VPUL drafts plan to restructure campus life

The proposal calls for changes to many departments across the University Life at the University is about to see some major changes, according to Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum. McCoullum, who was named VPUL August 26 after holding the interim post for a year and a half, has released a Draft for Discussion of Reengineering University Life at Penn. The document outlines major changes in store for departments across the University. Some of these changes -- which include the merging of many departments and offices as well as a major focus on student facilities -- have already gone into effect. The reengineering project will first divide all VPUL organizations into six "consolidated clusters," such as Co-Curricular Programs and Residential Services, according to the draft. Associate Vice Provost for University Life Larry Moneta said the clusters "provide some logic into the way we deliver our services." "They are related by the tasks they do and the services they provide to the students," Moneta said. But perhaps the biggest change outlined in McCoullum's report took place over the summer, before the proposal was released. University Counseling Services, which was located in the Mellon Bank building, was merged with the Student Psychiatric Unit of Student Health Services, which was located in the basement of the Penn Tower Hotel. The resulting conglomeration of the two offices, the Counseling and Psychiatric Services Center, is now located in the Mellon Bank building. McCoullum said that having two different counseling departments was confusing and unnecessarily stressing on students who are already not in the healthiest state of mind. "Students who needed support sometimes were not able to easily determine where they could go to receive assistance because the service provision was in two physically separate locations," she said. She added that one advantage of the new location of the Counseling Center is that a student can visit the office in the Mellon Bank building extremely inconspicuously. "If you walk into that office and into the elevator, nobody knows where you're going," she said. The reengineering proposal also outlines other basic student facilities needs -- such as social and academic meeting space, which Moneta said are very vital to the University. "I don't think there's any great surprise in that we are deficient in student facilities in a number of areas," he said. The document also proposes that the University provide pubs and additional performing arts and recreational space on campus -- particularly in the site of the proposed Perelman Quadrangle student center.