Celeste Marcus

If some of us graduate with a commitment to humanistic values and a respect for other cultures, it is despite Penn’s ethos, not because of it.

Pressure to prove that we are a profitable connection, that we may be useful to know, is ubiquitous. We commodify ourselves, our friends, even our families.

College students, whether they are secular or religious, are religious. That is, they have dogmas, cults, temples, scriptures, prooftexts, prophets, methods of absolution, and methods of excommunication.