Students hustle, dorms bustle as frosh move in

Surrounded by hordes of T-shirt hawkers, Persian-rug salesman and testy security guards, the Class of 1997 squeezed its way through the Quadrangle's upper gate last weekend. From athletic coaches to the Penn Band, it seemed that everyone wanted a piece of the freshman class as it moved in. "The first thing that happens is that they get nailed by the crew coaches," laughed women's Head Crew Coach Carol Bower as she stood next to the shiny hull of a crew boat strategically placed to induce queries from curious freshmen. Bower said she was looking to recruit "tall, athletic women who enjoy getting into a sport." Sophomore salesman Scott Ahchin wasn't as picky. He would sell a "Deadsylvania Quaker" t-shirt to anyone with $12. The freshmen were "easy to sway" into buying the shirts, he said. The crowd at the front gate was a distraction for at least one new student, Shira Sokal, from Potomac, Md. "A group of guys are going around forcing t-shirts on people," Sokal said. But, she admitted, those same male perpetrators were "cute" and "better than high school guys." Sokal, along with scores of other freshmen and their parents, was waiting in front of Bishop White to claim her rental refrigerator. The line almost touched the other side of the Quad, and some were sweaty from the 90-degree weather. But, for the most part, move-in day seemed to be much smoother than expected for many freshmen. With some help from her mother, College freshman Stephanie Simon said her day was going well. "I could not have done this without her, even though I carried everything that was heavy," said Simon, from nearby Huntingdon Valley, Pa. Even Assistant to the President Nicholas Constan, dressed in a dark suit and tie, was in the Quad, talking to newly-arrived students and parents. Constan said he "always wished [move-in] were better organized" and that the University treated the students and parents better. Still, Constan said he was glad to see the University go from "comatose to alive" with the return of students to campus.