EDITORIAL: Creating real change

'Tangible change' is expensive. 'Dressing the campus seasonally' is just plain frivolous. University-funded parties at the Sheraton to showcase live bands? Might be fun. Change or "smart card" machines in dorm laundry rooms? Long overdue. Fitness equipment accessible round-the-clock? What a concept! But lining Locust Walk with seasonal lights and decorations like paper turkeys, mistletoe, ribbons and hearts? Dressing Ben Franklin like a pilgrim, Santa Claus or Cupid, depending on the season? Opening facilities like Houston Hall and Hutch and Gimbel gyms until 2 a.m. every day of the semester? Come on! What will be next, hopscotch on the Walk, supervised by the administrator of the week? These "quality of life" improvement proposals would cost money, one resource in chronically short supply here. Extending hours at University facilities, for example, would require additional staff, and would raise safety concerns for these personnel as well as for students using the facilities. Only some of the proposals -- those included in the first group of this editorial -- have real potential to produce Penn pride, or at least slightly more contentment with campus life. Rather than scrounging spare change from departmental budgets to pay for "feel good" programs that won't have any lasting effects, the division of University Life should ask the "tangible change" planning committee -- or the student body as a whole, through a survey taken in dining halls or via the World Wide Web -- to prioritize the items on its wish list. With a priority list in hand, VPUL adminsitrators can target their efforts to student-identified areas of greatest concern. That's the only way this "tangible change" program can hope to have real and lasting effects.