Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Sol Jung A Penn couple shares a special moment emerging from the Button statue on College Green. [Click to enlarge]

Today is the day to think about love.

But this Valentine's Day, some social scholars are taking a new perspective: they want to know what love means and where traditional notions of it have gone, especially on college campuses.

What is love at Penn? Hard to define, if anything. Relationships on campus run the gamut, from hooking up to dating to long-term commitment.

"I think we need to be very wary about media-driven over-simplifications," Felicity Paxton, an English, Communications and Women's Studies professor, wrote in an e-mail. She also serves as the assistant director of the Women's Center.

From her experience as the faculty fellow at Stouffer College House, Paxton wrote she has learned that "you can't generalize."

"I know Penn students who've been in happy, egalitarian, monogamous pairings since freshman year. I know students who've yet to go on a date and are just fine with this. I know students who are deeply concerned about finding a mate. I know female students who find casual sex profoundly liberating and others who find it soul-destroying. And I know students for whom romantic relationships are far less crucial than the impressively close bonds they maintain with hallmates and friends. Do we have a trend here? I'm not so sure," she wrote.

For College sophomore Tim Buchmiller, going out is about putting forth the least effort in order to release the most stress, an equation that doesn't lend itself to traditional dating.

"We're always so busy and the downtimes we do have we just want to relax," he said.

"There's obviously a lot of stress going out with a girl on a date - you have to dress up, make sure you don't say anything stupid during dinner, be on top of your game," he explained. " When I have time to let loose, I'd rather just hang out with my buddies and hope that the stuff we do is going to involve girls."

According to Buchmiller, the "hanging out" formula can still lead to a relationship.

Continued...

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