Your Voice | Letters to the Editor

Just playing the game

To the Editor:

As a prospective Freshman Class Board member, I was disheartened by The Daily Pennsylvanian’s critical freshman campaign editorial. Posting rules and candidate quantity, coupled with an inability to personally know many voters (a reality unrelated to election date), creates a need for creative campaign methods; only through “buzz” will we become known.

The DP does voters and candidates a disservice by failing to distinguish between Undergraduate Assembly and Class Board, highlighting a common mistake caused by the Nominations and Elections Committee’s failure to provide adequate information for them. UA candidates should certainly put forth some potential ideas and changes, but the Class Board is about social planning. Who would YOU want planning your freshman formal or Hey Day — someone overly serious or creative and bold? Creative ads display an ability to creatively finance bold class events with minimal finances.

The editor writes: “We hope you take your job with more seriousness than is displayed in your campaigns.” Obtaining 200-plus signatures? Scripting videos, writing raps, making posters, distributing flyers and working withing a $50 budget? Sounds “serious” to me.

Hey, DP: “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

Josh Dembowitz

The author is a College freshman

Participate in Pell Week of Action

To the Editor:

The skyrocketing cost of college has put higher education out of reach for too many talented young people. According to a report from the nonpartisan Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, poor and working-class families in Pennsylvania must devote 61 percent of their income — even after financial aid — to pay for costs at public four-year colleges.

To address this problem, the U.S. House passed the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. The bill increases the Pell grant and invests in community colleges and minority serving institutions, ensuring that more young people can attend college.

Now, as the Senate prepares to take up the bill, bank lobbyists are attempting to kill this common sense reform. To push back, Campus Progress and others are encouraging young people to call, fax, and tweet their senators in support of college affordability and student loan reform as part of “Raising Pell Week of Action.” Penn students should get involved, and ask Senators Specter and Casey to support the needs of students at this critical time. We encourage students to visit studentsoverbanks.org to find out more and get involved.

Peter Laumann

The author is a Law student

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