U. officials examine randomized housing

Following a University report which shows that students are not racially apportioned in campus dormitories, all eyes are on a commission report which might discuss randomized housing for first year students. The report, which will be presented next week by the Commission for Strengthening the Community, will likely address the issue, which has been a source of campus debate for the past year, Interim President Claire Fagin said last night. She said she anticipates housing will be one of the issues studied by the Commission during its two-day retreat this weekend at Sugarloaf, a secluded University-owned compound in Chestnut Hill, Pa. Yesterday, The Daily Pennsylvanian published the findings of a paper written by College sophomore Leo Greenberg about racial segregation in the University's residences. The paper was based on data taken from a Residential Living report about 1993 room assignments. The report shows that 81 percent of W.E.B. DuBois College House's residents are African American, while only six percent are white. Meanwhile, only 1.8 percent of the students living in the University's largest dormitory, the Quadrangle, are African American, even though they make up about seven percent of the entire campus population. Greenberg suggested that randomized housing for first year students may help decrease racial tension on campus. Randomized housing is an issue Fagin said she has thought about all year and is still "mulling over" in her head. She said the topic of randomized housing and its impact on race relations is one that members of the University community should be willing to talk about, despite its controversial nature. "We can't get so critical about the issue [of race] that we can't talk about it," Fagin said. Residential Living Director Gigi Simeone said yesterday she wants to wait and see what the Commission recommends about randomized housing before commenting on the issue. "Residential Living is not discussing the issue in a vacuum," Simeone said. She added that randomized housing could only become a reality "if the Penn community as a whole recommends and endorses it." Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson is more cautious about the issue. He stressed that he has not seen "real data at this point" about what possible implications randomizing first year housing for freshmen would have on race relations. A poll about race relations on campus, sponsored by the DP and The Vision last semester, showed that a majority of students do not believe first year residences negatively affect race relations. Fifty-seven percent of 377 students polled felt freshman housing had a positive impact on race relations. But, 50 percent of students polled thought DuBois House had a negative effect on race relations. Lazerson said he does not think the Commission has done an analysis of what the consequences of randomized housing will be. He added that the current debate is focusing more on "the best way to allocate spots in residences" than on what the University actually wants to achieve with its Residential Living program. "We need to urge the conversation to emphasize more what we want from housing," Lazerson said. Fagin also said the possibility has also occurred to her that randomized housing might not be the best solution to ease racial tensions. About half of the students responding to the DP/Vision poll said race relations are a "major problem" on campus and agreed that people of different races do not mix on campus. Former Vice Provost for University Life Kim Morrisson, the author of a long-term plan for Residential Living, said she, like Simeone and Fagin, is waiting on the Commission. She said her housing plan did not include randomized housing, but added that it calls for "a mix of all classes of students" throughout the University's residences. Morrisson, currently the vice provost in the provost's office, said that when considering any plan for Residential Living, it would have to be a plan suited for all residents.