LETTERS: Opposing views on housing plan

To the Editor: The plan for the high rises, for example, seems ridiculous. Resident advisor-sponsored events currently occurring in the high rises, with the exception of events offering free food, are weakly supported by residents. This stems from two reasons in my mind -- one, upperclassmen, in general, are not as interested as freshmen in participating in "communal" residential events, and two, the high rises' physical layout is simply not conducive to fostering a community environment. They just aren't the Quadrangle, King's Court/English House or Hill House -- the "temporary" high rises weren't built with a "community" format in mind. How much "redecorating" can really be done? Why invest bundles of money in building a dining hall in the basement of a high rise? Is Commons not two blocks away? Why not utilize the money to overhaul the rooms? I have carpeting tearing up from my bedroom floor, loose tiles in my kitchen floor and huge holes through my wall from previous tenants. But most important, my greatest fears and concerns regard the fate of our future freshmen. Whenever I find myself or my peers speaking of residential living in a positive light, we reminisce about our freshman hall -- the place, the people, the atmosphere. There's something special about a first-year house experience. The first-year houses are the "shining star" of Residential Living's programs. Why obliterate that? Build on your strong points; don't get rid of them. The freshman year is an experience of a lifetime -- the good times and the rough times. First college classes, feeling out the Greek system, auditioning for performing arts groups, and trying to find the right club or team is a learning process and one you should go through with fellow freshmen. You should live among peers with whom you can do "freshmen" things? not with sophomores, juniors and seniors, no longer interested in taking a bus tour of Philly, going to Freshman Performing Arts Night or playing the geography and name games about so and so's twice-removed sister. The announced changes are only going to hurt Residential Living. It will lose the positive freshman programs it has already developed and will find even more upperclassmen choosing to live off campus, turned off by the new system. I challenge Residential Living's administrators to survey the campus population. I believe they will find great concern and opposition to the plan at foot. Marc Cohen College '99 u To the Editor: I'm replying briefly to Marc Cohen's letter about the college houses. Space is tight here; I've written Marc directly and invited him to talk with me as chair of the Residential Faculty Council -- a chance to get the fullest responses to his questions. Meantime, let me reply to his doubts about the value of residentially based programs in the three new college houses in the high rises, and to his worrying on behalf of first-year students. For those students who don't want any part of residential communities, the high rises will probably look and feel the same as always, but for many who want to take advantage of any number of academic support services (e.g. computing, math, writing, library, research, languages, career planning) or participate in the many new programs and events a significant residential staff can help students create (resident advisors augmented by graduate fellows, residential faculty and a full-time college house dean), they will be much more accommodating. It's a matter of choice. There is much to say about first-year students -- too much to fit here. As faculty master of one of the current college houses, I can say from experience that first-year students can and do thrive in a setting where there are also sophomores, juniors and seniors. They do tend to cluster together as new students, but they also very nicely live and deal with older students, who befriend them but also help them as they navigate the curriculum, the myriad of career options, and indeed the social scene. No one imagines that students will mix equally across the houses. The buildings are what they are -- differently structured, with different room types. This will in many ways drive the choices new students make, and the new arrangement of college house permits them to make those choices. Alan Filreis English Professor Chair, Residential Faculty Council u To the Editor: In response to the DP article "New college houses will replace every dorm," (DP, 10/9/97) I'm writing as a voice of support for those faculty, administrators and students who have worked together to propose the College House changes which Residential Life will soon implement. In my first three years, I have noted that one the largest drawbacks of attending a University of this size is the largely impersonal, institutional nature of its academic and social structures? One of the largest challenges at Penn is navigating the structure to find a meaningful niche -- academically and socially -- for oneself. Residential Life, a primary, common experience of all first-year and many upperclass students, seems to me to be the perfect place to begin the destruction of the herd-mentality that institutionalization and bureaucracy breed. The creation of smaller multi-year college houses will begin to foster an environment of academic and social exploration and creativity which has traditionally been understated at Penn. It's never easy to affect change at an institution the size of Penn -- as one professor so aptly put it, "Universities change at the speed of runaway glaciers." However, as a student in one of the nation's most ambitious academic environments, I recognize the opportunity that this plan, with proper support and effort, offers to the future of Penn. I look forward to the implementation of the Brownlee proposal, and I encourage other students not only to consider the plan, but offer suggestions on how it can be implemented to the greatest benefit of the University community. David Slarskey College '98