Service group may get old station

The Office of Student Life would move into the annex formerly used by Penn Police. A new community service center and the University's student life office appear likely to move into the two Superblock buildings recently vacated by the Division of Public Safety, according to students and officials involved in the plan. A hub designed to coordinate the work of various community service organizations would be housed in the three-story townhouse located at 3914 Locust Walk, across from High Rise North. And the Office of Student Life Activities and Facilities -- which is currently housed in Houston Hall -- would take up residence in the one-story brick building on Irving Street that had served as a Public Safety annex. The student community service leaders who proposed the hub in November finalized the plans for it to move into the old police station shortly before winter break, according to College junior Hillary Aisenstein. She explained that Linda Koons, an assistant to Interim Provost Michael Wachter who is coordinating the moves, told the group that "if you want [the police station], it's yours." The University will announce its final plans for the police station and annex later this week, Koons said. She refused to elaborate on the University's plans. Aisenstein added that she and other hub organizers toured the building recently and proposed a floor plan for the new center that was sent to an architect to determine its feasibility. OSL and the Program for Student-Community Involvement -- one of the community service groups that would occupy the hub -- are currently housed in Houston Hall, which will close this summer for renovations. The Houston Hall renovations are part of the $69 million Perelman Quadrangle project, which is designed to create a new student center in the heart of campus. The project is scheduled to be completed at the end of 1999. The space for the new hub opened up after Public Safety moved to its new headquarters at 4040 Chestnut Street earlier this month. Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush said "the last I heard, it was going to be the people from [the OSL moving in]." She added that OSL officials visited the former police annex and liked what they saw. But Tom Hauber, the OSL's associate director of facilities, would not confirm the move, saying only that the office has "been reviewing the thought" of moving to the building. In November, a group of student community service leaders proposed a non-residential "community service hub" modeled on the Kelly Writers House. The hub would serve as a base for community service activities across campus. When looking for a location, the organizers confronted the issue of whether an appropriate location for the hub was closer to the academic center of campus or farther west, near the neighborhoods where the community service organizations do much of their work. English Professor Peter Conn, who met with the students who proposed the hub, said yesterday that he thought the Public Safety location was ideal because it was between "the academic side of campus and the people you are trying to reach." But former Undergraduate Assembly chairperson Tal Golomb, one of the students who worked on the hub proposal, said he had mixed feelings about the proposed location. Although the former police station is highly visible and close to the thousands of students who live in the high rises, professors and other people who never venture near Superblock might not be aware the hub exists, the College senior explained. Another of the issues the community service leaders addressed was ensuring that the hub had enough space to be successful. Aisenstein admitted that the new location is not large, but she stressed that "space is very limited and we're thrilled we got some."

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