Spring Break
Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Opinion
Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor
Teaching experience
To the Editor:
I want to assuage some of your doubts about my teaching position at the University next spring semester. I can understand how my "public persona" may make me a dubious candidate for a traditional teaching position, but it is the amalgamation of my professional experiences as an actor, director, producer and guest lecturer that have given rise to this opportunity at Penn.
The deep social infusion of popular culture oftentimes robs us of the ability to dissociate fictional characters from factual ones, and I welcome the speculation your editorial invited, primarily because it implicitly brings rise to those very issues.
I obviously hope that any socially fabricated notion of "celebrity status" does not bring students into the disciplines of Cinema Studies and Asian American Studies for the wrong reasons. Instead, I hope that my professional experiences contribute a deeper understanding of the course subject matter. I very much look forward to a very engaging semester teaching at a university which is already at the forefront of the rapidly changing academic, sociological and professional spheres of Asian American Studies and Cinema.
Kalpenn Modi (Kal Penn)
The author will teach at Penn next spring
In poor taste
To the Editor:
I was shocked and disappointed by the "Out Shoutouts" section of this year's QPenn supplement in the DP. While not mentioning names, a large portion of the comments clearly targeted specific students in ways that were rude, offensive, unnecessary and completely contrary to the goals of QPenn.
Gay individuals and communities throughout the world suffer from a lack of understanding and acceptance from heterosexuals. The last thing gays need, especially during QPenn, is to show what little respect and unity they have among themselves. With body image and eating disorders as the subject of the supplement's first article, it is disgusting to then insult any student's physical characteristics in a shoutout. These comments confirm many of the negative gay stereotypes their anonymous authors likely claim to denounce.
I understand the desire for humor and inside jokes within a community. However, I think that the shoutouts' cheap laughs come with a greater price for gays, namely their sense of themselves and their already delicate standing with the larger public. It doesn't matter whether people learn the identities of the targeted individuals; making fun of body-image disorders, drug use, and sexually transmitted diseases was an inconsiderate and easily avoidable mistake that hurts the entire gay community.
Daniel Spelman
Class of 2008
To the Editor:
I want to assuage some of your doubts about my teaching position at the University next spring semester. I can understand how my "public persona" may make me a dubious candidate for a traditional teaching position, but it is the amalgamation of my professional experiences as an actor, director, producer and guest lecturer that have given rise to this opportunity at Penn.
The deep social infusion of popular culture oftentimes robs us of the ability to dissociate fictional characters from factual ones, and I welcome the speculation your editorial invited, primarily because it implicitly brings rise to those very issues.
I obviously hope that any socially fabricated notion of "celebrity status" does not bring students into the disciplines of Cinema Studies and Asian American Studies for the wrong reasons. Instead, I hope that my professional experiences contribute a deeper understanding of the course subject matter. I very much look forward to a very engaging semester teaching at a university which is already at the forefront of the rapidly changing academic, sociological and professional spheres of Asian American Studies and Cinema.
Kalpenn Modi (Kal Penn)
The author will teach at Penn next spring
In poor taste
To the Editor:
I was shocked and disappointed by the "Out Shoutouts" section of this year's QPenn supplement in the DP. While not mentioning names, a large portion of the comments clearly targeted specific students in ways that were rude, offensive, unnecessary and completely contrary to the goals of QPenn.
Gay individuals and communities throughout the world suffer from a lack of understanding and acceptance from heterosexuals. The last thing gays need, especially during QPenn, is to show what little respect and unity they have among themselves. With body image and eating disorders as the subject of the supplement's first article, it is disgusting to then insult any student's physical characteristics in a shoutout. These comments confirm many of the negative gay stereotypes their anonymous authors likely claim to denounce.
I understand the desire for humor and inside jokes within a community. However, I think that the shoutouts' cheap laughs come with a greater price for gays, namely their sense of themselves and their already delicate standing with the larger public. It doesn't matter whether people learn the identities of the targeted individuals; making fun of body-image disorders, drug use, and sexually transmitted diseases was an inconsiderate and easily avoidable mistake that hurts the entire gay community.
Daniel Spelman
Class of 2008
Viewing Comments 1 - 7 of 10
Keplerus
posted 3/30/07 @ 7:12 AM EST
"The author will teach at Penn next spring
In poor taste."
Well, you said it.
April Fools?
posted 3/30/07 @ 8:54 AM EST
Wow, this is the longest running April fools issue ever!
Philasteen
posted 3/30/07 @ 10:16 AM EST
Teehee, someone screwed up their HTML.
I think Penn is a fine choice, as he certainly writes like an academic. Look at the giant, ungainly sentences! Only in academia!
Then again, I thought he was a fine choice exactly because of th reasons he states in this letter. (Continued…)
Penn grad student
posted 3/30/07 @ 11:17 AM EST
This is BS. Penn doesn't even allow its own graduate students to teach their own classes in SAS, except for freshman writing seminars which are basically remedial high school English. (Continued…)
Faculty lecturer at top-ranked university
posted 3/30/07 @ 12:06 PM EST
The question is, how much is Kal Penn's semester contract ? Will he, in essence, donate his time along with his experience? In graduate programs it is customary for professionals to share workplace experience by teaching as a lecturer, but this is typically arranged at a very basic pay scale. (Continued…)
Student
posted 3/31/07 @ 2:18 PM EST
I can understand how my "public persona" may make me a dubious candidate for a traditional teaching position,
Why the quotation marks?
embarassed
posted 3/31/07 @ 3:21 PM EST
As a student who was singled out in the "out shoutouts" I must agree with Dan that these insults were in poor taste. This type of shallow, vindictive behavior which characterizes the gay community at Penn (or at least the gay community which revolves around the LGBT center) is precisely why I choose not to participate in the narcissistic, judgmental, and catty queer banter exhibited by these individuals. (Continued…)
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