LETTERS: Further comments on affirmative action

To the Editor: It is clear that women and people of color have always been at the economic, political and social margins in our society. However, there is a documented evidence that is statistically based on how affirmative action has not only created opportunities but provided a helpful and needed boost that had been structurally denied to women and people of color before its passage. Affirmative action is a program I wholeheartedly embrace because it is consistent with the Christian moral ethic. What moral ethic is Fiore using? Beverly Dale Executive Director Christian Association To the Editor: In response to Mark Fiore's column, I would like to extend his Russian Roulette analogy to America's minorities. They, like Fiore's hapless white victim of affirmative action, were also at the mercy of chance when they were assigned their place in life. Our history has been characterized by a hierarchy of race in which all non-white-Anglo-Protestant groups, not only African Americans and Native Americans, have been reduced to second-class citizens. While I know very little about the legality of the issue, it seems logical that laws are made to follow the morality of the people, not vice versa. For Fiore to question the morality of affirmative action is absolutely wrong. In fact, the United States bears a moral obligation to make reparations for the way it has treated minorities throughout its history. Instead of fighting affirmative action, Fiore's "societal outrage" should be the force behind a movement to make amends for America's history of racial crimes. The more steps we make towards the egalitarian American dream, the sooner we will be able to move beyond this shameful period in our nation's history. Daniel Shu College '02 Graduate housing To the Editor: While I like the concept of developing the old GE building on 31st and Walnut streets as a luxury apartment complex, I also think that it highlights a fundamental miscalculation on the part of the administration as to how to rejuvenate this area. I strongly believe that the University made a tremendous strategic and symbolic mistake when it decided that a hotel at Sansom Common was more important and appropriate than new and better graduate housing. A modern apartment building of the 2400 Chestnut style, perhaps even run by a private real estate concern, would have been the crowning addition to the Sansom Common project. My frustrations with the current facilities are further exacerbated by what I feel is an inconsistent and misdirected policy on the part of the University administration towards housing. I have heard much of plans to make West Philadelphia the place to live and bringing professors and students back here. But I have heard of no definitive plans to give graduate and professional students the kind of housing that is appropriate for them. Perhaps 25 years ago the two-bedroom apartments of the Grad Towers were acceptable, but today most of my friends find them not to be so, especially when compared to what is available elsewhere. And attempts to bring graduate students back when no good, new options are provided is the same as pushing them away. Evan Fieldston Medical School '02 Statistical qualms To the Editor: When the DP features statistical data, such as the Wednesday's front page article entitled "Greek GPAs higher than U. student average," (DP, 2/10/98), more rigor should be used in interpretation.EAs presented, the article is misleading; at worst, the headline and conclusions may be in the opposite direction from truth. Is there is a statistically significant difference between the Greek and non-Greek averages, 3.28 and 3.24, respectively? The article does not address this issue. Even if the difference in GPAs is statistically significant, there is no practical significance to a .04 GPA difference, which belies the headline and conclusions of the article. Eric Eisenstein Wharton and Engineering '93 Wharton Doctoral Candidate