THERE WAS NO ONE around the campus of the University of Pennsylvania who reacted very favorably to a flattering article that appeared in the March 3 issue of The Hockey News. The story, whose headline read: "Maturing Quakers Delighting Finke; Penn Building for Future," amplified an already frustrating situation.

The bitter irony of an article about the hockey team's prospects, written just before the Pennsylvania administration announced the termination of the varsity program at the university, compounded the bitterness and disappointment of team members and supporters. The elimination of hockey, along with the announced cancellation of professional theater at the Annenberg Center, formed the emotional basis for what developed into a monumental four-day sit-in at the Philadelphia campus.

At the crux of the sit-in, which involved more than 600 students for an 87-hour stretch, was student outrage over the administration's tendency to make decisions with what students described as a "lack of regard for the opinions of the rest of the university community."

The administration made the hockey and theater cuts, along with other budget-trimming measures, without consulting the people involved in the affected programs. Hockey coach Bob Finke, who learned that his team had been eliminated only after reading a story in The Daily Pennsylvanian, characterized the feelings of many when he said, "The decision, you've gotta accept that. The thing I'm bitter about is how the decision was relayed to me and the kids."

Cuts were unavoidable; Pennsylvania was facing severe financial difficulties. The administration trimmed $880,000 off its 1978-79 budget in the round of cuts that were announced February 24, According to Jon C. Strauss, budget director at Pennsylvania, the university was facing a deficit of nearly $6 million for fiscal year 1979.

Inflation and the refusal of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to increase its financial support of the school by the necessary amount caused most of the deficit. After numerous budget-trimming measures, proposed tuition increases and the previous cutbacks, Pennsylvania still faced a potentially crippling deficit for the upcoming fiscal year.

But on February 24, when the administration announced the first set of cuts, the students reacted with shock, denouncing the measure as a "cold bureaucratic decision."

IN AN ATTEMPT to organize a student response, the Undergraduate Assembly scheduled a one-hour rally for March 3 to protest the elimination of theater and hockey programs. The rally took place in front of College Hall, the building that houses the offices of the president and the provost. Everything was proceeding smoothly and the crowd of more than 800 listened to speakers and chanted slogans excoriating the administration's decision.

What occurred after the rally, however, was totally unexpected. Following the final speaker-- the university chaplain--students stormed the steps to College Hall and marched into the building. In a spontaneous burst of activity, a rally had turned itself into a sit-in, and the students said they meant business.

In the midst of the confusion, students--vowing to stay all night if necessary--said they were "sick of decisions being made without student input." But no one there was counting on three more days of a sit-in.

With student government leaders, leaders of minority groups, and athletes combining to produce a negotiating body that was supposed to represent a diverse student body, an organized student voice made its return to the Pennsylvania campus.

Meeting with provost Eliot Stellar, the students demanded that President Martin Meyerson return from his vacation in Barbados and sit down to negotiate with them. This, the first of their demands, was promptly met, and Meyerson flew in the next night to being the talks.

Meanwhile, a group pushing for minority representation in the negotiations took over another building. This building--the Franklin building--served as the headquarters for the Black Student League (BSL), and the negotiators at College Hall incorporated the minority demands into the other negotiations. The BSL emphasized that the Franklin take-over was undertaken in solidarity with the College Hall sit-in, and was not a "minorities-only" move.

Negotiations started from a list of six original demands that included:

The reinstatement of the hockey and gymnastics programs pending an investigation on the matter by new committees.