Alum's gift keeps class on schedule

Barry Golden, a entrepreneur who graduated from Wharton in 1960, returned to campus yesterday to donate housing sites that will ensure the continuation of a college course. One morning while watching CNBC, a financial news network, Golden saw the students from the "The Entrepreneurial Inner City Housing Markets Class" at their project site. He said yesterday that while watching the program, he was surprised at such community service from University students. When he graduated, he said, students "cared about themselves first, second and third." He raced down to the University that day, he said, to see what he could do to help this "vitally important" project. The course -- taught by Hanley Bodek of the Philadelphia Construction Company and William Zucker, an emeritus creative management professor -- is aimed at teaching students about rehabilitating houses in the community. When a house is finished, the Dynamics of Organization Department sells it to people who need it with the help of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, according to Wharton senior Adam Hochfelder. The department uses the profits to pay for the expenses incurred in the rehabilitation process. Golden told the students yesterday that he "wanted to give back to and be a part of the University." "I personally will make sure that you have two houses to work on next year," he told an ethusiastic class yesterday afternoon. Besides giving back to the community, he said, the beauty of this class is that it teaches confidence to go "out into this terrible world" and "not to be dependent on outsiders." According to Hochfelder, the class stresses learning by doing. He said students take turns being project managers, calling housing inspectors and balancing the budget. "What is taught in the classroom is how to create an electric system or a plumbing system," he said. Each class member must put in at least three or four hours each weekend on the 32nd and Spring Garden streets site to "do what is taught in class," he added. On Fridays and Saturdays one professor and one contractor are there to help the students. College sophomore Jessica Kosow said Golden's visit was a "great way to end such a worthwhile class." Kosow took the course because she "heard about people in the other class" and thought it sounded really interesting. She said she liked the idea of having hands on in the community. "I learned little things in the house but more importantly the teamwork that go along with it and how important it is to help the community," she said.