Citizen creator, climate skeptic, letters on letters.
Praise for SNF Paideia’s Howard
I am writing to say amidst today’s turbulent and dispiriting news it made me hit an upper and feel so darned proud of Penn to read about Lia Howard, the student advising and wellness director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program [“Creating Civil Citizens,” May|Jun 2024]. The program is bringing all disciplines, students, and faculty, at Penn into dialogue, civic engagement, and wellness to foster a community of civil conversation, and civic engagement which is eased with understanding. All so important, I write to say, in these sadly divisive and exclusionary and fake-truth times. It takes sparkplugs such as Lia to fire up and focus the good energy. Good for her and good for Penn.
Singular times require special people.
Stan Heuisler W’67, Baltimore
Stunned, But Not by the Heat
In the article “Slow Burn” [“Gazetteer,” May|Jun 2024] R. Jisung Park noted that he and his fellow researchers have “found that student performance on tests suffers when exams are held on a 90-degree day in a building without air conditioning.”
I was stunned when I read this.
My thoughts were swept back to my own childhood in Lincoln, Nebraska, where our only air conditioning was in department stores and movie theaters, and where final exams at the ends of school years were taken in hot buildings without air conditioning. And then I continued back in time to stories told by my parents of their learning in one-room schoolhouses in which they froze during winter months and parboiled as the school years ended.
How did I survive? How did they survive? How did American civilization grow and prosper and survive?
Stuart J. Mahlin WG’65, Cincinnati
Failed on All Counts
Regarding the article, “On Jews and the University” [“Gazetteer,” May|Jun 2024] reporting on “three takeaways from the Katz Center’s virtual series on ‘Antisemitism, Admissions, Academic Freedom,’” I believe you have miserably failed in the three subjects.
Antisemitism—the article starts by saying “In the wake of last fall’s controversies over allegations of antisemitism and campus protests over the Israel–Hamas war at Penn and other universities …”
Allegations? It is a fact, very evident, whose only purpose is to denigrate the State of Israel and create anti-Jewish sentiment.
Admissions—You stated that antisemitic quotas on student admissions were embraced by “Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (but not Penn, let it be noted).”
With that, the implication is that Penn is “off the hook” on its terrible mismanagement of the recent protests on campus.
Academic freedom—There is no mention that Penn could not decide on the difference between free speech and hateful inflammatory speech!
Putting all that as the only article in your magazine about what Jewish students are facing today in the universities? I believe that your editorial staff is hiding in shame behind a few of the quotes of Pamela S. Nadell.
Sevi Avigdor, parent, Rumson, NJ
Unpredictable Challenge
I am a graduate of the Veterinary School, and I enjoy reading the Pennsylvania Gazette.
In “The Future Is Unpredictable,” Penn Interim President J. Larry Jameson writes about the future and having a plan to deal with the unpredictable challenges that might arise [“From College Hall,” May|Jun 2024].
To me the single most crucial and unpredictable challenge is whether humans will learn to curb our appetites for Earth’s finite resources voluntarily, or if we will continue our collective irresponsible consumption past the tipping point and destroy ourselves at the same time that we destroy the environment that we depend on.
I try to imagine a world in which a majority of people want to do what’s best for the planet rather than what’s best for themselves as individuals or even as (human) families. After all, no human family can survive without an intact environment.
Just a thought for what it’s worth.
Barbara Corson V’89, Dauphin, PA
Be Careful What You Wish For
In “Affirmative Action for Conservatives Needed,” Vincent DeLorenzo longs for the days when conservative opinion was a valued part of campus discourse [“Letters,” May|Jun 2024]. This feeling was the driving force when a donor at the University of Colorado established the Visiting Scholars in Conservative Thought and Policy endowment 10 years ago. The visiting scholar for academic year 2020–2021 was law professor John Eastman. I rest my case.
Robert Pane, parent, Boulder, CO
Pendulum Swing Back to Center
Kudos to Mr. DeLorenzo for his letter. I could not have said it better. The faculty statistics he mentions are absolutely shocking. It’s time for the pendulum to swing back to center not only at Penn but at all American universities.
Richard T. Harvey WEv’80, Fort Myers, FL
Excellent Letters
I read the excellent letters to the editor in the May|Jun 2024 issue. Please accept our profound gratitude for publishing letters that may be controversial but accurately reflect the opinions of countless alumni regarding Penn’s focus on DEI and political correctness in lieu of academic accomplishment. Thank you for giving your fellow alumni hope!
Elizabeth Wilkins WG’86, David Wilkins V’86, John Wilkins W’23, Wilmington, DE
Questioning Interviews
For over a decade I have looked forward to doing alumni interviews. I have enjoyed meeting and interacting with 17-year-olds, an age group I rarely encounter. This year, the report on prospective applicants interviewed dropped the Overall Assessment question. I contacted the admissions office and was told that the new purpose for alumni contacting students is not to interview, but to just represent Penn to applicants.
Frankly the applicants know more about Penn than I do. They know which groups they want to join, sometimes even which professors they hope to study with. It is all online. I feel it is hard for me to be an “Ambassador” for Penn, but I can have a nice chat and learn about the applicant’s personality and accomplishments and convey that to admissions.
Reading your interview with Admissions Dean Whitney Soule [“Admissions in Transition,” Mar|Apr 2024], I did not get any indication of the benefit to alumni “interviews.” If the purpose is to simply involve alumni with the University, I can think of better ways to do that and better ways for us to spend our volunteer time.
Harlan Levinson W’80, Los Angeles
