LETTERS: Problems with plaza proposal

To the Editor: This proposed plaza, however, is in our back yard! Carts and trucks would be within 20 feet of windows of rooms where people live. Smell, noise, excessive foot traffic and lots of trash would be part of the Hill residential experience. So excuse us for being a bit upset by this specific proposal. There are many comingled issues involved here, not the least of which is that of consultation. Many members of the University community have felt blindsided when hearing that "Oh, by the way, we'll be putting five big, noisy food trucks and five vending carts next to your building." In some cases this leads to people using such reasons as the loss of parking spaces as roadblocks to approving a plaza. But in our case we have ample right to assert that putting this kind of operation so close to a residence is just not the thing to do. You are right: The entire University community will not be pleased with every spot. However, it is incumbent upon administrators -- if they are determined to remove vendors from the streets -- to avoid the creation of vending plazas adjacent to any classroom or residence space where they will have a negative impact on Penn's academic mission. Greg Dubrow Graduate School of Education '99 Hill Graduate Fellow 'Ruining our happy world' To the Editor: Steve Schorr could not be more right in his column "Bring back the golden age," (DP, 2/27/98). The Utopia we imagined in our high school naivete is being destroyed by evil administrators. I, too, remember a time when drunken hoards roamed freely as the buffalo. It was a safer time in which everybody felt safe drunkenly staggering along the poorly-lit West Philadelphia streets. We knew that if we believed in the power of safety in numbers we would return home unscathed. It was a time when employers would be impressed with the knowledge that the person they were interviewing attended the party school of the Ivies. Ah, oxymoronic appellation, you have always served me well; I never had to worry about working over the summer. It was a simpler time in which US News & World Report rankings didn't matter. We were perfectly happy not being in the top 10 because we knew how arbitrary the rankings were. Now we have to worry about being number seven. That's one more piece of information making our heads hurt. Bastard administrators, you are ruining our happy world. Return us to the ignorance of adolescence. Bring back the alcohol. Let the buffalo roam free once more. Peter Young College '98 Error in judgement To the Editor: I would like to emphatically echo the sentiments expressed by College freshman Jeffrey Hill in his letter to the editor ("Sports cartoon offensive," DP, 2/27/98). As a Roman Catholic, I too, found Allan Rothstein's cartoon, which accompanied the history piece regarding the 1978 elimination of the Varsity Hockey Program ("Penn Cuts its Varsity Hockey Program," DP, 2/25/98), to be extremely offensive, and I was quite angered by the trivial usage of imagery of the crucified Jesus Christ on the cross. This image is not only one of the most powerful and sacred images, but furthermore is the defining symbol of a religion practiced by much of the world. It should be appropriately respected and not made into a mockery simply so a cartoonist can illustrate some insignificant occurence which took place 20 years ago. It is truly shameful that the editors actually allowed such overtly degrading and seemingly senseless material to be printed. I hope that this letter will show you all that the trivialization of any particular religion should not and will not be tolerated by the University community. I hope that through hindsight you realize the sheer stupidity and perfidiousness with which you made the decision to include this drawing. Lastly, I hope that you will take heed of this criticism so as to not make such egregious and offensive errors in judgement regarding the content of your usually excellent newspaper in the future -- especially when it comes to such sensetive and emotional issues. Ronald Rolph College '01