LETTERS: Punishing the students who broke into Stouffer

To the Editor: Unless the administration is willing to tolerate a double standard with regard to criminal activity perpetrated by University students, I urge that campus police pursue these criminals with the same vigor that they would if the suspects were not University-affiliated. John Pui Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine u To the Editor: I am a listener. That is what I do, I listen. As a staff member, I am forced to listen to students denigrate the University system. As a long-standing community member of University City, I am forced to listen to students complain about the "dangers" of our area and how threatened they feel. And as a fellow student, I am forced to listen to students with their trite complaints about absolutely everything. I listen and I listen until I see something which forces me to stop listening and to start yelling. That happened last week. I opened The Daily Pennsylvania to see the "wonderful" story of 50 students who decided that they had the right to enter a Dining Services building and help themselves to whatever they desired. I ask myself, "Are these students representative of the Ivy League?" Not only did these students steal and vandalize "our" property, but they lowered the value of our education. When they were asked about their actions their reply was: "It's pathetic, irresponsible and rather sad that [Dining staffers] left the place open." I guess Penn is where they learned that it's OK to simply enter an unlocked building late at night, steal and destroy what is inside and leave the mess for a hardworking staff member to clean later. Remind me not to take any logic classes that these idiots may have been in. I would like to submit an idea to any disciplinary board that may be considering action against these students: Identify the five students who appear in the DP photograph, make a public example of them and expel them immediately. That's right, throw them out of school and never let them return. Many of you out there may think, "That's a bit harsh; after all, they're just students." But if this incident had occurred in a public high school in North Philadelphia, every one of those kids would at least be spending time in jail tonight. I guess this just goes to show that if you have rich parents, you can do whatever you want -- including commit felony crimes. If expulsion is not a possibility, how about making the idiots work for Dining Services for the remainder of their time at Penn with no pay and over holidays and summer breaks? Maybe then they would appreciate what it means to "earn your way" through Penn and more importantly what it means to work. But alas, I am sure they will be let off, someday graduating and probably landing juicy jobs as investment bankers or management consultants. Thank for your time. I am done yelling now. Thomas Justice Dental School Staff Univ. City Community Member CGS '01 Un'brother'ly speech To the Editor: Regarding the likelihood that "Brother Stephen" could soon find himself arrested by Penn's police ("Campus preacher arrested in N.J.," DP, 10/21/98), the time is now. Last week, I heard the following message screamed by this crazed hatemongerer (the implicit acceptance of whom should not be engendered by use of the term "Brother"): "Women dress modestly. If you don't dress modestly, don't come crying to me when you're raped. When you dress the way you do, you wear a sign that says, 'Rape me, rape me, rape me.' " This is fanatical speech that at the very least is disrupting classes, but at the worst inciting violence. Hate speech that excuses if not propagates violence against women, gay men and non-Christians should not be tolerated on Penn property. This type of speech is no different than if a klansman were shouting racial slurs and threats at people of color while they walked across College Green. If the Penn director of police operations needs an image to inspire her actions, picture a Penn version of Matthew Shephard hanging, brutally murdered from the peace sign next to Van Pelt Library. William Holmes Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics On affirmative action To the Editor: Malik Wilson's column "Rethinking affirmative action" (DP, 10/15/98) is a brilliant look at the hypocrisy of white students who gain entry to prestigious universities through means of favoritism yet decry affirmative action policies for minorities. However, Wilson's statement that, "Simply by being white and being here, you are a product of the system" struck me as being incredibly inaccurate, racist and even hurtful. I fail to see where I and hundreds of other white Penn students like me ever benefited from the "system" Wilson describes. First of all, I did not attend "Exeter or Andover," but rather a public school in which whites did not make up the majority of the student body. I am not from "Hawaii, Wyoming, Louisiana, Utah, Missouri, Michigan or the like," but rather California, which would still be well-represented at Penn if I were not here. No one in my family attended Penn. And my being here is not a result of "power and privilege," but rather the generosity of the financial aid office, which has enabled me to receive a first-class education through a combination of grants, loans and work-study. I am here because I was able to convince the admissions board that I would make a valuable addition to their school -- no more, no less. I, too, look forward to the day when all university students consider the need for a strong minority community at their school as much of an afterthought as having students from all 50 states. But I do not think this goal can be accomplished by driving a wedge between minorities and whites, especially when a great deal of whites lie closer to Wilson in their ideals than to the hypocrites he so accurately depicts. Robert Rutkin College '00