EDITORIAL & OPINION: Affirmative action corrects real problems

To the Editor: The answer is, it doesn't. As far as admissions decisions are concerned, being in a minority means that you have most likely had to face many more obstacles than one who is not in a minority. It means that growing up, you probably were denied basic privileges due to the fact that you, and your parents, were not members of the traditionally privileged class/race. It means that the standardized tests you took for college admissions -- namely, the SATs -- contained questions that were slanted in favor of those from a predominantly white, middle-class background, and that, therefore, you were on unequal ground from the start. Affirmative action does not ask colleges and companies to accept a less-qualified applicant based on skin color. It merely requests the consideration that all merits being equal, the applicant who has had to fight many more uphill battles to achieve his/her current status should be more favorably considered. Dara Lovitz College '00 To the Editor: While I support free speech wholeheartedly, I think that most of the Penn community and I will agree that Mark Fiore's last two columns, one bashing affirmative action and the other decrying Penn's support of public education, verge on sheer intolerant stupidity. I am disappointed in the DP for giving him a forum for expressing his ignorant, offensive and uninformed opinions. Farrah Parkes College '00 Play ball in U. City To the Editor: Was anyone else a bit surprised of Penn's announcement this past week to revamp the "eastern gateway" to campus? In the same week when word came from Harrisburg that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania would aid financially in building stadiums for both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Philadelphia Phillies, the plan's biggest adversary, the University of Pennsylvania, announced its blueprint to interfere. President Rodin, Executive Vice President Fry, and Mr. Dranoff, do you not realize that the addition of a professional baseball stadium to University City would be a much more grand scale revitalization project for the community as a whole than any apartment building? The luxury apartment building and its retailers would most likely host those only affiliated with the University, while a new baseball stadium will bring the campus of Penn in direct contact with the entire Philadelphia community. I would also offer this question: what is more beneficial to student life, apartments that most of us can't afford or a ball game that has $15 seats and our country's national pastime. Jeremy Cohen Engineering '99