EDITORIAL

Penn students taking a stand by sitting down

We would like to take this opportunity to commend the students at the University of Pennsylvania who staged the sit-in in the president of the university's office. The commitment and fortitude exhibited by the students are examples of the qualities for which we look in leaders.

It may be hard to believe that students at one of the top schools in the United States, an Ivy League University no less, would take notice of the plight of third-world workers, much less stage a sit-in that escalated into a fast of solidarity.

But for the 30 students who sat in President Rodin's office, there are some things that are more important than attending class and looking for the right internship.

For as many supporters the sit-in gathered, there were as many others who did not care to empathize in their cause. Unsympathetic friends and other disinterested students left the protesters no choice but to term the student body at Penn as "apathetic." Sound familiar?

Apathetic is the word that many use to describe today's college students and other members of Generations X and Y. We wonder, however, if apathetic is the appropriate word to describe today's college students. Could it be that we are really just not aware?

College is the time when so many young people choose to ignore the "real" world, comfortable in • their world of textbooks and term papers. It is easy to become absorbed in our own responsibilities to professors' deadlines, forgetting that as the fortunate few, we have a larger social responsibility.

So we thank the protesting students at the University of Pennsylvania for proving our generation is capable of taking on an important social issue . .J

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Complaint About The Phone Service

this and I'm willing to bet that this hasn't crossed many people's minds for some time now.

The only reason why I'm bringing this up is because it is annoying when we can't know if someone is trying to "beep in" and we have to keep the phone free in case someone calls. If we all had call waiting then it wouldn't be a big deal. If someone is on the just say that someone beeped in for them. It's pretty much the equivalent of leaving a message on a board for someone. The only difference is that we can still use the phone without worry. pany stays in business. I know there's more to life than call waiting, but we're college students. We all use the phone, and I'm sure there are people who consider themselves "phone hogs." I know I do, and I don't just mean talking on the phone. I'm talking about the Internet as well. I would get the Ethernet card, but the laptop I have is too old, so I have no choice but to take up the phone line while I'm chatting the night away with my boyfriend on the net.

When I found out that it was phone and someone else calls for you or a roommate, then we could my turn to write this week's viewpoint, I thought to myself, "Oh great, another chance for me to complain." That's not what I am writing about. Instead, I just have a question.

Why is it that we don't have call waiting in the dorm rooms on campus? It's fine that if someone is on the phone that the voice mail will go on, but why is it that some college campuses such as West Chester University and Marywood University have it and we don't? Are they just luckier than us?

I know the voicemail is fine for leaving messages and it is. I don't want to sound ungrateful or anything, but what's wrong with having call waiting? We pay about $20,000 to attend this school, shouldn't we have if not the best then close to it? I don't think that is too much to ask.

In my introduction, I pretty much said that I wasn't writing a complaint. I know it sounds like I'm contradicting myself, but I'm really not. It's not like when I wrote my viewpoint about parking. That was complaining. This is just me asking a simple question as to why we don't have the same luxury as other schools when it comes to call waiting. I am in a completely calm frame of mind. I would just like an answer to a question, that's all.

Is there actually a logical explanation as to why we're not given this "luxury" that most of us have when we're at borne? I'm sure that we have all gotten used to esty, I don't know how this com-

The answer probably lies with the phone company that we have, which is STC Services. In all hon-

Cynthia Taura is the copy editor of Loquitur. She actually was in a calm frame of mind when she wrote this. We all enjoyed the break.