LETTERS: Wednesday, November 10, 1999

Just say hiJust say hiTo the Editor: Penn does not need to get more local residents to campus, as another recent column suggested. In fact, Penn has more non-student employees than it does students. If students and employees made the effort to talk to each other more, students would not continue to write about town-gown relations year after year in the DP. I grew up in West Philadelphia and I graduated from the College in May. Some of the most interesting people I met at Penn were through my work-study jobs and through talking to my dorm security guards. Many of them lived within a few blocks of where I grew up. As Kim points out, it is not the responsibility of the University to make people interact, it is in the hands of the students, local residents and employees. The University has already created an environment that brings together a large diversity of people. Students especially need to open their eyes a little bit more and realize that the campus consists of more than just them. Paul Christner College '99 Don't pigeonhole me To the Editor: There lies an even deeper flaw in the reasoning for an Asian-American Resource Center beyond the center's vagueness of purpose and ambiguity of benefits ("Centers for students bring bad with good," DP, 11/3/99). Instead of empowering the Asian-American community, instead of equipping Asians with the tools they need to succeed in America, it would reinforce the tired and dangerous idea of "minority as victim," of "us vs. them." The truth is the Asian leadership on campus is fighting a phantom enemy, railing against discrimination that does not exist. And to combat this enemy they are demanding their own parcel of land around which to rally, a resource center with a fuzzy mission. As an Asian American, I refuse to believe that I am a victim. I refuse to believe that my situation is so drastically different from others that I need a race-specific resource center. I refuse to believe that the problems I have are direct results from an oppressive administration that "ignores" me. And I refuse to believe that I live in a milieu of disadvantage, that there is something so wrong about my condition that makes me unable to deal with these problems myself. It is time to stop fighting for the sake of fighting, to stop drawing lines that separate people from others and start embracing a university and a society that belongs not to the "white man" but to all of us. Alex Wong College '02 Get excited! To the Editor: The Penn women's soccer team did something they've never done before in their nine years of existence. They earned a berth in the NCAA National Tournament -- a tournament that women like Mia Hamm, Tiffany Milbrett and Brandi Chastain have all played in. Penn can proudly say that they are one of the top 48 teams in the country! The kicker here, ladies and gentlemen, is that I don't know how the University of Pennsylvania as a community is reacting to this whole thing. Basketball made it this spring and the whole school rallied behind them only to see them fall in the first round. The football team last year won the Ivy League and we acted like we just saved the world from total annihilation or something. That's far from a National Championship, my friends. The women's soccer team is six games away from a national championship! Granted, these six games may be the toughest six games they've had in nine years, but the team is young enough and strong enough to believe they can do it. Do you believe? Do you care? Instead of showing apathy towards women's soccer here, or women's sports in general, for a few days, or maybe a few weeks, can we show some school spirit and some support for one of the more lovable teams on campus? If you know anyone on the team, or even if you just know them by their face, tell them congratulations and good luck! They gotta believe and we gotta believe, too, and back them 100 percent! Good luck, ladies! Go Quakers! Jennifer Moore College '02 Lots of careers To the Editor: We agree strongly with Melissa Wong that all of us at Penn have both a responsibility and an opportunity to challenge "the negativity and concerns surrounding liberal arts majors" ("Things you know nothing about," DP, 11/8/99). That's why those of us in Career Services who work with liberal arts students have offered virtually weekly workshops this semester focusing on a gamut of career options including entertainment, publishing and communications, alternatives to medical school, non-profit careers, international internships and private school teaching, among others. Our graduate and professional school advisors have sponsored programs and hosted representatives from graduate schools ranging beyond law and medicine, including theology, clinical psychology, international affairs, social work, public health and public policy. Through JobTrak and InternCenter.com, we list over 16,000 jobs and internships in fields ranging from astrophysics research to production assistant. Liberal arts students graduate to jobs in over 40 different industries, and we have resources and alumni contacts to encourage and support exploration of all fields. Check out our World Wide Web page: http://www.upenn.edu/careerservices. You'll be delighted by the breadth of information and resources we have to help liberal arts students find their niche -- and it needn't be "consulting." Peggy Curchack Associate Director Career Services Where's Jerry? To the Editor: I have to take issue with "The All-Century Penn Football Team" (DP, 11/6/99). How you could list five coaches and make no mention at all of Jerry Berndt is beyond me. Lest the current generation has forgotten, Jerry garnered our Ivy Championships in 1982 through 1985 and built the team that went 10-0 in 1986. Jerry made Penn football fun to attend; most of my classmates made a point to get seats before kickoff and rarely left before the end of the game. Derek Ho Engineering '87