Letters to the Editor

Penn's financial failure

To the Editor:

Recent reports regading the University's endowment are extremely troubling. In the past two-and-a-half years, Penn's endowment has, in fact, not grown at all. (After inflation, it may have shrunk.) This may be the single worst performance of any major university endowment during what was a once-in-a-lifetime economic boom.

Penn's peer institutions grew their endowments anywhere from roughly 30 percent to 50 percent in the same period. A 30 percent growth of Penn's endowment in the same period would have meant over $1 billion in new assets, which in turn could have funded tens of millions of dollars in areas such as student financial aid, new faculty hires and new building projects. Why no one important has been reprimanded for this pathetic performance is beyond comprehension. (Isn't there someone from Wharton who can help?)

More troubling are the obvious efforts to paper over the problem. It is astonishing that last weekend's investment board report to the University Board of Trustess announced a "reversal of misfortune," which in reality constituted a meager 6 percent growth for Fiscal Year 2001. Days later, we learned that the endowment's great, single digit victory over the 2001 benchmark was lost only three months after it was achieved.

Money does make a difference. The Penn community and its administrators must break this cycle of denial and reverse these pathetic financial returns. If they do not begin to do so immediately, the compounding problem will begin to price Penn out of elite competition in the coming decade or two.

That would be a shame given the recent improvements in undergraduate admissions, faculty recruiting and various other areas of Penn administration.

John Nemec

Religious Studies Ph.D. student

An unfair characterization To the Editor:

I would like to express my frustration with Lauren Bialystok's recent column ("In search of the new Germany," The Daily Pennsylvanian, 11/6/01), in which she casually stated that she felt "expelled from the [Jewish] community" for not choosing to study abroad in Israel. This is an extreme disservice to Penn's Jewish students, who last year studied abroad in England, Ireland, France, the Czech Republic, Spain, Australia, Israel and many other countries.

I am very sorry if Bialystok felt excluded or that her decision was met with skepticism; indeed, I am sure that she is correct in many respects about North American Jews' bias towards Germany. However, her own insecurities about her place within the community should not lead to overt generalizations about that community's, in her view, narrowmindedness.

Like many others, Jewish students are encouraged by peers, family and the community to spend time abroad wherever they wish. While spending time in Israel is highly encouraged by the Jewish community, it is not a "commandment." Of the several hundred Penn students who studied abroad last year, in the spring semester only four of those students were in Israel.

Bialystok should remember that her own experiences and perspectives do not always translate into truths on a larger scale. The point here is that she made unwarranted and unnecessary generalizations that portray an inaccurate picture of the Jewish community's attitudes towards study abroad.

Liz Rutzick

College '02

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.