Forum explores social apathy on Penn's campus

On the day when hundreds of students gathered on College Green to protest the University's new alcohol policies, a small group held a "coffee talk" at Civic House aptly titled, "Why Penn Students Don't Give a Shit About Anything Important." But in contrast to the large rally, only about 10 students convened Tuesday night to discuss the general feeling of apathy on Penn's campus toward social and political issues. The group collectively pointed to a variety of reasons that may contribute to the difficulty in mobilizing students to help create positive changes in their community. College junior Marc Lener, president of Check One -- a multicultural campus group -- said he can empathize with students who do not do service work, for he himself did not explore such opportunities during his first two years at Penn. "I feel [the students] at Penn are so career oriented? that service doesn't fit in with their goals," Lener said. "You're adapting to a different way of life and service gets put on the back burner." Students also cited the general mood of contemporary society as a cause of apathy toward social issues. "It's kind of the times," Engineering freshman Anju Mathew commented. "It's not isolated at Penn. It's the generation and the world." Another student expounded on this theory, saying "the idea of being a community in our society is not larger than the basic unit of individual and family." Still, many of those present lamented the lack of enthusiasm for the community here on campus. "One of the first things you notice when you come here is that the students don't really care about a lot," College freshman Alisa Valderrama said. "I think it's really sad that there's not a lot of political activism." Conversely, the group generally agreed that to simply say no one at Penn cares about important issues would be erroneous. "There's a small core group of people that actually care about what goes on around them," Lener said. Valderrama agreed, adding, "If you talk to someone on a person to person basis, you find people care about things." The conversation eventually turned to the large turnout at Tuesday's rally against the temporary ban on alcohol at all registered undergraduate events. One student underlined the importance of the fact that the ban directly affects students and therefore is more likely to cause them to react quickly. Michelle Weinberg, a College senior and Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, noted the alcohol issue's importance in students' minds. "People didn't even want to look at other issues under the same premise of students not being consulted," she said, citing issues such as the University's investments, food truck dislocation and whether University apparel is made using sweatshop labor. While expressing disappointment that alcohol was more inspiring than other social issues, Mathew felt that the rally could have some positive effects in creating more general activism on campus. "There are a lot of things in this world that we wish people would get pumped up about and if this is a stepping stone," that would be good.

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