COLUMN: The 'DP': Black and white and read all over

From Kent Malmros', "Everything Old is New Again," Fall '99 From Kent Malmros', "Everything Old is New Again," Fall '99A year ago, I sat at what was then my new desk inside the Daily Pennsylvanian building with only time and ambition leading me into my term as executive editor of the newspaper. I read the names carefully, and quietly. Michael Mugmon. Eric Goldstein. Adam Mark. Charlie Ornstein. Jordana Horn. Stephen Glass. Matthew B. Klein. Helen Jung. Brent Mitchell. Greg Stone. Knowing the recent history of the DP, I felt honored to be in the same company with all of these people (with the understood exception of Glass, who tarnished the name of journalistic ethics forever). But that sense of excitement and pride quickly faded into another set of emotions that I couldn't identify immediately. As I stared at the pieces of paper, I realized they stood for something else. I was the first non-Jewish editor in five years. And I was the ninth male executive editor in the last 11 years. Minorities? Helen Jung happened to be Asian American, but many wouldn't consider Asian-American students underrepresented at this school. I was dumbfounded. Hadn't I just been elected the executive editor of the independent student newspaper of the University of Pennsylvania? One that represents the highest standards of college journalism in the country? One that represents the student body at Penn to some degree? Where was the diversity? Some might say, well, that is only one position at the newspaper. Surely, there is better representation on the editorial and business boards. Nope. You can even take a look at our columnists. We do not have one columnist of African-American or Latino descent. Members of those minority groups didn't even apply. And for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why. We don't actively recruit anybody. Every semester, we have a meeting open to any Penn student interested in walking through our doors at 4015 Walnut Street. But only certain people come and subsequently stay. But the minute I set my eyes on those business cards, I realized that one of my primary missions for the upcoming year was to try and change that. In my mind, we could not claim that our product represented the Penn student body when our staff and our columnists didn't truly represent all of the cultures at Penn. I spent the better part of my first few months meeting with a vast array of student leaders and administrators at Penn, trying to understand where the DP stood in everyone's eyes. Out of these questions came conversations with people like former United Minorities Council Chairperson Chaz Howard. Together, we spoke of ways to try and escape social stigmas attached to the DP, and, for that matter, the student body at Penn. He offered suggestions, potential solutions and friendship. From this effort came meetings with other minority leaders and students. And the numbers aren't really any better than they were when I began. Frankly, I am not sure why I felt I could make a difference. We aren't talking about a Penn-specific or DP-specific problem. Minority recruitment and retention plague professional journalistic ranks as well. Executives of very large metropolitan dailies are being paid exorbitant sums of money to solve this problem. I quickly found out that this problem was not something one man could change in a matter of months. But the effort gave me greater faith in the process. I thought I could go out and bring diversity to the DP. What I got instead was a real beginning to the changes I envisioned. Speaking in brutally honest terms about race with Chaz over a beer, or former BIG-C President Ramon Marmolejos on Locust Walk late at night, I can honestly say I know that change starts with reaching out to people. It's amazing how genuine love for other people is as colorless as the tears that such emotions produce. You can't report on a culture if you don't understand it; and you certainly can't understand a culture if you don't speak to those who embody it. As an organization aiming to distribute knowledge to the entirety of the Penn community, we cannot do our duty without forming an unbiased presentation of all walks of life at Penn. The past year has been one devoid of great conflict with any group. There has been no "water buffalo" incident to spike my interest in the DP's relationship with the minority community. But, while relations may be better than they were in 1993, this past year has changed my view on what "better" means. As I end my tenure at the DP, I leave my successor with a continued challenge -- one that I would love to have another year to tackle. The DP needs to try harder than everyone else to break the mold, because we are fortunate enough to be the information source for the student body. But let me also end with this -- come to us. The road to knowledge runs in both directions. And we need some help getting our car started.