seriously. Dana Grasso College '00