It has gone on colossal building binges, ripping up whole neighborhoods like some crazed Eastern European dictator, displacing residents and businesses for its own high-minded imperial aims. Its undergraduates leave trash all over the sidewalk and hold drunken parties until the small hours, smug in the knowledge that they will be treated gently by police. And it has sometimes shown an aloof insensitivity to residential groups who want to be kept informed of plans that will affect their neighborhood. As a result, it has become the institution its neighbors love to hate. Which is a terrific opportunity now for Penn, to my mind.
Every time there's a disaster, there's also an opportunity.
And that's what Penn has to do. If it doesn't do that, we might as well start talking about Valley Forge again.