GUEST COLUMNIST: Joint planning for renewed, vibrant MLCH

Christopher Dennis, Guest Columnist Christopher Dennis, Guest Columnist The Daily Pennsylvanian article, "Modern Languages residents oppose merger," and a letter from residents, Michael Rogan and Marialuz Soriano of the house council, and others in the house (DP, 10/22/97) reflect concern about possible changes to the Modern Languages community as the University begins to enact the comprehensive College House program at Penn for September 1998. In proceeding to create a framework for implementing the college house system, the 21st Century Residential Communities Working Team was very much thinking of the kind of supportive atmosphere that Rogan and Soriano and many others have described finding in the current Modern Languages program; and one might say, it is that kind of program and atmosphere which we hope will develop in the future college houses on campus. Why, then, integrate the program into the new college house system in this way? Over the last few years the house has been nagged by low occupancy -- despite heroic efforts by the house staff to publicize availability and recruit students for the programs. For the last two years it has had the lowest percentage occupancy of any house or program on campus. (Currently its occupancy is at 80 percent, compared with the campus undergraduate average of 96 percent.) This year, not enough students wanted to participate in Russky Dom to run the residential program in Modern Languages, and the traditional five language programs shrank to four. In point of fact, the changes we propose for the Modern Languages program will not diminish the quality of the program nor the dedication of its present and future members to sharing languages and cultures. That focus will be made easier, made more secure, and given more support by the new arrangements. The commitment students make to the language tables, coffee hours and discussions does require some special conditions to flourish. The administrative consolidation of Modern Languages and Van Pelt will allow us to continue and to enhance those conditions. The program will have an impressive graduate staff-to-student ratio, and many additional opportunities for academic support will be made available. And the language tables -- in a dedicated dining space --will continue as before. The friendly, supportive atmosphere, with its love of languages, can and should continue. Joint discussions -- in person and electronically -- are in process between and among the students, house councils, faculty and staffs of Van Pelt and Modern Languages. This important dialogue will continue, and the members of the two communities will have a direct and substantial role in shaping the actual details of the transition. For example, the Modern Languages students asked for mandated dining contracts for those wishing to participate in the language tables as part of their credit experience. Although dining contracts will not be mandated generally in the new college house system, we will be responsive to this request. Concerns continue about the name of the new joint college house. Discussions are continuing on that score, as well. Issues of autonomy and synthesis, of the assignment of space, of conserving what is good and valuable in both programs -- while considering new opportunities for joint ventures, all these issues will be worked through by the members of the communities, as is appropriate. Student consultation will continue, and the collaborative planning now underway in the Modern Languages and Van Pelt communities is itself a kind of model of student, faculty and staff involvement and decentralized house governance that we know will flourish throughout the new college house system. These conversations and deliberations have begun in all parts of the residential system working on transitions to the new college houses. We can both celebrate the accomplishments of the Modern Languages community -- and all the current college houses and programs -- and look forward to a renewed and vibrant Modern Languages program in the new college house system of the future.