Letters to the Editor

To teach and to learn

To the Editor:

As I reflect on the "teach-in" offered by the School of Social Work on Martin Luther King Day, I wish to ask something of the Penn faculty.

The experience was one of inspiration. It was education in its truest form. And while the presenters' lectures were informative and thought provoking, it was after the program ended that another type of educational experience began.

A couple of presenters lingered behind to talk to the attendees. Eager ears encircled the respected elders, absorbing information, experiences and perspectives. It was a time to ask questions and to assimilate information into our being. That which was old is new again. The next generation of Penn alumni had a taste of something from the past -- the "teach-in" revived.

Somehow, this revival in approach, corresponding with the commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr., seems not a coincidence but a fulfillment of the educational dream.

We are yet another generation of students. I ask the faculty to open their minds to us so that we can learn from their experience, their battles and their victories. Let us absorb, assimilate and challenge your knowledge. Encourage us to exercise our minds, to stretch the limits of our capabilities.

I thank those who were willing to spend time with us and engage in an interactive education.

And I hope that this experience is only the first, that the concept of the "teach-in" will replicate.

Janet Howard

School of Social Work '04

The untold story To the Editor:

I have been very disappointed by The Daily Pennsylvanian's coverage of the unionization issue.

Recently, I was shocked to learn some facts about the process in which all graduate students, knowingly or not, are involved and some of the consequences that unionization will have on Penn's graduate student population.

As a current graduate student and TA, I want to know the validity of Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania's claims. I want to know that, should the National Labor Relations Board permit a vote to be called, not voting will count as a vote affirming unionization. I want to know that if we organize, we may be grouped with Temple students (who have very different needs) into one collective bargaining unit. In short, I want to hear both sides of the unionization issue and know what the alternatives are -- and The Daily Pennsylvanian, as a campus newspaper, is the first place that I turn in order to hear them.

I would like to see fair coverage of the arguments against the issue of unionization, especially since it affects such a large portion of Penn's student body. It is time the DP stops giving GET-UP free advertising by covering unionization as a movement and begins functioning as a news source by critically covering unionization as an issue, one that should be debated. It troubles me reading front-page articles about GET-UP's most recent activities and endorsements -- articles that merely publicize GET-UP and lack substantive information and dialogue about the issue and what it will mean to me as a grauate student at Penn.

Jeffrey Graves

Religious Studies Ph.D. student

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